As we proceed in our year of studying prayer, we have a beautifully poignant opportunity to examine Psalm 116 with special interest; as prayer is such a powerful and wonderful opportunity that God has extended to us all, how can we say anything greater than verse 1’s opening: “I love the Lord”? And how blessed are we to truly say the Psalmist’s following words as well, “for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy.”! Not only can we have direct communication with almighty God, but He hears us and responds! Verse two says God “turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.” Which speaks to our confidence that, no matter how long our lives last or how often we call on the Lord, He will never tire of our asking or be unable to answer us.
Not only can we never exhaust His patience with our prayers, but our own weaknesses or frailty cannot prevent Him from answering us either; verse thee and four show that even when we are “overcome by distress and sorrow.”, even (and especially) at our weakest and most vulnerable, we can call upon the Lord to save us- and verse five details exactly why by showing us God’s character; He is gracious and righteous, He is compassionate, He protects us who are “brought low” by the enemy or the challenges of this life, and saves us from our distress. Verse seven describes the soul of the one who calls on God now enabled to “return to your rest” simply because of His goodness. And verse eight fortifies our peace of mind and soul with this truth; that God has delivered us all from death, our “eyes from tears” and “feet from stumbling” that we are now equipped by God to “walk before the Lord in the land of the living”- for death can no longer hold us when we are secure in the grace-lands of God.
And because we are secure we can trust in the Lord, as the Psalmist tells in verse 10 when he comes to the Lord for aid in his affliction, which has either left him so distraught that in verse 11 his thinking is affected and he cannot see the people trying to offer support around him, or his situation is challenging enough because what he states is true, that “everyone is a liar”- but regardless of his circumstances he can reach out to the Lord and be sure of His goodness and strength, His truth and His grace. Indeed, in verse 12 the author marvels at how much good God has blessed him with, so much so that he can never hope to return it in kind back to God. And in verse 13 the Psalmist declares that he will “lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” as a public declaration of God’s goodness, as well as both his power to and desire that His people be rescued, for He is truly mighty to save and more than capable of saving us all. In verse 14 the public nature of the author’s praise and glorifying of the Lord continues, with him affirming that he “will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people”. And he recognizes that this affirmation and decision to walk in God’s ways in life, and at the end of that life his death, is also “precious in the sight of the Lord” in verse 15; that God is as glorified and honored in out living with Him as He is when we die and finally return to Him again.
In verse 16 this idea is continued, displayed through generations as he declares “Truly I am your servant, Lord; I serve you as my mother did”; through the loved ones he was blessed to have, the author saw the love of God reflected in his family as his eternal Father, and his earthly parents taught him both of God and the importance of obedience to Him- not out of fear towards a tyrant, but out of love towards Him as master and as a father- that love motivated the author to both call on the Lord for his salvation as seen earlier, when His strength and courage were desperately needed, and to offer Him sacrifices in thanks as seen in verse 17 in times of plenty, joy and peace. Verse 18 repeats that the author will fulfill his vows and publicly glorifies the Lord to His chosen people, with verse 19 adding in that he will not only do this earnestly, but will do so in the very house of the Lord- Jerusalem at that time, but for us today we are all members of the “house of the Lord”, and His church is not confined to a single building or city, but wherever we are gathered; how wonderful it is that we have even greater opportunities to praise and glorify Him today!