Psalm 116 is a hymn of individual thanksgiving for recovery from serious illness. I will present the psalm’s structure, themes, and theological significance. I highlight:
· The psalm’s anthology-like character, quoting other psalms.
· The psalmist’s reliance on the Lord during suffering and impending death.
· The transformation experienced through divine help.
· The psalmist’s gratitude and vow to publicly thank the Lord.
· The significance of “the cup of salvation” and the phrase “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.”
· The psalmist’s humility and commitment to serve the Lord.
Introduction
This psalm has the character of an anthology as it quotes from other psalms. True, he must face his recent suffering and impending death, but he relies upon the Lord for help and deliverance. He can rely upon the Lord because the Lord is gracious, righteous, and merciful. The help the Lord provides transforms him. He has kept the faith even while going through affliction. He knows his weakness, but he focuses upon faithfulness. The author places himself before the Lord as a servant, offering thanks to the Lord.
Verse-by-verse study
Psalm 116: 1-4 deal with the psalmist's fear of death and plea for deliverance. The writer is helpless and relies upon God. The Lord can deliver. The Lord has answered his cry for help in the past and now he calls upon the help of the Lord again. 1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me,therefore I will call on him as long as I live. As is common with such prayers in the psalter, we do not know the precise nature of the illness that confronted him. It was obviously severe. 3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol, the abode of the dead, a common symbol for dire sickness or trouble, laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. The concern is not so much death itself. The general view in the Old Testament is that death is the expected end to a long and good life. However, death becomes an enemy when it has the potential of coming early. From this premature death the psalmist asked for deliverance. The psalmist reflects the view found throughout the psalter that life and death, far from being thoroughgoing opposites, were in fact part of a continuum of one reality of being, along which the individual was always located at any given moment, being simultaneously in life and in death. By force of circumstances - serious illness or injury, attack by enemies, social and familial rejection, spiritual collapse - an individual's position on the life-death continuum could shift dramatically, with one force or the other dominating one's existence. To be delivered from the "death end" of the life-death continuum was one of the prime occasions for such a song of thanksgiving as this one. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!” Pause and consider a moment in your life or the life of another when circumstances were such that death seemed near. Yet a hero arrives in that moment. He or she saved your life. One might even use such words to describe the moment. Such a person was a lifesaver. Gratitude for the deliverance is the natural result. When he called upon the Lord to save his life, he was asking the Lord to bring him back from the possibility of physical death and give him further physical life. However, I suspect that he was also asking the Lord to give him new, vital, and vigorous life. He was not wanting restoration to the same old thing he had before.
In Psalm 116:12-19 the poet becomes a transformed being in seeking a renewed and vigorous life. Instead of focusing upon personal weakness, the poet focuses upon faithfulness. He vows a public thanksgiving offering if the Lord will help him. 12 What shall I return to the Lord for all the bounty the Lord provides to me? Here is the only question asked in the psalm. Behind the question is not the notion that the Lord is keeping a ledger of the good one experiences in life, places us in debt, and expects repayment of the debt. Rather, the model is one of gratitude. The Lord has been good to me so of course I want to express my gratitude. The psalmist will identify some of the things he is doing to express his gratitude for the good the Lord has done in his life. 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation, the saving help of the Lord and call on the name of the Lord. This cup is a libation celebrating the deliverance of the poet. He may refer to the libation accompanying the thanksgiving offering. It may also be metaphorical, as a toast to the Lord invoking the name of the Lord to publicize the great deeds of the Lord. Just as the poet invoked the name of the Lord when asking for help in verse 4, he invokes the name of the Lord when offering thanks. The phrase became significant for Christian liturgy regarding Holy Communion. 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. He feels an obligation to pay whatever vows he had made in exchange for the deliverance he has received. Such “I do so that God will do” views could easily degenerate into a spiritual void, prompting such religious leaders as the prophets to criticize self-serving sacrifices as hollow and ineffectual. However, such a thank offering is a token of this payment, fulfilling a vow made in the time of trouble that he can now pay. He then stresses that death is costly and therefore, 15 precious (yakar, grievous) in the sight of the Lord is the death of the faithful ones of the Lord. Death is costly because it breaks off all relationship between the Lord and the people. The psalmist gives voice to a sentiment that has become one of the most used phrases at funerals. The Lord does not wish those who adhere to the Lord to die. Therefore, the poet is assured that the Lord keep him alive. 16 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl, an epithet of extreme humility. Here is the best the psalmist can offer in gratitude for the good the Lord has brought into his life. He will become the servant of the Lord for the rest of his life. You have loosed my bonds. This may refer to his illness. It may also be a general description of being constricted as one in trouble. He comes back to the saving help the Lord has demonstrated in his life. 17 I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all the people of the Lord, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. He will offer his thank offering in the temple in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
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