Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 (NRSV)

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.

³ The snares of death encompassed me;

the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

I suffered distress and anguish.

⁴ Then I called on the name of the Lord:

“O Lord, I pray, save my life!” 

...

¹² What shall I return to the Lord

for all his bounty to me?

¹³ I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the Lord,

¹⁴ I will pay my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵ Precious in the sight of the Lord

is the death of his faithful ones.

¹⁶ O Lord, I am your servant;

I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.

You have loosed my bonds.

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 his people,

¹⁹ in the courts of the house of the Lord,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 116 is a hymn of individual thanksgiving for recovery from serious illness. True, he must face his recent suffering and possible 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. 

          Psalm 116: 1-4, part of a segment that extends to verse 9, deal with the psalmist's fear of death. The writer is helpless and relies upon God. The Lord is able to deliver. 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. ³ The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. 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. 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 life-saver, so to speak. 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.

Psalm 116:12-19 are the part of the psalm in which the poet becomes a transformed being. Instead of focusing upon personal weakness, the poet focuses upon faithfulness. 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 God 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. God 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. 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. Death is costly. Therefore, ¹⁵ precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the faithful ones of the Lord. The 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. ¹⁶ O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. 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. 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. Praise the Lord!