Psalm 116 commentary

PSALM 116 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "SUBJECT. This is a continuation of the Paschal Hallel, and
therefore must in some measure be interpreted in connection with the coming out of
Egypt. It has all the appearance of being a personal song in which the believing soul,
reminded by the Passover of its own bondage and deliverance, speaks thereof with
gratitude, and praises the Lord accordingly. We can conceive the Israelite with a
staff in his hand singing, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, "as he remembered the
going back of the house of Jacob to the land of their fathers; and then drinking the
cup at the feast using the words of Psalms 116:13, "I will take the cup of salvation."
The pious man evidently remembers both his own deliverance and that of his people
as he sings in the language of Psalms 116:16, "Thou hast loosed my bonds"; but he
rises into sympathy with his nation as he thinks of the courts of the Lord's house
and of the glorious city, and pledges himself to sing "in the midst of thee, O
Jerusalem." Personal love fostered by a personal experience of redemption is the
theme of this Psalm, and in it we see the redeemed answered when they pray,
preserved in time of trouble, resting in their God, walking at large, sensible of their
obligations, conscious that they are not their own but bought with a price, and
joining with all the ransomed company to sing hallelujahs unto God.
Since our divine Master sang this hymn, we can hardly err in seeing here words to
which he could set his seal, â€”words in a measure descriptive of his own
experience; but upon this we will not enlarge, as in the notes we have indicated how
the Psalm has been understood by those who love to find their Lord in every line.
DIVISIO . David Dickson has a somewhat singular division of this Psalm, which
strikes us as being exceedingly suggestive. He says, "This Psalm is a threefold
engagement of the Psalmist unto thanksgiving unto God, for his mercy unto him,
and in particular for some notable delivery of him from death, both bodily and
spiritual. The first engagement is, that he shall out of love have recourse unto God
by prayer, Psalms 116:1-2; the reasons and motives whereof are set down, because
of his former deliverances, Psalms 116:3-8, the second engagement is to a holy
conversation, Psalms 116:9, and the motives and reasons are given in Psalms 116:10-
13; the third engagement is to continual praise and service, and specially to pay
those vows before the church, which he had made in days of sorrow, the reasons
whereof are given in Psalms 116:14-19."
COKE, "THIS psalm was probably written by David upon his deliverance from
Absalom's rebellion; though some think that it was composed by Esdras at the
return of the Jews from Babylon. The Jews were accustomed to sing this psalm with
some others after their passover; for which, doubtless, they had the direction of

some of their prophets, who saw that it represented Christ, the true paschal lamb,
singing thus after his last passover, to preserve himself, as it were, for immediate
sufferings and death; in full assurance of being heard in that he feared; and with the
most affectionate praise and thanksgiving then devoutly offered, and promised also
to be continually offered in the courts of the heavenly sanctuary, whither he was
going to prepare a place for all his faithful servants: who, therefore, have here a
most affecting example of offering praise even in a day of trouble, within the courts
of the Lord's house, here on earth, till they come to do it in the Jerusalem above; in
the courts of the heavenly sanctuary.
ELLICOTT, "The late date of composition of this psalm is shown both by the
presence of Aramaic forms and the use made of earlier portions of the psalter. It
was plainly a song of thanksgiving, composed to accompany the offerings made after
some victory. The most important question arising from it is whether it is personal
or the voice of the community. As we have seen in other cases a strong individual
feeling does not exclude the adaptation of a psalm to express the feelings of the
people of Israel as a whole. The rhythm is unequal.
1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
BAR ES, "I love the Lord - The Hebrew rather means, “I love, because the Lord
hath heard,” etc. That is, the psalmist was conscious of love; he felt it glowing in his soul;
his heart was full of that special joy, tenderness, kindness, peace, which love produces;
and the source or reason of this, he says, was that the Lord had heard him in his prayers.
Because he hath heard ... - That is, This fact was a reason for loving him. The
psalmist does not say that this was the only reason, or the main reason for loving him,
but that it was the reason for that special joy of love which he then felt in his soul. The
main reason for loving God is his own excellency of nature; but still there are other
reasons for doing it, and among them are the benefits which he has conferred on us, and
which awaken the love of gratitude. Compare the notes at 1Jo_4:19.
CLARKE, "I love the Lord because he hath heard - How vain and foolish is the
talk, “To love God for his benefits to us is mercenary, and cannot be pure love!” Whether

pure or impure, there is no other love that can flow from the heart of the creature to its
Creator. We love him, said the holiest of Christ’s disciples, because he first loved us; and
the increase of our love and filial obedience is in proportion to the increased sense we
have of our obligation to him. We love him for the benefits bestowed on us. Love begets
love.
GILL, "I love the Lord,.... As the Messiah, David's antitype, did; of which he gave the
fullest proof by his obedience to his will; and as David, the man after God's own heart,
did, and as every good man does; and the Lord is to be loved for the perfections of his
nature, and especially as they are displayed in Christ, and salvation by him; and for his
works of creation, providence, and grace, and particularly for his great love shown in
redemption, regeneration, and other blessings of grace, as well as for what follows.
Because he hath heard my voice and my supplication; in the original text the
words lie thus, "I love, because the Lord hath heard", or "will hear"; and so read the
Septuagint and Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and so the Targum;
and may be rendered, "I love that the Lord should hear me", so the Syriac and Arabic
versions; nothing is more desirable and grateful to good men than that the Lord should
hear them; but Kimchi and others transpose the words as we do, which gives a reason
why he loved the Lord; because he heard his prayers, which were vocal, put up in a time
of distress, in an humble and submissive manner, under the influence of the Spirit of
grace and supplication, in the name of Christ, for his righteousness sake, and through
his mediation; and such supplications are heard and answered by the Lord, sooner or
later; and which engages the love of his people to him; see Psa_34:1. It may be applied to
Christ, who offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, and was
always heard; and for which he thanked his Father and loved him, Heb_5:7.
HE RY, "I. A general account of David's experience, and his pious resolutions (Psa_
116:1, Psa_116:2), which are as the contents of the whole psalm, and give an idea of it. 1.
He had experienced God's goodness to him in answer to prayer: He has heard my voice
and my supplications. David, in straits, had humbly and earnestly begged mercy of God,
and God had heard him, that is, had graciously accepted his prayer, taken cognizance of
his case, and granted him an answer of peace. He has inclined his ear to me. This
intimates his readiness and willingness to hear prayer; he lays his ear, as it were, to the
mouth of prayer, to hear it, though it be but whispered in groanings that cannot be
uttered. He hearkens and hears, Jer_8:6. Yet it implies, also, that it is wonderful
condescension in God to hear prayer; it is bowing his ear. Lord, what is man, that God
should thus stoop to him!-2. He resolved, in consideration thereof, to devote himself
entirely to God and to his honour. (1.) He will love God the better. He begins the psalm
somewhat abruptly with a profession of that which his heart was full of: I love the Lord
(as Psa_18:1); and fitly does he begin with this, in compliance with the first and great
commandment and with God's end in all the gifts of his bounty to us. “I love him only,
and nothing besides him, but what I love for him.” God's love of compassion towards us
justly requires our love of complacency in him. (2.) He will love prayer the better:
Therefore I will call upon him. The experiences we have had of God's goodness to us, in
answer to prayer, are great encouragements to us to continue praying; we have sped
well, notwithstanding our unworthiness and our infirmities in prayer, and therefore why
may we not? God answers prayer, to make us love it, and expects this from us, in return
for his favour. Why should we glean in any other field when we have been so well treated

in this? Nay, I will call upon him as long as I live (Heb., In my days), every day, to the
last day. Note, As long as we continue living we must continue praying. This breath we
must breathe till we breathe our last, because then we shall take our leave of it, and till
then we have continual occasion for it.
JAMISO , "Psa_116:1-19. The writer celebrates the deliverance from extreme perils
by which he was favored, and pledges grateful and pious public acknowledgments.
A truly grateful love will be evinced by acts of worship, which calling on God expresses
(Psa_116:13; Psa_55:16; Psa_86:7; compare Psa_17:6; Psa_31:2).
K&D 1-4, "Not only is ‫י‬ ִⅴ ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫ב‬ ַ‫ה‬ፎ “I love (like, am well pleased) that,” like ᅊγαπራ ᆋτι,
Thucydides vi. 36, contrary to the usage of the language, but the thought, “I love that
Jahve answereth me,” is also tame and flat, and inappropriate to the continuation in
Psa_116:2. Since Psa_116:3-4 have come from Psa_18:5-17, ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫ב‬ ַ‫ה‬ፎ is to be understood
according to ָ‫ך‬ ְ‫ֽמ‬ ָ‫ח‬ ְ‫ר‬ ֶ‫א‬ in Psa_18:2, so that it has the following ‫יהוה‬ as its object, not it is true
grammatically, but logically. The poet is fond of this pregnant use of the verb without an
expressed object, cf. ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫ק‬ ֶ‫א‬ in Psa_116:2, and ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫נ‬ ַ‫מ‬ ֱ‫ֽא‬ ֶ‫ה‬ in Psa_116:10. The Pasek after ‫ע‬ ַ‫מ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫י‬ is
intended to guard against the blending of the final a‛ with the initial 'a of ‫אדני‬ (cf. Psa_
56:1-13 :18; Psa_5:2, in Baer). In Psa_116:1 the accentuation prevents the rendering
vocem orationis meae (Vulgate, lxx) by means of Mugrash. The ı of ‫י‬ ִ‫ּול‬‫ק‬ will therefore no
more be the archaic connecting vowel (Ew. §211, b) than in Lev_26:42; the poet has
varied the genitival construction of Psa_28:6 to the permutative. The second ‫,כי‬
following close upon the first, makes the continuation of the confirmation retrospective.
“In my days” is, as in Isa_39:8, Bar. 4:20, cf. ‫י‬ַ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫ב‬ in Psa_63:5, and frequently, equivalent
to “so long as I live.” We even here hear the tone of Ps 18 (Psa_18:2), which is continued
in Psa_18:3-4 as a freely borrowed passage. Instead of the “bands” (of Hades) there, the
expression here is ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ ָ‫צ‬ ְ‫,מ‬ angustiae, plural of meetsar, after the form ‫ב‬ ַ‫ס‬ ֵ‫מ‬ in Psa_118:5;
Lam_1:3 (Böttcher, De inferis, §423); the straitnesses of Hades are deadly perils which
can scarcely be escaped. The futures ‫א‬ ָ‫צ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ֶ‫א‬ and ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫ק‬ ֶ‫,א‬ by virtue of the connection, refer to
the contemporaneous past. ‫ה‬ָ ֽፎ (viz., ‫בקשׁה‬ ‫,בלישׁן‬ i.e., in a suppliant sense) is written with
He instead of Aleph here and in five other instances, as the Masora observes. It has its
fixed Metheg in the first syllable, in accordance with which it is to be pronounced ānna
(like ‫ים‬ ִ ָ , bāttim), and has an accented ultima not merely on account of the following ‫יהוה‬
= ‫י‬ָ‫ּנ‬‫ד‬ ֲ‫א‬ (vid., on Psa_3:8), but in every instance; for even where (the Metheg having been
changed into a conjunctive) it is supplied with two different accents, as in Gen_50:17;
Exo_32:31, the second indicates the tone-syllable.
(Note: Kimchi, mistaking the vocation of the Metheg, regards ‫ה‬ָ ֽፎ (‫א‬ָ ֽፎ) as Milel.
But the Palestinian and the Babylonian systems of pointing coincide in this, that the
beseeching ‫אנא‬ (‫)אנה‬ is Milra, and the interrogatory ‫אנה‬ Milel (with only two
exceptions in our text, which is fixed according to the Palestinian Masora, viz., Psa_
139:7; Deu_1:28, where the following word begins with Aleph), and these modes of
accenting accord with the origin of the two particles. Pinsker (Einleitung, S. xiii.)

insinuates against the Palestinian system, that in the cases where ‫אנא‬ has two accents
the pointing was not certain of the correct accentuation, only from a deficient
knowledge of the bearings of the case.)
Instead now of repeating “and Jahve answered me,” the poet indulges in a laudatory
confession of general truths which have been brought vividly to his mind by the
answering of his prayer that he has experienced.
SBC, "(1) There are multitudes who are utterly careless about God, in whose minds He
exists as the object neither of one feeling nor another, who never think of Him so as
either to love Him or be displeased with Him. (2) There are those who think much about
God, but, instead of loving Him, are full of terror of Him. (3) There are not a few who,
instead of loving God, hate Him, verily hate Him.
I. Notice some other species of love with the manifestations of which those of Divine love
are liable to be confounded by the undiscriminating. (1) The saints’ love of God has
nothing in it of the nature of that affection of appetite by which so much of the love of
earthly objects is characterised. (2) The love of God has nothing in it of the nature of that
affection of instinct which is characteristic of the love of a mother for her infant child.
(3) The saints’ love of God has nothing in it of the nature of the love of compassion. (4)
The saints’ love of God is not of that character or degree which is produced by sensible
intercourse.
II. In what does the saints’ love of God positively consist? (1) In its purest form, it
consists in an admiration and esteem of His excellence—the love of moral approbation.
All God’s moral perfections make Him an object of love: (a) His justice; (b) His
benevolence. (2) All love of God must commence at least with the love of gratitude, with
loving Him because He has loved us, each one discerning for himself that God has been
bountiful to him, is bountiful to him now, and will continue bountiful in all time to
come. (a) Neither any consideration of God’s bounty in creation nor any review of His
bounty in providence will beget love for Him in the bosom of a man who is conscious of
guilt, for the obvious reason that neither of these two works of nature contains any
assurance for him of that which above all things else he needs: mercy, to pardon his
iniquities. (b) No man can attain to the love of God who does not appropriate the tidings
of the Gospel to himself.
W. Anderson, Discourses, p. 170.
CALVI , "1I have loved, because Jehovah will hear the voice of my supplication.
At the very commencement of this psalm David avows that he was attracted with the
sweetness of God’s goodness, to place his hope and confidence in him alone. This
abrupt mode of speaking,I have loved, is the more emphatic, intimating that he
could receive joy and repose nowhere but in God. We know that our hearts will be
always wandering after fruitless pleasures, and harassed with care, until God knit
them to himself. This distemper David affirms was removed from him, because he
felt that God was indeed propitious towards him. And, having found by experience
that, in general, they who call upon God are happy, he declares that no allurements
shall draw him away from God. When, therefore, he says, I have loved, it imports
that, without God, nothing would be pleasant or agreeable to him. From this we are

instructed that those who have been heard by God, but do not place themselves
entirely under his guidance and guardianship, have derived little advantage from
the experience of his grace.
The second verse also refers to the same subject, excepting that the latter clause
admits of a very appropriate meaning, which expositors overlook. The phrase,
during my days I will call upon him, is uniformly understood by them to mean, I,
who hitherto have been so successful in addressing God, will pursue the same course
all my life long. But it should be considered whether it may not be equally
appropriate that the days of David be regarded as denoting a fit season of asking
assistance, the season when he was hard pressed by necessity. I am not prevented
from adopting this signification, because it may be said that the prophet employs the
future tense of the verb ‫,אקרא‬ ekra. In the first verse also, the term, he shall hear, is
to be understood in the past tense, he has heard, in which case the copulative
conjunction would require to be taken as an adverb of time, when, a circumstance
this by no means unusual among the Hebrews. The scope of the passage will run
very well thus: Because he has bowed his ear to me when I called upon him in the
time of my adversity, and even at the season, too, when I was reduced to the greatest
straits. If any are disposed to prefer the former exposition, I will not dispute the
matter with them. The subsequent context, however, appears to countenance the
latter meaning, in which David commences energetically to point out what those
days were. And, with the design of magnifying God’s glory according to its desert,
he says that there was no way of his escaping from death, for he was like one among
enemies, bound with fetters and chains, from whom all hope of deliverance was cut
off. He acknowledges, therefore, that he was subjected to death, that he was
overtaken and seized, so that escape was impossible. And as he declares that he was
bound by the cords of death, so he, at the same the adds, that he fell into tribulation
and sorrow And here he confirms what he said formerly, that when he seemed to be
most forsaken of God, that was truly the proper time, and the right season for him
to give himself to prayer.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. I love the LORD. A blessed declaration: every believer ought
to be able to declare without the slightest hesitation, "I love the Lord." It was
required under the law, but was never produced in the heart of man except by the
grace of God, and upon gospel principles. It is a great thing to say "I love the
Lord"; for the sweetest of all graces and the surest of all evidences of salvation is
love. It is great goodness on the part of God that he condescends to be loved by such
poor creatures as we are, and it is a sure proof that he has been at work in our heart
when we can say, "Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee."
Because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. The Psalmist not only knows
that he loves God, but he knows why he does so. When love can justify itself with a
reason, it is deep, strong, and abiding. They say that love is blind; but when we love
God our affection has its eyes open and can sustain itself with the most rigid logic.
We have reason, superabundant reason, for loving the Lord; and so because in this
case principle and passion, reason and emotion go together, they make up an
admirable state of mind. David's reason for his love was the love of God in hearing
his prayers. The Psalmist had used his "voice" in prayer, and the habit of doing so

is exceedingly helpful to devotion. If we can pray aloud without being overheard it is
well to do so. Sometimes, however, when the Psalmist had lifted up his voice, his
utterance had been so broken and painful that he scarcely dared to call it prayer;
words failed him, he could only produce a groaning sound, but the Lord heard his
moaning voice. At other times his prayers were more regular and better formed:
these he calls "supplications." David had praised as best he could, and when one
form of devotion failed him he tried another. He had gone to the Lord again and
again, hence he uses the plural and says "my supplications, "but as often as he had
gone, so often had he been welcome. Jehovah had heard, that is to say, accepted, and
answered both his broken cries and his more composed and orderly supplications;
hence he loved God with all his heart. Answered prayers are silken bonds which
bind our hearts to God. When a man's prayers are answered, love is the natural
result. According to Alexander, both verbs may be translated in the present, and the
text may run thus, "I love because Jehovah hears my voice, my supplications." This
also is true in the case of every pleading believer. Continual love flows out of daily
answers to prayer.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS.
Whole Psalm. â€”A Psalm of Thanksgiving in the Person of Christ. He is imagined
by the prophet to have passed through the sorrows and afflictions of life. The
atonement is passed. He has risen from the dead. He is on the right hand of the
Majesty on High; and he proclaims to the whole world the mercies he experienced
from God in the day of his incarnation, and the glories which he has received in the
kingdom of his Heavenly Father. Yet, although the Psalm possesses this power, and,
by its own internal evidence, proves the soundness of the interpretation, it is yet
highly mystic in its mode of disclosure, and requires careful meditation in bringing
out its real results. Its language, too, is not so exclusively appropriate to the Messiah,
that it shall not be repeated and applied by the believer to his own trials in the
world; so that while there is much that finds a ready parallel in the exaltation of
Christ in heaven, there is much that would seem to be restrained to his condition
upon earth. It therefore depends much on the mind of the individual, whether he
will receive it in the higher sense of the Redeemer's glory; or restrict it solely to a
thanksgiving for blessings amidst those sufferings in life to which all men have been
subject in the same manner, though not to the same extent as Jesus. The most
perfect and the most profitable reading would combine the two, taking Christ as the
exemplar of God's mercies towards ourselves.
1. (Psalms 116:1) Enthroned in eternity, and triumphant over sin and deathâ€”Iâ€”
Christâ€”am well pleased that my Heavenly Father listened to the anxious prayers
that I made to him in the day of my sorrows; when I had neither strength in my own
mind, nor assistance from men; therefore "through my days" â€”through the
endless ages of my eternal existenceâ€”will I call upon him in my gratitude, and
praise him with my whole heart.
3. (Psalms 116:3) In the troublous times of my incarnation I was encircled with
snares, and urged onwards towards my death. The priest and ruler; the Pharisee
and the scribe; the rich and the poor, clamoured fiercely for my destruction. The
whole nation conspired against me. "The bands of the grave" laid hold of me, and I
was hurried to the cross.
4. (Psalms 116:4) Then, truly did Christ find heaviness and affliction. "His soul was

exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He prayed anxiously to his Heavenly Father,
that "the cup might pass from him." The fate of the whole world was in the balance;
and he supplicated with agony, that his soul might be delivered.
5. (Psalms 116:5) The abrupt breaking off in this verse from the direct narrative of
his own sorrows is wonderfully grand and beautiful. or less so, is the expression
"our God" as applied by Christ to his own disciples and believers. "I called, "he
states, "on the name of the LORD." But he does not yet state the answer. He leaves
that to be inferred from the assurance that God is ever gracious to the faithful; yea,
"our God" â€”the protector of the Christian church, as well as of myselfâ€”"our
God is merciful."
6. (Psalms 116:6) Instantly, however, he resumes. Mark the energy of the language,
"I was afflicted; and he delivered me." And how delivered? The soul of Christ hast
returned freely to its tranquillity; for though the body and the frame perished on
the tree, yet the soul burst through the bands of death. Again in the full stature of a
perfect man Christ rose resplendent in glory to the mansions of eternity. The tears
ceased: the sorrows were hushed; and henceforward, through the boundless day of
immortality, doth lie "walk before Jehovah, in the land of the living." This last is
one of those expressions in the Psalm which might, without reflection, seem adapted
to the rescued believer's state on earth, rather than Christ's in heaven. But applying
the language of earthly things to heavenlyâ€” which is usual, even in the most mystic
writings of Scriptureâ€” nothing can be finer than the appellation of "the land of
the living, "when assigned to the future residence of the soul. It is the noblest
application of the metaphor, and is singularly appropriate to those eternal mansions
where death and sorrow are alike unknown.
10. (Psalms 116:10) This stanza will bear an emendation.
I felt confidence, although I said,
"I am sore afflicted."
I said in my sudden terror, â€”
"All mankind are false." French.
It alludes to the eve of his crucifixion, when worn down with long watchfulness and
fasting, his spirit almost fainted in the agony of Gethsemane. Still, oppressed and
stricken as he was in soul, he yet trusted in Jehovah, for he felt assured that he
would not forsake him. But, sustained by God, he was deserted by men, the disciples
with whom he had lived; the multitudes whom he had taught; the afflicted whom he
had healed, "all forsook him and fled." ot oneâ€”not even the "disciple whom he
loved" â€”remained; and in the anguish of that desertion he could not refrain from
the bitter thought, that all mankind were alike false and treacherous.
12. (Psalms 116:12) But that dread hour has passed. He has risen from the dead;
and stands girt with truth and holiness and glory. What then is his earliest thought?
Hear it, O man, and blush for thine oft ingratitude! I will lift up "the cup of
deliverance" â€”the drink offering made to God with sacrifice after any signal
mercies receivedâ€”and bless the Lord who has been thus gracious to me. In the
sight of the whole world will I pay my past vows unto Jehovah, and bring nations
from every portion of the earth, reconciled and holy through the blood of my
atonement.
The language in these verses, as in the concluding part of the Psalm, is wholly drawn
from earthly objects and modes of religious service, well recognized by the Jews. It

is in these things that the spiritual sense is required to be separated from the
external emblem. For instance, the sacramental cup was without a doubt drawn and
instituted from the cup used in commemoration of deliverances by the Jews. It is
used figuratively by Christ in heaven; but the reflective mind can scarcely fail to see
the beauty of imagining it in his hand in thankfulness for his triumph, because "he
has burst his bonds in sunder": the bonds which held him fast in death, and
confined him to the tomb: the assertion that "precious in the sight of Jehovah is the
death of his saints" specially includes the sacrifice of Christ within its more general
allusion to the blood shed, in such abundance, by prophets and martyrs to the truth.
In the same manner the worship of Jehovah in the courts of his temple at Jerusalem
is used in figure for the open promulgation of Christianity to the whole world. The
temple services were the most solemn and most public which were offered by the
Jews; and when Christ is said to "offer his sacrifices of thanksgiving" to God in the
sight of all his people, the figure is easily separated from the grosser element; and
the conversion of all people intimated under the form of Christ seen by all. William
Hill Tucker.
Ver. 1. I love. The expression of the prophet's affection is in this short abrupt
phrase, "I love, "which is but one word in the original, and expressed as a full and
entire sentence in itself, thus â€”I love because the Lord hath heard, etc. Most
translators so turn it, as if, by a trajection, or passing of a word from one sentence to
another, this title Lord were to be joined with the first clause, thusâ€”(hwhy emvy
yk ytbha), "I love the LORD, because he hath heard, "etc. I deny not but that thus
the sense is made somewhat the more perspicuous, and the words run the more
roundly; yet are they not altogether so emphatic. For when a man's heart is
inflamed, and his soul lavished with a deep apprehension of some great and
extraordinary favour, his affection will cause interruption in the expression thereof,
and make stops in his speech; and therefore this concise and abrupt clause, "I love,
"declareth a more entire and ardent affection than a more full and round phrase
would do. Great is the force of true love, so that it cannot be sufficiently expressed.
William Gouge, 1575-1653.
Ver. 1. I love the LORD. Oh that there were such hearts in us that we could every
one say, as David, with David's spirit, upon his evidence, "I love the LORD"; that
were more worth than all these, viz.; First, to know all secrets. Secondly, to
prophesy. Thirdly, to move mountains, etc., 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, etc. "I love the
LORD"; it is more than I know the Lord; for even castaways are enlightened,
(Hebrews 6:4); more than I fear the Lord, for devils fear him unto trembling (James
2:19); more than I pray to God (Isaiah 1:15). What should I say? More than all
services, than all virtues separate from charity: truly say the schools, charity is the
form of all virtues, because it forms them all to acceptability, for nothing is accepted
but what issues from charity, or, in other words, from the love of God. William
Slater, 1638.
Ver. 1. I love the LORD, because, etc. How vain and foolish is the talk, "To love God
for his benefits towards us is mercenary, and cannot be pure love!" Whether pure
or impure, there is no other love that can flow from the heart of the creature to its
Creator. "We love him, "said the holiest of Christ's disciples, "because he first loved
us; "and the increase of our love and filial obedience is in proportion to the
increased sense we have of our obligation to him. We love him for the benefits

bestowed on us. â€”Love begets love. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. He hath heard my voice. But is this such a benefit to us, that God hears us?
Is his hearing our voice such an argument of his love? Alas! he may hear us, and we
be never the better: he may hear our voice, and yet his love to us may be but little,
for who will not give a man the hearing, though he love him not at all? With men
perhaps it may be so, but not with God; for his hearing is not only voluntary, but
reserved; non omnibus dormit:his ears are not open to every one's cry; indeed, to
hear us, is in God so great a favour, that he may well be counted his favourite whom
he vouchsafes to hear: and the rather, for that his hearing is always operative, and
with a purpose of helping; so that if he hear my voice, I may be sure he means to
grant my supplication; or rather perhaps in David's manner of expressing, and in
God's manner of proceeding, to hear my voice is no less in effect than to grant my
supplication. Sir Richard Baker.
Ver. 1. Hath heard. By hearing prayer God giveth evidence of the notice which he
taketh of our estates, of the respect he beareth to our persons, of the pity he hath of
our miseries, of his purpose to supply our wants, and of his mind to do us good
according to our needs. William Gouge.
Ver. 1-2. The first emvy is more of an aorist. The Lord hears always; and then,
making a distinction ygwa hjh. He has done it hitherto: adqa Therefore will I call
upon Him as long as I live, cleaving to Him in love and faith! It should be noticed, in
addition, that adq here is not simply the prayer for help, but includes also the
praising and thanksgiving, according to the twofold signification of hwhy Mvk arq,
in Psalms 116:4; Psalms 116:13; Psalms 116:17; therefore, Jarchi very excellently
says: In the time of my distress I will call upon Him, and in the time of my
deliverance l will praise Him. Rudolph Stier.
Ver. 1-2. I love. Therefore will I call upon him. It is love that doth open our mouths,
that we may praise God with joyful lips: "I will love the Lord because he hath heard
the voice of my supplications"; and then, Psalms 116:2, "I will call upon him as long
as I live." The proper intent of mercies is to draw us to God. When the heart is full
of a sense of the goodness of the Lord, the tongue cannot hold its peace. Self love
may lead us to prayers, but love to God excites us to praises: therefore to seek and
not to praise, is to be lovers of ourselves rather than of God. Thomas Manton.
Ver. 1, 12. I love. What shall I render? Love and thankfulness are like the
symbolical qualities of the elements, easily resolved into each other. David begins
with, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice"; and to enkindle this grace
into a greater flame, he records the mercies of God in some following verses; which
done, then he is in the right mood for praise; and cries, "What shall I render unto
the Loud for all his benefits?" The spouse, when thoroughly awake, pondering with
herself what a friend had been at her door, and how his sweet company was lost
through her unkindness, shakes off her sloth, riseth, and away she goes after him;
now, when by running after her beloved, she hath put her soul into a heat of love,
she breaks out in praising him from top to toe. Song of Solomon 5:10. That is the
acceptable praising which comes from a warm heart; and the saint must use some
holy exercise to stir up his habit of love, which like natural heat in the body, is
preserved and increased by motion. William Gumall.

WHEDO , "1. I love the Lord—Hebrew, I love, because Jehovah will hear, etc. The
object of “love” is not expressed, but logically determined to be He who answers
prayer, as if the author’s eye was on Deuteronomy 6:5. The future form of the verb
will hear, is more comprehensive than the preterit, because it expresses now a
settled confidence in God for all coming time, while the recent answer takes the past
tense.
BE SO ,"Verse 1-2
Psalms 116:1-2. I love the Lord — Hebrew, I love, because the Lord hath heard my
voice. “The soul, transported with gratitude and love, seems, at first, to express her
affection without declaring its object, as thinking that all the world must know who
is the person intended. Thus Mary Magdalene, at the sepulchre, though no previous
mention had been made of Jesus, says to one, whom she thought to be the gardener,
Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, &c. John 20:15. And ought not the love of God to
be excited in all our hearts by the consideration, that when we were not able to raise
ourselves up to him, he mercifully and tenderly inclined and bowed down his ear to
us?” — Horne. Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live — Hebrew, ‫אקרא‬ ‫,בימי‬
bejamai ekra, in my days, that is, as long as I have a day to live, as this phrase is
used 2 Kings 20:19 ; Isaiah 39:8.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
PSALM 116
PRAISI G GOD FOR RECOVERY FROM SERIOUS ILL ESS
As an introduction here, we submit these discerning words of Derek Kidner.
There is an infectious delight and a touching gratitude about this psalm, the
personal tribute of a man whose prayer has found an overwhelming answer. He has
come now to the temple to tell the whole assembly what has happened, and to offer
God what he had vowed to him in his extremity.[1]
This writer feels an especially deep appreciation for this psalm, because three years
ago, in 1988, he was diagnosed by six of the leading orthopedic surgeons in Houston
as having the most "acute case of spinal stenosis" the doctors had ever seen.
Included in the list of doctors was the head of the orthopedic surgery department of
Baylor Medical University. The diagnosis included such words as "inoperable,"
"incurable" and "wheel-chair." Many people prayed for him, and many treatments
were tried; God heard the prayers and healed him. Even the distinguished
physician, Dr. Dean Cline, who supervised this writer's illness, monitored all the
treatments, and at last expressed astonishment at the complete recovery that God
granted, when asked by this writer, "What shall I tell people who inquire as to what
helped me to get well?" simply pointed upward and replied, "It is my medical
opinion that the Great Physician on high laid his hand upon you"!
There can be no wonder, then, that this writer can identify with almost every word
of this psalm.

Some commentators are reluctant to view the crisis from which the psalmist was
rescued here as a serious illness, but there is no acceptable alternative. The great
majority of the scholars whose works we have consulted prefer the interpretation
expressed by Kidner in our opening lines. These include Clyde Miller, Albert
Barnes, J. R. Dummelow, Arnold Rhodes, G. Rawlinson, W. Stewart McCullough,
and a number of others. The interpretation accepted by all of these was thus stated
by McCullough: "This psalm is an individual's hymn of thanksgiving for
deliverance from an illness that brought him to the very brink of death."[2]
Briggs insisted that, "The psalm is not individual but national."[3] But we cannot
harmonize Brigg's interpretation with the fact that in the RSV, the words, "I,"
"me" and "my" occur no less than thirty-three times in nineteen verses!
Regarding the date and authorship, this writer is willing to accept, "The ancient
Hebrew tradition which ascribed it to Hezekiah, and considered it to have been
written on the occasion of his deliverance from death, as narrated in Isaiah 38.
Many resemblances are traced between the phraseology of the psalm and
expressions attributed to Hezekiah in Isaiah 37 and Isaiah 38."[4]
To this writer, that old tradition is much more satisfactory than the `We don't have
the slightest idea' opinions of some present-day scholars. Briggs cited the structure
of Psalms 12b and Ps. Psalms 18b, stating that, "This favors an early date."[5]
The presence of Aramaisms in the psalm has been interpreted by some as evidence
of a late date; but the use of Aramaisms as an indication of date has been totally
discredited by the discovery of the great corpus of Canaanite religious poetry dating
back to 1400 B.C., called the Ras Shamra Discoveries (1929-1937). As Merrill F.
Unger stated, "Aramaisms cannot be made a criterion for determining the date or
authorship, for they occur in Old Testament books from both early and late
periods."[6] (See Vol. 1 of our Minor Prophets Series, pp. 263,264, for more on this.)
Psalms 116:1-2
WHY THE PSALMIST LOVED THE LORD
"I love Jehovah because he heareth
My voice and my supplications.
Because he hath inclined his ear unto me."
othing so thrills the human heart as the realization, sweeping like a tidal wave over
one's soul, that God, even the Almighty and Eternal God, has heard the feeble and
distressed cry of a sufferer. For one not to love such a merciful and compassionate
God would press the limits of human ingratitude.
CO STABLE, "1. A promise to praise God from a loving heart116:1-2

The psalmist loved God because the Lord had granted his prayer request.
Consequently he promised to continue praying to Him as long as he lived. This
expression of love for God is unusual in the psalms. More often the psalmists spoke
of their respect for Yahweh. This writer was uncommonly affectionate.
Verses 1-19
Psalm 116
An unnamed writer gave thanks to God for delivering him from imminent death
and for lengthening his life. He promised to praise God in the temple for these
blessings. This is a hymn of individual thanksgiving.
". . . if ever a psalm had the marks of spontaneity, this is surely such a one." [ ote:
Kidner, Psalm 73-150 , p407.]
ELLICOTT, "(1) I love the Lord.—Besides this rendering, where Jehovah is
supplied as an object, this poet being given to use verbs without an object (see
Psalms 116:2; Psalms 116:10), there are two other possible translations.
1. I have longed that Jehovah should hear, &c—For this meaning of the verb to love
see Jeremiah 5:31, Amos 4:5; and for the construction see Psalms 27:4-6. So the
Syriac and Arabic versions.
2. I am well pleased that Jehovah hears (or will hear).—So LXX. and Vulg.
EBC, "THIS psalm is intensely individual. "I," "me," or "my" occurs in every
verse but two (Psalms 116:5, Psalms 116:19). The singer is but recently delivered
from some peril, and his song heaves with a groundswell of emotion after the storm.
Hupfeld takes offence at its "continual alternation of petition and recognition of the
Divine beneficence and deliverance, or vows of thanksgiving," but surely that very
blending is natural to one just rescued and still panting from his danger. Certain
grammatical forms indicate a late date, and the frequent allusions to earlier psalms
point in the same direction. The words of former psalmists were part of this singer’s
mental furniture, and came to his lips, when he brought his own thanksgivings.
Hupfeld thinks it "strange" that "such a patched up (zusammengestoppelter)
psalm," has "imposed" upon commentators, who speak of its depth and tenderness;
it is perhaps stranger that its use of older songs has imposed upon so good a critic
and hid these characteristics from him. Four parts may be discerned, of which the
first (Psalms 116:1-4) mainly describes the psalmist’s peril; the second (Psalms
116:5-9), his deliverance; the third glances back to his alarm and thence draws
reasons for his vow of praise (Psalms 116:10-14); and the fourth (Psalms 116:15-19)
bases the same vow on the remembrance of Jehovah’s having loosed his bonds.
The early verses of Psalms 18:1-50 obviously colour the psalmist’s description of his
distress. That psalm begins with an expression of love to Jehovah, which is echoed
here, though a different word is employed. "I love" stands in Psalms 116:1 without

an object, just as "I will call" does in Psalms 116:2, and "I believed" and "I spoke"
in Psalms 116:10. Probably "Thee" has fallen out, which would be the more easy, as
the next word begins with the letter which stands for it in Hebrew. Cheyne follows
Graetz in the conjectural adoption of the same beginning as in Psalms 116:10, "I am
confident." This change necessitates translating the following "for" as "that,"
whereas it is plainly to be taken, like the "for" at the beginning of Psalms 116:2, as
causal. Psalms 116:3 is moulded on Psalms 18:5, with a modification of the
metaphors by the unusual expression "the narrows of Sheol." The word rendered
narrows may be employed simply as distress or straits, but it is allowable to take it
as picturing that gloomy realm as a confined gorge, like the throat of a pass, from
which the psalmist could find no escape. He is like a creature caught in the toils of
the hunter Death. The stern rocks of a dark defile have all but closed upon him, but,
like a man from the bottom of a pit, he can send out one cry before the earth falls in
and buries him. He cried to Jehovah, and the rocks flung his voice heavenwards.
Sorrow is meant to drive to God. When cries become prayers, they are not in vain.
The revealed character of Jehovah is the ground of a desperate man’s hope. His own
ame is a plea which Jehovah will certainly honour. Many words are needless when
peril is sore and the suppliant is sure of God. To name Him and to cry for
deliverance are enough. "I beseech Thee" represents a particle which is used
frequently in this psalm, and by some peculiarities in its use here indicates a late
date.
The psalmist does not pause to say definitely that he was delivered, but breaks into
the celebration of the ame on which he had called, and from which the certainty of
an answer followed. Since Jehovah is gracious, righteous (as strictly adhering to the
conditions He has laid down), and merciful (as condescending in love to lowly and
imperfect men), there can be no doubt how He will deal with trustful suppliants.
The psalmist turns for a moment from his own experience to sun himself in the great
thought of the ame, and thereby to come into touch with all who share his faith.
The cry for help is wrung out by personal need, but the answer received brings into
fellowship with a great multitude. Jehovah’s character leads up in Psalms 116:6 to a
broad truth as to His acts, for it ensures that He cannot but care for the "simple,"
whose simplicity lays them open to assailants, and whose single-hearted adhesion to
God appeals unfailingly to His heart. Happy the man who, like the psalmist, can
give confirmation from his own experience to the broad truths of God’s protection
to ingenuous and guileless souls! Each individual may, if he will, thus narrow to his
own use the widest promises, and put "I" and "me" wherever God has put
"whosoever." If he does he will be able to turn his own experience into universal
maxims, and encourage others to put "whosoever" where his grateful heart has put
"I" and "me."
The deliverance, which is thus the direct result of the Divine character, and which
extends to all the simple, and therefore included the psalmist, leads to calm repose.
The singer does not say so in cold words, but beautifully wooes his "soul," his
sensitive nature, which had trembled with fear in death’s net, to come back to its
rest. The word is in the plural, which may be only another indication of late date,
but is more worthily understood as expressing the completeness of the repose, which

in its fulness is only found in God, and is made the more deep by contrast with
previous "agitation."
SIMEO , "DISCOURSE: 689
THA KSGIVI G FOR DELIVERA CE
Psalms 116:1-7. I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my
supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon
him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat
hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the
Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
yea, our God is merciful! The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and
he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee.
THE abruptness of this psalm shews, that it was the fruit of much previous
meditation: the writer of it had been “musing in his heart, till at last the fire
kindled, and he spake with his tongue.” It begins, “I love:” and, though our
translators had not supplied the deficiency, there would have remained no doubt on
the mind of the reader, who it was that was the object of the Psalmist’s regard. The
fact is, that nothing so endears the Deity to the souls of men as answers to prayer;
nor does any thing so encourage sinners to address him with unwearied
importunity. The two first verses of the psalm are a kind of summary of the whole;
setting forth in few words what he afterwards expatiates upon more at length: but
though we shall, on this account, pass them over in our discussion, we shall not be
unmindful of the resolution contained in them, but shall conclude our subject with
commending it to your most serious attention.
The points which now call for our notice are,
I. The troubles he had endured—
[We know not for certain what these were; but we are sure, that the psalm was
written after the ark had been brought up to mount Zion, and the worship of God
had been permanently settled at Jerusalem [ ote: ver. 18, 19.]: and therefore we
apprehend, that is was written on occasion of David’s deliverance from some
overwhelming distress both of body and mind, resembling that specified in the sixth
psalm [ ote: Psalms 6:2-3.]. The terms used in our text might indeed be interpreted
of death only; because the word “hell” often means nothing more than the grave:
but we rather think that terrors of conscience, on account of his sin committed in
the matter of Uriah, had given a ten-fold poignancy to the fear of death, and that his
experience was similar to that described in the 25th Psalm, where he says, “The
troubles of my heart are enlarged; O bring thou me out of my distresses! Look upon
mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins [ ote: Psalms 25:17-18.]!”
But whatever was the precise occasion of David’s sorrows, it is manifest, that,

sooner or later, we must all be brought into a situation wherein his language will be
exactly suitable to us. “The sorrows of death” will shortly “encompass us,” and “the
pains of hell,” if we have not previously obtained a sense of reconciliation with God,
will “get hold upon us;” and, in the contemplation of an approaching eternity, “we
shall find trouble and sorrow,” such as in our present state of carelessness and
security we have no conception of. O that we could but bring our hearers to realize
that awful hour, when we shall look back upon our mis-spent hours with unavailing
regret, and look forward to our great account with fear and trembling, wishing, if it
were possible, that we might have a fresh term of probation allowed us, or that the
hills and mountains might cover us from the face of our offended God! Let all, even
though, like David, they be monarchs upon their thrones, know, that the time must
shortly arrive, when the things of time and sense will appear in all their real
insignificance; and nothing will be deemed of any importance but the eternal
welfare of the soul.]
Whatever his troubles had been, we have no doubt respecting,
II. The means he had used for his relief from them—
David had had recourse to prayer; “Then called I on the name of the Lord; O Lord,
I beseech thee, deliver my soul!”
This is the proper remedy for all our troubles—
[“Is any afflicted? let him pray;” says an inspired apostle. And God himself says,
“Call upon me in the time of trouble; and I will hear thee; and thou shalt glorify
me.” Indeed, where else can we go with any hope of relief? If it be the death of the
body that we dread, man can do nothing for us, any farther than it shall please God
to employ him as an instrument for our good. If it be the death of the soul which we
fear, who but God can help us? Who can interpose between a sinner and his Judge?
If we betake ourselves to a throne of grace, and “pray unto our God with strong
crying and tears,” we shall find that He “is able to save us from death:” but created
powers are physicians of no value — — —]
We must however, in our prayers, resemble David—
[Behold what humility and fervour were manifested in this petition; “O Lord, I
beseech thee, deliver my soul! “Prayer does not consist in fluent or eloquent
expressions, but in ardent desires of the soul: and it may as well be uttered in sighs
and groans, as in the most energetic words that language can afford. “God knoweth
the mind of the Spirit,” by whose inspiration all acceptable supplications are
suggested. ever was there a petition more pleasing to God than that of the
publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” nor did any prove more effectual for
immediate relief than that recorded in our text. Truly this is a comfortable
consideration to the broken-hearted penitent: the greatness of his sorrows perhaps
prevents the enlargement of his heart in prayer: but God estimates his prayers, not
by their fluency, but by their sincerity; and that which is offered in indistinct and

unutterable groans, is as intelligible and as acceptable to him, as if every request
were offered in the most measured terms. Prayer thus offered, shall never go forth
in vain.]
This appears from,
III. The success of those means—
Most encouraging is the testimony which the Psalmist bears to the condescension
and goodness of God—
[ ot a word intervenes between his petition for mercy and his acknowledgment of
mercy received: “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.”
Here the Psalmist marks the union of justice and mercy in the dispensations of
God’s grace towards him: and that union is invariable, whenever we plead before
him that great sacrifice which was made for the sins of the whole world, and which
has fully satisfied the justice of our God. Moreover, he represents this mercy as the
common lot of all, who in simplicity and godly sincerity implore it at God’s hands;
“The Lord preserveth the simple,” and will never suffer one of them to perish. But
then he brings it back again to his own experience, and acknowledges with heartfelt
gratitude that God had received his prayer, and made him a most distinguished
monument of his mercy.]
Such is the testimony which every contrite and believing suppliant shall be able to
bear—
[Yes; justice is on the Believer’s side, as well as mercy. Whoever comes to God in the
name of Christ, may plead, that all his debts have been discharged by his great
Surety, and that all the glory of heaven has been purchased for him by his
Redeemer’s blood. Through this infinitely meritorious atonement God is reconciled
to man, and “the righteousness of Jehovah, no less than his mercy, is declared in the
remission of sins [ ote: Romans 3:25-26.]:” so that, “if we humbly confess our sins,
God will be faithful and just in forgiving our sins, and in cleansing us from all
unrighteousness [ ote: 1 John 1:9.].” Let “the simple”-hearted penitent rejoice in
this assurance; and let every one labour from his own experience to say, “I was
brought low, and he helped me.”]
In the close of our text we see,
IV. The improvement which he made of his whole experience—
He determined henceforth to make God “the rest” of his soul—
[Truly there is no rest for the soul in any other. We may renew our attempts to seek
it in this lower world, but we shall find none, except in the ark of God. Indeed the
great use of troubles is to bring us to a conviction of this truth: and, whatever we
may have suffered from “the sorrows of death,” or “the pains of hell,” we may bless

and adore our God for the dispensation, if it dispose us at last to seek all our
happiness in him — — —]
To the same “Rest” must we also continually “return”—
[As the needle of a compass which has sustained some violent concussion will
continue its tremulous motion till it returns to the pole again, so must our souls do, if
at any time through the violence of temptation they be diverted for a season from
their God. ot a moment’s rest should we even wish to have, till we find it in him
alone. In all his perfections we have “chambers into which we may enter,” and in
which we may enjoy security from every impending danger. His omniscience will
prevent surprise: his omnipotence will defeat our most potent adversaries: his love
will comfort us under our most painful circumstances: and his faithfulness will
preserve us even to the end. Let our troubles then drive us to him, and our
experience of past mercies determine us to “cleave unto him with full purpose of
heart.”]
Address—
[We now revert to the resolution announced by the Psalmist at the very beginning of
the psalm: “Because the Lord hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call
upon him as long as I live.” This shews how justly he appreciated the Divine
goodness; that he regarded it as an inexhaustible fountain, from whence the whole
creation may incessantly “draw water with joy.” The very command which God
himself has given us, attests the same, and proves, that it is no less our privilege than
our duty to “pray without ceasing,” to “pray, and not faint.” O Brethren, let every
answer to prayer bring you back again more speedily to the throne of grace; and
every communication of blessings to your souls make you more importunate for
further blessings, till “your cup runneth over,” and you are “filled with all the
fulness of God.”]
BI 1-19, "I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Christian experience and its results
I. The psalm opens with a general declaration of gratitude to God, as the hearer of
prayer (verse 1).
I. The true believer is a man of prayer.
2. Another feature of the child of God is conviction of sin (verse 3).
3. He is one who can testify that the Lord has answered his prayers: one who has
tasted the sweetness of Divine mercy (verses 5, 6, 8).
4. He seeks his happiness from God, and looks to the bosom of God as the only
resting-place for his soul (verse 7).
II. The results of Christian experience.
1. A deep sense of gratitude, and a desire of manifesting the same (verse 12).
2. A special resolve to manifest his gratitude, by a devout attendance on ordinances,

appointed of God as the public and solemn expression of thanksgiving and self-
dedication (verses 13, 14). (W. Hancock, B. D.)
The religion of gratitude
We trace this religious gratitude—
I. In a profound impression of God’s relative kindness. His relative kindness is shown in
two ways.
1. In delivering from distress. The distress seemed to have consisted
(1) In bodily suffering.
(2) In mental sorrow.
2. In delivering from great distress in answer to prayer.
II. In an earnest confession of God’s relative kindness.
1. His general kindness (verse 5).
2. His personal kindness (verse 6).
III. In a determination to live a better life in consequence of God’s relative kindness.
Here is a determination—
1. To rest in God (verse 7).
(1) The soul wants rest. Like Noah’s dove it has forsaken its home, and is
fluttering in the storms of external circumstances.
(2) Its only rest is God. It is so constituted that it can only rest where it can find
unbounded faith for its intellect, and supreme love for its heart. And who but
God, the supremely good and supremely true, can supply these conditions?
(3) To this rest it must return by its own effort. “Return unto thy rest, O my
soul.” The soul cannot be carried to this rest. As you steer the sea-tossed bark
into harbour, so it must go itself into the spheres of serenity and peace.
(4) A sense of God’s relative kindness tends to stimulate this effort. “The Lord
hath dealt bountifully with thee.” “The goodness of God shall lead to repentance.”
2. To walk before God. “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” “I will
set the Lord always before me.” Whoever else I may lose sight of, ignore, or forget,
His presence shall always be before my eye.
IV. In a public acknowledgment of God’s relative kindness. (Homilist.)
Prayer answered, love nourished
The particular objects which you are now to look back upon are the manifold and
manifest answers to prayer, which God has given you.
I. The first thing I would have you recollect is, your own prayers. If you look at them
with an honest eye, you will be struck with wonder that ever God should have heard
them. Look back now, Christian, upon thy prayers, and remember what cold things they
have been. Thy desires have been but faint, and they have been expressed in such sorry

language, that the desire itself seemed to freeze upon the lips that uttered it. And yet,
strange to say, God has heard those cold prayers, and has answered them too, though
they have been such that we have come out of our closets and have wept over them.
Then, again, believer, how unfrequent and few are your prayers, and yet how numerous
and how great have God’s blessings been. Ye have prayed in times of difficulty very
earnestly, but when God has delivered you, where was your former fervency? Look at
your prayers, again, in another aspect. How unbelieving have they often been! You and I
have gone to the mercy-seat, and we have asked God to bless us, but we have not
believed that He would do so. How small, too, the faith of our most faithful prayers!
When we believe the most, how little do we trust; how full of doubting is our heart, even
when our faith has grown to its greatest extent! I am sure we shall find much reason to
love God, if we only think of those pitiful abortions of prayer, those unripe figs, those
stringless bows, those headless arrows, which we call prayers, and which He has borne
with in His long-suffering. The fact is, that sincere prayer may often be very feeble to us,
but it is always acceptable to God. It is like some of those one-pound notes, which they
use in Scotland—dirty, ragged bits of paper; one would hardly look at them, one seems
always glad to get rid of them for something that looks a little more like money. But still,
when they are taken to the bank, they are always acknowledged and accepted as being
genuine, however rotten and old they may be. So with our prayers: they are foul with
unbelief, decayed with imbecility, and worm-eaten with wandering thoughts; but,
nevertheless, God accepts them at heaven’s own bank, and gives us rich and ready
blessings, in return for our supplications.
II. Again: I hope we shall be led to love God for having heard our prayers, if we consider
the great variety of mercies which we have asked in prayer, and the long list of answers
which we have received. It is impossible for me to depict thine experience as well as thou
canst read it thyself. What multitudes of prayers have you and I put up from the first
moment when we learnt to pray! You have asked for blessings in your going out and your
coming in; blessings of the day and of the night, and of the sun and of the moon; and all
these have been vouchsafed to you. Your prayers were innumerable; you asked for
countless mercies, and they have all been given. Only look at yourself: are not you
adorned and bejewelled with mercies as thickly as the sky with stars?
III. Let us note again the frequency of His answers to our frequent prayers. If a beggar
comes to your house, and you give him alms, you will be greatly annoyed if within a
month he shall come again; and if you then discover that he has made it a rule to wait
upon you monthly for a contribution, you will say to him, “I gave you something once,
but I did not mean to establish it as a rule.” Suppose, however, that the beggar should be
so impudent and impertinent that he should say, “But I intend, sir, to wait upon you
every morning and every evening:” then you would say, “I intend to keep my gate locked
that you shall not trouble me.” And suppose he should then look you in the face and add
still more, “Sir, I intend waiting upon you every hour, nor can I promise that I won’t
come to you sixty times in an hour; but I just vow and declare that as often as I want
anything so often will I come to you: if I only have a wish I will come and tell it to you;
the least thing and the greatest thing shall drive me to you; I will always be at the post of
your door.” You would soon be tired of such importunity as that, and wish the beggar
anywhere, rather than that he should come and tease you so. Yet recollect, this is just
what you have done to God, and He has never complained of you for doing it; but rather
He has complained of you the other way. He has said, “Thou hast not called upon Me, O
Jacob.” He has never murmured at the frequency of your prayers, but has complained
that you have not come to Him enough.
IV. Think of the greatness of the mercy for which you have often asked him, We never

know the greatness of our mercies till we get into trouble and want them. God’s mercies
are so great that they cannot be magnified; they are so numerous they cannot be
multiplied, so precious they cannot be over-estimated. I say, look back to-day upon these
great mercies with which the Lord has favoured thee in answer to thy great desires, and
wilt thou not say, “I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my
supplications”?
V. How trivial have been the things which we have often taken before God, and yet how
kindly has He condescended to hear our prayers. In looking back, my unbelief compels
me to wonder at myself, that I should have prayed for such little things. My gratitude
compels me to say, “I love the Lord, because He has heard those little prayers, and
answered my little supplications, and made me blessed, even in little things which, after
all, make up the life of man.”
VI. Let me remind you of the timely answers which God has given you to your prayers,
and this should compel you to love Him. God’s answers have never come too soon nor
yet too late. If the Lord had given you His blessing one day before it did come, it might
have been a curse, and there have been times when if He had withheld it an hour longer
it would have been quite useless, because it would have come too late.
VII. Will you not love the Lord, when you recollect the special and great instances of His
mercy to you? You have had seasons of special prayer and of special answer. What shall I
say then? God has heard my voice in my prayer. The first lesson, then, is this—He shall
hear my voice in my praise. If He heard me pray, He shall hear me sing; if He listened to
me when the tear was in mine eye, He shall listen to me when my eye is sparkling with
delight. My piety shall not be that of the dungeon and sick-bed; it shall be that also of
deliverance and of health. Another lesson. Has God heard my voice? Then I will hear His
voice. If He heard me, I will hear Him. Tell me, Lord, what wouldst Thou have Thy
servant do, and I will do it. The last lesson is, Lord, hast Thou heard my voice? then I
will tell others that Thou wilt hear their voice too. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Reality of answer to prayer
A prayer is an appeal from helplessness to power. No wonder that prayer in its
prompting and incentiveness is always attributed to the Holy Spirit. David says, “He has
heard my cry and my supplications.” All the language is not on one side. I sent a letter to
a certain city across the Atlantic, believing that the mail would carry my missive, that the
British flag under which the mail ship sailed would protect her in safety across the
Atlantic, and that thus my epistle would reach its destination. In due course a reply
comes, showing that my expectations were fulfilled. You could not reason me out of my
belief; you might go into discussion about the mighty leagues of ocean that separate
Glasgow from Chicago, but you could not reason me out of my belief when I had that
reply in my hand. There are men who as literally and as definitely have had a reply from
God to their cry. They can say with David, “God has heard my voice and my
supplication;” they have got the proof; they have received the reply. (J. Robertson.)
Love of God in the heart
“I love the Lord.” Can you say that? There is a bell in Moscow that never was hung and
never was rung. It is one of the largest bells in the world, but its clapper has never swung
against its great echoing sides. There is many a human heart that was placed where it is

to beat with love to God; but, like the bell, it has never been hung and never been rung.
Dead, lost soul, your heart was made to love God. Will you let it lie there, as they let the
Moscow bell lie in the courtyard amid the dust and rubbish and daily defilement of the
palace? Would you not rather pray, and strive, and agonize that your heart should be
hung, and that it should be rung in a melody of love to God? (J. Robertson.)
2 Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
BAR ES, "Because he hath inclined his ear unto me - See the notes at Psa_
5:1. Because he has been gracious to me, and has heard my prayers. This is a pood
reason for serving God, or for devoting ourselves to him, but it is not the only reason. We
ought to worship and serve God whether he hears our prayers or not; whether he sends
joy or sorrow; whether we are favored with prosperity, or are sunk in deep affliction.
People have worshipped God even when they have had no evidence that he heard their
prayers; and some of the most pure acts of devotion on earth are those which come from
the very depths of darkness and sorrow.
Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live - Margin, as in Hebrew, “in my
days.” Encouraged by the past, I will continue to call upon him in the future. I will retain
a firm faith in the doctrine that he hears prayer, and I will express my practical belief in
the truth of that doctrine by regular and constant habits of worship. When a man once
has evidence that God has heard his prayer, it is a reason why he should always call on
him in similar circumstances, for God does not change.
CLARKE, "Because he hath inclined his ear - The psalmist represents himself
to be so sick and weak, that he could scarcely speak. The Lord, in condescension to this
weakness, is here considered as bowing down his ear to the mouth of the feeble
suppliant, that he may receive every word of his prayer.
Therefore will I call upon him - I have had such blessed success in my application
to him, that I purpose to invoke him as long as I shall live. He that prays much will be
emboldened to pray more, because none can supplicate the throne of grace in vain.
GILL, "Because he hath inclined his ear unto me,.... Not as hard of hearing, for
his ear is not heavy that it cannot hear; he is quick of hearing, and his ears are always
open to the righteous; it rather denotes his readiness to hear; he hearkens and hears, he
listens to what his people say, and hears them at once, and understands them, though
ever so broken and confused; when their prayers are but like the chatterings of a crane

or swallow, or only expressed in sighs and groans, and even without a voice; when
nothing is articulately pronounced: moreover, this shows condescension in him; he bows
his ear as a rattler to a child, he stoops as being above them, and inclines his ear to them.
Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live; or "in my days" (d); in days of
adversity and affliction, for help and relief; in days of prosperity, with thankfulness for
favours received; every day I live, and several times a day: prayer should be constantly
used; men should pray without ceasing always, and not faint; prayer is the first and last
action of a spiritual life; it is the first thing a regenerate man does, "behold, he prays"; as
soon as he is born again he prays, and continues praying all his days; and generally goes
out of the world praying, as Stephen did, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"; and it is the
Lord's hearing prayer that encourages his people to keep on praying, and which makes
the work delightful to them. Christ was often at this work in life, and died praying, Luk_
6:12.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me: â€”bowing down
from his grandeur to attend to my prayer; the figure seems to be that of a tender
physician or loving friend leaning over a sick man whose voice is faint and scarcely
audible, so as to catch every accent and whisper. When our prayer is very feeble, so
that we ourselves can scarcely hear it, and question whether we do pray or not, yet
God bows a listening ear, and regards our supplications.
Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live, or "in my days." Throughout all the
days of my life I will address my prayer to God alone, and to him I will unceasingly
pray. It is always wise to go where we are welcome and are well treated. The word
"call" may imply praise as well as prayer: calling upon the name of the Lord is an
expressive name for adoration of all kinds. When prayer is heard in our feebleness,
and answered in the strength and greatness of God, we are strengthened in the habit
of prayer, and confirmed in the resolve to make ceaseless intercession. We should
not thank a beggar who informed us that because we had granted his request he
would never cease to beg of us, and yet doubtless it is acceptable to God that his
petitioners should form the resolution to continue in prayer: this shows the
greatness of his goodness, and the abundance of his patience. In all days let us pray
and praise the Ancient of days. He promises that as our days our strength shall be;
let us resolve that as our days our devotion shall be.
Ver. 2. He hath inclined his ear unto me. How great a blessing is the inclining of the
Divine ear, may be judged from the conduct of great men, who do not admit a
wretched petitioner to audience; but, if they do anything, receive the main part of
the complaint through the officer appointed for such matters, or through a servant.
But God himself hears immediately, and inclines his ear, hearing readily, graciously,
constantly, etc. Who would not pray? Wolfgang Musculus.
Ver. 2. And now because he hath inclined his ear unto me, I will therefore call upon
him as long as I live: that if it be expected I should call upon any other, it must be
when I am dead; for as long as I live, I have vowed to call upon God. But will this be
well done? May I not, in so doing, do more than I shall have thanks for? Is this the
requital that God shall have for his kindness in hearing me, that now he shall have a
customer of me, and never be quiet because of my continual running to him, and

calling upon him? Doth God get anything by my calling upon him, that I should
make it a vow, as though in calling upon him I did him a pleasure? O my soul, I
would that God might indeed have a customer of me in praying; although I confess I
should not be so bold to call upon him so continually, if his own commanding me did
not make it a duty; for hath not God bid me call upon him when I am in trouble?
and is there any time that I am not in trouble, as long as I live in this vale of misery?
and then can there be any time as long as I live, that I must not call upon him? For
shall God bid me, and shall I not do it? Shall God incline his car, and stand listening
to hear, and shall I hold my peace that he may have nothing to hear? Sir Richard
Baker.
Ver. 2. Therefore will I call upon him. If the hypocrite speed in prayer, and get what
he asks, then also he throws up prayer, and will ask no more. If from a sick bed he
be raised to health, he leaves prayer behind him, as it were, sick abed; he grows
weak in calling upon God, when at his call God hath given him strength. And thus it
is in other instances. When he hath got what he hath a mind to in prayer, he hath no
more mind to pray. Whereas a godly man prays after he hath sped, as he did before,
and though he fall not into those troubles again, and so is not occasioned to urge
those petitions again which he did in trouble, yet he cannot live without prayer,
because he cannot live out of communion with God. The creature is as the white of
an egg, tasteless to him, unless he enjoy God. David saith, "I love the LORD,
because he hath heard my voice and my supplications"; that is, because he hath
granted me that which I supplicated to him for. But did this grant of what he had
asked take him off from asking more? The next words show us what his resolution
was upon that grant. "Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call
upon him as long as I live";as if he had said, I will never give over praying,
forasmuch as I have been heard in prayer. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 2. As long as I live. â€” ot on some few days, but every day of my life; for to
pray on certain days, and not on all, is the mark of one who loathes and not of one
who loves. Ambrose.
HI TS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER.
Ver. 2. "He hath, "and therefore "I will." Grace moving to action.
Ver. 2, 4, 13, 17. Calling upon God mentioned four times very suggestivelyâ€”I will
do it (Psalms 116:2), I have tried it (Psalms 116:4), I will do it when I take (Psalms
116:13), and when I offer (Psalms 116:17).
Ver. 2, 9, 13-14, 17. The "I wills" of the Psalm. I will call (Psalms 116:2), I will walk
(Psalms 116:9), I will take (Psalms 116:13), I will pay (Psalms 116:14), I will offer
(Psalms 116:17).
WHEDO , "2. Will I call upon him—Literally, I will call; the verb, here, as in “I
love,” (Psalms 116:1,) bring without its object expressed. The language is
impassioned, and supposes the connexion or occasion to sufficiently explain it.
As long as I live—Hebrew, In my days. ot only his life long, but as his daily habit.
ELLICOTT, "(2) If we take translation (1) of Psalms 116:1 this verse will state the
ground of the longing to pray. “I have longed for Jehovah to hear me now, for He,
as in past times, inclines His ear to me.” The latter clause of the verse offers some

difficulty. The literal rendering of the text, given by the LXX. and Vulg., is, “and in
my days I will call (for help). But there is none.” 2 Kings 20:19 does not, as
suggested, confirm the explanation “all the days of my life.” It would seem more
natural to take the text as an equivalent of the common phrase “in the day when I
call” (Psalms 56:10; Psalms 102:3, &c), and render the verse:
For He inclines His ear to me,
And that in the day when I call.
3 The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me;
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
BAR ES, "The sorrows of death - What an expression! We know of no intenser
sorrows pertaining to this world than those which we associate with the dying struggle -
whether our views in regard to the reality of such sorrows be correct or not. We may be -
we probably are - mistaken in regard to the intensity of suffering as ordinarily
experienced in death; but still we dread those sorrows more than we do anything else,
and all that we dread may be experienced then. Those sorrows, therefore, become the
representation of the intensest forms of suffering; and such, the psalmist says, he
experienced on the occasion to which he refers. There would seem in his case to have
been two things combined, as they often are:
(1) actual suffering from some bodily malady which threatened his life, Psa_116:3,
Psa_116:6,Psa_116:8-10;
(2) mental sorrow as produced by the remembrance of his sins, and the apprehension
of the future, Psa_116:4. See the notes at Psa_18:5.
And the pains of hell - The pains of Sheol - Hades; the grave. See Psa_16:10, note;
Job_10:21-22, notes; Isa_14:9, note. The pain or suffering connected with going down to
the grave, or the descent to the nether world; the pains of death. There is no evidence
that the psalmist here refers to the pains of hell, as we understand the word, as a place of
punishment, or that he mean, to say that he experienced the sorrows of the damned. The
sufferings which he referred to were these of death - the descent to the tomb.
Gat hold upon me - Margin, as in Hebrew, “found me.” They discovered me - as if
they had been searching for me, and had at last found my hiding place. Those sorrows
and pangs, ever in pursuit of us, will soon find us all. We cannot long escape the pursuit
Death tracks us, and is upon our heels.
I found trouble and sorrow - Death found me, and I found trouble and sorrow. I

did not seek it, but in what I was seeking I found this. Whatever we fail to “find” in the
pursuits of life, we shall not fail to find the troubles and sorrows connected with death.
They are in our path wherever we turn, and we cannot avoid them.
CLARKE, "The sorrows of death - ‫מות‬ ‫חבלי‬ chebley maveth, the cables or cords of
death; alluding to their bonds and fetters during their captivity; or to the cords by which
a criminal is bound who is about to be led out to execution; or to the bandages in which
the dead were enveloped, when head, arms, body, and limbs were all laced down
together.
The pains of hell - ‫שאול‬ ‫מצרי‬ metsarey sheol the straitnesses of the grave. So little
expectation was there of life, that he speaks as if he were condemned, executed, and
closed up in the tomb. Or, he may refer here to the small niches in cemeteries, where the
coffins of the dead were placed.
Because this Psalm has been used in the thanksgiving of women after safe delivery, it
has been supposed that the pain suffered in the act of parturition was equal for the time
to the torments of the damned. But this supposition is shockingly absurd; the utmost
power of human nature could not, for a moment, endure the wrath of God, the deathless
worm, and the unquenchable fire. The body must die, be decomposed, and be built up
on indestructible principles, before this punishment can be borne.
GILL, "The sorrows of death compassed me,.... Christ, of whom David was a type,
was a man of sorrows all his days; and in the garden he was surrounded with sorrow;
exceeding sorrowful even unto death, in a view of the sins of his people imputed to him,
and under a sense of wrath for them, he was about to bear; and his agonies in the article
of death were very grievous, he died the painful and accursed death of the cross. This
was true of David, when Saul and his men compassed him on every side, threatening to
cut him off in a moment; when he despaired of life, and had the sentence of death in
himself, and saw no way to escape; and such a case is that of the people of God, or they
may be said to be compassed about with the sorrows of death, when through a slavish
fear of it they are all their lifetime subject to bondage; and especially when under
dreadful apprehensions of eternal death.
And the pains of hell gat hold upon me; or "found me" (e); overtook him, and
seized upon him; meaning either the horrors of a guilty conscience under a sense of sin,
without a view of pardon; which is as it were a hell in the conscience, and like the pains
and torments of it: or "the pains of the grave" (f); not that there are any pains felt there,
the body being destitute of life, and senseless; but such sorrows or troubles are meant
which threaten to bring down to the grave, which was the case of Jacob on the loss of his
children, Gen_37:35. This applied to Christ may design the wrath of God and curse of
the law, which he endured in the room and stead of his people, as their surety; and
which were equivalent to the pains of the damned in hell; or it may refer to his being laid
in the grave, in a strait and narrow place, as the word (g) signifies; where he lay bound in
grave clothes, till he was loosed from the pains and cords of death, it being not possible
he should be held by them, Act_2:24; see Gill on Psa_18:4, Psa_18:5.
I found trouble and sorrow; without seeking for them; they seized and took hold of
him, on David, and his antitype, when in the above circumstances; and often do the

saints find trouble and sorrow from a body of sin and death, from the temptations of
Satan, divine desertions, and afflictive providences. Aben Ezra refers the one to the
body, the other to the soul.
HE RY, " A more particular narrative of God's gracious dealings with him and the
good impressions thereby made upon him.
1. God, in his dealings with him, showed himself a good God, and therefore he bears
this testimony to him, and leaves it upon record (Psa_116:5): “Gracious is the Lord, and
righteous. He is righteous, and did me no wrong in afflicting me; he is gracious, and was
very kind in supporting and delivering me.” Let us all speak of God as we have found;
and have we ever found him otherwise than just and good? No; our God is merciful,
merciful to us, and it is of his mercies that we are not consumed.
(1.) Let us review David's experiences. [1.] He was in great distress and trouble (Psa_
116:3): The sorrows of death compassed me, that is, such sorrows as were likely to be his
death, such as were thought to be the very pangs of death. Perhaps the extremity of
bodily pain, or trouble of mind, is called here the pains of hell, terror of conscience
arising from sense of guilt. Note, The sorrows of death are great sorrows, and the pains
of hell great pains. Let us therefore give diligence to prepare for the former, that we may
escape the latter. These compassed him on every side; they arrested him, got hold upon
him, so that he could not escape. Without were fightings, within were fears. “I found
trouble and sorrow; not only they found me, but I found them.” Those that are
melancholy have a great deal of sorrow of their own finding, a great deal of trouble
which they create to themselves, by indulging fancy and passion; this has sometimes
been the infirmity of good men. When God's providence makes our condition bad let us
not by our own imprudence make it worse.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 3. The Psalmist now goes on to describe his condition at the
time when he prayed unto God. The sorrows of death compassed me. As hunters
surround a stag with dogs and men, so that no way of escape is left, so was David
enclosed in a ring of deadly griefs. The bands of sorrow, weakness, and terror with
which death is accustomed to bind men ere he drags them away to their long
captivity were all around him. or were these things around him in a distant circle,
they had come close home, for he adds,
and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. Horrors such as those which torment the lost
seized me, grasped me, found me out, searched me through and through, and held
me a prisoner. He means by the pains of hell those pangs which belong to death,
those terrors which are connected with the grave; these were so closely upon him
that they fixed their teeth in him as hounds seize their prey.
I found trouble and sorrow â€”trouble was around me, and sorrow within me. His
griefs were double, and as he searched into them they increased. A man rejoices
when he finds a hid treasure; but what must be the anguish of a man who finds,
where he least expected it, a vein of trouble and sorrow? The Psalmist was sought
for by trouble and it found him out, and when he himself became a seeker he found
no relief, but double distress.
Ver. 3. Here begins the exemplification of God's kindness to his servant; the first
branch whereof is a description of the danger wherein he was and out of which he

was delivered. ow, to magnify the kindness of God the more in delivering him out
of the same, he setteth it out with much variety of words and phrases.
The first word ylbx, "sorrows, "is diversely translated. Some expound it snares,
some cords, some sorrows. The reason of this difference is because the word itself is
metaphorical. It is taken from cruel creditors, who will be sure to tie their debtors
fast, as with cords, so that they shall not easily get loose and free again. The pledge
which the debtor leaveth with his creditor as a pawn, hath this name in Hebrew; so
also a cord wherewith things are fast tied; and the mast of a ship fast fixed, and tied
on every side with cords; and bands or troops of men combined together; and the
pain of a woman in travail, which is very great; and destruction with pain and
anguish. Thus we see that such a word is used here as setteth out a most lamentable
and inextricable case.
The next word, "of death" twm, sheweth that his case was deadly; death was before
his eyes; death was as it were threatened. He is said to be "compassed" herewith in
two respects: (1) To show that these sorrows were not far off, but even upon him, as
waters that compass a man when he is in the midst of them, or as enemies that
begird a place. (2) To show that they were not few, but many sorrows, as bees that
swarm together.
The word translated "pains, "yrum, in the original is put for sacks fast bound
together, and flint stones, and fierce enemies, and hard straits; so that this word also
aggravates his misery.
The word translated "hell, "lwav, is usually taken in the Old Testament for the
grave; it is derived from lav, a verb that signifieth to crave, because the grave is ever
craving, and never satisfied.
The word translated "gat hold on me, "ygwaum, and "I found, "auma, are both the
same verb; they differ only in circumstances of tense, number, and person. The
former sheweth that these miseries found him, and as a serjeant they seized on him;
he did not seek them, he would wittingly and willingly have escaped them, if he
could. The latter sheweth that indeed he found them; he felt the tartness and
bitterness, the smart and pain of them.
The word translated trouble, hru of dwu, hath a near affinity with the former word
translated pain, dum of dwu, and is used to set out as great misery as that; and yet
further to aggravate the same, another word is added thereto, "sorrow."
The last word, "sorrow, " wgy of hgy, imports such a kind of calamity as maketh
them that lie under it much to grieve, and also moveth others that behold it much to
pity them. It is often used in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Either of these two last
words, trouble and sorrow, do declare a very perplexed and distressed estate; what
then both of them joined together? For the Holy Ghost doth not multiply words in
vain. William Gouge.
Ver 3. Gat hold upon me. The original word is, found me, as we put in the margin.
They found him, as an officer or serjeant finds a person that he is sent to arrest;
who no sooner finds him, but he takes hold of him, or takes him into custody. When
warrants are sent out to take a man who keeps out of the way, the return is, on est
inventus, the man is not found, he cannot be met with, or taken hold of. David's
pains quickly found him, and having found him they gat hold of him. Such finding
is so certainly and suddenly followed With taking hold, and holding what is taken,
that one word in the Hebrew serves to express both acts. When God sends out

troubles and afflictions as officers to attack any man, they will find him, and finding
him, they will take hold of him. The days of affliction will take hold; there's no
striving, no struggling with them, no getting out of their hands. These divine
pursuivants will neither be persuaded nor bribed to let you go, till God speak the
word, till God say, Deliver him, release him. I found trouble and sorrow. I found
trouble which I looked not for. I was not searching after sorrow, but I found it.
There's an elegancy in the original. The Hebrew is, "The pains of hell found me."
They found me, I did not find them; but no sooner had the pains of hell found me,
than I found trouble and sorrow, enough, and soon enough. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 3. See how the saints instead of lessening the dangers and tribulations, with
which they are exercised by God, magnify them in figurative phraseology; neither
do they conceal their distress of soul, but clearly and willingly set it forth. Far
otherwise are the minds of those who regard their own glory and not the glory of
God. The saints, that they may make more illustrious the glory of the help of God,
declare things concerning themselves which make but little for their own glory.
Wolfgang Musculus.
Ver. 3-7. Those usually have most of heaven upon earth, that formerly have met
with most of hell upon earth. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of
hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow: (as Jonas crying in the belly of
hell). But look upon him within two or three verses after, and you may see him in an
ecstasy, as if he were in heaven; Psalms 116:7 : Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for
the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. Matthew Lawrence.
WHEDO , "3. Sorrows of death—Hebrew, Cords of death, in allusion to the use of
“cords,” or ropes, for leading animals, binding prisoners, punishment by
strangulation, etc., in all which the idea of abject and helpless submission is
conveyed. See 1 Kings 20:31-32. Cords of death denote that the subject is
condemned to die. See on Psalms 118:5. The verse is a quotation from Psalms 18:4-5.
Pains of hell—Hebrew, straits of sheol, ‫,מצר‬ (metzar,) radically means a compressed,
narrow place, a strait, where a fugitive is easily captured, and figuratively, distress.
The straits of sheol had shut him in; a proverbial phrase for the environments of
death. The word occurs literally Lamentations 1:3, and figuratively Psalms 118:5 .
In the text it is parallel to “cords of death,” in previous member.
BE SO ,"Verse 3-4
Psalms 116:3-4. The sorrows of death compassed me — Dangerous and deadly
calamities as bitter as death: Hebrew, ‫מות‬ ‫,חבלי‬ cheblee maveth, the cords, or bands
of death: see note on Psalms 18:4-5 . The pains of hell — Or of the grave, or of
death; either cutting, killing pains, or such agonies and horrors as dying persons
often feel within themselves; gat hold upon me — Hebrew, ‫,מצאוני‬ found me, that is,
surprised me. Having been long pursuing me, at last they overtook and seized upon
me, and I gave up myself for lost. Then called I upon the name of the Lord — Being
brought to the last extremity, I made use of this, not as the last remedy, but as the
old and only remedy which I had found, a balm for every wound.
COFFMA , "Verse 3

HOW PRECARIOUS HIS SITUATIO WAS
"The cords of death compassed me,
And the pains of Sheol gat hold upon me:
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then called I upon the name of Jehovah:
O Jehovah, I beseech thee, deliver my soul."
Leupold noted that "Psalms 116:3 here is based upon Psalms 18:4."[7] This verse
describes his illness (or whatever the crisis was) in figurative language. "In the Old
Testament, death is represented as a hunter with a cord and a net. In any lingering
sickness, the cord gets tighter and tighter until all possibility of escape is cut off."[8]
"I called upon the name of Jehovah ... I beseech thee, deliver my soul" (Psalms
116:4). This is a concise and very brief summary of his prayers to the Lord. In the
throes of the terrible threat of death which was upon him, he did not cease to cry
unto the Lord night and day.
ELLICOTT, "(3) The pains of hell.—Or, oppressions of Sheôl, if we retain the text.
But a very slight change in a single letter brings the clause into closer
correspondence with Psalms 18:5-6, whence it is plainly borrowed, the nets of Sheôl.
We may reproduce the original more exactly by using, as it does, the same verb in
the last two clauses of the verse:
ets of Sheôl caught me,
Trouble and sorrow I catch.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Lord, save me!”
BAR ES, "Then called I upon the name of the Lord - Upon the Lord. I had no
other refuge. I felt that I must perish unless he should interpose, and I pleaded with him
for deliverance and life. Compare the notes at Psa_18:6.

O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul - My life. Save me from death. This was
not a cry for salvation, but for life. It is an example for us, however, to call on God when
we feel that the soul is in danger of perishing, for then, as in the case of the psalmist, we
have no other refuge but God.
GILL, "Then called I upon the name of the Lord,.... Upon the Lord himself in
prayer for speedy deliverance; or "in the name of the Lord" (h), in the name of the
Messiah, the only Mediator between God and man; "saying", as follows, and which word
may be supplied,
O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul; from these sorrows and pains, from these
afflictions and distresses, from death and the grave, and from wrath, and a sense of it,
and fears about it.
HE RY 4-5, " In his trouble he had recourse to God by faithful and fervent prayer,
Psa_116:4. He tells us that he prayed: Then called I upon the name of the Lord; then,
when he was brought to the last extremity, then he made use of this, not as the last
remedy, but as the old and only remedy, which he had found a salve for every sore. He
tells us what his prayer was; it was short, but to the purpose: “O Lord! I beseech thee,
deliver my soul; save me from death, and save me from sin, for that is it that is killing to
the soul.” Both the humility and the fervency of his prayer are intimated in these words,
O Lord! I beseech thee. When we come to the throne of grace we must come as beggars
for an alms, for necessary food. The following words (Psa_116:5), Gracious is the Lord,
may be taken as part of his prayer, as a plea to enforce his request and encourage his
faith and hope: “Lord deliver my soul, for thou art gracious and merciful, and that only I
depend upon for relief.”
SPURGEO , "Ver. 4. Then I called upon the name of the LORD. Prayer is never
out of season, he prayed then, when things were at their worst. When the good man
could not run to God, he called to him. In his extremity his faith came to the front: it
was useless to call on man, and it may have seemed almost as useless to appeal to the
Lord; but yet he did with his whole soul invoke all the attributes which make up the
sacred name of Jehovah, and thus he proved the truth of his confidence. We can
some of us remember certain very special times of trial of which we can now say,
"then called I upon the name of the Lord." The Psalmist appealed to the Lord's
mercy, truth, power, and faithfulness, and this was his prayer, â€”
O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. This form of petition is short,
comprehensive, to the point, humble, and earnest. It were well if all our prayers
were moulded upon this model; perhaps they would be if we were in similar
circumstances to those of the Psalmist, for real trouble produces real prayer. Here
we have no multiplicity of words, and no fine arrangement of sentences; everything
is simple and natural; there is not a redundant syllable, and yet there is not one
lacking.
Ver. 4. The name of the LORD. God's name, as it is set out in the word, is both a
glorious name, full of majesty; and also a gracious name, full of mercy. His majesty
worketh fear and reverence, his mercy faith and confidence. By these graces man's

Psalm 116 commentary

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (14)

Ähnlich wie Psalm 116 commentary

Ähnlich wie Psalm 116 commentary (20)

Mehr von GLENN PEASE

Mehr von GLENN PEASE (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Psalm 116 commentary