Psalm 116

Psalm 116

Thanksgiving and Praise

I. God is faithful to deliver the helpless who cry out to Him, so we must recognize and acknowledge His great provision (Vv. 1-11)

a. The psalmist begins by declaring his love for the Lord! Why did the psalmist love the Lord? Because God hears his voice, and his earnest and humble cries for help. And because God has continually tuned His ear to hear the psalmist, giving him confidence to continue communicating with God and trusting Him forever because of His firm and unchanging nature. The psalmist know God always hears because he found himself suffering from both sickness that brought him near to death, and from opposition of people who brought him great discouragement, and God provided him relief from both. In his illness, he experienced great distress and sorrow, death surrounded him, and the grave was open before him; so he responded by calling on the “name of the Lord”, or His nature and character, and asking God to save his life. The psalmist experienced God’s gracious, righteous, and compassionate character in his life through God’s response to his helplessness. God delivered the psalmist from physical affliction and death, but more importantly to the psalmist, God rescued his soul from death, rescued him from sorrow and fear, and from stumbling in sin and doubt. The most important result of God’s actions in the life of the psalmist was the spiritual healing that brought emotional peace to his life. As he cried out to God and God revealed Himself more completely to him, the psalmist was humbled by the glory and power of the Lord and His great concern for his afflicted child. God is far greater, grander, and more powerful than us, but the revelation of that reality develops pure and simple faith in His children, and produces peace and rest for our souls in the abundance of His blessings in who He is. Life will prove to be difficult and often a source of great affliction at times, people will continually let us down, and we’ll continue to find ourselves in helpless situations. But God alone is our source of deliverance now and eternally in our helplessness; we can trust that who He is will never change, and what He says will always be done. (Vv. 1-11; Exod. 34:6-7; Job 5:7; 14:1; Ps. 40:1-2; 86:15; 119:71; Jonah 2:5-7; Matt. 5:3-5; 11:28-30; John 14:27; 16:33; 2 Cor. 4:7-14; 12:7-10; Phil. 4:4-8; Col. 3:1-3; Heb. 12:1-2; 13:5b-8; 1 Pet. 5:6-7; Jude 24)

II. God is faithful to deliver the helpless who cry out to Him, so we must respond by living lives of praise and thanksgiving in gratitude to Him (Vv. 1, 12-19)

a. The psalmist isn’t suggesting that he needs to repay the Lord for what He’s done, he’s moved to show his gratitude to God for who He is and for saving him. So he’s obedient to the Lord’s commands for worshiping Him through sacrifice, testimony, and celebration of who He is among others. He will offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and a portion of the wine will be poured on the alter to signify the psalmist’s life, given from God and poured out in offering to Him. After the sacrifice, the psalmist will celebrate God’s goodness with friends and family, and he’ll begin to keep the promises which he made to God during his time of affliction. The psalmist knows that even though he feared difficulty, uncertainty, and death, and that his life on earth will end at some point, he is precious in the site of the Lord in life, death, and forever. He is a child of God through His covenant, and God is completely faithful to His covenant promises, so he’s freed from fear, freed to live, and will praise the Lord in thanksgiving by living completely for Him! (Vv. 15-16, 19) (Vv. 12-19; Lev. 3; 7:11-21; Job 14:5; 41:11; Ps. 39:4-6; 48:14; 72:12-14; 139:16; Jonah 2:8-9; Rom. 11:33-36)

b. If God worked that amazingly and faithfully in the psalmist’s life, and God is unchanging, then He works in equally amazing ways today. If the psalmist was precious to God in life and death, because he was child of God’s covenant, then how much more certain is our preciousness in God’s sight as His children through adaption by the covenant of the blood of Christ, even while we were still utterly helpless sinners! Like the psalmist, we can experience the magnificent presence and power of God in life in our most helpless hour, and be continually reassured and encouraged. We must live lives of continual prayer and thanksgiving before God. We must also sacrifice our whole hearts and lives before God. In Christ we are truly free; free from sin, free from death, free from fear, and free to truly love God, obey Him, and love others! No matter the circumstances of affliction, or the difficulties of life and people we face, we can say, we must say with the psalmist, “I love the Lord”! (Matt. 10:28-31; 22:36-40; Luke 9:23-25; 22:19-20; John 1:12-13; 3:16; 8:30-36; 14:14; Rom. 5:6-10; 6:8-11; 8:9-18, 28-39; 12:1-2; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:16-18; Heb. 13:15; 1 Pet. 1:17-19; 2:4-7; 1 John 5:1-5)