Bible Study - Psalm 116

Psalm 116 in a psalm of thanksgiving to God for deliverance from great danger and from death itself. The specific situation is not described, and this has thus been a psalm used by many as a prayer in times of great difficulty, whatever they may be. The author is not identified, but many think this is one of the later psalms written in the Old Testament because there are many references to psalms of David and others.

The psalmist begins by declaring that he loves the Lord, because the Lord has heard his voice and his pleas for mercy. The psalmist was surrounded by the snares of death, of Sheol, and suffered distress and anguish (Psalm 116:1-3). He cried out, “O Lord, deliver my soul,” and “the Lord delivered his soul from death, his eyes from tears, and his feet from stumbling.” “He walks before the Lord again in the land of the living” (v.4,8-9).

Therefore, the psalmist will keep “calling on Him as long as he lives” because he knows that the Lord is “gracious and righteous and merciful” and “has dealt bountifully with him.” He can “rest in the Lord” and His care (v.2,5,7). He knows that the Lord “preserves simple people” like him (v. 6). (The word “simple” does not mean someone who is naïve and feeble in mind, but someone who is “open” to learning and instruction, especially from the Lord. See, for example, Proverbs 1:1-7, where the same word is used for those “open” to the Lord’s knowledge, in contrast with “fools who despise wisdom and instruction.”)

The psalmist knows that he must turn to the Lord, because he is “alarmed” to discover that “All mankind are liars” (Psalm 116:11). Fellow human beings, and he himself, and all of us, are weak, sinful people, far from true Godly wisdom if left on our own. (See Scriptures like Genesis 6:5 and Jeremiah 4:22 and 17:9 and Romans 3:22-23. Be sure to read these!) So, the psalmist continues to “believe” the Lord and trust Him, even when he himself says, “I am greatly afflicted” (Psalm 116:10). He know that he will be taken care of by his Lord, no matter what comes for him. He knows that he would be blessed by His Lord, even if he would die (v. 15). (“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” - those who are right with God by faith in His mercy.)

This mercy of God would be shown most clearly, of course, in Christ our Savior, who always followed His Heavenly Father’s will, even if it meant, as it did, suffering and dying for us to pay the penalty for our sins. That was not the end for Jesus, for He rose in victory for us on the day we call Easter. See how Paul uses words from this psalm, Psalm 116:10, in 2 Corinthians 4:13-15: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will bring us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.”

The psalmist, who knew of God’s mercy and promises in his life and in prophecy for the future, fulfilled finally in Jesus, then broke into a song of praise and thanks to the Lord in Psalm 116:12-17. He was “God’s servant,” and the Lord had “loosed his bonds,” bringing him freedom and hope and rest (v.7,16). He will now worship the Lord with fellow believers “in the courts of the house of the Lord” (v.14,18,19), and he will “pay his vows,” make his commitments to the Lord, in gratefulness and praise to the Lord (v.14,17-19).

If some of these words sound familiar to you, it it because v.12-14 and 17-19 are used as an “offertory," an offering song, after the sermon and before the Communion liturgy, in the Divine Service, Setting One, in the Lutheran Service Book, as offerings are brought to the Lord. We are singing God’s Word to and with each other, just as the psalmist was doing.

Note also that the psalmist says, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (v.13). When God’s people came to Jerusalem to celebrate the yearly Passover, one of the cups of wine they shared with each other in the Passover service was called “the cup of salvation.” That service ended with singing of psalms, from Psalms 113-118, also. This is prophetic of Jesus.

Remember that when Jesus came as the Savior, He also celebrated the Passover with His disciples the night before His death. He used the unleavened bread and the wine of “the cup of salvation” and transformed them into what we now call The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. In and with and under the bread and wine, we also receive the body and blood of Christ Jesus and the blessings of His forgiveness. That is now our “cup of salvation,” that we can receive regularly in faith. (See, for example, Matthew 26:26-28.) Note also that then they closed the Passover “with a hymn they sang and then went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30), where Jesus prayed and then was arrested and died on the cross the next day. Most likely, Jesus sang Psalm 116 as a part of His last hymn before His suffering and death on the cross.

Read through Psalm 116 again, thinking about it with reference to Jesus. The psalmist is grateful that he escaped death, but Jesus went to His death for our sake. Jesus suffered “distress and anguish, tears and stumbling and death” that we deserve. He was “greatly afflicted” in our place, for our sins, because “all mankind, including us, are liars.”

“His death was precious in the eyes of His Heavenly Father,” and he was raised to life on Easter, and earned for us eternal life, as we believe and trust in Him. “What shall we render to the Lord, for all His benefits to us?” We believe in and praise and thank the Lord! And we are His servants, in gratitude for all He has done for us, in Christ.