Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Reflections on Psalm 116


    Psalms 116 (Contemporary English Version)

  1. I love you, LORD! You answered my prayers.
  2. You paid attention to me, and so I will pray to you as long as I live.
  3. Death attacked from all sides, and I was captured by its painful chains. But when I was really hurting,
  4. I prayed and said, "LORD, please don't let me die!"
  5. You are kind, LORD, so good and merciful.
  6. You protect ordinary people, and when I was helpless, you saved me
  7. and treated me so kindly that I don't need to worry anymore.
  8. You, LORD, have saved my life from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
  9. Now I will walk at your side in this land of the living.
  10. I was faithful to you when I was suffering,
  11. though in my confusion I said, "I can't trust anyone!"
  12. What must I give you, LORD, for being so good to me?
  13. I will pour out an offering of wine to you, and I will pray in your name because you have saved me.
  14. I will keep my promise to you when your people meet.
  15. You are deeply concerned when one of your loyal people faces death.
  16. I worship you, LORD, just as my mother did, and you have rescued me from the chains of death.
  17. I will offer you a sacrifice to show how grateful I am, and I will pray.
  18. I will keep my promise to you when your people
  19. gather at your temple in Jerusalem. Shout praises to the LORD!



Many, including most of the early church fathers, were of the opinion that this 116th Psalm relates to Christ's passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. But any opinion would only be conjecture. I do not wish to build my thoughts on this psalm around conjecture. I will go with what is plain, and what is plain to me is that the writer suffered in some way that nearly took his life or that he likened to death. Whether it was an illness that nearly took his life or a threat that distressed him so much he felt he was near death, we cannot be sure. Based on verses 3 & 10-11 which speak of trouble and sorrow, and of everyone being a liar, I would guess it was the later. What we do know is that the psalmist called out to the Lord in his affliction and the Lord heard him and delivered him. As a result he is exuberant in his praise to the Lord. In verses 12-19 he considers how he might "repay the Lord all the good He has done for me?" How does he decide to repay the Lord?
  • By worshiping the Lord.
  • By fulfilling his vows to the Lord.
  • By offering himself as the Lord's servant.
  • By offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
When in danger we fear being helpless to do anything. I believe the psalmist would say that is a good thing. When he was helpless, the Lord saved him (verse 6). If we try to act as though we are not helpless and attempt to save ourselves, we abort any help the Lord would give us by failing to seek His help. It is not a question of being helpless. We are helpless to help ourselves. The question is whether we will recognize this, admit it to ourselves and then ask for the Lord's help. The saying, "The Lord helps those who help themselves," is not in the bible as some think. In my opinion it is not particularly good counsel. We are helpless to help ourselves and it is from that understand we need to proceed when in trouble. It is natural that we should feel we must do something to help ourselves, but the thing we should do is to pray. Having prayed, it may be that the Lord will direct us to action we should take, but it will be action for which He has already set the stage. Action that if we were to take on our own, without His help, would fail. The best way we can help ourselves is to ask the Lord for His help. Then we can take whatever action He leads us to, if any.

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