CHAPTER 116

DAVID IS THE AUTHOR: PRAISE TO GOD FOR DELIVERANCE

¹I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. (This might be called the Resurrection Psalm. The comforting message to faith in this Song is that the Resurrection of Christ is a pledge and assurance of the Resurrection of His People, and that as God carried Him victoriously through the sorrows of life and of death, so will He triumphantly carry those who, by faith, are united to Him. Hence, our Resurrection is based upon and connected with His Resurrection.)

²Because He has inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. (This Psalm, sung by Him and His little flock on the eve of His Crucifixion, will be sung again by Him in the midst of the great congregation on the morn of His Coronation.)

³The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of Hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. (The first section of this Psalm [Vss. 311] presents the Messiahs recalling of His First Advent while in weakness and atonement. In Verses 12 through 19, He anticipates His Second Advent in Power and Glory, and He praises and worships Jehovah in respect to both.)

⁴Then called I upon the Name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech You, deliver my soul. (His sorrows in the death world and His prayer when there are the subject of Verses 36, and His joyful testimony on the morning of His Resurrection is the theme of Verses 711.)

⁵Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes, our God is merciful. (As should be understood, the Messiah spoke more of His petitions, supplications, prayers, and victories through David than through any other Psalmist. This was because it was through Davids lineage that the Messiah would come [II Sam., Chpt. 7].)

⁶The LORD preserves the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me. (The word simple refers to sinless; because He was such, He was guarded safely when in Sheol.)

⁷Return unto your rest, O my soul; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. (The rest intended in this Verse is that of St. John 17:45. Having accomplished Redemption, our Lord returned to the repose of the Fathers Bosom.)

⁸For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. (The word falling has no moral significance here, for it is impossible for the Messiah to morally stumble. The Hebrew word means a thrusting down.)

⁹I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. (Delivered from being thrust down, in Death, He is now raised up in Resurrection.)

¹⁰I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted (this faith of Verse 10 is most striking, for it was exercised by the Messiah when in the regions of death, and is now exercised by Him in Resurrection):

¹¹I said in my haste, All men are liars. (The word haste, in the Hebrew, does not mean hastily, but hasting on. No one thought that Christ would be raised from the dead, not even His closest Disciples. Concerning the Resurrection, at least after He was crucified, all were liars.)

¹²What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward me? (We cannot render anything. In fact, the Lord has nothing for sale. It is all a Gift.)

¹³I will take the cup of Salvation, and call upon the Name of the LORD. (Being Saved, we have the right to petition our Heavenly Father and expect an answer [I Jn. 5:14].)

¹⁴I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His People. (What Christ did in the Redemption of man was done in the presence of all [Ps. 40:7].)

¹⁵Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His Saints. (The word precious means costly. It is costly to the Work of God upon the passing of any of His Saints. The only light in the world is the Light of Christ which reposes in the lives of the Saints.)

¹⁶O LORD, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid: You have loosed my bonds. (The sense of this Verse is twofold it speaks of both David and the Messiah. Its message is humility. The word handmaid, likewise, has a double meaning. It refers both to Mary and to Israel, for Jesus was born of both the Virgin and of Israel. His Father loosed Him from the bonds of death and raised Him from the dead.)

¹⁷I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the Name of the LORD. (We must understand that from this Verse we learn that all thanksgiving is based upon the Sacrifice of Christ.)

¹⁸I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His People, (this is the second time this Verse is given to us verbatim, but not without cause; it refers to the tremendous victories won by the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of a world that was loved by Him, but yet a world altogether unlovely.)

¹⁹In the courts of the LORD s House, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise you the LORD. (This will be fulfilled at the beginning of and throughout the great Kingdom Age. At that time, and continually all over the world, the great victories bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ will be heralded in the presence of all His People. No wonder the world at that time will say, Praise you the LORD.)