Chú giải Kinh Thánh

The author and date of this psalm are unknown. It seems to be rather of a private than a public character, and there are expressions in it which must have been drawn from the personal experience of its writer. It is adapted to public use only because in all public assemblages there are those who would find their own experience represented by the language of the psalm. It may have been composed after the return from Babylon, but there is nothing in the psalm to limit it to that time, and the language is such that it may have been composed at any period after Jerusalem became the place of public worship, Psalm 116:19.

The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, which combined the two previous psalms into one, divide this into two, at the end of Psalm 116:9. The reason why this was done is unknown.

The psalm appears to have been composed in reference to a dangerous sickness, or some deep affliction which threatened life, Psalm 116:3, Psalm 116:8-9, Psalm 116:15; and it expresses a purpose to praise and serve God in view of the fact that the author had been delivered from impending death, and that his days had been lengthened out upon the earth.

The psalm embraces the following points:

I. An expression of love and gratitude in view of the mercies of God, and of a purpose to serve him as long as life should last, Psalm 116:1-2.

II. A description of his sufferings, as if the pains of hell had seized him, Psalm 116:3-4.

III. A description of the mercy and goodness of God as interposing in answer to his prayer, and delivering him, Psalm 116:5-11.

IV. A solemn declaration of his purpose to praise God for all his mercies; to take the cup of salvation and call on his name; to pay his vows in the presence of the people of God; to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving; to worship in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of Jerusalem, Psalm 116:12-19.

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 1 John 4:19.

Because he hath inclined his ear unto me - See the notes at Psalm 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.

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, Psalm 116:3, Psalm 116:6,Psalm 116:8-10;

(2) mental sorrow as produced by the remembrance of his sins, and the apprehension of the future, Psalm 116:4. See the notes at Psalm 18:5.

And the pains of hell - The pains of Sheol - Hades; the grave. See Psalm 16:10, note; Job 10:21-22, notes; Isaiah 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.

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 Psalm 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.

Gracious is the Lord - This fact was his encouragement when he called on God. He believed that God was a gracious Being, and he found him to be so. Compare the notes at Hebrews 11:6.

And righteous ... - Just; true; faithful. This, too, is a proper foundation of appeal to God: not that we are righteous, and have a claim to his favor, but that he is a Being who will do what is right; that is, what is best to be done in the case. If he were an unjust Being; if he were one on whose stability of character, and whose regard for right, no reliance could be placed, we could never approach him with confidence or hope. In this sense we may rely on his justice - his justness of character - as a ground of hope. Compare the notes at 1 John 1:9 : "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us Our sins."

The Lord preserveth the simple - The Septuagint renders this "babes" - νήπια nēpia. The Hebrew word has reference to simplicity or folly, as in Proverbs 1:22. It then refers to those who are the opposite of cautious or cunning; to those who are open to persuasion; to those who are easily enticed or seduced. The verb from which the word is derived - פתה pâthâh - means to open, to expand; then, to be open, frank, ingenuous, easily persuaded or enticed. Thus it may express either the idea of being simple in the sense of being foolish, easily seduced and led astray; or, simple in the sense of being open, frank, ingenuous, trustful, sincere. The latter is evidently its meaning here. It refers to one of the characteristics of true piety - that of unsuspecting trust in God. It would describe one who yields readily to truth and duty; one who has singleness of aim in the desire to honor God; one who is without guile, trick, or cunning. Such a man was Nathanael John 1:47 : "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." The Hebrew word used here is rendered simple, Psalm 19:7; Psalm 119:130; Proverbs 1:4, Proverbs 1:22, Proverbs 1:32; Proverbs 7:7; Proverbs 8:5; Proverbs 9:4; Proverbs 14:15, Proverbs 14:18; Proverbs 19:25; Proverbs 21:11; Proverbs 22:3; Proverbs 27:12; Ezekiel 45:20; and foolish, Proverbs 9:6. It does not elsewhere occur. The meaning here is, that the Lord preserves or keeps those who have simple and unwavering trust in him; those who are sincere in their professions; those who rely on his word.

I was brought low - By affliction and trial. The Hebrew literally means to hang down, to be pendulous, to swing, to wave - as a bucket in a well, or as the slender branches of the palm, the willow, etc. Then it means to be slack, feeble, weak, as in sickness, etc. See the notes at Psalm 79:8. Here it probably refers to the prostration of strength by disease.

And he helped me - He gave me strength; he restored me.

Return unto thy rest, O my soul - Luther, "Be thou again joyful, O my soul." The meaning seems to be, "Return to thy former tranquility and calmness; thy former freedom from fear and anxiety." He had passed through a season of great danger. His soul had been agitated and terrified. That danger was now over, and he calls upon his soul to resume its former tranquility, calmness, peace, and freedom from alarm. The word does not refer to God considered as the "rest" of the soul, but to what the mind of the psalmist had been, and might now be again.

For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee - See the notes at Psalm 13:6.