Blessings From Our Benefactor

Blessings from Our Benefactor

Psalm 116:12-19

12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?

13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

16 O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.

18 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

19 In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.

Introduction: Two things stand out as far as the context is concerned. First, we don’t know what type of peril David had been in. Perhaps it was connected to his trouble with his son Absalom who overthrew the king and caused David to flee for his life. Second this is Hebrew (Hallel) or hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Psalm 116 is a prayer of thanksgiving. “Praise (Hebrew: hallel) Yah!” (Hebrew: yah) (v. 19b). Our word hallelujah comes from hallel (praise) and yah (Yahweh or God or the Lord), so it means “praise the Lord.”

Like other psalms of this type (see Psalm 30; 32; 34), Psalm 116 begins by saying that God has rescued the psalmist from trouble (verses 1-2). Then the psalm describes the distressing circumstance now past (verse 3), recalls a prayer for help (verse 4) along with the Lord’s saving response (verses 5-11), and then vows to give witness to God’s salvation before the congregation (verses 12-19). Perhaps the most distinctive mark of this type of psalm is the promise of a thanksgiving offering (verse 17). The thanksgiving psalms probably began as part of the liturgy that accompanied this offering (see Jeremiah 33:10-11).

I. Our Benefactor – The Lord – v. 5

a. God is gracious

Grace is defined as God’s unmerited favor.

"Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified and saved. It is not because of anything in them or that ever can be in them that they are saved."

(Source: Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace)

b. God is righteous

"God never alters the robe of righteousness to fit man, but the man to fit the robe."

The Chinese character for "righteousness" is most interesting. It is composed of two separate characters one standing for a lamb, the other for me. When "lamb" is placed directly above "me," a new character "righteousness" is formed. This is a helpful picture of the grace of God. Between me, the sinner, and God, the Holy One, there is interposed by faith the Lamb of God. By virtue of his sacrifice, he has received me on the ground of faith, and I have become righteous in his sight.

c. God is merciful

Jack Hayford: "Mercy is God's constant compassion for the helpless and undeserving--to show compassion for someone in serious need, i.e. 'showers of mercy.' Mercy is not merely a passive emotion but an active desire to remove the cause of distress in others."

II. Our Benefits – Lit. His precious blessings…

David acknowledges the blessings of God (Jehovah) in his life.

a. His prayers have been heard –

1 I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice,

and my cries for mercy.

2 Because he has turned his ear to me,

therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

“Then I called on the name of Yahweh” (v. 4a). The people of that time and place thought of names as more than labels. A name expressed the person’s essential character––something of the person’s power or authority. To call upon the name of the Lord, then, means something more than appealing for relief from a crisis. It means identifying oneself with the Lord in such a way that one’s own identity is tied together with the Lord’s identity. Calling on the name of the Lord requires allegiance––commitment––faith.

“Yahweh, I beg you, deliver (Hebrew: malat) my soul” (Hebrew: nepes) (v. 4b). The word malat is more usually used to mean escape or flee. The psalmist is praying for Yahweh’s help in escaping from the peril that so threatens him.

b. He has been delivered - (v. 8). The psalmist describes a three part salvation: From death, tears, or falling.

Deliverance from death is obviously significant, but deliverance from tears and falling is equally significant. Once a person is dead, he/she feels no more pain. But the person who can still experience tears and falling finds pain an ongoing problem.