The psalmist says, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah” (Psalm 68:19 NKJV)
Another psalm provides us with this word of blessing to the Lord:
Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:2-5 NKJV)
In Psalm 116, the psalmist recalls upon a period of time in his life where he was under much duress. While reminiscing on what has transpired in his life up to that time, he notices the times in his life where the Lord intervened and where the Lord delivered him.
It happened when things were going good in his life; at a time when he was at “rest” (vs. 7). Verse 11 tells us that those whom he trusted had told lies about him and caused him to suffer. In fact, his suffering almost cost him his life (vv. 3-4) but he called upon the LORD and was spared (vv. 1-2)
Wiersbe writes in his commentary that the psalm is very personal, with the words “I,” “my,” and “me” used over thirty times.
Psa 116:1 I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Psa 116:2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Psa 116:3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
Psa 116:4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!"
Psa 116:5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.
Psa 116:6 The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.
Psa 116:7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
Psa 116:8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
Psa 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
Psa 116:10 I believed, even when I spoke: "I am greatly afflicted";
Psa 116:11 I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars."
Many of us have been under a time of duress for the last couple of months. We’ve learned that we need to sell our church property. We learned that God is going to do something new with respect to who we are and what our church has done for Him for the past 22 years.
I remember the time I had the opportunity to walk out to the 50-yard line of the Raven’s football field at M&T Stadium. I was in the middle of that beautiful field but it was difficult for me to see what was going on at the 10-yard line of either side. But if someone was sitting in the “nosebleed” section of the stadium they could see the entire picture.
The Bible says in Psalm 138:6, “Though the LORD is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar.”
While we don’t have the ability to exalt ourselves high enough to see our lives from God’s viewpoint, we can press the “rewind buttons” of our lives and remember much of the good and the bad that we’ve experienced. Oftentimes we don’t have an inkling of what the Lord does and is doing behind the scenes, until we press the “rewind button” of our life and look back.
Over the several months I’ve made it a point to press “rewind” lots of times.
I’ve been thinking about how God has been gracious to me—raised in West Baltimore by a wonderful single mom…we had wonderful times growing up but then there was that horrific time in my life when my family was shot at on several occasions by a maniac step-father and the one time when, if it wasn’t for the grace of God, he would have killed us.
A few years after that time in my life when God saved me physically, He saved me spiritually. After the many touches and the witness of many of his servants over the course of my life, He would use a relative to share the Gospel with an eighteen-year-old on his way to college.
As I reviewed my life, I saw the time when I walked into a choir rehearsal and saw this cute, pretty-eyed woman on the choir. I later discovered that she had two kids and one of them was disabled, but for some reason I didn’t run, as many 20-year-olds would have done. The way she cared for them and the glow of her love for the Lord made her more attractive to me. This was God at work in her life; and in mine.
Rewinding the tape of my life moved me to rejoice that I’ve been married for three and a half decades to a godly woman…I’m the father of eight great kids and a bumper crop of grandchildren! God always supplied my needs and those of my family. We always had a roof over our head and were blessed with more than what was adequate. I’m still amazed that God continues to do His work of sanctification in me, my wife and our children.
Reviewing the events of my life showed me the time when God called me into the ministry of preaching and teaching His Holy Word and then if that wasn’t enough, He entrusted me with the shepherding of His sheep!
I didn’t begin my life as a Christian wanting to be a minister and I didn’t start off in the ministry wanting to pastor a church but God called this techie/Geek to start a church from scratch—I didn’t know what I was doing—just another demonstration of God’s grace! In 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 the Bible says:
Brothers and sisters, consider what you were when God called you to be Christians. Not many of you were wise from a human point of view. You were not in powerful positions or in the upper social classes.
But God chose what the world considers nonsense to put wise people to shame. God chose what the world considers weak to put what is strong to shame. God chose what the world considers ordinary and what it despises-what it considers to be nothing-in order to destroy what it considers to be something.
As a result, no one can brag in God's presence.
God moved people to become a part of what He was doing at the gathering of believers we called, New Vision Bible Fellowship Church. He was saving people and growing people to love Him and the Scriptures.
In the year 2000, God did a miracle and allowed us to purchase property and keep it when some thought it wouldn’t be possible! Yes, we had some challenges and there were times when my heart broke over people and circumstances but if you read the Bible that’s a part of the ministry.
When I press the rewind button of my life I will discover that I have had 58 years of blessings. Pressing the rewind button of this church, we will discover that we have had 22 years of incredible benefits!
In Psalm 116 the psalmist looks over his life and sees the Lord working and rescuing and delivering and providing and so he asks himself the question, "What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me?"
The NIV words this question as, "How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?" I don't think the psalmist is struggling to find ways to repay the Lord for His benefits. I think this a rhetorical question with the obvious answer. "There is nothing I can do to repay the Lord."
The story is told of a man who was on his way to work when he saw a limousine stranded on the highway. He pulled over and assisted the limousine driver with whatever the problem was. The man who was being chauffeured asked his driver to get the man's name and address.
A few days later this hero received a knock on his door from someone who was delivering a bouquet of flowers. The card that came with the flowers said something like: "Thanks for assisting me the other day on the highway”.
Sincerely,
Donald Trump
p.s. I've paid off your house."
I don't think that Donald Trump was trying to pay this man back for his kindness. It was his way of showing his gratitude to someone who went out of his way to assist him when he was in need.
So the psalmist isn't asking the question, "How can I repay the Lord for all His benefits?" He is saying, “in view of the mercy of God…especially in view of His love manifested in my life, what can be an adequate return for love like that - for mercies so great, so undeserved?”
What can we give to God that He doesn't already own? Psalm 24:1-2 says, “The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.”
In Psalm 50 God says, “For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.”
What could we offer Him that would meet the high expense of His blessings? His benefits are:
* Incomprehensible - (Psa 8:3-4 NKJV) When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
* Impeccable - (James 1:17 NKJV) - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
* Inexhaustible - (2 Cor 9:8 NKJV) - And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
* Inestimable - (1 Cor 6:20 NKJV) - For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
* Indulgent – (Titus 3:3-6 ESV) – “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…”
The benefits of God are inestimable, incomprehensible, impeccable, inexhaustible and indulgent, so what can we render to God for all that He has done for us?
The psalmist provides us with answers in verses 13 and 14.
1.) We can praise and worship the Lord
(Psa 116:13 NKJV) I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the LORD.
While it is somewhat unclear what the psalmist is referring to in the first part of verse 13, most commentators believe that the cup of salvation is referring to the Jewish drink offering which accompanied the thanksgiving offering that was given as an act of worship (Lev. 7:11-21; Num. 15:3-5; Matt. 26:27).
In other words, I believe the psalmist is saying “All I can do is offer the Lord worship for all His benefits!” Worship is the appropriate response from a people who have been beneficiaries of the Lord's blessings.
The Apostle Paul was in this frame of mind after he writes the first 11 chapters of his letter to the church at Rome. He starts Romans 12:1 saying, “Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God's compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you.”
Back in Psalm 116 King David writes “I will take up the cup of salvation”, and then he writes at the end of verse 13, “(I will) call upon the name of the LORD.” I think the psalmist is referring to a fellowship with God that is cultivated by prayer.
David tells us in verse 1 through 11 that God heard his voice and his pleas for mercy; God delivered him from the attacks of his enemies that would have surely resulted in death; God dried up his tears and kept him from falling.
This isn’t the kind of Person you turn your back on; this is the kind of Person that you want to hang out with and to talk to and to commune with so David says, “(I will) call upon the name of the LORD!”
What can we render to the Lord for all His benefits over the past 22 years? We can render worship God!
2.) We can serve the LORD
Secondly, the psalmist resolved to offer the Lord service For all His benefits.
(Psa 116:14 NKJV) I will pay my vows to the LORD Now in the presence of all His people.
As a result of being on the receiving end of the Lord's benefits, the psalmist resolves to serve God.
Worship is wonderful, but it is not God's desire that all we do huddle in our churches and worship. There comes a time when you and I must put some shoe leather to our worship. This is what service is all about; this is what ministry is all about.
Worship and service are two sides of the same coin. Listen to the writer of Hebrews:
(Heb 13:15 NKJV) Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
(Heb 13:16 NKJV) But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Some don't have any problem coming to church to worship. It is in our serving and ministering where we get stuck in a rut. In our text the psalmist sees both worship and service as necessary offerings to a God who has lavished him with benefits.
(Psa 116:12 NKJV) What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me?
(Psa 116:13 NKJV) I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the LORD.
(Psa 116:14 NKJV) I will pay my vows to the LORD Now in the presence of all His people.
Notice how the psalmist pays his vows. The KJV tells us that he pays his vows now.
* He doesn’t wait until after he got everything he wanted to do out of the way before he did the Lord's work. The psalmist could have said, "I'll pay my vows when I'm good and ready."
* He could have reasoned, "I'll pay my vows after I've gotten some rest and my body is refreshed."
* He could have said, "I'll just double up on my vows next Sunday." No, the psalmist says that he will pay his vows to the Lord NOW!
Notice where the psalmist pays his vows. He pays his vows in the presence of all God's people.
The psalmist isn't a Secret Agent Christian. He pays his vows expeditiously and publicly. He renders his service publicly, not to boast, but to show he is not ashamed of the Gospel and God’s service. He renders his service publicly to encourage others to join him.
When you and I realize in our hearts that we have been lavished with God's benefits we too will ask the question, "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits?"
When it is all said and done, the only thing that we can render to God for all His benefits is worship and service.
It's interesting that we put these two words together without thinking much about them: “worship service”.
In Matthew 4:10 Jesus said, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve". So we see that serving God is worship.
Some of us have been attending GraceWay Church for a couple of years; others for over a decade. There are some who have been riding this Gospel train or have been affiliated with this ministry for the entire 22 years.
For the next week I encourage you to think about what God has done in your life through the service you have rendered unto God in the time you have been journeying with us. He has kept you; He has provided for you; God has protected you; He has used you and He has grown and matured you. Some of you have made new friends…relationships that will literally last for an eternity.
Write your own Psalm 116; not that it would become an inspired text of Scripture, but a personal keepsake.
Remember David presses the “rewind button” of his life and reminisces of those times in his life where he saw the Lord and work and then he was moved to ask the question, “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?”
He then proceeds in his psalm to answer his question by listing how he resolves to worship and serve the Lord.
The Lord has been good to us!
