Introduction
Bethany Hamilton was born in 1990 and grew up in Hawaii.
She had a passion for surfing.
In 2003, at just 13 years old, she was a rising star in the surfing world, known for her talent and dedication.
One day, Bethany prayed with her mom for her life to have a purpose. She wanted her life to honor God.
Two weeks later, her life took a dramatic turn when a 14-foot tiger shark attacked her while she was surfing off the coast of Kauai.
The shark bit off her left arm, and she lost over 60% of her blood by the time she reached the hospital.
She was seriously injured and was looking death squarely in the eye.
Let me pause Bethany’s story and ask: How would you respond if you had just asked God to give your life purpose—because you want your life to honor God—and then you face death because you have just lost your arm?
Not many of you have lost a limb, but when things don’t turn out as you want, how often do you blame God for the situation in which you find yourself?
Today, we are going to study Psalm 116.
The psalmist in today’s psalm faced death.
We don’t know exactly what illness or danger the psalmist faced that was so dangerous.
All we know is that he looked death squarely in the eye.
Thankfully, God delivered him from death.
Psalm 116 is an intensely personal thanksgiving to God for the psalmist’s deliverance from death.
Scripture
Let’s read Psalm 116:1-19:
1 I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the LORD
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his saints.
16 O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!
Lesson
Psalm 116:1-19 is an intensely personal thanksgiving to God for deliverance from death.
Let’s use the following outline:
1. What the Lord Does (116:1-11)
2. What the Believer Does (116:12-19)
I. What the Lord Does (116:1-11)
First, let’s notice what the Lord does.
Verses 1-11 tell us what the Lord does.
I mentioned that this is an intensely personal psalm of thanksgiving. The psalmist uses the personal pronoun about three dozen times in this psalm.
Nevertheless, though the psalm is so intensely personal, we learn about two things the Lord does for the believer.
A. The Lord Hears the Believer’s Prayer (116:1-2, 4-7)
First, the Lord hears the believer’s prayer.
We see the Lord heard the prayer of the psalmist in several verses, such as:
• Verse 1: “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.”
• Verse 2a: “Because he inclined his ear to me….”
• Verse 7: “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.”
Again and again, in Scripture, we read of the Lord hearing the believer’s prayer.
When the prophet Elijah faced overwhelming challenges, he prayed to God. Despite the magnitude of the situation, God heard Elijah's prayer and provided him with supernatural strength and guidance.
In the Book of Acts, Peter was imprisoned by King Herod, and the church fervently prayed for his release. God heard their prayers and sent an angel to free Peter from his chains and open the prison gates.
“But,” I imagine someone saying, “the Lord doesn’t always answer my prayer. What do you say about that?”
First, the Lord hears every prayer that is prayed.
The Lord is present everywhere, and he knows all things, even the prayers that you pray.
Second, the Lord answers every prayer that is prayed.
There is not a single prayer that the Lord does not answer.
“How can that be?” you ask. “I know I have prayed prayers that the Lord has not answered.”
Let me suggest that the Lord answers every prayer in one of four ways.
The first answer to your prayer may be, “No!”
The Lord sometimes answers a prayer negatively because he knows what is best for you. You may be praying for something that the Lord, in his sovereign wisdom, knows will not be good for you.
The second answer to your prayer may be, “Slow!”
The Lord may eventually answer that prayer in the way you are asking, but now is not the right time. He knows that other things must happen before he can grant your request.
The third answer to your prayer may be, “Grow!”
The Lord knows you still need to mature spiritually before he will meet your request. He wants you to keep growing in likeness to Jesus before he entrusts you with what you are requesting.
And the fourth answer to your prayer may be, “Go!”
This is when the Lord answers your prayer. He opens doors for you. He does what you request from him. He does so because your request is in accordance with his divine will for you and your life.
The challenge, of course, when praying is discerning the Lord’s answer to your prayer.
Bethany prayed with her mom for her life to have a purpose. She wanted her life to honor God.
When she prayed that prayer, she did not know that the Lord would answer it through a shark attack, but the Lord did answer her prayer.
So, be assured that the Lord hears the believer’s prayer.
B. The Lord Saves the Believer from Death (116:3, 8-11)
And second, the Lord saves the believer from death.
In verse 3, the psalmist wrote, “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.”
We don’t know what kind of death the psalmist faced. He could have faced a mighty army. He could have become dangerously ill. He could have experienced a life-threatening injury.
Whatever it was, he said, “I suffered distress and anguish.”
Undoubtedly, Bethany faced distress and anguish when the shark bit off her arm, and she lost nearly 60% of her blood.
Perhaps you have faced death in your life, too. A deadly disease. A terrible accident. A violent war. A brutal attack.
The psalmist wrote in verses 8-9, “For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.”
The Lord saved the psalmist from death. We don’t know if he was suddenly snatched from death or if it was after a protracted period.
However it happened, the Lord saved the psalmist from death.
On October 31, 2003, a 14-foot-long tiger shark bit off Bethany Hamilton’s left arm, which was dangling in the water, just below her shoulder.
Bethany was with her best friend, Alana, and Alana’s brother and father. They immediately helped get Bethany back to shore and rushed her to the hospital.
By the time Bethany arrived at the hospital, she had lost over 60% of her blood and was in hypovolemic shock.
As it turned out, Bethany’s Dad was scheduled to have knee surgery that same morning. Bethany took her Dad’s place in the operating theatre with the same doctor who was expected to do her Dad’s knee surgery.
There is no doubt that Bethany was in danger of dying.
She could say with the psalmist, “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish” (v. 3).
Bethany prayed to the Lord. He heard her prayer.
The Lord saved Bethany from death.
She made a dramatic recovery.
Just 26 days after she lost her arm to the shark attack, Bethany returned to the water.
Less than two months later, Bethany entered her first significant surfing competition.
Bethany could also say with the psalmist, “For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling” (v. 8).
When the Lord does that for the believer, what should a believer do?
II. What the Believer Does (116:12-19)
Second, let’s look at what the believer does.
The psalmist asks in verse 12, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?”
The psalmist was on the verge of death. He faced death in the face.
He cried out to the Lord in prayer.
The Lord heard his prayer and answered him by saving him from certain death.
So, it is understandable that the psalmist would want to know what he could give to the Lord for all the Lord’s benefits to him.
Perhaps you have faced death. You had a severe illness. You experienced a brutal attack. You suffered a terrible accident.
You cried out to the Lord in prayer.
The Lord heard your prayer and answered you by saving you from certain death.
How can you repay the Lord for his goodness to you?
You know that the Lord needs nothing.
Paul asked this rhetorical question of the Lord in Romans 11:35, “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
The Lord needs nothing, “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (v. 36).
Nevertheless, knowing that the Lord needs nothing from anyone, the psalmist suggests two ways a believer can respond to the Lord for all his benefits.
A. The Believer Praises the Lord for Saving Him (116:13, 16-17)
First, the believer praises the Lord for saving him.
The psalmist says in verse 13, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”
This statement may refer to a drink offering in Numbers 15:10, which states, “And you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”
However, the statement may more likely be a metaphor contrasting with the more common “cup” of God’s wrath that we studied in Psalm 75:8.
The psalmist is affirming that the Lord saved him physically from certain death. And so he confirms that and calls on God’s name in praise and gratitude.
The psalmist says in verse 16, “O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.”
The psalmist acknowledged that God had loosed him from “the snares of death” (v. 3).
In verse 17, the psalmist also says, “I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.”
Here, the psalmist affirms his praise to the Lord for saving him.
How did Bethany Hamilton respond to the Lord’s goodness to her? She writes these words:
I want to share one of my favorite verses that helped me in my journey:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
I love this verse because it reminds me that this world is not perfect. We’re all going through tough stuff, and that’s why we need to trust in God and come to him with our problems.
This verse does not say we get to bypass the hard stuff. It’s saying that through the hard stuff we go through, we can trust in the Lord’s promise that he has died and overcome death on our behalf, that Christ overcame all our wrongdoing, and that he has made us whole again.
So, as we navigate this challenging world, we can be prepared for all the yucky, weird, and painful stuff we may have to go through. Yet, all the while, we have a greater hope than all of it because our mind is set on what God has done for us. This leads us to steer our life in a way that says no to a lot of the junk offered to us, overcomes the hard stuff, loves our neighbors well, and lives out the life the Lord has set before us.
Friends, God created me to be more than a surfer, more than the shark attack survivor, more than even this overcomer sharing her story with many, more than a mom and a wife…. I believe it’s more simple than that…. He has created you and me to be forgiven and loved by him and to enjoy that! Don’t settle for what the world has to offer you. Don’t settle for the lies that you’re not loved or not good enough. Don’t settle for giving up when the going gets tough…. You get to be a child of God, dearly loved, cherished, and accepted!
Friend, you may say that you have never faced death in the face.
Let me remind you that every person alive today may not have faced a physical death, but everyone faces an eternal death.
The only way to escape eternal death is by turning to Jesus. Believe that he paid the penalty for all your sins. Repent of your sins. Ask him to forgive you.
Then praise the Lord for saving you!
B. The Believer Fulfills His Vow to the Lord (116:14-15, 18-19)
Second, the believer fulfills his vow to the Lord.
The psalmist said in verse 14, “I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”
In verses 18-19, he also said, “I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!”
The psalmist made a vow to the Lord if he would save him. The Lord did save him, so the psalmist publicly asserted that he would fulfill the vows he had made to the Lord.
I asked Google, “What is a ‘foxhole prayer’?”
Google suggested the following answer:
A foxhole prayer is one prayed in distress. The name comes from the holes soldiers dug for protection during World War II. A foxhole prayer has two characteristics. First, this type of prayer involves a bargain: “God, if you get me out of this, I promise I will....” Second, promises made in these prayers are often quickly forgotten. (https://www.todayintheword.org/daily-devotional/praying-in-distress#:~:text=A%20foxhole%20prayer%20has%20two,together%20in%20prayer%20to%20God).
When I was nineteen years old, I was sent off to war.
At the time, I was not a Christian. I was terrified. I was so afraid that I drank myself to sleep on the overnight train to the base where I was to report for duty.
Over the next couple of months, I lived in fear of death. Not only physical death but also eternal death.
I knew that if I were to die, I would go to hell for all eternity because I was not a Christian.
I prayed to God many times and asked him to save me.
On Easter Sunday evening in 1976, God saved me.
Since that day, I have lived my life in gratitude to God for the gift of salvation that he gave me.
I did nothing to earn it. I did nothing to deserve it.
By God’s grace alone, he enabled me to trust in Jesus for the gift of eternal life.
Conclusion
Psalm 116:1-19 is an intensely personal thanksgiving to God for deliverance from death.
Bethany Hamilton’s story became widely known after the release of her autobiography, Soul Surfer, which was later adapted into a feature film.
In both the book and the movie, she shares her journey of faith and survival and her deep gratitude to God for sparing her life.
She often speaks about how the shark attack, though a tragic event, became a turning point in her life, deepening her faith and giving her a powerful platform to speak to other people.
Her deliverance from death became her platform to share the gospel.
I encourage you to turn to Jesus today if you have never done so.
If you are not a Christian, you face eternal death.
However, you can escape eternal death by turning from your sins and trusting that Jesus paid the penalty for them.
Then you, too, can thank God for delivering you from death—eternal death. Amen.
