Embrace the Word for Monday, September 14, 2026
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Psalm 116 is a Psalm of thanksgiving. The Psalmist expresses gratitude to the LORD for rescuing him from death. As the Psalmist was either facing literal death, or perhaps a death-like experience such as exile in Babylon, the LORD heard his cries and delivered him. For such deliverance, the Psalmist gratefully acknowledges the LORD’s help. Psalm 116, like Psalms 111-113, as well as Psalms 115 and 117 all share the call to “Praise the LORD!” (111:1; 112:1, 113:1,9; 115:18; 117:1,2). Psalm 116 shares several special common links with Psalm 115. The two Psalms contrast idols who cannot hear (115:6) with the One true God who hears His people’s prayers (116:1-2,4,13,17). The two Psalms also offer a contrast between dead idols who bring death to their worshippers (115:4-8), and the One true God who lives and brings life from death (116:4, 8-9). Psalm 116 also shares language with Psalm 18, Psalm 107, as well as Exodus 34:6. Psalm 116 begins with a personal response of loving gratitude to the LORD (116:1-9), and concludes with a public restatement of believing gratitude toward the LORD (116:10-19).
Psalm 116 opens with a bold declaration of love for the LORD: “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live” (116:1-2). Opening in a fashion similar to Psalm 18, which straightforwardly stated: “I love you, O LORD” (See Psalm 18:1a), here the Psalmist principally confesses that “We love because he first loved us” (See 1 John 4:19). The Psalmist’s genuine love for the LORD is actually a response to the LORD’s love toward him. The LORD had heard his cries. This fact—that the LORD heard him—is a central theme that runs throughout this Psalm. Unlike deaf idols, the LORD’s ears work just fine (actually, God is spirit and therefore assigning ears to the LORD is a metaphorical way of saying He hears). Out of the LORD’s love for him and his love for the LORD, the Psalmist resolves to “call on him as long as I live.”
The Psalmist next explains the context in which he cried out to the LORD: “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!” (116:3-4). Once again, utilizing language of Psalm 18, when David stated: “The cords of death encompassed me…the cords of Sheol entangled me” (See Psalm 18:4a,5a), the Psalmist shares what the grip of death (or a death-like experience) had done to him. The Psalmist’s situation left him in a state of agonizing angst. This was the context that the Psalmist refers to at the start of the Psalm. In such a situation and state, the Psalmist turned to the LORD and cried out: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!” Echoing Exodus 34:5, the Psalmist explains how his prayer turned out by first declaring what the LORD is like: “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful” (116:5). Then the Psalmist explains what the LORD did: “The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me” (116:6). The term “simple” is sometimes used in a negative sense to talk of a stupidity that is rooted in moral culpability; but here it is probably speaking in a slightly more positive sense of someone who was inexperienced and a bit naive. In his condition of being humbled, the LORD rescued him—he has been preserved by the LORD.
In the immediate aftermath of the LORD’s rescuing and preserving work, the Psalmist speaks of his initial reactions. First, having cried out to the LORD in a state of great distress and anguish, and having been rescued, the Psalmist has a word with himself: “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you” (116:7). The LORD had delivered the Psalmist from “the snares of death…the pangs of Sheol,” and now the Psalmist must pause and reorient his own self to his new state. The Psalmist was in a state of “distress and anguish,” and now the Psalmist must pause and renew his mind with the reality that the LORD’s bountiful dealings with him have provided him with a state of rest. When the LORD resets reality for His people, it is necessary for the LORD’s people to catch up with that reality through renewing what their minds are set upon. When the LORD delivers His people from their previous situation and state, it is vital to talk to oneself about their new situation and state. The Psalmist has moved from crying out to the LORD, to talking to himself, and now back to speaking to the LORD again: “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” (116:8-9). Even as the Psalmist talks to himself, he does not stop talking to the LORD, for the Psalmist rehearses what the LORD did for him, back to the LORD; but the Psalmist also renews his resolve to trust in and follow the LORD, “in the land of the living,” that is, alongside a host of others who are also seeking to trust in and follow the LORD. The Psalmist had faced a death-like experience, but he is not dead. The Psalmist is alive, and as one who is alive, he is alive to look toward the LORD.
The Psalmist begins a transition from his personal response to His public response to the LORD. And the transition begins with a confession of his trust: “I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars” (116:10-11). The Psalmist reflects an honest and genuine mixture of trouble and trust. Even in the midst of deep distress and anguish there can be a durable dependence upon the LORD and an active affirmation that the LORD is true to His Word, even when no one else is. The Psalmist’s hope for rescue was not in man and what man may promise, but in the LORD and the sure Word of His promises. Even if there is no one to trust, the LORD can always be trusted. This reality, not only shaped the personal reaction and response of the Psalmist, it also shaped his public reaction and response: “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people” (116:12-14). The Psalmist returns to having a discussion with himself as he seeks to determine what is the most fitting way to respond to the LORD’s rescuing help. The Psalmist discerns that he should “lift up the cup of salvation.” Sometimes in the Scriptures there is mention of a cup of wrath (See Psalm 75:8), while other times, as in this case, there is mention of a cup of salvation. The cup of salvation speaks of the blessings that the LORD provides to His people. To lift up that cup suggests that the Psalmist would publicly highlight and identify the ways that the LORD has blessed him. The Psalmist has vowed to publicly express his gratitude for the LORD’s blessings and he intends to follow through on his vow.
The Psalmist vows to go public with his grateful recounting of the LORD’s blessings, and what motivates him to follow through on his vow is the simple conviction that he has come to learn in a new way that the LORD cares for His people: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (116:15). As this Psalm began with the Psalmist’s testimony about his death-like experience, he is now able to look back on that situation and even the state that it left him in and realize how the LORD’s love has protected and preserved him. The LORD would never permit something as precious to Him as “his saints” (aka-His steadfast loved ones) to accidentally and/or prematurely die. The Psalmist’s realization of what the LORD thinks of him, moves him to freely confess his place of service to the LORD: “O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds” (116:16). The LORD’s rescue has freed the Psalmist to serve His Lord. With a slight modification, the Psalmist then revisits what he stated in verses 13-14 concerning His vow to publicly thank the LORD: “I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. 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” (116:17-19a). The cup of salvation that the Psalmist vows to lift up is clarified as the Psalmist explains that he will call upon the LORD and verbalize his gratitude to the LORD. This public testimony of thanksgiving will unfold as he gathers for the public worship of the LORD in Jerusalem. The Psalmist simply closes with, “Praise the LORD!”
As we reflect on Psalm 116 we can consider how crucial it is for followers of Christ to cultivate a mindset of praise and thankfulness. The Apostle Paul’s most autobiographical Book is 2 Corinthians. Paul describes the distress and anguish he faced as an Apostle. He even quotes Psalm 116 as he retells the episodes of trials that he faced: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (See 2 Corinthians 4:13-15; quoting Psalm 116:10). Paul’s trials were so severe that he even faced death: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (See 2 Corinthians 1:8-9). Even threat of death did not get the last word, for the LORD rescued him and therefore Paul spoke: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (See 2 Corinthians 1:3). Paul’s awareness of the LORD’s care for him shaped his public response, as well as his desire for others to join with him to “Praise the LORD!”
That’s all for Embrace the Word for Monday, September 14, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Wednesday, September 16, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 117.