Psalm 116:2

Verse 2. Therefore will I call upon him. If the hypocrite speed in prayer, and get what he asks, then also he throws up prayer, and will ask no more. If from a sick bed he be raised to health, he leaves prayer behind him, as it were, sick abed; he grows weak in calling upon God, when at his call God hath given him strength. And thus it is in other instances. When he hath got what he hath a mind to in prayer, he hath no more mind to pray. Whereas a godly man prays after he hath sped, as he did before, and though he fall not into those troubles again, and so is not occasioned to urge those petitions again which he did in trouble, yet he cannot live without prayer, because he cannot live out of communion with God. The creature is as the white of an egg, tasteless to him, unless he enjoy God. David saith, "I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications"; that is, because he hath granted me that which I supplicated to him for. But did this grant of what he had asked take him off from asking more? The next words show us what his resolution was upon that grant. "Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live"; as if he had said, I will never give over praying, forasmuch as I have been heard in prayer. Joseph Caryl.

Verse 2. As long as I live. -- Not on some few days, but every day of my life; for to pray on certain days, and not on all, is the mark of one who loathes and not of one who loves. Ambrose.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 2. "He hath," and therefore "I will." Grace moving to action.

Verse 2,. 4, 13, 17. Calling upon God mentioned four times very suggestively -- I will do it ( Psalms 116:2 ), I have tried it ( Psalms 116:4 ), I will do it when I take ( Psalms 116:13 ), and when I offer ( Psalms 116:17 ).

Verse 2,. 9, 13-14, 17. The "I wills" of the Psalm. I will call ( Psalms 116:2 ), I will walk (Ps 116:9), I will take ( Psalms 116:13 ), I will pay ( Psalms 116:14 ), I will offer ( Psalms 116:17 ).