Psalms 116:1-9

1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.

2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: “LORD, save me!”

5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.

6 The LORD protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me.

7 Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

8 For you, LORD, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,

9 that I may walk before the LORDin the land of the living.

Psalms 116:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 116

Theodoret applies this psalm to the distresses of the Jews in the times of the Maccabees under Antiochus Epiphanes; and R. Obadiah interprets some passages in it of the Grecians of those times; but it rather seems to have been written by David on account of some troubles of his, out of which he was delivered; and refers either to the times of Saul, and the persecutions he endured from him, particularly when he was beset round about by him and his men in the wilderness of Maon, 1Sa 23:26, to which he may have respect Ps 116:3. The inscription of the psalm in the Syriac version is,

``the progress of the new people returning to the Christian worship, as a child to understanding: and as to the letter, it was said when Saul stayed at the door of the cave where David lay hid with his men;''

see 1Sa 24:4. But since mention is made of Jerusalem, Ps 116:19, where the psalmist would praise the Lord for his deliverance, which as yet was not in his hands nor in the hands of the Israelites, but of the Jebusites; some have thought it was written on account of the conspiracy of Absalom against him, and who, hearing that Ahithophel was among the conspirators, said the words related in Ps 116:11, it is very probable it was composed after the death of Saul, and when he was settled in the kingdom, as Jarchi observes, and was delivered out of the hands of all his enemies; and very likely much about the same time as the eighteenth psalm was, which begins in the same manner, and has some expressions in it like to what are in this. David was a type of Christ, and some apply this psalm to him.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 18:1
• 2. S Psalms 31:22; S Psalms 40:1; Psalms 66:19
• 3. S Psalms 6:9; S Psalms 28:2
• 4. S Psalms 5:1; Psalms 40:1
• 5. S 2 Samuel 22:6; Psalms 18:4-5
• 6. Psalms 80:18; Psalms 118:5
• 7. S Psalms 80:2; Psalms 22:20
• 8. S Exodus 9:27; S 2 Chronicles 12:6; S Ezra 9:15; Nehemiah 9:8; Psalms 103:8; Psalms 145:17
• 9. S Exodus 22:27; S Psalms 86:15
• 10. S Psalms 19:7; Psalms 79:8
• 11. Psalms 18:3; Psalms 22:5; Psalms 107:13
• 12. Psalms 46:10; Psalms 62:1; Psalms 131:2; Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 11:29
• 13. Psalms 13:6; Psalms 106:1; Psalms 142:7
• 14. S Psalms 86:13; Psalms 56:13
• 15. S Genesis 5:22; Psalms 56:13; Psalms 89:15
• 16. S Job 28:13; Psalms 27:13; Isaiah 38:11; Jeremiah 11:19