Psalm 116:7-17

7 Sei nun wieder zufrieden, meine Seele; denn der HERR tut dir Gutes.

8 Denn du hast meine Seele aus dem Tode gerissen, meine Augen von den Tränen, meinen Fuß vom Gleiten.

9 Ich werde wandeln vor dem HERRN im Lande der Lebendigen.

10 Ich glaube, darum rede ich; ich werde aber sehr geplagt.

11 Ich sprach in meinem Zagen: Alle Menschen sind Lügner.

12 Wie soll ich dem HERRN vergelten alle seine Wohltat, die er an mir tut?

13 Ich will den Kelch des Heils nehmen und des HERRN Namen predigen.

14 Ich will mein Gelübde dem HERRN bezahlen vor allem seinem Volk.

15 Der Tod seiner Heiligen ist wertgehalten vor dem HERRN.

16 O HERR, ich bin dein Knecht; ich bin dein Knecht, deiner Magd Sohn. Du hast meine Bande zerrissen. {~}

17 Dir will ich Dank opfern und des HERRN Namen predigen.

Psalm 116:7-17 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.