Psalms 116, 117
The first two verses of Psalm 116, like the opening verses of many others, give the key to what is brought out in the course of the psalm. It is another song of praise, the heart exulting in the Saviour God who has heard the cry of distress and answered it in power. Love to Him wells up in the breast of every redeemed one.
“We love Him,” says the apostle John in his first Epistle, chapter 4, verse 19, “because. He first loved us.” How could it be otherwise?
At the close of Psalm 115 (verse 17) death is spoken of, and it is referred to several times in the 116th. Those whose hopes for glory and blessing are all connected with the earth—as are Israel’s—will try to keep their lives through the fearful days of persecution that are to come after the Church of God has been removed, and Psalm 116 expresses their feelings when their trials are over.
Verse 3 pictures the intensity of suffering these afflicted saints will experience.
Verse 5 names three characteristics, if one may use such a word, about Him, three attributes of God:
First, He is gracious; it is His nature to look with favor on His creatures, to view them with tender compassion.
Second, that which is essentially His, the foundation of His throne: He is righteous, just. How strikingly this was shown in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Who died for our sins according to the Scriptures!”
Lastly, He is merciful; mercy is for offenders, sinners, those ill deserving.
Thankful we are that God is both gracious, righteous and merciful, for otherwise there could have been no salvation for us.
We might couple these three characters, and say, in grace God gave His only begotten Son; in righteousness He visited upon Him the punishment we deserved, and in mercy, He forgives the confessed sinner. And this is only the doorway, so to speak, into fullness of blessing eternally for the forgiven ones.
The “simple” in verse 6 are the guileless. (See Psalms 19:7, and 119:130, the only other passages in the Psalms where this word is used).
Verse 10 is quoted in 2 Corinthians 4:13, a striking use of the passage as a principle for all of God’s children.
The word “haste” in the 11Th verse does not mean that the speaker was wrong in saying what he did; it is rather that when he was in great distress, in terror because of the persecution he had gone through, he said of all mankind, They are liars. The passage brings to mind Romans 3:4, “Let God be true, but every man a liar.”
Verse 13. The “cup” of salvation is salvation enjoyed. “Cup” is used many times in the Scriptures in connection with both favor and affliction.
“My cup runneth over.” Psalms 23:5.
“The cup which My Father giveth Me.” John 8:11.
In verse 15, “precious” means that God does not lightly permit His saints to die. This will have a special significance in the troublous times that are foretold for the sons of Jacob, but it is a truth for all saints.
The short 117th Psalm is a call to all the nations by redeemed Israel to praise Jehovah. The ground of it is the divine mercy upon Israel, and His truth enduring forever. It is the language of those born again, entirely different from the spirit which characterized the Jews in the time of Christ and the apostles. (See 1 Thessalonians. 2:15, 16).
ML 10/25/1931