Biblion Bible Commentary
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I Love Yahweh, Because He Listens
Psalms 116:1-19
1 I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy. · WEB
A man who nearly died says why he loves God, and the reason is that he was heard.
I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy Psalms 116:1.
One of very few places in the Old Testament where a person says outright that he loves God, and the reason given is not majesty or power. He was listened to.
Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live Psalms 116:2.
The consequence drawn is a lifetime of praying. Being heard once produces the habit.
The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me Psalms 116:3.
Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me Psalms 116:6.
The word for simple describes the inexperienced — someone easily taken in, without the resources to protect himself. The psalmist puts himself in that category rather than claiming any competence that earned the rescue.
Return to your rest, my soul, for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you Psalms 116:7.
He speaks to himself, as the forty-second psalm does, and the instruction is to go back to a rest he had left.
I believed, therefore I said, "I was greatly afflicted." I said in my haste, "All people are liars" Psalms 116:10–11.
Two things said, and the psalm distinguishes them. The first came from faith; the second came from panic, and he labels it as such — in my haste, the same admission the thirty-first psalm makes. Paul quotes the first clause as the pattern of Christian speech: I believed, and therefore I spoke 2 Corinthians 4:13.
What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh's name Psalms 116:12–13.
The question is asked and the answer is not a payment. What he gives back is a cup he takes — receiving is offered as the fitting response to having received.
Precious in Yahweh's sight is the death of his saints Psalms 116:15.
The most quoted verse in the psalm, and it is often read as consolation about dying. In context it is the reason he is still alive: their deaths are costly to God, not cheap, and he does not spend them carelessly.
Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your servant girl. You have freed me from my chains Psalms 116:16.
A man born into the household, describing his freedom as the reason he stays in it.
settled What this mark means