Psalm 116

I love the Lord, because he has heard

   my voice and my supplications.

Because he inclined his ear to me,

   therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

The snares of death encompassed me;

   the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

   I suffered distress and anguish.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:

   ‘O Lord, I pray, save my life!’

 

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;

   our God is merciful.

The Lord protects the simple;

   when I was brought low, he saved me.

Return, O my soul, to your rest,

   for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

 

For you have delivered my soul from death,

   my eyes from tears,

   my feet from stumbling.

I walk before the Lord

   in the land of the living.

I kept my faith, even when I said,

   ‘I am greatly afflicted’;

I said in my consternation,

   ‘Everyone is a liar.’

 

What shall I return to the Lord

   for all his bounty to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation

   and call on the name of the Lord,

I will pay my vows to the Lord

   in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord

   is the death of his faithful ones.

O Lord, I am your servant;

   I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.

   You have loosed my bonds.

I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice

   and call on the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord

   in the presence of all his people,

in the courts of the house of the Lord,

   in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

Comment:

This psalm is a hymn of thanksgiving for a healing from illness. The psalmist makes it clear that his situation was dire. Indeed, the humans around him had given up their attempts to save him from death. But the psalmist kept his faith. He affirmed that "everyone is a liar," and held firm in his focus on the Lord. Now fully recovered, he is continuing his reliance on the Lord by publicly paying his vows and affirming that the Lord is his source in all things. Metaphysically, we equate the Lord of Hebrew scripture with the Christ of the New Testament—the truth that each of us is a unique expression of the Divine, and in that spiritual expression lies the source of all good.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed