Day 879: An answered prayer - Psalm 116

1-2 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3-4 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, deliver my soul!” 5-6 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.

7-9 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 will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10-11 I believed, even when I spoke, “I am greatly afflicted”; I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.” 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13-14 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. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

16-19 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving 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! Psalm 116 English Standard Version

There are so many reasons why God is worthy of our praise, gratitude and love. The writer correctly acknowledges this in vs 12 when he says “what shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?” That's something everyone of us could think about. But what is one of the big reasons he expresses in vs 1-2 for why he so loved the Lord?

It was because God is someone who hears the prayers of those who seek His mercy. Mercy implies kindness shown to someone who did not deserve such kindness. And because of sin in our lives we will always be people who stand in need of God's mercy. In the case of this man it seems that he was very close to dying (vs 3-4) and that's what prompted his cry of distress. Verses 7-9 are the joyful outcome after God heard and answered his prayer.

This mercy of God is beautifully described in another Psalm which says: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103: 2-4, 8-10)

But there's an even greater reason for loving the Lord than when He hears our prayers and rescues us, or a loved one, from serious sickness and the nearness of death. What’s the lovely statement he makes in vs 15?

God is not only tenderly near to His people when they are facing death, but even if the moment of their departure from this world has arrived, they are still precious to Him. Oh think of those blessed words of Jesus to the thief on the cross next to Him who cried out for mercy. Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) No wonder that even a double minded prophet like Balaam said “Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!” (Numbers 23:10)

Revelation 14:13 repeats this glorious truth concerning those who love the Lord, and says: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. ‘Blessed indeed,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!'” So vs 16-19 of the Psalm describe the writer’s fresh commitment to loving and serving the One who’d redeemed his life. In like fashion, the apostle Paul, speaking of the reality of the resurrection of believers, says: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)