A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM CXVI.
_The psalmist professeth his love and duty to God for his deliverance.—He studieth to be thankful._ I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice _and_ my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon _him_ as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious _is_ the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God _is_ merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, _and_ my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, All men _are_ liars. What shall I render unto the LORD _for_ all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD _is_ the death of his saints.
O LORD, truly I _am_ thy servant; I _am_ thy servant, _and_ the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, In the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD. This is a Psalm of thanksgiving, in which the Psalmist renders thanks, after coming out of a most heavy trial, and again rejoices in God; praising God for having delivered him from the terrors of death, and from the pains of hell; for by such terms does he express those deep and heavy spiritual temptations, concerning which he had spoken before, Psalm vi., which are not known unto all. And the Psalmist complains also that he suffered all these things, and was thus overwhelmed and almost destroyed by these heavy trials, because of his confession of his faith and the truth of God before the world. “I believed (saith he) and therefore have I spoken:” but I am heavily afflicted for the word’s sake. For all the saints confess and teach the righteousness of faith; and, on the other hand, they expose and condemn all the righteousness, wisdom, and holiness of the world, and also all hypocrisy, and the outside form of godliness. And this the world will by no means whatever endure: they ever rage and roar against it: and they load the godly with every kind of affliction, because of their unsocial confession: and hence arise all those terrors without and those fears within, by which the church of Christ and the saints have ever been afflicted from the kingdom of the devil, in the midst of which their confession is made.
But amid all these great, and hard, and numerous afflictions of Satan and the world, the Psalmist has this firm consolation, that his work and cause are right before God; therefore he comforts and encourages himself by relying on the word of God, and stirs up and strengthens himself unto all confidence. “I will take (saith he) the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” As if he had said, If they drink my destruction from the cup of their fury, and hate and persecute me unto death; what then? “I will take the cup of God’s salvation and helping grace:” that is (as if he had said), Supporting and strengthening my faith with the glad word of thy promise, as with strong and generous wine, I shall be filled with the Spirit, by drinking of that cup; and, by my continuing to preach and spread the word, I shall hold out the cup to others also, who confess with me the same truth, and preach the same word; that they also may draw the same consolation with me, out of the same most blessed word of the grace of God.
This (saith the Psalmist) is our case, and this is the way in which we drink of it and use it. We drink of it ourselves, and then we hold it out to others, and invite them to drink also; and this is the true worship of God; and by this we laud and magnify his name. By this service we truly pay our vows unto God, namely, the vow of the first commandment, paid unto God by his people; for the greatest and highest vow of the first commandment is this—God, the true, the living God, alone shall be our God: we will cleave unto him alone: him only will we adore; him only will we worship; him only will we seek; on him only will we call! As, therefore, in many other Psalms, so also in this, you may see what is the true sacrifice of praise (of that praise which is wrought in the heart and in the spirit by the Holy Ghost, and is not lip-service only.) And in this Psalm you may also see that the true preaching of the word, and the true confession of the word, before the world, form the highest and most precious worship of God. _An exhortation to praise God for his mercy and truth._ O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.
For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD _endureth_ for ever. Praise ye the LORD. This is a prophecy concerning Christ; that all peoples out of all kingdoms and islands, shall know Christ in his kingdom; that is, in his church; in that kingdom where mercy and grace, and the remission of sins, and eternal life, and everlasting consolation, shall be preached against sin, death, the power of the devil, and all evil. This Psalm has been before explained in my more full commentary thereon.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.