June 18 Sermon: I Love the Lord

Think on these questions as you contemplate Psalm 116:

1. Why does the psalmist express such profound gratitude and devotion towards the Lord in Psalm 116?

2. How does the psalmist's understanding of God's nature and faithfulness influence their response to the deliverance they received?

3. How does the psalmist's experience of being saved from imminent danger and death parallel with the believer's experience of salvation through Christ?

Transcript:

When we talk about why we like or we love someone, we don’t say “just because”. That is illogical. We like things for a reason. If you don’t like the flavor of a beverage or food you don’t eat it and you most assuredly don’t tell people you like it. We don’t arbitrarily throw our affections around. We have a favorite sports team for a reason. We visit particular places over and over because there is something that resonates with us about that place.

‌As we continue our time in the Psalms this morning and we land in Psalm 116 we see a statement we would expect to find in scripture and particularly in the book of Psalms. A statement of affection for the Lord. As we look at the statement, I love the LORD we find that this statement isn’t left out there by itself. It is connected to God’s nature and what he has done for his people.

‌And this is what we should expect to find. We don’t find love poems that speak of someone’s affection for another person that don’t talk about the person. In fact, whether it is a poem or just the conversation you have with someone who talks about who they love you find that they can tell you why they love them. They know them and they know them deeply. The relationship that they have with them is more than just a surface relationship, it is built on something.

‌Last time, we looked at a Psalm that was a prayer for deliverance. This week, we come to a psalm of praise that is deeply connected to the deliverance that God has blessed this psalmist with. So, let’s dig into these 19 verses that we have read from the Psalter this morning.

‌‌As these first few words come to us, it is once again important that we note the specificity with which the psalmist is speaking here. This is not a random statement of affection to a random deity or to some earthly power that they might refer to as their lord. This is a specific statement where the writer is clear that they love Yahweh. The one that is loved here is the one who has created heaven and earth and all that is in them. It is the one who has spoken clearly to his people. It is the one whose name they are to revere and hold in high esteem. But we don’t find that the writer of this psalm is telling us that they love the Lord for his creative power or even for the fact that he has revealed himself to his chosen people. Instead, we see that this deep tenderness is felt because Yahweh has heard his voice.

‌Let’s stop and consider just how profound this is. As I frequently say, we are so used to so many of the themes and ideas of scripture that we can pass over them pretty quickly. The statement being made here in Psalm 116 verse one is that Yahweh, the one who spoke and created all that is seen and unseen has heard the voice of a mere creature. A creature that he created from the dust and breathed life into. That alone is a very profound thing but lets also remember that this creature from the dust rebelled against him. Daily humans violate the law of God and yet, the writer of this psalm is confident that his voice has been heard. This is profound not just in the fact that the mighty and powerful maker of heaven and earth can hear puny creatures like us. It is also significant to note that our understanding of scripture leads us to see that the fact that God hears is an act of mercy. In hearing his creation, Yahweh not only condescends, he also shows himself to be gracious.

‌And we find that the writer here has cried out to God for mercy. They have been pleading to God in hopes that he would be merciful. And just here in verse one we get the idea that these prayers were answered because the affection for God is because he is confident the cries for help have reached the throne of God and verse two confirms this for us.

‌‌And the imagery used to convey what has happened here drives this home for us. The psalmist tells us that God inclined his ear to me. We are not meant to think that God had an ear that sound waves travelled to and came into contact with the ear drum of the almighty but it we get the idea that God has moved towards the psalmist and this merciful and gracious act has sparked devotion that will be life long. There is an understanding here that this creates devotion that understands that there is no one else who can do what God has done and so the psalmist is committed to Yahweh. He isn’t going to call on anyone else, the rest of his days, the one he trusts to hear him will be the God who can actually hear him.

‌And when we move on to the verse that follows we see why the psalmist has committed to calling out to God for as long as he will live.

‌‌And once again we find descriptive language for what the psalmist was experiencing. The snares of death encompassed me. This is powerful image. It is as if death set a trap for them and they were overtaken by it. We’ve all seen enough film and television in our lives to be able to be drawn in by this idea. And this is not a trap that he feels as though he narrowly avoided. The snares have encompassed him. They are not just everywhere to avoid, they are unavoidable.

‌And this imagery is repeated for emphasis when it says “the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me”. Sheol is the term in the Old Testament for the grave or the realm of death. The repetition of this idea lets us know just how terrible the state of affairs was. The situation here isn’t that the psalmist is being really dramatic about having a hangnail. The distress and anguish felt here is because they are close to death. We don’t know the exact circumstances here but this language lets us know that it is beyond serious. We can gather that this is an illness that is a matter of life and death. The psalmist is out of options. Surrounded by the snare of death he calls on the name of the LORD for deliverance.

‌‌From what we have seen in this psalm thus far we would have expected what we find in these two verses. The plot was given away at the beginning with the psalmist saying that he loves the LORD because he has heard his voice but here we see what the psalmist prayed for and that was to have his soul delivered from these circumstances. Again, there is an understanding that there are no other options and we see here that the psalmist knows the nature and character of God. He is gracious, he is righteous, and he is merciful. This is who God is and how he shows himself to his people and this psalm beautifully expands upon this idea.

‌‌There is just so much powerful language here as we read about the nature of God. He preserves the simple. The psalmist here understands that God stoops down to him to hear him and to answer his prayer. It is the humble that God helps in his mercy. He reaches out to save those who have been brought low. And verse seven drives this home for us. Return to your rest for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. If there was any thinking that somehow the affliction being experienced was a punishment from God, the way in which God rescues him has put that to rest. He has bountifully dealt with the psalmist. In his low estate he reached out and graciously blessed him with deliverance. And this is spelled out in detail once again as this beautiful, poetic language tells the story of the psalmist for us.

‌‌We’re reminded here as we come to verse 8 just how desperate things were. He wasn’t delivered from a hangnail or a bad sunburn. Dying is what is in view here. The situation was dire. He was brought low. As low as you can go and yet, God delivered him.

‌As I’ve mentioned previously, when comes to words, I am usually far too analytical. I like to read non-fiction and process through a well reasoned argument. For the longest time, my approach to the Psalms was something I just needed to read and get through. It was a book of the Bible to check off that I had read again but as I’ve studied them and slowed down, I’ve become better with imagery and poetic devices used in them. Maybe this kind of stuff is easy for you but it takes me putting productivity and efficiency out of my mind and really taking the time to take in the text.

‌The best way to describe what I’m talking about here is to use candy as an illustration. You don’t get a piece of hard candy and put it in your mouth and just start chomping down on it and swallowing it. Sure, you can get the basic flavor of what you are eating and you will still get the small benefit of the sugar you’re consuming they are something that you are able to enjoy more if you are patient. Or maybe a piece of chocolate that you take small bites of and let it melt in your mouth a little as you eat it slowly.

‌In my experience, the Psalms have their greatest benefit when you savor them because as you slow down the imagery and ideas being expressed become clear.

‌As I studied this psalm this week, I listened to it several times and these two verses really stuck with me and the language became so vivid for me.

‌The psalmist was delivered from death by God and not only that but his eyes were delivered from tears. We all know what it is like to have eyes that are filled with tears. It is an overwhelming feeling, whether it is tears of sorrow, tears of pain, tears of sentimentality, or tears of joy, tears show we are overwhelmed and we know that this would have been tears of grief with the idea that their life was coming to an end, and yet God delivered them.

‌But, I think the most moving part of this deliverance from God is the fact that God is the one who keeps his feet from stumbling. Another feeling we can understand, we’ve all tripped and fallen and had different levels of damage done to us because of this. Stumbling is usually a pretty terrible feeling, right? Time slows down. Not too long ago I watched someone fall and I was powerless to catch them. I was just too far away and as I play back the moment in my head the whole thing is in slow motion. It probably didn’t take a second for this person to hit the floor but in my head it felt like 5-10 seconds. I can only imagine the feeling of being out of control that was experienced by the person who was falling.

‌It is a feeling of being out of control and even though it’s all so quick, your mind goes all kind of places in that moment. You can end up anywhere and have anything happen. It is uncertainty. But here we see that God delivered and kept his feet from stumbling. Now, you might be thinking, Mark’s kind of lost it here, why is he so hung up on the imagery of stumbling, well, here’s why. It isn’t the stumbling language that really gets me, it’s the response. The psalmist gives us the visual of stumbling and then gives us the image of walking before the LORD in the land of the living. We get the fulness of the restoration that God has done for the psalmist as we look at the last part of what we see in these two verses. To walk, the writer needs to be delivered from death. To walk about and see clearly, tears need to be removed from their eyes. And he can walk confidently because God keeps his feet from stumbling. This stirs up vivid images of restoration from God and a confidence in his saving work for me. He’s not on the verge of death and grieving about it and he isn’t barely able to move from the bed to the chair, stumbling about. Instead, he is upright, things are clear, and there is a confidence to his steps.

‌In meditating on this passage through the week, I thought of it as I saw a couple toddlers at the Vacation Bible School program on Friday evening. One was crawling and got up to walk and he teetered about a little bit and it didn’t take much for him to end up on his backside again. Another child, who wasn’t that much older, was walking and they didn’t even have to worry about falling. Or maybe, it’s been you after an injury or surgery with your knees or hips. There is a huge difference in how you walk when you are in recovery versus how you walk when you are recovered.

‌And here we see a confidence but this isn’t just a confidence in the ability to move yourself around by walking. Notice, the psalmist is walking before the LORD in the land of the living. This is a statement of confidence that God has blessed them not only with healing but to live a life witnessing to the goodness of God.

‌This is the result and we get an insight into what drove the psalmist to prayer in his affliction as we move to verses 10 and 11.

‌‌The pleas to God were not empty pleas hoping for the best but instead they were rooted in a belief in the power of God to save.

‌They believed, even when they spoke. You get the idea here. It wasn’t after the healing came that they believed in the healing of God. They trusted in the faithfulness of God and we get the idea that the people around them were trying to convince them that God wouldn’t help, in fact, the impression we get here is that there were accusations flying around. In the midst of the affliction it looks as though people were suggesting that this problem was coming from God because people are spreading falsehoods. People are lying about what is happening. If you know the story of Job and the accusations of his friends, you get the idea of what I’m suggesting here and we know that this is a natural thing for us to think, even about ourselves. When something bad happens we wonder if we are experiencing the punishment of God and we have brought this on ourselves. But the psalmist here understands that isn’t the case. Instead, we see that he trusts in the faithfulness of God.

‌The Psalmist expresses his understanding of God’s graciousness when he asks a question? What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? In other words, what can I possibly do to repay God after all that he has done for me. He has delivered me from death. This is a question that we can understand because it comes from a place of extreme gratitude. When we are helped in difficult times we don’t feel as though there is any real way to pay back someone who helped us out in a big way. And so, we can get what is being communicated here. The LORD of heaven and earth has not only stooped and heard me despite my low estate and rebellion against him bu the also has healed me.

‌Well, there is nothing that I can do to repay him and so I will devote my life to him. The psalmist says that he will lift up the cup of salvation. This isn’t really significant language for us but when we think about biblical language and specifically the cup of wrath. This cup of salvation is a contrast. God pours out a cup of wrath and those who receive that wrath drink it down to the dregs but those whom God saves lift up the cup and call upon his name for he has spared them.

‌And he pays his vows in the presence of all God’s people. The praise of God for his saving work isn’t just something we do privately but we gather together as the covenant people of God to praise his for his deliverance.

‌These ideas are expressed as the psalm ends and I want to point out one more thing before we consider how Christ unlocks this psalm for us and we apply it to our lives.

‌‌Verse 15 is a kind of a conundrum for us. We read this and rightly understand that yes, the death of the set apart ones of God is precious because it brings us to his presence but in the context of this psalm the writer hasn’t died, he has lived to tell the story. In this context then, we read this with an understanding that God cares so deeply for his loved ones that he watches over them and saves them from death. Both meanings are in view for us here because even if the writer of this psalm would have perished his death would have been the will of God and he would have saved him in his mercy. Both possible understandings are of great comfort to us as believers. We can have confidence that whether we live or whether we die we live to the LORD and we are held by him and this is why you and I along with this psalmist can do what this Psalm calls us to do. We can praise the LORD. He is faithful to deliver his people and because of this great truth we praise God in our daily lives and we praise him together as his covenant people.

‌As we consider this psalm for us it is easy to see how Christ unlocks this one for us. In our sin and unbelief we were worse off that the psalmist. We were more than sick and in need of healing. We were more than stumbling around in the dark. We were dead in our sin and yet, God inclined toward us in his mercy and rescued us from sin. But, the good news doesn’t end there. In rescuing us from sin he also rescued us from death and hell. We are able to walk in newness of life among the living. This psalm tells of the deliverance of God’s people and in Christ we have the ultimate deliverance and that deliverance makes us ask the question the psalmist asks “What shall I render to the LORD?”

‌Because we are in Christ, we have the sure promise of deliverance and this leads us to worship him not only in word and song but by walking before the LORD in the land of the living. May this psalm cause us to understand more deeply the glory of God’s salvation and may our lives be worshipful. Not just with the words that we say but may we care for others and testify to the saving work that God has done for us. May the world know that the LORD has dealt bountifully with us and so we lay our lives at is feet in worship and in service. Amen.