What Shall I Render?

Render: provide or give (a service, help, etc), i.e., “money serves as a reward for services rendered.” From a heart overflowing with gratitude, the psalmist, reflecting back on God’s deliverance and salvation, the psalmist asks this very question: What shall I render to the LORD? During this season which we have set aside to remember and be thankful, let us consider the truths of this psalm as we count the countless ways the Lord has blessed us.

Render Your Prayers (vv.1-4).

Psalm 116 deals is a song of praise for God’s personal care. The writer has been delivered from death of some kind, and the passage itself could be extended to include answers to desperate prayers. It is interesting that public worship provides opportunity for personal expressions of thanksgiving.

This psalm was used in the Paschal Hallel (Psalms 115-118), psalms used in worship on the night of Passover. Therefore, it is right to read them in connection with Israel coming out of Egypt, deliverance from bondage, and thanksgiving to God for salvation.

The expression love is deeper than mere emotion, but also communicates deep affection for another, especially in comparison with other relationships. It speaks of a desire for something based on that objects “desirability.” And what makes God desirable in the psalm? He listens to prayers! If ever we doubt God’s attentiveness to our prayers, may this psalm bolster our faith. How will we exercise that faith? By consistently practicing the “regular and constant habits” of prayer.

YHWH is not deaf like the idols. He is a God who actively hears the prayers of His people. Consider the scene on Mt. Carmel, the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and the pleas of the false prophets for an imaginary god to respond. YHWH is not imaginary, He need not be roused, and His ear is attentive! Like an earthly father who bends to hear the request of his hurting child, the Heavenly Father lovingly listens to us!

Notice how dire the situation was, as well: death and Sheol had its grip on the writer. Unable to shake these terrible, binding cords of death, the psalmist is burdened with distress and anguish. Many scholars believe that he was literally on death’s door. However, that grave condition which afflicts us all leads more than on death’s door — it leaves us dead in our trespasses and sin. While Isaiah is often called the 5th gospel or the OT’s gospel, I think the book of Psalms would like to throw its hat in the ring as a competitor — the book of largely Christological and much of it can/should be interpreted in light of Jesus.

When death seems sure, where else can we turn for certain help? God alone can deliver. Christ, as our Great High Priest, is not stuck in the muck and the mud with us. Instead, in His perfection, knowing full-well the terror of our suffering, reaches down in His great love for us and pulls to safety those who have no hope apart from Him.

Prayer has been called a war time radio, an opportunity to draw close to God, we have acronyms for prayer to help us, and the disciples requested to know how to pray, but in its rawest form, here it is exemplified for us: cry out to God. Spurgeon says, “...real trouble produces real prayer.” If it does not, then consider:

Is the trouble actually serious? It could be that we are fretting, making much ado about nothing, when the situation itself does not actually drive us to call on God.

Do I actually have faith that God can intervene? This can be an active unbelief, where we believe, for whatever reason, God will not intervene. Or, this could be a passive unbelief that is ambivalent toward the gift of prayer and what God can surely do.

Render Your Faith (vv.5-7).

One scholar sums up verse 5 like this: “Unmerited goodness (grace) resting on a foundation of inflexible commitment and promise-keeping (righteousness), issuing from a heart of love (compassion).” Indeed, “Grace is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the entire work of salvation; it is totally devoid of human merit.” The Lord is righteous, always responding rightly to His people. What is the right response of the Lord to cries for deliverance? Grace and mercy. While human tendency might expect a harsh answer, we are instead met with unmerited favor and kindness. Remember that God is ‘slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’ Ps.103:8b.

The word for simple can mean/imply gullible in a negative sense, but it is used positively here, carrying the idea of guileless...uncomplicated...a “get what you see” person.

Motyer says, “I was resourceless.” This psalm was traditionally used in the Hallel for Passover, so the themes of bondage and slavery are surely in mind. The people of Israel were literally coming out of nothingness. This mirrors salvation where we come from nothing, with nothing, and receive everything through Christ’s grace.

It’s out of this nothingness that our souls can truly find rest. Here, I’m reminded of the Sermon on the Mount. Listen to Jesus’ words again, reflecting on the nothingness from which Christ redeems us: Matthew 5:3–10 ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

But the question remains: how we enter that rest? One simple answer: faith…to come like a child, dependent, helpless, trusting.

Render Your Persistence (vv.9-11).

Even in the midst of all that he faced, the psalmist kept his eyes on the Lord. He recognizes the sinfulness of the world around him, noting that the world is full of liars. Augustine notes, “Every human being, absolutely every single one precisely as a human, is a liar. You see, what makes us liars is what we have of our own, and all we have of our very own is the capacity to be liars. Not that we cannot be true but that we cannot be true in virtue of what we are in ourselves.”

Because of the brokenness of the world, the psalmist feels isolated. Yet, he is still faithful and steadfast. He faces clear difficulty...affliction...and yet he does not waiver in his commitment to the Lord. It does not negate the fact that he feels the weight of his trial, and even feels abandoned by others given the fact that he calls “all mankind...liars” in verse 11. The structure of the verse happens in pretty rapid succession, showing the tenseness of the situation.

And, he is confident because God has delivered him. All of verse 8 can be attributed to the work of the Spirit in the NT. He awakens the heart of the sinner to the need for a Savior, He is called the Comforter (the Greek word parakletos literally means “someone called alongside” and can refer to a comforter, consoler, or a defense attorney), and He is the One who is beside us to help.

So what is his response? Psalm 116:9 “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” If faith is the response to make as we enter rest in vv.5-7, then vv.8-11 remind us that genuine faith is persevering...persistent. Faith is a matter of ongoing and habitual commitment to the Lord, a marathon, if you will. It’s being in it for the long haul. It doesn’t ebb and flow on the tides of emotion. In the joys of being delivered…to the depths of feeling all alone, our we render the gift of persistence to God.

Render Your Thanks.

Motyer brings out in his translation that this is not just lifting up (maybe similar to what we would do in a toast), but actually taking. It is a strange response to the question of verse 12: “What shall I render?” The response is to take something from God. Remember that we have nothing apart form God, nothing do we have that He did not first give us! What do we take? The cup of salvation. The word salvation is plural, and the Hebrew language will use the “plural of amplitude” to underscore and draw out the depth/richness/fullness of something. God is able to abundantly save, or He saves to the uttermost.

The idea of calling on the name of the Lord seems to be a big idea. It first happens at a pivotal point in the salvation history narrative, after the line of Cain had been traced to its disastrous end before Adam and Eve conceive and give birth to Seth. When the line was preserved through Seth, and with it the promise of the gospel from Gen.3:15, then people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Seth’s line signifies a group that will experience God’s covenant faithfulness and His blessings. And, whereas there was boastful pride in the words of Lamech, there is a humble acknowledgment of YHWH over and above other gods that stems from Seth’s line.

What vows can be made to God? The vows of surrender and growth, to not waste a trial. The vow the psalmist makes is not a bargaining chip vow, but a commitment to faithfulness no matter what. This is done in the presence of all...people. This wording appears again in verse 18. It is unique in its structure, appearing only here and nowhere else in Scripture. What was the psalmist trying to say? Did his trial in some way exclude him from the assembly of God’s people? Or, stated more positively as it is in most all modern translations, was it a commitment to faithfulness before the eyes of the community of faith? If in the latter, where translations lean, then it could be mirrored by Christ’s teaching about the light of the world: righteous deeds are done before others in order to call them to worship and give glory to God.

Even in death there is peace, for the death of His saints does not go unnoticed. Even when death is at the door, YHWH cares. Deliverance will be the end, either in restoration temporarily on earth or eternally in God’s presence.

The psalmist offers an interesting idea here: he is committed to serving the Lord. He is doubly bound, both by commitment and inheritance. How much more so can God’s servant expect to receive his providence and protection. But, he is also free! He proclaims that YHWH has loosed his bonds is that he has just declared himself a servant. A couple of thoughts come to mind here:

There is freedom in our commitment to the Lord. Contrary to the idea that surrendering yourself to someone else results in a loss of freedom, submission to YHWH actually leads to life and freedom. This is the heart of Christ’s teaching that calls the weary and heavy laden to come to Him in order to bear his burden and yoke.

We have been set free from slavery to sin to embrace slavery to our Savior. Why leave a life of abundant provision and protection from the hand of a benevolent master to wander aimlessly in a world bent on our destruction at the hands of a malevolent overlord?

So, verse 17 becomes the response — Psalm 116:17 “I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.” A heart that overflows with gratitude and calls out to the Lord