Psalm 116
Notes
Transcript
Hymn # 271 - Standing on the Promises
Hymn # 425 - In The Garden
Background:
Psalm 116 celebrates Yahweh as the God who raises the dead.
The name “Yahweh” is mentioned fifteen times in Ps 116.
The psalmist was confronted by the cords/snares of death and the pangs (distress) of Sheol (116:3), he was brought low (116:6), but he called on the name of Yahweh (116:4, 13, 17), and he was delivered from death (116:8) to walk in the lands of the living (116:9) and stand in Jerusalem (116:19).
Begins with love and ends with praise.
Hallel Psalms - the one’s Jesus sang
Psalm 116 is Christ’s resurrection song, sung by His own lips in the upper room at the Passover, in anticipation of the darkness of Gethesemane and Calvary passing away into glory. - Andrew Bonar
This is a Psalm about facing death.
Roberta Bass, Jerry Warren, Dwaine Groves…each and every one of us.
Death / Life / Trust and Love
Shares a lot in common with Psalm 18 - David that foreshadowed the bigger and better David. Jesus
Exiles (Post exile) they experienced a death like experience but now they have been brought back and raised to new life.
This Psalm is referenced by Peter in the first Christian sermon in Acts 2:24.
By Paul in 2 Cor. 4:13.
Hebrews 13:15 (ESV) - 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. 7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; 11 I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.” 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 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 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Hymn # Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
Life from Death (1-9)
Life from Death (1-9)
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. 7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
I Love - do you love the Lord?
Commanded.
Great Commandment (Love God / Love Others)
Evidences of Love? (Prove it?)
Since Elijah started in youth group he has been more interested in reading his bible.
Driving to school. How do you have a conversation with God? If you can’t hear Him?
WORD - SPEAKS TO ME EVERYWHERE (This is my Father’s World)…
Felt pretty good (Heb. in these last days spoken to us by his son.)
Word made flesh dwelt among us.
Carried along by Holy Spirit.
Ordained Minister of Gospel. MDIV. Biblical Counselor. Senior Pastor.
But what if I just want to ask Him how His day was?
That is genuine evidences of love.
1 Corinthians 16:22–24 (ESV) 22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
(v. 2) He inclined to hear me…
He bends over and leans in close.
Jerry leaned in close (feel his hands - “I appreciate you.” Whoa!
That is what God does for us. He bends down toward us in our miserable state and hears our pleas for mercy.
We can call upon him as long as we live.
Death bed…
Hebrews 10:35 (ESV) - 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Why call on the Lord?
Snares - ropes wrapped around something that is hunted (devil is prowling seeking someone to devour).
(Amazing Grace - I have already come. dangers, toils and snares.)
Grace leads safe thus far, and will lead me home.
We are the hunted.
Pangs - things that restrain us (claustrophobia of tight spaces). It can induce a sense of panic.
Death lies in wait for the the hunted with nooses and nets. (Commentator).
Suffering, distress and anguish (This is what life is like on the planet).
ELECTION DAY - depending on how the day unfolds and maybe regardless of how the day unfolds we might as a nation be in for a heightened season of suffering distress and anguish.
So what should we do?
v4. - I called on the Lord and prayed (please) (urgent desperation) to deliver my soul.
Flesh might not get delivered (It wasn’t for Jesus) It was given over to death, but from that death came life.
Forest Fire - Picture of they trees…
pretending to be a Big deal. (Psalm 8 what is man that you are mindful of him?
dusty ashes of death is what brings forth life.
We will experience hardships in life, but each one is a custom made opportunity for new life to grow.
It is Well with my Soul. (on a hospice bed).
Deliver my soul (take me out of the fowlers snare). provide me safe passage for my soul (
Death is a doorway to life.
v 5 - Gracious is the Lord (favorable toward us)
Righteous - just (things don’t go unnoticed or unaccounted for).
Mercy - emotional word meaning compassionate (He is moved in His being by our condition). He isn’t cold and distant.
Close to the brokenhearted.
v 6 - simple need protection (simply trusting in you.)
not going to try and elude or engineer something to get me out of this.
If I am going to be preserved for this DEATH, it is going to take God to keep, guard and protect me from death itself.
v 7 - rest in his provision (Jesus Christ our Lord)
Our 7th day of rest is Christ Himself - He finished the work and then sat down (Heb. 1:3
Hebrews 1:3 (ESV) 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
“a calm and composed” state of mind. (who could benefit from that these days?
dealt bountifully with you (think of thanksgiving table - to much to take all in.
v8 is what that bounty looks like.
saved my soul from death / eyes from tears / feet from stumbling
He who began a good work in us will continue to perfect it!
in the age to come every tear is wiped away.
v9. - I will walk before the Lord. (in the conscious presence of God).
We walk with Him now and into the new creation.
Hymn # 349 - Trust and Obey
Hymn # 202 - Amazing Grace
Say what you believe. (10-11)
Say what you believe. (10-11)
10 I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; 11 I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.”
I believed, “even when” I spoke - what does this mean?
(Therefore - 2 Cor. 4:13).
the reason he speaks because he (believes something about) or (he trusts in God).
content of what he says: I am afflicted and (All mankind are liars.)
I am in trouble here (death is surrounding me) and people are unreliable and cannot be trusted to help save me.
What can I do to express my gratitude? (12-14)
What can I do to express my gratitude? (12-14)
12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
Looking at the benefits…there is nothing that can equate with what he has given.
I will lift up the cup of salvation (sacrifice of thanksgiving vrs 17).
Tracing the theme of cup in the bible…
In Genesis 40 a cup bearer that held the key to Joseph’s salvation. Failed.
Joseph placed a silver cup in Benjimins bag.
That cup that was unknowingly placed in Benjamin bag was the means by which the guilty of bloodshed brothers would be ushered back into the presence of the One who could provide them with the bread that they needed to be saved from starvation. The cup placed in Benjamin’s bag initiated the means of salvation.
it doesn’t take that many brain cells to connect the dots from Joseph to Jesus, the brothers to us and our need of forgiveness.
Jesus takes a cup at the Passover meal on the night he was betrayed and doesn’t give a new meaning but the fulfilled meaning when He said that the contents of the cup was his blood.
Then later on in the Garden he asks for the cup of God’s wrath to pass, but instead he drinks down to the dregs providing us the only means of salvation that we desperatly need.
One day we will drink from that cup again was we remember what he has done for us at the marriage supper of the lamb.
Amen?
Psalm 16:5 (ESV) - 5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup..
Psalm 23:5 (ESV) - 5 He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies; He anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
and so along with the Psalmist,
Psalm 116:13 (ESV) 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life…the resurrection and the life and as a result.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. 16 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
death can’t separate us.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. That sounds strange to say. why not life of his saint? Why death?
does he take pleasure in our death?
“God will never allow a believer to die accidentally or at the wrong time; no one will die apart from his plan or without his approval.”
God does all things according to the counsel of his will and Psalm 115:3 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
So when our eyes close in death here our faith becomes sight and see him face to face as he is and yes, “that is precious.”
The Lord watches over your dying bed. He will smooth your pillow. He will sustain your heart to the end and then receive your soul.
That is all of our future so we can be thankful now.
we can be thankful. (pay my vows a freewill offering of thankfulness).
a public expression of thanks.
last line - PRAISE THE LORD.
Hymn # 186 - The Old Rugged Cross
Hymn # 493 - It is Well with my Soul
