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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
Psalm 116. This is a hymn of personal thanksgiving for God's care. The specific circumstance is a deliverance from impending death (vv. 3, 8-9, 15); the words of the psalm may be generalized to other kinds of dramatic answers to prayer in a time of dire need. The psalm is notable for its assumption that one's thanks for this very personal deliverance are properly consummated in public worship. These words are an excellent form for God's people to use in giving public thanks after their own emergencies (e.g., some churches use the psalm in a service of thanksgiving after a woman has given birth).
116:1-4 I Love the Lord, Who Has Heard My Prayer. The psalm opens with a straightforward statement of its overall theme: I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. The people of Israel are urged to love the Lord in response to his covenant blessings (e.g., Deut. 6:5; 11:1); that love grows as the faithful experience God's work among the community and in their own lives. Likewise, the singer called on the name of the Lord in distress (Ps. 116:4), and now resolves to call on him as long as I live (v. 2).
116:3 The snares of death and the pangs of Sheol are probably the same thing; he was on the brink of dying (cf. vv. 8, 15). On Sheol as a poetic name for the grave, see note on 6:5.
116:4 called on the name of the Lord. This can be a general term for invoking a deity in prayer (e.g., 1 Kings 18:24), but more often refers to a prayer that is part of public worship (cf. Gen. 4:26; 12:8; Ps. 105:1), which is likely the case here in view of the same term in 116:13. Thus the request was made as part of a worship service.
