DUNCAN/I love the Lord because

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Psalm 116 as we continue to make our way through the fifth book of the psalms. This psalm is the personal tribute of a person who has experienced an overwhelming answer to prayer. It supplies us words to pray, praise, and lift up to the Lord in gratitude for the answers that He has given to us in prayer. So, I want to look with you at this resolution of love, this remembered deliverance, this response of gratitude, and this rendered praise.

The Overarching Resolution

Let’s look first at the resolution of love and prayer in verses 1 and 2. In this context of this dramatic answer to prayer, the psalmist makes a declaration, he makes a resolution, and his resolution, his declaration, is this — “I love the LORD because He listened to me. He heard me when I prayed. He listened; He inclined His ear to my petition. When I lifted up that prayer, that petition to Him, He listened to me, and therefore I will call on Him as long as I live.” Notice the two parts of that — he loves the Lord, and he will always call on Him. Do you know we will never stop praying; we will always need to continue praying until our last breath. There is never a time in this life when there is no longer a need to pray. Do you know that answer to prayer is at least in part designed to lead us to further prayer? When we’re encouraged by God’s answer to us, one of God’s designs is to move us to continue to pray to Him. And so, this psalm begins with a resolution of love and prayer. God’s answer moves him to love, and it moves him to commit himself to a continued life of prayer — “as long as I live,” the psalmist says.

The Recounting of the Lord’s Deliverance from Trial and Affliction 

Then in verses 3 and 4, he cites for us the case which has moved him to make this grand resolution. And it’s this deliverance that the Lord has given. The snares of death were around him. He was in distress and in anguish, and in that moment, he cried out to the Lord to deliver him, and the Lord did deliver him. It’s this remembrance of deliverance that evokes the spontaneous response of gratitude which pervades this psalm. Sometimes the experience of the in the moment is so intense that we think that we will never forget them. But look what the psalmist does. He pauses and memorializes a moment of deliverance. This is a standard part of the practice of the Christian life — not to let those deliverances be forgotten to us. Memorialize them; write them down; remind yourself of them; go back to them frequently because there will be times when the evil one will whisper in your ear, “No matter how many answers to prayer the Lord has given to you, He does not hear you, He does not care, prayer does not work, there’s nobody listening to you.” And you must fight back with remembered deliverance. Here, all the gratitude, all the spontaneous praise in this psalm flows from this remembered deliverance. It is one of the weapons of spiritual warfare that the Lord has placed in your hand – remembered deliverance.

The Response of Gratitude

And then there’s this response of gratitude in verses 5 to 11 and notice how it starts. It begins with a meditation on the Lord, it continues with a humble estimation of who we are, and then it concludes with an exhortation to the soul. Look at how it begins. Verse 5 — “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.” So, God’s answer to prayer leads him to think about three things — God’s graciousness, God’s righteousness, and God’s mercy. 

Next, look at this self-exhortation and here in verse 7. “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.” In other words, one of the results of the Lord’s answered prayer to the psalmist is peace. He can be at rest and so he exhorts his own soul. This response of gratitude goes on to again, ascribe to the Lord His work. “You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,” and then the resolution comes again, “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” So, the gratitude again ascribes to God what He has done on His behalf.

And then he turns again in verses 10 and 11 with yet another admission. Amid this trial, he had cried out in desperation, “I am greatly afflicted, and all mankind are liars.” In other words, he’s saying, “I was desperate, I felt hopeless, I didn’t feel like there was anywhere to turn.” He’s detailing his condition and recognizing his heart’s response to it, pulling up reasons for gratitude to God and expressing them to Him. 

The Determination to Render Praise

And then the final part of the psalm. You see it in verses 12 to 19. The psalmist now wants to know, “What’s the proper way to response to God for this? Since God has answered this prayer and I’m grateful, what can I give to Him?” Look at what he says. “What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation.” In other words, he’s saying “I can go into public worship with a grateful heart and worship Him for all that He is worth. I can pour myself out to Him in grateful praise in the assembly of His people and know that He has heard my prayer.” Public worship is his response. That’s what he can render to the Lord. A life of self-renouncing love is one of liberty. He’s saying, “I’m free, and now that I’m free I want to serve You! That’s what I want to do with all my heart, and I render that back to You, Lord!” 

Your obedience doesn’t put God in your debt and the psalmist knows that. He’s in God’s debt. The whole of 12 to 19 is about a debt of gratitude. God has been so generous that we are indebted to Him. The service that he’s talking about is not to put God in his debt, it is to express gratitude to a God to whom he is so indebted. And it doesn’t burden him, it frees him! When you come to public worship with your heart filled with gratitude to how the Lord has answered your prayer, it encourages your brothers and sisters because the spiritual life is filled with ups and downs. Gathering in the house of the Lord and in the context of the shared life and the fellowship of God’s people is often what God uses to help some of us go on, and this too gives Him praise.

The Rev. Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III  is the Chancellor/CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary and the John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology. He is also currently serving as President of RTS Jackson.