Psalm 116

In a season of a pandemic, death is on people’s minds more than normal. For those in high-risk groups, the fear of death can be magnified. Death is not really something any of us like to think about or even consider that it is coming to our lives. On the other hand, we have all had those moments when we have thought we were going to die. Maybe it was the near death experience of nearly having a wreck or the after effects of a wreck that did occur. Maybe it was the stress of overwhelming circumstances that you thought was going to give you a heart attack or an actual heart attack that could have ended your life. Maybe it was a time you were so sick that you wanted to die or a sickness that actually threatened to take your life. Whatever the circumstance, we have all had certain moments where death seemed a real possibility, but it didn’t happen. In Psalm 116, the Psalmist recounts a time when the Lord had delivered him from death and in response he was expressing his love for God. He recognized that he had called out to the Lord, the Lord heard him, and the Lord delivered him. He first recognized that this deliverance wasn’t because of who he was, but because of who the Lord is. As verse 5 says, “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.” Truly if God wasn’t gracious and merciful, we would all have experienced death already, because death is what we deserved for our sin. Because of God’s character, the Psalmist recognized in verse 7 that his soul could return to rest. In other words, he could find comfort in knowing that God is in control and that God is good. As a result of God’s deliverance, the Psalmist committed to worship the Lord publicly. I believe that part of this is our corporate worship with others where we openly praise God, but this should also include the way we live every day. Every day we should worship the Lord with our lives and give him praise where ever we go and before whom ever we come in contact with. God is worthy or our praise. The Psalmist also learned that God is not indifferent to death. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of one of His saints.” Keeping that in mind, we can find comfort in knowing that physical death will not come to our lives until the Lord is ready for us to take us. Take a moment today to reflect back on life and reflect on a time or times when the Lord delivered you. Then make a commitment to give praise to the Lord both privately and publicly. Then fulfill the last words of this Psalm, “Praise the LORD!”