Psalm 116

What’s Happening?

Psalms 113 through 117 are known as Hallel Psalms, because of how regularly they say, “Hallelujah!” These psalms were traditionally sung by Israel during the Passover feast every year. Passover celebrated God’s great rescue from Egyptian slavery and oppression. He broke the bonds of Israel’s oppressor and brought his people into the promised land, where they could be with God and celebrate his deliverance. And Psalm 116 repeats that story as the psalmist recounts how God rescued his people from exile. 

Psalm 116 celebrates God’s resurrecting love (Psalm 116:1-2). Like Israel in Egypt, the psalmist remembers how he was enslaved to death in exile (Psalm 116:3). The grave of the nations had trapped the life of his people and was pulling them under. Their return to the Promised Land would require not only rescue but resurrection. The psalmist faithfully confesses that no human on earth could save him from his severe oppression (Psalm 116:10-11). So as Israel prayed for God’s rescue from slavery in Egypt, the psalmist pleaded with him for deliverance from exile (Psalm 116:4). The psalmist then repeats who God said he is after rescuing his people from Egypt (Exodus 34:6). God is merciful and compassionate (Psalm 116:5). Even when Israel or the psalmist experienced death because of their own foolishness, God, in his love, still delivers them (Psalm 116:6). Like Israel from Egypt, God breaks the chains of exile from the psalmist and resurrects him out of the grave of the nations (Psalm 116:7-8).

The psalmist was not only freed from exile, but freed to serve God. Like Israel from Egypt, the psalmist returns from exile to worship God and serve him in his temple (Exodus 3:18, 7:16, 8:1; Psalm 116:9, 13, 17-19). The mission of God’s people has always been to tend and keep the place of God’s presence so that his resurrection life would fill this world of death. So the psalmist goes to God’s temple and makes many of the same offerings Israel presented after being freed from Egypt (Exodus 24:5, 29:40; Leviticus 7:11-16). The food from all of the psalmist’s sacrifices—the vow, drink, and thank offerings—was shared by the worshiper at the temple, the priest in the temple, and the God of the temple (Psalm 116:13-14, 17-18). As in the Passover meal, these communal feasts communicate the purpose of God’s rescue: to share life with God. This is why God saves exiles: because he wants to share his life with his servants in his temple, and through his servants, share his life with the world. 

Where is the Gospel?

Like Israel in Egypt and exile, we are enslaved to death (Romans 6:21; Ephesians 2:1). We are trapped under the foreign slavemaster of sin and will die in the grave of exile if we are not rescued. We need rescue because we cannot save ourselves. Paul quotes this psalm in his letter to the Romans to prove the point that no human being can rescue themselves from slavery to sin or exile to death (Romans 3:4). Only God, acting in his mercy and love, can rescue us from the chains of the grave. 

In Jesus, God has entered into our sin-enslaved world of the flesh (Romans 8:3). Jesus entered the imprisoning chains of our grave (Romans 6:5-10). But as God raised Israel from Egypt and the psalmist from exile, God raised Jesus from the dead.

Now, we can pray to God for rescue like Israel and the psalmist. Even though our own foolishness and sin have dug out a pit of death for us, Jesus is merciful and loving to raise all who call to him out of it (Romans 10:13). Because Jesus has entered into our sin and death, we can enter into his perfection and life. He stooped down into our slavery and exile to free us from them in his resurrection and ascension. 

We have not only been saved from death, but we have been saved to life. Like Israel and the psalmist, our mission is to tend and keep the place of God’s presence so that his resurrection life fills this world of death. We have been freed from our slavery to death in order to become slaves to life (Romans 6:11-14). As the freed people of God, we now offer our sacrifices to him, which are our very lives (Romans 12:1). As the offerings and meals of the psalmist brought himself and others into communion with God, God shares his life with us so we can share his life with the world. And though, like Jesus, we will suffer in offering our lives as a sacrifice to God, we know that, also like Jesus, he will raise us from all suffering and death (2 Corinthians 4:13-15). 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who rescues his people from slavery and death. And may you see Jesus as the one who entered into our slavery to intervene in our death.