Psalm 116 reads as follows from the New Oxford Annotated Bible: I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and supplications, Because he inclined his ear to me, Therefore I will call on him as long as I live, The snares of death encompassed me, The pangs of Sheol laid hold on me, I suffered distress and anguish, Then I called on the name of the Lord, “O Lord, I pray, save my life!" Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, Our God is merciful, The Lord protects the simple, When I was brought low, he saved me, Return oh my soul, to your rest, For the Lord has dealth bountifully with me, For you have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, My feet from stumbling, I walk before the Lord, In the land of the living, I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted." I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar." When shall I return to the Lord, For all his bounty to me, I will lift up the cup of salvation, And call on the name of the Lord, Precious in the sight of the Lord, Is the death of his faithful ones, O Lord, I am your servant, the child of your serving girl, You have loosed my bonds, I will offer you a thanksgiving sacrifice, And call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord, In the presence of all his people, In the courts of the house of the Lord In your midst, O Jerusalem, Praise the Lord, The central focus of this psalm is on the power of prayer. The psalmist has personally experienced prayer to where he knows that the Lord “inclined his ear unto me." Whatever happened as a result of these prayers, the direct evidence and direct experience was that the Lord had inclined his ear to him. He knows the Lord's had to have heard him, based on what happened. He had been in the situation to where there was a threat to his life, possibly this was a serious illness and whatever it actually was it necessitated that he ask the Lord to save his life. He had received a favorable answer which he states is out of the Lord’s bountifulness which means he also found a kind of spaciousness to the answer where not only did he have a foothold but in every area he could see things were okay. It wasn't just one area that was restored for him. His personal vision seems to have been restored to where he could see the future again as filled with goodness and this type of obtained vision was also part of the bountifullness of the answer. He could then breathe easy, knowing he is safe and that the Lord has dealt bountifully with him as he says" return oh my soul your rest." This is a key verse in this psalm as relating to prayer. In the writings over centuries on prayer, there is the idea of desolation and consolation as part of the discernment process in prayer according to the writings of the spiritual masters. For example, you could refer to the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola where desolation or lack of comfort means that you are heading in the wrong way and the right answers will be accompanied by feelings of consolation. Pockets of peace or even being overwhelmed with an actual physical feeling of peace, have been considered indicative throughout history as something the Lord sends to accompany answers that he has given his saints in response to specific prayers. The presence of peace is taken as a sign that this is the Lord's way as the Lord brings forth a peace that accompanies the answer. The state of the soul, whether at rest or unrest is looked at as part of the discernment process in prayer. Unrest would indicate a lack of peace meaning this is not the way to go. When he says for all his bounty for me, he is talking about the totality of what the Lord is doing and has done for him. Something to remember with regards to any individual prayer request is that this request is not the totality of what you want from the Lord. His bounty is going to include much more than any individual request contains and you are also dealing with the Lord in prayer at the level of his overall bounty, which contains a totality that you also need to keep in mind as you pray for individual requests which is not ever going to be the endpoint of your prayer life. You don't want to artificially limit your prayers by asking persistently perhaps for just one or seemingly a handful of requests as this goes against the reality of the Lord's bounty which is plenteous beyond what we could even know. You could even say for example, " Among the many things I want this would be one of them." Keep the realization that the individual content of this request is not going to be it and you will continually be calling upon the Lord's bounty for any number and type of requests. It might also be advantageous to preface some of your repeated requests with I do want this, but this isn't the only thing I am going to want. This is honest prayer and practical prayer as well. It is impractical to try and get that one vaunted answer from the Lord when the reality is that manifold requests and issues will be upheld now and later and I want also to keep open that slate or area where I will need to make further requests, as the situations arise for them. In the gospel of Mark chapter 4 verses 24 and 25 it says," Consider carefully what you hear," he continued,"With the measure that you use, it will be measured to you-and even more. Whoever has will be given more,whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." So it is better to be on the side of asking for more, interceding for more in prayer as this increases the measures you are using in prayer. If you are asking more for others, in a sense you are increasing the measure you are using towards yourself as well. It is okay to pray at the 11th hour, but it is better to have been praying continually and praying big all along because you are increasing the measure by doing this. This relates to the Lord's bounty, and the call in relation to the Lord's bounty mentioned here in this psalm is to take bigger and more consistent and continual measures in prayer. You don't want to ask for less in your prayer life. It is better to ask for more and seek more in terms of the measures of what you are asking for, including in intercessions. In verse 6 he says, “The Lord protects the simple, when I was brought low, he saved me." So much of what someone might want the Lord to do, actually involves the matter of protection and the protection of the Lord should be called upon within requests for just about anything that is the subject of prayer. Any prayer for healing is also a matter of protection as you also want the Lord to protect your health on an ongoing basis. Even if you don't have the healing, any type of healing also involves protection and you need to get to a place of protection as well as a place of healing. If you are praying for wealth, you also want the Lord to protect your wealth and anything you could possibly have that relates to wealth also needs to be protected. A prayer for good relationships is also a matter of protection as you want the Lord to protect the relationships as good relationships can sour. The protection is afforded to the simple, and anyone could be simple to some of the matters that do involve protection in the sense that you can't see everything you need to be protected from in the first place. Storms do come out of nowhere and with a suddenness that can't be predicted. This is just indicative that the protection afforded is beyond the reach of what can be had other then through prayer and the Lord's mercy. An individual can't possibly know all the threats out there that would necessitate the protection of the Lord even with a good degree of sophistication as to what is going on. Things that could go awry can happen with complete suddenness and from seemingly out of nowhere. Verse 12 thru 15 says," What shall I return to the Lord, for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord, In the presence of all his people." Although the answered prayers first seem to refer to him, whatever is going on specifically is also involved with the Lord’s people as the psalmist and his life come into a wider view of the " presence of his people." The image of the cup is also used in psalm 23 going to verse 5, where it says," my cup overflows". In this psalm the word bountiful is used, which is also represents overflowing graces and relates to the verse in psalm 23 of the " overflowing cup". The Lord's answers to this psalmist's prayers have been like an overflowing cup and he finds additional consolation in this overflow of graces for him. He will continue to partake of this overflowing cup and call upon the Lord as long as he lives as the overflowing cup has connotations of length of days and far reaching blessings into the unseen future. Here the psalmist says he will lift up the “cup of salvation" and call upon the Lord. The cup in the context of the psalms indicates one's portion or lot. The cup symbolizes something he has his own hand upon, that he exercises some control over and can on his own accord lift skyward to the Lord. Someone can drink of the cup or partake of the cup. It is not something that you are hands off with. The Lord has given him prayer power, which is held like a cup, which he does have some control over and can exercise choice with. It is from the Lord but it is given to him to where he has he own hand upon it. The cup of salvation is upheld and sees through all the way to where it says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his faithful ones." The cup is uplifted for good times now and the onward look towards salvation. The cup overflows into eventual salvation. His portion would be that he would remain in the sight of the Lord forever, that he would be saved. Also though, what else is precious in the sight of the Lord and this is something that can also be discussed in prayer. We know that it is precious that the Lord has kept his own towards eventual salvation but what else can we consider in the here and now as precious in the sight of the Lord? This is something to contemplate and seek in prayer and meditation. He has the confidence that this relationship extends past his own lifetime. In verse 16, it says, “O Lord, I am your servant, the child of your serving girl." You have loosed my bonds. The Lord has given him to some degree free reign to call upon him in various ways, and has given him prayer power. He believes his mother's prior service to the Lord and the Lord’s high regard for his mother, has imparted blessings to him and that the Lord’s mercy on him is in part emanating to him from the Lord for his mother’s sake. When he says, " You have loosed my bonds." Whatever had gone wrong with him, again possibly an illness had left him in a sense bound and had become a type of bondage. People can be bound in any number of ways today, a common area would be addictions, or just even not being able to change and go into what the Lord has now. Being bound means that he wasn't able to receive what the Lord now had for him and in order for the Lord to give him what He wanted to give him, he also needed to free him to receive the gift. He is free now and can partake of the "cup'. Thanksgiving is already part of the picture for the psalmist in the present as the thanks the Lord presently. He will not wait on thanking the Lord, there is enough in the present picture to do that now and he will not hold off until later in doing this. He doesn't have to look into the future to find something to be thankful for and of course you can look to the future in prayer and be thankful for things that may happen in the future, but he doesn't have to wait until then to find his thankful words and heart in prayer. In fact, his renewed hope for a bright personal future emanates and expands from the thanksgiving in the present. A within the day example of this could be if you start out in the morning and the weather is just magnificent for what you are trying to do in the outdoors, you can have a thankfulness right there that has anticipatory elements. You don't have to get everything you ever wanted to be thankful in this moment. There are points of thanksgiving that can be reached upon right now. While you anticipate and hope for more blessings from the Lord, you might have a similar blessing in hand and you can stop and thank the Lord for this blessing now and that thanksgiving in a sense can expand into that yes, Lord, I am thanking you for this and I will expand into thanking you as I receive more of this or something similar to this. But you don't expand from nothing, you expand from the point of having thanked the Lord already at the origins of the blessings. The healed lepers went on to live a healed life, but only one stopped and thanked the Lord at the origin of the blessing and from there this one individual could expand on his thankfulness as he walked away healed and therefore facing a new and brighter future with expanded things to be thankful for. Maybe now he could have so many things that he couldn't have had with the leprosy interfering with his life. Verse 17 says," I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice, and call upon the name of the Lord." Also, the calling upon the Lord in a way is also a type of thanksgiving in that involves using the gift of prayer. If someone gives you a gift, part of being grateful for it is actually using the gift. If someone gives you a gift certificate, they want you to use it. The psalmist has been giving the gift of prayer and he will use it. If someone gives you a free pass to the beach, to actually go in the ocean and immerse in the ocean is going into that gift and is a part of being grateful for it. In the final to verses of this psalm it says, “I will pay my vows to the Lord, in the presence of all his people, In the courts of the house of the Lord, In your midst, O Jerusalem, Praise the Lord. At the conclusion of this psalm, he has now both reconciled with himself and other people. In verse 11 it says, I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar." We don’t know the content and context of this, as to why he was calling everyone a liar, but apparently his affliction and troubles had extended out, and it negatively affected his relationships with others. An extreme example of this happening in the Bible is the case of Job, where his situation had alienated him to everyone including his wife. In the end though, the psalmist is now able to be in the presence of all of the Lord’s people, in the middle of Jerusalem itself with the voice of praise. The ending of this story is a happy ending, and the happy ending includes reconciliation with others and healed relationships. This is symbolic also of how the Lord may act as part of his healing and grace, he will not bring us away but back into the middle of things and of people, of things that we are again capable of with his graciousness, help and mercy and reclamation of those original graces. He brought the psalmist back to the midst of Jerusalem. He was where he wanted to be with the people he wanted to be with, and right in the middle of what he wanted to be in the middle of. The vows that he did make in this psalm clearly involved prayer efforts that he would make, very likely on behalf of others, as it mentions in verse 18 that his vow would be paid in the presence of his people. The Lord has kept him as a powerful prayer warrior for his people and as he says, he will now call upon the Lord all the days of his life or as long as he lives. You could speculate also from this psalm, that the psalmist had been a skilled prayer person, who had stopped praying and this is why the Lord allowed him to have these troubles, so that he would turn back or come into a turnaround. His vow apparently was that if the Lord could get him out of the great trouble he was in, that he would pray as long as he lives and this included intercessory prayers in the courts of the Lord's people. He would never again leave his prayer life. In his distresses, he might have made this promise to the Lord and he saw what the Lord was doing for him in response to this vow and that the Lord did open up his way back to health and for this he was grateful and did remember his promise to pray all his life if the Lord would only get him back to health and out of his troubles. There is a strong degree of correlation to the themes of this psalm. The Lord's bounty towards, him, the loosing of the bonds, and the uplifting of the cup all relate to freedom in the Lord's presence and manifold graces he is receiving from the Lord. The bounty is so widespread that he had to have the freedom to traverse into the luminous and ever expanding bounty of the Lord, by loosing the bounds he is now free from what kept him from the blessings and he uplifts the cup freely to the Lord even with the overflowing blessings into the eternal. An idea from this psalm is to focus on the Lord's bounty where you see it, be thankful for it and allow it and expect it to expand as you go forth in time and space
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