READ Psalm 116:12–19. 12 What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. 14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants. 16 Truly I am your servant, LORD; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains. 17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD. 18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the LORD—in your midst, Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.
DELIVERED FROM DEATH. God saved the psalmist from death (verse 8) because his servants’ deaths are costly (“precious”) and painful to him (verse 15). The psalmist feels he has been virtually resurrected back into the land of the living (see verse 9). God does, of course, allow his people to die, but they are so precious to him that he will someday pay the ultimate price on the cross so that our physical death will be just an entrance into greater life (2 Corinthians 5:1–10). Therefore, we can drink “the cup of salvation” to him (verse 13), celebrating this salvation in worship. But that is only because he drank the cup of divine wrath on sin, for us (Luke 22:42).
Prayer: Lord, you died that I might not die forever, and you rose so I might live forever. For this may I “sing your praise without delays.”121 Help me live my days in joyful hope, helping my soul to remember that as sin “consigned thee to dust, His life may make thee gold, and much more, just.”122 Amen.