Salmi 116:11 Commento

This is a thanksgiving psalm; it is not certain whether David penned it upon any particular occasion or upon a general review of the many gracious deliverances God had wrought for him, out of six troubles and seven, which deliverances draw from him many very lively expressions of devotion, love, and gratitude; and with similar pious affections our souls should be lifted up to God in singing it. Observe, I. The great distress and danger that the psalmist was in, which almost drove him to despair (Psa 116:3, Psa 116:10, Psa 116:11). II. The application he made to God in that distress (Psa 116:4). III. The experience he had of God's goodness to him, in answer to prayer; God heard him (Psa 116:1, Psa 116:2), pitied him (Psa 116:5, Psa 116:6), delivered him (Psa 116:8). IV His care respecting the acknowledgments he should make of the goodness of God to him (Psa 116:12). 1. He will love God (Psa 116:1). 2. He will continue to call upon him (Psa 116:2, Psa 116:13, Psa 116:17). 3. He will rest in him (Psa 116:7). 4. He will walk before him (Psa 116:9). 5. He will pay his vows of thanksgiving, in which he will own the tender regard God had to him, and this publicly (Psa 116:13-15, Psa 116:17-19). Lastly, He will continue God's faithful servant to his life's end (Psa 116:16). These are such breathings of a holy soul as bespeak it very happy.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 116 Theodoret applies this psalm to the distresses of the Jews in the times of the Maccabees under Antiochus Epiphanes; and R. Obadiah interprets some passages in it of the Grecians of those times; but it rather seems to have been written by David on account of some troubles of his, out of which he was delivered; and refers either to the times of Saul, and the persecutions he endured from him, particularly when he was beset round about by him and his men in the wilderness of Maon, Sa1 23:26, to which he may have respect Psa 116:3. The inscription of the psalm in the Syriac version is, "the progress of the new people returning to the Christian worship, as a child to understanding: and as to the letter, it was said when Saul stayed at the door of the cave where David lay hid with his men;'' see Sa1 24:4. But since mention is made of Jerusalem, Psa 116:19, where the psalmist would praise the Lord for his deliverance, which as yet was not in his hands nor in the hands of the Israelites, but of the Jebusites; some have thought it was written on account of the conspiracy of Absalom against him, and who, hearing that Ahithophel was among the conspirators, said the words related in Psa 116:11, it is very probable it was composed after the death of Saul, and when he was settled in the kingdom, as Jarchi observes, and was delivered out of the hands of all his enemies; and very likely much about the same time as the eighteenth psalm was, which begins in the same manner, and has some expressions in it like to what are in this. David was a type of Christ, and some apply this psalm to him.

What shall I render unto the Lord?.... He considers the Lord only as the author and giver of his mercies, and has nothing to say of his own merits, nor of other persons, who might be instruments of good to him; but is for giving all the glory to God: not as though he could render anything proportional or equivalent to what he had received, but as having a grateful sense of mercies, and willing, to express it; though at a loss, in a great measure, in what manner to do it, and therefore puts this question to himself and others: for all his benefits towards me; or, "all his benefits are upon me" (m). This being a clause of itself; and shows what moved him to put the question he did; a sense of divine favours was impressed upon him, a load of benefits lay on him, and he wanted to ease himself in expressions of gratitude. These benefits were the blessings of nature and providence; his being, and the preservation of it, food, raiment, &c. and the blessings of grace; spiritual blessings, all things pertaining to life and godliness, sanctification, adoption, pardon, justification, and eternal life. These may well be called "benefits", since they spring entirely from the free grace of God; and they were many, more than could be counted and reckoned up, and set in order before the Lord; and yet he was desirous that none of them might be forgotten, but that praise might be rendered to the Lord for them all. (m) So Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius, Michaelis.

He further commanded them, “Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” I think that we must by faith grasp and understand each of these words and speak, according as words are granted us in answer to the prayers of all, at the opening of our mouth. It is written, “If you do not believe, you shall not understand,” and also, “I have believed, therefore have I spoken.” Now, I am of the opinion that the nouns and verbs and the content of the holy Scriptures do not have as regards God and his Christ or the holy prophets and evangelists and apostles the simple and conventional understanding of them. On the contrary, we should examine the words and content under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with a pious intention, not all together but by parts, according as each may contribute to the exposition of sound doctrine. We should reflect on them devoutly and direct our thoughts to a consideration of the rules and teachings of the devout life. It is most important that we be observant and attentive to every word and choose the sense that is in keeping with our heavenly calling. This we shall accomplish if, through the prayers of all, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, strengthen us, so that the words of the apostle may be realized in us: “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.”

"I said in my trance, All men are liars" [Psalm 116:11]. By trance he means fear, which when persecutors threaten, and when the sufferings of torture or death impend, human weakness suffers. For this we understand, because in this Psalm the voice of Martyrs is heard. For trance is used in another sense also, when the mind is not beside itself by fear, but is possessed by some inspiration of revelation. "But I said in my haste, All men are liars." In consternation he has had regard to his infirmity, and has seen that he ought not to presume on himself; for as far as pertains to the man himself, he is a liar, but by the grace of God he is made true; lest yielding to the pressure of his enemies he might not speak what he had believed, but might deny it; even as it happened to Peter, since he had trusted in himself, and was to be taught that we ought not to trust in man. And if every one ought not to trust in man, surely not in himself; because he is a man. Rightly therefore in his fear did he perceive that every man was a liar; since they also whom no fear robs of their presence of mind, so that they never lie by yielding to the persecutors, are such by the gifts of God, not by their own strength....

You see, if there is faith in you, Christ is living in you. You heard the psalm: "I have believed, therefore have I spoken." It was impossible for him both to believe and remain dumb. It is being ungrateful to the one who fills you, if you do not pour out; so the fuller you are, the more you ought to pour out. A fountain, you see, is being born in you of a kind that is able to flow, unable to dry up: "It will become in him a fountain of water leaping up to eternal life." You need have no qualms about preaching, because you are not lying about the fountain of truth; you have received what comes bubbling off your tongue. I mean, if you want to say something of your very own, you will be liars. That is what is said in this very psalm: "I said in my ecstasy, Everyone is a liar." What is "Everyone is a liar?" Every Adam a liar. Strip yourself of Adam, and put on Christ, and you won't be a liar.

Such an individual, then, guards against lying just as against sinning. Sometimes, in fact, the word lie is used for the word sin; whence the saying "Everyone is a liar." So it was said as the equivalent of "Everyone is a sinner." Similarly: "if through my lie the truth of God has abounded." Thus, when he lies as people do, he sins as people do and will be bound by the judgment that says "Everyone is a liar," and "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." But when nothing false proceeds from his mouth, it will be in consequence of that grace about which it has been said, "Whoever is born of God does not commit sin." For if this birth alone were in us, no one would sin; when it alone will be in us, no one will sin. But we now are still failing, because we are born corruptible, although, if we walk well there where we have been reborn, day by day our inner person is being renewed. When this corruptible body also puts on incorruption, life will absorb all, and no sting of death will remain. But the sting of death is sin.

So this is what Scripture wished to demonstrate, that every human being, absolutely every single one precisely as human, is a liar. You see, what makes us liars is what we have of our own, and all we have of our very own is the capacity to be liars; not that we cannot be true but that we cannot be true in virtue of what we are in ourselves. Therefore, in order to be true, "I believed, wherefore I also spoke." Deprive him of "I believed"—"everyone is a liar." For when he moves away from the truth of God, he will remain in his lying, because whoever "speaks a lie speaks from what is his own." Say therefore, "What shall I give back to the Lord for everything he has given to me?" After all, "it was in my panic that I said"—and what I said was true—"everyone is a liar." But he gave me back not punishment for lying but good for evil, and by justifying the wicked he made of a liar a speaker of the truth.

And if we must also comment on the statement, “I said in my ecstasy, Everyone is a liar,” its meaning again is different. It is not at all like that of a person who is out of his senses and mentally deranged (God forbid), but of one who is greatly astonished and who thinks with the powers of reason customary to those who see and act in the proper way. For since the prophet was astonished, he also speaks here because of his astonishment. Now the prophets have experienced ecstasy, but not an ecstasy of their powers of reasoning. Peter, for example, experienced ecstasy, not that he did not understand rationally but that he saw phenomena different from the everyday order among people. “For he saw a large piece of cloth being lowered, bound at its four corners, and in it all the four-footed beasts and creeping things and birds of heaven.” And notice that the holy Peter understands and was not out of his wits. For when he hears, “Rise, kill, and eat,” he did not obey as one not having a sound mind, but he says in the Lord, “By no means, Lord; for never has anything common or unclean entered my mouth.”And the holy David, too, said, “[I said] Everyone is a liar.” But when he said, “I said,” he spoke on his own, and he said of people that they lie. He himself, therefore, did not lie, but being amazed and astounded at God’s love for humanity and the things that had been announced to him by the Lord, he marveled exceedingly, and when he saw every person in need of God’s mercy and recognized that every person is subject to punishment, he ascribed truthfulness to the Lord alone, to make known the true Spirit who spoke in the prophets and revealed to them the depths of the accurate knowledge of God.

After invoking others to unite in praise, the writer celebrates God's protecting and delivering care towards him, and then represents himself and the people of God as entering the sanctuary and uniting in solemn praise, with prayer for a continued blessing. Whether composed by David on his accession to power, or by some later writer in memory of the restoration from Babylon, its tone is joyful and trusting, and, in describing the fortune and destiny of the Jewish Church and its visible head, it is typically prophetical of the Christian Church and her greater and invisible Head. (Psa. 118:1-29) The trine repetitions are emphatic (compare Psa 118:10-12, Psa 118:15-16; Psa 115:12-13). Let . . . say--Oh! that Israel may say. now--as in Psa 115:2; so in Psa 118:3-4. After "now say" supply "give thanks." that his mercy--or, "for His mercy."

in my haste--literally, "terror," or "agitation," produced by his affliction (compare Psa 31:22).