สดุดี 116:15 วิจารณ์

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.

I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving,.... For deliverance from afflictions and death; for loosing his bonds, in every sense; for all mercies, temporal and spiritual; see Rom 6:17; Such sacrifices are according to the will of God; are well pleasing to him, when offered up through Christ, and in faith, and are a glorifying of him. These are more acceptable than all ceremonial sacrifices; and therefore the psalmist determined to offer this, and not them; and will call upon the name of the Lord; See Gill on Psa 116:13.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy, to deliver their souls from death,” even eternal death, “and to nourish them in their hunger,” that is, after eternal life. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” “The Lord keeps all their bones; not one of them shall be broken.” The Lord will redeem the souls of his servants. We have adduced these few quotations from a mass of the Creator’s Scriptures; and no more, I suppose, are needed to prove him to be a most good God, for they sufficiently indicate both the precepts of his goodness and the firstfruits of it.

Oh, what a spectacle was that to the Lord,-how sublime, how great, how acceptable to the eyes of God in the allegiance and devotion of His soldiers! As it is written in the Psalms, when the Holy Spirit at once speaks to us and warns us: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Precious is the death which has bought immortality at the cost of its blood, which has received the crown from the consummation of its virtues.

There they stood, victims of torture yet stronger than their tormentors. Their battered and lacerated limbs overcome the “claws” that tore and ripped at them. The savage, oft-repeated lashes could not defeat the martyrs’ inextinguishable faith, though once their entrails were prized apart it was not the limbs of God’s servants but their open wounds that were racked. It was as though their blood flowed to extinguish the fires of the persecution, to damp down the flames and burning coals of hell with its glorious streams. O what a marvelous sight it was before the Lord, how sublime, how precious! How welcome a sight to God’s eyes is the allegiance and self-offering of his legionaries! So it is written in the Psalms, when the Holy Spirit speaks likewise reminding us, “How precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his just.”

By the death of the martyrs, religion has been defended, the faith spread and the church strengthened. The dead have been victorious, and the persecutors have been vanquished. Accordingly, we celebrate the deaths of those of whose lives we know nothing. So, too, David in prophecy rejoiced at the departure of his own soul, saying, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints.” He held death in more esteem than life. The death itself of the martyrs is the prize of life. Furthermore, even the hatreds of enemies are dissolved by death.

Through such glorious deeds of the holy martyrs, with which the church blossoms everywhere, we prove with our own eyes how true what we have just been singing is, that “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”; seeing that it is precious both in our sight and in the sight of him for the sake of whose name it was undertaken. But the price of these deaths is the death of one man. How many deaths were bought by one dying man, who was the grain of wheat that would not have been multiplied if he had not died! You heard his words when he was drawing near to his passion, that is, when he was drawing near to our redemption: “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”On the cross, you see, he transacted a grand exchange; it was there that the purse containing our price was untied; when his side was laid open by the lance of the executioner, there poured out from it the price of the whole wide world. The faithful were bought and the martyrs; but the faith of the martyrs has been proved; blood is the witness to it. They have paid back what was spent for them, and they have fulfilled what John says: “Just as Christ laid down his life for us, so we too should lay down our lives for the brothers.” And in another place it says, “You have sat down at a great table; consider carefully what is set before you, since it behooves you to prepare the same kind of things yourself.” It is certainly a great table, where the lord of the table is himself the banquet. Nobody feeds his guests on himself; that is what the Lord Christ did, being himself the host, himself the food and drink. So the martyrs recognized what they ate and drank, so that they could give back the same kind of thing.

But this man seeks what he may return unto the Lord, and finds not, save out of those things which the Lord Himself returns. "I will receive," he says, "the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord" [Psalm 116:13]. "My vows will I render to the Lord, before all His people" [Psalm 116:14]. Who has given you the cup of salvation, which when you take, and callest upon the Name of the Lord, you shall return unto Him a reward for all that He has returned unto you? Who, save He who says, "Are ye able to drink the cup that I shall drink of?" Who has given unto you to imitate His sufferings, save He who has suffered before for you? And therefore, "Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints" [Psalm 116:15]. He purchased it by His Blood, which He first shed for the salvation of slaves, that they might not hesitate to shed their blood for the Lord's Name; which, nevertheless, would be profitable for their own interests, not for those of the Lord.

The Lord, though, bears striking witness to his witnesses [martyrs], when after stiffening their hearts for the struggle, he does not abandon their bodies once they are dead, like the outstanding miracle he performed over the body of blessed Vincent. The enemy desired and took all necessary steps to ensure that the body should completely disappear; but a divine sign gave its whereabouts away and revealed it for religious burial and veneration so promptly that it would continue as a lasting memorial to the victory of piety and impiety’s defeat. Indeed, “how precious in the sight of the Lord must be the death of his saints,” when not even the earth of the flesh is ignored after the life has gone out of it; and when, as the invisible soul withdraws from its visible home, this dwelling of his servant is preserved by the Lord’s care and honored for the Lord’s glory by his faithful fellow servants.

So Vincent vanquished Dacian while he lived; he vanquished him also when he was dead. Living he trampled on the torments, dead he swam across the sea. But the one who guided and steered the lifeless corpse through the waves was the same one who had granted him an invincible spirit among the torturer’s iron claws. The torturer’s flames did not intimidate his heart, the waters of the sea did not sink his body. But all these things occurred just to show that “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” To this glory may the Lord bring us too under his protection, whose is the honor and the empire for ever and ever.

But the truth was revealed to the man who pointed out the things that were discovered. The place, you see, was indicated by preceding signs; and it was discovered to be just as it had been revealed in them. Many people received relics from there, because that was God’s will, and they came as far as here. So both this place and this day is being commended to your graces’91 devotion; each is to be celebrated to the honor of God, whom Stephen confessed. After all, we have not built an altar in this place to Stephen, but an altar to God from Stephen’s relics. Altars of this kind are pleasing to God. You ask why? Because “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Those who shed their blood for their Redeemer were redeemed by his blood. He shed his as the redemptive price of their salvation; the martyrs shed theirs as a means of spreading his gospel. They gave him something in exchange, but not from their own resources; their ability to do so, after all, was his gift; and for that to be done that could be done by them was his gift. As a mark of his favor, he proved them with the occasion of their martyrdom. It happened, they suffered, they trampled on the world.

Yet he himself also made precious the blood of his people for whom he gave the price of his blood; for if he did not make precious the blood of his people, it would not be said, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” And so also in regard to what Jesus says, “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” He is not the only one who did this; and yet, if those who did [so] are Christ’s members, he himself alone likewise did this. For he could do [something] without them, but how could they do [anything] without him since he himself said, “Without me you can do nothing”? From this we show, however, what the others also did: because John the apostle himself, who preached this Gospel that you have heard, said in his epistle, “As Christ laid down his life for us, so we, too, ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” “We ought to,” he said; he who first showed the way made us debtors. Therefore in a certain place it has been written, “If you sit to dine at the table of the ruler, wisely understand what is set before you. And put forth your hand, knowing that you ought to prepare such things.” You know what the table of the ruler is; thereupon is the body and blood of Christ. He who approaches such a table, let him prepare such things. What is, let him prepare such things? “As he laid down his life for us, so we, too, ought,” for edifying the people and defending the faith, “to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

The earth has been filled with the blood of the martyrs as with seed, and from that seed have sprung the crops of the church. They have asserted Christ’s cause more effectively when dead than when they were alive. They assert it today, they preach him today; their tongues are silent, their deeds echo round the world. They were arrested, bound, imprisoned, brought to trial, tortured, burned at the stake, stoned to death, run through, fed to wild beasts. In all their kinds of death they were jeered at as worthless, but “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

Your blessed co-apostle, Paul, “vessel of election” and special teacher of the nations, coming to this city, was your associate at that time when all innocence, all honor, all liberty was suffering under the will of Nero. Nero’s rage, inflamed by an excess of all vices, in this time drove him up to such a flood of insanity that he was the first to bring on the honor of a general persecution for the name of Christian. He seemed to think that the grace of God might be cut off through the slaughter of God’s holy ones. Nero did not know that the religion founded on the mystery of the cross cannot be extinguished by any kind of cruelty, since “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” This does not diminish, but it increases, the church. As if the grace of God could be blotted out by the slaughter of his holy ones, for whom it was the greatest profit that the contempt of this failing life brought the knowledge of eternal happiness. Therefore this failing life brought the knowledge of eternal happiness. Therefore “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

Renounce pleasure, turn away from uncleanness, dispel luxury, flee unrighteousness, resist falsehood. When you see that you are waging a battle on many fronts, then you must also, in imitation of the martyrs, pursue a many-sided victory. Every time we die to sins, the sins die in us, and this “death of his holy ones is precious in the sight of the Lord,” because a “human being” dies “to the world” not by the destruction of senses but by the death of vices.

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."

By the plea of being a homeborn servant, he intimates his claim on God's covenant love to His people.

From what he has experienced the poet infers that the saints of Jahve are under His most especial providence. Instead of המּות the poet, who is fond of such embellishments, chooses the pathetic form המּותה, and consequently, instead of the genitival construct state (מות), the construction with the Lamed of "belonging to." It ought properly to be "soul" or "blood," as in the primary passage Psa 72:14. But the observation of Grotius: quae pretiosa sunt, non facile largimur, applies also to the expression "death." The death of His saints is no trifling matter with God; He does not lightly suffer it to come about; He does not suffer His own to be torn away from Him by death. (Note: The Apostolic Constitutions (vi. 30) commend the singing of these and other words of the Psalms at the funerals of those who have departed in the faith (cf. Augusti, Denkwrdigkeiten, ix. 563). In the reign of the Emperor Decius, Babylas Bishop of Antioch, full of blessed hope, met death singing these words.) After this the poet goes on beseechingly: ānnáh Adonaj. The prayer itself is not contained in פּתּחתּ למוסרי - for he is already rescued, and the perfect as a precative is limited to such utterances spoken in the tone of an exclamation as we find in Job 21:16 - but remains unexpressed; it lies wrapped up as it were in this heartfelt ānnáh: Oh remain still so gracious to me as Thou hast already proved Thyself to me. The poet rejoices in and is proud of the fact that he may call himself the servant of God. With אמתך he is mindful of his pious mother (cf. Psa 86:16). The Hebrew does not form a feminine, עבדּה; Arab. amata signifies a maid, who is not, as such, also Arab. ‛abdat, a slave. The dative of the object, למוסרי (from מוסרים for the more usual מוסרות), is used with פתחת instead of the accusative after the Aramaic manner, but it does also occur in the older Hebrew (e.g., Job 19:3; Isa 53:11). The purpose of publicly giving thanks to the Gracious One is now more full-toned here at the close. Since such emphasis is laid on the Temple and the congregation, what is meant is literal thank-offerings in payment of vows. In בּתוככי (as in Psa 135:9) we have in the suffix the ancient and Aramaic i (cf. Psa 116:7) for the third time. With אנּה the poet clings to Jahve, with נגדּה־נּא to the congregation, and with בּתוככי to the holy city. The one thought that fills his whole soul, and in which the song which breathes forth his soul dies away, is Hallelujah.