Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 116:8
For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, [and] my feet from falling.
8, 9. Taken almost verbatim from Psa 56:13 (hence the transition to the second person), with the change of light to lands, suggested by Psa 27:13. The free and joyous service of God in the land of life and light is the contrast to that paralysis of existence in Sheol which he had dreaded. Cp. Isa 38:3; Isa 38:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For thou hast delivered my soul from death – My life. Thou hast saved me from death. This is such language as would be used by one who had been dangerously ill, and who had been restored again to health.
Mine eyes from tears – Tears which he had shed in his sickness, and in the apprehension of dying. It may refer to tears shed on other occasions, but it is most natural to refer it to this. Compare the notes at Psa 6:6.
And my feet from falling – From stumbling. That is, he had not, as it were, fallen by the way, and been rendered unable to pursue the journey of life. All this seems to refer to one occasion – to a time of dangerous illness.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 116:8-9
For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
On recovery from sickness
I. The blessing conferred. Why was the psalmist so transported with joy, on being delivered from death? As if a mariner were to give thanks that he is not arrived in port; a traveller that he has not reached the end of his tedious journey; a banished man that he is not restored to his country; or a man groaning under a heavy burden that he is not relieved from it. Let us not hastily blame this emotion of the psalmist. For although death, through Gods favour, be a benefit to pious and holy persons; yet in itself, abstracted from those considerations, it is fearful and terrible. It is the sentence of our condemnation; the punishment of our rebellion; the bitter fruit of our corruption. But the text suggests to us, on this subject, two particular reflections.
1. David was not a mere private person; for he held two very important public stations. He was a king, and a prophet. As a king, his life was highly important to the state; as a prophet, it was a singular utility to the Church of God. And in each of these distinguished relations David was an extraordinary personage. He was a signally brave, wise and pious king, and he was a prophet of unequalled vigour and comprehension of mind. David, therefore, might wish for life, and be thankful on his deliverance from death, not only for his own sake, or chiefly, but for that of his people; for the good of his subjects, and the service of Gods Church, to which he was so useful and necessary.
2. There are actually occasions on which even good persons may fear death, and feel a most lively joy in being delivered from it. And those are when their sickness and sufferings are the immediate effect of their sins. For although their peace may be made with God, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, yet God may send upon them very sharp corrections, when they have offended Him by criminal acts and provocations. And they may wish and pray not to die in this state; death, presenting itself in such junctures, being more than commonly formidable.
II. The grateful acknowledgment (verse 9). When we read in Scripture of walking before the Lord, we often find other expressions joined with this, such as prove that it means piety in general, the whole duty of a religious and godly person. One of the Grecian sages having said, All things are full of God, and He seeth all our actions, another great man judged this maxim to be so beautiful and important that he pronounced it to comprehend the whole philosophy of virtue. And with great reason: for, in truth, the conviction and feeling of having God over present with us is the grand security of all good morals. The promise and vow, therefore, of David in the text is–a pure and holy life: I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. (S. Partridge, M.A.)
Experience, resolve and hope
This is a quotation from an earlier psalm, with variations which are interesting, whether we suppose that the psalmist was quoting from memory and made them unconsciously, or whether, as is more probable, he did so deliberately and for a purpose.
1. The words in the original psalm (56) read, Thou hast delivered my soul from death; hast Thou not delivered my feet from falling? The writer of this psalm felt that that did not say all, so he put in another clause–mine eyes from tears. It is not enough to keep a man alive and upright. God will wipe away his tears; and will often keep him from shedding them.
2. The original psalm goes on: Thou hast delivered . . . my feet from falling, that I may walk before God. But the later psalmist goes a step further than his original. The first singer had seen what it is always a blessing to see–what God meant by all the varieties of His providences, viz. that the recipient might walk as in His presence. But the later poet not only discerns, but accords with, Gods purpose, yields himself to the Divine intention, and instead of simply saying, That was what God meant, he says, That is what I am going to do–I will walk before the Lord.
3. The original psalm says, in the light of the living; the other uses another word, a little more intelligible, perhaps, to an ordinary reader, and says, in the land of the living. Now, noting these significant variations, I would draw attention to this expression of the psalmists acceptance of the Divine purpose, and the vision that it gave him of his future. It is hard to say whether he means I will walk, or I shall walk; whether he is expressing a hope or giving utterance to a fixed resolve. I think there is an element of both in the words.
I. A sure anticipation. Thou hast–I will. The past is for this psalmist a mirror in which he sees reflected the approaching form of the veiled future. Gods past is the guarantee of Gods future. What God has done, He will keep on doing. Our experience yields fuel for our faith. We have been near death many a time; we have never fallen into it. Our eyes have been wet many a time; God has dried them. Our feet have been ready to fall many a time, and if at the moment when we were tottering on the edge of the precipice, we have cried to Him and said, My feet have well-nigh slipped, a strong hand has been held out to us. The Lord upholdeth them that are in the act of failing. And if we have pushed aside His hand, and gone down, then the next clause of the same verse applies, for He raiseth up those that have fallen, and are lying prostrate. As it has been, so it will be. Thou hast been with me in six troubles, therefore in the seventh Thou wilt not forsake me. We can wear out men; and we cannot argue that because a man has had long patience with some unworthy recipient of his goodness, his patience will never give out. But it is safe to argue thus about God.
II. A firm resolve. I will walk before the Lord. What does walking before the Lord mean? It means the habitual–I do not say unbroken, but habitual–effort to feel in our conscious hearts that we are in His sight; not only that we are with Him, but that we are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And that is to be the result, says our psalm, as it is the intention, of all that God has been doing with us in His merciful providence, in His quickening, sustaining, and comforting influences in the past. He sent all these varying conditions, kept the man alive, kept him from weeping, or dried his tears, kept him from falling, with the intention that he should be continually blessed in the continuous sunshine of Gods presence, and should open out his heart in it and for it, like a flower when the sunbeams strike it. Oh, how different life would look if we habitually took hold of all its incidents by that handle, and thought about them, not as we are accustomed to do, according to whether they tended to make us glad or sorry, to disappoint or fulfil our hopes and purposes, but looked upon them all as stages in our education, and as intended, if I might so say, to force us, when the tempests blow, close up against God; and, when the sunshine came, to woo us to His side. Would not all life change its aspect if we carried that thought right into it, and did not only keep it for Sundays, or for the crises of our lives, but looked at all the trifles as so many magnest brought into action by Him to attract us to Himself? But there has to be something more. There have to be a firm resolve, and effort without which the firmest resolve will all come to water, and be one more paving stone for the road that is paved with good intentions. That firm resolve finds utterance in the not vain vow, I will–in spite of all opposition and difficulties–I will walk before the Lord, and keep ever bright in my mind the thought, Thou God seest me. Aye! and just in the measure in which we do that shall we have joy. If we are right with God, then the gladdest of thoughts is, Thou knowest me altogether, and Thou hast beset me behind and before. If we are right with God, Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me will mean for us support and blessing. If we are wrong, it will mean a weight that crushes to the earth. And if we are right with Him, that same thought brings with it security and companionship. Ah! we do not need ever to say, I am alone, if we are walking before God. It brings with it, of course, an armour against temptation. That thought, of the present God, draws the teeth of all the raging lions, and takes the sting out of all the serpents, and paralyses and reduces to absolute nothingness every temptation. Clasp Gods hand, and we shall not fall.
III. A far-reaching hope. When we read, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living, we cannot but think of the true and perfect deliverance, when it shall be said, with a depth and a fulness of meaning with which it is never said here, Thou hast delivered my soul from death, and the black dread that towered so high, and closed the vista of all human expectation of the future, is now away back in the past, hull-down on the horizon, as they say about ships scarcely visible, and no more to be feared. We cannot but think of the perfect deliverance of mine eyes from tears, when God shall wipe away the tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people from off all the earth. We cannot but think of the perfect deliverance of my feet from falling when the redeemed of the Lord shall stand firm, and walk at liberty on the golden pavements, and no more dread the stumbling-blocks of earth. We cannot but think of the perfect presence of God, the perfect consciousness that we are near Him, when He shall present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. We cannot but think of the perfect activity of that future state when we shall walk with Him in white, and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. And one guarantee for all that far-reaching hope is the tiny experiences of the present; for He who hath delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling, is not going to expose Himself to the scoff; This God began to build, and was not able to finish. But He will complete that which He has begun, and will not stay His hand until all His children are perfectly redeemed and perfectly conscious of His perfect presence. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
A series of great deliverances
Lo, here a deliverance, not from one, but many dangers–death, tears, falling. Single deliverances are as threads; but, when multiplied, they become as a cord twisted of many threads, more potent to draw us to God. Any one mercy is as a link, but many favours are as a chain consisting of several links, to bind us the closer to our duty. Frequent droppings of the rain cannot but make an impression even on the stone, and renewed mercies may well prevail with the stony heart. Parisiensis related a story of a man whom (notwithstanding his vicious courses) God was pleased to accumulate favours upon, so that at last he cried out, Most gracious God, Thy unwearied goodness hath overcome my obstinate wickedness, and from that time devoted himself to Gods service. No wonder, then, if David, upon deliverance from such numerous and grievous afflictions, maketh this his resolve, to walk before the Lord in the land of the living. (N. Hardy.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Thou hast delivered my soul from death] Thou hast rescued my life from the destruction to which it was exposed.
Mine eyes from tears] Thou hast turned my sorrow into joy.
My feet from falling.] Thou hast taken me out of the land of snares and pitfalls, and brought me into a plain path. How very near does our ancient mother tongue come to this: – [Anglo-Saxon]. For thou he nerode sawle mine of deathe, eapan mine of tearum; fet mine of slide. And this language is but a little improved in the old Psalter:-
For he toke my saule fra dede; my eghen fra teres; my fete fra slippyng.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My soul; myself.
From falling, to wit, into mischief, and the pit of destruction.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For thou hast delivered my soul from death,…. From a corporeal death, when his life was in danger, surrounded by Saul’s army, in the hand of the Philistines at Gath, and when his son rebelled against him; and from a spiritual death in regeneration, which is a passing from death to life; and from an eternal death, the just wages of sin: and not only so, but even
mine eyes from tears; they were sometimes full of, and shed in great plenty; he watered his couch with them; and especially when absent from the worship of the Lord, and without his presence, which his enemies sometimes reproached him with; and particularly when he fled before his rebellious son, and at the death of him; but God dried up all his tears; see Ps 6:6. Many are the occasions of the saints weeping as they pass through the valley of “Baca”, but God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.
And my feet from falling through a “push” l, by an enemy, so as to fall; the people of God are liable to falling, both into sin and into calamity; it is the Lord only that keeps them; and which they may expect from their interest in his love, covenant, and promises, and from their being in the hands of Christ; see Ps 56:13.
l “ab impulsu”, Montanus; “ab impulsione”, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(8) Falling.Or, stumbling. (See Psa. 56:13, the original of this passage.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8, 9. Quoted from David, Psa 56:13
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 690
GRATEFUL RECOLLECTIONS
Psa 116:8-9. Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling: I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
IT is justly said by David, in another psalm, The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein [Note: Psa 111:2.]: and great indeed they will appear, to all who endeavour to trace them even in the narrow sphere of their own experience. David, it is true, had a greater variety of extraordinary incidents to enumerate, and of mercies to be thankful for, than almost any other person whatever; but still there is no such difference between his experience and that of other men, but that his complaints may be poured out by them, and his thanksgivings be adopted by them. In the psalm before us he seems to have been delivered from some heavy afflictions; and to have been raised from the depths of sorrow to an extraordinary elevation of peace and joy. He had been encompassed with the sorrows of death, and the pains of hell had got hold upon him; but God, in answer to his prayers, had graciously delivered him from all his troubles.
In the words which we have just read, we see,
I.
His review of past mercies
God, it seems, had delivered,
1.
His soul from death
[In its primary sense, we apprehend, these words refer to the death of the body. Saul had sought to the utmost of his power to destroy him: but God had on many occasions signally interposed for his protection, and had preserved him to the present hour. And have not we also reason to adore our God for the interpositions of his providence in our behalf? Though we have not been in similar circumstances with David, we have been exposed to many dangers, both seen and unseen; and have therefore just occasion to adopt before God the same expressions of reverential gratitude.
But we must doubtless include under these terms a deliverance from eternal death also [Note: Compare Psa 86:13 and Isa 38:17.]. David was assured that God had forgiven all his sins [Note: Psa 103:3.], not excepting those committed in the matter of Uriah [Note: 2Sa 12:13.]: well therefore might he magnify the grace which had been exercised towards him. And have not we also reason to magnify our God for having rescued our souls from perdition? True; many of us, it is to be feared, are yet in an unpardoned state: nevertheless, even they have cause to bless God that they have not long since been consigned over to everlasting and irremediable misery. Millions of the human race have been cut off in their sins, though they had not, it may be, attained one half of the measure of iniquity that lies upon our souls: and yet they have been taken, and we left. O let us admire and adore this inscrutable mystery, and let us give unto God the glory due unto his name!
But it may be that our souls are in a pardoned state; and that God has taken a live coal from off the altar, and applied it to our lips, saying, Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged [Note: Isa 6:6-7.]. If so, what acknowledgments should we make? Verily there can be no circumstances whatever in which such persons should not bless God from their very inmost souls [Note: 1Pe 1:3-4. N. B. This is the very commencement of an Epistle written to Strangers who were scattered all the world over by cruel persecutions.].]
2.
His eyes from tears
[David often found occasion to weep, either on his own account or on account of others [Note: Psa 42:3, 2Sa 13:36; 2Sa 15:30; 2Sa 18:33.]. Indeed his whole life was tempestuous and full of trouble. What the particular affliction was from which he had now been delivered, we do not exactly know. If it was sickness and death, his tears must have proceeded, as Hezekiahs did, from an apprehension of the distraction and misery that were likely to ensue to the whole state by his removal from it at that time [Note: Isa 38:9-14.]. But whatever it was, his mind was now at ease in relation to it.
And are we at this time free from any great affliction? Surely we have reason to be thankful for it: for, how numberless are the sources of grief from whence our whole souls may speedily be overwhelmed! In our own persons we are exposed to diseases and accidents every moment. In our relative connexions too, how many occasions of sorrow are ever ready to arise! the misconduct of one, the unkindness of another, the misfortunes of a third, the death of one that was to us as our own souls,alas! alas! it is a vale of tears that we are passing through, moaning or bemoaned every hour. Our very pleasures not unfrequently become occasions of the bitterest pains. If then we have been kept for any time in a good measure of peaceful serenity, we may well account it a rich blessing, for which we are bound to adore and magnify our God. It is not from the dust that either our trials or our comforts spring: and, if God have dealt to us an abundance of earthly comfort, whilst so many thousands of our fellow-creatures are racked with pain, or bowed down with sorrows, we ought to acknowledge him as the author and giver of these distinguished privileges.]
3.
His feet from falling
[On more than one occasion, Davids feet had well nigh slipped. When urged to kill Saul, and when hastening to avenge himself on Nabal, he was on the brink of a dangerous precipice, from whence however it pleased God to deliver him. And what a miracle of mercy is it, if our feet are kept! Consider with what innumerable snares and temptations we are beset on every side, and what corruptions reign in our own hearts, ready to precipitate us into any evil: consider the deceitfulness of sin too, what pleasing and even innocent forms it will assume: consider also the malice and subtlety of our great adversary, who is going about continually as a roaring lion seeking to devour us: consider more particularly how many persons of eminence in the religious world have fallen; a David, a Solomon, a Peter; O have not we reason to adore our God, if our feet have been kept from falling; more especially when we reflect, how near we have been to many grievous falls, when nothing but Gods infinite mercy has held us up!
Let us look back then on these mercies vouchsafed unto us, and, from the review, let us follow David in,]
II.
His determination arising from it
By the land of the living we understand this present world [Note: Psa 27:13. Isa 53:8.], where alone there is any opportunity of making suitable returns to God. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day, says Hezekiah [Note: Isa 38:19.]. As long as he should live, David determined, with Gods help, to walk before God,
1.
In a constant attendance on his ordinances
[This is particularly intended in the words of our text: twice is the idea expressly stated in the following verses [Note: Psa 116:12; Psa 116:14; Psa 116:17-19.]. And where should a person go to make his acknowledgments to God, but to His house, where the free-will offerings and thank-offerings of old were wont to be brought? A grateful heart will pant after these public opportunities of glorifying God, even as the hart panteth after the water-brooks [Note: Psa 42:1-2.]; and to be deprived of access to them will be a source of pain and grief [Note: Psa 42:3-4.]. David envied the very swallows their liberty of access to the house of God, when he was kept at a distance from it [Note: Psa 84:1-4.]. Let us shew our gratitude in the same way. And let not our attendance on his courts, after a recovery from sickness, be a mere prelude to our return to all the gaieties and follies of the world; but let our delight be in the worship of our God on earth, as an earnest and foretaste of our enjoyment of him in a better world.]
2.
Under an abiding sense of his presence
[To set the Lord always before us is the sure way to honour him. Whether we think of him or not, he is always about our bed and about our paths, and spieth out all our ways. Wherever we are, therefore, there should be that inscription, which Hagar saw, Thou God seest me. O how circumspect would our conduct then be! How continually would that question recur to our minds, What will my God approve? That this is the frame of mind which every child of God will cultivate, is beautifully represented by St. Paul in his address to servants: he tells them how the servant of God does act towards his heavenly Master, and proposes it as a pattern for them towards their earthly masters [Note: Eph 6:5-8.] Let us not be mere eye-servants, as men-pleasers, but exert ourselves at all times to please our God, as servants do under the immediate eye of their master.]
3.
In a cheerful obedience to his commands
[This is to walk before God in deed and in truth [Note: 1Ki 2:3-4.]: and to produce this, is the very end of all Gods mercies towards us. Surely, if we are in any measure sensible of our obligations to God, we shall not account any of his commandments grievous. We shall not wish so much as one of them to be relaxed, but shall attend to all of them without partiality and without hypocrisy. Happy would it be for us if more of this gratitude were found amongst us. Happy would it be if the love which God has shewn to us in Christ Jesus constrained us to live altogether unto God; so that we could make the same appeal to him that Hezekiah did, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight [Note: Isa 38:3.]. This is the surest test of our integrity, and the most acceptable expression of our gratitude to God.]
In our reflections on this subject, we cannot but view in it abundant matter,
1.
For our humiliation
[How many mercies have we received, yet never stood amazed at the goodness of our God! Were it only this, that our souls are not consigned over to everlasting death, we should have cause to bless our God day and night. Only reflect a moment, how dreadful it would have been to be cut off in our sins, and to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where there is nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth! And yet who amongst us has not richly deserved it? who has not been in constant danger of it from day to day? Our sins have been more in number than the hairs of our head; yet not a thousandth part so great as they would have been, if we had been left to carry into act all the evil dispositions of our hearts. Truly if we have not run into the same enormities as others, it is God, and God alone, who has made the difference between us. What shall we say then to the insensibility which we have manifested under all these stupendous mercies? Are we not ashamed? Have we not reason to be ashamed, yea, and to abase ourselves before God in dust and ashes? O let us remember that ingratitude is a sin of the most crimson dye [Note: Rom 1:21.]: and that, if we will not notice as we ought the operations of Gods hands, his loving-kindness will ere long be shut up in everlasting displeasure [Note: Psa 28:5.].]
2.
For our encouragement
[To the evil and to the unthankful have all these mercies been vouchsafed: What then shall not be done for us, if we will seek after God in sincerity and truth? Surely these present blessings shall be only as the drop before the shower; they shall be a prelude to that blessedness, where there shall be no more death nor sorrow, nor sin, but where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes for ever [Note: Rev 21:4.]. God offers himself to every one of us, as a Covenant God: he says to each of us, as he did to Abraham of old, I am God Almighty: walk before me, and be thou perfect [Note: Gen 17:1.]. In Christ Jesus he is already reconciled to us; and he only requires that we come to him through Christ, embracing his proffered mercies, and yielding up ourselves to him as those that are alive from the dead. O that he may so draw us, that we may run after him; and so subdue us to the obedience of faith, that we may become a peculiar people, zealous of good works!
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 116:8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, [and] my feet from falling.
Ver. 8. For thou hast delivered my soul, &c. ] The better to excite himself to true thankfulness he entereth into a particular enumeration of God’s benefits. It is not enough that we acknowledge what God has done for us in the lump, and by wholesale. See, Exo 18:8 , how Moses brancheth out God’s benefits. So must we, rolling them as sugar, and making our utmost of them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
EXPERIENCE, RESOLVE, AND HOPE
Psa 116:8 – Psa 116:9
This is a quotation from an earlier psalm, with variations which are interesting, whether we suppose that the Psalmist was quoting from memory and made them unconsciously, or whether, as is more probable, he did so, deliberately and for a purpose. The variations are these. The words in the original psalm Psa 56:1 according to the Revised Version, read, ‘Thou hast delivered my soul from death; hast Thou not delivered my feet from falling?’ The writer of this psalm felt that that did not say all, so he put in another clause: ‘Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears , and my feet from falling.’ It is not enough to keep a man alive and upright. God will wipe away his tears; and will often keep him from shedding them.
Then the original psalm goes on: ‘Thou hast delivered . . . my feet from falling, that I may walk before God,’ but the later Psalmist goes a step further than his original. The first singer had seen what it is always a blessing to see-what God meant by all the varieties of His providences, viz. that the recipient might walk as in His presence; but the later poet not only discerns, but accords with, God’s purpose, yields himself to the divine intention, and instead of simply saying ‘That was what God meant,’ he says, ‘That is what I am going to do-I will walk before the Lord.’ There is still another variation which, however, does not alter the sense. The original psalm says, ‘in the light of the living’; the other uses another word, a little more intelligible, perhaps, to an ordinary reader, and says, ‘in the land of the living.’
Now, noting these significant variations, I would draw attention to this expression of the Psalmist’s acceptance of the divine purpose, and the vision that it gave him of his future. It is hard to say whether he means ‘I will walk’ or ‘I shall walk’; whether he is expressing a hope or giving utterance to a fixed resolve. I think there is an element of both in the words. At all events, I find in them three things: a sure anticipation, a firm resolve, and a far-reaching hope.
I. A sure anticipation.
So, brethren! all the past, as it is recorded for us in Scripture, lives and throbs with faithful promises for us to-day. Though the methods of the manifestation may alter, the essence of it remains the same. As one of the Apostles says, ‘Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our advantage, that we, through the encouragement ministered by the Scriptures, might have hope’; and looking forward into all the future, might discern its wastes unknown, all lighted up by the one glad certainty that He that is ‘the same yesterday and to-day and for ever’ will be there, and we shall be beside Him. What God has done, He will keep on doing. ‘The Lord hath delivered mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling,’ and therefore ‘I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living.’
Our experience yields fuel for our faith. We have been near death many a time; we have never fallen into it. Our eyes have been wet many a time; God has dried them. Our feet have been ready to fall many a time, and if at the moment when we were tottering on the edge of the precipice, we have cried to Him and said, ‘My feet have well-nigh slipped,’ a strong Hand has been held out to us. ‘The Lord upholdeth them that are in the act of falling,’ as the old psalm, rightly rendered, has it, and if we have pushed aside His hand, and gone down, then the next clause of the same verse applies, for He ‘raiseth up those that have fallen,’ and are lying prostrate.
As it has been, so it will be. ‘Thou hast been with me in six troubles,’ therefore ‘in the seventh Thou wilt not forsake me.’ We can wear out men; and we cannot argue that because a man has had long patience with some unworthy recipient of his goodness, his patience will never give out. But it is safe to argue thus about God. ‘I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven’-the two perfect numbers multiplied into each other, and the product again multiplied by one of them, to give the measureless measure of the exhaustless divine love, and the sure guarantee that to His servant ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
Then, again, if we put a little different meaning into the Psalmist’s words and as I said, I think both meanings lie in them, they suggest that he did not look forward into the future only with expectation, but that along with expectation there was resolve. So we have here
II. A firm resolve.
But there has to be something more. There have to be a firm resolve, and effort without which the firmest resolve will all come to nothing, and be one more paving-stone for the road that is ‘paved with good intentions.’ That firm resolve finds utterance in the not vain vow, ‘I will’-in spite of all opposition and difficulties-’I will walk before the Lord,’ and keep ever bright in my mind the thought, ‘Thou God seest me.’
Ay! and just in the measure in which we do so shall we have joy. In some of those inhuman prisons where they go in for solitary confinement, there is a little hole somewhere in the wall-the prisoner does not know where-at which at any moment in the four-and-twenty hours the eye of the gaoler may be, and they say that the thought of that unseen eye, glaring in upon the felons, drives some of them half mad. The thought that poor Hagar found to be her only comfort in the wilderness-and so christened the well after it-’Thou God seest me,’ must be the source of our purest joy; or it must be a ghastly dread. When He comes at last, some men will lift up their faces to the sunshine and have their faces irradiated by the light; and some will call on the rocks and the hills to cover them from His face, and prefer rather to be crushed than to be blasted by the brightness of His countenance. If we are right with God, then the gladdest of thoughts is, ‘Thou knowest me altogether, and Thou hast beset me behind and before.’ If we are right with God, ‘Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me’ will mean for us support and blessing. If we are wrong, it will mean a weight that crushes to the earth.
And if we are right with Him, that same thought brings with it security and companionship. Ah! we do not need ever to say ‘I am alone’ if we are walking before God. It brings with it, of course, an armour against temptation. What mean, lustful, worldly seduction has any power when a man falls back on the thought, ‘God sees me, and God is with me’? Do you remember the very first instance in Scripture of the use of this phrase? The Lord said unto Abraham, ‘Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.’ That was not only a commandment, but it was a promise, and we might as truly, for the sense of the passage, read, ‘Walk before Me, and thou shalt be perfect.’ That thought of the present God draws the teeth of all raging lions, and takes the stings out of all serpents, and paralyses and reduces to absolute nothingness every temptation. Clasp God’s hand, and you will not fall.
III. There is lastly here, a far-reaching hope.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
For thou: Psa 56:13, Psa 86:13
mine: Isa 25:8, Isa 38:5, Rev 7:17, Rev 21:4
and my feet: Psa 37:24, Psa 94:18, Jdg 1:24
Reciprocal: Psa 6:4 – deliver Psa 6:8 – for Psa 30:3 – brought Psa 73:2 – feet Isa 38:11 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
GODS DELIVERANCE
Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Psa 116:8
If we were asked to name the evils from which we should most wish to be delivered, we should probably answer that these were death, sorrow, and sin. And it is just from these three evils that our Psalmist says that God has delivered him. Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
I. There is a deliverance from death.From death of all kindsdeath of the body and death of the soul, death of self, and death of friends, the thought of the ever-living God has always been the one and only deliverance. The greatest apostle of the New Testament could declare with thankful heart that God, through Christ, had taken the sting from death and the victory from the grave. But the death spoken of here is a death of the soulthe hopeless state of mind into which the writer had fallen when the sorrows of death had compassed him and the pains of hell got hold upon him, and he said in his haste, All men are liars.
II. There is a deliverance from sorrow.It is interesting to note that in the Bible joy and sorrow are often found together. The joy promised by God to His people is not the light-hearted gaiety of those who have never known trouble. It is rather the joy of Gods comfort and consolation. It is not like the sun, but like the rainbow after the storm.
III. There is a deliverance from sinthe chief deliverance of all. For it is in sin that both sorrow and death find their chief strength and power.