Psalm 116 – I love the Lord

¹ I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
² Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

³ The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me;
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
⁴ Then I called on the name of the Lord:
‘Lord, save me!’

⁵ The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
⁶ The Lord protects the unwary;
when I was brought low, he saved me.

⁷ Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.

⁸ For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
⁹ that I may walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

¹⁰ I trusted in the Lord when I said,
‘I am greatly afflicted’;
¹¹ in my alarm I said,
‘Everyone is a liar.’

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 fulfil 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 fulfil 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.

What a wonderful psalm this is – a psalm of testimony and encouragement for us.

Listen to this bold opening declaration, "I love the Lord." Is this our testimony this morning? Have you come here this morning because you love the Lord?

We read this morning from Mark's Gospel chapter 12. Jesus had been asked trick questions by many of the Jewish leaders and had answered them well. One of the teachers of the Law then asked Jesus "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" I don't think this was a trick question; certainly Jesus answered it seriously. Jesus said, "The most important one is this: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

The first and most important commandment in all the Scriptures, says Jesus, is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Love God from your heart; love him with every fibre of your being; love him with a passion. Is this how you love God?

A year or two ago I read a book by a young woman who grew up in Albania under the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. She grew up being told that she must love uncle Enver, though she really could not quite understand why. Is God like that? Is he the great dictator in the sky, who demands that we love him in order to feed his own ego?

Not at all. The writer of this wonderful psalm tells us exactly why he loves the Lord:

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.

God had heard and answered the psalmist's cry for help. He tells us something of the trouble that caused him to cry out to the Lord:

The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me;
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
‘Lord, save me!’

We don't know precisely what the trouble was. It may have been opposition and threats from others around him, for he says, "In my alarm I said, 'Everyone is a liar'." Or it may have been a state of spiritual and emotional turmoil in which he felt utterly lost and alone. Whatever the problem was, he cried out to the Lord for help, and here is his testimony of how the Lord responded:

The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the unwary;
when I was brought low, he saved me.

God answered his prayers and rescued him from his troubles. He recognises God's goodness and compassion in the way he responded to him. And so he now counsels himself:

Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.

He can rest in the knowledge of God's care for him, free now from all his fears. And this is now his testimony:

… you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

What a beautiful testimony: saved from death – given life; an end to his tears – filled with joy; set again upon the right path of walking with God day by day among his people.

So what has the Lord done for you?

Well you are here this morning at a communion service in which we remember and celebrate the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. He left his throne in glory to come down and live among us. He showed us the character of the living God in his compassion and concern for those who were lost and broken, or who were living lives of quiet despair. He healed the sick and gave sight to the blind, stilled the storm and fed the hungry.

But then he went to the cross for us. Taking our sin and rebellion upon himself he was broken in our place; his blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. He loved us and gave himself for us. But he also rose victorious over sin and death. He is the one who gives life and hope and joy to us in place of our shame and despair. He is the one who dries our tears and sets our feet upon the straight path that leads to glory – the path of following him. We who trust in the Lord Jesus, our crucified and risen Saviour have the same testimony as the psalmist:

… you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

And that is why we love the Lord: not because it is the demand of some all-powerful dictator; rather, "We love [him] because he first loved us." And we love one another because we follow him who loved us and gave himself for us.

So is that your testimony this morning?

And because you have discovered that the Lord has shown you amazing grace and inexpressible compassion in the Lord Jesus can you say with the psalmist:

Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

He is the one to whom you regularly turn in times of trouble – and in times of joy.

How should we respond to the Lord's great love and compassion?

This is the question asked by our psalmist who says:

What shall I return to the Lord
for all his goodness to me?

And he answers:

I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfil my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.

The psalmist is filled with gratitude that he has been spared the cup of God's wrath and has been granted to drink deeply of God's saving mercy. So he takes this cup with both hands and lifts up his voice in praise of God. And by this psalm, in the presence of God's people, he commits himself afresh to live in glad obedience to the one who has saved him.

And we do the same this morning as we remember Jesus' words at the Last Supper, "take this cup…" We eat bread and drink from a cup of wine together, celebrating our great salvation as we remember Christ's death and resurrection until he comes. And in doing so we commit ourselves afresh to following Christ and living for him in the fellowship of his people.

The psalmist adds:

Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his faithful servants.

The love of God for us in the Lord Jesus is a love that death cannot destroy. He has shown us that we are precious in his sight – he gave his Son for us. We are precious to him in life, loved beyond measure; and we are precious to him in death. In the words of the Apostle Paul:

I am convinced that neither death nor life… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are safe in his keeping even in death.

We who trust in the Lord Jesus and his saving work are safe in him now, safe in him on the day of our death, and safe in him for all eternity.

So we have a story to tell; a testimony to share of the Lord's great love and mercy towards us that draws us to say with the psalmist, "I love the Lord."

Peter Misselbrook,

Christ Church Downend, Communion 28/9/2023