I Love the Lord Because He Heard Me

Psalm 116 begins with a plain, settled confession: “I love the Lord.” The psalmist does not make that love a vague religious feeling. He grounds it in the fact that God heard his voice, received his supplications, and inclined His ear when nobody else cared. God met a man headed into trouble, sorrow, death, and hell, and He answered the cry, “O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.”

The movement from verse 3 to verse 4 marks the whole difference salvation makes. The pains of hell had gotten hold of the psalmist, but calling on the name of the Lord brought him face to face with a gracious, righteous, and merciful God. The Lord preserves the simple. The Lord helps those brought low. The Lord delivers the soul from death, the eyes from tears, and the feet from falling. That kind of deliverance ought never become old to a saved man.

Psalm 116 then asks the right question: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” The answer is striking. The first thing a lost person ought to do, even after recognizing God has already been good, is ask Him for one more thing: salvation. The cup of salvation is not an imposition upon God’s kindness. It is the proper response to it. God is glorified when a sinner stops trying to pay Him back and calls on Him to save.

The psalmist then turns from salvation to the rest of life. The Lord’s goodness produces vows paid openly, thanksgiving offered sincerely, and service rendered as a freed servant. “Thou hast loosed my bonds” means the believer no longer belongs to the old master, the old path, or the old fear. The Lord’s house becomes the place where gratitude is made visible before God’s people.

The psalm closes where a saved life ought to stay: “Praise ye the Lord.” God’s benefits do not create a debt that can be settled by human effort. God’s mercy creates a life that calls on Him, serves Him, thanks Him, and loves Him because He first heard the cry of a man who had nowhere else to go.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Call on God for salvation [05:17] The cup of salvation is God’s answer to a sinner who knows that God has already been good. God does not regard salvation as too much to ask; He commands the sinner to call upon His name. Christ’s full payment for sin leaves no room for bargaining, earning, or religious self-payment. [05:17]
• 2. Never get over being delivered [03:43] The Lord delivers the soul from death, the eyes from tears, and the feet from falling. Gratitude grows cold when salvation becomes merely a past event instead of a present mercy. God’s rescue should still produce amazement in a believer who remembers what he was and where he was headed. [03:43]
• 3. God helps those brought low [03:22] The Lord preserves the simple, not the self-sufficient. A low place can become the place where God’s mercy is finally seen clearly. God’s grace meets the man who quits pretending that he can rescue himself. [03:22]
• 4. Pay vows before God’s people [05:48] Thanksgiving is not meant to remain hidden in private sentiment. The Lord’s house is where redeemed people openly confess what God has done and whom they serve. Public faithfulness gives visible weight to a life that claims God has loosed its bonds.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:27] - The Always Good Decision
• [00:46] - Reading Psalm 116
• [01:16] - Romans 10 and the Call to Preach
• [02:27] - I Love the Lord
• [03:22] - From Trouble to Deliverance
• [04:29] - What Shall I Render Unto the Lord?
• [05:17] - Take the Cup of Salvation
• [05:48] - Vows, Thanksgiving, and Praise

Bible Reading

Psalm 116
“I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!" Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I believed, even when I spoke: "I am greatly afflicted"; I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars." What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!” [01:06]

Romans 10:13-14
“For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” [01:32]

Observation questions

1. In Psalm 116, what difficult conditions describe the psalmist’s life before he called on the Lord, and what kinds of deliverance does he later name? [03:06]
2. What reasons does the psalmist give for loving the Lord at the beginning of the psalm?
3. After asking what he can render to the Lord for His benefits, what responses does the psalmist describe in the rest of Psalm 116? [05:24]
4. In Romans 10:13–14, what connection is made between calling on the Lord, hearing the message, and someone being sent to preach?

Interpretation questions

1. Why is calling on the Lord for salvation the right response to God’s goodness rather than an attempt to take advantage of His kindness? [05:13]
2. What does Psalm 116 show about the kind of person God helps when it says that He preserves the simple and helps those brought low? How does this challenge self-reliance? [03:40]
3. What does it mean for a believer to be a servant whose bonds have been loosed? What former master, fear, or way of life is no longer meant to rule that person? [05:37]
4. Why does the psalmist connect thanksgiving and keeping vows with the presence of God’s people instead of treating gratitude as only private?

Application questions

1. Can each person in the group point to a time when the Lord heard a cry for help, whether in salvation or in a deep burden? How has remembering that mercy affected love for the Lord? [02:43]
2. Is there any area where a person may be trying to make himself acceptable to God through effort, religious activity, or personal improvement? What would it look like to rest in Christ’s full payment and call on the Lord instead? [06:12]
3. The Lord helps those who are brought low. Where is there a temptation to pretend to be stronger, wiser, or more in control than is true? What honest prayer could be prayed in that low place? [03:43]
4. Has salvation become mainly a past event in a person’s thinking, or does it still produce gratitude and amazement? What specific part of God’s deliverance needs to be remembered again this week? [03:55]
5. What is one visible way a person can give thanks to God among His people—through faithful attendance, testimony, service, generosity, or keeping a commitment? [05:45]
6. Since the Lord has loosed the believer’s bonds, is there an old pattern, fear, or sinful attachment that still tries to act like a master? What step could help bring that area under the Lord’s rule? [05:37]