(About the Lord’s Death and Resurrection)
Psalm 116
Introduction: In my studies last year I came across something I had never known, but should have known. Matthew and Mark both tell us that Jesus and His disciples sang in the Upper Room. I’ve tried to visualize that. I’ve tried to imagine the voice of Jesus when He sang, and the sound of that male ensemble with their voices echoing against the stone walls of that borrowed second-story room. It must have been the most sacred choir in the world, with Jesus among the choir members. I’ve wondered if any of the disciples could play an instrument, or if they sang acapella. We don’t know.
But there is one thing we do know with relative certainty. We know what they sang. We know the lyrics. According to almost every commentary, there was a certain group of Psalms that were sung by families or groups around the table at the annual Passover meal. It was Psalms 113 through 118. This group of Psalms is called the Egyptian Hallel. The word Hallel means praise, as in Hallelujah. And this section of Psalms is called the Egyptian Hallel because one of the Psalms celebrates Israel’s exodus from Egypt.
I began studying these six Psalms, thinking about them from the perspective of the Upper Room. And I discovered that these six Psalms spell out the Gospel. It’s incredible to think! Jesus sang out the Gospel on the final night of His earthly life. I want to briefly show you this from Psalm 113, 114, and 115. And then we’ll devote most of our time to Psalm 116.
Review
- Psalm 113:5-6 say: Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth. Notice that the eternal God who dwells on high humbled Himself to come down to where we are on earth. That’s the incarnation. There’s a hint of the Christmas story here.
- Psalm 114 begins: When Israel went out of Egypt…. The theme here is redemption and deliverance from bondage and slavery.
- Psalm 115:9-11 say: Oh Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and shield. O house of Arron, trust in the Lord; He is their help and shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and shield. “Trust” is the Old Testament verb for faith. Here we are called to a life of faith. It is faith that claims the redemption of the God who humbled Himself to come down and redeem us.
- Psalm 116, which we’ll look at today, has a clear and unmistakable theme—deliverance from death. We have a God who delivers us from death. Let’s read this entire song. In terms of an outline, it seems to me verses 1-11 tell us about finding victory over death, and verses 12-19 shows us our response, how we should then live as those who have eternal life.
Scripture Reading
I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
3 The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 I said in my haste,
“All men are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His saints.
16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the Lord’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
Theme: The theme of this Psalm is deliverance from death. I think there are three levels of application here.
1. Psalm 116 and Its Original Writer
The first thing to consider is what these words meant to the original writer. It’s a very personal Psalm. The writer refers to himself 37 times. We don’t know who the writer was, but I have a hunch about it. It fits perfectly into the story of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20. I’ll not take time to read that story, but I can give you the gist of it. King Hezekiah was one of the best kings in the Old Testament. He served the Lord faithfully, and the prophet Isaiah was one of his best friends and primary advisors.
One day Hezekiah became very sick, and no one could help him. He was clearly dying. Isaiah went to see him and told him plainly, “You’re dying. You’d better get your affairs in order.” Hezekiah turned in his bed so he was facing the wall, and he sobbed and earnestly asked God to heal him, to extend his life. Isaiah hadn’t even made it out of the palace when the Lord told him, “Go back and tell Hezekiah I will heal him and extend his life by fifteen years. On the third day from now he will be well enough to leave his bed and go up to the temple, the House of the Lord, and worship (see 2 Kings 20:5). Notice that. On the third day he would leave his bed of death and go up to the House of the Lord.
Well, if Hezekiah is the author of Psalm 116, notice how it fits. Let me show you some selected verses: I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
And verse 8: You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears…
Verse 17 says: I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
I can’t prove Hezekiah wrote this Psalm, but it perfectly fits his situation. He was in the grips of a deadly disease, and he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord delivered him from death by postponing his death. In response, he went up to the temple and worshiped and said, “Praise the Lord.”
2. Psalm 116 and Jesus Christ
But now, let’s consider what might have been on the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ as He sang these words. We have to remember this Psalm is a song of thanksgiving regarding deliverance from death. But there are two ways God can deliver us from death.
First, there is partial victory over death by its postponement, as God did for Hezekiah. But there is total victory over death by resurrection, and that’s what God did for Jesus. Again let’s look at some selected verses. Look at verse 3: The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
The NIV says, “The anguish of the grave came over me.” The word “anguish” is the same word in the Greek version of the Old Testament as “agony” in Acts 2:24, when Peter said, “But God raised him [Christ] from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.” Peter was apparently referring to Psalm 116:3 when he preached Christ in Acts 2. God delivered Christ from the anguish of death, not by the postponement of death, but by its reversal.
Now look at verse 8: For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears…
We recall how Jesus wept in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Hebrews 5:7 (NIV) says, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission.”
Now look at verse 10: I believed, therefore I spoke, “I am greatly afflicted.”
The apostle Paul quotes this verse in 2 Corinthians 4:13-14, saying: It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to Himself.
Do you see how verses in Psalm 116 are echoed in the New Testament in a way that points to the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Now look at verse 13: I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. The cup of salvation! Jesus sang these words in the Upper Room on the very night when He passed around the cup of wine and said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
Now look at verse 15: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. There’s some disagreement about what this verse means. The word “precious” means “dear, rare, treasured, expensive, costly.” We could reasonably paraphrase this to mean, “Cost to the Lord was the death of His Son.” We can never understand the cost! It cannot be calculated by the human mind.
Now look at verses 18-19: I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Let me go back to Hezekiah for a moment. According to 2 Kings 20, Hezekiah was on a bed of death, but God reversed that and on the third day He went into the temple to praise the Lord. On the third day he rose and came into God’s presence. On the third day, Jesus was delivered from death, not by its postponement, but by its total defeat in the face of the Easter resurrection. This is clearly a Psalm of thanksgiving for the way God willingly delivers us from death, either by its postponement or by resurrection. Every word must have been sung by the Lord Jesus with eternal gratitude.
The great Scottish pastor Andrew Bonar wrote, “[Psalm 116] is Christ’s resurrection song, sung by His own lips in the Upper Room at the Passover in anticipation of the darkness of Gethsemane and Calvary passing away into glory.”
The English scholar, Graham Scroggie, wrote, “The words of the Psalm surely remind us that our Redeemer also was delivered, not from dying, but from death, in answer to His prayers, and this must have been in His thoughts as He sang the Psalm that night.”
3. Psalm 116 and You
So we’ve looked at what this Psalm must have meant to its original author, perhaps Hezekiah. We’ve pulled back just a bit of the curtain and considered what this Psalm must have meant to Jesus who sang the words on the night before His crucifixion. But let’s finish by looking at what this Psalm means to you and me.
Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our lives, there are a number of things about death and dying that bother us.
First, we wonder what will happen at the moment of death? What will we experience?
Second, we worry about the possibility of pain, of being unable to get our breath, of suffocating or suffering unbearably in the final moments of death.
Third, we grieve over the unavoidable separation from our loved ones.
Fourth, we worry about when it will happen. All of us are subject to sudden death at any moment. In the past hour approximately 8,000 people have died somewhere on earth. Some in car wrecks. Some in acts of violence. Some by sudden heart attacks, and others by lingering illnesses. Do you know, Wikipedia has an installment devoted to unusual deaths. It tells about a man here in California who was flying his remote control airplane. The sun blinded him for a moment and he lost track of where it was, and it struck him in the chest and killed him.
Fifth, we worry about our loved ones dying. This causes me more anxiety than thinking about my own death. We worry about our children when they travel by car, for example.
Six, we worry about death because we’ve been taught by secularism there is nothing for us on the other side. Our lives just end, and pretty soon the world will forget that we even existed.
William Lane Craig wrote about the implications of this, saying, “If there is no God, then man and the universe are doomed. Like prisoners condemned to death, we await our unavoidable execution. There is no God, and there is no immortality. And what is the consequence of this? It means that life itself is absurd. It means that the life we have is without ultimate significance, value, or purpose.”
There is no good answer for any of this except the ones we find in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Psalmist here said: You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
What is the land of the living? If you think about it, there is a real sense that it is not here on earth. This is the land of the dying. We leave the land of the dying and go to the land of the living.
Psalm 27:13 says, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
It’s the resurrection of Jesus Christ that changes everything. President Jimmy Carter passed away this week at the age of 100. He once said, “I just asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death. It didn’t really matter to me whether I died or lived. I have, since that time, been absolutely confident that my Christian faith includes complete confidence in life after death. So, I’m going to live again after I die.”
You’ve probably heard about Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident who died in a Siberian prison. He opposed Vladimir Putin. In 2020, Navalny was hospitalized with severe poisoning with a nerve agent. He survived only to be imprisoned and mistreated and killed.
What you may not know is that for many years Alexei Navalny was a militant atheist. But there are reports that when he was fighting for his life after being poisoned, he began searching for a satisfying answer to the problem of death. He got in touch with some Christians, and he embraced Jesus Christ as his Savior. In the closing arguments of his case in a Russian court during his sham trial, Navalny said:
“ I don’t know what to talk about anymore, your honor. If you want I’ll talk to you about God and salvation…. The fact is that I am a Christian, which usually rather sets me up as an example for constant ridicule in the Anti-Corruption Foundation, because mostly our people are atheists and I was once quite a militant atheist myself. But now I am a believer, and that helps me a lot in my activities, because everything becomes much, much easier. I think about things less. There are fewer dilemmas in my life, because there is a Book in which, in general, it is more or less clearly written what action to take in every situation.”
He was referring to the Bible. In the grip of death, this Russian hero found life, and in that Siberian prison he left the land of the dying to move into the land of the living.
I found an old story of a Christian in the 1800s named Isaac Bridgeman. He was a British minister who developed heart congestion when he was in his mid-fifties. He undoubtedly had all the same kinds of fears we all have. But one day he was out in the garden, in the bower, meditating. Somehow God gave him a glorious sense of the presence of the Lord. His soul and mind were flooded with thoughts of the glories and joys of heaven. He saw the flowers in the garden, and they reminded him of Jesus, the Rose of Sharon. He saw the fruit trees in the garden, and they reminded him of the Tree of Life along the riverside of New Jerusalem. From that moment on, he had perfect peace.
He told his wife, “I may be better tomorrow, and that will be well. I may be worse tomorrow, and that will be well. For the hand of God is on me, the love of God is in me, and the heaven of God is before me….” He passed away shortly thereafter with perfect peace and joy.
Wouldn’t we all like to have such a visitation from the Lord in the bower of a garden! But the truth is we can all do what Jimmy Carter did and ask the Lord to give us a proper attitude toward death. We can all do what Alexei Navalny did and say, “I have a Book.” We can all do what Isaac Bridgeman did and get a strong glimpse of Heaven—of the New Heavens, the New Earth, and the eternal city of New Jerusalem.
The Psalmist said, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6).
Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-25).
He also said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
The apostle Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two; I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:21-24 NIV).
He said, “As long as we are in this body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith and not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NIV).
The Bible says, “According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 NIV).
The book of Revelation says: “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death…” (Revelation 21:1-4).
A great old Easter anthem says:
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
Conclusion
So Psalm 113 tells us that God loves us so much He became a man to dwell among us. Psalm 114 talks about how He redeems His people. Psalm 115 tells us that only faith in the true and only God can save us. And Psalm 116 tells us that this salvation offers us victory over death.
Hundreds of years before Christ came to earth, the progress of the Gospel truth was embedded in the very songs He would sing on the last night of His natural life. And these very songs can give us joy in knowing, as Job 19 says, that our Redeemer lives and He shall stand at last on the earth, and even after our bodies perish, this we know, that in our flesh we shall see God.