Psalm 116:1-9--Death and Resurrection

Who can deny that Psalm 116:1-9 fits perfectly the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? And yet, as William Hill Tucker explains, the psalm is not so specific to Christ that readers everywhere at all times cannot identify the words as fitting their own particular life experiences as well. The psalm therefore profits the reader to consider it from both of these points of view, which is what this article will do.

Psalm 116:1-9--Death and Resurrection

By Christina Wilson

November 24, 2012

NAU  Psalm 116:1 I love the LORD, because He hears My voice and my supplications.

2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.

3 The cords of death encompassed me And the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow.

4 Then I called upon the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I beseech You, save my life!"

5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate.

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 rescued my soul from death, My eyes from tears, My feet from stumbling.

9 I shall walk before the LORD In the land of the living.

Variant Translations¹:

LXE  Psalm 116:1 <Alleluia.> I am well pleased, because the Lord will hearken to the voice of my supplication. ......

LXE  Psalm 116:9 I shall be well-pleasing before the Lord in the land of the living. Alleluia:

Who can deny that Psalm 116:1-9 fits perfectly the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? And yet, as William Hill Tucker² explains, the psalm is not so specific to Christ that readers everywhere at all times cannot identify the words as fitting their own particular life experiences as well. The psalm therefore profits the reader to consider it from both of these points of view, which is what this article will do.

Part One: Of Christ

Psalms 113 through 118 comprise a series of psalms that were traditionally sung by the Hebrew nation in celebration during the Passover week³. Because of this fact, Charles Spurgeon writes, "Since our divine Master sang this hymn, we can hardly err in seeing here words to which he could set his seal,—words in a measure descriptive of his own experience..."⁴ Andrew A. Bonar writes,  "If the greatest wonder that eye shall ever see, ear ever hear, and the heart of man and angel ever conceive, is the sacrifice of God manifest in the flesh...it need not seem strange to us that the harp of Zion returns again and again and again to this theme. This is the theme before us here, for this Psalm 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."⁵

How can we as modern readers, most of whom do not own Spurgeon's Treasury nor Bonar's Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms recognize the presence of Christ in this psalm? Decidedly, it is a bit more difficult, but through the eye of faith, love for Christ, the light the Holy Spirit sheds within, and practice, we can come to recognize when psalms, such as this one, fit the experience of Christ's life while He was on earth.

Certain translations, such as the New American Standard and Septuagint English, above, bring out the experience of Christ the man more fully in this psalm than other translations do, by the specific language of the translation.

For example, the future tenses in verses 1 (Septuagint) and 9 (New American and Septuagint) place the speaker in the psalm at a point in time prior to what he describes. While the New American uses present tense in verse one (where the Septuagint English uses future), most other translations use past tense. While both future and past tense are true as we praise God, the future tense--praising God for His salvation before it actually arrives--brings out the character of faith, which is so pleasing to God, more fully, and allows the reader to see Christ speaking these words before His crucifixion.

In certain translations, the English vocabulary chosen for specific original language words in which the lexical definition does not require such choices,  can cloud or mask the reader's realization that this psalm could be about Christ, whereas vocabulary used in other translations aids the reader in seeing the experiences of Christ. The first such example is in verse 3:

^NAU  Psalm 116:3 The cords of death encompassed me And the terrors of Sheol came upon me;

^NET  Psalm 116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, the snares of Sheol confronted me.

^NIV  Psalm 116:3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me;

^LXE  Psalm 116:3 The pangs of death compassed me; the dangers of hell found me:

While I don't know about anyone else who might be reading this article, I do know concerning myself that the English Septuagint's word "hell" leaps off the page at me and "dangers of hell" speaks much more directly to me than "terrors of Sheol", "snares of Sheol", or "anguish of the grave". "Sheol" is a very abstract word for the American ear. Hasn't anyone who has ever attended Sunday school for any length of time been taught that "Sheol" can refer to death and the grave generally? "Dangers of hell", on the other hand, reminds me of the exact reason Christ died for my sins. It also reminds me of 1 Peter 3:18-19, in which Christ in the Spirit preached to the spirits in prison. "Dangers of hell" remind me of the atonement, of Christ's propitiation for my sins, and of the imputation of His righteousness to replace the condemnation due me for my sin.

Another vocabulary choice is "brought low" in verse 6. The Hebrew lexical definition in more than one lexicon (Strong's 1809, TWOT 0433, BDB 2144) includes the root meaning of "hang" and to "be low". While metaphorically "I was in serious trouble" (NET) and "I was helpless" (CSB) may be adequate to many of our human situations, the phrase chosen by most translators "I was brought low" (LXE, NAS, KJV, NKJ, ESV, RSV, and NIV) definitely brings out the concept of motion from above downward which is inherent in the Hebrew. To apprehend the reference to Christ on the cross, such motion from above to below is very helpful, not to mention His physically "hanging" on the cross, as well.

The Greek verb in verse 6 is ἐταπεινώθην (ay-ta-pee-NO-theen, from the verb ta-pee-NAH-ow). Its meaning strongly includes the literal concept of making or bringing low, while the metaphorical meanings are of humbling, a reducing to meaner circumstances, a lowering or bringing down, to be placed beneath those who are honored or rewarded. These nuances say far more about Christ's experience on the cross than being in "serious trouble" and "helpless" (see above paragraph). Doesn't the lexical definition of humbling describe Christ's condition on the cross perfectly? (Isaiah 53:12, Mark 15:28, Philippians 2:8 which uses the same Greek word).

In another example, nearly all translations use a future tense verb in verse 9:

CSB  Psalm 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

KJV  Psalm 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

NKJ  Psalm 116:9 I will walk before the LORD In the land of the living.

ESV  Psalm 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Further, while the Hebrew lexical definition given in the notes of the NET do indeed say "walk", the NET translation itself reads, "I will serve the LORD". While walking and serving in our modern American vernacular may at times be used synonymously, the lexical words are by no means synonymous. And, in the case of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the most concretely literal possibility for fulfillment of the prophecy in this verse is exactly what happened, i.e., Christ did literally walk in the land of the living after he died and rose again. (Luke 24:15)

Finally, and of great interest, the Septuagint English (LXE) translation of verse 9 says the following:

LXE  Psalm 116:9 I shall be well-pleasing before the Lord in the land of the living. Alleluia:

When reading the phrase, "I shall be well-pleasing before the Lord", who does not hear the words of the Father to the Son recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 2 Peter, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased"? (Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22, and 2Peter 1:17) While the particular Greek word used in the New Testament verses quoted is not the same as in the Septuagint of Psalm 116:9, it is synonymous and often used for a Hebrew word that means "be pleased with, accept favourably", according to one well-known Hebrew lexicon (BDB).

Part Two: Application to All Saints
 

If indeed Christ sang this psalm with His disciples at the last Passover, then the first nine verses of it bring out His faith in the resurrection. As Christ is our model and guide, we do well when we follow His example.

I began writing in the margin of my pocket Bible concerning this psalm in 2009. At that time I wrote, "Thank You, Lord!" A year or so later, with specific reference to verses 1-2, I wrote, "My salvation encounter exactly." For verse 7, the phrase "be at rest once more, O my soul", I noted Revelation 6:11. In May of 2010, I wrote, "My grace is sufficient for you." I have five other citations in the margins of Psalm 116. I mention these only to illustrate how applicable the psalm is to readers generally.

When circumstances in our lives seem blackest, when we have exhausted our own strength and resources, when we have been humbled or are about to be humbled, when the forces against us are strongest, when we are in such dire straits that it seems we are about to go under (indeed at times we do go under), it is then that the words of Psalm 116:1-9 bring the greatest comfort. When in the dark midnight the eyes of our faith can see the light of dawn through the promises and experience of scripture, we find ourselves strengthened and cheered.

The mere fact that Psalm 116 has been included in God's own word tells us that we are not alone. All scripture is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; God is He who included this description of our frequent condition in these words of hope which tell us that He is with us through our difficult trials and will also resurrect us.

Psalm 116 teaches us to trust God, to believe Him, to take His promises to us at their face value, to hope in Him, to cry out to Him, and to rejoice, praise, and thank Him when the promised deliverance, the resurrection of our souls from near death and deep humbling, occurs.

Lastly, for the saints approaching their own physical deaths, the words of this psalm can only provide hope and promise for awakening in the eternal hereafter: "I shall walk before the LORD in the land of the living" (verse 9) describes the Christian hope for the eternal, new creation, and is true of all those who die in Christ.

...............

If any are suffering bleakness today, I pray that the words of the psalmist, who prophetically appears to be Christ Himself, will comfort and strengthen. Psalm 116:1-9 (and the remainder of the psalm) speak of death and resurrection. For Christians, Christ Himself is that resurrection. To die to self is to be raised in Christ. May the Holy Spirit bless and comfort all with the words that Christ spoke to Martha, as she grieved the death of her brother:

NET  John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies,

Amen.

________

1 The Septuagint numbers the first nine verses of Psalm 116 as a separate psalm, which in the Septuagint is Psalm 114.

2 William Hill Tucker, as found in C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Three Volume Set, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA 01961-3473, Volume 3, page 72

3 The Reformation Study Bible, formerly titled The New Geneva Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Copyright © 1995, pages 882 and 884; and other study Bibles

4 C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Three Volume Set, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA 01961-3473, Volume 3, page 66

5 Andrew A. Bonar, Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, Published in 1978 by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc. All rights reserved, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501, pages 345-346