Ps. 116 THE ARGUMENT This Psalm contains a solemn thanksgiving to God for a glorious deliverance from grievous and dangerous calamities; as also from great perplexities and terrors of mind arising from the sense of God’s displeasure.

Heb. in my days; as long as I have a day to live, as this phrase is used, 2 Kings 20:19, Isa. 39:8, Job 27:6.

The sorrows of death; dangerous and deadly calamities, as bitter as death. Or, the cords of death. Of hell; or, of the grave; or, of death; either killing pains, or such agonies and horrors as dying persons use to feel within themselves. Gat hold upon me, Heb. found me, i.e. surprised me.

Gracious is the Lord: this he mentions either, 1. As that which he found by experience in answer to his prayers; or, 2. As the argument by which he encouraged himself to pray.

The simple; sincere and plain-hearted persons, who dare not use those frauds and crafty and wicked artifices in saving themselves or destroying their enemies, but wait upon God with honest hearts in his way and for his time of deliverance; which was the case of David, who, though he had the…

Unto thy rest; unto that tranquillity of mind and cheerful confidence in God’s promises and providence which thou didst once enjoy.

My soul; myself. From falling, to wit, into mischief, and the pit of destruction.

I will walk before the Lord; or, I shall walk, &c. This is either, 1. The psalmist’s promise to God in requital of the favour last mentioned; I will therefore please God, as this phrase is used, Gen. 5:24, compared with Heb. 11:5, Gen. 17:1. I will devote myself to the worship and service of God.

I believed, to wit, God’s promise of deliverance and of the kingdom made to me by Samuel, which I was confident he would perform in spite of discouragements and difficulties. Therefore have I spoken: so these words are translated, as by others, so by the apostle, 2 Cor. 4:13.

I said; yet once I confess I spake very unadvisedly. In my haste; through hastiness and precipitation of my mind, for want of due consideration, as the same phrase is used, Ps. 31:22. Or, in my terror or amazement, when I was discomposed and distracted with the greatness of my troubles.

Yet notwithstanding all my dangers and my distrust of God too, God hath conferred so many and great blessings upon me, that I can never make sufficient returns to him for them.

I will take the cup of salvation; I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God, as this phrase seems to be explained below, Ps. 116:17, where the latter clause of the verse is the same with that which here follows.

My vows; the praises and sacrifices which I vowed to God in the time of my distress. In the presence of all his people; that they who heard my vows, or understood them by the report of others, might be witnesses of my payment of them, and not be scandalized by my unfaithfulness in that matter.

He sets a high price upon it; he will not readily grant it to those that greedily seek it; and if any son of violence procure it, he will make him, pay very dearly for it; and when the saints suffer it for God’s sake, as they frequently do, it is a most acceptable sacrifice to God, and highly…

I am thy servant: this is either, 1. An argument used in prayer, It becometh thee to protect and save thy own servants, as every good master doth; or rather, 2. A thankful acknowledgment of his great obligations to God, whereby he was in duty bound to be the Lord’s faithful and perpetual servant.

And as I said before, so I now repeat my promise, for the greater assurance, and to lay the stricter obligation upon myself.