“I love the LORD, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live. The cords of death encompassed me and the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the LORD: ‘O LORD, I beseech You, save my life!’ Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes, our God is compassionate. The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me” (Psa 116:1-6).
Out of deep discouragement in his present trials, the psalmist of Psalm 116 takes charge of his inner thoughts and says, “Return to your rest, O my soul” (v. 7a). Before telling his soul to rest, the psalmist first rehearses God’s past mercy and grace. There, he reminds himself how the LORD rescued him when he was bound by the “cords of death” and the “terrors of Sheol” (v. 3), and how the gracious and merciful God saved him (vv. 5-6).
Before telling his soul to rest, the psalmist first rehearses God’s past mercy and grace.
This is a crucial habit we must all develop. In our journey with the LORD, we will all struggle with doubts about our salvation. Does the LORD even hear our prayers, and will He truly save us? In those moments, we too must sit down with ourselves and remember God’s past faithfulness in our own lives. Let us recall how the fear of death and judgment once overwhelmed us and how the LORD, abounding in mercy and grace, saved us.
Our assurance of future salvation rests on the same old grace that saved us. This truth lies at the heart of Paul’s argument in Romans 5: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom 5:8-10).
