I love Jehovah, for he hath heard my voice [and] my supplications;
The psalm opens with a man who has been to the edge of the grave and come back, and his first word is love. What follows explains why. It was not a duty he owed, but something God had done for him.
Love here is not the psalmist's achievement. It is his answer to being heard. Older versions open the verse "I have loved," with no object named, and give "pleas for mercy" as "supplications" — that is the wording the writers below follow. One writer notes the psalm had no need to name the one loved:
Confidence in Him, from knowing that He hears, draws out the heart's affection. The saint does not say who he loves. There was no need to say it. Everyone would understand who it must be from the words that follow — "Jehovah hears my voice, my supplication." You may repeat the commandment to love the Lord as often as you like, and it will not awaken any love to Him in the soul. But the grace God has shown will awaken desires and stir up affections never seen before. So the saint says, "I have loved" — not because he was commanded, though the commandment was certainly before his eyes, but because Jehovah has done something for him.
The same distinction is drawn out elsewhere. Being heard while under judgment and evil is what created the affection:
He does not love the Lord as under the law, but as first loved — for deliverance, because heard when judgment and evil were upon His soul... It is the thanksgiving song for deliverance producing love.
This is not yet the language of singing; that comes later in the psalm. It is the cry of a man in trouble. His own past tells him God listened.
This is not the voice of praise and thanksgiving; that comes in at verse 17. It is the voice of supplication, the voice of someone in trouble, and Jehovah hears it. How can he be sure of that before the full answer comes? "Because He has inclined His ear to me." Past answers, and God keeping him safe until now, tell him that He has inclined His ear. He is a God who hears the cry of distress, so he will call on Him as long as he lives.
This love did not grow in comfort. Later verses speak of death drawing near, and of trouble and sorrow. Writers see God's purpose in that pressure.
The Lord often lets us pass through very hard circumstances. He does it to bring us into His own presence, and to let us prove that His grace is enough. After deep trial of soul, the psalmist can say, "I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy." When everything here seems against us, who can we turn to but the Lord? And once we have turned to Him in prayer and supplication, the heart's affections come alive, producing praise and the soul's confidence in Him.
He called when he was past all human help. The answer showed him what God is like.
He was brought near to death and found trouble and sorrow. When at death's door, beyond all human help, the godly man had called upon the name of the Lord. In response to his cry, he found the Lord to be "gracious," "righteous," and "merciful" — One who is the preserver of the simple, and the helper of the helpless. The simple man is not necessarily a wicked person, but one who may be easily deceived by the wicked.
Writers also read this psalm as more than one man's story:
A living God, who deserves all praise and glory, and a living people to praise Him, would be fitting titles for these two psalms. Psalm 115 speaks of the living God, and Psalm 116 of the living people. We are not told who wrote them. But the writer clearly spoke under the direct guidance of the prophetic Spirit, for these psalms point to days still to come, and speak of a time of tribulation that has not yet dawned on the earth.
This verse is not an end but a beginning. One answered prayer becomes the reason to keep coming back.
The Lord deals with His people with this end in view: to surround Himself with those who respond to His love and trust Him. He reaches that end in the godly soul that can say, "I love the Lord," and "I will call on him as long as I live."
- Cry — The voice God heard was not praise. It was the pleading of someone in trouble. Hard circumstances drove him there.
- Heard — His confidence rests on God's inclined ear. Past answers prove God listens, even before the full rescue comes.
- Produced — Love here is an effect, not a duty. A repeated command awakens nothing. Grace shown awakens affections never seen before.
- Discovered — At death's door, past all human help, he found God gracious, righteous and merciful. He preserves the simple and helps the helpless.
- Lifelong — God's dealings aim at a people who answer His love. The soul that says "I love the Lord" goes on to call on Him for life.
For he hath inclined his ear unto me, and I will call upon him during [all] my days.
Verse 2 gives a reason and a resolve. God bent down to listen to a man in trouble, and that man decides to keep calling on Him for life. Why does a listening God produce a praying life? And how could the psalmist be sure God heard him before the answer came?
The psalmist is still in danger when he speaks. His certainty rests on what God has already done. One commentator traces how he reasons from past to future, and what sets his God apart:
How can he feel sure of that before the full answer comes? "Because He has inclined His ear to me." Past answers and being kept safe up to now tell him that He has inclined His ear. He is a God who hears the cry of distress, so he will call on Him as long as he lives. "And while I live [literally, "in my days"], I will call." ... The heathen had gods in plenty, but not one could hear or answer. Which of them had bent an ear to those who prayed to them? But the Lord, though unseen, had really listened to His servant.
The psalm opens with love. No command produced that love. It is the answer of a heart God has rescued:
We must note that Psalm 116 is a Psalm of thanksgiving. He does not love the Lord as one under the law. He loves as one first loved, loving because of deliverance, because God heard Him when judgment and evil were on His soul... It is the thanksgiving song. Deliverance produces love, and love brings the voice of praise and thanksgiving as they remember their condition.
The same writer notes what the psalm is not about. God has already answered the cry, so discipline is not its subject:
In Psalm 116 God has heard the one who prays. So God's government has little place in the psalm. The soul has been brought down under the pressure of death, but delivered... The thought of the psalm is grace and faithfulness in Jehovah in delivering. The character of the saint is simplicity; a spirit hard for some, but precious.
What the psalmist found is not unique to him. Writing about Jonah, the prophet swallowed by a great fish, one commentator points straight to this psalm:
God is always ready to hear, and always ready to forgive. The cloud and the darkness are all on our side: our God has not changed... How much better for us to fall at His feet! There we can pour out the whole story of our sin and failure and cry to Him for mercy and forgiveness. We will find the same. Like the writer of Psalm 116, who had found trouble and sorrow, we too may exclaim with wonder and worship, "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."
Some writers read the psalm forward, to Israel. Then verse 2 becomes a promise a whole nation has yet to speak:
Israel does not love the Lord now. But she will be changed indeed when God at last brings her to the point of crying to Him in earnest supplication. Certainly He will hear, for this is what He has wanted to hear all through her history. Since He has inclined His ear to her, she is now determined to call on Him as long as she lives.
Commentators differ on how directly this psalm speaks of Christ. Some hear Him leading the song Himself:
This is the resurrection song of Messiah. It follows the psalm before it beautifully. Messiah seems to join this joy and praise — or rather, He lets His voice rise and swell above Israel's, so that He might be the leader of the congregation. We know from 2 Corinthians 4:13 that Jesus is the one heard in this Psalm. But we also learn there that anyone with the "same spirit of faith" may use it in their measure.
Others place the psalm first with the faithful in Israel. On that reading Christ entered their experience, and the psalm does not predict Him. Darby calls it "the history of the remnant at the end, into which the blessed Lord so wonderfully entered, but which is not a prophecy of Him." Both readings leave the words open for any believer to make them their own.
- Heard. Confidence here rests on prayer God has already answered. Past rescues prove that He listens.
- Bent. God inclining His ear means He stoops to the cry of distress. The psalmist knows His character before he sees the outcome.
- Loved. The love in verse 1 is not obedience to a command to love. It is the response of someone who was rescued first.
- Called. Because He hears, the answer is a lifetime habit — "in my days I will call" — not a single prayer in a single crisis.
- Shared. The song belongs to Christ leading His people and to a nation yet to sing it. Anyone with the same spirit of faith may use it too.