The bands of death encompassed me, and the anguish of Sheol took hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow
Psalm 116 looks back on a rescue, and verse 3 tells how close the danger came. Who is speaking? A believer at the end of his strength, Israel in a coming hour of distress, or Christ Himself.
Older translations read "sorrows of death" and "the pains of hell." The word behind "hell" is Sheol. One writer shows why Sheol is not the same as the grave.
For the wicked, Sheol is linked with pain and sorrow… The word for the grave, qeber, is never linked in this way with judgment and sorrow. The body in the grave is unconscious. It cannot feel pain or sorrow. The soul is conscious, and in the condition of Sheol it can feel such things.
The speaker has reached the point where every human help has run out.
This was a dreadful position. He was at the end of human strength, past all help from any creature, and the gates of death and hell stood wide open before him, ready to receive him. What could he do but throw himself on the mercy of God?
The next verse turns to prayer. One writer says that is what such trouble is for.
If we keep walking in the paths of rebellion and self-will, we can be sure that we too will find "trouble and sorrow" — trouble and sorrow so deep that it will force us to our knees. Dear Christian, have you turned away from the presence of the Lord? Have you grown cold and hard? Have you stopped praying? Have you lost the joy you once had in Christ? Take warning, and take heart, from Jonah.
Read as prophecy, the verse points to a future hour of affliction.
Psalm 116 speaks the language of faith at the very moment God brings fresh deliverance. Still reading the Psalms as prophecy, we may see in verse 3 a hint of the sorrows of the great tribulation, when the godly had been brought right down to the gates of death and "hell," or "Sheol."
Another writer adds what that rescue produced.
The 116th psalm comes in here to show how close Israel had come to those terrible jaws of death. Without the mercy of God they would have been swallowed up in utter ruin. It is the sense of this deliverance that brings their hearts to God, and makes them His servants forever.
Commentators differ on the speaker. Some hear the godly of a future day; others hear Christ, and place the words at the cross.
Heaven could be offered to men only when the claims of God's holy government were met, and our Lord met them in full by His atoning death on the cross. He could take up the psalmist's words as His own experience there: "The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me" (Ps. 116:3).
The psalmist did not only suffer; he also spoke. One writer traces that speech to faith.
The same spirit of faith held up the psalmist when the sorrows of death closed round him, when he found trouble and sorrow, and when he was greatly afflicted. Even then he could speak of life, for he said, "I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living." Then he tells us how he could speak of life with death all around him: "I believed, therefore I have spoken."
The conditions of verse 3 still meet us; what has changed is where death leads.
Every tie we form in this world will one day be broken. Death comes before us. Its dark waters roll in on the soul when a loved one is taken from us, or when serious illness lays us aside. Yet for the Christian the position is so different, for we know that death only leads into the presence of Christ, which is far better. The Lord Jesus has gone through the dark, raging flood of death Himself, so that we may pass through the waters on dry ground.
- Surrounded — Death and Sheol close in on the psalmist. Unlike the grave, Sheol is linked with conscious pain and sorrow.
- Emptied — Every human help is gone and the gates of death stand open. Nothing is left but to throw himself on God's mercy.
- Driven — Trouble and sorrow do their work when they force a person to his knees. Jonah is both the warning and the encouragement.
- Heard — As prophecy, the psalm remembers Israel almost swallowed by death. That rescue is what makes them God's servants forever.
- Speaking — Faith believed, so it spoke of walking in the land of the living while death still pressed. For the Christian, death now leads straight into the presence of Christ.
Then called I upon the name of Jehovah I beseech thee, Jehovah, deliver my soul.
Psalm 116 opens with a man who loves the Lord, because the Lord heard him. Verse 4 is the prayer itself — a few words shouted from the edge of the grave. Two questions sit behind it: what drove him to call, and what he wanted rescue from.
The cry comes after the psalmist describes being trapped by death's cords. One writer traces the sequence: the trouble uncovered the Lord's love, and drew out his own love in return.
In the verses that follow the psalmist describes the circumstances which revealed the love of the Lord, and called forth his own love. 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 answer to his cry, he found the Lord to be "gracious," "righteous," and "merciful" — One who preserves the simple and helps the helpless.
Another writer treats that order as the rule, not the exception.
God wants His fallen creature, man, saved and blessed. But like the writer of Psalm 116, we have to be brought low before God before we are ready to accept the cup of salvation that He offers… He was as weak as a man can be, past all help any creature could give, and the gates of death and hell stood wide open before him, ready to receive him. What could he do but throw himself upon the mercy of God?
Commentators differ over what "deliver my soul" asks for. One writer reads the whole psalm and ties it to rescue from death itself — from sheol, the place of the dead:
Whatever application these words may have to release from spiritual death, verse 15 makes it clear that the ultimate deliverance in view is from death in sheol. This must be the "death of His saints" that stays precious in the eyes of the Lord. Rescue from it is the reason for the thanksgiving, "You have loosed my bonds" (v. 16).
Another writer reads the psalm as Israel's confession in a day still to come. He hears the prayer reach past the body:
What is the reason for Israel's finally calling on the Lord? "The pains of death" faced her. "The pangs of sheol" threatened her with trouble and sorrow. That drove her out of her old indifference, and she saw that no one but the Lord could help her (v. 3). Then her imploring cries were not only for bodily deliverance, but for that of her soul (v. 4).
He calls on the name of the Lord, and the next verses say who that Lord is. Faith shelters in God's character, and that turns the cry of verse 4 into the rest of verse 7.
What a resource it is to find shelter and confidence in the very character of God Himself! He is faithful; He cannot deny Himself. Faith takes hold of this, and it holds the heart up in troubles that would otherwise sweep over it like a flood. "I have been brought low," he adds, "but He will save me." What God has done in the past gives him confidence. So in verse 4 he cries to the Lord for deliverance, and by verse 7 he can say, "Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you."
One writer aims these words at anyone who has drifted from God, and sets them beside Jonah, the prophet who ran from Him.
Perhaps one of my readers is following Jonah in a life of rebellion and self-will, too proud and too far from God to pray. Take note of how God deals with man. Remember that God can make the proudest spirit bow, and can bring a prayer out of the hardest heart… If we keep walking in the paths of rebellion and self-will, we can be sure that we too will find "trouble and sorrow." It will be such trouble and such sorrow that it forces us to our knees.
Psalms 115 to 118 belonged to the Passover meal. One writer asks what that means for the night Jesus was betrayed.
At their Passover Supper the Jews used to recite Psalms 113 and 114 after the "first cup." Then, after the "third cup" — called the "cup of blessing" — they sang Psalms 115 to 118. If the Lord here used the same psalms, how well they would apply and be fulfilled in Him.
- Brought low — he prays only at death's door, past all human help. God brings a person that low to make him ready for salvation.
- Then he called — trouble that drives a proud or drifting heart to its knees is God at work, as He was with Jonah.
- On the name — he appeals to who God is, not to his own worth. God's character is the whole ground of his confidence.
- Deliver my soul — the plea reaches past the body. Writers tie it both to rescue from death and to the salvation of the soul.
- Return to your rest — God answers the cry of verse 4 so fully that by verse 7 the same man tells his own soul to rest, because the Lord has dealt bountifully with him.