Repaying the Lord
Psalm 116:1–19
What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? Psalm 116:12

Without suggesting that there is any intrinsically valuable thing we have to give God, the psalmist does suggest ways we can respond to God’s goodness. First, we need to tell others about God’s mercy to us. In the very last verses of Psalm 116, the psalmist speaks of thanking God and calling on him “in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord” (vv. 18–19). He means that we should give public testimony to God’s redeeming grace.

Second, we need to “lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (v. 13). This metaphor is based on the libation or drink offering prescribed in Numbers 28:7. In the postbiblical period the rabbis said there were to be no sacrificial gifts without libations, noting that the two are joined in Joel 1:9. They also said that the words of Judges 9:13 (“wine that cheers God and men”) were to be pronounced as a blessing over the cup. But there is a big difference between the drink offering of Numbers 28 and what the psalmist says here. In Psalm 116 the writer is not talking about giving God anything, though that might be expected from his question (“What shall I render to the Lord?”). Instead he talks about taking something, that is, the cup of salvation. It is a profound insight: the only way we can repay God from whom everything comes is by taking even more from him.

“I will lift up the cup of salvation” is immediately joined to “and call on the name of the Lord,” because we receive God’s gift and then go on in the same relationship, forever asking and receiving from him.

Jesus and the Twelve must have sung Psalm 116 at the Last Supper after Jesus had instituted the communion service with its “cup of salvation.” That cup represented the blood of Jesus, which was poured out as an atonement for our sins. It speaks of giving all the way, 100 percent. “Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9 NIV), but it is also a cup that needs to be taken by us, which is what we symbolize by taking it at the Lord’s Supper. It is a spiritual cup, and the way it is taken is by faith, by believing that Jesus is truly the Son of God and our Savior.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.