In this video, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses Psalm 116, focusing on the theme of praise for the redeemed. He highlights the importance of calling upon the name of the Lord in times of trouble and distress, emphasizing that God hears and answers our prayers. Pastor Chuck marvels at the fact that the God who created the universe is concerned with us and listens to our cries. He also mentions that the Psalm can be interpreted as a reflection of the suffering of Christ, with Christ being the principal speaker in the Psalm. Overall, the message encourages believers to trust in God's grace, righteousness, and mercy, knowing that He is always there to deliver and sustain us.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today The broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today we'll be focusing our attention on praise for the redeemed as we pick up in the 116th Psalm, beginning with verse 1 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith Now, in an overall sense there is one interpretation of this psalm that interprets it as a psalm that deals with the suffering of Christ And it would make Christ the principal speaker in the psalm that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints And it would make Christ the speaker That's one interpretation Another interpretation of the psalm says it's the nation Israel who went through this period of death, so to speak The nation was scattered throughout the world And they cried unto the Lord, the Lord heard, God delivered them And lived before the Lord, walked before the Lord in the land of the living And they see it as the nation Israel Those are interpretations But to look at this psalm just from a plain looking at it The psalmist himself It would seem that the psalmist is talking about a experience that he had where he almost died and thought he was going to die He was given up for dead And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord healed him Raised him up And thus the psalm is written on the basis of a man thinking he was going to die The sorrows of death encircled me, the pains of the grave Grabbed hold of me, I found trouble and sorrow And so I called on the name of the Lord And I was afflicted You have delivered my soul from death My eyes from tears, my feet from falling So the psalmist really thought he was dying, going to die He called unto the Lord, the Lord answered, the Lord healed him And so he opens the psalm Having been healed Saying I love the Lord Because he has heard my voice and my supplications He answered my prayer When I thought it was all over, when I thought I was dying When I was given up for dead And I cried unto the Lord, he heard me He answered my prayers And thus this great feeling of love for God Because of this answered prayer And his deliverance from the grave so to speak He was just about dead And yet the Lord healed him and so his expression I love the Lord Because he has heard my voice And my supplications Because he inclined his ear to me, because of this I will call upon him as long as I live He really learned the value of calling upon the Lord Because God has answered, because God has brought me from the grave I will just call upon him as long as I live For the sorrows of death Had encircled me, had come past me The pains of hell, now the word hell Translated hell is the Hebrew word shiel And the Hebrew word shiel Meant the grave And everyone who died was buried So the grave is the idea of shiel It isn't really the place of torment and suffering For the wicked dead It can mean that But it meant the grave and prior to The death of Jesus Christ All of those who died Went into shiel The place of the departed dead The souls of the dead And at that time shiel, Hades, hell Was divided into two compartments And Jesus speaks about this in Luke's gospel chapter 16 Where the rich man, faring sumptuously every day Died and went to hell The poor man who laid daily at his gate Full of sores and was Survived from the crumbs that fell from the master's table He also died and was carried by the angels Into Abraham's bosom Abraham's bosom contrasted where The place of the rich man And in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment Seeing Abraham afar off Lazarus being comforted said Father Abraham send Lazarus and so forth So that in the Old Testament Those saints who died Though they were saints They went into shiel, the grave, into hell Where they were waiting For the fulfillment of God's promise And The purpose of the coming of Christ Was to set at liberty Those that were bound and open up the prison doors And so when Christ died he descended into hell According to Acts chapter 2 The message of Peter And Peter's epistle He speaks about it And Paul also mentions it in Ephesians 4 And when he ascended He led the captives from their captivity You see it wasn't possible that they could enter into the heavenly scene Apart from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Blood of bulls and goats could not put away their sins It could cover their guilt or sins But could not put away their sins It took the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to put away sins And so the door to heaven wasn't open to man Until Jesus put away our sins By his death upon the cross Thus now Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life He that believeth on me Abraham and the others Though they were dead yet shall they live And those that live and believe in me shall never die We go immediately into the presence of the Lord Paul said We who are in these bodies do often groan Earnestly desiring to be freed from our bodies Not to be an unembodied spirit I want to receive my new body which is from heaven For I know that as long as I'm living in this body I'm absent from the Lord But I would choose rather to be absent from this body That I might be present with the Lord And so I'll never die I will move And thank God for that I would hate to think I was going to live forever in this body As decrepit as it's getting Thank God I'm going to move Out of this old corruptible body Into this building of God This mansion that Jesus has gone to prepare for me And so My wife's going to send out change of address cards Chuck moved out of the old worn out tent And is now living in a beautiful mansion There in the presence of God But in the Old Testament Before the finished work of Christ upon the cross All those who died, even in faith Went into the grave, into Sheol Where they were comforted in Abraham's bosom Until the finished work of Christ Who went down, announced to them his victory When he broke the gates of hell He led the captives from their captivity And They now Are with him in glory So The psalmist Is talking about the grave The sorrows of death Surrounded me The pains of the grave Got hold of me I found trouble And sorrow Then I called upon the name of the Lord O Lord, I beseech thee Deliver my soul The Lord is gracious And righteous Yea, our God is merciful So notice verses 3, 4, and 5 You that Are Interested in sermonizing In verse 3, he talks about where I was I was near death, I was dying What I did Verse 4 I called upon the name of the Lord And What I learned The Lord is gracious He is righteous He's merciful Because he heard me The fact that the God who created this universe Will listen to your prayers When you're in trouble When you're distressed And you're crying to the Lord, he hears us That's just Mind-boggling to me God, as vast as he is Yet Is concerned with you Listens to you When you call That's marvelous Not only does he listen, but he's gracious He's righteous, he's fair, he's just Yes, and he is merciful For the Lord preserveth the simple Aren't you glad you're simple? I've met so many complex people It's good to be simple When you're two-faced and living a false kind of a life You have to be very complex When you're just you, you can be simple I was brought low Again, speaking about this experience of almost dying I was brought low, but he delivered me So return to thy rest O my soul For the Lord Hath dealt bountifully with thee You think of how good God has been I can just rest in the Lord I don't have to worry about things I don't have to fret about things It's amazing when we do get sick And we're weak We begin to fret about things The Bible speaks in a very poetic sense About the person who becomes very aged Where small little things become a big worry Well, that's true when you're weak too When you don't feel up to getting out of bed You know, the washing can seem just monstrous And the house is just overwhelming And all when you're not feeling good And you begin to worry about all these things What's going to happen? And all of these worries and fears and anxieties Begin to grip your heart But then when the Lord comes through He answers your prayers And you're feeling great again You say, well, return to thy rest, O my soul You know, go back to just resting in God Because God has dealt bountifully with thee God has been good For you have delivered my soul from death My eyes from tears And my feet from falling I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living I'm going to live And because I'm going to live I'm going to walk before the Lord Now notice the I wills of Psalm 16 Verse 2 I will call upon Him as long as I live Verse 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living Verse 13 I will take the cup of salvation Verse 14 I will pay my vows And verse 17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving So the I wills of the text Incidentally, through Psalm 118 are the Hallel Psalms These are the Psalms that are sung during the Feast of the Passover Now, the fact that Jesus sang this Psalm with his disciples Before going out to the Garden of Gethsemane Gives a lot of interesting interpretation If you want to interpret this as being Jesus Christ And prophetically, and it's very possible Much of the prophecy had a two-fold fulfillment Chuck Missler has taught you that, and he's correct In that issue He tells you to prove everything else But I'll let you know that Chuck's correct in that one Some of the things I, you know They're interesting The guy can dig up more stuff than I've ever thought existed And I love to hear his tapes But if you look at this prophetically As much scripture can be interpreted in a dual sense The immediate But then there's the prophetic aspect to it And that's true of many of the Psalms And if you think of this as prophetic Of Jesus' death on the cross and all Then thinking of Jesus singing it Knowing that it was a reference to him As he sang, the disciples didn't know This could be one of the Psalms that Jesus explained To the two disciples on the road to Emmaus As he opened up the scriptures to them And from Moses and on through the prophets He expounded how that these were all talking about him About his death and all And his resurrection And here you have the death and the resurrection You know, the pains of hell The grave, sorrows of death encircled me And the Lord was gracious He rose from the dead God kept his word I believed, the psalmist said Therefore have I spoken And I was greatly afflicted In my haste, I said All men are liars Be careful what you say in haste Words spoken in haste often have to be Recounted and recanted It's best to just cool down Before you speak So then the important question Here I am, I am living really because of God's grace And God's mercy God healed me, I should have died I should have gone But God preserved me Therefore what shall I render to the Lord What can I give to God For all of his benefits towards me Here God has given me life What can I give to God In reality there is nothing Of a material sense that we can give to God That isn't his already The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof All they that dwell therein God doesn't need anything from us I mean it's ludicrous to think of You know, giving to God from a material standpoint As though God needed something from me materially And thus when I think about giving to God It has to be in the realm of Spirit or myself I read this story One time of a mission service Where when they passed the offering plate There was this old Indian Who was sitting in the back row And as the usher held out the plate He said, lower it please And so the usher put it He said, lower it more And kept saying lower it Until the usher just sort of put it on the floor And the Indian just stood in the plate And he said, that's all I have to give And really that's what God wants He wants you You know I think that a lot of times We try to sort of buy our way In other words, you know Here God, you know We give Him of our substance When He wants us I don't have time for you this week Lords I'll put an extra five in the offering, you know And I hope that satisfies No, He wants you He's looking for that fellowship with you That's why He created you That's what He longs for Just you Time with you Fellowship with you Giving yourself to Him So, it's interesting The psalmist said, what shall I give to God? But then, he starts out by saying I will take the cup of salvation Now, it's interesting Thinking about giving to God The first thing you do is Talk about what you're going to take You say, well that doesn't make sense, does it? I mean, what shall I give to God? Well, I'll take The cup of salvation But it makes real sense Because I cannot give anything to God Until I first Have taken the cup of salvation And thus have a relationship with God You see, it is our sin That broke the fellowship It is our sin that separated us from God It's sin that stands in the way Between you coming to God And thus, we have to first of all Receive the forgiveness of our sins That cup of salvation That was offered to us by Jesus Christ I will take the cup of salvation And then I will call Upon the name of the Lord Once I've taken the cup of salvation The door is open for my prayers The door is open for communion I can now call upon God Because I've been washed and cleansed of my sin I've received the cup of salvation I will pay my vows unto the Lord Now in the presence of all his people Now, in another psalm, David said I will pay my vows that I made In the day in which I was in trouble Well, this psalmist was in trouble Whether it was David or not, we don't know for sure But he was in trouble, he was dying He thought he was gone And he probably made a lot of promises to God God, if you just heal me God, if you just let me live You know, I'll really live right, Lord I'll really serve you, Lord And so, he says I'm going to pay my vows Unto the Lord in the presence of all of his people Makes you think it was probably David For in a public figure like that The things that you do are always In the presence of all of the people We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse venture Through the Bible in our next lesson As Pastor Chuck Smith continues to guide us Through the study of the Psalms And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now, I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you With the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online, anytime When you go to TheWordForToday.org And while you're there Be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs And so much more Once again, that's The Word for Today online At TheWordForToday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters Of this station with your correspondence And now, on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues His verse-by-verse venture through the Psalms That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today Now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith With today's closing comments May the Lord bless you And keep His hand upon you Guide you with His counsels And keep you in His strength May you rest upon Him And may you experience His strength And His love And may God help you To really come into a full Understanding and knowledge Where it isn't just hearing Him With the hearing of the ear But is really coming to apprehend To see God To see the truth of God You might be strengthened Knowing that God is with you And shall sustain you as His child And places Just by clicking or touching your screen An online dictionary Plus highlighting Note-taking And bookmarking And everywhere Pastor Chuck shares What he learned or studied something You now have access to those very same notes So get ready to study the Bible In a whole new way Now you don't have to imagine What it was like to be there This is the next best thing To find out how to download Pastor Chuck's Genesis commentary To your electronic device Please call The Word for Today At 800-272-9673 Or to watch a video demonstration Visit us online at TheWordforToday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California