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A Sermon on Psalm 116
By Charles L. Church

PSALM 116
1  I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
2  Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
3  The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
4  Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
5  Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
6  The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
7  Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
8  For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
9  I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
10  I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
11  I said in my haste, All men are liars.
12  What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
13  I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
14  I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
16  O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
17  I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
18  I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people,
19  In the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.

This Psalm, like most, is believed to have been written by David. It sweetly displays some aspects of saving grace which are some of the most precious truths of the gospel. To consider these, I have purposed to concentrate mainly upon verses 12-14, but let us first consider the context of those verses, beginning with verses 1-2. “I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”
With these verses we enter into the subject of our Psalm: the response of the beliver to God’s gospel goodness to His people. As we shall shortly consider, David had great need before God; such as provoked his prayer and supplication. When the believer is tried, and prayer is wrung from his heart with afflictions, it cannot fail to evoke spontaneous springs of gratitude when God hears, inclines His ear, and sends His deliverance to the heart according to the suppliant's need and desire. Then the heart knows afresh that verily there is a God who rules over the hearts of men, and can stay the rough wind of their depravity, can enlighten their blindness, and make them whole again, and restore their soul. Then they know more than creeds could have taught them that God is sovereign, holding every infinitesimal detail of all creation, and the hearts of men, in the irresistible sway of His sovereignty. Being impressed with their own impotence, when they see the obstacles of their depravity plucked up and cast into the sea, obstacles infinitely more weighty than any mountain on earth, they know that they have been heard by a Sovereign power; a sovereign power that has deigned to hear their wormish prayer, and they are impressed to amazement at the goodness of God, and can say with David, “I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice”. Yes, it is LOVE they feel to God, and not such a love as they learned from the pulpit, from their Baptist or Reformed confessions, but such as sprang from their hearts, and vented the prayer of David without instruction from man.
When the Lord Jesus healed the ten lepers, only one returned to give thanks. Many seem to receive great things from the gospel, but only those who know the gratitude of the gospel have known the pitiful mercy of the gospel. Jesus once recounted to a certain Pharisee the deeds of love which an infamous woman had done to Him, concluding thus: “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.” Jesus did not say that this woman’s sins were forgiven for the sake of her deed, but that the deed was performed for the sake of her forgiveness. Spiritual life can be known by the gratitude that it inspires in every heart that has known it. And while all faith is tried in order to manifest and glorify its author, such that the people of God are often full of apprehensions about their spiritual welfare, yet are they in God’s time allowed deliverance, and in this they will be like David, who was likewise both oppressed, and who found a spring of gratitude in his heart toward the Lord for His Goodness and condescension to him in his unworthiness when he cried out of his need unto Him.
David continues: “Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” (v.2) When we cry unto the Lord in spiritual conflict and affliction, and he hears us and sends deliverance in His power over all, and in His mercy to His own, it makes us think thus: If I have such a friend, who will condescend to have me in His presence and to hear my supplications, then I will surely spend my days there, for my needs are many and new every morning ?I conceive that His mercies will be thus new every morning, and I can live off of so rich a friend, so willing to deliver me in my crippled estate. When God answers our prayers for mercy it ought to make us think thus with ourselves, and to walk in His presence, and to live off His bounty, with both a willingness, and a  forwardness to glorify the unsearchable riches of His grace. “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.” Ps 22:24
Now we must proceed to enquire into the question: Just what was David’s need, for which he cried unto the Lord thus? We have seen that God delivered, and that David was humbly grateful, but what was David’s dilemma which wrung from him his  groaning for deliverance?  He tells us: “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.” (v.3) The sorrows of death referred to are not merely a reference to the sickness of the body, as though David merely felt in danger of dying at that moment, but of living with clouded evidences of God’s mercy to him for his sins. Death has no sorrows when we have confidence toward God. The sorrows of death can only mean the sorrows of the soul whose state is unsettled in his own mind; and to anyone acquainted with that unsettled state, “sorrows” is an apt description of it, and at times but a tithe of the description that could be given to it. David says that these sorrows “compassed” him. In other words, they surrounded him  ?there was no way to escape them, but they were sure of him, and there was no evading them. Not until a man comes to be thus persuaded of his condition of helplessness in his own devices can he truly know what saving faith is. Until we are thus persuaded we will always be shifting for our relief, and will never resort to what Bunyan called “All Prayer” in his Pilgrim’s Progress”; when we see that there is no hope in all that we can do, and sit down and cry for deliverance from the hand of God, willing that he should have all the glory of it. It is one of those indisputable facts that saints do not learn this lesson very well when they “first believe”, but must always be re-learning it again and again, so dull, so stupid, each of us is without exception, as Psalm 107 attests. Thus David is here relearning it, as each of us must, again and again. The “pains of hell” gat hold upon him, and sifted him. The fear of God’s judgments he had wrestled with and lost; they apprehended him, “gat hold upon him”, and lead him where he would not go  ?lead him into the gulf of spiritual darkness to search as the blind for a ray of light to mark out his escape, but to no avail; and thus there he cried unto God for deliverance, and forsook his own means. This is the trial and faith of God's elect. This is how they believed at the first, and this is how they believe ever after.
How many are they who think such an experience utterly inconsistent with a state of grace! I remember attending a fundamentalist church before understanding the grace of God, and at the “altar call”, they would ask, “How many here know they are saved, and haven’t any doubt about it.” Those hands failing to signify their confidence were next solicited to “come to the altar” and to save themselves with the help of the Baptist priest. The assumption was that any who were not fully persuaded of their good standing before God, enjoyed no such standing in fact. How many times I hypocritically raised my hand just to escape being treated as an infidel I am ashamed to say. Vast multitudes today hold a similar view. They shrink from self examination to see whether they have any experience of the things they profess, and for the great majority of these, it will be unto their damnation to have been thus remiss. But the faith that comes from God is tried of God, and all His people know what it is, whether confessed or denied, to call themselves in question before the bar of their conscience and experience. All the others have an easy solution when their experience is wanting, (as it must be). As they have no real spiritual light from the Spirit of God to guide them into the truth, they simply kindle a fire to make themselves a light of their own to warm and to guide them, but to guide them thus into the bosom of hell, and to warm them along the way thither. (Is.50:10-11) But children of God with any experience behind them know what it is to be destitute, and to cry unto God, “deliver my soul”, and in that posture to learn again the blessed truth they embraced when they first believed, that their God “will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.”  Ps 102:17
This was David’s experience. When thus pressed, he says, “Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” (v.4) Sometimes small words can carry large truths. David says that “then called I upon the name of the LORD”. When? When the sorrows of death had compassed him in, and the pains of hell had laid fast hold upon him. Then calls he upon God to deliver his soul. When we forget to call in times of weal, he teaches us to call by times of woe. As says the hymn: “Murmuring oft for gospel bread; growing wanton when full fed.” Never are we in greater danger of forgetting Christ than when closest too Him, for then we feel least our need of Him, because he sanctifies the heart, and in our unfathomable stupidity this usually makes us pleased with ourselves! Ah! for wisdom to sense our need, even while he is doing great things for our souls! But we rather invite these harrowing, but merciful providences to the soul, to try it, and take it back to its rest. If we will not rest as we ought, then God is wise, and knows how to make us rest. It takes a destitute sinner to trust in Christ and be joyful in Him, and when we forget ourselves as being such, we must relearn the lesson, and this is how God saves us. What better way to show us our rest, to cause us to return, than to show us our need: and what better way to show us our need, than to withdraw His own presence, and thus to force us to the mirror, there to behold the decaying image of putrefaction and corruption, so as to despair again in self, and to hope again in free mercy. (Job.13:26-27) Yes, he will send the sorrows of death to compass, and the pains of hell to apprehend, and thus show the believer afresh his need of free grace, from whence he is again persuaded to embrace it with thanksgiving, and to rejoice in its happy tidings. Then called I upon the name of the LORD.
And for what did he call? For a new car? Was this his burden? For a better family arrangement? Was this the source of his trouble? For more riches? for more honour? for more bodily health? Were any of these the weight upon his heart? No, as important as such things may be, and as much as the believer has warrant to trust God for all his needs, yet this is not what plagues his heart in the sight of God. When there is no remedy seen in the heart for sin, this is his burden….. not by body, not my family, but my soul. Deliver my soul! How miserable and heretical that “gospel” that thinks to make Jesus the Saviour of all man’s minute woes, as though that were the plague to be remedied by the cross! As though that were the plague upon the believer’s heart! As deep as they may run, these are not the ruling woe. How often do we hear this “other gospel” being preached, how Jesus can make you feel better, make you have self-esteem, heal your body, and send you prosperity, as though that were His mission, and as though the cross were to make amends for the want of such things! No, it is sin! sin, that is the great evil, the great burden upon the back of all that God calls to partake of the gospel, because this is what the gospel was given of God to remedy; and thus David cries out, “O LORD, I beseech thee, Deliver my soul”.
Now David breaks forth into an interesting exclamation of praise, “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.”(v.5) But he has not even related his deliverance yet! We surmise that he was delivered, and the next verse tells us so, but it seems as though he became so overwhelmed and amazed with a sense of God’s goodness, that he simply begins to extol Him for it, before even recounting the fact. This is how it is with the soul when it is enlarged again, and restored to its privileges. It stands amazed at God’s goodness again, as at the first, and thinks it a grand thing that God should show mercy to the undeserving. He does not cavil that God only saves some, or does not save all, but stands in amazement that God should save any, and especially show such rich mercy to such as himself. And when was the last time that my hearer stood amazed thus at God’s mercy to him? If a long season has passed since that time, would it not argue that such afflictions nearly await him, to teach him again the goodness of God? How often we sing “Amazing Grace”, and yet how little we are experimentally amazed at it   ?amazed that God should so condescend to pity us, and that so fully, and lave such riches upon untrustworthy and treacherous things as sons of Adam  ?amazed that God should pardon us in eternal fact, and to reconcile himself to us in the cross, and us to himself by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit! And can it be that I should gain, an interest in the Saviour’s blood? Died he for me who caused His pain, for me to Him to death pursued? AMAZING LOVE! how can it be? That thou my God shouldst die for me! Oh, it is one thing to sing the song with the tongue, and quite another to sing the song with the faith of the heart exulting in something so amazing as free grace!
So what did God do for David? He tells us: “The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.” Here David is ready to acknowledge that it was by no superior strength in himself for which sake God sent His sweet deliverance…. no such thing! No, as for God, he delivers the simple; not such as are wise and prudent in their own eyes, but those who see themselves as hopelessly blind and spiritually imbecile so far as their own powers are concerned ?the simple. The wise and prudent in their own eyes he leaves to their own devices. He chose fishermen and other “non-professionals” to herald His eternal truth, and made incessant war with the wise and prudent Pharisees, and their ilk. But it is one thing to be called from this place of lowliness, however, and quite another thing to remain there in our own eyes, for we begin to grow wise in our own sight with the attainments of spiritual maturity, forgetting that in ourselves we are as lame as the day we first believed, and that we walk by borrowed light. But God has His remedy for this ?  “I was brought low, and he helped me”.  There is no place like “low” to know the “help” of Jesus Christ. This is where Jesus Christ dwells. Those wishing to find Him, will find Him here. “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Is. 57:15 Many constantly invite Him into their spotless abodes, but he will not come. He is out with the offscouring of the earth saving them, and with all such as be thus persuaded of themselves. He came not to call the “righteous”, but sinners to repentance. When men cannot be persuaded that they are vile, they cannot be persuaded to saving faith, for saving faith is a thing that may only be performed by the vile, for it consists of repudiating every argument but that of Christ for salvation, which is to confess yourself as bankrupt of all argument in yourself, and therefore vile. David was brought low, and there found anew the help of Jesus Christ. God proceeds thus with all His children. They are brought low through much inward trouble and affliction, there to learn again the precious truth that God saves the miserable. Many times they will feel certain that God means to overthrow them, when thus he takes that course that alone can save them, for it urges them to look at the remedy of the cross, which in their self sufficiency and self-satisfaction, they forgot. "I was brought low and he helped me".
And when they are thus brought low, and shown this great deliverance, they will say with David, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.” (v.7) Now they see again. When we are brought low, our Rest is obscured from view, and that indeed is what has brought us low. But when we are thus prepared, then God “deals bountifully” again, and we “return unto our rest”.  We say, Oh, yes! There it is! Sweet and true as ever! FREE GRACE in Jesus Christ! Real Mercy for the needy! Pardon for nothing to the undeserving! There it appears again, with all its enthralling attraction, and we with great acclamation of heart return to the cool reviving spring of the gospel. Then we say, I will return unto my rest, “For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” (v.8) Then we are allowed to see the parts of the gospel saving us. The “sorrows of death compassed us”. We prayed, “O LORD, deliver my soul”, and here we are allowed to see the great deliverance from death in the gospel. Here the child of God is allowed to see the sin bearer interpose His spotless breast to receive the arrows of Almighty wrath sent out against the crimes that he committed against the infinite dignity and holiness of the Eternal Judge. Here he is allowed to see that unassailable tower of righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ, attested in His rising in victory over death. Here he says in his heart, “O, my Saviour, thou hast delivered my soul from Death! The king of terrors is dethroned, and thou rulest over all!” And thus not only is he allowed to see that he is delivered from death, but that being the case he cannot now be sorrowful. Give a child of God every luxury known to man, but take away the enjoyment of the knowledge of his salvation, and he can have nothing but sorrow, for those things make up no part of his real joy. But give him every misery known to martyrs and deprive him of the least of the earth’s blessings, but let him have the knowledge of being delivered from death by the saving work of Christ the Surety, and nothing can make him sorrowful, for his life is hid with Christ in God. Deliver his heart from the sorrows of death, and you have delivered him from all his sorrows! Deliver his heart from the sorrows of death, and you have delivered his “eyes from tears”. Not only so, when the restored soul sees his deliverance from death, it sanctifies his heart, such as to “deliver his feet from falling”. The blood of Christ delivers men from death, and reconciles them to God. And being thus reconciled, they experience God’s love and pity  ?experience God’s presence, His indwelling the heart through the Spirit.  This mortifies sin, and “delivers his feet from falling”, for it is God’s abiding presence in the heart that mortifies sin. Put the ark of God in any temple of Dagon you please, and Dagon will fall down prostrate and helpless. Just so our sins and lusts will fall down and lie helpless at the feet of the Almighty, to the degree that He makes His abode in the heart by His Spirit. Sanctification is the fruit of Justification, and having these we want only to be delivered from the body of this death to be raised anew without sin  ?glorification. The fact that we have not been so delivered, and will not be until the resurrection, is the cause why our state here is so tenuous and punctuated with woe and weal; boom and bust.
Those who think themselves delivered from death and do not find their tears dried up by it, nor their feet preserved from falling through it, have believed another Jesus, ?another gospel. So be that the believer is given faith to behold his deliverance, he is made glad and holy by it. Though this will wax and wane, it will characterize the life of every believer that that the gospel sanctifies his heart, and conforms him more and more into the image of Christ.
David, in the joy of his victory, exclaims,  “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” (v.9) As eve is the mother of all living physically, so the church of God is the mother of all living, spiritually. "Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all." (Gal.4:26) Having his faith now restored he joyfully reckons himself among the number of God’s people and owns their hope as his. How many there are who thus number themselves among the number of God’s people who never once had any such experience of their need, nor therefore of His goodness, such as to cordially receive mercy at Christ’s account for nothing to their own  ?how many that reckoned themselves among the number of the redeemed who never once exclaimed with grateful thanksgiving, “thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling”! They entered into the way without any such plea being wrung from them out of the extremity of their need, and no wonder that they are strangers to such a work ever after. God does not acknowledge them as His by trying them thus, for he “chasteneth every son whom he receiveth”. (Heb.12) “They have no changes, therefore they fear not God.” Ps 55:19
David did not learn this in a theology book, nor from the pulpit; or at least not from these only. He did not memorize a certain frame of speech used of orthodox ages past, or from those who mimic them in the present. He did not “ante up” to the expected confession of misery and deliverance, but he actually experienced them; misery and deliverance both. We hear much today about those who are so exercised about the state of their souls. But they have mostly been taught so to behave.  When we see them consistently trample their obligations to domestic fidelity, betraying, for instance, their children to the devil in the "public" schools, one cannot help but wonder why their tender consciences are not exercised about that. (Eph.6:4, Deut.6:7) They speak about such experiences, but call their confession into question by the selective partiality in regard to that which they condescend to be afflicted over. But David knew of these inward conflicts by his own experience, and not merely as a system of words required of a certain religious community. He says, (v.10), “I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted.” It is as if he had said, “I was greatly afflicted, but know a great deliverance, and therefore speak of it.” Oh, how many there are that speak of such things, but how few who ever once knew the sorrow and the victory of Christ thus exercising His people, and bringing them thus to eternal salvation!
When we speak to the brethren by way of encouragement, how powerless and ineffectual are all our words, unless we know whereof we affirm within the scope of our own afflictions! God  “comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (2Co1:4) Use any other comfort you will, and comfort it will not. Let us, then, “speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen”, and the saints of God, at least, will “receive our witness.” (Jn. 3:11, w/8:47) May each of us be able to say, "I have believed, therefore have I spoken".
This makes a valuable reflection upon the ministry also. Many are the reasons that men wish to speak to the people of God  ?most of them bad. Men wish to speak because it makes them look important as a leader of the people. Men wish to speak because they covet the prestige of being called, “Rabbi, Rabbi”. Men wish to speak because they are sordidly ambitious, and desire to gain a following. Few, very few, desire to speak “because they have believed” ?to speak because they have been afflicted, been delivered, rejoice in the deliverance, and earnestly covet to encourage the fainting child of God with words in season. O, how vast is the multitude of men who enter into this work for nothing but their own aggrandizement in view, and who never once felt any such aspiration toward the saints in his heart! No wonder that a preacher was once heard to exclaim that you could look from Dover to Calais, (i.e., across the English channel), and see nothing but damned preachers! How important a work in settling a preacher in any church that they well discern what motivates him to speak to the people  ?because he has believed the report of the gospel, or because he is seeking great things for himself.
In the depths of David’s affliction he despaired that God’s hand wrought for any in this world, so dark and dejected were his thoughts. “I said in my haste, All men are liars.” (v.11) All fail of grace and its influences  ?God has withdrawn, and all men are thus in the bonds of iniquity! When we see no mercy for ourselves, it can obscure our perception of God’s mercy to others. David said in another place, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”, that is, in the church of God. (Ps.27) When we see not God’s hand ruling in our own hearts, we may often be tempted to hastily conclude that there is no grace elsewhere either. Elijah supposed this, and in a certain respect he was right. There was no church gathered at that time, and this caused him to suppose there were no true believers beside himself. But God’s work supersedes such considerations, and goes on gathering saints unto himself, if not to each other, and this is still a witness to His power and goodness in “the land of the living”. This is enough to encourage anyone thus despondent, when he sees one here, and another there, in whom he perceives the work of God to prevail, though perhaps they are spread from pole to pole, and be not gathered with each other at all. I believe that it is almost a parallel case with that of Elijah’s time today, and thus the same dangers may present themselves. The church, as for being gathered, is in a state of  utter desolation. But it is hasty to  conclude that God’s work is held captive for that sake, for it goes on, and prevails over the hearts of men, saving and sanctifying, if not gathering, one here, and another there. Though the number be few, it is none the less a living witness to God’s power and goodness. And being real, it cannot but encourage our hearts, and we are thereby inspired to speak of God’s goodness in the land of the living, and when we ourselves experience the peace and hope of the gospel, we are in a better situation to view the panorama of God’s work in the earth.
Thus much of David’s experience. But he now asks a question of great importance. “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (v.12) Whenever God gladdens a soul with the knowledge of His goodness, the heart at once starts from its lethargy and begins to contrive various works of gratitude. This is an irresistible impulse of the heart, born of love to Jesus Christ for reaching our case. But we are altogether apt to start from our office “like a deceitful bow”, and begin, not just from an impulse of gratitude, but from a principle of working for life, and what can start out as a desire only to show our gratitude to Christ for His condescension, can end up a desire to show our worthiness for it, as though this is how His unobliged favour were maintained, or as though mercy formally obliged us never to be indebted to it further. We think thus to maintain our “right” to mercy, when mercy is a thing that there can be no rights to, because it is unobliged favour. We rather receive with cordial gratitude the truth that God has determined of His own sovereign pleasure to show favour to the ungodly. And while we are formally obliged to obey instead of obliging God’s mercy, yet in time we learn that our obedience is full sufficient to thrust us to hell, and that therefore, indebtedness to mercy is the essence of walking with God, living in gratitude for His goodness, without all thought of not being dependent upon it, and yet obliged to obey with the whole heart with and by this gratitude. Our formal obligation to be obedient does not, therefore, nullify our formal obligation to be dependent upon mercy.
When we feel in our heart that sacred impulse, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me”, as we have been taught of God, the response of our heart ought to be  ?not a thing have I to render! Render? What can I render unto The Lord for all His benefits? First, His benefits are so great as to defy utterly all such thought of rendering anything for them, and second, were there anything that could be given for them, such as I am, I could not render it, for I am corrupt, and not worthy to enter into His sight upon such an errand. The best of our works are dyed with sin, and to enter His presence with such an argument is to offend the goodness of God, to provoke the justice of God, and to despise the grace of the gospel. What shall I then render unto the Lord, for all His benefits? David tells us: “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord”. What shall I render? “I will take”. While it is “more blessed to give than to receive” as it respects our duty toward men, yet in this business it is all taking. There is nothing can be rendered for such benefits, but to take them, and to take them again, and to take them still, so as to live from them. We render God our due by glorifying His bounty, and we glorify His bounty by taking more and more of it. To take is to render God His due, because this is how He has ordained to glorify himself in the gospel; this was His purpose in making such provision. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” The religion of Christianity consists of taking, because it teaches us that we have nothing to give to God at all, and nothing to give to men, until we take of the goodness of God in the gospel. (Ps.16:2)
Thus when under the influence of our gratitude for the tender mercies of the gospel, our first work is not to render all sorts of feats of faith  but it is to realize that we are sinners still, and it is our part to stay fast by the repast of the gospel and thus to requite the hand that feeds us by glorifying His bounty, receiving it to ourselves without scruple, and thus cordially honouring the goodness of God that extends it. The want of this disposition is quite often what causes us so much trouble. We mean to do great things for God, rather than meaning to let Him do great things for us. We conceive an idea that God is backward to glorify His goodness, and so think to show our gratitude to it by trying not to be dependent upon it, as though it were our solemn duty not to glorify His goodness too much. This is the epitome of an ill-guided conscience! If ever there was peace in a man’s heart it came by a willingness to glorify the goodness of God in the gospel by taking its goodness with a full persuasion that it is the will of God for sinners thus to relieve themselves by it, and to enrich themselves with its inexhaustible treasures, and so fulfill the design of God in the gospel by manifesting the goodness of His free grace.
There is no time that we are more apt to recognize this mystery than when we have just been led through a time of inward darkness, or a time of seeing our depravity; for then we are not so ready to trust ourselves, or to think too much of our abilities. Thus David, after his heart is again relieved, gives us the right answer to the question, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” He will take of the mercy of God; he will drink deep of the cup of salvation, and then he will call upon the name of the Lord; then will he make his approach unto God. With this, and with nothing else will he derive any confidence toward God to call upon Him.
Let us consider for a moment the progression of the verses. “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.” Notice the progression: First he will take the cup of salvation, then he will call upon the name of the Lord, and then he will pay his vows unto the most high. First, his part is to take from God of his mercy, being persuaded of God’s goodness in providing it for the destitute. But this is a provision that is not an aimless thing. Free pardon and deliverance from death are not given as an end in themselves; they are expedients to reconcile men to God. They are not purposed simply that men should not be damned, but that they should know God in peace, and walk with Him. Thus will David take the cup of salvation and drink it with a willing heart, but he knows what it means, he does so not just to be saved from damnation, but to be reconciled to God, to bring peace and union between them. People have a completely wrong idea about the gospel, as though its chief end were only to save us from hell. While that is unquestionably one of its greatest purposes, yet it is but a means to an end. The gospel is purposed not just to save men from hell but to reconcile them to God  ?to bring man again to call upon the name of the Lord. It is purposed to bring peace and union and harmony, and to abolish all enmity such that man will walk with God by it without the trouble of an evil conscience, nor the reticence of mistrust. The cup of salvation, the blood of Christ, has washed him, and washed him so that he may walk in the presence of a holy God  ?that he may call upon the name of the Lord. It has cleansed his conscience to be in His presence without fear, and has warranted a persuasion that the sinner may, by it, walk with God in amity and peace.
If this is so, then what is that gospel that preaches up the atonement, but never preaches anything about walking with God, or the fellowship and indwelling of the Spirit of God, or of the experience of His goodness?  They suppose that the gospel was purposed only to deliver them from hell, and have not a Godward side to their gospel. It is all for them. It is man-centered. It does not wish to be bothered much with God, His offended majesty, the implications of His unfathomable sacrifice for His chosen people, His satisfaction in that sacrifice, nor therefore of its purpose of reconciliation. No, they were made free from condemnation only that they may thus have liberty to live unto themselves without having to be damned for it. This is a godless gospel, and such as is well suited to man’s unbelief, and to his blindness to the unseen things of the spiritual world.
But David says that he will take the cup of salvation that he may call upon the name of the Lord. This respects the devotion of heart begotten of a sense of God’s goodness to it, and of a sense of free mercy having provided peace, and therefore access into God’s presence. Then David says that he will pay his vows unto the LORD. A vow was a voluntary dedication of some thing unto the LORD in gratitude for some mercy received. Notice also that a vow is to give something to God  ?it is not to take. It is to give unto the LORD of our life or substance as an expression of gratitude for some good received from Him. Nor is it to call which is an inward thing, and respects inward devotion to God, and reconciliation and peace with Him in the heart. This is all outward. It has to do with outward actions. David had received great mercy. First he takes, then he calls, now he pays as a work of gratitude and love to his benefactor.
This is the proper place of works. It is our tendency to reverse the order  ?to pay, call, and then take. We think of this as pleasing to God, when it is an abomination to Him. What can I render unto the Lord? Only more sin. It is my part, then, when I feel that impulse of gratitude and a desire to render to the Lord His due for all His mercies to me, to take from Him yet more of the treasures of the gospel, and thus to glorify Him as the only due I can possibly render  ?to glorify His bounty and goodness to the ungodly, and to be willing in my heart thus to glorify Him, without all the false reservations of an ill-guided conscience. A willingness that He should be glorified for His goodness, without all thoughts of taking a little glory to myself by holding back on taking from Him freely until I can add something of my own. We somehow become so deceived as to think that this holding back is honouring to God. No, he means to glorify His own goodness, and therefore bids us to take the cup of salvation freely, not once or twice, but to live thereby, and to repay for past draughts only by taking more.
Our propensity to reverse this order is appalling. Our having learned the correct order in our theology does not prevent us from attempting again and again to approach unto God by works. How many times have we learned this lesson, only to return unto our broken cisterns, to try our skill at getting them to hold water. (Jer.2:13) How could such a constant failure so powerfully hold our confidence? Creeds are powerless to allay our foolishness. Afflictions, and being left to ourselves, as we thus desire, are the only things that can show us ourselves clearly enough to make us return in wisdom to take, then call, then pay.
And these are the two religions of the world. The gospel of Christ is to take, then call, and then pay; to take the goodness of God by faith, and repay for it by taking more; and having truly experienced these things, to be drawn night to God to be reconciled to Him by it, and thus to call upon the name of the Lord; and being thus reconciled and indwelt by the Spirit of God, we are given to progress in sanctification, and to pay our vows unto the most high  ?to live a life of obedience in gratitude for His salvation. All other religions reverse this order and start out by attempting to pay, then call, then take. They think to please God with unregenerate works of various descriptions, and that this wonder-working atonement will usher them into the presence of God to call upon Him, and that now that they have exalted themselves so high as not to need it, they may "freely" take of mercy! They think to glorify God by robing God of His glory, lest all should be of His own goodness, and not another’s.
While this is not the religion of the godly, yet when sin lies hard upon his conscience it is ever a temptation to him to be patching up his wounds with the rags of his own righteousness as a way to return into God’s favour, as though a want of need could constitute an argument for His relief! What beggar every made his sufficiency an argument for mercy! But the desertions he thus procures unto himself teach him a willingness of heart rather to glorify the free grace of Jesus Christ, than his own skill at ruining himself. When we keep thus off from God, what are we saying but that if we did but a little better, then we could approach unto Him on that ground? Thus we build again the thing that we destroyed in receiving the grace of God by faith. (Gal.2:18) But in those born of God this error provides its own remedy, for it cannot avail, and is therefore forsaken of all who care for their souls, and for the honour of God’s goodness in His salvation.
But to pay, then call, and then take,  is the religion of all who are not born of God, no matter what sort of profession they may wish to carry. We can think of the various religions of the world who use this formula. There is paganism with all its attempts at satisfying the gods by their various means, that they may approach unto them, and receive some favours from them. There is Romanism with its naturally similar method of salvation, (seeing as they are but Christianized paganism), seeking to fulfill a vast round of carnal deeds prescribed by human authority, that they may approach unto God, and thus receive some benefit from Him. There is Arminianism, (Romanism with Protestant paint), asserting that for God to show mercy for nothing would be to violate the sanctity of the man’s “free” will. No, before they can be saved, they must throw their “running and willing” into the bag with Christ’s righteousness to make up a sufficient payment for their salvation. Christ death alone, they say, couldn’t ransom souls from hell without it, for they say Christ’s death was paid for every one now burning in hell. Not the work of Christ, then, can bring men to heaven, without this offering from the unregenerate heart of man to perfect what was wanting in Christ’s sacrifice. But if Christ made atonement for souls in hell, by whose merits do they hope to attain heaven? If Christ atoned for men in heaven and  men in hell both, it is perfectly evident that some merits other than Christ’s must have accomplished salvation; and the only discrepancy of merit left is that found in men themselves. Those that went to heaven were simply better men  And having paid, then they may call, and then they may take of Him the favours they no longer have any need of, having already provided for them themselves. This, they assure us, is to ensure God’s glory!
Then there is Fullerism. Fullerism ostensibly acquiesces to Sovereign Grace while it overthrows its foundation. Without being distracted with the minutia of the questions involved, suffice it to say that Mr. Fuller preached a general atonement, though he had other names for it. He preached that Christ's atonement was sufficient to save the non-elect…. preached, then, a non-saving atonement for the non-elect. In short, then, he preached an atonement that doesn't atone, but he taught that there is an application of this non-saving atonement by the Spirit of God that applies this non-saving atonement savingly! His atonement was, in fact, entirely general; only he thought it applied particularly by the Holy Spirit. The ostensible need to provide a general atonement is based upon the assumption that man cannot rationally acquire saving faith without the warrant which a general atonement provides him. Unless sinners are certainly apprised that Christ died for them, they will say, how can they put their faith in Him for their salvation?
A sufficient answer to this enquiry is but to ask the obvious question: Of what use is a warrant to believe in a non-saving atonement? The whole purpose of this inconsiderate invention is ostensibly to deliver men from the uncertainty of whether or not Christ died for them. But what use is it to know that Christ died for you, if His dying for you doesn’t necessarily save you? ?that leaves you left to save yourself with a sufficinet degree of  willing and running? (Rom9) Like Arminianism, (because it is), this theme proposes that men in hell had Christ’s atonement as equally as those who went to heaven, as far as they can know, for there is no way for them to know whether this atonement is saving, because men in hell have it equally with them. Nay, rather, they therefore know that the atonement cannot be saving, but their additions to it only can prove so, and whether or not they have provided sufficient willing and running for such a salvation they can have no warrant to know. And yet this is the expedient invented to afford men confidence! What confidence! What comfort! Instead of saving faith in the person of Christ as able to save any that come to Him, having made a completely efficacious atonement for the elect, and drawing each to come, he has now a faith in an “atonement” whereby he must necessarily revert to the efficacy of his own fithly rags to wave in God's face as the compliment of what was wanting in the spotless blood of Christ. Thus if its votaries are to gain any confidence toward God from it whatever, it can only be drawn from something which they themselves provide. How can anyone have a saving faith in such an atonement without having recourse to a hope in their own works? Yes, beneath all the silver-tongued words it is but another form of paying first, before you can call, or take. This is the fine “remedy” given to relieve men of the uncertainty of an efficacious atonement! It is given rather to relieve men of the trouble of having to examine themselves to see whether they have Christ revealed in their hearts by the power of God through faith, and gives them a supposed warrant to kindle their own fire, and walk in the light of their own sparks when they get tired of waiting for it to be revealed from heaven. (Is.50:11)
Though not worse in itself, yet there is a more dangerous “ism” still to be ware of. We have followed Paganism, Romanism, Arminianism, and then Fullerism, right to our own door. We have noticed our duty to take, call, and then pay. We have repudiated the doctrine of works, and are apt to count ourselves therefore quite faithful saints on that account. But we don’t fulfill this doctrine by putting it in our creeds, or by pluming ourselves with our supposed orthodoxy. We don’t fulfill this doctrine by being part of the right group or subscribing to the soundest confession. We don’t fulfill such truth only by sound doctrinal confession, but by taking, by calling, and by paying. Our nature is to forget the purpose of teaching and to fatten our heads with truth rather than our hearts with the goodness it teaches us about. It is one thing to have mastered these truths, and quite another to take  ?to take salvation’s cup and drink of its goodness, and making it our first rendering to the Lord for His extending it to us at the first by taking more and more. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Col 2:6) We received by taking, let us walk by taking.You may be quite an expert at what it is we are supposed to take, how we are supposed to take it, how it is provided, and of whom; but do you take it? None of these other things are the question. The real question is, Do YOU take of salvations cup by faith, and drink its refreshing draught with satisfaction and gratitude? We can lock up on the other questions all the way to hell; for mastering them won’t help us unless it is mixed with a faith that realizes that this, this free gospel grace, is real, represents a real existence, a real mercy that reaches even to our desperate case and beyond, and that the God of the bible stands behind all its verity.
And we fulfill this doctrine not only by taking, but by calling. And it is one thing to read profitable and orthodox books about reconciliation, but quite another to experience that reconciliation by being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, or at least by being cognizant of His absence. The right use of the doctrine of justification has been suggested  ?we are justified as a means of being drawn near to God, to be restored to peace and communion with Him, and devotion to Him….. that we might call upon the name of the Lord. This is not a thing to be memorized, but to be realized by the faith of the gospel in the inward part of the believer. “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” (Ps.51) And so, again, the question is not, Can you memorize or expostulate upon the access of faith into the presence of God, but Do you know what it is by experience to have access there by the faith of the gospel. Do you know what it is to stand in God’s presence CLEAN by the blood of Christ? If not, then to what purpose our learning the truths of the gospel? Is our knowledge but a feather in the cap to be proud of, or in the pillow to rest on?
Again; we fulfill this doctrine not by taking & calling only, but by paying. It is one thing to be zealously affected for the doctrine of sanctification, but all experience demands the conclusion that it is entirely another thing to in fact possess the influence of the Spirit of God which sanctifies the heart unto Him, such as inspires a life of obedience. In fact, nothing is so common in this age as men who are zealously affected for the doctrine of sanctification, but who utterly detest the restraint of the gospel, and the life of the Spirit of God  ?who would excommunicate any who dared teach that sanctification is not necessary for salvation, but who themselves trample the scriptural rule of practice which tells us what sanctification actually is, and bare their teeth at any who attempt to point out this blunder to them. And so the question is not whether we can tell the scope and source of sanctification like a John Owen, but whether or not we have ever experienced the influence of gratitude for saving grace such as inspires the heart to a loving obedience to its benefactor. The question is not how zealously affected we are for the doctrine of sanctification, but whether or not we ourselves keep ourselves “unspotted from the world”.  Experts in sanctification will populate hell, because while they extolled the virtues of sanctification, they loved the world, followed its fashions, approved its indecency, destroyed their families, were led about by the church’s enemies, loved this life, and detested with all their strength the restraint of the godly.
We can be greatly affected with all these doctrines, and yet be entirely backslidden as respects the meaning of each of them, or even be perfect strangers to them altogether. The question isn’t “What is your doctrine about free grace?” but “Do you take salvation’s cup, and call upon the name of the Lord?” If we don’t do this, then what is the profit of the whole doctrine? The bare knowledge of it can damn us, and there is no profit in that. We seek a knowledge of the gospel that it might “be mixed with faith” as we hear of it, and so take by faith of the things it witnesses. It is a deadly delusion to place orthodoxy in a mere creed. We read of those “Who received the law by the disposition of angels but have not kept it”. How do we do? We have received the gospel by the administration of Jesus Christ himself, and it is ours not only to be jealous for its doctrine, but only thus jealous for the sake of the reality the doctrine communicates to the members of the church. But when we are zealous for taking salvation’s cup, but don’t take, zealous for calling upon the name of the LORD, but don’t call, zealous to pay our vows to God, but don’t pay, then what is there worth being jealous for in any such matter? What are we zealous for in such a case, but our own righteousness in being the wise and sound confessors of truth? Is this a right use of the gospel? Is this orthodoxy? Is “say and do not” the gospel of Jesus, or of Pharisees? (Mat.23)  The entire issue in our creed is but to open to us the world of salvation by enlightening it to us. But how much has it enlightened us if we never put one foot into its country? It is as if a man should profess to love a certain country because he had a map to it, when he had never once been there. And yet he may be a very expert in expounding upon his map.
But this is not just the device of the hypocrite, but, at times, is the plague of the saint. We are like Peter, who, when the LORD would wash his feet, was indignant that He should do something for him, and so serve him. We feel that we must be serving Him, but that he must not serve us. Oh, how plausible does this deception appear to every one of us. We are every one made like Peter was. Oh, but to condescend to have the Lamb of God wash us in His blood, to pity us, and lay still and contented while he cleanses our wounds, pouring in the oil and wine as our Good Samaritan. Oh Mercy how sweet, and yet how backwards do we prove to thus sit still and receive it from His pierced hands. One would think that we should say from the start like Peter did at the last, “Not my feet only, but my hands and my head!” But we resist Him with our mistrust and self-righteousness! And all our tears don’t seem to make us any different. We are none the wiser for having so grieved Him a dozen times, and seem incapable of learning well this lesson. May we learn of Him to say when He draws near, Cleanse thou, Dear Jesus, my feet for walking, my hands for working, and my head for thinking; let me learn of thee to sit still and content and to be served by thee, lest I have no part of thee and perish; then will I freely learn to take of thy goodness without any more of my mistrust, and to call upon thee with confidence, then will I pay thee my vows, I will labour in works of gratitude for thy so free salvation.
We are deficient in this way also as it respects our calling upon the name of the Lord. We may understand about calling upon God; but do we call? Sometimes mistrust hinders the believer from calling upon God and walking with Him. He may have confidence that he is converted, but failing to apprehend the great efficacy of the gospel, he fails to see the perfection of peace  and access which it affords him, he loses his vision of being CLEAN in the sight of God by the blood of Christ, and he becomes stifled in prayer and communion, and can begin to draw back. But as was said before, When we forget to call in times of weal, He will teach us to call by times of woe. The unlikely solution for this condition is for God to drive the believer to his wit’s end with the power of his sin, thus to make mercy so sweet to his soul that he will the more fully and cordially embrace it, and thus see more experimentally the vast extent of its power to reconcile men to God in perfect peace. This is how God teaches us to “take the cup of salvation”. And this is also how He teaches us to “call upon the name of the Lord”.  And when we know these things it inspires us to serve Him in grateful obedience.
And why is it that we so often do so poorly in the area of our inward devotion of calling upon the name of the Lord, and in our outward walk of paying our vows of gratitude unto Him? Are we not so sorry at paying, because we are sorry at taking, and hence our sense of gratitude spoils like yesterday’s manna? Are we not so sorry at inward devotion to Christ because we forgot what it was to take of His goodness as destitute insolvents, and to have Him serve us in our helpless state  ?forgot all His goodness to us, and hence forgot the free access we have unto Him by the gospel?
Is this not the root of every trouble? Is not this lesson the crux of every matter? And yet when we become troubled and spiritually sick, what do we? Rush to Christ and humbly solicit the washing of our feet, hands, and head  with the confidence and simplicity of a child asking his father an egg? Nay! We rush to pay up, patch up our righteousness on one side, till it bursts out on the other, and heal ourselves slightly, until the sorrows of death compass us, and the pains of hell get fast hold upon us, and we finally abandon all hope that we should be saved by any such means and come again, only after our LORD’S rebuke, like Peter, to say, “Not my feet only, but my hands and my head!” When we see ourselves growing cold or careless the first thing we ought to review is how well we take; how well we feed at the banqueting table of free grace. But what do we? We rather rush to dress up Adam in Christ’s garments, and send him out to do Christ’s office, thinking that if we just could do a little better, then we have peace. But like Adam the first, we may sew our fig leaves, but we run from God none the less when it comes to the trial, and so are never reconciled by these means. No, “Leviathan is not so tamed”. Free mercy wins the heart, and we have nothing to pay until we pay out of gratitude for that.
There are only two religions and the world’s religion is programmed into us by the fall! How profoundly stupid we prove ourselves again and again, and therefore the experience of this Psalm will be ours until that day when we are brought not only to see our Justification ?our deliverance from death,  not only our Sanctification ?our deliverance from reigning sin, but our Glorification ?our deliverance from the body of this death, when this corruption shall have put on incorruption, and this mortality shall have put on immortality, and we are utterly and finally delivered from the body of sin, to reap the fruits of that mercy we so often failed to confide in while we walked as pilgrims in the vale of tears. Then shall the grace of God have its praise through all eternity, and all will know it, none will doubt it, and thanksgiving and gratitude shall be showered upon the Triune God throughout eternity for the goodness He showed to us in contriving our salvation, and rescuing us from damnation. May God grant that we may possess the faith of these things so as to honour Him here and now, dull as we are, and so be lights to those uncalled, yet chosen souls that are destined to share in our consolation. Amen.