Psalm 116 (114/115):5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But from where does he derive this hope? For it is written, "He inclined His ear unto me; in my distress I cried out to Him." Psalm 114:2. I loved, therefore, because He would heed me; I received His attention because He inclined His ear towards me. But how can you be assured, O human soul, that God has tuned His ear to you, unless you profess, "I have believed?" Thus, these three remain: faith, hope, and love. 1 Corinthians 13:13. Because you believed, you hoped; and from hope springs love...

What are the "days" you refer to when you say, "In my days I called upon Him"? Perhaps they are those in which the fullness of time arrived and God sent His Son. Galatians 4:4. For He has declared, "In a favorable moment I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." Isaiah 49:8. I can rather consider my days as those of suffering, days of mortality, those weary days resembling Adam’s, filled with toil and distress. For I was sunk in deep mire, and in another psalm I cried out, "Behold, You have made my days old," for in these days I have called upon You. My days differ from the days of my Lord. I refer to those days that my own boldness has crafted for me, wherein I have forsaken Him. Since He reigns everywhere in His omnipotence, I have earned confinement, a darkness of ignorance, and the chains of mortality...

For in these days, the snares of death have enveloped me, and the torments of hell have seized me. Psalm 113:3. These agonies would not have befallen me had I not strayed from You. Yet, they have overtaken me; I was unaware while I delighted in worldly prosperity, where the traps of hell deceive even more.

But after I encountered tribulation and burdens, I called upon the Name of the Lord. Psalm 113:4. I felt no useful sorrow or trouble; those troubles in which He provides succor—"Be our helper in times of trouble"—for human assistance is futile. I thought I could bask in joy over the empty support of mankind; but when I heard my Lord’s words, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted," Matthew 5:4, I did not wait to lose those earthly blessings I cherished only to then weep; instead, I acknowledged the very affliction that led me to rejoice in fleeting things I dared not lose yet could not keep. I faced it resolutely and saw that I was not merely tormented by life's hardships but was even ensnared by its joys; thus, I discerned the burdens that had escaped me and called upon the Name of the Lord, "Lord, I implore You, save my soul."

Let the holy people of God declare, "I have called upon the Name of the Lord," and let those who do not yet call upon His Name be moved to seek out their troubles and heaviness, call upon His Name, and be saved...

The Lord is gracious and righteous; indeed, our God is gracious. Psalm 114:5. He embodies grace, righteousness, and mercy; gracious above all since He has inclined His ear to me. I was unaware the ear of God lingered near my lips until His beautiful feet encouraged me to call upon Him; for who calls upon Him but the one He first beckoned? Thus, He is merciful above all; yet His chastisements are merciful, for He corrects every child whom He receives. I should neither be bitter about His discipline nor overly pleased by His acceptance. For how could the Lord, who guards the little ones, Psalms 113:6, not discipline those He seeks as heirs when He must of course correct every son? Hebrews 12:6-7. I was in distress, and He assisted me. He aided me not as punishment but as healing, for the physician’s incision is not retributive but restorative.

Return to your peace, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. Psalm 114:7. Not according to your worth or strength, but because the Lord has bestowed good upon you. For He has redeemed my soul from death. Psalm 114:8. Glorious, beloved brethren, after declaring his soul's return to rest because the Lord has rewarded him, he added, "For He has saved my soul from death." Did it turn to rest because it was freed from death? Is rest not most often associated with death? What activities characterize a life of rest as opposed to the restlessness of death? Such actions must lead the soul towards tranquility and not towards a cycle of ceaseless toil; for he has been rescued from death by Him who, in compassion, invited, "Come to Me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28-30.

Therefore humbly follow Christ as your guide; although the soul's pursuits must strive for peace, do not be slothful and apathetic, carrying forth as it is written, "In serenity, conduct your deeds." Sirach 3:19. You have delivered my soul from the grave, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. He who senses the shackles of the flesh sings these truths as fulfilled in hope for himself. It is truly declared, "I was in distress, and He saved me," and as the apostle affirms, "We are saved by hope." Romans 8:24. The redemption from death is accurately proclaimed as already accomplished so we may comprehend the demise of the unbelievers, as He said, "Let the dead bury their own dead." Matthew 8:22. Then our tears will be wiped clean when He safeguards our feet from stumbling. For then, our path, as we walk, will be firm, free from the slipping of frail flesh. Yet even with the most steadfast path, which is Christ Himself, due to the flesh we carry, our challenge is to conquer it; the vital matter is not to fall; yet, who can avoid slipping in the flesh?

I shall serve the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 114:9. We toil now, for we await the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:23. However, when death is vanquished in victory, and this perishable garment is clothed in the imperishable, and this mortal in immortality, 1 Corinthians 15:53-54, then tears will cease because there will be no more stumbling; and no falling will occur because corruption is no more. At that point, we shall no longer labor to gain favor, but shall be wholly acceptable before the Lord in the land of the living.

We show compassion to those who have experienced a fall from great affluence into dire poverty, who have gone from robust health to severe weakness, and those who once reveled in their physical beauty but have been ravaged by crippling diseases. Since we too were once radiant in our state of paradise, yet have been rendered shameful and lowly due to the fall, our God observes our former glory alongside our current lamentation. Hence, He called out to Adam with a voice of compassion, asking, ‘Adam, where art thou (Genesis 3:9)?’ For the All-Knowing One did not seek mere information; rather, He desired Adam to reflect on his former stature and his present condition. Where art thou means to what depths have you descended from such a lofty position.

David, seeking to illustrate God’s greater inclination toward compassion compared to strict fairness, states that our God is merciful, differentiating Him from the idols of the nations. Chrysostom encourages us to recognize how one should seek solely the well-being of the soul above all earthly concerns. When the soul is in a healthy state, all else follows suit; conversely, if the soul is troubled, no external goodness will benefit us. Consequently, all actions and words should aim toward its redemption. This corresponds to the guidance: be wise as a serpent, for just as the serpent sacrifices its body to protect its head, you too must prioritize your soul’s salvation over all else.

The blessed Theophylact, while interpreting the words of the Gospel where the Lord expresses, “My soul is troubled; and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’” (John 12:27), and concerning the apostolic declaration, “In the days of his flesh he offered prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him who was able to save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7), suggests that David’s psalm foreshadows these utterances of the Lord and the Apostle. Thus he declares: I will call upon You during my days of distress. The pangs of death have surrounded me, the terrors of the abyss have invaded me, and I have called upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, save my soul.

Theodoret notes that by mentioning mercy twice and truth once, David illustrates that God favors compassion over judgment, using truth merely as a tool. St. Basil the Great expounds that mercy is a loving compassion extended to the downtrodden. We empathize with one who was once wealthy yet now faces destitution, or with one once held in high esteem but now beset by disgraceful desires. Similarly, having once shared in God’s glory in paradise, we have fallen into dishonor through sin; thus, the Lord, witnessing our fallen state and recalling our original splendor, reaches out with mercy, calling Adam, “Where are you?” Not as one needing to inquire, but to prompt realization of the depth of his fall.

Origen remarks that the Lord’s mercy is intertwined with His righteousness; thus, He is both merciful and just. When Saul spared Agag, he acted unjustly in that mercy. Had all mercy aligned with righteousness, the law would not have forbade showing sympathy to the unjust (Ex. 23:3). It is said that as a merciful God, He does not turn away from a repentant sinner, and as a just God, He accepts no one but with true contrition.

If we accept that the psalmist speaks on behalf of the entire community, we may view the psalm as a song of gratitude from those who have been freed from captivity; in this context, captivity represents the grave peril addressed in the psalm, where the national integrity of the people was endangered, risking their scattering among the nations and potential demise. Alternatively, it may also be understood on an individual level, as seen in Psalms 17 and 55.

The Psalmist expresses a passionate love for God, affirming this sentiment because God consistently answers his prayers; he substantiates this claim by referencing a recent prayer answered, for which he intends to exalt the Lord throughout his life. It is essential to enhance the understanding of "love" to include that he delights in the fact that the Lord listens to his voice. To call out solemnly, to invoke the name of God with thanksgiving, aligns with Psalm 17:4. I will proclaim my praises: the Psalmist faced life-threatening danger and cried out to the Lord for deliverance; the Lord, in His mercy and righteousness, came to the aid of the oppressed innocence and safeguarded the simplicity of heart. Grateful for God’s compassionate assistance, the psalmist’s soul, previously in despair, can now find peace. This soul had been on the verge of wavering in love due to sorrow, hence the encouragement to return to a state of tranquility once more. Through His support, God has alleviated all that disturbs or troubles. The Psalmist rightly recognizes in this salvation from death a sign that God will sustain him for a long time to come in the land of the living, a term representing life as opposed to Sheol, the realm of the dead. To serve God in the land of the living signifies to lead a life of righteousness on earth, and thus he places his trust in the Lord to assist him in leading such a life.

Illness is fatal, as the thoughts of sin and the torments of hell stem from sin itself. Sorrows and afflictions lead to repentance and a yearning for forgiveness through prayer to God. Christ the Lord is just, having righteously commanded Adam's expulsion from paradise; yet He is also merciful, having died so that Adam might regain entry to that paradise. The Lord safeguards those infants born with inherent malice and without understanding, for He bestows His grace upon the humble. Those reborn by water and the Spirit, akin to infants, grow in faith towards maturity. Adam and others shall once again enter paradise, for the Lord Christ has willingly experienced suffering for his sake.

The righteous view their resting place as the mountain abodes, which they will receive as a reward for their deeds, while the tears of repentance provide solace for the sinful soul in this earthly life. Christ redeems Adam’s soul from hell and death, wiping away every tear, and fortifying it with grace so that it may no longer succumb to sin. The realm of the living is heaven, where the righteous and angels offer thanks to God. The prophet describes the land of the living as eternal, heavenly life, devoid of earthly limitations: no night or sleep, no hunger or thirst, no sorrow or death, but rather the fulfillment of true existence in Christ. The existence we have now feels foreign to the soul, which seems as though it is only half-alive, restrained within a mortal, perishable body. The soul is not derived from the earth and does not return to the earth—it belongs to the land of the living.