What shall I render to the LORD?

        I love the fact that the Bible never runs dry of "wonderful words of life." No matter how many times a Christian finishes through the whole Bible, it's always, always sweeter the next reading. And somehow, there is always something... new. New, not in the sense that I've never read this part of the Bible before. But it's more of a fresh perspective on the truth that has been there all along. And that's what makes His word even sweeter every time.

       And such is Psalm 116 for me. I have always loved the Psalms, even as a kid, but it's only for these past three years that the psalmists' words resonate so deeply with me. The writer of Psalm 119 wasn't exaggerating when he said (v. 71-72),

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

 Truly, the more that we are disciplined in the School of Grace, the sweeter God's law and word become to our taste. Psalm 116 is no exception.

        I love that many of the psalms I hold close to my heart are anonymously written. It makes me focus more on the poem's words than the poet's life. So when the psalm started with, "I love the LORD"--it immediately had an impact. I felt that. How natural and plain are the affections there? The psalmist then goes on and seems to answer why he loves the LORD.

"Because He has heard me."

       The psalmist expresses love for God because He heard his pleas for mercy, which of course, is God's expression of love to him. The Lord has lent an ever listening ear toward him. God is swift to hear the prayers and cries of His people when they look to Him and focus on Him all the days of their lives. To call on God is to draw near Him and commune with Him. 

        And since we have been granted a guarantee of God's love for us, we too have all the reason to say with the psalmist, "I love the Lord because He has heard my voice."

"Because our God is merciful."

        The psalmist had his share of walking the valley of the shadow of death, its snares encompassing him. And yet God, being so gracious and merciful, has preserved his life. I loved verse 8, where he said,

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;

        God didn't just deliver him from death; He also gave him comfort, and He guarded the psalmist's ways. Because of grace, he was spared from death. Because of mercy, he was given comfort. Because God has dealt bountifully with him, his feet were kept from stumbling.

        Do these truths ring a bell? Weren't you, Christian, also delivered from death not in this life but in the eternal one? Weren't you also given comfort in times of pain and helplessness by the same gracious, compassionate God the LORD? And weren't your feet also kept from stumbling and your heart from wandering? All by grace? All because of mercy? We, too, are debtors to mercy alone. It's only fitting that we would respond in agreement when the psalmist said he loves the LORD because He is merciful.

        And as if speaking to himself, there's suddenly a pivot in verse 12 when he asked, 

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?

This, to me, is the line that struck me the most in the psalm. Ever since the mini-series on Christian service was preached in church, I would ask myself this question. And the more that I ponder on this question, the clearer and louder the answer resounds--all.

"I will render worship."

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,

To take the cup of salvation is an act of worship in the Old Testament times. It most likely alludes to OT's drink offering, and such an act is always accompanied by other forms of worship. To call on the name of the LORD is to adore Him, address Him wholeheartedly. To worship.

        What shall I render to the LORD my God for who He is and for all the things He has done for me? I will render real, deep-seated, heartfelt, acceptable, and lifelong worship.

"I will render my payment to my vows"

         I'm currently in Numbers now in my Through-the-Bible reading plan. The books of Leviticus and Numbers are heavily featured with OT laws and ceremonies, and a part of these laws is provided for making vows to the LORD. Stories of Abraham, Hannah, and Jephthah immediately come to mind, people who had made vows to God because of the circumstances they were in. This isn't bribery or even trying to strike a bargain with Him. It's simply the people of God expressing their faith in Him and placing their lives in the hands of Him to whom they pray and devote their life. 

        The psalmist also does the same, uttering vows to God in a time of distress and tribulation. Because the LORD was merciful to him and answered his pleas for mercy, he "will pay [his] vows in the presence of all His people." We may not be sure of what he vowed to do, but we're confident that he feared, loved, and honored God that he fulfilled his vows to Him.

        What is your vow to your God, Christian? If you're a member of a confessional church, you, we, have vowed to love Christ through loving His body, the church. We have vowed to build one another up in spirit and in truth with love. We have vowed everything that we always recite when we recite the Covenant of Church Membership. What are your vows? Do you pay them accordingly? May we all learn for ourselves, as did the psalmist, that God expects the fulfillment of our vows to Him.

"I will render service."

O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.

 To be a servant is to be entirely at your master's service and disposal. It's not a day job. It's not a weekend-only commitment. A servant in the OT times is owned by his master. He lives his life for his master and dies for his master. As if using a strong word wasn't enough, the psalmist repeats it thrice. To be born to a maidservant makes a person servant by default. What does a servant do? Commit his life to his master.

        What about you? You who say you are servants of Christ--are you? Do you, do we, really give our whole lives to Him? What does it even mean to live as God's servant? We serve Him, of course. But what most Christians today forget is that we must serve God and Him alone. No other master. None but Him who sent His Son to redeem us. He who has "loosed [our] bonds."
         "For freedom, Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1a) But to what end? Why did He loose our bonds? Why have we been freed from slavery to sin? The apostle Paul reveals more fully this truth in many of his epistles. Luke, too, has explicitly laid it down for us. We have been freed in Christ that "we might serve Him without fear." (Luke 1:74) That we might devote our whole lives to Him who has saved us and redeemed us for His own. Therefore, because God has loosed our bonds, we are His servants. We are His workers. We live for Him. We work for Him. We die to Him. If we have indeed been saved in Christ through faith, we have been freed from sin that we might serve Him without fear and serve Him wholly.

        What do you live for? Who do you work for? For who, or what, do you spend? Where do you spend your time? Your God-given resources? What occupies your mind? What fills your thoughts? What, or who holds the reins of your heart? What are the things on which you invest your emotions?

        What do you strive after? Do you really devote your whole life to His kingdom, seeking every opportunity and privilege to somehow contribute to God's work of building up His church? Do we really live as servants of the LORD our God, who has done to us infinite benefits?

        More than living as servants, do we live as sons of God? As heirs of His kingdom? No son, no true heir, who has a loving businessman for a father would put his father's work at risk. Instead, every true heir will do all that he can to help progress his father's work. Do we live the same way? Do we propel His work in whatever way we can, in whatever opportunity we are given, in wherever station we are placed? Or do we squander away the riches He has given us, spending it on our own passions and interests? Are we living as servants and as sons?

        What shall I render to the LORD--my God, my Father--for all His benefits to me?

        Everything.