Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 116

I love the Lord - The Hebrew rather means, “I love, because the Lord has heard,” etc. That is, the psalmist was conscious of love; he felt it glowing in his soul; his heart was full of that special joy, tenderness, kindness, peace, which love produces; and the source or reason of this, he says, was that the Lord had heard him in his prayers.

Because he has heard ... - That is, this fact was a reason for loving him. The psalmist does not say that this was the only reason, or the main reason for loving him, but that it was the reason for that special joy of love which he then felt in his soul. The main reason for loving God is his own excellency of nature; but still there are other reasons for doing it, and among them are the benefits which he has conferred on us, and which awaken the love of gratitude. Compare the notes at (1 John 4:19).

Because he has inclined his ear to me - See the notes at Psalms 5:1. Because he has been gracious to me, and has heard my prayers. This is a good reason for serving God, or for devoting ourselves to him, but it is not the only reason. We ought to worship and serve God whether he hears our prayers or not; whether he sends joy or sorrow; whether we are favored with prosperity, or are sunk in deep affliction. People have worshipped God even when they have had no evidence that he heard their prayers; and some of the most pure acts of devotion on earth are those which come from the very depths of darkness and sorrow.

Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live - Margin, as in Hebrew, “in my days.” Encouraged by the past, I will continue to call upon him in the future. I will retain a firm faith in the doctrine that he hears prayer, and I will express my practical belief in the truth of that doctrine by regular and constant habits of worship. When a man once has evidence that God has heard his prayer, it is a reason why he should always call on him in similar circumstances, for God does not change.

The sorrows of death – What an expression! We know of no more intense sorrows pertaining to this world than those we associate with the dying struggle, whether our views regarding the reality of such sorrows are correct or not.

We may be – we probably are – mistaken regarding the intensity of suffering as usually experienced in death. Still, we dread those sorrows more than anything else, and all that we dread may be experienced then.

Those sorrows, therefore, become the representation of the most intense forms of suffering. The psalmist says he experienced such sorrows on the occasion to which he refers. In his case, there seem to have been two things combined, as they often are:

1. Actual suffering from some bodily malady that threatened his life (Psalms 116:3, Psalms 116:6, Psalms 116:8–10);
2. Mental sorrow produced by the remembrance of his sins and the apprehension of the future (Psalms 116:4).

See the notes at Psalms 18:5.

And the pains of hell – This refers to the pains of Sheol (Hades, the grave). See the note at Psalms 16:10, the notes at Job 10:21-22, and the note at Isaiah 14:9.

It signifies the pain or suffering connected with going down to the grave, or the descent to the underworld – the pains of death. There is no evidence that the psalmist here refers to the pains of hell as we understand the term (as a place of punishment), or that he meant to say that he experienced the sorrows of the damned. The sufferings to which he referred were those of death: the descent to the tomb.

Got hold upon me – The margin, as in Hebrew, reads, "found me." They discovered me, as if they had been searching for me and had at last found my hiding place.

Those sorrows and pangs, ever in pursuit of us, will soon find us all. We cannot long escape the pursuit. Death tracks us and is on our heels.

I found trouble and sorrow – Death found me, and I found trouble and sorrow. I did not seek it, but in what I was seeking, I found this.

Whatever we fail to find in the pursuits of life, we shall not fail to find the troubles and sorrows connected with death. They are in our path wherever we turn, and we cannot avoid them.

Then I called upon the name of the Lord — Upon the Lord. I had no other refuge. I felt that I must perish unless he would interpose, and I pleaded with him for deliverance and life. Compare to the notes on Psalms 18:6.

O Lord, I beseech You, deliver my soul — My life. Save me from death. This was not a cry for salvation, but for life. It is an example for us, however, to call on God when we feel that the soul is in danger of perishing, for then, as in the case of the psalmist, we have no other refuge but God.

Gracious is the Lord - This fact was his encouragement when he called on God. He believed that God was a gracious Being, and he found him to be so. Compare the notes at (Hebrews 11:6).

And righteous ... - Just; true; faithful. This, too, is a proper foundation of appeal to God: not that we are righteous, and have a claim to his favor, but that he is a Being who will do what is right; that is, what is best to be done in the case. If he were an unjust Being; if he were one on whose stability of character, and whose regard for right, no reliance could be placed, we could never approach him with confidence or hope. In this sense we may rely on his justice - his justness of character - as a ground of hope. Compare the notes at (1 John 1:9): If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.