John Calvin Commentary Psalms 116:12

"What shall I render unto Jehovah For all his benefits toward me?" — Psalms 116:12 (ASV)

What shall I render to Jehovah? He now exclaims with devout admiration that the multitude of God’s benefits was so great that he could not find words to express the grateful emotions of his heart. The question is emphatic, What shall I render? and implies that he lacked not the desire, but the means, to render thanks to God.

Acknowledging his inability, he adopts the only means in his power by extolling the grace of God as highly as he could. “I am exceedingly desirous to discharge my duty, but when I look around me, I find nothing that will prove an adequate recompense.” Some understand the phrase upon me, to intimate that David had the recollection of all the benefits God bestowed on him deeply engraved upon his mind.

Others, along with the LXX, supply the particle for, What shall I render to Jehovah for all His benefits towards me? But it is much better to make the first clause of the verse a complete sentence by putting a period after Jehovah. Because, after confessing his inability, or rather his having nothing to offer to God as a sufficient compensation for God’s benefits, he at the same time adds in confirmation of this, that he was placed under such obligations not by one series of benefits only, but by a variety of innumerable benefits.

“There is no benefit on account of which God has not made me a debtor to Him; how could I have the means to repay Him for them?” With all recompense failing him, he resorts to an expression of thanksgiving as the only return that he knows will be acceptable to God.

David’s example in this instance teaches us not to treat God’s benefits lightly or carelessly, for if we estimate them according to their value, the very thought of them ought to fill us with admiration.

There is not one of us who does not have God’s benefits heaped upon us. But our pride, which carries us away into extravagant theories, causes us to forget this very doctrine, which ought nevertheless to engage our unremitting attention.

And God’s bounty towards us merits all the more praise because He expects no recompense from us, nor can He receive any, for He stands in need of nothing, and we are poor and destitute of all things.