- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
5. THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE Ps. 116
1. The praise of the delivered soul.
“I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice” (v1).
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8 v35).
2. The path of death and the grave.
“The cords of death compassed me.”
“Thc pains of the grave found me.”
“I found trouble and sorrow.” (v3).
“All we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death” (Rom. 6 v3).
3. The cry of the soul for deliverance.
“Then called I upon the Name of the Lord.”
“I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.” (V4).
“Whosoever shall call . . . shall be saved.” (Rom. 10 v13).
4. The response of the Lord.
“Gracious is the Lord . . . and merciful . . . I was brought low, and He saved me” (v5-6).
“Ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God Who raised Him” (Col. 2 v12).
5. The rest of faith in God.
“Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee” (v7).
“We which have believed do enter into that rest” (Heb. 4 v3).
6. The Lord's deliverance.
a) “Thou hast delivered . . . from death.”
b) “Thou hast delivered . . . from tears.”
c) “Thou hast delivered . . . my feet from falling.” (v8).
“Who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver. . . He will also still deliver us” (2 Cor. 1 v10).
7. The land of the living.
“I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (v9).
Joined to the Risen Lord the soul is brought out into a new sphere of life graphically described as “the land of the living”. The “living” has power to “walk”, and as it is now “alive unto God” (Rom. 6 v11), it walks “before the Lord” and not before men.
8. The soul’s confession.
“I will speak: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my alarm, all men are a lie” (v10-11).
The soul had heard of the “land of the diving”, but when it sought to know it in experience and found itself “brought low” into the valley instead of being exalted to the mountain top, in its alarm it cries “all men are a lie”.
9. The new spirit of sacrifice.
“What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?” (v12).
“Now . . . discharged . . . we serve in newness of the spirit” (Rom. 7 v6).
10. The spirit of obedience in the “land of the living”.
a) “I will take the cap of salvation” (v13).
Since Christ has all of me, I must henceforth take - and be evermore taking - all of Him.
b) “I will . . . call upon the Name of the Lord” (v13).
Henceforth my part is to call upon Him. I call and He works out His will for me. Victory through the Name, the all-prevailing Name, is now for me.
c) “I will pay my vows unto the Lord” (v14).
I will keep my word to Him. Henceforth it must be absolute obedience in the power of His life. In the past I have promised and failed to fulfil. Now He will enable me to do all He bids me.
“I will take” - His continual salvation.
“I will call” - upon Him to work for me.
“I will obey” - His every wish.
This is the life in the “land of the living”. Glorious salvation - liberty to do right!
11. The life in the Sanctuary.
a) The glad attitude of a bond-slave to Christ.
“O Lord, truly I am Thy servant” (v16).
b) The loosing from bonds to be in bonds to Christ.
“Thou hast loosed my bonds” (v16).
c) The sacrifice in the Sanctuary.
“I will offer . . . the sacrifice of thanksgiving” (v17).
d) The place of abiding.
“In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem” (v19).
“Ye are come unto . . . the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12 v22).
“Praise ye the Lord” (Ps. 116 vl9).