Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
Psalms 66:19-20 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
Psalms 34:3-4 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
John 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Psalms 69:33 For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.
Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighb…
Psalms 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 116:1-9
In this part of the psalm we have,
I. A general account of David's experience, and his pious resolutions (Psa 116:1, Psa 116:2), which are as the contents of the whole psalm, and give an idea of it. 1. He had experienced God's goodness to him in answer to prayer: He has heard my voice and my supplications. David, in straits, had humbly and earnestly begged mercy of God, and God had heard him, that is, had graciously accepted his prayer, taken cognizance of his case, and granted him an answer of peace. He has inclined his ear to me. This intimates his readiness and willingness to hear prayer; he lays his ear, as it were, to the mouth of prayer, to hear it, though it be but whispered in groani…
I love the Lord,.... As the Messiah, David's antitype, did; of which he gave the fullest proof by his obedience to his will; and as David, the man after God's own heart, did, and as every good man does; and the Lord is to be loved for the perfections of his nature, and especially as they are displayed in Christ, and salvation by him; and for his works of creation, providence, and grace, and particularly for his great love shown in redemption, regeneration, and other blessings of grace, as well as for what follows.
Because he hath heard my voice and my supplication; in the original text the words lie thus, "I love, because the Lord hath heard", or "will hear"; and so read the Septuagint and…
Psalm 116:1-4
1. I have loved, because Jehovah shall hear the voice of my supplication. 2. Because he hath inclined his ear to me, and during my days I will call upon him. 3. The snares [375] of death compassed me, [376] and the sorrows of the grave found me: [377] I found tribulation and grief. 4. And I will call upon the name of Jehovah; I beseech thee, O Jehovah! deliver my soul.
1 I have loved, because Jehovah will hear the voice of my supplication. At the very commencement of this psalm David avows that he was attracted with the sweetness of God's goodness, to place his hope and confidence in him alone. This abrupt mode of speaking, I have loved, is the more emphatic, intimating that…
The Church Fathers
I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. He did not say, I shall love: but, I have loved. He did not promise that he would do it, but he testifies that he has done it. I have loved. Why have I loved? Because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. "I have loved" belongs to time that is past; but in "will hear" it belongs to the future. For he did not say, I have loved because the Lord has heard me; but, I have loved because the Lord will hear me.
"I have loved, since the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer" [Psalm 116:1]. Let the soul that is sojourning in absence from the Lord sing thus, let that sheep which had strayed sing thus, let that son who had "died and returned to life," who had "been lost and was found;" [Luke 15:6, 24] let our soul sing thus, brethren, and most beloved sons. Let us be taught, and let us abide, and let us sing thus with the Saints: "I have loved: since the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer." Is this a reason for having loved, that the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer? And do we not rather love, because He has heard, or that He may hear? What then means, "I have loved, since the Lord will hear"? Does he, because hope is wont to inflame love, say that he has loved, since he has hoped that God will listen to the voice of his prayer?
"I have loved," the psalmist says, "because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer." It is not in the power of everyone to say "I have loved," but of him who is already perfect and beyond the fear of slavery and who has been formed in the spirit of adoption as children. He does not add to "I have loved" the word someone, but we supply in thought "the God of the universe." For, that which is properly beloved is God, since they define "beloved" as that at which all things aim. Now, God is a good and the first and most perfect of good things. Therefore, I have loved God, who is the highest of objects to be desired, and I have received with joy sufferings for his sake. What these things are, the psalmist goes through in detail a little later—the pangs of death, the dangers of hell, the affliction, the pain, all things whatsoever that are desirable to him because of the love of God—and he demonstrates the hope that was stored up for those who receive sufferings because of their devoutness. For I did not endure the contests, he says, contrary to my will or by force or constraint, but I accepted the sufferings with a certain love and affection, so that I was able to say, "Because for your sake we are killed all the day long." And these words seem to have equal weight with the words of the apostle and to be spoken by him with the same feeling: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger or the sword?" Therefore, I have loved all these things, knowing that I endure the dangers for the sake of piety under the hands of the Lord of the universe who sees and bestows the reward. "Because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer." So, each one of us is able to perform the difficult tasks enjoined by the commandments whenever he displays his conduct of life to the God of the universe as if to a spectator.
Dictionary and topics
Temple, the Second — After the return from captivity, under Zerubbabel (q.v.) and the high priest Jeshua, arrangements were almost immediately made to reorganize the long-desolated kingdom. The body of pilgrims, forming…
Love · OF MAN FOR GO — OF MAN FOR GO
Love To God · Produced by: Answers to prayer — Produced by: Answers to prayer
Prayer, Answers To · Saints: Love God for — Saints: Love God for
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Not only is כּי אהבתּי "I love (like, am well pleased) that," like ἀγαπῶ ὅτι, Thucydides vi. 36, contrary to the usage of the language, but the thought, "I love that Jahve answereth me," is also tame and flat, and inappropriate to the continuation in Psa 116:2. Since Psa 116:3-4 have come from Psa 18:5-17, אהבתּי is to be understood according to ארחמך in Psa 18:2, so that it has the following יהוה as its object, not it is true grammatically, but logically. The poet is fond of this pregnant use of the verb without an expressed object, cf. אקרא in Psa 116:2, and האמנתּי in Psa 116:10. The Pasek after ישׁמע is intended to guard against the blending of the final a‛ with the initial 'a of אדנ…
Ps 116 This hymn of thanksgiving rejoices in God’s character and in rescue from death (116:1-11). It gives an assurance of God’s protection in life and reminds the godly that the Lord watches over them even at death. The psalmist commits to living as God’s servant and resolves to honor him publicly (116:12-19).
116:1-4 The psalmist praises the Lord for answering his prayers and rescuing him from death.
116:1 I love the Lord: This unique opening expresses affection for and commitment to the Lord (see 18:1; Deut 6:5) on the basis of what the Lord has done.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 116:1
I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
I love the Lord. A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare without the slightest hesitation, "I love the Lord." It was required under the law, but was never produced in the heart of man except by the grace of God, and upon gospel principles. It is a great thing to say "I love the Lord"; for the sweetest of all graces and the surest of all evidences of salvation is love. It is great goodness on the part of God that he condescends to be loved by such poor creatures as we are, and it is a sure proof that he has been at work in our heart when we can say, "Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I lo…
