to turn back (hence · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
LORD
לַיהוָ֑הla.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
benefits
תַּגְמוּל֥וֹהִיtag.mu.Lo.hi
H8408
a bestowment · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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 Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Psalms 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which i…
2 Chronicles 32:25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and…
Psalms 51:12-14 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Isaiah 6:5-8 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 116:10–end
The Septuagint and some other ancient versions make these verses a distinct psalm separate from the former; and some have called it the Martyr's psalm, I suppose for the sake of Psa 116:15. Three things David here makes confession of: -
I. His faith (Psa 116:10): I believed, therefore have I spoken. This is quoted by the apostle (Co2 4:13) with application to himself and his fellow-ministers, who, though they suffered for Christ, were not ashamed to own him. David believed the being, providence, and promise of God, particularly the assurance God had given him by Samuel that he should exchange his crook for a sceptre: a great deal of hardship he went through in the belief of this, and theref…
What shall I render unto the Lord?.... He considers the Lord only as the author and giver of his mercies, and has nothing to say of his own merits, nor of other persons, who might be instruments of good to him; but is for giving all the glory to God: not as though he could render anything proportional or equivalent to what he had received, but as having a grateful sense of mercies, and willing, to express it; though at a loss, in a great measure, in what manner to do it, and therefore puts this question to himself and others:
for all his benefits towards me; or, "all his benefits are upon me" (m). This being a clause of itself; and shows what moved him to put the question he did; a sense of…
Psalm 116:12-14
12. What shall I render unto Jehovah? all his benefits are upon me. 13. I will take the cup of salvation, [381] and call upon the name of Jehovah. 14. I will pay my vows to Jehovah now in the presence of all his people.
12. What shall I render unto Jehovah? He now exclaims with devout admiration, that the multitude of God's benefits was greater than he could find language to give expression to the grateful emotions of his heart. The question is emphatic, What shall I render? and imports, that it was not the desire, but the means, of which he was destitute, to enable him to render thanks to God. Acknowledging his inability, he adopts the only means in his power, by extolling…
The Church Fathers
"What," he asketh, "what reward shall I give unto the Lord, for all the benefits that He hath returned unto me?" (ver. 12). He saith not, for all the benefits that He hath done unto me but "for all the benefits that He hath returned unto me." What deeds then on the man's part had preceded, that all the benefits of God were not said to be given, but returned? What had preceded, on the man's part, save sins? God therefore repayeth good for evil, whilst unto Him men repay evil for good; for such was the return of those who said, "This is the heir: come, let us kill him."
For it is absurd, the height of stupidity, no, of extreme insanity, for those only to sing the praises of the pilot who ride the rough waves and are borne on the breakers and who pass their lives in great misfortune, while those who are situated outside the range of fire, as the proverb has it, being spectators rather than contestants, hurl their blasphemous taunts at the ringmaster when they cannot pelt him literally. That those who cultivate virtue praise the God of the universe not merely when they are borne on favorable winds, but even when they are struggling with billow and storm, can be perceived from the exclamation of the blessed David, a man who spent a lifetime in warfare and struggle with countless misfortunes: "What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that he has rendered to me?"
This cup of the passion which is drunk Scripture names in many places, especially that which is properly drunk by the martyrs, as it is there: "what shall I render to the Lord for all the things which he has rendered to me? I will receive the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord". If therefore the cup of salvation is the cup of martyrdom, it is necessary that we preserve that cup, drinking the whole of it, because it is the cup of salvation, so that we pour out nothing of it. He therefore drinks the whole cup who suffers for the testimony whatever shall have been brought upon him; but he pours it out as he receives it who, called to martyrdom, denies lest he suffer anything. There is also another kind of "inebriating cup", which one drinks after he shall have eaten the "table" prepared for him by God "against those who trouble" the just man.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
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…
Obligation · Acknowledgment of — Acknowledgment of
Salvation · Saints: Commemorate, with thanks — Saints: Commemorate, with thanks
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).
Since כּי אדבּר does not introduce anything that could become an object of belief, האמין is absolute here: to have faith, just as in Job 24:22; Job 29:24, with לא it signifies "to be without faith, i.e., to despair." But how does it now proceed? The lxx renders ἐπίστευσα, διὸ ἐλάλησα, which the apostle makes use of in Co2 4:13, without our being therefore obliged with Luther to render: I believe, therefore I speak; כי does not signify διὸ. Nevertheless כי might according to the sense be used for לכן, if it had to be rendered with Hengstenberg: "I believed, therefore I spake,hy but I was very much plagued." But this assertion does not suit this connection, and has, moreover, no support…
The Lord’s gracious gifts are so great that the psalmist can do nothing to repay his debt. Keeping his promises publicly demonstrates his gratitude. • All he has done for the psalmist includes answers to prayer, rescue, and life. • The cup of salvation overflows with God’s blessings (23:5), unlike the cup of judgment (75:8). • The psalmist makes promises (“vows,” 116:18) to praise the Lord publicly (116:17-18).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 116:12
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? He wisely leaves off fretting about man's falsehood and his own ill humour, and directs himself to his God. It is of little use to be harping on the string of man's imperfection and deceitfulness; it is infinitely better to praise the perfection and faithfulness of God. The question of the verse is a very proper one: the Lord has rendered so much mercy to us that we ought to look about us, and look within us, and see what can be done by us to manifest our gratitude. We ought not only to do what is plainly before us, but also with holy ingenuity to search out va…
