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Quoting Psalm 116.10, Paul said, “I believed, and therefore I did speak; we also believe, and therefore we also speak; knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also with Jesus and present us with you” (2 Cor. 4:13-14). Psalm 116 is a most beautiful hymn of thanksgiving that shows our confidence in the glory of the resurrection. In this Psalm, we find the hope of the Psalmist interweaved with the experience of Christ and our own expectations in Christ.

Before resurrection can occur, there has to be death. So the Psalm begins with death–“the cords of death compassed me” (116:3). Even in the shadow of death, there was hope. Verse four says, “Then I called upon the name of the LORD: O LORD I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” The Psalmist’s confidence in God, even in the shadow of death, is one which we should share. He said, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; For the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living” (116:7-9).

The confidence we have in God who delivered Jonah (whose story is the background of much of this imagery), the Psalmist (who understood the pains of life), and our Christ (who actually died and was raised for our hope) should demand we speak for God. So the Psalmist said in verse 10, “I believe, for I will speak.” We must proclaim the great news of redemption in Christ (2 Tim. 4:1-4; Matt. 28:19-20; Rom. 10:17, 1:16-7). We must also proclaim our devoted love and worship to God. So the Psalmist concluded “I will pay my vows unto the LORD, Yea, in the presence of all his people….I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD, Yea, in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the LORD house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD” (Ps. 116:14-19).