HOW IS THE LORD TO YOU?
Psalm 116:5-9 NKJV
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.
Stop for a moment and think of the people in your life who have been good to you. Hopefully, it's easier for you to locate those people as opposed to recollecting those who have treated you poorly. Now stop and think for a moment about the Lord. How is the Lord to you? How does He treat you? Have you formed a picture of the Lord's dealings with you? These are not insignificant questions.
As we read the verses for today, we get a picture of how David sees the Lord and how David considers the Lord's treatment of him.
David considers the Lord to be gracious, righteous, and merciful. Those are three wonderful qualities, especially in someone who is powerful. And attributing these three qualities to the Lord is extremely beneficial in developing a confidence in the Lord. Just believing that the Lord will be gracious, righteous, or totally fair and just, combined with merciful, will do wonders for our attitude and mental outlook. That the absolute highest authority in the universe will be this good to us is a definite confidence booster.
David, I am assuming this psalm is from David because it sure sounds like him, declares that when he was brought low, the Lord saved him. It's comforting to know that when we are in a low state, the Lord saves us as opposed to kicking us when we are down.
And I really appreciate verse seven. “Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." The word bountifully means to do good, to be openhanded and giving. What a great picture. David was able to speak to his soul, his inner thoughts and emotions, and call for rest. David was able to have rest and security because the Lord has dealt with him a good, giving, and openhanded way.
David proclaims that the Lord has delivered him not just from physical adversity but from emotional trauma and instability. He goes on further to declare that he will walk before the Lord, with the Lord in mind during his time here on earth.
APPLICATION
One of the best ways to get the most out of the Psalms is to make them personal. To take the declarations that David makes regarding the Lord and make them our own. When it becomes personal, it becomes powerful.
The key is to declare these things by faith. So we are not waiting to see how the Lord will be to us; we can proclaim His goodness now, present tense. We can say that the Lord is gracious, righteous, and merciful to us. We can say that the Lord will help us when we are down. We can say that the Lord will deal bountifully with us. Because God is the same God now that He was to David, we are not speaking out of turn. We can believe that He will deliver our souls from the death in the world. God will deliver our eyes from tears and our feet from falling. And we will walk before the Lord today with Him being conscious of us and we being conscious of Him.
This is how our perspective of God can grow and develop. He is a good God, and He is good to us!
PRAYER
Lord, I choose to regard You as good and good to me. I will live at rest, for You will deal bountifully with me!