Pastor Fredo Ramos: Psalm 116. I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy, because he bends down to listen and I will pray as long as I have breath. Death wrapped its ropes around me. The terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord. Please Lord, save me. How kind the Lord is. How good he is. So merciful this God of ours.
The Lord protects those of childlike faith. I was facing death and he saved me. Let my soul be at rest again for the Lord has been good to me. He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. So I walk in the Lord's presence as long as I live here on earth.
I believed in you, so I said I am deeply troubled, Lord. And in my anxiety, I cried out to you. These people are all liars. What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me? So I lift up the cup of salvation and praise the Lord's name for saving me.
I will keep my promises to the Lord in the presence of all of his people. For the Lord cares deeply when his loved ones die. Oh Lord, I am your servant. Yes, I am your servant, born into your household. You have freed me from my chains.
I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people in the house of the Lord in the heart of Jerusalem. Psalm one sixteen becomes clear to us that the psalmist is praising God for his mercy, for his salvation. For in a few places we see that the psalmist was facing death. This is a prayer and a poem that reflects on how close they were to losing their life.
In fact, a few places it literally says I was facing death and yet he saved me or death wrapped its ropes around me. And so the psalmist found himself or herself in a position where death was near and yet God delivered. I love as well too in verse 11, it said that in my anxiety, I cried out to you. I love that in the feeling of desperation, in in the moment of feeling as if your life will be snatched, when anxious thoughts rush you, there's still an opportunity to cry out to him. There's still a pathway forward.
Meaning, however heavy an emotion might be, even if they if it is, something like anxiety, there is always a pathway forward to cry out to God in prayer. And to realize maybe in moments like today, you consider how you once were facing death and yet Jesus saved you. In fact, he allowed himself to fully die so that death for us is not something that will last forever. You see, this psalmist bears witness that God has precious thoughts and loves to care for those and even is, hurt when his loved ones die. And yet we're reminded that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, he faced death and conquered it so that our death is just simply a doorway into eternal life.
So that as Psalm one sixteen says, our feet one day will walk, our tears will be wiped away, we will no longer stumble, and we will walk in the land of the living. And so Jesus, we hear you now responding to us or inviting us to respond in prayer, realizing that whatever emotion we have today, it does become a pathway to prayer. And so would you help us now to remember moments maybe where you have pulled us out of the ropes of death, where our lives were literally delivered by your saving hand and power. And I pray that it would lead us to a place of joy, to a place of commitment as the Psalmist said that they will fulfill their vows. God, would we live a life of obedience today because we have tasted of your salvation.
We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.