"What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? 13. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His people."
The Hebrew word that is translated "render" in verse 12 means to "return" or to "repay." The Psalmist felt indebted to the Lord, and wondered how he could repay Him. Of course there is no way that we can literally repay the Lord, but there are things that we can do in return for all of His benefits. Some of those are listed here, and reveal to us the Psalmist's answer to his question. First, he said that he would "take the cup of salvation." He knew that the Lord loved Him and wanted to save Him. As I see this, the Psalmist just surrendered to the Lord's love, and lived his life in a pleasing way to the Lord. We repay the Lord by accepting His love for us, and living to please Him. Today, we say that we repay the Lord by accepting, by faith, the salvation that He offers through His Son Jesus! Second, he said that he would "call upon the name of the Lord." He would repay the Lord by going to Him prayer. Someone once wrote that "when all else fails pray." The best way to express that is "before all else fails pray." I think that this is what the Psalmist was doing. He wanted to stay in communication with the Lord. There are two things that the people of God will do if they want to live victoriously: They will read the word of God, and they will pray. "Take it to the Lord in prayer" is not just good advice; it is necessary advice. Third, he said: "I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of His people." This promise frankly gave me some pause. What does it mean to "pay our vows"? It can mean a lot of things, including tithing. I take it to mean, among other things, that the Psalmist would not be afraid to testify about his devotion to the Lord in front of people. He would repay the Lord by not being ashamed of his faith. He would not be intimidated by the people who made fun of him because of his faith. We learn from this wise Psalmist that if we want to please the Lord, we can accept the salvation that He offers through Jesus, live for Him and not be ashamed to claim His love and His benefits. We can call upon Him often in prayer, and we can testify about all of His benefits to us. (I pray that I did some justice to these profound verses.) Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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