Psalm 116:10

I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10, 11) I believed, therefore have I spoken.—This is the rendering of LXX. and Vulg., and it has become almost proverbial from St. Paul’s adaptation of it (2Corinthians 4:13; see New Testament Commentary). And no doubt this is the sense of the words, though the particle khî has been taken in a wrong connection. Mr. Burgess has certainly given the true explanation of the use of this particle. It sometimes follows instead of preceding the verb affected by it. We must render, It is because I believed that I spoke (of God’s graciousness, &c.). What follows then comes in as an antithesis. I was in great trouble; I said in my pain, “All men are untrustworthy or deceitful” Or (LXX.), In an ecstasy of despair I said, “The whole race of mankind is a delusion.” The meaning of the whole passage may be thus put: It is through trust in God that I thus speak (as above—viz., of God being glorious and righteous, and of His preserving the souls of the simple). It was not always so. Once in distrust I thought that God did not care for man, and that the whole of humanity was a failure. The word chāphez, rendered in Authorised Version haste, more properly alarm, is in Job 40:23 contrasted with trust, as it is here with faith. For the sense failure or vanity for the word rendered in Authorised Version liars, see Isaiah 58:11 (“fail;” margin, “lie or deceive”).

Benson Commentary

Psalm 116:10. I have believed — God’s promise of deliverance; therefore have I spoken — What I have now said; or, I have firmly believed, and trusted in God’s almighty power, and ever watchful providence, and therefore have addressed my prayer unto him with confidence in my greatest dangers and distresses. In this, or a similar sense, this clause is quoted by St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:13, with application to himself and his fellow-ministers, who, though they were exposed everywhere to sufferings for Christ’s sake, and were even in danger of being put to death wherever they came; yet were neither ashamed nor afraid to own him, because they confided in the promise he had made them of a blessed resurrection.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

116:10-19 When troubled, we do best to hold our peace, for we are apt to speak unadvisedly. Yet there may be true faith where there are workings of unbelief; but then faith will prevail; and being humbled for our distrust of God's word, we shall experience his faithfulness to it. What can the pardoned sinner, or what can those who have been delivered from trouble or distress, render to the Lord for his benefits? We cannot in any way profit him. Our best is unworthy of his acceptance; yet we ought to devote ourselves and all we have to his service. I will take the cup of salvation; I will offer the drink-offerings appointed by the law, in token of thankfulness to God, and rejoice in God's goodness to me. I will receive the cup of affliction; that cup, that bitter cup, which is sanctified to the saints, so that to them it is a cup of salvation; it is a means of spiritual health. The cup of consolation; I will receive the benefits God bestows upon me, as from his hand, and taste his love in them, as the portion not only of mine inheritance in the other world, but of my cup in this. Let others serve what masters they will, truly I am thy servant. Two ways men came to be servants. By birth. Lord, I was born in thy house; I am the son of thine handmaid, and therefore thine. It is a great mercy to be children of godly parents. By redemption. Lord, thou hast loosed my bonds, thou hast discharged me from them, therefore I am thy servant. The bonds thou hast loosed shall tie me faster unto thee. Doing good is sacrifice, with which God is well pleased; and this must accompany giving thanks to his name. Why should we offer that to the Lord which cost us nothing? The psalmist will pay his vows now; he will not delay the payment: publicly, not to make a boast, but to show he is not ashamed of God's service, and to invite others to join him. Such are true saints of God, in whose lives and deaths he will be glorified.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I believed, therefore have I spoken - This, in the Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, begins a new psalm, but without any good reason. This language is borrowed by the Apostle Paul to express his confidence in the truth of the gospel, and the effect which that confidence had on him in causing him to declare the truth. 2 Corinthians 4:13. The meaning here is, that in the time of his affliction the psalmist had true faith in God; and, as a result of that, he was able now to speak as he did. At that time he trusted in God; he called on him; he sought his mercy, and God heard his prayer; and now, as the consequence of that, he was enabled to give utterance to these thoughts. Faith was at the foundation of his recovery, and he was now reaping the fruits of faith.

I was greatly afflicted - In danger of death. The psalmist reviewed this now, and he saw that all that he had felt and dreaded was real. He was in imminent; danger. There was occasion for the tears which he shed. There was reason for the earnestness of his cry to God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10, 11. Confidence in God opposed to distrust of men, as not reliable (Ps 68:8, 9). He speaks from an experience of the result of his faith.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I believed, to wit, God’s promise of deliverance and of the kingdom made to me by Samuel, which I was confident he would perform in spite of discouragements and difficulties.

Therefore have I spoken: so these words are translated, as by others, so by the apostle, 2 Corinthians 4:13. I have spoken; either,

1. What I have now said, Psalm 116:9; or,

2. What I have uttered to others concerning God’s promises made to me; which I was not ashamed nor afraid to publish when I had occasion, because I was fully persuaded that God would make them good.

I was greatly afflicted; or, when I was, &c.; or, although I was, &c.; such particles being very frequently understood. The sense is, And this I did even in the midst of many and sore afflictions.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I believed, therefore have I spoken,.... Here the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, begin a new psalm, but without any foundation in the original; nor is it countenanced by the Targum; and is manifestly against the connection with the preceding verses. David expresses his faith in relation to what goes before, though the particulars of it are not mentioned, but are left to be supplied from thence: he not only believed there was a God, but that this God was gracious and merciful, and that he was his God; who had made a covenant with him, ordered in all things, and sure: he believed the promises of it; and particularly the grand promise of it respecting Christ, and salvation by him: he believed the Lord would deliver him out of all his troubles; that he should walk before him, and see his goodness in the land of the living; he believed a future state of happiness he should hereafter enjoy. The Apostle Paul quotes this passage, and applies it to himself and other Gospel ministers; declaring their faith in the resurrection of the dead, and an eternal weight of glory they were looking for, 2 Corinthians 4:13; and therefore spake so freely about these things. Faith gives boldness and freedom of speech to men; which believers use with God in prayer, in the believing views of him, as their God in Christ; and of Christ, his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice: it gives ministers boldness and freedom to speak out plainly, constantly, and boldly, the Gospel of Christ; it gives the same to private Christians, to speak freely one to another of their gracious experiences, and to declare publicly to the churches of Christ what God has done for their souls;

I was greatly afflicted; when he believed and spake, and yet nevertheless did; he might be afflicted, reproached, and persecuted for his faith, and his speaking of it; particularly as it respected his coming to the crown and kingdom of Israel. And it is no unusual thing for saints to be persecuted for their faith, and profession of it; and yet none of these things move them from it; their faith remains, and is much more precious than gold that perisheth; and they hold fast the profession of it. Many and great afflictions are the common lot of believers.

Geneva Study Bible

{f} I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

(f) I felt all these things, and therefore was moved by faith to confess them, 2Co 4:13.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10, 11. In the extremity of his distress the Psalmist was compelled to recognise the delusiveness of human help, but he never lost faith in God. Such is the general sense, but the details of interpretation are doubtful. The A.V. I believed, therefore have I spoken follows the LXX (ἐπίστευσα, διὸ ἐλάλησα), which is quoted by St Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:13; but this rendering must be abandoned as grammatically untenable. On the whole it seems best to render:

I believed [or as R.V. I believe], for I will speak:

I was exceedingly afflicted:

I said In my alarm,

All men are deceitful.

I believed may be understood absolutely, ‘I held fast to my faith in Jehovah’: but the Psalmist evidently (cp. Psalm 116:9) still has in mind Psalm 27:13 “I believe that I shall see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living,” and the use of the word there suggests that the sense here should be completed from Psalm 116:9, “I believed that it would be so,” viz. ‘that I should walk before Jehovah in the lands of the living.’ This faith he retained though he was grievously afflicted. Further, I said in my alarm is borrowed from Psalm 31:22, where the Psalmist confesses that in his peril he fancied himself deserted by Jehovah. ‘I said in my alarm, I am cut off from before thine eyes.’ Is not our Psalmist tacitly contrasting his own faith with that earlier Psalmist’s loss of faith? He had not ceased to trust in God, but he had learned not to depend on men.

Other renderings are, (1) I believed, when I spake [saying] ‘I am exceedingly afflicted’: i.e. I retained my confidence, even when I complained of the severity of my sufferings, and found myself deserted by men. Or (2) I was confident that I should speak (thus); but as for me, I was sore afflicted: i.e. “he was fully confident that he would sooner or later have to record thanksgivings for deliverance, such as in Psalm 116:5-9” (Cheyne).

all men are liars] Cp. Psalm 60:11; Psalm 62:9; Romans 3:4.

10–14. Faith’s triumph must be followed by grateful thanksgiving.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 10, 11. - Parenthetic and obscure. Both the connection and rendering are doubtful. Professor Cheyne translates, "I was confident that I should speak thus;" i.e. even while my affliction was going on, I felt confident that relief would come, and that I should one day speak as I have just spoken. I was, however, too sorely afflicted to give utterance to my feeling. Instead of so doing, I vented my unhappiness in abuse of my fellow-men. Thus understood, the words are an apologia. Verse 10. - I believed, therefore have I spoken. So the LXX., Ἐπίστευσα διὸ ἐλάλησα. But many other meanings are suggested. See the preceding paragraph. I was greatly afflicted (comp. ver. 3). Psalm 116:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 2 Corinthians 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 in the syntax. It might more readily be rendered: "I have believed that I should yet speak, i.e., that I should once more have a deliverance of God to celebrate;" but the connection of the parallel members, which is then only lax, is opposed to this. Hitzig's attempted interpretation, "I trust, when (כּי as in Jeremiah 12:1) I should speak: I am greatly afflicted," i.e., "I have henceforth confidence, so that I shall not suffer myself to be drawn away into the expression of despondency," does not commend itself, since Psalm 116:10 is a complaining, but not therefore as yet a desponding assertion of the reality. Assuming that האמנתּי and אמרתּי in Psalm 116:11 stand on the same line in point of time, it seems that it must be interpreted I had faith, for I spake (was obliged to speak); but אדבר, separated from האמנתי by כי, is opposed to the colouring relating to the contemporaneous past. Thus Psalm 116:10 will consequently contain the issue of that which has been hitherto experienced: I have gathered up faith and believe henceforth, when I speak (have to speak, must speak): I am deeply afflicted (ענה as in Psalm 119:67, cf. Arab. ‛nâ, to be bowed down, more particularly in captivity, whence Arab. 'l-‛nât, those who are bowed down). On the other hand, Psalm 116:11 is manifestly a retrospect. He believes now, for he is thoroughly weaned from putting trust in men: I said in my despair (taken from Psalm 31:23), the result of my deeply bowed down condition: All men are liars (πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ψεύστης, Romans 3:4). Forsaken by all the men from whom he expected succour and help, he experienced the truth and faithfulness of God. Striding away over this thought, he asks in Psalm 116:12 how he is to give thanks to God for all His benefits. מה is an adverbial accusative for בּמּה, as in Genesis 44:16, and the substantive תּגּמוּל, in itself a later formation, has besides the Chaldaic plural suffix ôhi, which is without example elsewhere in Hebrew. The poet says in Psalm 116:13 how alone he can and will give thanks to his Deliverer, by using a figure taken from the Passover (Matthew 26:27), the memorial repast in celebration of the redemption out of Egypt. The cup of salvation is that which is raised aloft and drunk amidst thanksgiving for the manifold and abundant salvation (ישׁוּעות) experienced. קרא בשׁם ה is the usual expression for a solemn and public calling upon and proclamation of the Name of God. In Psalm 116:14 this thanksgiving is more minutely designated as שׁלמי נדר, which the poet now discharges. A common and joyous eating and drinking in the presence of God was associated with the shelamim. נא (vid., Psalm 115:2) in the freest application gives a more animated tone to the word with which it stands. Because he is impelled frankly and freely to give thanks before the whole congregation, נא stands beside נגד, and נגד, moreover, has the intentional ah.