Psalm 116:7

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Return . . .—In a very different spirit from the fool’s address to his soul in the parable. The psalmist’s repose is not the worldling’s serenity nor the sensualist’s security, but the repose of the quiet conscience and the trusting heart.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 116:7-8. Return unto thy rest, O my soul — Unto that tranquillity of mind, and cheerful confidence in God’s providence and promises, which thou didst once enjoy. Repose thyself in God; seek not for that rest in the creature which is to be found only in the Creator. God is thy rest; in him only canst thou dwell at ease; to him therefore thou must retire. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully, &c. — Hath many ways expressed his bounty most liberally to thee, and provided sufficiently for thy comfort and refreshment. Thou hast delivered my soul — Myself; from death — From threatening and approaching death; or from spiritual death, the death of sin, and from eternal death, the death of hell. Thou hast caused me to pass from death unto life. Mine eyes from tears — That is, my heart, from inordinate grief. When God comforts those that are cast down, when he looses the mourners’ sackcloth, and girds them with gladness, then he delivers their eyes from tears; which yet will not be perfectly done till we come to that world where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, And my feet from failing — Namely, from falling into sin, and so into misery.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

116:1-9 We have many reasons for loving the Lord, but are most affected by his loving-kindness when relieved out of deep distress. When a poor sinner is awakened to a sense of his state, and fears that he must soon sink under the just wrath of God, then he finds trouble and sorrow. But let all such call upon the Lord to deliver their souls, and they will find him gracious and true to his promise. Neither ignorance nor guilt will hinder their salvation, when they put their trust in the Lord. Let us all speak of God as we have found him; and have we ever found him otherwise than just and good? It is of his mercies that we are not consumed. Let those who labour and are heavy laden come to him, that they may find rest to their souls; and if at all drawn from their rest, let them haste to return, remembering how bountifully the Lord has dealt with them. We should deem ourselves bound to walk as in his presence. It is a great mercy to be kept from being swallowed up with over-much sorrow. It is a great mercy for God to hold us by the right hand, so that we are not overcome and overthrown by a temptation. But when we enter the heavenly rest, deliverance from sin and sorrow will be complete; we shall behold the glory of the Lord, and walk in his presence with delight we cannot now conceive.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Return unto thy rest, O my soul - Luther, "Be thou again joyful, O my soul." The meaning seems to be, "Return to thy former tranquility and calmness; thy former freedom from fear and anxiety." He had passed through a season of great danger. His soul had been agitated and terrified. That danger was now over, and he calls upon his soul to resume its former tranquility, calmness, peace, and freedom from alarm. The word does not refer to God considered as the "rest" of the soul, but to what the mind of the psalmist had been, and might now be again.

For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee - See the notes at Psalm 13:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5-8. The relief which he asked is the result not of his merit, but of God's known pity and tenderness, which is acknowledged in assuring himself (his "soul," Ps 11:1; 16:10) of rest and peace. All calamities [Ps 116:8] are represented by death, tears, and falling of the feet (Ps 56:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Unto thy rest; unto that tranquillity of mind and cheerful confidence in God’s promises and providence which thou didst once enjoy.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Return unto thy rest, O my soul,.... To a quiet and tranquil state after much distress (k); a soliloquy, an address to his own soul to return to God his resting place, as Kimchi; or to Christ, whose rest is glorious, and which lies in a cessation from a man's own works; not from doing them, but from depending on them, or from labouring for life by them; in a deliverance from the bondage of the law, its curse and condemnation, and from the dominion and tyranny of sin, and from the distressing guilt of it on the conscience; in spiritual peace and joy, arising from the application of the blood of Christ, and from a view of his righteousness and justification by it, and of his sacrifice, and of the expiation of sin by that; which is enjoyed in the ways and ordinances of Christ, and oftentimes amidst afflictions and tribulations: this is sometimes broke in upon and interrupted, through the prevalence of sin, the temptations of Satan, and divine desertions; but may be returned to again, as Noah's dove returned to the ark when it could find rest nowhere else; as the believer can find none but in Christ, and therefore after he has wandered from him he returns to him again, encouraged by the following reason.

For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee; in times past, even in an eternity past, having loved him with an everlasting love, chosen him in Christ, made a covenant with him in him, blessed him with all spiritual blessings in him, and made unto him exceeding great and precious promises; provided a Redeemer and Saviour for him, whom he had made known unto him, having enlightened, quickened, and converted him; and had laid up good things for him to come, and had done many great things for him already; all which might serve to encourage his faith and hope in him. The Targum is,

"because the Word of the Lord hath rendered good unto me.''

(k) "Remigrat animus nunc denuo mihi", Plauti Epidicus, Acts 4. Sc. 1. v. 42.

Geneva Study Bible

Return unto thy rest, O {d} my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

(d) Which was disturbed before, now rest on the Lord, for he has been beneficial towards you.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul] Abandon anxiety and resume the perfect tranquility that springs from trust in God. The plural form of the word for rest denotes full and complete rest. For the address to the soul cp. Psalm 42:5, and Psalm 103:1 ff., a Psalm further connected with this Psalm by its use of Aramaic forms of pronominal suffix.

dealt bountifully] Cp. Psalm 13:6.

7–9. The Psalmist encourages himself with the recollection of God’s mercy.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Return unto thy rest, O my soul. "Return," i.e., "to thy state of tranquility, the condition in which thou wast before the imminent danger showed itself." For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. If Hezekiah is the writer, the "bountiful dealing" will be the addition of fifteen years to his life (Isaiah 38:5). If a poet just re turned from the Captivity, the return and the reoccupation of the Holy Land will be especially in his thoughts (comp. Psalm 85:1). Psalm 116:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With "gracious" and "compassionate" is here associated, as in Psalm 112:4, the term "righteous," which comprehends within itself everything that Jahve asserts concerning Himself in Exodus 34:6. from the words "and abundant in goodness and truth" onwards. His love is turned especially toward the simple (lxx τὰ νήπια, cf. Matthew 11:25), who stand in need of His protection and give themselves over to it. פּתאים, as in Proverbs 9:6, is a mode of writing blended out of פּתאים and פּתיים. The poet also has experienced this love in a time of impotent need. דּלּותי is accented on the ultima here, and not as in Psalm 142:7 on the penult. The accentuation is regulated by some phonetic or rhythmical law that has not yet been made clear (vid., on Job 19:17).

(Note: The national grammarians, so far as we are acquainted with them, furnish no explanation. De Balmis believes that these Milra forms דּלּותי, בּלּותי, and the like, must be regarded as infinitives, but at the same time confirms the difference of views existing on this point.)

יהושׁיע is a resolved Hiphil form, the use of which became common in the later period of the language, but is not alien to the earlier period, especially in poetry (Psalm 45:18, cf. Psalm 81:6; 1 Samuel 17:47; Isaiah 52:5). In Psalm 116:7 we hear the form of soliloquy which has become familiar to us from Psalm 42:1; Psalm 103. שׁוּבי is Milra here, as also in two other instances. The plural מנוּחים signifies full, complete rest, as it is found only in God; and the suffix in the address to the soul is ajchi for ajich, as in Psalm 103:3-5. The perfect גּמל states that which is a matter of actual experience, and is corroborated in Psalm 116:8 in retrospective perfects. In Psalm 116:8-9 we hear Psalm 56:14 again amplified; and if we add Psalm 27:13, then we see as it were to the bottom of the origin of the poet's thoughts. מן־דּמעה belongs still more decidedly than יהושׁיע to the resolved forms which multiply in the later period of the language. In Psalm 116:9 the poet declares the result of the divine deliverance. The Hithpa. אתהלּך denotes a free and contented going to and fro; and instead of "the land of the living," Psalm 27:13, the expression here is "the lands (ארצות), i.e., the broad land, of the living." There he walks forth, with nothing to hinder his feet or limit his view, in the presence of Jahve, i.e., having his Deliverer from death ever before his eyes.