Trying to make this Truth a Reality
From Reading the Psalms with Luther (St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 2007):
The 116th psalm is a psalm of thanks in which the psalmist is joyful and gives thanks that God has heard his prayer and has rescued him from the distress of death and the anguish of hell. Like several other psalms before it, it speaks of the deep spiritual affliction, of which few people know.
He laments in this psalm that things are so bad, yet he confesses his faith and the truth of God. He calls all human holiness, virtue, and confidence only falsehood and emptiness. This world will not and cannot hear nor tolerate. Thus it comes that the godly suffer, tremble, and fear all kinds of misfortune.
But despite all, he is comforted by this, that God’s Word is true and will only motivate us the more: “They give me to drink from the cup of their wrath. All right, then I will take the cup of grace and salvation and drink myself spiritually drunk (and through preaching) pour out from this cup on those who will drink with me and who draw their grace from the Word.” This is our cup, and with this cup we will worship God and praise His name. We will fulfill our vows, namely the First Commandment, that we receive Him as the one God and praise Him as the only God worthy to preach and to be called upon. You find here also that giving thanks, preaching, and confessing God’s name before all people is the true worship of God. (more…)
