Tehillim 116 | “I Had Faith Even When I Said, ‘I Suffer Terribly’”

Like the previous psalm, Psalm 116 is commonly thought of as two psalms due to its place within the structure of Hallel, but it is actually a single, unified composition. As with the previous psalm, Psalm 116 presents both distress and salvation. It opens with the poet’s declaration of love and joy that God has heard his voice and pleas: “I love the Lord, for He hears my voice, my pleas” (116:1). He then describes the great anguish he was in, from which he cried out to God: “The bonds of death encompassed me; the pangs of the grave came upon me” (116:3). From within that trouble he called out to God for rescue — and God indeed had compassion and saved him. The poet then urges his soul to find peace in light of this salvation (116:7). Near the end of the first section, the poet still seems overwhelmed by the unexpected deliverance and emphasizes how dire his situation had been: “I had faith even when I said, ‘I suffer terribly’” (116:10). It’s as though he is trying to convince us just how severe the distress was, to help us grasp the greatness of the salvation.

The second half of the psalm portrays the next phase — after the initial thrill of rescue. The poet moves to give thanks to God in an orderly way and to call upon His name (v. 13) before a large audience (v. 14), fulfilling the vow he made during his distress: “I will fulfill my vows to the Lord”. This thanksgiving is offered through a thanksgiving offering in the courts of the House of the Lord, in Jerusalem. In light of how central the Temple courts are to the act of thanksgiving, we understand why the Talmud connects the Levitical music in the Temple with the recitation of Hallel: “And there are twelve days during the year when the flute plays before the altar… What is different about these days? They are unique, since these are the days on which the individual completes the full Hallel” (Arakhin 10a).

Psalm 116 teaches us again that full-fledged praise and thanksgiving contain detailed reflection on the depth of past hardship. By immersing ourselves in the experience of crisis, we learn to truly appreciate the salvation that follows.