Introduction: The personal and the public. These are the two aspects of the life of a worshiper of God. There will always be that part of my walk with God that I experience privately, personally, internally. There will always be a part of my walk with God that exists between God and me — that exists outside the sight and knowledge of others. But there will also be that part of our walk with God that we experience in the community of God’s people. There will always be an aspect of our walk with God that requires others, shares with others, invests in others, and receives from others. Every genuine believer demonstrates private devotion in the congregation and in the world. This is something we must be clear on. How does Scripture relate the personal to the public? How do they reflect each other? How are they served by each other? Public worship is to be a reflection what is true in my inner man. My worship is first a matter of private devotion before it is a matter of public expression. To be acceptable to God it must come from my heart. And private devotion, though it should exist first, must never be divorced from public obedience. To claim a private to devotion to God that finds no public expression that accords with Scripture, is a lie. It is a lie because that private devotion would require ears to hear what God says about public worship and He has much to say about public worship. In fact, when we see these two aspects of worship correctly, we will see that there is a mutual dependency that exists between our private devotion and our public devotion. THEY ACTUALLY ARE NECESSARY TO ONE ANOTHER. God has ordained public worship to be a means by which our private worship is maintained and enriched. God has ordained private worship to be the spring source from which our public worship flows. And, SOMETIMES, in addition to being the spring source, private worship becomes the means by which edification exists in the public realm. My personal story in Christ Jesus, may well be the means that God uses in the public realm to express His glory and to encourage other worshippers. Baptism, for example, is a personal story that edifies publicly. The Lord’s table is a public celebration of what has been known by each of us personally. That is what we have in Psalm 116. We have a personal story that forever serves in the public worship of God’s people. We have a personal story that REQUIRED public expression. The circumstances that explain Psalm 116 are left unknown to us. We do not know who penned this. We do not know the precise time period to which it belongs. What we do know is that what this man PERSONALLY experienced has something to say about our SHARED experience. Derek Kidner – “There is an infectious delight and touching gratitude about this psalm, the personal tribute of a man whose prayer has found an overwhelming answer. He has come now to the temple to tell the whole assembly what has happened, and to offer God what he had vowed to him in his extremity. Such psalms as this, once written down, would help many another person to find words for his own public thanksgiving.” This Psalm has been variously divided by commentators, but we will look at it tonight in three parts. I. A LIFETIME PLEDGE BORN OUT OF YAHWEH’S COMPASSION (vs.1-4) The Psalmist declares his love for Yahweh. Charles Spurgeon – “A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare it without the slightest hesitation. It was required under the law, but was never produced in the human heart except by the grace of God, and upon Gospel principles. It is a great thing to say it, for the sweetest of all graces and the surest of all evidences of salvation is love. It is great goodness on the part of God that he condescends to be loved by such poor creatures as we are, and it is a sure proof that he has been at work in our heart when we can say, “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.”” In fact, he pledges that love for the rest of his life. He will call on Him, for as long as he lives (vs.2). This resolve can rightly be referred to as a renewal. It is a reaffirmation of what has already happened. The Psalmist has already called on the name of the Lord (vs.4). The Lord has heard him. And now, the Psalmist explains his commitment. He explains HIS LOVE. “I love the Lord, BECAUSE..” Spurgeon – “They say that love is blind; but when we love God our affection has its eyes open and can sustain itself with the most rigid logic. We have reason, superabundant reason, for loving the Lord; and so because in this case principle and passion go together, they make up an admirable state of mind.” A. DISTRESS TO THE POINT OF DEATH The Psalmist says, in verse 3, that he had suffered distress and anguish. What the specific circumstances were, we are not told, but we are told about the seriousness of it. It involved nearness to death. He found himself being constricted by death’s snares. By the pangs of the grave. (vs.3) Death was closing in around him. B. DESPARATE CRIES FOR DELIVERANCE The Psalmist lifted his voice to God. He gave voice to pleas for MERCY. He called on the name of the Lord. He prayed for his soul’s DELIVERANCE. C. MERCIFUL COMPASSION FROM GOD What did he meet with? Yahweh heard him. He heard his voice. He heard his pleas. He inclined His ear toward him. He bowed His ear to hear him. He reached DOWN to help this sinner. He delivered him from death’s grasp. It seems that in the case of the Psalmist the deliverance was physical, but the very same praise can be given for a much more profound deliverance.