Indebted To God

Psalm 116:10-19

10I believed in you, so I prayed,

“I am deeply troubled, LORD.”

11In my anxiety I cried out to you,

“These people are all liars!”

12What can I offer the LORD

for all he has done for me?

13I will lift up a cup symbolizing his salvation;

I will praise the LORD’s name for saving me.

14I will keep my promises to the LORD

in the presence of all his people.

15The LORD’s loved ones are precious to him;

it grieves him when they die.

16O LORD, I am your servant;

yes, I am your servant, the son of your handmaid,

and you have freed me from my bonds!

17I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving

and call on the name of the LORD.

18I will keep my promises to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

19in the house of the LORD,

in the heart of Jerusalem.

Praise the LORD!

On vacation in Germany, Frances Ridley Havergal was tired from a busy day of sightseeing. As she sat down to rest, she noticed a painting of the crucified Christ on the wall. The eyes of Jesus seemed to be focused on her. Then she noticed that underneath the painting was the inscription: “I did this for thee; what hast thou done for me?”

Immediately, an idea for a hymn flashed through her mind, and she took a pencil and scribbled down some words on a scrap of paper. Then as she read the words again, she thought the poem was very poor, so she crumpled the paper up and tossed it into the fire. It fell to the side of the flames, however, and didn’t burn. She then picked up the crumpled paper and put it in her purse.

Months later she showed it to her father, who suggested that the poem was worth publishing, and soon her hymn “I Gave My Life for Thee” was being sung in churches on both sides of the Atlantic.

“What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me?” asked the psalmist. It’s a daunting question for any of us. Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford called himself a “drowned debtor to God’s mercy” and explained that he was “over head and ears in debt to God.”

Aren’t we all?

I gave my life for thee, my precious blood I shed,

That thou might’st ransomed be, and quickened from the dead;

I gave, I gave my life for thee; what hast thou given for me?

FRANCES R. HAVERGAL

Bible Networking

Notice how verse 10 is cited in 2 Corinthians 4:13. We have the same kind of faith the psalmist had.

Notable Quotable

Regarding verse 12: “[God] awakened us into being, he ennobled us with understanding, he taught us arts to enrich us, he commanded the earth to yield crops for us, he bade the animals to own us as lords. For us the rains descend, the sun sheds its rays, the mountains rise, the valleys bloom, the rivers flow. All nature pours her treasures at our feet.”

BASIL THE GREAT