1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.

2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.

4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, save me!"

5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.

6 The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me.

7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,

9 that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

10 I believed; therefore I said, "I am greatly afflicted."

11 And in my dismay I said, "All men are liars."

12 How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?

13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.

14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

16 O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains.

17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD.

18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,

19 in the courts of the house of the LORD-- in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.

Psalm 116 NIV

  We all must face death

 I always go to this Psalm when there is a death in my family. Let me go through it. The Psalmist looks at death as being chained up. When the Psalmist is wounded in war he begins to think of his mortality. The death of others causes him to reason about his own struggle with the thought of dieing. Especially when he is wounded and it seems to be a mortal wound. 

 I believe in this Psalm the Psalmist is viewing the battle field after he has fought the battle. And he has been wounded. As he looks across the battle field and his soldiers lying dead from the battle he focuses on redemption in his struggle. 

I love the Lord for He heard my voice, He heard my cry for mercy. The Psalmist has practiced distrusting this world, the people in this world, and the tools that he has to be successful in war. You will see that the Psalmist through out the Psalms puts all of his hope in God. The Psalmist really believes that all of his blessing is not just a gift but it comes to him from a God who performs miracles. He could possibly have died in the war if God were to allow it. And if he were to succumb to death then he would face the curse ...the pain before the bliss. 

Ive been saying all along that everything in life that we go through really comes down to reasoning like the Psalmist here. Everything that we hear, experience or work for is a life and death issue. This way of reasoning is in the context of the kind of prayer described as a "cry to God".

Its very shallow to think that the companion of sin is guilt , fear, anger or sorrow. The truth is that the companion of sin is death. As long as we have death and corruption existing in this world we are gonna be touched with the curse. The truth is that we are all in danger of having to battle with those cursed dispositions. 

I believe that we have taken the teaching of sin out of these penitent Psalms and changed the purpose for which they were written. This is why I do not put the penitent psalms in the category of self examination but Psalm 103 is genuinely talking about self examination. The reason is that in all the other penitent Psalms we find this order. The Psalmist complains about his treatment from the world or his physical pain and he expresses the troubles that he feels as a result of his sin. In other words the Psalmist is opposing the enemy which is corruption.   Instead the Psalmist expresses his frustration with corruption by using the curses to push the curse away from himself. You have this same battle here with physical death. ok im tired...hope to write about this more.