Help of the Helpless (Ps 116) - 2023

This intensely personal psalm is the celebratory account of God's grace and mercy in loving response to the psalmist's plea for help when all hope was lost and death itself seemed certain. Our great God is gracious, righteous, and merciful, and gives help to the helpless: He delights to pour out abundant, undeserved, and purposeful mercy when we cry out to Him.

"Help for the Helpless" is a line from the hymn "Abide with Me." And, as we walk through Psalm 116 we will see the application of that great hymn from this great Psalm.

I. What God did for the Psalmist (vv1-11)
---A. God Delivered him from the Threshold of the Grave
---B. First Half of Psalm Ends in an Odd Way (vv10-11)
---C. Conclusions Drawn from First Half of Psalm
------1. The LORD is gracious, righteous, and merciful (v5)
------2. The LORD preserves the simple (v6)
------3. Who can return to their rest in God all the more (v7)
------4. LORD delivers our souls from death (v8)…
---------…so they may walk before the LORD in the land of the living. (v9)
------5. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints (v15)
II. What is the Psalmist to do in Response (vv12-19)
---A. Need to Tell Others about God's Mercy to Us (vv18-19)
---B. Take up the Cup of Salvation and Call Upon the Name of LORD (vv13-17)