Chapter 116

2025 - I don't know where I got these "stanzas".  My MSB does not have them.  Looking at BLB neither the KJV or ESV has them, and yet I have used them to separate various stanzas from each other for discussion.  In what Bible version did I find them???

1st, I love God because He hears my prayer.  When I was low he delivered me.

2nd, God answers the prayer of the lowly.

3rd, Too good to summarize:

8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. [Psa 116:8-9 ESV]

2025 - This verse...though I am not sure what stanza it is from:

11 I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars." [Psa 116:11 ESV].  In NASB95 it says "All men are liars".  NLT says "These people are all liars".  NLT apparently cannot abide letting the Bible make all people liars.  NET is even worse:  "I rashly declared "All men are liars"" as if it cannot possibly be true.  I say it is obviously true.  RSV goes here: 11 I said in my consternation, "Men are all a vain hope." [Psa 116:11 RSV], which seems to interpret this in a much different way than any of the others.  And the oldest for last:  11 I said in my haste, All men [are] liars. [Psa 116:11 KJV].  It seems it should be quoted more often, and probably the reason it isn't is because it is a difficult translation.  That is usually what it means when there is so much variation.  I agree that this Psalm is not a dissertation on the poor fallen state of all mankind.  It may be more an expression of the writer's mental state at the time he was in great anxiety about the state of things around him.  He didn't know who to trust, and generalized that all were liars. 

4th, 2 verses, proclaiming faith even in the worst of times.

5th, We repay by proclaiming, by publicly demonstrating God.  This goes back to vs 17 perhaps.

6th, Contains this verse, which is on Dad's tombstone, because Mom wanted it on hers:

15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. [Psa 116:15 ESV]

The verse praises God.

2021 - It seems this whole psalm is a praise.  It is about someone who was in dire straights, very depressed and down, who prayed, and was heard, and lifted up by God.  This is about answered prayer, and the proper response to it.  We pray because he hears.