English · KJV

Psalm 116:7

“Proclaiming God's Mercy and Righteousness”Psalm 116:5–9

King James Version
Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
Return H7725 unto thy rest H4494, O my soul H5315; for the LORD H3068 hath dealt bountifully H1580 with thee.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
Return unto thy rest, O my soul; For Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
Returne vnto thy rest, O my soule: for the Lord hath bene beneficiall vnto thee,

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
Turn back, O my soul, to thy rest, For Jehovah hath conferred benefits on thee.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
7 Hebrew words
  1. שׁוּבִיshu·VireturnH7725V-Qal-Imp-2fsVerb Qal Imperative 2nd Singular Feminine
  2. נַפְשִׁיNaf·shimy O selfH5315N-fsc ¦ 1csNoun Singular Feminine Construct with suffixנַפְשִׁO selfיmy
  3. לִמְנוּחָיְכִיlim·nu·Cha·ye·khito your resting place[s]H4496Prep-l ¦ N-mpc ¦ 2fsNoun Plural Masculine Construct with suffixלִtoמְנוּחָיְresting place[s]כִיyour
  4. כִּיkiforH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  5. יְהוָהYah·wehYahwehH3068N-properNoun Proper Title
  6. גָּמַלga·Malhe has dealt bountifullyH1580V-Qal-Perf-3msVerb Qal Perfect 3rd Singular Masculine
  7. עָלָיְכִי'a·La·ye·khitowards youH5921Prep ¦ 2fsPrepositionעָלָיְtowardsכִיyou
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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In the KJVVerse 15,856 of 31,102 · 51.0%

Study this verse

Written with AI assistance. Always check it against Scripture.

This verse

The psalmist tells his own soul to come back to its place of rest, because the LORD has treated him with great kindness.

“Return unto thy rest,”

The rest is the soul’s own home, the quiet that the sorrows of death had broken.

“O my soul;”

The psalmist speaks to himself and gathers his whole inner life back to trust.

“for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.”

The ground of the rest is what God has already done, his generous dealing with the psalmist in the trouble just past.

Passage studyPsalm 116:5–9

The Gracious LORD Who Delivered My Soul

5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. 6The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. 7Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. 8For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 9I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Summary

Psalm 116 is the thanksgiving of a man whom the LORD brought back from the edge of death, and these five verses stand at its centre. Having told how he called on the LORD in his distress, the psalmist now says who the LORD is: “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” Then he says what the LORD did. He keeps the simple, he helped a man who was brought low, and he delivered his soul from death, his eyes from tears and his feet from falling. On that ground the psalmist calls his own soul back to its rest, and he resolves to walk before the LORD in the land of the living. These verses show us a God whose kindness flows from his own character, and a rescued life that answers him with rest and with a lifelong walk in his presence.

Why the LORD heard: gracious, righteous and merciful

Psalm 116 is one man’s song of thanks (Psalm 116). He loves the LORD because “he hath heard my voice and my supplications,” and because the LORD inclined his ear to him (Psalm 116:1–2). He had come close to death: “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow” (Psalm 116:3). In that place he called on the name of the LORD and begged him for deliverance (Psalm 116:4). Verse 5 gives the reason the LORD answered, and the vows of praise, sacrifice and service in the rest of the psalm grow out of it. The psalm belongs to the group called the Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113–118), traditionally sung at the great Jewish feasts, and above all at Passover.

“Gracious” is channûwn, the word for one who shows favour freely. God’s grace is his kindness, given without obligation to people who have done nothing to earn it, and it is the spring of every blessing he gives, deliverance and salvation among them. It reaches most of all toward the weak and the needy. “Righteous” is tsaddîyq, just. God always acts by what is right and true, keeps his promises and judges without partiality, so his ways can be trusted. “Merciful” stands for râcham, a verb for loving tenderly and having compassion. It is closely tied to the Hebrew word for the womb, and it speaks of a tenderness like a parent’s toward a child. God’s compassion moves him to relieve suffering, to forgive and to come to the help of the afflicted.

“Gracious” and “merciful” stand together in the name the LORD proclaimed to Moses on Sinai (Exodus 34:6–7), and Israel came back to that pair again and again. In Nehemiah’s day the people confessed God’s patience and abundant mercy toward their fathers (Nehemiah 9:17), and a psalm sings, “The LORD is merciful and gracious” (Psalm 103:8). Here the psalmist sets “righteous” between the two. The God who is kind is also just, so his grace and mercy always move within what is right. The nations around Israel served fickle gods, and Israel knew one God whose justice and compassion both flow from who he is.

The psalmist ends with “our God”. These are the ways of the covenant God of Israel, the God he and his people know, and his own rescue came straight from them. The LORD answers the cry of the distressed out of his own compassion, as another psalm says of one who called on him in distress and was heard from his temple (Psalm 18:6). A God whose nature stays the same can be trusted in every trouble, and that is why the psalm later asks, “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (Psalm 116:12).

How can God be both righteous and merciful?

God’s righteousness gives his grace and mercy their shape, so that when he forgives he also does what is right. In the sacrifices of the Old Testament sin was judged on a substitute, and that judgment fell finally on Christ in his atoning death, so that God is both just and the one who justifies the person who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:25–26). His justice and his mercy meet in the same act, and the salvation he gives is at once just and free.

The LORD preserves the simple

Verse 6 begins with a truth about God that holds at all times: “The LORD preserveth the simple.” Then the psalmist sets his own story beside it: “I was brought low, and he helped me.” What is always true of God proved true in his life.

Who are the simple?

The simple are people who are open, inexperienced and easily led, who lack the shrewdness to protect themselves. The word is pĕthîy, and the book of Proverbs uses it for the naive person who needs to be given prudence (Proverbs 1:4). Here it is used kindly, of people whose guard is down and who can easily be exploited or hurt, and the psalmist counts himself among them. Having nowhere else to turn, such people are the readiest to trust in God alone, and the LORD keeps them because they depend on him. He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34, 1 Peter 5:5).

Kept, brought low and helped

“Preserveth” is shâmar, to guard, keep and watch over, and its root picture is a hedge set around something, as with thorns. It describes an active, watchful keeping that goes on all the time. “I was brought low” translates dâlal, to slacken or grow feeble, to be emptied or oppressed. It pictures a man whose strength has run out and who is helpless to save himself. The psalm leaves the cause unnamed, and it may have been illness, oppression or deep despair. “He helped me” is yâshaʻ, whose root sense is to be open, wide or free, and so to be safe. Said of what God does, it means to set free and to rescue.

God’s care for the weak runs all through Scripture. He cares for the fatherless and the widow (Psalm 68:5) and does justice for the vulnerable (Deuteronomy 10:18). He dwells with the humble (Isaiah 57:15), he has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27), and he lifts up those who humble themselves before him (James 4:10). “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). For the psalmist, being brought low was the place where God’s strength was shown in his weakness.

Return unto thy rest, O my soul

In verse 7 the psalmist speaks to himself. “O my soul” addresses his nephesh, a word that means a breathing creature, and so life, the self, the whole person. He is speaking to his own inner life, which had been shaken by the sorrows of death. “Return” is shûwb, to turn back or return. The same verb is used of conditions that pass or subside, as when anger turns away, so it fits a soul whose turmoil is passing and which comes home to quiet now that the danger is over. The psalmist puts it as a command, calling his soul back to the place where it belongs.

“Rest” is mânôwach, quiet, a settled spot, a home. “Thy rest” is the soul’s own resting place. In Israel rest meant security and peace under God’s care, and it was tied to the Sabbath and to the land God gave his people after their wandering, where they lived safe from their enemies. The rest the psalmist calls his soul back to is that security, found in God’s presence, and it holds even while outward troubles linger. Psalm 23 sings of the same shepherd’s care (Psalm 23), Hebrews speaks of a rest that remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9–11), and Paul tells of the peace of God that keeps the hearts and minds of those who bring everything to him in prayer with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6–7).

The reason comes in the second half of the verse: “for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.” The verb is gâmal, to treat a person, whether well or ill, and so to benefit or to repay. Here God has treated the psalmist well, generously and fully, and the peace of his soul rests on that. Calling to mind what God has done is how a troubled soul finds its way back to rest, because God’s kindness in the past is the pledge of his care to come.

Delivered from death, tears and falling

Verse 8 opens with “For” and turns to God directly: “For thou hast delivered my soul from death”. “Delivered” is châlats, to pull off or draw out, and so to deliver or rescue. The psalmist was caught and unable to free himself, and God drew him out. “My soul” is nephesh again, the same word as in verse 7, and here it means his very life. “Death” is mâveth, which means death and also the dead, their place and their state. In verse 3 he spoke of “the pains of hell”, and the Hebrew word there is Sheol, the realm of the dead, from whose grip only God could bring a man back.

Then come the eyes and the feet. In “mine eyes from tears”, the eyes are ʻayin and the tears dimʻâh, weeping. Tears stand for grief and sorrow, and when God delivers the eyes from tears he takes away the cause of the weeping and gives comfort in its place. In “my feet from falling”, the feet are regel, the foot as used in walking, and the falling is dᵉchîy, a push, and so a fall. It pictures the stumbling or tottering that ends in collapse, and God has kept the psalmist upright and steady.

Together the three phrases take in the whole man: his life, his sorrow and his steps. The eyes stand for his grief and the feet for the steadiness of his life, so the rescue reached every part of him.

What death was he saved from?

He was saved from death itself. “The sorrows of death compassed me” describes a real threat to his life, perhaps a deadly illness or powerful enemies, and the psalm leaves it unnamed. Since nephesh is the whole person, the rescue also reaches the despair and hopelessness that had felt like death to him. “Falling” can also describe stumbling in faith and in the conduct of life, and the same God orders the steps of a good man and holds him up (Psalm 37:23–24).

Other psalms give thanks for rescues like this. The LORD hears the righteous when they cry (Psalm 34:17), and though the afflictions of the righteous are many, the LORD delivers him out of them all (Psalm 34:19). Psalm 107 is a long song of thanks for such deliverances. Scripture also looks ahead to the day when this verse is true for all God’s people. Isaiah foretells that the Lord will swallow up death and wipe away tears (Isaiah 25:8), and John sees God wipe away all tears from their eyes (Revelation 21:4).

Walking before the LORD in the land of the living

“I will walk” is hâlak, to walk, which Scripture uses for the whole course and manner of a life. The psalmist’s “I will” is a deliberate resolve for all his remaining days. “Before” is pânîym, the face. The word is plural in form but always used as a singular, and from the face it comes to mean the front of something and a person’s presence. To walk before the LORD is to live in his presence and under his eye, like a servant before a king who keeps his master’s will in mind. It joins reverence, accountability and close fellowship.

This walk was a familiar picture of covenant life in Israel. God told Abraham, “walk before me” (Genesis 17:1), Enoch walked with God and pleased him (Genesis 5:24), and Solomon spoke of how his father David had walked before God (1 Kings 3:6). Moses told Israel that the LORD required them to fear him and walk in his ways (Deuteronomy 10:12), and Micah sums up what the LORD requires with walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8). The New Testament calls believers to walk worthy of the Lord (Colossians 1:10) and worthy of the calling with which they are called (Ephesians 4:1).

“The land of the living” joins ʼerets, the earth or a land, with chay, alive or living. It means this present life on earth, set against Sheol, the realm of the dead. The psalmist had come close to that other place, and the life God preserved is a gift, to be spent serving him here and now among the living. Another psalm holds fast to the hope of seeing the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13).

The rest of the psalm carries this resolve forward. The psalmist pays his vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people (Psalm 116:12–14), and he offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving in the courts of the LORD’s house (Psalm 116:17–18). Vows made in trouble and paid in thanks were a serious part of Israel’s worship. The law set out how they were to be kept (Numbers 30) and required that a vow to the LORD be paid (Deuteronomy 23:21–23), and they were often paid publicly in the temple courts. So the walk of verse 9 is lived before God’s face, and the thanks that go with it are given before his people.

Christ in these verses

In Jesus the grace, righteousness and mercy of verse 5 are seen in a person. He came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), and his whole mission is God’s free favour, the salvation by grace through faith that comes as God’s gift and by his initiative (Ephesians 2:8–9). He lived a sinless life and died “the just for the unjust” (1 Peter 3:18). He showed compassion to the sick, the lowly and the sinner, for he came to call sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13).

“I was brought low, and he helped me” finds its deepest echo in Christ. He made himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant and became obedient unto death on the cross (Philippians 2:7–8), and God raised him from the dead (Acts 2:24). He blessed the poor in spirit and those who mourn (Matthew 5:3–4), and he is the Lamb of God, “which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

The rest of verse 7 is the rest Christ gives: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Through him we have peace with God (Romans 5:1), and of his fulness we receive grace for grace (John 1:16), with every spiritual blessing in him (Ephesians 1:3). That is the LORD dealing bountifully with us.

He delivers souls from death in the fullest sense. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25–26). He is “able to keep you from falling” (Jude 1:24), and he will wipe away the tears of his people. Jesus also walked before the Father perfectly. He always did the things that pleased him (John 8:29), and he kept his Father’s commandments and abode in his love (John 15:10). Those who have received him are called to walk in him (Colossians 2:6) and to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4), looking toward the endless life in his presence.

A soul at rest before a gracious God

These verses hold a short confession and a testimony together. The LORD is gracious, righteous and merciful, and he keeps the simple. When the psalmist was brought low, this God helped him, drew his life back from death, dried his tears and set his feet firm. The psalmist’s rest and his walk both come from that. His soul returns to rest because of what the LORD has done, and he walks before the LORD because the LORD kept him alive to do it.

The same God is ours. “Our God is merciful,” the psalmist says, and that “our” takes in everyone who calls on the name of the LORD. Anyone who has been brought low and lifted up can say with him, “he helped me,” and can speak to his own soul in the words of verse 7. Every day in the land of the living is a day God has given, and a day to walk before his face.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Psalm 116:1–9. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 9 verses
Passage under commentPsalm 116:1–9
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

In this part of the psalm we have,

I.A general account of David's experience, and his pious resolutions (Psalm 116:1, Psalm 116:2), which are as the contents of the whole psalm, and give an idea of it. 1. He had experienced God's goodness to him in answer to prayer: He has heard my voice and my supplications. David, in straits, had humbly and earnestly begged mercy of God, and God had heard him, that is, had graciously accepted his prayer, taken cognizance of his case, and granted him an answer of peace. He has inclined his ear to me. This intimates his readiness and willingness to hear prayer; he lays his ear, as it were, to the mouth of prayer, to hear it, though it be but whispered in groanings that cannot be uttered. He hearkens and hears, Jeremiah 8:6. Yet it implies, also, that it is wonderful condescension in God to hear prayer; it is bowing his ear. Lord, what is man, that God should thus stoop to him!-2. He resolved, in consideration thereof, to devote himself entirely to God and to his honour. (1.) He will love God the better. He begins the psalm somewhat abruptly with a profession of that which his heart was full of: I love the Lord (as Psalm 18:1); and fitly does he begin with this, in compliance with the first and great commandment and with God's end in all the gifts of his bounty to us. "I love him only, and nothing besides him, but what I love for him." God's love of compassion towards us justly requires our love of complacency in him. (2.) He will love prayer the better: Therefore I will call upon him. The experiences we have had of God's goodness to us, in answer to prayer, are great encouragements to us to continue praying; we have sped well, notwithstanding our unworthiness and our infirmities in prayer, and therefore why may we not? God answers prayer, to make us love it, and expects this from us, in return for his favour. Why should we glean in any other field when we have been so well treated in this? Nay, I will call upon him as long as I live (Heb., In my days), every day, to the last day. Note, As long as we continue living we must continue praying. This breath we must breathe till we breathe our last, because then we shall take our leave of it, and till then we have continual occasion for it.

II.A more particular narrative of God's gracious dealings with him and the good impressions thereby made upon him.

1.God, in his dealings with him, showed himself a good God, and therefore he bears this testimony to him, and leaves it upon record (Psalm 116:5): "Gracious is the Lord, and righteous. He is righteous, and did me no wrong in afflicting me; he is gracious, and was very kind in supporting and delivering me." Let us all speak of God as we have found; and have we ever found him otherwise than just and good? No; our God is merciful, merciful to us, and it is of his mercies that we are not consumed.

(1.)Let us review David's experiences.

[1.]He was in great distress and trouble (Psalm 116:3): The sorrows of death compassed me, that is, such sorrows as were likely to be his death, such as were thought to be the very pangs of death. Perhaps the extremity of bodily pain, or trouble of mind, is called here the pains of hell, terror of conscience arising from sense of guilt. Note, The sorrows of death are great sorrows, and the pains of hell great pains. Let us therefore give diligence to prepare for the former, that we may escape the latter. These compassed him on every side; they arrested him, got hold upon him, so that he could not escape. Without were fightings, within were fears. "I found trouble and sorrow; not only they found me, but I found them." Those that are melancholy have a great deal of sorrow of their own finding, a great deal of trouble which they create to themselves, by indulging fancy and passion; this has sometimes been the infirmity of good men. When God's providence makes our condition bad let us not by our own imprudence make it worse.

[2.]In his trouble he had recourse to God by faithful and fervent prayer, Psalm 116:4. He tells us that he prayed: Then called I upon the name of the Lord; then, when he was brought to the last extremity, then he made use of this, not as the last remedy, but as the old and only remedy, which he had found a salve for every sore. He tells us what his prayer was; it was short, but to the purpose: "O Lord! I beseech thee, deliver my soul; save me from death, and save me from sin, for that is it that is killing to the soul." Both the humility and the fervency of his prayer are intimated in these words, O Lord! I beseech thee. When we come to the throne of grace we must come as beggars for an alms, for necessary food. The following words (Psalm 116:5), Gracious is the Lord, may be taken as part of his prayer, as a plea to enforce his request and encourage his faith and hope: "Lord deliver my soul, for thou art gracious and merciful, and that only I depend upon for relief." [3.] God, in answer to his prayer, came in with seasonable and effectual relief. He found by experience that God is gracious and merciful, and in his compassion preserves the simple, Psalm 116:6. Because they are simple (that is, sincere, and upright, and without guile) therefore God preserves them, as he preserved Paul, who had his conversation in the world not with fleshly wisdom, but in simplicity and godly sincerity. Though they are simple (that is, weak, and helpless, and unable to shift for themselves, men of no depth, no design) yet God preserves them, because they commit themselves to him and have no confidence in their own sufficiency. Those who by faith put themselves under God's protection shall be safe.

(2.)Let David speak his own experience.

[1.]God supported him under his troubles: "I was brought low, was plunged into the depth of misery, and then he helped me, helped me both to bear the worst and to hope the best, helped me to pray, else desire had failed, helped me to wait, else faith had failed. I was one of the simple ones whom God preserved, the poor man who cried and the Lord heard him," Psalm 34:6. Note, God's people are never brought so low but that everlasting arms are under them, and those cannot sink who are thus sustained. Nay, it is in the time of need, at the dead lift, that God chooses to help, Deuteronomy 32:36.

[2.]God saved him out of his troubles (Psalm 116:8): Thou hast delivered, which means either the preventing of the distress he was ready to fall into or the recovering of him from the distress he was already in. God graciously delivered, First, His soul from death. Note, It is God's great mercy to us that we are alive; and the mercy is the more sensible if we have been at death's door and yet have been spared and raised up, just turned to destruction and yet ordered to return. That a life so often forfeited, and so often exposed, should yet be lengthened out, is a miracle of mercy. The deliverance of the soul from spiritual and eternal death is especially to be acknowledged by all those who are now sanctified and shall be shortly glorified. Secondly, His eyes from tears, that is, his heart from inordinate grief. It is a great mercy to be kept either from the occasions of sorrow, the evil that causes grief, or, at least, from being swallowed up with over-much sorrow. When God comforts those that are cast down, looses the mourners' sackcloth and girds them with gladness, then he delivers their eyes from tears, which yet will not be perfectly done till we come to that world where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. Thirdly, His feet from falling, from falling into sin and so into misery. It is a great mercy, when our feet are almost gone, to have God hold us by the right hand (Psalm 72:2, 23), so that though we enter into temptation we are not overcome and overthrown by the temptation. Or, "Thou hast delivered my feet from falling into the grave, when I had one foot there already."

2.David, in his returns of gratitude to God, showed himself a good man. God had done all this for him, and therefore,

(1.)He will live a life of delight in God (Psalm 116:7): Return unto thy rest, O my soul! [1.] "Repose thyself and be easy, and do not agitate thyself with distrustful disquieting fears as thou hast sometimes done. Quiet thyself, and then enjoy thyself. God has dealt kindly with thee, and therefore thou needest not fear that ever he will deal hardly with thee." [2.] "Repose thyself in God. Return to him as thy rest, and seek not for that rest in the creature which is to be had in him only." God is the soul's rest; in him only it can dwell at ease; to him therefore it must retire, and rejoice in him. He has dealt bountifully with us; he has provided sufficiently for our comfort and refreshment, and encouraged us to come to him for the benefit of it, at all times, upon all occasions; let us therefore be satisfied with that. Return to that rest which Christ gives to the weary and heavy-laden, Matthew 11:28. Return to thy Noah; his name signifies rest, as the dove, when she found no rest, returned to the ark. I know no word more proper to close our eyes with at night, when we go to sleep, nor to close them with at death, that long sleep, than this, Return to thy rest, O my soul!

(2.)He will live a life of devotedness to God (Psalm 116:9): I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living, that is, in this world, as long as I continue to live in it. Note,

[1.]It is our great duty to walk before the Lord, to do all we do as becomes us in his presence and under his eye, to approve ourselves to him as a holy God by conformity to him as our sovereign Lord, by subjection to his will, and, as a God all-sufficient, by a cheerful confidence in him. I am the almighty God; walk before me, Genesis 17:1. We must walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing.

[2.]The consideration of this, that we are in the land of the living, should engage and quicken us to do so. We are spared and continued in the land of the living by the power, and patience, and tender mercy of our God, and therefore must make conscience of our duty to him. The land of the living is a land of mercy, which we ought to be thankful for; it is a land of opportunity, which we should improve. Canaan is called the land of the living (Ezekiel 26:20), and those whose lot is cast in such a valley of vision are in a special manner concerned to set the Lord always before them. If God has delivered our soul from death, we must walk before him. A new life must be a new life indeed.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

5 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

5 quotes · AD 379–430
Post-Nicene
400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 379Basil of CaesareaPost-NiceneSourceHOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 22
“Turn, O my soul, into your rest: for the Lord has been bountiful to you.” The brave contestant applies to himself the consoling words, very much like Paul, when he says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice.” These things the prophet also says to himself: Since you have fulfilled sufficiently the course of this life, turn henceforth into your rest, “for the Lord has been bountiful to you.” For eternal rest lies before those who have struggled through the present life observant of the laws, a rest not given in payment for a debt owed for their works but provided as a grace of the munificent God for those who have hoped in him. Then, before he describes the good things there, telling in detail the escape from the troubles of the world, he gives thanks for them to the Liberator of souls, who has delivered him from the varied and inexorable slavery of the passions.
d. AD 379Basil of CaesareaPost-NiceneSourceHOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 22
“For he has delivered my soul from death: my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.” He describes the future rest by a comparison with things here. Here, he says, the sorrows of death have compassed me, but there he has delivered my soul from death. Here the eyes pour forth tears because of trouble, but there, no longer is there a tear to darken the eyes of those who are rejoicing in the contemplation of the beauty of the glory of God. “For God has wiped away every tear from every face.” Here there is much danger of a fall; wherefore, even Paul said, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” But there the steps are firm; life is immutable. No longer is there the danger of slipping into sin. For there is neither rebellion of the flesh nor cooperation of a woman in sin. Therefore, there is no male and female in the resurrection, but there is one certain life, and it is of one kind, since those dwelling in the country of the living are pleasing to their Lord. This world itself is mortal and is the place of mortals. Since the substance of visible things is composite and every composite thing is apt to be destroyed, we who are in the world, being part of the world, necessarily possess the nature of everything. Therefore, even before the soul is separated from the body by death, we people frequently die.
d. AD 397Ambrose of MilanPost-NiceneSourceDEATH AS A GOOD 9:38-39
For it is clear that the soul does not die with the body, because it is not of the body. And that it is not of the body Scripture teaches us in many ways. For Adam received the breath of life from the Lord God “and became a living soul,” and David says, “Turn, O my soul, into your rest, for the Lord has been good to me.” And learn the nature of God’s goodness: “For he has freed my feet from falling.” You see that David rejoices in the remedy of such a death, because an end has been put to error, because guilt has perished but not nature. And so he says, as if liberated and free, “I shall please the Lord in the land of the living.” For that22 is the land.… Further, he says that the land of the living is that resting place of souls, where sins do not enter in and where the glory of the virtues lives. Now that land is filled with the dead, because it is filled with sinners, and it was rightly said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” But likewise he also said above, “His soul shall dwell in good things, and his seed shall inherit the land”; that is, the soul of one who fears God will dwell in good things, so that it is always in them and in conformity with them. The passage can also be taken to refer to one who is in the body, so that he too, if he fears God, dwells in good things and is in heavenly things, for he possesses his body and enjoys mastery over it as if it had been reduced to slavery, and he possesses the inheritance of glory and of the heavenly promises.
d. AD 397Ambrose of MilanPost-NiceneSourceON THE DEATH OF THEODOSIUS 30
Theodosius, now at peace, rejoices that he has been snatched away from the cares of this world, and he lifts up his soul and directs it to that great and eternal rest. He declares that he has been admirably cared for, “since God has snatched his soul from death,” the death that he frequently withstood in the treacherous conditions of this world, when he was disturbed by the waves of sin. And God has snatched his eyes from tears, for sorrow and sadness and mourning shall flee away. And elsewhere we have, “He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain.” If, then, death will be no more, he cannot suffer a fall when he is in that rest, “but he will please God in the land of the living.” For while humankind is here enveloped in a mortal body subject to falls and transgressions, that will not be so there. Therefore, that is the land of the living where the soul is, for the soul has been made to the image and likeness of God; it is not flesh fashioned from earth. Hence, flesh returns to earth, but the soul hastens to celestial rest, and to it is said, “Turn, my soul, to your rest.”
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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