Gratitude for Deliverance, a Reflection on Psalm 116:1-9

Isaiah had been attacked physically, had been insulted; yet, he was not disgraced because he knew that God would vindicate him. 

The lectionary has chosen the first part of Psalm 116 as a response to this reading from Isaiah.

In it, the psalmist in verses 1-6, like Isaiah, is addressing a human audience rather than praying to the Lord. Although his situation sounds like illness rather than personal attack, he, also like Isaiah, has suffered greatly. And, like Isaiah, he had depended on the Lord to save him; and the Lord did.

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I walk before the Lord in the land of the living.