116 I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
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.
10 I believed, even when1 I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the LORD
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
AELW 11:403
" Verse 12 - What shall I render to the Lord for all He has rendered to me? What is this rendering of God to us? What have we earned? Did He not give it gratis? Otherwise how will it be grace? But the Lord renders good for evil, which is an excellent and divine repayment. For even men return good for good. In fact, the heathen do good to those who do good (Luke 6:33). But this is what it means to be God: Not to take good but to give it and therefore to render good for evil. Since He gives gifts before He takes them, what else does He do but return good for evil? If, therefore, He gave the good before, then it was not there, but only evil was. What, therefore, shall I render, since He has rendered to me faith and truth, by which I am truthful in His presence, and thus I am now not a man but God and the son of God, and a child like the Father?"
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