Psalm 116: 7 – “Rest”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I love the Lord, because He heard my voice [and] my prayers. ²Because He turned His ear to me, also in my days I will call.

 ³The cords of death encompassed me and the terrors of Sheol found me. I found distress and sorrow. ⁴Then I called in the name of the Lord, “I beg, O Lord, deliver my soul!”

 ⁵Gracious [is] the Lord and just and our God [is] compassionate. ⁶The Lord is one guarding simple ones. I was low but He delivered me.

 ⁷Return, my soul, to your rest, because the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

Here I am again. Psalm 116:7 is one of those verses I memorized years (and years) ago. It has been a sweet cordial I’ve carried in my heart for all these years and now, finally, I get a chance to actually study it, to actually look closely at the Hebrew words behind my familiar old KJV translation. Makes me want to take off my shoes and just sit and stare at it.

Matthew Henry said, “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, than this, ‘Return unto thy rest, O my soul!’”

Amen to our good friend. I’m reminded of George Washington, of whom it is reported that upon his death bed he looked around at his family and said, “All is well,” then lay back, closed his eyes with his own hand, folded his arms and died.

“All is well.”

“Return unto thy rest, O my soul!”

“The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee!”

Brings tears to my eyes. The Lord is gracious and just and compassionate. How often have I cried to Him and He answered by setting me free? How often has He delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling? George Washington was right, “All is well.” Matthew Henry was right, what better word to close our eyes at night than, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee,” then one day to close our eyes in death?

Robert Leighton, pondering his own demise, said: "Oh, how welcome will that day be, that day of deliverance! To be out of this woeful prison, I regard not at what door I go out, being at once freed from so many deaths, and let in to enjoy Him who is my life."

It is an interesting thing to note how much the Bible speaks of rest. It opens, of course, with the Lord Himself taking a Sabbath after the six days of creation. Jesus called us to Himself with the familiar words, “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt 11:28-30). The Lord called through Jeremiah, “Stand in the way and see and ask for the old paths, wherein lieth righteousness, and walk ye in it, and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Jer 6:16).

In my study I found that there are actually a number of Hebrew words for rest. Here’s a list with at least the basic idea of the various synonyms:

Shabat (Sabbath) – absence of activity

Shaqat – absence of disturbance from external sources

Shalom – wholeness, well-being

Raphah – to drop, let drop, let go

Dami – quietness

Raga – to be in repose

If you stop and think, you’ll quickly realize the Bible is literally full of references to rest. “There remaineth a rest for the people of God.” “There is no peace (shabat), saith my God, to the wicked.” “Be still (raphah) and know that I am God.” “Rest (dami) in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”

Years ago I was studying the creation account and what jumped off the page at me was the fact that God is not a slave-driver. He doesn’t need to rest, and yet, as a part of the very creation itself, He chose to cease from His creation in order to set for us a pattern that it’s okay to rest! I early realized that there is no end to work. No matter how hard you work, no matter how much you accomplish, when you get up tomorrow, there will still be more to do than you can possibly get done. In a world without God, that very fact can drive us all to be work-aholics. Yet, in that world of endless work, God announces (from the very beginning) that it is totally okay if you just chill out one day out of every seven. The crops will get planted. The homework will get done. There will be (just) enough money to pay the bills. “Go ahead,” He says, “Take it easy. I’ve got your back. It will all work out.”

My Dad once told me that when he was young (Depression and WWII years) life was so unceasingly hard, they would have all gone crazy except that they always took Sunday off. That was the day they spent together as a family having picnics, going mountain climbing, and just pausing to actually enjoy the world they worked so hard to possess. When I was in seminary, going to school full-time and working to support my wife and three children, it was an enormous relief to be able to just shut down every Sunday. At the time, I felt like my workload was so far beyond me it was impossible that I even could make it all happen. There wouldn’t have been enough time if I had 36-hour days. Yet, in the middle of that utter impossibility, since I had already observed that God is not a slave-driver, I knew it was okay to shut down that one day a week and somehow it would all get done. So, on Sundays, I never once so much as cracked a book. Like my father’s family, that was our day for going to the park, for playing with the kids (whatever that meant to them!), and just enjoying life. In fact it did all get done. I graduated Magna Cum Laude, we all lived, the bills did (barely) get paid. And now that was all 25 years ago.

God is not a slave-driver. “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” I say all of this in part because it is unfortunately the opposite of what we seem to naturally think. We of course wouldn’t say it, but it is too easy to think and live like God is in fact a slave-driver. Our evil heart tells us, “He is impossible to please. No matter how much you do, He always expects more. He doesn’t allow you a second’s rest!” But is that really God? I will assert quite emphatically it is not. It is none other than the devil himself and our own evil hearts that drive us mercilessly to the grave. Our God says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

In our troubled, tossed world, in this endless storm of howling wind and waves, we can say in faith to ourselves, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.”

Behold the Lamb of God. He stands there on the very waves themselves and calls to us through the wind, “Come unto Me. Join me in the storm and I will give you rest.” In faith we can actually step out of the boat, into the storm, and join Him – as long as we never lose sight of His beautiful face.

And this is the very point, you see, where we lose the battle. If we feel deep down in our heart that in fact God is a slave-driver, then the face we see through the storm is not that gentle, kind, inviting face, but rather one that is harsh and foreboding. We cannot walk in the storm, because we cannot see that beautiful face that is our strength – and not because it isn’t there, but because our evil hearts have painted over it with our own (and the devil’s) distorted, faithless misperceptions. Self, behold your God! His name is Jesus and He is meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest unto your soul! He is altogether lovely. He is gracious and just and compassionate – even in the storms. He is not a slave-driver.

He has proven it again and again. “The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.”

Yes, He has. I need to trust Him more. As He told Moses, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Return unto thy rest, O my soul. All is well.