(1) I love the Lord.—Besides this rendering, where Jehovah is supplied as an object, this poet being given to use verbs without an object (see Psalms 116:2; Psalms 116:10), there are two other possible translations.
1. I have longed that Jehovah should hear, &c—For this meaning of the verb to love see Jeremiah 5:31, Amos 4:5; and for the construction see Psalms 27:4-6. So the Syriac and Arabic versions.
2. I am well pleased that Jehovah hears (or will hear).—So LXX. and Vulg.

(2) If we take translation (1) of Psalms 116:1 this verse will state the ground of the longing to pray. “I have longed for Jehovah to hear me now, for He, as in past times, inclines His ear to me.” The latter clause of the verse offers some difficulty. The literal rendering of the text, given by the LXX. and Vulg., is, “and in my days I will call (for help). But there is none.” 2 Kings 20:19 does not, as suggested, confirm the explanation “all the days of my life.” It would seem more natural to take the text as an equivalent of the common phrase “in the day when I call” (Psalms 56:10; Psalms 102:3, &c), and render the verse:
For He inclines His ear to me,
And that in the day when I call.

(3) The pains of hell.—Or, oppressions of Sheôl, if we retain the text. But a very slight change in a single letter brings the clause into closer correspondence with Psalms 18:5-6, whence it is plainly borrowed, the nets of Sheôl. We may reproduce the original more exactly by using, as it does, the same verb in the last two clauses of the verse:
Nets of Sheôl caught me,
Trouble and sorrow I catch.

(6) The simple.—Inexperienced, in a good sense, as often in Proverbs. LXX. and Vulg., “babes.”
Brought low.—See Note, Psalms 30:2.

(7) Return . . .—In a very different spirit from the fool’s address to his soul in the parable. The psalmist’s repose is not the worldling’s serenity nor the sensualist’s security, but the repose of the quiet conscience and the trusting heart.

(8) Falling.—Or, stumbling. (See Psalms 56:13, the original of this passage.)

(13) I will take.—Or, lift up.
Cup of salvation.—The drink offering or oblation which accompanied festival celebrations (Numbers 29:19, &c). Others think of the Passover cup mentioned Matthew 26:27, when this psalm as part of the Hallel was sung. Others, again, take the figurative sense of cup—i.e., portion, lot, as in Psalms 16:5.

(15) Precious . . .—This is only another form of the statement in Psalms 72:14. But again we have to ask why the thought of death should intrude upon the psalmist at this moment. (See Note, Psalms 115:17.) The answer is that, as in Psalms 116:8, a recent deliverance from death is spoken of. It is natural to take this psalm as a thanksgiving song for the safety, perhaps victory, of the survivors in some battle, but then the grateful community naturally and dutifully remember the dead.

(16) Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid.—Comp. Psalms 86:16. Not only himself but his family were in the covenant, and, as very commonly in the East, the mother is selected for mention instead of the father.