Psalm 116 (10 of 19 notes)

10. I believed, therefore have I spoken. I could not have spoken thus if it had not been for my faith: I should never have spoken unto God in prayer, nor have been able now to speak to my fellow-men in testimony if it had not been that faith kept me alive, and brought me a deliverance, whereof I have good reason to boast. Concerning the things of God no man should speak unless he believes; the speech of the waverer is mischievous, but the tongue of the believer is profitable; the most powerful speech which has ever been uttered by human lip has emanated from a heart fully persuaded of the truth of God. I was greatly afflicted. There was no mistake about that; the affliction was as terrible as could be, and since I have been delivered from it, I am sure that the deliverance is no fanatical delusion, but a self-evident fact; therefore I am the more resolved to speak to the honor of God. Though greatly afflicted, the psalmist had not ceased to believe: his faith was tried but not destroyed.