\\INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 116\\

Theodoret applies this psalm to the distresses of the Jews in the
times of the Maccabees under Antiochus Epiphanes; and R. Obadiah
interprets some passages in it of the Grecians of those times; but it
rather seems to have been written by David on account of some
troubles of his, out of which he was delivered; and refers either to
the times of Saul, and the persecutions he endured from him,
particularly when he was beset round about by him and his men in the
wilderness of Maon, \\#1Sa 23:26\\, to which he may have respect
\\#Ps 116:3\\. The inscription of the psalm in the Syriac version is,

``the progress of the new people returning to the Christian
worship, as a child to understanding: and as to the letter,
it was said when Saul stayed at the door of the cave where
David lay hid with his men;''

see \\#1Sa 24:4\\. But since mention is made of Jerusalem, \\#Ps 116:19\\,
where the psalmist would praise the Lord for his deliverance, which as
yet was not in his hands nor in the hands of the Israelites, but of the
Jebusites; some have thought it was written on account of the
conspiracy of Absalom against him, and who, hearing that Ahithophel was
among the conspirators, said the words related in \\#Ps 116:11\\, it is
very probable it was composed after the death of Saul, and when he was
settled in the kingdom, as Jarchi observes, and was delivered out of
the hands of all his enemies; and very likely much about the same time
as the eighteenth psalm was, which begins in the same manner, and has
some expressions in it like to what are in this. David was a type of
Christ, and some apply this psalm to him.