Return oh my soul to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
– Psalm 116:7
What a good verse that we probably shouldn’t memorize. Just let me say it again and let’s think about what it means. “Return oh my soul to your rest.” So let’s just stop there. How often do we have anxious souls, like weary souls, like tired souls? How often are we worried or anxious about many things? And Psalm 116:7 is saying, “Return, oh my soul.” It’s like speaking to yourself. Return to your rest. You can be at rest in this fallen world with all kinds of trials and challenges, attacks from the adversary in all kinds of different ways, you can actually live with rest. To say this to yourself, “Return, oh my soul to your rest.” How do you do that? For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
Psalm 116:7 teaches us where to find true rest for our souls.
So where is rest found? Rest is found in this verse in remembering the Lord’s bountiful dealings with you. Just rest and the ways God has shown his love for you in the past, the ways God has provided for you, sustained you, blessed you, encouraged you, held you up, brought you through. He has been faithful. “Return, oh my soul, to your rest.” Think about the way he saved you. Think about how he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for you. How he rose from the dead for you to experience eternal life. How this good news of his love for you spread to you and how God has saved you from your sin, has filled you with his Spirit. Talk about bountiful blessing. He’s put his Spirit inside of you.
Think about all of his promises to you that he has given you to stand on his presence with you. He is not left you alone in the past, and he is not about to leave you alone in the present. Return to your rest. Remember how the Lord has dealt bountifully with you and trust that he will deal bountifully with you today and tomorrow and the next day, that he will be true to his promise in Lamentations chapter three, to meet you with new mercy every morning with bountiful new mercy every single morning. I just want to pray this over all of us.
Psalm 116:7 reminds us of God’s bountiful love towards us.
Oh God, we pray for rest in you today. We pray that you would return our souls even right now as I’m praying this over different people. You know what they’re walking through. I pray that their souls would return to rest right now. Supernatural rest, unexplainable rest, peace, comfort that are found not in the changing circumstances of this world, but that are found in the bountiful mercy and love, the flow from your hand.
God, we praise you for how you have dealt bountifully with us. In our sin, your grace has been abundant. In suffering, your mercy has been abundant. So we pray with confidence that you will continue to pour out your grace and mercy in our lives. You have been bountiful with us in the past. You promised to be bountiful with us in the present and in the future, and all the way till we see your face and we’re with you enjoying you for all of eternity. Bountiful blessing, grace, mercy, forever and ever and ever. God help us to rest in you today.
I pray that over every single person listening right now. And oh God, please help us from this place of rest in you, to lead others to rest in you, to encourage others with your grace and your mercy, to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ to rest in you, helps to lead others to rest in you. Help us to lead friends who don’t know you, to rest in you through faith in Jesus.
Prayer for Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist People Groups
And God, as we pray for the nations every day, we pray for the rest in you. God, as we pray every day for Muslim people groups, Hindu people groups, Buddhist people groups who are trying to earn their way to you, oh God, or to appease different gods, to walk a certain path. Lord, we pray for the rest that’s found in Jesus alone, in your grace and in your mercy to spread all throughout the world. God, that souls might rest forever in you. Jesus, we pray all this according to your Word in Psalm 116:7, which we love. We praise you for rest in you today. In Jesus name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
