He heard me. He listened to me.

There are times in our lives when that is one of our greatest needs-that someone listens and hears our words. Often times this occurs when we are hurting, afraid, lonely, or sad. We don’t always need an answer or a solution. We just need to be able to share what’s on our hearts to someone who will listen.

The individual who wrote this Psalm shares a wonderful expression of gratitude for God’s graciousness and his mercy. We don’t know exactly what it was that the Psalmist had been delivered from, but we know that God listened, he delivered him from the whatever it was that led the author to seek God’s mercy.

This section of Psalm 116 reminds us of several of God’s amazing attributes. He is gracious-full of his grace. God wants nothing more than that you and I are his dear children through faith in Jesus. God is righteous. He expects perfection all the time, every time. This reminds us also of how dearly he loves us. His desire is that we be with him for all eternity in heaven. He is clear that perfection is the ticket. However, knowing our complete inability to be perfection, he makes us perfect in his sight through Jesus. God is compassionate. He expects perfection but kept his promise of salvation through Jesus. He also hears and knows our cries of pain, sadness, grief, loneliness, despair. God looks at us with the loving eyes of a Father and loves us in spite of our weaknesses.

What can we do? We see and hear of God’s grace, his righteousness, his compassion and we know that we can go to him anywhere, anytime with confidence. We can trust him and know that not only can we go to him, we know that he is eager to hear from us.

He hears you. He listens to your prayers. He forgives you. He gives you a peace that is only found in him. You can trust in him in any and all things to be with you.