Psalms 116:17
Ver. 17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving,.... For deliverance from afflictions and death; for loosing his bonds, in every sense; for all mercies, temporal and spiritual; see Ro 6:17; Such sacrifices are according to the will of God; are well pleasing to him, when offered up through Christ, and in faith, and are a glorifying of him. These are more acceptable than all ceremonial sacrifices; and therefore the psalmist determined to offer this, and not them;
and will call upon the name of the Lord; See Gill on "Ps 116:13". Psalms 116:18Ver. 18. I will pay my vows unto the Lord,....See Gill on "Ps 116:14". And the Targum here, as there, paraphrases the latter clause,now in the presence of all his people, thus;"I will then declare his signs (or wonders) to all his people;''the marvellous things he had done for him. Psalms 116:19Ver. 19. In the courts of the Lord's house,.... This is added by way of explanation of Ps 116:18, what he meant by "the presence of all his people"; the assembly of the saints met together in the house of the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle, in the courts of it, where the people got together to worship God;in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem; the Lord's house or tabernacle; for as yet the temple was not built, and the courts of it were in the midst of the city of Jerusalem. And this shows, as some interpreters have observed, that this psalm must have been written after David came to the kingdom, and had got this city into his hands, whither he brought the ark of the Lord. The whole signifies that he would praise the Lord publicly, as well as privately; and he concludes the psalm thus,Praise ye the Lord; calling upon the Lord's people, in his house and courts, to join with him in this work of praise.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.