Introduction: The Final Section of the Psalm
Before us is the final section of Psalm 116, in which the Psalmist transitions from describing the distress and the salvation to the great question: What does one do with salvation? How does a person who has been saved respond? According to the Malbim, the entire psalm centers upon King Chizkiyahu (Hezekiah), and therefore the thanksgiving at its conclusion relates to the salvation of Jerusalem from the hand of Sancheriv (Sennacherib). Let us go through the verses in order.
"How Can I Repay Hashem?" - A Debt with No Beginning
מָה־אָשִׁיב לַיהֹוָה כׇּל־תַּגְמוּלוֹהִי עָלָי׃ - How can I repay Hashem for all His bountiful benefits toward me?
The meaning is: all the benefits He has bestowed upon me are upon me; that is, I feel indebted toward them, as if I must repay goodness to the Holy One, blessed be He. But what can I possibly repay Him? I had no merit whatsoever in what the Holy One, blessed be He, did for me; it is all pure kindness from Him. Just as Yaakov Avinu said, "I am unworthy of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown to Your servant." How can I repay and return to Hashem, blessed be He, even one-thousandth of what He has done for me?
The word tagmulohi is somewhat unusual. The Radak explains that it is equivalent to tagmulav ("His benefits"), and this declension derives from Aramaic, like elohai or yadohi. In other words: all the bounty that He bestows upon me.
The Malbim explains: The Holy One, blessed be He, granted me life, and how can I thank Him after all the despair I was plunged into, after having said, "All men are deceitful," having reached a deep crisis, and Hashem saved me? King David says that the essence of the good is not merely life itself, but the very fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, has now granted me the ability to stand and thank Him, to stand and praise Him for everything He has done for me. This is just as it is written, "Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You" - better than life itself is the very ability to stand, praise, and thank Hashem. Therefore he continues: "I will raise the cup of salvations and call upon the name of Hashem," to give thanks to Hashem, to glorify His kindness, and to publicize His greatness; "I will pay my vows to Hashem, in the presence of all His people." This is what I can return, and it is greater than life itself - the ability to thank Hashem, blessed be He. In truth, we have nothing more than this to repay Him.
The Power of "Thank You"
What can a person give back to Hashem? "If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He take from your hand?" The only thing we can do is say thank you. When someone gives me something and I have no way to pay them back, the most I can do is thank them. That is what I can return to Hashem, and that is what is more precious than life itself: to thank Hashem, to "raise the cup of salvations" and "pay my vows to Hashem, in the presence of all His people" - that it be publicized openly.
Yet let us make no mistake: I have not actually given anything back to Hashem, and He has received nothing from me, for the Holy One, blessed be He, has no need for our thanks. Gratitude simply demonstrates an appreciation of value on the part of the recipient. When a person does not even say thank you, it is as if he is saying, "What did you really do anyway?" But when he says thank you, he is declaring: I appreciate what you have done. That is precisely what is required of a person - to appreciate what the Holy One, blessed be He, does for us.
One who lives with the notion that the Holy One, blessed be He, needs my thanks and waits for me to praise Him holds a very small concept of God - a needy deity. He imagines that God is like us, thriving on compliments, needing to be told how wonderful He is. But that would imply deficiency, for anyone who needs something from another is inherently lacking. And in the Holy One, blessed be He, deficiency is completely inconceivable. When I praise Hashem, I am not fulfilling any need of His; I am merely doing that which proves I am worthy of that beneficence, because I appreciate it.
Whom do we wish to benefit? People who appreciate what we have done for them. If you do a favor for someone and he belittles it - "What did he give me anyway? I didn't even need that" - you will not want to give to him again. But when someone appreciates, praises, and thanks endlessly, it is a pleasure to give him more. Incidentally, this is why people often give more outside the home than within it: at home, giving is frequently met with criticism - "You're only doing this now? I've been waiting two weeks!" In contrast, when a neighbor asks for a small favor and you help him, he heaps praise upon you: "You saved me; a close neighbor is better than a distant brother!" A kind word motivates a person to act, while its absence makes him reluctant to give.
The book Me'ir Einei Yisrael cites another explanation from the Chafetz Chaim: "How can I repay Hashem for all His bountiful benefits toward me?" - how can I even begin to repay the Holy One, blessed be He, when all His past bounties weigh upon me as an outstanding debt? A parable illustrates this: imagine someone added a debt of a hundred shekels to your account every single day for twenty years, and now they tell you, "Start paying it back." How could you begin to repay it now, with twenty years of accumulated debt behind you? "All His bounties weigh upon me" - all the debts have already been resting upon me from the very start. If so, nothing remains for me but to thank Hashem, may He be blessed, for when it comes to repaying what He has bestowed upon me, I do not even have anywhere to begin.
"I will lift up the cup of salvations" - Thanksgiving over a Cup
כּוֹס־יְשׁוּעוֹת אֶשָּׂא וּבְשֵׁם יְהֹוָה אֶקְרָא׃ - I will lift up the cup of salvations, and call upon the name of Hashem.
Rashi explains: I will bring the libations for the thanksgiving offerings that I vowed. Libations accompany a thanksgiving offering, which means the wine. As the verse states, "To You I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving" - and alongside it I will bring the libations, the cup of salvations that I will lift up, and then "I will call upon the name of Hashem," praising Hashem, just as Chazal taught that song is uttered only over wine. I will proclaim and praise the name of Hashem for the wonders and miracles He performed for me.
Radak notes that some commentators explain that "cup" here is not a drinking vessel, but a portion or share, as in "Hashem is the portion of my inheritance and my cup." Thus, "I will lift up the cup of salvations" refers to the portion of salvation that the Holy One, blessed be He, granted me - over which I extol and praise Him. However, it can also be understood literally: when I hold a feast and celebration, I will raise the cup of wine, praise and thank Hashem in public, and recount the salvations He wrought for me. That cup is called the "cup of salvations" - the cup over which I recount Hashem's salvations. And indeed, when a person makes a thanksgiving seudah with meat and wine, and thanks Hashem, may He be blessed, he lifts the cup and offers praise over it.
In fact, our Sages instituted that anything involving praise and prominence should be recited over a cup: Kiddush over a cup, Birkat HaMazon over a cup, Kiddushin, marriage, and the chuppah over a cup, a brit milah over a cup, Havdalah over a cup. Anything of spiritual significance - I lift up a cup of salvations, and through the distinction of wine, I praise and laud the Creator, may He be blessed.
"And call upon the name of Hashem" - Both in Distress and in Relief
On the words "and call upon the name of Hashem," Radak comments: I will call upon the name of Hashem just as I used to do in times of distress, for it was said earlier, "I found distress and sorrow, and I called upon the name of Hashem" - and so too in times of relief. From here, the masters of Mussar derive a major principle: there are people who thank and praise Hashem only when there is salvation, when things are good; but when things are bad, at best they merely refrain from complaining, and at worst they voice bitter grievances. With David HaMelech, it was not so: even when distress and sorrow found me, I called upon the name of Hashem. Even then, I knew where to turn, I knew it came from Him, may He be blessed, and I knew that everything Hashem does is for the best.
This is wonderful advice that we have already mentioned: when a person faces trouble, the very first thing he should do is justify the Heavenly decree. A mishap occurred, he cut himself, he lost his keys - some people start to lose their minds, asking who took them, getting enraged, tearing the house apart in a panic. Stop for a moment and say: Master of the Universe, this distress of not being able to find my keys is from You, and I accept the judgment upon myself with love; this is Your will. And only after that, go look for them. Many times, one sees immense salvations through this mindset. When a person justifies the divine judgment, he first realizes that it is not simply that "I lost my keys," but rather that the Creator of the world is speaking to me, and I understand the language. Nothing happens to me by chance.
How much more so when someone offended me, delayed me, or provoked me. Naturally, we love finding someone to blame. Look at the media: ever since the Simchat Torah war, they have been looking for someone to crucify; they must find a scapegoat onto whom everything can be cast. But perhaps we are to blame? That does not sell in the media. Yet it was precisely the media that fanned the flames of hatred beforehand, that manufactured polarization among the people, that brought this tragedy upon us - for all trouble comes upon us because of our internal discord, and whenever there is internal discord, the Holy One, blessed be He, unites us, unfortunately through such painful means. Not one of them has thought for a moment to take any blame upon themselves, to consider that perhaps we were at fault. And if someone dares to tell a broadcaster that the media creates polarization, even if he is a bereaved father, they cut him off mid-broadcast. It is permissible to criticize everything, except us. We sit in an ivory tower, elevated above the people, infallible. Everyone must take responsibility except us. No one takes responsibility for their share in the polarization, the hatred, the demonization, and the endless scaremongering that the country was about to fall apart and descend into chaos over the judicial reform. Therefore, a person must realize: "I found distress and sorrow" - when distress and sorrow strike, remember where to turn. It is from Hashem. And when a person accepts the divine judgment, he draws down immense kindness and abundant blessing upon himself, so that Hashem will deliver him from the trouble.
"My vows to Hashem I will pay" - Publicly
נְדָרַי לַיהֹוָה אֲשַׁלֵּם נֶגְדָה־נָּא לְכׇל־עַמּוֹ׃ - My vows to Hashem I will pay, now in the presence of all His people.
The vows that I made when I fled - for a person makes vows in times of distress: if Hashem delivers me from distress, I will offer sacrifices and fulfill vows, "if He will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear" - those very vows I am now paying.
What is the meaning of "na"? We have mentioned several times that there is an almost constant dispute here between Rashi and the Targum: Rashi usually explains "na" as an expression of entreaty ("please"), while the Targum explains "na" as "kaan", now. Here, the Radak says that "na" means now, though then it is not clear what "negdah na" would mean. Therefore, he explains that the word "na" is connected to "ashalem": "My vows to Hashem I will pay na" - I will pay my vows now; and "negdah" refers to "kol amo" - before all His people, that is, publicly and before everyone's eyes. And the letter heh of "negdah", the Radak explains, is an additional directional heh that replaces the preposition lamed, just as one says "Yerushalaymah" instead of "le-Yerushalayim". Thus, "negdah kol amo" is used in place of "le-neged kol amo" (in the presence of all His people).
"Precious in the eyes of Hashem is the death of His pious ones"
יָקָר בְּעֵינֵי יְהֹוָה הַמָּוְתָה לַחֲסִידָיו׃ - Precious in the eyes of Hashem is the death of His pious ones.
"Precious in the eyes of Hashem" - similar to "and precious shall their blood be in His sight." The Radak explains: it is weighty and grievous in His eyes to put His pious ones to death before their time, and I am among His pious ones; therefore Hashem answered my plea of "deliver my soul" and saved me, for, as it were, putting His pious ones to death causes distress before Hashem. The word "hamavtah" (the death), Rashi explains, is formed like "habaytah" (homeward) or "hachutzah" (outward) - meaning the arrival of death upon His pious ones.
The Malbim explains that here he concludes what he began earlier: "The dead do not praise Yah, nor do any who go down into silence; but we will bless Yah." Hashem dealt bountifully with me so that I might call upon His name and pay Him my vows. Therefore, the death of His pious ones is precious and grave in Hashem's eyes, and He, as it were, devises ways so that none be banished from Him, so as not to bring death upon them - for in their lives the pious praise Hashem, whereas "the dead do not praise Yah." Thus, putting His pious ones to death brings, so to speak, pain and sorrow before Him, may He be blessed.
"Yakar" (precious) has the same letters as "keri" (nocturnal emission) - A homily of the Baal Shem Tov
In the sefer Zeh HaSha'ar, "Precious in the eyes of Hashem is the death of His pious ones" is explained according to a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, cited in the Hanhagot of the holy Rav, Rabbi Elazar Tzvi of Komarno: "yakar" (יקר) has the same letters as "keri" (קרי). He sought to hint: keri is "hamavtah le-chasidav" - it is like death to His pious ones. That is to say, if, Heaven forbid, a pious and righteous person experiences an emission, for him this is tantamount to death, a source of immense and profound grief.
He adds that it is well known that this flaw in holiness comes about through the female counterpart of Samael - Lamed-Yud, Lamed-Yud-Tav - who comes to a person in a dream in the guise of women and the like, bringing him to this impurity. Our Sages say that in the future to come, the Holy One, blessed be He, will punish the evil inclination and banish it for leaving the nations of the world alone and inciting Israel, and Torah scholars most of all; therefore, it deserves to receive its punishment in the World to Come.
Incidentally, why is the evil inclination of a Torah scholar greater than that of an unlearned person? Some explain simply: the evil inclination of a Torah scholar is itself a scholar; it does not approach him with crude arguments, but with scholarly ones, and it is far more difficult to counter; the greater a person is, the greater his inclination. Yet there is a wonderful explanation here: the rule states, as cited by the Shev Shemateta, that when a person has "bread in his basket," the test is not severe. A person can manage when he knows that before long the thing will be permissible. A person leaves the synagogue, goes to the bank, runs errands, and by twelve noon has tasted nothing; yet on a fast day, he is already thirsty at six in the morning. What happened? On a regular day, one can drink whenever one wishes, so there is no pressure - that is having "bread in his basket." But on a fast day, when it is forbidden the entire day, one feels thirsty already at six in the morning. An unlearned person has "bread in his basket": to him, a sin is not the end of the world - at most, he committed a sin - and so the inclination does not press him so forcefully. But for a Torah scholar, for whom a sin is unthinkable, he has no "bread in his basket," and therefore the inclination presses him far more severely. Whoever finds something completely forbidden has a great inclination; but whoever says, "Well, it's not so terrible," has a far smaller inclination.
According to this, he explains "hamavtah" in a remarkable way: the final letters of the words "venikah ha-ish me-avon ve-ha-ishah ha-hi tisa avonah" (and the man shall be clear of iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity) form the letters of "hamavtah" (המותה). What is this teaching? That when a person genuinely strives to overcome and remain in holiness, even if it happened that he stumbled and experienced an emission - "the man shall be clear of iniquity," and that woman shall bear her iniquity. Who is "that woman"? That female entity, Lamed-Yud, that well-known force who causes a person to stumble - she will bear the severity of the sin upon herself and receive the punishment for it.
And this is just as the holy Ari says: if it happened that a person experienced an emission without having brought himself, Heaven forbid, to corruption, he should immediately rise and immerse in a mikveh that very day, and not postpone it to another day. Even if tomorrow is Friday and he would immerse anyway in honor of Shabbat - no. On that very day he should immerse and on that very day do teshuvah, and the sin is wiped away. But if he postpones it to another day, another heavenly agent is already appointed over it, and the sin takes root in him, making it far more difficult to become purified and refined from it.
"O Hashem, for I am Your servant"
אָנָּה יְהֹוָה כִּי־אֲנִי עַבְדֶּךָ אֲנִי־עַבְדְּךָ בֶּן־אֲמָתֶךָ פִּתַּחְתָּ לְמוֹסֵרָי׃ - O Hashem, for I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid; You have undone my bonds.
Rashi explains: "Your servant, the son of Your handmaid" - the upbringing of a servant purchased from the market is not comparable to one born into the household. "You have undone my bonds" - You loosened the bonds and yokes from upon my neck. "Upbringing" (tarbut) refers to how he was raised. A servant born into the household feels comfortable in this reality, having grown up here with this master; whereas a servant acquired from the marketplace has many anxieties.
Naturally, every slave wishes to be liberated and become a free man, and the only question is how intensely he yearns for it. One who was captured and enslaved possesses an immense yearning for freedom, because his mindset is that of a free man and he was raised as a free man. Yosef never reconciled himself to his status as a slave - he was raised as a free man, so how could he suddenly be thrown into a pit and made a slave? On the other hand, someone born into slavery, and what is more, the son of a maidservant, a second-generation slave - certainly does not seek to be freed. It is the only reality he knows; on the contrary, if you release him into the free world now, he will ask: How will I manage? Will I find a job? Will I rent an apartment? How will I provide for myself? Here I am with the master and he provides for all my needs. The more deeply rooted a person is in servitude, the less he aspires to freedom.
King David declares: This is my reality. I am not like a servant who seeks to cast off his master's yoke. "I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid" - I am Your servant and also the son of Your handmaid, a second-generation servant. In such a state, on the contrary, this servitude is something I desire and want, and I have no desire to rid myself of it. Therefore, "You have undone my bonds." As Maharam Alshakar and Ya'avetz explain: Since I am not seeking to flee from Your service, being a household servant, You can remove my fetters and let me walk freely about the house without any fear that I will run away.
"Anah" - An Expression of Acknowledgment
Radak notes: The word anah here is spelled with a hei (אָנָּה), and signifies acknowledgment and thanksgiving - not supplication. This is similar to, "Ah (ana), this people has committed a great sin," which is an expression of confession of sin. So too here, it is a matter of giving thanks to Hashem, blessed is He: I thank Hashem for the lovingkindness He has shown me as His servant.
Why does he say, "Your servant, the son of Your handmaid," and not "the son of Your manservant"? Radak explains: He mentions the mother because she is the primary factor in the child's formation, for his growth and the period of his gestation occur in the woman's womb - already granting her nine months of advantage over the father - and there he develops from maternal blood and takes shape over the allotted time; and after his birth, he is nurtured at his mother's breasts. Therefore, the nature of the mother is bound more closely to the child than that of the father, and the child inclines toward his mother's traits. This is why regarding the kings of Israel Scripture states, "and his mother's name was..." - but why would we care about his mother's name, when lineage is determined by the father? Rather, it comes to teach you that his deeds followed after the mother. For a person's deeds, whether for good or for evil, although determined by free choice and shaped by his conduct, education, and habit, also stem in part from the innate nature of his formation.
This, as is well known, is a major debate among psychologists: how much of our behavior stems from our innate nature and how much from what we absorbed from our parents. There are inborn traits and there are acquired traits. Furthermore, what we receive from our parents is not necessarily innate; often it is acquired. When a person flies into a rage over every little thing, people say, "He is just like his father" - and the question is why. It may be that he inherited a propensity for anger in his genes, in which case even if raised by an adoptive family he would still be prone to anger; or it could be that he constantly witnessed his father's anger and simply mimics him - seeing scenes made at home whenever a shirt was not ironed, and growing up to make the exact same scenes as his father. In reality, some of a person's conduct is acquired from what he observed at home and in his environment, while some arises from fundamental traits inherited from his parents even without consciously imitating their behavior.
Accordingly: "I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid" - I am Your servant, Master of the Universe, in two distinct ways. On the one hand, I have trained myself in Your service; on the other hand, my mother too was Your handmaid, and therefore this is also innate within me through the nature I received from her. Thus, I am Your servant twofold: on my own part, through the habits I formed in Your service, and by virtue of my nature, inherited from my mother.
"You have undone my bonds" - I thank You for releasing my bonds, and I know that salvation comes from You. Even though David was never literally bound in chains, Radak explains that at times he was as though bound: at Sela Hamachlekos, where he was already hemmed in and surrounded; and before Achish, king of Gath, when his attendants said, "Is this not David of whom they sang, 'Shaul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?", and in another moment he would have been imprisoned, at which point he feigned madness and was saved. There were several occasions when David was as though in fetters, and regarding those moments he says, "You have undone my bonds," for You saved me and brought me out to freedom.
Malbim's Explanation: The Prayer of Chizkiyahu
The Malbim explains that here he begins to pray that Hashem save him from the hand of the enemies rising up against him. As we recall, according to the Malbim, the entire chapter deals with King Chizkiyahu, and now he pleads that Hashem rescue him from the king of Ashur (Assyria) who is besieging Jerusalem. Regarding this he says: "Please, Hashem, for I am Your servant" - it is not fitting that You hand over Your servant to another master to abuse him. And I am not like a servant bought with money, but rather "Your servant, the son of Your maidservant," a servant born in the household, bound to You. If so, it is fitting that just as "You untied my bonds" in the past, You should now undo the bonds that the king of Ashur has placed upon me and rescue me from the siege.
Roots in Holiness - "Tehillot Maharitz"
In the sefer Tehillot Maharitz, the author explains the difference between someone raised upon the knees of fear of Heaven from youth, who was educated from home in the service of Hashem and yirat Shamayim, and someone who arrived there through his own efforts - like the distinction between a ba'al teshuvah and someone raised from the outset in a home of righteous and God-fearing people. One who is already rooted in holiness and purity is like an immovable stake; he can easily overcome the yetzer hara when it comes to entice him and lead him astray from Hashem's service, for his roots from his father's house are firm. This is not so with the second person, who became a ba'al teshuvah: time and again we see such individuals stumble and return to their compromised state, then repent again and fall again. Why this pendulum? Because from the beginning he was not rooted in holiness, and he carries habits that are difficult to break; true, he worked and exerted himself, yet there is always the fear that he might relapse. It is like someone who used to smoke - there is always a fear of a relapse; someone who took drugs - there is always a fear of relapse, since he was already there. By contrast, for someone who has never touched a cigarette, what are the chances he will start smoking at age fifty? Yet people who had not smoked for twenty years, when crises struck - they resumed smoking. Something you were once accustomed to is far harder to uproot.
Therefore, explains the author, a ba'al teshuvah must pray and plead for mercy that the Holy One, blessed be He, help him not to fall back into the realms from which he came. And this is the meaning of: "Please, Hashem" - I plead for salvation against the yetzer hara. "For I am Your servant" - when it is only "I," and I have come on my own to be a servant before You, it is a precarious state, for the previous habits still reside within me and there is a concern I may return to them. But "Your servant, the son of Your maidservant" - where I am not just beginning now, but am already rooted in a life of Torah - through this, "You untied my bonds"; the yetzer hara no longer binds me so tightly. Then I am confident that the warm bath and oil with which my mother anointed me in my youth will sustain me in my old age, and I will never turn away from blessing Hashem forever. This is what David says: in my case, it is "Your servant, the son of Your maidservant," and it is assured that I will continue along the good path.
"With 'Ana Hashem,' One Can Accomplish Everything"
In the sefer Tehillot Shmuel, the author cites Likkutei Yehudah, by the son of the Sfat Emet, who would say in his father's name: with "Ana Hashem," one can accomplish everything. The Chasidim thought his father meant, "Ana Hashem hoshi'ah na" ("Please, Hashem, save us now!"), and they would cry out loudly, "Ana Hashem hoshi'ah na," believing that through this one could bring about salvations. The son said: But I understood that my father did not mean "Ana Hashem hoshi'ah na," but rather, "Ana Hashem ki ani avdecha" - "Please, Hashem, for I am Your servant." If you conduct yourself as a servant, if you negate and humble yourself before the Almighty - through that, one can accomplish everything.
"To You I Will Offer a Thanksgiving Offering"
לְךָ־אֶזְבַּח זֶבַח תּוֹדָה וּבְשֵׁם יְהֹוָה אֶקְרָא׃ - To You I will offer a thanksgiving offering, and I will call upon the Name of Hashem.
"A thanksgiving offering," Rashi explains, refers to offerings of gratitude for the miracles You performed for me. The Radak adds: I thank You by offering the sacrifice, and also "I will call upon the Name of Hashem" - I will call out to the multitude in the Name of Hashem, inviting them to join me in the offering and hear the thanksgiving.
We have already discussed that with a todah offering, forty loaves of bread were brought, and they had to be consumed that very day. Can a single person finish forty loaves? A person eats one loaf and is done. Inevitably, you must throw a large gathering and invite people to eat the forty loaves so that they do not become notar (leftover sacrificial food). And why is a gathering needed? Because it is a thanksgiving offering, and you must recount the miracle that happened to you. This is what is meant here: "To You I will offer a thanksgiving offering," and then "I will call upon the Name of Hashem" - I will call many people to join me for the offering and take part in the meal, so that I may recount and praise Him in the assembly of the people, and tell the multitude of the miracles and wonders Hashem has done for me.
"In the Courtyards of the House of Hashem" - Thanksgiving for Jerusalem
נְדָרַי לַיהֹוָה אֲשַׁלֵּם נֶגְדָה־נָּא לְכׇל־עַמּוֹ׃ בְּחַצְרוֹת בֵּית יְהֹוָה בְּתוֹכֵכִי יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם הַלְלוּ־יָהּ׃ - My vows to Hashem I will fulfill, in the presence of all His people; in the courtyards of the House of Hashem, in the midst of Jerusalem. Halleluyah!
The Malbim explains according to his approach that the verses speak of Chizkiyahu: "To You I will offer a thanksgiving offering" for the miracle that You saved me from Sancheiriv who besieged Jerusalem, when the angel of Hashem came and struck down on that night one hundred and eighty-five thousand troop commanders - for this it is fitting to thank and praise. And I will proclaim the Name of Hashem a second time, "and call upon the Name of Hashem." "I will pay my vows to Hashem in the presence of all His people" - corresponding to the goodness that Hashem bestowed upon His entire nation in this salvation, for this I will pay my vows and sacrifice the offerings. And I will do so "in the courtyards of the House of Hashem, in the midst of Jerusalem," since this concerns the Beis HaMikdash and the entire city of Jerusalem, which Sancheiriv besieged. It emerges that I am offering thanks for Jerusalem and for the courtyards of the House of Hashem that were saved from his conquest, and my vows are thanksgiving offerings for the salvation of all of Klal Yisrael, Jerusalem, and the Beis HaMikdash.
Rashi explains: "My vows" - the offerings I vowed, I will now bring them, and I will sacrifice them in the courtyards of the House of Hashem, in the midst of Jerusalem. "Betocheichi" - means "betocheich" (in your midst). Radak explains that the letter yud is added for linguistic elegance, offering his customary examples: "HaSole'ach le-chol avonyeichi" (Who pardons all your iniquities), "HaRofei le-chol tachalu'ayeichi" (Who heals all your illnesses), and likewise "betocheichi Yerushalayim" (in the midst of Jerusalem). Metzudas David interprets: You who stand in the courtyards of the House of Hashem within Jerusalem - praise Hashem when you hear of the miracle performed for me.
In summary: The conclusion of the chapter is a lesson in gratitude. "How can I repay Hashem" - man has no means to repay his debt to his Creator, and all that is within his power is to give thanks; and this very ability, as the Malbim notes, is the essence of the kindness - "For Your loving-kindness is better than life; my lips shall praise You." Thanksgiving is not a need of the Creator, but a testimony to the recipient's appreciation, and therefore it is offered publicly: a cup of salvations, a thanksgiving offering, vows paid in the presence of all His people in the courtyards of the House of Hashem. Alongside this, David teaches us that "I will call upon the Name of Hashem" is said equally in times of relief and in times of distress - to accept the divine judgment as just and to know whence everything comes. Above all, the key to effecting change in Heaven: "Please, Hashem, for I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant" - a house-born servant who does not seek to cast off the yoke, and through this total nullification of self, one can accomplish everything.