“The cup of salvation”
I will lift the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. (Psalm 116:13 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A poetic phrase about drinking in God's salvation.
The cultural key
Read today this sounds like a metaphor, drinking deeply of God's rescue. In context it names a concrete act of worship. The surrounding verses are full of temple ritual language: paying vows, offering 'a sacrifice of thanksgiving,' doing so 'in the courts of the LORD's house.' The 'cup of salvation' belongs there: at a thank-offering (todah) made after being delivered from danger, the worshiper would lift a cup of wine and pour it out as a libation, publicly acknowledging that God had saved him and fulfilling the vow he made in his distress. Lifting the cup and calling on the LORD's name was the visible, liturgical way of saying thank you for rescue. This same practice of a ritual cup of thanksgiving lies in the background of the Passover cups Jesus later lifts. So the psalmist is not musing poetically but pledging a public act of grateful worship for his deliverance.
Recovered meaning
'The cup of salvation' is a ritual thank-offering, a cup of wine lifted and poured out to God when fulfilling vows after being rescued, not just a metaphor. The psalmist pledges a public act of grateful worship for his deliverance.