identify this book about a human turned into a god by aliens

I am wracking my brain trying to figure out the name of this sci-fi novel and its author that I read back in the early to mid-1980s.

The book is about an ordinary man who, during some sort of interstellar space exploration (the book takes place pretty far into the future) is involved in some sort of accident or something and almost dies. He would've died had not an alien or aliens saved him. This alien (or aliens) is a god compared to humans and this man is given god-like powers too, as well as a non-corporeal body.

The main character was in the military. If I remember correctly, he already had some sort of psychic abilities, and he used them as a member of the military. If I recall correctly, there's a scene where a bunch of enemy soldiers are walking along the hull of a spaceship, and they try to drill through it. The main character uses his mental powers to make one enemy soldier kill another with his drill. And this was before he gets turned into a god by aliens!

Other than that, all I remember is that he saves three alien civilizations when their star goes supernova (or something like that). I wish I could remember more.

It was a paperback that I read, so I don't know if there ever was a hardcover or not. I don't know the title of the book or the author, unfortunately, but if someone told me I'd be able to say, yep that's it, or nope that's not it.