Precious Deaths (Psalm 116:15)

This sermon was preached on 24/7/2013

This psalm is a song of worship by a psalmist who had almost died, perhaps because of an illness. He had prayed very earnestly about his situation and the gracious Lord had given him a complete recovery. Yet it looks that he had also thought about what would have happened if the Lord had responded differently and allowed him to die. Would that have been a disaster for him? The answer to this question is that it would not have been so. Instead, perhaps through a message conveyed to him from heaven, he realised that ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’

The first thing we can observe is the name that is given to them – they are ‘saints’. A saint is a saved sinner. At some stage in each of their lives they discovered his grace and embraced the mercy he offered to them. None of them had exactly the same experience as another believer had known. But they all realised that the Lord could and would save them from their sins when they asked him for pardon.

Moreover, a saint is a ‘set apart’ person. He or she is the possession of God. In Christian terms, they are set apart by the electing choice of the Father, by the redemption of the Son and by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. They all belong to God as his treasured possession. In his estimation, their value is beyond price, although they themselves would find that assessment staggering and amazing.

We can also say that a saint is set apart in the sense that he or she is devoted to God. A saint is a person who is consecrated in his heart, who attempts to live for God while depending on his grace alone. Such will gladly confess that all spiritual progress comes from the Holy Spirit who indwells them and leads them on the spiritual path.

Further, a saint is a person with a destiny. The destiny for each is perfect holiness. In this life they experience progressive sanctification, sometimes making more progress at one time than at other times. Yet they are not content with whatever degree they experience and instead long for perfection, when sin, both personal in them and by them, as well as external to them, will be gone. When death comes, as our catechism so beautifully puts it, ‘the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory.’ That is a great experience for them, but it is not their ultimate destiny. Greater than what they experience at death will be what they will receive at the glorious resurrection when Jesus their Saviour returns. The saints then will be in a holy environment, a perfect world suitable for sinless creatures and their God to share forever.

Now we can think about the death of Christians from different viewpoints. We can look at it from the point of view of a local congregation that has lost the benefit of persons who prayed for spiritual blessings and contributed in their own way to the fellowship enjoyed by the congregation. Or we can look at the death of a believer from his or her experience. It will be a homegoing, it will be a reunion with other believers who have gone before, it will be the end of the wilderness experience, and it will be the conscious awareness of a closer and deeper experience of the Saviour’s presence. Or we can consider the death of a believer from the perspective of God. It is this third viewpoint that the psalmist uses.

The first detail to note about this is that the Lord is looking at the believer when he dies. Now we believe that the Lord is omniscient and knows everything about every circumstance. Yet we have to watch that we don’t use doctrines to deprive us of comfort. It is possible to be clinical in our theology and forget that God does not have the same degree of interest in everything that he sees. The Lord knows how much each blade of grass has grown in the past hour, which is wonderful. But it is not as comforting as knowing that he is looking at each of his people as they die.

Connected to this detail is the fact that the Lord looks intently at each of them as they draw their last breath. Is this not the lesson from the way the Lord Jesus in heaven responded to the death of Stephen? On that occasion, Luke the author of Acts says that Jesus in heaven was standing up with intense interest as he looked down on the scene of Stephen’s martyrdom.

This verse also reminds us that death for a believer is an experience that is an individual one. Here we have something that we do not share with anyone else but God. No one else can go with us when we die. Bunyan in his Pilgrim’s Progress refers to believers who gathered to help their friends to the river, but they could not take them across the river. Only the Lord can do this, and this verse tells us that it will give him great pleasure to do so.

As we think of the Lord’s involvement in the death of his people, we should remember that he is the arranger of their deaths. He is the one who has arranged where and when they will die. Many a believer has died in a place he did not expect to do so. Some have died when they were young, others when they were old. Some have died as martyrs, others of illness and disease. Yet none of them died in a place that the Lord had not arranged. He has arranged all their days beforehand, including their last day. This should give us confidence because none of us know when and where we will pass away, but the Lord has planned when it will happen.

Second, the Lord is the attendant at the death of his people. Usually when a person dies, he has someone who cares for his bodily needs. But who will care for the soul needs of his people as they draw near and face the last enemy? The Lord will be there, taking care of their spiritual needs. Many a diligent doctor and nurse takes care of one’s physical needs, even up to one’s last breath. In a deeper way, the gentle Lord tends his dying saint and never takes his eye away. And as earth becomes dimmer, the Lord often extends the faith of his child, increases his peace and brings him spiritual comfort, usually by reminding him of the great and precious promises.

Thirdly, the Lord is present full of great affection for each of his children as they come to this great turning point and transition in their experience. His love does not diminish as they become physically weaker. Instead his affection is as strong as ever. Sometimes, in their weakness, he enables them to sense the greatness of his love and they express a strong sense of triumph. It is true in life that we often think of the love of God. Should we not think about it when we draw near to the end of the journey?

Fourthly, their death is precious to the Lord because their dying in his grace is an accomplishment of a divine work in their soul. This is what has distinguished them from the rest of mankind. They may have shared other things with the unconverted – some were rich and others poor, some were educated and others unschooled, some were prominent and others unknown. Christians and non-Christians are found in both sets of people. But only believers can know this divine affirmation. The Lord knows that their dying breath will bring to completion the work of grace as far as their souls are concerned. And we cannot begin to imagine the sense of delight that he experiences with each of his people as they become sinless.

Fifthly, the death of a believer is precious to God because he knows that it will be an addition to the number of his people who are with him in the heavenly country. The fact is, before a believer dies he has never been in heaven. Now he is about to go there and increase the number of those who have arrived safe on the heavenly shore. Heaven’s numbers have increased this week through people that we knew well reaching their desired haven. Now they are no longer in this world and instead are with the God who regarded their death as precious, as honourable, as excellent.

Sixthly, the death of a believer is precious in the sight of the Lord because it will be the moment when he will admit him into his nearer presence. It is difficult for us to imagine the entrance moment, but we can be sure that the Lord himself will introduce each of his people to the heavenly world. No matter how devout they were in this life, it is another world across the river and they need an introduction to it. And God will provide it.

Seventhly, the death of a believer is precious in the sight of the Lord because it is the moment when their arrival in heaven can be announced. We have no idea of the spatial elements of heaven, nor of how the news of what is going on there is passed around. Yet whatever they are saying today, they cannot say that those still on earth have reached home. But when they do get there, the Lord will reveal that they have arrived.

Eighthly, the death of a believer is precious to God because of the sense of anticipation he has of providing his child with untold blessings throughout the unending future that awaits him in God’s presence. Their arrival begins, in a sense, a new experience for God because, after all, they have not been capable of enjoying glory before. But now they can, and the Lord has covenanted to give them those eternal blessings forever.

So we can see why the death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord.