What does it mean that "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15)?

I want you to think of this word. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." The word "saints" in this verse is a beautiful word. It means more than simply those who are set apart for God, though it includes all such; it means those who are characterized by piety, grace and goodness. Such, indeed, was your loved one, as I know right well. You loved her because she was lovable, but what made her what she was as wife, mother, sister and friend? Was it not first of all and most of all the grace of the Lord within her? You appreciated this, yet you could not fully appreciate all that she was in these beautiful Christian traits, but the Lord could and He did, and when His work in her was completed, what could He do but receive her into His own presence? and her death was precious in His sight. She was like a flower that He had carefully watched and cultivated in His garden, she was fragrant to you, but, O, how fragrant to Him! And now He has taken her as He had a right to do.

Having received so much from the hand of God it was surely a right desire to seek to express gratitude. But what can the creature give to God? God is not asking; He is offering: in His hand is the cup of salvation, and this we take with thankfulness, calling upon His Name. Christians do not make vows, but our hearts can overflow to God with adoration and worship. God does not always intervene to deliver His saints from death, and this we well know in passing through a scene of death; but how comforting it is to realise that "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." With the light of Christianity we know that death for the believer is but "to depart and be with Christ which is far better;" to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Verse 15 should not be unnoticed. The death of His saints is precious in Jehovah's sight. This is universally true; for He is ever glorified in those who, in the hour of nature's dissolution, can assert a sober claim to endless life and blessedness, because their trust is in the living God. He is not ashamed of such. But more especially He is glorified in those to whom it is given, on the behalf of Christ, to suffer for His name's sake to the death. Nor should the moral meaning of this verse be overlooked. To bear about in a body yet alive, the dying of the Lord; to die a daily death, and willingly to hate one's present life for the better knowledge of the power of the resurrection; to walk according to his rule who said, "Not I, but Christ," such things are grateful in the Father's sight. But to do this is only to confess the truth in act; since death here is the recorded state of those whose life is their ascended Lord (Rom. 6; Col. 3:4).

In the psalm, where it reaches prophetically in the history of the nation; Israel's salvation has come, and the blessedness of the dead saints has come into open light, and is a matter of experience. And so the numerical structure declares it. But, as already said, by this anticipative expression of it, it has been made the property of believers of every time; and lightens the shadows of the Old Testament with its emphatic assurance, "Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of His pious ones." It is not "holy ones" here, but those whose heart toward Himself the Lord realizes and acknowledges.

It may seem strange that verse 15 is added here, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints," but it reminds us of the most precious of all deaths, that of the Lord Jesus, which should move every heart in adoration of Him. It is actually because of the value of His death that the death of every one of His saints is precious. This too adds its voice to the witness that the works of law are of no value as a present to God. the death of His saints is of deeper value to God than all their so-called good works.

As in the previous Psalm, the Spirit of Christ entered into the confidence of Israel on the footing to them of mercy, so here into the sorrows in sympathy - there, as mercy was to them merely, it begins "To us" - here, being their sorrows, it begins at once "I love the Lord." Though in answer to a cry, for He cried for them, and was just the One that did, taking their sorrows - present salvation, i.e., in the world, was the point, when only faith in the Lord could enable Him to speak, such was the persecution. Death so wrought in him - not thanatos, where this is quoted, as the portion of the Remnant partaking of the sufferings of Christ, but nekrosis - but here still referring to the Jews' portion, "I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the living," which the Lord, as amongst the Jews, sought, "if it had been possible"; but it was not, for sin was in the world - "The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die" - a man "must be born again." But the Apostle uses it in the energy of the Spirit, when the sufferings of Christ abounded in him, "always bearing about" etc. And, after all, if even better things were reserved for them, the hairs of their head were all numbered. Satan could do nothing unpermitted (and then for glory and sowing precious seed of faith - "striving" - there was a better resurrection, so that with us men could be "baptised for the dead"), for "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints"; He did not lightly permit it. Oh, for faith to go straight on in this confidence, not fearing "them which can kill the body"! And if we have to say "All men are liars," still, speaking because we believe, because we must trust in the living God, we shall soon say with Paul, "Thou hast loosed my bonds," "I am thy servant" (not to their enemies) "he hath delivered us from so great a death," and will though life be despaired of, for "Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his chasidim" (saints). Specially will this be manifested in the latter day for the Remnant - in the land of the living they will walk before the Lord - the flesh of the elect will be saved - for their sake the terrible days will be shortened, and the vows of the Lord will be repaid in the presence of His people, "In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee," for it is addressed as a present thing, "O Jerusalem."

What then could he do for One who needs no help from His creatures (see Ps. 50:12), and for whom "all the forests of Lebanon are not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering?" (Isa. 40:16.) How could he recompense Him? There could be but one way — to receive the cup of salvation and call on the name of Jehovah. He could not add one ray to God's glory. He was to receive from Him and so glorify Him. What a position is this to be placed in! He had said in verse 4, he would call on His name for salvation. When saved, he will not forget Him. "My vows will I pay to Jehovah now in the presence of all his people." Worship comes in when deliverance is completed. As delivered, and because delivered, not to be delivered, does he worship. Publicly saved, he will publicly own it. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." He learns this by being kept alive on the earth; for it is of saints kept alive, not of saints who die, that this verse speaks, as the context shows. Revelation 14:13 will afford comfort for those who die during the tribulation. Here it is one preserved alive who speaks. We have something analogous to this in Psalm 72:14. "He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight." God will not allow it to be shed. So here he looks to be preserved from death. And hence he prays, "O Jehovah, I beseech thee. I am thy servant, I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds." All will be accomplished, and he will stand before Jehovah in the courts of His house at Jerusalem. The heathen might, as they surely will, destroy the temple, and besiege Jerusalem; but the courts of the Lord's house shall again resound with the voice of joy and praise proceeding from a ransomed people. For the king shall build the temple of the Lord, as Solomon did in his day (Zech. 6:13), and Jerusalem be publicly owned as the city where Jehovah is (Ezek. 48:35) — a full answer to the taunt of the heathen, which elicited from the godly remnant, that "He was in heaven."

(vv. 12-15) The delivered soul owns its indebtedness to the Lord. The cup of sorrow has been exchanged for a cup of salvation. The psalmist gladly takes this cup, and confesses the name of the Lord. His vows, made in the presence of death, will be paid to the Lord in the presence of all His people. If indeed, he had succumbed to death, instead of being recalled to the land of the living, his death would have been precious in the eyes of the Lord.

Redeemed Israel expresseth in this Psalm her love to Jehovah for His gracious deliverances, for answered prayer and for His salvation. They were, during the great tribulation, as a faithful remnant; surrounded by the sorrows of death, the pains of Sheol were upon them. Death stared them in the face. Then they cried to the Lord, and, as of old, He heard them and sent deliverance. He dealt bountifully with them, delivered them from death, the eyes from tears, the feet from falling. And now they serve Him, taking the cup of salvation and performing their vows unto the Lord. The death of those who died in the tribulation period as martyrs is mentioned in verse 15. "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints." Compare with Rev. 14:13, which also refers to the Jewish martyrs during the tribulation. The Psalm ends with another hallelujah.

Many a saint who enters the great tribulation will not be delivered, as is made very plain in the Book of Revelation. Verse 15 of our Psalm fits in with this. The death of those who fall before the persecuting power of Satan, who is the energizer of the "beasts," will be very precious in the sight of the Lord; and He will demonstrate this to be so by the special resurrection, of which Revelation 20:4 speaks. Then, together with those who have been delivered and brought through the tribulation, there will be the sacrifice of thanksgiving in the courts of the Lord's house in the midst of Jerusalem, as is shown at the end of the Psalm.