Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: Psalm 116

Psalm 116 is a wonderful Psalm, written as a Psalm of praise to God for hearing the Psalmist’s cry for deliverance and saving him from “the chords of death” and “the anguish of the grave” at a time when he felt that he was about to die. His response is to praise God for His grace, righteousness, compassion and protection. He pledges himself to take the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to bring a thanksgiving offering to God and to make God’s miraculous rescue known to His people gathered there.

Nestled in a line towards the end of the Psalm is an astounding, Spirit-inspired obeservation about God’s view of the value of His people’s lives. This is where we’ll pause today. Verse 15 is rather tricky for Bible translators because the original Hebrew is so rich in meaning. Various English translations read as follows:

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.” (v.15 NIVUK)

“The Lord cares deeply when his loved ones die.” (New Living Translation)

“The death of His holy ones is of great worth in the eyes of the Lord.” (New Life Version)

“How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies!” (Good News Translation)

“The death of saints of the Lord is precious in his sight. (The Lord is deeply moved by the death of any of his saints.)” (Wycliffe English Bible)

Read together, these different versions convey the richness of the meaning. To the Lord, your life is of inestimable value and your physical death He will not take lightly. The end of your physical life will be a sacred, deeply moving and even painful moment in the heart of God. This is so because of how deeply you are loved by God, and because of how sacred your physical life is as a gift from God. At the same time, the depth of God’s love for you also means that your death will be wondrously precious to God because then at last you will be able to know Him face to face, and all sin and suffering will be over forever.

We should not leave this Psalm until we have also remembered that it is part of the “Hallel”, which is the section of the Psalms (from 113-118) which is sung after every Passover meal and which Jesus and His disciples would have sung as they walked out of the Last Supper to Gethsemane. How intensely comforting Psalm 116 must have been to Jesus in that moment!

With this in mind, G. Campbell Morgan wrote: “Whatever the local circumstances which gave rise to this song, it is evident that all its rich meaning was fulfilled, when in the midst of that little company of perplexed souls, the shadows of the One Death already on Him, Jesus sang this song of prophetic triumph over the sharpness of the hour of passion to which He was passing. He has made it over to all His own as their triumph song over death.”

Almighty Lord, I love You for loving me first, with such undeserved kindness, comassion and care. Thank You, Jesus, for going through death’s valley for me. Thank You that You will one day pass through death’s valley with me again, in order to bring me through death and into the light of Your eternal presence. Amen.