Psalms 116:15
WHY IS THE DEATH OF GOD’S SAINTS
PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT?
I. COMMITMENT: *
A. Caring.
B. Changing.
C. Contentment.
II. CESSATION: **
A. Cries.
B. Cares.
C. Calamities.
III. COMMENCEMENTS: ***
A. Compensation.
B. Comprehension.
C. Celebration.
Why does the Bible state such a maxim? For those saints that have led the way before us, it is hard to rejoice in their departure. When we see and know that they have stood the tests of time and have been faithful to God, it is hard to say our last good-bys to them because we still need their prayers, their influence and their spirit among us to help fight Satan’s ways. Yet, God says that the death of His saints is precious in His eyes. We need to step back, take a better look at the Bible and try to see why God says that the death of His children is precious in His eyes. If we can do that then we can better understand the reason why He has said this and it helps us to keep on pressing on toward the “mark of the high calling.”
I believe there are three things involved here regarding the death of His saints as He sees it and when fully comprehended, we can better understand the reason for this solid bit of truth in the Psalms. These three are: there is a fulfilling of a COMMITMENT made by God to His people who believes in Him. Next, I see that there is a certain CESSATION of some things that the saints of God have endured and now that death has come to the saints, some things end and God is happy over the death of one of His children. Finally, I see that there is a COMMENCEMENT of some things for the saints which begin at the article of death and cannot begin until one dies in the faith of God’s love and care.
Some of the critics say that the development of an after life came at a gradual revelation among the Hebrews which then passed on into the Christians’ psyche with the advent of Jesus. I have trouble with this theory. I feel that God planted within man’s breast, at Creation, the aspect that there is life after this life, and although it may not have been discussed much in the earlier pages of the Bible, I feel that old Job had the right question when he asked, “If a man dies will he live again?” Job has been viewed as one of the oldest books of the Bible and if he felt that way, then others felt it also.
Here, David makes no assertion as to the wherewithal of an after life, but simply states that when one of God’s saints die, God rejoices, and God certainly does not rejoice over one of His saints dying with no after life with Him, but rejoices because His child now comes Home to be with Him for ever. The aspect of an after life of either being with God or lost from Him is not new, it is as old as that first story of the Bible and David adds a truth here by encouraging the saint of God that with his passing, God is delighted.
THE COMMITMENT: God is delighted with the death of one of His saints because at last He is able to fulfill His Commitment He made with that saint once that one accepted Him as his God.
The first part of this Commitment by God to His child is the promise He makes in Caring for us. Coming to God as a sinner, we accept Him to be our God and our Savior in this life and into the next. We agree to follow Him, to serve Him, to live for Him, and to be His child and He agrees to Care for us by not allowing more to come upon us than what we can bear. This involves all aspects of our lives: sickness, financial reverses; loss of spouses, children, and family; a loss of mental ability, spiritual acumen; and, all else that makes us to be contented followers of Him. But, when life becomes too hard and we cannot hold on for mere survival sakes, God is aware of our situation and His promise of not allowing us more to endure than we can bear comes into His mind and through His caring for us, He honors His Commitment to us and takes us home. Our passing on into glory to be with Him is blessed in His sight because He knows He has fulfilled His promise to us.
Next, I see a part of this Commitment He has made with His saints has to do with the many Changes in our lives. He entered into an agreement with us when we became His and when we surrendered all to Him, we basically said, “Take over, I am at your disposal.” Some of the Changes He effects in our lives has to do with our homes, our jobs, our positions, our callings, our entire way of life. What we start out with God, is usually not that which we end with Him. But, He has promised to guide us and to lead us and when he effects Changes in our lives, we find it wholesome to bow our heads and say, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Some of these Changing times are hard to endure at the moment, but through Commitment to Him and He to us, we begin to realize that it is the best for us. When it comes time for the greatest Change in our lives-from earth to heaven, it is glorious in His eyes because at last He brings us Home to abide with Him for ever. He views this last Change in our lives as precious, because we will be at home with Him and at last be Changed into the likeness of his Son. He has made a Commitment with us to make us better and to give us the best-and death is the only way He can fulfill that Commitment He has made with us.
Then, the death of God’s saints is precious in His eyes is because He has fulfilled His Commitment to us to make us Content. We humans are an unpredictable branch of His creation. We seem to always be in want of this or that, when we have much. We often find ourselves-even though we are Christians-wanting things that we feel are necessary to our lives. We hold on to things, to people, to life’s stations and statuses, to hopes and to desires. We plant our feet of faith on God’s Rock of Salvation and keep the other foot anchored to this earth. As such, we do not allow His beneficences to care for us. Yet, this does not negate the Commitment He made with us when we accepted Him as our God and Saviour, to be our Everything and to supply us with all that we need.
We wonder this earth seeking things that will make us more Content, such as more money, bigger houses, better and bigger things, and all the time, these things do not make us to be more Content. This must saddened the heart of our God as He sees us striving for things that will pass away. Yet, when the saint dies in the faith, it please God because He knows-even though we may not know-that our Contentment is now assured through out eternity. He has made a Commitment with us to be our Contentment and so often, death is the only and final way He can honor His pledge to us and that is by bringing us Home to be with Him.
The death of a saint of His is precious in His sight because He at last can honor all that He has promised us while here on this earth.
Certainly God views the death of His saints as precious in His eyes because of His COMMITMENT to His beloved. Another reason the saints’ death is precious in the eyes of God is due to THE CESSATION of all earthly activities of His beloved.
The first thing I note about the Cessation of this life has to do with the Cries of the saints for various reasons. We live in a world of woe. Our lives are spent at hard toil and daily cares. We inhabit a body that is frail and weak and we soon come to the realization that we are mortal with all of its downfalls. We do cry and cry often. Our bodies hurt; friends forsake us; trouble comes our ways; we are disappointed in so many things; friends and loved ones leave us; we are often misunderstood and we cry. We cry at night, we cry at noon and we cry in the morning. Others may seem impervious to our situations and indeed sometimes we think we are the only ones who cry in pain and anguish, but we cry. Days and nights run together in a blur of tears and we cry and God’s heart is melted because He sees His child crying. But then comes the death of God’s saints and the tear ducts lose their purpose in our lives. John the Revelator said that in the future, God will wipe the tears from our eyes and that can only happen when the saints die in the faith. It is no wonder that the Bible decrees that the death of the saints is precious in His eyes because He knows His child will never cry again. Far removed from this toil of tears, His saints walk the celestial city streets of gold and no tears seep from the corner of their eyes in glory land. Over there, there is nothing that will produce tears. Only death can cease the toil and the tears of God’s elect and He says that the death of His beloved is precious in His sight. Others may cry at the parting of the beloved but if it is a saint of God, He rejoices because He knows there will be no more tears shed by his child.
Likewise there will be no more Cries of anguish seeking relief from the oppression we endure here below. God’s saints the world over are Crying even now for relief and help. Many are imprisoned, held captive, hated, despised, rejected by family, friends and neighbors and the cries rise up to God on a continual wave of pleas for relief from the things millions endure. Yet, they cry on and on and it seems like God does not hear-but He does and when He knows His saint cannot cry any more, He allows sweet death to come and set His child free and He says that the death of His saints is precious in His sight.
Besides the CESSATION of the Cries of God’s saints, there is also the cessation of the Cares of the saints on this earth.
Society, the world over, has benefited from the Cares and concerns of God’s saints. God’s children have built churches; stopped the slave trade; helped to end wars; have fed the masses through soup kitchens and food pantries; have raised the status of women and children; have built universities; have constructed hospitals; have ensure law and order where ever they live; and have born many Cares and concerns over the millennia of our existence on this earth. Many of the saints of God have toiled hard and long in the vineyard of this world. Millions of dollars, countless hours, untold endeavors for God’s Kingdom to be established among us have been given surreptitiously, by God’s saints. Missionaries by the scores have borne the heat of the day and have Cared for the lost and the dying. Millions of God’s elect have literally worn themselves out due to the Cares they have born for His work: and, only death has rescued them when all else has failed. These are the ones that God says He takes a delight in their dying because they have worked so hard for Him on this earth and have carried such heavy Cares for Him.
We may not be missionaries, nor preachers nor Christian philanthropists, but we who are in the army of the Lord bare our Cares just as the many others and we do Care. We care for His kingdom even though we fail Him. We care for His name to be glorified on this earth even though we are not the best examples of His saints to a lost and dying world. We do care for the advancement of His work on this earth and sometimes we suffer for our caring, but then death comes and we are ushered into His home and He says that our death is precious in His sight because we have Cared for Him and for His work. Someday, these Cares we bear for Him will be laid down and we will go to meet Him and to live in His presence for ever. Our death is no sad thing for Him-it is precious in His sight.
Then just as sure as there will be a CESSATION of our Cries and our Cares, there will be a CESSATION of all of the Calamities that befall us on this earth.
It is no secret that this world has its share of Calamities that befall every earthly inhabitant. There is the daily litany of natural calamitous world, national and local happenings. Earthquakes, floods, famines, tornadoes, hurricanes, rock slides, tsunamis, avalanches, hail, wind, ice and others that send trouble to we who dwell on this earth. Besides these troubling events, there are personal Calamities that happen to millions of people, including Christians. And, when these things come, the heart is broken and we humans are helplessly lost as to try and figure out how to survive. We Christians are not immune to these earth shattering, life changing events. Yet, when death does come to we who follow the Lord, there is the certainty that our Calamities of this life are over-there will be a CESSATION of these tragedies and God says that the CESSATION of the life of God’s child is precious in His eyes because the saint will never have to endure any more Calamites. The death of God’s saints means that all is past: there is no more Crying; there are no more Cares and no more Calamites to endure-the saint of God is with Him for ever.
With God now fulfilling His COMMITMENT to His saint and there is at last a CESSATION of certain things, there is equally THE COMMENCEMENTS of certain things for the saint of God and it is with pleasure that He says that the death of His saints is precious in His eyes.
THE COMMENCEMENTS: The first thing I note regarding these beginnings of God’s blessings has to do with the saints’ Compensation for a life of service to Him
Often the saint of God works with no pay, no recognition, no reward. We never became believers and followers of our God for earthly payment or recognition. Yet while we toil on for Him, often at a financial disadvantage, others who never give God a chance in their lives grow rich and wealthy. Many are the sinners who cheat, steal, rob and lie their way to riches, while the saint subsists on little to nothing. Ah, but only the death of the saint of God will allow Him the latitude to fully Compensate His child as only He can. While the wealth of the world grows moth eaten and consumed by others, His Compensation to His child is eternal and can only commence at the death of His beloved-He looks on giving us our just Compensation with glee and this can only happen when we die in the faith. To Him, our death is precious in His sight because only then can He begin to pay us in eternal dollars where moth does not corrupt, nor where thieves break through and steal-our just Compensation begins at the point of our passing from this world to Heaven and He thinks it is a joy for us to receive our reward for a life time of service to Him.
The beginnings of the saints’ rewards not only has to do with the Compensations the saint will receive, but also the Comprehension of who God really is. Here the saint sees through a glass darkly, but then, face-to-face, we shall see Him at last and spend eternity getting to Comprehend Him more and more. God wants us to know more of Him. He gave His Son so we could gain a better understanding of Him. He delights to reveal Himself to us but we can only comprehend so much in our limited minds while on this earth. But at our death, He will invite us to learn more and more of Him as eternity unfolds. The COMMENCEMENT of our Comprehension of just who He is will begin at our passing from this life to His life and He welcomes the chance to prove to His children just who He is. At the death of His saints, this process begins in earnest and never ceases. We will spend eternity understanding more and more of His love for us. Throughout the endless cycles of a never ending time warp, we will Comprehend Him more and more and it begins at our death. He takes delight in the death of His saints because at that moment, He can begin to reveal himself to us in ways we can never comprehend here in this life.
But at last, the death of His saints is precious in His sight because at long last, the COMMENCEMENT of our heavenly Celebration will get under way. Imagine if one can, at long last the Celebration of arriving in Heaven will be a reality. There, all old ties with the saints whom we have known and loved and lost will be renewed. We will see those with whom we have labored and who have gone on before us. There, we will be known as we are known. There we will have a Celebration that will last through out eternity.
There mothers will see their children whom they lost while they were still babes in their arms. There, mates will meet their spouses whom they lost and loved and who went on ahead. There, we will see the saints who have blazed the way before us and we will Celebrate the renewal of friendships that have been interrupted by death. There, the Celebration will not only be due to renewing friendships and meeting saints of years ago, but we will celebrate because we have made it Home.
David was correct when he said that the death of God’s saints is precious in His eyes. It is precious because He will fulfill His COMMITMENT to us; there will be a CESSATION of this life and there will be a beginning, a grand COMMENCEMENT, of a new life with God.
