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Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Psalm 116
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Open or download audioExplore Psalm 116 in this sermon: Christian grief does not look inward or into nothingness but calls upon the Lord who hears every supplication and inclines…
- Christian grief does not look inward or into nothingness but calls upon the Lord who hears every supplication and inclines his ear to suffering people.
- The grieving can rest in God's revealed character: he is gracious, righteous, merciful, compassionate, preserving, and saving.
- God sometimes delivers from earthly danger, but even when death comes he delivers believers from condemnation, sin's bondage, and death's final power.
- Living with eternity in view does not deny sorrow; it places sorrow within the promise that everyone who believes in the risen Christ will live.
- The fitting response to God's benefits is grateful worship, even when thanksgiving is offered through tears.
- At death believers' souls immediately enter glory while their bodies remain united to Christ awaiting resurrection, so Christians grieve with hope and anticipate worship before the Lamb.
Psalm 116 speaks from the pressure of death, trouble, and sorrow. The psalmist does not search within himself for strength; he calls upon the LORD, who hears, inclines his ear, and reveals himself as gracious, righteous, merciful, compassionate, preserving, and saving. The sermon applies those truths to a congregation in a painful week of bereavement. Prayer may rightly ask for physical healing and earthly rescue while submitting to God's will. Yet Christian hope reaches further: even when the Lord does not prevent bodily death, Christ delivers his people from condemnation and death's ultimate dominion. Therefore believers can tell their souls to rest, receive God's overflowing salvation, and worship through tears. 'Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints' is not a denial of grief but a promise of divine reception. The believer's soul passes immediately into glory while the body rests in union with Christ until resurrection, when God's people will worship the Lamb in restored life.
Biblical Themes
- Prayer in affliction
- God's compassion and saving care
- Earthly and eternal deliverance
- Grief with hope
- The believer's state at death
- Resurrection and everlasting worship
Scripture Connections
- Jonah 2:1-10 — From the depths and the seeming grip of death, Jonah calls to the LORD and is heard.
- Acts 12:1-17 — The church prays earnestly while Peter is imprisoned, and God grants an extraordinary earthly deliverance.
- John 11:17-27 — Jesus meets mourners, declares himself the resurrection and the life, and promises life to those who believe in him.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 — Christians truly grieve, but not without hope, because the risen Jesus will raise those who have died in him.
- 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 — To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord while believers await full bodily redemption.
- Revelation 5:8-14 — The redeemed and innumerable angels worship the slain and reigning Lamb whose blood purchased a people for God.
Practical Applications
- Pray the opening verses of Psalm 116 when grief makes spontaneous prayer difficult.
- Repeat God's revealed attributes to your soul rather than demanding strength from yourself.
- Ask for healing or rescue with the words, 'if it is your will,' while trusting the greater deliverance secured in Christ.
- Make room for tears and thanksgiving together instead of treating hope as the absence of sorrow.
- Comfort a bereaved believer with the promises of Christ's presence, immediate glory, and bodily resurrection.
- Let eternity reorder one present priority without neglecting the ordinary duties of love.
Historical Context
Psalm 116 is a personal thanksgiving song spoken after mortal danger and intended for public worship in the LORD's courts. The sermon departs from the scheduled Nehemiah series because the congregation had experienced a painful death that week. Its pastoral focus is therefore not an abstract chronology of last things but the scriptural grounds on which bereaved Christians may lament, pray, rest, give thanks, and hope.
Westminster Standards
Westminster Confession of Faith 32.1
The Bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption: but, their Souls (which neither dye, nor sleep) having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them: the Souls of the Righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest Heavens, where they behold the face of God, in light and glory, waiting for the full Redemption of their Bodies. And the Souls of the wicked are cast into Hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the Judgement of the great Day. Beside these two Places, for Souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.
Connection to the sermon: The sermon’s comfort rests on this distinction: the believer's soul does not sleep or disappear but is received into God's glorious presence while awaiting bodily redemption.
Westminster Larger Catechism 84
Death being threatned as the wages of sin, it is appointed unto all men once to die, for that all have sinned.
Connection to the sermon: The sermon does not romanticize death; it treats death as the real enemy and appointed consequence of sin that only Christ's saving work can overcome.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 37
The souls of Beleevers are at their death made perfect in holinesse, and do immediatly passe into glory: and their bodies being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the Resurrection.
Connection to the sermon: This is the precise catechetical promise quoted and applied in the sermon: immediate glory for the believer's soul and continuing union with Christ for the body until resurrection.
- When grief and fear surround me, do I turn inward or call upon the Lord who hears?
- Which truth about God's gracious, righteous, merciful, and preserving character most needs to be repeated to my soul?
- Can I ask boldly for earthly deliverance while submitting the outcome to God's will?
- How does Christ's deliverance from condemnation change the meaning of death for a believer?
- Am I living with eternity in view or chiefly under the tyranny of present urgency and pain?
- What thanksgiving can I offer honestly even while tears remain?
- How can I comfort another grieving Christian without minimizing loss or speaking beyond Scripture's promises?
- Christian grief
- Real sorrow over death that is held together with confidence in Christ's resurrection, presence, and promises.
- Sheol
- Biblical language for the realm or power of death that the psalmist experiences as drawing near and enclosing him.
- God's compassion
- The Lord's tender, protective mercy toward suffering people, not indifference from a distant deity.
- Intermediate state
- The believer's conscious life with God after bodily death and before the resurrection of the body.
- Resurrection hope
- Confidence that Christ will raise his people bodily and bring them into everlasting life and worship.
Welcome to God's Word for You from Ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Well, please turn over in your Bibles with me to Psalm 116.
Psalm 116. Just so you know, the clock in the back is dead, so I get to preach as long as I want. I'll try not to. But, Psalm 116. As you all know, this week has been a hard week. And we were supposed to be in Nehemiah chapter 6 looking at persecution. We're not going to go there today. We're going to look at Psalm 116 and what the Lord tells us and how we're to think about death and grief and where we're to look to as we try to find comfort for our souls. So please turn in your Bibles with me to Psalm 116. You can find that on page 543 of your Pew Bibles. Psalm 116.
I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear to me Therefore, I will call upon him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I implore you, save my soul.
Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore I spoke. I am greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the side of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord. Please pray with me. O Lord, we turn our eyes to you and to your word. Father, we pray that you would shine the light of your Holy Spirit upon our souls and our minds, that we would receive what you would have for us today. Lord, we pray that you would comfort us and you would be near to us and that we would know you. Father, please hear our prayers in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, just last week I was listening to a news interview I often will turn on talk radio. It's probably not good for my own soul, but that's what I do. And often I'll turn on IPR, which is definitely not good for my own soul, but it's what I do.
And I was listening to this lady interview a British writer. And she was asking, how do you deal with the idea that so many of your friends have died before you have? And this secular British writer said, well, I just think of it as they've walked out a door. And someday it will be my turn to walk out that door. And the interviewer said, well, what comfort is there for you in walking through that door? You see, this lady was an atheist. She thought you walked out the door and the door leads to nothing. In her mind, it's just a dark portal, a dark hole that you walk through, and that's it. But Christian, that is not our hope.
When we walk through that door of death, we do not walk through a dark door into a hallway of nothingness, but we walk through a door that is filled with the radiant and brilliant light of Jesus Christ. And we walk into that light, into that life, into that hope for all eternity. And this is the comfort that God gives us here in Psalm 116. And I want to look at that, how the Lord comforts us there.
First Point
First, look with me at verses 1 through 4. In verses 1 through 4, we are assured that the Lord hears us. The Lord hears you. Look at verse 1 through 4.
I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear to me. Therefore, I will call upon him as long as I live. The pains of death surround me and the pangs of Sheol lay hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then, then I called upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul."
In the midst of his trials, in the midst of the psalmist being brought to the very brink of death, when Sheol seems to be wrapped around him, when darkness seems to be his closest friend, what does the psalmist do? Does he turn inwardly? No. No, he doesn't turn inwardly in this time of grief, but he turns to the Lord. He cries out to the Lord to deliver him, but something amazing happens.
See, Christian, when we cry out to the Lord, we do not cry out to a deaf God. We do not cry out to a God who is so transcendent, he's indifferent towards us. We cry out to a God who, the psalmist said, inclines his ear to us. Think about that, the God of the universe who created everything we know, the God who the Septuagint calls Pantatocrator, the Almighty God, who rules the heavens and the earth.
Every time a word is whispered off your lips, even as tears stream down your face, He hears you. The Lord hears you, Christian. The Lord hears us in the time of our pain and of our trials. He hears you. This is what we find again and again throughout the Scriptures. When Jonah finds himself in the belly of the great fish, he cries out to God in this type of distress. When Jonah is as good as dead in the belly of the fish, his only hope is saying that, God, I know You can deliver me.
And Peter in Acts chapter 12, when he has been thrown in the prison and it is the dark of night, where do the Christians go to? They don't start appealing to Caesar. They appeal to the King of Kings for Peter to be able to get out of that jail. Where have God's people always gone in the midst of the darkness? They've gone to the Lord in prayer. That's where we run to. We don't run to something inside us. We run to the One who can deliver us. But He's not only the One who hears us, He cares for us.
Look with me at verses 5 through 7. The Lord cares for you. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest, oh my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. I want you to take a moment and soak in what the psalmist says about the Lord here. Just soak in what the psalmist, what the Bible tells us God is like here. Look with me at verse 5. Gracious is the Lord. Gracious is the Lord.
This is the idea in the book of Exodus chapter 22. If a creditor was to come to you, and you were going to get a loan, and you gave them your coat as a loan, if you gave them your tunic, your outer garments that kept you warm, and you went to them at the end of the night, and you said, hey, I don't have enough money to pay back my loan, but it's cold outside. And the creditor said, no. and you cried out, God would hear you. Because that creditor was not gracious.
But the Lord is gracious. That's a picture of God will never leave us in that cold, lonely state. But he cares for us, he's gracious to us. Next he says, God is righteous. This is the idea that God is just. God is perfect, there is absolutely nothing wrong in him. He is perfect. That is the God who hears you. That is the God who cares for you. But again, He's not some type of abstract God. The psalmist says again in verse 5, Yes, our God is merciful.
The Hebrew root of this word is actually the word for a woman's womb. God cares for us like a woman protects her child. If somebody is going to try to hurt a woman's child, she'll even give up her own life. She'll cover up her own stomach. I remember watching a news report of a woman who gave her own life because she was falling down the stairs and she curled herself around her stomach to care for the child that was within her because she had compassion for that child in her stomach. This is the same root idea of what God says His compassion is.
He surrounds you, and He cares for you, and He only has plans for your good and not to harm you. The Lord is gracious, He is righteous, He is compassionate, and He preserves. The simple, verse six, the Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me. Jesus picks up on this idea of the Lord caring for the simple. Jesus' words are those who have childlike faith. who will accept his words, his promises, that he cares for his people, that he loves his people, that he will save his people. He's tender to those who love him like that. It's amazing what he says. He saved me.
Do you know the name, Jesus' Hebrew name? His Greek name is Jesus, we know that name. But Jesus' Greek name is Yeshua, Joshua. The name Yeshua means he saves. That's exactly what the verb here is. The verb here that the Hebrew uses, and he saves me. God's eternal plan is for redemption. God's eternal plan is for saving his people, for caring for his people. But this, okay, this is all great and dandy.
This is nice words to say, but how often do we have a hard time internalizing it? It's easy to say this in the abstract, but how hard is it sometimes to get it down into our souls that we might actually believe it with every fiber of our being? God knows the struggle. Look with me at the final verse there of this section, verse 7. Return to your rest, O my soul.
This is not the normal place that we want to go to. We want to rely on our own strength. We want to rely on our own abilities. We want to seep in the lie that we are self-sufficient, that somehow we'll be able to deal with what's laid upon you. Christian, you cannot deal alone with the things that are laid upon your shoulders.
That is why God gives us the Holy Spirit, and he applies these comforts to our soul. Sometimes we need to tell our soul, be at rest. Stop. He's good to you. He'll apply that comfort by his Holy Spirit. This is what he does. This is how he loves us. In times of trouble and in times of grief, we need to remind our souls that we do not look inwardly for our strength, but we look upward. to the rock of our salvation, on our high fortress for comfort. And there are times when we pray that he delivers us. Look with me at verses 8 through 11. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living, I believed, therefore I spoke. I am greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars.
There are times where we cry out to God for salvation and he hears us and he delivers us from our earthly troubles. There are times where we cry out to the Lord, Lord, please save this person. God, please deliver them from death. And sometimes he answers that prayer, but we must be careful when we pray those prayers to pray like James taught us to pray. Lord, if it's your will, if it's your will, do this miracle. If it's your will, show this act of human bodily mercy. But Christian, the Lord does deliver.
The Lord delivers us from all sorts of trials, all sorts of pains, all sorts of troubles that we have in this life. I have not heard of any of you who came in this morning who got in a catastrophic car accident. The Lord has delivered you even this morning as you drove here. The Lord has delivered you from so many problems.
Think in your own life, how many situations he has saved you out of. But even when he won't save us from death, that great foe of our lives, oh, Christian, he hasn't left you. He still delivers you. Even when the depths of Sheol seem to be wrapped around you, oh, there's a greater deliverance that he's going to give you. He's delivered us from eternal condemnation. He has delivered us from the shame of sin. He has delivered us from the bondage of death.
Yes, we will die in this world. Every one of us will die. And every one of you who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will also live. See, we need to walk. We walk in this life knowing that there's a terminal point. Knowing that there's an end. Knowing that we will take our final gasp of air. But the question for us who are living now is are we living with eternal focus? Are we living with eternity in view? Or is it the tyranny of the urgent, the pleasures right now, the pain right now? Or will we turn our eyes heavenward? But there's more here. Look with me at verses 12 through 14.
What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits towards me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of his people. How can you repay the Lord for all of his goodness? How can you repay the Lord for every single day that he pours out his mercy and grace upon you? How can you pay back to the Lord the great salvation he has bestowed upon you?
Christian, your cup is overflowing. How can he be repaid for that? The psalmist gives us one answer. Worship. Worship and praise is the overflowing of our heart toward our Father for all of His goodness and His love and His graciousness and compassion towards us. How can we repay Him? In worship.
We rejoice in the Lord. We rejoice in the salvation He's given us. We rejoice with thanksgiving for all He has done for us. We rejoice for the lives of our loved ones that He has given us. We rejoice for every good and perfect gift that comes from our Father above, who is the Father of heavenly lights.
We rejoice in the Lord. Sometimes that is a bitter rejoicing. Sometimes that rejoicing is brought because we are brought to the end of our ropes. And the only place we can look is upward. We rejoice in the Lord. And when we rejoice in the Lord, he promises to receive us.
Look with me at verses 15 and 16. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. Christian, the Lord receives you. I'm going to read verse 15 once again. This is a promise to you. This should be balm for the wounds of your soul. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism question 37 says, what benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? And the answer is the souls of believers at their death are made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory. and their bodies still being united to Christ, rest in their graves until the resurrection. The moment we close our eyes to this world is not an eternal sleep, but it is the next moment we open our eyes to glory. We do not rest in our graves there with our souls asleep. But when we are dead and our bodies are gone, our souls are more alive than they ever have been.
Because he receives us in his sight. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. It is not a goodbye, but it is a welcome home. We are his servants and he has released us from the chains of this world. This is a beautiful picture of redemption that He gives us in verse 16. Oh truly, Lord, I am Your servant. I am Your servant, the son of Your maid servant. You have loosed my bonds. This is the idea that we have been servants of someone else. We have been servants of sin. We have been the rightful servants of death.
And yet, just like in the early ages of our country, when we had the dark spot of slavery, when slaves would come up, and their hands were bound, and their slave masters were taking them up, and they would stand upon that slave block, and people would auction off for their lives. If someone came, they had two options for buying a slave. Option number one, they could buy them and then make them do hard service for them. Option number two, they could buy that slave and set them free.
This is the picture we have here in verse 17, or in verse 16. I truly am your servant. You have loosened my bonds. He has redeemed you. And the shackles of death, the shackles of sin, the shackles of pain and suffering and grief and trials and temptations are loosened and gone. When he receives us into his sight, we are more free than we have ever tasted freedom before. See, Christian, you have just now, in the work of redemption, tasted freedom. You've just gotten a hint of it.
But at our death, those bonds are completely loosened and they fall to our feet and we live forever. But what do we live forever to? We live forever to worship Him. Look with me at verses 17 through 19. This is after the bonds are loosened. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving. and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. When our bonds are loosened, when we are released from the terrors of this world, when we wake up to glory, we praise the Lord. This is exactly what we find in Revelation chapter 6. I want you to turn there with me to this vision of heaven God gives us. Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 5 verse 8. Revelation chapter 5, page 1091.
Now when he, this is the lamb, had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. That's your prayers in heaven. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. Then I looked and I heard a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them I heard saying blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever brothers and sisters our brother john is in heaven with this myriad of myriads of choirly singing praising the lamb for all eternity that worthy is the lamb who was slain. He has loosened your bonds. He is the one who makes your cup overflow. He is your redemption. He is your savior. And for all your life in heaven and when the new earth comes, you will bask in his glory.
That is the hope of the Christian gospel, is that Jesus Christ has released us from our sins and he paid everything and we get everything. Christians, we are not those who grieve without hope. But one day, the great trumpet will sound and the dead will rise from the grave.
Closing Prayer
And we will be with him forever, singing his glory. We live in the preface to this great story. Our brother John is on the first page of the story. And his story will go on for all eternity. So will yours. For all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and know that he has been raised from the dead. He is our hope. He is our comfort. He is our strength. Let's pray.
Lord, what goodness you have bestowed upon us. Lord, what grace you have shown us, what compassion and mercy. Lord, we thank you for the hope of our salvation. We thank you for your word. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would apply these words to our hearts and to our lives. Lord, that we would be those who would grieve with hope, that we would be comforted by your Holy Spirit. Lord, draw near to us and fill us with joy and with peace. In Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.
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