Good Friday: Why the Death of Saints Matters to God

Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His saints.

My Thoughts

As I’m working through Psalms, I find it curious that this verse comes on the day we recognize as Good Friday, the day that Jesus, our Christ, was crucified. If our deaths are precious in the sight of the Lord, how much more must have been the sacrifice that Jesus made. Never forget how much God loves you, that He gave His only son so that we could live and remain with Him.

Psalm 116:15 highlights the importance of the death of God’s saints, describing it as precious in the Lord’s sight. Commentators emphasize that this sentiment reflects God’s love and care for His people, assuring that saints are preserved until their purpose is fulfilled. Death, even with the grieving of loved ones, is a blessed transition toward eternal fellowship with God. The deaths of saints, especially martyrs, serve as profound testimonies of faith that impact others and glorify God’s redemptive work. Ultimately, the death of believers is meaningful and valuable to God, marking their entrance into everlasting life, and that we can take comfort in……Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints,” and therefore he did not suffer the psalmist to die, but delivered his soul from death. This seems to indicate that the song was meant to remind Jewish families of the mercies received by any one of the household, supposing him to have been sore sick and to have been restored to health, for the Lord values the lives of his saints, and often spares them where others perish. They shall not die prematurely; they shall be immortal till their work is done; and when their time shall come to die, then their deaths shall be precious. The Lord watches over their dying beds, smooths their pillows, sustains their hearts, and receives their souls. Those who are redeemed with precious blood are so dear to God that even their deaths are precious to him. The death-beds of saints are very precious to the church, she often learns much from them; they are very precious to all believers, who delight to treasure up the last words of the departed; but they are most of all precious to the Lord Jehovah himself, who views the triumphant deaths of his gracious ones with sacred delight. If we have walked before him in the land of the living, we need not fear to die before him when the hour of our departure is at hand.

God regards the death of His martyrs as especially precious. “Though they have been cast to the beasts in the amphitheatre, or dragged to death by wild horses, or murdered in dungeons, or slaughtered amongst the snows of the Alps, or made to fatten Smithfield with their gore, precious has their blood been, and still is it in his sight.”

Though death is a curse and an enemy, it is still precious because it removes the remaining barriers between God and His saints and is the doorway to an eternity of perfect fellowship. “Death to the saints is not a penalty, it is not destruction, it is not even a loss.”

“When Baxter lay a dying, and his friends came to see him, almost the last word he said was in answer to the question, ‘Dear Mr. Baxter, how are you?’ ‘Almost well,’ said he, and so it is. Death cures; it is the best medicine, for they who die are not only almost well, but healed forever.”

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Enduring Word

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. This psalm celebrates the deliverance from death, but the singer knew that death is still a reality for everyone of God’s saints. When that day comes, God holds the death of His people as a precious thing. (Guzik)

i. “The more usual form of expression for the idea in Psalms 116:15 is ‘their blood is precious’. [Psalm 72:14] The meaning is that the death of God’s saints is no trivial thing in God’s eyes, to be lightly permitted.” (Maclaren)

ii. “God is particularly close to his people when they stand at death’s door. God watches over his people when they are sick or dying, coming close to them and making his presence known so that they have comfort in death’s hour. He also frequently intervenes and does not allow them to perish. In either case, the Lord does what is best.” (Boice)

As Jesus sang these words with His disciples on the night before His own death (Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26), the words were powerful and prophetic. Jesus was the ultimate holy one, and His death precious beyond all reckoning. (Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints – Of his people; his friends. Luther renders this, “The death of his saints is held to be of value” – (ist werth gehalten) – “before the Lord.” The word rendered “precious” – יקר yâqâr – means costly, as precious stones, 1 Kings 10:2, 1 Kings 10:10-11; dear, beloved, as relatives and friends, Psalms 45:9; honored, respected, Ecclesiastes 10:1; splendid, beautiful, Job 31:26; rare, 1 Samuel 3:1. The idea here is, that the death of saints is an object of value; that God regards it as of importance; that it is connected with his great plans, and that there are great purposes to be accomplished by it. The idea here seems to be that the death of a good man is in itself of so much importance, and so connected with the glory of God and the accomplishment of his purposes, that he will not cause it to take place except in circumstances, at times, and in a manner, which will best secure those ends. The particular thought in the mind of the psalmist seems to have been that as he had been preserved when he was apparently so near to death, it must have been because God saw that the death of one of his friends was a matter of so much importance that it should occur only when the most good could be effected by it, and when the ends of life had been accomplished; that God would not decide on this hastily, or without the best reasons; and that, therefore, he had interposed to lengthen out his life still longer. Still, there is a general truth implied here, to wit, that the act of removing a good man from the world is, so to speak, an act of deep deliberation on the part of God; that good, and sometimes great, ends are to be accomplished by it; and that, therefore, God regards it with special interest. It is of value or importance in such respects as the following:

(1) as it is the removal of another of the redeemed to glory, the addition of one more to the happy hosts above;

(2) as it is a new triumph of the work of redemption, showing the power and the value of that work;

(3) as it often furnishes a more direct proof of the reality of religion than any abstract argument could do.

How much has the cause of religion been promoted by the patient deaths of Ignatius, and Polycarp, Latimer, Ridley, Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and the hosts of the martyrs! What does not the world owe, and the cause of religion owe, to such scenes as occurred on the death-beds of Baxter, and Thomas Scott, and Halyburton, and Payson! What an argument for the truth of religion – what an illustration of its sustaining power – what a source of comfort to us who are soon to die – to reflect that religion does not leave the believer when he most needs its support and consolations; that it can sustain us in the severest trial of our condition here; that it can illuminate what seems to us of all places most dark, cheerless, dismal, repulsive – “the valley of the shadow of death!”

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John Gill

Precious in the sight of the Lord [is] the death of his saints. The Lord has his saints or sanctified ones, who are sanctified or set apart by God the Father from all eternity; who are sanctified in Christ, their head and representative; who are sanctified by his blood, shed for the expiation of their sins; who are sanctified by his Spirit and grace, are called with an holy calling, and have principles of holiness wrought in them, and live holy lives and conversations. The word used also signifies one that has received kindness and favor, and shows it: saints are such, who have received spiritual blessings from the Lord; to whom he has been kind and bountiful; and these are merciful and beneficent to others. Now these die as well as others, though holy and righteous, and though Christ has died for them; he has indeed delivered them from death as a punishment, he has abolished it in this sense; and has freed them from the curse and sting of it, but not from that itself; because it is for their good, and it is precious in the sight of the Lord. Saints are precious to him, living and dying; there is something in their death, or that attends it, that is delightful to him, and of high esteem with him; as when they are in the full exercise of grace at such a season; when they die in faith, and have hope in their death; and their love is drawn out unto him, and they long to be with him: besides, they die in the Lord, and sleep in Jesus, in union with him; with whom he is well pleased, and all in him; and they die unto him, according to his will, and are resigned unto it; and so glorify him in death, as well as in life. It is the time of their ingathering to him; at death, he comes into his garden, and gathers his flowers, and smells a sweet savor in them; their very dust is precious to him, which he takes care of and raises up at the last day. The commonly received sense of the words is, that the saints are so dear to the Lord, their lives are so much set by with him, and their blood so precious to him, that he will not easily suffer their lives to be taken away, or their blood to be spilled; and whenever it is, he will, sooner or later, severely revenge it; see 1 Samuel 26:21. And to this sense is the Targum, “precious before the Lord is death sent to (or inflicted on) his saints;” that is, by men. The words will bear to be rendered, “precious in the sight of the Lord is that death,” or “death itself, for his saints”; that very remarkable and observable death, even the death of his Son, which was not only for the good of his saints, for their redemption, salvation, justification, pardon, and eternal life; but in their room and stead; and which was very acceptable unto God, of high esteem with him, of a sweet smelling savor to him: not that he took pleasure in it, simply considered; for he that hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, even of a sinner, could have none in the death of his Son; but as hereby his justice was satisfied, his law fulfilled, the salvation of his people procured, and his covenant, counsels, purposes, and decrees, accomplished

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Matthew Henry

He will always entertain good thoughts of God, as very tender of the lives and comforts of his people (v. 15): Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, so precious that he will not gratify Saul, nor Absalom, nor any of David’s enemies, with his death, how earnestly soever they desire it. This truth David had comforted himself with in the depth of his distress and danger; and, the event having confirmed it, he comforts others with it who might be in like manner exposed. God has a people, even in this world, that are his saints, his merciful ones, or men of mercy, that have received mercy from him and show mercy for his sake. The saints of God are mortal and dying; nay, there are those that desire their death, and labor all they can to hasten it, and sometimes prevail to be the death of them; but it is precious in the sight of the Lord; their life is so (2 Ki. 1:13); their blood is so, Ps. 72:14. God often wonderfully prevents the death of his saints when there is but a step between them and it; he takes special care about their death, to order it for the best in all the circumstances of it; and whoever kills them, how light soever they may make of it, they shall be made to pay dearly for it when inquisition is made for the blood of the saints, Mt. 23:35. Though no man lays it to heart when the righteous perish, God will make it to appear that he lays it to heart. This should make us willing to die, to die for Christ, if we are called to it, that our death shall be registered in heaven; and let that be precious to us which is so to God.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

The Divine estimate of the saint’s death.

The text is one of the precious words of the Bible—one of the instances in which the Bible sheds bright light over the darker facts of life. Sorrow, temptation, disappointment, sin, and, as here, death, are all irradiated by the light the Bible sheds upon them. Our text calls death “precious.” This a strange epithet for death—one we should never have given to it. But it is true, nevertheless, as here used. Therefore note—

I. THE MEANING OF THE WORD “PRECIOUS.” It is used frequently in a like sense, and means:

1. God will not suffer death to come to his saints save as he permits; and never shall his saints cease from off the earth. The fact of the old age to which they commonly attain seems to confirm what the text affirms. But:

2. The word “precious“ denotes also the mind of God in contemplating the death of his saints. He delights in all their life—in its beginning, its progress, and now its end. This is the last step of the saint, and our text tells with what loving regard the Lord looks down upon it.

II. THE REASON OF THIS DIVINE ESTIMATE.

1. Because of his love and sympathy. His saints are dear to him.

2. At the time of their death, there is more than ever a response of trust and desire made to the heart of God. In the full vigor of life, we are apt to forget, or to think but seldom and slightly, of God; we do not feel our dependence upon him as we should. But when heart and flesh fail—when all our strength is gone, then there is that utter casting of the soul upon God in which God delights.

3. The wondrous witness to others on behalf of God, which the death of many a saint has borne. See how Paul never forgot the dying speech of Stephen. The blood of the martyrs has been ever the seed of the Church. And in calmer deaths than these witness for God has also been borne, and with power unknown before.

4. The precious blood of Christ is glorified. For at such times, that is all their trust. During life, we discuss all manner of questions, doctrines, and beliefs; but when we come to die, it is, “Thou, O Christ, art all I want!”

5. It is the moment of their safe ingathering. Till then, they have been, as the sheep in the wilderness, liable to wander, exposed to peril, watched for hungrily by the wolves of hell, often all but lost. But death is God’s angel gathering them safe within the eternal sheepfold. Such are some of the grounds wherefore “precious in the sight,” etc.

III. BUT NOTE THE CONCLUSIONS THIS WARRANTS CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

1. Death cannot end all. How could such death be “precious?”

2. Nor can it introduce us into a state of mere unconsciousness. Death for God’s saints is not a sleep, but the entrance on fullness of life with Christ.

3. Still less into any purgatory. Scripture has nothing to say of such condition for God’s saints. But:

4. It is a departing and being with Christ, which is far better. Surely we may “comfort one another with these words.”

IV. THE ONE LIMITATION OF THIS STATEMENT.

1. It is not as to time. We may die at any moment.

2. Nor as to place. It may be anywhere.

3. Nor as to manner. It may be in deep peace or dreadful pain.

4. But it is as to character. Of the saints of God alone is it said that their deaths are “precious in,” etc. Therefore, by surrender to Christ, be one of God’s saints.—S.C.

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Cross-References

Psalm 72:14 (KJV)

¹⁴ He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence:

And precious shall their blood be in his sight.

1 John 3:16 (KJV)

¹⁶Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

John 10:11 (KJV)

¹¹I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Ezekiel 33:11 (KJV)

¹¹Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Luke 16:22 (KJV)

²²And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 116:15

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the (i) death of his Saints.

(i) I perceive that God has a care over his, so that he both disposes their death and takes an account.

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Closing Thoughts

For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the Lord.’ ” Jeremiah 39:18 NKJV

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” Psalm 91:14-16 NKJV