Thank you for coming back to read Part 2 of ‘Precious in His Sight’. I have some special things to share with you concerning God’s perspective on death.

We must remember that the creation of man was God’s crowning act when He created the world and everything in it. Man was not ‘spoken’ into existence like everything else. God, with His hand, fashioned man in His own image and breathed His own breath into man’s nostrils to give Him life!

The love God has for mankind did not change when man chose to sin. In fact, God set in motion a plan to restore man to the relationship God desired to have with him from the beginning. For those who have accepted the sacrifice of the spilled blood and life of Jesus as the perfect sacrificial Lamb, when that one leaves this physical earth at death, it is then, that he joins the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to live the life with Him, that was God’s original intention.

We ended Part 1 with me sharing a scripture that has given me comfort numerous times as I have faced the death of loved ones and those special to me.

Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints.” To help us realize and understand what a powerful Word this is, we will delve deeper into this verse.

‘Precious’

The Hebrew word, yargar, in this verse was translated, precious. Yargar means: splendid, weighty, highly valued or costly. So once again we would ask, “Why would the Lord say that the death of his saints is precious or highly valued? To gain a better understanding of the answer to this question, we need to look at scriptures which tell us of how God looks at His people, and what things are precious to Him.

Exodus 19:5, “'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.” As a child of God, you are a special treasure to Him! Also, in Psalm 135:4, “For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.” Interestingly, in various translations the phrase ‘special treasure’ is also translated as: ‘peculiar treasure’ (King James Version), ‘His own possession’ (New American Standard Bible 2020), and His ‘treasured possession’ (Christian Standard Bible).

1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”

To understand the value God puts on you, and to realize how precious you are to Him, we will look at other scriptures which tell us those things God considers ‘precious’.

Jesus’ blood is precious to God.

1 Peter 1: 18 and 19, “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” The Greek word for ‘precious’ in this verse is timios, which means: held in honor, esteemed, especially dear.

God calls the promises of His Word precious.

2 Peter 1:3 and 4, “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Timios translated ‘precious’ in this verse is used metaphorically and means of great value and precious.

Isn’t that amazing?

God considers His children, His Son’s blood, the promises in His Word, and the death of His saints precious!

‘In His Sight’

In His sight was translated from the Hebrew word, ayin. Ayin means eye or figuratively, mental and spiritual faculties. Specifically in this verse it means ‘judgment’ . So we could read this part of Psalm 116:15 as, “Precious, by My judgment, is the death of His saints ” Isaiah 43:4 also says we are precious and honored in His sight.

We see in Deuteronomy 32:10 that we are the ‘apple of His eye’. The word for ‘apple’ is ishon which means: the pupil of the eye (middle) and the little man of the eye. I love the meaning gained of this verse when I read in the commentary of Blue Letter Bible, that “if you look directly into someone’s eye, you see your own reflection in the pupil”. So, when Jesus looks into His children’s eyes - He sees a reflection of Himself there!

‘Death’

Death is a permanent cessation of all vital functions; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” Appointed, in the Greek, means reserved for one, awaiting him.

The Bible encourages us, as Christians, to have a different view of our time on earth.

Hebrews 11:13-16, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them”

Ephesians 2;19, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”

Philippians 3:20 and 21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth”.

Earth is a temporary habitat for us. We are pilgrims and strangers here and look forward to the day when we will arrive at our heavenly home. We have the promises of God’s Word that we have a place to go. A place called, home. John 14:1-3, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

2 Corinthians 5:1-8, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

‘Saint’.

The Hebrew word for ‘saint’ is hasid, meaning sacred. According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon it means: godly, those of the people who were faithful, devoted to God’s service, his pious ones. Then we see the word hagios which in the Greek is translated, saints in 2 Corinthians 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia..” Hagios means sacred or holy. It implies something “set apart’ and therefore different, special to the Lord and in likeness of nature with the Lord. So, we see that “the church,” those who are sanctified in Christ are called saints. We as believers are saints of God.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

Hallelujah! If you are a believer, when your physical body dies, you enter into the very presence of the Lord and you experience the beginning of your eternity in His presence!

Such wonderful news!

Unless indicated all Scriptures are NKJV New King James Version