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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Precious In God’s Eyes

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Our Daily Bread

Psalm 116

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. —Psalm 116:15

In response to the news that a mutual friend of ours had died, a wise brother who knew the Lord sent me these words, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Ps. 116:15). Our friend’s vibrant faith in Jesus Christ was the dominant characteristic of his life, and we knew he was home with God in heaven. His family had that assurance as well, but I had been focused only on their sorrow. And it’s appropriate to consider others during their grief and loss.

But the verse from Psalms turned my thoughts to how the Lord saw the passing of our friend. Something “precious” is something of great value. Yet, there is a larger meaning here. There is something in the death of a saint that transcends our grief over their absence.

“Precious (important and no light matter) in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (His loving ones)” (The Amplified Bible). Another paraphrase says, “His loved ones are very precious to him and he does not lightly let them die” (The Living Bible). God is not flippant toward death. The marvel of His grace and power is that, as believers, our loss of life on earth also brings great gain.

Today we have only a glimpse. One day we’ll understand it in the fullness of His light. —David McCasland

So when my last breath

Shall rend the veil in twain

By death I shall escape from death

And life eternal gain. —Montgomery

Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death.

Bible in a year: Exodus 23-24; Matthew 20:1-16

 

 

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Presidential Prayer Team; J.R. – Flying Blind

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In 1929, almost nobody thought “blind” flight was possible. Countless pilots had flown into fog, crashed and died. But then a brash young stunt pilot named Jimmy Doolittle, who would later gain fame as a World War II hero, trained himself to rely totally on instruments – a gyrocompass, an altimeter and a radio receiver. In what many thought would be a suicide mission, Doolittle covered his cockpit with a canvas hood, took off, flew for 15 miles, and then safely landed.

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.  John 20:21

“I am sending you,” says Jesus. It seems a daunting mission…perhaps even impossible. But you are not going to rely on your senses for this assignment, because your senses will betray you. In the darkness, down may seem up and you’ll lose sight of the horizon. And for sure, people will tell you what a foolish course you’ve chosen. But there is an instrument – God’s Word, the Bible – it’s all the guide you need…if you have the courage to rely on it completely and totally.

Today, trust God for your navigation, and pray that others in America who’ve been disoriented and devastated by the illusions of the world will trust Him also.

Recommended Reading: Psalm 116:1-14

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Charles Spurgeon – Thoughts on the last battle

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“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:56,57

Suggested Further Reading: Psalm 116

While the Bible is one of the most poetical of books, though its language is unutterably sublime, yet we must remark how constantly it is true to nature. There is no straining of a fact, no glossing over a truth. However dark may be the subject, while it lights it up with brilliance, yet it does not deny the gloom connected with it. If you will read this chapter of Paul’s epistle, so justly celebrated as a masterpiece of language, you will find him speaking of that which is to come after death with such exaltation and glory, that you feel, “If this be to die, then it were well to depart at once.” Who has not rejoiced, and whose heart has not been lifted up, or filled with a holy fire, while he has read such sentences as these: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Yet with all that majestic language, with all that bold flight of eloquence, he does not deny that death is a gloomy thing. Even his very figures imply it. He does not laugh at it; he does not say, “Oh, it is nothing to die;” he describes death as a monster; he speaks of it as having a sting; he tells us wherein the strength of that sting lies; and even in the exclamation of triumph he imputes that victory not to unaided flesh, but he says, “Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

For meditation: Death is no laughing matter, but for the Christian it need not be a crying matter either (1 Thessalonians 4:13,14).

Sermon no. 23

13 May (1855)