Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

A very precious verse lies in the middle of tonight’s appointed psalm. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15). It is a beautiful thought that the LORD holds as something treasured, the passing of any one of His people. You can imagine Him holding them in His hand like a very beloved and very fragile child whom He will keep safe and secure because of how much they mean to Him, how much He values their death in the saving faith that He had secured for them.

 

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” That gives comfort and consolation to us when we are at the deathbed of our loved ones. We are reminded that we are not the only ones keeping vigil. The LORD is also waiting along with us for that moment when His baptized child will leave this mortal life as their immortal soul departs from an expired body in order to be ushered by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, the fulfillment of the faith that our patriarch shares with us.

 

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” It is a sustaining strength by which we continue on in this life without our departed loved one. We held them precious while they were with us, or perhaps we mourn how we did not hold them as precious as we ought to have done. But the LORD holds them precious in unfailing hands. As we visit the graves of those who have departed in the faith we are confronted with the bold and cold truth that we can no longer hold them in our arms and our ability to hold their face in fond and cherished memory is also giving way. But they are held precious by the LORD now, whom they see face to face. They see Him as He is and His sight of them does not fade. They are held by Him for the great day of resurrection when we will see them again.

 

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” He paid a costly price for them. To Him their death is a precious moment that cost His dearest treasure. The death of His godly ones far surpasses the volume of those mass produced Precious Moments figurines with caricature oversized eyes and youthful, innocent expression. Rather, each individual death of the LORD’s godly ones cost the suffering and death of the divine, eternal, holy, and pure Son of God. Yet the LORD is not resentful of the price paid. It was the sum of His love for mankind, nothing held back, no haggling or discount. And He gladly paid it in full that He might have His precious moments.

 

So what is this verse doing in the middle of our psalm verses tonight, breaking up the theme of making a thank-offering to the LORD by taking up the cup of salvation? It does seem a little out of place, a stark interruption of the thought progression.

What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people. [Then the detour.]

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. O LORD, I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. [And back to the main theme.]

I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in Your midst, O Jerusalem....

 

In our Lutheran usage, you recognize the words of the Offertory “What shall I render to the LORD” (Lutheran Service Book, 159f), which we sing as we transition between the Service of the Word where we receive the LORD’s promises from Scripture and in sermon, and the Service of the Sacrament, where we receive the forgiveness and salvation that has been promised as we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus.

 

It fits as we respond to the Lord’s promises in His Word by making our promises to fulfill our vows of obedience and faithfulness to Him. And our obedient and faithful fulfillment is to take up the cup of salvation that He has provided for us. We take up the cup that Jesus took up when He said, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

 

But what is not included in the canticle we sing is that moving verse: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” And its subsequent, “O LORD, I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds” (Psalm 116:15-16). I would suggest that we not ignore those verses omitted from the Offertory, but rather, regard them as the hidden key to the full mystery of what is being confessed as we sing in preparation to receive the body and blood of Jesus.

 

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” It is so precious that He paid the price of the sufferings and death of His only-begotten Son. That suffering and death is the key to the mystery of the precious deaths of the LORD’s saints.

 

The true speaker of the words of our Offertory is revealed in the subsequent verse. He is the servant of the LORD, the son of His maidservant (v. 16). At the annunciation to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of the Most High, Mary obediently and faithfully responded, “Behold, I am the maidservant of the LORD; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Her Son, the Son of the Most High, is the primary speaker of these psalm verses that we sing, and the verses that we don’t. “O LORD, I am Your servant, the Son of Your maidservant. You have loosed My bonds.”

 

The bonds of death to which Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, was bound at His crucifixion and for His rest in the tomb, were loosed when He rose from the dead on the third day. Jesus is the one who speaks these verses to His heavenly Father. Jesus is the One who submitted Himself to be the Servant who would obediently fulfill the will of the Father to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. Through His suffering and death He was the price that the Father paid in order to have us rescued from death. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” because we are ransomed from death by the loving, obedient sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us.

 

He was the first to lift up the cup of salvation, blessing and giving it to us in order that we might receive the blood of the covenant poured out upon the cross for the forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:28). For Jesus it was the cup of suffering and death. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). And He ended His prayer with the words from tonight’s psalm, stating that He would do the will of His Father, in response to the love and exaltation that the Father shares with Him.

 

“What shall I, [Jesus,] render to the LORD for all His benefits to Me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay My vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. O LORD, 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 call on the name of the LORD. I will pay My vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem.”

 

For the benefits of the Father’s love to Him, Jesus was willing to take up the cup of suffering as He called upon the name of the LORD in His prayer in the Garden. He paid His vows of obedience in the presence of all of the LORD’s people gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread.

 

It is because Jesus took up the cup of our salvation that our deaths are precious in the sight of the LORD. It is because of this wondrous love of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, that we can join with Jesus’ prayer and also render to the Father our thanksgiving and faithful obedience. Jesus did it in the presence of God’s people gathering for the feast in Jerusalem. We come to lift up the cup of salvation in the presence of an unbelieving and hostile world, in thankful obedience for all the benefits that God gives to us through the cup that holds the blood of Jesus Christ, His dear Son.

 

The catechism refers to the words of Jesus as He lifted up this cup, in order to teach us what is the benefit of this eating and drinking. “These words, ‘given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,’ show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation” (Small Catechism. VI. 2).

 

Forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are yours in this cup, because of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the divine, eternal, holy Son of God. The only thing we can offer to God for all these benefits is our faithful obedience to receive them. Jesus has paid the entire price Himself. The least that we can do is to take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD for the things that He has promised and gives to us, knowing that “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.”