Psalm 116. We'll read the entire psalm. Psalm 116. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. because he inclined his ear to me. Therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me. The pangs of Sheol laid hold on me. I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed. Even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. 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. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh, 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. Praise the Lord. Let's ask for God's blessing on the preaching of the word. Our Father in heaven, you tell us that your word is sweeter than honey and more desirable than gold. As we now hear your word, may we indeed treasure it beyond the most delicious food and greater than the most valuable resource. May we prize your word above all earthly things. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Death is an ever-present reality for us. It's one of the things that the current pandemic has impressed upon our minds, I think. Oftentimes, we try to forget about it. We certainly try to prevent it. We can try to pretend that it doesn't happen. I think I may have told you before that out in Southern California, the cemeteries are essentially hidden. It's not like the old New England practice of having a cemetery right near the center of town and you drive by it on a regular basis. You have to go and look for the cemeteries in Southern California. And it seems to be this desire to sort of hide the idea of death and almost pretend as though it doesn't happen. But sooner or later, we all must face it ourselves. We will each face death. And in our lifetimes, we will have to face the death of many of our loved ones. And so, despite how much we might dislike the topic, and despite our attempts to avoid it, we still must grapple with death. And our psalm today will help us to do that. Now we don't know the specific details of when and how this psalm was written, but the general situation is very clear. Psalm 116 is someone's reflection on facing death. It appears the psalmist was in some kind of situation where he might have died. This comes across in verse 2. It says, because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. In verse 3, the snares of death encompassed me and the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me. I suffered distress and anguish. So he felt the anguish. He felt the distress. It was pressing down upon him. It was heavy, weighty upon him. But he cried out to the Lord. and the Lord delivers him. And so he praises God, he rejoices in the salvation, the deliverance that he has. But even though he's been delivered from death, he still, at least briefly, contemplates what would have been true if he had died. Would God still have been good? Would God still have been gracious? How ought we to think about the situation if he had died? So we're going to look at this psalm under three basic headings. We want to see first what I'm calling the threat of death. See how the psalmist describes the way he felt in this situation. Secondly, we'll see the deliverance from death, the way the psalmist was rescued by the Lord. And then thirdly, we want to consider how to face death, some of the ways this psalm shows us how we are to face death. So first, the threat of death. If you spent much time reading the Psalms, you will know how brutally honest they can be in describing how someone is feeling or thinking or how bad of a situation someone is in. And that's true again here. It's the it's really striking the language the psalmist uses about a situation again, verse 3 the snares of death encompassed me the pangs of shielding hold of me. I suffered distress and anguish. He speaks the snares of death as though something is reaching from the ground laying hold of him and pulling him down. There's also some language here of being hunted. He is encompassed. He's surrounded as though this unseen enemy is slowly gathering around him, surrounding him so that there's no way of escape. It's no wonder he says that he suffers distress and anguish. Perhaps he felt paralyzed. Perhaps his stomach is churning within him in fear. Who knows what effects this had on his mind and on his body? We get a little more of the picture in verse 8, more of the distresses. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. He's in tears, he's weeping as this is happening, and his feet are stumbling as though he could barely pick up one foot and place it down cleanly in front of the other. He's staggering about. in his distress. In verses 10 and 11, we get a window into what he's thinking. He says, I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. He felt that he's carrying a burden that's far greater than normal. He says, I am greatly afflicted. Lord, this is so heavy upon me. He felt as though he could trust no one. And so he says, all mankind are liars. Who can I turn to? Who can I believe? Who can I trust? All mankind are liars. This is how he's feeling. And so, so what does he do? He cries to the Lord. Verse one, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Verse four, that I called on the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. This is the cry of somebody in anguish and in distress. And you know, if there was nothing else to learn from this Psalm, this still would be a worthwhile lesson. When we are in any trouble, We must go to the Lord for help. We must go to the Lord for help. We must cry out to him when we are in distress. Let us learn to run quickly to him for help. He is the one we need to look for whenever we are in trouble. Now I wanna focus in for a minute on verse 10. Verse 10 says, I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. I want you to notice carefully the language. It says, I believed even when I spoke. You could also translate it this way. I believed, or I trusted, and therefore I spoke. Because I believed, because I trusted, that's why I spoke, that's why I said, I am greatly afflicted. This verse actually gets quoted in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul. It's in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 13. The Apostle Paul is talking about himself and other ministers of Christ. And he says, since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak. Apostle Paul, again, is saying, he's translating it the way that I just suggested. He said, I believe and so I spoke. I believe and so I spoke. Because of my belief, because of my faith, because of my trust, therefore, I've talked in this way. What's the point I'm making here? Crying to the Lord. asking for his help, expressing our sorrows and our griefs and our fears and our hurts, that is an expression of faith. Just that, just doing that is an expression of faith. It's telling us that a heart of faith cries out to the Lord, even just to express its anguish and sorrow and suffering. That's what faith does. Faith tells the Lord, Lord, look at all that I'm suffering. Here's what I'm going through. We sometimes think it is more spiritual to bottle up our feelings, or to act as though we don't have those feelings. And yet, faith, in its maturity, will actually express those feelings to God. And we want to be careful here, not in a proud or arrogant way, as though to say, look at this, as though sufferings are a badge of honor. Or as though that somehow they make someone a more real Christian. Look, look, I'm more of a Christian because I'm suffering. No, that's not actually true. But the mature Christian will bring these things to the Lord to lay them at his feet and to seek his help. See, it says, I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. And I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. Those statements by the psalmist, they are expressions of faith because he is laying his very heart before the Lord so that the Lord might come and instruct him in the right way. One commentator writes, to feel crushed, like in verse 10, or to feel disillusioned, verse 11, and to say so, is no proof that faith is dead. It may even vouch for its survival as pain betokens life. Just as if you're feeling pain, that proves you're alive. So also suffering and expressing our suffering to God demonstrates our faith. Now, I want to bring this back to that passage, 2 Corinthians 4, where the Apostle Paul quotes this. I wonder if you know or are familiar with the context for this quotation. It's actually, it's in that famous passage where the Apostle Paul describes himself and other ministers of the gospel as jars of clay or earthen pots. I want to read part of this to you. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 7 through 18. You're welcome to turn there if you like, or you can just listen to me as I read. The Apostle Paul talking about himself and other ministers of the gospel, he says, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake. so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke." There's our quotation. It says, we also believe and so we also speak. knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. I think this really helps us to understand the psalm. The very spirit in which the Apostle Paul is writing is very similar to that of Psalm 116. It fits very well. Just as the psalmist was facing death and yet acted in faith, so does the Apostle Paul. He says we're at the point of death at times and yet we press on and yet because of faith we continue to go forward. But he gives an additional piece of information, doesn't he? He says he can do this. He can continue to press on. He can continue to speak because of his hope in Jesus Christ, who raises the dead and who gives to his people an eternal life, which far outweighs and outshines anything in this life. Once again, we are finding that every single Psalm directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his work for us, right? That's how we're meant to understand Psalm 116. We can express our frustrations and our fears and our sorrow and our trouble because by our faith in Jesus, we know that it will all be overcome one day. And so we express it to him in that spirit. And though all men may be liars, God cannot lie. And so we may be certain that all that He has promised will surely come to pass. This is what Psalm 106 strives us to do. Even in the face of death, we press on. Why? Because we trust, because we believe. that God will deliver us, that God will save us, that God will make all things right. No matter what happens now, we know in the end, all will be made right by our Lord. Well, this leads us really to our next point. where we can explore the deliverance from death that the psalmist experiences. We've sort of entered into that already, but now let's more formally talk about the deliverance of death. And I want to look at the language the psalmist uses to describe this deliverance. I think there's a few things that are helpful to notice. The first way that this deliverance is described comes in verses 1 and 2. where we're told that God hears the cry of the psalmist. He says, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for emergency. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. In verse two, we find what we call anthropomorphic language. It's used to describe God. Anthropomorphic, there's a big fancy word for you. What does that mean? It means it's when we take human language or human pictures and apply them to God in a metaphorical or rhetorical way. We understand these things aren't actually the way it is, but they tell us something true about God. You know, here we're told that God turns his ear to the cry of the suffering man. Does God have an ear? Of course not. He doesn't have a body like men, right? He is a spirit. Of course he doesn't have an ear. But we get the idea, don't we? The picture is that amidst all of the noise, amidst all of the attempts to get God's attention, all of the people who might be calling upon him, He turns his ear toward us so that he can hear us, focus his attention upon us, and learn what we need so that he may help us. He turns his ear to us. Now, of course, we know, again, that the metaphor extends beyond the fact that God doesn't have an ear because, you know, God is not so limited that he has to strain to hear one voice over the others as though he gets distracted and has a hard time focusing or concentrating on anybody. No, of course, that's, again, not what's being taught here. God's power is not limited in those kinds of ways. But this is this human idea that's being used to say something. It's telling us we may be assured of God's attention upon us just as surely as we can be assured of someone's attention when they turn their ear to make sure that they hear us and understand us. in the same way that you know someone's really listening to you when they lean in and they turn their ear towards you and they focus upon you. In that same way, we can be certain that God hears and understands us as well. And brothers and sisters, this is true for you. When you cry to the Lord, when you pray, You may be assured that it is as though God leans in and turns his ear to you to make sure that he hears you and he knows what you're saying, that he understands it. He hears you. This is the first part of the deliverance that the psalmist receives. The Lord hears him. Now, lest we let that go to our heads and think more of ourselves than we ought, as though, oh, well, God thinks I'm awfully special, verse six gives us another piece of God's deliverance. It says, the Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. This tells us God's deliverance is only for a certain kind of person. It's not just everyone that the Lord delivers. So what kind of person is that? Is it the rich? No, it's not the rich person. Is it the powerful person? No. Is it the proud person? Certainly not. It's the simple person, the humble person, and the honest person. And we can't miss the importance of humility in all of this. Hardships, struggle, facing death, these kinds of situations don't usually produce humility in us. Most of us bristle up against them. When we feel pressure, when we feel difficulty, we tend to brace ourselves against it. But the more we fight against God's difficult providences, the more he is likely to keep us under them because he's trying to teach us humility. But when we bow before him, when we humbly accept what he brings, that's when he gives relief. This is like what we saw a couple weeks ago in Psalm 46, verse 10. Be still and know that I am God. He said that doesn't necessarily mean not saying anything. It means stop striving against God. Stop resisting Him. Stop bristling against Him. God resists the proud, but gives grace to who? To the humble. To the humble. When we are brought low, He saves us. Now, this is an extraordinarily difficult lesson to learn, but we must seek to learn it. We must learn that humble submission to all of God's providences that he sees fit to bring into our lives. No matter how difficult they may be, we need to learn to humble ourselves and submit to them. But the Lord does deliver the psalmist. And so we get verse seven, the psalmist says to himself, return all my soul to your rest for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. Having been delivered, he may return to his rest to a state of peace and quiet. And there we remember the Lord has dealt bountifully with us. And that bountiful dealing is described in verses eight and nine. It says, because, or for, you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. The Lord has delivered his soul from death. His eyes are no longer crying. His feet are no longer stumbling. Now he may once again walk among the living rather than going to the place of death. Rather than dying, he remains alive, and so he may walk before the Lord. The snares of death are no longer holding him. He once again feels the freedom of living life before the Lord. What does it look like to live before the Lord? He says, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. What does that look like to walk or to live before the Lord? I want to suggest you three ways from this psalm to live or to walk before the Lord. First, and perhaps a bit strangely, To walk or to live before the Lord means to receive God's grace. To receive God's grace. Look at verses 12 and 13 and notice something that happens here. Okay, verse 12 asks, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? In other words, God has done so much for me, what should I do for him? What's the answer? Verse 13, I will lift up the cup of salvation. and call on the name of the Lord. Now think about that for a minute. The psalmist asks what he should do for the Lord in return for all that the Lord has done for him. And what is his first answer? To lift up the cup of salvation. Or perhaps even better translated would be to take the cup of salvation. Our first response, or to say it a little bit paradoxically, the first thing we should do is to receive, is to take. Alec Motier says, our true response always is first to receive what Yahweh gives. He fills the cup, we take it. We may want to do something for him, but we're told the first thing we do is to not do something, but to just receive from the Lord. Now, many, many Christians struggle with this. I know I struggle with it, and I know that many of you struggle with it as well. We always want to know what it is that I ought to do for the Lord. And you know, sometimes in that mindset, we can actually fall into a sort of pietistic works righteousness. Because we want to feel like we've done something, contributed something, earned something. What God calls us to do first is always to simply receive what he gives. Before we go forth in order to do good, which we must do, we need to first sit at the feet of Jesus and know the joy of receiving his grace. If we can't first simply know and understand what it is to receive God's grace, we won't be able to take that next step to go out and to live, to do things for him. And this is one of the things I've said it many times, but I come back to it over and over because I think it's so important. Grace is really hard. Grace is really, really hard. It goes against our nature to simply receive. We always want to do, to earn, to merit. Tell me what I can do to feel like I have earned this in some way. That's where that reading from Ephesians 2 comes in, right? Not for works which we have done, lest anyone should boast. By grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. When it comes to grace, all we can do is receive. And so our first task is simply to stop and to enjoy receiving from God all that he gives to us. This is the first part of what it is to live before the Lord in the light of his deliverance. It's simply to receive his grace. The second way we walk before the Lord that I want to draw your attention to from this psalm is by loving the Lord. Having received his grace, now we love him. And this I get from verse one. It says, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. I wonder if this verse sounds a little bit strange to you when you think about it. The psalmist says, I love the Lord because the Lord has heard my voice and my cry for mercy. Perhaps you think, shouldn't we love the Lord anyway? Shouldn't we love the Lord even without him doing these things for us? Well, yes, of course we should. But really, if God was only ever against us, and we had no reassurance that he would ever be for us, maybe it would be better to just ignore him and do what we want. But because we know God does hear us, because we know that he is good to us, because we know that he is merciful, therefore we do love him. We have reason to love him. And perhaps there's also something in here of what we learn in 1 John 4, 19, which says, we love him because he first loved us. because God has been good to us, because he has loved us, therefore we are enabled to love God in return, right? No one can ever love God until God has first acted toward them in love. This builds right upon the last point that we made, right? It's not until we receive the love of God that we are able to return love to him. And so once again, we see how this Psalm drives us to Jesus Christ. Because the greatest expression of love that God has ever made to his creation was in sending his only son to come and to die for us. God's love finds its fullest expression in Jesus Christ. And as we trust in Christ, we are enabled to love God in return. So this is the second way that the psalmist teaches us to live or to walk before the Lord. First, it is to receive his grace. Second, it is to love him. And then third, We walk before the Lord by thanking God, by worshiping him. This psalm is full of expressions of thanksgiving and worship. It's really the purpose of the whole psalm as I understand it. Just consider how it ends. Verses 17 to 19 says, 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, and in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. We need to cultivate the habit of thanking God for his deliverances and for his answers to prayer. When we pray for something and God gives it to us, we need to make sure that we thank him for it afterwards. Our confession of faith tells us that it is the duty of Christians to repent of particular sins particularly. And I think in the same way, we often follow the practice of asking God for particular things, particularly. And so we also ought to give thanks to God in particular ways. And this is something that should happen not just in private, but also in public. When we have asked someone else to pray, and God answers that prayer, we should let them know. Join with me in thanking the Lord for answering a prayer to this thing we've been praying about. But even more broadly, we ought to grow in the practice of reporting to God's people the wonderful things God is doing in our lives. In our prayer meetings, for instance, we need to take care that we thank God for the good things he has done for us, for the ways that he has answered our prayers. This is part of living before the Lord. That's what, you know, Psalm 116 is speaking of a personal experience, but it's written in the book of Psalms, which means it's meant for the corporate worship of God's people. And so the entirety of God's people can even enter into the joy and the thanksgiving of even one person's own deliverance and the grace that they have received, the answer to prayer that they have had. So those are three ways that this psalm instructs us in how to live before the Lord. Having been delivered, this is how we are to live. Let's turn to our third item and how we face death. So far we've covered what I take to be the major points of this psalm. We've seen the psalmist in the threat of death and the expressions of faith that he makes while he's under the threat of death. We've seen how God delivers the psalmist and we've made some observations about how we should live in light of that deliverance. But there is one more area to discuss, and that's instructions for how to face death. Now, someone perhaps would say, well, the psalmist doesn't actually die. He's delivered from this threat of death. So how can this psalm really speak to someone who is truly at death's door? Well, for one thing, the psalmist didn't know if he would die or not when he was in that situation. And so his expressions of trust and his calling upon the Lord is still instructive to us. But in addition, I think that the psalmist does briefly reflect on what would have been true if he had died. If the answer to his prayer from the Lord had been that he had died. The psalmist gives us some ways to think about that. And again, remember, there is no promise here that God will always deliver us from death's door. The takeaway from this psalm must not be that when we feel the threat of death, all we have to do is pray to the Lord and he'll deliver us. That's not at all what the psalm is teaching us. So let's consider some instructions for when we are facing death, or for when we might need to help someone, someone else who is facing death. Now, what we say here will only be true for people who trust in Jesus, for believers. There is no hope or help that can be given to someone who dies without faith in Jesus. If someone does not trust in Jesus, the only hope they can have is if they go to Jesus, if they pray to Him, if they confess their sins, and if they ask Him to save them, to deliver them. But for those who do trust, here are some helps for facing death. I have three of these. The psalm teaches us when facing death to call upon the Lord, to call upon the Lord. I've made some remarks about this already, but I want to say a little more. The phrase to call on the Lord is repeated several times in this psalm, but interestingly, at least to me, it has, it's used in two different ways. First, it's used to mean supplication. Call upon the Lord to make a request of him. Verse four. Says, then I called on the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I pray deliver my soul. That's similar to verse one. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. And so it can mean supplication. But then it also means praise. Verses 13 and 17 are identical. It says, 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. Now, I like that the same phrase is used for both. Because I think it says, for one thing, I think it says something about the steadiness of our worship. That in all situations, our posture is the same. It is to go to the Lord. It is to make known our requests and to rejoice in who He is. And we need to make use of both of these senses of calling upon the Lord. Let us regularly call out to the Lord, both in supplication and in praise. And surely this is appropriate when facing death. We may pray to God for relief. But we also need to be praising our God, remembering that he is always good. He is always good. And remember that whatever the outcome is, the result will be that we will praise the Lord, right? If the Lord answers our prayer and he delivers us from death, then like the psalmist, we can praise him in the land of the living, right? Verse nine. But if we die, what happens then? We go to be with him, and what are we going to do? We'll praise him in heaven. One way or another, the outcome is going to be praise. The question might be, which one is better? One is harder at first, but is surely the better one. The other might seem easier for now, but really is not as good. The Apostle Paul helps us to understand this in Philippians 1. He says, my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Either way, we're going to praise the Lord. And perhaps that can help us as we think about the way that we face death. Either way, we will be praising the Lord after we've gone through the trial. So the first instruction for how to face death is to call upon the name of the Lord in both supplication and in praise. Secondly, the psalm teaches us when facing death to rest upon God. And I'm drawing this from verse seven. He says, return all my soul to your rest for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. He's been in anguish and distress. The fear of death has brought all this upon him, and yet he's telling himself, I can still rest in the Lord. You know, sometimes we think of death as entering into rest, and even scripture uses that language at times. We enter into our eternal rest as we go to be with the Lord. But there is a rest that we are to seek in life as well. the rest of entrusting ourselves to God, knowing that he has dealt bountifully with us, no matter what the outcome is. He's already dealt bountifully with us. And so we need to think on his character. Look at verse five. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. Now, is that true only because the psalmist has been delivered? No. No, it was true before he was delivered, and it would have been true even if he had not been delivered. What a beautiful verse this is. It reminds us, gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. Death may be cruel, seeking to hunt us down, but God is not like that. The snares of death may encompass us. They are hunting us, tracking us. God is not like that. He is gracious and so he gives us to us good things. He is righteous, which means he never brings something upon us that is unjust. He will never impose a punishment that we don't deserve or a punishment that is more harsh than we deserve. And He is merciful, which means that He is compassionate upon us in our suffering. He is gracious, He is righteous, He is merciful. And so remember these things about your God and rest in Him in light of them. And then remember who we are. Verse 16. Oh, Lord, I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. He repeats it a couple times, emphasizing, I am your servant. He says, because you have delivered me from, presumably here, from death, you've loosed my bonds, but I am your servant. And I think this connects us back to that idea of humility that we discussed before. This is all we are. We're just servants. Which means my life is not my own. My life is for God to use as he pleases. I need to know my place and know that if he can best use me by my death, then so be it. And so be it. As Job says, Job 13 verse 15, though he slay me, I will hope in him. Though he slay me, even if God were to kill me, he still would be my hope, because I know I am his servant, and he is a good, gracious, righteous, and merciful God. So we remember who God is, we remember who we are, and then we remember that Christ has gone before us. Christ has endured death and all of its agony and so much more. He, and, but he has been freed from the agony of death, and just as he has been freed from it, so will we. The Apostle Peter actually uses this Psalm to speak of Jesus in these very ways. In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter two, verse 24, speaking of Jesus, he said, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. That's that language of verse three, he says, The snares of death, the pangs of Sheol laid hold of him, but it could not hold the Lord Jesus. He has been freed from the agony of death and just as he has been freed from it, we will be freed from it as well. So brothers and sisters, as we remember who God is, as we remember who we are, as we remember what Christ has done, we may find rest in God. So that's the second way we face death is by resting in God. The third and final way this psalm prepares us to face death is in verse 15 which says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Precious in the sight of the Lord. It is not a light or a simple thing for God to bring one of his people to their death. There is weight and there is value in it. Alec Mottier explains the word precious here. He says, it means like valuable, like a precious jewel, too valuable to be allowed to be squandered as a result of some human squabble or trial. It is some prized gift. that Yahweh reserves to be bestowed in the proper way at the proper time. He says it's a prized gift that Yahweh uses at the appropriate time. God does not allow his people to die on a whim. He cares for them. He is concerned for them. They are valuable. They are precious to him. All Christians may know that their life, your life, is valued by the Father, that the Father knows your frailty, and that the Father will not unnecessarily send you to your death. When He does bring you to that dark and difficult time, He does so only with careful consideration and always in love. God does not treat your death lightly. It is precious. It is valuable to Him. These are three things that we can use to help us to face death. We know that our death is precious in His sight. We rest in Him, knowing who He is, who we are, and what the Lord has done with us. and we are reminded to call upon the Lord in prayer and supplication and in praise. Let me wrap things up here. Death is an ever-present reality for us. Each of us will have to face it someday unless the Lord returns first. But the graciousness, the righteousness, and the mercy of God is an even more present reality for us than death. God existed before death, and God will continue to exist after death itself is fully destroyed. And this eternal, almighty, unchanging God is concerned about your death. So when you are in trouble, when you feel as though death is calling upon you, you may call out to Him. And whether He delivers you from that and carries you through it, you may be sure that He is with you. As Psalm 23 says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. in your staff, they comfort me. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, it is so easy for us to forget your word or to twist your word. Eve was so easily deceived by the serpent when he simply began questioning your word. We ask that you would guard us from this danger. May this word that we have heard today be planted deeply in our hearts. May we not forget it or twist it, but may it give to us life. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.