SERMON TEXT: Psalm 116:15
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
I was privileged to know Ruth Thanig for quite a few years. In that time I came to recognize a few things about her. What impressed me most was her attitude about life. Life was precious to her – and in more than the usual way. And that was somewhat surprising to me. After all, life hadn’t exactly been kind to her in many ways.
After a marriage of only 33 years, she was a widow for the next 40. She gradually lost her independence and was placed in a nursing home. And eventually, she was unable to walk or get around by herself. It was humbling to need help to do anything. One could easily have understood if she turned sour or gave up on life, just sitting around waiting to die. But, no, life was precious to her!
A good example of that could be seen in the last few minutes of her life. After it became apparent that she would have to return to the hospital, her first reaction was to make sure her hair looked presentable! Midge was sent to find a comb. It wasn’t that Ruth was vain, but she lived her life, and in her life when you went out, you looked your best, no matter what the occasion! Life was that precious to her!
According to our sermon text for this morning, that was something that she and the Lord shared. For both of them, Ruth’s life was precious. The Psalmist puts it this way: Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Now understand, when the Psalmist says that Ruth’s death is precious to the Lord, he is not denying that her life was precious, as well.
In fact, her death was precious to him, because her life was precious to him. You see, many years ago, almost 94 years, to be exact, Ruth was dead. As Scriptures declare, she was born dead in trespasses and sins. And throughout those many years, she continued in sins of thought, word, and deed.
Please don’t judge me as if I’m speaking ill of the dead. I’m simply speaking the cold, hard truth. And I know it is true about her because I know it is true about me. It is true about you. It is true about everyone. We are all born as sinners and we live our lives as sinners. And this cuts us off from the love of God, what the Bible defines as death. Oh, we enjoy a certain amount of his love in this lifetime, we live, but not to the extent the Lord wanted or intended.
The worst effect of sin and separation from God’s love comes at the end of our earthly lives. At that time, if all isn’t right with God, then we are forever separated from any of his love. We are damned. We enter the fullness of death. Death becomes something to be feared and avoided. Death is something we’d rather not face because it is terrible and terrifying.
Such a fear, such a frightening eternity, makes life miserable. But there is nothing we can do to get closer to God, to end our separation. After all, God has decreed that we love him and 100% of the people around us 100% of the time in 100% of what we think, do, and say. As kind and loving as Ruth was, not even she was what the Lord demands. None of us are.
That also displeases the Lord very much. Even though we sin against him continually, every day of our lives, he still loves us and wants us to be with him throughout all eternity in heaven. And if it is beyond our capability to bridge the gap between us, then he determines that he will do whatever it takes to bring us together. He sends his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. He is capable of reconciling God and man.
As true God, he is holy, he is 100% love for all people all the time. Everything he thinks or says or does pleases the Lord. His life is just what the Lord demands of us all. So, as true man, he lives the life we should live and then turns it over to us to use as our very own. We are credited with his righteousness.
But that’s not enough to get the job done. The guilt for 25 or 64 or 93 years of sin still clings to us and demands that we receive the punishment the guilty deserve. That, too, Jesus deals with. As true God he takes upon himself the guilt for all the sin of mankind. Then, as true man, he suffers the separation from God’s love, the death that should be ours. He’s damned and endures the agonies of hell in our place.
When Jesus completes his earthly mission, after he rises from the dead and returns to heaven, he does so having accomplished everything we need to be with him in heaven as a dearly loved child of God! In faith, we have what we must have to be united with the Lord. He promises that he will always be with us, to the very end of the age. The Father will never abandon his children. The Lord will never leave us or desert us. Our lives are precious to him!
Think about it! To make our lives his own, he willingly sacrificed his one and only Son. To rescue us from death and hell, he joyfully gave up the bliss of heaven to come into our world. That makes our lives precious beyond all reckoning. And because our lives are precious to him, so are our deaths. Ask yourself How precious are you to the Lord? What did he give up to make you his own?
Now ask yourself Why? Why did the Lord do all that? What does he get out of it? What he wants most, what he has to have, what he was willing to suffer and die for, is your presence with him in heaven. He wants the separation between us, he wants death, to end. He wants us to enjoy the fullness of his love.
This is what he really, really wants! We are the object of his love and fervent desire to bless us there in ways he cannot bless us here. He can hardly wait for the day of our death to arrive so he can get what he wants so badly. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. At the moment of our death he finally, finally gets what he wants. That’s why our death is so precious to him!
So, you may ask, if our times are in his hands – and they are, and if he holds the power of life and death – which he does, and if he wants us to be with him – which he has already proven, then why did he let Ruth live so long? Why did she have to endure the trials she did? Why did God let her remain in a world where so many bad things happened to her?
No one can answer that with any certainty. Perhaps it was to show her grandchildren and great-grandchildren what love is. Maybe it was to give encouragement to the people she lived with. Almost certainly it was to strengthen the faith of someone who came in contact with her. We don’t know what the Lord’s purpose was in allowing her to live so long, but we know there was a purpose.
And last Saturday morning that purpose ended. And with divine joy and glee the Lord quickly and eagerly took Ruth to be with him. Her death, which brings us sorrow, is precious to the Lord for now, at long last, finally, he and his beloved Ruth are together forever and ever. Ruth is with her Lord, the Lord is with Ruth, in joy everlasting. How precious is her death! Amen.