SPEAKER_01
0:20 Thank you guys for coming back today. 0:22 As I mentioned all week, I've dedicated this batch of episodes to my Uncle Kevin, who died here recently. 0:27 He was, I mean, just a great man, and I'm going to share more about what he taught me in tomorrow's episode. 0:33 But I had the privilege of being by his bedside not long before he passed away, and I decided to read a couple of Psalms to him. 0:39 So I read him Psalm 23 and Psalm 116. 0:42 So on Monday and Tuesday of this week, we looked at Psalm 23 in detail, and yesterday we looked at the first nine verses of Psalm 116. 0:48 So I'm just going to go ahead and read all of Psalm 116, and then we'll take a closer look at the latter half of the Psalm. 0:54 So here we go, Psalm 116, I'll be reading from the ESV. 0:57 I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my long pleas for mercy, because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 1:05 The snares of death encompass me, the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me, I suffered distress and anguish. 1:11 Then I called on the name of the Lord. 1:13 O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. 1:15 Gracious is the Lord and righteous, our God is merciful. 1:19 The Lord preserves the simple, when I was brought low, he saved me. 1:23 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. 1:32 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 1:35 I believed, even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. 1:39 I said in my alarm, All mankind are liars. 1:43 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 1:46 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. 1:49 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. 1:53 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. 1:58 O Lord, I am your servant, I am your servant, the son of your maid servant, you have loosed my bonds. 2:03 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. 2:07 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. 2:14 Praise the Lord. 2:15 And guys, as I was sitting at my uncle's bedside in the hospital, it was verse 15 that really got me. 2:21 That's the verse that I've been clinging to, honestly, since he passed. 2:25 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. 2:29 So as I said earlier this week, I chose to read Psalm 23 by his bedside because it seemed like an appropriate psalm for someone that was about to die. 2:36 And I chose Psalm 116 because it seemed like it would be a comforting psalm after someone does fully cross over, right? 2:42 So what does this line teach us? 2:45 God does not look at the death of his people in a flimpant manner. 2:49 I mean, he values his children while they're alive and he values them in death. 2:53 And honestly, it reflects God's covenant love for believers even in our deaths. 2:57 And that is why the death of a believer, while certainly painful for their loved ones, is ultimately a joyous thing. 3:04 It's a tremendous thing, actually. 3:06 I mean, we we might miss them and surely we will, but we can have hope that if we too are in Christ, that we will see them again, but in glory. 3:15 And I'll leave you with Romans 14, 8 and 9, which echoes what we see in Psalm 116. 3:21 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. 3:25 So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 3:29 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 3:36 And that's the truth, isn't it? 3:38 I mean, remember, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord. 3:44 They will bend the knee, or God will do it for them. 3:47 But either way, the reality remains the same. 3:49 Our only hope is for us to be in Christ. 3:54 More on that tomorrow as we wrap up the week.