The Bible is a very practical book, speaking to us right where we are in life, and the Book of Psalms is especially so. The various authors of Psalms write honestly and openly about all sorts of different life experiences. The author of today’s psalm speaks of a time when he came close to dying, coming right up to death’s door, and how the Lord delivered him, bringing him back from death. That is something that some of you might be able to relate to. Let’s take a look at what our psalmist says about this experience, and what we can learn from it.
Our psalmist doesn’t specify exactly what happened that brought him so close to dying. Perhaps it was a grave illness or a terrible accident. Whatever it was, it was serious. He describes death coming and entangling him with its cords (vs. 3). We can almost see the spectre of death coming to him, and stretching out his long, dark fingers to grab him, and drag him off to the place of the dead. He was down, unable to get up anymore, and all he could do now was to cry (vs. 8). Have you been there? The fear of death is a strong one, and even believers shrink back from it.
Our psalmist, though, did not lie in total despair. Instead he cried out to the Lord God in prayer (vs. 1-2, 4). He knew that only the Lord could deliver him. He directed his prayers to Him in faith and trust, beseeching the Lord to rescue him and bring deliverance. As we read throughout this psalm, the Lord did hear and answer his prayers. The whole psalm is a song of thanksgiving to the Lord for bring him back from the point of death.
God hears His children’s prayers. We may often think that He is not there, or that He doesn’t care. Our psalmist declares that this is not true. God does hear and care. When we are quite afraid, what does that fear do? It eats away at our trust in God’s goodness. We ask why He doesn’t come and protect us, whether it is deliverance from impending death from an illness, or rescue us from an enemy or financial difficulties. We ask whether He cares or loves us? We are so quick to forget what God has done in the past. God turned His ear to the prayers of our psalmist, and He brought him deliverance from what had brought him close to death. For this he gave the Lord unending praise and thanksgiving.
We read in verse 12 that the psalmist asked what he could do to repay the Lord for the blessings He had bestowed on him. The answer is that we could never possibly pay back the Lord for all that He has done for us. He not only answers our prayers, like He did for today’s psalmist, bringing health and other blessings, but He also gives us all we see around us each day. Most importantly, the Lord gives us something of immeasurable worth that we can never possibly pay back, and that is our salvation, which was bought with the Blood of His own Son, Jesus Christ. We can never pay back to the Lord for our salvation, or for His mercy and blessings. The only thing we can give Him is our obedience and thanksgiving (vs 17-19).
What about those believers whose prayers for rescue or healing were not answered with deliverance, and they succumbed to death, sometimes prematurely? Was it that the Lord did not love or care for them? No! We read in verse 15 that “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints”. Believers who have come to the Lord through the Blood of Jesus, called here as “saints”, are precious to God. We grieve when a loved one dies. God also hurts when we are in sorrow. However, God also rejoices when a believer comes home to Him in heaven. God carefully chooses the time they will be called into His presence. The life of the believer is valuable to Him. If God is attentive to the death of sparrows (Matthew 10:29) isn’t He all the more attentive to the death of one of His Blood-bought children? For someone who has placed their faith and trust in Jesus, death is not the end, but really the beginning!
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