Coming face to face with death is a very scary thing. Some of you reading this may have had just such an experience. A near-death experience can come in a variety of ways. It could come as a result of a serious illness, or an almost fatal surgery. One can almost die as a result of a terrible accident, or violent force of nature. Or someone can narrowly escape death at the hands of a brutal criminal. Following such an event in one’s life, we can imagine the person is so thankful to be alive. A Christian coming through such an anxious time would naturally give God praise and thanks. Our psalm today is a psalm recording just such praise and thanks, following a near-death experience.
Psalm 116 is a thank-you song to the Lord for delivering the writer from death. I have had a few moderately serious accidents, and twice been seriously sick, but not quite at death’s door. Our psalmist came through some unnamed, but harrowing near-death experience, and then penned these words of praise to God. The author of our psalm is unknown, but some people have suggested that it could possibly have been the prophet Jonah. The reason they give for suggesting this is that the last three verses of the psalm are almost identical to the words of Jonah 2:9, where the prophet sings praise to God for delivering him from the belly of the great fish.
We will probably never know who wrote the psalm until we get to heaven, but for a moment, let’s consider the possibility that it was Jonah. God gave Jonah the assignment to go to the people of the Assyrian city of Nineveh and bring His message to turn to the Lord or the city would be destroyed. Jonah disobeyed God, going so far as to book passage on a ship going across the Mediterranean. As punishment, Jonah is thrown overboard in a huge storm, and God has a giant fish swallow him alive, spitting him out three days later on shore.
As we can all imagine, being swallowed alive and whole, whether by a whale, a shark, or some other giant sea creature, would be a very frightening experience. It is also coming very close to death. If the creature hadn’t swallowed him he would have drowned. If the fish or whale would have bitten, rather than swallow him whole, he would have died. And being digested alive would not have been fun, either! Jonah had plenty of reasons to praise God, and also to repent and start obeying Him.
Both the psalmist and Jonah knew that they could never repay God for all of the blessings He had given them (vs. 12). Especially for delivering them from the brink of death. Whether we have been spared from near death or not, there is so much that the Lord God has given to us. He has given us countless blessings, especially the gift of salvation to whoever will receive it. There is no possible way that we can repay God for any of these. In answer to the psalmist’s rhetorical question, there is nothing we can give to God, except to trust and obey. In the belly of the fish Jonah had vowed to do what God requested, and he would pay those vows (vs. 14). Jonah reluctantly set out to obey God’s first command to him and preach His message in Nineveh. In a time of great distress did you promise or vow to God to do something for Him if He would get you out of your predicament, whether it was an illness, accident, or something else? If so, then we ought not to delay in fulfilling those vows.
What about the times when a believer’s experience is not near-death, but instead is actual death? What do we think, especially if it is unexpected and premature, whether from illness, accident, or something else? Our psalmist gives us a special truth in verse 15. Though it is human nature to grieve when a loved one dies, and the Lord is compassionate towards us then, when a believer dies the Lord looks on that death as a precious or special moment.
Believers are precious to God. Each of their lives are valuable to Him. He carefully chooses the time when they will be called into His presence. It is a joyous moment in heaven because another one of His beloved children has entered God’s eternal presence! Death is not the end. It is a new beginning.
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