What’s in a verse? A verse in the Bible, a verse in a song, the verse of a card. What’s in a verse?
Reading Psalm 116, I stopped on verse 15: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His faithful servants.” Obviously, if we pull just that verse out by itself, it will not be interpreted correctly. Just like reading a card from a friend: if we only pull out the phrase “everything seems to be going so wrong, there is no end in sight,” we will not be getting the right message.
The whole of Psalm 116 is sharing how grateful the writer is to the Lord for hearing him in the midst of his utter distress and anguish. The writer can say “return to your rest, my soul.” Thus, we can better understand that “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants” is showing the compassion of the Lord, that His servants matter to Him. You matter to Him. Whether your trials are great and you feel like you are at your end, or whether you are resting from the storm, maybe totally worn out, you are precious to Him. In the midst of it all we can still praise Him just like the psalmist because “He turns His ear to me (vs 1).”
Looking at verse 15 again, we can also see that the “death of His faithful servants” can refer to us dying to ourselves as we “lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, fulfilling our vows to the Lord in the presence of His people (vs 13-14).” The whole of the chapter is not just about God hearing us and having compassion on us, but also about us loving and praising Him for His grace and mercy, and choosing to follow Him as His servant. Something we need to choose every day, to lay down our cross – die to ourselves – and follow Him. For the Lord is good, He is faithful, and we are precious to Him.
So, what’s in a verse?