“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
~ Psalm 116:15
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you happy to be alive today? If you are happy to be alive today, why are you happy to be alive? If you are happy to be alive today, what are you doing to thank God for being alive? Do you thank God on the days that you are happy to be alive by singing songs of thanks to Him? What makes you happy to be alive? Are you happy to be alive when you see in the springtime flowers and trees coming to life? Are you happy to be alive in the summertime when you are running free outside? Are you happy to be alive in the fall time when you see trees putting on a show of color? Are you happy to be alive in the wintertime as you watch God cover everything with blankets of snow? Are you happy to be alive knowing that in less than two weeks – on Christmas Day, that there will be gifts under a tree for you? Are you happy to be alive in the morning when you are able to go to school? Are you happy to be alive in the afternoon when your school classes end and you spot your dad and/or ma waiting for you outside in their car? Are you happy to be alive after becoming well again after having been so sick that you did not want to do anything? Are you happy to be alive because you know that you will one day be going to heaven? The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 116 was very happy to be alive. The writer of this song psalm could have been Hezekiah. Hezekiah may have almost died after coming down with a possible case of carbuncle. After Hezekiah and God had a talk, God allowed Hezekiah to live for another fifteen years. The writer of this song psalm may possibly have been written by another king – maybe David, who during his lifetime faced death a good number of times. This psalm song was written in seven stanzas. The three main divisions of this song psalm all contain a unified thematic development on the subject of death and on the subject of being saved by God. Whoever this psalm song writer was who wrote this psalm song knew what it was like to come face to face with death – and then to be blessed by God to be able to live a longer life.
Your grandpaa unequivocally knows that God is in complete control of all the areas of his life. Your grandpaa believes that God chose your grandpaa – and your grandmaa and . . . as His specially elected children before He created planet Earth. God looks forward to the day when your grandpaa – and your grandmaa and . . . are with Him in heaven. Verse 15 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” The death on planet Earth of one of God’s saints means that God has one more saint singing praises to Him in heaven. God at the same time sees the lives of every single one of His saints who are living on planet Earth as being very precious to Him. God will have every single one of His saints while they are living on planet Earth have life experiences that will help them to know how much He cares for them. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the rural resident leadership training program that was in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez – in Bolivia, your grandpaa would each week have the Centro de Capacitación (Center of Learning) or C. de C. students go to the different villages that were relatively close to where the rural resident training center was located. Your grandpaa and a C. de C. student or students would go to the different villages on 125 Yamaha motorcycles. One of the villages where your grandpaa visited a couple of times with C. de C. students was Santa Monica. It was not easy to get to Santa Monica. It began raining on one of the trips that your grandpaa and a C. de C. student made to Santa Monica. The trail that goes to Santa Monica became very slippery. Your grandpaa and Samuel Tosubé – the C. de C. student who was with your grandpaa, because of how hard that it was raining stopped at a small, mud walled house to get out of the rain. Your grandpaa had never met the guy and gal who were living in the house. The guy and gal graciously let your grandpaa and Samuel wait for the rain to stop. The guy and gal had a fire burning in the middle of the dirt floor of their single room house. Stretched over the fire was their next meal – a monkey that the guy had killed. While your grandpaa on this trip was in Santa Monica, your grandpaa saw fruit on a tree he had never seen before. One of the guys who was living in Santa Monica told your grandpaa that if a guy, gal, or kid is sick that if he or she eats the fruit that the fruit will help him or her get well. Your grandpaa took the pocket knife that he always took with him and he began to cut open a fruit from off the tree. Your grandpaa does not know whether or not it was from the fruit or from something else but the next morning – after your grandpaa had gotten back to Concepción, your grandpaa could not open his eyes. Your grandpaa’s face had swollen up so much during the night that the only way that your grandpaa could see was to use his fingers to pull up his eyelids so that they were no longer covering his eyes. Your grandpaa’s head looked like a basketball. Your grandpaa’s nose swelled up so much that the skin split on your grandpaa’s nose. Your grandpaa did not feel sick but . . . your grandpaa even tried to play volleyball with the C. de C. students by holding open with his fingers the eyelid over one of his eyes to see the ball.
Your grandmaa finally convinced your grandpaa to see Concepción’s doctor. After giving your grandpaa a number of adrenaline and antihistamine injections, Concepcion’s doctor encouraged your grandpaa to get in touch with SAM/Air – South America Mission’s aviation arm, to ask SAM/Air to fly to Concepción to get him so that he could be seen in a Santa Cruz clinic. Your grandpaa lost count of the number of adrenaline and antihistamine shots that Concepcion’s doctor and Santa Cruz’ clinic doctor injected in him. Your grandpaa knows that if the swelling had gone down into or had taken place in his throat . . . your grandpaa really is very, very thankful to be alive today.
Psalm 116 (299)