Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 72:14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
1 Samuel 25:29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God;…
Psalms 37:32-33 The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
Luke 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Revelation 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the…
Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Job 5:26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 116:10–end
The Septuagint and some other ancient versions make these verses a distinct psalm separate from the former; and some have called it the Martyr's psalm, I suppose for the sake of Psa 116:15. Three things David here makes confession of: -
I. His faith (Psa 116:10): I believed, therefore have I spoken. This is quoted by the apostle (Co2 4:13) with application to himself and his fellow-ministers, who, though they suffered for Christ, were not ashamed to own him. David believed the being, providence, and promise of God, particularly the assurance God had given him by Samuel that he should exchange his crook for a sceptre: a great deal of hardship he went through in the belief of this, and theref…
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. The Lord has his saints or sanctified ones, who are sanctified or set apart by God the Father from all eternity; who are sanctified in Christ, their head and representative; who are sanctified by his blood, shed for the expiation of their sins; who are sanctified by his Spirit and grace, are called with an holy calling, and have principles of holiness wrought in them, and live holy lives and conversations. The word (o) used also signifies one that has received kindness and favour, and shows it: saints are such, who have received spiritual blessings from the Lord; to whom he has been kind and bountiful; and these are merciful and b…
Psalm 116:15-19
15. Precious in the eyes of Jehovah is the death of his meek ones. 16. Come, O Jehovah! because I am thy servant; I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid: thou hast broken my fetters. 17. I will sacrifice the sacrifices of praise to thee, and call upon the name of Jehovah. [383] 18. I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people, 19. In the courts of the house of Jehovah, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem! Praise ye Jehovah.
15. Precious in the eyes of Jehovah is the death of his meek ones. He goes on now to the general doctrine of God's providential care for the godly, in that he renders them assistance in time of need; their lives being precious in his sight…
The Church Fathers
Renounce pleasure, turn away from uncleanness, dispel luxury, flee unrighteousness, resist falsehood. When you see that you are waging a battle on many fronts, then you must also, in imitation of the martyrs, pursue a many-sided victory. Every time we die to sins, the sins die in us, and this "death of his holy ones is precious in the sight of the Lord," because a "human being" dies "to the world" not by the destruction of senses but by the death of vices.
Oh, what a spectacle was that to the Lord,-how sublime, how great, how acceptable to the eyes of God in the allegiance and devotion of His soldiers! As it is written in the Psalms, when the Holy Spirit at once speaks to us and warns us: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Precious is the death which has bought immortality at the cost of its blood, which has received the crown from the consummation of its virtues.
By the death of the martyrs, religion has been defended, the faith spread and the church strengthened. The dead have been victorious, and the persecutors have been vanquished. Accordingly, we celebrate the deaths of those of whose lives we know nothing. So, too, David in prophecy rejoiced at the departure of his own soul, saying, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints." He held death in more esteem than life. The death itself of the martyrs is the prize of life. Furthermore, even the hatreds of enemies are dissolved by death.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Temple, the Second — After the return from captivity, under Zerubbabel (q.v.) and the high priest Jeshua, arrangements were almost immediately made to reorganize the long-desolated kingdom. The body of pilgrims, forming…
Death Of Saints, The · Precious in God’s sight — Precious in God’s sight
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
From what he has experienced the poet infers that the saints of Jahve are under His most especial providence. Instead of המּות the poet, who is fond of such embellishments, chooses the pathetic form המּותה, and consequently, instead of the genitival construct state (מות), the construction with the Lamed of "belonging to." It ought properly to be "soul" or "blood," as in the primary passage Psa 72:14. But the observation of Grotius: quae pretiosa sunt, non facile largimur, applies also to the expression "death." The death of His saints is no trifling matter with God; He does not lightly suffer it to come about; He does not suffer His own to be torn away from Him by death.
(Note: The Apostolic…
No one lives or dies outside of God’s will. Having been given a second chance at life, the poet readily commits himself to the Lord with renewed acts of public devotion.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 116:15
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, and therefore he did not suffer the Psalmist to die, but delivered his soul from death. This seems to indicate that the song was meant to remind Jewish families of the mercies received by any one of the household, supposing him to have been sore sick and to have been restored to health, for the Lord values the lives of his saints, and often spares them where others perish. They shall not die prematurely; they shall be immortal till their work is done; and when their time shall come to die, then their deaths shall be precious. The Lord watches over their dying beds, smo…
