Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints - Of his people; his friends. Luther renders this, "The death of his saints is held to be of value" - (ist werth gehalten ) - "before the Lord." The word rendered "precious" - yâqâr - means costly, as precious stones, I Kings 10:2, I Kings 10:10-11; dear, beloved, as relatives and friends, Psalms 45:9; honored, respected, Ecclesiastes 10:1; splendid, beautiful, Job 31:26; rare, I Samuel 3:1. The idea here is, that the death of saints is an object of value; that God regards it as of importance; that it is connected with his great plans, and that there are great purposes to be accomplished by it. The idea here seems to be that the death of a good man is in itself of so much importance, and so connected with the glory of God and the accomplishment of his purposes, that he will not cause it to take place except in circumstances, at times, and in a manner, which will best secure those ends. The particular thought in the mind of the psalmist seems to have been that as he had been preserved when he was apparently so near to death, it must have been because God saw that the death of one of his friends was a matter of so much importance that it should occur only when the most good could be effected by it, and when the ends of life had been accomplished; that God would not decide on this hastily, or without the best reasons; and that, therefore, he had interposed to lengthen out his life still longer. Still, there is a general truth implied here, to wit, that the act of removing a good man from the world is, so to speak, an act of deep deliberation on the part of God; that good, and sometimes great, ends are to be accomplished by it; and that, therefore, God regards it with special interest. It is of value or importance in such respects as the following:
(1) as it is the removal of another of the redeemed to glory - the addition of one more to the happy hosts above;
(2) as it is a new triumph of the work of redemption - showing the power and the value of that work;
(3) as it often furnishes a more direct proof of the reality of religion than any abstract argument could do.
How much has the cause of religion been promoted by the patient deaths of Ignatius, and Polycarp, and Latimer, and Ridley, and Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and the hosts of the martyrs! What does not the world owe, and the cause of religion owe, to such scenes as occurred on the death-beds of Baxter, and Thomas Scott, and Halyburton, and Payson! What an argument for the truth of religion - what an illustration of its sustaining power - what a source of comfort to us who are soon to die - to reflect that religion does not leave the believer when he most needs its support and consolations; that it can sustain us in the severest trial of our condition here; that it can illuminate what seems to us of all places most dark, cheerless, dismal, repulsive - "the valley of the shadow of death!"
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