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God's Desire for Death? Blogging the Bible (Psalm 116)

Posted June 11, 2008

Does God desire death? Absolutely not. Well, then, why does Psalm 116:15 say, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.”

Psalm 116 is one of the lectionary texts for this week. And this particular verse provides some clear interpretive difficulties. The bible may be ancient, but, like any great work of literature, it is an alive, multivalent document that presents us with an opportunity to struggle with what God is trying to tell us.

So, for this week anyway, we must ask, “How is it that God desires the death of anyone, especially ‘his faithful ones’?” What about death? What happens at the moment that all of us shall surely see? (Remember: Epidemiologists publish various mortality rates for different populations, but ultimately, the overall mortality rate is 100%.)

I think we return to God at death. That’s the gist of every funeral I’ve ever conducted. But to say we “return to God” implies that we are somehow—now, in this life—not fully with God. How can that be when we profess that Christ came as Emmanuel (“God with us”)?

Well, God is with us in Christ, for sure. You could even be bold and say God is with us in other, mortal children of God: Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, Saint Francis, even Gandhi. Even your less famous beloved friends. Maybe even the homeless guy living under the viaduct? Sure! Don’t put limits on God.

God is with us. Yes. But are we always with God? Haven’t you found yourself in places and times in your life when you felt completely separated from God? Well, God didn’t go anywhere.

Indeed, the best definition of hell I know of is “separation from God’s love.” It’s not some lake of eternal fire someplace. There’s plenty of hell to go around right here, right now: suffering from physical or mental illness, domestic violence, famines, natural disasters, wars. All things that happen among God’s living creation, not the dead.

Perhaps the death of faithful ones is precious to God because they escape the many possible hells of this life and become one with the Creator who has loved them—loved us—from before the beginning of time. If hell is separation, then heaven is reconciliation, reunification with God.

I don’t see how else we can square this text with other biblical texts: like the one in John that talks about God desiring “abundant life” for us all.

Oh wait. I just checked a well-respected bible commentary. It says the Hebrew term translated as “precious” is more accurately translated as “costly.” Well now, that changes things. Or maybe it doesn’t at all. It makes the interpretive task easier. But what’s to learn from easiness? Don’t we often find God in the struggle. Jacob did. That’s in the bible.