Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Thank you guys for coming back today. As I mentioned all week, I've

dedicated this batch of episodes to my uncle Kevin, who died here recently. He was, I mean,

just a great man, and I'm going to share more about what he taught me in tomorrow's episode.

But I had the privilege of being by his bedside not long before he passed away, and I decided to read a couple of psalms to him. So I read him Psalm 23 and Psalm 116. So on Monday and Tuesday of this week, we looked at Psalm 23 in detail. And yesterday we looked at the first nine verses of Psalm 116. So I'm just going to go ahead and read all of Psalm 116. And then we'll take a closer look at the latter half ofsalm. So here we go. Psalm 116, I'll be reading from the ESV. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my long pleas for mercy, because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompass me, the pangs of shield laid hold of me, I suffered distress and anguish.

Then I called on the name of the Lord, O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. The Lord preserves a simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call in the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. A Lord, I am your servant, I am your servant, the son of your made servant, you have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the

Lord in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. And guys, as I was sitting at my uncle's bedside in the hospital, it was

verse 15 that really got me. That's the verse that I've been clinging to, honestly, since he passed.

Precious in the side of the Lord is the death of his saints. So as I said earlier this week, I chose to

read Psalm 23 by his bedside because it seemed like an appropriate Psalm for someone that was about to die. And I chose Psalm 116 because it seemed like

it would be a comforting Psalm after someone does fully cross over, right? So what does this

line teach us? God does not look at the death of his people in a flimpet manner. I mean, he values

his children while they're alive,

and he values them in death. And honestly, it reflects God's covenant love for believers even in our

deaths. And that is why the death of a believer, while certainly painful for their loved ones,

is ultimately a joyous thing. It's a tremendous thing, actually. I mean, we might miss them,

and surely we will, but we can have hope that if we too are in Christ, that we will see them again, but in glory. And I'll leave you with

Romans 14, 8, and 9, which echoes what we see in Psalm 116. For if we live, we live to the Lord,

and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live

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