Psalms — Chapter 115

PRETIOSA IN CONSPECTU DOMINI MORS SANCTORUM EIUS. Lapide: Psalm 115 — "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." One of the most consoling verses in the Psalter. Lapide: "pretiosa" — precious, costly (pretium = price): the death of the saints is of infinite value in God's sight because it is united to the death of Christ. Lapide: the martyr's death is precious because it participates in the supreme sacrifice of the Cross. The death of every faithful Christian — who dies in a state of grace — is precious because it brings the soul to the God it has loved. Lapide: this verse is central to the Catholic theology of the "happy death" — the death sought, prepared for, and offered to God as the soul's final and definitive act of love.