| LIFE AFTER DEATH |
| When you die, will it all be over? |
| You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 16:10 |
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| What happens to you after you die? People have always wanted an answer to that, and the psalmists were no different. They lived in an age without effective medicine, in an age when wars were fought hand-to-hand. Dead bodies were a familiar reality. Yet death, however familiar, remained mysterious and frightening to them. Israelites called the dark and shadowy place where dead people go "Sheol." When you got there, your life seemed thoroughly finished. The psalmists emphatically did not want to go there, and they asked God, when praying for his help, what possible good there might be in death. "Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?" (Psalm 88:12). Sheol was the great leveler: it meant the end of plans, of worship, of a relationship with God (Psalms 146:4; 30:9; 88:5). The dead were found there, not the living. God's Power over Death Yet some Psalms also hint at a happier view. They hold such a strong view of God's authority that they show - vaguely, but unmistakable - God's power over the grave. For instance, God is in Sheol (Psalm 139:8). He - and only he - can redeem a person from there (49:7-9, 15). God will not let his "Holy One" see decay - a claim that both Peter and Paul saw as a clear prediction of Jesus' resurrection from the dead (Psalm 16:10, quoted in Acts 2:27; 13:35). What did they expect life after death to be like, if God's power redeemed someone from Sheol? You won't find a clearly defined picture of heaven here: only hints. The psalmists' thoughts center on God's face and his presence. For God is the only unchangeable reality: wherever you are, in life or in death, he will be there. He is the ultimate reward to those who love him. |