Tonkawa,
For the next 2 weeks, we’ll walk through Psalm 27, a Psalm of David that guides the believer to “look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13).”
We now come to verse 13, where everything is going; the point of life. “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!”
What is David talking about? What is eternal life? What is the “land of the living?” And how much did David know about it? What’s the view of the end of this life and age that David held?
I’ll tell you what it wasn’t: A heavenly destiny or an eternal sing along in the clouds.
David’s belief, David’s certainty that He will see with real eyes the goodness of a real Lord in the very real, very tangible, land of the real living, a real body and a real kingdom on a real earth.
How did he know this? Because He knows the family story! Begin with Adam and Eve, who knew that man was not meant to die, but that our bodies were made to regenerate forever, who knew that the death and decay of the body came only AFTER sin entered in. And so they looked in hope towards their seed, who God had promised would conquer Death. Or move to Job, who despite the attacks of Satan called out and knew,
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last time he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.(Job 19:25–27)” Upon “the earth” in the land of the living “in his flesh” Job will see God! Or consider Abraham! In Genesis 22, the Lord calls him to offer up his only son Isaac, and Abraham willfully complies. Why?
“He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead (Hebrews 11:19)”
Through Moses’ story of Adam, and Job, and Abraham, David knows, His God is not the God of the Dead, but God of the Living! Whatever happens at death, David knows it isn’t forever.
The Serpent doesn’t win, God’s promise does! And God’s promise is that the curse wrought upon the earth, DEATH, would one day be crushed. David is CERTAIN of this. Darkness, enemies, lies, and ...
