Tonkawa,
Terry is at Falls Creek this week, so I’m filling in here. Let’s look at Psalm 27:13, a psalm that shows us the point of life.
“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!”
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, was that He will see with real eyes the goodness of a real Lord in a tangible, land of the living; a real body and a real kingdom on a real earth.
How did he know this? Because He knows the family story.
David knows that Adam and Eve were not meant to die, but that our bodies were made to regenerate forever. He knows that the death and decay of the body came only after they rebelled against God and sin entered in. He knows that they looked in hope towards their seed, who God had promised would conquer Death.
David knows about 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!
David knows about Abraham, who in Genesis 22, offered up his only son Isaac, why?
“He (Abraham) 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.
“You will not abandon my soul to Sheol(Ps. 16:10)” “God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me(Ps 49:15).”
This hope of David’s family moves on after David succumbs to death.
Consider Isaiah as he speaks of the Day of the Lord ...
