Psalm 6 (4): No Praise from the Grave

May 15, 2011

Thoughts from Psalm 6 in six parts (Each section begins with the verses I will comment on, followed by a prayer and a concluding verse).

=== 4 ===

Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?

Notice how directly David speaks. He doesn't plead for God to deliver him or put in a request for God to answer when he gets time or has the inclination. But we should not imagine that David is presumptuous or, as the name it and claim it preachers would have it, is merely drawing on his account. For all the respect that David has for his Lord, the case is too urgent to shrink from pressing God for an answer to his troubles. He knows God is his deliverer and there is no one else to turn to. Better that God be angry at his impertinence than to test him with pathetic ifs. When he answered Job directly after days of listening to his defence of his own righteousness, God didn't demand that Job be silent, he said to Job, "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me." God had listened to Job already and was prepared to hear him again. It was Job's humility that would not allow him to reply.

So did David think, "if God's love is unfailing why does it feel like he's deserted me? If he wants my praise why would he let me die?" Some would quote Paul, "To live is Christ to die is gain"; if our praise in heaven is to be more glorious than our less than perfect praise here on earth, what does it matter whether we live or die? Firstly, David doesn't have the benefit of Paul's wisdom nor the revelation that came with the death and resurrection of Jesus. David believed he would rest in Sheol with his fathers, a shadowy place that was a kind of refugee camp for dead souls awaiting their resurrection. Even the New Testament doesn't make it clear where we will be between death and resurrection. Paul says that we will sleep which suggests that David was about right. In any case, if salvation is merely a ticket to heaven why do we have to hang around here when we could be living it up beyond the pearly gates.

It's wrong to suppose that, because of our fuller knowledge through Jesus, we really see eternity much different to David. The only world we know is the one we live in; our only point of reference lies within this world. We still live in much the same world, neither in the paradise that Adam knew or the paradise that Jesus promises. This world will be swept away some day and any chance to praise God from here will be gone. Let us support our team even when we seem to be on the losing side because we will eventually be rewarded.

Prayer

O Lord, remind me of how precious life is, not just the sanctity of life itself but how precious each moment is. Let us not compare the life to come with our low expectations from this life because that would be a pointless comparison. Let us be a people who don't simply yearn to be in a better place but cry out to you to make our lives better in the place where we are. Let us not settle for being survivors but to live in the fullness of what you have done for us but then to know success in your terms not as the world would define it. We want to praise you throughout eternity, beginning at now.

Verse

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:9)

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