SUNDAY 24th
Psalm 16
NIV (v11) – ‘You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.’
ESV (v11) – ‘You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.’
The previous verse in this chapter, v10 (‘For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.’) is quoted in Acts 13:35 and is used as a reference to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘Therefore he says also in another psalm, “ ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’’ Because of this the verses here are taken to be prophetic and this is rightly so, but it is also important to link them to David’s own experience as well, for initially David was expressing his own circumstances, although they have a prophetic inference. He was expressing that whatever may happen to him humanly speaking he has a sure confidence in his eternal security because of his relationship with the LORD God.
In the prophetic we see it being fulfilled in that although Jesus died and was buried, he was not left in the tomb as a dead corpse to face corruption, but was on the third day raised to life, never to die again, destroying the sting of death and bringing victory over the grave and this is also going to be the experience of all who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as we see from Pauls letter to Corinth in chapter 15 ‘. . . Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (vv54b-57) Job who preceded David chronologically had the same confident assurance when he said in Job 19:25-26 ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God . . .’ They both along with many other Old Testament saints had a confident trust in God that made them assured of a future resurrection, they fully trusted and believed that although they would die and go down into the grave, God would not abandon them, in other words it was not going to be the end, God had a wonderful future planned and prepared, and it involved a resurrection of the body, and we go to Paul again in 1 Corinthians who says ‘So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body . . . Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.’ (vv42-44, 51-53) The KJV puts it this way ‘For this corruptible must put on incorruption’
Thank God for the sure resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for his resurrection is the firstfruits or the guarantee that more will follow, and for those of us who have trusted Jesus it is a resurrection to eternal life. ‘But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)
May we rest in confidence with the same words that Job expressed ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God . . .’ It just so happens that I am preparing this devotion on the morning that Sheila left this world, one who had lived knowing Jesus and we can be confident that she has gone to her eternal reward in his eternal presence, and so it will be for all of us when that moment of our own departure arrives, quoting Paul again ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.’ We will continue tomorrow.