God, I’m Afraid of Dying

E-mail can really mess you up. Consider the case of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida last winter. His wife happened to be away on a business trip and she was planning to fly down and join him in Florida the next day. When the man reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email from his laptop to let her know that he’d gotten there safely.

Unfortunately, as he was typing in her email address, he missed one letter, and his email was directed instead to the wife of an elderly preacher who had just died the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at her computer screen, let out an anguished cry, and fell to the floor in a dead faint. Hearing this, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

My dearest sweetheart,

I just got checked in. Everything is prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

P.S. It sure is hot down here!

Death is a subject that we’re not real comfortable with. We try to make inane jokes about it—we try to find some humor in it—but somewhere along the line, sooner or later, the laughter is going to stick in our throats. Death casts a long shadow over us.

One day a businessman bought a newspaper on his way to work. As he settled down to read it on the train, he happened to notice that none of the headlines on the front page were familiar to him. Glancing at the date, he made the shocking discovery that this unique newspaper was dated from exactly one year in the future. It related stories that had not happened yet, news items that had not yet occurred.

Intrigued, the man turned to the sports pages. There he read the scores of games that had not yet been played; he read of champions that had not yet been crowned. He turned to the financial section, where he saw that certain stocks had risen dramatically, while others had fallen.

He began to think with excitement of the opportunities afforded him by this amazing newspaper from the future. A couple of smart bets here, a few wise investments there, and a fortune could be his for the making. In rising enthusiasm, he turned to the next page, only to find that he was looking at a picture of himself. It was the obituary page, and there in stark sentences, the businessman read of his own death.

Death puts life into a different perspective. Death has a way of changing our sense of values. The Trappist monks have a strange custom when it comes to death. In order to remind themselves of their own mortality, they always maintain on the grounds of their monastery an open grave. When one of their members dies, he is placed in the grave, then another grave is dug and left open to await the next monk who will die.

We live in a culture that tries very hard to ignore death. We speak of it euphemistically: we don’t say that someone died, we say that they “passed away”. At the funeral home, we cover death with flowers. At the cemetery, we put astroturf over the pile of dirt that is going to be used to cover the coffin. We try as hard as we can to keep death at arm’s length. And most of the time, we prefer not to think about it at all.

We want to think about death today. You say “Wow.. what an uplifting sermon this is going to be. I’m really glad I came today!” But seriously, the Bible has a lot to say about death. And if we learn to think biblically about death, then we’ll be better equipped to live life.

So we’re going to turn to Psalm 49, because Ps. 49 is a psalm about death. There are other psalms I could have chosen, such as Psalm 22, or Psalm 88. There is a lot of writing about death in the psalms, because death was a subject that the psalmists wrestled with.

Let’s look at Psalm 49 together…

1 Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world,

2 both low and high, rich and poor alike:

3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the utterance from my heart will give understanding.

4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:

This Psalm begins with a rather unusual introduction for a psalm. Verses 1-4 sound like something you might read in the book of Proverbs. Indeed, many people feel that Ps. 49 is more like the wisdom writing of the Proverbs than any other psalm.

In the first four verses, the Psalmist basically says: “Hear me; listen up; I have some wisdom for you. It’s for everybody; for rich and poor—I’ll even sing it for you while I play on my harp.” He’s asking for our attention. And maybe it’s all the more appropriate for him to do that, given that he’s going to be talking about a subject we would prefer NOT to think about.

So the first four verses of this Psalm are an introduction. Now the next ten verses of this Psalm comprise the main theme of what he has to say. And that theme can be stated in four words:

Death is Our Destiny

Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me—those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?

No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—that he should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves.

But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. Selah

Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.

What do we learn about death in these verses? Three things:

1. it is inescapable

2. it is indiscriminate

3. it is insatiable

1. Death is inescapable:

The Bible says, in many places, but nowhere better than right here in the Forty-ninth Psalm, that death is the great leveler of persons. Whether you are a pauper or a prince, a simpleton or a scholar, you are going to die.

The Psalmist begins by talking about the rich—people who “trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches.” But he goes on to say in verse 7 “Doesn’t matter how rich they are, they can’t buy their way out of dying.” Nobody can purchase immortality.

No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—that he should live on forever and not see decay.

You can’t buy immortality, no matter how rich you are—in the face of death, you are broke. Because death is inescapable.

So it doesn’t matter how rich you are, and it doesn’t matter how smart you are, because…

2. Death is indiscriminate

Look at verse 10

For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others.

If you were to visit some of the great universities of our land, you’d see hanging on the walls portraits of the brilliant men and women who founded those schools, who supported them, who taught in them. Yet all of them were enrolled in Death 101, because death is part of the curriculum of life and no one is exempt.

The longshoreman philosopher Eric Hopper, who himself died in 1983, cynically wrote this about death… “Night closes in on all of us. We’re condemned to death at birth, and life is a bus-ride to the place of execution. All of our squabbling and vying are about seats in the bus, and the ride is over before you know it.”

Death is indiscriminate. Today the obituary pages of the Toronto newspapers have long lists of people who have died in the past 48 hours. Some of those names are famous, some are unknown. Some of those people were very accomplished and successful; some of them didn’t do much. Some were wealthy, some were poor. Some were educated, some were ignorant.

But all of them are dead. Because death is very democratic; death is indiscriminate.

3. And death is insatiable. Look at v. 14…

Psalm 49:14 Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them.

The ancient Canaanites had a god named Mot who was the god of death. And they pictured him as a monster with an insatiable appetite. And they wrote an inscription about him which warns “Do not approach Mot, lest he put you like a lamb into his mouth.” Death is a ravenous enemy.

Several years ago, my older brother Phil died suddenly when he was just 44 years of age. He was in the prime of life, a successful businessman, a good athlete, a strong Christian leader. In May of 1984, he began to have headaches. His doctor sent him to a neurologist. They ran tests. They discovered a tumor growing on his optic nerve.

They did surgery in June, but couldn’t remove it all, so they put him on chemotherapy. I went sailing with him in July at his cottage in the Laurentians—he was weakened and sickened by the chemo. It was the last time I saw him alive. By August he was dead. He left behind a family of five children; the youngest of which was three.

Death is insatiable. Death is indiscriminate. Death is inescapable. Because Death is our destiny.

And if that were the end of the story, then life would be pretty hopeless.

But Psalm 49:15 stands like a beacon of hope in the middle of this tragedy.

But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. Selah

The “selah”, roughly translated from the Hebrew means… “YESSSSS!!!”s

Remember the theme of this Psalm? Death is our destiny? That theme is trumped by the theme of this one verse: God is our deliverer.

What do we learn about our deliverance?

1. It is priceless.

Verse 7 anticipated this: No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—that he should live on forever and not see decay.

The price to purchase immortality is far beyond the means of any of us to pay. But it isn’t too much for God to pay. And that is exactly what he did in the person of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us

The penalty for breaking God’s law, of course, is death. How did Christ redeem us? By giving up his life in exchange for ours.

1 Peter 1:18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed… but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

You say: To whom was this ransom paid? Well, for many, many years in early church history, Christians thought that this ransom had to have been paid to the devil, who was holding us hostage. Jesus had to pay this debt to him so that he would release us.

But then in the Middle Ages, along came an Italian theologian who re-thought this whole issue in light of what the Bible actually teaches. This man’s name was Anselm, and in the year 1093, he became the archbishop of Canterbury.

Anselm wrote a book entitled: Cur Deus Homo, or literally, Why God Man? It is one of the most significant books that has ever been written. In this book, Anselm shows that man’s sin against God places us in debt—not to Satan—but to God Himself. Because, as God’s creatures, when we break God’s law, we are failing to render to God the righteousness that is due Him. We are robbing God of something that belongs to Him—our obedience. That, said Anselm, is the very essence of sin. Our sin is an affront to God. It dishonors God. And it places us in relation to God as debtors with a great debt that we owe—a debt that is impossible for us to pay.

Anselm wrote “if anyone imagines that God can simply forgive us as we forgive others, that person has not yet considered the seriousness of sin.” God cannot simply sweep our sin under the rug and pretend it didn’t happen. There is a debt that has been incurred; there is a ransom that has to be paid.

The only possible solution was for God to pay our debt by becoming a man himself and dying in our place. That is Cur Deus Homo… why God became a man.

So our deliverance is priceless. It cost God the life of his Son Jesus.

2. Our deliverance is personal

Verse 15 says “But God will redeem my life from the grave…”

We have learned that death is indiscriminate—in the face of death, one person is the same as another. There’s no distinction.

But in the eyes of God, every person is unique—an individual created in God’s own image and likeness. And the Scripture attests to the fact that God knows us personally, as individuals.

When Jesus hung on the cross, he was dying for your sins as an individual. And when he redeems us, he redeems us personally, as individuals.

Psalm 116:15 = Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

We matter to God as individuals.

Jesus said in Matthew 10… “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

3. Our deliverance is purposeful

Verse 15 says “But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.”

The purpose of our redemption is so that we might be with God forever. Remember the words of Jesus in John 14…

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

The most amazing thing is that God wants to be with us. He wants to share eternity with us! And we can be with him for all eternity if we put our trust in Jesus Christ.

So even though death is our destiny, God is our deliverer.

And in the last five verses of this Psalm, the psalmist encourages us to remember that. To keep our heads on straight. Keep a right perspective on what life is all about.

Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him. Though while he lived he counted himself blessed—and men praise you when you prosper—he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of life. A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

If you live life as though accumulating things is what it’s all about, you’re a fool. Because death is coming and you can’t take it with you.

J. P. Morgan was one of the richest men alive at the beginning of the 20th century. When he died, two of his business associates were talking about the size of his fortune. One of them said “I wonder how much he left?” The other man replied “He left it all.”

Something you’ll never see is a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer.

There’s an old Jewish saying that we are born with our fists clenched. And we spend all of our lives in a struggle to accumulate things. But when we die, we die with our hands open and we have to leave it all behind.

How much wiser it is to live for that which cannot perish, or spoil, or fade—that inheritance that is kept in heaven for us.

______

So God, I’m afraid of dying. It’s not something that I look forward to. It’ll be a scary experience and perhaps a painful experience.

But I’m confident that you’re going to deliver me from the grave because of what Jesus did, and that I’m going to get to spend eternity with you.

Thank you for removing the sting of death.