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Several years ago Susan Jacoby wrote a book, Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age (Vintage Books, 2012). In this book, she wants to serve as a reality instructor. She wrote this book because she is very concerned about how our culture denies the reality of death and aging. She doesn’t hold back from communicating the stark realities about chronic, degenerative, irreversible diseases. With great sadness, Ms. Jacoby does not hide her political or religious convictions in the book. She long ago shed any notion of belief in God or the supernatural and seemingly grew cynical and bitter because of the stark realities of death and disease. She notes that this especially takes its toll upon widows and older women that often in our society do not have the financial wherewithal to take care of themselves. Indeed, she ends up advocating increased taxation of citizens so that the state, through greater governmental care, can bring aid and comfort for old age. Even more alarmingly, she became a strong advocate of doctor-assisted suicide in order to ameliorate the problem.
In the last year, we also have all been reminded about the fragility of life and the uncertainties that can come with disease and death: COVID, a plummeting economy, violence in the streets almost unparalleled in history. Often in such times, we turn to the Psalter for comfort. Today, I’d like to take the reader on a brief survey of a familiar Psalm: Psalm 91.
“Nevertheless, Christ prevails. That is what this Psalm teaches, and that is why you can trust with your whole heart in the living God even in a dangerous, uncertain, and hostile world.”
Thanks be to God that there is another servant, another son, who would come and be a faithful covenant servant. Although life has its travails. Although Israel fails. Nevertheless, Christ prevails. That is what this Psalm teaches, and that is why you can trust with your whole heart in the living God even in a dangerous, uncertain, and hostile world.
Just as the first Adam had a probation in which he failed to succeed, so too did Israel fail in their probation. But Christ does not. As the writer to the Hebrews 5:7-8 says:
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek (ESV).
Did you notice the two familiar verses from this Psalm that are quoted in the New Testament (in several places) regarding Jesus’ temptation? Let us choose Matthew, for example (4: 5-8), where the devil takes Jesus to the Holy City and to the very pinnacle of the temple and says “Throw Yourself down!” for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Now there is a quote of vv. 11-12 of Psalm 91.
But our Lord and savior, the great “head-crusher” God/Man, recognized the bait and did not fall for the hook; rather, he responds with confident trust in God, fully obeying, not turning back from his mission, not wavering in his duty, nor shirking his great task for which He had come: to destroy the works of the devil, to be a propitiating sacrifice for his own, to fulfill all righteousness, to be the Captain of our faith and lead a whole train of captives to the other side of the Jordan and into the world to come. Although Israel fails to keep the terms of the covenant. Although we fail to do all that God commands as well, nevertheless, Jesus Christ’s obedience secures for us the blessings of the covenant and moreover the promises of this Psalm, ultimately.
But then the question is raised again for us as it was at the beginning, “Has the Psalm promised too much?” No, the better question is, “when will we experience the fullness of these hard-won blessings and promises?”
The answer of course is not in this life alone. Has COVID and many other uncertainties brought hardship for many, and even death for some? Yes, there is a great antidote against bitterness and lashing out in angry tirades in the midst of life’s uncertainties: the sure promises of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact of the matter is that Christ has inaugurated His kingdom and He already has and does bring some measure of blessing in this life, some measure of substantial blessing. We believe in a pilgrim theology, which believes in a theology of glory to come when Christ arrives at his second coming. At that time, He will bring the fullness of covenant blessings which He has merited on our behalf. Then the blackness of sin, disease and pestilence, marauding enemies attacking us and slandering us, loneliness and heartache, the effects of the common curse with all its frightful horrors in this life will come to a complete end. That is the glorious message we have to offer and what we are trying very hard to help our students communicate, whether they join us in the classroom, or are forced for a myriad of reasons to join our classes online during this extraordinary time.
In closing, let’s remind ourselves of the glorious summation found in the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 9 (Q & A, #26):
What do you believe when you say: “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth?”
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ his Son. I trust him so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and he will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because he is an almighty God; he desires to do this because he is a faithful Father.
