The Inevitability of Death! Psalm 49:9-20

Text: “For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.”

Psalm 49:10.

Good morning, mortal Christian!  The Lord God has opened your eyes and mine early, to realise that our time on earth is a limited time, and what we do with the time we are granted by God must be put to good use.  However, our focus has been Divinely shifted from things that are merely temporal, things that must soon pass away, and centred squarely on things Eternal, things that will determine exactly where our immortal, God-given, souls will spend that everlasting age of timelessness: Heaven or Hell.  Death for each of us is inevitable (if the Lord Jesus delays His return), but, praise God, we can be sure of our immortal soul’s Eternal destination, by trusting in our Saviour, the Living Lord Jesus Christ.  Hallelujah!

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Verse 9.  “No price could secure for any man That he should still live forever, and not see corruption (death). Mad are men now after gold; what would they be if it could buy the elixir of immortality?  Gold is lavished out of the bag to cheat the worm of the poor body by embalming it, or enshrining it in a coffin of lead, but it is a miserable business, a very burlesque and comedy.  As for the soul, it is too subtle a thing to be detained when it hears the Divine command to soar through tracks unknown.  Never, therefore, will we fear those base nibblers at our heels, whose boasted treasure prove to be so powerless to save.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 228)

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” (Martin Luther 1483-1546)

Some famous person once said that there are two things that are certain in this life: death and taxes.  There is much wisdom in this witty saying, especially in referring to the absolute certainty of death.  We mortals must all come to the place of death.  Death is no respecter of persons, fact!

Verse 10. “Likewise the fool and the brutish person perish. Folly has no immunity from death.  Off goes the jester’s cap, as well as the student’s gown.  Jollity cannot laugh off the dying hour; Death, who visits the university, does not spare the tavern.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 228)

Death comes to mankind because of SIN: Adam’s original sin, and the sins each individual person commits throughout his/her life. 

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely DIE.”  (Genesis 2:16-17)

“Behold (look, and fully understand) all souls are Mine (God’s); as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”  (Ezekiel 18:4)

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (i.e. Christ’s pure righteousness).”  (Romans 3:23)

If death, therefore, is so an inevitable outcome for mankind, what follows must be fully acknowledged as another inevitability – God’s judgement on the souls of those that die in sin.

“...It is appointed unto men (and women, of course) once to die, but after this the judgement.”  (Hebrews 9:27)

God’s righteous judgement (condemnation) is as equally inevitable as death, if the person dying dies without being justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and His full pardoning Atonement made to redeem sinners, at Calvary’s Cross.  That Christ-rejecting soul must look forward in death to the fearful judgement of a Creator Lord God Who detests all sin and must punish the guilty, if He is to remain an impeccably HOLY Lord God Almighty.

If the Lord God were to condone, allow, or by-pass just one sin – His Divine credentials, as it were, would be infinitely reduced to a sub-standard imperfection in true Holiness!  No sin, therefore, can ever be permitted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Natural birth only directs the soul to Hell – Spiritual Regeneration, the new birth, is absolutely necessary for any soul’s entrance into God’s Holy Heaven.

“Jesus answered and said unto him (Nicodemus), Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.”  (John 3:3)

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water AND of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.”  (John 3:5)

Spiritual Regeneration (Born Again) takes us out of the natural state of sinfulness, covers us with the redeeming Blood of God’s Lamb, Christ Jesus, and grants us, by faith, Christ’s own level of true righteousness to permit us free access into the Holy Kingdom of Heaven.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold (look and understand), all things are become new.  And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation...”  (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)

Verse 15. “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. Forth from that temporary resting-place we shall come in due time, quickened by Divine energy.  Like our risen Head, we cannot be holden by the bands of the grave; redemption has emancipated us from the slavery of death.  No redemption could man find in riches, but God has found it in the Blood of His dear Son.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 229)

Thus we see afresh that life, death, judgement, and one’s destination for Eternity, are all clearly laid out for us to learn and understand in our Bibles.  Praise God for faith to believe!

Thought: “So ends the minstrel’s lay.  Comforting as the theme is to the righteous, it is full of warning to the worldly.  Hear ye it, O ye rich and poor.  Give ear to it, ye nations of the earth.”  (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 230)