"Through Death and Beyond"

(Tell the next generation) that this is God,

our God forever and ever.

He will guide us forever. —Psalm 48:14

I caught a sequence on Sports Center the other day in which the sportscaster noted that an aging, ailing former-NFL player was "listed as day to day." But then he added an unexpectedly profound philosophical one-liner, "But then again, aren’t we all?"

Indeed. "Out, out, brief candle!”

But here, in this old poem there is a happy surprise: Literally, the text reads "This is God, our God forever and ever. He will lead us beyond dying," i.e., "through death and beyond.” [The Hebrew verb translated “lead” refers to a shepherd’s work. Indeed the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, uses poimainei, “he will shepherd us" through the dying process.] 

The love, the joy, the warmth of fellowship that we enjoy each day with our Lord cannot be brought to an end by death. Once we've been joined to the eternal God—our God through Jesus Christ—how can we not be with him and he with us forever? Indeed, when our time comes, he will walk with us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and beyond—into life everlasting. He will be “our God forever and ever.”

David Roper

7.23.19