declaring acceptance
What if we don’t try to avoid it, but trust that there will be something more afterwards?
Psalm 49:14-15
…straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away; Sheol shall be their home. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol.
In my times of dire trouble, Churchladies are very fond of telling me to pray for relief. “Petition the LORD for help!” “Ask for protection!” “Beg for deliverance, and merciful God will respond!”
And while that kind of prayer does show up in Scripture, this Psalmist has a different approach; her poem doesn’t ask for anything. It doesn’t ask for protection from enemies or deliverance or healing. She has accepted that death is the very next thing for her, but relaxes knowing that it will also take her persecutors, no matter how rich or powerful they seem to be now.
What’s more, instead of asking God for salvation, she states it as schadenfreude-filled fact: “My enemies will stay dead but I won’t because God will raise my soul out from the underworld.” Which reads more like a haughty command than a desperate request.
The worst is coming for enemies and allies alike. What if we don’t try to avoid it, but trust that there will be something more afterwards? Does it help you to remember that that your spiritual ancestors relied on that joy to get them through too?