Death and What Comes After (in the Psalms)

So right now I'm (supposed to be) writing an essay for last semester's Old Testament class on "Life, Death and Conceptions of the Afterlife in the Old Testament and Ancient Near East" (yes, studying theology is simply awesome). The particular essay topic is the relationship with God after death, as portrayed in the Psalms. I have learnt a lot from reading into the topic these last few days - so now before I put it all down academic-style in German (which I'll probably end up doing sometime between 10 and 2 at night, as usually happens, ha...) I'll share some of my "gleanings" with you guys~

I don't know if you're aware (and I suspect some people don't want to be?) but many texts in the Old Testament speak about death really being the end. As in: the dead are just gone, cut off from God, they don't think of Him and He doesn't think of them (Psalm 30:10, 88:5). According to such texts, there is no life after death.

 Why?
Because God made it so (Ps 89:47).
Because of our sinfulness (Ps 90:7-9 - cf. Gen 3).
In the Ancient Near East there was a concept of "existence" after death in a sort of stupour state in an "Underworld" (in the OT: Sheol) - in the OT, God has no contact with Sheol: He is a God of the living, not the dead.

But this left open questions:
- How to reconcile the God of salvation (Ps 88:1, 90:1) with the God who allows suffering and death - in particular if death means being parted from God, and worship ceasing, God not being glorified by the dead (i.e. God doesn't take benefit out of His people dying, either) (Ps 88:10-12; Ps 30:9)
- How to solve the problem of justice: evil people getting rich and living long and comfortable lives (never getting punished in life), while the good and innocent suffer (Ps 49, Ps 73)

The Psalms give some answers - hope of relationship with God continuing even after death.
Ps 139:7-8 shows that Sheol / the "realm of the dead" is not completely separate from God or out of His reach, at all. God is the all-powerful ruler of everything.

Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

God is close, even in death.

Ps 90 and 103 call to living in obedience to God and His covenant (Ps 103:17-18), in the awareness that our days are numbered (Ps 90:11). The hope expressed especially by Ps 103:17-18 is that God, whose grace and faithfulness never end, will continue being faithful even after death, if we are faithful to Him in this life.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
    on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments.

God's faithfulness continues after we die.

  Ps 49 and 73 come closest to actually speaking of God saving His people out of death. (Interesting point: it speaks only of God's people, of the "just" - not everybody!) Ps 49:16 speaks quite clearly of being taken out from among the dead, and having communion with God:

But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
    for he will receive me.

God saves His people out of death, so that they can be with Him.


What I find interesting (and food for thought):
I think maybe we ought to take seriously what the OT says about death being the end. In the sense that we should not take "eternity" for granted. We are not immortal. (The concept of the "immortal soul", btw, is from Greek philosophy, not from the Bible.) The way things "naturally" are is, according to the Bible, that we are mortal, and that life is really "over" with death. That is how God made it (Ps 89).
BUT that of course does not mean there is no eternity with God. There is (it's all over the New Testament)! But it's a gift, it's pure grace.

I feel this is important to consider particularly when I hear people complain about it not being fair that "some people go to heaven and some don't". Recently, reading the Gospel of Matthew, I considered the meaning of Mt 5:20

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

What Jesus is saying here is not that the Pharisees are such terrible people and we should be better than them (i.e. not hypocrites and such). The scribes and Pharisees were people who had made it their full-time business to study and apply the word of God. What Jesus is saying here is basically that we can't, through our own works and actions, get to heaven. And I think if people bring the "it's unfair some people go to heaven and others don't" argument, it might be helpful to consider: no one "goes to heaven"; heaven is pretty much barred to us since the Fall. EXCEPT through God's grace!

In Jesus, God has opened us the way to heaven. Jesus is the answer to the hopes of the people who wrote the Psalms and believed that God would grant us eternal communion with Him. When people talk about "unfair", then maybe a reply to them would be to correct their "starting point". The starting point should not be that God "divides" between "goodies" and "baddies". The starting point is that we are all (goodies and baddies) going to die and that's it. And then God comes in and opens the doors to heaven, shows us the way there. Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life" - no one comes to God except through Him. It's not about God letting some people in and some not - He lets everyone in, He has rolled out the red carpet leading there. It's our own problem if we refuse to take it.


I hope my argumentation / conclusions (especially the last bit) aren't too weird / confusing. It might sound jarring, if one is used to thinking in terms of immortal souls. But what I have learnt from this study is another aspect of what Jesus has done for us, which Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15:55

“Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

Jesus has conquered death for us. IF we were all "immortal" anyway, what "new" did He do? But we were not immortal from the first. Eternity is not something to be taken for granted, not something we all "naturally" receive (or as long as we are "good enough"). It is God's grace, something we have no control over (even if we live passionately for His word like the scribes and Pharisees) - it is given to us for free in Jesus Christ. Whether we have eternal life depends on Jesus alone, on allegiance with Him, belonging to Him.


_{[I wish this were my essay already, then it would be finished... but now I have to repeat everything in German with footnotes and more detail and with a different ending. Blaaaaah... ]
[If you're looking up some of the text references and the verse count I've given seems off, check the verse before or the verse after... I use the Luther translation which has different verse counts for most of the Psalms, so sometimes putting the right verse was just guesswork, sorry... ]}