Psalm 88's Portrait of Hell
Part One
Primary Scripture: Psalms 88 NASB
Psalms 88 outlines the isolation (verses 8, 18), intense suffering (verses 9, 15), and perhaps the worst of all, the hopelessness (vs. 14) that an individual with an incurable natural disease can experience.
The psalmist is pleading for deliverance from his illness, short of physical death (verses 10 - 12). His words reveal a desire to be healed in order to go on praising and glorifying God HERE on Earth.
Seeking a physical healing would be, of course, the natural course of action that any human being would take.
However, a spiritually mature believer, having the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2: 16), sees his or her Earthly departure as a "precious" event (Psalms 116: 15), and not something to fear (Psalms 23: 4). The spiritually mature believer will not want to be here on Earth if his or her appointed time of departure has come. He or she will want to be where God wants him or her to be. The change in location that physical death brings is what opens the door to something in which the mature believer looks forward to taking place.
This is not a premature death wish. The advancing disciple will not want to leave this world before completing the individual plan that God has in mind for him or her. On the other hand, the advancing disciple will not desire to remain here on Earth once his or her divine mission has been completed.
The advancing disciple's interest in, or prioritizing of, the things that this world has to offer was left behind long ago along the road to spiritual maturity (Psalms 73: 25).
"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire NOTHING on earth (Psalms 73: 25 NASB). "
The fact that any given disease is incurable, at least as far as medical statistics are concerned, will only intensify the misery of the one suffering who does not have the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2: 16) concerning death.
Suffering physically in order to recover is one thing. Suffering physically only to die anyways, is something else. Suffering is a part of the human experience. Therefore, how we look at suffering, and how respond to it reveals much about where we are along the road to spiritual maturity (1Peter 4).
For some, healing will not come. For them, the ultimate relief from physical pain and suffering will be physical There is a difference between a principle of Scripture and a promise of Scripture. I, being one who has benefited by the intercessory prayers of others, would be the last person to dispute its power of prayer, but if a physical healing was promised in every case, then every sick or injured human being would recover. I would find it hard to believe that there would be anyone critically sick or injured in a hospital for which prayers for recovery were not made, yet people die in such scenarios every day.
For many, the sufferer's only relief from his pain and suffering will come in the form of physical death. I have known many Christians who get to the point that they pray for their departure to come. Others will try to cling on to their earthly existence down to their last breath.
Many of the answers we seek in prayer are already there in the pages of Scripture. For example, the details of our entrance, length of life span, and departure were written down in the book of the Divine Decree (Psalm 139: 16) BEFORE we took in our first breath of natural life.
When God "extends" the length of one's life span in answer to prayer (e.g.), it was and is because God knew of the prayer requests that were going to be made, and what His answer was going to be. The "extended" years were a part of God's plan all along.
People speak of getting a second chance in life. In truth, EVERY day we wake up to is another chance to begin to make the best of our remaining time here on Earth.
The greatest miracle that the individuals that Jesus raised from the dead was NOT being returned to life here on Earth with Man, but to be given eternal life to be experienced for all of Eternity with God. The primary purpose of such miraculous activity was to identify Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
All of individuals that Jesus raised from the dead still had their time of permanent departure ahead of them at their appointed time. In the case of Lazarus, evil (religious) men plotted to kill him as the reports of him being raised from the dead spread among the crowds gathering in Jerusalem. As long as Lazarus was alive, he living proof of Who and What Jesus claimed to be (John 12: 10, 11).
Such omniscience (future knowledge) of ALL past, present, and future sins of the entire human race, was what enabled God the Father to place our individual sins along with the sins of the entire world (1John 2: 2) on the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He shed His atoning blood on the cross nearly 2,000 years ago.
Q. Well, if what's to be is to be, why are still accountable?
A. Because at the time(s) we sin, we do so exercising our God given free will. It's not that God's omniscience of the future makes us sin. It's that God already knew of the choices that each one of us have made, are making, and will make during our appointed time here on Earth.
The Fall of Man was not what God desired, but did not take Him by surprise, having had His plan of salvation in mind BEFORE either the Earth and Man was created (Eph. 1: 4).
Our soul departs after our last breath of natural life has been taken into the body that houses it. When our individual presence here on Earth is no longer a part of the plan of God, we will not be here. As long as we are here, there is a divine purpose for it.
Do not many of us pray for His will (plan) to be done? The timing and circumstances of our physical death are a part of the plan (will) for which we frequently pray!
How much time we spend identifying and executing in God's plan vs. how much time we spend in our own plan is a daily choice we make.
To some degree, we will all experience the separation, isolation, and suffering that physical illnesses, conditions, and trauma can bring. Many of us will suffer the isolation, separation, and suffering that sin can bring.
The good news is that born again believers can look forward to an eternal environment in the new heavens and Earth (Rev. 21) where there will be no physical illness, death, or sin.
The bad news is that although unbelievers will also live on throughout eternity, they will do so in the never-ending environment of the lake of fire (Rev. 20: 15).
. . .
There are cases recorded in Scripture in which physical illness (Numbers 21: 6, 7) and or physical death (Acts 5) was the direct result of sin.
But this certainly does not mean that every physical sickness, condition, or injury is the consequence of sin, as many might assume (John 9: 2, 3).
In some cases, physical iIlness (Job ) and physical pain was, is, or will be the result of actually leading a GODLY life (Job 1: 1/Heb. 11: 35b - 38).
If living a godly life meant a long, prosperous, trouble-free life here on Earth, followed up by a comfortable departure, then Jesus got the short end of the stick. Jesus, lived about 33 years and departed after suffering the most excruciatingly painful means of execution.
Human viewpoint questions the "fairness" in the length of life spans that people experience. Adam, involved in the Fall of Man, got to live 930 years (Gen. 5: 5) here on Earth. Jesus, who provided the means of salvation, only received about 33 years. In both cases, each one received the precise amount of time that each one needed to fulfill the plan that God had in mind. No more, no less. The same can be said for the amount of appointed time given to each one of us.
In some cases, it is one's physical handicap or condition that plays a key role in individual plan that God has in mind for them. Such individuals minister to the logistical needs and interests of others who find themselves facing the same challenges.
When it is an ambassador for Christ providing these services, he or she is in a placed and position to be used of God to tend to the same individual's spiritual needs (e.g. John 3: 5, 7), as well. Tending to the SPIRITUAL needs of others is what gives spiritual significance to EVERYTHING that an ambassador does, be it at home, work, or play.
As long as our souls are in these biological bodies, we are subject to illness and or injury that can be very limiting, painful, and that in some cases be the primary cause of natural death. We all have an appointed (Heb. 9: 27) time (Eccl. 3: 2/Psalms 31: 15) of departure in which conditions, physical illness, aging, and or trauma may very likely play a significant role.
How we handle the knowledge and process of such things may be the greatest testimony of faith in the eyes of those we leave behind.
To some degree, we have all experienced some of the limitations and pain that illness and trauma can temporarily or permanently bring to us while here on Earth.
From divine viewpoint, even if one lived for centuries as did many of the first generations, one's life span on Earth is still relatively brief and temporary (James 4: 14) in comparison to eternity that will NEVER end.
I can tell you from personal experience that one of the greatest spiritual blessings that one can benefit from is to survive an illness or injury that places us in a potentially fatal scenario in which the odds of recovery are not in our favor. It is then and there that you find out if the FACTS that you believed in your head had taken root and grown deep roots o FAITH into your soul. Only if you FAITH (trust and confidence) in your soul, will you experience such things as the peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4: 7), as you endure the suffering and await the outcome.
If it is God's will that you do recover, the experience will go a long way in preparing you for when the inevitable appointed time of your actual departure does come.
One of the reasons that Paul was able to face his immanent beheading (2Tim. 4: 6), was his previous experience in the 3rd Heaven recorded in (2Cor. 12). Some Biblical scholars link this experience to the time Paul was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14: 19).
In any event, from the time of this 2Cor. 12 experience forward, Heaven (for him) was no longer a matter of faith, but a reality that he had already experienced! Paul knew that for him to be absent from his Earthly body meant that he would be present with the Lord in an interim body (See 2Cor. 5) until the Rapture (1Thess. 4: 16, 17) takes place.
There are different ways that a person surviving a life-threatening experience can make use of his/her remaining time here on Earth.
Number one is to learn nothing from the experience, carrying on in the same way before the incident or illness took place, as if it never happened.
Number two, is to "make the best" of the second chance one has been given, by engaging in as much of what THIS world has to offer before it IS time to go.
Number three, is to consider or reaffirm what the primary reason was that he or she was placed on this Earth in the first place, and prioritize one's remaining time accordingly as an advancing disciple (Luke 9: 23) and ambassador (2Cor. 5: 20) of the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 1: 21).
"For to me, to live is (for) Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1: 21 NASB parentheses mine)."
Many people will be given what they consider to be a second chance. The truth is, EVERY day we wake up provides us with the opportunity to make the best of the time we have remaining here on Earth. What "making the best" means will be determined by the viewpoint (divine vs. human) that you CHOOSE to embrace.
End of Part One...
Part One
Primary Scripture: Psalms 88 NASB
Psalms 88 outlines the isolation (verses 8, 18), intense suffering (verses 9, 15), and perhaps the worst of all, the hopelessness (vs. 14) that an individual with an incurable natural disease can experience.
The psalmist is pleading for deliverance from his illness, short of physical death (verses 10 - 12). His words reveal a desire to be healed in order to go on praising and glorifying God HERE on Earth.
Seeking a physical healing would be, of course, the natural course of action that any human being would take.
However, a spiritually mature believer, having the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2: 16), sees his or her Earthly departure as a "precious" event (Psalms 116: 15), and not something to fear (Psalms 23: 4). The spiritually mature believer will not want to be here on Earth if his or her appointed time of departure has come. He or she will want to be where God wants him or her to be. The change in location that physical death brings is what opens the door to something in which the mature believer looks forward to taking place.
This is not a premature death wish. The advancing disciple will not want to leave this world before completing the individual plan that God has in mind for him or her. On the other hand, the advancing disciple will not desire to remain here on Earth once his or her divine mission has been completed.
The advancing disciple's interest in, or prioritizing of, the things that this world has to offer was left behind long ago along the road to spiritual maturity (Psalms 73: 25).
"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire NOTHING on earth (Psalms 73: 25 NASB). "
The fact that any given disease is incurable, at least as far as medical statistics are concerned, will only intensify the misery of the one suffering who does not have the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2: 16) concerning death.
Suffering physically in order to recover is one thing. Suffering physically only to die anyways, is something else. Suffering is a part of the human experience. Therefore, how we look at suffering, and how respond to it reveals much about where we are along the road to spiritual maturity (1Peter 4).
For some, healing will not come. For them, the ultimate relief from physical pain and suffering will be physical There is a difference between a principle of Scripture and a promise of Scripture. I, being one who has benefited by the intercessory prayers of others, would be the last person to dispute its power of prayer, but if a physical healing was promised in every case, then every sick or injured human being would recover. I would find it hard to believe that there would be anyone critically sick or injured in a hospital for which prayers for recovery were not made, yet people die in such scenarios every day.
For many, the sufferer's only relief from his pain and suffering will come in the form of physical death. I have known many Christians who get to the point that they pray for their departure to come. Others will try to cling on to their earthly existence down to their last breath.
Many of the answers we seek in prayer are already there in the pages of Scripture. For example, the details of our entrance, length of life span, and departure were written down in the book of the Divine Decree (Psalm 139: 16) BEFORE we took in our first breath of natural life.
When God "extends" the length of one's life span in answer to prayer (e.g.), it was and is because God knew of the prayer requests that were going to be made, and what His answer was going to be. The "extended" years were a part of God's plan all along.
People speak of getting a second chance in life. In truth, EVERY day we wake up to is another chance to begin to make the best of our remaining time here on Earth.
The greatest miracle that the individuals that Jesus raised from the dead was NOT being returned to life here on Earth with Man, but to be given eternal life to be experienced for all of Eternity with God. The primary purpose of such miraculous activity was to identify Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
All of individuals that Jesus raised from the dead still had their time of permanent departure ahead of them at their appointed time. In the case of Lazarus, evil (religious) men plotted to kill him as the reports of him being raised from the dead spread among the crowds gathering in Jerusalem. As long as Lazarus was alive, he living proof of Who and What Jesus claimed to be (John 12: 10, 11).
Such omniscience (future knowledge) of ALL past, present, and future sins of the entire human race, was what enabled God the Father to place our individual sins along with the sins of the entire world (1John 2: 2) on the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He shed His atoning blood on the cross nearly 2,000 years ago.
Q. Well, if what's to be is to be, why are still accountable?
A. Because at the time(s) we sin, we do so exercising our God given free will. It's not that God's omniscience of the future makes us sin. It's that God already knew of the choices that each one of us have made, are making, and will make during our appointed time here on Earth.
The Fall of Man was not what God desired, but did not take Him by surprise, having had His plan of salvation in mind BEFORE either the Earth and Man was created (Eph. 1: 4).
Our soul departs after our last breath of natural life has been taken into the body that houses it. When our individual presence here on Earth is no longer a part of the plan of God, we will not be here. As long as we are here, there is a divine purpose for it.
Do not many of us pray for His will (plan) to be done? The timing and circumstances of our physical death are a part of the plan (will) for which we frequently pray!
How much time we spend identifying and executing in God's plan vs. how much time we spend in our own plan is a daily choice we make.
To some degree, we will all experience the separation, isolation, and suffering that physical illnesses, conditions, and trauma can bring. Many of us will suffer the isolation, separation, and suffering that sin can bring.
The good news is that born again believers can look forward to an eternal environment in the new heavens and Earth (Rev. 21) where there will be no physical illness, death, or sin.
The bad news is that although unbelievers will also live on throughout eternity, they will do so in the never-ending environment of the lake of fire (Rev. 20: 15).
. . .
There are cases recorded in Scripture in which physical illness (Numbers 21: 6, 7) and or physical death (Acts 5) was the direct result of sin.
But this certainly does not mean that every physical sickness, condition, or injury is the consequence of sin, as many might assume (John 9: 2, 3).
In some cases, physical iIlness (Job ) and physical pain was, is, or will be the result of actually leading a GODLY life (Job 1: 1/Heb. 11: 35b - 38).
If living a godly life meant a long, prosperous, trouble-free life here on Earth, followed up by a comfortable departure, then Jesus got the short end of the stick. Jesus, lived about 33 years and departed after suffering the most excruciatingly painful means of execution.
Human viewpoint questions the "fairness" in the length of life spans that people experience. Adam, involved in the Fall of Man, got to live 930 years (Gen. 5: 5) here on Earth. Jesus, who provided the means of salvation, only received about 33 years. In both cases, each one received the precise amount of time that each one needed to fulfill the plan that God had in mind. No more, no less. The same can be said for the amount of appointed time given to each one of us.
In some cases, it is one's physical handicap or condition that plays a key role in individual plan that God has in mind for them. Such individuals minister to the logistical needs and interests of others who find themselves facing the same challenges.
When it is an ambassador for Christ providing these services, he or she is in a placed and position to be used of God to tend to the same individual's spiritual needs (e.g. John 3: 5, 7), as well. Tending to the SPIRITUAL needs of others is what gives spiritual significance to EVERYTHING that an ambassador does, be it at home, work, or play.
As long as our souls are in these biological bodies, we are subject to illness and or injury that can be very limiting, painful, and that in some cases be the primary cause of natural death. We all have an appointed (Heb. 9: 27) time (Eccl. 3: 2/Psalms 31: 15) of departure in which conditions, physical illness, aging, and or trauma may very likely play a significant role.
How we handle the knowledge and process of such things may be the greatest testimony of faith in the eyes of those we leave behind.
To some degree, we have all experienced some of the limitations and pain that illness and trauma can temporarily or permanently bring to us while here on Earth.
From divine viewpoint, even if one lived for centuries as did many of the first generations, one's life span on Earth is still relatively brief and temporary (James 4: 14) in comparison to eternity that will NEVER end.
I can tell you from personal experience that one of the greatest spiritual blessings that one can benefit from is to survive an illness or injury that places us in a potentially fatal scenario in which the odds of recovery are not in our favor. It is then and there that you find out if the FACTS that you believed in your head had taken root and grown deep roots o FAITH into your soul. Only if you FAITH (trust and confidence) in your soul, will you experience such things as the peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4: 7), as you endure the suffering and await the outcome.
If it is God's will that you do recover, the experience will go a long way in preparing you for when the inevitable appointed time of your actual departure does come.
One of the reasons that Paul was able to face his immanent beheading (2Tim. 4: 6), was his previous experience in the 3rd Heaven recorded in (2Cor. 12). Some Biblical scholars link this experience to the time Paul was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14: 19).
In any event, from the time of this 2Cor. 12 experience forward, Heaven (for him) was no longer a matter of faith, but a reality that he had already experienced! Paul knew that for him to be absent from his Earthly body meant that he would be present with the Lord in an interim body (See 2Cor. 5) until the Rapture (1Thess. 4: 16, 17) takes place.
There are different ways that a person surviving a life-threatening experience can make use of his/her remaining time here on Earth.
Number one is to learn nothing from the experience, carrying on in the same way before the incident or illness took place, as if it never happened.
Number two, is to "make the best" of the second chance one has been given, by engaging in as much of what THIS world has to offer before it IS time to go.
Number three, is to consider or reaffirm what the primary reason was that he or she was placed on this Earth in the first place, and prioritize one's remaining time accordingly as an advancing disciple (Luke 9: 23) and ambassador (2Cor. 5: 20) of the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 1: 21).
"For to me, to live is (for) Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1: 21 NASB parentheses mine)."
Many people will be given what they consider to be a second chance. The truth is, EVERY day we wake up provides us with the opportunity to make the best of the time we have remaining here on Earth. What "making the best" means will be determined by the viewpoint (divine vs. human) that you CHOOSE to embrace.
End of Part One...