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Death, then, is pictured as a grim shepherd. And for the wicked that is their end: death feeds on them.
That's why the psalmist says in verse 16, "Do not be overawed when a man grows rich and the splendor of his house increases; for he takes nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him."
When people die, they die naked. They do not take with them their wardrobe. They do not take with them their portfolio. They do not take with them their bank account. They do not take with them their splendor. And when a wealthy person dies, while we admired him when he lived, we do not envy him when he dies: "While he lived, he counted himself blessed—and men praise you when you prosper—he will join the generation of his fathers" (vv. 18-19).
Light ahead
When H. L. Hunt died, he was the third-richest man in the world. His funeral took place in the First Baptist Church in Dallas. Probably 2,000 people attended. But no one in that audience wanted to be the guest of honor at that funeral. While people envied H. L. Hunt in his life, nobody envied him in his death. He was gone. As the psalm says, "He will not see the light of life" (19).
The last phrase has a story behind it. People in ancient cultures would build large sepulchers, and when a person died, they would take the corpse, open the door of the tomb, go inside, and place the body on a ledge. Then they would close the door of the tomb.
The corpse would be in the darkness. The only time that changed was when someone else died, and for a moment the door opened while the new corpse was placed inside. Even though a shaft of light got into the tomb, those who were dead could not see it.
The wicked, the psalmist says, go into the darkness of the tomb, but they also go into the darkness of eternity. Those who live apart from God live in eternal darkness. They live apart from the light. That's part of the understanding: when life is over, it is not over. When the act is done, the play continues. They live in eternal darkness forever.
On the other hand, he says in verse 14, "The upright will rule over them in the morning," and in verse 15, "But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself." While the wicked are going out into the night of the soul, out into an eternal darkness, the righteous rule over them in the morning. In the Bible, out of the night comes the day. Out of the darkness there comes the light. For those who are righteous, ahead of them there is light.
"God will redeem my life from the grave. He will surely take me to himself," the psalmist says. Back in verse 8, he said there is no price a person can pay to be redeemed from death. There's no amount of money that will keep death from happening. But for the righteous, God can pay the ransom. God is able to deliver the righteous from death into eternal life.
When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you are putting your trust in the God of resurrection. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is God and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved," Paul wrote to the Romans (10:9). What is significant about believing that Jesus rose from the dead is trusting that more than 1,900 years ago Jesus came forth from the grave and was a victor over death and darkness. The promise is that what happened to him will happen to us.
