You Will not Leave Me in Hell

Introduction

Have you ever heard a message and it seemed like the whole thing was based on a bible verse that was just taken out of context? As I was studying I came across these funny uses of verses out of context:

When you wife sends you to the doghouse:

Proverbs 21:19 “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, Than with a contentious and an angry woman.”

When you have to have the final word in an argument:

Job 27:5 “God forbid that I should justify you: Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.”

When your husband is digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole:

Job 13:5 “O that ye would altogether hold your peace! And it should be your wisdom.”

When you really need to go to the bathroom:

Jeremiah 4:19 “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; My heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, Because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.”

These are meant to be funny unfortunately, sometimes it can be a serious matter when verses are taken out of context. It can end up in false ideas, it can put burdens on people that God never intended, or it can be used to hurt people. Paul confronted false teachers who twisted scripture. So as I began to study for my easter sermon this week I came across an easter prophecy in

Acts 2:25–28 “For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.”

Peter in this sermon claims that these verse written by David thousands of years earlier were not actually about David but were about Jesus. In vs 29, He claims that this couldn’t be about David because David is dead. Then in vs 31, Peter concludes that Christ’s resurrection from the dead was the fulfillment of this passage. But Peter wasn’t the only one who read these verses and came to this conclusion. Later in

Acts 13:35–38 “Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:”

Paul who claimed to have gotten his gospel from God Himself and not the other Apostles, says exactly the same thing. Today I want us to look at Psalm 16, the passage that they were both quoting because it seems as if they were quoting these verses out of context. Considering our faith is dependent on this it is important to dig into the passage and along the way, I believe we will discover and greater, more personal confidence in the application of this passage.

The Danger

Let’s start by setting the scene. While we do not know much about the background events that caused David to write this Psalm, we do know something of what was on David’s heart.

Preserve me vs 1 Clearly, David was concerned about being protected and delivered from some kind of problem. Some commentators have tried to place this passage right after Samuel anoints David to be king, but the language does not seem to be during the best of times.

Those who serve another God will have sorrow vs 4- this comment about those who serve other gods may seem to be random, but it is contrasting how God takes care of his people with how other people are taken care of by their gods. Often when David made statements like this in other psalms it was because other nations were opposing the people of God.

I will not be moved vs 8 - why would David be tempted to be moved. He must have been facing something. I imagine David being like an Oklahoman on one of those 70 mph wind days. The wind is beating us down, but we keep pushing forward. We refuse to be pushed back.

Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell vs 10 The word hell here is the Hebrew word sheol which doesn’t primarily speak of eternal punishment. Rather it is the word for the underworld and is often translated the grave. David was obviously facing things that made him fear death. In Psalm 23:4 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” David often faced times when he was afraid even for his own life.

Hell- (Heb) sheol- the underworld, the place where the dead reside, the grave

These four description give us some insight into why David was writing this Psalm. David faced oppressive, difficult, even deadly situations in his life. Think of his bare handed battle with a lion and a bear. Have you ever tried to fight a lion with no weapons? What about King Saul chasing David into the wilderness? Many times Saul’s army closed in and David could have feared for his life. Then the many battles he was in and the uprisings from his sons. David faced a lot of danger in his life.

Jesus faced danger on every side and pain as well. Back in Acts 2:22–24 “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”

He was delivered- betrayed by Judas

He was taken- not gently but mocked and beaten People’s opinions of the Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson are varied but I have never seen any film portray how bloody Christ’s beaten was as that film did.

He was crucified- Jesus wasn’t just shot with a gun. He wasn’t beaten with stones. He wasn’t even merely stabbed with a sword. Crucifixion was intended to be a death by strangulation. While you were nailed hands and feet to the cross, you would have to push up on the nails just to get a breathe.

He died- Unlike David, Jesus died from his persecution.

The Promised Blessing

This past year, I have been studying the promises of God in my devotions. In Spurgeon’s Checkbook of Faith a book about the promises of God, he listed this passage as a promise. I would say it is more of an expected result, but essentially they are the same thing. But let’s take our classic Easter prophecy and think of it in the context that David was writing.

Psalm 16:10 “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”

He is facing danger and has asked God to preserve him. David’s confidence is that what ever living hell (using David’s words here) we are going through, whatever, destruction we face in life; God will not leave us there.

This has a literal meaning to it for us as believers because even if we die, we know that someday we will be raised from the dead. Jesus promised John 11:25–26 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” These words were spoken to Martha when her brother Lazarus had died. Death is a part of human existence since the fall. We all face it, but for the believer death is not the end. We may lie in the grave, but there is life after death. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

But I am convinced that David was more focused on his earthly existence being like hell and decay.

Psalm 16:11 “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

Paul immediately says you are not leaving me in sheol; rather you will show me the path of life. The promise here is of a resurrection, but it is of a resurrection to life and joy. David is able to delight even in the midst of threats and danger because he knows God will not leave him in a pit. This path of life is God’s presence. It is in God that David knows He can experience joy.

Scientists have done all kinds of study on happiness. Harvard did a 70 year study on what makes a person truly happy. We often times think it is having no worries, possessing money and things, living life to its fullest. The conclusion of the study was actually that what brings us true happiness in life are committed relationships.

David has latched onto this truth. Notice it is God’s presence, relationship with God that brings true joy in life. The verse ends and says that with God there are unending pleasures. This has a two fold application: believer can you truly say that even in the face of danger, worries, stress that you experience joy? David could, but the only reason David could say this is because he had a thriving relationship with God. For the lost, all kinds of bad things probably plague your life. Sure there are decent good times, but there are some pretty bad times too. Joy, confidence, pleasure and life these are the experience of someone who knows God and walks with Him. Unfortunately, if you have never been saved, this isn’t you.

Who is God for you? The world serves all kinds of other gods, money, fun, sex; but all other gods just multiply sorrow. They do not bring lasting happiness in our lives. So who is God to you?

God was a Holy God- vs 2-3 that phrase my goodness extendeth not to thee means it is nothing without God. Without God, none of us are good enough. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” We all fail, we miss our target goal, we mess up. We are hopelessly flawed. But God is perfect and good and holy. Those who trust in him, he calls saints and excellent ones not because we are better than anyone else. That word saints means holy ones, but in the bible, we are only holy because we receive Jesus righteousness on our account. We are only holy because we are his people and he has made us holy.

God is also called David’s inheritance- vs 5 We all love receiving gifts right. Maybe you are looking forward someday to receiving an inheritance that you think will make the world so much easier for you. To David, God was that inheritance. He was everything David needed. He was everything David longed for.

God was David’s counselor- vs 7 when we face danger and difficult situations, we often don’t know what to do, but David knew that God would guide him and lead his heart into the right path.

David knew that his current experience was not the end of the story. Psalm 30:5 “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” And even in the midst of his trial, he found a source of joy and knew that God would not leave him there in his pain forever. Even life long pain is not forever. It may feel like it is, but our current lives are but a puff of air compared to eternity.

Jesus also did not stay dead. Back in Acts 2:24 “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” Death did not conquer him. The pains of death were not his final experience. Elsewhere we read that Jesus is exalted now at the right hand of the father where David has just said is a place of unending pleasure. Death was not the end of the story for Jesus Christ.

The Response

David’s confidence in God’s promise prompted a response.

Trust vs 1

Blessing vs 7

Making God his focus vs 8

Gladness vs 9

Rest vs 9

What does faith really look like? Is it only happy when life is going well? True faith can do all these things in the midst of sheol. It can respond with a heart of trust and joy even when life rots around it because it knows, it truly knows; this is not the end. God will not leave me here.

Conclusion

This passage is ultimately Messianic foreshadowing. David was a picture of a greater reality. While this passage is completely true of you and me as well as David; it is even more so of Jesus Christ. Jesus literally fulfilled this promise. He went through death and hell for us, but it could not hold him. In the end Jesus rose up again to experience life and the fulness of joy. Jesus’s resurrection is the greatest proof that this promise is true.

If God fulfilled it literally in the life of Jesus, he can do so for you and me in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. We may have sunken into our own little personal graves, but there is a path of life leading out of that pit. That path is Jesus. So the resurrection is a reminder that God keeps his promises, He is faithful to his own and though life stinks right now; God will bring us out of it.

So the promise of Psalm 16 is not taken out of context; rather it is given is greatest possible fulfillment in Jesus Christ and reminds us of God’s commitment to us. The resurrection is why we can be confident God will do the same for us. Brother, this morning, I challenge you to claim this promise, to trust this promise just as much as you have faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If you are here this morning, and you have never placed your faith in Jesus to save your from your sins; I want to ask you to do something this morning. In a moment when the piano play, will you come down front. We will partner you with a counselor who will take you somewhere private and show you how to know your sins are forgiven today. Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and if he could rise from the dead; I want to take him seriously. Will you come?