Sermon Notes, Easter Sunday

INTRODUCTION
Twice in Acts, an apostle uses Psalm 16 as a proof text for the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35). Psalm 16 is an Easter Psalm.

THE TEXT
“Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You. I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.’ As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight. . . . .” (Psalm 16:1-11).

THE PSALM
Psalm 16 is described as a “Mikhtam” or “Inscription” of David, and the apostles who cite the Psalm attribute it to David. As he frequently is in the Psalms, David is in danger (vv. 1, 10), but in this Psalm there is no sense of desperation. He moves quickly from a prayer for preservation to the confident, very personal confession, “I said to Yahweh, You are my Lord” (v. 2). As Yahweh’s servant, David can expect Yahweh to protect and help him. Yahweh is his only good (v. 2b). David’s devotion to Yahweh means that he also finds delight in those who are Yahweh’s “holy ones” (v. 3) and abhors those who defy his Lord (v. 4).

Like the Levites whose inheritance was Yahweh Himself (Numbers 18:20), David is content with Yahweh as his portion (v. 5). With Yahweh beside him, he cannot fail, and he rejoices even in the midst of danger because he will be secure (vv. 8-9). Even death is not fearful, because the God who preserves life can also rescue from Sheol (v. 10) and bring David to eternal pleasures (v. 11).

DAVID AND JESUS
The apostles who cite Psalm 16:10 claim that David is speaking prophetically. David writes the Psalm in the first person, speaking of himself. But the apostles point out that he cannot be speaking of himself. After quoting the final verses of the Psalm, Peter says “I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day” (Acts 2:29; cf. 13:36). Applied to David himself, the Psalm is false because he did die and decay. Rather, David, being a “prophet,” “looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay” (Acts 2:30-31). Psalm 16 is most directly about David’s greater Son.

SAVED FROM SHEOL
But what was Jesus delivered from? What is “Sheol”? Sheol is grim, dim, gloomy, and hopeless. It is a place or condition of silence and shame (Psalm 31:17). When Sheol opens its mouth and swallows down the living, it destroys all merriment and joy (Isaiah 5:14). The dead in Sheol are covered with maggots and worms (Isaiah 14:11).

In some passages, it appears to be a synonym for physical death or the grave. In Psalm 16, going down to Sheol is parallel to undergoing decay, and elsewhere Old Testament writers seems to equate Sheol with the “snares of death” (2 Samuel 22:6; Psalm 18:5; 30:3; 89:48; Ecclesiastes 9:10). Yet, when the Bible describes the deaths of the faithful, it never describes death as a descent to Sheol. When the righteous die, they are “gathered to their people” (Genesis 25:8, 17; 35:29; 49:29, 33). Sheol does not describe death as such, but a certain kind of death.

Sheol describes the condition of those who have died violently, prematurely, without a seed to carry on their name. When Jacob says he will go to Sheol mourning for Joseph, he means that he will die unfulfilled because he has lost his beloved son (Genesis 37:35; cf. 42:38; 44:29). When David speaks of coming close to Sheol, he is saying that he nearly died before his time (Psalm 88:3; 116:3). Sheol describes distress, trouble, sickness, attacks from enemies – anything that threatens to end David’s life before it fully ripens.

Jesus was in danger of falling into Sheol as well, in precisely this sense: Cut down in mid-life, His plans apparently frustrated by the cross, His announcement of the kingdom apparently falsified by His death. Yet, like David, Jesus is rescued from Sheol, delivered from fruitless and premature death, brought back from the grave.

CONCLUSION
This gives us considerable insight into the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection for us. By His resurrection, Jesus delivers us from Sheol. That is, the resurrection of Jesus not only delivers us from physical death, but from all the threats, distresses, assaults, fears, illnesses that frustrate life. The resurrection of Jesus means that even if we are cut down “before our time,” we can be like seed dying in the ground to bear much fruit. The resurrection of Jesus integrates death in all its forms into life, so that death becomes the gateway to abundant life. The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope for a fortunate death and, beyond that, life after life after death.