Psalm 16:9-10 says, “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.”

Referring to verses 9 and 10 of Psalm 16, I said in my sermon yesterday that Peter referred to these verses in his speech in Acts 2 (25-31) and Paul in Acts 13 (35-37). Both were referring to the resurrection of Christ. They regarded this Psalm as prophecy that Christ would be raised from the dead.

I have heard and read some Biblical scholars say that, at the time the Psalms were written, the Jewish people did not believe in an afterlife. Even many hundreds of years later, we see in the Gospels, that the members of the Sanhedrin – the religious leaders of the day – made fun of Jesus because he believed in an afterlife and they did not (Mark 12:18-27). The idea of an afterlife was a developing idea, some scholars say. That’s for scholars to argue.

But I can see from reading the Psalms that David believed in an afterlife. I can see from the scriptures that the afterlife was a reality, even if it took people time to believe in it. And I know that’s true because Jesus told me so. And I know it’s in this Psalm because Peter and Paul saw it there before me.

I believe in living IN the here and now. But I don’t believe in living FOR the here and now. There is more to live for than the moments in which we live. How I live in the moment is informed by the eternal.

Lift High the Cross.