In sickness and in health

30/07/2020

Psalm 6
In sickness and in health, till death do us part

The book of Psalms addresses all the feelings one could experience, challenges we might face and also offers guidance for serving the Lord. Let’s spend some time and discuss these over the next few days or weeks, depending on how the Lord leads us.

Are you struggling with illness or know someone who is ill and facing eminent death? This is something not often talked about due to the nature of this topic and the uncertainty among many, especially for those who either fear death for they do not know the Lord and their final destination, or they believe everything simply stops when one dies.

In Psalm 6 David prays for deliverance from his circumstances, but this passage can also relate to someone who is suffering and “pining away” from cancer, or any other life threatening illness, causing them to face the reality of death and it might be that they feel God is punishing them for whatever reason.

Unfortunately we live in a fallen world and this vessel, called our body is also fallen, fading away with age. It is reckoned that from the age of 25 onwards, cells die at a faster rate than new cells can be generated, which tells us one thing. Our body will sooner or later – 80 years, if we are blessed – no longer function as it would at a younger age and this is evident in the way we recover after an injury or surgery as we get older.

On the flip side, God is able to heal any illness, if He so wishes. The difficult part is when He does not intercede to heal your loved ones and they perish before your eyes. We don’t always understand in that moment what His reasons are, yet if we trust in Him, knowing He makes all things work for good for those who love Him (Rom 8 v 28), He will comfort you and give you peace.

Fortunately, as believers, we know that we die with Christ through baptism and are also raised with Him through His resurrection and this is when our life actually begins. Believers don’t die, they fall asleep and wake up in God’s presence.

For this reason we can have confidence that we are not separated from the Lord and even in our darkest hour when no man made medicine can heal us or our loved one(s), rest assured that there is an eternity that awaits us when passing from this life to the next.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB, Life Application Study Bible, unless stated otherwise. Copyright by “The Lockman Foundation“