Psalm 73: Resurrection Hope in the Old Testament

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Every season has its quintessential images and moods. Winter, for instance, brings to mind images of snow, howling winds, and freezing cold. Trees stand naked against a sea of white. But what is dreadful outside is wonderful inside: images of hot chocolate, a crackling fire, and fuzzy blankets warm us almost immediately.

To me, springtime creates anticipation and excitement for the new life that is budding and blossoming all around. The spring rains truly do bring spring flowers. The countryside teems with new life: speckled fawns nurse in the thicket and baby blue colored eggs fill the robin’s nest. The deadness of winter is forced into distant memory as the greenness of new life bursts forth everywhere!

Speaking of new life, the Church will never forget the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ that joyful Easter morning. The death that came to our Savior on Friday was soon to be forgotten when he received back his life and glory on Resurrection morning.

Although some doubted Christ’s resurrection (and some still doubt this well-documented historical fact today), the entire Church is built upon the Resurrection of Christ. As the Apostle Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins…. But Christ has been raised… and in Christ all will be made alive!” (1 Cor 15:17, 20, 22). The death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important, foundational doctrine by which the Church exists or not.

But the resurrection is not only a New Testament idea. True, the four gospels that open the New Testament all conclude with the climactic event of the resurrection. Equally true, the entire New Testament’s central focus is the resurrection of Christ, through whom we have the hope of eternal life. Additionally, in the final chapters of the New Testament, the Church gets to see John’s vision of the risen Christ actually reigning on his throne, promising to return alive and well to put all things to rights. Everywhere in the New Testament, the hope and reality of Christ’s resurrection is on full display.

Yet, if God never changes – if it is true that “God is not a human being that he should change his mind” (Num 23:19) and he “does not change like shifting shadows” (Jam 1:17) – wouldn’t we also find the resurrection hope of the New Testament church spoken of by Old Testament saints? If he is the God of the living and not of the dead, then did the Old Testament saints take comfort in the blessed hope of the resurrection as we do today? What faith did Abraham have that led him to the near sacrifice of his only son? What hope did David have at the end of his life; after having walked with God from his youth, would his God forsake him in the end?

Truth be told, the Old Testament saints were saved by the same faith in the Promised One as we are today, they looking forward to the revelation of the Christ and we looking back to the revealed Christ; and they shared the same hope of eternal life and future resurrection as we do today as well. (Both the Hebrew Messiach and the Greek Christos mean “Promised or Anointed One.”)

One example of this eternal reality is found in the Psalms. Psalm 73, a song written by Asaph, speaks of this future, living hope in clear detail.

In the opening verses, Asaph announces his conundrum: “Truly God is good to Israel…. [B]ut as for me, my feet had almost stumbled…. [F]or I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (v. 1). Allow me to paraphrase: “I know God is good to Israel, to those who trust him, but for a minute I doubted if this life of dedication to God was worth it, since the wicked seem to be increasing more than me and have more success than I do in this life.”

Asaph is acknowledging what many of us feel from time-to-time. Is following Christ really worth it? It sure looks like the rest of the world is doing alright without Christ, and (in many cases) they’re doing it with more money and more fun than I am. Am I missing out on something in this life? Is this Christianity thing really worth it?

Asaph answers his own question with a deafening conclusion: “… then I discerned their end” (v. 17). Looking ahead, fast-forwarding to the end of their lives, Asaph was able to understand that “he who dies with the most toys still dies.” For all their earthly success and their riches and wealth, they will – every one of them – die, and not one earthly possession will they be able to take with them.

It’s not as though Asaph finds great comfort in this, however. He himself knows that their end is his end, meaning that he is made aware that all men and women will someday die.

Instead, Asaph remarks that while the ungodly may experience their success in this life, the hope of the godly is in the life to come.

Yes, even Asaph, an Old Testament musician who never saw Jesus of Nazareth remarks that his hope is in the future resurrection.

Of the future resurrection, Asaph boldly sings of the two ends that await us: either eternal life or eternal death.

“How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!” (v. 19).

“Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory” (vv. 23-24).

“The first shall be last and the last shall be first,” says Jesus. The one who possesses all this world has to offer has forfeited his soul; in the end, he shall only experience destruction and doom. But the one who has forsaken this world has saved his soul, and God will receive him to glory!

This resurrection hope, the promise of future life and heavenly glory, is what spurred our Old Testament brothers and sisters forward, even through their persecution.

Asaph, being now swept away with the heavenly vision and hope of glory, writes: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (vv. 25-26).

Notice the words heaven and forever. This is, indeed, the hope of the saint: to fall asleep when our bodies and hearts have failed us, only to wake up in a forever home of heavenly wonder and worship of the One who went before us!

Concluding the song, Asaph once again recognizes the two contrasting futures that exist: “For behold, those who are far from you shall perish…. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge” (vv. 27-28). The one living for this world and who refuses to submit to God will perish; that is, he will lose his soul because he has gained the world.

But the one who knows the peace of God in Christ and longs to know him more and dwell with him forever, he shall find eternal refuge in the God of his salvation.

In closing, I recently have been rejoicing over the salvation of three young people. Once lost, they have now been found by the Good Shepherd. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2, where once they, like each of us, were dead in their sins, they have now been made alive together with Christ and will experience the future resurrection of their bodies along with all the saints. Praise be to God!

And like the winter changes into spring, so shall we all be changed forever.