Justin Appel

‘Hear this, all you peoples’
- Psalm 49:1

Dear Friends,

Today, the psalmist (in Psalm 49) speaks a word of wisdom for us all. First, the obvious point: we will all die! This seems to form the backdrop to the full picture painted in the psalm. We will all pass away and leave everything we accumulate behind us.

Next, we learn that ‘foolish’ people are those who trust in material things – in their goods, in their riches – hoping to survive death. That hope, says the psalmist, is mislaid. ‘They are like the beasts that perish.’ (verse 11)

Those who are ‘wise’ put their trust directly in God. In return, the psalmist says, God will ‘ransom my life.’

A wise Christian, whom I respect greatly, suggested to me once that faith is really a tool for our salvation. This theologian also suggested something startling, namely, that the reason we are Christians is really quite simple. We are Christians in order to survive death. Every other consideration takes second place to this.

Thus, he said, the cross, that very symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, may become one of two things. Either it is a human tool for molding well-behaved, moral, ‘nice’ people, or it is God’s very tool for fashioning eternal life.

At first blush this seems like a simple, unremarkable idea, but it isn’t that at all. Trusting in God for salvation means fully orienting myself to God as a matter of primary urgency. It means placing my faith in God’s mercy and in nothing else, nothing! It really is a shocking idea, because it means putting my trust in anything else is deadly. We can so easily put our trust in a great many human things: customs, ideas or philosophies, even values – political, social, or moral. In the end, our faith cannot be reduced to anything like this.

My faith can only be in God, because ‘He will snatch me from the grasp of death.’ (verse 15)

Yours in Christ,
Justin