God's Presence in Death
“If I make my bed in Sheol, Thou art there.” — Psalm cxxxix. 8.
What a strange spot for the presence of God — Sheol, the place of the dead! I could understand His presence in every other spot. If I ascended up into heaven, I should expect, like the Psalmist, to find it there. If I rose on the wings of the morning, I should expect to find it there. If I launched on the great sea, I should expect to find it there. Even in the hour of night I can understand His presence, for my night is the day of another hemisphere. But the place of the dead — how can God be present here! Is not God life, eternal life, exhaustless life! How can eternal life claim a spot for its presence here I Is there anything in God’s nature which makes it possible for Him to unite with such an empty thing as death? Yes; the very essence of His nature does, for that is love. There is nothing so like death as love. Love is the passing of my life into another life. I think the most complete death that ever took place took place in heaven. We speak of dying as a going to heaven from earth. Paul says that the most complete death ever seen was a coming to earth from heaven. He says that the greatest transition of life ever made was where Love, “though in the form of God, yet emptied itself, and took the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man.” In the light of such a thought, who shall say that the valley of the shadow is to God a foreign soil!
My Father, men have thought to honour Thee by excluding Thy presence from the dark valley; I have heard them say, “I shall be ushered after death into the presence ot the Lord.’’ Nay, not “after.” That would mean that in the act of dying I am without Thy presence. I could not bear that; it would add to death a new terror — the greatest terror of all. Art Thou to be away from me in my one hour of absolute weakness! Who is to lead me across the flood if Thou art not there! An angel? I would not trust him; he knows less about death than Thou knowest. He has less experience ol such a transit because he has less love. I shall decline the escort of an angel; I shall decline the escort of any guide who has no experience of the flood. Come Thyself, Thou Immortal Love, that art yet immortal by dying! Come Thyself and bear me across the stream! Thou hast sounded the stream; Thou hast proved that life can be immortal after self-forgetfulness — can live in the servant’s form when the regal form has been discarded. No experience of the valley is so near to me as Thine. Come Thyself to me in the valley! Send away Thine emissaries! Dismiss the angel guides that essay a depth beyond their strength! Call back the unpractised hands from the brink of the stream, and stand Thyself upon the bank to comfort me! I would not taste of death till I have seen Thee!