Death | Knowable Word

This is a guest post by Clint Watkins. Clint is a missionary with DiscipleMakers in Lancaster, PA. His passion is to help sufferers find hope through honest wrestling. He blogs at frailfather.com, and you can find him on Instagram @clintdwatkins.

Perhaps you’re familiar with these hopeful and defiant questions: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” You may have sung them on Easter Sunday to revel in Jesus’ triumph and deliver death a lyrical one-two punch. Or maybe you have stood silent as others around you sang victoriously—you believe that Jesus overcame death’s power, but you have felt defeated by death’s pain.

Whatever your experience is with these questions, they reverberate with hope. Jesus conquered the grave. The tomb is empty. We’ve been set free.

But could our taunting of death be premature?

Context matters. When we learn to read the Bible as it is—not merely as an archive of lyrics for happy songs—we may find our most cherished verses to provide even deeper hope than we imagined.

Resurrection Matters

These rhetorical questions come from 1 Corinthians 15, one of the most important chapters in your Bible. Some believers were saying Christ did not rise. So Paul realigns their history and theology.

If there is no resurrection then we have some serious issues: preaching is pointless (1 Cor 15:14), faith is worthless (1 Cor 15:14), we’re still in our sin (1 Cor 15:17), and the dead have perished forever (1 Cor 15:18). If Jesus did not rise then we have no hope beyond the grave and Christians are “of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). So we should just party hard until we die (1 Cor 15:32).

Christian faith rests entirely on Jesus’ resurrection. If it did not happen, we are magnificent fools. But Paul establishes the historical fact of the resurrection, verified by hundreds of eyewitness accounts (1 Cor 15:1-11). The empty tomb changes everything.

Jesus’ resurrection reverses the curse of sin. Death is mere sleep for those who are in Christ—just as he rose, so will we (1 Cor 15:20-22). We will exchange our broken frames for glorious bodies (1 Cor 15:35-49). Jesus’ resurrection means life has purpose—what we do matters. Instead of indulging every craving, we ought to live holy lives (1 Cor 15:34) driven by the grace of Jesus’ victory (1 Cor 15:57). Preaching the gospel is not pointless, but is “of first importance” (1 Cor 15:3). So we should “always [be] abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58).

Tense Matters

This brings us to our refrain of questions, which occur in Paul’s crescendo at the chapter’s end. Take note of the verb tenses in this passage:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
1 Cor 15:51-55

Do you notice how much of this is future tense? We shall not all sleep. We shall be changed. The trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised.

Paul gazes down time’s corridor and describes an unimaginable scene: We are alive, and death is dead.

The resurrection accomplishes the unbelievable. But not all of these promises have been fulfilled yet. This includes the defiant questions we sing so often. Quoting Isaiah 25 and Hosea 13, Paul says, “then shall come to pass the saying that is written.” You might expect him to say these promises have been fulfilled because of Jesus’ resurrection. And that’s how we often use these verses—as a present reality. But Paul’s eyes remain on the future.

We will, one day, mock death at its defeat. We will taunt, “Where is your sting? Where is your victory?” But that day has not yet come.

Death Matters

Why is this distinction important?

In a passage like this, we should hesitate to claim future promises as present reality. We don’t, afterall, profess that our bodies have already been transformed or that Jesus has already returned. These things, including death’s final defeat, are our inheritance in Christ—guaranteed, but not yet dispensed.

Specifically, to declare that death’s sting has already vanished can lead to a casual posture toward death. Excessive triumph can promote Christian dismissiveness. This leads some believers to avoid sorrow while others feel guilty for their grief.

But this passage is not about how to grieve. Elsewhere, we see that Paul does not treat death casually. Losing people hurts. He himself spoke of “sorrow upon sorrow” when he considered his friend’s potential death (Phil 2:27). And he encouraged the Thessalonians to grieve—with hope—for those who died (1 Thess 5:13).

This lines up with how Christ encounters the grave in John 11. How does Jesus respond to death, even when he knows resurrection is imminent? He weeps (Jn 11:35).

As Tim Keller says,

Death is not the way it ought to be. It is abnormal, it is not a friend, it isn’t right. This isn’t truly part of the circle of life. Death is the end of it. So grieve. Cry. The Bible tells us not only to weep, but to weep with those who are weeping. We have a lot of crying to do.

You do not have to dismiss the pain of losing someone you love. Wisdom weeps. Godliness grieves.

We need not ponder where death’s sting has gone. It’s still here. For a little while longer.

Hope Matters

Recognizing this does not dampen resurrection hope—it deepens it. Because the gospel holds our pain in tension with God’s promises. It permits honesty in the face of grief yet assurance that God will resolve our sorrow one day. We still wait for death’s final defeat. Until then, its sting runs deep. Yet the empty tomb of our risen king declares that the sting won’t last forever.

Context matters.

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Some psalms are on everyone’s list of favorites. They contain poignant phrases and urgent cries that resonate deeply with our own hearts.

Sometimes we love these psalms—or portions of these psalms—without looking at them carefully. Today we’ll take a close look at Psalm 90.

Our Sovereign God is Everlasting

This is the only Psalm attributed to Moses, and he wrote the whole psalm as a corporate prayer addressed directly to God.

The theme of time is inescapable in Psalm 90, showing up in nearly every verse. To avoid cluttering this article with these observational details, I’ve put that list in this document here.

God has been his people’s “dwelling place in all generations” (Ps 90:1). This is personal. He is God and has been God even before he created the world (Ps 90:2). So while God is certainly the creator, he is more than the creator.

God created man from dust and calls him back at the end of life. This God is in control of the span of human days (Ps 90:3).

Time does not function for God the way it does for us. A thousand years for God is like a day (Ps 90:4). He sweeps millennia away like a dream (Ps 90:5); they rise and fall as quickly as the morning and evening (Ps 90:6).

Our Short Life, in View of God’s Wrath

The middle of Psalm 90 is unsettling, because Moses makes frequent mention of God’s wrath. God’s “anger” or “wrath” appears five times in Psalm 90:7–11.

God’s anger troubles his people (Ps 90:7). But the reason for God’s wrath is not mysterious.

You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence. (Psalm 90:8)

Because our sins are obvious to God, “our days pass away under [his] wrath” (Ps 90:9). Though we may live to be seventy or eighty, our years are “toil and trouble,” and “they are soon gone” (Ps 90:10). With God’s perspective on time, our lives are a blink on the horizon.

Moses brings us around the corner of somberness in verse 11. Many consider God’s wrath, but who does so according to the fear of the Lord? (See Ps 90:11). This posture, and not one of mere terror before God, leads to a proper, sober application of the truth of a brief life. “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Ps 90:12). Notably, this is Moses’s first request in this prayer.

God’s Favor Makes All the Difference

While verses 7–12 show us the brevity of life in view of God’s wrath, verses 13–17 point to the mercy of God.

Moses longs for God’s nearness, for the mercy of his return (Ps 90:13). The psalm then explains what such a return would mean for God’s people.

God is not only angry at sin, he is known for his steadfast love. This steadfast love, once shown to his people, would sustain them with joy all of their days (Ps 90:14). Though there has been affliction and evil—think of all Moses and the Israelites experienced in Egypt!—God is able to bring them unending gladness (Ps 90:15).

With this as the backdrop—God’s return, bringing his satisfying, steadfast love to his people—Moses turns to pray about the Israelites’ work in the world. He asks God to show his work and his “glorious power” to his servants and their children (Ps 90:16). Then, in light of God’s work, and if his favor is upon them, can his people pray about their own work in the world: “Establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Ps 90:17)

Application From a Favorite Psalm

In this psalm, God’s people praise God for his sovereign, eternal nature and they consider their own time-bound lives. They consider God’s anger toward sin and his steadfast love. So, what is Moses’s main point in writing this psalm?

In our brief lives, we must seek our satisfaction in the steadfast love of the everlasting God.

What are some possible applications? As we consider our brief time on earth, we should number our days. This means we should celebrate birthdays with both joy and sobriety. We should hold our years loosely. At the start of each day we should commit our upcoming hours to the Lord, and we should return thanks to him as each day comes to a close.

If that was an inward application, here’s an outward one. We can help our friends consider their work in light of the Lord’s work. In our churches, we can regularly celebrate God’s work in our communities, we can pray for his ongoing favor, and we can ask him to establish the work of our hands.