The line that jumped out at me in this psalm was YHWH’s pledge to reward his followers not with afterlife in heaven, but with long life on earth — a direct quote from YAH Himself.
“Because [My follower] has set his love upon Me,” says YHWH, “therefore I will deliver him. … I will be with him in trouble. … With long life I will satisfy him, / And show him … salvation.”
So let me get this straight: In simplest terms, our righteousness may be measured by our age? Is the flipside of YHWH’S promise true — that only the bad die young? So insulting.
I was raised to be a fundamentalist Christian like my father — the one here on earth, not the one in heaven — and so was my brother, who was a better little guy than I will ever be.
He was diagnosed with cancer in October of 1976 and died less than four months later. He was 10 years old. Does his death at that age imply he wasn’t a good Christian soldier?
Now, I understand that the Jews back then — like King David and his wise son Solomon — had different values and beliefs than Christ’s current followers. But Jesus was a Jew, right?
And didn’t Jesus himself say that his mission wasn’t to change Jewish laws and teachings, but to make them mean something? Didn’t he die young decrying the shams of “good men”?
So when I read YHWH’s own words equating long life with righteousness — in the unerring, sacred book of Bible thumpers — I’m sure He was dead wrong about at least one little man.