PSALM 103 VERSE 4: - "CHOOSE LIFE"

Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion (Psalm 103:4)

Verse 4 gives us YET another reason to “bless the Lord”. As mentioned in the part of the series on Psalm 103, there are more than 10,000 reasons. Another reason is given to us in Verse 5, which we look at next. But we need to address and really tough subject here, and it is the subject of hell.

Most Christians wince at the thought of discussing it, but hell is a real place prepared for the devil and his angels….and unfortunately, all who reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in THIS life. Mankind was not created for Hell. Life was perfect before the serpent walked into the Garden of Eden standing up, tempted Eve and the rest is history. (God condemned the serpent to crawl on his belly after he caused Adam and Eve to sin).

It says a lot that in the events leading up to the Flood of Noah’s time, only the direct lineage of Methuselah survived, as God destroyed the earth. Noah and Methuselah, his grandfather lived at the same time. The name Methuselah means “with his death, it shall be sent”.  The rains started as soon as Methuselah went home to the Lord at age 969. Only eight people – Noah, his wife and three sons with their wives, survived the Flood.

But God in His compassion, love, and mercy, decided to repopulate the earth. Just as before, the descendants of Noah’s sons quickly went sideways and did the same thing which brought on the Flood in the first place. This time, God did not put up with men and women sinning for decades and decades. He cut short life and the changing atmosphere, brought on by so much H2O (water) on the planet, rearranged the ecology which supported life for humans to live 3-4-6 hundred years previously. Moses wrote in Psalm 90 that if a man is fortunate, he will live 70 years. Today, we can live a lot longer due to medical science and healthy living. 

The chief end of mankind without God, whether he or she lives  70-80, or 25 years, is the pit. I will never forget my teenage years where I would have nightmares of falling into a bottomless pit and screaming, except no sound came out of my mouth….and no one heard. This went on for years.  Salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ has completely altered that. The pit is a real place. It is where the unsaved go. There is no purgatory, no mulligan, no praying for the dead….no nothing.

Because I know the truth of that feeling, where Jesus says is worse because the fire never goes out and the “worm never dies”,  I am so grateful for the Grace of God to pull me out of that mire and muck and rescue me. God gave me a choice when I came to the point in my life to choose Him or what is known as the “shachath” – the pit of death and destruction.  It is only a loving and compassionate Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Who would do something like this.

The Bible mentions “the pit” more than heaven or paradise. All the Authors of Scripture were inspired and moved by God to write in their scrolls the words they heard from the Holy Spirit. Everything written is true. No one has to go there. It is choice. Choose Life is not just a pro-life message on a placard, it is a wish and a hope for everyone to choose Christ and Heaven before times runs out.

The Lord is good and wishes all to come to repentance, to turn from their wicked ways and turn to Him. He is so full of love He sent the Lord Jesus to live as a Man on the earth and then give His perfect life so that  His – Jesus’ – Righteousness could be imputed, embedded and stamped on our very souls. Then His Holy Spirit seals us up until “the Day of Redemption”. That is, those who are saved remain saved and in Christ until we leave this earth. Once saved, always saved.

The choice for our fellow human beings is black and white. The same God Who will not countenance our sins, will anoint your head with His Holy Oil and crown you with the same crown He put on the Head of Christ so that we can be joint heirs of the kingdom with Jesus! What a wonderful Savior!