Psalm 30:3
3 O LORD [Yahovah], thou hast
brought up [`alah] my soul [nephesh] from the grave [sha'owl]:
thou hast kept me alive [chayah], that I should
not go down [yarad] [yarad] to the pit [bowr]. KJV-Interlinear
3 O
Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol; Thou hast kept me alive, that I
should not go down to the pit. NASB
The words, Sheol and
Hades, are often used interchangeably when referring to the underworld or, the
land of the dead. There are four
compartments in the underworld. The
first is Paradise, the second Tartarus, the third Torments, and the fourth
compartment is the Abyss.
All four of these
compartments are temporary holding areas for those who have died (people) or
for those who have been condemned (demon angels).
The first compartment,
Paradise, is the destination of all human believers in the Savior, when they
died. In death they were taken to
Paradise, and there waited for Jesus Christ to complete His work of salvation,
when once completed, Christ went to Paradise and brought out all of its
occupants and led them I a great victory parade to heaven. Those in Paradise were often called
prisoners, as Satan objected to anyone going to heaven before Christ completed
His work of salvation. In Satans mind,
no one deserved to be in heaven, which of course he tried desperately to
prevent, but failed. Paradise is now an
empty compartment, serving no purpose now that salvation has been achieved by
Christ. Since the Cross, all believers
in Christ, when they die, go straight into Heaven.
Tartarus, is the holding
compartment of the disobedient angels and their hybrid human/angel offspring
from Genesis six.
Torments, is the holding
compartment of all unbelievers from the time of Adam and Eve, up to now, and continuing
until the last day of human history. All
unbelievers are held there until the Great White Throne, which will occur at
the end of the Millennium, when they will all be brought up out of Torments and
made to stand before Christ and receive their final judgment. Persistent in their rejection of Christ, they
will be condemned to the Lake of Fire, and there remain forever along with
their eternal defiance.
The Abyss, is the holding
compartment of the worst of the worst of the demon angels from eons long
ago. They will be released temporarily
during the Tribulation, to run to and fro across the world doing their best to
torment and torture and terrify. And
then they will be returned to the Abyss, to await the final judgment and disposition
of all demon angels, all destined for the Lake of Fire.
The pit, which is
mentioned in this verse, is a mere hole, into which dead things are thrown or
buried, and forever lost to the elements.
And now in our verse, the
Lord has brought up, raised up, lifted out of, the soul, from the grip of death
and eternal separation from God. The
soul is connected to the underworld and the eternally lost, were it not for God
and His plan and grace and work of salvation.
For without God, Christ
and doctrine, there would be nothing for any of us. No human effort, no restarts, no
reincarnations, no return to different elements of life, nothing.
Without God and His plan,
there would be a descent into the land of the dead, and nothing better, ever.
The pit receives the body
when the person dies. The body once dead
does not recover, does not rejuvenate itself, does not come back fresh and
better. The body decays and is therefore lost to the elements of nature, to be
forever forgotten.
Only God can resurrect
the dead. Only God can resurrect the corruptible
into the incorruptible, the limited into the unlimited, the eternally lost into
the eternally living.
No religion can
accomplish this. No philosophy can
accomplish this. No belief system
invented or pretended by man can accomplish this.
Only God can save and
only God through Christ is the source of all life and eternal life.
In your life, the one
second it takes or took for you to believe in Christ, is your single most
important second in all of your life.
There is no single thought or moment more important, none more
beneficial, none more phenomenal than that of your moment of salvation.
