Ghost in the Shell
“Surely every man walks about as a phantom; surely they make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.” Psalm 39:6 NASB
Phantom– Perhaps we should credit David as the original author of “The Walking Dead.” Certainly he paints that picture. Men are but wisps of wind in the eternal night. Their lives amount to nothing but a speck in the 14 billion light year wide known universe. Eternity swallows up everything they do, hope or plan. David reaches back to Genesis to find the appropriate word for this ephemeral condition. That word is ṣelem, first encountered in Genesis 1:26. But when we read the word in Genesis, we didn’t think of ghosts in a shell. We thought of lofty, grand, glorious creatures in God’s image. What could be more important than that! Now David gives us the other side of the coin. Yes, birthed as image bearers of the divine, men are gifted with a spiritual endowment that exceeds anything else in creation. But death is now part of the equation, and the other side of the coin is the futility of life, the spark soon extinguished, the inevitable evaporation of achievement. Born to greatness, most men (perhaps all men) end in a whimper. Greatness gives way to the grave.
What do men do? According to this poet, they rage against the night. The Hebrew verb is hāmâ, “to cry aloud, to mourn, to rage, to roar, to make noise, be troubled, clamor.” That pretty much describes us, doesn’t it? Faced with our inevitable demise, we protest. We might cry out to God. We might build a “legacy.” We might party until we drop. We might retreat to a sanctuary. But few of us just stand still and take it. We think we matter, and because we think we matter, we protest against being erased. David concentrates on one of the ways we protest. We accumulate! David uses a term that means “to heap up.” Yeshua had the same idea in the parable of the barns. We protest against the night by gathering more and more, attempting to prove our value to the world through the accumulation of material goods. And what was the verdict of the man with all those barns? “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?”[1] David and the Teacher agree with the Messiah (or perhaps he agrees with them). The man who accumulates riches never knows who will eventually spend it all. There is no control from She’ol. The connection to barns is unmistakable given that the word David chooses for “amasses” is found only one other time, in Genesis 41:35 where Joseph gives instructions before the famine.
Finally, we must consider ʾāsap, translated “gather” in this verse. It is the same word used to describe “gathered to his kin.” In other words, this is also a term that invokes intimations of death. There is a gathering, the ultimate gathering, when every man faces his transitory passing. What he cannot know is when that gathering will take place.
David’s song wafts across the palace courtyard. The music is pleasing, but the words strike terror in the hearts of the listeners. The great king, the greatest king of Israel, has announced that he, along with all others, means nothing in the ultimate purposes of God. His legacy will pale. His possessions crumble. Even now, if he is truthful about his circumstances, he is a walking ghost. Death consumes everything. The audience shudders. Their schemes and plans are dismembered. Is there anything that really stands? Or are we nothing more than the walking dead?
Topical Index: ṣelem, image, ghost, hāmâ, roar, shout, Psalm 39:6
“are we nothing more than the walking dead?”, asks Skip.
“The days are evil (death)”. We have “all sinned” – have all chosen “knowledge (experience) of evil”, says the Bible. So the answer is, yes; we are the walking dead – all of us. Now we, as the Psalmist declares, “live our days as a dream (reference to the sleep of death)”, and we are all experiencing (“knowledge”) slow death (“evil”) even as we breathe. Now we must all die, apparently, before we can live, and we were not created to die. We hate it! I am convinced that that is the only knowledge OF evil it is possible to gain, for the actual experience of evil (death) is the nothingness of extinction: “as though they have never been”. The parts of us that are even now experiencing evil are dead parts: parts that have lost the power of life. (It has to be sheer grace that keeps us zombies breathing in our death state!)
I think the only thing Eve and Adam did not know about death, ultimately, is that they HATED IT, for there is no experience of actual death possible (if you think about it) , because to be dead, by definition, is to have no experience! We, who are created in the image of God, were all made to hate evil even as He does, but now I think we have to realize that we hate it (repent for being complicit with it) before we are able to embrace it’s alternative: life. Anything less than David’s “perfect hatred” of our true enemy, therefore, will still be letting the wolf of evil – of our own extinction – through the door. “Those who hate me”, says wisdom, “love death”.
So there is no neutral choice, but now, post-Tree, I believe we are hobbled with the necessity of learning that we hate death (evil) before we have the capacity to repent for our “agreement with hell (nothingness)”. Leonard Cohen sings “I did not even know there was a war”. Well, there is one, and we are already in it. Could be time to turn around (and quit running with all the things we do to avoid our imminent demise) and start hating our real enemy today!
It was good in Virginia Beach, but your follow-up is masterful Skip.
Life can become meaningless. For some it can happen quite early in life, but usually as said in later life. But I do not think anyone would be happy with losing what they do have in their present life. That existential feeling would instantaneously fade in the midst of facing life without means. King David without his Kingdom is different than a King David with a Kingdom.
Losing my husband a few days ago…has brought this message deep into my heart……and the Kingdom is built … on one life at a time.
I am so sorry to hear this. I know you have suffered through other losses and this must be so difficult. Our prayers are with you.
I faced a decision once. Not important to many, but important to me.
I sought the counsel of many, but no answer spoke to me. I asked in prayer, which way to go.
I was doing dishes when i heard ‘how does it glorify me’. And my direction was set.
When i stand for death the only thing that will matter will be ‘how did my life glorify him’. Nothing else, nothing material, will have my attention.
There is the true meaning of life. All nature still remembers. All humanity has to learn, now. The humblest microbe has the meaning of life down cold. I need that humility! May I learn HOW to glorify Him, is my prayer with you, Where are my boots. Welcome. Please write again!