“THE TERRORS OF DEATH”

Psalm 55.4-8 

Preached at a special service held on Saturday, January 24, 2004.

 

INTRODUCTION:

1.   Throughout most of his life David had no fear of death.  He had been fearless in the face of lions and bears as he defended his father’s flocks.  He had been fearless when, as a teenager he stood against the giant, Goliath, and slew him in battle.  He had been fearless when he fought the Philistines at the head of the armies of the Israelites.

2.   You are like David in this way.  Throughout most of your life, though your life has been short, though you are still young, you have been without fear of death.  The fear of death has had no hold on you.  The fear of death has never gripped you to panic.

3.   But there came a time in David’s life when the fear of death did grip him, when he did become concerned about dying, when he was terrified by that prowling monster that chased him to devour him.  There was a time when he was fallen upon by the terrors of death.

4.   Turn to Psalm 55.  When you find that portion of God’s Word, stand and read silently while I read aloud:

¹      Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.

²      Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;

³      Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

⁴      My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.

⁵      Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

⁶      And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

⁷      Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.  Selah.

⁸      I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. 

5.   I want to read through this portion of Scripture again, so I can make a brief running commentary to give you the sense of what is being said, before I point out four things associated with the terror of death.

6.   Look at verses 1 and 2:

¹      Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.

²      Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; 

David is terrified.  He is crying out to God and pleading with God to hear his prayer.  He is desperate.  God has got to listen to his prayer.

7.   Why is David terrified?  Verse 3.

³      Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. 

“The voice of the enemy.  The oppression of the wicked.  In wrath they hate me.”  Someone is after David and that someone is his enemy, that someone is wicked, and that someone and his companions hates him.  Allow me license, this evening, to personify David’s enemy as death.

8. How is David terrified by this enemy, who I will refer to here as death?

⁴      My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.

⁵      Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

⁶      And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

⁷      Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.  Selah.

⁸      I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. 

This is our text for tonight.  Death is tracking David.  Death is getting closer and closer to catching him and devouring him.  He knows that death is near.  He can hear the snort of death’s nostrils.  He can feel death’s breath upon him.  And as a warrior falls upon someone to kill him with the dagger or sword or spear, so has the terror of death fallen upon David.

9.   Wednesday night I preached on the text, “I know not the day of my death.”  Hebrews 9.27 declares to us, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die.”  But so many of you think to yourself, “So what?  I’m not concerned about it.”

10. This evening I want to show you what happens when a man gets concerned about it, even when that man is a soldier, a warrior, a man known for his heroism and courage under fire.  When the terrors of death fall upon you it no longer matters how brave you are, how courageous you are, how many fights you’ve been in, how often you have faced death.

11. When David was overcome with the fear of death “Mortal fears seized him, he felt like one suddenly surrounded with the glooms of the shadow of death, upon whom the eternal night suddenly descends.  Within and without he was afflicted, and his chief terror seemed to come from above, for he uses the expression, ‘Fallen upon me.’  He gave himself up for lost.  He felt that he was as good as dead.  The inmost centre of his nature was moved with dismay.”^[1]

12. When the terrors of death fall upon you four things will happen to you: 

1A.   First, FEARFULNESS COMES UPON YOU

1B.    You’ve never been much scared before.  You’ve always been pretty much without any fear of death.  You probably wouldn’t go so far as to call yourself brave, but you’ve been pretty much fearless for most of your life.  Of course, you’ve never felt the breath of death on the back of your neck.

2B.    But when David, the fellow who had killed a lion and a bear, the fellow who stood against Goliath and killed him, the man who had led troops into battle against the Philistines and had killed many of God’s enemies, felt the breath of death on the back of his neck . . . he got scared.

3B.    Have you ever thought about dying?  If not, you’d better start thinking about it.  When the beast comes to devour you, when he prowls in your neighborhood, and then when you can feel him breathing down the back of your neck, wondering how long it will be before he devours you, then you will feel like David felt here. 

2A.   Next, TREMBLING COMES UPON YOU

1B.    Fear is a matter of the mind.  When death is chasing you you become fearful.  Death, after all, is your enemy.  And death will eventually win.  You know that.  No one ever escapes death.  But when there is fear in your mind, when fear grips your soul, when fearfulness seizes your very heart . . . it affects you in a way you cannot control.

2B.    Trembling comes upon you.  To tremble means to shake and to quake.^[2]  When the fear of death comes upon you there will also come upon you a trembling.  It may be that your hands begin to tremble a bit.  It may be that the fear that grips your soul can be heard in your voice, can be seen on your face.  It may very well be that your mood can almost be felt by those around you.

3B.    Is it cowardice?  No.  David was a mighty warrior who for most of his life feared no man.  But when the terrors of death had fallen upon him, he was so gripped by fear in his mind and heart and soul that his body trembled.  Has that ever happened to you?  Have you ever felt the beast so close to you that you trembled?

4B.    Someday you will be that afraid.  Someday your body will tremble, your hands will shake, your legs will feel too weak to hold you up.  “Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself.”  “Attend unto me, and hear me.”  You don’t cry out to God now . . . but you will then.  Oh, yes.  There will come a day when you cry out to God.  And it will be when you can feel the footfalls of death, as he prowls the neighborhood . . . looking for you.  And you will know it!  He is looking for you. 

3A.   Third, HORROR WILL OVERWHELM YOU

1B.    This word “overwhelmed” in verse 5 translates a word that refers to covering the way a garment would cover your body.^[3]  So, the idea is that horror covers you like a robe and completely overwhelms you.

2B.    This word for “horror” refers to something more intensive then mere trembling.  This is worse than when your hands shake and your voice trembles.  This is what happens when you are overwhelmed by your fear.  The word was used by Job in Job 21.6, where he said, “I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.”

3B.    There will come a time when you are afraid of death.  When you are afraid of death you will then begin to tremble a bit.  Your hands will tremble like someone who is nervous.  But then you will be overwhelmed, overwhelmed by horror.  It will cover you like a blanket and dominate your mind, controlling your emotions, making it seem hard to breath.

4B.    You might think, “How do you know this will happen to me?”  It happened to David, and he was a first class combat soldier who had stared death in the face many times, who had come out ahead in hand to hand battle with powerful adversaries.  But there came a day when death approached him from behind.  He was outflanked.  The beast approached him from the backside.  And he was fearful, then he trembled, and finally he was overcome with horror.  So, if that happened to David, it will certainly happen to you. 

4A.   Finally, YOU WILL WANT TO RUN AND HIDE

1B.    Fight or flight.  What will you do when you face an enemy who cannot be fought?  Or should I say, when an enemy approaches you from behind and there is no defense?  You will want to do what David wanted to do.

2B.    Notice what he said, in verses 6-8:

⁶      And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

⁷      Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.  Selah.

⁸      I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

 

3B.    Beloved, this is wishful thinking.  David said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.”  But he did not have the wings of a dove, did he?  And he could not fly away and be at rest, could he?  “Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.”  But he could not wander far off and remain in the wilderness, could he?  “I would hasten my escape.”  But he could not hasten, or speed up, his escape, could he?  No.  He could not escape at all.

4B.    Like David, you will want to run and hide.  You will want to flee and escape.  You will look here and there, up and down, front and back, but will find no place to hide from the monster who pursues you, that monster called death.

5B.    You will go to sleep at night in the hopes he cannot pursue you into your dreams, but he will find you.  You will wake up in the morning, wishing he would leave you and hide in the darkness, but he will track you through the day in your thoughts.  For you see, you cannot escape him.  He is the beast called death.  He is your enemy.  And he will devour you. 

CONCLUSION:

1.   Death will devour you because you are a sinner and the wages of sin is death.  First, it will be physical death, the death of your body, the death that will result in your funeral and your burial.  Then will come for you the second death.

2.   Throughout most of your life on this earth you will not fear death, you will not much tremble or be overtaken by horror, and you will have no particular desire to run away and hide.

3.   But there will come a day when, in your conscience, you hear the voice of the enemy, and your heart will be much pained within you, and the terrors of death will fall upon you.

4.   Where will God be when you cry out to him then?  What will He do when you plead with Him then?  I think that because you choose to ignore God now, He will choose to ignore you then.  And I fear that the prediction of Proverbs 1.24-29 will come to pass in your case:

²⁴     Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

²⁵     But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

²⁶     I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

²⁷     When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

²⁸     Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

²⁹     For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD. 

5.   Choose the fear of the LORD now, so that when the terror of death falls upon you your prayer will be heard.

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