Psalm 118 is a hymn of thanksgiving, a celebration of God’s faithfulness and deliverance. The psalm was traditionally sung during the great feasts of Israel, and its words echo with a sense of gratitude and triumph. It begins with a call to give thanks to the Lord, for “his love endures forever.” It recounts God’s saving acts, emphasizing how he rescued his people from their enemies and brought them to a place of victory.
As the psalmist reflected on God’s faithfulness, he arrived at a point where he said, “I will not die, but I will live, and declare the works of the Lord.” He did not say, “I will live, if it is his will.” He was not uncertain, and he did not grovel. He did not hope to God that he would live an extra day or two. He spoke with certainty. He was sure that he would live and not die. He was sure that God would rescue him and protect him. And he was sure that he would come out on the other side, so to speak, telling everybody about the mighty works of God. It was an active, assertive confession of his faith.
There are hundreds of confessions of faith in the Bible, where the people of God prayed with confidence, either declaring their desired outcomes as certain or as their present reality. Abraham called himself the father of many nations when he had no children with Sarah. Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and it obeyed. Elijah declared the end of a drought before he saw a single cloud in the sky. This is the language of faith, a faith that dares to declare what we have decided and what God has promised, even in the face of contrary circumstances.
This kind of prayer is considered heretical in faithless religious circles. It is because the Faithless are out of touch with God, and many of them have never believed in Jesus Christ. As they read Scripture, these hundreds of examples of confident prayers and declarations are filtered out of their minds. They have no faith, and they do not recognize faith when they see it. When they see it, they condemn it.
As Paul said, “But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains, because only through Christ is it taken away. Even to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” They do not see what is written in Scripture in plain words, because a veil covers their hearts. Only through Christ is it taken away, but faithless religious people have nothing to do with Christ.
They condemn confident prayers. When a Christian says, “I will not die, but I will live,” they become indignant, as if faith is an intrusion upon God’s domain. They insist that such confidence is inappropriate, that true piety requires uncertainty before God, so that we must add qualifiers like “if it is his will” to everything, even in defiance to his word. They imagine that God is honored by their timidity and uncertainty, but it is their faithlessness that dishonors him. The psalmist did not say, “If it is his will, then I will live, and if it is his will, then I will declare the works of the Lord.” No, he spoke with certainty: “I will not die, I will live, I will declare the works of the Lord.” This is the way to pray. This is the way to praise. This is the way to live.
The Faithless have made a slogan out of living “before the face of God.” But what do they say before the face of God? They speak unbelief. They speak fear. They speak depression. They speak weakness, sickness, poverty, and tragedy. They live before the face of God only to spit in his face! They glorify their suffering, and they call it piety. They have no faith, no understanding, and no vision. They boast that they live before the face of God, but they drown in defeat and failure. They sin before the face of God by despising his promises and rejecting his word. They are a disgrace, and their faithless piety is an affront to the God they claim to serve.
Scripture shows us a different way, and the psalmist is only one of many examples. He shows us that to live before the face of God is to live with certainty, to live with the confidence that God is for us, that he has a purpose for our lives, and that he will fulfill his promises. The psalmist declared that he would live and not die, not because he could determine his own destiny, but because he knew that through faith God had destined his success, so that he would declare the works of God. He understood that his life was in God’s hands, and it was for this reason that he would be healed, rescued, and protected, and he would survive and succeed in the face of war and pursuit by his enemies. God’s sovereignty did not make his fate uncertain, but guaranteed his victory.
We have received the full revelation of Scripture and of Jesus Christ, so that we have an even more complete basis to possess certainty. The Faithless will continue to complain. They will continue to insist that true faith ought to be weak, that true piety wallows in uncertainty, that we must always be ready to accept defeat and despair. But they are faithless fools. True faith is strong. True faith is confident. True faith declares, “I will not die, but I will live, and declare the works of the Lord.” When we live in this way, we honor God. We show the world that our God is a God of power, a God who keeps his promises, a God who gives life and purpose to his people.