I do not know whether the Psalmist had any notion of any land of the
living except the land of Earth, where men pass their natural lives. I
almost think that both he and his brother, whose words he was imitating,
had some glimpse of a future life of closer union, when eyes should no
more weep nor feet fall. At any rate, you and I cannot help reading that
hope into his words. When we read, 'I will walk before the Lord in the
land of the living,' we cannot but think of the true and perfect
deliverance, when it shall be said, with a depth and a fulness of
meaning with which it is never said here, 'Thou hast delivered my soul
from death,' and the black dread that towered so high, and closed the
vista of all human expectation of the future, is now away back in the
past, hull-down on the horizon as they say about ships scarcely visible,
and no more to be feared. We cannot but think of the perfect deliverance
of 'mine eyes from tears,' when 'God shall wipe away the tears from off
all faces, and the rebuke of His people from off all the earth.' We
cannot but think of the perfect deliverance of 'my feet from falling'
when the redeemed of the Lord shall stand firm, and walk at liberty on
the golden pavements, and no more dread the stumbling-blocks of earth.
We cannot but think of the perfect presence of God, the perfect
consciousness that we are near Him, when He shall 'present us faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.' We cannot but
think of the perfect activity of that future state when we 'shall walk
with Him in white,' and 'follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.' And
one guarantee for all that far-reaching hope is in the tiny experiences
of the present; for He who hath delivered our souls from death, our eyes
from tears, and our feet from falling, is not going to expose Himself to
the scoff, 'This "God" began to build, and was not able to finish.' But
He will complete that which He has begun, and will not stay His hand
until all His children are perfectly redeemed and perfectly conscious of
His perfect Presence.