While I have my being

I am taken by this from the psalmist:

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

While I have my being? This suggests that at some point I will no longer have my being. And no longer having my being is much more worrisome than no longer having my body.

A long tradition of thought tells us that our bodies are not us in our totality; that our beings will survive our bodies; that what is to come after our bodies pass away is much better, and hence much more to be desired, than what is presently at hand.

Upon this all the hope of the Christian gospel -- and also all the fear of it -- is founded. As it says in the Book elsewhere: it is appointed to men once to die, and then the judgment. This presumes that after the body dies, there remains something of us to judge. That would be our beings; perhaps what our beings did while in our bodies.

Or, conversely, in the words of St. Paul: if in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. Why most pitied? Because we put our hope in the life to come, after this life -- and this body -- passes. If there is indeed no such future life ... we are of all people most to be pitied.

There is, therefore, a much better existence to come for those who fear God and hold to Christ (or better: for those who are held by Him). Put another way, our beings have not seen nor experienced anything like what remains to be experienced.

All of this presumes that we will continue to have our beings -- or more simply, that we will continue to BE -- after our bodies pass away. So:

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being ... this "while" I have my being is disquieting.

The Old Testament is much less clear on the status of the afterlife in general. But the New Testament is quite clear: that which is sown a physical body will be raised a spiritual body. Taken together -- and we should take them together -- it is a complex brew of encouragement and wonderment.

In other words, I am encouraged. But I also wonder -- not the wonder of one in bliss; but the wondering of one who has questions.

And then there are Job's words: “And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God ..."

How does that really work? I don't know.

Logos2Go

Psalm 146.2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Hebrews 9.27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment...

1 Corinthians 15.19 If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15.44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Job 19.27 “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God ...