O Lord, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. O Lord, you pulled me up from Sheol; you rescued me from among those descending into the grave.
Into the Text
This week, we’re shifting our focus from spiritual disciplines to the work of Christ. Triduum is the name for the three days spanning from the Last Supper to Jesus’ resurrection. This week, we’ll look at the themes of Triduum so we can understand its significance and prepare our hearts to celebrate these events.
One purpose of the Lenten season is to remember the weight of sin and the significance of Christ’s sacrifice. Thankfully, if we are in Christ, we will not experience the penalty for our sins. We will face consequences, but Christ has taken the punishment, the death we deserved. He was forsaken by God for a time so that we could forever be accepted and forgiven when we place our trust in Him.
This week’s passages will help us remember the darkness we have been rescued from. The psalmist in today’s passage praises God for rescuing him from the pit. Sheol was a reference to the realm of the dead, a place where one went after death. The references to Sheol throughout the Old Testament often describe how God has rescued someone from death, saving them when they were otherwise hopeless and helpless.
This is true of us. We were helpless and hopeless in our sins. Without God’s intervention, we would forever be in Sheol, never escaping the power of death. But He has rescued us, pulled us up from the grave. Jesus died in our place, taking the penalty we deserve. We deserve death because of our sins, but if our faith is in Jesus, we have victory over death. His saving work on the cross has pulled us up from Sheol, forever rescuing us from hell.