“The enemy has persecuted my soul;
he has smitten my life down to the ground;
he has made me to dwell in darkness,
as those that have been long dead.”
Psalm 143:3
This was the Son of God speaking through David, foretelling that he would be persecuted, and killed, and then would descend into hell, in the heart of the earth. Those who believe in Jesus have also been persecuted, and some have also been killed, but because Jesus descended into hell, no one who believes in him will ever go there. God’s faithful children who die now go up, not down, and enter into Paradise, where Jesus is. As Paul said, for God’s New Testament saints to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord (2Cor. 5:8).
