“Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?” (Psalm 49:5)

This enigmatic question should be a real concern to elderly unbelievers—or of unbelievers of any age, for that matter. The “days of evil” seem specifically to refer to old age, as in Ecclesiastes 12:1, which exhorted young people to “remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”

Those who have not “remembered their Creator” while young may one day come to realize that the iniquities that had been accumulating against their record day by day through a long lifetime had actually involved the venom of that old serpent, which God long ago had warned would bruise the heels of Eve’s children (see Genesis 3:15). Their sins, which will eventually become so numerous as to “compass them about,” might even destroy them both now and eternally. After all, the devil will have “the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14) until that day when the true seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ (even though His own “heel” has been viciously “bruised” by Satan when the sins of the whole world were placed upon Him), will “crush the head” of that wicked one forever.

But because of Christ’s great victory over Satan—when He both died for our sins and then defeated death by His resurrection—we need no longer fear death, even when the evil days draw nigh.

Though it is far better to accept His gift of salvation from sin and death while we are young, it is never too late as long as we live. So, “wherefore should I fear in the days of evil?” “We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and . . . perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:16, 18). HMM