THE LAST ENEMY, A Weekly Reflection by Pastor Lap Dinh on Psalms 46–48; 1 Corinthians 15

Everything in our lives is on the move, and not in our favor. Bodies age. Careers wobble. The people we love get older, get sick, and get further away. And underneath all of it runs the one certainty we spend enormous energy not thinking about: we are going to die, and so is everyone we love. That is the ground we actually stand on. Every other fear is a rehearsal for that one.

The psalmist looks straight at the shaking and refuses to panic. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea" (Ps 46:1-2). Read that again and notice how far he goes. Not "we will not fear small troubles." The earth giving way. The mountains falling into the sea. The total collapse of everything solid. And still: "she shall not be moved" (Ps 46:5). How can a mortal say that with a straight face?

Paul tells us how. He takes us to the empty tomb and will not let us look away. "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20). Firstfruits. The first sheaf of a harvest that is coming, which means His resurrection is not a one-off miracle to admire but a preview of ours. And then Paul names our real enemy and its sentence in one line: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Cor 15:26). The last enemy. The one that beats everyone. The one no wealth or wisdom or willpower has ever defeated. Destroyed.

Listen to how he says it will end. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet... the dead will be raised imperishable" (1 Cor 15:52). That trumpet is the one the psalm already heard: "God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet" (Ps 47:5). The same blast that announces the King's reign is the blast that empties the graves. And when it sounds, Paul says the taunt we have never been able to throw at death will finally be true on our lips: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Cor 15:55).

Be still and let that reach the deep place. "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10). Not because death is nothing. Because death is a defeated enemy, and the God who guides us "is our God forever and ever" and "will guide us forever," all the way through the valley and out the other side (Ps 48:14).

Lord, we have been so afraid of the shaking. Steady us on the Rock that rose.

So here is what the resurrection does to an ordinary Thursday. It makes us "steadfast, immovable" (1 Cor 15:58), the very immovability Psalm 46 promised, now anchored in the empty tomb that could not hold him. And it makes the tired, invisible work of our lives mean something forever: "knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Cor 15:58). Nothing done for Him is wasted, because the One we do it for is not dead. Every quiet act of love outlives the grave.

We do not grieve as those who have no hope, and we do not labor as those who build on sand. Christ is risen, the firstfruits, and we are the harvest. The earth may give way. We shall not be moved.

Lord, You have beaten the last enemy. When we stand at gravesides, when we face our own end, when everything solid shakes, hold us still and sure on the risen Christ. Make us immovable. And let us pour out our lives in work that death cannot touch, because You are alive and our labor is not in vain. Our Lord, we are waiting for that trumpet. Amen.

What shaking are we most afraid of, and how would today look if we truly believed the last enemy is already defeated and our labor is not in vain?

--- Pastor Lap