Hell in the Psalms

Does the Old Testament View of Hell = Eternal Conscious Being?

2026-06-21 by Steve Forkin

In my book on Hell, my aim is to wrestle with all the hard questions. The Psalms speak more clearly on this topic than many are willing to admit.

Hell in the Psalms, do they speak of eternal conscious being for the wicked?

Before we dig into the specifics of Psalm 49, I want to briefly survey some of the language used in the Psalms more broadly. Psalms that speak of the fate of the wicked.

Do the Psalms convey picture of the afterlife for the sinner, where he or she will be kept alive in a place of torment & pain for ever and ever, quite literally never ending pain?

Remember please, one must be alive to experience pain, or to suffer in general. It is an oxymoron to pretend that one is dead while experiencing pain & suffering.

Or, do the Psalms – in their pictures of the fate of the wicked – present a picture of a final end, even if that end is also a painful end?

Here are some assertions made in Psalms 37 + 50 + 58 – please read them in full to get the whole picture. Context is paramount, and you the dilligent student – am sure – will read the context to get the bigger picture.

Nonetheless the kinds of statements that appear to be repeated over and over again, point to a different fate for the wicked than, one of everlasting pain & suffering.

The smart objector, here will naturally be thinking: Aren’t these merely speaking of death, here on earth? Naturally the answer to that is partly yes, but. If they are merely speaking of the fate of the wicked on earth, won’t the righteous suffer the same fate, and one could claim that the Psalmist is being disengenous?

Hold the argument on – which death is in view – until we review Psalm 49 in more detail, for now just let the language speak, and while it does, ask yourself the simple question:

Which view of Hell does this language fit most?

- "cut off"
- "wicked will be no more"
- "sword shall enter his own heart"
- "arms of the wicked broken"
- "the wicked will perish"
- "like smoke they vanish away"
- "transgressors shall altogether be destroyed"
- "tear you apart, with none to deliver"
- "vanish like water that runs away"
- "like the snail who dissolves into slime"
- "like the stilborn child who never sees the sun"
- "ablaze.. may he sweep them away"

The language in these Psalms sounds very much like Conditionalism to me. The sad thing is that that those in the ECT camp never quote these verses, in the debates and books on hell.

Now to Psalm 49

To get the full picture, I think it will help if we read the whole thing..

I will emphasise the verses I want to look at in more detail, to make it easier for you to see & find them as you read on. For now, please simply read the whole Psalm in the way it is written.

Try, if you can to set aside any notions of hell that you already have and see whether you can see what the author of this Psalm is trying to convey.

• “Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together! My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre. Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,” (Psalm 49:1-8)

• “that he should live on forever and never see the pit.” (Psalm 49:9)

• “For he sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.” (Psalm 49:10-11)

• “Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:12)

• “This is the path of those who have foolish confidence; yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.” (Psalm 49:13-14)

• “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.” (Psalm 49:15)

• “Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed — and though you get praise when you do well for yourself his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light.” (Psalm 49:16-19)

• “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20)

Now to my summary and arguments. First let me summarise verses 1-8. No man owns enough or has enough wisdom and wealth to be able to pay the ransom price for his soul. Thankfully we are blessed with the hindsight of the gospel and the invaluable, priceless work of Christ who indeed is the ransom payment for the sins of the world. Yours and mine alike!

Verse 9, is the verse that emphasises what is at stake “to never see the pit”. What comes next is a list of powerful assertions as to what the Psalmist actually means by “see the pit”.

In verses 10 and 11 we see that the wise and the fool perish alike. If we were in any doubt as to the meaning of the word “perish” – and remember here that the people who say Hell is “eternal conscious torment” claim that “to perish” is actually to “never perish” certainly not completely, but rather live on forever, perishing, but never perishing.

Talk about changing the meaning of terms to suit a particular doctrine.

Here the Psalmist leaves us in no doubt. To “perish” means “their graves are their homes forever”. To put it more succinctly, to perish means to die!

Note also that the psalmist says “their graves… their dwelling places to all generations” and see how you might wrap this around the common view that sinners are already now in a place of torment & suffering, kind of like an entrance room to hell. All Christians recognise that hell itself right now is empty, given that we await the second coming of Christ followed by the final judgment, at which point in time people will be cast into hell. [setting aside for a moment what that means in terms of nature & duration]. Many, perhaps the majority of Evangelicals today – taking the parable of Jesus called “The Rich Man & Lazarus” in quite a literal form, to mean that sinners are in hell [hence I used the term - entrance room] right now.

If the psalmist is writing under divine inspiration – as I believe he is – his description of the fate of the wicked, does not fit the majority view of Evangelicals today, in fact I would dare suggest, the Psalmist says something that sounds quite the opposite.

Let that sink in for a moment.

If you are anything like me, then you are asking: What about the parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus” in the gospel of Luke. Isn’t that about hell? Am glad you asked:

• Here is another article where I look this parable in detail - enjoy:

https://1cor15.net/articles/2025/12-10-rich-man-and-lazarus

Just in case there was any doubt left in verse 12, the Psalmist repeats this as a comparison with the animals. “He is like the beasts that perish”. I don’t know anyone who claims that animals go to hell to suffer eternal torment there.

In verse 13 and 14, the Psalmist goes on – with this gruelling warning: “Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.”

This, very clearly speaks of death in the grave as being one of gradual, but final consumption. Try, if you will to fit wrap this part – indeed the entire Psalm – around the doctrine of “eternal conscious torment forever and ever”.

Please hear me out. This Psalm is not the place where we should settle the argument over the nature and duration of hell, but whatever position you land on, it cannot be stating the opposite of what Psalms like this say, and you continue to claim that scripture is divinely inspired revelation without contradiction. That is the hurdle you must pass!

All Christians believe in something called “progressive revelation” i.e. over the course of the writing of both the Old and New Testaments, we have received ever more and new light on the main theme that traverses the whole book, namely the story of redemption.

In the garden of Eden, the punishment pronounced on Adam and Eve – for sinning – was death. Here in Psalms we see this cleary restated with greater detail, but perhaps not the full picture.

Reading on until the end of the book of Revelation in the New Testament, should we (a) find out that death & the punishment for sin has been completely re-defined as “never dying, but to remain alive for ever in torment & pain” – after the final judgment that is – or (b) find out that the final casting into hell – of which Christ said “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10:28) – is actually just what the Psalmists told us all along, with just some more final details and fear inspiring gravity?

That is the crucial question begging to be asked in this debate on hell.

Verse 15 is “the hope of every believer”, whether a person who lived during the Old Covenant, looking forward to the reconciling work of Christ the Messiah, or a person who has the incredible blessing of looking back on, and trusting daily in the finished work of Christ on the cross as perfect substitute for our sin and rebellion.

Verses 16-19 & 20 are kind of like recapitulations or repeats of what the earlier parts of the Psalm already conveyed to us. They leave us in not doubt, “to perish” is to “die like a beast” and be forever forgotten. All the wealth of the sinner, no matter the glory, is nothing.

The fate of the wicked is a final fate, not an ongoing experience of being, regardless of the form you might consider this could take.

That certainly is the message of the author of Psalm 49.