Do we have an appointed time of death?

The Bible says that “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). God knows absolutely everything about us (Psalm 139:1–6) including when, where, and how we will die. So, yes, it does seem that we have an appointed time of death.

In Job’s suffering-fueled complaint against God, he mentions God’s role in the timing of our death:

A person’s days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months
and have set limits he cannot exceed (Job 14:5).

Or, as the New Living Translation puts it,

You have decided the length of our lives.
You know how many months we will live,
and we are not given a minute longer.

According to this verse, the length of our lives is decreed by God, who has determined our days. A person has “set limits” on how long he lives on earth. No one is able to change God’s decree, and no one has the power to extend his life beyond what God has decided.

An important note is that none of us know the time of our death. Such knowledge is God’s alone. The one exception may be the miracle God performed for King Hezekiah in Isaiah 38. The king was sick “and was at the point of death” (Isaiah 38:1). In great sorrow, Hezekiah prayed, and the Lord answered through the prophet Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life’” (verse 5). This is the only time that we know of when anyone learned how long he would live. It also seems to be the only instance of God’s prolonging a life. The uniqueness of this miracle is brought out by the startling sign that accompanied it—the shadow on the sundial moved backward (verses 7–8).

So, in Psalm 139:16 the psalmist says, “All my days were written . . . and planned before a single one of them began” (CSB). And Job 14:5 says that “a person’s days are determined and the number of his months depends on [God]” (CSB). In other words, God is sovereign, and He has mapped out our lives. This would include an appointed time of death. At the same time, based on King Hezekiah’s story, it is not wrong to pray for life to be prolonged, for disease to be removed, and for health to be extended.

Since we do not know the number of our days, we should live each day for God. James 4:13–15 gives some practical wisdom on this matter: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” We should make wise decisions about how we live and how we take care of ourselves. And, ultimately, we trust God’s sovereignty in all things, including our time of death.