…but He hath not given me over unto death. – Psalm 118:18

It is a great blessing to a child of God to feel a full assurance that he has eternal life in Christ Jesus. “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death.” Notice the words, “Given me over.” It is the most awful thing out of hell to be given over by God.

Unbroken prosperity and undisturbed health may be the signs of being “given over unto death”; and they are in such cases where sin is committed without pangs of conscience, or apprehensions of judgment. Such freedom from fear may be maintained even in death: “There are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.” All goes quietly with them; “Like sheep they are laid in the grave.” But “in hell they lift up their eyes, being in torments.” To be given over unto death is often followed by callousness, presumption, and bravado; but it is a dreadful doom, the direst sentence from the throne of judgment as to this life. But you, dear child of God, have this comfort, He has not given you over, He is thinking upon you. By scourging you, He is proving that He has not given you over. Men do not prune the vine they mean to uproot; nor thresh out the weeds which they mean to burn. He who is chastened is not given over unto destruction… What joy lies in this, “He hath not given me over!” As long as the father chastens his boy, he has hope of him; if he ceased to do so altogether, we might fear that he thought him too bad to be reclaimed. Be glad, then, dear child of God, that since the Lord chastens you sore, He has not erased your name from His heart and His hands, nor yielded you up to your enemy’s power. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm