Psalm 16:7-11: Truth for the Storms Pt. 2

Scripture Reading

Psalm 28:6–9 “Blessed be the Lord! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”

Intro

Where do you go when life hurts?

Where can you go for answers for your suffering and pain?

Where can you go for hope?

Last week we started looking at Psalm 16 as a Psalm for Hope.

A Psalm for Truth in our suffering.

A Psalm for Truth to answer the pain?

What is true when your whole world is falling apart? (Psalm 46:1-3).

When you’re questioning God and wondering where He is or what He is doing?

When you feel like you’re drowning and you don’t see a way out?

Suffering will come.

Its part of living in our fallen, sin-torn… cursed, and broken world.

How do you answer it?

How do you face it?

How do you endure?

How can you count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds? (James 1:2).

What can you go for hope when the storms of life rage?

Summary

Psalm 16 gives us four truths to anchor us in the storm.

To keep us and sustain us.

And like I told you last week these truths are not magic bullets.

They don’t magically make everything all better.

The pain is still there.

But these truths can comfort us and give us hope.

A light at then end of the tunnel when there’s no other light as far as the eye can see.

The first 2 truths were:

God is Our Refuge and Deliverer.

And God is Sovereign Over Every Detail of Our Life.

Refuge/Deliverer

With God as our refuge and deliverer we can go to Him anytime we have need.

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

When trials and hardships come into your life God is never farther away than a silent word of prayer just like Psalm 16 starts Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

And when we take our burdens and our cares to the Lord because… as Peter said He cares for you… God is able to carry and deliver us.

God has said I have made and I will bear; I will carry and I will save (Isaiah 46:4).

Sovereign

The second truth is that God is Sovereign and in control over detail of my life.

You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Even the quote unquote “chance” things of life like casting lots in the Old Testament are under God’s sovereign control.

He holds our life in His hands.

Nothing comes into your life by chance.

Everything that comes into your life first passes through His infinitely wise and loving hands.

No matter the trial… no matter the storm… your life’s not chaos.

Its all going according to God’s wise… good… and holy plan that He ordained before the foundation of the world.

Jesus said Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31).

If the Sparrows won’t fall apart from your heavenly Father, you won’t fall either.

God is in control right now… and God is in control of the future.

Jesus said Do not be anxious about your life and do not worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34).

You’re Heavenly Father knows what you need before you even ask (Matthew 6:8).

Summary

Together these two truths… God is our Refuge and Deliverer… and God is sovereign over every detail in our life says… in any situation… “God’s got this.”

“God’s got me…”

He is my Refuge… and my whole life is safe in His Almighty, Sovereign hands.

Now this doesn’t erase the pain… it doesn’t erase the struggle… it doesn’t erase the suffering.

But it does give us hope.

It can comfort us in our affliction as we wait for the Lord.

Transition

And that’s where the next two promises come in.

Two more promises to anchor us in the storm.

Number 1… God is our Refuge.

Number 2… God is Sovereign over every detail of our life.

Number 3… God Promises to Never Leave Your or Forsake you.

And Number 4… God Promises to Work All Things Together for His Glory and Our Good.

Let’s start this sermon with point number 3 and one of the most comforting promises we have in all of Scripture…

III. God Promises to Never Leave You or Forsake You

Psalm 16:7–8 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

When David says I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, he is saying I bless the Lord who always leads me and guides me in every path of life.

Counsel is the idea of giving wisdom or advice or help.

And God in His grace counsels us… He guides us… He comforts and encourages us with the Truth.

Then David says I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Remember how David started this Psalm… Help me!… Protect me!… Preserve me!

Problems or God?

And by saying I have set the Lord always before me David has set his eyes on the Lord and His promises.

He’s not focusing on the problem, He’s focusing on the Lord.

There’s application there for us.

We need to constantly preach to ourselves the truth.

Put the Lord and His promises before us.

Trust Him and set our hope on Him more than our circumstance or what our eyes can see.

The righteous live by faith and not by sight.

When we suffer and we don’t put our eyes on the Lord… we suffer as functional atheists.

Of course we start to fall!… of course we start to despair!… we don’t have a God to save us.

But this is where God’s promises answer all of our doubts and fears.

What David is saying is that he has so fully set God before His eyes that no matter what comes into his life under God’s providence David trusted that God would always be there to assist Him.

That He would never leave Him or forsake Him.

He would always be there.

That’s why David was able to say because He is at my right hand… because God is with me… I shall not be shaken… I shall never be moved!

I’ll never fall!

Psalm 46:2–3 We will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Why? Because God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).

Near!… always with you… will never forsake you.

God says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10).

God goes with us at our right hand to uphold us with His.

Where is God?

Now this is one of the most difficult things to believe in the midst of our suffering.

When life hits hard and there’s not light at the end of the tunnel, we start wondering “Where is God?”

We start to fear that God has abandoned us or that God has forgotten us or that God has left us all on our own.

Job… the man who suffered the most outside of the Lord Jesus Christ… in His great anguish… in His great pain said Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him… Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him” (Job 9:11; Job 23:8-9).”

In other words, God is nowhere to be found and if you keep reading Job, God doesn’t even seem to care (Job 7:12-24).

What do you do when the darkness will not lift?

And you’re crying out to God begging Him to help but… nothing changes.

These kind of feelings of loss and abandonment only serve to compound our suffering!

Where is God and Why won’t He help me?

When the suffering won’t lift and it feels like God has abandoned you it can start to crush your soul into the dust.

And this is not a feeling that is foreign to the people of God.

Maybe this will encourage you because God in His Word condescends to our weakness.

Maybe just knowing that God knows we can feel this way can be a comfort for you because if God knows… maybe God’s near even though He feels far off.

Lamentations 5:20 Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?

Psalm 13:1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Psalm 43:2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;… the same word from our passage… why have you rejected me?

In our suffering God’s people can feel abandoned by God… but that doesn’t make it true.

Remember… we have to trust God’s promises more than our eyes or our circumstances or emotions.

So what is God’s promise when you feel lost or abandoned by God.

When you feel like God’s forgotten you and is nowhere near you.

When you go forward and He’s not there… backward and you perceive Him not?

I Will Not Forget You

Turn to Isaiah 49:13-17.

This is one of the most comforting passages in all of Scripture.

Isaiah 49:13–17 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

So God is promising here salvation and deliverance.

His Servant… the Servant of the Lord… Jesus Christ!

But the People say….

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”

In the context of Judgment and Exile… it looks like God has forgotten His people.

That he has completely abandoned them… forsaken them!

But here’s what God promises…

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

What God says is that a woman would forget her nursing child before God would ever forget you.

For us… that’s impossible!

How could a woman ever forget her nursing child?

And yet God says Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

In other words… I will never forget you… I will never abandon you.

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

Christ did this literally for us when the nails were driven through His hands and His feet.

Your walls are continually before me.

Walls were a symbol of protection and security so it could be that God is saying He has put their safety and well being at the front of His mind… all His efforts.

So in that sense God will always protect you.

Or at this point the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed so it could be God is saying your plight and your trouble is continually before me.

Either way, God is promising I have you.

You’re builders make haste… Redemption and Restoration is coming…

And your destroyers and those who laid you was go out from you… in other words… Deliverance.

HIT THIS

So God is saying when you feel abandoned…

When you feel lost and alone…

No hope… No way out…

I will not forget you…

I will never forget you.

Redemption and Restoration is coming…

Deliverance is coming…

I will never leave or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

**

Jeremiah 23:23 Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away?

Because He is at my right hand… I shall not be shaken.

Christ

And when you doubt… and you will…

Its part of the weakness of our humanity…

Like I’ve told you… these promises don’t make everything automatically better… you are going to be fighting for your life just to believe it…

Remember Christ’s engraved hands.

He still bears the marks of His crucifixion and His redemption of you…

His purchase of you…

His bringing you near to Himself.

If you ever doubt God’s love for you…

His commitment to you…

His promise to never leave you or forsake you…

Look to Christ!

Loot to His cross!

See in His hands and His side the wounds of His love.

Remember how He suffered in our place and cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1).

So that you would never be forsaken.

He was forsaken in His humanity in His work as our mediator so that you and I… and all those that have faith in Christ would be beloved.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32).

Why would God purchase you in Christ only to abandon you in your hour of greatest need?

That’s not who God is.

He was faithful to bring Christ.

He was faithful to bring you into saving faith of the Gospel that He had predestined before the foundation of the world!

All those years from the first day of creation until now all the way to you.

He has been faithful from the day of your New Birth until now and He will be faithful to the end.

The Truth we need is that God will never not be faithful.

God might seem far off.

Unconcerned and uncaring about what’s going on with you.

But God says Behold I have engraved you on my hands…

Even these may forget yet I will not forget you…

I will never leave you or forsake you.

Number 4…

IV. God Promises to Work All Things Together for His Glory and Our Good

Psalm 16:9–10 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

How did David get here?

Just 8 verses earlier he was saying Help me!… Preserve me! and now he’s saying my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.

What’s changed?

Well David’s taken his eyes off his circumstances an placed them on the Lord.

His confidence… his peace… his joy is that the Lord is at his right hand; he will not be shaken.

He dwells secure.

God will never leave Him or forsake Him.

He says..

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

In other words you will not abandon utterly unto death where I would ultimately be destroyed.

Sheol

You see… Sheol in the Old Testament refers to the place of the dead or the grave as in the dead in general (Psalm 141:7).

Or it could also refer to the place of the wicked dead… as in the wicked dead in particular where they face God’s wrath and holy and righteous judgment (Psalm 49:14-15).

David knew that no matter what… even in death… God would not abandon him.

Fulfillment in Jesus

Now this is important for us because Psalm 16:10 finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Its a Messianic Prophecy of the resurrection.

Peter quotes this Psalm in Acts 2 during his sermon at Pentecost saying…

Acts 2:22–31 Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

New Slide

For David says concerning him,…[Psalm 16]… “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’”

New Slide

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.”

The ultimate hope of salvation is in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Original Audience?

Now this begs the question… How would the original audience have read this.

This was a Psalm that David and other OT saints were meant to sing.

What would they have thought they were singing?

In their minds they would have been singing a song of hope.

Hope in God’s deliverance in the here and now and God’s ultimate deliverance on the Day of Judgment, both of which are ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

When they sang the words they were singing that… in every way… God would save and deliver them.

Now here’s where this gets interesting and here’s where the resurrection starts to connect back to our problem of suffering in Psalm 16.

From Psalm 16, Peter immediately goes from there to… Christ reigning on the throne.

Verse 32…

Acts 2:32–36 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

So Peter connects Psalm 16 and Christ’s Resurrection to Psalm 110 and Christ Reigning on the Throne at the right hand of God.

And as King Christ reigns and rules over all things.

Now here’s why this matters for us and what David says in Psalm 16.

Because Christ rose again and now reigns at the right hand of the Father… we dwell secure.

Whatever comes into my life Christ rules over it all.

Its not chaos… its no accident.

Everything that comes into my life… both good and bad… is under Christ’s sovereign rule.

And as the King its under His sovereign rule both for His glory and my good.

Romans 8:28–29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Now this verse gets ripped out of context so much we need to remember that the “good” is defined as conformity to Christ and Christlikeness and not just an easy-going life.

Suffering will come… but God sovereignly rules over that suffering to perfectly accomplish all His purpose.

He sovereignly rules over al things for His glory and to work all things together for good for those that love Him.

What that means is that Christ is able to redeem your sufferings.

To take your sufferings and turn them to good as the King of kings who reigns and rules over all things.

Comfort

This is the comfort we have.

We might not see it.

We might not be always able to see the end game.

But we can trust whatever comes into my life Christ’s got this.

He conquered the grave and rose from the dead.

There’s nothing He can’t conquer in my life.

No Goliath or trial too strong for Him.

And if God was able to redeem even the death of His own Son and bring life out of the grave… then surely God can redeem this.

Surely God can bring good from this.

I might not know what it is…

I might not see it.

But we can trust in Christ the King who sovereignly rules over all things for His glory and our good delivering us from all our enemies and bestowing on us all the blessings of His glorious Kingdom.

The Truth you need is God will bring good from this.

Somehow this will lead to God’s glory and somehow… He will redeem on this.

And so David ends…

Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I love how David says You make known to me the Path of Life because of what Proverbs says in Proverbs 15.

The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath (Proverbs 15:24).

Its the opposite of death… its salvation and deliverance.

You make known to me the path of life is a proclamation that God delivers and God saves… the very grace we need in all of our suffering.

But here’s what’s really cool.

If you take Psalm 16:1-2 and Psalm 16:11… together they form a Chiasm.

Now a Chiasm is something that is found in the Bible to highlight an author’s main point or overarching Big Idea.

Basically they follow a pattern of ABC, CBA they can be more than that but generally the first line, Line A, corresponds to the last line, Line A and each line subsequent to that to highlight a specific emphasis or make a point.

Now you might be saying, “Wait, what?”

Let me show you.

Psalm 16:1-2, 11

A: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

B: I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

C: I have no good apart from you.

C*: You make known to me the path of life;

B*: in your presence there is fullness of joy;

A*: at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

When you put the A lines, the B lines, the C lines together, verse 11 is the answer to the plea in verses 1 and 2.

So C and C1 I have not good apart from you… you make known to me the path of life says You are my highest good!… my only good!…. You and you alone give me life.

B and B1: I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord”… in your presence there is fullness of joy.

Isn’t that what David said earlier in Psalm 16:4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.

Their sorrows grow more and more.

But with the Lord there is no sorrow… though we have sorrows now… but the fullness of joy forevermore!

And then A and A1: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge… at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

You are my refuge… my shelter in the storm and you will save me from all troubles… at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

So don’t miss what happens… in verses 1 and 2 David comes as a Beggar of grace… No hope outside the Lord.

And by the end of the Psalm He has life… joy… and the beautiful inheritance of God Himself.

Conclusion

David’s prayers don’t start on fire and full of confidence.

They start with Help me!… Save me!

But he doesn’t stay there.

He prays and preaches to Himself the truths and promises of God, and as He does His confidence rises.

You are my Lord… I have no good apart from you.

You are my only hope.

My portion and my cup.

You hold my lot… all my life is in your hands.

You guide me… counsel me…

You promise you will never leave me or forsake me.

And that you will not abandon my soul to Sheol but work all things together for my good and your glory.

And I have sorrows now but in your presence there is fullness of joy.

The answer for our suffering is to focus on God and His truth.

Joy and hope comes from entrusting ourselves to His care.

And no matter what saying all things… You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.

God is Our Refuge and Deliverer.

He is Sovereign over every detail in our life down to the number of hairs on our head and the chance things of casting lots.

He promises He will never leave us or forsake us.

And that He will work all things together for His glory and our good.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance (Psalm 16:6).

Let’s Pray