Psalm 16 You will not abandon my Soul

You Will Not Abandon My Soul

Chair Bible pg. 453

Main Idea: The LORD will keep his people forever.

A Miktam of David. Either means tune or golden Psalm. Clearly a Psalm pointing to Christ. Because Christ has fulfilled the Psalm, it is now applied to our lives in Christ as his followers.

This psalm is a song of confident trust in God in which the psalmist was able to live life to the fullest because he was gripped with a living hope in God beyond (this life and beyond) the grave. (Lawson, pg. 86)

Psalm teaches us to live beyond the hear and now in spite of difficulty and not to fear death as a follower of Christ.

The LORD God alone provides refuge and good for his people.

Source of refuge and good

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

Preserve me--watch over me. David is asking God to watch over him with the care and concern of a shepherd. This is the only petition he makes in this psalm; he doesn’t make any other requests. (Johnston, pg. 175)

These words are evidently spoken by one in great distress, who addresses himself to heaven for support under his sufferings, pleading his confidence in God, still unshaken by all the storms that had set themselves against it. (Horne, pg. 78)

Two-fold request for safety in both life and death.

2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; You are in charge. I heard again this week that He is my Savior, not yet made him LORD. Jesus is your LORD and Savior or He is neither. We must remind ourselves who He is and who we are. As Christ followers, we were bought with a price…we are not your own. He does not save to take advantage of you but to do good for you and through you...

I have no good apart from you.” “You are all the good I need” (Davis p. 58)

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God is all-sufficient and has need of nothing, while we are destitute of any goodness and can contribute nothing to him. In short, it is impossible for any person ever to bring God under obligation to them or put him in their debt. (Calvin, pg. 71) He is not (made) happy by us; but we are made happy by him. He can do without such earthly servants but we cannot do without such a heavenly Master. (Spurgeon quoting William Seeker, pg. 200)

God is all-sufficient and has need of nothing, while we are destitute of any goodness and can contribute nothing to him. In short, it is impossible for any person ever to bring God under obligation to them or put him in their debt. (Calvin, pg. 71) He is not rendered happy by us; but we are made happy by him. He can do without such earthly servants but we cannot do without such a heavenly Master. (Spurgeon quoting William Seeker, pg. 200)

2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV

8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Shared refuge and good

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

In whom is all my delight.

Verse 3, then, is the proper corollary of verse 2; the psalm assumes that if you delight in God, you will delight in His people. It’s a biblical axiom. (Davis, pg. 57)

1 John 4:7 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

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1 John 4:19 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us.

The love of Christ we share in Him turns our attention to Him together and as a result to love one another…they go hand in hand.

Sorrow of those who look elsewhere

4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

Or take their names on my lips.

David is rejecting all other religions and forms of paganism(things we drag into the Christian faith)

Illus: Luther crawling to the top of Scala Sancta Holy Steps(story is the steps that Jesus climbed to stand before Pilate) in Rome (repeat Lord’s Prayer on each step and kiss the step--when reach top sins are forgiven) Luther reached the top unconvinced and concerned by what he saw. The experience was one the things that the Lord used to begin to open his eyes to the gospel.

The gospel is good news to those who are seeking salvation elsewhere at great expense.

The one great sacrifice had been offered upon the altar of the cross. (Horne, pg. 79)

Sure and beautiful inheritance expression of contentment and assurance

5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

Using the language reminiscent of the conquest of Canaan (“portion,” “lot,” “boundary lines,” “inheritance”), the psalmist reflects on all that the Lord has done.

The LORD is the sufficient supply for all that we need. Our joy and contentment are not found in the God’s gift but in the LORD God himself.

Yet, He wants us to enjoy the good gifts he gives and praise him as the giver. (Johnston, pg. 180) See v. 6...

6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Ephesians 1:11–14 ESV

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

The LORD God alone rightly instructs his people.

7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;

In the night also my heart instructs me.

How does Yahweh give him counsel? Through His written word. The very first psalm implies this: there the believer walks away from the counsel of wicked (1:1) and instead meditates on Yahweh’s torah (law, instruction) day and night (1:2). (Davis, pg. 60)

Psalm 42:8 ESV

8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

Illus: The joy of knowing the LORD through his Word that feeds and nourishes our soul as we hide it in our hearts and minds.

His Word reminds and instructs us as to his care and keeping...

The LORD God alone keeps his people forever.

8 I have set the LORD always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

David is placing the forefront of his mind that the LORD is ever with him, at his right hand-place of support. He will not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

Even in the midst of suffering and in the face of death, David’s heart was glad, he rejoiced with all that was in him because he knew that in either life or death, he was secure in the hands of the LORD GOd.

Read v. 10-11 without comment

10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

Or let your holy one see corruption.

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.

()

If ever there was a clear Old Testament prophecy of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is this statement. It makes the third specifically messianic psalm in the Psalter, after and (somewhat less directly) . (Boice, pg. 130)

Reread from perspective of Christ.

8 I have set the LORD always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

Or let your holy one see corruption.

The Body of Jesus did not decay. The argument of . The resurrection of Christ is the ground for our confidence and the source of our joy.

The body of a believer, though buried in the ground, will see resurrection from the grave and glorification into the likeness of Christ. Simply stated...the believer’s relationship with the LORD God will not end in death.

Quote: “This is noble encouragement to all the saints; die they must, but rise they shall, and though in their case they shall see corruption, yet they shall rise to everlasting life. Christ’s resurrection is the cause, the ernest, the guarantee, and the emblem of the rising of all his people. Let them, therefore, go to their graves as to their beds, resting their flesh among the clods as they now do upon their couches.” (Spurgeon, pg. 197)

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.

The word rendered life is in the plural. This may denote the excellence and richness of the life of the risen Saviour. Some think it may allude to the fact that Christ’s resurrection secures the resurrection and eternal life of all his people. (Plumer, pg. 215)

His soul hath joys without mixture, pleasures without number, a fullness without want, a constancy without interruption, and a perpetuity without end. (Spurgeon quoting 209)

So What?

Am I trusting the LORD God alone to keep me now and forever?

Richard Baxter, “Always preach as a dying man to dying men, as if never to preach again.” (Lawson quoting Baxter, pg. 88)

No one is ready to live until he is first ready to die. Only in facing the reality of death with a living faith in God is a person prepared to live boldly and courageously for him, even in the face of troubling adversity. (Lawson, pg. 86)

Courage

Grace

Hope in the resurrection

Guard me now

Keep me on that day.

HS camp this week--Real Courage: Christ the Warrior went before us and conquered sin and death. He has saved us not by anything we have done but by his own work on the Cross and through the resurrection. He has called us to gospel centered courage, the resolve to live as a follower/disciple of Christ with strength, daring and confidence.

We have nothing to fear...we have entrusted it all to him who has conquered death

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.

END