Psalms 16

Psalm 16

Good morning rivertree! It’s a joy to be with you. As Ross said we are so looking forward to gathering together next Sunday morning in person.

While so much has changed what God is calling an dleading rivertree to hasn’t changed. Next Sunday morning I am excited that we get to worship at botht the downtown campus(where I am this morning) and the cove campus

(talk about vision here)

I appercaite what Zach said last week as he introduced the book of Psalms for us all.

He said “the Psalms give us an oppurtunity to be human before God” He shared with us the Psalms let us be honest and open before God.

And I apperciate this reality abou tPsalms

It’s raw, it’s real and at times feels risky. When I read the psalms I feel like I am getting a window into the psalmist life.

what they are wrestling with, what they are rejoicing about and how they are viewing life.

but I will be honest before you and God. When I come to a psalm like psalm 16 and I see david saying

“for in you I take refuge.”

or “I have no good apart form you.”

I know those are true statements and good truths for my soul but there are moments if I am really honest I don’t always expierence teh reality.

Or at very least I am not aware of the reality in statements like this

While this idea of taking refuge in God sounds great. I read it and I’m like yes God as refuge this is right, this is good.....I can walk in seasons of life where

refuge doesn’t seem real

Maybe it’s something we have in commoon today.

As you turn on the tv, or social media, or even just get online and you see the shifitng sand of the culutre around us things can feel really unceratin.

When we see a pandemic on a global level cause such choas, pain, death and heartache. When this pandemic has the ability to Isolate us from each other and from those we love. When we become hopefull things are chaning maybe we become fearful the ecommy won’t be able to recover

we can wonder where is this refuge for us?

when there are protest in the streets almost everyday and injustice in our land , unrest in the nation refuge sounds good but it seems far off

Or even when the simple things of life(family, friendship, stress) to name a few seem wieghty I wondering how to relate to God

There have been moments over the last 3 months were I have sensed Gods presence in real and tangible ways and their have been moments where I have felt distent or even empty

Eugene peterson would put it this way when describing the PSalms

the essence is the psalms are a response to what God has already spoken or to what he is already doing

Let’s read

Read Psalm 16

English Standard Version Psalm 16

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

2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.”

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

in whom is all my delight.

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.

5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

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.

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.

Here is a man who has who is a strong man. When he was a teenager he faced Golaith with a sling and stone and truck him down.

When he was an officer in King Suals army people would chant

Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7).

David Lead a sort of gurrilla war for years and his army in the desert of Judea was like our special forces

when he was on the throne hie was an amazing diplomat

the reality is if there was every a man who was self sufficent it was David

yet his writings and psalms show his confidence didn’t lie in himself his confideicne was rooted firmly in the Charcter of person of God.

and it’s a way we can relate to david. In America it’s all about being self made, self sufficent and self reliateent. To need help is to show weakness

Yet if you are anything like me you’ve realized just over the past couple of months how weak you really are. How you are in control of nothing.

This psalm shows us a picture of someone who has really come to and end of themselves

David makes one request in this passage. “Preserve” me

throughout scripture this word means “to watch” or to watch over. It’s used of someone observing nature

it’s used of Adam keeping the garden

and of Jacob tending to laban’s flocks

David is asking God to watch over him, to see him. To not forget him

and what a sweet request this is. I tink it’s enough for david. To know the God of the universe. To know the God who commands armies, who breathed out stars, who has alwasy been sees him is enough.

The rest of the psalm is reponse to the God who sees

and what was true for David is true for us this morning. NO matter what you are facing

no matter if you are fearful of the pandemic, or choas in the streets, or ecomomic strife

God sees you. It’s enough to ask God will you watch over me. Because knowing that GOd is watching over you allows you to rest. Allows you to breath and allows you to move forward

sure none of us know what will happen this next week. I know in march I didn’t expect when things shut down I would be in quartinee for over 80 days.

I didn’t expect my wife to get furglouhged

I didn’t expect the pain and lonliness I would feel both from Isolation from friends but also Isolaiton from teh body of Christ.

and in the moments....I doubted, I questioned if God was really my refuge, in the moments where I felt distant from everything and everyone

God was preserve me. God was watching over me. God saw me. And nothing could change that truth

It’s what paul recognoized in romans in romans 8. It’s a passage I come back to a lot when I preach probably because I am quick to forget Gods promises

English Standard Version Chapter 8

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 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? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

English Standard Version Chapter 8

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul knows it, David knows it and it’s what we need to know today.Not just in our heads but in our hearts.

No matter what the world is facing, and no matter what we face. God sees us and God loves us

it’s the response to the request which allows David to take refuge in God. To realize anything good is found in God

when you read that david takes refuge in God it’s not suprising. This word refuge is used many times in psalms. But this is more then a mighty fotress or stronghold

Refuge is a source of protection. and when we see the word in the OT it’s this shadow imagery.

which is really great news! God isn’t just a refuge we run into hopiong our enemies can’t destroy it.

No when we think about Gods shadow as being our refuge we start to realize his shadow is endless.

In other words there is no where we could go(hieght nor depth) that will cause us to be outside of Gods shadow in our livees.

As bleivers we understand we are always in God protection

Nothing can happen to us that God doesn’t allow

and this idea turns david to worship. He says Lord powerful Lord good god of convent

I have no Good thing apart form you

It’s the same thing james would say in

James 1:17

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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.

JMB would put it this way:

“if we do not have God himself, even the best things of life will be valueless to us”

There is no good gift that doesn’t come from God.

The greatest blessing God can give us is himself. And if we do not have God, then no other gift he gives means anything.

Not one. Satan tempts us to think we can find something good and satisfying that is not from God.

The essence of sin is looking for good outside of God’s provision and his will.

It’s been true in my life. Even reacenlty there have been some flesh patterns in my life that have shown their ugliness. A friend in mine asked me a question what are you looking for outside of Jesus to satifsfy you?

I didn’t like that questions

but it is true

When I look to anything else outside of Jesus to satisfy me life becomes unpleasent but when I realize

English Standard Version Psalm 16

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

That the boudries God has set in my life are for my good this changes everything.

It’s what Jesus offers us in Matthew

Jesus said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

in other words just knowing GOd as

refuge

rescurer

redeemer

means nothing compared to what God means to us

and what then vertical relationship with God is rightly valued our hortizontal relatinoships will be rightly valued

when we allow his love to dwell in 0ur hearts the only result would be to love the way he does

as david delights in God he delights in those who bear Gods image

and that sounds great right?

A life of delight, a life of refuge, a life expierencing God only found in God.

Yet david saw something different in so many who lived in his day

He said

English Standard Version Psalm 16

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

There where those in davids day who ran after other gods. and instead of expierencing joy, instead of expierecing delight, instead of expierecing refuge and saftey

their own sorrow multiplied.

In davids days people would go to all sorts of other gods to try to appease them. Whether it was the God of sun, or the God of rain, God of fertility, or any other God

and what david realized was this. These so called gods who people were trying to appease where actually adding to the suffering not taking away from it.

When I listened to Tim Keller talk about this he makes the observation in todays world we don’t have the “idols” or we wouldn’t call run to pagan gods.

yet we often run to the same things for security. We run to money, sex, contorl, or a number of other things and think they can save us

Keller even says unitentional there are moments we allow these things to have divine infuluenc ein our lives

and what we come to understand when we look for those things to bring our secutiry, our safety, our good, our refuge

they ulimtenlty will let us down and add to our sorrows. Some of these things can even be good but make no mistake they are not God and can’t be

Cause God is so much more and longs for so much more for us

As he choose us we get to choose him as our cup and portion as verse 5 says

and as we enjoy the closness of the relationship we now enjoy with God we realize what David realized

The lines that had fallen in pleasant places for him and his beautiful inheritance was so much better then he even thought.

In verse 5-6 David is pointing us back

: “portion,” “lot,” “lines,” and “inheritance” (vv. 5, 6).

These four words point back to the time when Joshua divided the land between the twelve tribes after the conquest of Canaan.4

Each tribe was given its portion of the land by lot with clear boundary lines demarking the borders of their land. This land was their inheritance to be passed down through the generations.

and Land was everything. But it’s interesting becasue

One tribe did not receive a portion of land. God said to the Levites, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel” (Numbers 18:20).

David is claiming the same close relationship with God. True safety and security does not come from property and possessions but from knowing God and living in his presence.

Like that's the issue. Tha'ts what's thrown the world into a talespin. we are in shock when safety and security isn't borught about by our systems and our ways.

a strand of dna

an unjustuice murder

an ecomomic collapse

why can't those things keep us safe? becuase they were never able to. The only place we will find real safety and security is JESUS.

For those of us who have been saved by Jesus we live with the great Joy he is our inhertince. and it’s in the beatuy of this truth in which we allow him to give us counsel and redirect our hearts everydyay

it’s in the beatuy of this truth we realize his with us and nothing can shake us.

it’s in the beauty of this truth all of who we are rejoices because we know our flesh is secure.

and it’s in the beatuy of this truth we realize tha tnot only are we secur ein this life but we are secure for all of eternity.

English Standard Version Psalm 16

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

or let your holy one see corruption.

Here is what we know. The Nt writers viewed this passage as refering to Jesus. they viewed it as a prophecy about the risen Christ. And it is. When Peter preaches on penetacost he qoutes this passage in reference to Jesus

Yet David didn’t have the advantage we have. yes david was longing for the messiah but I think Davids confidence offers us something else.

if he was not writing of Christ, the verse is in some ways even more remarkable. In that case, David was writing of his own hope, expecting that God would not abandon him to the grave and would preserve him.

One commentator wrote

“The boldness of it all almost leaves the reader breathless. How can a man see all men dying and note that all the children of men before him have died without exception and still say: God cannot let that happen to me!

and this is what faith looks like. If God is really holding onto us he won’t abadon us to death. This is what the death, burial and resurection of Jesus promise us.

This is amazing confidence. And better yet, it was true! God did not abandon Jesus to the grave but raised him on the third day. And everyone who is in Christ has the same sort of faith as Jesus did.

We trust God in the face of death. We believe on the basis of God’s character and his Word that he will not abandon us to the grave. The Scriptures say,

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52)

If you are a believer, you know that death is not the end. It was not the end for Jesus, and it will not be the end for you.

and that allows us to have the same conclusion david did. In God thier is the fullness of Joy.

The greatest blessing God can give us is himself. And if we do not have God, then no other gift he gives means anything.

If God gave you health but didn’t give you himself, would you be satisfied? If God gave you a nice home, nice vacations, and plenty of money but did not give you himself, would you be satisfied?

If you went to Heaven and the streets were solid gold; the air was clean and bright; there was no more sin; everyone got along without fighting, arguing, or conflict; but Jesus was not there, would you be satisfied?

If you have expierenced Gods delight and pleasure in you the answer is no

we were created to be satsifeid and secure in God alone.

This morning if you are going to sometihng else for your joy and satisficaiton Invite you to stop

to rest

and realize God sees you

His shadow covers you and you can’t outrun his refuge for you

allow him to be everything to you

see how beatufilu your inhertince is

and expierece fullness of joy in his presence today.

Let’s pray

Pray psalm 16

Reflection song