The Lord is My Portion Giver

The Practice of the Godly Man (16:1-4)

Living in the Lord's Presence (16:1-2)

Living for the Lord's People (16:3)

Living by the Lord's Precepts (16:4)

Portion : Part, Ration, Lot, Belonged

Something weighed out   (maw-naw)

         The Practice of the Godly Man (16:1-4)

Living in the Lord's Presence (16:1-2)

Living for the Lord's People (16:3)

Living by the Lord's Precepts (16:4)

Portion : Part, Ration, Lot, Belonged

Something weighed out   (maw-naw)

         The Lord is My Portion Giver

              Psa 16:5-11

      The Portion of a Godly Man (Psa 16:5-6)

            A. In The Lord (Psa 16:5)

The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot.

" David was excluded by Saul's watchdogs from his share in the family inheritance. 

Each family in Israel had its territory assigned to it by line and lot by Joshua in the original distribution of Canaan among the tribes. 

The inheritance stayed in the family. 

David's share was in the farms and fields of Bethlehem but so long as Saul sat on the throne there was no hope he could enjoy his inheritance. 

His own parents were fugitives in Moab. 

Never mina," says David. 

"I have a better inheritance. 

I have the Lord."

David said The Lord is My Portion

         I. The Strength of Heart

             1.Minister

             2.Monitor 

             3.Mediator 

          B. In The Lord (Psa 16:6)

"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." 

David was a fugitive when he wrote that, with no home, with the moss for a mattress and the caves and forests for his shelter. 

How could he say: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage"?

But David was not forgetting. 

This was the language of faith. 

Years ago the prophet Samuel had visited the farm in Bethlehem, had poured the holy anointing oil of God on David's head, had told him he would one day be Israel's king. 

Nothing Saul could do could prevent that. 

Not just the Bethlehem farm—but all of Judah, all of Benjamin and Dan, all of Gilead and Goshen—all was his.

 Present appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, the lines had fallen unto him in pleasant places. 

And they have to us, too! If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with Him. 

We have God's Word for it.

       II. The Stayer of The Heart

             1.Protects

             2.Provides 

             3.Promotes 

  The Prospects of the Godly Man (Psa 16:7-11)

            A. In this Life

1. Guided by God (16:7)

The godly man has the best of both worlds. He has three things in this life the unsaved person does not have. 

He can know what it is to be guided by God: "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins [thoughts] also instruct me in the night seasons" (16:7).

Nearly all the old guidelines have been broken down today. 

Old restraints, old moral standards have been swept away and people are frightened, confused, lonely, and at their wit's end. 

They run to professional counselors for help as never before in history. 

They turn to the dark world of the occult and devour the prognostications of people like Jeanne Dixon, ignoring the fact that some of her guesses never come true.

 They are looking to eastern religions hoping to find answers there, all in vain. 

The Christian has it all over them. He can know what it is to be guided by God. In this life!

2. Guarded by God (16:8)

We can know too what it is to be guarded by God: 

I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (16:8). 

In the old days when people fought with swords, a soldier defending another would naturally stand on his right. 

David could see the Lord standing on his right to defend him from his foes. 

That is something the unsaved man doesn't have.

3. Gladdened by God (16:9)

Then, too, the godly man can know in this life what it is to be gladdened by God: 

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope" (16:9). 

Come what may, the godly man can lift up his heart and voice in song. 

In this life! Guided! Guarded! Gladdened! And these are just the fringe benefits of being a believer. 

These are things God gives us for this life. 

Even if there were no life to come, it would be worth being a believer just to have the peace, the rest, the joy God gives here and now to His own. 

But there's more to it than this life. 

Think of the prospects of the godly man:

        III. The Satisfaction of the Heart

              1.Choice

              2.Condition

              3.Comforter

           B. In That Life (16:10-11)

Here the psalm takes a giant leap into the unknown—into that which cannot be known by human reasoning but only by divine revelation. 

David speaks of things that transcend reason. 

He puts his finger unerringly on two truths which had to await New Testament revelation to be properly grasped.

1. The Truth of Resurrection (16:10)

First, there was the truth of resurrection: 

For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption" (16:10). 

David could say: "My flesh shall rest in hope" because he could anticipate resurrection.

Old Testament believers did not have much light on the subject of death. 

They knew that hades claimed the soul and that the grave claimed the body. 

David believed that neither the triumph of the tomb over his flesh, nor the hold of hades over his soul, was final. 

Why? Because he had been such a godly man? Because he had accumulated enough merit to ensure his deliverance from death? 

No indeed! His faith leaps forward again, this time to Christ: 

For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; nor suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption."

Great a saint as David was, he certainly was not God's "Holy One," the ideal Israelite. 

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can claim that tide "the Holy One of God." 

The wages of sin is death, but Jesus was sinless so death and hades had no power over Him. 

His soul went down into hades so that He could proclaim in those dark regions the mighty triumph of His cross. 

His body lay for three days and nights in Joseph's tomb but corruption and decay could not touch Him. Then:

There it is! David, 

with the eye of faith, with keen unerring vision, was able to see the truth of resurrection. 

He would live beyond the grave because of what the Holy One would do when He would bear away in triumph the very gates of death.

       2. The Truth of Rapture (16:11)

David's prospects however reached beyond that, for David foresaw also the truth of rapture: "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy: at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (16:11). 

The path of life begins at the very lowest point in the dark regions of the underworld. 

But it leads up, out of hades, out through the portals of the tomb, up to the heights of Heaven, up to the right hand of God. 

That is the ultimate prospect of the godly man! Where is the Lord Jesus now? 

At God's right hand! Where are we going to be? At God's right hand! Where is there fullness of joy? Where are those "pleasures for evermore"? At God's right hand!

The Bible does not disclose what kind of pleasures they are except in barest outline. 

When I was a boy my father often went away on business trips. 

If he was to be away for only a few days he would often promise to bring us something when he came home. We would pester him. "

What's it going to be? Is it going to be this? Is it going to be that?" Dad would usually reply: 

You'll have to wait and see!"

For the most part God simply says the same.

              Psa 16:5-11

      The Portion of a Godly Man (Psa 16:5-6)

            A. In The Lord (Psa 16:5)

The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot.

" David was excluded by Saul's watchdogs from his share in the family inheritance. 

Each family in Israel had its territory assigned to it by line and lot by Joshua in the original distribution of Canaan among the tribes. 

The inheritance stayed in the family. 

David's share was in the farms and fields of Bethlehem but so long as Saul sat on the throne there was no hope he could enjoy his inheritance. 

His own parents were fugitives in Moab. 

Never mina," says David. 

"I have a better inheritance. 

I have the Lord."

David said The Lord is My Portion

         I. The Strength of Heart

             1.Minister

             2.Monitor 

             3.Mediator 

          B. In The Lord (Psa 16:6)

"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." 

David was a fugitive when he wrote that, with no home, with the moss for a mattress and the caves and forests for his shelter. 

How could he say: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage"?

But David was not forgetting. 

This was the language of faith. 

Years ago the prophet Samuel had visited the farm in Bethlehem, had poured the holy anointing oil of God on David's head, had told him he would one day be Israel's king. 

Nothing Saul could do could prevent that. 

Not just the Bethlehem farm—but all of Judah, all of Benjamin and Dan, all of Gilead and Goshen—all was his.

 Present appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, the lines had fallen unto him in pleasant places. 

And they have to us, too! If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with Him. 

We have God's Word for it.

       II. The Stayer of The Heart

             1.Protects

             2.Provides 

             3.Promotes 

  The Prospects of the Godly Man (Psa 16:7-11)

            A. In this Life

1. Guided by God (16:7)

The godly man has the best of both worlds. He has three things in this life the unsaved person does not have. 

He can know what it is to be guided by God: "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins [thoughts] also instruct me in the night seasons" (16:7).

Nearly all the old guidelines have been broken down today. 

Old restraints, old moral standards have been swept away and people are frightened, confused, lonely, and at their wit's end. 

They run to professional counselors for help as never before in history. 

They turn to the dark world of the occult and devour the prognostications of people like Jeanne Dixon, ignoring the fact that some of her guesses never come true.

 They are looking to eastern religions hoping to find answers there, all in vain. 

The Christian has it all over them. He can know what it is to be guided by God. In this life!

2. Guarded by God (16:8)

We can know too what it is to be guarded by God: 

I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (16:8). 

In the old days when people fought with swords, a soldier defending another would naturally stand on his right. 

David could see the Lord standing on his right to defend him from his foes. 

That is something the unsaved man doesn't have.

3. Gladdened by God (16:9)

Then, too, the godly man can know in this life what it is to be gladdened by God: 

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope" (16:9). 

Come what may, the godly man can lift up his heart and voice in song. 

In this life! Guided! Guarded! Gladdened! And these are just the fringe benefits of being a believer. 

These are things God gives us for this life. 

Even if there were no life to come, it would be worth being a believer just to have the peace, the rest, the joy God gives here and now to His own. 

But there's more to it than this life. 

Think of the prospects of the godly man:

        III. The Satisfaction of the Heart

              1.Choice

              2.Condition

              3.Comforter

           B. In That Life (16:10-11)

Here the psalm takes a giant leap into the unknown—into that which cannot be known by human reasoning but only by divine revelation. 

David speaks of things that transcend reason. 

He puts his finger unerringly on two truths which had to await New Testament revelation to be properly grasped.

1. The Truth of Resurrection (16:10)

First, there was the truth of resurrection: 

For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption" (16:10). 

David could say: "My flesh shall rest in hope" because he could anticipate resurrection.

Old Testament believers did not have much light on the subject of death. 

They knew that hades claimed the soul and that the grave claimed the body. 

David believed that neither the triumph of the tomb over his flesh, nor the hold of hades over his soul, was final. 

Why? Because he had been such a godly man? Because he had accumulated enough merit to ensure his deliverance from death? 

No indeed! His faith leaps forward again, this time to Christ: 

For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; nor suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption."

Great a saint as David was, he certainly was not God's "Holy One," the ideal Israelite. 

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can claim that tide "the Holy One of God." 

The wages of sin is death, but Jesus was sinless so death and hades had no power over Him. 

His soul went down into hades so that He could proclaim in those dark regions the mighty triumph of His cross. 

His body lay for three days and nights in Joseph's tomb but corruption and decay could not touch Him. Then:

There it is! David, 

with the eye of faith, with keen unerring vision, was able to see the truth of resurrection. 

He would live beyond the grave because of what the Holy One would do when He would bear away in triumph the very gates of death.

       2. The Truth of Rapture (16:11)

David's prospects however reached beyond that, for David foresaw also the truth of rapture: "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy: at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (16:11). 

The path of life begins at the very lowest point in the dark regions of the underworld. 

But it leads up, out of hades, out through the portals of the tomb, up to the heights of Heaven, up to the right hand of God. 

That is the ultimate prospect of the godly man! Where is the Lord Jesus now? 

At God's right hand! Where are we going to be? At God's right hand! Where is there fullness of joy? Where are those "pleasures for evermore"? At God's right hand!

The Bible does not disclose what kind of pleasures they are except in barest outline. 

When I was a boy my father often went away on business trips. 

If he was to be away for only a few days he would often promise to bring us something when he came home. We would pester him. "

What's it going to be? Is it going to be this? Is it going to be that?" Dad would usually reply: 

You'll have to wait and see!"

For the most part God simply says the same.