Psalm 16: Undivided Desire

Introduction

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Welcome and thank you for joining us for this installment of our series going through the Psalms. As we begin, if you would, let’s join our hearts together in asking the Author of this sacred word to open our eyes and hearts to goodness of the Word. Let’s pray.

Prayer Slide

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! A God merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Who else in heaven or on earth or under the earth compares to you? For you spoke, and all things came to be. By your will, all things live and move and have their being. We long for your presence, O God, for you have made us for yourself and your good pleasure, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.

We give thanks for the grace that sustains us today, and we give thanks for the grace that will sustain us tomorrow. In this moment, we give thanks for the grace of your holy word, the ancient words preserved throughout the ages that now come to us. Holy Spirit, open our minds and hearts. Reveal yourself to us as we journey through these beautiful words written by the saints of old, so that in all things we may discern the true Living Word, Jesus Christ, Son of David and Messiah of Israel, Lamb of God and High Priest forever. We offer this prayer in his victorious name, amen.

Interlude: The Story So Far

Psalm 16

If you are tuning in at the time of this recording, in the middle of 2020 and all its craziness, then welcome to this sanctuary where we get to journey through the Word of God together and receive grace and rest for the days ahead of us. If you are watching this in the distant future where COVID-19 is a thing of the distant past, then greetings and God bless you! And may the memory of 2020, and our journey of learning to trust God in the middle of it, may all of this be an inspiration to whatever situation you are facing.

Slide: Psalms

Actually, it seems that that this is also how the book of Psalms was intended to work. Let me explain

Slide: David

There are 150 Psalms in the book and 73 of them are written by King David. And there are more that were written by people who lived around the same time as David. They lived during what was the Golden Age of Israel, when they were prosperous and rich and powerful, the Temple in Jerusalem was the wonder of the world, and God was on their side. Art and literature and many of the Psalms flourished in this golden age. But the book of Psalms itself was not compiled into its current form until hundreds of years later, around the time of the Babylonian Exile.

Slide: Babylonian Exile

Israel was devastated, defeated, and humiliated, and its people were exiled from the land that God had promised to give them because they were disobedient.

And so, living in this season of exile, they needed a way to keep hoping and trusting in God. They wanted to believe that the same God who established David and made Israel strong could do it again and bring them home again.

Slide: Psalms

So they looked to the old songs that Israel used to sing and created a collection that became their source of hope. It’s similar to how we might have a favorite song because it evokes certain memories or emotions in us.

Spotify

I have a long Spotify playlist of Christian songs that I play when I feel sad or alone or lost, and hearing that music does something to me. The words touch my mind, the melody touches my heart, and I feel better after listening to the song. Sometimes the songs help me understand my emotions better, sometimes they help me to cry and just let it all out, and sometimes they inspire me to get back on my feet and move forward. Now, nothing has actually changed about my circumstances just because I spent three and a half minutes listening to some music. But I have changed; I have hope again because I know with all my being that God is on my side.

Slide: Text

In a similar way, the Psalms became Israel’s guide on how to find hope during a time of Exile. I think that we sometimes read the Psalms looking for a “moral of the story”: what it teaches us about how to live morally or ethically. We look for conclusions like “Therefore, we must put our trust in God” or “Therefore, we must constantly read God’s Word.” But that is not generally what the book of Psalms is trying to do. It is equipping us with a language and a vocabulary for how to pray in good times and bad. Ancient Israel learned how to hope in God through the prayers of David; Christians learned to praise God through the book of Psalms; and we today can learn the language and disposition of worship by exploring the stories of the past.

Chapter 16: David’s Experience

With that being said, let’s dive into the text of 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.

v.1-6: David’s Commitment - Total Devotion, Undivided Desire

Slide: question

What is the spirit of this Psalm? What is the theme or the big idea? What is this psalm saying about God or the human experience? If you’d like, you can pause the lesson now and re-read the text and ponder these questions for yourself.

Slide: text

It seems to me that this Psalm is about David’s a single-minded, total devotion towards God. David has this passionate desire for God alone and no one else. And it’s not just a cool-headed intelligence; it’s not like he did a cost-benefit analysis on an Excel spreadsheet and calculated that the God of Israel is the best God for him to follow.

Slide: picture

No, this is a whole-hearted declaration of love. His head, his heart, his mouth, his body - David’s whole being is calibrated to pursuing and obeying God.

Think about how contrary this single-mindedness is to our culture today.

Slide: Stocks

If you know anything about the stock market, you know that one of the principles is not to put all your money into a single company or stock or share. You may have heard the expression “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. Meaning, you need to invest in multiple stocks so that if one performs very badly, at least you have other stocks to fall back on.

Slide: question

Now, I would agree that diversifying your sources is good financial advice, but I fear that we have imported that philosophy into our faith as well.

By that, I mean we have decided that God is important to us, but he’s not the only thing

Slides: things

I’ve got other things that I need to be worried about. You know, I have a family and kids, I have a job and I need to maintain a good social life, I need to exercise, I need time for my own hobbies. So God gets his allocation of time and energy, but I have other things to be concerned about, because those things are important to me.

Now, I’m not saying that families, jobs, exercise, personal time are unimportant. But there’s a problem when we let these things crowd out the importance of our relationship with God.

Slide: change size

Let’s contrast that spirit of “Other things are important to me” with what David says:

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.

Slide: Man after God’s heart

Have you ever thought about why David is called the "man after God’s own heart?” Yes, David was a righteous ruler who obeyed God’s commands, but he’s not called the man after God’s heart just because he did everything God told him to do. It’s because he loves God with his entire being - he has no good apart from God. Wealth and riches?

Slide: God is better

No good, God is better. Long life and honor and fame? Nope, God is still better. Having big armies and winning every battle? Having all the beautiful women of the world as his personal concubines? Living everyday in luxury with the best food and the best entertainment?

Slide: unless

Nope, says David, unless I have God as my only good, everything else is worthless.

Slide: question

So the question is, can we pray this prayer with total sincerity? Can we pray David’s prayer and mean it? Can we honestly say that “I have no good apart from God?” If so, then praise God! If not, we have some work, some soul-searching to do. Perhaps a good first step is taking this psalm and turning it into our prayer, our request to God. Instead of saying “I have no good apart from you,” maybe we can pray “God, help me realize that you are my only good.” I’ll say more about that later.

v.7-11: David’s Blessing

So in this first half of the Psalm, we’ve seen David declare his total allegiance to the God of Israel. In the second half of the Psalm, we see the fruit of that allegiance. How is David blessed for his devotion?

Slide: earn

I should probably note here that David has not exactly “earned” these blessings because he met God’s standard for righteousness. After all, we learn elsewhere in Scripture that ultimately, no one is righteous before God. No matter how hard we try, our devotion to God will never be perfect. Even as good as David was, he made some big blunders in his life. So when God blesses people, that blessing is purely because of God’s unconditional love and grace.

Perhaps a better way of understanding this is that God pours out his grace and blessing on those who are growing towards righteousness, even if they have not attained it yet. Consider two students: one is naturally gifted with a very high IQ and gets straight As, but because of that he acts extremely arrogantly towards his classmates because they’re dumb and he does not respect his teachers in the classroom because he knows better. On the other hand, you have another student who just barely passes his tests, but he is determined to get better, so he always asks questions, stays back after classes to talk with the teacher, respects his classmates and asks them for help. At the end of the day, he still only gets a B. If you were the teacher of these two students, which one would you want to reward? The smart but disrespectful student who got straight As, or the not-so-smart but diligent student who got only a B? Probably the second one - and while this is an imperfect analogy, I think it approximates how God looks at us, human beings who cannot get it right despite our best efforts, but we can develop an attitude that aims at righteousness, and God is pleased when we hunger and thirst after him. Now, back to David.

Because David is counted as righteous before God, he enjoys certain blessings. David actually mentions four blessings, but one of them requires a bit more attention. So let’s consider the first three blessings:

Guidance (v. 7). When one is fully devoted to God, God is able to counsel or guide you. We have seen this in David’s history, most strikingly whenever he wants to attack an enemy. David was a very skilled warrior and everyone knew it - we know that the women of Israel sing his praises, saying “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” His enemies probably feared him even before he stepped onto the battlefield. But even so, David consulted the Lord before he engaged with an enemy. He didn’t just depend on his own strength and experience and a military man. God told him how to fight, and he was victorious in virtually all of the battles we see in Scripture. Many of us today want to have that kind of guidance, don’t we? We want God to tell us which school to pick for ourselves or our children, what house to buy, whether to change jobs because of an annoying boss, who I should pick as my life partner, or even how to overcome this sin I am struggling with. We wish we could have God guide us as directly as he guided David. But that kind of guidance does not just come because I pray one prayer. God’s guidance comes as the result of a lifetime of devotion and allegiance to him. What exactly that guidance looks like is a matter for another discussion, but I can offer this suggestion: the more we grow to love God; when reading his Word becomes the highlight of our day; when every prayer becomes a joyous interaction; when worship comes as easily as breathing; when our relationship with God becomes our most cherished possession, then our will, our thoughts, and our emotions will be aligned with his, then it will not be difficult to tell what his counsel or guidance for us is. It’s not an overnight thing. It takes time, but it is worth it.

Stability (v. 8). When one is fully devoted to God, there is nothing in the world that can shake or disturb or move you from your peace. Brother Naveen, Sister Deepa, and their son Jaydon are a part of our church family and they are living proof of what David is talking about. A few weeks ago, brother Naveen shared his testimony and story of how he came to faith, how he met sister Deepa, how they moved to Singapore, and how as of this recording they are searching for employment while on a visa that needs to be renewed every two weeks. To any outsider, and maybe even to Christians, this seems so uncertain and worrying. But there is a joy and a peace with this family that defies logic. They can smile and speak of God’s providence because they have the Lord before them, holding their hands and guiding them through the most uncertain of times. If you need an example of the kind of stability God gives, scroll back to the missions workshop on 25th October 2020 and listen to brother Naveen’s testimony and be inspired.

Endless bliss (v.11). This is probably my favorite verse in this Psalm, and it beautifully summarizes the message of Psalm 16. And I believe this corrects an important misconception about Christianity. Both Christians and non-Christians have the notion that when one becomes a Christian, following God and following Jesus, it is a life without joy. It is a life where you miss out on all the fun stuff life has to offer. It is a life where you have to control the way you behave, and you can’t just give in to your natural impulses. And there is this idea that you can’t be fully “you” when you have to obey someone else. But David has a different experience - obeying God is the only way that we can fully become who we were meant to be. What’s more, obedience to God does not deprive us of joy! God is the only place where we get to experience true life and joy and pleasure. All that glossy stuff that the world offers as immediate fun and instant pleasure? It is only an inferior shadow of what God has in store.

v.9-11: David, the Messiah, or Both?

So those are three blessings that grow out of total allegiance to God. I also mentioned that there was a fourth blessing that required special attention. This comes in verse 10:

The New Revised Standard Version Song of Trust and Security in God

For you do not give me up to Sheol,

or let your faithful one see the Pit.

Thus far along our journey through this Psalm, we have assumed that David is the author, and that he is writing about his own experience of loving God and receiving provision from him.

But now, when we come to verse 10, we have a problem.

Slide: Sheol

“Sheol” is a Hebrew word referring to the place where people go after death, what we think of as Hell or Hades, a place of death where the God of life is not. David is using a metaphor here to say that God will rescue him from death.

David is dead

There’s just one problem: David is dead. He lived a good long life and died at 77, but he still died. So how could he be possibly talking about himself?

Some might say that David is really talking about God rescuing him from physical illness or from death in battle, and he’s exaggerating here to make a point.

Slide: future king

While this is possible, others use this to argue that this Psalm is actually talking about a future king David who will surpass even King David himself and restore the kingdom of Israel to its golden age,

Slide: Messiah/Christ

an anointed king that would also be called the “Messiah” in Hebrew, or the “Christ” in Greek. This hope was especially important for the Israelites during the Babylonian Exile because they needed to believe that God had not abandoned them yet. This isn’t the only Psalm to carry this Messianic hope - it’s actually a theme that defines the entire book of Psalms, beginning with Psalm 2.

The apostle Peter picks up on this when he preaches on the Day of Pentecost, and he uses Psalm 16:10 as evidence that Jesus is the future Davidic king, the true king of Israel who went to Sheol, the realm of the dead, and came back. And this time it’s not just an exaggeration. The apostle Paul sees the same evidence when he preaches in the synagogue in Antioch (Acts 13:35).

Slide: question

So how do we resolve this tension? Is Psalm 16 about David’s experience, or is he prophesying about a future Messiah? Some might say that verses 1-7 apply to David and verses 8-11 apply to someone else, but there is nothing in Psalm 16 that suggests a shift in character. Whoever wrote the Psalm keeps using the first person - I, my and me. All the textual evidence points to the psalm being one whole unit spoken by the same person about himself.

Slide: Psalms and Babylonian Exile

To understand this, we have to return to the idea that the book of Psalms functions as Israel’s prayer book during the Babylonian Exile.

Slide: look back

By reading the prayers and poems and psalms of their ancestors, future generations of Israelites could look back and learn how to live the same kind of faith in God. Even though the past situation is not the same as the future situation, the past can still be a model for the future.

Slide: LHL

For those of you who live in Singapore, think about how often our nation’s leaders have made reference to “the Singapore story.” Particularly in the early days of COVID-19, the leaders frequently encouraged the nation by saying that we could overcome this current crisis just as previous generations overcame their challenges. The nation under Lee Kwan Yew proved resilient and succeeded against all odds; so did the generation under Goh Chok Tong, and therefore, so will this generation that goes through COVID-19.

Slide: The past becomes a model for the future.

Slide: David

Perhaps that sheds light on what is happening in Psalm 16. When David writes this psalm, he is fully aware of his current circumstances and his own story, how God has preserved him throughout his life and blessed him abundantly, even during times of testing and trial. Whether he was actually aware that one of his descendants would be Jesus Christ is a discussion for another time.

Slide: Psalms

In any case, David’s story becomes a model story for future generations of Israelites, kind of like “if King David could do it, so can I!”

Slide: Jesus

When Jesus comes along and is actually resurrected from the dead, he completes and fulfills David’s, and then he exceeds it with a better story. The story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is now a greater story than David’s, and so his becomes the new model for future generations of Christians. So now, we who live in the 21st century look back at David’s Psalm and we see Jesus. We look back on Jesus’ life and the teachings of Peter and Paul and we see the prophesied Davidic king and Jewish Messiah.

Application: Praying, Embodying the Psalm

We have now surveyed Psalm 16. We have seen how David has confessed his total allegiance to God and how God has blessed him for that. We have also seen how this psalm goes beyond just teaching us what we must do to earn God’s blessing - which, we can never really do - but it shows us the inner life and prayer of someone who displays radical love for God.

Slide: question

As in any good Bible class, we have to ask ourselves, “What now? What difference does it make to my life now that I have read this text? Is God pointing out something in my life that I need to change or pay attention to?”

Maybe you find that you are not as devoted to God as you could be. Maybe you realize that some part of your life is not yet surrendered to God, and because of that you cannot fully experience his blessing.

Or maybe you feel like you have been trying so hard to be faithful to God, but God doesn’t seem to be responding. And so you feel like all this Christian talk about blessing and peace is all just a sham, a fairy tale that dead person from long ago made up.

May I offer you this encouragement: this Psalm, and many others like it, survive to this day and continue to be read because for thousands of years, people have read it and realized that this is true. If it were not, it would have disappeared within a generation.

So may I suggest one practical course of action for you: use this Psalm as a model for prayer. After all, this is what the ancient Israelites used the Psalms for. An ancient story becomes the inspiration that helps us to practice and declare our own faith in the present. Psalm 16 gives us language and structure that can make our prayers richer, deeper, and more meaningful. While God listens to every prayer of those who love him, when we pray using the rich poetry of the Psalms, we become changed. We join with every other person throughout history who has gone through hardship and prayed this Psalm in hope of better days. We see God in a new light, and we relive the story of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Even if we don’t see him in the present, we know that he was faithful in the past, and he will be so again.

So as we close this time, I would like to pray over us, and I offer this prayer as an example of how we might take this beautiful Psalm and integrate it into our own prayers.

Conclusion

Preserve us, O God, because we have trusted in your faithfulness and your promise to protect us from all harm.

We declare that you are the master over our lives and all our being, and you are our only good.

We praise you for our brothers and sisters in the faith, those whom you have placed in our lives as role models and examples, because through them you teach us how to love and honor you.

We confess that we have run after other gods, and that we have loved other things before we loved you, and because of that, we suffer emptiness and confusion because we have wandered from you, the only one who can fully satisfy us. Lord, remove these false gods from our lives. Take away the idols of pride, anger, wealth, lust of the eyes and the flesh, so that we may worship you and you alone with all our being.

You alone are our inheritance, you alone sustain us from day to day with food, shelter, clothing, and all that we need for life and godliness. Truly, Sovereign Lord, our inheritance from you is greater than anything this world can offer.

So we praise you for your perfect Word that you have revealed to us. From the break of dawn to the close of day, from the moment we open our eyes till we close them to sleep, speak to us through your holy word.

Lead us, Faithful God. Go before us, hold our hands, because we walk through a dark and dangerous world. But we believe that you empower us to stand firm, unshakeable and unmoving.

And so we rejoice with everything we have. We sing your praises from the dawn to setting sun because you allow us to dwell in security. No calamity or danger, no threat of man or natural disaster, no job loss or sudden disability, not even death itself can separate us from your love.

For you make known to us the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Help us see them Lord, and let us grow to receive and enjoy you forever. Through Jesus we pray, Amen.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. See you next week!