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Find Your Confidence and Joy in Jesus
Today we are looking at Psalm chapter 16.
It is a Psalm written by David and is going to begin with a plea for safety and security.
However, this is not really what the Psalm is about.
Instead it is actually about CONFIDENCE.
Confidence.
Some of us simply appear to have, at times, tons of it.
We seem to be able to make decisions with little thought or concern that we might somehow be wrong.
We are confident in our decisions.
But, what is it that builds that confidence within us.
How can we stand in the midst of lifes struggles for instance and be confident of the outcome.
I have much of my life, and even still lead a life of little confidence in my self.
I know for some of you this may come as a surprise, but it is very true.
Throughout school Autumn saw it first hand.
Confidence is crucial to our success in life.
We might not fully recognize this when simply speak of confidence.
But it is confidence that allows us to make bold decisions concerning our future that most people might never make.
But, where does confidence come from?
Confidence is always build through relationships.
First and oddly probably least important is our relationship with ourselves.
Our confidence is based in part on right decisions we have made in the past.
That’s right I said that this is probably the least important of the two, but should be one of the most powerful.
Because it is based on our own experiences created by us.
Second and the one we tend to lean towards the most, is based on our relationships with others.
Third party recognition.
What are others saying of us?
If others build us up or tear us down, these will affect our confidence more than anything else.
Finally, that one relationship that should cause us to have the greatest of confidences is our relationship with Jesus Christ.
If your confidence at times feels a bit lackluster, and I am right there with you.
I know you might not see it often times, but I do a really good job of hiding it.
Then this Psalm this message is probably for all of us.
Because I know that all of us at times struggle with confidence in ourselves and the decisions that we make.
So let’s read through our Psalm and look at how it is that we can find our confidence in Jesus Christ.
Who is the bedrock of all creation upon whose life and power we now stand.
Psalm chapter 16
An Initial Plea
Our Psalm begins with a plea.
A petition so to speak.
A plea for preservation or protection from God.
But, even though the Psalm begins this way, because the rest of the Psalm is about finding confidence in Jesus we take actually take the Psalm as one about protection, but rather one about Confidence in Jesus.
David begins and he writes.
David is the only one in all of scripture who is called a man after God’s own heart.
And yet here even though he recognizes that it is in God that he finds his refuge.
It is IN God that his life is lived, and he knows this truth well.
He still expresses to God his uncertainty about his future.
Why?
Just because our lives our lived in Christ Jesus that does not give us a pass from having to live lives in this fallen sin soaked world.
There is always the potential for suffering, for failure.
These realities are always present.
And so David recognizes that reality right away.
David more than anyone knows that he needs Gods protection over his life from others and as well from himself.
And this first verse begins to show to us the confidence that David walked in the midst of this knowledge.
It is because of the truths about his own life that he knows that needs to find his only true and safe refuge in God and God alone.
We find our safest place in life in Christ Alone.
In Christ Alone
David know that it is in God alone that his confidence might be found.
And so he continues in verse two and expresses this confidence towards God.
And he writes.
In verse one he has said that it is in God that he takes his refuge, finds his rest.
And now he continues to express to the Lord this great confidence.
He says to Yahweh, you are my lord, you are the master of my life.
you direct my steps.
And when I allow you to direct them all I find is goodness.
Because we know that when David directed his steps apart from God there was pain, and agony, and often times death.
But David knows that Yahweh is his greatest good.
The relationship that David has with Yahweh is what is best and apart from his relationship with Jesus he says there is nothing good.
Right now you might be saying to yourself, well I’ve got relationships with others that are good.
Nope.
There is no comparison to any relationship that you might have to the goodness that is your relationship with Jesus.
Period.
My greatest hope for Autumn, for my wife.
Is that she falls in love with another man more than me.
Just so long as that man is Jesus the Christ.
Her Lord, Her creator, Her savior.
Because I know that that relationship will bring only goodness to her life.
I will strive to bring good to her life, but I will fail.
We need to see every loving relationship that we have in this way.
Don’t tune me out just yet.
Especially if you didn’t like what I just said.
Ok.
If this is true.
Based on this you need to stop something very destructive.
You need to stop looking for love, for meaning in life, for your confidence in others.
Rather you need to look to Jesus alone.
When you do you will find love, you will find meaning, you will find purpose, you will find confidence.
Apart from our relationship with Christ Jesus there is no good.
We need to understand this truth just like David did.
He did not look for it in Bathsheba or Solomon.
He found it in God and in God alone.
Because life in Christ is the only way to find true confidence.
The Only Way
Ok.
Now we are going to get this really odd shift in our Psalm.
And at first it doesn’t really make sense the way things appear to be worded at first.
But remember Hebrew poetry is often times very different than English or modern poetry.
The next verse verse three is connected to verse four.
And this becomes difficult because it seems like nonsense when connected to verse four.
But that is because we are reading verse three superficially.
Let’s figure out what is going on in these verse and then we can better understand the implications of what is being said.
So verse three reads.
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