Sermon Tone Analysis

“Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds.”

So wrote the Puritan Thomas Brooks in his book, Heaven on Earth.

It is a treatise on assurance in the Christian life.

And Psalm 16, which we will look at today, is an extended prayer about that concept, the hope and security that is found in Christ alone.

Psalm 16 can be found starting on page 304 of the pew Bible.

Psalm 16 is the lectionary Psalm this week, which as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I like to go to for my preaching text during church holidays and these margin weeks in between other series.

Psalm 16 is a song of trust and of confession of faith in God through and by Jesus Christ.

It is a song of confidence and assurance in the faithful care and provision of the Heavenly Father as we journey through good times, dark times, and as we eventually face the time of our death.

Our big idea from Psalm 16 this morning is this:

In times of mounting adversity, rejoice and trust in the Lord.

Recount the blessings of following him and hope for the glory to come through our Savior Jesus Christ.

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In times of mounting adversity, rejoice and trust in the Lord.

Recount the blessings of following him and hope for the glory to come through our Savior Jesus Christ.

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I trust you are in Psalm 16 at this point, so let’s read our text this morning.

Psalm 16 CSB

A Miktam of David.

1 Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you.

2 I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides you.”

3 As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones.

All my delight is in them.

4 The sorrows of those who take another god for themselves will multiply; I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips.

5 Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; you hold my future.

6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7 I will bless the Lord who counsels me— even at night when my thoughts trouble me.

8 I always let the Lord guide me.

Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices; my body also rests securely.

10 For you will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay.

11 You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.

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In times of mounting adversity, rejoice and trust in the Lord.

Recount the blessings of following him and hope for the glory to come through our Savior Jesus Christ.

That is David’s end here in this psalm: to express his confidence in the provision of the Lord in the midst of some adversity and to declare his trust that God will keep him in death.

This morning, I want to call our attention to three ways David expresses his confidence and trust in the Lord:

David acknowledges God as

his satisfaction,

his stability, and

his security.

Those 3 points will be the first half of my sermon.

David acknowledges God as his satisfaction, his stability, and his security.

And in the latter half of today’s sermon we will look at how this Psalm applies to Christ — or better, how Christ applies this Psalm to us.

Reading and preaching the Psalms presents an interesting challenge, much like the rest of the Old Testament, in that we must find the proper balance between understanding the words in its immediate context — that is, as David wrote them — but also looking for Christ.

Jesus said on numerous occasions that the Scriptures pointed to him as their fulfillment.

And so, we misread this Psalm, and all Psalms, and all the Old Testament, and all the Bible, if we do not see Jesus.

Thankfully, with Psalm 16, Saint Peter makes it easy for us by taking the words of this psalm and applying them properly to Christ in Acts 2, which we will look at later.

But first, let’s look at the Psalm itself.

David starts this Psalm with a quiet, yet confident plea: Protect me.

We don’t know exactly what was going on in David’s life at this point — there is no indication of the exact trouble he’s facing — but it seems like something bad.

Maybe this was written after his father-in-law tried to murder him in the palace.

Maybe it was while he was on the run and had to hide in caves.

Maybe it was written before one of the many battles David fought.

Maybe it was while he was fleeing for his life after his son staged a coup.

We don’t know, but we do know that David understood that God was his only protection.

I think some translations put it as preserve me or keep me safe.

The idea is that of a shepherd looking out for their sheep, a task David understood well.

I take refuge in you.

David had to put his trust exclusively in God.

And the basis for that trust are the three confessions that David makes.

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Satisfaction

First, he confesses the Lord as his sole satisfaction.

Verses 1 and 2:

Psalm 16:1–2 CSB

1 Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you.

2 I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides you.”

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David is expressing his total reliance on the Lord.

He says you, God, are the source of all good things.

When good things happen to me, I know that they are from you.

And therefore I acknowledge you as my sole satisfaction.

And then he takes it a step further: I have nothing good besides you.

All of the gifts you give?

Trinkets, compared to your presence.

The palace, the kingship, the army?

You can keep them if I can keep you.

The temple, the treasury?

Without you, they might as well be scrap.

God was David’s one and only good thing.

If we’re really honest with ourselves, how many of us are finding our satisfaction in the things that God gives more than God himself?

How many of us find our satisfaction in the act of coming to church rather than worshiping the Lord of the church?

Paul said it well in Philippians 3, that he was joyful to suffer the loss of all things for the sake of Christ.

In fact, he counted all of the stuff as dung next to the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ.

Christ himself is the only satisfaction for our soul.

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Stability

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Secondly, David proclaims that the Lord is his only source of stability in this life, and that he will not turn to idols for assurance.

Look again at verse 3 and following:

Psalm 16:3–4 CSB

3 As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones.

All my delight is in them.

4 The sorrows of those who take another god for themselves will multiply; I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips.

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David’s doing two things here: he’s praising the community that remains faithful to God in times of adversity and repudiating those who would turn away when times get tough.

The holy people are the noble ones.

All my delight is in them.

I’m just gonna jump straight to application here, it’s pretty self explanatory.

Guys, Christian community is so important for us.

Being gathered together is so important for us.

We have, built in as the Church, a system to hone and strengthen us in our faith and in our doctrine.

To help carry us when we are down.

To rejoice with us when we are rejoicing.

But then look at verse 4.

He compares the faithful community to those who pursue other idols.

Now, it’s important for us to get this here.

David is not talking about the nations who worshipped other gods.