Psalm 16

Introduction

When you want to be happy, you don’t pursue happiness.

Happiness is a by-product of other pursuits. You can’t isolate happiness from the circumstances that create it. It’s not an end in itself.

So if you want happiness, you need to find what creates true and lasting happiness.

Am I right in assuming you want to be happy?

Do you want great joy?

Do you want good life?

Where will you find it?

Our future is shaped by our pursuits.

You Pursue the right thing and you will have joy, pleasure and life. But when you purse these things for their own sake - you end up empty. The reward is found by looking in the right place.

Do you think you will find lasting happiness in anything you can do for yourself?

Do you think that you will find lasting joy in the next thing you consume?

Do you think you will find life in this world of decay?

This song teaches us where true life and joy are found.

They are the result of belonging to the LORD.

He is the true source of goodness.

He is where happiness resides.

He has joy to give, abundant joy. Overflowing life he pours the out blessing so that your cup may overflow!

But if you seek the good life, where do you start?

Start with King David in v1, and we will see unfold in 4 parts where the good life is to be found.

The LORD my Refuge (v1)

This song starts with a plea, a request. The person who sings this song looks not to themself for their own security of provision, they look to God.

He is the place of refuge.

Psalm 16:1 NIV

Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.

Where do you turn for refuge when the going gets tough? Where do escape to?

Is it to the bottom of a bottle?

Is it to the mindless binge of episode after episode?

Is it to retreat behind a wall of anger and hostility?

Is it to the mounds of work that will bury your fears?

Why do you turn to these worthless saviors? They will not save you from anything!

Turn to God! He is a refuge. He will preserve His people! He is a safe harbor on sea of trouble.

Pursue God. Ask him to rescue you!

He is a faithful Savior!

David prays for refuge. And he is confident he will have what he has asked for based on everything else that follows.

Lets look at it together.

The LORD my Good (v2-4)

In these verses David sings of the Lord as his source of Good, and in fact there is nowhere else he can turn to find good. He will even give an example of looking elsewhere to no avail. Look from v2:

Psalm 16:2–4 NIV

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.

So, David’s confidence in God keeping him safe is first because he says “YHWH is my Lord”. For the person who sings this song their assurance comes from belonging to the LORD. That means rejecting all other gods, religions and loyalties and having first loyalty to God.

This is covenant language - because The LORD is our God, we belong to Him and He to us and so we expect to receive the covenant blessings of that relationship.

Such are the blessings of God for His people, that David can say “I have no Good apart from you” - God is the source of all Good things! David sees this for the truth that it is. This is also true for people who don’t acknowledge or serve God, but they just don’t see it yet. Outside God there is nothing good.

But God’s people, the saints, the Holy Ones, we can delight in them because they are in the LORD - they too are made good by belonging to God. They are the Bride who are being purified by God, they are the Body of Jesus Christ being made holy. They are the set-apart people who God lovingly chooses to save.

How do you thing of the Church? Do you delight in Christ’s bride?

As opposed to the Saints, there are those who try to find good outside God, in other gods: Run after another god - swift pursuit, interestingly same word for finding a wife, they quickly court other gods.

But they only suffer, because there is no good outside the LORD

The faithful on who belongs to the LORD will not partake in any worship to other gods with drink offerings, or even speak reverently about them.

David has confidence in God’s hands because he does not have divided loyalties. He’s not hedging his bets in worship.

Can you say the same? Are you 100% on the LORD’s side? Or do you live as though you would be fine without God?

The LORD my Inheritance (v5-8)

David knows that there is no other way. He is 100% for the LORD the only source of good, and from the LORD he receives His inheritance and security.

God provides and teaches him:

Psalm 16:5–8 NIV

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

David here uses metaphors of the Good life under God

God is His good food and drink

God has given him the best plot of land.

God has given him a great inheritance.

Three images that I’m sure we can identify with! <explore>

He naturally flows into praise, but he is then reminded of yet another blessing from God - that the Lord even teaches him, even through his midnight meditations. This isn’t some mystical thing, because we already know from Psalm 1 that the righteous man dwells on God's covenant word day and night. It is in his brain and he keeps thinking of it. It get’s bedded down.

This means David can always keep his eyes on the Lord. The Lord is like His right-hand-man who supports him. Because of this he will not be moved.

Imagine if we could say these kind of things about our own perspective on the LORD!

<explore>

The LORD my Eternal Joy (v9-11)

Psalm 16:9–11 NIV

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Therefore - results of Refuge, finding Good in the LORD and looking to Him means that David can rejoice and rest secure!

He has a hope beyond the grave. He does not fear death, abandonment to Sheol.

Instead he knows threefold blessing in this last verse:

Making known The path of Life

The fullness of Joy in God’s presence

Pleasures forevermore at God’s right hand!

This is the results of pursuing God! You look to the LORD, you seek after Him, and you are blessed!

But this didn’t come true right? David did die. His body has decayed. This is a false hope right? Everyone dies and their body turns to dust.

This Psalm was about Jesus!

It couldn't literally be David because he died and remained dead. He Spoke prophetically, and Peter picked that up in his Pentecost Sermon:

Acts 2:29–33 (NIV)

“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.

Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

David spoke prophetically about Jesus, who literally would not see decay!

He was crucified, died and was buried. But he wasn’t abandoned, he rose again to life defeating death!

And he offers eternal life to all who would come and receive it from Him.

We do not need to be abandoned to Sheol. Yes our bodies may die and dissolve, but we have a promise that we will have incorruptible resurrection bodies. We may loose our life, but we have a refuge that holds through death!

Without Jesus you are dead in your sin. Without Jesus you have no hope of eternal pleasures at God’s right hand. There is no lasting joy outside God’s presence.

What’s the right response? Find refuge in God through Jesus Christ! Peter in that same sermon from Acts gives us the basics:

Acts 2:37–39 NIV

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Praying this Psalm