Psalm 16

All right, Psalm chapter 16. We're going to read this Psalm in its entirety first, and it goes like this,

Wow! This is such a beautiful Psalm. And I'm willing to bet for those of you who've spent time in the Psalms, this contains some of your life verses, perhaps. Or at the very least, verses that you have memorized and clung to during specific times of challenge and difficulty. David speaks here of his hope in the Lord, even in pressing times. But this Psalm also for us is a pointer to the work of Messiah. And the reason I say that is because there are 2 times in the Book of Acts where 2 different apostles quote this Psalm to refer to the work of Jesus Christ, specifically His resurrection. First Peter, in Acts chapter 2, speaks from this very Psalm in his message on The Day of Pentecost. And then Paul speaks it later on when he is also talking in one of the synagogues out in Asia concerning the resurrection of the Lord. I particularly like verse 2, where David refers to God, look at that with me, as his Lord and also his good, which is an interesting way to refer to God. He says there in verse 2, "I have no good apart from you." "I have no good apart from you." And that's just another way of saying, everything good that I have I've gotten from You. I've received... every... I'm going... When I look at my life and I think, that's good; that's good; that's good; that's good. I say, the Lord gave me those things. The Lord has blessed me with those things. Here's the interesting thing. There's probably a lot of things in my life that I wouldn't necessarily point to and say, that's good. But later on, I'm going to find out when I'm on the other side of the veil, that was good too. I just didn't know it. Because there's a lot of things in life that we look at or we experience and go through and we go, that's bad. That was a bad thing. And we're going to... I think we're going to find out later, that we're going to look at what the Lord did in our life, we're going to go, oh, thank You, Jesus. Thank You that You allowed me to pass through that situation. Or thank You that You allowed that I just saw that as nothing but bad. And the blessing is that I've got it. I've had a chance in my life to actually see some of those things play out where I saw something initially as bad and then later on saw how the Lord used it for good. And I'm sure you can probably point to things in your life as well. Other things we'll probably have to wait till we're in the presence of the Lord. ---

But David says, "I have no good apart from you." And then in contrast to the good that he receives from the Lord as a believer, he says in verse 4, "The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;..." There's the contrast to the good that David expresses in his heart, and now those who run after other gods, it's sorrows that are multiplied to them and so forth. And he's saying there in verse 4, I'm not going to participate in their empty hypocritical religious observances because you know what, they really don't care. And then David declares in verse 5. Look at this. He says, "My Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot." All right, you got interesting words there: portion, cup and lot. And they all speak of things that David received from the Lord. I like the New King James Bible here. It says, "You are the portion of my inheritance." I like that a lot because it looks back to what God said to Aaron and all of his descendants. You remember Aaron, the brother of Moses and the very first High Priest of Israel. Remember when God said, I'm going to take you into this wonderful land. And it's a glorious land and you're all going to get a part of it, except Aaron, you and your kids. You and your descendants, you're not going to get any land. I'm not giving you any land. And you may be sitting there thinking, well, that doesn't sound fair. Look what God said from Numbers chapter 18. I'll put it on the screen.

Then the Lord said to Aaron: "You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; (And look what he goes on to say,) I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.” You know what I think? I think Aaron got the better deal. Right? Why? Because God was his portion. And when you have God, you have everything. Right? Everybody else got this little plot of land. And Aaron and his descendants received the Lord, Himself. And that's what David is saying here when he says, You are the portion of my inheritance. My inheritance, Lord, is You.

We talk today about people who get an inheritance. We'll, you might come up in conversation, did you hear about, Bill? Wow! No, what happened? Oh, I guess he had some uncle living somewhere that was really wealthy and died and gave the money to his nieces and nephews. And yeah, he got like, came into like 100,000 dollars, 200, or whatever the thing was. And we're like, wow! We're just amazed, that's great, that's incredible. You know it delighted David, just sitting and thinking, You are the portion of my inheritance. You are my portion. You are my inheritance. He would just get tickled over it. And anybody else could come along and talk about the inheritance they came into in this world and he's like, big deal. You ought to hear about my inheritance. The Lord is my portion and my inheritance. People, that is the birthright of every born again child of God, it's yours, it's mine. We need to get excited about it and start focusing our attention that direction. That's where God told us in His Word to focus. We're to think about things above, not things below where moth and rust and time and stuff eat away at things and they go away. But where things are sealed in heaven. (Matthew 6:19-20) The inheritance that is ours in Jesus Christ. We're joint heirs with Christ. Can you imagine? Can you even imagine what that means? A joint heir with Jesus? And by the way, that is why David says what he says in verse 6. Look with me in your Bible. He says, "The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance." David is not talking about his earthly life. He's talking about his inheritance that is in the Lord. I have a delightful inheritance. He's looking past this life. He's looking past the challenges and the difficulties. I have a wonderful inheritance. It's the Lord Himself. Verse 7. He says, "I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me." And this is so wonderful. The inheritance that you and I have in Jesus, has incredible and wonderful perks right here, right now. Because as a down payment of everything that God is going to give us, He has already given us His Holy Spirit. We have been given that deposit. And that the work of the Spirit in our life is so incredible. But one of the areas that is one of the most incredible is the counseling work that the Holy Spirit does in our lives. And this is an important word for us to remember here in this time, this day and age. Because we're big on counselors.

We've gotten very big into therapeutic counseling and stuff like that. Which I don't always have a real high opinion of. I'll be completely honest with you because it's very difficult to get good godly counsel. It really is. It's challenging. You need to... If you're going to get... There's nothing wrong with getting counsel from people. But make sure they're godly people who have a track record of godliness, good choices, good decisions, and so forth. But here's the point of the matter. God is your ultimate counselor. He's given you His Word. He's given you His Spirit. And David said, even on my bed at night, when I'm just meditating and thinking... And isn't it funny, the older you get, you young people have no concept of this. But the older you get, let me just tell you, there's going to be huge gaps in your sleep at night. I'm just telling you, it's coming. Okay? If God blesses you with a long life, I'm just here to tell you, it's going to happen. You wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning, you're like, DONG! And there's no going back to sleep. So, it's like I might as well get up and be productive, so you get up for about 2 hours. That's why some of us, you see our posts at 4:30 in the morning on Facebook. Because we're just hanging out and we can't sleep. Right? Well, David's talking about this time in his day when he's just, he's meditating on his bed and thinking about the things of the Lord. And he says, my heart counsels me. It's this work of the Holy Spirit as I'm pondering Your Word. And I'm pondering and I pray, Lord. There's this counseling work of the Spirit going on. And we, Christians, need to have a greater expectation of the counseling work of the Lord. We need to learn to listen to His voice. We're so good at listening to other voices. We need to learn to listen to His voice. He is such a Wonderful Counselor. Jesus referred to Him as, the Counselor. And we need to use Him as a counselor. I believe it delights Him when we do. Look at verse 8. This is a beloved verse among believers. He says, "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken." And you think to this, "Well, now what exactly is David saying here?" This speaks of a decision on David's part to, when he says, I put the Lord before me, he means that I put Him first. I put Him first. He's my priority. He's my reason of getting up in the morning. I've put Him first. I've put Him at the head of the line of all the things that are vying for my attention, my time, my heart, my compassion. My passion, the Lord is first. The Lord is first. The things of the Lord are first. And so what does he go on to say? Because He's there, I will not be shaken. I've often looked at this verse and I thought, okay, I don't like being shaken any more than you do. I looked through this verse and I think, what is the key to understanding not being shaken? Well, it's putting behind me things that can be shaken. Do you get it? Making less of a priority in my life, the things that can be shaken. There's a lot of things in this life that can be shaken. Right? And those things may be very dear to us. I'm telling you, if they are dear to you, then you're going to be shaken. You're not going to be able to take hold of this verse. Because this verse comes with a qualifier. It comes with a condition. I've put the Lord before me. I've put the Lord at the head of the line. Therefore, with Him at my right hand, I won't be shaken. Right? Because God can't be shaken. Nothing that He gives me can be shaken. There's nothing that God has given me that's going to go away as it relates to those eternal blessings of the Lord and so forth. So, I'm not worried about being shaken because God's gifts, His calling, all the things that He's blessed me with, they're His. He gave them and they're secure. There's a lot of things in our lives that can be shaken. Many, many, many. And we have to remember that when we're shaken, and we do get shaken, it's because we've put those things at the head of the line. In fact, you and I could say in verse 8, "I have set..." And then you fill in the blank, whatever it is, I have set that always before me. And because it is at my right hand, I am often shaken. There's the opposite of that so David says, I've put the Lord first. Here's his conclusion. Verse 9. "Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure." Wow! Look at that. Even... It finishes that verse by saying, even my flesh dwells secure. How in the world can your flesh dwell secure? I'm 60 years old and I'm realizing that my flesh is not secure. I mean, the longer I live, the more I realized that this tent is wearing out. And I'm thinking, wow! It can really trouble you when you go through things that are physically... You're facing your deterioration, the deterioration of your physical body. And yet, David says, here, my flesh dwells secure.

Why? Well, again, it comes back to verse 8. It's not first in line. He says, so, see I can even actually dwell in security related to my flesh because the Lord is at the head. The Lord is first. The Lord is in that position of priority and prominence. Verse 10, "For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, (which is, means the grave) or let your holy one see corruption." Your Bible may say "decay." And again, this is that verse I was referring to that Peter, and then later Paul, in the Book of Acts both quote. And you'll remember why Peter called attention to it. He quoted it because he said, guys, think this through with me. He's doing the critical thinking thing. David's tomb is right here. His body did see corruption. Right? Guys, what's that tell you? He's talking about someone else. And Peter went on to say, it's the Messiah he's talking about. The Lord did not allow His body to see corruption. He was raised. And so they're declaring the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And they're quoting this very verse, in this very Psalm. Verse 11. Finally, "You make known to me the path of..." There's three statements here. Look at them. "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; (and) at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Three statements. First, "You make known to me the paths of life,..." And this is something every believer can declare. Can't we? He has made known to me the path. You know what a path means? It's where you go. It's how you get there. This is the path. Walk on it. What is the path? It's Jesus, right? That's all we need to know. Jesus is the path. Let me show you. This is a conversation between Jesus and some of the disciples. John chapter 14 goes like this. Jesus speaking,

"You know the way to the place. (He could've well, just said, the path) to the place where I am going. "Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus (said,) "I am the way and the truth and the life. (And) No one comes to the Father except through me." Okay. "You have made known to me the path of life." Christian, has God made known to you the paths of life? Yeah. I know. Jesus is the path. He's the way. So somebody says, how do you get to heaven? Jesus! You know what? That's it. I mean, if they want to know more, that's wonderful. But that's the answer to their question. What's the path? Tell me the path to eternal life. Jesus, He's the path. He's the way. So, it's as simple as that. Next, next statement that David made in that last verse. He said, "in your presence, there is fullness of joy." You know what? This is one of those statements that brings such comfort when we go through a funeral of a believer. It's always a hard thing that draws upon our heart. We grieve because of our own personal loss. But we are so comforted when we understand and know from the Scripture, that our loved one is right now experiencing the "fullness of joy." We've all had little specks and little tiny snippets of it. They are experienced the "fullness of joy in His presence. What a wonderful, wonderful truth that is. And then finally, "at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." And so, David concluded this Psalm by saying, that the wonders of God's love and the pleasures He has in store for His children are such that they have no end. They're there forever, forevermore. But people, isn't this wonderful? It's glorious how this Psalm ended, isn't it? But can I remind you how it began? This Psalm began with a cry. This Psalm began with a cry from the heart of David to God to preserve his life. And then he ends the way he ends with just these declarations of faith. And we remember that this life that we're living here on this side of the veil is, never, was never meant to be problem free. We're living in a fallen tent in a fallen world, in a fallen society. And we deal with many challenges and many attacks on many levels. But we also learn from Psalms like this, that when our life is committed to the Lord, when He's first, put in that position of prominence, and we're living that life for Him, that life is enjoyed. That life is secure and that life is blessed.