Well, we're spending this Lord's Day in the Psalms. This morning we looked at Psalm 121. A psalm that assures us of God's faithfulness, His protection, His help. in our going out and our coming in from this time forth and forever. Tonight we're going to spend some time meditating on another psalm that reminds us of God's unchanging faithfulness to his people.
It's Psalm 16. This psalm has been categorized as a psalm of confidence, a psalm of trust. Psalms of confidence and trust are ones that express assurance. And certainty, trust in God. These types of psalms are always very positive and encouraging.
In fact, they express the heart of a believer when he or she is at his best, when faith is the strongest, when delight in God is at its peak. If we find ourselves tonight in that happy frame of mind in our faith, Then this psalm puts words of praise and gratitude in our mouth to the Lord. If we're not in that frame of mind, then this psalm gives us an ideal to shoot for. A state of faithful confidence to aim for in our Christian walk.
Well, let's read it together. Psalm. A mictum of David. Mictum is an unknown Hebrew word. Many scholars think it refers to some kind of musical or liturgical instruction.
Remember, psalms are intended to be sung. Preserve me, O God. For in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.
As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. 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. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.
You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not. be shaken. Therefore, My heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy ones see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures. forevermore.
Let's pray. Father, we are fickle people in a fickle world. We're so easily tossed about by circumstance and emotion But Lord, sometimes you steady us by giving us an overwhelming awareness of your love. and of the security and certainty of that love. I pray that Tonight would be one of those times, one of those.
Times when no dreadful anxiety can shake us. One of those times when We're so sure of belonging to you that nothing can diminish the joy that's ours in you. Holy Spirit, you have given Psalm 16 to the church. to be an encouragement for us and to show us What we ought to be and think in our best moments.
So, help us now to believe these words. and to exemplify them in our own lives. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, we're on the cusp of a new school year. It's sort of a restart, a new beginning. It's exciting and there's usually a lot of anticipation and expectation that come with new beginnings. As a church, we're facing a new beginning of our own. As we look to add to our pastoral staff and pursue all that the Lord has called us to be and to do as a church.
New beginnings are exciting. They're hopeful. Times like these are often filled with Anticipation and expectation that this new beginning will be better than what came before. These are times of hope and confidence. And hope and confidence are good.
But hope and confidence must be placed in the right object. Our confidence at the prospect of a new school year or maybe a new job or the birth of a new child or even a new chapter in the life of our church doesn't come ultimately from ourselves. Certain hope, lasting hope. Hope that goes the distance won't come from man and circumstance. Those things vacillate, those things waver and change.
No true confidence, lasting hope. is that which has God as its object. Our hope and confidence must come from an unchanging and gracious God.
Well, Psalm 16 is a meditation on the believer's hope in God. It tells us that God is trustworthy. And it tells us what the result of that trustworthiness is for the Christian. You could say that Psalm 16 describes the ideal frame of mind for the believer. and it's one of unswerving confidence in God.
Back in the 1700s, A young Jonathan Edwards began making a list of resolutions that he aimed to keep for the duration of his life. As I was studying Psalm 16 this past week, one of Edwards' resolutions came to my mind. It's Resolution 18. Jonathan Edwards wrote, resolved. To live at all times as I think is best in my most devout frames.
And when I have the clearest notions of the things of the gospel, and another world. Edwards was saying that the way I think and respond at those moments when my grasp of the gospel is the clearest and my perception of heaven is the most real, that is the way that I should think and respond at all times. Act all the time like you act when your hope is most set on Christ and eternity. Psalm 16, and in fact, all Psalms of confidence are examples of believers in their best frame of mind, Christians at their best.
Now we all know that there are times when even people who have been saved by grace and have become new creations in Christ go through periods of doubt and discouragement, periods of disobedience and discipline. That's just a reality of life, this side of glory. But there are those moments when it's as if God pulls back the curtain of heaven a little bit and gives us a peek. Moments when we're filled with such an assurance of God's love for us that we belong to Him, that nothing is ever going to separate us from His saving grace. Have you ever had those kinds of moments?
I call them Romans 8.15 moments. Times when the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirit in an undeniable way that we are children of God. And God's Spirit cries out in us, Abba, Father. We know that we know that we belong to God and God belongs to us. It's a Christian.
in his best frame of mind.
Well, the Bible doesn't just dangle this ideal state of mind out there for the believer and tease him with it. Scripture would have us pursue this state of mind, this ideal spiritual posture. Psalm 16 is a psalm of confidence in God. And from this declaration of confidence in God, we learned that fixing our minds on the trustworthiness of the Lord leads to joy. That's the theme of Psalm 16.
Fixing our minds on the trustworthiness of the Lord leads. to joy.
So let's do that tonight. Let's spend the next several moments fixing our minds on the trustworthiness of God. I really can't think of a better way to end a Lord's Day. At the start of a new week, at the start of a new chapter in the life of our church, than by fixing our eyes, our consciousness. confidence, our hope.
on a God who is eternally trustworthy. The first thing we notice as we walk through Psalm 16 is what the source of our confidence is. And what is the source of our confidence? It is a trustworthy God. David isn't looking to his position as king or to the strong military that serves him or his own abilities and wisdom.
No, the source of David's confidence is God. I want us to notice two things about God that Identify him here as being trustworthy. First of all, God is a sovereign master who protects his own. He's a sovereign master who gives Protection, verse one. Preserve me, O God.
For in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are. Are my Lord. You are my. Adonai, my master, my ruler.
God is David's sovereign master, and as his sovereign master, what does he do? He protects David. He provides David with refuge. How many times did David go out into battle? Facing overwhelming odds, expecting to be destroyed by his enemies, and yet how many times did God protect him and give him the victory?
God is trustworthy because God is a sovereign master who protects his children.
Now you and I don't fight the Philistine giants like David did. But our enemies are certainly metaphorical Philistine giants. People who hate God. institutions that oppose God's people. Even our own flesh at times that wars against the law of God.
Yet, even in our battle with these enemies, God is a sovereign master. who provides refuge for his children. But the source of our confidence is not merely a sovereign master who gives protection, he's also a gracious father who gives himself. The latter part of verse 2 says, I have no good apart from you. Any good thing that I find in myself can only be attributed to God's grace in me.
John the Baptist said in John 3, 27 that a person cannot even receive one thing unless it's given him from heaven. To put our confidence in God then means to lay aside all presumption that there is some inherent good in us and to come to God naked looking for dress, helpless looking for grace. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. What verse two states in the negative, verse five says positively. The Lord And by the way, this time, David doesn't call God Adonai, master.
He calls him Yahweh, the covenant relational name of God. Yahweh is my chosen portion. and my cup. You hold my lot. Now these terms, portion and cup and lot, are metaphors of God's provision.
The things I need for survival, the things I need to thrive in life are provided for me by God. In fact, God is those very things that I need. He is my portion and my cup. God gives us. himself.
Verse 6 continues the metaphor. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. When Israel entered the land of Canaan, God divided the land, and each of the 12 tribes of Israel was given a region. Within that region, individual families were given property to cultivate and live on.
So, to divide the land into these smaller regions per family, lots were cast to determine where the borders, where the lines would be drawn.
Some families ended up with beautiful, fertile land, others ended up with land that was less fertile, less scenic. But however, your lot fell, That was your inheritance. That was your land. And so David, comparing God to the land, says that the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. This casting of lot that was beyond my control has resulted in something unimaginably and graciously pleasant.
God has become my portion. God has made himself My God, my inheritance. In verses 7 and 8, David gets very specific about how God gives Himself to His children. In verse 7, God gives himself to us by being our counselor. Being our counselor.
Verse seven: I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me. We are so prone to wonder, so prone to lose confidence in God that He must constantly be correcting our minds and kindling our faith and prodding us on to greater degrees of spiritual maturity. In many ways, it's like raising a child, isn't it? Your parents know it's a constant Process of instruction and reminders and correction and more instruction.
Don't touch the stove. Clean behind your ears. Eat your vegetables. And then tomorrow you do the whole thing over again. God gives Himself to us by becoming our counselor day and night.
And this constant counseling is growing us up towards spiritual maturity. It's a greater confidence in the trustworthiness of God and to greater praise. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Because God is our Counselor. Verse 8 shows us that God gives us Himself by being.
with us. He is with us. Verse 8, because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. David's confidence in the Lord, his loyalty to God, was the result of his experience of God's close presence.
God was there. When David faced Goliath, God was there. When Saul pursued David to kill him, God was there. When Nathan confronted David with the sin, God was there. When David lay on his deathbed ready to die, God was there.
David could trust his sovereign master, his gracious heavenly father, because God was at his right hand. He was there. Beloved, the same is true for us. God has given himself to us. He is with us.
John Calvin said. Knowing that God is mine. Is the antidote to all those things that lead me from resting in God alone. If God is mine, I have everything I need to be perfectly happy forever. Why should I put my confidence in money?
God is mine. Why should I put my confidence in relationships? God is mine. Why should I put my confidence in education or stock markets or health or governments? God is mine.
If God is mine, Then I can stand on even the gallows facing execution and still say, the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. A while back, I read a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a pastor in Germany during World War II. He was disloyal to the Nazi regime and was eventually executed by hanging.
Well, as he was preparing to face death, he wrote this. He said, this is the end, but for me, the beginning. No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, and heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour. Waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence. Death Is hell and night and cold if it is not transformed by our faith?
But that is just what is so marvelous. The gospel can transform death. Church, the source of a Christian's confidence is a God who is both Adonai. and Yahweh. Both sovereign master and gracious Father.
A Christian source of confidence is a God who protects us from all enemies. including death itself. and who provides us with every good thing. including his very presence with us. This then is the source of our confidence, a trustworthy God.
But notice, secondly, the effect of God's trustworthiness. God is trustworthy. And that trustworthiness produces tangible effects in the life of a believer. In fact, Psalm 16 mentions at least three effects of God's trustworthiness. First, God's trustworthiness leads us to identify with the people of God.
Look with me at verse 3. As for the saints in the land, They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. As God's trustworthiness is contemplated by the believer, identification with the people of God becomes a characteristic trait of God's child. The Christian who delights in the Lord begins to delight in the saints.
Now, Hebrew has several words for the concept of delight. The one that's used here suggests an element of emotional pleasure. Sheer enjoyment in something of great value. In other words, to delight in this sense doesn't mean learning to enjoy something out of necessity, like maybe putting up with a difficult colleague at work only because you have to to get along with him if you want to keep your job, or like choking down vegetables not because you particularly like them, but because you know they're good for you. That's not the kind of delight David's talking about here.
The kind of delight David has in mind here is natural and unforced and genuine and affectionate. And this, David says, is how he views the saints, God's people. The church. He delights in the church of God. One of the effects of placing our trust in God.
Is that it produces in us an affection for others who have placed their trust. in God. It produces in us a natural delight in fellow saints, a natural esteem. for godly people. If we're convinced of the trustworthiness of God, if our confidence is in Him, Then we will love what he loves.
We will identify ourselves with those whom God. identifies with. We will delight in that which delights him. Him. Friends, God loves his church.
He died for his church. He's coming one day to gather to himself his church so that they can forever be with him in his presence. He loves the church. Do we love the church? You see, you cannot claim to have confidence in God.
Trust in God, love for God. while at the same time rejecting the very community where God is most at work. That would be like saying, I love my spouse, but I hate everything they enjoy. God will not betray his people. And if we are to be found trusting in the Lord, it must be in the context of the communion of the saints.
That's where his trustworthiness is most on display. John said, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love. The brothers. The Christian who trusts God is the Christian who delights in God's church. But there's a temptation we face.
A temptation to disregard the people of God and to be enamored with those in society whose confidence is in anything but God. the the wealthy, the educated, the respectable, the successful.
So, not only is identification with God's people an expression of confidence in God, but separation from false worshipers is also an expression. of confidence in God. Look at verse 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 name on my lips. The Christian in his best frame of mind is one whose eyes are not dazzled by ungodly people and ungodly values. I remember in my youth A time when I felt very strongly the temptation to be dazzled by what the world was telling me was important. My parents were counseling me to go one way, but my peers all seemed to be going down a different path, and their way seemed easier and more immediate and more enjoyable. It was so tempting for me to be enamored with the values and the habits of all the successful and popular people around me rather than trusting that God was at work through his ordinary means and in invisible ways, slowly and steadily working things out in my life for his own glory and for my own happiness.
Confidence in God will mean identifying ourselves first with the people of God. which will inevitably mean at some point separating ourselves from those who neither love God nor follow Him. Where is your social center? Is it the world? Or is it the church?
Who are your heroes? Are they holy people? Or are they idolaters? To whom do you turn for Affirmation and acceptance. The saints.
or the merely popular. James says, friendship with the world is enmity with God. Trusting in God leads to delighting in the family of God, such that we can say, the church, the saints, they're my people. and we can walk away from the affirmation and the applause of the world without so much as a second glance. It's a tangible expression of trust in the Lord.
All of this then leads to one final effect of God's trustworthiness. Trust in God. produces an enjoyment. of God's goodness. An enjoyment of God's goodness.
And this is really the climax of the whole psalm. The trustworthiness of God leads the believer straight to joy. Look at verses 9 through 11. Therefore, In light of everything that's been said about God, how He's a sovereign master who protects us, how He's a gracious Father who gives us Himself, how He is our counselor day and night, how He makes Himself close at hand in every aspect of our lives, therefore. My heart is glad.
and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure, for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol. The the place of the dead. or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life.
In your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures. forevermore. When our confidence is in the Lord, we begin to experience the fullness of joy and pleasures. Forevermore.
And church, that fullness of joy isn't some kind of... Ethereal spiritual joy. David says, My whole being rejoices, body and soul. My heart is glad, my being rejoices, my flesh dwells secure. Even the physical body is affected by this confidence in God.
Now I want you to notice something about verse 10. Verse 10 is a prayer spoken by David, but then applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and eventually made applicable to everyone who is in Christ. Peter quotes Psalm 16:10 in Acts 2, and Paul quotes it in Acts 13. Both of them treat Psalm 16:10 as prophecies of the resurrection of Jesus. The Spirit of God did not abandon Jesus after his death on the cross.
His body did not see corruption. Instead, Christ's body was raised from the dead three days after it was laid in the tomb. Paul then says in Romans 6, we Christians were buried with Christ by baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk. in newness of life.
Brothers and sisters, God is trustworthy, and when we trust Him, our hearts are flooded with joy, and even our bodies dwell secure, for just as sure as God raised Christ from the dead, so He will raise everyone. who trusts in him through Christ. And just how long will this incredible joy that permeates both body and soul last. It will last for a Forever. Verse 11, at your right hand.
Our pleasures for a little while. At your right hand are pleasures for most of your life. No, at your right hand are pleasures Forevermore. Not even death can bring an end. To the enjoyment of God's goodness because He has defeated even death itself.
You know, as we've looked at the Psalm of Confidence tonight. at this description of a Christian in his best frame of mind. It might be that you find yourself a far cry from the ideal that David is experiencing. No doubt for many of us here tonight, a psalm of lament may more accurately reflect the state of our hearts now. then a psalm of confidence.
Life is just so full of things that could potentially go really wrong. or people who who have have done us wrong. You'd like to be overwhelmed with the trustworthiness of God. But you're too consumed with the uncertainties of life. What's gonna happen to my job?
How will I pay for college? Will I ever meet that perfect someone to be my spouse? Will my kids succeed? Why is my marriage falling apart? Why do I, what if I have some terminal sickness?
And on and on and on the worries go. Psalm 16 presents us An ideal state of mind for the believer, but we certainly don't have to naively pretend that Psalm 16 is the norm for all believers all the time. This life is full of disappointments and difficulty. And there are plenty of Psalms for those days as well. But if we're in a spiritual slump, If we're consumed with worry and doubt, how do we begin moving our lives towards confidence in God?
Towards this trust that David seemed to have. How do we fix our minds? on the trustworthiness of God. Let me close by giving several Exhortations. First of all, if you're lacking in trust toward God, Acknowledge that God is the source of every good thing in your life.
That's what David did in verse 2. I have no good apart from you. Begin to see God as the source of every good thing in your life. You have a home, you have a provision of food and clothing, you have a church, you have eyes to see His beautiful creation. The mental capacity to read the word of God, the spiritual capacity to believe it.
Every good thing in your life. And your life is full of good things. Every good thing in your life comes from God. Secondly. Align yourself with the people of God.
just like David did in verses 3 and 4. Your best friends ought to be Christians who walk closely and deeply with God. Your closest counselors ought to be those who will reinforce for you the reality that God is trustworthy. Young people, as you go back for another semester of school, choose your friends wisely. Not based on who you'll have the most fun with or who will make you the most popular, but based on who will make you know God better.
Thirdly, receive God's counsel and follow it. Verses 7 and 8 tell us that God makes Himself our counselor. He puts Himself in our lives. We need to receive. His counsel.
We need to avail ourselves of His presence every day. The more you push God and His Word to the peripheral of your life. the more likely you are to crumble when pressure comes. You see the joy of verses 9 through 11. Will not be true of us unless we're willing to walk according to the light of verses 1 through 8.
Make sure you're pursuing God. Draw near to God. and he will draw near to you. Years ago, I found myself in a difficult unpredictable situation. I was newly married.
We had just had our first child. I was looking for a job. Finances were tight. Child number two was on her way, and I just didn't know what God's call on my life was supposed to be or how I was going to provide for these people that were depending on me. During that time, I providentially stumbled upon Isaiah 50.
Where I read these words. Let him who walks in darkness and has no light Trust in the name of the Lord. and rely on his God God. And it dawned on me as I read that verse that God is trustworthy whether I trust him or not. His trustworthiness doesn't depend on me trusting in that trustworthiness.
God doesn't stop being faithful to me when I'm panicking about the future or when I can't see how ends are going to meet or how this relationship is going to get smoothed out or how this wayward child is going to find his way back home. Let him who walks in darkness and has no light Trust. in the name of the Lord.
Sometimes God allows darkness.
Sometimes God removes the light. But in those seasons of darkness and uncertainty, beloved, his trustworthiness has not diminished. He is still God. You are still his. And he is still yours.
Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning because our God. is faithful. He will not leave us. He will not forsake us. We can trust him.
Let's pray. Lord, often the pathway to. Our deepest joy leads through deep sorrow. And because a prerequisite of joy is that we trust you. And learning To trust you requires that we stop trusting ourselves.
our circumstances, our friends. Father, some of us here tonight are fully assured of your faithfulness. And of our belonging to you, and are able to say in full confidence: yes, God is mine. Lord, give those people the fullness of joy that Psalm 16 talks about. Let them know the pleasures that can only be found at your right hand.
But others of us are struggling, Lord. We're not certain. Of our standing with you. We're afraid that you might abandon our souls to Sheol. Lord, for those who are walking in darkness tonight.
unsure of your will, unsure of your purposes. Help them to trust you. Help them to take refuge in you. Help them to say in faith, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.
And thank you that the proof that Everything promised in Psalm 16 is true, is found in the fact that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. You have not abandoned his soul. to Sheol. And if we are in him. Then we too will be raised from the dead to enjoy the fullness of joy in your presence forevermore.
Holy Spirit, keep us until that day. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Yeah.
