God Alone is our Portion, Security, and Joy - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Psalm 16, David declares that God is the source of all good things in his life.
Transcript:
We are blessed to live where we live. Perhaps we have complaints about this thing or that, but I, I think you would agree with me in saying that we enjoy a great deal, a great amount of safety here in Rhode Island. We generally don't need to worry about suffering the direct impacts of war, earthquakes, forest fires, hurricanes, flooding, or tornadoes.
It's certainly not on the scale that we see elsewhere in our country and certainly around the world, and in recent memory, I can only really recall the COVID-19 pandemic, which was nearly universal and also a sudden appearance of some small tornadoes in, in the past couple of years. The last time I remember a tornado warning, we went into our basement and tried to make ourselves comfortable on our minivan's back seats that I had stored down there. Fortunately, we didn't have to stay down there too, too long. A few minutes later, the coast was clear and we ascended back upstairs. It's natural for us to seek these sorts of refuge when danger approaches. We build shelters and levies and save up rainy day funds for when a real crisis strikes. If anyone tries to commit violence against you or your family, you know, your shotgun is in the closet or that pepper spray is in your purse. Yes, we take these sorts of measures to try to be safe, but none of them are sure things.
We might be not be able to get to the shelter. The levies might break. Those funds might not be enough and your defense may come up short. Many of us realize this and it sometimes gives rise to what I would call sad obsessions. We build and build. We collect and collect, hoard and hoard all in an effort to try to be ready for every possible danger, but it is never enough and we don't find peace in the back of our minds.
We know that death will get us all the same. Now this leads some to obsess over their physical health. Taking insane measures just to try to add an extra sliver of time to their life. For the immensely wealthy, it may lead beyond the human body to an obsessive pursuit of some technological avenues, perhaps to eternal life, maybe transferring their brains to some kind of computer setup or something.
And the great irony that arises is that such people miss out on enjoying the small breadth of life that they do have because they're consumed with so much fear. It need not be this way. Yes, we should all realize that none of our measures are perfect and absolute. Death is indeed coming for us all. But this realization should turn our eyes beyond ourselves to God. In the face of all our fears, what can we find in God? This is what David wishes to declare in Psalm 16. He appeals to God even as he expresses his perfect confidence in him, speaking words that would be fully realized by the one who was to come. So we look at Psalm 16 beginning in verses one through four, a miktam of David. Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. 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 as with many of the Psalms we have here at the outset, a, a little superscription. We know that this is a Psalm written by David. It's a miktam of David, and we don't really know exactly what that term is again, because a lot of the terminology was lost to history. But it's very clear from the outset what David is meaning to communicate here.
He's making a plea of safety before God. He's saying, keep me safe. My God, he's praying, pleading to God, protect me, guard me. But even as he makes this plea, he also declares of God that he is in fact seeking his safety in God. See, there could be a disparity here where David is saying, oh, God saved me, but he's trusting in other things.
But what David is saying here is, God, I am looking to you and it's to you alone that I'm seeking my refuge. And there's a very relational dimension here that we see in verse two. He says, I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. You are my Lord. This is something that we see again and again throughout the Old Testament.
This, how this, this idea of how God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is the God of Israel. He is our God. And because He is our God, because he is David's God, he's assured that he's with him, that he will take care of him. And the same is, is true for us that we should realize this, that God is not cold and distant.
This is an idea of God that kind of arose in the Enlightenment period. You think about 1600s and 1700s, they had an idea of, yes, God existed. This is kind of Thomas Jefferson's God, there's a God who exists, but he doesn't really have anything to do with us. He kind of just created the rules for the universe, spun it into existence, and now he's just watching.
This is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is with his people and intervenes for their sake. So David says, you are my Lord. And then he says, apart from you, I have no good thing. Now again, this is something that David could have just said idly like, oh, yes Lord. Apart from you, I don't have any good thing.
For it to have any real substance, he must truly believe that from his heart, which of course David does. He believes that apart from God, he has no good thing. Now, the question is for us is do we believe that? Do we believe that apart from God, if we don't have God, if he's not my God, my Lord, if he's not my refuge, my security, my satisfaction that I can't really have anything good in this life.
I think very often this is the very battleground of the Christian life and God's probably working that out in the lives of some of you, and maybe some of you, he's, God has kind of won over, but I'd say that many of us are still forgetful. I'd say I'm forgetful of this too. It's so tempting for us to try to find our good apart from God where we, and rather than we say, well, I need this and I need that.
And so, because I need these things, I don't have time for God. I don't, I don't have time to just come before him in prayer to seek his word. I don't have time to gather with his people. Those are all signs that you're seeking your good apart from from God, rather than trusting that as you seek God, that he'll give you all the good things that you truly need.
Now again, this is something that God may be working on right now in your heart. Some of you, God's worked that over, but it's something that we always need to remember 'cause we're such forgetful creatures.
We need to remember what James says in James 1: 17. He reminds us that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of light with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God is, God is our God. He's with us. He's taking, taking care of us. We must not be distracted by the pursuit of these good things apart from him because he is our great good. Now, in verse three, David states that he takes great delight in God's holy people.
He says, I say, of the holy people who are in the land. They're the noble, noble ones in whom is all my delight. The idea here is that there's a certain nobility that is obtained by the people of God. And when we're talking about the people of God, we're talking about those who are truly faithful unto God, who have put their faith and trust in him.
They are the nobility of the kingdom of God. So again, this is a matter of outlook rather than David saying, my delight is in the rich and the powerful and the famous. He says, my delight is not in them implicitly. He says, my delight's not in them. My delight is in the nobility of God's kingdom. The holy ones.
Now, this is what God's people were called to be all along in Exodus 19:6, God tells the people, you'll be for me, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These were the words that Moses was to speak to the Israelites. Deuteronomy 7:6, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, his treasured possession.
And Peter picks us up in First Peter 2:9, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who call you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
David finds his delight in the people of God. And so this kind of prompts self-reflection for our part is like, do we find delight in the people of God? I can tell you it brings me great joy to be with you all, especially when I see you walking with the Lord and I see the how the Holy Spirit's worked in in your life, and you're using your gifts and it brings you so much joy to use them. That fills my heart with delight and that should fill every one of your hearts with delight to be in fellowship with God's people to share together in this royal family. Now, it kind of seems here that what David's basically saying here is, is that he's cut from a different cloth.
He's, he's taking in delight in the things that God himself takes delight in, that God delights in his own holy people.
And this is made all the more stark, this difference by verse four, in which David says that those who go after other gods, they're just gonna suffer more and more. They're going to multiply their sorrows. And of course this is true. You see, we don't see people quite as much in the West pursuing other gods in the sense of idols, like literal idols.
But we do see people pursuing other things that would be their gods in their life with a career, money, pleasure, security in various forms, all these things. Now, the reality is, is that even while people might pursue those things and enjoy a certain degree of success that we admire, the reality is is that it's going to leave them hollow in some respect.
It's just going to continue their suffering and sorrow and almost, I think sometimes fortify it because they feel like, well, I have these things, and they kind of just want to double down on pursuing those things rather than pursuing God, seeking God.
David for his own part says, I'm, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to pour out blood libations to these gods. Their names are not gonna be in my lips. Now this idea of blood libations is a bit of a mysterious sort of ritual, again, kind of like the superscription, we don't know exactly what he is referring to, but he's, it seems like he's referring to some cultic practice, and for the Hebrew people, blood represented life, so it was a very holy thing.
But the pagans would try to utilize that to wield some sort of power and security for themselves in trying to win the gods over to kind of bargain with them for their safety. And we see that the Israelites fall prey to this temptation again and again where they see the strength of the other nations around them.
You think about the Egyptians, the Assyrians, great and mighty nations and empires who worshiped false gods. And so they think, why not do like them? We may be tempted to do the same thing. We may think, why not do like them?
But it is notable that all those empires have fallen. They are no more.
And so David says, I'm, I'm, I'm not going to do like the rest of them do. I'm devoted completely and solely to God, and this is in keeping with the command that the people of God had received in Exodus 23:13. So be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods. Do not let them be heard on your lips.
Joshua 23: 7. Do not associate with these nations that remain among you. Do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them.
David's committed to being obedient to God in every regard. This theme of exclusively looking to God and no one else has continued on, in, in verse five, he says, 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'll 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.
Once again, David states clearly here, God is his only good. Says You alone are my portion in my cup. And when he's talking about his portion here, he's talking about his inheritance, his surety as God alone, who makes his lot secure. Now we see this idea of God being the inheritance of his people very specifically assigned to the Levites because they were the, the priests, the priestly tribe rather, they weren't all priests, but they served in the sanctuary of the temple. And so they didn't have quite the land allotment as the other tribes, but God took care of them. And in Numbers 18:20, the Lord says to Aaron, you will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them.
I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. But elsewhere, we see that this is not just the case for the Levites, though it may be specific to the land allotments and stuff, but generally speaking, in a much bigger sense, God is the portion, the inheritance of his people. Jeremiah speaking in Lamentations 3 verse 24 testifies to this very much like David says, the Lord's my portion; therefore I'll wait for him.
Jeremiah 10: 16 says he is who is the portion of Jacob's not like these, for he is the maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance, the Lord Almighty is his name. We can have no greater inheritance. We can have no greater security than God himself.
And God promises us so much more. This is the thing that we see very visibly in the case of the Israelites, yes, there was a promised land and they were given land allotments and, and various things, but at the end of the day, the at the heart of their inheritance was simply God himself. If you have God, then you will have everything else that you need.
And the same is true for us.
If we seek God as a means to these things, then we're really making those things our, our gods. And some people approach God in that sort of way, and they become disillusioned by God. They say, well, maybe if I go to God, then he'll give me the car, the house, all these things and, and, and so they kind of treat God as kind of like a vending machine.
That's getting everything completely reversed. What you must understand is this, is that it is God himself who is your great reward, the great treasure, your great satisfaction.
Two quotes come to mind as, as I think about this, I think about what St. Augustine says, very early, early church father, immensely influential theologian of the church, and then also C. S. Lewis. St. Augustine in his confession says, you arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Very famous quote, but one that is so true and that you can really, you can really meditate on this because this, again, this gets down to the battleground of our hearts that so often we are trying to find our rest in other things rather than finding our rest in God and until we rest in him, until we look to him as our portion and our inheritance, we will continue to be restless. We will have no peace. C. S. Lewis similarly says, God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. You can have happiness in God and then God will add on other things that might bring you great joy.
Maybe you'll have a great job, great family, all these things that'll be great, but your happiness is rooted in God, and if you don't have God, you will not have happiness.
All other avenues for seeking out, seeking happiness ultimately come up short. Not arbitrarily as though God is just kind of making us unhappy or something. It's because we were designed to be in communion with him. We were literally created to be in relationship with him. And so if we're not doing what we're created for, then we're just unhappy.
I always think this is funny. It might seem funny, but I think my dog, my dog's a a bird dog. She's, she's been bred to be in the fields and seek out the bird, and that's where she is most happy. And as soon as hunting season ends and she's not out in the field, she is so frustrated and restless, especially 'cause it's winter.
And so she's all cooped up and she's no longer going out anymore.
It gets down to the very nature of who she is, that she wants to be in the field seeking the bird. And the same thing is true for us is that in our very nature as human beings, what our whole heart ultimately longs and desires for is God. Our satisfaction can only be met in him.
So once again, as, as I said, if, if as the Israelites, as David, as we look to God, he takes care of our good in all other respects, and we know that this is, this will certainly be the case for us because even as we suffer, maybe as we endure want in this current age, we know in the age to come that God is going to introduce new heavens and a new earth.
You see, the Christian life has the hope, not only a spiritual satisfaction, but material satisfaction, not that our satisfaction is rooted in those things. Again, because God is our only satisfaction, but it's the fulfillment of all things that God created us to be. These spiritual, physical beings. That's who he created us to be.
And so the vision that we have set forth in Revelation is a world in which we are living here on a restored earth and God is with us. Now, I don't know what that's all gonna look like. If you have ideas, I'm interested in hearing what, what you, what, what you think it might be like. It's, it's fun to think about, but God is gonna give us every good thing as we find our great good in him, and we know that even now, that God will take care of us in meeting our needs. We think about what Jesus says in Matthew six, verses seven through eight. He says, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they'll be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.
So again, this is, our God is not a distant God. Yes, we should go to him in prayer, but you're going, you're, what you're bringing to him is not news to him. He knows exactly what you actually need. Sometimes we get that mixed up, what we think we need and what we actually need, and he will meet our need.
Now to truly flourish, to truly flourish means to walk in God's ways. To walk in accordance with his wisdom. And, and I take that to be what David is getting at here. In verse seven, he says, I'll praise the Lord who counsels me; even at night, my heart instructs me. He's, he's reveling in the fact that God is giving him the direction that he, the direction that he needs in his life, so that even as he is lying on his bed at night, God is guiding him, showing him the way that he should go.
And that is a great good that God gives to us in the present here and now that we should not underestimate. This world is a confusing place, but if you go to God and if you see God in accordance with his word, he'll show us the way that we should go.
And with him giving this counsel, with him at our right hand, we enjoy this sense of security and safety. Several places throughout the Psalms also testify to this. Psalm 109:31. It says, for he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who condemn them. Psalm 110:5. The Lord is at your right hand; he'll crush Kings on the day of his wrath. Psalm 121:5. The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. This idea of, that God is at our right hand is that he's got our back. He's going to take care of us, and David's confidence in God extends even unto the face of death itself.
Continuing on verse, verses nine through 11. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you'll 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'll fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
So once again, David is, his heart is full of gladness. His tongue rejoices because God is his strength. That's why, because God is his strength. And he goes from this to say something that that's very profound and striking. He says that he, that 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.
His body rests secure. So he's, he's entrusting God with his bodily safety. Again, it's not just spiritual stuff here, his very body. Now there's something curious about this, because David of course, died. He did experience death. He did go down to the grave and he is not raised yet. And so it would seem like, is, is, is David kind of, does he have a false confidence here? Is, is the words that he's saying here left unfulfilled? Well, it may have seemed so until Jesus Christ appears. And it's very interesting because in the Book of Acts there's explicit reference made to Psalm 16 what, to what David says here. This is a great thing about scripture.
Scripture interprets scripture as a general principle, but then also sometimes the New Testament makes explicit reference to Old Testament passages that aid us in understanding their meaning. So Peter, in his Pentecost sermon says this, referencing this passage, it says, 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 the 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.
Paul says something very similar as he is in Pisidian Antioch. He's in a synagogue speaking to the Jews there, Acts 13, verse 34 through 37. He says God raised him from the dead so that he'll never be subject to decay. As God has said, I'll give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David. So it is also stated elsewhere: you will not let your holy one see decay.
Now when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. So what Peter and Paul are saying here is that this psalm is pointing to Jesus. It's pointing to the fact that yes, Jesus did die, but he is only dead for three days.
On the third day, he was raised from the dead, and so Peter says David is speaking prophetically here. He's saying that David in fact knows that he's speaking about something that goes beyond his own life, and he actually has referenced to the oath that God had made to David regarding the, the throne of David which is fulfilled in Jesus. Now, this promise we see in Second Samuel seven verses 12 to 13, God tells David, when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I'll raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood. And I'll establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build the house from my name and I'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
So. Peter is saying that's what David is seeing here and he's, even, while he might not have seen it in hd, like understanding everything that was going to happen, he understood that what he was saying had reference to this promised one who was to come. So that's great for Jesus that this, this was fulfilled for Jesus.
He was raised from the dead. But it's more than just good news for Jesus. It it's good news for David and it's good news for us. Paul says in Romans six, five, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we'll certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. In First Corinthians 15 verses 20-22, Paul says, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. What Paul is saying here is that Jesus is just the start. Jesus is just the beginning. Jesus is the one who's made it possible so that we too could be raised from the dead.
So that the words of Psalm 16 might be applied, yes to David, and also to ourselves, so that we can truly say as, as David says, in closing this Psalm, we can say, you make known to me the path of life. You'll fill me with joy, your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand. If there is no resurrection from the dead, that's not true.
We don't know the path of life. The path just ends in death. We don't have eternal pleasures, but in Christ, this is true and this is our confidence.
But is your confidence in God or is it in something else? Do you find your security in him or in your collection of half measures? Our only true refuge is gone. He is the only one who can deliver us from death. He is the only one who give, who can give us a life of peace and joy that our hearts are yearning for.
Apart from him, we have no good thing. He is our portion, our inheritance, our satisfaction. We need nothing else but God himself. In him we receive every good thing. Most especially from the Father we are given his son who fulfills this Psalm.
Jesus reveals through his own victory over death, how God shall likewise deliver us from death, that through faith in Jesus, we too shall be raised from the dead and know everlasting life. No more sad obsessions, no more slavery to fear. Christ has come to set us free. We can walk in liberty because we can say what Paul says in Romans eight, that we are convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God.
In Christ Jesus, our Lord, are we safe? Yes. In Him, we are perfectly safe. Let's pray.
Father, as we, we read a Psalm like this and we see David's faith, his confidence in you, it does set a mirror before us as we look at our own lives, and it presents an opportunity for confession. Father, we, we confess that we have not always sought our refuge, our security, our safety, our satisfaction in you, that we have at times gone after other things. Perhaps not organized gods, but functional gods in our lives.
Father, we can, we confess how wrong that is. We should find our satisfaction and security in you alone and we repent of that, father, now come before you with David in making our plea that you would safeguard us, father, that you would keep us safe and Father, we have confidence that you will because you have given us your son.
Father, we thank you that because you did not let your son see decay, that you did not, that he was not held captive by death forevermore, that because of this Father, we can have confidence in the face of death. And we know Father, our fear of death underlies all our fears. So Father, we give you thanks that we can now live fearlessly because of this revelation that you've given us in Jesus Christ and because we know who you are, that you are our God, that you are with us, and that you'll not leave us behind. We give you praise in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)