Scripture: Psalm 16
Video Link: https://youtu.be/AxHjOormnnM
Structure:
- Introduction
- Loyalty
- Intimacy
- Fullness
- Eternity
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Last Sunday we played some Scrabble. This week I thought we could have a game of Snowman. Snowman is a spelling game usually played with kids, so I hope there are some children listening today.
Kids, the idea is for you to correctly spell the word I’m thinking of before I can draw a snowman. Throughout this message I will give you a number of clues. The first clue is that this word has four letters.
Last week we heard about Psalm 46. Today our focus is Psalm 16. This is a psalm of David. From verse 1 we read…
Protect 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 holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight. Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. For you do not give me up to Sheol, nor let your holy one see decay. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
There are close to 30 four letter words in this psalm. Words like hand and glad and Lord and pour and so on. Maybe the word I’m thinking of can be found in this Psalm. Maybe not.
Loyalty:
The psalms are sometimes described as Israel’s hymn book. They are essentially a collection of song lyrics or poems from ancient Israel.
Let me read you some other song lyrics from a different time and place in history…
Somewhere, somehow somebody must have kicked you around some. Tell me why you want to lay there, revel in your abandon. Honey, it don’t make no difference to me, baby, everybody’s had to fight to be free. You see you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
Is there anyone in your bubble who knows who wrote the lyrics to this song?
That’s right, Tom Petty.
A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their country because of war, persecution or natural disaster. A refugee is someone who has lost their land, their home, their worldly possessions and anything else that would normally give a sense of security and stability.
People can also become emotional refugees. Perhaps they have had to flee their home because of an abusive relationship with a partner or a parent. Sometimes too children can feel like refugees when their parents separate, even if the separation is relatively amicable.
Essentially a refugee has lost their place of refuge, they have lost their security, and are looking for a safe haven.
I don’t think Tom Petty wrote this song for political refugees who have had to flee their own country. I imagine it was written more for emotional refugees, people who have suffered and been displaced when domestic relationships have gone bad.
That line where he says, ‘Tell me why you want to lay there, revel in your abandon’, is brilliant. It’s like he’s saying, ‘You may have a had a hard time but you’ve got a choice. You don’t have to think of yourself as a victim. You don’t have to give in to self-pity. Find refuge. Choose to re-connect. Start again. Be a survivor’
Perhaps Tom Petty never meant that much by his lyrics but they still speak.
In verses 1-2 of Psalm 16, David writes: Protect 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.”
David knew what it was to be a refugee. As a young man David was driven away from home and into the wilderness, because king Saul wanted to kill him. And then, as an older man, David became a refugee once more, when he was forced to flee from his son Absalom.
But despite being a refugee, despite being kicked around some, David does not revel in his abandon. He does not give in to self-pity. Rather he takes refuge in God Almighty. David makes God his home. (‘Home’ is a four letter word. Is that the word I’m thinking of?) When God is your home you can never be displaced. There is no greater security than the Lord.
That phrase, where David says, ‘I have no good apart from you’, is both a statement of David’s loyalty to God and at the same time a description of David’s reality.
As a refugee David has lost a great deal. He is living rough in the wilderness, he is separated from his family. He is having to survive by his wits. David knows full well that the Lord is his only hope.
In verses 3-4 David gives further evidence of his loyalty to the Lord God when he says: As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight. Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.
Most of the expert Bible commentators say the original Hebrew of these verses is quite difficult to untangle. But essentially, David is saying he is loyal to the God of Israel. He has put all his eggs in one basket. He doesn’t put a bob both ways. He doesn’t worship the Lord God alongside other pagan gods.
Like Jerry Maguire, who had only one client, David serves only one God, Yahweh.
This is quite remarkable really. If anyone had a reason to revel in his abandon or to go chasing after other gods, it was David. Despite all he has lost David does not blame God. As a refugee (as someone hungry for security) David presses into the Lord even more deeply.
How are you getting on with spelling the mystery word I’m thinking of? If you have chosen the letter L, then you are on the right track. Our word starts with L.
Fullness:
Churches around the country are empty this Sunday. We might feel quite sad for what we have lost because of Covid.
But maybe there is another way of looking at it. We, in New Zealand, are in the fortunate position of having a choice. We could see the apparent emptiness of lockdown as an opportunity to make room for God.
Sometimes the more stuff we have in our lives, the less room we have for God.
Sometimes the more capable we are, the more pressure we find ourselves under to meet everyone’s demands and the less time we have for God.
Sometimes the more freedom we have, the harder it is for us to make a good choice.
Sometimes the more entertainment we consume, the more difficult it is to be still and think.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Sometimes less is more. (‘Less’. That’s a four letter word that begins with L. Is that the word I’m thinking of?)
When I say, ‘less is more’, I mean, perhaps the emptiness has something to offer. It seems to me that David’s loyalty to God was formed in the womb of emptiness. He sought refuge in God because he had no other good thing.
Sometimes less is more. Before we can fill our lungs with fresh air we must first empty our lungs of the stale air. I’m not saying I like lockdown. I look forward to a time when we can gather safely in level 1 or better still level none.
Maybe though, this time of lockdown is an opportunity to expel some stale air out of our lives. Maybe it is an opportunity to make room for the fresh oxygen of God’s Spirit.
A few years ago I asked my spiritual director to pray for me. I don’t remember the words he said exactly but I do remember his posture. He opened his hands, so they were empty, with the palms facing upward, like he was about to receive something.
He may not have meant too much by that gesture but it still speaks to me now. Before we can take God’s hand we must first let go of whatever else we are holding on to.
Here’s a quote for you for Fathers’ day (not sure where it comes from)…
A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.
It may sound a bit sentimental, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
For someone who has lost so much, David still sees the cup of his life as full. Not full in a busy, hurried and pressured kind of way. But full in a pleasant, roomy, chilled out kind of way.
In verses 5 & 6 of Psalm 16 we read about the quality of David’s fullness…
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.
In ancient Israel, during the time of Joshua, land in Canaan was allocated to tribes and clans and families according to sacred lot. The land allotted to your clan then stayed in the family and was passed down from generation to generation. This is what verse 6 is referring to when it says the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.
(‘Land’ is another four letter word beginning with L, by the way.)
The curious thing is that David was probably writing this as a refugee. David had been emptied of material possessions when he was driven off his land. He was living in a cave in the wilderness. How is it then that he can say: The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.
Well, David sees his loss and consequent emptiness as an opportunity for receiving the fullness of God himself. David may not have land but the Lord is his portion. David could not have a more ‘goodly heritage’ than the Lord. The Lord Himself is David’s inheritance. God Almighty is David’s land, the ground of his being.
In reading verse 6 I am reminded of Frank & Marjorie Duncan. Psalm 16:6 is their family motto. Frank was the minister of Tawa Baptist some years ago and before that he and Marjorie were missionaries in China during the 1940’s.
They served in Honan province during the famine of 1942 to 1944. Before the famine ended around 80,000 people, out of a population of 500,000 in that district, had died. In a material sense it was a time of great emptiness. But there was also a fullness of compassion in the relief camp that Marjorie and Frank ran.
Sometime later Frank & Marjorie became refugees as they were forced to flee China for their lives. How is it then, after coming through all of that, the Duncan family were able to say: The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. (KJV)
Well, I cannot pretend to know what was in Frank & Marjorie’s heart, but I expect it had to do with verse 5: The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
The kind of fullness that God gives is brought out more explicitly in verse 11:
…In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The Hebrew word translated as fullness comes from the same root as ‘satisfied’.
The sort of fullness in view here is not the uncomfortable fullness one might feel after eating too much. Rather, it is the replete-ness of having eaten only what you need.
Nor is it the feeling of frustration, like when you’ve had a guts full of something. Rather, it is the feeling of joy and wonder that accompanies a new experience.
As Derek Kidner observes, the joys and pleasures (of verse 11) are presented as wholly satisfying and endlessly varied, for they are found both in who God is and what he gives. ‘[David], the refugee of verse 1 finds himself an heir and his inheritance beyond all imagining and all exploring.’ [1]
Time for another clue. If the letter ‘f’ is one of the letters you guessed, then well done; ‘f’ goes in the middle of our four letter word. We still need two more letters to spell the whole word though.
Intimacy:
Verses 7 & 8 of Psalm 16 read…
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
These verses speak of God’s nearness to David. David may be separated from his family and loved ones, but he is close to God. Close enough, in fact, to hear God’s counsel (his wisdom and advice) intimately.
What does David mean when he says, my heart instructs me? Normally, in the Old Testament, the heart refers to a person’s mind; their thought life. However, the Hebrew word, translated as heart in verse 7, is more literally kidneys.
I suppose the English translators chose the word heart because the poetry of, my kidneys instruct me, would be lost on most modern readers. Probably David is using the Hebrew word kidneys as a metaphor for his conscience. Just as kidneys act as a filter for our blood, so too the conscience acts as a filter for our soul. So the thought is: in the night also my conscience instructs me.
If that seems like overthinking it, then the reference to ‘kidneys’ might just be an ancient way of saying, ‘I have a gut feeling about this’, like an instinct or an intuition. You just know.
In any case, David’s intimacy with God is clear. God is guiding David in his inner being. And the interesting thing is that this intuitive / gut guidance happens at night, when David is quiet and still.
We read in the gospels how Jesus often went off by himself, very early in the morning, to pray. We are not told exactly what happened in these times of prayer but I expect it was a time of intimacy between Father and Son. A time when God spoke counsel to Jesus, in the stillness.
How is your devotional life at the moment? Are you able to carve out time to be still and listen to God? Stillness makes room for God.
I’m getting close to finishing the snowman. Better give you another clue. Did any of you guess the letter ‘i’? I imagine some of you did. The ‘i’ comes second. So far then we have ‘L-i-f ’. That narrows it down quite a bit. It is likely to be one of two words. Kids, if you are still listening, can you think what those two words might be?
Eternity:
Psalm 16 finishes on a note of joy at the prospect of unbroken fellowship with God. From verse 9 we read…
Therefore, my heart is glad and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. For you do not give me up to Sheol, nor let your holy one see decay. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
In a nutshell these verses are alluding to eternal life. Eternal life doesn’t just mean existing forever. Eternal life describes a quality of relationship with God, characterised by joy and intimacy and pleasure.
Sheol, in ancient Hebrew thought, is the realm of the dead. The people of king David’s time didn’t really think of the after-life in terms of heaven and hell. Sheol wasn’t paradise, nor was it torture. It was more of a neutral space; a place of shadows.
Notice how David talks about his heart, soul and body, in verse 9. This is a way of describing one’s whole self, physical and spiritual. David rests secure (he has no fear for the future) because he is confident that nothing, not even death, can separate him from the love of God.
The idea of eternal life, unbroken blissful fellowship with God, is not new to us because we have the gospel of Jesus. But it was a pretty progressive idea 3000 years ago when David wrote his psalm.
2000 years ago the apostles Peter & Paul both applied the closing verses of Psalm 16 to Jesus and his resurrection. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, Peter made the comment…
Seeing what was to come, [David] 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.
It is through faith in Jesus that we also will share in resurrection to eternal life. Therefore, we do not need to be afraid in this life. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved.
Conclusion:
It is time now for the great reveal. The word I was thinking of was life. Well done to all those who guessed it. You made it just in time before I put the arms on the snowman.
Psalm 16 shows us what true life is. We tend to think of life as mere physical existence. So if someone is still breathing we say they are alive. But in the thought world of the Bible, life is more than breathing. Life is close friendship with God.
Some of you may have noticed how the four main points of today’s message make an acrostic of the word life: Loyalty, Intimacy, Fullness and Eternity, spells life.
Loyalty to God. Intimacy with God. Fullness of joy in God’s presence and eternity with God, beyond death. This is what Psalm 16 means by life.
Whatever situation you find yourself in today, may the life of the risen Christ be real for you. God bless.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- Have you ever felt like a refugee? (E.g. displaced, homeless, afraid for your life, in need of refuge…) What were the circumstances? How did God help you in that situation?
- How is your experience of this lockdown? How might we redeem this time? How might we make more room for God in our lives, both during this lockdown and after?
- Why was David (who knew what it was to be a refugee) able to say, ‘The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. I have a goodly heritage’?
- How is your devotional life at the moment? How does God speak counsel to you? Are you able to carve out time to be still and listen to God?
- Discuss / reflect on the various ways Psalm 16 points to Jesus.
- What is ‘life’ in the thought world of the Bible? How is this different from a contemporary understanding of life?
Outtakes
It is no accident that the Israelite refugees in exile in Babylon said (in Lamentations 3:24), The Lord is my portion, therefore I will hope in him. The Jewish exiles had lost everything. But as painful as their amputation was, it made room for hope in God.
[1] Refer Derek Kidner’s (Tyndale) commentary on the Psalms, page 103
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