Introduction
What do you
get excited about? In August I took sailing lessons for the first time and I
got really excited about sailing. Since then I have been thinking about how I
can rig my canoe in order to make it into a sailboat. There are a lot of other
things that I get excited about and I am sure each of us has something that we
get excited about. Some people get excited about reading or tennis or shopping
or music or the latest technological gadget.
When we
read Psalm 16 , we have
to conclude that there is nothing more exciting, nothing more meaningful than a
relationship with God. Yet I have to confess that all the things I enjoy
sometimes distract me from my excitement about God. I have to confess that
sometimes I can be much more enthusiastic about some of these other things than
I am about my relationship with God. I suspect that I am not unusual in this.
That is why I want to look at Psalm
16 with you this morning. I hope that as we think about this
Psalm, we will open our hearts to allow God to draw us more deeply into
relationship with Himself. I pray that as we hear God's Word in Psalm 16 something will change in
our hearts so that our greatest joy will be God.
I. Fully Committed to God
Perhaps the
problem is that we have not fully grasped what a relationship with God is all
about. Perhaps what has happened to us is what happened to the church in Ephesus Revelation 2:4 ,
"But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at
first." Perhaps at one time we declared faith in God, but since then our
life has become more about us than about God? Perhaps we are so overwhelmed by
doubts about God's goodness because we believe He has not answered our prayers
that we have a hard time entrusting ourselves to Him? If our commitment to God
is nominal because of these or some other reason, it is no wonder that we are
not excited about our relationship with God. Psalm 16 is the testimony of one who is excited about God
and in the first 5 verses the writer gives us some great phrases which describe
a commitment to God.
A. Rest in His Care
The Psalm
opens with a prayer for help but it is not certain what the crisis was for
which he was asking for help and, in fact, he does not mention it again. What
is clear is that the request for help reveals his heart regarding his
relationship with God. He prays to God because, as he says, "O God…in you
I take refuge." He declares that God is the one to whom He goes for help.
God is his hiding place of protection.
When I
interviewed my grandmother in order to record some of her life experiences, she
told me that her life verse was, Isaiah
40:11 , "He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will
gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the
mother sheep." As a woman widowed and leading 4 children out of Russia
B. Declare His Lordship
I received
an email from someone the other day and the email began, "Hi Mr. Toews, I
don't know if you remember me…" When Carla calls, the tone of her
conversation is quite different. The difference is that the person who emailed
was an acquaintance whereas Carla has a claim on my life that is closer than
anyone else on earth. What is the nature of our relationship with God? Is He an
acquaintance or is our relationship to Him much more intimate than that?
The
Psalmist states "I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord." The two words
for Lord in these verses in Hebrew are two different words. The first is the
word which speaks about God as the one who has made a covenant with His people
to show His everlasting love for them. The second is a word which means master.
If we say that the one who has first loved us is the master of our life, we are
saying something very important. We first of all acknowledge God's prior love
for us and declare gratitude for it. Then we respond with a statement of deep
commitment to God as the one who has the first claim on our life. Because God
has loved us, we are called to obey Him in everything. Because of all He has
done, He has invited us to live our lives for Him as the one who rules in all
we do and think. If we treat God as a distant relative or a mere acquaintance,
it is no wonder that we are not excited about our relationship with Him. If we declare
that because of His love we will serve Him, it is much more likely that we will
also be excited about our relationship to Him.
C. Know He Is The Best
We will
also get excited about our relationship with God if we recognize that there is
nothing better than God in our life.
There are a
lot of things in life that we can enjoy. At one level, we recognize that whatever
we enjoy, whatever we are good at is a gift from God. Eric Liddell, the
Scottish runner said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also
made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." Sometimes, however, we
stop at the pleasures we feel and the things which give us joy. The Psalmist goes
further when he declares, "I have no good apart from you." It is OK
to rejoice in all the blessings which God gives us, but it is much more
important to recognize not only that our pleasures are a gift from God, but
that our greatest good is Him. Surely if this is something that we choose and
commit to, we will naturally be more excited about Him than about anything
else.
In a Moody
Bible Institute Devotional, we read, "This didn’t mean that David wasn’t
thankful for his family, kingship, and other blessings. It simply meant that
God Himself is incomparably greater than any of His gifts--that He was the
all-sufficient, all-satisfying joy, truth, and purpose of David’s life."
D. Love Those Who Love Him
When the
Psalmist says in verse 3, "As for the holy ones in the land, they are the
noble, in whom is all my delight." he acknowledges that there is a
connection between our love for God and our love for others. It is another way
of saying what is stated in 1
John 4:8 , "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God
is love." Love for God is demonstrated in practical ways in our love for
one another. If we do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ, it is
evident that we do not love God. If we do love our brothers and sisters, it
shows that we love God and if we love God, then we will also be excited about
our relationship with God.
E. Reject Godlessness
On the
other hand, loving God means that we will not serve anyone else. Psalm 16:4 says, "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."
At the time
when this was written, the nations around Israel Israel
Today the
same thing is true. If we follow the gods of materialism, secularism,
consumerism and selfishness it leads only to sorrow. Excitement about serving
God will come into our lives when we have a single hearted allegiance to Him.
F. Choose Him
In ancient Israel Deuteronomy
10:9 says, "Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance
with his kindred; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised
him." It is likely verse 5 reflects such a blessing. There we read,
"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot."
God has
chosen us as His people. If we embrace that choosing and declare that He is the
one in whom we trust, the one we rejoice in and serve that is the way in which
we will also come to a true and deep excitement about God.
If we know
what it means to take refuge in God, to call Him Lord, to be thankful for His
blessings, to rejoice in His people, to reject any other way and to accept His
call in our life, then we will be excited about God and His way.
Is this
your commitment? Do you want it to be?
II. The Blessings We Have From God
The other
thing which will get us excited about God is when we realize how much God has
given to us, how much He has blessed us. The rest of Psalm 16 records some of the great
blessings which God has given to us.
A. Good Life
We have
reason to get excited about our relationship with God because He is the one who
has given us every good thing we have in life. God has blessed us so
abundantly. He has given us a heritage of people who have taught us to follow
God. God has also given us so many other good things. We have warm homes, good
food, friendships, jobs that are meaningful and so much more.
A little
attitude of thanksgiving will soon reveal that we are truly blessed by God.
This is the meaning of verse 6, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in
pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage." James 1:17 says, "every
perfect gift is from above." We are the recipients of so many of those
gifts. Since God has blessed us so abundantly, we have every reason to get
excited about Him.
B. Counsel
Another
blessing is that we never have to be bewildered about life's path because God
directs our path. In verse 7 we are reminded about "the Lord who gives me
counsel." and in verse 11, we are encouraged that "You show me the
path of life."
How does
God counsel us? He shows us the way to go through His Word. He shows us the way
to go through His Spirit. He shows us the way to go through other believers. In
verse 7 we have another way in which he directs our path when it says, "in
the night also my heart instructs me." This can happen through dreams or
when we are awake at night and quiet enough to actually listen to what God may
be saying to us.
The way
that God shows us is always the path of life. God does not lead us down the
path that will lead to death or destruction. How exciting to know that if we
are willing to follow God and accept Him as Lord, He will always lead us into
those things that will bring about life.
C. Confidence
With God
before us, we also have the confidence that there is nothing that we need to
fear. Some fears we have might be classified as irrational fears. Some as
reasonable fears, but none of these fears need to overwhelm us. God is right
beside us and therefore we do not need to be afraid.
When you
see a young child hiding behind its mother you see fear, but you also see
confidence that mother will protect. In a similar way, we have confidence that
there is nothing that can shake us ultimately because God is near to us because
He is always at our right hand.
Yet that
confidence is conditional upon keeping the Lord always before us. If God is our
choice and we keep our eyes on Him, then not only do we have no reason to fear,
we also will not fear. What a great blessing which is ours in God.
D. Joy
If God is
our God, then the blessing which God gives us, as stated in verses 9 and 11 are
great joy. The Psalmist writes, "my heart is glad, and my soul
rejoices" and "In your presence there is fullness of joy."
Why do we
so often lack joy? I believe it is because we do not keep the Lord before us.
We are trying to make our joy out of things that do not satisfy. If on the
other hand, we will make the Lord our joy, then He will add joy to us of every
kind and we will experience the gladness of heart spoken of here. I have found
it to be very true, and unfortunately I am still learning what it means. When
we pursue joy, there is often disappointment. When we pursue God, then He gives
us joy. Our fear is that if we pursue God, it will be a life of discipline and
hardship. That is Satan's lie and yet we keep on believing it. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 , "“Come to
me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest." The God who cares about our rest, will certainly also be the one
who gives us joy. This also is the blessing of being God's followers.
E. Security
Some people
believe that God is only concerned about our spiritual selves, and that our
physical self is a curse that will be buried so that we can go to heaven as
spiritual persons and serve God there. Yet this is not a Scriptural concept.
Verse 9 says, "my body also rests secure." If the physical body was
cursed, then how could Jesus have come to earth as a human being and how could
he have been raised as a human being and how could the Bible promise a physical
resurrection? So another blessing we have is that even our physical body is
secure.
The problem
is that we misunderstand that it is secure not from illness or death or earthly
destruction. God does bless us with health and life and preservation, but
ultimately everyone will die. The blessing of a body that is secure is that in
the end we will be preserved from eternal destruction. Therefore, even though
we may get sick and we will die, the promise is not lost. We still rest secure
in the blessing of knowing that our physical bodies are in the care of God.
F. Eternal Life
This
eternal perspective is also declared in verse 10. There are not many verses in
the Old Testament that speak of the hope of eternal life, but this is one of
them.
This verse
is quoted as Old Testament proof of the resurrection of Christ in Acts 2:25-28 when Peter was
preaching on the day of Pentecost. It was fulfilled in Jesus and because it was
fulfilled in Jesus, it also is a promise that pertains to us. This is the final
blessing which we have in God, the hope of eternal life.
Spurgeon
writes,
"Since Jesus is mine, I'll not fear undressing,
but gladly put off these garments of clay;
To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing,
Since Jesus to glory through death led the way."
Conclusion
Is God the
delight of our life? Do we get excited about God. Do we live our life with a
manifest joy in God?
Sometimes we
get distracted or doubtful or fearful or filled with sadness, but Psalm 16 shows us the way so that
we can have full joy and great excitement about God. There are two things which
we need to do.
First of
all, we need to put God first in our life. When we recognize that He is our
refuge, our Lord and our delight then we will have our greatest excitement in
Him.
Secondly,
we need to recognize all the blessings which we have in Him. He has blessed us with
life and He keeps us secure and He gives us great joy and ultimately He gives
us eternal life. With all of that, how can we not get excited about God.
Are you
excited about God? If you are not, I invite you to take the steps which Psalm 16 shows us. Confess that
these things have not been true and choose God and recognize His blessings. Will
you take that step today?
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