Enjoying God: Psalm 16

Thank you, Aaron.

And I was honored and excited when Pastor Tom invited me to come be a part of this series on meditating on the Psalms.

I've known Pastor Josh for a while, and so uh it was helpful to me to go back and listen to his sermon uh meditating uh as a part of your growing in grace series, and then listening to Pastor Mike's sermon.

I may have listened to that three or four times this past week.

That was a blessing to me as I meditated uh on that psalm and also got ready to preach.

Uh this Sunday.

Um, Pastor Tom uh invited me just to pick a psalm and to share what the Lord has been teaching me.

Um this is a psalm, Psalm 16, that I preached on before, but it's a psalm that has been on my mind all summer.

It's been one that has been uh good for me, and I trust it will be good for you as we work our way through it together.

And so if you do have your Bibles, I'm going to read uh Psalm 16, and then we'll work our way through it together.

This is uh Psalm 16.

A micum of David, 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 in 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 shield, or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life in your presence that there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Let me pray for us.

Dear Heavenly Father, as we come to hear your voice, to hear your spirit from your word, we ask that you would speak profoundly to each of us, that you would allow us to experience your grace, that we would know your pleasure today and forever.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Well, many of you have probably seen the film Saving Private Ryan from 1998 with uh Spielberg and um with Tom Hanks in it, and there's a scene at the end of that movie that um just always wrecks me.

It's a scene in this movie.

Um you you you probably know the story by now, but Captain Miller assembles this squad to to go rescue this one soldier whose whose three brothers have have died in the war.

And so they go on this mission to find uh Ryan and then to bring him back home.

And they go through a lot to rescue Ryan.

Many many of his men lose their life, and and at the end of this movie, Captain Miller uh is suffering from a mortal wound, and and as he's bleeding out, he he pulls the man close to him, whom uh many of his friends and soldiers have given their life to save.

He pulls him close and he looks at Ryan and he says, Earn this.

Earn this.

And in a single phrase, this this weight of sacrifice, the burden of responsibility, and the the call to live a worthy life of the immense, because of the immense gift given to private Ryan, it is all encapsulated.

And you see how that's impacted his life because in the movie it flashes forward, and he's he's in the Normandy cemetery, and he's he's at the grave of Captain Miller, and he he breaks down uh weeping in that moment, and and he says to uh you know this this tombstone, he says, Um, you know, I hope this was enough for you.

I I hope I've earned what all of you have done for me.

And then he starts to cry, and and and his wife walks up and he looks at his wife and he says, Tell me I've lived a good life.

Tell me I'm a good man.

And there's something so powerful about that, and there's something uh really good about that.

And there's something that lines up with the Christian life, like when the apostle Paul encourages the believers in Ephesians 4:1, when he says, live a life worthy of the calling that you have received.

Ephesians 4:1

There's a call to live the Christian life with purpose and integrity and in light of what Christ has done for us, but there's also something that's not quite right when applying that to the Christian life.

There's something not quite right when we respond to Jesus or the gospel.

We're thinking that we need to earn this, that we need to earn our salvation.

When we forget that grace is a free gift, and when we start to think that we need to respond to it by earning our salvation, it begins to lead to a life of anxiety, and it can rob Christians of their joy, which it's done in my life from time to time.

And for many of us, if we're being honest, when you see this title, enjoying God, those are not two things that we really think about or think that they go together: enjoyment and God, right?

For many of us, if we've grown up in the church, we might think about fearing God, or we might think about obeying God, or maybe we're a little bit holier and we think about, you know, trusting God, but but not many of us probably really think about enjoying God.

Well, why is that?

I mean, we know how to enjoy so many other things in life.

We we know how to enjoy good music.

We're from DC, we know how to enjoy good museums, right?

We know how to enjoy uh fine food, we know how to enjoy sporting events.

There are so many things in our life.

Summer vacations, the lake, there are so many things that we know how to enjoy.

So why do we struggle sometimes with enjoying God?

Because if we're honest, many of us kind of view going to church like going to the dentist.

It's not something we particularly enjoy, but we know we ought to do.

So why do we as Christians not understand how to enjoy God?

And if you wouldn't describe yourself as a Christian, if you are not following Christ, of course.

You don't you don't think that pleasure and God go together?

You think that they're opposites.

And many times you just think that Christianity is just a list of no-fun rules.

But be honest, how many of you would even describe your life as one of happiness and joy?

Well, if you participated in a Harris poll in the last few years, it would tell us that only one-third of Americans would describe their lives as being very happy.

And so I invite you, I invite all of you to come to Psalm 16 and to just think with me for a moment about what it looks like to enjoy God.

Okay?

I'm gonna walk through this with three points how we can enjoy God as a person, appreciate his gifts, and then revel in his salvation.

So look with me at verses 1 and 2.

Enjoying God means enjoying the person of God.

This is what David writes 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.

Now, if you were paying attention when I read this psalm at the beginning of it, you know there's a phrase before verse 1 where it says, A mikdem of David.

Now we don't really know what a miktum is, but most suggest that it's a musical term.

But it is interesting that this phrase is used in Psalm 16 and it's used of Psalm 56 through 60.

Those are all the micdom psalms.

And the context of every one of these psalms are similar.

They share a common backdrop of peril.

If you look at the context of the other Psalms, Psalm 56 through 60, it's when uh David is being pursued by the Philistines, it's when uh David is hiding out in a cave, it's when he's facing an assassination attempt, or when he's confronting corrupt rulers.

And these psalms resonate with themes of distress and deliverance and joy.

And so the context of this psalm, scholars will usually say it's one of two things.

That the context when David is writing this, he's he's fleeing from Saul when Saul is trying to kill him.

He may be hiding out in a cave, or he's at the end of his life.

Either way, it's not a pleasant experience for him in this moment.

He's conscious of life being hard, of dangerous circumstances, and that death might be near.

And in the midst of this, he says, You are my Lord, and I have no good apart from you.

It's such a good word, but yet it's hard to do, to enjoy the Lord even when life is hard.

We we live in a fallen world.

We live in a world with suffering, of trials, of sin, of struggle, of sickness, of betrayal, of grief, of loneliness, of anxiety, of pain.

Now, most of us don't have the same context as David.

We don't have someone trying to chase us down and trying to kill us.

We don't have someone plotting an assassination against us in this moment.

Most of us may not be experiencing the same physical danger that David is.

Some of us may be in dangerous situations, but but all of us know what it's like to feel unsafe, to feel insecure, for life to be unpredictable.

You may not feel safe in your job.

I I'm I'm not sure what's going to happen with the company.

I'm not sure if if I'm gonna have this job in the future.

I'm unsure about uh the colleges that I'm gonna be applying to and my vocation in my life.

I'm uncertain about what my kids are gonna do for their future.

I'm uncertain about many relationships, whether it's a spouse or a friend.

Are they gonna betray me?

Are they gonna be faithful?

There are so many different contexts where we feel the exact same thing that David does in this moment of not feeling safe, of feeling insecure, and in the midst of this, he says, You are my Lord.

I have no good apart from you.

How does he do this?

In the midst of difficult circumstances, how does he enjoy God?

Well, what he does in verses one through two, he remembers who God is.

He remembers who God is.

As I was meditating on these two verses, you you can see that he actually uses three different titles for God.

It may not immediately be apparent to you, but if you chew on these couple of verses, you'll note that he uses different names or titles of God.

He dwells on three different ones.

The first one, he says, preserve me, O God.

It's the word L that's translated simply as God.

It's the most common name for the divine, and it delineates God as the strong or the mighty one.

David is remembering that God is powerful, He is majestic.

And then he goes on and he says, I take refuge, I say to the Lord, anytime you see Lord capitalized in many of your translations and Bibles, it is referring to the covenant name of God, Yahweh.

The name that God gave to Moses when Moses asked God, Who are you?

And he said, I'm Yahweh.

I'm the covenant Lord, I'm the God who makes promises and keeps all these promises.

I'm the God who makes promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off, and I will be faithful to you.

You are Yahweh.

And then he says, I say to Yahweh, you are my Adonai.

You are my Lord.

He's acknowledging God as his personal king, and so he's remembering who God is in the beginning of this Psalm.

God, you are the most powerful being in the universe.

You are the most loving being in the universe.

And you are my God, and I place my faith and my trust in you.

It's very similar to the Lord's Prayer.

I heard a pastor preach on that many years ago, and it's just stuck with me.

It's a phrase that we say all the time, dear heavenly Father.

He said, Stop and meditate on that for a minute.

When we say heavenly, we are remembering that God is powerful.

He is capable.

We'll never bring our mess or our sin to God unless we believe that he is powerful enough to do something about it.

And then he says, Father, dear heavenly father, not only are you capable, but you are caring.

And that's what David is doing in this moment.

You are El, you are the mighty one, you are the powerful one, you are Yahweh, you are the God who makes promises and binds yourself to your people, and you are my Lord, you are my Adonai.

You see, when we don't understand the circumstances in life, we have to pay attention to the character of God.

Enjoying God is not just enjoying a concept or a thing or an idea, but actually a person, Father, Son, and Spirit.

God's not just an abstract idea like the force in Star Wars.

But enjoying God means knowing who He is, who He's revealed Himself to be.

How do we enjoy God in difficult circumstances?

Spend time meditating on his attributes and what he is like.

Take 10 minutes this week to quiet your heart, to spend time with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Do that by yourself.

Do it in a small group.

Do it with your roommates.

Do it with a spouse.

Get to know God who he is.

That's how we enjoy God.

We enjoy the person.

Now, the second way that we see how David is enjoying God is this.

He's appreciating the gifts of God.

And this is in verses three through eight.

Let me walk you through it very quickly.

There are four P's, okay?

So four subpoints under appreciating God's gifts.

The first one is in verse three.

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

David is enjoying God by relating to the people of God, the first P, the people of God, the saints, the church.

I get it.

I get it.

You have an amazing group of people here in the few times that I have worshiped here.

But I get it.

Sometimes it can be hard to enjoy the church because it's full of sinful people like me.

But I was reminded of this.

Many of you may know Pastor Garrett Kell at Delray Baptist Church, and many of you will know some of the health concerns that his daughter has been going through, and he's written a lot about it on Caring Bridge and has tweeted a lot about it.

And then this is what he wrote recently.

He said, The church gets a bad rap.

I get it.

She's imperfect.

He says, but we have been richly loved by our home church, Delray Baptist, and Christians worldwide in our time of trial.

They have been the hands, feet, and hearts of Jesus in our lives.

Lord, thank you for your gloriously imperfect church.

That's what David is doing in this moment.

He is thanking God for the community of believers that is that are around him.

It's a blessing to be with the people of God.

One of the things that I love experiencing is in a small group or with a friend, ask them, how are you experiencing the love of God?

Because many times they're experiencing the love of God and get to know the Father in an intimate way that as they share, we get to learn something about God through them as God is relating to them.

Tell someone around you, I'm not going to make it awkward now, but tell someone around you, you are a gift from God.

You are an expression of God's goodness and blessing to me in my life.

We enjoy God when we appreciate the people of God.

Now, the second P, I love this one in verse 5.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.

You hold my lot.

David is enjoying the provision of God.

David is saying, God, you are my chosen portion.

It means that we are pursuing, that we are chasing, that we are seeking after God because we recognize that He alone will fill us.

There are so many good things in life, but none of them can ultimately satisfy our soul other than God.

It means that if God fills our cup, it will mean that our career can be good and important, but it will be subordinate to God.

If God fills our cup, it means that family is important, but a lack of one, or one that is taken from us, or one that is hard, it won't crush you.

Or if God fills our cup, our health is important.

But when it fails, we will grieve, but grieve with hope.

Friends, there are so many things in this life that I love, that I enjoy.

I love being a pastor, getting to do what I do.

I love my family.

All of these things are good, but none of these things are my chosen portion or my cup.

None of these things can be my life.

Jesus is my life.

All that we seek, love, approval, and significance, everything that our souls long for can only be found in Him.

And even in suffering, it's hard, but even in suffering, we can say, My flesh, my heart, my job, my car, my health may fail, but you are valuable to me, Lord.

You are my portion and my cup, and even during this darkness, I will fix my eyes on you.

Because I trust you, God, more than life, and I believe in this truth, even in the midst of suffering and death.

That's what it means when he's saying, You, Yahweh, are my chosen portion.

You are my provision.

And we go on to verse six, and David says.

And the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Psalmist David is enjoying God by resting in the providence of God.

The providence of God.

He says, the lines have fallen.

It means that God is ruling and overruling all the details of his life.

It doesn't mean that all things are good, but it means that God can work all things for good for those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.

Contentment in God comes from believing that our life is providentially ordered, finding delight in God's wise plan for our life.

You know, life can be hard sometimes, and we want to recognize even God's goodness in the middle of the providence of God.

One of the things that we do in my family, especially during the school year, when we sit around and we have dinner together, this is not something that we came up with, this is something that many others do.

But when we sit around the family dinner, we do the rose, bud, and thorn.

And each of us have to go around and share our rose, our bud, and our thorn.

And our rose is something that is good in our life, something that is beautiful, something that we're enjoying.

Our thorn is something that is hard, and our bud is something that we're looking forward to or expecting or asking God to do in our life.

And so it reminds us of the goodness of God, of the providence of God, but it also reminds us that life can be hard, that we live in a fallen world.

And that's why I love that last line on when we have those soul-shaking days, we remember that we have a beautiful inheritance.

An inheritance that can never spoil, that can never fade, that is kept in heaven for you and me.

That's the third P, the providence of God.

And then finally, in verses 7 through 8, David says, 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.

The fourth P here is David is meditating on the precepts of God.

The precepts of God, the counsel of the Lord.

He's remembering the word, and the Spirit is speaking and ministering to his heart in that dark night of the soul.

Friends, if we believe that God is all-wise and all-loving, and he is more committed to our pleasure than even we are.

And so his word is best.

And so we quiet our souls before him and we meditate on scripture.

He is our wonderful counselor.

He gives us wisdom from his word, and he's always available.

He's always there.

He is always with us, even during affliction and anxiety.

And so he meditates on the precepts of God.

So those four P's are just the second point.

Enjoying God means enjoying his gifts, his people, his provision, his providence, and his precepts.

And then finally, we're going to come to the last point here in verses nine through eleven.

Enjoying God means reveling in the Savior.

This is what it says in verses nine through eleven.

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 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.

David here is talking about eternity.

David understood something about eternal life, which he and the Old Testament saints often reflected upon.

But, friends, you and I, we have a deeper understanding.

We have a deeper sense of eternal life because these verses prophetically point towards Jesus.

Specifically, verse 10 in Psalm 16 is quoted twice in the New Testament in two sermons by two really good preachers, one by Peter and one by Paul.

They preach on Psalm 16:10.

Psalms 16:10

Peter preaches on this during the Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 when he's speaking about the resurrection of Christ.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He says, David died and was buried, and we have his tomb.

But he says, the son of David, Jesus, he died, he was buried, and his tomb, it's empty.

And then later in Acts chapter 13, Paul is preaching on this exact same verse to the Jews in Antioch, and he says, David died, and his body saw corruption.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

It decayed, but when Jesus died, his body saw no corruption because his body was resurrected.

And so Paul says in Acts 13, 38, let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Enjoying God means reveling in the Savior, means reveling in the salvation, in the gospel, in the good news that He provides for us.

Friends, we can enjoy God.

Get this.

Because God enjoys us.

You understand that?

God doesn't just tolerate us, God enjoys us.

I came across a story a few years ago in a magazine that illustrated this to me, and maybe it'll be helpful to you.

But it tells a story of this five-year-old boy who was in a community center for a wedding, and they had a display of sculptures that were out.

And as this five year old, there's actually a video of this, a security camera, but as this five-year-old boy is moving around, he knocks over the sculpture, he tries to hold it up, and he can't, and it falls and it crashes to the ground.

It's beyond repair.

The insurance company says it's damaged, we can't fix it.

And so they send a bill to his parents for$132,000.

And the mom said since the incident, her son had been having bad dreams every night, and they have no idea how they're going to pay the bill.

Now, when you break something, there's justice.

I get that, right?

But but then this news article also contrasted this with a similar story from the UK in 2005, where another five-year-old uh boy accidentally broke this ancient uh jug in a museum that was like 200 years old.

And the head of the museum recounted how the boy was devastated and his family was very upset.

But instead of billing them, the head of the museum said this we'd love them to visit again.

Two very different experiences, right?

One of justice, not saying that's wrong to send the bill, but one of grace.

It's a beautiful response.

It reminded me of the gospel.

We've broken something far more value.

Our world has been shattered into countless pieces.

Yet instead of demanding payment which we could not make, God absorbs the cost.

There is justice, he pays the penalty, he lives the life that we couldn't live, and he doesn't just tell us we are off the hook, but he invites us to come back.

That's the essence of the gospel.

We can enjoy God.

Why?

Because he enjoys us, he enjoys us.

How often are we meditating and truly appreciating the gift of salvation?

It's so easy to get caught up in the busyness of DC, but every day we have the opportunity to delight in this incredible gift.

I don't know about you, but for me, my default setting is to be an inner critic.

In the morning, I wake up thinking about all the things that I've got to do or I'm gonna be a failure.

And I have these expectations of perfection throughout the day.

And then when those things don't go perfectly, then I beat myself up at night and I can I can feel like a failure.

I didn't, I wasn't as patient with my kids as I want to be.

I wasn't as sacrificial with my wife.

I didn't perform everything perfectly in my job today.

And actually, if you look underneath it, those are all strategies.

Those are strategies of trying to earn my salvation, of trying to assure myself that if I do these things, I can control my world and God will bless me.

My sins and my shortcomings and my failures are always before me.

But friends, are we meditating on our salvation?

Is our Savior?

Is grace always before us?

Do we rest in the truth that Jesus is our portion and our lot?

Yes, do I repent of my sin, confess my sin, but instead of dwelling on my failures, am I placing my focus on Jesus and his unending grace?

We enjoy God by living in a present awareness.

He enjoys us.

I'm not making that up.

Zephaniah 3.17 says, He rejoices over you with singing.

In the morning when I wake up, and at night when I go to bed, he's singing over me.

Friends, when we meditate on that, that moves us, it transforms us, it sets our soul on fire when we remember what we're told in Hebrews that when Jesus was looking at what he was going to have to face on the cross, he says, He remembered the joy that was set before him.

And commentators will tell you, that joy is me and you.

So as we come to the end of our time together, let's just revisit that story that we begin with.

This is what I've been reflecting on all summer.

In saving Private Ryan, Captain Miller's last words to Private Ryan were earn this.

And they carry the weight of sacrifice and responsibility to live a life worthy of the great price paid for him.

However, friends, what the spirit has been telling my soul all summer is when God speaks to my soul, he's not telling me to earn this, earn this sacrifice, earn your salvation.

Instead, the spirit has been whispering to my soul, enjoy this.

Enjoy this.

It was part of our liturgy today.

Westminster Shorter Catechism question number one: What is the chief end of man?

Man's chief end is to glorify God and earn this forever.

No.

Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are gifts given freely to us.

And our call is not to earn his love, but to enjoy the richness of his presence, his gifts, and his salvation.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that we have your word, we have your precepts, that we can meditate on who you are, that we can remember all the gifts that you have given us, your providence, your provision, and most of all, thank you, Lord, that we can remember the salvation that has been freely offered to us in the gospel.

That it's not something that we that we earn or have to maintain, but that you, Christ, you hold us fast.

And so, Father, I pray that that truth will go deep into our souls so that we will live transformed lives.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.