Preserve Me, O God, For In You I Take Refuge (Psalm 16)

Pray with me, Father, thank you so much for what you have given

us this day. These hymns, the voices, Your

Word, Your Presence, Your illumination, everything we

need, everything. As we open Your Word, as we

listen, as you illuminate Holy Spirit, our hearts and our minds

transform us for your glory and our good and the good of those

around us. Anchor us deep in the truth of

who you are and who we are in You because of the life and

death, resurrection, ascension, reign and promised return of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and whose name we pray.

Amen. The bulletin went to print this

week on Wednesday. It's pretty remarkable to see

what the Lord has given us, knowing what we would know.

Amazing Grace, Jesus is Lord, and we went today with a mighty

fortress praying about what to preach.

I believe the Lord led me to Psalm 16 and not to this portion

of John printed in your bulletin.

I'll tell you why in a moment. And we will come back to John

15. Not next week, though, because

we have a guest preacher. Brent Baker, who used to serve

here as one of our pastors, will be preaching, and he'll be

preaching out of John 16. I'll be returning from family

camp after a few weeks and we will go back to this section of

John because it's so important. But what I want you to

understand is that as we look at this Psalm, we do so as people

united to Christ. Christ is in US.

What David is praying, he only sees into the future, but what

we are going to see as we listen to his prayer is that the very

God that he's petitioning is the one who through his Spirit lives

in US. And that is not a wishful

thought. That is not something to just

talk about. It's an experience, a reality to

be lived. We're going to look at Psalm 16,

these 11 verses that David prayed.

It's in your Bible. If you did not bring your Bible,

please grab a Pew Bible to save you time.

You can turn to page 453. That's where it is.

I'm going to read this Psalm in its entirety.

It's only 11 verses, and I trust that the Lord will use it to

encourage us deeply in this moment as you're moving there.

I think it's so powerful in moments like this to go back to

that which is familiar, that which is true.

And in a moment, I'm going to give you a proposition that I

heard from John Piper as he preached this text.

I've shared it here before, and I think you'll be deeply

encouraged by it. But let's go to the text

beginning at verse one of Psalm 16, a Psalm of David.

Preserve me, oh 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. Verse 7.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night.

Also my heart instructs me. I've 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 there is

fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures

forevermore. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

The statement I am about to read to you, I read in preparation

for preaching this Psalm many years ago.

I then learned that Doctor John Piper, author of many books

including Desiring God, had preached this Psalm at Watermark

on a Tuesday night at the Porch. He spends about an hour in this

text. It's worth listening to, but he

begins with this statement, this sentence, which really is a

proposition that encompasses the whole Psalm.

I've shared this with you before, and it goes like this.

God will lead you body and soul through life and death.

God will lead you body and soul, through life and death into

everlasting full pleasure if He is your safest refuge, your

supreme treasure, your sovereign Lord, and your most trusted

counselor. One more time, God will bring

you body and soul, through life and through death into

everlasting full pleasure. That's heaven if He is your

safest refuge, your supreme treasure, your sovereign Lord,

and your most trusted counsellor.

We're going to unpack that statement as we look at Psalm

16. The first thing I want you to

notice is the very first word David says Preserve.

What we learned from the psalmist here is that David is

petitioning God for something he is crying out and we don't know

why yet. Preserve me.

It's a petition. The Psalms are an amazing gift

from the Lord. First of all, because it's His

holy Word, and therefore because it's His holy Word, it is a

living word. It is active, and as the Spirit

illuminates it, it brings hope and courage and truth and peace

and true knowledge even when we are lost.

It teaches us how to pray. You're going to see how to pray

as you hear David's prayer, but it begins with a petition.

Preserve me, save me, rescue me. That's his prayer.

You have prayed prayers like that.

Maybe most days of your life, but then there are seasons like

the one we're in now where we almost don't even know what to

pray. But we are praying, God,

preserve, rescue, draw near, comfort.

And these are good prayers. They're prayers that are echoed

throughout Scripture. Why is David praying that?

We'll see in a moment. But I want you to notice what he

does. Preserve me, oh God, for in you

I take refuge. David, praying to God, is

preaching to himself, and as he preaches to himself, he is

revealing who God has revealed himself to be.

David is strong. David is courageous.

We've seen it. But in this moment, preserve me.

He's afraid of something. Preserve me for oh God, for in

you I take refuge. God will lead you body and soul,

through life and through death, into everlasting and full

pleasure. If He is your safest refuge, is

he today? Have you rested and received

Jesus alone for salvation? Is Jesus your safest refuge when

you experience times of profound devastation?

When you are waiting for the results of something, fearful of

what they might be? Understandably so.

Where do you turn? Where do you bury yourself?

Where do you hide? Where do you find your peace?

Anything other than God himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is

not ultimately secure. The only secure one is the Lord.

David knows that and says, Preserve me, O God, for in you I

take refuge. I don't take refuge in my

armies, I don't take refuge in my physical strength.

I don't take refuge in the wisdom you've given me.

I take refuge and the one and only one who is ultimately

secure, you are my safest refuge.

Verse 2 David says, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord.

I have no good apart from you. God will lead you body and soul,

through life and through death into everlasting full pleasure.

If he's your safest refuge and if he is your sovereign Lord,

God is in control. The psalmist David says, I say

to the Lord, notice how it's spelled.

This is the name Yahweh. This is the name that speaks of

his might, of his power, of his sovereignty.

God is not off of his throne. David goes on in the Psalm in

verse 5 and says, the Lord is my chosen portion in my cup.

You hold my lot. What David is saying is I trust

you no matter what happens. You're my safest refuge and

because you're my safest refuge, I'm going to trust you.

Preserve me. He then says in verse 6, the

lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

What does that mean? The lines that God has ordained,

He never promised would be without pain this side of

heaven. Things like this happen unless

Christ returns first. You were going to die of

physical death. Your children are going to die

of physical death. Loved ones, friends, relatives.

That's a reality. But in Christ, facing all sorts

of devastation, we're able to say, as the psalmist did, the

Lord is good and he does good. That is not a license to then

say we can call evil good or darkness good or devastation

good. These are real, tragic

realities, but God's in control and in his sovereignty.

He is the only one who can give us the right perspective.

But that doesn't mean He's promised to answer every one of

our questions. So often when we ask the

question why, Brian Dunnigan, our dear friend who's past,

who's now with the Lord, said he often gives us a who.

When we ask why he gives us a who and The Who is him friends,

when people ask questions when you ask questions and the Lord

seems silent and what those answers might be.

Don't make things up. Instead, anchor yourself and

what the word of God says and another Psalm 119, verse 114,

Psalms 119:114

the psalmist writes, you are my hiding place, my refuge.

You are my hiding place and my shield, my protector.

And then the psalmist says, I hope in your word, as David

writes in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my

Lord. I have no good apart from you.

There we see the supreme treasure God will bring you if

you're in Christ. God will bring you body and

soul, in life and through death into everlasting pleasure, if he

is your safest refuge, your sovereign Lord and your supreme

treasure. Is Christ, your supreme

treasure. Is there anything in your life,

any cup in your life that you're sinking to drink from that is a

greater treasure to you than Jesus?

That temptation is very real. It can even be subtle.

We can be deceived. We often are.

But David says verse 2, I have no good apart from you.

Think about what we've been learning about the union with

Christ. Apart from me, you could do

nothing. Friends, we are in Christ.

Christ is in US. Is that reality your supreme

treasure? Is there anything else competing

in your life for that place? David says in verse 5.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.

What that means is if there is a table and there are many cups

offering many things all over the table, David looks at the

table and sees the Lord and says this is my cup and this alone.

Nothing else that I could drink will satisfy.

Nothing else will ultimately keep me safe eternally.

Nothing else is worth being supreme.

You are my chosen portion and my cup, safest refuge, sovereign

Lord, supreme treasure. And then David says this in

verse 7. I bless the Lord who gives me

counsel in the night. Also my heart instructs me.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel.

The same Lord that David was blessing is the only Lord.

The same counsel that God was giving David is the same counsel

he gives us. All Scripture is God breathed

and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and

training in righteousness. The reason I believe the Lord

led me to Psalm 16 for this Sunday is because He leads me to

Psalm 16 every day. For every day I am tempted to

put my refuge somewhere else. Every day I'm tempted to ignore

the sovereignty of God. Every day I'm tempted to put

something else supreme ahead of Christ and He corrects me.

He corrects me because He loves me.

His Spirit illuminates my heart and my life and says this is not

in the proper place. Whenever I hear of news that

overwhelms my soul, this is the place I run.

And like David, I remind myself, anything I would seek to put my

security in other than Christ is ultimately insecure.

And we are tempted to put our security and insecure things all

the time. So is David.

So David says, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel.

What is the counsel? It's God's perfect wisdom.

No one else can give you perfect wisdom.

Brothers and sisters, pastors, teachers, scholars, theologians,

they can give great biblical counsel, and it can be true

counsel. God's counsel is never without

error. It is never confused.

God is never seeking to learn something.

And David says I bless the Lord who gives me counsel.

Is God your most trusted counselor?

Is there anything in your life, any place you're running, any

person you're running to whose counsel you're seeking more than

God's? Is it your own counsel you're

seeking? Sometimes, because brokenness

can be so deep, we began to believe wrong things about who

God is, what he has said. Whose counsel are you listening

to as you battle your own disbelief, broken heartedness?

David says, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel.

And then this phrase is amazing. And the night also, my heart

instructs me. It takes me less than 30 seconds

to look out here. And remember what some of you

have told me about those nights when the unthinkable happened.

And it's not just one night, but it can be a long season of

nights where your heart is broken.

Where do you run to in the middle of the night?

Psalm 16 teaches us to turn to the Lord as our safest refuge.

Psalm 16 teaches us about the sovereignty of God.

It teaches us that He must be our supreme treasure and can be.

He must be our most trusted counselor in the night.

If you're in Christ, run to His Word, and if His word is in you,

your very heart that He has given you, which is a new heart

will instruct you, It will counsel you.

And you know how it's going to counsel you.

Just is it counsel, David, because it's in that counsel

that the Lord reminded David that He alone is the safest

refuge, that He alone is the sovereign God, that he alone is

supreme. David then moves into verse 8

and watch what happens. It now moves from a petition.

It moves from preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge to

verse 8. I have set the Lord always

before me because he is at my right hand.

I shall not be shaken. Do you see what's happened?

David petitions the Lord, and then as the Lord brings counsel

to his life about who he is, David exalts his character, and

as he exalts his character as the safest refuge, the sovereign

Lord, the supreme treasure, David's confidence swells.

The man who is petitioning the Lord Preserve me now, says, I

shall not be shaken. And what are the results?

Therefore, verse 9, my heart is glad, and my whole being

rejoices. My flesh also dwell secure, and

here I believe is the reason his petition came in the first place

for you, verse 10 will not abandon my soul to shield, or

let your holy one see corruption.

David was afraid of dying. He was afraid of his own body

being desolated in the grave. The promise of Christ that's

coming, which he was seeing would happen in the future, is

the promise fulfilled. Reminds him that even in death

the Lord is alive. The Lord is my safest refuge.

The Lord is my supreme treasure. The Lord is my sovereign.

He will not abandon me even in death.

And so when we face death, when we face the death of our loved

ones, when we face what seems to be untimely deaths, tragedies,

God does not abandon his children because he died, truly

died, because he was placed in the tomb, because he cried out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

All who are in Christ can say now knowing more than David

knew, he alone is my safest refuge.

David then ends the Psalm by saying this.

You make known to me the path of life while he's making known to

you the path of life today. Fred, in the past, perhaps you

have trusted Jesus and you know what that means.

Praise God for His grace. Maybe today is the day where you

realize the path you're on and it's not the one that leads to

all that has been promised. Maybe He's brought you here this

very morning to hear Psalm 16 so that you can rest and receive

Jesus alone and enter into the narrow Rd. that leads to life.

David says you make known to me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

That's the promise. That promise is not given to us

to experience only pleasure. This sight of heaven, pain is

going to be a reality of our life.

Suffering is going to be very real.

But as those who are in Christ encounter that pain, that part

of God's bitter Providence, we do not mourn like the world.

We do not run towards a multitude of other gods.

If we do, our sorrows only multiply, but instead we run to

the truth, to our counselor for those who are in Christ.

The moment our eyes close, this site of heaven, the moment we

die in Christ, our eyes are opened and that pleasure

forevermore, that full and lasting pleasure is now our

reality forever this side of heaven.

That's the counsel God gives us. He's the safest refuge.

He's the sovereign Lord. He is the supreme treasure.

This is His perfect counsel. Is that true of you?

Father, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for the word Jesus Christ.

Thank you, Savior, for being our perfect refuge.

Thank you for being the sovereign Lord and our supreme

treasure. Thank you that even now the very

one giving counsel to David is giving counsel to us.

And Lord, lift our eyes up, if there are any today who don't

know you who are in this place or watching online, would you

bring them to surrender to you as the Lord God truly hear them

Cry out, Preserve me. And may that prayer not be just

for a moment, but a prayer that is meant for all eternity, for

all who are in Christ are preserved now and forever.

This we pray in Jesus name. Amen, please.