The Life of the Messiah | Psalm 16

Psalm 16.

I'm Mictam 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 lobations of blood to such gods

or take up their names on my lips.

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 will praise the Lord who counsels me.

Even at night, my heart instructs me.

I will keep my eyes always on the Lord.

With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.

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.

You make known to me the path of life.

You will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Thank you very much, Ashley, for reading.

If you keep that open, as Liam said,

we're going to be looking at Psalms

and thinking about Jesus, the Messiah,

as we get ready to celebrate His coming.

Let's pray together as we launch into this.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the depth

and the breadth of your wonderful plans,

the way that you have throughout time and eternity

planned to send your Son and Messiah

to save the people for yourself.

We thank you that we have these Psalms preserved

that point to Him and that teach us how to live as Christian people.

And we pray that you teach us through it today.

And we ask this in His name.

Amen.

Throughout church history,

there's been a kind of a long-running discussion

going on about what saving faith means.

So everybody has seen that clearly faith

is a part of the Christian life,

but what exactly does it mean to have faith?

And a guy called Augustine of Hippo,

so Hippo is a place.

He's not Augustine the Hippo

because a hippopotamus would not be very good at theology.

There was another Augustine from somewhere else.

He lived around 400 AD,

and he said that faith involves two things.

He said that it involves knowing something,

so you have the information.

And then there's actually your part in that

where you actually agree with that information.

So, for example, you can know theoretically

that Jesus rose from the dead and understand that,

but you have to affirm that for yourself

to actually say, yes, I believe that.

And Augustine was such a clever bloke

that although it was continued to be discussed,

his understanding of it stood for about a thousand years

until along came a guy who was a Augustinian monk,

interesting in the same line,

and his name was Martin Luther.

And Martin Luther agreed with Augustine

that saving faith includes both knowledge of something

and belief that it's true.

But then he added to that

and said that it also involved the element of trust

or reliance.

Okay, so has anybody done abseiling?

Yep, got some...

Okay, wonderful, not everyone.

So, abseiling is that thing where you're on a rope

and you've got to kind of walk backwards

and lean out over a cliff and you go down the cliff.

I don't think it's quite as popular as it used to be.

I think climbing gyms may be a bit more

of the youth activity these days,

and it's something that I did when I was a kid

and I remember the first time

and it must be kind of engraved onto my memory

because I can remember it really, really clearly.

And I was terrified.

And I remember the instructor,

we were sitting at the top of the cliff,

remember everything,

and the instructor explained it all

and explained how strong the rope was.

And I explained that the rope could hold a holden Commodore

because it was the 80s

and it made sense to measure things in Commodores.

And, you know, I'm listening to that

and I'm thinking about that,

and that's all very well,

but when it came time for me to do it,

I was shaking so badly that the rope itself

was rattling all over the place.

But I did it.

I went over that cliff.

And so the instructor could tell me

how strong the rope was, theoretically.

But then I had to actually agree with that information

and say, yes, I think that he's telling the truth.

I believe that the rope is strong enough.

But then I actually had to trust that rope.

I had to rely on it.

And then that faith becomes practical

because I had to live out what I said I agreed with,

what I agreed that it was probably strong enough.

And in that case, the fact that I found it hard to go over the cliff

and the fact that my hands were shaking so badly

showed that I struggled with that belief.

I struggled to believe that the rope was strong enough.

But in the end, I managed to walk backwards over the cliff.

And in this psalm, we have a picture

of what a life of faith looks like.

It is to place our lives,

our entire lives, our present and our future into God's hands.

And what we have here, I think,

is an incredibly beautiful and moving description

of trust in every line of the psalm.

In fact, every line of the psalm, in one way or another,

says that God is everything to me.

So if you're a writing down person, just write that down.

God is everything to me.

And then what I'd highly recommend that you do

is go back over this afternoon or tonight

and read Psalm 16 again.

And look at every verse and think about the way that every verse of this says

that God is everything to David who is writing it,

and it can be that for us as well.

And from reading this psalm and reflecting on it,

we can learn to trust God by placing ourselves into His hands.

And we can see that main idea summarized in the first verse.

So it says, keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.

And if you think about that,

there's an incredibly beautiful and profound balance that's in there.

It's saying, keep me safe, I trust you to keep me safe.

I'm in your hands, so please look after me.

It's saying, I'm trusting the rope, so please don't let the rope break.

So David has chosen to trust God,

and yet he continues to reach out to God and ask for protection.

Now David shows us here that trust is an ongoing action

whereby we commit ourselves to God in our actions and in our prayers.

And this psalm shows us this in roughly three ways,

and they're set out in the three sections that you'll see in your translation

that you have in your NIVs there.

There's roughly ideas in two to four and then five to eight and then nine to eleven,

and we're going to work our way through those.

So in verses two to four, it shows us that trust is an exclusive relationship.

So trust is always relational, right?

We need to know enough about a person to put our trust in them.

Okay, if I'm going to trust you, I need to know something about you.

But also our action of trusting someone is a form of relationship in itself.

It is establishing a reciprocal relationship.

And here that relationship is exclusive.

It's with God only.

So in verse two, it says, I say to the Lord, you are my Lord.

Okay, so notice that there's two Lords there.

So it says, I say to the Lord, so that first Lord is the personal name of God.

So it's I say to Yahweh, you are my Lord.

I say to Yahweh, the personal name of God, you are my master, you are my boss.

Apart from you, I have no good thing.

So he expresses his reliance on everything good coming from God, right?

In life, in our own relationships, we can trust in different people.

And sometimes we trust in different people for different things.

But when it comes to God, there's an exclusivity.

And there has to be because of who God claims he is.

He is the God of all the earth.

He is the only Creator.

He is the only one who has power over everything.

And he says that every other God is just a cheap counterfeit.

So if that's the case, then we can only really be committed to one sort of thing in this category.

We can only be one God and our trust in God can only be to him.

And that's what David commits to in verse two.

And that's contrasted with verse four, where he will not sacrifice to other gods.

He will not cry out to them.

And the people that we lived with in Vanuatu struggled with this.

And I think in this, they were a little bit like the Israelites in David's time

who might have worshipped Yahweh and had him as their God.

But when it came to everyday practicality in life and ensuring that their crops would grow,

they might have turned to the local Canaanite gods who were, for example, the gods of rain

or the gods of fertility to ensure their crops would grow and their animals would reproduce.

And in Vanuatu, it was something like that.

The people were happy to call on God and maybe even hope that he would save them after their death

because none of the local spirits claim to do that.

But when it came to ensuring that the yams grew, they would go to the witch doctor

and manipulate the spirits of the stones.

And that's very different to saying to God, in you I take my refuge

or saying, apart from you, I have no good thing.

It's like saying, I'm going to take my refuge wherever it works for me

and I'm going to take my good things wherever I can get them.

And it's easy, isn't it, to see the faults in other people?

It's easy to look at another culture and another people and say,

well, they've got it wrong, haven't they?

But sometimes we need to take the plank out of our own eyes.

So depending on our own ancestry, some of us in Australia will be tempted to turn to gods of past religions

or call on astrology or other superstitions.

But mostly we're not surrounded with people who are worshiping other gods like the Israelites were

but people who are depending on material things.

So Jesus, when he was talking to a different culture, so he wasn't talking to David's world

of people living amongst the Canaanite gods.

He was talking to a more materialistic world of Galilei and Judea under Roman rule.

And Jesus says, no one can serve two masters.

Either you'll hate one and love the other or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

And then, and this is so, this is in chapter six.

I'm just reading from chapter six there.

And then the very next thing that he goes on to talk about is he goes on to talk about putting our trust in God as a father.

So those two things are contrasted in his mind just as the gods are contrasted in the Psalm.

And notice that there in both cases there's an exclusivity in the relationship.

Where do we take our refuge?

Where do we find all that's good?

And so often what we actually trust in is our prosperity or our super or our income.

And really we're not all that different to the people in Vanuatu.

We're just both of us in our different ways taking a bet each way on God.

And a relationship that fully trusts in God is not just putting God first and our possessions second.

It's one that says that God is the master and our possessions are just resources under the command of the master.

And today we're living after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And our trust reaches deeper than simply the security of this world in material things.

Remember before that we talked about how Luther added the idea of trust and reliance to the idea of saving faith.

Well John Calvin came after Luther and he took Luther's idea and he said that he took this idea of trust

and he said that the trust, what the trust is, is relying on the goodness of God in the gospel.

So that we trust God's grace and mercy.

And we see that, we trust that because we see it in the gospel.

And we see it when we understand that while we were still enemies, Christ died for the ungodly.

And we see the Father's love for us when he sent his only son.

And so our hope becomes focused on Christ and what God has done for us in Christ.

And his goodness and mercy towards us in his son Jesus allows him, allows us to trust him for our salvation.

And again it's not just that we put God first in our salvation and our contribution to that is second.

It's that it's all God and we trust him exclusively to save us.

And so he becomes our joy and our hope and our most treasured possession and he becomes our path in life.

So in this first section we see that trust involves an exclusive relationship with God where we rely on him entirely

for our life now and for our salvation in eternity.

And the second section continues in a similar way but it also shifts a little to focus on finding our contentment in God

and what he's given us in life.

So if you look at verses five and six you'll see that they're filled with language that refers to life in the land of Canaan.

So words like my portion, my lot, boundary lines, inheritance.

They're all words that you find in the book of Joshua.

They're all words that are about the division of the Promised Land.

So they moved into the Promised Land and then there was a period where each person had to be given their share, their part of it.

And here the psalmist David is not just saying that he got the best block so he's really happy with it.

What he's saying is that whatever God has given him he will see it as a pleasant place because it's given by God.

And in verses seven and eight he's content to take God's counsel, to be directed by him rather than following his own ways.

We are restless and hungry people always wanting more, always unsatisfied with what God sees as good and right.

And if we think about it that was the first sin when the serpent offered Eve more than God had given.

Was the tree of life not enough and yet through Eve and Adam following we attempted to be like God.

But here we see that trust is taking ourselves out of the driver's seat and letting God be God.

Trust says you alone are my portion and my cup and this is kind of most perfectly shown in Jesus.

So when Jesus was hungry and tempted in the wilderness he said it is written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And when he's praying in the Garden of Gethsemane so he knows he's going to his death and he says Father if it is possible may this cup be taken from me yet not as I will but as you will.

And there that is faith in action.

In the face of starvation in the wilderness and of his coming crucifixion when he's in the Garden Jesus chooses to submit to the Father's will.

It's easy to be dissatisfied in life, dissatisfied with our family or dissatisfied with the place that we live in or dissatisfied with our work or our school.

But if insofar as you can discern that those things are God's will for us then we ought to be content and see that having God is enough.

So look again at verse 5.

It says Lord you alone are my portion and my cup.

I wouldn't say that the house is his portion or the cup, the thing that he's received from God or it's not his family or his work or whatever it's that God himself is our God.

In the words of verse 2 you are my Lord apart from you I have no good thing.

That is our portion.

That is the thing that we receive.

That is where we find our contentment.

That should lead us to contentment in all situations rather than a restless desire for things.

And advertising teaches us to constantly want more, to change our appearance, to earn just a little more, to do just a little better, to have just a little more stuff.

Trust comes into it when we're faced with the choice of doing something more godly or something that is more wanted or more ambitious or more desired.

There's plenty of ways that we can promote ourselves at work but they're not godly.

There's plenty of ways that we can look better to others but they might involve gossip or slander or deception.

But one aspect of trusting God is saying that we don't need to get ahead.

It's being able to say that God is our portion and our cup.

So we've seen that we live by trusting God which means that we are in an exclusive relationship with him as our provider and that we are content with what he provides.

So now we come to verses 9 to 11 and this kind of adds another layer of depth to this trust.

So David talks about the security of his body in verse 9 and the reason for that, the reason for his security is given in verse 10.

That is that you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead nor will you let your fateful one see decay.

So when David wrote that he meant that God would continue his life in the face of danger.

It didn't mean that he would never die but that he would trust his life into God's hands.

But there's another meaning, another level of meaning to that that's brought out in the New Testament.

So when Peter gets up to speak on the day of Pentecost he points out that David did die.

But he shows that the psalm pointed forward to the Messiah who would be raised from the dead.

And we know then that because Jesus did rise from the dead that we also will be raised to life.

So our hope then becomes Jesus' death and resurrection.

It's through his resurrection that we have life and that profoundly changes the way that we live our lives.

Okay so we can understand the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection.

We can even believe that it applies to us.

But when we trust in Christ as our only hope it means that we start to live life as if there is no death.

Right? That's it. We need to live our lives as if there is no death because in Christ there isn't death.

And we need to think about what that looks like.

That means that you can forget the bucket list.

The bucket list, the list of things that we have that we're going to do before we kick the bucket.

You know that you've got a list and you know that you want to snorkel the wit Sundays

and you want to have a hot dog in New York and you want to see the northern lights or whatever it is.

And they're all wonderful things, sure.

And that pictures life as being kind of the end of, or pictures death really as being the end of a good life.

So life is all about cramming in as many experiences as possible before you karkat.

What a sad view of the world, right? Isn't it?

What a completely sad view of the world that we just sort of have this limited ticking end in sight

that we need to experience and live because it is going to wind down.

It's like as if we've been let into, we've been given the ticket into the most beautiful building in the world

and we never ever get into it because we're so fascinated with playing with the doorknob.

Right? It's like understanding life and having no understanding of the new creation,

no vision of a sinless life in relationship with God,

no vision of what it could be to live in a completely perfect relationship with the Creator God.

Right? It also means that we need to stop living for our retirement.

Right? That pictures life as if, you know, our working life is a struggle

but at a certain time you get to rest and indulge in all the good things

and sooner that can be the better for Australians.

Right? But when the book of Hebrews talks about our Sabbath rest,

like he talks about a Sabbath rest that's still to come,

it's not talking about your retirement.

Right? It's talking about entering God's rest in the new creation.

So we need to stop living life for experiences.

We need to stop living life for retirement and start living as if there is no death.

Start living as if we can take risks for Christ because there is something better ahead.

It's the ultimate get out of jail free card.

We need to fill ourselves with a glorious vision of God so that he can become our refuge,

so that he can become our portion, he can become our cup, he can be our inheritance.

Right? We can put our hope in Christ and his eternal kingdom.

And when we do that, it shifts our understanding of what it means to trust God here and now.

We see we need to be careful here in what it means to be trusting God in our lives.

For example, we might talk about trust in our lives and we might say,

look, I don't know if I'm going to get the job, but I'm trusting Jesus.

Or I don't know if the cancer has returned, but I'm trusting Jesus.

And we need to be careful with that because we need to be clear on what exactly are we trusting Jesus for.

What do we expect to happen?

See, somebody in that situation could mean that we don't know what's going to happen,

but I'm trusting Jesus to give me the job that I want.

Or I'm trusting Jesus will cure my cancer in the way that I want.

And those things might happen and praise God if they do.

Really, praise God if they do, but that is not the definite hope that we have.

Our lives are focused on eternity.

Our job is no longer the most important thing and the best thing that God can give us.

And as difficult as it is to understand, sometimes even our health and our life are not the most important things.

God's promise to you is not necessarily a better this life or more of this life.

God's promise is that he will do whatever it takes to get you to your full inheritance.

And he's going to do that for his glory.

And one of the hardest things is accepting that God will do that in his own perfect wisdom and his own perfect way.

So remember the story that we talked about before about me kind of starting to walk backwards over the cliff.

And that's how we go about life as Christians.

We go about life trembling, but we do it.

We know that God is holding us in his hands. Do we know that?

Yes, we do. We know that. Do we believe that?

We believe that, but not perfectly, do we?

You can stand on the edge of that cliff and you think, well, I believe that the rope can hold me.

You might, you do, right? But your whole body, have you done it?

Your whole body is telling you, no, they don't do this thing, right?

It's kind of working against you. And it's the same of living your life in trust of Christ.

Do you believe that through Christ you have eternal life? Yes, you do.

But somehow my whole being, it seems, in fact, it's my flesh, my sinfulness, my limitedness.

It keeps telling me to keep my possessions close.

It keeps telling me to look after myself and promote myself.

And so we doubt and we're afraid and we stumble.

But God gives us the strength somehow to step over that cliff.

So when we find this hard, I think what we need to do is to find little ways, however imperfect they are,

we need to find little ways to live a life that puts our hope in God's goodness to us

and God's goodness to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Okay? So we need to find little ways that nevertheless are trusting.

So what I want you to do is think about something right now.

It doesn't matter how small it is, but think about something in your life that you can change.

Something that shuns the world and puts your trust that little bit more in Jesus.

Okay? I want you to think about that. What can you change in your life?

And what I want you to do is to take that thing and I want you to keep reading Psalm 16

and keep reflecting on it and then use the Psalm to allow God to keep you accountable for that thing that you've chosen.

That thing that you're trying to change.

And then when you've done that thing and you've been held accountable for that thing, then you can add another and you can build on that.

So we need to build our trust in God by handing things over to Him.

And we can do that by starting small and then working big.

Now I'm going to be a little bit radical now and I'm not going to close in prayer.

It's the tradition around here.

But what I'm going to do is I'm going to leave you to do that.

Okay? So we're just going to take a minute of silence and I want you to think about your trust.

Do a little audit on it and ask God to be your help.

And then after that time, the musicians are simply going to start playing.

And when you hear the notes, I'd like you to stand and sing.

Let's do that.

And take some time to pray.