WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.160 This morning we continue our summer series through Psalms as we uh look at Psalm 16. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:10.800 The title of today's sermon is The Path of Life. 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:19.760 So turn with me in your copy of God's Word to Psalm 16. 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:30.480 And a question I have for you this morning is what do you have that death cannot take away from you? 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:41.679 You strip away the house, the career, the retirement account, the health, the family, the reputation, strip away your physical body, your own beating heart. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:45.520 Take all that away, and what remains? 00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:50.960 Now, for most people on this earth, the honest answer is nothing. 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:58.640 I just listed all their hopes and dreams and everything that makes up the sum total of what they are. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:02.399 And so many in this world don't even ask that question. 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:06.239 So they keep busy, they accumulate, they distract. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:11.120 And we as God's people are often tempted to do the same as them. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:20.640 But that's why we gather here every week to calibrate, to ring the bells of the gospel to remind us of who we are in Christ. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:25.599 And Psalm 16 is going to ring those gospel bells for us again this morning. 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:30.239 Psalm 16 is a song of a man that asked that question. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:53.680 David calls it a mikcom, a word whose exact meaning is uncertain, but many commentators, following many rabbi teachers, took to suggest it means a golden psalm, something that's engraved, inscribed, and precious. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:02:01.359 Now, whether or not that etymology holds as to what this word means, the description of Psalm 16 fits. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:16.400 This is a psalm to engrave on our hearts, because it ends in the only place a human life can safely end, where we read in verse 11, You make known to me the path of life. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:23.599 In your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand, our pleasures forevermore. 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:29.520 Now this morning we want to take the same path that we take through each psalm, through its three horizons. 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:31.680 First, the historical horizon. 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:33.280 What did David mean? 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:34.560 What did the author mean? 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:36.800 What did it mean to its original audience? 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.680 What did it mean when Israel first sang it? 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:43.280 Secondly, what's the Christological horizon? 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:50.159 How does this Psalm belong first and foremost and most truly to our Lord Jesus Christ? 00:02:50.400 --> 00:03:03.439 And an interesting thing about Psalm 16 is the apostles themselves force that question on us because both Peter and Paul preached the resurrection from Psalm 16. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.960 And third, the congregational horizon. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:20.000 How do we, as the church, united to the risen Christ, take this golden psalm that David wrote and put it on our own lips and on our own hearts? 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:24.879 And what does it look like for us as a church to engrave this psalm on our hearts? 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:28.560 So follow along with me in Psalm 16. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:33.840 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:38.879 I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.199 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:54.479 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. 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:58.960 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot. 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.479 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:05.680 Indeed I have a beautiful inheritance. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:10.879 I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night, also my heart instructs me. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:16.720 I have set the Lord always before me, because he has at my right hand I shall not be shaken. 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:27.839 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 seek corruption. 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:37.519 You make known to me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:41.519 So, firstly, this morning let's start at the historical horizon. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:47.600 Well we see here what David writes, we see a man whose treasure was God. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:54.240 The Psalm opens with a brief petition: preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:57.279 Now, David is not an obvious crisis here. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:01.360 And we see there are some psalms that David writes from a point of crisis. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:03.600 We don't see that here in Psalm 16. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:09.600 There are no armies, there's no cave, there's no chasing of Saul in the Psalm. 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:20.560 This is the ordinary daily prayer of a man who knows that he is mortal and keeps himself deliberately under the shelter of his God. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:28.000 I am in a good season, and I'm going to continue to rest under God's wing. 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:38.319 Then he makes a confession that governs the rest of the psalm and governs all of David's Psalms, governs all of Scripture, governs all things in existence. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:46.399 David says, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:52.720 Notice that David does not say, You are my greatest good among many goods. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:58.879 He says, I have no good apart from you. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:07.279 This is King David, a man that had far more many blessings than any of us in the room even dare think of. 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:10.959 Think of everything in David's life. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:18.800 He had a kingdom, a famine, victorious army, music, friendship. 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:26.079 Everything David could want on this earth, he could he could ask for it, and it would probably happen. 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:30.800 But he says, I have no good apart from God. 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:42.560 But all those things that David had in and of themselves aren't bad, but he's saying this is good only as it comes from God's hand and leads me back to God's face. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:48.560 Cut off from God, none of it is good at all. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:07:08.720 In fact, something that that I pray frequently, I actually picked up on it, I think, from from Kent, is that when my family gathers together to pray over our meals, when we have our meal, um, I will thank God for the food. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:10.800 And we usually call the food out by name. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:12.800 Thank you, Lord, for this pizza. 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:14.800 We know this pizza's good. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:19.759 May taste good, but maybe not healthy. 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:22.319 Thank you for thank you for the family. 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:24.879 Thank you for fellowship. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:32.399 Thank you for all these things that that we have tonight, and we know that they're good, but they're not as good as Christ. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:46.160 And may this pizza that we're about to eat, may this fellowship that we're about to enjoy, being together as family, having friends over, may those ordinary casual things point us to Christ. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:50.480 That's what those things exist for. 00:07:51.279 --> 00:07:52.639 You want Papa John's? 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:55.839 Get Papa John's, and may it point you to Christ. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:58.160 That's what this life does. 00:07:58.399 --> 00:07:59.360 God is good. 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:04.480 Everything that we have comes from God and it points us back to Him. 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:16.240 And what we see in verses 3 and 4, we see a confession that flows into two loves and one refusal. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:22.160 We see David loves God, and we see out of that flows another love. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.519 David loves God's people. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.120 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:36.080 You cannot delight in the Lord and not delight in his people. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:38.879 David is a king. 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:45.840 He had ever every um, I wouldn't say right, but he had all the ability to not be with the people. 00:08:46.080 --> 00:09:02.480 He could have been the king, sat on his kingly throne, and not been with the people, but he looks at the ordinary, unimpressive Israelites, and yet they fear the Lord, and he calls them the nobility of the land. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:16.240 He's not looking to his army, he's not looking to his conquerors, he's not looking to his generals, he's looking to the everyday, ordinary Israelite that fears the Lord, and he says, This is the nobility of the land. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:18.879 These are truly the excellent ones. 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:23.519 A love of God causes David to delight in loving God's people. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:28.879 And secondly, David refuses the alternative. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:34.159 The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply their drink offerings of blood. 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:37.360 I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:41.600 Now, in David's world, this is not some abstract idea. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.720 He was surrounded, and Israel was constantly tempted. 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:51.200 This is why God gave them the Ten Commandments and so many rules. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:57.600 They were so tempted to follow the worship of the gods around them from all the other peoples. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:13.440 Canaanite worship surrounded Israel, Baal, Moloch, Kemosh, worship that promised fertility, security, prosperity, but yet it delivered nothing but a multiplied sorrow. 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:23.360 David draws a line in the sand for his people, and he says, I will not even name these false gods in worship. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:27.679 There's no dual citizenship here amongst God's people. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:34.240 You cannot worship Yahweh and entertain the gods of the other peoples. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:46.399 Verses five and six gives us what I would call a drumbeat that we hear echoed throughout all of Scripture. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:29.200 Every tribe, that is, except one, one tribe did not get land. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:31.679 It's the tribe of the Levites. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:37.120 To the Levites, the Lord said, You shall have no inheritance in the land. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:43.279 I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel. 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:52.080 So while everyone else got acreage, the priests coming from the tribe of Levi, they got God. 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:55.360 Now here is David, not a Levite. 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:57.600 Remember, David's not from the tribe of Levi. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:11:59.679 David's from the tribe of Judah. 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:02.799 He's a king with royal estates. 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:06.159 So he has everything that he wants. 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:14.240 He has the land, and yet he takes upon himself the Levi's privilege that has no land. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:17.279 Do you see what he's saying here? 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:25.600 I've got the land, but I want the promise and the privilege of the ones who weren't given the land but were given God. 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:27.759 I want my portion to be in God. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.440 He's saying, my real inheritance was never the land. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:36.240 My portion is not measured in acres. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:40.399 The Lord Himself is my allotment, my cup, my estate. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:49.039 And when I survey my inheritance, the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:13:04.720 And not to jump ahead of ourselves, but to go ahead and make a Christological and congregational connection there, Jesus tells us, I go before you to prepare a place for you. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:11.759 What David's saying here is connected to those of us who are in Christ. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:14.240 We don't build a treasure here. 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:19.840 Christ buys and builds a treasure for us in eternity. 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:27.440 David is content, not because his circumstances were easy, they usually rarely were easy. 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:35.919 David had a lot of strife, but his portion is unending, because his portion is in the Lord. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.720 David was not alone in this confession. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:44.639 We see Asaph, his chief musician, reached the same place through a much harder road. 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:46.159 Psalm 73. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:51.840 Asaph nearly lost his faith, envying the prosperity of the wicked. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:56.159 Does that sound familiar in our own day? 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:04.159 Until he went to the sanctuary and he came out singing David's tune, Whom have I in heaven but you? 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:08.480 And there is nothing on this earth that I desire besides you. 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:15.360 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:21.200 Same word that Asaf uses in Psalm 73, portion. 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:24.639 This is the message of the entire Bible. 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.759 God Himself is the treasure. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.000 The Old Testament repeats it over and over and over again. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:35.120 God Himself is our treasure. 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:39.919 And then something marvelously wonderful happens. 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:46.240 God Himself shows up in the form of a man, God the Son, Jesus Christ. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.879 And then the same message continues. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:52.000 God Himself is our treasure. 00:14:52.960 --> 00:15:03.440 Like the story of the gospel, like the whole Bible itself, the message of the psalm this morning is to look to Christ as your treasure. 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:15.919 And in verses 7 through 11, we see David's confidence in making God his treasure leads to not fearing what normal man fears. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:21.200 The final movement of the Psalm turns towards night, turns toward death. 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:23.919 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:27.039 In the night also my heart instructs me. 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:31.759 I have set the Lord always before me because he has at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:45.360 And then David says, Therefore, my heart is glad, my whole being rejoice, my flesh also dwells secure, for you will not abandon my soul to shield, or let your holy one see corruption. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.559 My question to you is what did David mean? 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:56.000 At minimum, he was confident that God would not hand him over to the grave prematurely. 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:00.399 That this covenant God would preserve him. 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:02.720 But surely he saw more. 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:16.720 So what does he mean here that you will not let your holy one see corruption? 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:31.039 Well, David knew that if the Lord is my inheritance, and the Lord does not die, then my inheritance outlasts my funeral. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:34.320 But here's the problem. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:38.559 The Bible tells us plainly. 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:40.240 David dies. 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:48.639 Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:55.279 His body went into a tomb, and his flesh most certainly saw corruption. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:01.360 And his tomb was a known landmark in Jerusalem for a thousand years. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:14.799 So either verse 10 is just a feel-good exaggeration, or David was speaking of something or someone beyond himself. 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:25.519 And that question hangs over the Israelites for a millennium, and then on the day of Pentecost, it gets answered in a sermon by Peter. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:31.359 Secondly, the Christological horizon, every psalm belongs to Jesus. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:39.440 Fifty days after the crucifixion, Peter stands up in Jerusalem within walking distance of David's tomb. 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:42.559 And he quotes David. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:45.920 Turn with me to Acts chapter 2. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:50.240 And we're going to start in verse 22 through 36. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:10.000 So this is Peter's sermon, and you're going to hear him quote out of Psalm 16, beginning in verse 22. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.319 Men of Israel, hear these words. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:20.960 Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:28.880 This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:34.319 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:41.279 For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:46.400 Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced, my flesh also will dwell in hope. 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:51.440 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one see corruption. 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:57.119 You have made known to me the paths of life, and you will make me full of gladness with your presence. 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:03.920 Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried. 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:08.319 He's answering the question, the question we just asked, Peter's answering it. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:26.000 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:30.960 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:41.839 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:50.240 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:58.480 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.839 The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:11.279 Peter is telling us here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what David was talking about in Psalm 16. 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:15.920 David's flesh did not dwell secure. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:19.039 David's body did see corruption. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:21.119 So what was David talking about? 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:22.160 Peter answers it. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:23.440 David was a prophet. 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:28.319 Paul preaches the identical argument in Poseidon Antioch. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.640 David fell asleep and saw corruption. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:35.680 But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:37.359 Acts chapter 13. 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:39.920 Peter and Paul are in agreement. 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:47.440 Psalm 16 finds its deepest, truest voice, not in David, but in David's greater son. 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:53.279 This is not a clever reinterpretation after the fact. 00:20:53.920 --> 00:21:03.440 It is the Psalm's own inner logic and foretaste of the things to come written from David's perspective. 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:09.359 The confidence of verse 10 was always too big for David. 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:17.279 It was written by the Holy Spirit for the mouth of Jesus Christ the Messiah. 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:24.720 So let's read through some of these verses again and this time apply it to Christ. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:29.119 Verse 2, I have no good apart from you. 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:33.440 Only one man ever said this with total truthfulness. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:38.400 Jesus' entire life was undivided devotion to his Father. 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:43.839 He said in John 4 34, My food is to do the will of him who sent me. 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:49.759 Where David's devotion was real but flawed, Jesus' was flawless. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:59.599 Verse 3 As for the saints in the land, in whom is all my delight, hear the Lord Jesus delighting in his people, not because we are impressive. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.319 But because the Father gave us to him. 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:09.599 Hebrews 2:11, he is not ashamed to call them brothers. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:15.440 Jesus is not ashamed this very moment to call you brother or sister. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:24.799 The eternal son looks to his blood-bought church in all of her weakness, and he calls her his delight. 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:30.559 Verse 4, the sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply. 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.200 I will not take their names on my lips. 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:35.839 Christ faced this choice in the wilderness. 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:48.960 The devil offered him the kingdoms of the world for one act of alternative worship, one bent knee to another God, where Israel failed before him in the wilderness for 40 years. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:52.160 Jesus stood firm for 40 days. 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:56.880 You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.680 He quotes to Satan in Matthew 4:10. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:06.480 He refused the drink offering of the idols, and instead, later in Gethsemane, he took the cup of the Lord. 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:10.559 In verse 5, the Lord is my chosen portion of my cup. 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:15.680 The cup of the Father held out to Jesus was a cup of wrath against our sin. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:22.400 My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but your will be done. 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:26.079 And then he took the cup and he drank it all of it. 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:32.000 And he could do it because even in the darkness the Father was his portion. 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:38.480 His lines had fallen in pleasant places, even through the valley of the shadow of death. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:45.119 In verse 10, you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one seek corruption. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:58.799 The 1689 Baptist Confession puts it this way: the Lord Jesus was crucified and died and remain in the state of the dead, yet saw no corruption. 00:23:59.119 --> 00:24:00.880 Think of what this means. 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:06.640 On Friday evening, they laid his body in Joseph's tomb. 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:08.240 Real death. 00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:09.680 Jesus died. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:19.200 His physical body died, his soul separated from his body, and his body laid cold in the grave. 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:34.480 And yet, the ancient process of decay, which is claimed every son of Adam since the first death, from Abel on until now, was not permitted to touch him. 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:37.039 His flesh dwelt secure. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:47.599 Sheol could only hold him for a Sabbath, but it could not keep him because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:49.279 That's what Peter just said. 00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:51.200 Well, he said it 2,000 years ago. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:52.160 We just read it. 00:24:53.759 --> 00:25:12.720 On the third day, on that first resurrection Sunday, the Father made known to him the path of life, up out of the tomb, through the ascension, to the right hand of the majesty on high, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:15.839 That's where Christ is now. 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:24.000 This is the gospel hidden in a thousand-year-old song for God's people. 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:30.400 We've not really read Psalm 16 until we have heard Christ singing it. 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:38.319 Our confidence is in him, and that translates to our third horizon: singing the psalm in Christ. 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:41.119 This is what it means for us as a church. 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:45.519 If Psalm 16 first belongs to Jesus, does it still belong to us? 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:47.279 We answer this question every week. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:48.160 Yes. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:51.440 Yes, because Jesus has these Psalms. 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:56.880 They are now given to His people precisely because it belongs to Jesus. 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:01.440 Union with Christ is the hinge on which everything turns on. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:09.279 The Bible tells us that everything that Christ has becomes ours by our inheritance in him. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:12.160 Do you know what that means? 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:27.200 That means that when Christ inherits all this goodness from his Father, he has bought this, we join with Christ in this inheritance from the Father. 00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:36.559 What this means for God's people is that when we get to heaven, I tell you this all the time, and I love, I haven't said it in a long time. 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:38.640 So maybe you're hearing it for the first time. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:40.400 We need to be reminded. 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:51.359 When we get to heaven, when you leave this earth and go to be with Christ, you will not feel out of place. 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.119 Have you ever been somewhere where you feel out of place? 00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:59.200 Like this place is more uppity than I'm used to. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:02.799 I'm just from a small town in East Texas. 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:05.599 I didn't know this kind of money existed. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:15.119 You know, like if you were to like like showing up uh like to the White House and like gym shorts and a tank top, you're gonna be like, this is awkward. 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:17.759 Like I didn't, I didn't dress for the occasion. 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:19.920 I didn't, I didn't plan well. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:22.160 Um, this feels awkward. 00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:30.640 We've all been in situation, maybe not that one, maybe not at the White House and gym shorts and tank, but we've all been in a situation where you're like, I'm kind of, I kind of don't belong here. 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:32.319 Like this is awkward. 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.920 When you get to heaven, there will be none of that. 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:54.799 In fact, when you get to heaven, we know from what scripture teaches us about God and about Christ, what he's done for us, how he views his people, what Christ has bought for his people, and how he's given it to his people. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:28:05.039 I can assure you from what scripture says, you have never felt more at home than you will when you open your eyes for the first time in eternity. 00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:08.240 Y'all are awfully quiet on that one. 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:09.599 Amen. 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:23.279 When you open your eyes in glory, you will immediately feel a natural belonging because of the inheritance that Christ has bought for you. 00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:30.640 It is yours by right, not because of you, but because of Christ. 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:35.200 It's a free gift of God, it's grace, but now in Christ it's your right. 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:41.200 Where was I? 00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:44.319 I don't, uh that was a that was a tangent, so I lost my place. 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:46.240 Bear with me for a second. 00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:52.480 So we see how Peter, the same praeter, preached Psalm 16 at Pentecost. 00:28:52.640 --> 00:29:07.920 He describes the Christians as uh uh estate: God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:09.839 1 Peter 1, 3 through 4. 00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:11.839 That's Psalm 16 vocabulary. 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:13.839 Inheritance kept secure. 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:24.000 Now spoken over every believer, because Christ's flesh dwelt secure, your inheritance also dwells secure, waiting for you. 00:29:24.319 --> 00:29:28.880 So three applications from this for us as the church. 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:32.160 Number one, make David's confession your own. 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:34.559 I have no good apart from you. 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:41.839 My question is, is God your only good or merely your helpful supplement? 00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:52.480 Much modern religion treats God as an app that we install in our lives to improve a life that we're building upon ourselves. 00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:56.880 A little piece here, some guidance there. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:29:59.519 I mean, I got this. 00:29:59.920 --> 00:30:04.480 I just could use a little bit of spirituality in my life. 00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:08.799 Psalm 16 will not tolerate that. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:15.680 Either the Lord is your portion or something else is. 00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:43.680 If you don't know this about me or my my thoughts, then um you haven't been paying attention. 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:51.200 So you should know this, but I'm gonna intentionally pull out the soapbox to make a point. 00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:58.720 We see how popular these little Jesus action figures have become. 00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:09.920 These are not Jesus. 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:12.400 And Jesus is not a good luck charm. 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:15.440 And I've heard, well, well, it's a good reminder. 00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:18.079 Okay, do I need an action figure of my wife? 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:19.039 Oh, what? 00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:20.000 Am I married? 00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:25.920 Am I I I forgot I was married until I saw the action figure of my wife sitting on my car dashboard. 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:30.400 I'm so glad I have that to remember what's her name. 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:40.160 If you need, if you need a little Jesus to remind you about Jesus, you need to get saved. 00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:45.200 You need to make Jay, you need to make Jesus Christ your Lord and your Savior. 00:31:45.519 --> 00:31:53.680 Because those who make God their portion do not need a little reminder that He exists. 00:31:55.920 --> 00:31:57.759 Do you know where that comes from? 00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:01.200 That is a direct take from the Hindu religion. 00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:10.240 Let's take our little gods and let's put them in a little figure and let's put them on the shelf, and they're gonna bless our house and be a good luck charm. 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:22.640 It's Hinduism, and we've converted it to Christianity, and we have this little Jesus, and it's so demeaning to who Jesus is. 00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:32.240 When Jesus returns, trumpets will sound like we can't even imagine. 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:41.680 An army of angelic hosts are going to descend with him. 00:32:43.680 --> 00:33:03.759 The ground will shake, and the dead will rise, and those who are not in Christ will tremble in fear as he descends. 00:33:06.559 --> 00:33:13.839 It's going to be a scene that we can't even begin to wrap our minds around. 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:28.319 The church will be infused with this overpowering joy and blessedness and radiance as we go to be with our Lord. 00:33:33.359 --> 00:33:36.720 You can't you can't depict that. 00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:46.400 For your life. 00:33:53.119 --> 00:34:00.720 Everything that you have that is good comes from the Lord and is to be used to point you back to Him. 00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:09.199 Be careful not to belittle what the Lord has done for you or to mock your inheritance in Christ. 00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:28.000 If we understood 0.0001% of what the Lord has in store for us, we would not be able to control our joy as it overflows our hearts to all of those around us. 00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:33.199 We have no idea what's in store for us in glory. 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:36.639 But the early church knew this to be true. 00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:37.360 In A.D. 00:34:37.519 --> 00:34:45.360 155, the aged bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, he was a disciple of the Apostle John. 00:34:45.679 --> 00:34:47.199 He walked with John. 00:34:48.800 --> 00:34:53.119 He was dragged into the arena and he was offered mercy. 00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:59.440 He was offered his life if he would simply swear by Caesar and curse Christ. 00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:03.440 Take another name on your lips. 00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:08.320 Take the name of Christ off your lips and put Caesar on your lips. 00:35:08.639 --> 00:35:15.039 Pour out this one offering to another God, and we shall set you free. 00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:24.559 And Polycarp's answer was this eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. 00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:29.360 How can I blaspheme my king who saved me? 00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:32.400 And then he was burned at the stake. 00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:36.320 And he lost nothing. 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:39.679 And that day he gained everything. 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:45.440 Because his portion was in something that the flames could not reach. 00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:53.440 And ask yourselves this morning, what would it cost the world to take away your good? 00:35:54.800 --> 00:36:04.960 If your treasure can be repossessed, foreclosed, diagnosed, or buried, my friend, you've got too small of a treasure. 00:36:06.079 --> 00:36:14.880 Say with David and say in Christ, I have no good apart from God, and that is a treasure that cannot be taken away from you. 00:36:15.199 --> 00:36:18.159 And notice this confession has a corporate shape. 00:36:18.320 --> 00:36:21.199 David delighted with the saints in the land. 00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:26.239 If Christ is your portion, then Christ's people becomes your delight. 00:36:26.400 --> 00:36:31.519 In an individualized society, the world has privatized faith. 00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:41.519 Psalm 16 calls you to look around this room and see in these ordinary brothers and sisters the excellent ones that David is talking about. 00:36:42.960 --> 00:36:44.079 David was the king. 00:36:49.039 --> 00:36:53.840 And yet he called them the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. 00:36:54.880 --> 00:37:00.960 It is inconsistent to say you love Christ, but you don't love being with his people. 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:11.039 There is a joy and a pleasure that unites brothers and sisters in Christ that we don't experience with the unbeliever. 00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:16.400 Because we are united in the fact that God is our portion. 00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:20.639 Secondly, learn contentment with your lot. 00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:24.800 David said the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. 00:37:25.039 --> 00:37:27.519 This is a hard thing to say, honestly. 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:29.920 Some of us can look at our boundary lines. 00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:30.639 What are they? 00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:39.039 Your health, your marriage, your singleness, your finances, your children, your family, your limitations, your job situation, your house. 00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:43.840 And pleasant places may not be a phrase that comes to mind. 00:37:47.039 --> 00:37:49.119 How could David say it? 00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:53.199 Not because his circumstances were pleasant. 00:37:54.400 --> 00:37:58.880 Many of the Psalms that he wrote, he wrote while he was running for his life. 00:38:01.280 --> 00:38:15.119 He could say it because verse 5 comes before verse 6, the Lord was his portion, and therefore whatever lines the Lord draws enclosed a good inheritance because they enclosed him. 00:38:17.360 --> 00:38:27.679 The Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs preached to the congregations battered by the plague, by poverty, by civil war in the 1640s. 00:38:29.519 --> 00:38:34.239 And he called this a rare jewel of Christian contentment. 00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:48.960 And he defined contentment not as liking your circumstances, but as freely submitting to and delighting in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. 00:38:49.360 --> 00:38:51.760 Notice God's disposal. 00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:53.280 That is verse 5. 00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:54.639 You hold my lot. 00:39:40.400 --> 00:39:42.800 See all these comforts that we have. 00:39:44.239 --> 00:39:47.360 And just without knowing it say, This is my portion. 00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:57.039 Who had literally nothing but God. 00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:03.039 What else could be my portion? 00:40:03.440 --> 00:40:06.960 I have no home, I have no food, I have no health. 00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:12.480 Just gonna lay on my deathbed and die, and God is my portion. 00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:22.480 Your lot is not held by the economy, by your medical chart, or by blind chance. 00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:26.159 It is held in the same nail-scarp hands that hold you. 00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:29.599 Contentment is not a resignation. 00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:35.039 Contentment is a trust in the knowledge of who holds your lot. 00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:43.519 If you are in Christ, you are proceeding forward on a timeline under the sovereign hand of God. 00:40:43.679 --> 00:40:53.280 If you don't have what you think you should have, or you're not where you think you should be, then know that God directs your steps and he is more trustworthy than we are. 00:40:54.559 --> 00:40:58.400 We should practice being content in the place that God has us. 00:40:58.559 --> 00:41:02.559 And the more that you make him your portion, the easier that becomes. 00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:10.960 For then anything and everything that lies before you, your response becomes, I am satisfied, because God is my portion. 00:41:11.199 --> 00:41:15.360 And thirdly, face death with your eyes on the risen Christ. 00:41:16.559 --> 00:41:20.559 The psalm takes us at the end to where it began: the question of death. 00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:29.599 Christian, because you are united in Christ, Psalm 9 through 11 are now true of you, not as poetry, but as a covenant fact. 00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:34.159 Your body will go into the ground, as David's did. 00:41:34.800 --> 00:41:40.639 But it goes to the ground as a seed in the field, waiting to come back up. 00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:43.119 Because he lives, you also will live. 00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:44.480 John 14, 19. 00:41:44.559 --> 00:41:50.880 The path of life that Jesus walked out of the tomb is the path that he will walk you down on the last day. 00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:52.480 This is not a theory. 00:41:52.639 --> 00:42:00.639 This is how our fathers, uh in or our forefathers in Christianity actually uh lived in the faith and how they actually died. 00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:07.760 John Owen, the great 17th-century theologian, lay dying in August of 1683. 00:42:08.079 --> 00:42:16.079 A friend came to him to tell him that his final book, Meditations on the Glory of Christ, had gone to the printer. 00:42:16.559 --> 00:42:35.760 Owen replied that he was glad to hear it, but that the long wished for day had come at last, in which he would see that glory in another manner that he had ever been capable of in this world. 00:42:36.079 --> 00:42:38.480 Do you hear Psalm 16 in that? 00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:44.159 In your presence there is fullness of joy. 00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:52.400 Owen wasn't gritting his teeth on his deathbed, he was leaning toward it. 00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:57.280 He welcomed death because his portion lay on the other side of it. 00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:04.719