Real and Lasting Security - Citylight Church

In the presence of the LORD, we are safe to rejoice.

Resources:

Psalms 1-72 (Kidner Classic Commentaries), Derek Kidner

The Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon

Sermon Transcript

About a month ago there was a tornado warning issued for the suburbs right before our service began. Phil, one of our deacons here, and I chatted a bit beforehand about what we might do if the tornado warning got extended to Philadelphia. Technically during a tornado warning, the recommendation is to move to a basement, away from windows, and so on, and then, once it passes, it’s finally safe to come out. I’ve thankfully never had to do that during a real tornado, but even after having done it for some warnings, it was a joyful experience when the warning passed, and we were told it was safe to come out. I felt safe to rejoice once the threat had passed. In this Psalm, David, the author’s, life feels threatened. Throughout his life he had enemies trying to kill him. It’s like there was a tornado specifically targeting him, and so in this Psalm, he prays for God to protect him. Yet the prayer only takes up 1 verse of the Psalm. The other 10 verses express his confidence in the God to whom he prays. Those 10 verses even show us that he felt safe to rejoice before he’d been delivered from all his enemies, before the tornado warning had passed, you could say. And we learn from that that in the presence of the LORD, we are safe to rejoice. This Psalm paints a picture for us of just that by showing us exclusive allegiance to the LORD, security from the LORD, and everlasting joy in the LORD.

Exclusive allegiance to the LORD

This Psalm begins with a request right there in verse 1: “Preserve me, O God.” The most obvious meaning of the prayer is that it is a prayer for God to preserve David’s life. The Bible elsewhere describes David as a man of war; his life was threatened many times, most notably when he had been anointed king, but had not yet taken the throne, because the prior king, Saul, was still around, and Saul was trying to kill him. We don’t know the specific situation in which this Psalm was written, nor do we need to: Suffice it to say there were many times in David’s life when people were actively trying to kill him, and so he prays, “Preserve me, O God.”

And that’s worth noting in and of itself, isn’t it? When his life was threatened, when people were actively trying to kill him, he didn’t simply run into an earthly fortress where he knew no arrows could hit him. He ran to God in prayer. So he goes on to explain in verse 1: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. Those who run to a fortress are basically saying to the fortress, “Preserve me, O fortress, for in you I take refuge,” but here David turns to an invisible God and says, “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” Then in verse 2 he clarifies who this God is. There he calls him LORD, all caps, which translates the Hebrew name of God, Yahweh, the God of Israel. Here’s what he says to the God of Israel: You are my Lord, with lower-case letters, indicating a master, or one in authority over another. David is king of Israel, but he recognizes that the God of Israel is king over him. He says he has no good apart from him. In other words, he isn’t going to turn anywhere apart from Yahweh for preservation from his enemies, because there is no good for him apart from Yahweh. It’s a claim of exclusive allegiance: Yahweh, you are my master, and I will look nowhere else for good but from you.

One of the most common times in which people who don’t even believe nonetheless resort to prayer is when their life is in danger. When they sense they have no other hope, they think they might as well give prayer a shot. However, they may not even know the God to whom they are praying, nor are they swearing any kind of exclusive allegiance to him. That’s not what David is doing here. He’s praying for preservation because he’s already made the LORD his refuge. He’s saying, “since you are my only hope, since you are my exclusive allegiance, since I have nowhere else to look for good, preserve me.” That’s what relationship with Yahweh looks like. Other false gods will allow you to pray to them while also looking elsewhere for good, but Yahweh demands your exclusive allegiance, because he is the only true God. As C.S. Lewis has put it, God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. We have no good apart from him.

Have you got this clear in your own mind and heart? It’s one of the vows we take in our baptism: That Jesus is Lord, meaning our exclusive allegiance is now to him, and we will look for good from nowhere else. The great hymn, “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken” says, “O ‘tis not in grief to harm me while thy love is left to me; o ‘twere not in joy to charm me, where that joy unmixed with thee.” The idea of that second line there is that the ordinary joys in life can’t bring me joy if that joy is unmixed with the LORD. Don’t you know that today brothers and sisters? Would your life really be better if God gave you something you prayed for apart from giving you himself? Of course it wouldn’t. We have no good apart from Him.

Next in verse 3 we see that exclusive allegiance to the LORD also includes allegiance to His people. There David says that as for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all his delight. The word “saints” translates a word simply meaning “holy ones” and holiness means to be set apart from the world and uniquely devoted to God. The saints, then, would be those God has called out from the world to serve him, and here David even clarifies that the saints of whom he is speaking are not those in heaven, but in the land, which in David’s day would have been the people of Israel, and in our day is the visible members of visible churches. It makes sense, doesn’t it, that if Yahweh is your Master, you’d also feel drawn to his people? If someone pledges allegiance to a king, we typically expect them to fight in battle with the king’s subjects, right? To be on Yahweh’s side is to be on His people’s side, not only in some vague, purely spiritual sense, but in the sense of visible saints in the visible land, as David says here.

He calls them the excellent ones. In the eyes of the world, the people of Israel were anything but that, and this is typically the case with the members of Christian churches. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the church at Corinth and tells them to consider their own calling, “Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1 Cor 1:26). Some were and some still are, but they are the exception, not the rule. The 19^th century Pastor Charles Spurgeon lamented how in his day some chose certain churches because their buildings were impressive, or because the congregation was composed of social elites. Though his church had an impressive building and some social elites, he rightly recognized that these things were not excellent in the eyes of the LORD. So here, the people who are excellent in David’s eyes were not the powerful, the wealthy, the attractive, the gregarious, the socially connected, or any other such worldly standard. It was the saints who were excellent in his sight, because it is they who were set apart for his Lord. Brothers and sisters, is that how you view the fellow members of your church? Is your delight in them?

And, finally, in verse 4 David presents the contrast to the saints: The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply. If you look for refuge outside of Yahweh, you’ll only find sorrows. God can’t give us a happiness and peace apart from himself because it doesn’t exist. There is no other true God, and if you who were created for the true God go looking for something else to be a kind of god to you, your sorrows will only multiply. Look to a relationship, a career, money, kids, house, travel, or anything else, and it may feel good for a little, but in the end, your sorrows will multiply. And so David resolves just not to mess with it. He won’t participate in their worship or take the names of their gods on his lips. His God’s name is Yahweh, not Baal, and there is a way Yahweh has instituted for him to be worshiped. In our pluralistic world, Christians today can sometimes even think it doesn’t matter how you worship or what name you use in worship, as long as in your heart, you intend to worship the true God. But the true God will have none of that. Don’t try to fit in with or please those who worship false gods. Worship the true God, and call others to join you.

Coming into the presences of the LORD, in which we are safe to rejoice, entails exclusive allegiance to the LORD. It means renouncing all hopes for good apart from him, it means delighting in his people, and it means refusing to participate in the worship of those who run after other gods. This is how David lived, and he next reports to us how, as he has lived a life of exclusive allegiance to the LORD, he has received security from the LORD.

Security from the LORD

In verse 5 he says the LORD, Yahweh, is his chosen portion and cup. Note the contrast with those who run after other gods: He says he won’t pour out their drink offerings; rather the LORD is his cup. In other words, Yahweh is all he needs. As he has no good apart from Yahweh, so Yahweh is all the good he needs. He doesn’t even say here that Yahweh gives him the portion he needs or gives him his cup; he says Yahweh is his portion and his cup. If he has Yahweh, he has what he needs. How secure would you feel if you knew you already had all you needed? David did.

This being the case, he can then also trust Yahweh with whatever he decides to give him in this life. So he goes on to say in verse 5, “You hold my lot.” The lot there is the lot that decides where land is divided. So here he’s basically saying to God, “You determine the location and extent of my land.” Of course, that is true of David’s personal property, but remember that David is also king of Israel, so that here he’s likely also referring to the territory of Israel. The fact that he writes it as a Psalm even suggests that it’s meant to be sung by all Israel, and that their entire territory would then be in view. So he, and they, and we, can go on to say in verse 6: The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. God didn’t give David or Israel or you and me a territory with no lines. Yet wherever the lines fell, David trusted that they fell in pleasant places, because it was the LORD who laid them.

So with us, the LORD puts various lines in our lives. He holds our lot as well. Some of you own land, and that means you have a deed that clarifies the lines beyond which the land is not yours. When you add up all your money, it comes to a certain number, and in this moment, you have no more than that. God has drawn a thick line around our time. For all of us, there are only 24 hours in a day. For all of us, there is a certain length to our lives on earth; we don’t know where that line is, but the LORD does. You’re in a relationship with someone to whom you are not married, and the LORD has drawn a line you are not to cross concerning what is acceptable in that relationship. You have some authority let’s say as a government official, a parent, a teacher, a husband, a pastor, or an employer, but the LORD has put a line around that authority, requiring that you only exercise it to the degree to which he has authorized you. We could just as easily call these lines boundaries, and our lives are full of them.

How do you handle it when you encounter them? If you are anything like me, at least part of what you feel is a desire to resist them, push them, test them, and even transgress them. But what we have here in this Psalm is a picture of joyfully living within them. What if instead of looking at those boundaries, those lines, as oppressive constraints to be thrown off and transgressed, you were able to say, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance? Might you not have greater security? That’s what we are enabled to say when the LORD is our chosen portion and cup. If you have him, you have all you need, and therefore wherever he draws the lines around your time, your money, your relationships, and so on, you can say, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”

Furthermore, David says in verse 7 that not only has the LORD given him a beautiful inheritance; he’s also given him counsel, so much so that the counsel has become internalized, such that in the night even his own heart instructs him. He says he has set the LORD always before him, and because he is at his right hand, he shall not be shaken. The image here is of a king who has a counselor that he always wants to have with him, sitting at his right hand. We can see examples of this in David’s life. For example, in 2 Samuel 5:19, after the Philistines come up against David, he asks the LORD if he should go up against the Philistines. The LORD tells him yes, for he promised that he would give the Philistines into David’s hand. So David does, and what do you know? They are victorious over the Philistines. So here he is saying he is always calling the LORD to mind and constantly talking to him in prayer, and he finds that when he does, the LORD graciously responds! He has real communion with God in an ongoing way, the LORD himself is his counselor, the LORD promises to never leave him or forsake him, and therefore, David says, he shall not be shaken. He prays for preservation of his life in verse 1 of the Psalm, and here he expresses his confidence that he will have it.

Do you turn to the LORD for counsel? God has given us various ways to do so. The central one is his word, written down for us in scripture. Every word of scripture is God’s Word, so if you want real security, acquaint yourself deeply with it. Let it shape your mind, your conscience, your intuitions. And don’t go at it alone. God has given you pastors who are set apart to study and teach his word. I love how often you all are asking to meet because you want godly counsel from your pastors on decisions and situations you are facing. Seek counsel not only from your pastors, but from the saints in the land. Let your brothers and sisters in your church in on what you are going through and ask them to speak into it. And through all that, pray. Be in conversation with the LORD. Ask him for counsel, confess to him the sinful desires that are clouding your vision, praise him for who he is and what he’s done, and he promises through all these things to give you the wisdom you desire. Don’t determine ahead of time what you want to do and then just go looking for affirmation. Seek counsel from the LORD, and he promises to give it. Seek counsel from the LORD, and even your heart will start to sense clearer direction, so that it too will instruct you.

Set the LORD always before you, following the counsel He provides, and you too can know that you will not be shaken. You can’t know that nothing hard or painful will happen to you; God hasn’t promised that. But you can know that whatever does happen to you, the LORD will be at your right hand through it, and therefore you will not ultimately be shaken. That’s real security from the LORD. It’s the security of knowing that if you have him, you have all you need. He’s your chosen portion. It’s the security of knowing that wherever the lines fall in your life, they are falling in pleasant places, because he’s put them there. It’s the security of knowing that he is your ultimate counselor, and because he is at your right hand, you will not be shaken. In his presence, as you set him always before you, you are safe, and that means in his presence you are safe to rejoice. So let’s close by talking about everlasting joy in the LORD.

Everlasting joy in the LORD

Verse 9 begins with “Therefore.” He’s saying, “Therefore, because I dwell secure”…my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices. He’s safe to rejoice. Typically when you’re under a threat, you wouldn’t think of that as the time to rejoice. And remember, David is under a threat: He prays in verse 1 for preservation because such preservation is threatened. Yet when taking refuge in the LORD, when setting him always before him, with the LORD at his right hand, he is safe to rejoice. He knows he will not be shaken, and therefore, his heart is glad, and his whole being rejoices. If you ever find your joy in the LORD is lacking, one way to get at that is to ask, “What am I afraid of right now?” Fear holds us back from rejoicing. Try actually listing it out; write it down if that’s helpful. It’s often less overwhelming than you’d think. And with each of them, then, you can start setting the LORD before you, bringing him into the story, seeking his counsel, asking what he says about these things. As you do that, you start to get the safety to rejoice anyway, even before all those fears are resolved.

David goes on to say in verse 9 that his flesh also dwells secure. So inwardly, he’s rejoicing, and outwardly, his flesh dwells secure. He has assurance from God that God will preserve him. He believes that in whatever crisis he is facing, God will save his life. That’s the hope he expresses in verse 10: You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. Sheol is the Hebrew word for the realm of the dead, the underworld, the place our bodies go when we die, into the ground, returning to dust, and the place where the souls of those who die in the Old Testament seem to have went. Of course, David isn’t saying that he knows he will never die; he knows as well as anyone that we all have our day. But he is expressing confidence here that he won’t come to an untimely death at the hand of his enemies. And indeed, when scripture narrates David’s death, it says that “he died at a good age, full of days, riches, and honor” (1 Chronicles 29:28).

Yet in the meantime, God has made known to David the path of life, verse 11 says. He’s made known to David the way to continue living so that he is not killed by his enemies. But he’s not simply made known to David the way to a long, yet miserable life. Instead, David reports that in the presence of the LORD there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. You see, he’s safe, God has made known to him the path of life! But he’s safe to rejoice, because from the same presence of the LORD from which peace comes, so does joy. When the LORD is your chosen portion and your cup, you have all you need because in him not only is there long life, there is joyful life! He’s a good portion! We have no good apart from him because he is our ultimate good! There is no happiness apart from him, and we don’t need a happiness apart from him, because there is fullness of happiness in his presence!

Sometimes well-meaning Christians have tried to distinguish happiness and joy by saying that happiness is an emotion that comes and goes, whereas joy is constant. But the limitation of that is it can make joy seem like something less exciting, less real, less felt, than happiness. Joy is very much something we feel as feeling people, and that’s a good thing! That’s by God’s design! And God is telling us here in his very Word that such a feeling will be full in his presence. It is, in fact, the only place where our happiness can be full, because the LORD is the only true God for whom we were created. He has put in us this immense capacity for happiness that only he is immense enough to satisfy! To reference Lewis again, he points out how we can recognize this not so much from the way a vacation falls short of our hopes for it, but the way even the best of vacations fail to deliver the fullness of joy for which we long! No matter how great it was, it always could have been better, and that’s true of our greatest joys in this world, because we were made for something bigger than this world. We were made for the one who made this world, and so it is in his presence, and in his presence alone, that there is fullness of joy. Do you know at least part of the reason you sin is because there’s still some part of you that doesn’t believe this? The lie of Satan is that if you really want to be happy, you have to seek a good apart from the LORD. But it’s just that: A lie. There is fullness of joy in the presence of God. Whatever sin is offering, you don’t need it!

It’s fullness of joy, AND, it’s pleasures forevermore. That’s the other limitation of the joys of this life. The best ones could always have been better, and, no matter how great they are, they end one day. Most of them end pretty quickly, but even the longest lasting ones are destined to perish. In a wedding ceremony, marking the beginning of one of the greatest, longest-lasting joys this life has to offer, we still have to say things like, “until death do us part” and “as long as you both shall live” because we know the day is coming when death will end that pleasure also. Yet in the presence of the LORD, there is not only fullness of joy; there are also pleasures forevermore. Another thing that can temper our joy is the fear of the thing we’re enjoying ending. Vacation is again a great example: How many days from the end do you find you start thinking about all the work and problems to which you’re returning? Yet in the presence of the LORD, we are safe to rejoice, because we know these pleasures never end.

Psalm 16 clearly states that. And yet, how could David clearly state that? He did still expect to die someday also, didn’t he? Indeed, as I already mentioned, he did die. His body did go down to Sheol, and his corpse rotted like every other dead corpse. But I thought he said in verse 10 that God would not do that? I thought he said his pleasures would last forever? He did, and what that shows us is that though David wrote Psalm 16, Psalm 16 was not ultimately about David. Here’s how the apostle Peter explained it in Acts 2: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 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, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:29-32).

When Jesus Christ’s life was threatened, he also prayed that the LORD would preserve his life, only he added this qualifier: Yet not as I will, but as you will. And it was not the LORD’s will to preserve his life from death that time. Rather, he was given over to death on the cross, to take upon himself the wage of David’s sin and ours. Though he was the one man who never ran after other gods, he willingly bore our sorrows, and poured out his own blood as an offering on our behalf, because he loved us before we were saints, in order to make us saints. He went down to Sheol on our behalf, but he was not abandoned to Sheol, nor did his flesh see corruption, but on the third day God raised him again, and he ascended into heaven, into the fullness of joy in God’s presence, and the pleasures at his right hand that will never end, for death no longer has any hold on him, and nor will death have the final word on any who believe in him. Believe in him. Cast off all other hopes for salvation. Cast off all confidence in your own works. If you appear in the presence of God on the basis of your own goodness, you are not safe at all. He is a just judge, and he will punish you for your sins. But say to Jesus, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you,” appear in God’s presence with him at your right hand, and you are safe to rejoice. In him you will have fullness of joy in the presence of God, pleasures at his right hand forevermore.

You will have real security in him, not the security of wishfully thinking that nothing bad will ever happen to you, but the security of knowing that even when the worst thing happens to you, even when death itself comes for you, you will not be abandoned to Sheol! Your spirit will live on in the presence of God, and when Jesus returns, your body will come out of the tomb to live with him forever. In that day the dwelling place of God will be with man, your joy will be complete, and your joy will never end. That day is coming; it is guaranteed by Jesus himself, and it is the end to your story if Jesus is your Lord today, whatever happens in the meantime. Think about that. 90% of the things you fear won’t happen anyway. Fear is a liar and a false prophet. But even if 100% of them happened, your future is fullness of joy in the presence of God, pleasures at his right hand forevermore. That means you are totally safe to rejoice in the Lord today. Do you think “Ah maybe not, maybe he’s still a bit mad at me”? That’s not true. This whole Psalm is ultimately about Jesus, and what that means is that verse 3 is ultimately how Jesus feels about his saints. Those who really belong to Jesus feel the weight of their sin and just how offensive it is to their Lord; that’s right and good. But that doesn’t stop Jesus from looking at us and saying, “These are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” His love for you is not a begrudging love. He delights in you. He’s already paid for all your sins; he’s no longer holding them against you. Even through sin remains in you, even though there’s so much in your life you haven’t fixed, right now, today, you are safe to rejoice in the presence of the LORD if you are in Christ, and you will do just that forever.

Exclusive allegiance to the LORD

This Psalm is a prayer with one request, recorded in verse 1, followed by 10 verses in which David spells out his confidence in the God to whom he prays. The request, right there at the beginning, is, “Preserve me, O God.” The most obvious meaning of the prayer is that it is a prayer for God to preserve David’s life. The Bible elsewhere describes David as a man of war; his life was threatened many times, most notably when he had been anointed king, but had not yet taken the throne, because the prior king, Saul, was still around, and Saul was trying to kill him. We don’t know the specific situation in which this Psalm was written, nor do we need to: Suffice it to say there were many times in David’s life when people were actively trying to kill him, and so he prays, “Preserve me, O God.”

And that’s worth noting in and of itself, isn’t it? When his life was threatened, when people were actively trying to kill him, he didn’t run into an earthly fortress where he knew no arrows could hit him. He ran to God in prayer. So he goes on to explain in verse 1: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. Those who run to a fortress are basically saying to the fortress, “Preserve me, O fortress, for in you I take refuge,” but here David turns to an invisible God and says, “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” Then in verse 2 he clarifies who this God is. There he calls him LORD, all caps, which translates the Hebrew name of God, Yahweh, the God of Israel. Here’s what he says to the God of Israel: You are my Lord, with lower-case letters, indicating a master, or one in authority over another. David is king of Israel, but he recognizes that the God of Israel is king over him. He says he has no good apart from him. In other words, he isn’t going to turn anywhere else for preservation from his enemies, because there is no good for him apart from Yahweh. It’s a claim of exclusive allegiance: Yahweh, you are my master, and I will look nowhere else for good but from you.

One of the most common times in which people who don’t even believe nonetheless resort to prayer is when their life is in danger. When they sense they have no other hope, they think they might as well give prayer a shot. However, they don’t even know the God to whom they are praying, nor are they swearing any kind of exclusive allegiance to him. That’s not what David is doing here. He’s praying for preservation because he’s already made the LORD his refuge. He’s saying, “since you are my only hope, since you are my exclusive allegiance, since I have nowhere else to look for good, preserve me.” That’s what relationship with Yahweh looks like. Other false gods will allow you to pray to them while also looking elsewhere for good, but Yahweh demands your exclusive allegiance, because he is the only true God. As C.S. Lewis has put it, God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. We have no good apart from him.

Have you got this clear in your own mind and heart? It’s one of the vows we take in our baptism: That Jesus is Lord, meaning our exclusive allegiance is now to him, and we will look for good from nowhere else. But what does that do to your desire for a romantic relationship, or sexual intimacy? When your exclusive allegiance is to Yahweh, you learn that such desires, like the desire for preservation of life for which David prays here, are good and natural desires, but that the exclusive context in which Yahweh authorizes us to enjoy such intimacy is marriage. Not only that, but Yahweh requires we only marry those who are also exlusively allied to Yahweh; to do otherwise would divide our allegiance from him. Ok, so you desirea mrraige to another Christian, but then years go by, and you still aren’t married. You still desire the sexual intimacy, the companionship, perhaps also children, but you don’t have it, and then the temptation comes to look for it apart from the LORD. In those times, remember that no happiness or peace apart from the LORD exists. Say to the LORD: “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” The great hymn, “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken” says, “O ‘tis not in grief to harm me while thy love is left to me; o ‘twere not in joy to charm me, where that joy unmixed with thee.” The idea is of that second line there is that the ordinary joys in life can’t bring me joy if that joy is unmixed with the LORD. Don’t you know that today brothers and sisters? Would your life really be better if God gave you something you prayed for apart from giving you himself? Of course it wouldn’t. We have no good apart from Him.

I already incidentally alluded to the fact that marrying outside the LORD would divide your allegiance from the LORD, but next in verse 3, even more basic than marriage, we see that exclusive allegiance to the LORD also includes allegiance to His people. There David says that as for the saints in the land, they are the excellent one, in whom is all his delight. The word “saints” translates a word simply meaning “holy ones” and holiness means to be set apart from the world and uniquely devoted to God. The saints, then, would be those God has called out from the world to serve him, and here David even clarifies that the saints of whom he is speaking are not those in heaven, but in the land, which in David’s day would have been the people of Israel, and in our day is the visible members of visible churches. It makes sense, then, doesn’t it, that if Yahweh is your Master, you’d also feel drawn to his people? If someone pledges allegiance to a king, we typically expect them to fight in battle with the king’s subjects, right? To be on Yahweh’s side is to be on His people’s side, not only in some vague, purely spiritual sense, but in the sense of visible saints in the visible land, as David says here.

Notice the great love for one another that Yahweh enables. Let’s not settle for relationships among one another in which we merely see one another on Sundays and don’t harbor any active resentment toward one another. Let’s cultivate delight in one another, not because we share the same hobbies, can quote all the same movies, and watched the same sporting events over the weekend. Let’s delight in one another because we have been set apart by our Lord to serve him together. Let’s view one another the way Jesus views us. Where we see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in one another, those are the excellent things. And if you sense this delight in one another is lacking, before you rehearse the reasons that’s the rest of the church’s fault, consider: Why don’t I see the saints in the land as the excellent ones? Why isn’t my delight in them? Who are the people I do delight in, and is it the things the LORD considers excellent that I’m seeing as excellent in them? It may be that you are focusing on their flaws, which are very real, but so are yours, and notice that that isn’t where the LORD, is his inspired word, focuses. The saints in the land truly are the excellent ones, and worthy of our delight. May your church family be a delight to you.

Security from the LORD

This being the case, he can then also trust Yahweh with whatever he decides to give him in this life. So he goes on to say in verse 5, “You hold my lot.” The lot there is the lot that decides where land is divided. So here he’s basically saying to God, “You determine the location and extent of my land.” Of course, that is true of David’s personal property, but remember that David is also king of Israel, so that here he’s likely also referring to the territory of Israel. The fact that he writes it as a Psalm even suggests that it’s mean to be sung by all Israel, and that their entire territory would then be in view. So he, and they, and we, can go on to say in verse 6: The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. God didn’t give David or Israel or you and me a territory with no lines. Yet wherever the lines fell, David trusted that they fell in pleasant places, because it was the LORD who laid them.

So with us, the LORD puts various lines in our lives. He holds our lot as well. Some of you own land, and that means you have a deed that clarifies the lines beyond which the land is not yours. When you add up all your money, it comes to a certain number, and in this moment, you have no more than that. God has drawn a thick line around our time. For all of us, there are only 24 hours in a day. For all of us, there is a certain length to our lives on earth; we don’t know where that line is, but the LORD does. You’re in a relationship with someone to whom you are not married, and the LORD has drawn a line you are not to cross concerning what is acceptable in that relationship. You have some authority lets say as a government official, a parent, a teacher, a husband, a pastor, or an employer, but the LORD has put a line around that authority, requiring that you only exercise it to the degree to which he has authorized you. We could just as easily call these lines boundaries, and our lives are full of them.

Do you turn to the LORD for counsel? God has given us various ways to do so. The central one is his word, written down for us in scripture. Every word of scripture is God’s Word, so if you want real security, acquaint yourself deeply with it. Let it shape your mind, your conscience, your intuitions. And don’t go at it alone. God has given you pastors who are set apart to study and teach his word. I love how often you all are asking to meet because you want godly counsel from your pastors on decisions and situations you are facing. Seek counsel not only from your pastors, but from the saints in the land. Let your brothers and sisters in your church in on what you are going through and ask them to speak into it. And through all that, pray. Be in conversation with the LORD. Ask him for counsel, confess to them the sinful desires that are clouding your vision, praise him for who he is and what he’s done, and he promises through all these things to give you the wisdom you desire. Don’t determine ahead of time what you want to do and then just go looking for affirmation. Seek counsel from the LORD, and he promises to give it. Seek counsel from the LORD, and even your heart will start to sense clearer direction, so that it too will instruct you.

Everlasting joy in the LORD

Verse 9 begins with “Therefore.” He’s saying, “Therefore, because I dwell secure”…my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices. He’s safe to rejoice. Typically when you’re under a threat, you wouldn’t think of that as the time to rejoice. And remember, David is under a threat: He prays in verse 1 for preservation because such preservation is threatened. Yet when taking refuge in the LORD, when setting him always before him, with the LORD at his right hand, he is safe to rejoice. He knows he will not be shaken, and therefore, his heart is glad, and his whole being rejoices. If you ever find your joy in the LORD is lacking, one way to get at that is to ask, “What am I afraid of right now?” Fear holds us back from rejoicing. Try actually listing it out; write it down if that’s helpful. It’s often less overwhelming than you’d think. I did this recently and I realized I was afraid the squatters next door would bring more criminal activity into my neighborhood, I was afraid we’d make the wrong decision on a building purchase, and I was afraid I’d make a wrong decision about staffing at the church. There, that isn’t actually that much. And with each of them, then, you can start setting the LORD before you, bringing him into the story, seeking his counsel, asking what he says about these things. As you do that, you start to get the safety to rejoice anyway, even before all those fears are resolved.

David goes on to say in verse 9 that his flesh also dwells secure. So inwardly, he’s rejoicing, and outwardly, his flesh dwells secure. He has assurance from God that God will preserve him. He believes that in whatever crisis he is facing, God will save his life. That’s the hope he expresses in vesre 10: You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. Sheol is the Hebrew word for the realm of the dead, the underworld, the place our bodies go when we die, into the ground, returning to dust, and the place where the souls of those who die in the Old Testament seem to have went. Of course, David isn’t saying that he knows he will never die; he knows as well as anyone that we all have our day. But he is expressing confidence here that he won’t come to an untimely death at the hand of his enemies. And indeed, when scripture narrates David’s death, it says that “he died at a good age, full of days, riches, and honor” (1 Chronicles 29:28).

Sometimes well meaning Christians have tried to distinguish happiness and joy by saying that happiness is an emotion that comes and goes, whereas joy is constant. But the limitation of that is it can make joy seem like something less exciting, less real, less felt, than happiness. Joy is very much something we feel as feeling people, and that’s a good thing! That’s by God’s design! And God is telling us here in his very Word that such a feeling will be full in his presence. It is, in fact, the only place where our happiness can be full, because the LORD is the only true God for whom we were created. He has put in us this immense capacity for happiness that only he is immense enough to satisfy! To reference Lewis again, he points out how we can recognize this not so much from the way a vacation falls short of our hopes for it, but the way even the best of vacations fail to deliver the fullness of joy for which we long! No matter how great it was, it always could have been better, and that’s true of our greatest joys in this world, because we were made for something bigger than this world. We were made for the one who made this world, and so it is in his presence, and in his presence alone, that there is fullness of joy. Do you know at least part of the reason you sin is because there’s still some part of you that doesn’t believe this? The lie of Satan is that if you really want to be happy, you have to seek a good apart from the LORD. But it’s just that: A lie. There is fullness of joy in the presence of God. Whatever sin is offering, you don’t need it!

When Jesus Christ’s life was threatened, he also prayed that the LORD would preserve his life, only he added this qualifier: Yet not as I will, but as you will. And it was not the LORD’s will to preserve his life from death that time. Rather, he was given over to death on the cross, to take upon himself the wage David’s sin and ours. Though he was the one man who never ran after other gods, he willingly bore our sorrows, and poured out his own blood as an offering on our behalf, because he loved us before we were saints, in order to make us saints. He went down to Sheol on our behalf, but he was not abandoned to Sheol, nor did his flesh see corruption, but on the third day God raised him again, and he ascended into heaven, into the fullness of joy in God’s presence, and the pleasures at his right hand that will never end, for death no longer has any hold on him, and nor will death have the final world on any who believe in him. Believe in him. Cast off all other hopes for salvation. Cast off all confidence in your own works. If you appear in the presence of God on the basis of your own goodness, you are not safe at all. He is a just judge, and he will punish you for your sins. But say to Jesus, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you,” appear in God’s presence with him at your right hand, and you are safe to rejoice. In him you will have fullness of joy in the presence of God, pleasures at his right hand forevermore.