Thank you Waldo. Would you take your Bible and open it please to the book of Psalms with
me as we look tonight at Psalm 16. Psalm 16 is a psalm of David. It is a psalm in which
he expresses his confidence in the Lord. He begins by saying, preserve me, O God, for
I take refuge in thee. That's his prayer. We don't know the historical occasion that
this prayer was connected with. It could have been any of several in David's life. But
whatever it was, David was faced with some sort of threat. And so his prayer is for preservation.
You need preservation tonight? Are there any threats against you? On our recent trip to
Israel I came to an understanding of something that has bothered me for years. My first two
trips there back in the 70s I was disappointed and frankly a little disgusted with the churches
that had been built over the so-called holy sites. It seemed to me to be a totally unlovely
thing to do, to build a church over these places that were so special and in so doing
to destroy the immediate environment and often then to encrust these special sites with some
sort of marble or other markings that took away the original appearance of them. And
I have for years just wondered why in the world were those things not preserved in their
original state. And our guide explained this time that 1,500 years ago, 1,800 years ago,
they had no way of preserving these sites. And the sites were wearing away because of
weather and also because the sites were well known to Christian pilgrims. And they would
come to Bethlehem or they would go to sites beside the Dead Sea and just like a lot of
us they would chip off a piece of the rock or they would do something to take a piece
or a relic back home with them. And so they had to find some way to preserve the sites.
And the best thing they could think of was to build churches over them so that these
sites would be encased and preserved. David is here praying, God, there are those who
are after me. There are those who are seeking to take away my life. There are those who
are chipping away at me, preserve me. He is asking God to put around him his protection
and keep him. He says, for I take refuge in thee. This is a phrase that David and other
psalmist use often, I take refuge in thee. The word take refuge is a verb that means
to find shelter in thee. And it came to mean figuratively, I trust in you. I give myself
over to your care. For example, in chapter, I should say Psalm 7 and verse 1, he begins
the same way, O Lord my God, in thee I have taken refuge. Again, in Psalm 11 and verse
1, he says, in the Lord I take refuge. Psalm 17, just over a page, and verse 7, he says
something very similar, wondrously show thy loving kindness, O Savior of those who take
refuge at thy right hand. So this was a common expression on the part of David. He saw himself
as one who was needy, one who was under attack, one who was threatened, and he saw himself
trusting, taking refuge in the Lord. He said, I said to the Lord, thou art my Lord. Do you
see any difference there between the two words Lord? Well, they're both L-O-R-D, but there
is a difference in the way they're typeset. Do you notice it? The first one is all capitals,
the second one has a capital L, small o-r-d. It's because they're two different words.
I said to the Lord, all in capitals, is the English way of translating the Old Testament
name for God, Yahweh, or as it's put into the English often, Jehovah. I said to Yahweh,
thou art my Lord. And that is the Hebrew word Adonai. So we have here in the first verse
and a half three names for David's God. He said, preserve me, O God. That's the first
one. The name here is El, E-L, El. It is a masculine name, it is singular. There is the
name Elohim, which may or may not be related to this one. But the name that he uses here
for God is El. Preserve me, O El. Now the name El was the most common name for God in
the ancient Near East, not only among the Jews, but among the pagans as well. You may
recall the Old Testament speaks about Baal worship and how at times, various times, Baal
worship troubled Israel. The people of Israel would follow after the Baals. It was a false
God. The Philistines and others worshipped the Baals. The father of Baal was said to
be El. The Hebrew word simply means the mighty. It is a name that ascribes great might and
power to God. So this is not a unique name for the God of the Jews. It is a common name
for God in that time. But he goes on to identify to make sure that we understand he's talking
about the true El, not the El of the false gods, but the true El, the one who identified
himself to his people as Yahweh. Now Yahweh is the most significant name for God in all
of the Old Testament. It is the name by which God revealed himself to Moses at the burning
bush. I am that I am. The name Yahweh connotes two special things to his people. Number one,
it reminds us that God is the self-existent one. We are not self-existent people. We derive
our existence. Where do we derive it from? From chance? From evolution? Of course not.
From God. The Apostle Paul said to the Athenians, in him, the unknown God whom they worshiped
and to whom and who he was trying to preach to them, he said, in him we live and move
and have our being. We derive our life from God. But God derives his life from no one.
He is self-existent. And that's what his name means. And it is as the self-existent one
that he redeems his people. And that's the second significance of the name to his people.
First that he is the self-existent one and then that this one who is self-existent has
stepped into our existence, which depends upon him, and he has redeemed us. He is our
savior. It is this name that a number of times he reveals himself through Isaiah, for example.
I am the Lord who redeems you, he says. And so it is the Lord who redeems Yahweh. And
then this third title or name for God, Adonai, is a plural noun. In fact, it is a form of
the name Adam. And it means in the Hebrew the one who is ruler. Now what does that tell
you about the first Adam? What was he made to do? To rule. That's what his name meant.
God said, you're Adam, you're ruler. And he gave him to rule over the earth. Now this
is not the name Adam here, but Adonai is related in the Hebrew to Adam. And it means ruler.
So David says, preserve me, O El. I said to Yahweh, thou art my ruler. And then he confesses,
I have no good besides thee. That is no moral good. David did not consider himself good.
He found his goodness in the Lord. God was his only good. Now what we're finding out
here are the marks of a believer. The marks of a believer. One who has his confidence
in God. In the first place, his trust is solely in the Lord. David said, I take refuge in
thee. How do you know a believer? His trust is in the Lord. Secondly, he desires nothing
and no one besides the Lord. Now there are times when we do, and when we do we are spiritually
sick. We're not healthy. But a healthy believer desires nothing and no one besides the Lord.
And we would say with David, I have no good. There is no good in me. I have no good beside
me, except you, Lord. And then the third mark is found in verse 3. The true believer delights
in the people of God, as did David. He says, as for the saints who are in the earth, this
word saint comes from a verb that means to pronounce clean or to pronounce sacred. It's
related to the word holy. Saints are people who are set apart, who have been cleansed
by the Lord and then set apart to himself. He says, as for the saints who are in the
earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight. Notice how he puts this.
He says the people who are the saints are majestic. Now just back a few Psalms ago,
David wrote, Oh Lord, our Lord, oh Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all
the earth. And so he declares that God's name is that of majesty. But here he uses the term
of God's people, those whom God has declared to be clean. And he says they are the majestic
ones. The word refers to a cloak or to an outer garment. In other words, one who wore
a particular outer garment was obviously noble. A king, for example, wore a particular cloak.
He had a robe, a garb that denoted him as being above others, that denoted him as special,
as a designation and a rank that was all by himself. That's the idea behind the majestic
one here. And so he says of God's people, he says they are the noble, they are the stately,
they are the distinguished ones. And he says, in whom is all my delight, my pleasure. David
found pleasure in the people of God. And I believe that you do too. And I believe that's
one reason you're here tonight. And number four, and verse four, the mark of a believer
is that he refuses false worship. David did. He said, the sorrows of those who have bartered
for another God will be multiplied. That is the pains, the wounds of those who have lusted
for, would be one way to understand this, who have gone after in lust another God will
be multiplied. I shall not pour out their libations of blood. We don't know what he
means exactly. He may have been talking about animal sacrifices. But as you know, human
sacrifice was not unknown in some of the pagan religions of David's day, as is still true
today. And David said, I will not participate with them. I will not pour out the libations
or the sacrifices of blood connected with their idolatry, their cults of paganism. Nor
shall I take their names, that is the names of these gods, upon my lips. What he means
here is I will not lift them up in prayer. I will not call out to these gods. And so
the fourth mark of a believer is that he refuses to participate in false worship. Why? Because
he's found reality. He doesn't need anything else. And because the Spirit of God is in
him, he discerns the faults. He says, I will not participate in that. The marks of one
who has confidence in the Lord. And then in verses 5 through 8, the blessings of one who
has such confidence in God. The blessings of a believer. He says, the Lord is the portion
of my inheritance and my cup. Thou dost support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant
places. Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. Notice the various terms that he uses.
The language reflects the time when the division of the land of Israel took place and the tribes
received their inheritance. Notice he talks about the portion, the inheritance, the lot,
the lines, the heritage. But what he says is, it's not the land that is my heritage,
it's the Lord. He is the portion of my inheritance. Notice Psalm 73 for a moment and notice what
the psalmist there declares regarding the Lord. Psalm 73.
And verse 26. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my
portion forever. And so we have another example of one who says the Lord is my portion, my
inheritance. What are you looking to for your inheritance? Have you ever received an inheritance?
Some of you may not be old enough yet to receive an inheritance. David says it's not the money,
it's not land, it's not physical things. He says the thing that really counts in life,
the bottom line is that the Lord is my portion. And not only for this life, but forever He
is my portion. My inheritance and my cup. Can you think of another place that talks
about the cup? My cup overflows? Right, Psalm 23. The picture there, the metaphor is the
same. The cup seems to represent God's provision, God's sustenance. And David in Psalm 23 says,
my cup overflows. In other words, God provides for me abundantly. And the same idea here.
He is my cup. He is my sustenance. He provides all that I need. He says, thou dost support
my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. The lines refer to ropes or cords
that were used to measure off distances and boundaries. And he says the lines have fallen
to me in pleasant places. And he's not talking about a piece of real estate folks. He's talking
about the lines of God's blessings have been dropped in His life in a pleasant way. And
he says, my heritage is beautiful to me. It's a sad thing when people's heritage isn't
beautiful to them anymore. In that regard, I think of the prodigal son who demanded his
inheritance from his father. Do you think the father knew that his son was going to
blow it or did this surprise the father when he gave the inheritance to the younger son?
Have you ever thought about that? I believe that the father knew what was going to happen.
But that he nonetheless gave the son his inheritance. And was that inheritance precious to him?
No. He wasted it in foolish living. You and I have an inheritance from God that sometimes
we also take for granted, don't we? It doesn't seem precious to us or beautiful to us. We
take it very casually. And yet we have in Jesus Christ every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places. Everything that pertains to life and to godliness is ours in the Lord.
There is no good thing that He has withheld from us. Let's never take it for granted,
but understand how beautiful our heritage is. The first blessing of one who has his
confidence in God is that his heart is content, verses 5 and 6. But also in verse 7, his mind
is counseled. I will bless the Lord, he says, who has counseled me. Indeed my mind instructs
me in the night. I will bless the Lord. The word means I will kneel down before the Lord
so as to praise him. I will bend my knee before him who has counseled me. Look at Psalm 33,
verses 10 and 11, where we have a parallel passage. I like this. The psalmist says, the
Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The
counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart from generation to generation.
Nations counsel together, don't they? They lay out plans. I can remember not too many
years ago when we had this marvelous peace dividend that we were going to be enjoying.
Remember that? Because of the fall of communism, a new age had come. A new world order was
just on the horizon. Almost sounded like chamber a little bit in his declaration regarding
Hitler. Nations take counsel together, but the Lord nullifies all of that. The nations
cannot plan anything apart from the direction that God has designed for history. But his
counsel stands forever. The plans that God has made go from generation to generation,
but it is this God who has counseled us. He counsels his own. He says, indeed my mind
instructs me in the night. Literally, do you know what he says in the Hebrew? If you have
a good study Bible, it may tell you. He says, indeed my kidneys instruct me in the nights.
Now we could talk about that a little bit, but we won't. You see, to the Hebrew, the
kidneys represented the very center of the being, the place where emotion was, where
conscience was. And so David is saying here, my mind, my innermost part instructs me. It
reproves me. It chastens me. It disciplines me in the night. Now we don't know if he's
talking about being on the night watch like a soldier, or if he's talking about lying
in bed and not being able to sleep, which some of us have experienced. But what he says
here is that during those times in the night, my mind instructs me. There is a conversation
going on inside of me. Sometimes I'd like for that conversation to be quiet so I could
go to sleep. Would you feel that way? But there are times when that conversation is
going inside of me, and we need to listen during those times. David had disciplined
his ear, and he knew that there were times when God was his counselor. God was saying
something in those night seasons. Now whether this was literal night or some figurative
use of night here, we're not sure too. He may have been talking about a trial, the time
of weeping. The verb that this word night comes from means to twist away. And so the
picture of the Hebrew mind is that when night comes, the light is twisted away from us.
Have you ever felt like your life was just being twisted away from you? Your circumstances
were so tough to deal with that it was just like everything is being twisted away and
night is descending on your soul and not your body. Well, he says, in those seasons the
Lord's my counselor. The blessing of a believer is first of all that he has a heart that is
content in the Lord. He doesn't desire anything else. He's found his contentment in God. And
secondly, he has a mind that is counseled from God, especially in the night seasons.
And third, he says that the believer has a future that is certain. Verse 8, I have set
the Lord continually before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Because he is at my right hand. Now that's interesting, isn't it? We think of Jesus
being at the right hand of the Father and in fact at the end of this psalm it says,
in thy right hand, talking about God's right hand. But here he talks about the believer's
right hand. Because he, the Lord, the Savior, who is self-existent, is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken. The place of the right hand was the place for a friend or the place
for a protector. And so David is saying, the Lord is there as my protecting friend. I have
set the Lord continually before me. Some of you may have gotten some Father's Day cards
today. I did, I haven't had time to open them yet. So I'm going to do that tonight
when I go home. It's a custom in our home, after occasions like this or after birthdays,
to take the cards that we receive and put them on the fireplace mantle. We put them
before us so that we can see them and be reminded of the thoughts of the people who sent us
the cards. It's kind of a special thing to do. After a while they get dusty and you take
them down, I suppose, but for a while you put them there because you want them before
you to be reminded. And you see that's David's idea here too. I have set the Lord before
me. He says, I keep him there before me so I'm remembering him. I'm going to get a little
ahead of myself here and have you turn to Acts chapter 2 for just a minute. Because
there we have a New Testament quotation or citation of Psalm 2. Excuse me, Psalm 16.
Acts chapter 2, verse 25. For David says of him, says of Jesus, I was always beholding
the Lord in my presence. Now that's not exactly how it reads back in our version of Psalm
16. There's a reason for that. In the New Testament when the Old Testament was quoted,
they quoted from the Septuagint, which was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
The Old Testament that we have is directly from the Hebrew. But in the New Testament
when Paul and Peter and others quoted from the Old Testament, they quoted from the Greek
version of it. And so you had it translated into the Greek and there was a shift of some
of the words and some of the meanings. So don't be alarmed when you don't see the identical
words used. Now the Holy Spirit is the one who inspired this writing to come to us through
Acts 2. And when David says, I have set the Lord continually before me, the Holy Spirit
is saying, what he was saying was, I was always beholding the Lord in my presence. So you
see David was saying, I've just put the Lord there. I'm always looking at the Lord, reminding
me of Him. He is at the place of my protecting friend. And because of that I will not be
shaken. The picture there is just being shaken, grabbed a hold of and shaken and threatened.
David says that's not going to happen. And so the blessing of a believer is that he has
a future that is certain because the Lord is at his right hand as his protecting friend.
That's true of you tonight. If you're one who has trusted Jesus Christ, He is there.
It's important for you to keep Him before you. Keep looking at Him. Keep beholding Him
so that you're reminded of that truth. And then he elaborates more upon what that future
is in verses 9 through 11. He says, therefore, notice that, because of what I've said, he
says, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely. For thou
wilt not abandon my soul to sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy holy one to undergo decay.
Thou wilt make known to me the path of life, in thy presence is fullness of joy. In thy
right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Now remember, David is writing this out of
his own heart and life. Now we're going to talk about some deeper meaning to these verses,
but let's remember David's writing it. He's writing about his own experience and his own
faith. And first of all, as he thinks about the future of himself and all believers, he
says, there is deliverance from death. My heart is glad. My glory rejoices. The word
glory means weight or honor. And poetically it means the soul. So he's talking about his
inner person. My glory, my soul rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely or confidently.
For he says, thou wilt not abandon my soul to sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy holy
one to undergo decay. Now what did David have in mind? We don't know exactly. We're not
in David's mind. We know how the Lord intended for this to be read. He tells us in the New
Testament. David may have been saying, God is going to preserve me up to the point of
death. Most likely, David had in view in addition to that his own resurrection. And so he used
language to speak of that. Sheol was the realm of the dead, the departed. It does not refer
to hell, the fiery hell, as we think of that. He's talking about the realm of the dead.
You will not abandon my soul to sheol, neither will you allow your holy one. And he's talking
about himself, first of all. Your holy one, because he's one of the saints, remember,
to undergo decay. He's talking about his physical body as well as his soul. The soul is where
sheol goes. The grave is where his body goes. He talks about both of them. And so he says,
I will be delivered from death. That's what my future holds. But then he goes on to say
he would be resurrected to life. Look at verse 11. Thou will make known to me the path of
life. David is saying, this life is all there is. For after I have experienced death, there
is still the path of life. And the third thing that the future of the believer holds in David's
faith is that he would enjoy the presence of the Lord forever. Now he said the same
thing at the end of Psalm 23, didn't he? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life. Then the lights go out and that's it, right? No. He says, and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And so he anticipated the presence of the Lord
forever. Now having said what we believe David was saying about himself and his own faith,
let's back up for a moment and remind ourselves that this whole paragraph beginning in verse
8 through the end of the Psalm is quoted or cited in the New Testament. It's one of those
scriptures that Peter used when he was preaching on the day of Pentecost. So let's go back
there. Now remember, Peter is speaking here as God is revealing truth to him. Where did
he get it? Well I'll tell you where I think he got it. I think that Jesus explained Psalm
2 to Peter and the others in those days after his resurrection. I think he said now, fellows
open your Bibles, open your scrolls to Psalm 2. I want to talk to you about it. And then
he laid out to them what Psalm 2 was really saying about himself as the great son of David.
And now Peter stands just a few days later, just 10 days after Jesus went back to heaven.
He stands on the temple steps and he proclaims this Psalm to all the people. He's been preaching
Jesus to them, verse 22 of Acts 2. Jesus the Nazarene, and he explains about Jesus. He
was delivered up and so on. Verse 24, and God raised him up again, putting an end to
the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David
says of him, and I believe he's telling us now what Jesus taught him, I was always beholding
the Lord in my presence, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. In other words,
these are the words of Jesus. This Psalm was in his heart, in his mind, in the time of
his suffering. Therefore my heart was glad, my tongue exalted. Moreover my flesh also
will abide in hope, because thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades. Hades is Sheol.
Sheol is the Hebrew word, Hades is the Greek word. Nor allow thy holy one to undergo decay.
Thou hast made known to me the ways of life that will make me full of gladness with thy
presence. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David, that
he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. All he had to do was
to point to it. And so because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an
oath to seat one of his descendants upon his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection
of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay.
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. And so on that great day
of Pentecost, Peter opens the word of God to all those people to help them understand
what David was saying. So let's go back now to Psalm 16 and just conclude by noting how
this summarizes Jesus' ministry for us. First of all it speaks of Jesus' death. Thou wilt
not abandon my soul to Sheol. What is death? It's the separation of the spirit from the
body, right? The body is still here when death occurs. But the spirit is gone, the immaterial
part is gone. And so the soul is spoken of here as going to Sheol, to the realm of the
dead in the Hebrew minds. But the soul of Jesus, and of David for that matter, but we're
thinking now of Jesus, his soul was not abandoned there. He was not deserted or forsaken there.
Now Jesus had said on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That was a
human experience and emotion and feeling that was with him at the cross. But truly God had
not forsaken him, and the Lord Jesus knew that. And when his soul departed from his body,
when he said it is finished and he gave up his spirit, and the immaterial part of him
left his body hanging on the cross, he went to Sheol. Not to the burning hell. There are
some who teach that, and I really have disagreement with it. He did not need to go to the fiery
hell. He suffered the pains of eternal hell on the cross. And when he died on the cross
he said it's finished. He didn't say it's almost finished, I've just got to go to hell
now for three days and burn. He said it's finished. And so when the scripture says that
he went to Sheol, it means that he went to the place of the departed. To paradise. Or
he called it himself Abraham's bosom. When the beggar died, they went to Abraham's bosom.
Now there was some proximity, some relationship to the fiery burning hell. To Gehenna. For
Jesus tells us about Lazarus, or excuse me, the rich man who was there and able to look
over and to see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom in the place of rest and comfort and contentment
with Abraham. It's to that latter place that Jesus went. But he was not abandoned there.
So we have his death. Then he says, neither wilt thou allow thy holy one to undergo decay.
Here we have his burial. His body was taken down from the tree by the men. It was quickly
wrapped up and then taken to the tomb in the garden that was nearby that Joseph had prepared
for himself and his family. No one had ever been in there before to be buried. And Jesus
was put there. He was buried. But God would not allow his holy one to see or to undergo
decay in that grave. We have his burial. And then in verse 11 we have his resurrection.
Thou wilt make known to me the path of life. So we have his death, his burial, and now
his resurrection. He was resurrected from the grave to experience a kind of life that
was brand new. A glorious kind of life, eternal life. Thou wilt make known to me the path
of life. And then we have another phrase that points beyond the resurrection to his ascension.
For it says, in thy presence is fullness of joy.
On that night before he was crucified, Jesus had dinner with his disciples. It was the
last supper. It was the Passover meal. And then he said, get up. It's time to go. And
they walked out to the garden of Gethsemane. And there they prayed. And John records for
us a lot of the conversation that took place that night. At least six times Jesus said,
I am going to the Father. I am going back to him who sent me. Jesus told them exactly
where he was going. Not once, but at least six times. That's because they had a hard
time hearing. Now none of us are that way, but those disciples had a hard time hearing.
And so six times he told them, I am going to the Father. Reminds me of a story of a
man, a preacher, who was going to preach on the second coming and his text was, behold
I come. And unlike me, he tried to preach without notes. And he got started on his message.
He wanted to deliver his text. And knew the first part of it was, behold I come. But he
couldn't think of what came after that in the text. He forgot it. And so he stood back
and he grabbed a hold of the pulpit and he said, behold I come. And he thought the words
would come to his mind and they didn't. So he backed up again and came up to the pulpit
and said, behold I come. And still he couldn't get through it. You know, his mind had a block.
Have you ever had that experience? He just couldn't get the next words. And so this time
he backed up even further and as he came to the pulpit he said, behold I come. And when
he did he tripped and went right out into the front pew, into the lap of a little old
lady who was sitting there. And he said, oh dear lady, I am so sorry. And she said, that's
okay preacher, you warned me three times you were coming. Six times Jesus said, I am going
to the Father. And after he rose from the dead, he was with his disciples for forty
days and he went back to the Father. So they knew exactly what was taking place. They knew
where he was going. In thy presence is fullness of joy and can you imagine the joy when Jesus
got home. And then finally we have his enthronement. For it says, at thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. Jesus went back to heaven to the presence of the Father and then what did
he do? He sat down. Not because he was tired, but because his work was done. He sat down
at the place of authority. He sat down at the place of the inheritor, the heir, the
right hand to the Father, the throne of God. He sat down because his work was complete.
And he is enthroned in heaven today, declared to be the victor, the conqueror. And he has
the keys of death and Hades in his hand. He is the conqueror. And we see him described
in a wonderful vision of Revelation 1, don't we? That glorified vision that John had of
Jesus standing there before him on the Isle of Patmos. The conqueror, at thy right hand
there are pleasures forevermore. And so we have about Messiah, his death, his burial,
his resurrection, his ascension, and his enthronement in heaven. You say, what has that got to do
with us? Everything. Because we died with him, we were buried with him, we rose again
with him, we ascended with him, we are seated with him, we are identified with Jesus Christ
in all of his saving work, therefore we can have confidence in the Lord. And that's what
this psalm is all about, the confidence that David had in God, his determined confidence.
And so I hope that you and I can this week enter into the life of this psalm, understand
what it says to us about Jesus and about ourselves, and live in the joy of who we are in Jesus
Christ, and know that because of that, not because of who we are, but because of who
we are in him, we can have great confidence in the Lord. And if we have people who are
after us, if we have situations that are attacking us, with David we can say, Lord preserve me,
preserve me, I find refuge, I take refuge in you. Let's pray. I don't know where you
may need the refuge, I don't know what the enemy is that is after you. Perhaps it is
temptation that is stalking you, and you are being sorely tempted in some area of your
life. Ask the Lord to preserve you, take refuge in him from that temptation. Perhaps it is
fear, fear of the future, fear of the unknown. Say to him tonight, Lord preserve me, in you
I take refuge. Lord my future is secure in you, I don't have to be afraid. Maybe there
is some situation at work, and it's just been ongoing. Will you say Lord preserve me, preserve
me, I take my refuge in you. Father may we live that way this week and enjoy the inheritance
that we have in you. And with David may we be able to say we are content with that, that
our portion is you, and that the lines have fallen to us by your grace in pleasant places.
In Jesus name, amen. Good night.