Proclaiming God, Reclaiming Joy

[0:00] Thanks, Sean. Get that out of the way a little bit.

[0:19] All right. This evening, our passage is Psalm chapter 16. And yes, I just noticed it lined up with the date for today.

[0:31] That's just how it worked out. I wasn't planning that. This is a psalm that God just had me kind of pick and meditate on for different times throughout this year.

[0:45] And so when Sean needed a little bit more time, it was the one that was on my mind most. And I think it will be a blessing to you this evening as we go through it.

[1:00] Let's pray before we get started. Lord, we ask for your help tonight as we read your word, as we allow your truth to come into our mind and our heart.

[1:15] Lord, we ask that you would help make it sink in and be rich to us, that we would be taught, that we would be encouraged and lifted up by your word tonight, Lord.

[1:28] Help take away distractions. Help make your word real and alive to us tonight, Lord. We pray in your glorious name. Amen. Psalm chapter 16.

[1:40] Let's read it together. Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.

[1:52] As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply. Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.

[2:08] The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

[2:20] I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

[2:31] Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your Holy One see corruption.

[2:45] You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Am I standing too close to something?

[2:58] I feel like there is feedback. Am I just going to put it in the chair? Yeah. It doesn't want to stay there. That's real quick.

[3:09] Sorry. I can't run right here. I've moved around a lot. Sorry, guys.

[3:21] That should be better. Thanks, man. All right.

[3:32] Good. So this evening as we look at this passage, what I want us to hear, the statement that is over this passage is this, proclaiming God with our life and reclaiming joy now in this life and for eternity.

[3:56] God is our source of real and lasting joy. And we claim it by proclaiming who he is. The joy is from him.

[4:07] The joy is in him. We can't go around him trying to find the joy, not through God, because if we do, we lose the joy. He is the joy.

[4:17] So there isn't another way to get that eternal joy, but to find God and to claim who he is. So this morning, or this evening as we start out, the question that I want you to think about for a minute is what brings you joy?

[4:33] You know, on an earthly basis, on an earthly mindset, what brings you joy? Is it something nice that you're able to buy with money you've made?

[4:46] You're able to enjoy that thing and it brings you joy. Maybe it's a week of working hard and Friday night, you're able to pick up a cheeseburger and fries from Five Guys and go along the river and lay on a blanket with your family or friends and just chill and enjoy the evening.

[5:06] Does that bring you joy? Maybe it's a baby. Whether you've had one or you have plans for one, maybe there's joy that you get from that child. Finishing a paper or a project at work.

[5:20] There could be a number of things. Well, what is it that brings you joy? Granted, it's just temporary joy, right? It being of this earth, it won't last.

[5:32] But for a moment, it brings us joy. So while we focus on something other than earthly joys tonight, there is a truth in that.

[5:43] There's an aspect that's important for us to recognize that also applies to godly joy, our eternal joy in Him. And that is this. In all things that bring joy, there is a level of work or commitment or payment, you could say, that must make that happen.

[6:04] Joy just doesn't come to us. We don't pray for joy and it's plopped in our lap. We don't order joy at the store and wait for it to arrive, right? It comes, something has to be done for it.

[6:16] So as it relates to earthly joy, some of the examples that I just mentioned, take planning and work, right? If you want to enjoy relaxing at the end of the week, you have to have a good hard week.

[6:28] You have to plan what you're going to eat, the friends that you're going to invite, and you have to plan a time to go down to the river and relax and enjoy it. If it's a child, you plan for that child.

[6:39] You're going to go through pain and disruption in your life for that child. But that's what is needed in order for the joy to come from it. The same thing if you were to purchase something like a new car.

[6:53] You have to pay for that. So the joy comes from that payment. If there's no payment, there's no joy that follows that. So that relates to our earthly joy.

[7:05] As it relates to our real and lasting joy in God, we have to proclaim who God is. That is, we have to know who He is in order to find our joy in Him.

[7:22] And then when we live in line with our Creator, and we realize who He is in us and who we are in Him, then we're able to find that eternal joy.

[7:34] Okay? So that's what we're thinking about as we go into this passage this evening. Verse 1 and 2 of chapter 16. Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

[7:48] I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you. Now as we quickly read over these two verses, we can miss what's happening, right? Because we see that first He says, God, and then there's this switch over to Lord.

[8:04] He's talking to God, but then He's talking about the Lord. What's happening here? So it's important for us to separate these first two verses. Although they come to us together and we quickly read them together, we need to separate them.

[8:18] Because verse 1 is David's plea, his prayer to God. He says, preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. Protect me.

[8:31] Secure me. Help me not to fall away. That's what David is praying for here. That's verse 1. That's his prayer. Now the rest of verses 2 through 8 is going to be the main chunk of our time tonight.

[8:49] This is David proclaiming who God is to him and who he is in his life. So I want us to walk through these verses for a couple reasons.

[9:01] One, because God is worth looking through these verses that proclaim who he is. Second, we're going to go through them because it's good for us to go through them because it's here.

[9:12] It's for us. It's written for us, for our edification. And thirdly, we're going to go through these verses because we need it in order to get and see the joy that he has for us at the end of this chapter.

[9:26] We need to walk through them to make the connection between proclaiming God and claiming the joy we have in him. So, verse 1, that was his prayer.

[9:44] Let's jump down to the next verse, verse 2. I say to the Lord, notice all capitals, you are my Lord, I have no good apart from you.

[9:56] The all capitals, Lord, meaning God's name in fullness. Jehovah, creator of heaven and earth, Yahweh. And then next, he says, you are my Lord.

[10:09] Capital L, the rest lowercase. That implies a personal lordship. God over my life. So, what he's saying is, to the God of the universe, you are God of my life.

[10:25] The biggest to the most personal. I have no good apart from you. In that, there's two aspects going on. What is coming into us and what is going out from us.

[10:40] What comes to me apart from God is no good. What comes from me that is disconnected from God is no good. So, the source of what's coming or going, if it's not God, it's not good.

[10:56] That's what David is saying here. Let's read verses three and four. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

[11:09] The sorrow 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.

[11:22] The people I choose to be with, David says, those who I delight in, they are the godly ones. They are the saints in the land. Those are the people of Israel who are seeking after God.

[11:35] Not all of them sought after God, just like not all Christians seek after God. But I delight in those who are seeking after God, the saints of this land, those who are part of God's church.

[11:51] God desires to make us excellent, even delightful. Okay? So, catch what's going on here because we get to be on both sides of this.

[12:04] David's saying, I delight in being with the excellent ones. And on the other side of that, those people are delighting in who David is.

[12:16] So, as a church, I'm called to delight in those who love the Lord because here it says they are excellent. And you get to delight in who I am because I am following after God and he calls me excellent.

[12:37] The point we can take from these two verses is this. those who we spend time with or delight in, they affect our joy. Being with people who find their joy outside of God will find that their joy falls short.

[12:56] So, yeah, it's more enjoyable to be around someone who's happy and joyful. If their happiness and joyful is not resting in God, then at some point in their life, it's going to let them down.

[13:12] It's going to break apart. Whether it's in their alone time, behind closed doors, when they feel empty and joyless, or when trials come and what used to bring them joy, it doesn't bring them joy anymore.

[13:31] Maybe it's later on in life, when like Solomon, they realize that everything seems empty. or maybe, even worst case, it is realized after death and they realize that the joy that they set on anything but God no longer matters.

[13:52] It fades away. It turns to sorrow, he says here. Let's read verse five. David said, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.

[14:07] You hold my lot. He's talking about choosing that which only comes from the Lord. David says, I want it. Nothing else is as good and nothing else satisfies.

[14:20] That's who I choose. When I was a kid, I enjoyed going to restaurants that were buffet style. Some people say that I'm a little picky with food.

[14:33] I just like to pick what I like. I don't think that's picky but if you've ever gone to a restaurant that is buffet style, you pay a price, you get a plate and then you go up and you get to pick whatever you want.

[14:46] So as a kid, that's awesome, right? Now, if it was a good buffet restaurant, in addition to the normal food and the salad and the meat and all that, you had a dessert bar.

[14:59] You had a dessert section, right? Normally, they would have ice creams with the fixings but also, there would be cakes and pies and brownies but what you'd normally have happen is those things were divided out for you, right?

[15:14] So they would take a cake and they would cut it up and they would put one slice on a plate. They would put one piece of a pie on a plate or a nice brownie on a plate. That made sense, right?

[15:24] But when I went up to the dessert bar, if I knew that I only got one dessert, then my goal was one thing, the thing of most chocolate.

[15:35] I didn't want anything else. You know why? Because nothing else brought delight and satisfaction like whatever was richest in chocolate. So I didn't want the carrot cake.

[15:46] I didn't want anything else that wasn't chocolate, not because it wasn't good. I knew what was the best. I wanted that. while that's a trivial example, it's what comes to mind when I think about David saying, the Lord is my chosen portion.

[16:07] I know nothing else that brings satisfaction like the Lord. I don't want to settle for something less because I want to choose what I know to be the best. David not only chooses him as his portion, here we read that he also chooses him as his cup.

[16:27] He is the cup that I choose because nothing else satisfies. That cup that David is talking about is the source of his nourishment, of his refreshment.

[16:42] David knows this. It's why he chooses this. Psalm 23, 5 says, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. If you recall Jesus, when he meets the woman at the well in John chapter 4, he says this to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give them will never be thirsty again.

[17:06] The water that I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. So if the Lord is your cup, he becomes your eternal source of refreshment.

[17:20] Compare that to what you get from the world and you know what the world offers can look good at first, but it doesn't satisfy. It will leave you wanting something else.

[17:34] And he ends the verse by saying, you hold my lot. You know what is going to happen to me. because it's in your hand.

[17:48] You hold my future. When lots are cast, you know how they will land. What comes to me comes through your hand first. So you hold my lot.

[18:05] Verse six. the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. The psalmist here is using language of lands and boundary lines and inheritance.

[18:22] See, this is helpful because the people of Israel would have picked up on this. We rewind history 400 years, and what we have happening is God calling Joshua to lead the Israelites into the promised land.

[18:38] They promise to follow God, and God protects them and gives them victory over the people in that land. What happens next in Joshua is the point where the people of Israel hearing these verses in Psalm 16 will make the connection back.

[18:57] Why? Because prior to God giving them the promised land, they had no land. They had no inheritance. So when God gave them victory in the land, the book of Joshua, if we were to read it, it talks about how they went through the land, and they drew up lines, boundary lines, and they cast lots to see who, what family, what clans, what tribes would get which plots of land, and that became their inheritance.

[19:34] So as the people of Israel sing this Psalm, these words have history to them. God provided for me land and a heritage.

[19:46] God did that. That was his work, his promises. But it doesn't stop there. David actually is not talking about property or his inheritance, even though that's what comes to their mind.

[20:00] David is the youngest of eight, so in his family, his odds of getting an inheritance are not very good. We don't hear that his father was that rich, and if he was, it wouldn't have been a lot left once it came down to him.

[20:16] In addition to that, being the king, it actually didn't give David much. Things didn't go well for him in the beginning. If you remember, he's running from Saul, and close to the end, he's actually running from his son, Absalom, for his life.

[20:32] So there were issues in the family. There wasn't inheritance that he was getting. So when David says, lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, and I have a beautiful inheritance, he's not talking about land, he's talking about having a beautiful inheritance in God, promises that he's given then and for eternity.

[20:56] So from that, what can be proclaimed about God is he is our never-ending refreshment, our portion, our cup, and God is our eternal inheritance.

[21:17] Verse seven. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me. Here David blesses the Lord for the counsel and the teaching that he receives from God.

[21:35] Got counsel and guidance that led David to choose the Lord as his portion back in verse five. He thanks God for this choice he's able to make.

[21:49] Also, blessing the Lord because of the Lord's nearness. His counsel and teaching happens because the Lord is near him. In the night, his heart also gives him guidance.

[22:04] Another sign that God is close by. God is active. Also, in the night, his heart gives him guidance, meaning the truths and the promises and the teachings that he goes over during the day, those are in the forefront of his mind when he lays down at night.

[22:23] When he's struggling with the troubles of life, when he's struggling through a hardship, the things that he knows that are true and right and what he's been taught are on his mind, not the things of the world that are distracting for those truths.

[22:43] If left to our own thoughts, what would we seek after? What looks good to our eyes? What feels good? What desires are the brightest, the prettiest?

[22:56] Yeah, because our default position in life is to be our own God, right? Doing what we think is best, going after pleasures that we choose, that we think will bring us the most pleasure.

[23:12] God says that's wrong, you got it backwards. It's upside down. See, God knows our paths that lead us to emptiness and sorrow.

[23:25] There's no good and lasting joy in the world or in ourselves if it's separate from God. David nails this in verse 2 when he says, you are my Lord, I have no good apart from you.

[23:45] See, we're creatures of sin, born into this world with a sin nature and by default we don't want what God wants for us. We don't seek him, we want to do what we want to do, thinking that'll bring us joy.

[24:01] It doesn't. It leaves us sorrowful, which is why he talks about coming up. Only God can bring us joy that lasts. I'm going to read for you Ephesians chapter 2 verses 3 to 10.

[24:19] You can turn to it if you'd like to. Just speaking of our, I'll just read it. Ephesians 2 verse 3. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

[24:42] But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming age he might show the immeasurable riches of the grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

[25:07] For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[25:25] we didn't start out good people, we didn't start out wanting God, we didn't start out knowing where real joy can be found. It's all about God.

[25:38] In and of ourselves we are dead. He saved us, he brought us to everlasting life. This evening if you don't know God, if you don't know that saving grace that he offers, then please don't wait to find out.

[25:55] If you have questions, if you've been struggling, please ask somebody, ask me, ask anybody in this room, somebody that you came with. If you're online, reach out to someone.

[26:06] A friend, reach out to somebody. If you go to a community group, you can email me or Sean or Ray. But don't put off the grace, the saving grace that Christ offers for you.

[26:21] If you know God and you believe in what he's done for you in Christ Jesus, then who is your counselor? Who is the one that you listen to for ultimate guidance when you're struggling with life, when you have to make decisions, when you lay down at night and you're just wrestling with something?

[26:44] Who's in your ear? What's on your heart? what can we proclaim about God in those times?

[26:56] He is our counselor. He is our teacher. He wants to be our guide, our faithful guide. Verse eight.

[27:07] It says, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. I want you to hear the intention in David's words.

[27:20] I set the Lord before me. Not like an object that you control. It's like a holy grid through which you focus on everything, anything.

[27:34] He says, I have placed the Lord first, number one in my life. Whatever I do goes through God first. He knows all. He provides all.

[27:45] He controls all. Why would I not go through him first knowing those things? And then it says, because he is my right hand. That means David has put God in the highest place of honor and authority in his life.

[28:00] It is also a sign of strength that God is his right hand. And so he says, I will not be shaken. So in this he's proclaiming that God is his guidance, his protection, his stability in life.

[28:19] So that's where we find ourselves here ending verse 8. As we look back to verse 1, remember that David prayed that God would preserve him, keep him strong and steadfast, protect him from enemies that we know were constantly on David, protect him from sin, protect him from his heart, his sinful ways, protect his legacy in God, preserve his body and his heart, his soul.

[28:50] Then, after going through these verses of proclaiming who God is, he ends with verse 8 saying, I will not be shaken. I prayed that God would preserve me and I proclaimed these things and then I know that I will not be shaken.

[29:07] shaken. It's in that foundation where we move to the last few verses of this chapter. From proclaiming God to claiming joy.

[29:21] Let's read verse 9. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure.

[29:34] Verse 9 starts with therefore. And the first eight verses that we just read are the reason for the therefore. David says, God, you are my refuge, you are my Lord, the creator of delight amongst your people, my chosen portion, the holder of my future, my inheritance, my counselor, my teacher, my faithful guide, the one who is always with me, keeping me secure.

[30:02] Therefore, my heart is glad, my whole being rejoices and my flesh dwells secure. The confidence we have in verses 1 through 8 is how we get to the therefore of verse 9.

[30:19] Proclaiming who God is, not just proclaiming with our mouth, proclaiming him with our life, brings us the joy that is here in verse 9.

[30:30] my heart is glad, my whole being rejoices, my flesh is secure. I hope that connection makes sense.

[30:43] Now you got to hold on because David is going to take it to another level here. Read verse 10. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption.

[30:55] All right, now David is not talking about current life anymore. He's talking about afterlife. He's talking about death stuff here.

[31:08] Here's the connection between this life and eternity. Because of who God is for David and for us, he will not be abandoned.

[31:20] We will not be separated from God, nor will we be left with the wicked, which is what he's talking about here. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption.

[31:34] You will not let us be corrupted, that is, destroyed after death. How do we see that?

[31:45] How is that possible? See, David here is not talking about himself in these verses. verses, he's pointing ahead to a future Savior.

[31:59] One who makes all these things possible. See, how can we have joy in this life, right? If we know in the end we're going to see corruption. If we know the end ends in death, and we're just to join all the other people, all the other sinners that we thought were separated by God to begin with.

[32:19] There's no joy in that. David knows that's not the case. David knows that there's a fuller, deeper joy in the end. David knows that he will die and be buried with his fathers.

[32:37] He says that, Nathan tells him that, but he also knows he's going to live forever. add to that the fact that God has promised the king that will be on the throne of David and will reign forever.

[32:51] So knowing both of those to be true, David here is making a prophecy about Jesus who isn't coming to the earth for another thousand years.

[33:04] Now, I don't want you to take my word for it. I want to show you in Scripture that this is what's taking place. And we see this when we look into the New Testament. See, Peter and Paul both use these verses here in Psalm 16 in Acts.

[33:19] They connect them to the resurrection of Christ. Peter, in Acts chapter 2, as the church is being brought up, as the spirit is being given to the church, Peter says this, 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 today.

[33:42] Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn 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.

[34:00] See, he's talking about the resurrection of Christ. Christ did not see corruption. Christ died, was not abandoned, the shield. God raised him up. The things that God is for us in verses 1 through 8, the joys, the delight are for us are solidified in Jesus Christ.

[34:26] But that's not all. Let's read verse 11. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.

[34:36] At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is rich stuff. It's just good stuff.

[34:47] You make known to me the path of life. This is what God has wanted for his people from the beginning. with the Israelites.

[34:58] He wanted to be their path of life. For them to follow him because he was their God. He wanted to protect them, to be their refuge, to be their counselor, their guide, to find their joy in him.

[35:13] But instead, they looked to other things. They looked to other gods. They looked for joy somewhere else. And they found their joy in those earthly pleasures empty. And they found themselves separated from God.

[35:27] But God's plan didn't stop there. He didn't give up. He continues to offer hope. He still wants a people for himself. And now, where we are on this side of the cross, that hope is available to us through Jesus Christ.

[35:46] This path of life that he's talking about can be known to us through Christ. God isn't some disconnected God. Because of the work of Jesus Christ, we are able to know and to proclaim and have God as those things in our lives.

[36:05] Now, in verse 11, notice the progression that he goes through. First, the path of life. Right? Next, we move into the presence of God, where there is fullness of joy.

[36:17] And lastly, most gloriously, we move closer into his presence, pleasures, where David says he finds himself at the right hand of God, where there are pleasures forevermore.

[36:30] That is, pleasures and fullness of joy that is only found in God. That's something awesome, brothers and sisters, to have pleasures that are forevermore.

[36:47] Pleasures that we can't think about because our minds and our hearts are just too muddied in the world. But, listen, I don't want to miss out on this.

[36:59] I don't want you to think that verse 11 is only eternally focused, because it's not. It wasn't for David, and it's not for us.

[37:10] It can apply to you right now. but you have to claim it. I know that sounds odd. I don't want you to hear the name it and claim it gospel in here, but you have to proclaim who God is in order to claim the joy that he provides.

[37:33] You want to know the joy that comes from God being your refuge, then you must rely on God as your refuge. You want to know the joy that comes from God, being your counselor, your God that walks you through life, who shows you the path that matters most.

[37:56] Then you have to let God talk. You have to be silent. You have to be listened. Humble yourself. Let God speak to you. Let him lead.

[38:08] You want to know the joy of having an inheritance with God. You need to claim the inheritance that you have been given as a Christian. Listen, you are a child of God, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, created for good works which he planned, and given the Holy Spirit which lives inside of you.

[38:30] Now go and live with joy and the power that that means, that that comes with as a Christian. Not your power, God's power. power. You want to know the joy of God being your chosen portion?

[38:45] Then stop grabbing at the portions of the world. If God is your chosen portion, then live like he is your chosen portion. Your cup of delight, the sovereign holder of your life.

[39:01] You want to know the joy of not being shaken by sin and the troubles that come in this world? Then set the Lord always before you and go to him for counsel.

[39:16] Not an unsaved friend and not your cell phone. Go to God for counsel. We've read the Psalms.

[39:30] We know that David has always found joy in the Lord. In the times of struggles, when life is dry, when it's heavy, when it's hard, we read how David found strength in God and joy in his presence.

[39:49] What was his secret to finding that joy? David knew God. David knew God and he proclaimed who God was in his life.

[40:03] and he claimed the joy that came from that proclamation. See, joy in this life made possible by declaring who God is in your life.

[40:21] I'm going to say it again. Joy in this life, where we are right now, on this earth. Joy here, regardless of your circumstance, made possible by declaring who God is for you right now.

[40:35] Not all. There's more. A fullness of joy. Joy even more than the joy we have on earth for eternity because we have already confidently declared who God is for us here.

[40:49] that's what David wants us to see in this psalm. I pray you see it in this psalm. And if you don't, I pray that you would spend time getting to know who God is in your life.

[41:04] You can't find joy if you don't know and declare who God is in your life. Take a couple minutes, think about those thoughts, and we'll pray together.

[41:18] confident issues and mandarš and r right