Psalm # 16
Preached: 16 May 2010 Des Arc First UMC Nursing Home
I think I have just found a new Psalm that jumps out of the pages of the Bible at me. Let’s look at it in detail.
1 Keep me safe, O God, for I have come to you for refuge.
How better to start out a call to God but to know that He is our refuge and the only being that can keep up from harms of this world.
So many of us are surprised when we see in verse two the following
2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Master! All the good things I have are from you."
Wouldn’t it be great if more people understood that they were not in control of this world and that we truly owe our very being to this great and wonderful God.
Some people worship god’s and idols that seem capricious and act as if we are only there to entertain them and to be their playthings their pets.
Some people do not understand or want to show a relationship where we are called to be servants of God and doing his work here in his kingdom. In fact the words Kingdom, Master, King are all words that cause our Puritan ears to chaff and cause us to want to rebel.
We think that there is no one nor anything that we as good “ ’mericans ” need to bow down to. If we don’t like something we will either forget about it or rebel against it.
But our answer to all this comes in verse three and four:
3 The godly people in the land are my true heroes! I take pleasure in them!
4 Those who chase after other gods will be filled with sorrow. I will not take part in their sacrifices or even speak the names of their gods.
What god’s are you chasing after in life?
• Money
• Work
• Your own Importance
• The Razorbacks
Anything that becomes more important to you than your relationship with YHWY, the Great God Jehovah, or Allah whatever you want to call him. — Becomes for you your true god whom you owe your allegiance.
We need to be like the Psalmist who starting in verse 5 reads:
5 LORD, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine.
6 The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance!
7 I will bless the LORD who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
Many times — in fact far too many times we think we are self made men and women. We think we have done this or that on our own and we owe no allegiance. No thanks to anyone else. We forget about our teachers, our parents, our friends, our mentors, our spouses, our children and think only about ourselves. This happens more and more as we grow older and we need to not only know that without each of these that we need to thank and to remember. But also that our Lord God has brought us through the dark night and brought us to a new place in our lives.
For some of you this may have happened during a dark period of your life when you lost a loved one or were under attack on all side by your enemies.
For some of you this may not even have happened yet but Ha’ Satan is out there waiting to temp you into doing something you do not want to do. Ha’ Satan is out there waiting to take you some place you do not really need nor want to go. And then your only hope will be in your everlasting God and Father who created and made you. And gave you your very breath of life.
So when we understand this then we too can sing as is starts in verse 9:
9 No wonder my heart is filled with joy, and my mouth shouts his praises! My body rests in safety.
10 For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your godly one to rot in the grave.
11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.
A lot of people put their hope in John 3: 16
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
But know this That passage should never be read without reading verse 17 and 18 also.
17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
18 "There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.
My Jesus did not come nor will He condemn us to a Hellfire if we truly have understood this Psalm and understand that God is in control and not we ourselves.
Human Kind needs to find a Psalm like the one I have talked about today and place it upon each of their hearts and know that we have a God who loves us so much that He was willing to die that we all might have eternal life through and because of him.
A lot of people want to be exclusionist when it come to religion. They want to think they are ok with God and because of that they can do whatever they want and they will be safe, but all those others will perish in Hellfire.
Well God is telling us that all of mankind is His and he came here not so we could do our own thing but so that we could do His thing and live with this great psalm on our hearts and on our lips every day.