Watchword: (2 Kings 5.1-19a; Psalm 59; Matthew 6.1-18)
They have turned their backs to me, not their faces. But in the time of trouble they say, ”Come and save us!” Jeremiah 2.27
We will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word. Acts 6.4
Psalm 16
A David michtam.
Guard me, O God,
For I shelter in You.
I said to the LORD,
“My Master You are.
My good is only through You.”
As to holy ones in the land
And the mighty who were all my desire,
Let their sorrows abound-
Another did they betroth.
I will not pour their libations of blood,
I will not bear their names on my lips.
The LORD is my portion and lot,
It is You who sustain my fate.
An inheritance fell to me with delight,
My estate, too, is lovely to me.
I shall bless the LORD Who gave me counsel
Through the nights that my conscience would lash me.
I set the LORD always before me,
On my right hand, that I not stumble.
So my heart rejoices and my pulse beats with joy,
My whole body abides secure.
For You will not forsake my life to Sheol,
You won’t let Your faithful one see the Pit.
Make me know the path of life.
Joys overflow in Your presence,
Delights in Your right hand forevermore.
I have a commentary on Psalms by James Mays, a mid 20th century professor teaching at a liberal seminary. But, in spite of his poor unions (a pun for the learned), the commentary is very valuable to me, one of, if not the best, on Psalms that I have read. His comments on the 16th psalm are especially precious. This morning I’ll quote extensively from those:
“The psalm teaches that trust is not merely a warm feeling or a passing impulse in a time of trouble; it is a structure of acts and experiences that open one’s consciousness to the LORD as the supreme reality of life.”
“Trust is first of all the relationship that determines all else about a person. The psalmist confesses, ‘You (YHWH) are my lord.’ The reverse of that confession is ‘I am your servant.’ The psalmist knows himself as a person who belongs to another.”
“Trust is monotheistic, not pluralistic. The psalmist’s commitment to the LORD is exclusive (vv.3-4). He enacts the first commandment in his life. For him, there is no other God. The holy and mighty deities whom others in the land worship are a source of troubles, not joy, and he does not recognize them or participate in their worship.”
“Trust takes the very relation to God itself as the greatest benefit of the LORD’s way with the servants of God (vv. 5-6).”
“Trust concentrates the mind on the LORD (vv.7-8). Through praise the psalmist keeps the LORD in the center of his attention, practices the presence of the LORD. In this way he is open to the instruction of the lord that comes to him through the guidance of his conscience in the still hours of the night.”
“Trust is confidence of life in the face of death (vv.9-11). All three dimensions of the psalmist’s being - heart, soul, and body - participate in this joyous security. It infuses his entire being. The exuberance of his confidence arises from the knowledge that the LORD will not surrender his faithful one to Sheol and the Pit, the realm of death. Death in the thought world of the psalms is not only the polar opposite of life, the loss of one’s own vital existence. It is also the loss of the presence of God and the pleasures of that presence. It is God that is lost in death.”
“Two features about this psalm have always impressed its readers. The first is the way in which the LORD fills the personal horizon of the psalmist. Every one of the prayer’s lines in all their variety says in one way or another, ‘The LORD is everything to me.’ The LORD is my lord, my God, my destiny, my counsel, my vis-à-vis, my security. The whole confesses, ‘The LORD is my life.’ That is why the psalmist is confident of life. It is this focus on God, absorption in God, identity with God, the LORD who is the source of life, that gives faith a confident hold on life.
“The second is the way the confession ‘I have no good apart from you’ (v.2) echoes through the song in its references to pleasant places, goodly heritage, complete joy, and pleasures forevermore. The psalm is full of joy in the LORD. Life and joy go together. Life is consummated in joy. Where death is removed as threat, life is finally free for complete joy in the presence of God, who alone can deliver from Sheol.”
From this psalm, can we not learn something about what it means to believe in Jesus?
Bible Reading: Romans 11: 25-27
Paul summarizes his argument to this point: Gentile Christians cannot afford to be smug in the face of what has happened. What has happened? Part of Israel, God’s historical people, have been hardened to God as they rejected the news of the Gospel - the Messiah dying and risen again.
V. 26 has produced a lot of debate, and I’m not going to get into that today.
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