Lechem Panim #50 ”No Good Apart From You” (Psalm 16) Pastor Cameron Ury

Our Passage today is Psalm 16. In it the Psalmist cries out…

Psalm 16 (ESV) A Miktam of David— 1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” 3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. 4 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. 5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. 6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. 11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

FFL— In our FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE SERIES, we are have taken a look at a number of Psalms, which have revealed to us some amazing things about the nature of God. Psalm 146 revealed to us that behind all these titles that we have for God, there is a personal God who longs to be in an intimate relationship with you and with me. And when we attach ourselves to Him, our lives will be forever changed. We also looked at Psalm 121, which revealed to us the difference between the Biblical way of viewing the world as opposed to the way that Israel’s neighbors (and many throughout history; even today) saw (and see) the world. There are similarities among these religious views simply because they are religions, to be sure. But not all religions the same. One worldview will tell you to love your neighbor; another will tell you to eat your neighbor. They cannot both be equally true or equally moral. And few places can you see a stronger contrast between some of the horrors of pagan religion and the Biblical worldview than right here in the Old Testament. And the  Psalms in particular give us a picture of a God who is radically different than any other deity in the ancient world. And it begins with His being the Creator and Lord of all things. He is not a created being, nor is He part of creation and therefore subject to the same things we are. He truly is Lord of all. And that gives Him a unique say over the world (an ultimate authority) and it also means that there is nothing outside His control, which is the foundation of the Christian concept of peace. Other religions may talk about the words peace and assurance, but it is the Biblical worldview alone that can provide an anchoring for that kind of peace in a God who is in control of every circumstance that you and I face. And we find that kind of language recurrent in the Psalms. Psalm 16 in particular gives us a powerful and clear picture of what a relationship with God ought to look like.

An Opening Conclusion-- Now in our writings and speeches we often end with our conclusion, but often times in the Psalms the writers will begin with their conclusion and then spend the rest of the Psalm explaining how they arrived at their conclusion. And so it is when we come to Psalm 16, which ends with what really is the final word that the Psalmist has to say. He says…

Psalm 16:1 (ESV)— 1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

Where’s Your Refuge?-- Let me ask you, in your house, where do you go when a really bad storm hits? When I was growing up in South Bend, Indiana storms (even tornadoes) were pretty common. And during a storm, it was always downstairs to the basement family room. And we’d watch the storm through the ground-level windows. And then of course sometimes the power would go out. And that just made things more scary (but for us as kids, even more exciting). But where you go for security is important; because without a refuge, we can get blown away at any moment. And the Psalmist recognizes that God is our ultimate refuge.

My Shield and Portion-- It’s like we sing in Amazing Grace: “The Lord has promised good to me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures.” We have solid ground that we can anchor into. Jesus and His Word is that foundation. And in that foundation we find both preservation and transformation of our lives and our purpose. One scholar I read on this said that in this Psalm the Psalmist […is speaking to God, and he says, “I need you to keep me, for if you do not, I will not be what I am supposed to be. I will not be what you want me to be. I will not be what I know deep within my own spirit I ought to be, so keep me. My relationship to you is one of refuge; I hide in You.”] Now at this point the Psalmist makes a very powerful statement. He says in…

Psalm 16:2a (ESV)-- 2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; 

And what the Psalmist is saying is [“I am making a separation. I have decided that You (and not someone else) are to be my Lord.”] And similarly there has to come a point when we choose to trust the Lord over and against everything else. Now we are pretty good at trust.

Trust is No Problem-- A couple weeks ago one of my former seminary professors overheard someone in one of his church’s discipleship groups say, "I trust. I am really good at trust. I have trusted in alcohol, in porn, in myself. Trust is no problem. It is where I am placing my trust - that's my problem.” You see, it is where you place you trust that makes all the difference.

Receiving as Lord-- And what the Psalmist is saying is that he has come to a point of faith and trust in Yahweh and has rejected any other so-called “lords” that people choose, but that have no power to preserve, sustain, or fulfill. And the same is true for us. We use the term “Lord” all too casually when talking about God; we don’t always really mean it. But what the Gospel teaches us is that our salvation and hope is anchored first upon our actually receiving Christ as the Lord of our lives. This is why we are told in…

Romans 10:9 (NIV)-- 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Salvation Through Submission-- Salvation (apparently) is found not just in believing in Jesus as the Son of God, but also in receiving Him as the Lord of your life. You cannot know true salvation and true freedom until you submit to the Lordship of Christ.

My Dissatisfaction-- And I can bear testimony to this from my own personal experience. Anytime I have sought fulfillment of any type outside of the will and plan and purpose of God for my life, I have always ended up more empty than when I began. Every single time. And Satan often comes at me in a predictable way. First, he comes at me through dissatisfaction; dissatisfaction with who I am or about some particular thing about my life. I was struck this week by a line from a Veggie Tales movie my children were watching. They were talking about Psalm 23 and particularly the opening line: “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.” And they explained something I knew well, but for some reason am so prone to forgetting; and that is that when we have Jesus, we lack nothing; and therefore ought to crave nothing. And that is exactly one of my problems; when we have Jesus, we shouldn’t want or crave or desire with dissatisfaction because (in Jesus) we have everything. Amen? Satan tempted Adam and Eve by first making them distrust God and then by making them dissatisfied with their lives; and think about it, THEIR LIVES WERE PERFECT!!!! Yet even in perfection Satan can make us dissatisfied with who we are and tempt us into a life of unhealthy craving. And if we allow those cravings to lead us outside of a full submission to the Lordship of Jesus, then we will be broken and empty. Only by abiding in Christ and in His pattern for you will your life make any sense and will you have lasting fulfillment. Now the Psalmist then proceeds in the second half of verse 2 to say…

Psalm 16:2b (ESV)-- I have no good apart from you.”

“Besides You, no good.”— And one scholar I read said that what the Psalmist literally  [is saying is “Besides You, no good.” {And this scholar writes, saying that} That is a very significant theological statement in the Old Testament. He is saying, “Apart from You, O Yahweh, nothing is good.” Fundamental to this statement is the understanding that Yahweh made everything that is made, and if it is there, he made it. Furthermore, everything he made is good. This point is emphasized in Genesis 1; when Yahweh had finished the creation of all things, He looked at all that He had made and said, “It is good, very good,” (tob me’od). So if there should be anything apart from Yahweh and His purposes, it is not good.] 

The Jesus Storybook Bible: God’s Declaration of Goodness-- Recently I was reading to my kids from The Jesus Storybook Bible, which I have found to be the most profound children’s Bible I have ever come across. There are many children’s bibles our there that tell the basic Bible stories in easy language; but this Bible communicates some amazingly deep theological concepts in language very reachable for children. And when I was reading the story of creation to my kids this week, I found the phrasing a little odd in the creation account. When God declares what He has created as good, the way The Jesus Storybook Bible conveys it is that the creation was not good until God declared it to be so. And what it was trying to convey was that goodness itself is intimately wrapped up with the personhood of our Creator.

Receive Christ as Lord-- And that is why if you want to experience goodness; if you want fulfillment; if you want joy; if you want to know the meaning and purpose for your life; for your relationships; for your future, then you must give yourself to Christ as the LORD of your life; forsaking all others. Only then can you have what is truly good. Give your all to Him today. Amen.