In Psalm 23 David tells us that the Lord is Our Shepherd and we shall not want…
God is our source and supplier of everything that we need in life!
Just Give Me Jesus
In the following Psalm David reiterates this point:
Psalm 16
The Message
1-2 Keep me safe, O God,
I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
Without you, nothing makes sense.
3 And these God-chosen lives all around—
what splendid friends they make!
4 Don’t just go shopping for a god.
Gods are not for sale.
I swear I’ll never treat god-names
like brand-names.
5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only.
And now I find I’m your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
I’m on the right way.
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In the New Testament Jesus tells us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him.
The cross is the symbol of our death to self and one of the main paradoxes given in the Bible is that in order to live as a Christian and follow Christ, you must die to self.
The Apostle Paul put it this way:
Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
No one is ready to live until he is first ready to die.
Only in facing the reality of death with a living faith in God is a person prepared to live boldly and courageously for Him, even in the face of troubling adversity.
This was true in the life of David as recorded in Psalm 16 as he faced another life-threatening trial.
This psalm is a song of confident trust in God in which the psalmist was able to live life to the fullest because he was gripped with a living hope in God beyond the grave.
Psalm 16 was written at an unknown time when David was hard-pressed, perhaps when he faced threats to his life in the wilderness or severe opposition to his reign as king.
David boldly declared that God had been his portion in life, so he would trust Him even in death.
No matter what David faced, his trust was anchored in the Lord, and this caused his heart to rejoice.
David was gripped by a resolute reliance on God in the face of death.
He looked beyond this life to the glories of the resurrection and glorification to come.
This psalm is a miktam, the meaning of which is uncertain.
Verses 8-11 were quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28), and verse 10b was cited by Paul at Antioch (Acts 13:35-37); both were used in reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In Psalm 16, David’s prayers revealed his trust in and reliance upon God, both in this life and in the life to come.
Jesus never sinned — never missed the mark!
Equally amazing, He never distances Himself from those who do.
Just read the first verse of Matthew’s Gospel.
Jesus knew David’s ways. He witnessed the adultery, winced at the murders, and grieved at the dishonesty.
But David’s failures didn’t change Jesus’ relation to David.
David blew it. Jesus knew it. But He claimed David anyway.
Faith boils down to our willingness to cast the total of our RELIANCE and TRUST on the reliability and trustworthiness of God in His Word, in spite of any and all contradictory evidence that we may feel or see.
Faith requires our willingness to persevere through any problem we face, in the knowledge that God will direct us and see us through.
To quote Joni Eareckson Tada:
The Bible tells us our God is so trustworthy that we are to throw our confidence on Him, not leaning on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).
God has already proved how much His love can be trusted by sending Christ to die for us.
Wasn’t that enough?
Not for me. I always wanted to be on the inside looking out—sitting with the Lord up in the control tower instead of down on the confusing ground level.
He couldn’t be trusted unless I was there to oversee things!
What a low view of my Master and Creator I had held all these years!
How could I have dared to assume that almighty God owed me explanations!
Did I think that because I had done God the “favor” of becoming a Christian, He must now check things out with me?
Was the Lord of the universe under obligation to show me how the trials of every human being fit into the tapestry of life?
Had I never read Deuteronomy 29:29, “There are secrets the Lord your God has not revealed to us” (LB)?
What made me think that even if He explained all His ways to me I would be able to understand them?
It would be like pouring million-gallon truths into my one-ounce brain.
(From A Step Further by Joni Eareckson Tada)
Peter instructions us to cast ALL of our cares upon Christ because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).
This of necessity will require that we humble ourselves, and that we TRUST and LOVE our Abba Father, as a child, with all of our heart, mind and strength.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Sunday, Dec 3
The Spirit Filled Believer
by Dick Mills
“The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance”
— Psalms 16:6 (NKJV)
How many truly contented people do you know?
How many of your friends or acquaintances seem to be satisfied with their lot in life?
Listen to the man David as he begins to write the sixteenth Psalm:
“The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places….”
This statement has all the indications of an expression of great contentment.
It evokes an image of surveying boundary lines and measuring off a person’s inheritance.
David seems to be saying that his allotted territory is a source of satisfaction to him.
This poem is called a michtam psalm, a title given to six of the psalms of David.
In Hebrew the word michtam has to do with etching, engraving, and inscribing.
Having a familiarity with gold and etching, Bible scholars saw this as a “golden text.”
The King James Version labels it “a michtam of David.”
James Moffatt describes it as “a golden ode of David.”
This could mean that this psalm needs to be etched in the mind and recorded there as a message worth remembering.
…Yes, I have a good inheritance.
“Life has been good to me,” David seems to be saying.
“My father left me this property and I am quite content with it.
The view is good. The brooks are clean and cool, and the meadows are green and lush.
The land is well situated. My heritage is truly pleasing, indeed!”
Can you say this about your heritage – your home, job, neighborhood, church, town, station in life?
David could! So can we, when our heart is at peace with God.
Source: The Spirit-Filled Believer’s Daily Devotional by Dick Mills
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