Psalm 16 - Pastor Bryon's Breakup

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello. Hope your day is going well so far. If it hasn't been, I promise it's going to get a little bit better as we dive into God's Word today on Tabernacle Talk.

We are going to be studying one of my favorite portions of Scripture. We're going to go on story time with Bryon here. So go back to the year 20, the end of the year, 2015 into 2016.

I just entered college and was really excited about being in the Bible College atmosphere, taking classes, learning about preaching and Old and New Testament survey, learning about just various things that have to do with the spiritual life and

working with the original languages, some of which for the first time, it was just a really, really fun, amazing environment. There were hundreds, I think we were at about 800 students in the college during that freshman year of mine.

And it was just a very, very exciting time. And there was a girl that I thought was the one. We were going to be together forever.

God had just orchestrated all of these events, and I just knew that this was the one. And then we broke up, and obviously, those of you that know me, this was for the better.

This was what led kind of down the road for me to meet my wife, Samantha, who really was the one. And so God worked it all out. But during that time period, I was just very disheartened.

I felt like, man, I don't know that this was God's plan. Maybe I messed something up, and God had His perfect plan for me that I would be with this person, and maybe I messed it up somehow.

And now I'm on God's plan B, and I just have some less great plan for my life that's going to happen. And I was incredibly sad, and God used Psalm 16 to speak to my life and to my heart.

As we look at the Psalm, it'll make you laugh because David was in much worse circumstances than I was by far. But God can use passages of scripture to help you, and I hope that Tabernacle Talk has been an encouragement to you.

And I would love to hear from you, maybe, if you want to put a note in the comments, if you want to email pastor at tbcsix.com. I'd love to hear from you if there's something that God has spoken to you about.

It's always good to hear some testimonies and some ways in which God is working in lives. But this was one of those chapters that God really used to comfort me, to come alongside and say, I'm not done with you.

You haven't totally screwed everything up. In fact, I've got a better plan for your life. You might have thought your ultimate happiness would come from this relationship.

But really, I want you to focus in on me. And I've got a spouse for you that you don't know yet. You haven't met her yet.

But I'm going to put you two together. And I'm very thankful that God did that for me. Psalm 16 is a Davidic...

It's called a Mictom. And there's a lot of discussion on what a Mictom is. This is one of the ones that's sometimes been referred to as like a Golden Psalm.

Like this is kind of chief in quality. This is one of the good ones. There's many Psalms where David's talking about a variety of things, and they're maybe not as memorable as other ones.

So Psalm 23, everyone knows. Psalm 84 is a Psalm that many people have turned to in times of pilgrimage and being away from home, and they found some refuge and some solace there.

Psalm 119, the Psalm about God's Word, and it's the longest Psalm by far. I think it's 175 verses. All of those are like big, gigantic ones that many people know about that kind of Psalm.

This is one of the Psalms that we see referenced in the New Testament. I'm going to make sure that I've got enough time to look at where it's referenced.

In Acts 2, actually, where we were just a couple dozen episodes ago at the beginning of the Book of Acts. This Psalm is written, David's on the run, he's running from Saul, he's far from home.

For the Jewish people, so much of their identity was wrapped up in their family and in their allotment of land. The Jews were not supposed to sell their portion of land to other people.

If they did end up selling that portion of land, it would be returned to them. I forget if it was after seven years or at the year of Jubilee in the 49th or 50th year.

There was just a huge importance put on the place where God had put these families, that each of the tribes had their area of Israel that was theirs. And they were not supposed to take it lightly that God had given these portions of land to them.

So for David here, he is far away from family. He is far away from where God had placed his ancestry.

And so even as he would be traveling around and perhaps would be able to see some of the hills of Bethlehem from way far off or as he would think about the land of Judah and he would go, man, I wish I could be back home.

Man, I really wish I could be with the people that I love, my family, those that I grew up with.

I'm being hunted by the king of my people, not because I did anything wrong, but because he's jealous of what God is doing in my life and his hatred and bitterness towards me is pursuing me. So God, I really need you.

And that's why he writes Psalm 16. Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you. I said to Yahweh, you are my Lord.

I have nothing good beside you. Or another way to phrase that would be, Lord, you are my good. And there is nothing else in my life that's good besides you.

He says, is for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones and all my delight is in them. He says, God, I love the people that love you. Those are the people I want to be around.

Those are the people that I want to spend time with. Verse four, the sorrows of those who take another God for themselves, will multiply. I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips.

This is a consistent theme we've seen over the past several weeks in Psalms. He says, God, I love those that love you.

I'm not going to be with, I'm not going to participate with, I'm not going to esteem, I'm not going to magnify or honor those that do not love you. He says, they chase after another God and they're going to be sorry that they did.

Verse number five, Yahweh, you are my portion and my cup of blessing. You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I will praise Yahweh who counsels me. Even at night, my conscience instructs me.

I keep the Lord in mind always. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices.

My body also rests securely. For you will not abandon me to Sheol, to the grave. You will not allow your faithful one to see decay.

You reveal the path of life to me. In your presence is abundant joy. In your right hand are eternal pleasures.

I want to go back to verse number five and kind of look at a few of these verses before we turn over to Acts 2 and see how the apostles use this passage. Verse number five, he says, Yahweh, you are my portion and my cup of blessing.

You hold my future. He says, God, I'm way far away from home right now. The small inheritance that would come to me, if you'll remember, he was the seventh or eighth son of Jesse.

And so he would not be getting any sort of big inheritance. But he says, God, you are my portion. You are the thing that I get in life.

He says, you are my cup of blessing. You hold my future. He says, God, it's not about where I live.

It's not about what I get. It's not about who loves me or is chasing me or is trying to kill me. It's not about any of that.

My focus is on you because I know that you hold my future. I can think of this song because he lives a very dear song to me.

We, I believe, sang it the week after all the covid shutdowns happened in Washington, which was coincidentally the week after, literally seven days after my son was born. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone.

Because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives. Here David is saying those things. Because God holds my future, because he is my enjoyment in life, I can go through this time.

I can go through not having anything because God is what I have and God is enough. He says the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Here again, he's talking about those land portions that went to the various families in Israel. And he says God is what I have. I don't have any land right now.

I don't have family. I don't have whatever. He says, but God is a beautiful inheritance for me.

I'm so happy to have a relationship with him, to be able to call out to him, to know him, to take refuge in him. Verse number seven, I will praise Yahweh who counsels me. Even at night, my conscience instructs me.

He says, I am just consumed with thoughts of God and who He is and what His plans are for my life. Here, even at night, my conscience instructs me.

He says, even in literally the dark times where there might be something like a bear or a lion that would try and sneak up on people, especially during these times. He says, even in times that there could be fear, that I could worry.

He says, my conscience, it's the tool that God has placed in us, the tool that the Holy Spirit uses to say, hey, you're not doing right, or hey, you did right in that situation.

He says, because I'm continually thinking about God and His word and His commandments, even in times where there could be fear, could be unknown. He says, God is continuing to talk to my heart. Verse number eight, I keep Yahweh in mind always.

He's always in front of me. He says, because He's at my right hand, I will not be shaken. And what a comfort that is in a world that is constantly turbulent, constantly fighting, constantly enraged.

What a life to live. One that's not shaken by everything going on, but that is steady on the Lord. He says, therefore, my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices.

My body also rests securely. I know for myself, I am in need of a glad heart, one that is focused on Jesus, on what He has done, on the fact that God is not against me, but that He is for me. That's His testimony, that He says, I am for you.

It is not me just trying to take it on for myself, but that He genuinely loves me.

So that can gladden my heart, my spirit rejoices, my attitude, my kind of inner person, that kind of combination of mind and will and emotion, all of it works together and I rejoice because I know God's with me. And then my body also rests securely.

If your mental and spiritual state is settled, then it can help your body to be able to settle. Obviously, we have flawed bodies as a result of the fall, so our bodies will never behave in exactly the way that they're supposed to.

But I know for myself, times when I've been worried and fretful, it's been difficult to sleep, versus when I go, okay, I know that God's going to take care of me.

Well, that can bring such peace to my sleep that maybe I don't sleep for a long time, but sleep for a good time. Verse number 10. You will not abandon me to Sheol, to the grave.

You will not allow your faithful one to see decay. He says, you're not going to leave me in this hell that I am living in right now, this kind of vagabond lifestyle.

He says, God, I know you're not going to leave me here, and you're not going to let me rot. Instead, verse 11, you reveal the path of life to me. In your presence is abundant joy.

The King James that I was reading at the time, I was going through all of this. Your presence is fullness of joy. It's overflowing joy.

It says, in your right hand are eternal pleasures. Verse 11 was just a verse that I really held on to in a time where I didn't really see light at the end of the tunnel yet. Where I went, God, I need you to reveal the path of life to me.

God, I need you to give me fullness of joy because I've got zero joy right now. And then God, I need you to bring me those eternal pleasures. I need you to bring me that happiness again.

I'm thankful that when we pray, even in our flawed nature, that God still hears us.

And I know maybe if you're going through a time right now where you don't have that joy, where you are going through a very dark season, where maybe you, like David, are undergoing so many struggles from so many different sides, can I encourage you?

Call out to the Lord. Pray these thoughts to Him. God, give me joy.

Show me the path I'm supposed to go on. Give me those eternal pleasures, that happiness again. Bring it out in my life.

And God will answer it. It's His word, it's His promises. Here, I want to just end with how the Apostles used this particular text of Scripture.

So Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has come down. People are wondering, what's up with these people?

Why are they speaking in all of these different languages? Are they drunk? Peter gets up, he goes, guys, no, no, no, we're not drunk.

This is what Joel 2 is talking about, about when God pours out His Spirit in the last days, and then he's talking about Jesus. And I'm going to start in verse number 22. Men of Israel, listen to these words.

This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know.

Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

For David says about him, I saw the Lord ever before me, because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.

Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope, because you will not leave me in Hades in the grave or allow your Holy One to see decay. You have revealed the paths of life to me. You will fill me with gladness in your presence.

Here obviously, Peter is quoting from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of Psalm 16. So that's why the wording is very similar. It's the same passage, obviously, but a little different.

And as we think about our struggles and hardships, we remember that truthfully, all of Scripture is about Jesus.

And if he went through death itself, if he went through the beatings and the trial and sweating great drops of blood, and if he fought temptation and the devil for our sake, then know that if God didn't leave him in the grave after all that he went

through, he will not leave you in your own personal hell like David prays. That David obviously wasn't dead. And while it is a prophecy that found its fulfillment in Jesus, it was true of David.

He says, right now, I feel like I'm being dragged down into the grave. This isn't living. He says, God, I need you to show me real life.

And I'd encourage you to pray that. It will probably not happen just in a moment. For David, I don't know when in the timeline.

It doesn't specify when he wrote this particular Psalm. But depending on when he wrote it, could have been 10, 15, 20 years until God finally brought him out of that stage of his life.

So I'm going to connect two, I think, two songs with this Psalm, one of which is by Shannon Shane, and the other is by The Worship Initiative, both excellent renditions of this Psalm that will encourage you in your faith.

Hope that you would have been encouraged by what's happening today. Again, if you'd like to chime in maybe with something that God's been teaching you, would love to hear it.

Put it in the comments, email pastor at tbcsics.com and would love to hear from you. Have a wonderful day. Tomorrow, we are in Psalm 17.