“Track 16: How To Be Happy (Psalm 16)" | 7/7/24
Psalm 16 | 7/7/24 | Will DuVal
By God’s providence, it’s no mistake that on a Sunday filled with so much SAD news, we would be focusing this morning on the question of “How to be HAPPY”. There are no shortage of IDEAS out there; I found a recent NY Times piece that included 20 suggestions in just the one article alone (Parker-Pope, “How to be Happy”, https://www.nytimes.com/article/how-to-be-happy.html)
Conquer negative thinking
Practice controlled breathing
Rewrite your story
Start journaling
Move your body
Practice Optimism
Find a sustaining and satisfying job
Live in a happy neighborhood
Make happy friends
be generous
Spend Time in Nature
Declutter
Finish a task
Sleep more
Eat better
Have sex
Buy a pet
Volunteer
Save time
Show yourself compassion
All good ideas. But even better is GOD’S, found in Psalm ch16 for this morning, where King David will delight, “my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices”. He claims to have found “fullness of joy” and “pleasures FOREVERmore”.
That sounds good to ME! Sign ME up! Lead the way, David!
I invite you to STAND with me… Psalms 16:
“A Miktam of David.
16:1 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.”
[This is the word of the Lord… Seated…]
-
King David - under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit - offers us EIGHT instructions here for being happy. The NY Times needed 20; God only needs EIGHT. (And His list will make us WAY happier, too. 🙂)
#1 - David’s first word of advice here for those seeking happiness is to 1) Trust in GOD. (vv1-2)
True happiness BEGINS with trusting God, because God is the SOURCE of all true joy in this life. As David acknowledges in v2: “I have NO GOOD apart from you,” God.
He actually BEGINS with a petition: “PRESERVE me, O God.” We don’t know WHICH of David’s enemies was threatening him on this particular occasion, but what we DO know is where David found his shelter and strength WHENEVER he was under attack: “In YOU, O God, I take REFUGE”.
“I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord”
There are actually THREE different names for God employed here in these opening two lines of the psalm; James Boice (Psalms, 131) explains: “The name El (in v1; “Preserve me, O EL”) delineates God as ‘the Mighty One’”... [In v2a, Yahweh is] the personal name of God… in relation to his chosen people… [And in v2b, the name Adonai] “can designate an earthly Lord as well as God… So David is saying that the God of Israel is HIS master. That is, God is not only the strong, powerful God in whom he can take refuge but he is also the one who is able to order [David’s] life and direct what he should do.”
“God: I believe you are not only the all-powerful and Sovereign God over all the universe, but you are also an all-CARING God who is personal to me; You are MY Lord, and ALL of my good in life.” Later in v5, David continues his profession of faith: “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”
Who determines our “LOT” in life? Is it CHANCE? Or FATE? Or are we masters of our OWN fate and destiny?
According to God’s word, “none of the above”; rather, THE LORD determines our lot. As a matter of fact, sometimes back in Bible times people would “cast lots” - it was kind of like rolling dice - to determine the best course of action, what GOD’S WILL was in a given situation, because Israel KNEW, as Proverbs 16:33 puts it, that “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” → You may be the one rolling the dice, but GOD is the one who DETERMINES the roll. He is THAT Sovereign, friends; if your kid beats you at YAHTZEE this afternoon, it will be because GOD ordained it so. God “works all things according to the counsel of his will”, Ephesians 1:11 says.
So what do we DO with THAT kind of God? An all-powerful, all-determining kind of God? David says: “You TRUST him.” You take REFUGE in HIM.
In Psalm 20, v7, David’s gonna say: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses” - their nation’s military might - but as for ME, I’M gonna trust in the One who gave those horses their life in the first place, the One on whom they depend for every single BREATH. The One who proved 500 years ago to our ancestors that he can split the SEA in half when he wants to, so we could ESCAPE Pharaoh’s chariots, and then use that same sea to swallow UP their powerful chariots; I’m gonna trust in HIM!
“Some trust in CHARIOTS”; some trust in political candidates. Is that where your hope is, this November?
Some take refuge in their BANK accounts, in their RETIREMENT savings, in their INVESTMENTS; THAT is the source of their security and safety.
For others, their “chosen portion” is their relationships; their friends, family. THAT is where they turn first for solace when things get tough.
Brothers and sisters, may we not forget that we have a refuge who is BETTER than any president; He is the KING of Kings!
He is more valuable than ALL our wealth…
We have the greatest “friend” of ALL… we have a loving heavenly FATHER, who invites us to TRUST in HIM.
Psalm 118:8 “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.”
Psalm 112:7 “the righteous will never be moved… He is not afraid…
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.”
Isaiah 26:3 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, [O Lord] because he trusts in you.”
So let’s APPLY it now; here’s your first glimpse of the truly HAPPY person: it’s the person who can be perfectly at PEACE while the storms of life are RAGING around them. Like David - “SAVE me, God, from this STORM; but then he can IMMEDIATELY declare, “I TRUST you; I take REFUGE in you.”
Like JESUS, perfectly at peace - NAPPING! - in the middle of a storm at sea, in Matthew 8. Because he knows the One - He IS the one! - who CALMS the storms of life.
Like Louise Paez this morning. Can you think of anything WORSE than losing your beloved spouse of __ years?
I can: Not knowing where he’s GOING. But when you know the One who promises not to abandon your soul to Sheol - when you trust in HIM, not just as “THE” Lord - lots of people recognize that there is “A” God in charge around here, but he’s not “THEIR” God - but when THE Lord is YOUR Lord, and you take REFUGE in him, friends, you can have a peace that SURPASSES all understanding.
Encouragement #2- if you want to be happy, then Love THE CHURCH. (v3)
David writes: “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
Now, lest any of you from a Roman Catholic upbringing hear that and envision a dead person with a halo who listens to your prayers because God is too busy, David specifies for us that the “saints” HE has in mind here are “in the LAND”; they’re here on EARTH. And that is the consistent biblical use of the term: saints refers to “the excellent ones” who, like David himself, trust in and therefore belong TO the LORD.
Psalm 85 (v8) and 148 (v14) both use “saints” as a synonym for “God’s people”.
In the NT, the apostle Paul addressed many of his letters to the “saints in Rome” or the “saints in Corinth”.
“SAINTS” are the CHURCH; they are God’s PEOPLE.
And here in Psalm 16, David says of God’s people, they are “ALL my DELIGHT”. I LOVE them! David models for us a CHRIST-like love for his fellow saints. The Bible calls the Church Jesus’ “BRIDE” in whom he DELIGHTS, SO much so that he DIED for her; Ephesians 5 says “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (v25); it says he “nourishes and cherishes” the church (v29). So too, WE are now called - one of the last commands Jesus gave US before going to his cross was to “love one another just as I have loved you all” (Jn 13:34-35). He said, “By this all people will know that you belong to me: if you have love for one another.”
So, to apply this practically now: if you want to be happy, make Sunday your favorite day of the week.
Don’t be content to be here 2 or 3 Sundays out of the month; resolve to make the weekly gathering with your spiritual family around the Lord’s table every bit as non-negotiable and sacrosanct as your nightly gathering with your biological family around the dinner table.
Don’t be content to be here for 75 or 80 minutes - resolve to spend all MORNING here, delighting in fellowship and discipleship with the saints downstairs for Sunday school BEFORE delighting in corporate worship with us upstairs. Or delighting in training up the NEXT generation of saints at the EAST wing of the building AFTER you have yourself delighted in worshiping with saints from the GREATEST generation at THIS end.
Don’t be content to passively participate - the NY Times had some great advice: VOLUNTEER! (“As each of you have received a gift, use it to serve one another”)... Be GENEROUS (“Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce”).
Remember: I’m not trying to GUILT you into anything here - not to GUILT but to GLADDEN! - I’m just trying to help YOU be more HAPPY!
If you wanna be HAPPY, don’t be content to delight in the saints on SUNDAYS ONLY; join a small group you can grow to know and love and delight in throughout the week. Again, even the NY Times suggested “surrounding yourself with happy people”. Who is happier than those who have had their sins forgiven - those who’ve been RESCUED from Hell and Death by the LOVE of Jesus Christ?! Surround yourself with such people - such HAPPY people - and you will be blessed and brightened by them.
…And #3 - Avoid SIN. (vv4-5)
V4 warns: “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply”, so David resolves: “their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out, nor take their names on my lips.”
David has in mind the “gods” of the surrounding pagan nations that all too often led God’s people Israel astray into apostate, idolatrous worship. “Worship” that would sometimes even include HUMAN sacrifice - HUMAN “blood” - in the name of appeasing these so-called “gods”. David says, “Not only will I not PARTICIPATE; I won’t even pay such “gods” the honor of uttering their NAMES! They are as unspeakable to me as the horrific rituals practiced in their name.” Those who ENGAGE in such rituals, who “run AFTER” such “gods” will MULTIPLY their own SORROWS.
You wanna be SORROWFUL? Chase idols.
You wanna be HAPPY? Stay away!
And this is what ALL sin is, really, isn’t it: IDOLATRY? Tim Keller used to say: “The root of every sin is a breaking of the first commandment (“You shall have no other gods before me”).” And that’s what idolatry IS: it is worshiping other, NON-gods instead of the one TRUE God, allowing them to take GOD’S rightful place as the sole object of our exclusive devotion. Think about it: all the other commandments in the OT’s top 10 can really be boiled down to IDOLATRY:
People break the Sabbath because they IDOLIZE productivity.
People dishonor their parents because they idolize personal autonomy.
People commit adultery because they idolize SEX.
Every SIN really amounts to the “worship” of some false god.
And according to the Bible, DOING it will make you MISERABLE. Not just because God will eventually PUNISH you for it, though He WILL, but because - as any of us who have TRIED to find our happiness in any of those lesser, counterfeit gods can tell you - they NEVER truly satisfy you. You will NEVER be productive enough, autonomous enough, sexually fulfilled enough - there will ALWAYS be more achievements to be attained, more power to be gained, more money to be made, more need to get laid… it’s NEVER enough! Counterfeit gods are INSATIABLE!
So David’s advice is: don’t ever start “running after” them in the FIRST place. And if you realize that you HAVE, then run AWAY! “FLEE from idolatry”, 1 Corinthians 10:14 says.“Flee from sexual immorality”, 1 Corinthians 6:18.
“Flee [the love of MONEY]”, 1 Timothy 6:11 says.
“Flee youthful passions (sex, drugs and rock-n-roll) and pursue (chase AFTER) righteousness”, 2 Timothy 2:22 says.
Sin ANGERS and GRIEVES God - that should be reason enough for us to AVOID it. But even if our motives were MIXED, and more self-interested than we’d care to admit, we STILL ought to avoid sin, because it consistently fails to deliver on its promise of true, lasting happiness. Remember where we BEGAN the Psalms, in ch1: “How happy is WHO?? The one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!” RATHER, HAPPY is the one whose “delight is in the law of the Lord”.
So to get really PRACTICAL, here’s a fun idea: what if you put this notion to the test this week. What if you made a list of your top 5 to 10 sin struggles - ask your spouse, or your best friend for help if you need to (cuz they’ve probably got that list ready to GO, just in case you ever needed it, you know…) - what if you literally wrote out a LIST, and carried it around in your pocket all week long, and set an alarm reminder 3 times a day - first thing in the morning, middle of the day, and last thing at night - to CHECK the list (do a quick self-evaluation) and then just pray a very simple prayer like this: “God, I know you call me to “Put to DEATH the works of the FLESH”; I need your help to DO it. Would you help me KILL my sin, by the power of your Spirit. Father, I know you promise that I will be HAPPIER if I avoid sin and delight in YOUR law of righteousness instead; help me to DO it. To find my happiness in YOU, I pray.”
20 second prayer, 3 times a day - that’s 60 seconds. Plus an additional minute or two to look your list over as your praying it - “HAVE I gossiped at all this morning? Lusted? Boasted? Been overly critical? Slothful? Anxious?
Less than 5 minutes a day, every day this week - why don’t you TRY it, put God to the TEST, and see if he answers that prayer and helps you start ELIMINATING those sins from your life, little by little, and see if as a BY-product, he doesn’t also make you HAPPIER for it in the process.
#4 - If you want to be HAPPY, Practice GRATITUDE. (v6)
That’s what DAVID does here in v6, when he exults that:
“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”Scholars point out that David is adopting language from and evoking imagery of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land, their “pleasant place” and “beautiful inheritance” from the LORD. And we begin to understand why David is so GRATEFUL, when we grasp just how CENTRAL this idea of a “land”, a “place”, a “HOME” was and still IS to God’s people. Indeed, you can almost tell the whole STORY of the Old TESTAMENT through the lens of that theme:
In the beginning, God created everything GOOD and he PLACED his people - Adam & Eve - in that good home, the Garden.
But they sinned, and God had to EVICT them from the land.
But God called a man named Abram to leave HIS homeland and to trust God to give him a NEW home, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
But just as it looked like God was making good on that promise by establishing Abraham’s son ISRAEL in the land, Israel’s SONS sinned yet again, and sold their brother JOSEPH into slavery in EGYPT, which eventually resulted in the entire FAMILY and later, in the entire NATION of Israel being enslaved there.
But God delivered his people OUT of Egypt, and eventually brought them BACK to the land that he had promised them. But God WARNED Israel that he would evict them AGAIN if they failed to obey his commands. And sure enough, some 800 years after Joshua had led them into Canaan, the Babylonians led God’s people OUT of the land again, into EXILE.
But halfway in BETWEEN there, around the turn of the MILLENNIUM, King DAVID ruled over Israel at the PEAK of their dynastic reign and territorial expansion as a nation. David managed to conquer more of the surrounding nations than ANY of the kings of Israel that followed him; the lines had TRULY “fallen” for him in “pleasant places”.
But I think we would be short-sighted to consider the “land” as the ONLY “beautiful inheritance” David has in mind here. A quick glance ahead at vv10 & 11 makes it clear that God has set ETERNITY in David’s heart here. As a matter of fact, David uses the same Hebrew word here in v5 for “pleasant places” as he does later in v11 when he references the “PLEASURES at God’s own right hand”. Because David knows that HEAVEN is his ULTIMATE and MOST “beautiful inheritance”.
And so too can WE, Church. Sure, like David, we can and should celebrate God’s drawing of the temporal lines in THIS life in “pleasant places” for us. Like David, we express GRATITUDE when God expands the borders of our little “kingdoms” - when he brings a new BABY into our family, provides a PROMOTION for us at work, enables us to finally move from the apartment into our very own HOME, when God continues adding new members to our church family year after year - we say, “THANK you, God; you are a GOOD and GENEROUS God - the giver of EVERY good and perfect gift, as James 1:17 declares - and we have NO good apart from you!”
And yet, friends, like David, we ALSO know that our GREATEST cause for gratitude, the greatest INHERITANCE that we now share thanks to Christ’s work on the cross, to pay for our sins and ADOPT us into God’s own heavenly FAMILY, it is an OTHER-worldly inheritance, an ETERNAL reward!
1 Peter 1 glories that “According to [God’s] great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you… [And] In this [we] rejoice”!
So if you wanna get PRACTICAL, and get HAPPY - Sure, keep a “Gratitude Journal”. And list ten new things every day that you’re thankful to GOD for, without repeating - cuz you don’t NEED to repeat; God has blessed every person in this room with enough gifts to last you a LIFETIME of journaling, listing 10 new ones a day. With one exception: our eternal inheritance should be at the very TOP of the list every single day. The salvation - the “living hope” - that you and I now share if we are in Christ, if we HAVE been born again by God’s great mercy - brothers and sisters: that is a gift we could spend the rest of our LIVES trying to exhaust gratitude for, and NEVER even come CLOSE.
Praise be to GOD! You wanna be HAPPY? Remember your INHERITANCE. And be GRATEFUL, eternally grateful.
#5 - If you want to be happy, learn to Take INSTRUCTION. (v7)
Notice why David “blesses the Lord” now in v7: because he “gives me counsel”. That harkens back to Psalm ONE again, doesn’t it? “HAPPY is the man… [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord” (vv1-2).
But the most THOROUGH exposition of this idea of “delighting” in God’s instruction is Psalm 119, the longest chapter in ALL of God’s word, which is entirely DEVOTED to celebrating the JOYS of… God’s WORD!
“Happy are those… who walk in the law of the Lord!” (v1)
“Happy are those who keep his testimonies” (v2)
“In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.” (v14)
“My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times.” (v20)
176 verses, each one more embellished and exuberant than the last, all of them exalting in the BEAUTY of God’s WORD, and the JOY of those who FOLLOW it.
But notice the SECOND half of v7, now, where David adds: “ in the night also my heart instructs me.” What’s David DOING there? Is he setting up a CONTRAST between the two? “I follow GOD’S counsel by day, but my own HEART by night?”
No - it’s a KIND of synonymous parallelism, where both lines include the same basic idea, but I think the variation in David’s wording is intentional and MEANING-full:
I read my Bible every morning. And THROUGH it, the Lord gives me COUNSEL. But then at SOME point, even us PASTORS have to CLOSE the book and go about our busy DAYS, during which ALL of us will make hundreds (if not THOUSANDS!) of little decisions - maybe even a few BIG ones here and there - and let me just ask you: do you pull your BIBLE off the shelf before making each one of them? Seek the Lord’s counsel, directly from his word, for… how to handle that client at work?
How to spend the next hour before the kids wake up from their naps?
Paper or plastic? (Do they even still give you the CHOICE? I am blessed with a wife who does all the shopping…)
But NO - we don’t pull out our Bibles for every one of those decisions; what do we DO? We COMMIT God’s word to our HEARTS, and then as we GO throughout our DAYS… even into the NIGHT… our HEARTS can then “INSTRUCT us”, in the ways of the Lord.
In some cases, maybe God doesn’t have a lot to SAY about paper vs. plastic (or maybe he DOES; Creation-care is a pretty big DEAL to God, in his word!). But even in the smaller decisions, the ones where there ISN’T clear direction from God’s word - God nevertheless GUIDES us through His own SPIRIT which he has sent to live WITHIN our hearts, in order to “guide [us] into all the truth” (Jn 16:13); not just the BIG truths and decisions of life, but ALL the truth. And God calls us to LISTEN to and LIVE unto the Spirit.
So here’s the practical upshot: if you want to be happy, learn to LOVE God’s word, CHERISH it, DEVOUR it, “meditate on it day and night”, like David did, so much so that as you are going ABOUT your day… your night… you can readily call Scripture back to mind, or better yet, you won’t NEED to, cuz you’ll know it BY HEART. And where God’s word DOESN’T speak clearly, be so filled with, so in STEP with God’s SPIRIT that you don’t even really have to stop and ponder “What Would Jesus Do?” for all that long anymore; you just find yourself DOING it, naturally, or SUPER-naturally I should say, because you’re taking your lead from Jesus’ own, indwelling, supernatural SPIRIT within you.
Boy - when you do THAT, you’ll be HAPPY. Do you KNOW people like that? As I was reading that description of the Bible-saturated, Spirit-saturated believer, did someone come to MIND for you? Isn’t that person ALSO like the HAPPIEST person you know?
That’s the kind of person I want to be!
But it’s not EASY, is it? Think back over all these exhortations we’ve considered: trusting in God no matter WHAT life (no matter what GOD!) throws at you, loving the CHURCH (not always EASY, is it? I’ve MET some of y’all…), avoiding SIN, being grateful in “ALL circumstances”, following GOD’S word; being ABLE to because I’ve COMMITTED it to heart and I’m LIVING unto the Spirit – turns out the pursuit of HAPPINESS is HARD WORK! It is no easy, passive endeavor. And that brings us to…
#6 - If you want to be HAPPY, you must Pursue THE LORD. (v8)
We read Jeremiah 29:13 last week, where God promised Israel: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
And Matthew 7:7, where Jesus invited us to ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
So too, here in Psalm 16, v8, David reminds himself that on the ONE hand (the RIGHT hand, to be exact), God is BESIDE him, and therefore he “shall not be shaken”; God is his REFUGE.
But in another very real sense, David reminds and sort of PRODS himself: “I have set the Lord always before me”.
It reminded me of what the author of HEBREWS said, back when we studied it last fall, in ch12 where he built out that analogy of the “race of faith” that is “set BEFORE us”. Remember how he coached us to ENDURE, to stay IN the race, all the way through the finish line? Hebrews 12:2 says keep your eyes FIXED ahead of you, on JESUS, who HIMSELF was able to endure his OWN race - and in particular, the CROSS - by keeping HIS eyes fixed on “the JOY that was set before him”, the joy of bringing US to heaven WITH him! Speaking of HAPPINESS, aren’t you GLAD that Jesus endured HIS race, for YOUR sake, your SALVATION?
David says: “You’ll be glad you endured YOUR race as well, to FOLLOW him”, to PURSUE him.
“I have set the Lord always before me”. The Reformers captured this idea with the Latin phrase coram deo - which literally means “before the face of God”. But practically that means - here is your PRACTICAL application point, with happiness tip #6: is to ““live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, unto the glory of God” (“What does ‘coram Deo’ Mean?” ligonier.org/blog/what-does-coram-deo-mean )”.
To “live your entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, unto the glory of God” To set the Lord ALWAYS before you. And to PURSUE him with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength.
Do THAT, and you’ll be HAPPY. Go ahead and look at v9; David says: “Therefore - BECAUSE I pursue the Lord ALWAYS, living ALL of my life for HIS glory… and because I know he is always at my right HAND, as my refuge and shield, THEREFORE… 1) my heart is glad, 2) my whole being rejoices; 3) and my flesh dwells secure.”
Mind, body & spirit - a perfectly whole and HAPPY existence - when we find our joy WHOLLY in the LORD. And to be sure, David’s list here, for “How to be Happy” - it works really WELL… as long as we’re faithful to FOLLOW it.
But is anyone else starting to wonder by this point: “What about when we FAIL to? When we FAIL to…
Trust in the Lord with ALL our heart, and instead, we lean on our OWN understanding…
When we FAIL to love God’s people the way that God HIMSELF loves them?
When we INDULGE sin, instead of avoiding it?
When we GRUMBLE instead of being GRATEFUL?
When we IGNORE God’s instruction and live unto our flesh instead of unto His Spirit?
When we run after OTHER, counterfeit gods and try to make THEM our “chosen portion and cup” INSTEAD - when we FAIL to “set the Lord before us ALWAYS”; cuz let’s be honest: living your ENTIRE life coram deo, before the face of God - under HIS authority, for HIS glory - that is ASPIRATIONAL, isn’t it? NONE of us does that at ALL times.
So what THEN? It is good news that we can be HAPPY to the extent that we are faithful and obedient… but what about when we are faith-LESS and DIS-obedient?
That’s when the good news gets even BETTER, friends, and when we HAVE to be able to fall back on exhortation #7 - to Remember OUR HOPE. (vv9-10)
V10 - David’s glorious declaration that God “will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” - that is the ONLY verse in this whole psalm that David wrote NOT about himself. Not PRIMARILY, anyway. David MAY have believed - and hoped against all hope - that one day God would raise him from the dead (despite the fact that God had never done anything like that up to this point in human history) but STILL, we know that v10 is not primarily autobiographical, about David. How do we know? THREE quick reasons:
First, because David DID go down to Sheol. In 2 Samuel 12, just after David had lost his son - the child he conceived illicitly with Bathsheeba - David mourns: “he is dead. Why should I fast [NOW]? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”” In other words, David said, “I know that I’M gonna die, and go to the place where ALL the dead go - Sheol - but a RETURN from the dead? I don’t think so!”
Second, we know v10 isn’t primarily about David because DAVID WASN’T “HOLY”! This prophecy about the one who wouldn’t “see corruption” concerned God’s “HOLY one”. But I would refer you back to LAST Sunday’s sermon on Psalms 14 & 15 as proof that David was a SINNER who needed a SAVIOR just as much as anyone ELSE.
But the last and most CONCLUSIVE reason that we know v10 isn’t primarily about David is that THE BIBLE TELLS US SO! This verse is quoted TWICE in the book of Acts - once by the apostle PETER in chapter 2, and then again by the apostle PAUL in ch13. Both of whom come to the same conclusion about who Psalm 16, v10 is REALLY about:
“Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders… this Jesus… you crucified and killed… [but] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. [Here it is: ] For David says concerning him… you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.” (2:22-27)
And then just in case they were STILL confused, Peter breaks it down for them: “Brothers, I say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 [David] foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ… This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. ” (2:29-32)
So too PAUL rejoices in Acts ch13: “Brothers… we bring you the good news that what God promised to our fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the psalms… “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ For David… fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but [JESUS] did not see corruption… through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed” from their sin. (13:32-39)
Brothers and sisters: JESUS is ALL of our hope, in life AND in DEATH. And all who believe in him will be FREED from our sin and our OWN death, to one day be raised to everlasting life with Him. You want to be happy - ETERNALLY happy? Find your hope in JESUS.
When you do, the only advice LEFT #8 - is to Abide IN CHRIST. (v11)
Psalm 16 ends with v11: “You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.””Jesus IS the way, the truth, and the LIFE. He came to bring US “life to the FULLEST”; he said of his teachings: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11).
Wanna guess who is sitting at “God’s right hand”, up in Heaven, at this very moment, now and FOREVERmore?
It’s JESUS! In HIM we find “pleasures” - HAPPINESS - to last us for a lifetime and throughout all eternity. JESUS is the great treasure and PLEASURE of heaven. In HIS presence there is fullness of joy.
Do you want to be HAPPY? Abide in Christ.