We turn this morning to Psalm 16. If you're visiting, we're working through the psalms this morning and we're coming to Psalm 16, which is really a wonderful psalm in light of all of the stress and turmoil and uncertainty in the times in which we live, really laying before us the hope that we have in Christ. So we're going to consider the entirety of Psalm 16 this morning. This is found on page 575 in your pew Bibles. There we read, Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, You are my Lord. I have no good apart from You. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows, 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 the lord is my chosen portion and my cup you hold my lot the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places indeed i have a beautiful inheritance i bless the lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me i have set the lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. Right now, I am a healthy and vigorous 35-year-old. My body is still somewhat a slave, you know. It pretty much does what I want it to do. There are things happening, though, that I see are changing. I can see already that my body is kind of coming into the period of being an advisor. Warning me. Saying, don't do what you used to do. And my wife tells me the same. At times, I don't feel as good as I used to. I see the limitations are growing. What I sort of fear the most is when my body will become a tyrant. I think a little bit about that. Then what? The fact is that our bodies are going through a slow process of decreation until we get to the point of what was declared right after the fall. Dust you were taken and dust you shall return. I raised this this morning because my health is sort of, right now for me at least, my greatest security in looking at it from an earthly perspective. It's one of my greatest securities. If my health is really attacked, I'm not going to be too worried about who the President is. Maybe I would for the future generations, but that's kind of my great security. No matter how much my life has stayed for the present, The reality is for all of us this morning, our bodies, we're dying. We're all dying. All of us right now are sitting here dying. Slowly. Some, it's going to be faster than others. This is why Psalm 16 is really an important psalm. Psalm 16 is a beautiful psalm. Such a hopeful psalm. because it really is providing us an answer to the problem when securities are taken away, when our strength is taken away. And it's showing us where the great security is, where our great peace and security lies when all of our earthly securities are attacked, the greatest being our health. What a psalm for our time when nothing seems certain. What a psalm for our time when everything seems all around us to be falling apart and unraveling at the seams. Here we come this morning to Psalm 16. And what an amazing way this psalm begins in verse 1. Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, You are my Lord. I have no good apart from You. You know, a lot of the psalms have settings to them. A lot of them have a historical background to the Psalms. And I have looked at Psalm 16 a lot. I've considered in my short life Psalm 16 a lot. I love Psalm 16. It is one of my favorites. And I used to think, as I read Psalm 16, that he must have been in some kind of great distress. Could be. But as I freshly looked at it last week, and I really spent some time reflecting, I wondered if really this is something that is showing us a very common experience to all of life. Very similar to Psalm 13. You remember Psalm 13 that we considered two weeks ago where David was facing some kind of deep depression and he cried out because it felt like God had departed from him. And that was the beginning of the cry that why have you forsaken? Why have you left me? And it wasn't true, was it? God never leaves His people. God had made a promise that He would always be with them. David didn't see it, and so David had prayed that the Lord would give light to his eyes so that he could see clearly. And then by the end of that psalm, after he had considered the Lord's steadfast love, oh, he saw really clearly. He was up on cloud nine, full of joy and full of happiness in confidence in the Lord, wasn't he? It was a beautiful psalm. A beautiful psalm. Not because his circumstances changed, but because he saw that the Lord had answered his greatest need. So here we are this morning and we open up Psalm 16 and I find it just fascinating of what David is doing here. He is asking the Lord to keep him in what he's learned about the Lord. Now think about the depression. Think about the sorrow. Think about the struggle. And here we come to Psalm 16 and he's saying, Preserve me in what I've come to know about you. What I've come to learn about you. What I see so clearly at the moment. Here is his cry. Protect me. I've made you my refuge. Protect me in what I've come to understand. I've come to see something. Your light has brightened my eyes and I'm seeing really clearly. I need you to preserve me in that, Lord. I'm asking you to do that. You know the struggle, don't you? You know the struggle. My greatest frustration about the Christian life is that I don't hold on to things very well. I don't hold on to things very well. You ever notice when the circumstances are good, it's easy to worship, it's easy to bless. When everything is fine, it's easy to be up and it's easy to be happy. and it doesn't take long until some tragedy, some hardship, some suffering, some attack, some earthly tragedy and all of that perspective is ripped right away. Gone. You know what John Flavel used to say about the Christian ministry as a side note? He says the average worker when he goes to work every week, wherever he stops the night before, you know, that day, he comes back the next day and he picks up and his work hasn't been tampered with. the minister's got a whole different challenge. Every week he gives a sermon and the devil unraveled everything he said in his people in the course of the week, so he has to start all over next Sunday. So he described Christian ministry. It's true. And it's a good description of the Christian life, isn't it? Up and down. Here's David. David is struggling with something, obviously. but it's a whole complete picture. And he's come with this fresh understanding. He's come out of it. And he sees really clearly. And what does he see? He says it in verse 2. I love what he says in verse 2. I will say to the Lord, You are my Lord. I have no good apart from You. Now a close reader will realize when he just looked over verse 1 and 2 that he used three different names of God. This is packed, isn't it? He uses the first strong name of God, El Elohim, which means that God is the strong one, the powerful one. And then he moves right into, you'll notice the all capitals there. He uses the holy name revealed in the burning bush. I am that I am. And then he moves right to Adonai, which means master or ruler. So the prayer goes like this. Oh, powerful One! My God, preserve me. You are my Lord. You are the God who never changes. I have said to You, You're my Master. I have said to You, You're my Lord. I have nothing apart from You. What a beautiful prayer, isn't it? What David just said is you are the treasure of my life. I have found nothing else to satisfy me in this life. Nothing. This is it. This is what I've come to see. Nothing in this life means as much to me as you, O Lord. And I say it. Now this is not so uncommon throughout the course of the Psalms. The psalmists are always saying things like this. And it's a wonderful devotional approach to see how they understood the Lord, what He was like to them. But you think of what I read this morning in Psalm 63 for the call to worship. Oh God, You are my God. Early I will seek... Notice all of this. You. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I've looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory because your loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise you. The man is all caught up in him, isn't he? And it's the most satisfying place he has ever been. Now this is not merely emotional. I guess it's important to say this is not merely emotional. Think about the reality of what he is saying here. It's a knowledge that is driving him. And that's why he's using the names of God in this way. It's a knowledge that is driving him of God in understanding and believing what God has been like to him in this sad world. And have you ever seen someone's life opened up when they really understand the goodness of the Lord? Everything changes. Think about the reality of how the Lord has been to you. Think of how He has treated you. Look at the whole picture. Look at His goodness. I don't know if we see this stronger. And I want to, just for a minute, take a departure and consider something that happened in the Gospels that I believe illustrates Psalm 16 so beautifully. And it is the woman at the well. Jesus had come to this woman, remember? He had to go through Samaria. And he goes, and if you read it carefully, he sits right on Jacob's well. He sits on it. And Jesus said something to her. It's really a beautiful verse. He said, But if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water. Now we've heard this passage a whole bunch in the course of our life, but then He expands on this. And He says, whoever drinks of this water will never thirst again. But whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. the water that I shall give Him will become in Him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. Ever thought about the weight of that verse? You ever just stood back and pondered the power of what He just said? The beauty of what He just said? What's so amazing about the passage was Jesus knew this woman. Jesus knew this woman had lived an awful life. Her whole life was full of patterns that were destructive and awful. Hidden stuff going on there. She was a serial divorcee. Five husbands. And the one she had now was not her husband. Implication being, it's somebody else's. And Jesus says to her, your life's a mess. I'm offering you living water. The water that I give you, when you drink of this water, you will never thirst again. And at the bottom of those wells a hundred feet deep, the water would come up and it was just stagnant. And Jesus was saying, it won't be like this. The water that I give bursts. Bursts. It's like a geyser. Now Jesus said to her, If you knew Me, you would have asked and I'll fill you with that. I'll give you that. What did the Old Testament say about the Lord? The Old Testament said about the Lord, He is a fountain of life. Here's Jesus sitting on it saying that. Now I rehearsed that. I took that departure just for a minute. coming back to Psalm 16 to say, David is asking that. If you knew me, you would have asked. And I would have given you living water. And David is saying it right here. Preserve me. I have said you are my Lord. And I have nothing apart from you. I have no good apart from you. Here's the reality, isn't it? The reality of our lives is that we are constantly trying to satisfy and fill our lives and we're on this never-ending pursuit to find something that will satisfy us. And so we're in search of satisfaction and we're in search of security and we're in search of help. I don't know if you have stood back from everything that's happening all around us in our day and really stood back and looked at the big picture of everything happening in this country and happening all around us, do you know every single great security we have known in this country is being attacked? Think about it. You're on the verge of financial collapse. You're on an insurance nightmare. The military is becoming impotent. You have a moral leadership everywhere. No one would have thought that a storm could strike the heart of American pride. Look at the devastation. Where does $50 billion come from to fix that? No idea. You've got the Islam problem. You have a rising health care nightmare all around us. Social security is about done. Every bit of your earthly security is being attacked right now. Right down the line. Check, check, check, check. Who's doing that? and we think, oh, if I just get that, it'll satisfy me. If I can create an environment of total security and total calm, and we're on this never-ending saga of jumping and jumping and jumping to one satisfaction after another, just like this woman at the well. And you know what David is saying here in Psalm 16? I have found it. Here it is. I know what you've been like to me. I see it. My whole life, you have been the strong one. You have been my master. You have not changed in a world that is changing all around us. And the reality is, my goodness is nothing apart from you. I see you are my refuge. You are my Lord. And here's what I'm asking. Keep me in this. Preserve me in what I see. You know, in verse 5, he begins to rehearse all sorts of present blessings, doesn't he? Here's how the Lord has been. And I love verse 5 because verse 5 he uses three metaphors to describe something. And notice what they are. Look what it says. He describes the Lord. You are my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lions have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a good inheritance. We tend to read that and think, well, the Lord has given me so many good things, hasn't He? Amen. The Lord has filled us with so many good things. I think it was James Boyce who one time said that God would give you everything now if you could handle it. But you can't. That's not what he's talking about. You know what makes this psalm So powerful. It's not describing the things that the Lord gives us. It's describing the Lord. It's describing the Lord. David is using the language of land allotments that happened in the Old Testament. Remember when Israel went into the land and Joshua and they started divvying out the land and portions and lines and all. This is all that language from Joshua. and each tribe had a good portion. They had the portion and they were satisfied with their portion. But David knew that all of that represented something. Remember what the Lord said to the priests? You shall have no inheritance in the land, neither shall you have any part among them. And I used to read that as a child and think, boy, they got the raw end of the deal. Until this was said. The Lord said, I am your part. and your inheritance among the children of Israel. There is nothing more wonderful in the Bible, I read, that God would declare that. To possess something is what? Well, it means it's mine, doesn't it? And I have an intimate knowledge of it. I have affection for it. I love it. My desire is for it. I'm tied to it because it is mine. Let me ask you this. What do you really have in this life that's yours? Nothing. Naked you went in and naked you're going out. You have absolutely nothing that is yours. Except what David just said. The Lord is mine. This Jesus, the one whom David looked for by faith, He's my portion and my cup. Everything that Psalm 23 described when it said this cup runs over, it's Him! What is the first thing we do in prayer? Oh Lord, grant us this. Provide us this. heal this, heal this person. I would love to hear prayers that began with this. Lord, I praise You because I have everything in You. You know what Calvin said about this psalm? I just have to say it. I was amazed that he said this. God is mine in respect of property and enjoyment. He didn't just say that. He said that. You know Christ has given Himself to you that way. That you belong to Him and that He is yours. I mean, this is what the Lord declared in His great covenant promise. He didn't say, I am the Lord. I am a God who brought you out of Egypt. I am a God to you. What did He say? I am your God and you are my people. And so this prayer becomes preserve me in holding on to this perspective because my shallow life, up and down, I'm constantly searching and I'm constantly filling with other things and they never satisfy. Last week something good happened. Did you notice it? I thought it was good. Christians everywhere were quoting verses about Jesus. Did you see it? They were quoting verses about Jesus and His powerful reign over all the worldly rulers. I saw them everywhere. I had to say, that's a good thing, isn't it? What would happen if things had been different? What if a man would get into office who restored to us the American dream? What if a man would have got in office who restored to us what our documents say, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and we got back everything that we've enjoyed in this country for years. Do you think we would seek the Lord? Would we be saying this? Maybe. Maybe. But it's a pretty amazing moment when we're saying it now and believing it. I love what this psalm does. If you have the Lord, you have everything. So the psalm rehearses for us how He has protected and secured us in the present. I want you to see that. Notice He rehearses all of these present blessings for us. In verse 7, I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel in the night. Also, my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. I'm going to get to Christ and you'll see this in a minute. But did you just hear what He said? no matter what happens in this sad world, no matter if everything falls apart, I've got Him. This is Psalm 46. If God is our refuge and our strength, the very present help in distress, therefore we will not fear if what happens? If the mountains are hurled into the midst of the sea, if the seas roar, if World War III breaks out tomorrow, if half of California falls into the ocean, if a storm comes and wipes off the eastern seaboard, I have God as my portion. I don't need anything else. Amazing faith, isn't it? And He never leaves me alone. In fact, whenever I'm overwhelmed by what's happening in the night, and you know how nights can be, He's there. My kidneys is the word. He instructs me. No matter the circumstances, and he concludes with saying, I will not be shaken. I will not be moved. Total and complete security. And it has nothing to do with social security. It's Him. Isn't this just a message for Christians at our hour and in our day? It's my contention that we are so full of fear and worry today as Christians because our hearts are desiring earthly agendas and earthly things and earthly kingdoms when the Lord is calling us to see we have Him. Now what if the psalm ended at this point? I'd be pretty encouraged. I'd be overwhelmed. I'd say, wow, that was really an uplifting psalm. Now it goes over the top. What if, what is, and what if the greatest security is attacked? What is the greatest security? Well, right now, for me, it's my health, right? Some of you, it's being taken. The greatest worry we have is that what will happen when this great enemy, this great bond happens, when this great bond is broken, when death happens, what happens to us in our relationship with the Lord? What happens to us and God when this great enemy that we fear attacks? What is that? You know it's death. And the psalm ends with that issue, doesn't it? You know what the psalm says? God doesn't just care for our souls. God cares for our bodies. Look what he says. Therefore, my heart is glad. Verse 9, And my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in shale, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Not only is my present absolutely secure, my future is just as secure. Death will never have dominion. and my body will be protected. Now that's Romans 8. I'm persuaded that not even death can separate us from the love of God. Can I have confidence in that? You know what Peter did in his very first sermon at Pentecost? He preached Psalm 16. Psalm 16 was on his mind, wasn't it? And he cites this psalm and he says, for David says concerning him. Whoa, who is this psalm about? David says concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to seek corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You have made me full of joy in Your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, David was a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to his flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on the throne. He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God is raised up of which we're all witnesses. We saw it. Oh, we saw Him. am. And you see, what this psalm is all about this morning, what this psalm is telling us to see, is that every benefit that I've just been rehearsing, Jesus has secured for you so that you can believe in full confidence that all of these promises are yes and amen in Jesus because He's raised. He's raised! His body didn't see corruption. And today He sits enthroned. And because I belong to Him, guess what? My body is going to be raised. And I'm going there. We have no idea of the glories that await us as Christians. No idea. The New Testament writers, you know, the reason you don't get a lot of description about it is because it's just so beyond what even language can give. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. I believe the world needs to see this from us more than ever right now. Did you notice verse 3 made a division? Verse 3 made a big division. There are two kinds of people in this life. There are those who are seeking to find satisfaction in all the gods of this present world, which aren't gods, but are idol gods. And David says, I'm not even going to use their names. There's no hope in that. And then there is the communion of His saints whom He loves. And if I'm reading this in the lens of Jesus, Jesus is saying, see them? That's where all my delight is. Now, if Jesus has delighted in His saints, where are we going to find strength and preservation as we go forward? Christians aren't good alone. You know what Christians do when they face trial? They run to isolation, don't they? And the Lord is, I believe, here showing us the communion of the saints is one of the greatest blessings of preservation as we go forward. The worship of God together with His people is one of the greatest ways that we are preserved in the grace that He's given us. Christ says to us today, I have living water for you. Not what this world offers. I think our agendas have been way too earthly. I believe our agendas have been way too earthly. Our hopes have been too long in this country put on men. Imagine the witness we could have at a time like this. That we belong to a kingdom that cannot be what? Shaken. And that we could live joyfully out our existence no matter what happens in this sad world as this whole world is built on faith. fear. The news is built on fear. That's how they're getting ratings. Imagine of the hope and certainty we could show to this lost, dying world when we realize we have the Lord. No matter what happens to us, I don't fear Him who can kill the body. I fear Him who can kill the body and soul in hell. we really, in this life, have nothing to fear. I want to leave you with this quote, and we'll close. Dr. John Rainbow was a dear mentor to me, and many of you don't know him, some of you will. He died a couple years ago of brain cancer. And he wrote something before he died that his wife gave to me, and he actually published a book on how Christians have not appreciated the resurrection of the body. It's a great book. And it was published after he died. Here's what he said in the moments before he died. In the days before he died. He wrote this out. And the cancer is in his brain. He was able to put this down. When I learned I had cancer, it meant that what I need is the resurrection of the body. I knew this already. But now I knew it immediately, sharply, brilliantly, gloriously. The world that God created is ours to possess and to enjoy. Right now it's blighted by our sin. But 2 Peter promises that it will be cleansed and made new. We keep it, not the godless. We get to enjoy it, not the godless. They get the lake of fire and outer darkness. We get the creation. He's talking about the new creation, the beauty, the light, the resurrection bodies. Then he says this about this world. I want the world, the physical world. That's mine in Christ. I want the new heavens and the new earth. I want the resurrection body as part of its glory. I don't want just a soul or a soul floating in a heavenly cloud. I want my body back. And I want the earth back. I want the spiritual and physical presence of Jesus Christ forever and ever. I want to be with Him. I want to see Him in my risen eyes. I want to hear His voice with my glorified ears. I want Him physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I want to encounter Him, body and soul, in the new creation. I want to touch Him in the body. I want the wicked gone forever. I want my sin gone forever. I want pain and weariness gone forever. Right now since cancer, the overwhelming reality is weariness. But I want power, explosive, unending power of body and soul and emotion. I want to never be tired again. The body aches and hurts and all around is sickness and pain and weakness and longing for life. But the hope of being absent from the body and present with the Lord is not the hope. I love that he said that. Listen to what he says. The hope is the sound of a trumpet. The hope is the resurrection and victory. The hope is the possession of the world. The hope is not to be left behind. The godless will be left behind. The hope is to win, to conquer. The hope is the resurrection of the body. Christ's body and mindsets. And all who belong to Christ by faith and predestination. I want my body. I want the world. I want the new heavens and the new earth. And John Rainbow will soon see that. And so will all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I end with the words of this psalm. Can you pray it today? Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. Amen. O Lord, our God, we look to You today. We have nothing else in this sad life that satisfies us. You alone are the satisfaction of our hearts. And I pray that You would tear down every idol in us, every agenda that seeks to exalt something over You. And that You would preserve us in what we've learned today. we see these psalmists and these people drinking deeply from the fountain of life. Thank You for giving us living water. May it burst up in us. And may we always realize that we are sustained by You and that Your promises are yes and amen and that You will never leave us nor forsake us and that You've promised that we will rise again. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for accomplishing all of this. May Your peace guide us forward as we live by the power of Your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.