Thoughts on Psalm 16

Tradition holds that Psalm 16 is called The Golden Psalm of David. This Psalm is a Psalm of praise. Psalm 16 is a parallel poem. David writes about his “Confidence in the Lord” and then he writes of his “Experience of Faith.” This couplet is repeated once.

David acknowledges that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is his God. David speaks of his confidence in God by calling God his refuge. David explains that those who follow other gods will not be supported by David.

David then tells of his experience in choosing God. He uses imagery from the time of Jacob taking the promised land. When the land was taken, Jacob cast lots to give each tribe their portion. David says that God is his portion and his cup. God is his provider and sustainer. He then says that God holds his lot. God hold’s David’s dice. In other words, God is in charge of all the random events in David’s life. For Christians, there are no random events, there is no such think as luck or fate. Sovereign God is in charge of all the little and big things, all the planned and all the random events.

David then expresses confidence in God because God is his teacher. God instructs through his Word. David says that with such instruction, taken to heart, he will not be shaken. David says that if he keeps God close, he will never fail.

David concludes with a prophetic statement about not being abandoned in the grave and his hope is that he will not decay in the grave. This is referred to twice in the book of Acts. Peter speaks of this Psalm in Acts 2:29-31 and Paul quotes this Psalm in Acts 13:36-37. The New Testament interpretation of Psalm 16:10 is that it is speaking of Christ and his resurrection.

Christians today can learn from this Psalm. We can get into the Word of God, get involved in Church and Bible study and gain a confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ. We can learn what God has done and see what God is doing now and learn what God will do in the various biblical prophecies. With this knowledge we can then experience God, daily, in our lives. The more confidence we have the strong our faith will be to see God, know God and experience God in our daily lives.

The more we seek God, learn about God and know God, the greater our experience with him day by day. Anyone who truly seeks God will never be disappointed.

Comments

Remembering the Franklin Day Planner

This week I have been rereading Hyrum Smith's book "The 10 Natural Laws of Productivity and Happiness." This book was written in the late 1980s and I remember reading it for the first time when I was working at Seagate Technologies, after my time in the Air Force. The core tool talked about in the book is the Franklin Day Planner . I remembering having one such planner, long before smart phones and Palm devices. Mine was a leather bound loose-leaf binder with calendar and note pages in it. I kept my daily tasks list and appointments in that binder, which became a record of my work history at Seagate and beyond. The Day Planner binders, pages and supplies were sold at a store called Franklin Quest , which was located at Valco Mall in Sunnyvale. At that time, I was a computer programmer. I was able to keep a record of all request for software, who made the request and when and what the requirements were. It seemed that I was the only one keeping a record of this b...

Thoughts on the Gap theory

The Bible is a closed book. When God was done writing the Old Testament, he stopped until Matthew. When he wrote Revelation, he stopped. There are warnings in the Bible about adding or subtracting words from the Bible. Deuteronomy 4:2 & 12:32 and Revelation 22:18 are the three most specific. The idea throughout the Bible is that this book is inspired Scripture and people have no right or authority to add to them or take away. This is why the Gap theory is so strange. People probably feel it would be too obvious to add 16 extra chapters to Romans or Ephesians, so they try and sneak some extra stuff into Genesis. That is the Gap Theory. The Gap Theory says that there is a space of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. The space that some people insert is a couple of hundred years all the way up to billions of years. The most popular use for the Gap Theory is to put the entire evolutionary process between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1...

What do I preach?

I preach the Word of God. The style I use is called expositional exegetical . I draw the meaning out of the Scripture and explain it. I believe this is the only approved type of preaching. To preach events out of the newspaper or the latest psychology fad does nothing to edify the saints or glorify God and certainly it does not contain the power to save. The context for my preaching is that I preach through books of the Bible. Most recently I have been preaching through the gospel of John. I started in John 1:1 and last Sunday I preached through John 21:15-17. Charles Spurgeon preached through the entire Bible, but did not take the verses in order. He bounced around, and got through the entire Bible. One of the most popular styles of preaching in large churches or churches that want to be large is a style called “topical.” Traditionally topical preaching takes a topic that is from the news or something that the pastor is reading....

A Pastor's Thoughts

Search This Blog