Sunday Nites A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 16 July 25th 2010
All the Time God is Good/ God is Good All the Time.
I. GOOD FELLOWSHIP
Ps. 16:3 “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.”
God has given us good fellowship with one another and for this, we should be thankful.
ILL.- A little girl once cried out in the night and woke her mother. She asked if she could get in bed with her mother.
“What’s the matter?” the mother inquired. “It was dark in my room,” said the child. “Yes,” replied the mother, “but it’s just as dark in here.”
“I know, Mom,” the little girl said, “but you’re here.”
Everybody needs someone in the dark and in the light. Night and day we need one another. Few people want to live alone.
God said about the first man, “It is not good for man to be alone.” We need one another. People need people. It’s as simple and as important as that.
As I look at you I wouldn’t exactly say that you are “glorious,” but neither would you consider me as being “glorious.” God’s people were glorious enough to David, however, that he delighted in them.
Thank God that we don’t have to live in isolation! Thank God for the church! For the people! For the fellowship that we enjoy on the Lord’s Day and on other days!
Some of the best times we experience in life are at the church, with the church, eating, yakking, laughing, praying, praising, etc. We should relish these times, look forward to them and promote them all we can!
Heb. 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
God is good. He has given us a great fellowship with one another.
II. GOOD HERITAGE
Ps. 16:5-6 “LORD , you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
Notice the words that David uses: my portion, my cup, my lot. And the words: secure, pleasant, and delightful. It sounds like David was satisfied with his lot in life.
My portion, my cup, my lot is secure, pleasant and delightful. My heritage is even more than these and yours is too. We have more than family, but they are most important. We begin life with them and end life with them. God is good. He has given us a good portion or cup in life.
III. GOOD COUNSEL
Ps. 16:7-8 “I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
David speaks of the Lord who counsels him. He is, no doubt, happy with God’s counsel and instruction.
I read about a family sending their son to his freshman year at Duke University, his parents gave him a Bible, assuring him it would be a great help. Later, as he began sending them letters asking for money, they would write back telling him to read his Bible, citing chapter and verse. He would reply that he was reading the Bible--but he still needed money. When he came home for a semester break, his parents told him they knew he had not been reading his Bible. How? They had tucked $10 and $20 bills by the verses they had cited in their letters.
God is good. He has given us many treasures in His Word, and it doesn’t take much searching to find them.
IV. GOOD HOPE
Ps. 16:9-11 “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
God has given a good hope, no, a great hope in the gospel.
Without hope and without dreams we only exist. We don’t live the richer, fuller life. The applies to sports, work, to all of life in general and certainly to our faith!
I Cor. 15:19 “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
There is more to the Christian life than just going to church, singing hymns, having fellowship dinners, etc. THERE IS ANOTHER FELLOWSHIP DINNER WAITING DOWN THE ROAD THAT IS FAR BETTER AND INFINITELY GREATER THAN ANYTHING WE WILL EXPERIENCE IN THIS LIFE!
II Cor. 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
OUR HOPE IN CHRIST IS LIFE AFTER DEATH!
God is good! He has given hope beyond this life and beyond the grave! WE MUST BELIEVE! We must take Jesus at His word! We must cling to this eternal hope! God is good!
I recently read of a missionary couple returning to the United States after serving as missionaries in Africa for 40 years and no one to meet them at the dock. Then President Teddy Roosevelt was returning for a safari in Africa and was on the same boat and was welcomed home with great celebration. The missionary complained to God, Lord we have served you all these years and no one met us when we got home and yet this man who killed all these animals got a huge welcome, it just doesn’t seem right.” To which God replied, “Son you are not home yet.”
