The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - How To Pray In Times Of Trouble (Part 2) - Psalm 16

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick, before we get started, I have a small request.

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00:00:18.060 Again, our text for this morning is Psalm chapter 16. The Bible says this,

00:00:24.240 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

00:00:27.500 I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.

00:00:32.660 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.

00:00:38.280 The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply.

00:00:42.500 Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out, or take their names upon my lips.

00:00:48.340 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot.

00:00:52.680 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

00:00:55.760 Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

00:00:59.260 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night.

00:01:02.240 Also, my heart instructs me.

00:01:05.020 I have set the Lord always before me.

00:01:07.500 Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

00:01:12.080 Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.

00:01:15.740 My flesh also dwells secure.

00:01:18.060 For you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your Holy One see decay.

00:01:23.040 you make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy and at your

00:01:29.380 right hand are pleasures forevermore this is the word of the lord all right please be seated and

00:01:37.340 join me as i pray father thank you for your word we pray lord that through the preaching of your

00:01:42.800 word the exposition and application of your word today that your people would indeed arrive at a

00:01:49.540 greater more biblical more faithful understanding of who you are of what you've done and of what

00:01:54.960 it is that you require from us as a right response of obedience of worship of adoration and love

00:02:02.840 father we pray lord that you would fill our minds with your truth so that our hearts might be

00:02:10.420 propelled to worship we pray that we would not arrive at right theological knowledge of you as

00:02:17.440 an end in itself, but rather as the necessary means of propelling our hearts into greater

00:02:24.000 affection and love and worship and obedience to you. The heart cannot love what the mind

00:02:31.180 does not know. So we pray that you would fill our minds with your word in such a way that it would

00:02:37.020 direct our hearts and our worship in a way that pleases you and does great good to us. We pray

00:02:44.060 all these things ultimately that you might be glorified in all the earth. But we also pray

00:02:48.300 these things for the good of those people that you're saving across the globe in our particular

00:02:53.480 city here in Texas and our area. And also perhaps Lord, even in this room, especially with our

00:03:00.900 children, we pray these things in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen. All right. Let me remind us

00:03:07.940 kind of a recap, our introduction. I'll read it again, just so that we can get back on page this

00:03:13.400 morning from where we were last week i wrote this the main point of this particular psalm psalm 16

00:03:19.200 is this god promises to preserve all his people both in body and in soul not just in a spiritual

00:03:25.700 sense but even physically god promises to preserve sustain save all his people those who trust in

00:03:33.280 jesus both physically and spiritually in body and soul through life this life and even death

00:03:40.440 all the way to a particular end. What is that end? Complete and eternal pleasure. That is fullness

00:03:47.680 of joy and everlasting joy. Now how does God fulfill this promise? He fulfills this promise

00:03:55.820 by being for us our safe refuge, our supreme treasure, our sovereign Lord, and our sure

00:04:04.220 counselor. What we saw last Lord's Day in the first few verses of our text, verses 1 through 4,

00:04:11.200 is the way in which God promises to preserve us by being, in particular, our safe refuge. Today

00:04:18.520 we're going to pick back up with God being our supreme treasure and Lord willing we'll see also

00:04:24.560 how he is our sovereign Lord and sure counselor. Psalm 16 begins with David's petition. It's his

00:04:33.080 request it's his earnest plea he says preserve me oh god his plea is four words and technically

00:04:40.800 it's only two preserve me sustain me save me the rest of the psalm is devoted to david

00:04:48.680 ultimately praising god for who he is and what he's done and what it is that god promises to do

00:04:56.100 for him and not just what god promises to do for david in terms of the actions of god as it were

00:05:02.420 but it's what God promises to do for David in light of who God promises to be for David, right?

00:05:09.560 God promises to protect him, defend him because God promises to be his safe refuge. God promises

00:05:16.180 to satisfy David because he promises to be his supreme treasure. God promises to provide for

00:05:23.220 David because he promises to be his sovereign Lord. And God promises to instruct and guide David

00:05:29.880 because he promises to be his sure counselor and so we see David very briefly making his plea

00:05:37.340 his request and then spending the bulk of his time the bulk of his prayer in Psalm 16

00:05:42.840 praising the Lord ultimately what we see David doing is this we see David inspired by the Holy

00:05:49.820 Spirit in this particular passage of scripture setting for us an example of how we as the people

00:05:56.780 of God should pray, especially in times of trouble. And one of the principles that we see

00:06:02.380 in prayer, prayer especially in the midst of trial, tribulation, and trouble, is that we should make

00:06:08.880 our requests known to God. It reminds me of other passages of scripture, be anxious for nothing,

00:06:14.540 but with prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God. But furthermore, we've seen

00:06:20.740 in Matthew chapter 6 that Jesus says, when we make our request to God in the Sermon on the Mount,

00:06:26.240 Jesus says that our words should be few because God, our Father, already knows what we need.

00:06:33.120 And he already has modeled for us provision as a benevolent creator, not only with those made in his image, human beings,

00:06:42.040 but even for lilies of the field that he clothes and dresses in an array that's more splendorous than Solomon and his temple.

00:06:49.960 or even the way that he feeds the sparrows.

00:06:54.340 They neither store up or have to prepare for the future,

00:07:00.140 but God gives them their daily sustenance,

00:07:03.280 just as he's promised to give us our daily bread.

00:07:06.440 And so Jesus says, let your words be few.

00:07:09.120 And that's precisely what David is doing in Psalm 16.

00:07:11.640 His words are very few in terms of his petition,

00:07:16.500 his plea, his request to the Lord.

00:07:19.960 But you'll notice, at least in terms of proportion, his words are very many in terms of praise.

00:07:27.640 So what we see is this, David begins with a petition and it's brief, but then he proceeds

00:07:34.880 with praise and it's thorough.

00:07:38.480 And so too, we as the people of God, when we come before the Lord with a need, first,

00:07:45.540 the first thing that we need to do is come before the Lord, be anxious for nothing.

00:07:49.960 But with prayer and supplication, make your request known to God.

00:07:53.860 I spoke a few weeks ago about this innate, inherent prayer reminder

00:08:00.520 that it seems that every single man, woman, and child has or possesses, namely anxiety.

00:08:08.760 And as often as we are anxious, that is, biblically speaking, as often,

00:08:13.060 at least as often, at a minimum, as often as we should pray.

00:08:18.640 We spend so much time being anxious.

00:08:21.820 And with our anxiety, we spend time plotting, scheming, planning, thinking.

00:08:28.060 And then eventually, we spend some time praying.

00:08:33.380 Oh, if we would begin with prayer.

00:08:36.560 I like what Charles Spiritson says.

00:08:38.160 He says, anxiety does not rob tomorrow of its trouble.

00:08:41.760 It robs today of its joy.

00:08:45.460 That's all anxiety does.

00:08:47.680 Anxiety doesn't ultimately fix the problems of the future, it just ruins the present.

00:08:54.220 And so when we are anxious, let us make prayer, supplications, petitions, pleas to the Lord.

00:09:01.180 But when we, so that's the first step, when you're anxious, pray.

00:09:05.080 Make your request known to God.

00:09:07.160 The second step is, now looking at Matthew chapter 6, the Sermon on the Mount,

00:09:11.020 when we make that request known to God, let's remember, keep in mind that He already knows it.

00:09:17.680 He already knows it. So let your words be few. And so the principle that Jesus gives us in Matthew chapter 6, we see the case study in Psalm 16. David makes his request, his petition, in two words. Preserve me. And then what he continues to do is exalt and praise the Lord for who he is, what he's already done, and what he promises to do.

00:09:44.780 It reminds me of what David says to King Saul when he wants to go into battle against Goliath, the giant, that uncircumcised Philistine who is mocking the armies of the living God. 0.51

00:09:56.800 What does David say? What's the basis of his confidence? 0.84

00:10:01.000 Saul says, you're just a boy. You can't do this.

00:10:04.920 David says, the Lord has already been faithful to empower and strengthen me to do what?

00:10:10.460 To slay the lion and the bear.

00:10:13.240 that David he had already experienced victory and success as he was guarding the flock and now just

00:10:21.660 at a greater level no longer is he going to guard a literal flock of sheep as a shepherd but he's

00:10:26.880 now going to stand in representative as a defender a protector an advocate for the flock of God

00:10:33.540 Israel and his confidence comes from what God had already done in the past and so too we see in

00:10:40.920 psalms chapter 16 what we see david doing is he's saying i have a present petition but i'm going to

00:10:47.500 praise you for your past faithfulness and the confidence the basis of my my confidence and

00:10:54.960 hope and trust that you will meet and answer my present request is your past faithfulness

00:11:02.340 it reminds me of what david says elsewhere where he says surely goodness and mercy will follow me

00:11:07.680 all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever and ever amen

00:11:13.280 what is david doing in that prayer in that particular song he's saying god has been good

00:11:19.260 to me so many times and in so many ways and for so long i cannot help but believe that he will

00:11:28.640 continue to be good because it makes no logical sense set aside a biblical understanding for a

00:11:35.440 moment. That's a phrase you won't hear me say often, but to set aside a biblical understanding

00:11:39.620 strictly from a logical standpoint, it would make no sense. Think of God as a great, wise investor

00:11:46.860 who would invest and invest and invest so methodically, so carefully, so thoroughly, so

00:11:53.280 compassionately for years, year after year, and the years roll into decades, and then all of a

00:11:59.880 sudden stop it just makes no sense it's not what we see in scripture in a biblical sense and it

00:12:06.560 doesn't even make logical sense and so David says surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the

00:12:11.460 rest of the days of my life because I've been so drenched in the goodness and mercy of God thus

00:12:16.200 far that it would make no sense that he would stop what he has done so well and for so long

00:12:24.280 And so David makes his petition briefly, and then he begins to praise.

00:12:29.860 And one of the lines that I believe I used last week is this.

00:12:33.760 David is committed to bolstering his faith by declaring who God is for him.

00:12:39.680 Or we could say it in a shorter, simpler phrase, and hopefully it'll be better for your memory.

00:12:46.660 We as the people of God are called to bolster faith by praise.

00:12:50.920 bolster faith increase faith raise faith by praise so when we make our petitions we need faith

00:13:01.040 the book of james in the new testament speaks of that it says make your request known to god but

00:13:06.840 but when you ask right it does does any man lack wisdom let him ask god he is without finding

00:13:12.080 fault without reproach meaning god does not count your past failures against you when you come before

00:13:18.080 him and make a request for something. But God gives generously to the one who asks. But when

00:13:23.380 you ask, James says, you should ask with faith, not doubting, not like a wave tossed to and fro

00:13:31.000 in the ocean. Don't be double-minded, James goes on to say, right? And what do we do when we're

00:13:37.260 double-minded? Meaning that part of our mind says, God will grant this request. I trust him.

00:13:43.200 And then in a sense, it's almost like we have a second mind telling us that God's not going to

00:13:47.880 be faithful. Well, in those cases, what we do, as we've discussed before, is we follow the example

00:13:52.940 of the centurion who comes to Jesus and says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Part of my mind

00:13:59.520 trusts you and part of my mind does not. So what we need to do when we come to God, when we have

00:14:04.900 anxiety, first, we need to quickly go to God before his throne of grace. And we need to make

00:14:10.720 our petitions. In our petitions, our pleas, our requests, we need to be brief because God already

00:14:16.420 knows what we need now what do we what one of the things that we require as we make our petitions

00:14:22.380 faith well where does faith come from what do we do when we're double-minded what do we do when we

00:14:28.820 believe and don't believe well we ask the lord help my unbelief but what agency does god use

00:14:35.540 to bolster faith praise and why how do we know that well we see it in psalm 16 but we also see

00:14:43.860 in Hebrews. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And when we're praising God,

00:14:49.440 that's precisely what we're doing. We are speaking forth. We are declaring the word of God.

00:14:55.460 What God says about himself. No man has ever praised God in a way that would be an invention,

00:15:02.980 in a way that would be novel. When men praise God, we merely echo what God has already said

00:15:08.940 about himself. That's what men do. That's what we do when we praise God. We're not coming up with 0.99

00:15:15.320 new things about God. No, we're merely echoing what God has already said about himself, our triune

00:15:21.680 God who praises himself. He's not selfish. He's not self-consumed. No, God praises himself because

00:15:31.140 it's the most righteous thing that he can do. Think about that for a moment. For God to truly

00:15:35.760 be god he must be holy and for him to be holy he must live by as it were his own law and what's

00:15:44.140 the first commandment that we read each lord's day from the 10 commandments in exodus chapter 20

00:15:50.480 thou shalt have no other gods before me if god was to love anything more than himself he would

00:15:56.360 be an idolater god loves himself more than anyone else not because he's selfish or vain but because

00:16:03.660 he's holy and good and it is the right thing to do and the good thing to do to love the most

00:16:10.760 lovable person the most god loves himself the most god is for god and so when we praise god

00:16:19.960 we're merely echoing god's own praise for his triune self what god has said about himself in

00:16:26.380 his word in other words when we praise god for who he is what he's done and what he promises to do

00:16:31.260 we are speaking forth, declaring the word of God. Words that God has already spoken about himself.

00:16:38.460 And faith comes, not by sight, but by hearing. And hearing what? The word of God. So when we're

00:16:45.560 anxious, go to God. With what? A petition. The petition, let it be brief. For our heavenly

00:16:51.380 father already knows what we need before we ask. And then what do we do? When we petition, we need

00:16:56.220 a petition not being double-minded not with doubt but with faith but what happens when we believe

00:17:01.920 but also don't believe where do we get faith we get faith when we hear the word of god and so we

00:17:08.480 should preach to ourselves and we should preach to ourselves the word of god who god is in the form

00:17:15.140 of praise petition and praise praise as a means for bolstering faith all that being said let's

00:17:25.420 look at Psalm 16 verse 5. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. This means

00:17:34.640 that David recognizes God is the one who both satisfies and sustains. David is saying this,

00:17:41.180 God is sufficient. God is enough. We choose God as Christians, as lovers of God. We choose God

00:17:53.240 not because he is the only portion available.

00:17:57.920 No, we choose God precisely because he is the only portion

00:18:01.900 that will not give us empty and sorrowful.

00:18:05.200 That's what we saw last Lord's Day in verse 4 of our text.

00:18:09.760 Verse 4 says the sorrows, the emptiness,

00:18:14.780 the deception and depression,

00:18:20.320 all of these things of the wicked,

00:18:22.200 It's multiplied as they commit idolatry, as they further and further run after other gods.

00:18:30.940 Psalm 16, 4, the sorrows of those who run after another god shall increase.

00:18:36.480 They shall multiply, exponentially grow.

00:18:40.100 Their sorrow, their emptiness, their misery grows as they commit idolatry.

00:18:47.140 Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips,

00:18:51.320 But by contrast now, contrast in verse 5, you see, the Lord is my chosen portion.

00:18:58.220 See, David's saying, he's saying the wicked go after other gods and their sorrows are multiplied.

00:19:03.840 But as for me and my house, we choose the Lord.

00:19:08.720 He's not just a portion.

00:19:10.620 And notice, David doesn't just say the Lord is a portion or even the Lord is the portion, the best portion.

00:19:16.020 He says, he's my chosen portion.

00:19:18.100 there are many in the church today including myself in moments of failure and sin that will

00:19:26.520 salute the concept the doctrine the idea in theoretical terms that god is the best portion

00:19:35.160 laid before us at the table we'll acknowledge it in word we'll recognize it and salute it in theory

00:19:43.040 but oh how many times we still choose abortion how many times do we even as christians break

00:19:53.180 the first commandment how many times do we look more like the wicked in verse four than the

00:20:00.560 righteous david in verse five how many times have we even as christians saved by the grace of god

00:20:07.760 run after other gods, run after idols, put our hope and our trust and our treasure in other

00:20:15.200 gods. And how often have we seen the fulfillment of verse four, that in those moments our sorrow

00:20:21.420 is multiplied. When we're anxious and we run to something or someone other than God,

00:20:29.380 it doesn't solve the problem. It doesn't assuage our anxiety. It doesn't calm us or bring us peace.

00:20:37.100 what does it do it only produces more anxiety it exasperates our fears

00:20:43.000 it accentuates our depression and our misery but David in verse 5 as a direct and stark contrast

00:20:54.980 to the wicked in verse 4 he says the Lord is my chosen portion he's my cup and he furthermore

00:21:05.020 goes on to say that you hold my lot. John Piper in commenting on that little phrase in Psalm 16

00:21:14.740 verse 5, you hold my lot. He says the following, when the dice are rolled and the straws are drawn

00:21:20.680 and the wheel is turned, whatever happens to me comes from the hand of God. God holds my lot.

00:21:26.640 That is, God decides it. God rules over it. God is my sovereign, and I am glad to have it so. I don't just affirm it stoically. I exult in it. That is, I take joy in it. I praise the reality that God holds my lot.

00:21:48.560 And I say that for a moment because it's important,

00:21:51.380 especially for those of us who would claim to be reformed in our soteriology

00:21:56.280 and our view of the sovereignty of God.

00:21:57.920 Too often, again, the same principle that I've already spoken of,

00:22:02.420 we salute the sovereignty of God,

00:22:04.140 but how often do you rejoice in the sovereignty of God?

00:22:09.200 Right?

00:22:09.840 There is a difference in acknowledging God's sovereignty over all things

00:22:14.240 versus rejoicing God's sovereignty over all things.

00:22:18.300 There are far too many in the church today,

00:22:20.760 too many stoic Calvinists

00:22:22.700 who salute the sovereignty of God as a doctrine,

00:22:25.960 but don't rejoice in the reality of God's sovereignty

00:22:29.180 in the form of praise.

00:22:31.960 Are we happy about the fact that God holds our lot?

00:22:36.940 Right, because there's a way of having a begrudging spirit

00:22:41.260 and an obligation a you know that i'm i recognize and i acknowledge the sovereignty of god but i'm

00:22:49.960 not particularly happy about it see there's a dynamic difference in theologically acknowledging

00:22:57.180 the sovereignty of god versus someone who is actually excited about the fact that god is

00:23:02.960 sovereign and not just over the universe but they are particularly excited and rejoicing over the

00:23:09.000 fact that God is sovereign over them. You hold my lot, not just the lot, not just someone else's

00:23:16.140 lot, not just the universal human history, big picture, 30,000 foot view lot. No, you hold Joel's

00:23:22.460 lot and my lot for today. All these things come from the hand of God that even when it comes to

00:23:30.140 suffering and even sin, nothing can come to me in this moment, this day, if it does not first pass

00:23:37.420 through the banner of your sovereign benevolent love do we rejoice not just acknowledge

00:23:46.380 theologically the sovereignty of god but do we rejoice in the goodness of the sovereignty of god

00:23:54.400 now this concept is fleshed out even more in verse 6 of our text psalm 16 verse 6 says the lines have

00:24:01.020 fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Notice again, David is

00:24:08.320 speaking now of the sovereignty of God. At first, he names the sovereignty of God in the big

00:24:13.900 overarching general principle, you hold my lot. So he names the principle, but he's already made

00:24:20.020 it personal. So he names the principle, but in personal terms, you hold my lot. But now he begins

00:24:26.820 to give some practical examples of what it looks like, of what it means for God to hold

00:24:32.440 his lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

00:24:40.920 Notice David doesn't say that the kingdoms that I have conquered and the ways, the territorial

00:24:45.980 boundaries that I have expanded through my exploits and my decisions and my work and my

00:24:51.480 actions are good. No, he says, the lines have fallen for me. See, David recognizes his own

00:24:59.100 agency, his own human responsibility. But above all that, beyond all that, in an ultimate sense,

00:25:06.100 he recognizes that the lines for him, his lot in life has been given him. It hasn't been something

00:25:13.520 that he's accomplished, that he's executed. David's lot in life is not the work, ultimately,

00:25:19.820 of David. David's life is ultimately the provision of the Lord. It's fallen for him. It's been handed

00:25:28.920 down from heaven, from God. It's been ordained for him. See, David proves that he does not merely

00:25:35.240 affirm God's sovereignty, but he actually rejoices in it. And he does so by celebrating the results

00:25:41.960 of God holding the law.

00:25:44.220 So we must not merely acknowledge

00:25:47.660 the sovereignty of God.

00:25:49.500 We must rejoice in the fact that God is sovereign.

00:25:52.140 But one of the ways that we rejoice in real terms,

00:25:55.540 a test, if you will,

00:25:57.780 a measuring rod in order to discern

00:25:59.780 whether or not you're actually rejoicing

00:26:01.740 in the sovereignty of God

00:26:03.300 is can you rejoice

00:26:04.900 in the practical circumstances

00:26:08.040 today that God has provided.

00:26:11.960 Right? So we say God is sovereign. But are you happy about that? You take joy in the fact that

00:26:18.880 God is sovereign. That's the next step. From acknowledging the sovereignty of God to exulting

00:26:24.160 in the sovereignty of God. But then the third step is this. How do you know you're exulting

00:26:28.360 in the sovereignty of God? Not merely acknowledging or affirming or recognizing, but praising the fact

00:26:34.380 that God is sovereign. How do you know? Well, you know when you're content and happy with what God

00:26:41.140 has executed in his sovereignty for you today. That's what David's doing. So he says, you hold

00:26:49.040 my lot. I am happy. I am pleased. I am comforted. I am relieved that you, O God, are sovereign for

00:26:57.500 me. You hold my lot. But then he gets even more practical, even more specific. He says, in this

00:27:05.780 principle of you holding my lot, this is what it looks like on the ground in real terms. It looks

00:27:13.540 like the lines falling for me in pleasant places. And at this point in the life of David, it's

00:27:19.260 important to note there were enemies that David had still not defeated. It would have been very

00:27:24.880 easy for David to say that the lines for me have fallen in decent places, but not great.

00:27:29.800 yeah i have a lot more than than maybe the average person i'm the king of israel but

00:27:35.240 but there are still enemies that have territory that are encroaching upon israel borderlines

00:27:41.320 there are threats out there i mean there was even threats threats outside but even threats inside

00:27:47.100 later on in the life of david what we'll see is is his own son from his own family his own lineage

00:27:52.380 absalon turns against him and absalon he does this strategically and subtly and deceptively

00:27:58.180 One of the things that Absalom does is this, as people were coming to meet with David the king, Absalom would meet them at the gates.

00:28:06.180 And he would say, what's your problem, brother?

00:28:09.060 What can I do for you, sister?

00:28:12.020 And he would have a really, you know, kind of Joe Biden tone, right?

00:28:15.360 Really soft and really, you know, it's kind of like Absalom and David is like kind of the difference between Biden and Trump.

00:28:21.540 David actually has some good policies.

00:28:24.440 David's actually being obedient to the Lord.

00:28:26.920 But David's also, he's a man of war.

00:28:29.560 He wasn't even permitted by God to build the temple because he had shed too much blood.

00:28:33.720 It went ultimately to his son Solomon, right?

00:28:36.900 Whereas Absalom, he was graceful in his speech, deceptive in his heart, horrible policies,

00:28:43.480 wanting to undo all the righteous things that David, his father, had accomplished.

00:28:48.160 And yet Absalom won the heart of the people.

00:28:50.420 How?

00:28:51.840 By righteous policies and principles?

00:28:54.060 No.

00:28:54.300 by good tongue.

00:28:58.040 I just got to stop for a moment and just say,

00:29:00.120 how often do people fall prey to good tongue?

00:29:05.300 And that's not to say that there aren't scriptures

00:29:07.340 that speak to the Christian saying

00:29:09.120 that we should be gentle

00:29:10.960 and that our speech should be seasoned with grace.

00:29:13.400 There is a biblical mandate.

00:29:15.280 There is a biblical principle

00:29:16.580 for not just what we say, but how we say it.

00:29:19.120 But notice this, brothers and sisters,

00:29:21.100 clearly in biblical terms, in the whole of scripture,

00:29:23.700 what we say matters more than how we say. Now we should strive to do both righteously.

00:29:30.960 But often what we see in the church of God, not just in culture, not just I use political examples

00:29:36.400 with Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but even in the church, even the evangelical church in America

00:29:43.620 today, what we see is often ministers and Christian leaders that rise to prominent positions.

00:29:50.640 they're not the ones who necessarily have the best policies,

00:29:53.780 the best theology.

00:29:54.840 They're not necessarily the guys who are the most faithful,

00:29:57.620 the most courageous,

00:29:58.560 who are actually doing the most for the glory of God

00:30:01.180 and the most for the good of his people.

00:30:03.280 It's just the guys who, they speak with a silver tongue.

00:30:07.720 Right?

00:30:08.440 Out of their mouth, out of their lips,

00:30:10.140 it's like honey dripping.

00:30:12.860 But honey, although it's sweet, it's not sustenance.

00:30:17.160 It doesn't actually satisfy.

00:30:18.480 It doesn't actually sustain the people of God. See, faithful ministers give bread and it's not

00:30:25.340 their bread, right? A faithful minister is not a chef. I've heard that illustration before,

00:30:29.740 you know, in a sermon, he's cooking up a meal. No, a faithful pastor is less of a chef. He's

00:30:36.020 just a butler. Chef is beyond him. That's too glorious of a position to use to describe a

00:30:42.920 faithful minister of God. He's not a chef. He's not cooking up dishes. The dish is already made.

00:30:49.180 It's right here. God makes the dish. God provides the sustenance. He provides the bread. He provides

00:30:56.240 the meal. And all a faithful pastor does, he doesn't make the dish. He just runs it from heaven

00:31:02.420 to the earthly table where the saints are gathered. Here's the meal. Here's the meal.

00:31:09.720 And what is this meal?

00:31:11.540 What is the word of God?

00:31:13.060 It's like bread.

00:31:14.700 Remember, even the Israelites, they were discontent in the wilderness.

00:31:22.040 They were being fed every morning with manna from heaven.

00:31:24.980 But eventually they say, give us meat.

00:31:27.720 We want something else.

00:31:29.120 We're tired.

00:31:29.780 We're bored.

00:31:31.420 It's bland.

00:31:36.100 We're sick of it.

00:31:37.400 and so too we the people of God we are so often dissatisfied with sustenance and what we want

00:31:46.740 and said is something sweet but but but not satisfying right it's like bread versus honey

00:31:55.020 it's it's something that's simple and satisfying versus something that is sweet but empty

00:32:01.280 sweet but empty and so this isn't just a universal human problem but this is a church problem it's a

00:32:09.840 problem for even the people of God and so too it was with David Absalom he would meet people as

00:32:15.740 they were coming to meet with David and he would sort out their problems he would extend his hand

00:32:20.440 the Bible says and he would he would lock arms with them and say I will fix your problem you're

00:32:25.160 upset about something I'll fix it now here's the deal David wasn't actually fixing or Absalom rather

00:32:30.840 wasn't actually solving problems one of the reasons he was able to win the hearts of israel is what

00:32:35.920 the bible says win the hearts of israel away from his father david to himself was because he would

00:32:41.780 solve someone's immediate problem but but in such a way it would create a further problem down the

00:32:46.700 line for someone else right so when there was conflict the first person who came to him absalom

00:32:52.660 would just simply give them what they wanted whether it was righteous or not right it's like

00:32:57.380 proverbs chapter uh i believe 17 verse 18 or it's 18 17 one of the two where it says you know uh one

00:33:04.080 is thought right the one who presents his case first is thought right until another cross examines

00:33:08.820 him and what absalom was doing is just whoever got in the door first arrived first and stated

00:33:15.340 their problem gave their criticism their complaint he would he would tell them what they want to hear

00:33:21.640 he would do what they want because he wasn't actually interested in israel's long-term

00:33:26.520 good. He was interested in his approval ratings, his polls, in the immediate. All he needed was

00:33:35.260 for Israel to like him enough temporarily for him to seize that opportunity, that window of

00:33:42.320 public favor to overthrow his father, who is in current. And that happens in the church all the

00:33:51.880 time that happens with nations that happens with pastors i mean that happens with parents

00:33:58.440 i have been shocked when i think of the fear of man i've been shocked to realize that i am such

00:34:05.780 a sinner that i can fall prey to the fear of man not not just with with dozens of adults

00:34:12.520 i can fall prey to the fear of man with a three-year-old turns out gosh i really hope she

00:34:18.360 likes me. With a three-year-old. And I can give her presently what she wants to garnish her

00:34:24.980 temporary favor at the cost of what she long-term ultimately needs. And so this is what's happening

00:34:33.420 with David and Absalom. And so my whole point is to say that David, he had rising threats within

00:34:38.980 his kingdom, in his own family, his own son. And he had looming threats outside of his kingdom.

00:34:45.440 Borderlines and foreign nations that hated God and hated the people of God.

00:34:49.460 They were still posing a great threat. 1.00

00:34:51.520 And yet David is still able to say, the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

00:34:58.140 What he's saying is this.

00:34:59.720 He's saying, God is not just sovereign in theoretical theological terms.

00:35:05.800 And I'm not merely acknowledging and affirming that doctrinal truth.

00:35:09.560 No, God is sovereign in an ultimate theological sense.

00:35:13.240 but God is also sovereign in a personal sense for me.

00:35:16.540 He holds my lot, and I don't just acknowledge it.

00:35:19.560 I exult in it.

00:35:20.900 I rejoice in it.

00:35:22.480 And furthermore, this is what it looks like

00:35:26.000 in practical terms on the ground

00:35:28.180 for God to be my sovereign.

00:35:31.120 And how do I know that I'm not just acknowledging

00:35:33.140 the sovereignty of God,

00:35:34.500 but actually rejoicing in the sovereignty of God?

00:35:36.840 Because I rejoice and take pleasure,

00:35:39.460 and I am content with what God sovereignly provides.

00:35:45.340 How do you know, Christian?

00:35:47.380 How do you know whether or not you are actually content

00:35:50.460 with God being your sovereign

00:35:52.320 when you are content with what he sovereignly provides?

00:35:57.220 To say that you rejoice in the fact that God holds your lot,

00:36:02.900 but then to be dissatisfied and frustrated

00:36:05.420 and anxious and angry about your lot

00:36:07.840 is to completely refute the prior statement.

00:36:11.680 God, you are sovereign.

00:36:12.800 I don't just salute it.

00:36:13.940 I rejoice and exult in the fact that you are sovereign

00:36:16.380 and not just for someone somewhere out there,

00:36:19.000 but you hold my lot.

00:36:20.380 You are my sovereign Lord.

00:36:21.660 I rejoice in that today.

00:36:23.340 Man, I'm really frustrated with the size of my house.

00:36:25.680 I don't like my work.

00:36:26.660 My marriage, I'm not really happy with.

00:36:29.800 You've just undone everything that you previously said.

00:36:33.500 You have proved otherwise.

00:36:35.420 to rejoice in god's sovereignty is ultimately it is to rejoice in what he provides now that being

00:36:43.300 said you might be thinking well i don't know if i agree with that principle should we rejoice

00:36:48.260 or when when god provides what about suffering what about sickness well i don't know what did

00:36:54.940 paul and silas do when they were chained up in prison they're rejoicing and praising god see

00:37:00.900 this is the biblical principle the christian is not ever commanded or expected to petition that is

00:37:07.000 to ask for suffering but there is a mandate biblically for the christian to praise and be

00:37:16.000 thankful for all things including suffering so so we're not masochistic or oristic in the sense

00:37:24.720 that the christian isn't supposed to be someone who is you know whipping themselves you know as

00:37:30.100 they pray and cry out to God in inflicting pain and suffering on their own life

00:37:34.120 or in love with suffering or in love with pain.

00:37:36.420 No, no, no.

00:37:37.200 The Bible does not teach that.

00:37:38.640 We petition and request that the Lord would give to us pleasant things,

00:37:43.220 that he would give to us things that are good.

00:37:46.520 So we ask the Lord, and rightly so, for physical health in this life.

00:37:50.380 We ask the Lord for many children,

00:37:53.020 because children are a blessing and healthy children.

00:37:55.720 We ask the Lord for homes and jobs and all these things.

00:37:58.780 and there's nothing wrong with that

00:38:00.740 so long as that we don't put our ultimate hope

00:38:02.800 and trust in these earthly blessings

00:38:04.880 that come from the Lord

00:38:05.640 but rather we ultimately trust in the Lord himself

00:38:07.980 so we ask for good things from the Lord

00:38:10.120 we don't ask for pain

00:38:11.440 we don't ask for suffering

00:38:12.560 but when it comes

00:38:14.520 not if

00:38:15.280 because it will come for all of us

00:38:17.640 in various ways

00:38:18.840 and at various times

00:38:19.940 suffering is part of God's plan

00:38:22.220 for his people here in this life

00:38:24.220 and when that suffering comes

00:38:26.400 we don't ask for it

00:38:28.000 but when it comes we do thank God for it. We see Peter speaking about that through various trials

00:38:35.500 and tribulations that God uses this for not only his glory but for your good. Through suffering

00:38:41.460 comes endurance. Through endurance comes faith and hope and all these different things. God is

00:38:46.020 producing something in us. Hebrews 12 says that the Lord disciplines his own. That if God doesn't

00:38:53.020 discipline us it's actually a sign that we may be an illegitimate child that we may not actually

00:38:59.280 belong to the Lord because if we do in fact belong to God and that he is in fact our heavenly father

00:39:05.040 then he does not only give us provision and sustenance and good but he also gives us his rod

00:39:11.940 and when he disciplines us again we are grateful we are thankful for his loving discipline that

00:39:21.800 comes through the agency sometimes of sickness or suffering. All these different things. The Lord

00:39:28.920 disciplines his own. We thank him for that discipline. We thank him for the difficult

00:39:33.220 things in life. And there is a dynamic difference, again, between asking for pain versus thanking God

00:39:39.760 for pain because we know that if he gives us pain, it is for good, wise, and holy purposes. He is

00:39:46.080 giving us pain for our ultimate joy our ultimate good it is to produce in us something that is

00:39:53.780 beautiful i remember a minister once said speaking of suffering that suffering is our slave and he

00:40:01.160 was using the writings of the apostle paul it says that suffering produces and he was using that

00:40:07.220 that language of suffering produce thing and and speaking in in the terms of a master slave

00:40:14.540 relationship. That a master would say to his slave, go out into the field and produce fruit for me.

00:40:22.180 Produce gain, increase, resources, grain. Go and work, produce. I own you and I own you for the

00:40:34.180 very purpose of you producing wealth for me. You work for me and your work is my fruit. It's my

00:40:42.100 gain. You produce wealth for me. And this minister used that to speak of the Christian and his

00:40:51.100 relationship with suffering. In the same way that a master has a relationship with a slave where 0.70

00:40:56.740 he owns a slave and therefore because he owns the slave, he has ownership over the slave's labor

00:41:02.840 and the production of the slaves. Right? The kind of ownership that people think they have today in

00:41:08.900 america right it's the difference between passive and active rights when people say i have i have

00:41:14.800 an inerrant right simply by virtue of existing and breathing i have this this god-given right

00:41:19.280 this inerrant right to free health care no you don't and the reason why is because it is because

00:41:25.860 god in his word clearly prescribes the beauty and the righteousness and the goodness of property

00:41:33.360 ownership. And that's not just land or houses or physical property and cause, but that's also the

00:41:40.280 property owning the property of our labor. That's also intellectual property. So some of you might

00:41:46.600 be aware that in some, you know, of the current events and the news that we've seen lately in

00:41:51.880 our nation that all of a sudden companies like Moderna, right? The government didn't get us

00:41:56.500 through COVID. The government doesn't get us through anything because the government doesn't

00:42:00.340 never do anything. That's what you can count on the government to do. Nothing. So what ultimately

00:42:05.660 produces jobs? Not Joe Biden. He's never produced a single job in his life. Not one. And for the

00:42:11.580 record, neither did Donald Trump or any other president or any other government official.

00:42:15.240 They don't do anything like that. What produces jobs is the American people. It's people who work.

00:42:20.880 It's entrepreneurs. It's companies. And so what got us through the pandemic? Well, I mean, a lot

00:42:27.120 of things. One was people waking up and realizing it's not actually that bad. But another one that

00:42:31.020 got us through the pandemic was the vaccine. The government did not produce the vaccine.

00:42:37.000 Certainly Biden didn't. He's taking credit for it. But Trump didn't either. He had some policies

00:42:41.560 that helped expedite it. But who created the vaccine? Private companies. And now Moderna,

00:42:47.620 the government is trying to step in because there are third world countries who need the vaccine.

00:42:51.180 And rather than buying it from these private companies that worked to produce this intellectual property, the formula, the vaccine,

00:43:00.260 rather than the government say, well, we want to help these several countries, they can't afford the vaccine, so we'll buy it and give it to them.

00:43:06.000 No, instead, what they're doing is they're trying to, through legislation, through coercion,

00:43:10.700 actually take the intellectual property from private companies like Moderna and say it belongs, they don't actually have a right to it, it belongs to us now.

00:43:19.760 Well, that is theft, right?

00:43:22.520 If somebody, if a private citizen breaks into their neighbor's house,

00:43:26.120 sneaks through the window, and steals their stuff, it's stealing.

00:43:29.100 It's theft.

00:43:29.880 When a government does the same thing, it's still theft.

00:43:33.720 We have this mindset in America today that if a government does it, it's not stealing.

00:43:37.920 No, that just means instead of a private individual stealing, a government is stealing.

00:43:42.280 And a government can steal from its citizens.

00:43:43.980 They can also steal from private companies like Moderna.

00:43:47.960 But it's theft.

00:43:49.580 It's stealing.

00:43:50.760 And so in terms of property ownership, one of the principles that we see in Scripture is that owning property is a human right.

00:43:58.680 And so to say, well, I have an inerrant right to free health care.

00:44:02.400 What that says, that active right, if you will, what it does is it actually blatantly and directly contradicts the passive right that actually is biblical, is inerrant, of the right to labor, the right to intellectual property.

00:44:17.180 See, when someone says, I have a right to free health care, what it says is, to the doctor, it says, you don't have a right to your own labor, your own time, your own research, your own intellect, your own knowledge.

00:44:29.020 You owe me.

00:44:30.860 You're my slave. 0.86

00:44:32.400 See, a right to free health care makes doctors the slave of a person.

00:44:36.480 It says, your right to your labor is trumped by my right to free health care.

00:44:42.520 And there are nations that have done this.

00:44:44.460 You know what happens in those nations?

00:44:46.440 When they need surgery, they come here.

00:44:50.160 Because it turns out doctors don't want to be robbed from.

00:44:52.820 Nobody wants to be stolen from.

00:44:54.740 People want to be able to own their property,

00:44:58.260 whether it be physical or intellectual,

00:45:01.200 or the property of their labor, their time, whatever it is.

00:45:04.280 And these are things that God's word protects and defends.

00:45:09.400 The goodness and the inherent righteousness of property ownership.

00:45:15.760 and so all that being said the idea that that god is sovereign david is saying hey here's my

00:45:25.820 property here are the lines here are the territorial boundaries around israel there's

00:45:30.120 more that i would like and and and not only there's more that i would like for pleasure but

00:45:34.180 there's more that i would like going all the way back to god being a safe refuge there's more i

00:45:37.860 would like for security for safety because it's not just here are my boundaries but on the other

00:45:41.860 side of these boundaries are enemies and threats that loom over me and even threats like my own

00:45:47.060 son within but God has given me what I have and in order for me to be integrous and truthful when

00:45:55.460 I say that I not only affirm the sovereignty of God but I actually rejoice in the sovereignty of

00:46:00.580 God in order for that to be a true statement if I really rejoice and celebrate the sovereignty of

00:46:06.300 god i must rejoice and celebrate the provision of god if i rejoice in the fact that god is

00:46:12.500 sovereign i must rejoice in the fact that he sovereignly provides 16 verse 7 says i bless the

00:46:19.320 lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me god is not only our safe refuge

00:46:26.180 we've seen that thus far not only our supreme treasure i have no good beside you you're my

00:46:32.720 portion, the chosen portion, my cup. We've seen that now. And not only our sovereign Lord, the

00:46:38.640 one who holds our lot, the one who dictates and ordains for us the lines that fall in pleasant

00:46:44.660 places. He's not only our safe refuge, our supreme treasure, our sovereign Lord, but he is also our

00:46:50.860 sure, that is our trusted counselor. It is vital for us to recognize that God is our refuge,

00:46:57.540 treasure and sovereign by this is what i want you to see by how is he these things see the way that

00:47:05.200 i as i was executing this text over the last couple weeks and working to expose it and seeing

00:47:09.780 how but the question you always want to ask with scripture is this not what not merely you got to

00:47:15.020 get that what is the bible saying what is god saying about himself but but the next question

00:47:19.140 that we want to ask is how how is he good how is god safe how how does god accomplish these things

00:47:27.320 How does he preserve his people? How does he save his people? How does he satisfy his people?

00:47:32.840 See, that's what it is in Psalm chapter 1, where we started just a few weeks ago.

00:47:36.980 Psalm chapter 1, it says the righteous man, the blessed man, he meditates.

00:47:41.120 He doesn't just read the Word of God. He doesn't even just memorize the Word of God.

00:47:44.660 But he meditates on the Word of God day and night.

00:47:46.900 And I said Christian meditation is not the emptying of the mind, but it's the focusing of the mind on the Word of God.

00:47:53.100 It is to think deep thoughts upon what God says in his word.

00:47:58.140 And one of the deepest thoughts that we can ever think is asking simply the question, how?

00:48:03.960 How? How is God trustworthy? How is he good?

00:48:08.600 And so one of the things as I was working through the text and exposing the text that I saw is this.

00:48:15.320 I think this fourth characteristic, if you will, of God.

00:48:19.240 Sure counselor. I'm using the word sure to say trusted counselor.

00:48:23.100 The kind of counsel that you want.

00:48:25.940 The kind of counsel that is trustworthy, that is true, that is good.

00:48:30.540 Good counselor.

00:48:32.120 There's a lot of people who will give you advice whether you ask for it or not.

00:48:35.320 They'll give you counsel, but it may not be good.

00:48:37.120 God is the good counselor, the trusted counselor, the sure counselor.

00:48:40.420 And as I was working through the text, what I saw is this.

00:48:42.940 It's almost as though, in the way that David writes in Psalm 16,

00:48:46.860 it's almost as though he's saying that God is actually three things, not four, three things.

00:48:52.580 He's our safe refuge, supreme treasure, and sovereign Lord.

00:48:58.740 And he is these three things for us by the fourth thing, namely his short counsel.

00:49:08.000 Now he is a short counselor, but I think the better way to read it is this.

00:49:11.520 He is a supreme treasure, a safe refuge, a sovereign Lord through his or by his.

00:49:17.560 The way he is these things for us, our safety, our satisfaction, right?

00:49:22.080 That's the supreme treasure, the safety, safe refuge, and the sovereign Lord, right?

00:49:26.840 The protector, the provider, the way that he is our safety, the way that he is our satisfaction,

00:49:32.160 our joy, our pleasure, and the way that he is our provider, our sovereign Lord, our sustainer,

00:49:38.460 the one who holds our lot, he does all this by his counsel.

00:49:43.380 So the way that God is these first three things for us, refuge, treasure, and Lord, is by the agency.

00:49:54.160 The agency that God utilizes is his instruction, his counsel.

00:50:01.460 And I think it'll make more sense as I read on.

00:50:05.640 See, it's vital for us to recognize that God is these things by his counsel, or that is by his instruction and guidance.

00:50:12.040 For instance, see, safety, joy, and contentment, they're not automatic in this life.

00:50:17.600 See, in order for us to find these things, we must submit to God's word.

00:50:22.480 We must live out, we must obey God's counsel.

00:50:26.040 For instance, here's an example, just using the first safe refuge as a case study.

00:50:31.100 God is a safe refuge, but how?

00:50:33.640 See, God becomes our refuge by counseling us how to walk in the way of life and not death.

00:50:40.140 And for those who regularly meditate upon God's word,

00:50:42.920 his counsel, furthermore, in verse 7 of our text,

00:50:46.080 it comes to us even in the night.

00:50:48.460 And what's significant about that?

00:50:50.060 I think what David is getting at, as I read commentaries on this,

00:50:52.880 David's saying that at the night, in the nighttime, in the evening,

00:50:56.180 when it's dusk, when it's dark,

00:50:59.440 and that's often the time where the work of the day

00:51:02.340 that preoccupies our mind and our thoughts and our inclinations has ceased.

00:51:06.860 And is it not at those moments of the day,

00:51:09.180 Usually the evening and the night when we're laying in bed, when our work has ceased, when we begin to worry.

00:51:15.680 See, night is often the time where our heart condemns us.

00:51:21.120 But David says, David says that by praise, that when the blessed man, when the righteous man praises God for who he is and meditates on God's word,

00:51:31.300 not my anxious thoughts, not my worry, not my fear, but when I focus my mind and meditate on God's word day and night,

00:51:38.180 then in the night rather than my my heart condemning me my heart accusing me my heart

00:51:44.080 worrying me my heart instructs me now dave is not saying that the heart is inherently good

00:51:50.400 no the heart biblical in biblical terms well jeremiah says the heart is deceitful above all

00:51:56.100 else out of it comes malice and wickedness and deceit and all kinds of manner of evil

00:51:59.860 but but sometimes christians we we look at the heart and we and we see you know all the things

00:52:06.440 and we're so quick to affirm total depravity

00:52:08.720 and we see what the Bible says about the heart

00:52:10.240 and how it can deceive us,

00:52:11.320 how it can mislead us

00:52:12.800 and then we develop this doctrine

00:52:15.380 and our doctrine of original sin

00:52:16.800 but we apply it to the Christian

00:52:18.320 and that's actually theologically wrong.

00:52:21.300 Right?

00:52:21.760 As Christians we sometimes say,

00:52:23.760 well even the Christian, 1.00

00:52:24.460 their heart is above all else wicked. 1.00

00:52:26.000 Why?

00:52:26.520 No it's not.

00:52:27.940 You know why it's not?

00:52:28.840 Because Ezekiel 36 says

00:52:30.240 that God removed the heart of stone

00:52:31.760 and replaced it with a heart of flesh.

00:52:34.060 of the Corinthians.

00:52:36.720 Paul's letter to the Corinthians says

00:52:38.240 that we've been born again,

00:52:39.840 that we've become a new creature in Christ Jesus,

00:52:42.840 that we've actually been changed.

00:52:44.620 And so for the Christian,

00:52:46.260 the heart is, 0.70

00:52:47.980 well, really, the heart is a civil war.

00:52:50.780 See, this side of heaven,

00:52:52.600 this side of heaven, 1.00

00:52:53.820 for the Christian,

00:52:54.760 there is an internal war.

00:52:56.200 What is it?

00:52:56.600 It's Galatians 5.

00:52:58.040 It's Galatians 6.

00:52:59.240 It's do not gratify the evil desires of the flesh.

00:53:04.060 But do what instead? Walk by the Spirit. By walking by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

00:53:10.680 So for the unregenerate man, for the unbeliever, the heart is nothing but deceitful. Nothing but deceitful. 0.93

00:53:17.140 And for the Christian in heaven, David now, as he's with God in heaven, the glorified Christian man, the heart is only good. 0.93

00:53:26.520 But for the Christian, it's this in-between. The unbeliever, an evil heart. 0.98

00:53:31.600 The Christian now glorified in heaven, a good heart. 1.00

00:53:35.320 But for the Christian here, the heart, it can be a tool for evil. 0.98

00:53:40.760 It can also be a tool for good.

00:53:42.280 David says, my heart instructs me, even in the evening, at the night.

00:53:48.360 David is ultimately saying this.

00:53:49.780 He's saying, I have so saturated my heart with the word of God, the character of God, the promises of God, the goodness of God,

00:53:59.980 by praising God, that my heart, rather than working against me, my heart is working for me.

00:54:07.500 Rather than my heart working to my detriment, my heart, even at the nighttime, is working for my

00:54:14.340 benefit. See, this is the result of the blessed man all the way back from Psalm chapter 1.

00:54:20.260 What do you get? What do you get? What's your benefit for modeling your life after the blessed

00:54:26.760 men in psalm chapter one the person who is a tree planted by streams of water whose leaves are

00:54:31.540 evergreen and who bears fruit in its season well what's your benefit what's your reward for

00:54:36.320 meditating on god's law and delighting in god's law day and night the benefit is this

00:54:41.620 the benefit is that when you've ceased for the day with the work of your hands when your thoughts are

00:54:47.480 no longer preoccupied by your task and endeavors and you lay your head down on your pillow to sleep

00:54:53.640 And all of a sudden, that's the time when your mind is stilled and your heart tends to rise up and begin to present you with a host of worries and anxieties.

00:55:04.120 For the blessed man who meditates on God's word day and night, the heart, rather than rising up to cause you fear, the heart rises up to give you peace.

00:55:14.160 Because your heart has been trained.

00:55:18.760 We need to train our hearts.

00:55:20.820 It is possible for the Christian.

00:55:23.640 By dwelling and thinking deeply upon the word of God day and night.

00:55:27.600 By delighting in his law and by praising him.

00:55:30.920 Not just petition, petition, petition.

00:55:32.900 Short petition, lots of praise.

00:55:35.640 And by the time you finish it, I don't think it's a coincidence.

00:55:38.700 This is the last thing that David's saying in praise.

00:55:41.140 You're my sure counselor.

00:55:42.800 I think what David is saying is because I've praised you and seen you.

00:55:46.440 And remembered you and celebrated you as my safe refuge.

00:55:50.080 Because I've done that with you as my supreme treasure.

00:55:52.860 because I've done that now with you as my sovereign Lord,

00:55:55.940 because I've saturated and reminded and preached to my own heart

00:55:59.700 your goodness and your promises.

00:56:02.640 When I lay down at night, while others are plagued with worry and fear,

00:56:07.120 my heart rises up and instructs me.

00:56:10.080 My heart counsels me.

00:56:12.360 My heart reminds me of the very thing I've trained my heart with discipline to do.

00:56:18.980 My heart, it's not just your word instructs me.

00:56:21.180 No, my heart has been so saturated in your word that even my heart, its default position now, through discipline, through practice, through study, through prayer, through righteous living, through obedience and worship and adoration, because I have chosen to be so diligent to saturate my life in the righteousness of God and in the word and truth of God.

00:56:44.860 my heart's first default position when i silence my day at the end of my day and silence my mind

00:56:51.820 the first thing by default that my heart begins to speak is your word that's what i've been thinking

00:56:57.380 about all day i remember there was a season in my life where i was playing hours and hours of chess

00:57:02.480 and it was crazy to where i would literally close my eyes and i would see squares and chess pieces

00:57:08.500 i would be driving and i would see even the road like it was a chess board if i needed to merge

00:57:13.180 lanes i was thinking about a bishop you know going around at night like by default i didn't mean to

00:57:18.900 it was it was weird it was probably not not super safe you know it's like almost like i was on on

00:57:24.280 some kind of chess drugs or something like that it felt like i'm not even fit to drive anymore

00:57:28.160 i've been i'm so obsessive playing so much chess i'm seeing chess pieces and squares everywhere i

00:57:33.100 look so it is with meditating upon god's word day and night you close your eyes the law of god that

00:57:41.440 you've been delighting in all day long is the first thing that your heart pushes up to your mind.

00:57:47.540 Your heart instructs you. So David's not saying my heart is my counselor. My point in all that is

00:57:53.140 to say this, the Lord is my counselor and he's a sure counselor, a trusted counselor. And because

00:57:58.800 I have chosen by diligence to saturate my life in his counsel, my heart now echoes the counsel

00:58:05.540 of the Lord. It's not my heart is my counselor. The Lord is my counselor, but I've so submitted

00:58:11.960 my will to his counsel that my heart by default echoes his counsel. Even at the end of the day,

00:58:20.820 when often the heart would bring worry, my heart brings promises and peace. All right, we need to

00:58:30.140 go ahead and land the plane here. David has spent seven verses declaring who God is for him. God is

00:58:35.260 his safe refuge, supreme treasure, sovereign Lord, and sure counselor. The result of David's 0.52

00:58:40.220 declarations, his praise to bolster faith for that original petition, preserve me, save me. What's

00:58:46.900 the result of all his praise, his declarations about the character of God is that his original

00:58:51.580 petition in Psalm 16, one preserved me, right? That was a request. Now it's become a confident

00:58:57.120 assertion in Psalm 16, eight. So now instead of David asking the Lord to preserve him like he did

00:59:03.340 in verse one, in verse eight, after seven or six and a half verses of praising God for who he is,

00:59:09.280 David now says, I shall not be shaken. See, at first it's, God, would you please preserve me?

00:59:16.180 A question. But now it's a statement. I will be preserved, is essentially what David's saying.

00:59:22.400 I will not be shaken. And this confidence that David will not be shaken, it leads to the final,

00:59:28.500 the final thing that we find in his prayer in psalm 16 rejoicing joy happiness he says therefore

00:59:38.600 my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices in verse 9 and then he furthermore goes to the last

00:59:44.160 verse of our text verse 11 and says in your presence there is fullness of joy and at your

00:59:48.880 right hand are pleasures forevermore see petitions this is the principle of prayer in times of

00:59:55.160 trouble. Get this. If you want to underline this line in your notes, this is the map, if you will.

01:00:01.340 It's the itinerary for prayer, specifically in times of trouble. Petitions for God's preservation

01:00:07.720 lead to declarations of God's character, which lead to confidence in God's promises,

01:00:13.560 which lead to joy in God's presence. I'll say it again. Petitions for God's preservation

01:00:20.500 lead to declarations of God's character and declarations praising God for who he is his

01:00:26.720 character leads to confidence in God's promises and I will not be shaken verse 8 and confidence

01:00:34.380 in God's promises leads to verse 9 which is joy in his presence my heart is glad in verse 11 in

01:00:41.800 your presence is fullness of joy that is the model the map of prayer for the Christian in times of

01:00:48.500 trouble. Petition. Praise. And then, and then remember his promises. Declare. And then ultimately,

01:01:00.360 finally, rejoice. Exult. Revel in the goodness of God. See, a chief cause of our anxiety is that

01:01:10.200 we often spend far too much time listening to ourselves and far too little time preaching to

01:01:16.760 ourselves listening how do i feel rather than preaching what do i know see finally in psalm 16

01:01:24.740 verse 10 we see that's the final verse i i went from 8 to 9 real quick and then to 11 because

01:01:29.900 9 and 11 are both this rejoicing in the presence of god because of verse 8 which is david now

01:01:36.120 making a confident assertion i will not be shaken and he has that confidence in verse 8 because of

01:01:41.060 Verses 1b through 7, which is David praising God for his character and who he is and all that,

01:01:48.080 beginning with the first half of verse 1, his petition, right?

01:01:51.320 So first half of verse 1, God, I need you to save me, preserve me.

01:01:54.620 And then second half of verse 1, all the way through verse 7, I'm doubting whether or not you'll save me.

01:02:00.280 And so I need to bolster my faith through praise, praising you for who you are,

01:02:03.540 a safe refuge, a supreme treasure, a sovereign Lord, and you do all this for me through your

01:02:11.180 sure and trusted counsel. Then verse 8, because I've bolstered my faith through praise, I'm now

01:02:16.260 no longer with a doubt petitioning. I'm now declaring I will not be shaken. You will preserve

01:02:22.560 me. And because I have that confidence now, verse 9 and 11, I'm rejoicing. I'm rejoicing in your

01:02:28.980 promises, your goodness, your protection, your salvation, your preservation, and all of that

01:02:33.940 is kind of the map of prayer, but there's one little verse that we haven't done, and we'll end

01:02:39.420 on it this morning, and that's verse 10. Now, at the surface level, verse 10, it's strategically

01:02:47.240 positioned, rightly positioned, right in between verse 9 and verse 11, because it's David again

01:02:52.140 declaring. It's his confident assertion. You won't abandon me. You're not just going to preserve my

01:02:57.660 soul. You're not just going to save me, sustain me spiritually, but you're going to preserve

01:03:01.640 my body, right? That was the main point that I started last week with. And this week, as a

01:03:06.580 reminder, God promises to preserve all his people, both in body, not just soul, but in body and soul

01:03:13.020 through life and death to complete an eternal joy. God fulfills this promise by being our safe

01:03:18.500 refuge, supreme treasure, sovereign Lord, and sure counselor. That's where we began. And that's

01:03:23.220 precisely what David is saying in verse 10. He's saying, my heart is glad. You've preserved me. I

01:03:28.700 want to be shaken. Spiritually, I'm rejoicing. Spiritually, I'm secure. Spiritually, I am safe.

01:03:34.600 And all of that's going to culminate, verse 11, in my eternal and everlasting full joy and pleasure

01:03:41.560 in your presence. But verse 10, he speaks to the safety and security that he is now confident of,

01:03:49.040 not just spiritually not just his joy but but his body you will not abandon my body to shield

01:03:56.300 you will not let your holy one see decay at the surface level david is simply making another

01:04:03.620 confident assertion because he's bolstered his phrase not only about god's protection and

01:04:09.380 preservation and salvation for him spiritually but even his preservation for david physically

01:04:15.260 that god is going to save and preserve david both in body and soul that's the surface level meaning

01:04:21.580 but we know that there's a much higher meaning to verse 10 of our text

01:04:27.420 that the true holy one is not king david the true holy one is who is now seated on the davidic

01:04:34.820 throne the one that david ultimately looked to to be his refuge to be his rock to be his treasure

01:04:42.120 to be his sure counselor

01:04:44.700 and his sovereign Lord.

01:04:46.760 The true holy one

01:04:48.220 who God the Father

01:04:49.700 would not abandon his body to shield

01:04:52.220 or let this holy one see decay

01:04:54.480 is not David, but Christ.

01:04:59.000 In closing, I want to just read a quote

01:05:01.560 from Joe Rigney.

01:05:02.700 I thought it was beautiful.

01:05:04.160 And speaking of the true fulfillment

01:05:06.420 of Psalm 16, particularly verse 10.

01:05:10.720 He says this,

01:05:12.120 This verse is a puzzle because of a simple fact, David died. His body did see decay. He was buried

01:05:20.920 and his soul was abandoned to shield. He was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

01:05:27.560 And not only David, but all the saints in the Old Testament died in this way. Psalm 16 gives us a

01:05:33.120 window into what happened when people died. At death, the soul is separated from the body. The

01:05:37.800 body is laid in the ground and decays. The flesh falls to corruption. The soul is sent to Sheol,

01:05:43.540 to Hades, to the realm of the dead. The righteous journey to Abraham's bosom, to the place of 0.65

01:05:48.480 waiting, while the wicked land across the chasm wide in a place of torment. This is speaking to

01:05:54.840 the righteous and the wicked before the cross. Old Testament and Old Testament unbelievers. 0.97

01:06:00.080 but everyone wise and foolish rich and poor like everyone goes the way of all flesh no man can 0.91

01:06:08.480 ransom another from the power of Sheol no amount of wealth or riches can suffice to keep us from 0.88

01:06:14.100 the place of the dead death comes as a shepherd and all of us are his sheep but unlike the myriads

01:06:20.400 who had sunk down to Sheol before Christ took the journey with joy he wasn't just going the way of

01:06:27.020 all flesh he was making a new way for all flesh and he knew it we know Jesus knew it because he

01:06:33.340 sang psalm 16 he had warned the scribes and pharisees who would crucify him just as Jonah

01:06:39.860 was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three

01:06:44.980 days and three nights in the heart of the earth Matthew 12 40 and just as Jonah sang in the belly

01:06:50.880 of the fish, as we see in Jonah chapter 2, Jesus went into the earth, into the tomb, singing. Like

01:06:57.900 Paul and Silas, who would shake the foundations of a prison with a simple melody, in Acts chapter

01:07:02.880 16, Jesus sang a greater earthquake into the prison of all prisons. Christ had run his race

01:07:09.300 and finished his course. For the previous six days, he had labored, and now on the seventh day,

01:07:15.300 he rested in Sheol, in the belly of the earth.

01:07:19.560 And while Jesus waited, he sang Psalm 16.

01:07:24.280 It makes me think of the magician's nephew,

01:07:27.400 I.C.S. Lewis, that Aslan, the great lion,

01:07:30.920 speaks the creation into existence through song.

01:07:35.640 Christ, as he waits in the belly of the earth,

01:07:38.280 he went to the cross for the joy that was set before him.

01:07:41.220 He went with joy because Christ knew

01:07:43.600 that his body would not be abandoned to shield that he would not see decay he had prophesied he

01:07:52.660 had spoken with confidence that in the same way that jonah was delivered up from the belly of the

01:07:58.120 fish after three days three nights that so too the son of man would be delivered up that the earth

01:08:04.120 the tomb could not hold him that like the fish spewed up jonah out of his mouth that the earth 0.86

01:08:10.240 itself that Sheol, the grave, would spew up the Son of God, because the Son of God, if you think

01:08:16.200 of it almost like a fish, like digestive, the fish, Jonah just didn't sit well with the fish.

01:08:21.400 He couldn't digest him. He couldn't keep him. He couldn't consume him. He had to throw him up. In

01:08:26.180 the same way that you eat a meal or something that, you know, you get food poisoning. It's like,

01:08:29.800 I can't keep it down. So too, the tomb could not keep Christ down. The earth swallowed him up

01:08:36.240 at calvary but the earth could not hold him the tomb could not digest him as it were but rather

01:08:43.660 three days later just as the great fish with jonah the earth the tomb spewed up the son of god

01:08:49.220 and while he was there in the belly of the earth he's saying you will not let your holy one see

01:08:57.340 decay you will not abandon my soul to shield and it came to pass the son of god raised on the third

01:09:04.960 day. Crucified for the forgiveness of sins and raised for our justification. Let's pray. Father,

01:09:14.640 we thank you for your word. We pray that you would bless it to our hearts, our minds, our bodies.

01:09:19.580 And we pray, Lord, that you would be glorified in all that we do and all that we say. We pray

01:09:24.860 these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks so much for listening. But real quick, before you go,

01:09:30.960 do us a small favor, take a moment, and leave us a five-star review if you enjoyed the show.

01:09:36.520 This is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us get this biblically faithful content

01:09:41.760 to as many people as possible. Thanks so much.

The NXR Podcast - July 10, 2022

SUNDAY SERMON - How To Pray In Times Of Trouble (Part 2) - Psalm 16

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