Calm Assurance Series

There is a lot of trouble around us. There may also be trouble and conflict with in us. It is everywhere. This world has always been a place of turmoil since the fall. Adam and Eve where the perfect couple in the garden. They disobeyed God, sin entered, and things went amiss.

Things went from bad to worse after the fall. The downward spiral was so bad that their firstborn son Cain murdered their second son Able for no real reason. In a world filled with trouble and violence we can take refuge in God. We can possess a calm assurance by trusting in God.

For the one who really lives in the light of God’s presence there is a quiet confidence. A calm sense of assurance. This Psalm speaks of the calm assurance of the one who trusts in God. In the New Testament Paul expresses this same calm assurance as a believer in Jesus Christ.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Now that is a calm assurance and confidence in the Lord. There is reason for a believer who trusts in God to be confident. They do not need to be arrogant, but confident because the believer in Christ knows that God is with him.

The Title of the Psalm is: A Mitkam of David. Most commonly the title translates to a golden poem. The Psalm is pure gold for the believer as it speaks of calm assurance of trusting in God. How many believers have made it through the difficult times by nothing but their trust in God.

With calm assurance comes a trust in God. (Verses 1-4)

Keep me safe, my God,

for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

apart from you I have no good thing.”

3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,

“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”

4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.

I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods

or take up their names on my lips. (Psalm 16:1-4)

The Psalm opens with a prayer. Here is the testimony of David’s hope in God. No one can enjoy life in God’s will, apart from a personal relationship with God. It’s not the rich and powerful who possess true confidence, but the righteous.

There is a present and future hope. Verse 1, he says keep me safe God. Guard me because I have put my trust in you. Here he takes refuge in God. That sounds great. Let’s all take refuge in God, but how do we do it?

The answer is in verse 2. Let yourself be totally dependent on God. For Christians it becomes the issue of Lordship to Jesus Christ. This prayer is made in the midst of surrounding idolatry. Verse 3 speaks of the saints, the holy ones, the believers who were in the land.

All of those who made their stand for God, with calm assurance, did so in the midst of those who had been drawn away to something besides God. There is always a substitute, an idol ready to take the place of the true and living God in your life.

Trust in God. David refused to ever speak the name of the false deities. The ungodly exchange the true God for false gods. Instead of confidence those who reject God will have trouble. Any other way but God’s way is asking for sorrows.

With calm assurance comes a delightful in heritance. (Verses 5-8)

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;

you make my lot secure.

6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.

With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. (Psalms 16:5-8)

Those who trust in God, who dwell in His presence have a calm assurance because they have a spiritual inheritance. There is a reference here to Levitical Priests when the promised land was divided up among the various tribes. The tribe of Levi was allotted no land. Why not?

The LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. (Numbers 18:20)

They had no land because God himself was their inheritance. That is the idea here. That is not being slighted that is being blessed! David is one who dwelt in God’s presence. God taught David. He received instruction in the stillness of the night.