Psalm 16: Practicing The Presence Series

Psalm 16: Practicing the Presence of God

Introduction:

Bill Hybels titled a book years ago, "Too Busy Not to Pray." We live in a busy world. A world where the expectations of the workplace are rising, where the prices of groceries are increasing, yet we are bombarded with ads attempting to entice us to imbibe the consumerism of our materialistic culture. Life in the 21st century is increasingly fragmented. People are not whole. Our phones have rewired our brains and sometimes it is not that we do not have time to pray, we cannot concentrate when we do pray. Our minds are distracted and our hearts are confused. But, it should be the goal of the Christian to live with a continual awareness of the Presence of God. Psalm 16 gives us a formula for what Brother Lawrence calls "the practice of the presence of God." For the next few weeks, we will slowly walk through this Psalm and its teaching.

A Mikhtam of David.

Mikhtam: "An Inscribed Psalm" -- this superscription is found in six psalms (16, 56-60). Its meaning is disputed: in later Hebrew (and Greek) it means "inscribed poem," "epigram," or "a poem containing pithy sayings."

"Of David" means that this Psalm was written by, for, about, or pertaining to David and the Davidic monarchy. Prophetically these psalms extend to the ultimate Son of David, Jesus.

Psalm 16 is quoted both by Peter and Paul in the NT as about Jesus. We will look at their interpretation of Psalm 16 when we get to the verses they quote.

Psalm 16 can be divided into three basic sections: 1) a prayer for protection (16:1-4), 2) praise for provision (16:5-8), and 3) confidence in preservation (16:9-11).

The psalmist begins with prayer. David was a person of prayer. We find him praying at all the critical junctures of his life. His greatest victories come through prayer and his greatest defeats were the result of a lack of prayer. When David defeated Goliath it was with a confession of the greatness of God on his lips. When David sinned by forcefully taking Bathsheba and ultimately killing her husband, it was a lack of communion with God that contributed to his downfall. When David took a census of Israel's armies, it was against what he would have heard God speaking into his spirit, if he had been listening. We cannot truly be the humans, Gid created us to be outside the Presence of God. It is the environment for which we were created, the relationship that makes us truly human.

Prayer's basic meaning is a petition and that is where prayer begins. It begins as a realization that without Him we can do nothing. In Psalm 16, David begins with a prayer for protection. It begins as a lament but ends with confidence. Prayer may begin with tears, but if we stay at it long enough, confident joy will result. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning! Let's look at this part of the Psalm this morning:

I. Prayer for Protection (Psalm 16:1-4)

16 Protect me, God, for I take refuge in You.

"Protect me" is a petition for God to "keep me safe." Salvation has so many dimensions in the Bible because contrary to the way we often hear it, God is not interested only in "souls," but in "wholes." The salvation of the human person and all of creation is the work of God from beginning to end. When we experience healing in our bodies, provision, protection, reconciliation in our relationships, and justice in our present life, it is a declaration of the perfect wholeness that we will experience in the resurrection and the renewed creation at the coming of the Lord. Salvation involves it all.

David says that he has taken refuge in God. The word refuge is a favorite in the passages about warfare. It means a fortress, a high place in the mountains of Palestine, where David would hide. The present world system is contrary to the Christian living a life that pleases God. But, we are hidden in Christ. We can find a place that is higher than the enemy. We have the high ground. The battle is already won.

The writers of the NT use the phrase "in Christ" to refer to those who have trusted in the faithfulness of Christ for their salvation. They are baptized into Him, both in water and Spirit.

To be "in Christ" is to possess all that He possesses and to be all that He is.

Our prayers should be from this posture. Praying "in Jesus's Name" is not a magical formula that we invoke, but a realization that we are His body, His hands, His feet, His mouth. Christ took on what we are that we might take on what He is.