“Soul Talk: About My Assignment…”
Ps. 16
We’ve all receive assignments – perhaps from a teacher, a coach, a director, a boss, or a commanding officer. Even the government assigns us to certain categories and requirements. Some assignments we like and some we do not; some we wish we’d get and do not receive. How content are you with the assignments in your life?
According to David, God has also given us assignments. David wrote (2) “I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” David was content with his God-given assignments. How content are you with your God-given assignments? It’s important to note that DAVID’S CONTENTMENT CAME FROM CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S ASSIGNMENTS, because it’s the same place we can find our contentment as well.
But what does confidence and contentment look like? Listen again to verses 5-6: “LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” To have confidence in God’s assignments is to ACCEPT GOD’S PROVISIONS. After Israel conquered the Promised Land, boundary lines marked off the inheritance portions of the tribes, clans and families in Israel, and then each individual lot was marked with a "landmark" that was not to be moved. Each tribe except Levi was assigned this special inheritance. Because they served in the sanctuary and ate of the holy sacrifices, the priests and Levites had the Lord as their special inheritance and David saw himself in that privileged position.(1) “LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup…” David understood that THE POSSESSIONS WE HAVE AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES WE ARE IN REPRESENT THE INHERITANCE HE GIVES US. David rejoiced that God had caused the lines of his inheritance to fall in pleasant places, and that he had a "delightful inheritance.”
God had given David his life and everything he had, and it was good. Can you say this morning, “God has been good to me?” What is your personal experience with God? Why are you here today? Is it not because God, in his sovereignty, has saved you, given you life and blessing and riches eternal? Is it not because Jesus Christ has called you and chosen you, and died to forgive you? Isn’t it because God has placed some very significant people in your life, throughout your life, to nurture, challenge, and love you? Is it not because God has placed some extremely significant events and times of anointing in your life? Isn’t it because, though you have failed time and time again, God, in Jesus, keeps calling and welcoming you back? Has God been good to you?
To accept God’s provisions is also to recognize that GOD SECURES OUR LOT. Verse 5: “You make my lot secure.” God guarantees our security. Listen to Isaiah 62:3 & 5: “You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God…As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” You are so valuable, you are God’s crown! And he doesn’t wear you on his head, but holds you in the palm of his hand – the place of ultimate security. The only way God can express in human terms the value we have to Him is to use the language of expensive jewels. In my heart I have a special name for each of my grandchildren. It’s the only way I can fully express in words their preciousness to me. So with God – he rejoices in us as the crowning jewels of His life – and holds us secure forever.
And that enables us to be content in his love. What in the world can possibly harm or destroy you when you are so valued and secured by God? God has committed Himself to you! It is all by His initiative. You don’t have to earn it, you don’t have to court him and win his favor, you don’t have to beat out 20 other contestants to be wed to Him. The God who created and sustains the world, who so loved the world that He became flesh and lived and died so He could rise again and save you from death, the same God who ascended into to heaven to intercede for you and prepare an eternal place for you, is the God who loves and values you. Jesus Christ is the proof. Your declining health, your loneliness, your grief, your loss of job or position, your alienated relationship, your crumbling marriage – none of it – nothing at all – not even the spiritual forces of evil – not even your sin – can ever separate you from God’s love or tear you out of His hand.
We can accept God’s provisions as well because God desires to GIVE US A DELIGHTFUL INHERITANCE. (6) “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” It does not mean that every circumstance of our lives is pleasant; but it does mean that God can take every circumstance and use it. (Rom. 8:28) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” As the Heidelberg Catechism eloquently states, “…the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ his Son. I trust him so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and he will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because he is almighty God; he desires to do this because he is a faithful Father.”(2) A faithful Father… As Graham Cook put it, “God is consistent, but he is also unpredictable. He is consistent in his nature. You always know where you are with God, but you seldom know what he is going to do next. You cannot find security in what God is doing. There is only security in who God is.”(2)
The Apostle Paul learned about this contentment. From a prison cell, awaiting a verdict on his life, he wrote the Philippian church (4:11-13 LB): “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation, whether it be a full stomach or hunger, plenty or want; 13 for I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.”
Knowing this delightful inheritance, and this strength and power, is what transforms the assignments of our lives. It’s why Joseph’s prison became a palace, Daniel’s den became a sanctuary, a fiery furnace became a New Jerusalem; it’s why Jesus’ cross became a throne.
In Dennis Rainey's book Stepping Up, he tells the story about the short life of his granddaughter Molly. Born with a brain aneurism, Molly lived only seven days. As difficult as those seven days were, Molly's parents and grandparents held firmly to their trust in God, confident that they would see Molly again in the age to come. Rainey concludes the chapter of Molly's story with this memory: “A number of years ago, [my wife] Barbara and I were vacationing in southwest England and stumbled upon the little town of Saint Buryan, a crossroad in the country with a pub, a decaying church, and a graveyard. We stopped and read a few of the gravestones. One that was barely legible commemorated a family that lived in the 1600s. Buried beneath the stone were the mother, who gave birth to a son and died just ten days later at the age of twenty-four; her son, who lived thirteen months; and the father, who died a few days later at age twenty-five. The faded words on that weathered limestone grave marker moved us so deeply that today they are etched on Molly's headstone: We cannot, Lord, Thy purpose see But all is well that's done by Thee.”(3) Confidence in God’s assignments comes through accepting God’s provisions.
This confidence also develops when we ACQUIRE A PERSPECTIVE. Verse 7: “I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.” First, PRAISING GOD is a major theme for the Psalms. Remember how Ps. 103 begins? “Praise the Lord, o my soul, and all that is within me, praise his holy name!” But why is praise so important, especially when it is difficult to offer praise? One reason is because IT’S WHAT WE ARE CREATED TO DO. Paul wrote, (Eph. 1:11-12 LB): “Moreover, because of what Christ has done, we have become gifts to God that he delights in, for as part of God’s sovereign plan we were chosen from the beginning to be his, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. God’s purpose in this was that we should praise God and give glory to him for doing these mighty things for us, who were the first to trust in Christ.”
There’s a second reason praise is important. C.S. Lewis wrote: "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the ENJOYMENT … It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with … Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him."(4) Praising God enables us to enjoy him, no matter what. In fact, William Law once said, “One who makes it a rule to be content in every part and accident of life because it comes from God praises God in a much higher manner than one who has some set time for the singing of psalms.” (5)
Gary Carter was accepted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on July 27, 2003. In his acceptance speech, Carter said: “I want to take the time to thank the most important people in my life. Above all I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A great verse that spoke to me while I was writing my speech and kind of explains what it's all about comes from Psalm 118. "I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my savior. My God is my rock in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation and my stronghold. I will call on the Lord who is worthy of praise." (Psalm 118:1-3 NLT). I praise the Lord my God, my best friend, for giving me the ability, the desire, the love, and the guidance that has brought me here today. Without You, I would be
nothing.”
A second step in developing a perspective is to POSITION GOD. (8) “I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand…” KEEP GOD WHERE YOU CAN SEE HIM! Leslie Brandt, in “Psalms Now”, paraphrases these words this way; “I have chosen to make God my ultimate concern. He is the Pilot of my ship.” Eugene Peterson, in “The Message” wrote, “Day and night I’ll stick with God; I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.” Keep your eyes and lives focused on God. Because when you do, you will see him, as David says, AT YOUR RIGHT HAND. The significance of the right hand is that in battle, a warrior stood at the right hand - or right side- of someone whom he was fighting to protect. It’s a symbol of protection. It is this symbolism, by the way, which lies behind the groom being on the right hand side of the bride in a wedding - he is pledging to protect her forever. Isn’t it wonderful that you can say this morning that God protects you?
Therefore, says David, “I will not be shaken.” The Nigerian city of Jos sits on Africa's great fault line between the Muslim north and Christian, and thus has faced terrible things in recent years. A Nigerian Baptist church was attacked by Muslim extremists who burnt the church building and the house of the church's leader, Pastor Sunday Gomna. On the second Sunday after the violent outbreak, when the people of that Baptist church returned for worship, they gathered in a little mud wall community center about one kilometer from the burnt church. Pastor Gomna stood up and offered some beautiful words of gratitude. He said, 'First, I am grateful that no one in my church killed anyone." Apparently, during the chaos of the attacks, Pastor Sunday had gone around the community and some of the Muslim people said, "Pastor, thank you for the way you taught your people. Your people helped to protect us.'" So Pastor Sunday was proud that his people did not kill any Muslims. "Second," he said, "I am grateful that they did not burn my church." Everyone looked at Pastor Sunday with disbelief. After all, everyone was meeting in a small, uncomfortable Mud hut because their church building had been burnt to the ground. But Pastor Sunday continued: "Inasmuch as no church member died during this crisis, they did not burn our church. They only burned the building. We can rebuild the building but we could not bring back to life any of our members. So I am grateful that they did not burn my church." He continued, "Third, I am grateful that they burned my house as well. If they had burned your house and not my house, how would I have known how to serve you as pastor? However, because they burned my house and all my possessions, I know what you are experiencing and I will be able to be a better pastor to you. So I am grateful that they burned my house as well." (6)
“I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing…“LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. “I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand… I will not be shaken.”
The third element of the proper perspective is to PURSUE GOD. (11) “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” God gives us a PATH TO WALK. The Psalmist speaks from the perspective of the Old Testament and the history of Israel. There the path was a person. For Israel, God himself was the path. He led by a pillar and a cloud. Later he led by the law he gave to Moses. He led through kings and prophets. Then in the New Testament we see the path in the person of Jesus Christ. JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. He told us that no one could ever come to the Father but by him. That’s the significance of the curtain in the Temple being torn in two when Jesus died - the way to the Father was now open for anyone and everyone. It’s where contentment begins.
But, you say, I don’t feel it – at least not today. Maybe I do once in a while, but not all the time. Pursue God; get close to Jesus. I want to ask you a question this morning. If nothing can separate you from God’s love and tear you out of God’s hand, yet you do not feel the joy of His presence or feel Him close to you, who do you supposed moved? Have you let God hug you to his heart? I think of my grandchildren – I love them whether they’re in my arms of far away. I prefer to hug them. But I can only hug them if they let me. If they want to run and have me chase them, I can’t hug them – especially since they’re getting faster and I’m getting slower! Yet my hug is always ready and waiting – whether or not they get hugged is up to them. That’s what Psalm 16 is all about. Trust God and let Him hug you. After all, He’s waiting to fill you with joy and eternal pleasures.
(1) Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) - Old Testament - The Bible Exposition Commentary – Wisdom and Poetry.
(2) Graham Cook, "Embracing Change," Quiet Waters Compass (April 2003); from Preacting Today
(3) Dennis Rainey, Stepping Up (Family Life, 2011), pp. 17-18
(4) NPR/TED Staff, "How Does Go from a Believer to an Atheist," NPR Ted Radio Hour (11-22-13); Submitted by: Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky – from Preaching Today
(5) William Law in A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 5. – from Preaching Today
(6) Mark Meynell, "What to say when they burn down your house and church," Quearentia blog (10-21-13); source: David Smith, The Kindness of God (InterVarsity Press, 2013)
