Thank you. This, I think, is a tough morning for us. If we had been back in Dubuque, Iowa, there's an ice and snowstorm that is ravaging the state. We have to suffer down here with all of you. If you have your Bibles, I would like you to open to Psalm sixteen. This evening we will be speaking on the faith of Abraham from Hebrews chapter eleven but in these morning messages I would like to look with you at a number of different Psalms and this morning I would like to look at a very important Psalm Psalm sixteen a Psalm that was written by a man who was satisfied with life he was satisfied with life now does that describe you are you satisfied with the life that God has given you are you content and satisfied with the circumstances and the life that God has given you not necessarily the circumstances but the life what is significant about the satisfaction of David as we find find it expressed in Psalm sixteen, it is that it is the satisfaction of a man who was satisfied in spite of his circumstances. Because Psalm sixteen was written in the midst of adversity. Notice what he says in verse one. He says, preserve me, O God, for in you I put my trust. Preserve me. That word that is translated preserve is elsewhere in Scripture translated guard, watch, watch over. It's used, it's a word that is used of a watchman who is guarding a city. It implies that there is some danger that you need to be protected from. Preserve me. And then it says, I'm reading in the New King James Version, it says, Oh God, for in you I put my trust. The word trust here literally means to seek refuge, to flee for protection. The New American Standard says, I take refuge in you. Just this morning I was reading in Psalm David said, you are my refuge. And he says, protect me from all of those who are around me. I take refuge in you. When you have these words, preserve me, guard me, I put my refuge, I take refuge in you. It is implying here that there is adversity from which he needs protection. You trust in God, when you flee to him and you take refuge in him. But you flee to him and you take refuge in him because there is some kind of danger or adversity. When you go on and look at verse four, he says, Their sorrows shall be multiplied, who hasten after another God. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips. He is referring here to those who are the enemies of God. And because they are the enemies of God, they're his enemies. In verse ten, he says, you will not leave my soul and shield, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. David is faced here with a threat of death. And so he is praying. in this psalm that god would protect him from adversity and deliver him from the face of death now what is so interesting to me as i read psalm sixteen and i think what is so striking about this is this about this psalm is that as you read through it there is so little mention of the adversity and there is such a strong affirmation of his joy and his satisfaction in the Lord. Now don't we tend to be satisfied when things are going well in our lives and then when tragedy strikes we get all upset. When all is well we are happy and satisfied. When trouble strikes we become discouraged. Sometimes we even cry out to God and complain, why have you allowed this to happen to me? You notice that is not the way it was with David. There were a number of calamities in David's life. Before he became king, he was chased around the wilderness by Saul who was seeking his life. There were other things that happened in David's life. Some of them were his own responsibility. But his son Absalom, his son Absalom led a coup d'etat to overthrow David, drove him out of the city of Jerusalem. David, he was seeking to kill him. David once again was forced to become a fugitive, fleeing for his life. what the particular circumstances were when he wrote Psalm sixteen I can't tell and the reason I can't tell and I don't think any of us can really tell is he doesn't tell us enough about his circumstances he doesn't tell us enough about his adversities to tell what he really is talking about he just sort of passes over them and he is caught up with the goodness of God and the joy and satisfaction that He has in Him. Now isn't that the way we would like to live? Isn't that the way you would like to live? No matter what your circumstances, no matter what the trials of life you find real joy and real satisfaction in the Lord so that you are satisfied with life regardless of the circumstances. Look at what David says. He says, preserve me, O God, for in you I put my trust. O my soul, you have said to the Lord, you are my God. The reason that David sought refuge in the Lord was because he knew and he confessed. You are my Lord. Notice in verses one and two, there are three words that David uses to refer to God. He says, preserve me, O, O God. The word that is translated God there is the Hebrew word, El. It's a shortened version of Elohim, which is the normal word for God. The word El means strength. It looks at God as the strong and mighty one, the all-powerful God. He is the God in whom I can take refuge because he has power to protect. And then he says in verse two, I said, you said to the Lord, the word Lord there is the word Yahweh. which is the word that God used to reveal himself to Moses in Exodus three at the burning bush when he says, I am whom I am. You shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent you. He is the I am. He is the eternally existing one. He is also the one who has entered into a personal relationship with His people. He is the God in whom I can take refuge because He is the eternal God who cares for His people, who has entered into a personal relationship with them. And He has entered into a personal relationship with me. I know Him, the eternal one. And then he says, I said to the Lord, you are my Lord. You'll remember that in the Old Testament, when you have the word Lord in all capitals, capital L, and then small capital ORD, that is the word Yahweh. And then it says in the second word, Lord, you are my Lord. capital L, but then a small ORD. The small ORD indicates that the Hebrew word that is translated word, Lord here, is the word Adonai, which means sovereign, which means master. He is the Lord in the sense that he is the sovereign to whom I submit. He is the sovereign who I will follow. You are my sovereign master. You are the eternal God. Yahweh the Lord. You are my Adonai. You are my master. You see what David is saying in verses one and two? Because God is the kind of God that he is. I can take refuge in him. In the midst of adversity, trials do not overwhelm me because I am in the care of the all-powerful God, the eternal God who has a personal relationship with me, the sovereign God who cares for me because he is that kind of God. I can take refuge in him. and I will not be overwhelmed by these circumstances. There's a painting that I like that is entitled, the title of this painting is Peace. And it's a painting that I've seen a number of places. I think that some of these Christian calendars sometimes will have it. But it's a picture of a mother bird with a few of her baby chicks. And they're in the midst of a storm. And you see the lightning, you see the dark clouds, the wind is blowing, the storm is raging. And here you have the mother bird with her wings spread out. And here you have these three baby chicks sound asleep. and the title of the painting is Peace. See, peace doesn't come from having all of the outward circumstances perfect. Real peace comes when you can rest and fall asleep in the arms of the Lord in the midst of a raging storm about you. Peace comes from enjoying the refuge of the shelter and protection of God's loving care. That's what David said. Preserve me, O God, for you. In you, I seek refuge. I said, you are to the Lord. You are my God. Now, the second thing that David says in verse two is, My goodness is nothing apart from you. Now we have a problem here, and it's a problem of translation. If you have the King James Version, it says in verse two, My goodness extendeth not to thee, then in verse three, but to the saints that are in the earth. King James says, my goodness basically says that my goodness is not for God's benefit, it is for the benefit of God's people. This is a very difficult verse to translate, but listen to several other translations. I read the new King James. My goodness is nothing apart from you. The New American Standard Bible. I have no good beside you. the new international version. Apart from you, I have no good thing. Now I think what this verse is saying, if I could paraphrase it, David is saying, I have no good thing in my life which does not come from you, God. I have no good thing which I have not received from you. When David is talking about goodness, he is not talking about the good things he does, he is talking about the good things that he receives from the Lord. And he's saying, whatever blessings I have in my life, whatever good things have happened to me, they have come from the Lord. Now here again, I want you to notice. David is in the midst of adversity. He's in the midst of difficulties. He's in the midst of trials. He's in the midst of threats to his life. What is he thinking about? What is he talking about? He's talking about the good things that he has received from God. He's talking about the blessings of God in his life. One of the reasons I think so many Christians do not experience the kind of joy and satisfaction that david experiences here is that they do not think about the blessings and the good things that they receive from god in their lives in the midst of trial we get discouraged we don't think about the blessings We even get angry and question God, God, why have you allowed this to happen to me? How could you love me and let this happen to me? And we get caught up with the adversity and we forget the blessings. David was occupied with the goodness of God and he was occupied more with God's blessings that he was with his own adversities. You are my God. You are my God. And because I have you, I have abundance of blessing. Every good thing that I have, I have from you. There's a story that is told of an ancient Roman who had a son who was wayward and greatly disappointed him in his life. And he also had a slave by the name of Marcellus, who had been a faithful slave to him through many years. And this Roman, who was a very wealthy man, died. And when they opened up his will, they found that he had practically left left the son with very little. And he had given almost everything to the slave Marcellus. What he actually said in his will is that everything goes to the slave Marcellus, but the son before the estate was divided up and distributed could choose one thing for himself from the whole estate. The son says, I'll take Marcellus. And you know, taking him, he got everything else. You see what David says? Lord, I have no good thing apart from you. But if I have you, I have everything. If I have you, I have it all. Now, look at verses three and four. Because David found great delight in the Lord, he also found great delight in the Lord's people. In verse three, he expresses his attitude towards the Lord's people. And in verse four, he expresses his attitude toward those who rejected the Lord. He says in verse three, and to the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. Verse four, the enemies of God, their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another God. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips. Do you love the Lord? Well, I think verses three and four give us a practical test as to whether you love the Lord and whether you find in him your real refuge. Do you find satisfaction in his goodness? Now, one of the tests in verse three, if you love the Lord and find your satisfaction with him, in him, you will also love the Lord's people. You will love the Lord's people. And in verse three, you will not find your satisfaction in those who openly reject the Lord. Those who sin openly and openly reject the Lord. There are some Christians that I find very strange. You see them at church on Sunday. But then as far as the rest of their lives are concerned, they really don't care to be around Christians. They really don't want to have much to do with the Lord's people. They find great satisfaction in their relationships with unbelievers, those who are ungodly, those who reject the Lord. All of their friends are unbelievers. And it's not that they find all of these unbelieving friends so that they can witness to them. It's just that they are more comfortable with them than they are with the Lord's people. Now, you find here that David is saying that if you are committed to the Lord, you are also going to be committed to the Lord's people. They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight now these are the expressions in verses one and four one to four of David when he says that my refuge is in the Lord my refuge is in the Lord I am seeking my protection in him verses five to eighty goes on to say that my satisfaction is in the Lord my satisfaction is in the Lord. Notice verses five and six. These are verses where David talks about his inheritance. Verse five. You, O Lord, are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. When it talks about my lot and the lines that have fallen to me, these are also words that are referred to an inheritance. It particularly refers to the situation when Israel went into the promised land. You remember when Joshua led the children of Israel over into the land of Canaan. You had the twelve tribes of Israel. Now, how are they going to divide up the land? Who is, what tribe is going to live where? Well, they divided up the land into a number of different portions, and then they cast lots to determine which tribe would be situated where. And that lot would determine the portion of the inheritance of each tribe. And then within the tribes themselves, they would divide up the land into different portions, and they cast lots again. And each family received the portion that fell to them. That was their inheritance from the Lord in the division of the promised land. And what David is saying here is that the portion that has fallen to me, the lot that has fallen to me in verse six, has been in pleasant places. It is a good land. It is a beautiful land. It is a pleasant place. It is a pleasant inheritance. Now, what's the significance of this? David is not speaking literally here. He is speaking figuratively when he talks about his inheritance. What is he talking about? His family was from Bethlehem. He's not talking about a piece of land there in Bethlehem. He says in verse five, you, O Lord, are my inheritance. and my cup. My inheritance isn't a plot of ground. What David is doing is taking what the Lord said to the tribe of Levi and applying it to himself. You remember that when they divided the land among the twelve tribes, one of the tribes was left out. They left out the tribe of Levi. The tribe of Joseph actually became two portions, Ephraim and Manasseh. And the tribe of Levi received no property, no earthly inheritance in the portions of the land that were driven that were divided out. In Numbers chapter eighteen and verse twenty, the Lord says to Levi, you shall have no inheritance in their land, nor own any portion among them Listen, I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel. Levi, I am your inheritance. Now David is saying, Lord, you are my inheritance. Now David wasn't a Levite. What he is saying is, I don't really care about that family estate down by Bethlehem. Lord, I want you. I want you. You are my inheritance. You are my portion. And you know what? When I have you, what a lovely inheritance I possess. The lines have fallen to me. In pleasant places, I have a good inheritance. You see why David can express satisfaction with his life in the midst of difficult circumstances? His satisfaction was in the Lord. It wasn't his position as king that made him satisfied. It wasn't all of the wealth that he possessed as king that made him satisfied. These things mattered very little to him. What did matter to him and what did give him satisfaction was the fact that he had the Lord. Let me ask you this morning, what is it that you really want in life? What is it that you really, where are you seeking your satisfaction now we probably ought to say the question isn't where are you seeking your satisfaction when you come to church on Sunday morning or when you're here during special meetings like this the question really is in the rest of your life what is it that you direct your life toward where is it that you spend your time and your energy what is it that you really want. I think if you look at the lives of many Christians today, you find that what they really want are the same things the world wants. They want wealth, they want power, they want job advancement, They don't say like David, I want the Lord. He is all that I really want. Let me ask you, what is it that you want for your children? What is it that you want for your grandchildren? This shows where your values really lie. What many Christian parents, communicate to their children, not necessarily by what they say, but by their whole attitude and direction of life, is that the most important things in life are first getting a good education, marry well, have a good career, and have a comfortable life. Is there anything wrong with getting a good education? Absolutely not. Is there anything wrong with marrying children? A good person? No. Is there anything wrong with having a good career? No. Is there anything wrong with having a comfortable life? No. But the question is in all of these, where is the Lord? Where in your list of priorities is the Lord? Would you rather have a good education? or be faithful to the Lord. I would rather see my children going on for God and living a menial working kind of life with not much material prosperity or material wealth, if they were living for God, then have them have all kinds of worldly success and be indifferent to the things of God. But I don't think many Christian parents really have that as their primary goal. You remember what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians? He says, all of those things that the world is looking for, I had them. I had them. You think other people can boast? I can boast. You talk about education? I was schooled by the top rabbi in Jerusalem, Gamaliel. You talk about success? I was listed in... in the Jewish magazine for business as one of the top ten rising young Jewish leaders. I had all kinds of success. I was admired and respected as a person who lived a very lawful moral life. I had success. But the things that were gained for me, I count loss for Christ. And I count all things loss that I make gain the knowledge of him who loved me and died for me. Paul found his satisfaction in knowing him, that I might know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being made conformable to His death. David said, you are my inheritance. You are my joy and satisfaction. John Phillips, who used to live a couple streets over from us when we lived in Lombard, In Illinois, my earlier days of teaching at Emmaus, John Phillips tells a story of King George VI, who was King of England back during World War II. Before he was a king, King George was a devout believer. Used to attend some weekly Bible readings in a small assembly in London. After he became king, he wasn't able to attend these small meetings anymore. He was too noteworthy a kind of figure. It caused too much of a ruckus and going out in public like that. But the story goes that one time he was visiting in Canada in the province of British Columbia. And the Canadian officials there thought that it would be nice if he would meet one of the Native American chiefs. And so they picked a very well-known and very well-respected Indian chief from the Northwest by the name of Chief Whitefeather. And they not only picked him to meet the king, but they also asked him if he would sing for the king. And they thought that, of course, that he would sing some Native American song. But this king or this chief was a Christian, a devout Christian. And so the song that he chose to sing to the king of England was, I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be His than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land. I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hands than to be the king of a vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today the government officials were aghast but the king walked over to chief white feather and shook his hands and he said I'd rather have Jesus too David said Lord you are my portion the portion of my inheritance now quickly We're not going to be able to finish this Psalm, but I want you to notice verses seven and eight. David said, because the Lord was the center of his life, he experienced the counsel of God. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. In verse eight, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. I want you to notice verse eight particularly. I think there's something very practical here in verse eight. We tend to admire godly Christians. We recognize that there are certain people who find their refuge in God, their satisfaction in him. These are the people, we recognize them, who say, Lord, you are my inheritance, and I would rather have you than anything else. We recognize those people. We admire them. But somehow we never are able to develop the same kind of attitude in our own lives. I think David gives us a clue in verse eight as to how he developed this kind of attitude. He says, I have set the Lord always before me. What he means is that when he started out each day, he consciously put himself in the presence of God. When he got up, he would start consciously thinking about the Lord. The Lord He is my God. He is my refuge. I belong to Him. Every good thing that I have comes from Him. Wherever I go today, He is with me. He is my right hand. I shall not be moved. Now, if you start thinking like that, if you're consciously thinking like that, what is it that is going to overwhelm you? What is it that will defeat you? When David says, I have set the Lord before me, he is making a conscious decision. He is making a conscious determination. Too often life manipulates and controls us. We are overwhelmed by our circumstances. We run to this, we run to that. We're involved in work. We're involved with our family. We're involved in this activity and that activity. We never have time to sit, to think, to pray, to meditate. A year passes. We wonder where it's gone. Ten years, twenty years. We're fifty, we're sixty, we're seventy. Where is life gone? What have we accomplished? Nothing very significant. That kind of life is not satisfying. David took control of his life. He deliberately set the Lord before his face. He trained himself to think about the Lord in his relationship with the Lord, not just in times of trouble, in all circumstances of life. And he made an effort to find his satisfaction in the Lord. And when he found that satisfaction, He was able to face all of his circumstances. This is a psalm of a satisfied man. Because he found his refuge in the Lord. He set the Lord before his face. He wanted the Lord more than he wanted anything else. That's the kind of person that we need to be. And the Lord richly blesses us. in those circumstances father we do pray that we would be the kind of man that david was that we would be the kind of woman that we see exemplified in his life we pray that we might find all of our satisfaction in you