In a recent seminar I was sitting in at school, Russell Moore mentioned that there were words or phrases that every once in a while need a moratorium put on them because somehow they’ve become devoid of meaning or (worse) have come to mean something much the opposite of what was originally intended. He noted that he had put a suspension on the use of the word “pastoral” a few years back because it had come to picture in part someone who lacked any willingness to confront someone else. Therefore, though Dr. Moore was speaking somewhat humorously, there was a seriousness in what he said, and it led me to consider how words and phrases that are much-used really can become reduced to a shadow of what should really be meant by a term.
One such phrase that was hugely popular when I was in college was the phrase “God-centered.” Probably John Piper did as much as anyone to bring this phrase to popularity with my peers as there were these events across the nation where he spoke and opened the eyes of numerous college students to the greatness of God, God’s sovereignty, and the fact that God seeks his own glory. These were eye-opening things to many of us at that time who had not had somebody challenge some of the things that we had been taught incorrectly. And ultimately this shift in thinking about how we viewed salvation, God, and really all things was labeled a shift to “man-centered” to “God-centered” thinking. In short, hundreds of students were coming to realize under the ministry of John Piper (and others) that all things (including God) did not revolve around us, but all things revolved around God.
As I meditated on Psalm 16, this phrase came to my mind again. And as it did, I found myself thinking that perhaps we needed to suspend the use of this phrase “God-centered.” After all, I believe many of us would claim to have “God-centered” theology, at least understand in theory what it means to live “God-centered” lives, etc. But as I kept thinking of David’s writing in this psalm, I thought perhaps this is a picture of something many of us really don’t know, don’t live out, don’t experience. Perhaps for us “God-centeredness” simply means being able to affirm that life is all about God instead of living a life that reflects that reality. Therefore, perhaps needless to say, I think Psalm 16 can be a very convicting psalm for us as it holds up for us a picture of what I think Christian living should look like. So, I want us to look at David’s thoughts and life this morning in this Psalm and examine our lives in light of what God-centered living really should look like.
David begins in verses 1-2, “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’” Now, we don’t know if there is an incident here in which David needed refuge, whether his life was threatened or he was sick. But it’s probably best to see this as a general statement on David’s part. At any point when he needed refuge, he went to God. He went to God because God was his Lord, and he knew it. And he knew that everything good that he had and everything good that happened to or through him was because of God. In short, God was David’s only hope, and that’s how he thought and that’s how he lived.
This is fleshed out in David’s life at numerous points. When he is pursued by Saul, instead of taking out Saul, he simply entrusts himself to God. On an occasion when one was mocking him and throwing rocks at him, he did not retaliate, but entrusted himself to God. If there was something good that was going to happen for David, David knew it was going to be because God did it.
When you and I came to saving faith in Christ it’s because we realized that Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for us were our only hope. Faith in Christ is shown in a trusting that says, “If what Christ did is not enough for me, then I’ll end up condemned, because I’m resting on nothing else.” That’s what faith in Christ means. You’re not also trusting in your good works to merit you a bit of righteousness on the side. You’re trusting entirely in him as your only hope.
That’s how David pictures his whole life in these first two verses of Psalm 16. It’s as if he’s saying, “God, if you’re not enough for my good, then I simply will know no good, for I’m trusting in you alone.” This must be how we think as well. It seems that it can be very easy for us to say that we trust in Christ alone for our own righteousness, and we can clearly present the gospel in those terms. However, when it comes to trusting God in this life, it’s easy for us to fret as if somehow God’s good work and blessings can be thwarted by our ignorance or incompetence.
I know a number of you are in situations right now where you need things that are beyond your control. Some long for spouses, some children, some jobs, some for houses to sell, others for family to be saved, and many others. And it’s hard. But I think Psalm 16:1-2 should serve as a reminder to you just to keep doing what you need to do to obey God and trust that if you’re going to have good that it’ll come from his good hand. You see, David wasn’t saying, “God I trust you, and I’m really fretting over how this situation which is out of my control will work out.” He simply obeyed God as his Lord apart from whom he had no good, and trusted him.
As I was coming back from Louisville after the semester had ended, I was driving along I-65 by myself when I got a call from Brad White, my friend with whom I had roomed in college. As we talked, he began to recount to me how it seemed the Lord had been guiding Cassie and him to work with the HeartCry Missionary Society in overseeing indigenous missions in Peru. Brad said that he’d been asked to consider this position months prior but had turned it down. However, in the last number of days he and Cassie had grown quite restless. He began to feel burdened for missions more intensely among other things. And he was struggling internally. However, he and Cassie just prayed that God would direct them clearly. On that day when I was coming back from Louisville, Brad had received a call from Paul Washer (director of HeartCry), where Paul relayed to Brad that he believed the Lord had been burdening him for days to call and ask Brad if he’d consider coming on board with them. Brad eventually agreed, and they’re heading there soon.
But what struck me in the conversation was the kindness of God. Brad expressed some regret with his attitude toward his mission work at points and said they’d repented. At times was no doubt tempted to think they’d missed the boat when he had turned down HeartCry before. But in the end, God was guiding them the whole way. So, what hit me was that God was not going to let Brad and Cassie somehow miss what he had for them. They were simply to walk each step in obedience and God would provide. And they weren’t to fret along the way because every good and perfect gift comes from the one in whom they were hoping. Far too many times I hate to say I’ve had to repent because I spent much time fretting instead of trusting and resting in God.
True God-centered living first lives with the reality that our only ultimate hope is in God.
In verses 3-4, David shows that he looks at others and their actions in light of God. He writes, “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.”
Starting with verse 4 first, David understood unbelievers as those whose sorrows would multiply. He didn’t allow his vision to be obscured by the shallowness of sin. When he saw enemies of God seemingly living life to its highest while dishonoring God, he didn’t say to himself, “Man, how I wish I could be in their shoes.” He saw them in light of the reality of God, realizing that their sorrows would multiply. He knew that God would not be mocked. He didn’t look at a man building up his own name before the world and say he wanted to be that man. He acknowledged that though all men might praise him, his sorrows would multiply. Therefore, David didn’t honor such men’s sacrifices or take their names on his lips.
By the same token, he did find his delight in the saints. Those who loved the God around whom he centered his life, he loved. And I think this is natural. This is why John assures his readers in 1 John that their love for the brothers is a sign that they know God.
Therefore, we might ask ourselves if indeed we’re growing in our love for our brothers in Christ. If not, it could be because your affections for God aren’t what they should be. And, stated positively, some who love and serve your brothers and sisters wholeheartedly and yet fret over whether or not they express affection to God can be reminded that even as you do to the least of Christ’s brothers, you’ve done unto him. Third …
First, in verse 5, David declares, “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.” This language harkens back to God’s declaration to Aaron in the book of Numbers. God had told Aaron that he would have no inheritance, yet he declared to him, \"You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel” (Numbers 18:20).
Therefore, when David uses this language, it is not by mistake. David is saying that even as the priests were without an inheritance yet had God as their portion, so it is with him. He knew that God held his lot, that God could dispense to him whatever he wanted, but in the end, he had God, and that was enough. You can only think that way and genuinely speak that way if you continually feast on God and know how filling and satisfying he is. Yet this is how David speaks.
Then, ironically, David adds in verse 6, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant place; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” That is, David is saying, “I have a great inheritance. I have a pleasant lot.” He is able to enjoy God’s blessings because he knows that God is enough to satisfy him. David knows he doesn’t need an inheritance, but if he has one, he knows who has given it and will thank God for it.
This must be the mindset of Christian regarding blessings in this life. Let me use this example in thinking about a couple thinking about marriage. It is a right expectation to think a married couple will have a satisfying sex life, but it causes my heart to hesitate when we preach to people to abstain from pre-marital sex, telling them that sex after marriage will be more fulfilling than they can imagine. The truth is, that is a fine expectation, and I pray that it is. But the truth is, there’s nothing that says that you won’t have some kind of accident that hinders this area of your marriage. And if it does, will all your abstinence have been a waste? No. It was in obedience to God who is your cup and your portion. If you can have kids, blessed be the Lord. But if you can’t, your desire for children is not some kind of curse, it is a God-honoring desire that is in you to honor the Lord in the midst of a people who would murder children left and right. And I pray that all couples get to die together, holding their spouses in their arms, as they’ve lived life in great health. And if it happens, praise the Lord. We all long to grow old with people whom we love, but if your last fifteen years of life are spent caring for your wife who has alzheimers and beats you with her cane as you help her get dressed, then you know that you are getting to love her with the privilege of picturing Christ in this world, and that he is your cup and your portion.
That is, there are all kinds of things that are right and good to want and even expect in life. And if they come to us, we must praise God and thank him for them. Yet, we must consider all of these things having first acknowledged that God is my portion and my cup, and he holds my lot. And he will give me what is good, knowing that in giving himself to you, he has given you all you need for eternal delight. This is the heart of God-centered living and thinking. Fourth …
He writes in verses 7-8, “I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” These verses are the picture of a man who always fixes the reality of God in front of him. During the day, he is looking to the Lord to give him counsel, knowing he guides him. At night, having put the Word in his heart, he find that God is still instructing him. He always sees God at his right hand, that is, as one who helps him and keeps him from being shaken. This too must be the stance of a God-centered life.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we can’t play church softball. That’s the kind of thing that’s easy to bring up when we encounter a text like this, isn’t it? We read a text like this and think, “Well, you can’t do that all the time. And, after all, there’s nothing wrong with playing softball is there?” So, let me answer that. No, there’s nothing wrong with playing softball or having baby showers, etc.
However, I do want to add that we cannot think that somehow softball (for example) is a time when all of these elements in the picture we’ve tried to paint so far this morning can be bracketed. For example, if we’re playing church softball and there’s a young believer whom we’re trying to teach play, we must remember that it is more important that we model devotion and obedience to Christ before him than it is that he runs the bases in such a way to make sure we win. Sure, we must live life, which consists of all kinds of elements, but we never get to live life un-Christianly. We always keep Christ before us.
In verses 9-11, David writes, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
David knows even after death he will be fine, and he rejoices. But what specifically is he saying in these verses that gives him this certainty. Well, Peter tells us in Acts 2:29-32 what David was thinking. There, Peter declares, “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”
According to Peter, David knew that God had promised to seat one of his descendants on his throne forever, and David understood that meant that one would live forever. Therefore, David wrote this verse prophesying that the “holy one” (i.e., the Christ), though he would die, would not see corruption, but would be raised to live and reign forever. This is exactly what Jesus did, and he indeed reigns. David knew much, didn’t he?
But it also seems that David knew even more. That is, David also knew that the resurrection of the Christ would affect him as well. For though David knew that he might face corruption as he was buried, it is indeed true that his soul would not be abandoned, and he knew that God had made known to him the path of life. I think “life” here is eternal life. So, David knew that if the Messiah was raised to live forever, and David trusted in him for his salvation, so David would be blessed with eternal life. Therefore, David was able to live his life with the constant reminder that whatever happened, even his flesh dwelt secure, for one day he would be raised even as certainly as God was going to raise up and (as we know) has raised up his Christ.
Therefore, it is here that we have a picture of what God-centered living really looks like. You set your hope completely in God, consider everyone in light of your relationship with God, know that God is enough for you (even as you delight in his blessings), keep God ever at the front of your mind, and walk through life knowing that God has made your future secure by raising Jesus from the dead. And I want to note as well that this isn’t the expectation for those “elite” Christians out there. This is the expectation for us. This is the calling that comes to every one of us.
Is David’s life a model for us? Certainly it is. Yet I also want to note that David didn’t always life this way, did he? Ask Uriah the Hittite if David always found his delight in the saints of the delight. Uriah was an upright man, yet David took his wife and then had Uriah murdered on the front lines. After having committed adultery with Bathsheba, David had to say that instead of setting the Lord always before him, his unconfessed sin had always been before him. He had not been content with what God had apportioned him. He no doubt did not seek God’s counsel in such times.
So, is this psalm then a waste for us, a picture of a man who was a hypocrite? No, David writes Psalm 16 to give us a picture of God-centered so that we might ultimately look past him to one for whom these elements were always true, namely, David’s greater Son, Jesus.
Ultimately, as we realize that we have at times (maybe even this week) done intentionally the opposite of what Psalm 16 pictures, it still gives us hope, directing us to put our hope in one who has lived perfectly righteous – perfectly God-centered – on our behalf. And as we look to him this morning and are reminded again that our complete righteousness is found in his obedience, his death and resurrection, only then can we turn to Psalm 16 and say, “God help this psalm be a picture of my life.” Therefore, I pray that this will be our prayer as we come to the table, reminding ourselves of the work of Christ for us. May he be blessed forever. Amen.