Rejoicing in the King's Riches

By Mike Glodo

So kids, I have a little help for you this morning. You know the power disparity in your homes, right?

Just a little help for you. If things are getting a little tense or heated or unfair, just do this. Pick out something. Just look around the room and ask your parent "Hey, when you're gone, can I have that?"

Now it's got to be different for the mom and the dad. You know, it's going to be a vase or something with a mom. It's going to be power tool for the dad. I don't know, but it's going to produce one of two effects kids. One is, it's either going to make them sentimental and you might even end up getting a hug out of it.

The other one is, it might make them sad and they forget about whatever their issue is with you. But either way, it's a distraction tool that can be quite useful in the right circumstances, just don't use it too often, because they might figure it out.

The reason I mention this, kids is because this psalm is about our inheritance, not the inheritance of a biological family, but the inheritance of a bigger and even better family, your church family.

But I don't just have you kids in mind. I also have our whole family in mind, because we are the heirs of what has been given to God's people, and whether it has to do with how we receive it or how we steward it for the sake of our children. It's important that we understand our inheritance and how our inheritance is inherently tied to the question of happiness. You know, there's probably no more timeless or worldwide pursuit of anything beyond happiness.

Happiness has been the pursuit of kings and peasants, the pursuit of slaves and merchants and the source of happiness has been greatly debated by the philosophers and the theologians, but our Psalm leaves us no doubt where true happiness is to be found, true, genuine, everlasting happiness is to be found for you children, going forward for the rest of your life, next Sunday, we'll honor graduates who are moving up in school, some of You moving away to begin life on your own. This is your inheritance, because your inheritance is the only true basis of genuine, lifelong happiness. So I want us to look at that together in Psalm 16.

You see, Our happiness is our king's inheritance, and therefore our happiness is enjoying the riches of our King. So we'll look at this first of all, in terms of the inheritance of the saints that's in the first few verses. Now I say inheritance, but we have to take a step or two to get there. The psalm begins as a plea for preservation. It's a help prayer, "Preserve me, O God, for in you, I take refuge." We don't know any particular circumstances. It's about as generic and universal as you can imagine, but it's "God, help preserve me. Oh, God, for in you, I take refuge."

Unconventional Christian writer Anne Lamott has written a book about prayer. The title of that book is, "Help." Thanks. Wow, that pretty much covers it all, doesn't it? This is a prayer for help, but notice that it doesn't stay there. This plea for preservation quickly turns to praise in you. "I take refuge. You are my Lord. I say to the Lord, I have no good apart from you." And so David begins to list what is the source of his praise. There's a plea for help, but the answer doesn't come in the terms of divine action, but rather of David's recollection of what is already his. In other words, his plea for preservation isn't answered by God acting, but by David remembering what God has already done. So this leads to, in verse two, a prayer for exclusive devotion.

"I say to the Lord, You are my Lord. I have no good apart from you." You may not be able to see it in your translation, but when it says, "I say to the LORD," you see all capital letters there. That's Yahweh. That's God's covenant name. If you heard about the covenants in Sunday school this morning, this is the name attached to God's character as he's revealed himself to Israel, as their covenant Lord. I say to Yahweh, you are my Adonai or lord or master. You see David's plea for preservation, the reason it turns to praise is, first of all, he appeals to his own exclusive devotion to the Lord. He says, "I have no good apart from you."

Now, what right does David have to ask for God's help?

Here it is, "I have sought help nowhere else. There is no good for me except in you, God." David isn't shopping for help. He's not shopping from among the gods. He's not looking to other people. His basis for appeal is because of God's covenant nature and his personal devotion to the Lord Himself.

"You are my Sovereign Yahweh." And now it's good to remember that when we ask for God's help, it's not just because we need it, but because God has invited us to ask help of him. It's God's invitation because in his covenant commitment to his people, he has promised to be our God. And David understands that God is the only true source of good, because God is the only true God. Nothing that David has or nothing that David needs is not found in God.

And so it is for us. When we turn to God for help, there's nothing that we need, and there's nothing that is good, but that what it is found in him.

So David then moves to the praise I previously mentioned in verse three. This is why I say this section of the Psalm is the inheritance of the saints. "As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight." This is like the inventory of an estate in which the very first thing is that's mentioned is the people of God.

We know the gospel song, "Count your many blessings. Count them one by one." Well, number one in David's list is the saints who are in the land, the people of God. He says they are the ones in whom is all my delight. The same word used at the end of the Psalm, "delight" is used here to describe the people of God. He doesn't mention food, shelter, he doesn't mention victories that God has given him. He mentions the saints who are in the land as the very first thing that comes to mind in his praise of God. They are the excellent ones. This word excellence the same word used in Psalm 80, "Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!" The same adjective used to describe God's name here is described, describing the people of God. They are majestic. David, therefore finds his delight "in them in whom is all my delight."

Now, by contrast, he says in verse four, the sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply. So he has the excellent ones the saints are in the land. But there are those who go after other gods who are not devoted to other god. Now he could talk, he be talking about pagan nations, or he could talk about many within Israel who worship false gods, and their destiny is to disappoint the sorrows of those who run after another. God shall multiply Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out. He won't participate in their ceremonies. He will not even take their names upon his lips. The result of following after other gods is sorrow, but the result of praising God for his inheritance of the saints, that is, the saints are his inheritance is delight.

I know a young man here at church. You know Marcus. I warned him. Marcus has worked for triple A Roadside rescue for a number of years, and I always want to catch him on Sunday mornings to find out if there are any interesting stories from Saturday night. I'm thinking that would make a great book to write. You know, just collecting stories. But Marcus is so plain spoken and humble. He's, if I could summarize basically what he said to me, "when people call me all they want to rescue, they don't want a relationship," and so that's often the way we approach God in times of need, like roadside assistance. But that's not David's recourse, the first thing his mind turns to is how God has given him of people.

I got an email from a friend, a friend of many years, just a few weeks ago, he's an elder at a church I was part of, and he said to me, "I don't know if you ever met our oldest son." He left home and moved to Idaho in 1995.

Their relationship was non communicative for a few years, but in recent years, he has begun to turn his mind back toward the Lord. And he said, about two years ago, he really felt convicted that he was not part of the church where he lived, and he began to visit other churches and began to attend regularly. And my friend says, about a year ago, he was baptized and joined the church where he lived.

The reason I mentioned this is my friend went on to say, as they live streamed the service where their now long adult son was being baptized, the son said he felt a deep conviction and a lack of commitment to the church during a worship service when he was back home visiting his parents in Michigan. You see even the memory of being among the saints brought him back home.

This is the precious gift to you children. You have your father's table here. In this place, you may be tempted to go to a far country, even if you don't go very far away, but don't ever imagine in your search for happiness in life that your riches have gone with you, because, like the prodigal the your riches remain back at your father's house, your church is a Gift to you, not only when you are here, but when you go from here until God would lead you to another church home. But the first gift for us, we should recognize from David's example is that God has given us the saints as part of our inheritance, there are some simple questions we can all ask.

First of all, when we plead to God for preservation, do we go to God himself or just to the help we need? David didn't just want preservation. He wanted God. So we need to make sure that when we need God's help, that we go to God, not just for the things God can do for us. You know, hardship is one of the greatest means of grace that we can experience in life.

We live in a resilience in the midst of a resilient cry, resilience crisis, where hardship causes people to buckle, and it's not just the young. You look at the adults, the senior citizen fights over in the villages where they ramming golf carts into one another.

Resilience is at a cultural low, but for us, it's the means by which God draws. It's that's the cosmic plan, isn't it? East of Eden wasn't just meant to banish us from Eden, but East of Eden was meant to bring us back to Eden. Let hardship be your tutor, but the troubles you find in life be your teacher, proving, refining, testing your faith and reminding you that at your father's table there is abundance and there is fellowship.

Can you appeal to singular devotion when you cry to the Lord for help? Is God just one of many options you have? Often, we as adults immunize our children from exclusive devotion, because if you listen to us in our houses, the things we get most happy about or the most upset about are the things which indicate who our gods are.

And so while we might catechize our children through our instruction, we dedicate them and even immunize them through the things that we rage or are enraptured about.

Do we delight in the communion of the saints? Remember what Ruth said to Naomi? "Your God, my God. Your people, my people." Ruth burned the ships, as it were, she threw every other option overboard, and she threw herself in with the lot of God's people. They became her nation and her family.

One of the things I do as a 28-year seminary professor, is listening to students debate with one another, and I just recently had the privilege of hearing RBC students arguing at RBC. But one of the things that theology students like to debate about is the subject of weekly communion. Should you have the sacrament of the Lord's supper every week? Well, Calvin wanted it, but they wouldn't let him. The elders wouldn't let him. But there's a bit more of this to the story there.

But let me just say this, there is communion every single Lord's day in public worship. It's the communion of the saints. Every single time you gather together in the name of Jesus Christ, you are taking communion, not the symbols of wine and bread and not that same sacramental character as we experience in baptism, but we are in communion with one another when we come together, David says they are the excellent ones, and you are sitting, seated today among the excellent ones.

But the last thing I'd like to ask about the inheritance of the saints is just this. Do you see the Trail of Tears that David talks about? There's no prodigal that ever said, "I am so happy now that I've left." Of the de faithing epidemic, you don't hear a single happy voice. There's a lot of bitterness aimed at God, at the church. Christian people, but no one's happy, because those who run after other gods are just multiplying their sorrows. If you're a prodigal, or if you become a prodigal, if you leave, just don't ever not come back because your father is waiting.

Here is where your Heavenly Father's arms are always open among the communion of the saints. So David teaches us of the communion or the inheritance of the saints. But then I'd also like us to see the inheritance with the saints. He goes on from there, from verse five and following to talk about that. He says he has an unfathomable gift, not just the communion of the saints, but look at verse five. "The Lord is my chosen portion, and my cup you hold my lot."

Think of who gets to choose from the fried chicken platter. First, my grandmother, she would catch ring the neck, pluck and fry the chicken so she got the neck, the gizzard, the heart, in the liver. Nobody could touch those. Those were her chosen portion. Nobody ever argued with her.

But this is promised land language. Think of Caleb. "Give me the mountains." That's a big story behind why he chose that but, but he wanted the best place where he could do the Lord's work and be in dependence upon the Lord. I think of that chosen portion and cup. He says, you hold my lot. Now the promised land back in the book of Numbers, the Promised Land was doled out by lot, by divinely directed lot, you know, the drawing of lots. And so David is saying here that in the draw for what is mine, I pulled out the god straw.

That is the way the dice, if you will, fell to me is I got God. You are my chosen portion and my cup. Verse Six is promised land language, the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Think of the landscape of a of a portion of land, ble, with water, trees, and think of the things that would make for you a beautiful homestead. That's what David is describing God as here the lines have fallen from unpleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Think of your favorite novel or movie in which there was a reading of the will. That's always a dramatic scene, right? The extended family is together with all their dysfunctions and all their years of rivalry, jealousy and history and there's a lawyer, the executor, and he begins to read the will. You know how it always goes right? A cat or a butler gets millions of dollars.

And the favorite, you know, the oldest, the rightful heir gets some advice, or something like that, but now, picture this scene as a reading of the will.

David has listed God's people, but now he comes to the really precious part. He says, I've got God.

You are my chosen portion and cup. But now it's beyond that too. It's deeper than that. I should say, he said, you hold my lot meaning God, the sovereign God, who is both wise and powerful, exercises his sovereign power and will for the good of his people.

You hold my lot, God, I'm in your hand, just like Jesus said, Nothing. No one shall ever snatch you from my hand. God has got an iron grip on us, no matter what happens to us in life, we're in God's iron grip.

But not only does God hold David in his hand, David holds God in his hand. The Lord is my chosen portion. And my cup God David is somehow describing God, having given himself to David like drink and meat, that that God is so near to his people that not only is he the sovereign God who controls, who is even decreed whatsoever shall come to pass. He's not only that transcendent, powerful other God, but now he is so imminent at the same time to be able to be held in our hands. This is what we come to this table for - communion, for the Lord's Supper. We are observing that that God came near in, first of all, human nature in Christ. But then Christ, having given his life for our sins and been raised for our life, now feeds us with portions of himself, so we commune with Him.

And so this turns David even more to praise in verses seven through eight. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night. Also my heart instructs me.

I've set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Not only does David have God, but he has God's guidance. He has God's revealed will,his counsel, God is before David. David has set God before himself as his object of desire, pursuit, commitment. But now God is beside David, standing with him to sovereignly care for him, but now he's also ahead of David as wise counsel leading him in life. Children, you have the Word of God to give you wisdom in the fear of the Lord to know what to do in all the situations you're going to encounter, where some other happiness might be offered to you as a counterfeit happiness.

I know there's some Antique Roadshow watchers here, and it's interesting. Let's talk about drama. You know, somebody comes in with something they think is worth millions, and they tell them, you know that's precious to you. You should keep that and then somebody comes in with something that they don't think is worth anything, and they find out it's priceless. I told this story recently. My aunt moved from her longtime home into assisted living, and my cousins cleaned her house out that she had lived in for decades, and they were so happy to go tell Aunt Harriet that they had taken care of everything. And she said, "Did you find the money in the vacuum cleaner bag?"

And they said, "What vacuum cleaner bag?"

And she mentioned some amount of money that I won't mention here, but so this is why my cousin spent a few days at the county landfill without result.

But you know, it's about the relationships,

Think of it this way, behind me at my desk at home is a glass dome, a little display case, and in it hangs a 100-year-old pocket watch. It's made of gold. I took it down to Park Avenue when I first came into possession of it, and the first thing they asked me was, "do you want to sell it?"

So, it is valuable. It's a very interesting, unique and it's a 100-year-old railroad pocket watch. But that's not why it's valuable to me.

It's valuable to me because beginning probably around two years old, and I can remember this was the watch that my grandfather held to my ear when he would scoop me up off the floor and into his lap to let me listen to the tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. It's precious to me because of who whose it was, and what is precious to us about our inheritance is whose it is.

You see as we heard already from First Peter, we have a living hope, an inheritance that will never pass away. And so our inheritance is not just the saints, but our inheritance is our very God himself. The greatest treasure among all the gifts of God is the giver himself who loved us so much.

That he gave his only Son, and therefore Paul says in Romans eight, "if He did not spare His own Son, how much will he not give us all things in him?"

The last thing I would like us to see is as we have looked at the inheritance of the saints and the inheritance with the saints to also look at joy in our inheritance. These are this is found in the last three verses of the Psalm, "My heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also will dwell secure."

So David is joyful, not just spiritually, but in his whole being, flesh and blood, because of his certainty that God for you, will not abandon my soul to Sheol. Sheol means grave. Just think of death or grave. You will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption or decay. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forever. This is where true happiness is found, and it is found in the confidence. The joy of it is in the confidence that God will never abandon us, even in death. Notice that David says, not you will not let me die. He doesn't say that, but he says, "You will not abandon me to death."

Now it may occur to you that David did die. It occurred to Paul that David did die in Acts 13, as we've been hearing in the book of Acts that Paul and Barnabas, when they were in Antioch and Pisidia. That is Paul who quotes this very line, "you will not let your Holy One see corruption." And he says, in Acts 13, "David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption."

"But he whom God raised up did not see corruption." It's remarkable that as horrible, as awful as death is that the scriptures can call it sleep.

This is not a denial of reality, but it is a confession of the transcendent reality that for those who die in Christ, they will be raised on the last day. We know that because Christ was raised - and we don't have David as our king, but we have the same King David had, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.

David will be raised from the dead one day.

Those who die in Christ will be raised from the dead one day.

And therefore, we can say with confidence that our true happiness is in the one who will never leave us or forsake us, the one who will not abandon our souls to shield but instead has given us himself as our inheritance. That's good news.

Some of you remember flashbulbs.

One of the things that I remember vividly from flash bulb days. You know, you say, you look at the camera, the flash bulb goes off. Then what do you see? There's a little floating thing out there, that'll be there for what the next? I don't know. Ten, fifteen minutes,

Did you ever try to look at that thing? I do. I try to, I try to look at it. But what would happen when you try to look at it? You try to look at it, it goes to your peripheral vision.

That's a perfect picture of the search for happiness.

When it's not focused on the God who has given Himself to us, it's a multiplying of sorrows promised to you.

There are two Joy stealers that I can think of in relation to this, there are two thieves of joy. One is lost inheritance, the person who lays aside what has been given them in Christ, the one who is. Gives it away, rejects it and seeks security in something else, seeks happiness in something else.

Another thief of joy is a passable counterfeit. You have a good life, you have a happy family, you have economic freedom, not too much trouble, comfort friends. It's good enough, right?

And the fact is that that happiness is a small, small, small happiness in light of surpassing riches of knowing Christ. So the good news is, not only are we the Lord's, but the Lord is ours. In Jesus Christ today is the day of salvation. If you're still standing far off saying, God be miserable to me, a sinner, come in, come into the family, own Christ as your inheritance, because he is the king in even whom David looked and trusted.

The inheritance of the saints, the inheritance with the saints and joy that comes from the knowledge of an eternal inheritance.

Some of you might be remembering this song.

It was May 26 a year ago that we had a service of worship in which Laura Grace Alexander was memorialized. And if you were there, you know this story, but I want to make sure more people hear about it. It was a year ago March. I saw Laura Grace at the symphony, and I told her how wonderful she looked. She had been sick, quite sick, for a while, and she said, "Well, I'm glad, but I'm dying."

And so it was in that conversation. And then later she said, "I would like you to preach at my funeral."

And I said, Well, what do you want me to preach on or from? And without hesitation, she said, "it's got to be Psalm 16, and it's got to be 'the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.'"

Now, what you have to know is that even Laura Grace, she was a citrus heiress, she'd be terribly embarrassed if I said that in her presence. I think she was a citrus heiress, but from the age 21 until 62, years old, a year ago, she had suffered at least five different bouts with cancer, a person's whose whole life had been a period of fighting off cancer, a few years of reprieve, and then once again, entering into the battle. And it boggled my mind to hear somebody like that say, "the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places."

But I realized, as wise as she was, why she could say that. Because she understood Psalm 16. How is it that somebody's life has been one of constant pain and challenge, and yet they can say "the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places."

I have a beautiful inheritance. It's because of someone who knows that it is the Lord Himself, not only to whom we belong, but who belongs to us.

Michael Glodo is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at RTS Orlando.