Psalm 16
A Miktam of David.
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.”
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.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
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.
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.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for March 31. Easter Sunday is Psalm 16. It reads, and MC Tom of David, preserve me, oh god for a new I take refuge. I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all mine 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. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you will hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 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. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to shale. Or let your holding one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life and your presence, there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Here ends the reading. Psalm 16 begins with a phrase a Mick Tom of David. Now you might go with the MC Tom. And then you would have good company because nobody really knows. It is a heading or a title for a number of different songs. But like the word see law, or some of the other musical notation terms of the Psalms, we don't really know what it means. Now let's dig into the psalm itself. Preserve me, oh God, for you knew I take refuge, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. So this begins with a prayer to God preserve me. For a new I take refuge, there is a sort of a sense in this section, that there is a danger out there. And whether it's David actually imagining, like looking at a real danger Saul coming to get him or one of his enemies going out to fight him. We don't know for sure. But it's certainly a thing that human beings all have in common with David. I mean, we don't have like us all, who wants to throw a spear through us while we're playing a harp. But we do have danger in a world filled with disaster. And there's always something you never know when the end could be. What danger will come at us. And so we say, preserve me, oh god for a new I take refuge, God is our only safety. And again he repeats this, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. David is recognizing that even even he a king, who is having all sorts of stuff, he's gotten good things. In reality, nothing good is outside of God. I said that wrong. In reality, the only good that lasts forever is God. And so what that means is that day that even with the palace and a kingdom and servants and all of that stuff, he knows that the only sure thing, the only thing that lasts is God Himself. And so then he turns from God, to the fellow believers. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. King David delights in His fellow believers, as Christians should delight in our congregations and our communities, that God loves us. And we see that love in others. Then he turns to the unbelievers, 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. So he turns and he looks at those who chase after other gods false gods. This was a common problem for ancient Israel. They they didn't seem to get the monotheism thing. And so they wanted to worship the true God but they also wanted everybody else to because I mean, if you get one God on your side, why not? Why not get six or seven? That's so much better than just one. And David is saying no, that's right. Only not how it works with with the true God, He demands full and faithful worship, no one else. And so he turns from those who chase after other gods whose sorrows multiply, and only after the true God, and he says, again, the Lord is my choice chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. So he turns again, and says that the good he seeks is focused chiefly on the Lord on God. It's his chosen portion and his cup, he holds the lot. And also talks about in inherit tense. This this is a language in the Bible that would often refer to things like the in the land that was passed down in Israel for people. But we also see this language through Christ for as Christians is that Jesus is the firstborn Son of God who receives the inheritance of the kingdom of the world. And then we, as sons of God, through our baptism into Christ also received a beautiful inheritance, maybe not the same one that Christ Himself received. But by being one with Christ, we receive an eternal Kingdom with our Savior. The next section, 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. And so he praises God here, who gives him instruction. And so it's the word of God here that the heart and the mind of David are focused on, because these things give us guidance and counsel, and help us see the world in the right way. And because of that, we can set the Lord before us by by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and not be shaken. Like when when things happen in the world that are terrible, a Christian doesn't need to worry about them. We don't need to have anxiety or fear because God is here for us. Nothing can stop his salvation. There is no earthly thing that can bother us, which is why he says, Therefore my heart is glad. And my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. He has confidence. And that is even more for you will not abandon my soul to shale, or let your Holy One see corruption. Now, this word che old sometimes is confusing. We don't really have a concept for it in in American English anymore. Sometimes people talk about shale, as if it's the punishments of hell. And it's not quite the same, though. There are places in the Bible where the word shale oil has some idea, like it's those punishments, it could connect it in that in some way. But very often, in fact, more often in the Bible, shale oil simply refers to the land of the dead, it might be something like for you will not abandon my soul to the grave, or to death. And so it sort of corresponds to the there's like an ancient world conception where there are places where people live. So heaven is the sky, and that's where the gods live. The Earth is where humans live, and under the earth is where the dead live. It's the grave. And that's kind of what che ol is. And we know this because in Psalm 139, the Psalmist cries out if I send to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and che Oh, you are there. Now, if that tell of course, it can't mean that God God's not in Hell. He's that's a place of, of abandonment. And so, if God is there, in che old, it means that che ol is part of it is like the land of the dead, and not this place of punishment in hell. We continue, you make known to me the path of life, in your presence, there is fullness of joy, as your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And so it culminates with the idea that God makes known the way of life, and we follow the path of life after Christ, our Savior, through death, and the grave, into the resurrection. And so while we are in this presence of God, we can have joy in all circumstances. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Easter Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai