How To Make God Your Refuge

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.

David's already told us that he has no good apart from God. Here he brings that specifically into his life circumstances. So this language of portion and lot and lines seems to all be pointing to the partition of the land of Canaan, the promised land. So Israelite families were given land according to their tribe. This was their livelihood as they would have farmed it. It was the main source of their wealth. He calls it here his inheritance. So more broadly, this refers to our possessions, what we have. The image of a cup, he also mentions in the Bible, the cup is an image often used of our circumstances, the blessings or disasters that come to a person. So they are what he or she has to drink. So sometimes we read about a cup of salvation, or a cup of wrath, Or Psalm 23 can say, my cup overflows, talking about good circumstances. So my portion and my cup together points to our possessions and our circumstances. But question here, what does he mean by saying Yahweh is my portion and my cup? That means more than just he gives me my portion and my cup, right? I mean, we can see that too. That's implied when he says, you hold my lot and the lines have fallen for me. That points to God's providential ordering of our lives. You and I are where we are because of his meticulous sovereignty. But he is my portion in cups, says something more. I think the idea is this, when God is your treasure, then the amount of money in your bank account is incidental. Doesn't matter if you have $100 or $100,000. That's not your treasure. God's your treasure. All right? When seeing God is your hope and your future, then the unfolding of the events of your career are secondary. You might get a promotion. You might not. But that's not your hope and your future. God is. And to live this way, you and I are going to have to fill in the details here. God is my high school diploma. God is my college degree, whatever sort of paper you're working towards. God is my trophy at the end of the season. God is my resume. He's my portfolio. God is my reputation. We can summarize by saying, God is my all in all. But you've got to make it specific for you. And don't miss those adjectives that he adds. The lines have fallen in pleasant places. Surely I have a beautiful inheritance. This is where we're mighty curious if he wrote this in hard times or good times. I mean, is he sitting on the veranda of the palace and his kids are playing there and he's enjoying a cup of tea? Or is David running from Absalom and he's in a cave and he's reflecting on his failures as a king and a father? and yet he's still deciding to trust God. We don't know. And maybe it's just as well we don't, because this truth right here is central to our contentment, isn't it? You and I should practice saying, the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, in all kinds of life situations. We should say it when we're sick and when we're healthy. We should say it when we've had a financial reversal, and things are looking doubtful, as well as when we feel like we have plenty. We should say it when we're lonely and when we're full of friends. But friends, we can only do that if we locate our treasure in God. Because when you do that, your evaluation of how your life is going, it's not tied to your current ups and downs. You're able to rest in his providence. It's the third essential thing to make God your refuge. Number four, how do we make God our refuge? We receive his instruction, verses seven and 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's at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

David is blessing God or praising him for giving him counsel. As he looks at the specific challenges he's facing, he needs wisdom from God. God gives it. That phrase there, in the night also my heart instructs me, could be lifted out of context. He's not saying that he looks inside of him for his truth and lets his heart tell him what is true. In Hebrew poetry, things are written in parallel with one line repeating and amplifying, being amplified by the next. So, my heart instructs me is in parallel with the Lord gives me counsel. We should think back to Psalm 1 and David's pattern of meditating on God's word day and night. It's the idea here. As David has stored up God's counsel and instruction during the day, as he lays down at night, he's still thinking on it. He's trying to apply the truth to what has happened today and what he'll face tomorrow. So his heart instructs him. You know, I often reflect on the fact that nearly everything I needed to know about walking with God I learned in my first year as a Christian. It's like the genius bookseller who entitled his book, Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Same kind of thing here. I was 19 years old. Eric Fleshhood gave me a Bible and said I should try to read some chapters every day, and then I should think about them and pray about them. I think that's basically what he said. Read some chapters. Some chapters. How many? I don't know. Every day, read some chapters. Have you been taught to do that? Do you do that? Maybe you learned that many, many years ago. You still doing that today? If God's word is food to the Christian, Jesus said

we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Well, when do you eat? I'm sure glad we can have a weekly family meal like this one. Don't miss that. But I think we should eat every day this coming week. Why don't we eat every day? I assume you plan to do that. Some of you are thinking about lunch right now. I think we should go ahead and plan to eat every day. We want to take in God's Word in the day so we can meditate on it at night. I've heard some people tell me that they've stopped having regular devotion times because their Bible reading plan began to feel legalistic to them. I mean, like if they missed a time of reading, they felt like maybe God doesn't love me, but if they're doing really well, they're struggling with legalism in that sense. So their plan to deal with that was just to stop. I don't think that's a good plan. I think you should definitely address legalism in your life and remember that our sole basis of knowing we're loved by God is Jesus Christ. And then I think we should also make a plan to read God's word. The church I was at in Singapore, I talked with a man who teaches at the National University of Singapore, and he studies sleep patterns in the human brain his whole career. He spoke with me about what they call revenge bedtime procrastination. Have you heard about this? It's a modern phenomenon of people who are already running a sleep deficit. Instead of going to sleep at night, they stay up watching videos and scrolling through their phones. And the theory is because in the modern age, more and more and more of our time is taken up by an employer or by other people. You know, you don't come home at five or six o'clock and lay things down. You can be working late into the evening. That people are feeling like they need some me-time. So they're sleep-deprived, but they're doing revenge, bedtime procrastination. Brothers and sisters, how we end our day matters as much as how we start it. As you lay your head on the pillow, we see David here, don't take your phone with you. Put your charging station outside of your bedroom. That would be a huge help to you. Instead, think back on the blessings of the day and thank God for them. If you realize that you've sinned, confess that to God and ask him for forgiveness. Maybe entrust to him the burdens of the morning. and close your day in prayer. Let your heart instruct you on the things that are true. For David, this habit of day and night meditation on God is summarized in verse eight as, I've set the Lord always before me. So it's an intentional, consistent habit of the heart to think on God and choose to live for him. David says this makes him very confident. Because he's at my right hand, I will never be shaken. Right hand was the place of vulnerability for a warrior. If you're striking out at someone, you're vulnerable for attack over here. So whoever's on your right hand is your shield and your protector. David feels secure, and so can we. Make him your Lord. Delight in his people. Rest in his providence. Receive his instruction. It's the final way that David makes God his refuge. Rejoice in his resurrection, verses nine to 11.

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 began by praying for preservation. He's in a crisis or he's anticipating one. He ends here with a whole lot of joy, doesn't he? My heart is glad. My whole being rejoices. My flesh dwells secure. This is a great power of prayer, of going to God with our burdens. This is where making God your refuge will lead you. I wonder if you struggle with joy. I certainly do. Melancholy can come any time. Well, friend, we ought to walk in joy because we're making God our refuge. If depression is a stubborn darkness, we ought to stubbornly pursue joy in the midst of that darkness. These final words speak of a confidence. stretching all the way to death and beyond. That's what he's talking about. When he wrote this psalm, he's trusting that he himself will be preserved as long as the lifespan is that God has measured out for him. Beyond that, he says that God has made known to him the path of life, meaning that God has graciously revealed to him the path of salvation. He knows God and is forgiven of his sin by God. That leads to an eternal home. In your presence, there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. That's the single best description of heaven that I've found anywhere in the Bible. Preachers are always saying stuff like that. I preached on Matthew 25 a few weeks ago, where Jesus says, enter into the joy of your master. I said, that's the best description of heaven I know. I think this one is better. In your presence, there is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. When David writes this psalm, he's talking about his own situation while also looking towards something and someone greater. You know, when the book of Acts records the sermons, the early sermons, both of Peter and Paul as they go out preaching the gospel, they each argue from Psalm 16.10 When David says, you will not let your Holy One see corruption, or another way to translate it is, you will not let your Holy One see decay, that he can't just be talking about himself. So listen to Peter in Acts 2.29.

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 has 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 are all witnesses.

" I find that passage amazing. Peter says that David looks down through history with spirit-inspired prophetic ability and sees the fact that God's promise to him that he'd always have a descendant on the throne means that one of his future offspring would be the Messiah and rise from the dead. And that's what Jesus did. He was killed on the cross where we believe that God the Father poured out on him all the wrath against all the sin of everyone who would ever repent and believe in him. And then, though they put him in a tomb in the rock, his body didn't stay there long enough to begin rotting. It didn't rot. Instead, it was given new life. And so he rose from the dead. He then appeared to Peter and James and John and all of the disciples, who then went out and started telling people, that's why we're here today, because they told someone who told someone who told someone who told Eric who told me, and someone told you. Paul argues the exact same way in his first missionary journey, first sermon, quotes Psalm 16. And then he says,

For David, after he had served the purpose of God and his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is why I can proclaim to you forgiveness of sins this morning. Do you have sins in need of forgiveness? We all do. Your sin is a slavery that you need to be freed from. You can't be freed from it by trying to keep the law, by trying to be a good person. You need the forgiveness. that comes from trusting in Jesus. Everyone who believes is freed. So do you believe this morning? This is the final and essential thing you need to do if you're gonna make God your refuge. You can put him first and make him your Lord. You can delight in his people and rest in his providence. You can receive his instruction. But if you're gonna be set free from what the writer of Hebrews calls a slavery to the fear of death, And you've got to grab with both hands the truth of the resurrection. I wonder if you've thought about the fact that that's why we're here on Sunday morning. Too many churches have too easily given up on meeting on Sunday morning. It isn't just that it's a convenient day to meet. The early Christians met on Sunday and called it the Lord's Day because it was the day Jesus rose from the dead. was the day that Mary went to the tomb with the embalming plan to try to delay the decay that she assumed was already causing his body to smell and to rot. Instead, she sees the angel who says, why do you look for the living among the dead? She tells Peter and John who run to the tomb, there's nothing there. It's empty. They can't believe it because they know that dead people stay dead. So when you get out of bed and you drag your weary body to church here on Sunday morning, you're proclaiming that you believe that too. You believe in the resurrection of the dead. You believe that there's some time in between now and a hundred years from now, every one of us will draw our final breath, the last one. And we will die. Some of us, it will be very soon. Likely a doctor will proclaim us dead. Some paperwork will be written up. Some kind of service will be held. Some kind of words will be said. And many will think, that's the end of her. He was a good man, wasn't he? But now he's gone. What a pity. And they will be wrong if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because somewhere on the other side of that final breath, there will be the sound of a trumpet and a great shout and the dead in Christ will rise and new breath will come into your lungs. That, friends, is why we're here this week and every week to read, to pray, sing about that. We sang that song earlier, Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal. It speaks about the saints who have gone before us, singing on the other side of the river of death.

Some have crossed before us safely to that land of perfect rest. Can you hear them singing faintly in the mansions of the blessed?

You might think of saints of this very church who lived and died trusting in the risen Christ. I wonder if you can hear them singing faintly this morning. We can certainly hear David singing. He's singing this psalm to us. Preserve us, O God, for in you I take refuge. You are our Lord. Your saints are our delight. Your providence is our rest. Your word is our counsel. Your resurrection is our hope. That, friends, is our secure refuge, which leads to eternal joy. Let's pray together. Father, we come to you because we have nowhere else to go. We come to you for refuge amidst the storms of life and pray that you would keep us safe. We have great confidence because of what Jesus did. I pray that you would give us faith and trust this morning. and that you would give us joy. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.