We would see Jesus.

In John 12 some Greeks had come to Philip with a request.  The request was that they wanted to see Jesus.  Philip then had the honour of taking them to the Master.
When we read the Psalms we should want to see Jesus.  Psalm 16 is a Psalm about Jesus.  He is our refuge in life, He is our portion, He is our strength, He is our hope in death.  It is at His right hand that we have pleasures for evermore.  It is in His presence that there is fullness of joy.  John says in John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." 
Do we see Jesus when we read the Old Testament?  Do we want to see Jesus when we read the Psalms?

Right hand

David says in Psalm 16:8, "I keep my eyes always on the Lord.  With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken."  Later he says, "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."  Psalm 16:11

The right hand is usually a symbol of strength.  With the Lord at my right hand I know that He is my strength.  However, in the last verse he says that at the Lord's right hand there is pleasure for evermore.  When I am at the Lord's right hand I know that I am under His care.

When I was a child and I went for a walk with my dad he would take my left hand in his right hand and walk with me.  I was at his right hand but he was caring for me and protecting me.  When I became a man and my father was old and ill I would again walk with him but now he took my right arm and I gave him strength.  I often feel like the child walking with the Lord with my left hand in His right hand.  But sometimes I feel like the feeble old man who needs to put my left hand in His right so that he can help me walk.

Turning sorrow into joy

What brings joy?  Certainly it is not possessions.  How many people have won the lottery only to have their lives come apart afterward?  Many families fight over inheritances only to destroy relationships.  David says, "Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips."  Psalm 16:4
The other gods that we run after are money, pleasure, power, self but none of these will bring joy.  They may bring temporary happiness but it is only for a time.
David ends this Psalm with these words, "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."  Joy is found in the presence of the Lord.  Other translations such as the ESV say, "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."  I like this translation.  It tells us that in the presence of God there is joy.  Notice the tense of the verb.  It does not say that there will be but that there is joy.  We can experience the presence of the Lord and His joy today.
What are you looking to for joy?  Remember that other gods will not bring joy.

Nothing good

When I look at my possessions I realize that I don't have a lot of good things.  If my life was measured by what I own then my life would not be worth very much. 
However, I do have good things but they are not measured in money but they are still good things. 
David says that apart from the Lord he has nothing good.  However, a few verses later he says this, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."  Psalm 16:6  When we measure our lives by our possessions we are poor but when we know that we have a delightful inheritance then though we may appear to the world to be poor we are rich.  Paul writes to the church in Galatia, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."  Galatians 3:29
Can we say that we have nothing good when we are heirs with God's people, joint heirs with Jesus Christ?  We have nothing good in ourselves but in Him we are rich.

Security

When we lived in the Philippines we saw security guards everywhere.  They were at the school we taught in, they were at the church we attended, they were at every store we visited. 

Psalm 16 begins with this prayer, "Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge."  David prays that the Lord will be his refuge, he is being hunted by Saul and his life is in danger.  Then a few lines later he makes this statement, "Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure."  David's prayer for security is answered in the Lord.  Too often we pray for things when the answer is not in the things we pray for but in the Lord himself.  We pray for patience but He is our patience.  We pray for love and He is our love.  We pray for these things as if the Lord will wrap them up and send them down to us but that is not what happens.  We need to know that our security is in the Lord himself. 

David goes on to say, "I keep my eyes always on the Lord.  With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

Home

Where is home?  What is home?  Home is a refuge.  Home is where your parents are.  Home is where you are loved for no other reason than because you are part of the family.  You are loved unconditionally.  You are loved because you are loved. 
Two of our sons came home for awhile when they were not feeling secure.  They had never lived in the house that we now live in but they came "home".  It was not the place but it was where mom and dad were and it was where they could have a sense of security, where they could be loved, where they belonged.

Moses tells us that God is our dwelling place.  God is where we have refuge, God is where we have security, God is where we are loved, God is where we can be satisfied.  He is our home.  Our home is where our Father is.

That was the lesson of the first two verses of Psalm 90.  What a powerful lesson.  We don't come to God to escape judgment primarily but to find satisfaction for our souls. 

Return

In Psalm 90:3 we are called to return to our God.  We often think that we are immortal and we have plenty of time before we need to answer to God but Moses reminds us that we have only a few days and his plea to the people is to return to God while there is time.  We are prone to wonder and we need to be drawn back to God.
In Psalm 90:13 the pray is that God will return His mercy and favour to us.  We need His grace and mercy so that we can find significance in this world.

25568

A few years ago Keith Price came to our church in Thunder Bay and he spoke to the youth.  He was about seventy years old at the time and he told us that he had never preached in a t-shirt.  As you can see in the picture he is wearing a t-shirt with the number 25568.   He asked what that meant. 
In Psalm 90 Moses tells us to number our days.  We count our years but we fail to number our days.  The reason we are to count our days is to understand that we are finite but God is eternal.  By numbering our days we get a heart of wisdom.  When we know that our time here on earth is small then we turn our hearts toward eternity.  Moses tells us that our days are seventy years and if we have the strength then maybe eighty.  Seventy years is 25568 days.  On my next birthday I will be seventy years old.

Boundary line in pleasant places

This past weekend we had a family reunion in honour of my oldest brother who was celebrating fifty years of marriage.  All of my brothers and sisters were there and we have all choosen different lives.  We have different occupations and we live in different parts of Canada.  It is easy to look at another brother or sister and to be envious of them for there live or where they live.  However, I am reminded of the Scripture from Psalm 16:5,6 which says, "Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."

The Lord has assigned our place and when we realize that it is the place He has assigned for us it is a pleasant place.  If I were to think that my brother's or sister's place was a better or more pleasant place than the one assigned to me then my own place ceases to be the pleasant place.  It is only as I rest in the sovereign knowledge of God that I can honestly say that the boundary lines have fallen for me in a very pleasant place. 

God hates the sin but

I have always heard in churches that God hates the sin but loves the sinner.  However, I was reading in the Psalms this morning and I read this:  "For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome.  The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.  You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies.  The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest." Psalm 5:4-6.  In another Psalm we read, "The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion."  Psalm 11:5
So what does this mean and what are the implications for us?  We need to remember that we are not God and we cannot make judgments as if we were God.  We cannot assume that everyone who is not a believer is hated by God as He has also said that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should be saved.  Here is where we hear the Gospel call.  The God who hates sin reaches out to the sinner because of the atoning work of His Son.  The Gospel is for all but we are all under condemnation and without the Gospel we are condemned.  We deserve death and destruction but God took it upon Himself in His Son.

Sit, Walk, Stand

I was reading Psalm 1 this morning and Psalm 1:1 says, "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers."  I couldn't help but notice that the order is so different from the book of Ephesians where we are instructed to first find our rest in Christ, then we can walk in this world and finally we can take a stand against the enemy.  The wicked man in Psalm 1 first walks with the ungodly (going along with the crowd) then he takes a stand with them (his world view has been shaped by the wicked) and then he sits with them (finding his rest in those that are opposed to the Gospel).

The Gospel tells us that we are first to find our rest in Christ, then we can do service for Him and finally take a stand with Him against the enemy.  This is the same order as creation.  Man was created on day 6 and his first day was a day of rest.  He then was given work to do in caring for the garden.  But when the opportunity came for him to take a stand against the enemy he failed. 

Faithful forever

Psalm 89 could be titles the Forever Faithful or Faithful Forever Psalm. Faithfulness and forever are both mentioned three times in the first five verses of this Psalm. We can testify to the fact that God has been faithful to us in the past but the Scripture tells us that His faithfulness to us will continue for ever. Jeremiah said, "Great is Your faithfulness."

The Bible David Read

Yesterday was our last Sunday morning session until September and Mike took us through Psalm 89. He showed us that David and the other Psalmists had only the books of Moses and possibly Joshua and Job. He compared the teachings in the Psalms to the books of Moses.
Psalms 1 - 41 are the Psalms of the beginnings, Genesis.
Psalms 42 - 72 are the moving forward as Exodus.
Psalms 73 - 89 are the sanctuary or worship Psalms as Leviticus.
Psalms 90 - 106 correspond to Numbers.
Psalms 107 to 150 correspond to Deuteronomy.

Songs of Deliverance

The Psalm (Psalm 32) begins with confession and ends with singing. One of the reasons why Christians are a singing people is because they have been delivered. When Israel escaped from the hands of the Egyptians they sang a song of deliverance (Exodus 15). In Isaiah 12:5 we read, "Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world." What were the glorious things that the Lord had done for His people? In verse 2 we are told that He is their salvation. In Revelation 5 we once again see the people singing because of the fact that He has redeemed a people unto Himself. Let us join in singing a song of deliverance.

Losing our way

I went to University in Waterloo. When I arrived at Waterloo I drove in at night and some how I got turned around. For the next four years I could not determine which direction is north.
I did an interesting experiment in my class one time. I had my students close their eyes, put their heads on their desk and then point north. When they opened their eyes they were surprised to see the directions that people were pointing including themselves.
The Psalmist said, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." Psalm 32:8
I heard a discussion with a Christian radio talk show host and his guest. They were discussing guidance and the guest said that it was important to do something while the host insisted that we need to seek God for guidance. The host sounded good but there was not substance. The Psalmist reminds us that instruction comes from knowing the Word of God. Many people who are seeking to know God's will by signs and wonders, fleeces and such, have not spent time in the Word. Ezekiel reminds us that the Word of the Lord came to him. How did it come to him? I don't know but it comes to us through the Bible. We cannot expect to have guidance unless we have instruction and that instruction comes from the Word of God.

Hidding Place

The Psalmist says in Psalm 32:7 "You are my hiding place". At the beginning of the Psalm he said that we are blessed when our sins are not covered up, when we try to hide our sins but realize that we cannot hide them but God can cover them and they are removed from us completely and totally.

Two sinners

David begins Psalm 32 talking about a man whose sin is not covered. He talks about him in the third person but then in the middle verses of the Psalm he changes the pronoun and talks about "my sin", "my iniquity", "my transgressions". He now takes ownership of his sin and confesses it to God. We cannot truly confess our sins if we talk about them in the third person.

Sandwich

This morning our friend Mike was taking us through Psalm 32 and he reminded us that a Psalm is like a sandwich. The first two verses start with blessing and the Psalm ends with joy but in the middle is the meat of the Psalm. Here the Psalmist comes to grips with his sin. Someone wanted to know why it didn't start with the sin then the blessing a joy but we must remember that God's order is different than our order.

Do Not Fret

Today I was reading in Psalm 37:7, "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes." I was thinking about all those Christians who get upset when things are going wrong in the world. They are looking for ways to fix things and they usually look to politics for the fix. However, God says He is in control and He will make all things right in His time. That does not mean that we should not work for a better and more just world but we do not have to get in a fret about it when it does not happen. God is sovereign, trust Him.

Firm Forever

As I am going through the Psalms in the morning I came this morning to Psalm 33. Verse 11 says, "But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." There are certain attributes of God that I find more meaningful to me than others. One is the fact that He is the unchanging God. It bothers me that there are those who would teach that God has changed. If He is God then He cannot change. There are those who tell us that God will change His mind if we pray. This verse tells me that His plans are unchanging. So what changes when we pray? Some would say that if God does not change when we pray then why bother to pray. Is prayer about getting our will done or God's will?