Rev. Terence Gray: Good morning. Good morning. Good to see you guys. We are kicking off a new series today called Psalms for your summer. The Psalms really give voice to the heart.
It's language for the soul, and we're gonna talk about various aspects of the heart this summer. Today, you're gonna hear about the content heart, and we're gonna hear about the broken heart, and we're gonna hear about the joyful heart, and we will, look at those very different aspects of the Psalms and how the Psalm has expressed himself to God. Each week, you'll have a liturgy and you'll have a prayer card that's gonna be available to you. So this is the first one this week. It's a prayer of contentment, and you'll receive one of these cards every week.
But before we go any further, let's go before our Lord and pray this morning. Oh, father, we come before you in the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus Christ. God, we thank you for your word. Speak to us today, god. God, you know what each and every one of us is going through.
You know what we brought here this morning with us. I pray that we would lay those things at your feet. God, illuminate your text, bring it to life. I pray that I would decrease and that you would increase and be made much of in the lives of your people. It's in the mighty name of Jesus Christ that we pray together.
Amen. Have you guys ever paid attention to the way that we talk about vanilla, the word vanilla? Vanilla has kinda become a word that you don't wanna be associated with. Right? We think about it in negative terms.
We think of vanilla as something plain or ordinary or boring. We say those decorations are vanilla or that song was so so vanilla. I don't like that. It's not cool. It's so vanilla.
But in reality, vanilla is something very rare and very special. Historically, people would cross oceans to get vanilla. Vanilla used to be very rare and very expensive. And just to give you an idea of that, I want you to try growing your own vanilla. It will be very difficult.
Vanilla grows on a particular flower on an orchid. And if you were trying to grow your own vanilla, not only would you need the right conditions, but it would take you about three to seven years for your vanilla vine to even grow. And after three to seven years of that vine growing, one morning you would finally get a flower and that flower would blossom, and that flower would only blossom for about three hours. And so three to seven years of the vine growing. One morning, one sunny morning, it finally opens up and blossoms, and you have to hand pollinate it.
And so you have to catch it and be there to pollinate it by hand. If you don't catch it in that three hour window, you essentially just wasted a whole year. And so you gotta try again next year. And that's what we call plain, and that's what we call boring, and that's what we've kind of lost value for. So how did something so extraordinary become synonymous with plain and boring?
I'll tell you how. We got used to it, and it became readily available. You can find vanilla anywhere, and now it's synonymous with something that's plain. And isn't that what happens in other areas of our lives? Isn't that what even happens?
Isn't that what happens in our spiritual lives? See, the problem is not that God has given us too little. That's not the problem. The problem is is not that God has given us too little. The problem is that we have become too accustomed to his goodness to notice it.
The problem is not that God has given us too little. The problem has become that we've gotten so accustomed to God's goodness that we don't even notice it. So here's my question for you this morning, my friend, to chew on. Are there things in your life that you are calling vanilla that God calls valuable? Are there things in your life that you're calling vanilla, you're calling casual, you're treating, like it's not something extraordinary or special?
Maybe it's something that you prayed for. Maybe it's something that you really wanted. Maybe it was something that you were pursuing, but now because you have had it and because it's been with you for a while, it's vanilla. With that, let us turn to Psalms 16, which is gonna talk to us about contentment this morning. But I wanna highlight this particular Psalms.
Psalms 16, and every Psalm has its nuance and its distinctive nature. Psalms 16 is what scholars called a A miktam is a golden song or precious poem from a root associated with gold or something valuable. And so this psalm is said to be a golden psalm, something special. In many traditions, this particular psalm, Psalm 16, is is is sang as a hymn in worship services. It would have been a part of Israel's worship as well.
And I think there's gonna be a golden nugget of some truth in here for the heart, particularly for the discontent heart. As you read Psalm 16, you begin to understand why this is a golden psalm. The opening words are like this. They begin with someone seeking safety. This is David, the psalmist.
He says, keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. He says, keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. David knew a thing or two about being in danger. We don't know exactly what his circumstances were when he was writing this psalm, but we know that he had experienced a man named Saul chasing him, trying to put him to death. We know that there are points in his life where his own son was trying to take his life.
So he knew a thing or two about very real danger. He knew a thing or two about what it looked like to hide out somewhere and take refuge. He had spent time in the cave on the run, But in this text, he didn't work he didn't rely on the cave to keep him safe. He didn't rely on an army to keep him safe. He's he, in a very intimate way, talks to God in this moment of danger, in this moment of fear, David says, keep me safe, my God.
It's in you that I take refuge. You are my safe place. You are the place in which I hide when I feel trouble. See, when life becomes disappointing, overwhelming, painful, or scary, sometimes you just want to run. You ever been there and just just wanna run?
But David is saying, God, you are my safe place. You are the place to which I run. Who or what you run to tells you a lot about what you believe and what you trust in. This is instinctive for children. Children, when they're afraid, most kids run to mommy or daddy.
When when there's a storm or when there's a monster in the closet again or when there's a monster under the bed again, it's instinctive for a child to run to their parents, and that reflex never really goes away. That instinct never really goes away. We find ourselves seeking and pursuing shelter, and David says, God, you are that place for me. So where do you run? Where do I run?
Do we run to control? Because I'm scared I I try to start controlling things. I control what I can because I'm so afraid of what I can't control. Do we run to our bank accounts? We run there because maybe we can find safety in our resources.
Do we run to another relationship because one relationship didn't work out, and so maybe that's what I need, another relationship to fill that hole in my heart? Do we run to food and entertainment to numb ourselves? Do we run to ourselves because we become self sufficient, and we come to the conclusion that no one else can take care of us like us, and so we run to ourselves. David's reflex was not like this. He says, keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
I won't run to anything else or anyone else. And in this place of vulnerability, I love verse two. He he knows that God is his good thing. He knows that in God are all the good things that he needs. He says, I say to the Lord, you are my God, and apart from you, I have no good thing.
David has said, in you, I find all of the goodness and all of the blessing that I need in life, and therefore, I never have to leave you to find my good thing. There's no lasting good apart from God. But from the beginning, our spiritual parents, Adam and Eve, were tempted with this. They were tempted to believe that they have to step outside of God's will and outside of God's providence to find that which was good. So Satan whispered in their ears, the good is over there.
The good is over there. God is holding out on you. And if you want goodness, you have to step outside of the boundaries that he has set for you because he doesn't really know how to provide that which is good for you. And sometimes we fall for it. See, essentially, we all want a piece of the pie.
We all want a piece of the pie. We see the pie and we say, God, I want a piece of that. And God in his wisdom and his providence, according to his discernment for what we need, he provides a piece of the pie for us. And he says, I know exactly how much you need and what you need. And according to my wisdom, I offer you this slice.
Would anybody want this slice of pie, by the way? Anybody take that? No. No. No.
No. The mom said, no. No. No. No.
Baby girl answered it. I'll take it. Mark Mark said he'll take the pie. Thank you. Thank you for being thank you for being a good sport.
Mark Ordus: You got any Cool
Rev. Terence Gray: I I forgot the Cool Whip. See, people always want more. This is the sermon about contentment. Gotta have some cool whip now. Alright.
That's the point. But Mark, are you happy? I am happy. You're happy with the with the pie in your mouth. Mark is happy.
But here's how the enemy works. The enemy says, Mark, you sure gotta you're enjoying your pie. You're nice with your pie. You're happy with your pie. But guess what, Mark?
You got a little piece. You got a little piece and enemy taunts us. That's a bigger piece of pie, Mark. Oh, come on. Yeah.
Anybody want this? Okay. I saw Karen when I was a fan first. Come on. I don't know.
Sorry, mom. If no. Well, this illustration is becoming too real in real time. No. Here.
Here. Here. Here. And I'll get you one too. Caroline.
Here you go, Caroline. Thank you. And you got yours. And just because you got up to, I will give you the whole thing. Here you go.
There you go. You didn't get up for nothing. And you got Cool Whip at home. There you go. That's pumpkin too.
Good pumpkin pie. But there we go. But God in his goodness, he knows how to distribute what we need. But Satan will whisper, oh, you got a little piece. How did that person get that peace?
Maybe God didn't know how much you really deserve. And then our eyes wander and our pride will raise up against God. And this is the oldest temptation that we see in the scriptures. The enemy comes along and he whispers in our ears, God wants to burden you but I wanna give you comfort. God wants to put pressure on you but I wanna give you relief.
And the enemy says, I can give you more money, more attention, more square footage, more approval, more power. I can give you less stress and less burden and less pressure. But when tempted with this, David, and I love this reply, he says, God, apart from you, I have no good thing. What's that big piece if I don't have you? What's that thing if I don't have your presence?
David is clear, and this is something for us to absorb into our souls apart from God. We have no good thing. Here's what we know, and this is the big idea for the day. I never have to leave my God to find my good, but contentment is trusting that God got it right. I never have to leave my God to find my good because contentment is trusting that God got it right.
He he cut the piece of pie perfectly for me with or without the cool whip. Mark, He knows what I need, so I never have to leave him to find my good. And when we come to that place, that's when we really get to experiencing the contentment and the joy that God designed us to live. So even in the trials because you can be content in a trial. Even in the trial, the content heart says, God, you got it right.
I know you're putting me through this, but God, I in your sovereign wisdom,
Rev. Nicole Unice: I
Rev. Terence Gray: know you're smarter than me. You make better plans than me. And even in the trial, God, you got it right. I don't know why I'm going through this, but God, I know that you got it right, and so I surrender. You know how much I could handle.
You know how much I need. You know what would bless me, and you know what would destroy me. God, you got it right. Amen. And David continues in Psalm 16.
He says, I say of the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight. You're gonna see David contrasting two groups. He's gonna contrast the holy ones, the ones who follow after God, who have trusted to stay by his side. He's gonna contrast them with those who run after other gods. He says, those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
That that word run-in the Hebrew is mahar. It means to chase or anxiously pursue, to to to go after something with haste without really thinking about it, to just chase it down. And he says, those who run after idols like that will suffer more and more because idols ultimately disappoint. Idols overpromise, but they under deliver. Sometimes that bigger piece of pie can overpromise satisfaction, but it will under deliver.
See, the idol promises peace, but a lot of times it'll leave you with anxiety. The idol will promise freedom but leave you enslaved. The idol will promise fulfillment but it will leave you empty. And David, through wise living and walking with God, he's come to the knowledge of this, that those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. Some some translation says, and their sorrows will multiply as they run after other gods.
And so David says, I will not I will not participate in this idolatry. He says, I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods. I won't make sacrifices to them. I won't give them my time, my resources, my energy, and my effort because I know what they do. And I won't even take up their names on my lips because I know who God is.
I never have to leave my God for my good. And then he gets to verse five. This is one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible. Psalms 16 verse five. He says, Lord, and I love how this is so personal.
Every line is my God, Lord, because he's talking he's talking to God in an intimate way. He says, Lord, you are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. He says, you are my portion. You're the one who satisfies me.
You you're the one who who fills my soul. You are the one who meets my needs. You you are the one who my soul is longing for. In other words, it doesn't matter the size of the piece of the pie, whether it's a little piece or the big piece, because at the end of the day, oh God, at the end of the day, you are my portion. At the end of the day, you are my portion.
You are who and what satisfies me. So whatever you wanna give me from this, it ultimately comes from you in the first place. So whatever you wanna do, whatever you wanna give, however you wanna slice this, however you wanna distribute it, I know that it will satisfy me because it comes from you. And so David comes to this place of being satisfied, and because he had he's in this place of being satisfied, he's not tempted to run after idols. He's not tempted to reject and leave his God because he's already been satisfied.
He says, you are my portion. And in verse six, he says this, the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely, have a delightful inheritance. In ancient Israel, when the people of God inherited the promised land, God divided the land up into different portions for different tribes to receive an inheritance. And essentially, David is speaking to that example and saying, God, you have divided things up in such a way and you have put the boundaries in right places.
You've cut the pie in just the right places. You know exactly what I need. And he says, the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places for my good. And he speaks with confidence. I have a delightful inheritance.
You, god, know how, where, and when to cut my slice. You're the one who distributes the pie. You know what would bless me. You know what would destroy me, you know what opportunities would deepen my faith, and you know what would become an idol so I can trust in your wisdom more than I can trust in my appetite. We have to trust his wisdom more than we trust our appetites.
That means, God, I have enough house. I have enough influence. I have enough responsibility. I have enough money for the purposes of my life today. I have the right spouse.
I have the right children. I have the right friends. I have the right church. I have the right assignment. I have the right season because my father has measured it out.
The boundary lines did not fall by accident. They were drawn by a wise and loving father who knows exactly what we need. The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places. Then David says this in verse seven. He says, I will praise the Lord who counsels me.
He goes from fear to awareness of who God is even in that fear, and now he's at a place of praise. He says, will praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. I will keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Here's the thing about the right hand. In in scripture, the right hand is always a place of strength. The right hand is a place of honor and protection. Someone at your right hand means that they are a person of dependable support. The right hand is the place of the trusted ally.
And essentially, David is saying, God, regardless of what I'm going through, I am secure. I am satisfied because you are my right hand man. And God, while you're right there, I'm gonna set my eyes on you. He says, I always set my eyes on the Lord. So I'm gonna set my eyes on you at my right hand.
And regardless of what's going on around me, that doesn't matter as much as the fact that you're right here at my right hand and I'm keeping my eyes on you. Friends, when was the last time that you looked over your shoulder and just acknowledge that God was right there at your right hand? When have you acknowledged that God was right there and you just said, God, you know what? You've got this. That diagnosis, you've got this.
My kids, you've got this. My marriage, you've got this. My singleness, god, you've got this. My career, God, you've got this. My future, God, you've you've got this.
And after acknowledging this, if you can walk through this, if you can process this like you're in a therapy session because I think that's what David is experiencing. He's getting counseled by God. He comes to God with fear, then he becomes aware that God is his satisfaction and his portion, then he becomes aware of the things in his life have been put there on purpose, and he he he becomes aware of God's presence right there in his right hand. And and after that awareness, he he's glad. Let's go to the text.
Therefore, my heart is glad after working through that. Therefore, my my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My my body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. He begins to preach to himself. Nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
After beginning with fear and anxiety, after taking inventory of life and who God is and what God has done for him, he goes from fear and anxiety to praising and rejoicing and preaching to himself. In other words, god, you determine my destiny. But Psalms 16 doesn't end with David. It ultimately points to Jesus. Scholars call Psalms 16 a messianic Psalm, meaning David wrote this, David expressed and experienced this, but it prophetically doesn't end with David.
Prophetically, this text, Psalms 16, points to the greater king, king Jesus. And so and we're gonna talk about this as we go through this series. Whenever you read the Psalms, I want you to be thinking about where is Jesus in this Psalm? How does this Psalm point to Jesus? And this one points to Jesus in a very real way.
One scholar said this, and I just wanna give this as a framework to you for later as we go through this series. Finding Christ in the Psalms, once we understand the context and what the Psalm meant to his original audience, we can look for the bridge to the cross. How do we see Jesus in this Psalm? We can look look for him in two ways. First, he was the object of the praises of his people.
Everything the Psalms say about Yahweh is also true about our Lord Jesus Christ. The Psalms was more expressed the cries and the worship of the son to the father. Secondly, the suffering that the Psalmist speaks of prefigures Christ. The trials that the authors of many of the psalms experience are a foretaste of the suffering that Jesus would endure for his elect. So at the end of Psalm 16, we see it pointing to Jesus.
He says, therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead nor will you let your faithful one see decay. David's body eventually saw decay, but Jesus' body did not see decay. Because even when death came, Jesus overcame death at the resurrection proving his authority and his power over death. And the apostles would go ahead and quote this particular psalm, Psalm 16 in Acts chapter two.
I wanna read Acts chapter two. You're gonna think I'm reading Psalm 16 because this is a quote of Psalm 16. This is the apostle Peter after at on the day of Pentecost, and he stood in front of the crowd and quoted Psalms 16. He says, I saw the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken, therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.
My body also will live in hope because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence. Jesus overcame the grave. And because Jesus overcame the grave, that promise is that promise is available to you and me.
Now you and me will experience fullness of joy, eternal pleasure, presence, which begs the question, if we are in his presence, why would we ever leave? Why would we ever chase after anything? Why would we be tempted by a bigger piece of pie if that means we have to leave his presence? Psalms 16 reminds us that God is not merely a piece of the pie, he is our portion. So why would we ever leave?
I leave you with this. I never have to leave my God to find my good because contentment is trusting that God got it right. You don't have to envy someone else's life. You don't have to run after a bigger piece. You don't have to click on that pornography website.
You don't have to chase relief in a bottle or a pill. You don't have to stay up at night wondering whether or not you missed out. God knows what he's doing in your life, and we can say with confidence, I never have to leave my God to find my good because contentment is trusting that God got it right. Will you pray with me? Oh, father, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
God, trusting that you got it right. You know what we need. God, help us to see it. David had to see it. He had to process all of those thoughts and all of those emotions.
He had to look at his life and see where you drew the boundary lines. And in doing so, David became very clear that everything was right where it was supposed to be. And I pray the same for us. It's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray together. Amen.