Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so, as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you and so would you join us. Grace and peace. As we continue praying the Psalms, we come to Psalm 16. David says beginning in verse 1, keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing. I say of the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight. Verse 4, those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. What a thought as we begin our day.
Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. What gods and what other idols may our hearts be running after? He continues, I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips. 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. I will praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 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 of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. 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.
By way of reflection, I just wanna draw our attention to a few things. First, this beautiful declaration, verse 1, keep me safe. What a way to begin our day. God, keep us safe as we go about the things that we deal with. And then there in verse 5, David there is confessing the Lord is his portion and his cup, and the the boundary lines, he says, have fallen in pleasant places.
Boundary lines were, markers of what your property line would look like. Right? It was the the limitation or the the span the expansiveness of of the land you owned. And so what David is bearing witness to is that, man, God has provided him a great inheritance. And what what a confident thing for us to take counseling that there's an inheritance for you today.
Your cup, your portion is not what the world offers, but it is the boundary lines that God provides for you. And then we have this unique phrase in verse 8, I keep my eyes always on the Lord with him in my right hand. Now in ancient days, a warrior would have carried the the shield in his left hand, the sword in his right hand, and a king would have had his most trusted warrior at his right hand. That was a place of trust and honor. But David's saying, with you at my right hand, who's the you?
Yahweh is. The Lord is. And so the roles have kinda reversed and David is saying, man, at my right hand is Yahweh. He is my shield. Going back to that first idea in verse 1, that he keeps him safe.
And then lastly, we have this wonderful declaration that his heart is glad, his tongue rejoices, his body rests secure. What an invitation for us today to praise with our lips, to have joy in our hearts, and for our physical bodies to rest, knowing that God will keep us safe. He is our shield. And then this one, knowing that God will keep us safe. He is our shield.
And then this wonderful invitation there in verse 11, you make known to me the path of life. Out of all the paths that you will go on today, in Yahweh alone, in Jesus alone, do you have the path of life. And about all the joys and out of all the pleasures that you might pursue today, as David reminds us, his hand, his right hand has for us all the pleasures our souls can possibly desire. And so, Jesus, we hear you inviting us today to consider that in light of all the things that we might wanna grab for, that our hearts long for, the pleasures that maybe we're pursuing in our jobs, in our relationships, in our ambitions, would we rest secure today knowing that number 1, you are protecting us? And secondly, that in your right hand, God, there is joy and pleasure forever.
Would our own kind of emotional sense of joy and happiness rise as we consider that you offer us, us, more than anything, a deeper joy out of all the joys and pleasures of our day today. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Grace and peace. Stay tuned for Psalm 17.