Psalm 16
December 25, 2021
You Will Not Abandon My Soul
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 give 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.
As I reflect on my walk with the Lord, I have a much deeper understanding of “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” Often my life has not taken on that look to those I worked with, to those who I lived with, and to my neighbors. It is so easy to lose sight of your identity, of what is real and eternal and what will pass away, when caught up in the world's values. In fact, much of the teaching in the Bible is not what one who is chasing after that system wants to read. Such Scripture is found in James 4:4, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” In my keeping with “word mean things” and often in the Bible words are used that are not commonly used in our conversation. The word used is “enmity” It means; hostility, hatred, and antagonism, and in our day we see many of those using the virus to display their hate for God and His Church.
The World system likes to change the meaning of words, such as the Church. The church is what God calls all who have a personal relationship with Jesus, yet most of us have referred to a building as the Church. Jan and I have visited some amazing buildings where the Church has or may assemble to worship the Living God, one of my favorites are in Montreal Canada the Notre-Dame Basilica. I like to work with wood and Notre Dame Basilica has some of the most amazing workmanship in all the woodwork in it. But it is not a place where God lives, it is clear in the Scriptures He lives in those who have received Him by faith in His finished work on the Cross. Do you recall Jesus' answer in John 14;15-17, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
You may recall that yesterday we discussed that if one does not listen to the Helper's voice, then we will be easily led into the godliest culture. It is a choice, my prayer for you and myself is that the words of David, become the desires of our hearts. 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 give 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.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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