THE PATH TO PLEASURE

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So if you have your bibles and would open with me to Psalm 16, I’ll read it through, we’ll pray and then we’ll dig for treasure

      1       Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 

            2       I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; 

      I have no good apart from you.” 

            3       As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, 

      in whom is all my delight. 

            4       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. 

            5       The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; 

      you hold my lot. 

            6       The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; 

      indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 

            7       I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; 

      in the night also my heart instructs me. 

            8       I have set the LORD always before me; 

      because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 

            9       Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; 

      my flesh also dwells secure. 

            10       For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, 

      or let your holy one see corruption. 

            11       You make known to me the path of life; 

      in your presence there is fullness of joy; 

      at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

Psalm 16:1-11 ESV

Whether michtam means stamped with gold or drop that beat, I think as we’ll see from the text today, Psalm 16 is altogether precious and gold-laden.

            Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. Psalm 16:1

The word in Hebrew used here is Shamar (Smr) and is the same word Hannah prays at the beginning of 1 Samuel after Samuel is dedicated to to the Lord,

      He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, 

      but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, 

      for not by might shall a man prevail

1 Samuel 2:9.

That’s how David begins this psalm. And we”ll see in a second why he’s praying for preservation, verse 2.

     2       I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; 

      I have no good apart from you.” Psalm 16:2

David uses three different words for God in just these two verses. Ill read them again with their original Hebrew, 

  1       Preserve me, El, for in you I take refuge. 

El is the label for God or Deity, like if I were to call you “man or woman” instead of your name, that would be what you are, not who you are. Make sense?

So David gets specific in verse 2, he says, verse 2

            2       I say to Yahweh (the covenantal name of God the name that he reveals to the people of Israel–it’s his personal name, its who he is, It’s translated Lord in our bibles because it was considered too Holy to even recite out loud) and he goes on to say,

 “You are my adonai; 

      I have no good apart from you.”  Master. Who you are to me. My master. I have no good apart from you.

So preserve me El, what you areI’m speaking to Yahweh, who you are

You are my Adonai, who you are to me, master, I have no good apart from you

. I have no good apart from you, all my treasure is found in you. But more on that in a bit. 

Verse 3, in verse 3 David shifts from the Lord to the people of God, verse 3:

      As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, 

      in whom is all my delight. Psalm 16:3

Verse 4

  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. Psalm 16:4

The cost of idolatry is sorrow. Compared with the excellency and delight and goodness we see in the first 3 verses, the pursuit of anything other than the Lord is exponential pain. If not in this life, surely in the next. David is calling to mind a command given to the Israelites after their deliverance from Egypt in the book of Exodus,

Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips. Ex 23:13.

Sorrow and misery are the consequence of worshipping anything other than a good good God. 

Or as Jesus said,

 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24

So imagine right now a drummer on that snare picking up the pace, verse 5 and 6

         5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; 

      you hold my lot. 

        6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; 

      indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.  Psalm 16:5-6

Here we have a couplet, two verses tied together that help make sense of one another. David is drawing on the Levitical Law given to Aaron in the book of Numbers. Yahweh has brought the people out of Egypt and they're still on their way to the promised Land and so God gives Aaron instructions for how the priesthood would be set up to operate. Because when they get to the land of Canaan, when they get to the promised land, all the Israelites are going to be given a portion of land according to their tribe. But to the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe, Yahweh says this,

“You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.” 

Numbers 18:20

My adonai, my master, holds my future and is my future. And so the crescendo continues, the instruments start to play louder, verse 7 

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; 

      in the night also my heart instructs me. Psalm 16:7

When the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the coming savior of the world, the first name he uses to describe him is Wonderful Counselor. 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Because His counsel is yet another piece of Gold in the treasure trove of his goodness. 

Now the crescendo gets even louder, verses 8-11

  8       I have set the LORD always before me; 

      because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; 

      my flesh also dwells secure. 

            10       For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, 

      or let your holy one see corruption. 

            11       You make known to me the path of life; 

      in your presence there is fullness of joy; 

      at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:8-11

David has gradually grown in confidence in the Lord throughout the Psalm. Where he started by asking for preservation, he now states boldly, “I SHALL NOT BE SHAKEN”, “I AM GLAD”, “I AM SAFE”, “I REJOICE”.  Why? Because I dont stop looking at my treasure and infinite pleasure is coming. Psalm 16 is not as much about King David as it is about Jesus of Nazareth. This Psalm was a prophecy of the coming Messiah. The apostle Peter quotes verses 8-11 in the book of Acts and says this

“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. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.”

Acts 2:29–31.

Jesus comes, lives a perfect life, drinks the cup of sorrow that should have been ours to drink, dies, is risen from the grave, and then gives us verse 11, LIFE, FULLNESS OF JOY, PLEASURES FOREVERMORE. As in it never ends that’s what forever means! Where? In his presence. 

“...I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10.