The older I get and the faster that the New Year seems to pop up on the calendar, the more I think about, “What is the significance of my life?” Life is so uncertain that none of us knows whether this will be our last day on this planet, much less our last year. And even if we live a long life, it all goes by so quickly. So I often ask myself, “What have I accomplished of any lasting value in light of eternity?” And, “If the Lord gives me ten or fifteen more years of health and strength, what should I seek to accomplish?”

My parents used to have a little plaque on the wall by our front door that read, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” That little couplet states it well. The significance of our lives can only be measured in the light of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. As we seek to live in light of God’s purpose for our lives, we will know where we fit into His plan and our lives will take on the significance that God intended.

Psalm 8 explores the theme of God’s majestic splendor and our puny insignificance by way of comparison. And yet at the same time, God has created us in His image and graciously crowned us with glory and majesty. He has assigned us the role of ruling over His creation. All of these thoughts should lead us, as the psalm both begins and ends (Ps. 8:1, 9), to declare in worship, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

Derek Kidner (Psalms 1-72 [IVP], pp. 65-66) comments,

This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who He is and what He has done, and relating us and our world to Him; all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe….

The range of thought takes us not only “above the heavens” (1) and back to the beginning (3, 6-8) but, as the New Testament points out, on to the very end.

We don’t know when David wrote this psalm. Obviously, it stemmed from his experience (which most of us have had) of gazing up at the night sky and marveling at its vastness compared to his own puniness on this speck in the universe called planet earth. We don’t know for certain what the term “Gittith” in the title means. It refers to the Philistine town of Gath, which means winepress. Thus it may refer to a psalm for the grape harvest (such as the Feast of Tabernacles); to the ark’s journey from the house of Obed-edom the Gittite to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:11); or to a tune or musical instrument named after the city. Two other psalms (81, 84) have the term in their titles. In Psalm 8, David is exhorting us to…

Worship the Lord because His name is majestic in all the earth and because He has graciously crowned us with glory and majesty.

1. Worship the Lord because His name is majestic in all the earth (8:1, 2).

A. The Lord has displayed His majesty in all the earth and in the splendor of the heavens (8:1).

To try to comment on verse 1 is kind of like commenting on the splendor of the Grand Canyon. Words really can’t do it justice. You just need to get out of the way and let people see it! David begins with the exclamation, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!”

The first word translated “Lord” is the Hebrew word, Yahweh, God’s personal covenant name. It stems from the Hebrew verb, “to be.” God revealed it first to Moses at the burning bush when He said (Exod. 3:14), “I am who I am.” It points to God’s eternal self-existence. He is the only uncreated being in the universe! The second “Lord” is the Hebrew “Adonai,” meaning sovereign or lord. We could paraphrase David’s address, “O eternal covenant God, our personal Sovereign!” Although God is eternal and totally separate from His creation, He has graciously condescended to enter into a covenant relationship with His people as their Sovereign Lord.

The word “majestic” implies royalty, a concept which we as Americans do not properly appreciate. For a commoner to come into the presence of a king on his throne was a frightening and awe-inspiring moment. When Israel celebrated God’s mighty deliverance at the exodus, they sang (Exod. 15:11), “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”

David says further that it is God’s name that is majestic. His name refers to the perfection of His attributes and the mightiness of His deeds. In other words, God’s name refers to who He is and what He has done, as revealed in His Word. David also says that the majesty of God’s name is seen in all the earth and above the heavens. It is similar to what Paul states when he indicts the human race for suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). He explains (Rom. 1:20), “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

When we consider God’s majesty as seen in all the earth, I could cite enough examples to keep you here all day. There is enough evidence for the Creator in the human body alone to convince anyone willing to think about it that we are not the product of random chance over a long period of time.

The human brain has 10 billion nerve cells interacting in coordination to allow us to function as we do. Your eyes have about 100 million receptor cells in each retina, which also contains four other layers of nerve cells. The system makes billions of calculations per second, traveling through your optic nerve to the brain, which has more than a dozen separate vision centers to process it. Your skin has more than 2 million tiny sweat glands, about 3,000 per square inch, to regulate your temperature.

Your heart beats an average of 75 times per minute, 40 million times per year, or two and a half billion times in 70 years. It pumps about 3,000 gallons of blood per day. Your body is supported by more than 200 finely designed bones, connected to more than 500 muscles and many tendons and ligaments. Some muscles respond to your conscious will, whereas some react automatically. Your digestive system contains about 35 million glands that secrete juices to digest your food and sustain your life. I haven’t even mentioned your lungs, your other senses (hearing, taste, smell, and touch), your endocrine glands, your immune system, and much more. And it all works together!

And this is just the human body. When you consider the complex balance of the natural world, with the hydrologic cycle, the way that plants grow and process carbon dioxide to produce oxygen, the seasons, the balance between insects and birds and the other animals, it is simply absurd to suggest that it all came about by sheer chance over time without the Creator!

David also considers God’s splendor above the heavens. Of course, he had no telescopes to show him how big the universe is. What would he have thought if he knew what we know! The sheer vastness of outer space and the coordination of it all is astounding. If you could travel at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, it would take you 8 minutes to get to the sun. To go from the sun to the center of the Milky Way would take about 33,000 years. The Milky Way belongs to a group of some 20 galaxies known as the Local Group. To cross that group, you’d have to travel for 2 million years. The Local Group belongs to the Virgo Cluster, part of an even larger Local Supercluster, which is a half-billion light years across. To cross the entire universe as we know it would take you 20 billion light years (National Geographic World [Jan., 1992], p. 15)!

And yet supposedly intelligent scientists see all of this and then attribute it to “nature” or random chance! Sir Isaac Newton had an exact replica of our solar system made in miniature. At its center was a large golden ball representing the sun. Revolving around it were small spheres representing the planets, attached at the ends of rods of varying lengths. They were all geared together by cogs and belts to make them move around the sun in harmony.

One day as Newton was studying the model, a friend who did not believe in the biblical account of creation stopped by. Marveling at the device and watching as Newton made the heavenly bodies move in their orbits, the man exclaimed, “My, Newton, what an exquisite thing! Who made it for you?”

Without looking up, Newton replied, “Nobody.” “Nobody?” his friend asked. “That’s right! I said nobody! All of these balls and cogs and belts and gears just happened to come together and wonder of wonders, by chance they began revolving in their set orbits and with perfect timing!” His unbelieving friend got the message! (From “Our Daily Bread,” 1977.) But Newton’s model was nothing compared to the vastness and complexity of the universe! Truly, God has displayed His splendor above the heavens!

B. The Lord has displayed His majesty and power in seemingly weak infants, through whom He triumphs over His enemies (8:2).

David knows that in spite of all of the evidence of God’s glory in His creation, there are still adversaries that oppose Him. They have an a priori bias against God because they want to be the lords of their own lives. They begin by assuming materialism and so they have no place for God.

How does God deal with such enemies? David says that it is “from the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength” (8:2)! What does he mean? I think that John Calvin was right when he said that the process of the conception and birth of an infant displays God’s splendor so clearly that even a nursing infant brings down to the ground the fury of God’s enemies (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Psalms, p. 98). Calvin didn’t know anything about the complex biological and chemical processes that take place in the mother and child at birth. He was just observing the wonder of a newborn baby. How can you look at a baby and say that it happened by sheer chance, apart from a Creator?

But the biological process of birth is amazing. At nine months after conception, the baby’s brain sends a hormone through the placenta and into the mother’s pituitary gland. Although it is a complicated chemical, its message is simple: “I’m ready! It’s time!” All of the baby’s complex systems—lungs, heart, gastrointestinal system, nervous system, brain—are ready to make it on their own. The baby’s skull has not yet fused, so that it can be pliable enough to fit through the birth canal. As the process starts, the baby’s adrenal glands add a shot of stress hormones to help the baby cope.

The child will not breathe until it has cleared the birth canal. If it breathed too soon, it would suffocate. But if it waited too long, it would suffer brain damage. Just before the mother and child separate, the newborn gets a last-minute blood transfusion through the umbilical cord. The placenta has stored the nutrients the baby needs for this exact moment. There is far more going on that we don’t understand. (The above synopsis of birth is from Geoffrey Simmons, Billions of Missing Links, pp. 11-12, in The Summit Journal, April, 2007.) But the cry of the newborn displays God’s strength.

Beyond this, there is the fact that little children often praise God. The Septuagint (LXX, Greek translation of the OT) translated the word “strength” somewhat freely as “praise.” God’s strength as seen in creating children leads to His praise. On Palm Sunday, as Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem and then healed the blind and lame in the temple, little children saw these things and cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Matt. 21:15). Jesus’ enemies, the chief priests and scribes, became indignant about what the children were saying. Jesus replied by quoting this verse (21:16), “Yes, have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” James Boice explains (Psalms, Volume 1 [Baker], p. 68),

If these leaders of the people had been indignant before, they must have become nearly catatonic now. For by identifying the praise of the children of Jerusalem with Psalm 8, Jesus not only validated their words, showing them to be proper. (He was, indeed, the “son of David,” the Messiah.) He also interpreted their praise as praise not of a mere man, which a mere “son of David” would be, but of God, since the psalm says that God has ordained praise for himself from children’s lips.

Thus the Lord overcomes His enemies by the marvel of little children and the praise that they sing in their simple faith. So David’s first and main point is that we should worship the Lord because His name is majestic in all the earth.

2. Worship the Lord because although we are puny and insignificant, He has graciously crowned us with glory and majesty (8:3-8).

A. Compared to the vastness of God’s created universe, we are puny and insignificant (8:3-4).

David looked up into the vastness of the night sky and saw the moon and the stars, the work of God’s fingers. He has somehow set them all in their appointed places and orbits. Then David thinks of how small he is and marvels (8:4), “What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” The Hebrew word used for “man” emphasizes man in his frail human existence (see Pss. 9:20; 90:3; 103:15). The second line referring to him as “the son of man” may hint at our fallen condition, since all of the sons of Adam were born after his likeness and image, in sin (Gen. 5:3ff.). Compared to the vastness of the universe, what is man that God thinks of us, much less that He cares for us!

Years ago, there was a famous explorer named William Beebe. He was a good friend of President Theodore Roosevelt. Often when he visited the President at Sagamore Hill, the two men would go outdoors at night to see who could first locate the Andromeda galaxy. Then, as they gazed at the tiny smudge of distant starlight, one of them would recite, “That is the spiral galaxy of Andromeda. It s as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It is 750,000 light years away. It consists of 100 billion suns, each larger than our sun.” Then Roosevelt would grin and say, “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.” (7,700 Illustrations, Paul Tan [Assurance Publishers], #2213.)

B. Yet in spite of our insignificance, God has crowned us with glory and majesty and assigned us to rule over His creation (8:5-8).

David probably intended the Hebrew Elohim to refer to God, not to the angels (on rare occasions, it can mean “angels” or “human leaders,” 1 Sam. 28:13; Ps. 82:1, 6). David is referring back to Genesis 1:26, where God created man in His image and likeness. In the same context, God assigned to man the task of ruling over the rest of creation, as David here enumerates. David could have said that we were made just a little higher than the other animals, but instead, he says that we were made a little lower than God to reflect the wonder that we are created in His image. As H. C. Leupold states, “Nowhere is man’s dignity asserted more clearly and boldly than in this passage. But we again remind the reader that the reference is to man before the fall” (Exposition of Psalms [Baker], p. 104).

But the LXX translators took the rarer meaning and translated that we were created a little lower than the angels. The author of Hebrews followed that translation (Heb. 2:7) because he wanted to make the point that Jesus for a short while had been made lower than the angels, so that through His death He could accomplish our salvation. Thus,

C. Psalm 8 is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who restores what Adam lost.

Man since the fall has accomplished some remarkable feats in gaining dominion over creation. Think of all of the wonders of modern science, including the advances in medical science. And yet, all of these accomplishments are tainted by sin. Proud man boasts in them and does not acknowledge that the ability to discover scientific facts has been given to him by God. Like the builders of the Tower of Babel, proud modern man uses his scientific breakthroughs to proclaim his independence from God. With a few more breakthroughs, we can cure all our diseases and live forever!

But science cannot reconcile us to God. So what did God do? He sent His own Son, the Son of Man, to provide the sacrifice for our sins and to fulfill Psalm 8 in a way that we cannot. Hebrews 2 cites Psalm 8:4-6 and then applies it to Jesus (Heb. 2:9): “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Leupold summarizes (p. 101), “man as created reflects God’s glory. But the Son of man, in whom the original pattern is more fully realized, reflects this same glory far more perfectly.”

So David tells us to worship the Lord because although we are puny and insignificant, He has graciously thought of us and cared for us. Although we marred God’s image through sin, God has restored it in Jesus Christ. In Him, we are again crowned with glory and majesty. Thus,

3. Worship the Lord because His name is majestic in all the earth (8:9).

David comes full circle and closes the wreath of praise: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

Conclusion

How can we apply this psalm? I could elaborate extensively on each of these points, but I can only list them and trust that you will think through the applications more fully:

1. We should bow in awe before our majestic Creator!

This psalm should humble us and cause us to marvel at God’s grace and love in caring for us by sending His Son as our Savior.

2. We should treat each person with value and respect as beings created in God’s image.

John Piper has said, “You cannot worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating his supreme creation with contempt.” (http://www.desiringod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ ByScripture/1/860_What_Is_Man/) Christians must oppose all racism. We must treat all people with respect.

3. We should stand firmly against the horrors of abortion, which treats God’s majestic creation as trash.

From the point of conception, the only difference between the baby in the mother’s womb and you and I is time and nurture. To kill children simply because it is inconvenient to care for them, is a horrible sin that we must confront.

4. We should stand firmly against the absurdity of evolution, which denies that we are created in God’s image.

Evolution is simply a way for sinful people to attempt to avoid their Creator. It is one of the greatest scientific frauds that the enemy of our souls has ever foisted on the human race!

5. We should rear our children to love, fear, and serve God as the only way to make life count.

When we are rightly related to God through Jesus Christ, our lives take on eternal significance.

6. We should be good stewards of God’s creation.

While modern man worships the creation rather than the Creator, we should not neglect the fact that we are the stewards over God’s creation. We should oppose the greed that often destroys creation with no regard for its beauty and preservation.

7. We should take pleasure in whatever work God gives us to do, doing it heartily as unto Him.

As the Puritans emphasized, every legitimate occupation is a God-given vocation. No matter what you do to earn a living, you can do it for the Lord (Col. 3:22-24).

8. We should enjoy God through His creation.

Forget the mall or the movies. Take a hike and enjoy God through the wonders that He has made!

Application Questions

1. Is it futile or potentially useful to debate an atheist about the existence of God? Is the atheist’s problem intellectual or moral?
2. Clearly, the Bible condemns racism. Does it prohibit interracial marriage? How would you counsel someone on this matter?
3. Should Christians be at the forefront of the environmental movement? Where is the biblical balance?
4. Some jobs seem tedious and boring. How should a believer in such a job view it? (See Eph. 6:5-8; Col. 3:22-24.)

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

God gets bad press. The name “devil” means “slanderer” and from day one Satan has engaged in an aggressive campaign to slander God. His original temptation to Eve suggested that God was withholding something good by forbidding Adam and Eve from eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The temptation also suggested that the first couple would find true satisfaction by sinning. The devil has used that same strategy again and again: “God is opposed to your enjoyment of life. Following God is gloomy. Sin will bring you true pleasure.”

But the truth of the Bible is that sin may bring short-term pleasure, but it always brings long-term misery and pain. Submitting to God may bring short-term difficulty and pain, but it always results in lasting joy and pleasure. And so the core of the Christian life is to seek lasting joy and pleasure in God. The familiar Westminster Shorter Catechism begins, “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” John Piper has thoughtfully improved on that by altering it to, “The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever” (Desiring God [Multnomah Books], Tenth Anniversary Edition, p. 15). As Piper often explains, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

Piper (p. 16) cites the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, who points out that all men seek happiness and that this motive is at the root of every action we take. Even those who hang themselves are seeking happiness, although in a very wrong way! Then Piper cites C. S. Lewis, who points out that contrary to what many think, the Bible consistently appeals to our desire for lasting pleasure. But that pleasure is not found in “drink and sex and ambition,” but in knowing and following Jesus Christ. Psalm 34:8 invites us, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” It’s an invitation to enjoy God!

Psalm 16 is about experiencing joy and pleasure in God: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (v. 11). The scholarly German commentator, Franz Delitzsch, wrote of Psalm 16 (Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes [Eerdmans], by C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, p. 217), “There reigns in the whole Psalm, a settled calm, an inward joy, and a joyous confidence, which is certain that everything that it can desire for the present and for the future it possesses in its God.” The message of the Psalm is:

When we make the Lord our supreme treasure, we will be satisfied with pleasures now and forever in Him.

There are different ways of outlining the psalm; I’m basically following Derek Kidner (Psalms 1-72 [IVP]), who divides it into two main sections. Verses 1-6 describe how to make the Lord your supreme treasure. Verses 7-11 show the results that follow, namely, you will be satisfied with present and eternal pleasures in Him. But, also, there is a third point to be noted. Some (Spurgeon, following James Frame) take the entire psalm to speak of Christ, and that may be so. But all agree that verses 8-11 speak prophetically of Christ, because Peter quoted them of Christ (Acts 2:25-28). So my third point is that all of God’s treasures are centered in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1. Make the Lord your supreme treasure (16:1-6).

We do not know what the word “Mikhtam” in the title means. It also occurs in Psalms 56-60. Both Peter and Paul (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35-37) affirm that David wrote this psalm (as the title indicates). The first section shows five ways to make the Lord your treasure:

A. Make the Lord your refuge and Savior (16:1).

“Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.” We don’t know whether David wrote this at a time when his life was in imminent danger or if he was reflecting on the general course of his life. But the fact is, we all need a place of refuge and protection, both in time and for eternity.

Temporally, we instinctively try to protect ourselves from harm and danger. We avoid risks that could kill us. We wear seat belts when we drive. We avoid smoking and junk foods that can cause disease. While these are prudent measures, the bottom line is that the eternal God, who spoke the universe into existence by His power, must be our protector. Colossians 1:17 states that in Christ, “all things hold together.” If He were to let go, we would literally disintegrate! So it is right to pray for safety for our loved ones and for ourselves. We need the Lord’s protection constantly.

But even more than temporal preservation, we need an eternal place of refuge from the frightening wrath of God that is coming on the whole world because of sin. In the Old Testament (Num. 35:9-28), God ordained cities of refuge where a person who accidentally killed a man could flee for protection. Those cities were a picture of the ultimate place of refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore the curse of God’s wrath that we deserved for our sins. To experience eternal pleasure at God’s right hand, you must flee now to Jesus for refuge. Then you will be safe on judgment day.

B. Make the Lord your Lord and your supreme good (16:2).

“I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.” The Hebrew of the last phrase of verse 2 is difficult, resulting in two different translations. The KJV translates, “my goodness extendeth not to thee.” The New KJV renders it, “My goodness is nothing apart from You.” Both Calvin and Spurgeon follow this approach, taking it to mean that God does not need anything good that we may offer Him. He doesn’t need our good works, because they can contribute nothing to Him.

But all the other modern translations and commentators understand the verse to mean (as in the NASB), “I have no good besides You.” As Psalm 73:25 proclaims, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” It goes on to state (73:28), “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, …” Sam Storms expresses it this way (http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/article/satisfaction-psalm-16/): “Everything without God is pathetically inferior to God without everything.”. He cites C. S. Lewis, “he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only” (“The Weight of Glory,” in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996], p. 31).

Can you truly affirm that in your heart: “Lord, I have no other good besides You”? The only way you can truly affirm that is if you can affirm the first part of the verse: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord.’” In verse 1, David addresses God as El, the Hebrew title for the God of infinite strength. In verse 2, the first Lord is Yahweh, the personal covenant name of God. It is the name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush when He said (Exod. 3:14), “I am who I am.” The eternal, self-existent God has entered into a covenant relationship with His chosen people. But it is not enough to be a part of the larger group that calls itself by His name. You must personally bow before Jesus Christ as your Lord. The second Lord means Sovereign. When the Sovereign Lord God is your Lord, you begin to experience Him as your only good.

Jesus explained this by two parables (Matt. 13:44-46):

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, means that the Spirit of God has opened your eyes to see Jesus as the most valuable treasure in the world. He is the pearl of great value, worth giving up everything that you have to gain Him. From joy over this discovery, you forsake all else in order to gain Christ. As Paul explained it  (Phil. 3:7-8):

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ….

Have you done that? Has the Holy Spirit opened your eyes to see Jesus as your treasure and supreme good, so that you bowed before Him as your Lord? It is the only path to pleasures forever.

C. Make the Lord the basis of your friendships (16:3).

“As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.” Making the Lord our only good (v. 2) does not imply separating from all people and becoming a monk in solitary confinement. Rather, it is to put God at the center of everything, including our relationships. David’s point in verse 3 is that his joy in God is actually enhanced because he has delighted himself in the company of God’s people, whom he refers to as “saints” and “majestic ones.” The latter term may be translated “excellent ones” (ESV). Together these terms describe God’s people as those set apart unto Him, whose character is excellent or noble. The idea is that we should delight in the company of God’s saints, growing together in holiness and love as together we find joy in God.

Thus make the Lord your supreme treasure by making Him your refuge and Savior; by making Him your Lord and your supreme good; by making Him the basis of your friendships.

D. Make the Lord the exclusive object of your worship (16:4).

David’s thoughts about God’s saints also cause him to reflect on those that turn their backs on God and pursue idols (16:4): “The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor will I take their names upon my lips.” The translation of the Hebrew verb here is difficult, resulting in either “bartered for” (NASB) or “run after” (ESV, NIV). Either way, the idea is that they have forsaken the living and true God to go after idols. David affirms that he will not partake in their pagan sacrifices, nor will he take their names upon his lips. Calvin interprets the last phrase to refer to the names of the false gods or idols.

While we should maintain relationships with lost people in order to reach them for Christ (Luke 5:29-32), we must take care not to be enticed to follow their false gods or to join them in godless behavior (1 Pet. 4:1-6; Jude 22-23). As Paul warned (1 Cor. 15:33), “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’” David says that the sorrows of the ungodly will be multiplied. God uses similar words in pronouncing the curse on Eve in Genesis 3:16 (Kidner, p. 84). So the warning to us is that while the godless lifestyles of those who pursue sinful pleasure may entice us, such ways only multiply sorrow. “Solid joys and lasting treasure, none but Zion’s children know” (John Newton, “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken”). So make the Lord the exclusive object of your worship.

E. Make the Lord your present and eternal inheritance (16:5-6).

“The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.” The NIV brings out the truth that there is a sense in which you can’t make the Lord your inheritance. Rather, He chooses your inheritance for you (16:5, NIV): “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.” As Paul puts it (Eph. 1:11), “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”

The idea behind Psalm 16:5-6 is God’s apportioning the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. They determined by lot the various boundaries. But God did not give an inheritance of land to the tribe of Levi, the priests. Rather, the Lord said to Aaron (Num. 18:20), “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.”

As David reflects on this and applies it to himself, his thought is that having the Lord as his portion is better than the best piece of land that anyone could inherit. John Calvin has some especially sweet words on these verses. He says (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Ps. 16, p. 224), “None are taught aright in true godliness but those who reckon God alone sufficient for their happiness.” He adds (p. 226), “For he who has God as his portion is destitute of nothing which is requisite to constitute a happy life.”

I can’t leave this first section of this beautiful psalm without urging you not to rest until the Lord is your supreme treasure. If that concept is strange to you, then ask the Lord to open your eyes to see the treasure of Jesus Christ, so that out of joy, you will give up everything you have to gain that treasure. What happens when the Spirit of God enables you to do this?

2. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you will be satisfied with present and eternal pleasures in Him (16:7-11).

David’s primary joy is not in God’s gifts, but in the Lord Himself (Willem VanGemeren, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, [Zondervan] ed. by Frank Gaebelein, 5:157). But these verses list four blessings, all resulting from the supreme blessing of having God as our treasure:

A. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you enjoy His counsel and instruction (16:7).

“I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.” The Hebrew word for “mind” is literally, “kidneys.” It refers to the innermost personal life (J. J. Stewart Perowne, The Book of Psalms [Zondervan], p. 194). “Night” is plural in Hebrew, so the thought is, “night after night the Lord has counseled and instructed me as I have meditated upon Him.” David may be referring to the night watches or to times when he woke up in the night and thought about the Lord. When you treasure God’s Word in your heart, you receive His instruction that will sustain you during the nights of difficulty and trials.

B. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience His stability in trials (16:8).

“I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Calvin (p. 228) explains, “The meaning, therefore, is, that David kept his mind so intently fixed upon the providence of God, as to be fully persuaded, that whenever any difficulty or distress should befall him, God would be always at hand to assist him.” He concludes (ibid.), “David then reckons himself secure against all dangers, and promises himself certain safety, because, with the eyes of faith, he beholds God as present with him.”

C. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience gladness and joy in His security (16:9).

“Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely.” Glory refers to the soul, but the LXX translates it as “tongue.” The tongue expresses what is in the soul. By adding, “my flesh,” David means that his total being, inward and outward, is glad and joyful because God has caused him to live securely. When we reflect on our security in Christ, as Paul does in the climax of the wonderful Romans 8, we cannot help but be glad and rejoice in the Lord. If God is your treasure then you are His treasure (Deut. 26:18), and He isn’t about to lose you! Rejoice!

D. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience eternal joy and pleasure in God’s presence (16:10-11).

“For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” As we will see in a moment, these verses find their ultimate, literal fulfillment in Christ. But as applied to David, the idea is that although he will die, the Lord will not permit him to suffer eternal alienation. To “undergo decay” “is a metaphor for total isolation and abandonment from God’s presence” (VanGemeren, p. 158). Rather than that, David had a hope beyond the grave to enjoy fullness of joy and eternal pleasure in God’s presence. That is your hope if you know the Lord as your supreme treasure.

David’s satisfaction as expressed in verse 11 stands in stark contrast to the sad experience of his son, Solomon. Solomon sought satisfaction in his work, but found it empty. He sought fulfillment through wisdom, but found it vain. He built a beautiful mansion and landscaped it with a breathtaking garden, but found no pleasure in it. He tried laughter and wine, but found these to be madness. He had sexual pleasures that few men have experienced, with 700 beautiful wives and 300 concubines, but they could not satisfy him. He had fabulous wealth, but it couldn’t buy him happiness. He chronicles all of this in Ecclesiastes, where he finally concludes (Eccl. 12:13), “fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.” Too bad he didn’t learn sooner from his father to make the Lord his supreme treasure!

But maybe you’re wondering, “If I don’t go after worldly pleasures and instead seek pleasure in God, how can I be sure of the eternal joy and pleasure that God promises? Maybe I’ll live a hard life of suffering or persecution and die and that’s it. How can I know that I will have pleasures forever with God?”

3. All of God’s promises of eternal pleasure are secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (16:8-11).

Both Peter and Paul (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35-37) cite these verses and assert that they did not find ultimate fulfillment in David, in that he died and his body underwent decay. David wrote prophetically of the son of David, God’s Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to this earth to bear the awful curse of God’s wrath for the sins that we have committed. God placed our guilt on Him. “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa. 53:6). As Paul explains (Gal. 3:13-14), “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’—in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

As Paul also explains (in 1 Cor. 15:12-19), the entire Christian faith rests on the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If His body is in the tomb and underwent decay, then we are not forgiven! But Paul and Peter and many other faithful witnesses joyfully testify that God did not leave Jesus in the tomb. He is risen! That means that God’s promises of eternal joy and pleasure in His presence are secure for those who trust in the risen Savior!

Conclusion

In Desiring God, John Piper explains how C. S. Lewis helped him to see that it is not wrong, but right to seek our own pleasure. Lewis wrote (Piper, ibid., p. 17), “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Infinite joy and pleasure are offered to us in Jesus Christ. Sell all that you have to buy the field with that great, eternal treasure and you will have fullness of joy and pleasures forever in Him!

Application Questions

1. Your friend claims to be a Christian, but is not experiencing joy in Christ. He asks your help. Where would you begin?
2. Is it okay to enjoy things other than God (family, friends, possessions, etc.)? When do they become idols?
3. Is it sin to be depressed? Why/why not? Defend biblically.
4. Does Psalm 16 alter your view of God? How so?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

If a “Time Machine” existed, which could take you back to any time and place in history, my first choice would be to go back to a Sunday a little over 1950 years ago, to a dusty road between Jerusalem and a village called Emmaus. There two men were walking on the day of Jesus’ resurrection when the risen Savior appeared to them. Not recognizing Him at first, they explained to Him their confusion about the events of the last several days. He said to them, “‘O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:25‑27).

If there had been tape recorders then, I would trade the hundreds of books in my library to obtain a tape of Christ (in English!) explaining what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself! I’m certain that in that tape you would hear Him explain Psalm 22. It speaks of Christ’s suffering (22:1-21) and His glory (22:22-31; see 1 Pet. 1:10‑11).

On one level, the psalm refers to some event in the life of David, probably when he was being pursued by Saul. But there is no situation recorded in Scripture where David went through trials to the degree the psalm describes. David is going beyond himself, applying things prophetically to Christ. Thus to do justice to the psalm, we must leave David’s experience and focus on how it applies to David’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It describes a death by crucifixion hundreds of years before that mode of execution was known. The details of the psalm were fulfilled by the Son of David, Jesus the Messiah, about 1,000 years after they were written.

We are standing here on holy ground. If you’ve ever wondered what Jesus actually said in the Garden of Gethsemane as He wrestled with bearing our sins (the gospels only give a brief synopsis), you probably have it here. I always feel inadequate to preach, but I feel especially inadequate to speak on a text as profound as this one. We see here something of what our salvation cost the Savior. Though His sufferings go far beyond anything we can ever comprehend, we get a glimpse of the agonies He endured for us. The only proper response is to bow in worship and to submit ourselves afresh to do the will of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

1. Christ suffered on the cross for our salvation (22:1‑21).

The first section consists of three cycles of complaint and confidence:

First Cycle: 22:1‑2 = Complaint (to God)

22:3‑5 = Confidence (in God)

Second Cycle: 22:6‑8 = Complaint

22:9‑11 = Confidence and Petition [v. 11]

Third Cycle: 22:12‑18 = Complaint

22:19‑21 = Confidence and (mostly) Petition

By looking at the complaint sections we can see with prophetic clarity something of Christ’s sufferings on the cross. As we think about the fact that “Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature’s sin,” our hearts should well up in thanksgiving for what He endured for us. Note what happened to Christ on the cross:

A. He was forsaken of God (22:1).

When Jesus was crucified, darkness fell upon the land from about noon until 3 p.m., when Jesus cried out the haunting words of Psalm 22:1: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46).

We enter at once into the most unfathomable mystery of the gospel. No one can really know what was involved in God’s forsaking Jesus during those three hours of darkness. We know that Jesus bore God’s curse upon world’s sin and that somehow God in His holiness was forced to turn His back upon His Son while He bore that sin. Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). He bore God’s wrath which we deserved. Thus He was forsaken by God the Father.

So while the physical agony was terrible, the spiritual agony was infinitely worse. We can’t understand, because we have not enjoyed perfect fellowship with the Father from all eternity as Jesus had. Not sharing His holy nature, we can’t imagine what it was like for Jesus to become sin. But that’s what happened on the cross.

B. His prayers were not answered (22:2).

He cried for deliverance from death; that, if possible, this cup should pass from Him. Yet He was not delivered from death or spared the cup. Instead, He went through death and was delivered in the resurrection. How awful it must have been for Him who enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father to cry out to Him, only to have Him not answer!

C. He was despised and mocked (22:6‑8).

He calls Himself a worm and not a man. A worm is an object of weakness and scorn. (Can you imagine a sports team calling themselves the “Worms”? We have the Giants, Bears, and Broncos, but no “Worms.”) The worm referred to is the cochineal, which produces a scarlet color used as a dye when it was crushed. It was used in the Tabernacle to dye part of the coverings and veils (Exod. 26:1, 31, 36). Jesus was crushed so that His blood might cover our sins. But from man’s point of view, He was scorned and despised. Verses 7‑8 describe the exact actions and words used by Jesus’ enemies when He was on the cross (Matt. 27:39‑43)! They mocked His own claims of trust in God.

D. He was overpowered by ferocious men (22:12‑13).

His enemies are likened to ferocious animals--bulls, lions, and dogs (22:12, 13, 16). (Bashan [v. 12] was an area noted for its well‑fed bulls.) I read about a man who was attacked by pit bull dogs and I’ve read of David Livingstone’s being mauled by a lion. I’d rather not go through either experience! That was what Jesus felt like as He hung upon the cross while the Jewish rulers snorted their ridicule and false accusations. Even though He could have called 10,000 legions of angels, the Savior chose to suffer silently.

E. He went through the physical and emotional agony of crucifixion (22:14‑18).

Verses 14‑18 are amazing prophecies of Christ’s crucifixion. I think they prove the divine inspiration of the Bible, since this was written hundreds of years before crucifixion was known to man. Crucifixion arose as a means of torture somewhere in the East, perhaps with the Medes and Persians. Alexander the Great seems to have learned it from them and brought it West. The Romans learned it from the Phoenicians through Carthage and perfected it as a means of execution reserved for the worst criminals. It was a brutal, torturous, humiliating means of execution. Note the psalmist’s description, which goes far beyond his own experience:

“Poured out like water” (v. 14)‑‑points to the excessive perspiration caused by the suffering plus the feeling of weakness as life slowly ebbed away. This was reflected in Jesus’ cry, “I thirst!”

“Bones out of joint” (v. 14)‑‑not literally, but the feeling of being stretched out by the arms as He hung on the cross.

“Heart turned to wax and melted” (v. 14)‑‑the heart struggling to supply blood to the extremities.

“Strength dried up like a potsherd, tongue sticks to roof of mouth” (v. 15)‑‑weakness as His life ebbed from Him; extreme thirst as His body was dehydrated.

“Dust of death” (v. 15)‑‑He is all but dead.

“Surrounded by evil men” (v. 16)‑‑at the scene of the cross as His enemies waited for His death.

“Pierced hands and feet” (v. 16)‑‑the vowel pointing (added by Jewish rabbis in the Christian era) of some Hebrew manuscripts renders it, “like a lion,” but it is difficult to make any sense out of that meaning. Calvin argues that the rabbis changed the text to escape the obvious reference to the cross. The LXX (200 B.C.) translates the Hebrew “pierced.” Two other Old Testament passages (Isa. 53:5; Zech. 12:10) refer to Messiah being pierced.

“Count all my bones” (v. 17)‑‑from being stretched out naked on the cross.

“People stare” (v. 17)‑‑a public crucifixion.

“Divide my garments and cast lots for my clothing” (v. 18)‑‑a specific prophecy of the activity of the soldiers around the cross of Christ.

That’s just a glimpse of Christ’s suffering as seen prophetically by David 1,000 years before Christ. His great suffering shows us our great salvation and how we should respond.

How should I respond to Christ who suffered for me?

(1) I should see both the greatness of my own sin and the greatness of Christ’s love.

My sin put Jesus on the cross. His love made Him willing to go there. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

The famous Dutch artist Rembrandt did a painting of the crucifixion. The focus of the painting, of course, is the Savior on the cross. But he also painted the crowd gathered around the cross. Standing there in the shadow at the edge of the picture, Rembrandt painted himself! Rembrandt, a participant in the crucifixion!

How true that is! We need to join Rembrandt by putting ourselves there. We need to make it personal. It was my sin which put Jesus on the cross! I was raised in a Christian home and never did many of the gross outward sins that many commit. It’s easy for me to think that I’m not as bad a sinner as others. But the more I grow as a Christian, the more I discover how utterly wicked my heart is. The way to holiness is not thinking more highly of myself, but rather, realizing more how sinful I am which drives me to cling more tightly to the cross, where I receive God’s mercy.

It’s not popular in our day to emphasize our sinfulness. We want an upbeat message that glosses over sin. Our hymn book has even changed the words of Isaac Watts’s great hymn, so that instead of, “Would He devote that sacred Head for such a worm as I?” it reads, “for someone such as I?” We’re too good to call ourselves worms! A lady once told me in a Sunday School class, “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to call myself a worm!” I explained that Watts took that line in his hymn from Psalm 22 and said, “That’s what Jesus called Himself when He bore our sins. Don’t you want to be identified with Him when He did that for you?”

Dear brothers and sisters, we need to be careful not to exalt ourselves against the Lord. If you think that you’re a pretty good person and that God just had to give you a little boost to get you into heaven, you won’t love Jesus much. “He who is forgiven little, loves little” (Luke 7:47). But if you recognize the truth, that you were lost in your rebellion against God and that He saved you from hell in spite of your awful sin, forgiven much you will love Him much. As Spurgeon put it, “He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honour of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed” (C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography [Banner of Truth], 1:54).

So this glimpse of the cross should impress upon me the greatness of my own sin along with the greatness of Christ’s love.

(2) I should submit to and trust Him who ordains suffering to come into my life.

Note 22:15: “You lay me in the dust of death.” The Hebrew verb for “lay” has the nuance of ordain or appoint. Although evil and godless men crucified the Lord Jesus, they did it in accordance with the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23; 4:27‑28). And so in one sense it was the sovereign plan of God which put Christ on the cross.

The confidence sections of the psalm (22:3‑5, 9‑11, 19‑21) show Christ’s response to the Father. Did He malign God or shake His fist in God’s face for ordaining this awful suffering? No! He affirms the holiness of God and uses it as the basis for His plea (22:3). He recalls God’s faithfulness with others in the past and in His own past experience (22:4‑5, 9‑10). And He calls out in faith to God for deliverance (22:19‑21).

How do you respond when trials come into your life? The author of Hebrews says that Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). Not that He was disobedient before; but you don’t know obedience experientially until you suffer. If you’re going through a hard time, learn to obey by submitting and trusting.

Later, the same author tells us, “For consider Him, who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart” (Heb. 12:3). Jesus endured by entrusting Himself into the hands of a loving, sovereign God. So should we!

(3) I should trust God when my prayers go unanswered.

Jesus prayed for deliverance, but God didn’t answer Him‑‑at that point. God did answer in the resurrection. But Jesus had to go through crucifixion and death before He received the answer to His prayers. And yet He continued to call God, “My God” (22:1‑2, 10) and “My Help” (22:19).

Sometimes God will answer our prayers in a better time and a better way from His perspective. But we may not understand it. But we have to trust Him as our God even though we don’t understand. I’ve had times where I’ve prayed diligently for something that I believed to be God’s will, but it seemed as if things couldn’t have gone any worse if I hadn’t prayed at all! It’s easy to begin doubting God when you pray and He doesn’t seem to answer.

At such times, come back to the miraculous prophecies of this psalm, and let them bolster your faith. If God’s Word could accurately describe a crucifixion hundreds of years before that mode of death was practiced, and predict the specific details of Christ’s death, even down to the words His enemies would say and the gambling of the pagan soldiers for His robe, it’s solid evidence that you’re dealing with a supernatural Book! There are dozens more such prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ. So you can trust in God and His Word, even if you are going through trials and your prayers seem to be unanswered.

So verses 1-21 show us how Christ suffered on the cross for our salvation. But the psalm doesn’t end on the defeat of the crucifixion. It goes on to the victory of the resurrection and the glories which follow.

2. The glories of Christ’s resurrection require proclaiming God’s great salvation to all peoples (22:22‑31).

The psalm doesn’t say in black and white that Christ arose, but several things indicate that the resurrection took place between verses 21 and 22. First, at the end of verse 21 most scholars translate, “You have heard” or “You have answered” (NASB, NIV margin, New KJV). There is a sudden note of confidence.

Second, in verse 22, Messiah says, “I will declare Your name to my brothers.” Jesus never called the disciples His brothers before the resurrection. But immediately after the resurrection, He told Mary Magdalene, “Go to My brothers and tell them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17; see also Heb. 2:11‑12).

Third, the results described in these verses are things that resulted from Christ’s resurrection. They obviously go far beyond David’s personal experience. They are:

(1) Fellowship (22:22)‑‑We’re His brothers. He declares God’s name (= His character and attributes) to us.

(2) Praise (22:22‑23)‑‑If Christ only suffered and died, there is no room for praise. We would still be in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). But Hallelujah! He is risen! We can praise Him!

(3) Testimony (22:24)‑‑God did not abandon His holy one to the grave (Psalm 16:10). He listened to His cry and raised Him from the dead. Now we can testify to God’s deliverance in raising Christ from the dead.

(4) Thank‑offering (22:25‑26)‑‑These verses picture a Hebrew thank‑offering. When God answered his prayers, a worshiper would offer a thank‑offering at the temple. The poor would be invited and there would be a feast giving thanks to God. The worshipers would greet one another with, “Let your heart live forever!” (22:26). In the same way we have a feast of thanksgiving, the Lord’s Supper (eucharist), where we gather to offer thanks and praise for God’s gift to us in Christ and the deliverance we have from our sins through His death and resurrection.

(5) World‑wide evangelism (22:27, 30‑31)‑‑The good news of the risen Savior will be proclaimed beyond the Jews to all peoples, and to succeeding generations. There is no good news if the Savior is dead, but there is salvation if He is risen. The message applies to the poor and rich alike (22:26, 29), to all who acknowledge their need.

(6) Kingdom Rule (22:27‑28)‑‑This part has not yet been fulfilled, but it will be soon. He will return bodily to crush all opposition and to rule the nations with a rod of iron in His millennial Kingdom. Every knee shall bow before Him. Just as the other prophecies have been fulfilled, so this one will be. You can count on it!

Conclusion

So the message of Psalm 22 is:

Because Christ suffered on the cross for our salvation, we must proclaim it to all nations.

Two applications: (1) Put the cross at the center of your walk with God. When I focus daily on the cross, my heart is filled with joy and thankfulness for God’s priceless gift to me. The cross also keeps me aware of my own sinfulness, so that I don’t trust myself, but cling to Christ. Focusing on the cross helps me resist temptation as I remember that I was redeemed with nothing less than Jesus’ blood. How can I sin against Him who so loved me? We tend to forget the cross, which is why Jesus ordained that we come often to His table in remembrance of Him.

(2) Put God’s heart for the lost as the bottom line of your walk with God. He wants all the ends of the earth to turn to Him and worship Him (22:27). That means that if I’m not actively focusing on world missions, I’m too self-focused. I’m not in tune with God’s purpose to be glorified in all the earth. We have His command to go and His promise that “all the families of the nations will worship” the Lord (22:27). How can they worship Him if they’ve never heard? How will they hear if we don’t give, send, and go?

Discussion Questions

1. Should we focus on the fact that we’re sinners, saints, or both? Give Scripture to support your answer.
2. Which view results in greater faith in God: That He ordains suffering or that He only permits it?
3. Is missions for every Christian or only for some?

Copyright 1993, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Have you ever been in a difficult trial and you knew that you were in the trial because of your own sin? You knew that you should cry out to God for help, but you were afraid to do so because of your sin. Or, maybe your problems were not due to deliberate sin, but rather because of immaturity or stupid decisions. Sometimes even though I have prayed for guidance and wisdom, I still have done something that resulted in a heap of trouble. What should you do at such times?

Psalm 25 teaches us to seek God in the hard times, no matter for what reason we are in those hard times. It seems to me that James 1:5-6 is a succinct summary of Psalm 25: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” The context of James’ counsel is the need for wisdom in the midst of various trials (James 1:2-3). James tells us by faith to seek God and His wisdom in our trials. That’s what David tells us in Psalm 25:

No matter how difficult your trials or what their cause, seek the Lord for His wisdom and trust Him to work for His glory and your good.

This psalm is an acrostic, where each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (There are a few variations that are too technical to explain here.) The psalmists may have used this form to help people memorize the psalms. James Boice (Psalms, Volume 1, Psalms 1-41 [Baker], p. 223) also suggests that in the case of this psalm, there is the dominant theme of learning or instruction, which fits with the alphabetical arrangement. David prays for the Lord to teach him His ways (25:4-5, 8-9). Boice concludes (ibid.), “So we could rightly say that the psalm is a school-book lesson on how to live so as to please God and be blessed by him.” I would only add, “in the context of difficult trials.”

Acrostic psalms are often difficult to outline, because the content is guided more by the alphabetic arrangement than by a logical outline. Spurgeon (A Treasury of David [Baker], 1:441) divides this psalm into prayer (1-7); meditation (8-10); prayer (11); meditation (12-15); and, prayer (16-22). But rather than following such an outline, I want to treat it by dealing with some of the major themes: Trials; sin and guilt; seeking the Lord for wisdom in such situations; and, the Lord’s capability of delivering us from these trials for His glory and our ultimate good.

1. God’s saints often find themselves in difficult, frightening circumstances.

We can’t be certain about David’s circumstances in this psalm. In light of his repeated references to his sins, including the sins of his youth, he must have been older. Since his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband led to the events of Absalom’s revolt, it probably was written during that episode.

Note David’s situation: He has treacherous enemies that are seeking to exult in his demise (vv. 2-3). These foes are many in number and they hate David with violence (v. 19). They have gained the advantage over David, because he describes his feet as already caught in their net (25:15). David feels lonely and afflicted, and his troubles are growing worse, not better (vv. 16-17). And, David’s repeated requests for God to teach him (vv. 4-5, 8-9, 12, 14) imply that he is confused in the midst of this mess.

If David, who walked with God from his youth, was facing these kinds of trials as he was about my age (early 60’s), then none of us are exempt. Sometimes I hear Christians bemoan, “I’ve been following the Lord and seeking to be obedient. Why am I experiencing all of these trials?” They think that if you obey God, He gives you a free pass from trials. But read your Bible! Many of the most godly men and women in the Bible went through difficult trials. Don’t be surprised (1 Pet. 4:12)!

But maybe you’re thinking, “Yes, but you said that the trials behind this psalm seem to stem from David’s sin. That leads to the second point:

2. Sometimes the difficult circumstances that we face are due to our own sins or shortcomings.

David’s painful guilt runs through this psalm. In verse 7 he prays, “Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions.” Apparently his troubles later in life dredged up the sins that he had committed in earlier years. In verse 8, he refers to himself as a sinner. In verse 11, he again cries out, “For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.” In verse 18, he again asks the Lord, “forgive all my sins.”

The older I get, the more I relate to the prayer that God would not remember the sins of my youth. The closer you draw near to the Lord, the more hideous the sins that you committed when you were younger appear to be. Some of the sins from my youth keep coming back to haunt me. I think, “How could I have done those things? What was I thinking?” Answer: “I wasn’t thinking! I was pretty much running on hormones! Only God’s grace kept me from doing some things that could have had far more serious consequences!

I try not to dwell on those sins, because they are now under the blood of Christ. But when they come to mind, they remind me of how corrupt my heart not only was, but still is (because I am still susceptible to the same sins). And, I thank God for His great love that sent His Son to bear my penalty for those sins. And I realize both my own enormous need for grace and my need patiently to extend God’s grace to others, as He has done to me.

There is one other application here: Whenever I am in a difficult situation, whether a health need, a financial need, an interpersonal conflict, or whatever, I use the trial to examine my own heart. Am I in this mess, whether in part or in whole, because of my own sin? No matter why I’m in this difficulty, what is the Lord trying to teach me? Even when I get a cold, I use it to humble myself by realizing my own weakness and mortality. I’m like the grass of the field, here today and gone tomorrow. I’m dependent on God for every breath I take and every bite of food that I eat. So, use your trials to examine your heart and life before God.

If you conclude that your trial is directly related to your sin or to your stupidity, what should you do? The tendency is to try to cover it up and bluff your way through. But that’s a wrong approach. There is a better way:

3. In whatever trials we find ourselves, seek the Lord and His wisdom for what to do.

One of God’s main reasons for bringing such trials into our lives is to get us to seek Him more fervently as we recognize in a new way how dependent on Him we really are. And, if our trial is due to some sin that was previously a blind spot, He wants us to confess it and turn from it. John Calvin comments (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Ps. 25, p. 428), “But we must know, that as often as God withdraws his blessing from his own people, it is for the purpose of awakening them to a sense of their condition, and discovering to them how far removed they still are from the perfect fear of God.”

Calvin also points out that David directed all his desires and prayers to God alone. Verse 1, 2a: “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust.” Calvin says (pp. 413-414), “Nothing is more inconsistent with true and sincere prayer to God, than to waver and gaze about as the heathen do, for some help from the world; and at the same time to forsake God, or not to betake ourselves directly to his guardianship and protection.” He adds (p. 417) that if David, who was such a wise man in the ways of God, cries out for God’s wisdom in his trials, how much more do we need to do the same!

So, how do we seek the Lord in our hard times? There is enough in this psalm to preach separate sermons on just about every verse. But briefly note three things:

A. To seek the Lord properly, confess your sins and ask for His pardon.

As already noted, David is painfully aware of his sins, not only in the current situation, but going back to his youth. He doesn’t just shrug off his sins by thinking, “What do you expect? I was just a teenager!” He doesn’t compare himself to his enemies and say, “I may have my faults, but these guys are evil!” He doesn’t belittle his sins by saying, “Okay, I was wrong to sleep with Bathsheba, but hey, I’m just a red-blooded guy who likes women!” He doesn’t say, “Being the king is a tough job. So if I made some mistakes, back off! I’m only human!” Rather, David’s guilt over his sins drives him to confess his sin to God and plead for pardon.

Note again verse 11: “For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.” God’s name refers to His attributes, to all that He is as He has revealed Himself to us in His Word. In one of the primary, early instances of God’s revealing Himself, Moses “called on the name of the Lord” (Exod. 34:5). Then we read (Exod. 34:6-7), “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’”

David was referring to this when he asks God to remember His compassion and lovingkindnesses (v. 6). Then he prays (v. 7), “according to Your lovingkindness remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.” God is free to deal with us according to grace (“lovingkindness”) because Jesus satisfied His holy justice when He bore our sins on the cross. Thus God now can be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Thus the first step in seeking the Lord during your hard times is to examine your heart and confess your sins, relying on His grace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

B. To seek the Lord properly, review and affirm God’s attributes.

After David’s initial prayer (25:1-7), he pauses to review who the Lord is. Calvin (pp. 421-422) observes that it is difficult to be steadfast in prayer unless we pause and refresh ourselves by meditating on God’s goodness, as David does here. The psalm is full of God’s attributes: God is trustworthy and faithful (vv. 1, 3), because none that wait for Him will be ashamed. He is marked by truth (vv. 5, 10). He is the Savior (v. 5). He is compassionate and loving (v. 6). He is good and upright (v. 8). He is just (v. 9) and forgiving (v. 11). He reveals His truth to those who fear Him (v. 14). He is gracious and comforts the lonely (v. 16). He is powerful to rescue His people from their afflictions (vv. 15, 17, 18, 20). He will redeem His chosen people from all their troubles (v. 22).

As you review and affirm these and God’s other awesome attributes, it will encourage you to seek Him more fervently in prayer in the midst of your trials.

C. To seek the Lord properly, you must be teachable and willing to walk in His ways.

Throughout the psalm, David asks God to teach him His ways or paths (vv. 4, 5, 8-10, 12, 14). The Hebrew word for “paths” refers to ruts made by wagon wheels passing over the same ground often. God is consistent in His paths or ways, which stem from His holy nature. It would be ludicrous to ask God to teach us His ways or paths if we were not seeking to walk in them. But, thankfully, God instructs sinners in His way (v. 8)! We qualify!

To walk in God’s ways includes several things as revealed in this psalm. It includes prayer (the entire psalm is a prayer). It means to wait on the Lord (vv. 3, 5, 21), because His timing is not always our timing. It means being teachable to grow in understanding God’s truth (as noted above). It includes humility (v. 9), because God gives grace to the humble, not to the proud (James 4:6). To walk in God’s ways means to obey Him (v. 10). It means to fear Him (vv. 12, 14). It means to look to the Lord continually (v. 15). It requires walking with integrity and uprightness (v. 21).

Running through all of these qualities is what David repeatedly affirms, namely, his trust in the Lord (v. 2): “O my God, in You I trust.” (Trust is implicit throughout the psalm.) Trust is behind David’s repeated plea that he not be ashamed (vv. 2, 3, 20). I have struggled to understand this, because it seems to me that shame-based cultures, such as currently exist all over the Middle East, are pride-based cultures. To kill someone to maintain your honor is simply to act in sinful pride. So why is David so concerned about not being ashamed? Is he just being prideful?

I think that the main idea is that David has gone public in affirming his trust in the Lord. If the Lord lets him down and David’s enemies triumph over him, not only David’s honor, but also the Lord’s honor, is at stake. Here is a man who trusted in the Lord. Was he a fool to do so or is God worth trusting in? So David’s argument in prayer is, “Lord, I’m trusting totally in You. Don’t let me be ashamed, because if I’m ashamed, Your name is going to be dishonored.” That leads to the final lesson:

4. No matter how difficult our trials, the Lord is able to deliver us from them, for His glory and our good.

We need to be careful to define “deliverance” biblically, not superficially. The Bible is clear that it is not always God’s will miraculously to heal us or to get us out of all our problems. God “delivered” John the Baptist, James, and Paul (2 Tim. 4:18) by having their heads cut off! Many of God’s faithful witnesses have died young through sickness or accidents. We often do not understand God’s ways. His way of getting the gospel to the Waodani tribe in Ecuador was to have them murder five choice young missionaries.

Our duty is to affirm by faith, as David does here, that the Lord is always good, loving, and compassionate. He is fully able to deliver us from our trials, even when we were the cause of them because of our sin or stupidity, if we humble ourselves and seek Him. He will instruct us as sinners so that we know His wisdom to guide us out of our trials. Our difficult circumstances should drive us to examine our hearts, confess and forsake all known sin, and cry out to the Lord for His gracious deliverance, all for His glory and our ultimate good.

One final thought before I give a specific application: Verse 22 grabs attention (in Hebrew) because it doesn’t follow the alphabetic scheme. Up to this point, the psalm has been David’s individual prayer, but at the end, he unexpectedly broadens it: “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” Perhaps David did this because he realized that as king, his problems were Israel’s problems. David’s grief over his own problems reminded him of the nation’s problems, so he prays for them. But it teaches us that our prayers must always include others. So if you’re going through a hard time, don’t forget to pray for others.

Conclusion

The last verse compels me to share with you the “troubles” that we’re facing as a church. For some of you, this will not be news. But I often have newer people in the church ask me, “What is this Equestrian Estates property that you often pray for a buyer?” Briefly, here is the situation. Several years ago, we were overcrowded. We were praying for property so that we could grow. After much prayer and many hours of discussion and counsel, we purchased this 14-acre parcel in west Flagstaff. It has a large indoor riding arena and stable, and a duplex, along with some other features. We planned to convert it into our worship and educational facility. The church raised about $750,000 in cash and we borrowed $1.8 million to make up the $2.5 million purchase price.

Due to many factors that I cannot go into here for lack of time, just before we were ready to move ahead, we decided that the Lord did not want us to pursue developing the property. There was also another piece of property that seemed more suitable for us. So we put the equestrian property on the market. But shortly after this, the real estate market fell apart and we have not been able to sell the property. Our three-year loan ran out and we recently had to refinance. The bank was only willing to give us a two-year note. So we need to pay off the note by December, 2010, or pray that we can refinance the loan again.

As the numbers in the bulletin indicate, we are currently in arrears in our property fund by over $52,000. That money came out of some general funds that we held in reserve. Also, we are currently falling behind in our property expenses (compared to giving) by about $6,000 per month (it was over $7,000, but it has slightly improved). At current rates of giving and expenditures, we could be out of funds by early next year. Also, a roofer has told us that we need a new roof on our main Beaver Street buildings within the next couple of years, which will cost in excess of $60,000. We can stay solvent for a few months longer by trimming some discretionary costs, such as staff salaries and giving to missions.

I am not trying to be an alarmist, but only to let you know as the body the difficult situation that could be ahead if there are no changes from our current course. We need either the sale of the property for a reasonable amount, a lessee who could make our payments, or increased monthly giving to meet our obligation. If we received some large gifts, we could pay off the mortgage and then consider whether the Lord would have us keep the property and use it for some ministry purposes. For example, it was recently suggested that we use it for a Bible college. But to do that, we must pay off our note, plus raise additional funds. The Lord can do that!

So I’m asking you to do two things. First, would you pray often that the Lord would guide us, either by providing an adequate buyer or by providing $1.7 million in donations to get us out from under our note before December, 2010? Second, as the Lord leads and provides, would you consider giving faithfully and regularly to the need? Perhaps you can only afford $50 per month extra. Some could give much more. But we need to sustain our mortgage until the Lord provides a solution. I realize that it is not exciting to give to a property that we are trying to sell, but we must meet our obligation to the bank. If we come away with any extra funds, we can then decide how best to use them for the ministry here. But we need to make up the $6,000 monthly shortfall before we exhaust our reserve funds.

Psalm 25 encourages me to continue to entreat the Lord for this need. We did not act in self-will when we bought the property. To the best of our ability at the time, we were seeking the Lord. But even if we made mistakes, this psalm tells us that the Lord can still deliver us. I felt the need to inform you so that you will pray fervently and give faithfully. Let’s ask that the Lord will be glorified as He leads us in His paths of lovingkindness and truth!

Application Questions

1. Why do many Christians seem to think that following Christ grants them a free pass from trials? Why is this not biblical?
2. Consider the life of David (esp., 2 Sam. 12) and discuss the following: Does God remove some or all of the consequences of our sin when we repent? Why/why not?
3. Where is the balance between proper self-examination and spiritually unhealthy introspection?
4. Do inner feelings have any place in seeking God’s guidance? Support your answer from Scripture. Consider 2 Cor. 1:12-13.

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation