Book of Psalms - Psa. 16, Vs. 1-11 (06/25/2023)

The Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7

Okay. Good morning. We will be in Psalm chapter 16. 16. Psalm 16. Give you a moment to get there in your Bibles. But you're going to put a finger there or a little dog ear your page or something. And we're actually going to start in 2 Samuel 7.

Yes. So you can tell we have a lot of ground to cover if we're going to go from 2 Samuel the 16th chapter of Psalms. Morning. So the reason why we're going to start in 2 Samuel is apparently it was right after chapter 7 of Samuel that David wrote the 16th Psalm.

So we're going to look at what happened in the second chapter of Samuel. I'm sorry, the 7th chapter of 2 Samuel. And that will give us an idea of what's on David's mind when he writes the Psalm, which I think will bring new life to the Psalm.

All right. So David will start in verse 1 of chapter 7. David has a plan. All right. It says in verse 1, and it came to pass when the king sat in his house and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.

And Nathan said to the king, go do all that is in thine heart for the Lord is with thee. So in other words, David is like, I've got a great house and God doesn't have a temple. He's got his ark, but it's in a, in a tabernacle of sheets, you know, like it's a tent and it doesn't, this doesn't feel right.

So David wants to do something for God, but we're about to find out that God has a different plan. So it says, and it came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came into Nathan saying, go and tell my servant, David, thus, thus sayeth the Lord, shalt thou built me a house for me to dwell in?

Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but I've walked in a tent and in a tabernacle in all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, Israel saying, why build ye not me a house of cedar?

Okay. So David has a plan. He says, I'm, I'm living in a nice house. God's not, we got to make, we got to make this right. We got to fix this. And God says, why, why are you, why are you thinking this way?

Then God says now, therefore, so shalt thou say unto my servant, David, remember he's talking to Nathan, the prophet, and he's telling Nathan to say this to David, thus sayeth the Lord of hosts. I took thee from a sheep coat from following the sheep to be ruler over my people, over Israel.

And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more.

Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time. All right, before we keep going, what's happening? What's God saying? Okay. So David basically comes to the point of saying, I'm going to do something for God.

And God goes, no, thanks. Let me do something for you. So he starts talking about what he's going to do for David and for David's people. And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people, Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies, also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house.

And when thy days be fulfilled, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers. I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. According to all these words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

Okay, so let's break down everything that God said. Essentially, why are you wanting to build me a house? Here's what I'm going to do for you. He reestablishes, or first he establishes David's rule. Now, I will make you a great name.

So David, you're the king because I made you so. Then he reaffirms his promise from his previous two covenants. See, what we're reading here is known as the Davidic covenant. This is the covenant God made with David.

He's already made a covenant with Abraham and made a covenant with Moses. And in verse 10, he's reestablishing that covenant or reaffirming it. He's saying that he promises that Israel will have a home, right?

So Israel is going to have a place of their own. We know this is the promised land. He told Abraham, go to a place that I will show you. And to Moses, he said, you're going to lead my people into this promised land.

Here, he is reaffirming that promise. And basically, he's saying, like, they have a place now. So we can kind of see, like with Abraham, it's, you're going to get to see it like this, I'm going to show you a place.

Moses, you're going to take them to the place and David, you're going to dwell in the place, that kind of thing. Then he has a fulfillment of his previous promise. So he says, Israel will have a time of peace.

That's also in verse 10. David's rule will extend to his children. So that's something new, right? Not only are you going to rule, I'm going to make sure your kids rule. And then your kids are actually going to build that temple that you're wanting to build so badly.

So Solomon is going to be the one who builds the temple. That's verse 13. Then there's like this upgrade to the promise. David's house will rule forever. This is not something that has been revealed so much in the previous covenants.

This is like an upgrade to the covenant from man's perspective. It's always been the plan. But from man's perspective, it's like an upgrade. He says, David's house will rule forever. That's in verse 13.

How is that going to work? How is it possible that David's house will actually rule forever through Christ? Yep. That's the mechanism that will make this upgrade work. And there's actually a hint to what that mechanism is.

When you read verse 14, it says, I will be his father and he shall be my son. So not only is it through a particular person, Christ, but it's activated through relationship with God. So this forever rule is going to happen through a relationship with God, the father.

David's seed will become God's seed. So Christ, who is a direct descendant of King David, is actually God's seed. His only begotten. So because David's seed has become God's seed, must rule forever, because he's the child of the creator of the universe.

He's king of kings and Lord of lords. So this is, of course, a foreshadowing of Jesus. And in fact, in Matthew chapter 21, verse nine, it says it actually calls Jesus the son of David. So we see that this promise is going to be it's not just upgraded from man's perspective.

We're going to see how it's going to flesh out to here pretty soon. But the seventh part of this covenant, we've gone through six so far. The seventh part is mercy will not depart from David's house. So he will have mercy forever and ever, which is kind of cool.

So if you'll remember what happened with Saul, God took his hand from Saul. He's not going to do that with David's house. And so there's seven parts. He establishes David's rule. He reaffirms his promise.

He has a fulfillment of his previous promise in that Israel's now going to have a time of peace. David's rule will extend to his children. Solomon will build the temple. There's an upgrade to the promise in that David's house will rule forever.

And then mercy will not depart from David. Can you imagine having God tell you all of that? Like you got it in your head. You're going to do something for him. And he's like, okay, no, thanks. But let me tell you what I'm going to do for you.

Because even just the idea of building something for God, it sounds like, yes. All right. Awesome. I'm going to do it. But think of what it must seem like in comparison to God. Seem pretty paltry, right?

Like our righteousness is as filthy rag. So the very best thing we can build is going to be like insignificant to the Lord. He cares about us building stuff for him. And he invites us to do that. But if we get it in our heart that we're going to do something great for him, we got to remember he's actually got it in his heart to do something mind-blowingly awesome for us.

And so that's what he's showing David. It's like, you think you're going to do something good for me? Watch this. You can sum up the Davidic covenant in three different parts. God mentions the throne of David that represents rule.

He mentions the kingdom of David. So that's the dominion that he's going to give David. And he mentions the house of David. So legacy, right? So you're going to rule. You're going to have a people to rule and a place to rule.

And it's going to last. That is quite a promise from the Lord. So here's what David's response to God's plan is. And I'm going to read each verse. And then my paraphrasing of the verse, I guess you could say like, how I would probably say what David said.

Okay. So in verse 18, David says, it says, then went, then went King David in and sat before the Lord, which is already, it's like this. Imagine God saying, I'm going to do all this for you. And David's just got to sit down.

Like, whoa, he sits before the Lord and says, who am I? Oh, Lord God. And what is my house that thou has brought me hitherto. It's as if to say, like, why me? We receive mercy and blessing like here us in, in this room.

That's what we receive. And what's interesting is as we read through what David's response is, I want you to imagine that we are a part of this covenant. Right. And we, we receive mercy and blessing forever from the Lord.

And so David's response in here is kind of like a clue as to what it, what it's like to actually become a Christian kind of, I mean, he's already God's man, but his response is kind of how we respond to salvation.

All right. So like, who am I? Like, why me? And if you think about the fact that God chose you before the foundation of the world, it's like that, like, why me? Why, why did he choose us? Verse 19. And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou has spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come.

And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? In other words, continual mercy and blessing. Who does this? Like that's, no man does this, right? And it's as if David's saying that like continual mercy and blessing, who does this?

Verse 20. And what can David say more unto thee? So David is saying this. And what can David say more unto thee? For thou Lord God knowest thy servant. It's almost like he's saying, what can I say? Uh, you know me, but it's about it.

Like, I don't even know what to say. Verse 21, for thy word's sake and according to thine own heart, has thou done all these great things to make thy servant know them? In other words, you did it because it was within you to do it.

So David has no part in it other than he receives it. He doesn't even know what to say about it. It's so far beyond his comprehension, how great it is. He has to sit down and he's like, why me? Who does this?

Uh, what do I say? You know me. And you you're doing this because it's within you to do it. So he shows that he had, he understands that it's completely the work of God and it's from the Lord. It's not from him.

Verse 22, wherefore thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee according to all that we have heard with our ears. In other words, you're the only one who would do this.

There is none other. You are, he begins to praise the Lord for the work that the Lord has done for him or has promised him. And he recognizes that only God could do this, could promise him continual mercy and blessing, could promise him rulership authority over his own assignment, promise him kingdom, like a, to have an assignment, giving him purpose.

And then also promises him legacy so that this will last forever. Only God can do that. Uh, so then he, he decides, what do I say next to God? He's like, what do you say to this? He basically says, okay, do what you promise.

Watch verse 25. And now, O Lord God, the word that thou has spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as thou has said. Okay, do it. And this, uh, is really, it's really funny because, uh, it reminds me of, it kind of reminds me of Peter.

Um, and I thought I had that in my, well, we'll get to that in a minute. Cause I do have my notes a little bit further down. Uh, verse 26 and let thy name be magnified forever saying the Lord of hosts is the God over Israel and let the house of thy servant, David be established before thee.

In other words, let it be for your glory. All right. So, okay. Do what you promise. Let it be for your glory. Cause you said you're going to do it and people are going to see that you do what you say.

Uh, for thou O Lord of hosts, God of Israel has revealed to thy servant saying, I will build thee in house. Therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. This is a very interesting verse because he's saying, I am saying this stuff to you because you first said all that stuff to me.

And I only found these words to say to you because of what you said to me. So I can only pray this prayer because of what you revealed to me. You see how that's so much like salvation. If we can't even pray to ask the Lord for salvation, unless he reveals himself to us, there's none that is good.

There's none that seeketh God. There's none that is righteous. Right? So like, this is really cool how this is paralleling what it's like to get saved. Uh, and so the next part is what really reminds me of Peter verse 28 and verse 29.

And now, Oh Lord God, thou art that God and thy words be true. And thou has promised this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee for thou O Lord God has spoken it.

And with thy blessing, let the house of thy servant be blessed forever. In other words, so go for it, God. Like this, this feels a lot like Peter when Jesus is washing their feet and Peter's like, not me.

And Jesus is like, well, if you don't let me do this, you have no part with me. And Jesus, then Peter goes, well, then not just my feet, my hands and my head also, right? Like, let's do this thing. He is so over the top excited about what the Lord is doing in that moment.

Peter is. And that's what David is doing here. He's like, yes, this is going to be awesome. Just go for it, God. Just do it all. And so that is all of Samuel, uh, chapter, is it Samuel? Second Samuel chapter seven.

Uh, and that is what has occurred just before David writes the 16th Psalm. So we're gonna spend the rest of our time going through the 16th Psalm and keep in mind it is right after David receives his covenant from the Lord.

And this is awesome, right? Because he's over the top excited, but also keep in mind what has to happen in order for the covenant to be fulfilled, right? If it's going to be ruling, ruling forever, and it's going to happen through the person of Christ, how does, how does Christ end up ruling forever?

He's got to die. All right. So that's, that's the setup for Psalm chapter 16. So here's 16. We'll try to get through it quickly. Uh, Mitch, Tom of David Mitch. Tom is a, it's a weird word that no one really knows what it means, but it's root word.

It has a primitive root, which means to carve or engrave. And by implication to, to inscribe indelibly, almost like to Mark, like you're marking gold or something. So in other words, this is a Psalm that is worthy of being like inscribed into gold.

It's that precious. And it's often considered the golden Psalm of David. All right. So it's kind of cool that, that, that he writes this Psalm after receiving the covenant, uh, Acts 2 25 through 27 gives us a clue as to why this is a praiseworthy Psalm.

Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost. What's he preaching about on the day of Pentecost? Peter, this is when the Holy spirit comes in, there's flames of tongue, the fire over people's heads. And people are like, Oh, these men must be drunk.

They're speaking in weird languages and stuff like what? And Peter stands up and corrects it. He goes, no, this is a fulfillment of prophecy. This is the Holy ghost. This is. And then he begins to preach Jesus who died on the cross.

Right? And so when he's preaching this, he literally says in that sermon, he says for David speaketh concerning him. And then he quotes Psalm chapter 16. So this is how we know that Psalm chapter 16, isn't just about Jesus.

It's actually going to be from the perspective of Jesus. David's writing it, but through the, uh, inspiration of the Holy ghost, he's writing it as if he's the son of God. Right? So to speak now in David's mind, he's not thinking he's the son of God, but there are a lot of Psalms like this where the words of David end up being the words of Christ as well.

Uh, so Psalm 16 is more than just about Jesus. It is, it is from the perspective of Jesus. So I want you to imagine Jesus saying the words in Psalm chapter 16, uh, and in verse 10 and 11 of this Psalm, it makes it pretty clear that it is, is Jesus.

Okay. So David thinks he can do something for God. He basically gets a no thanks. And then God blesses David beyond his imagination and far beyond his worthiness. So David prays a response that's reminiscent of salvation.

And then we see him write prophetically from the perspective of the one who will fulfill God's promise and our salvation. All right, watch how Jesus gives us a model for living as a Christian, just as David gave us a model for becoming a Christian.

Trust, Humility, and Delight in God

Uh, verse one, preserve me, Oh God, for in thee do I put my trust. Imagine Jesus asking for preservation. It almost doesn't seem like he would need that. Uh, but he, he did. He constantly tapped into the power of the father for that preservation.

Uh, the word for preserve means to guard. And Jesus was fully man when he needed this protection. So he asked for that protection from the Lord, trusting that God would provide it. Uh, for in the, do I put my trust?

Verse two, Oh my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee. When I see the phrase, Oh my soul, especially in the Psalms, it's a really cool thing to me because it seems very practical.

This is when David's writing, he often writes things as if he's talking to himself. There's like a self talk going on here. Uh, bless the Lord. Oh my soul. And all that is within me. Right? So like that's one of David's self talks, right?

Well, we see, if you imagine Jesus saying these words, Jesus has a similar dynamic where he's talking to himself. And what he's doing is he's bringing his spirit under, uh, or I should say his spirit.

He's bringing him himself under submission to the Lord. Like he's commanding himself. And so, Oh my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee. So two things here, Jesus submitted himself to the Lordship of the father, right?

Hey, you called God your Lord. Reminding himself of that will cause him to do things that act that out. It's like, Hey, you said, he's your Lord. Imagine saying that to yourself. You have said, God is your Lord.

That's a powerful thing to say to yourself, because if you remind yourself that you have called God your Lord, you might start treating him more like your Lord. The second thing, look at the humility of the statement.

My goodness extendeth not to thee. Jesus really truly felt that, that he was not near as good as the father, but just think how incredibly good he is and how much the father exalted the son. So there's a lot of humility there.

He also fought it, not robbery to consider himself equal with God. So this is truly coming from a place of humility. It's not that he believes he's not good. It's just, he believes so much more that God is better and that keeps him humble.

Verse three, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Imagine Jesus saying these words, all right, there's not much that we can do for God, but to serve his people.

Jesus delighted in doing just that, serving God's people. Perhaps this is what it means to delight yourself in the Lord because Jesus certainly did so. And we know we're supposed to delight ourselves in the Lord.

And yet Jesus also says that all his delight is in the saints. How do you delight yourself in the Lord? And also all your delight be in the saints. Well, he modeled what this relationship would look like with his father in his conversation with none other than Peter, when he said, Peter, do you love me?

Feed my sheep. Right? So like, how do you delight yourself in the Lord? You, you serve him by helping his people by, um, going out and expanding the kingdom for him. Right? And so that's what Peter does.

Uh, after Jesus has passed away and has risen and come and come back, Jesus becomes emboldened and goes out and serves God's people for the rest of his life. Uh, and so that's, this is what we do. We, this is what Jesus did.

He served his people and that is how he delights in the Lord. Uh, their sorrows, verse four, their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God, their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips.

It's like a warning that we should heed. Uh, idols bring sorrows. Uh, the idolatry of self love is essentially what all idols boil down to. Uh, I've been reading a book by, uh, Jonathan Kahn that it's the one that Myron mentioned in his sermon a few weeks ago, uh, the return of the gods.

And it's really a fascinating book because it shows you how the, the gods, the false gods of the Bible are infiltrating America today. But some really fascinating nuggets I've picked up out of it. And that is one when Israel turns away from God, they first turn to the God of Baal.

That's the one they made the molten calf to, right? Um, he is considered the God of wealth, right? So they begin to serve money rather than the true God. Uh, that's often where they start. And then closely following Baal is Ishtar and Ishtar is the goddess of fornication and self indulgence.

And she, uh, blurs the lines of, of, um, what's the word I'm looking for boundaries. Like she constantly violates boundaries. That's what she wants to do. Anything that sets up an absolute, like a boundary, for instance, there's a, there's male and there's female.

She wants to break down that wall. I don't want there to be male and female anymore. And she begins to blur the lines. And so if you look at the digression, uh, of Israel, they often start with Baal. They moved to Ishtar, uh, and all kinds of terrible fornication and stuff like that.

And then Molech comes in and Molech promises that you will achieve a higher status. You'll be able to climb the ladder of society. And all you have to do is sacrifice your children to him. And so by sacrificing your, the children, you now have the ability to, in today's terms, climb the corporate ladder.

That's what abortion looks like. Now I can go and be a career person because I don't have kids to take care of. You see? So it's the same sort of things happening in today's society. Uh, the prosperity gospel, uh, came on the scene and really close to the time that you had the, uh, sex, drugs, and alcohol or sex, drugs, and sorry, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

I think is what it is. That whole mantra from the sixties and early seventies, like all that came on the scene pretty soon afterwards and just carried both carried on through into today's society. Uh, and then of course, abortion was legalized for over 50 years as well.

Did you have something you wanted to say? Right. So they all, you can tell, you can kind of tell that the, the false gods often work together. Right. So mom said that, uh, even in today's society, you have, you can climb the political ladder by sacrificing the, the gender of your children to the God of Ishtar really is what it is.

Um, and so Jesus here says their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God, their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their enemy or take up their names into my lips.

So in other words, um, think of these, just these three gods, for example, all three boil down to a self love, right? So that's a, an idol in and of itself. Loving yourself is an idol. Um, and that is prominent in today's society.

That's kind of the, it has been behind the scenes. It's becoming more overt. Like this is all about, you got to love yourself. Um, people have come to believe that self love promises fulfillment. Uh, it promises the activation of the ability to love others because you have to love yourself first.

That that's not scriptural. That's not what Jesus did. He put him, he did not put himself first, you know, uh, they're going to find that sorrows are multiplied when this happens. And that's why society is just breaking down.

Why things are getting worse. Why crime is going up? Why divorce is increasing? Like all of that sorrows are multiplying because we're chasing the idol of self love. Uh, Jesus is saying he will have no part in that.

Right. Uh, in fact, there's even a best selling book right now. Katie showed me yesterday called selfish is a superpower. I mean, I, I want to give the, the author of the book that benefit the doubt. Cause I've not read it.

And maybe there's a little twist in there to make it like selfishness is not really self fit. Like we're going to, we're going to not be selfish, but we're going to use a catchy title to get people to read the book.

Maybe. I don't know. Doubtful. Because if you just look at how society has gone, it's like, you know, you need to take care of yourself first. It's so ingrained in everything. Like it has always bothered me when I get on an airplane and they're like, in the event of an emergency, please put your own mask on before you try to put your children's on.

I'm like, Oh, hold my breath. I'll put my kid's mask on it. I'll get mine. I'm not going to let my kids sit there and suffocate while I'm like, okay, I can help you now. You know, it's not going to happen.

Like it's, it's so ingrained in everything we do. You got to help yourself first before you help somebody else. Jesus would have no part with idols. He would not drink their offerings. It says their blood offerings, which there you go.

There's a signal to Molech, right? I'm not going to do that. We too should separate ourselves from all forms of self-love and from idolatry, the idols that represent that self-love. Verse five, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup.

Thou maintainest my lot. So the secret to avoiding idol worship, Jesus gives us that right here. I should say Jesus and David. David's the one writing, but it is as if it's Jesus talking. The secret to avoiding idol worship is becoming content with God.

Jesus displayed this contentment when tempted by Satan in the wilderness, all these things will I give thee said Satan, right? But Jesus merely quoted the words of his father, right? So he basically, he just quotes scripture and he's content with the words of his father.

How are we going to be content with the words of our father? If we don't know what those words are, if we don't know much about him, like this, if we're going to get content with God, we got to get more in his word so that we can know what we're supposed to be content about.

Like what are the promises that God gave us? How does he say that he's going to fulfill them? What hope do we have that they will actually come true? We wouldn't know that if we don't actually read his word.

If we just take some preacher's word for it, preacher could get it wrong. We could find ourselves going, I'm not very content with what I've heard about God. No one can talk about God better than God can.

So get in his word and be knowledgeable of his word. Jesus literally quotes the scripture. So he's very knowledgeable of the word. And that's what we should do as well. Verse six, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.

Yea, I have a goodly heritage. See, pleasantness is the experience of the believer who is in service to his God. Do we find joy in serving our Lord? Or is it a burdensome task? The inheritance that God promised David, an everlasting kingdom, rulership, he would establish his house forever.

His mercy would not be removed from him. All of this was fulfilled in his son, Jesus, and extended unto us through that son and through the death of Jesus and the resurrection. So what a heritage, what a goodly heritage we have, right?

How pleasant should it be to serve that God? It should be very pleasant. When are you able to be content? Or I should say, when you are able to be content with the Lord, you will find pleasure in doing service to him and you will have a goodly inheritance.

There's the whole we do have thing that we've often seen from what Myron taught us and stuff. Verse 7, I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons.

So as Christians, we should be as resolved as Christ was to bless the Lord. I like how he says, I will bless the Lord. This is a resolution that's just going to happen. I'm going to bless him. We like him should walk in the counsel God has given us.

Jesus spent many nights alone speaking with the father, planning his work, readying the execution of those plans. While sinners work at night to cover the under the darkness of night, they cover their sins or attempt to.

Jesus used that same time to draw nearer to the father. It was at night that he prepared for the cross, sweating blood in the garden and pleading with his heavenly father. And at day he set his face like flint and resolved himself to bless the Lord with his service.

So like the nighttime was the preparation time, right? And the daytime was the execution time. How often do we use the day? We might say, okay, like I'm going to do a quiet time in the morning. And we're not even very good at that oftentimes, right?

I think Charlotte's probably the best I know at doing a quiet time in the morning. I don't know anybody who's as consistent with their quiet time as she is. And so we'll use the day and at night we're Netflixing and stuff, right?

And we're like doing stuff on TV and then that's it, right? And then we go to sleep. How much preparation at night have we done as well? Jesus used that a lot. Nighttime was a huge preparation time for him.

So that's a point that I'm certainly weak at that I need to get better at. I by default kind of did it last night because I was working on my Sunday school lesson last night, but it was just because I didn't have time to work on it before.

So it's something that it's interesting how, when you wake up, your brain works differently when you went to sleep thinking about the Lord. And sometimes we do that just in the, like maybe after we turn off the TV, we have a little prayer time and stuff, but being more mindful of that time and being more intentional with that time could serve us well.

Fixing Our Eyes on the Lord and Holding His Hand

Verse eight, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. So serving the Lord definitely comes at an expense, right? The cost is self-sacrifice, sacrifice of fleshly desire, sacrifice of negative thoughts, sacrifice of social acceptance.

That's just to name a few. How do we stay resolved? Well, we've got to fix our eyes on serving him as the ultimate prize. Like that's, that's the prize. Sometimes we go, all right, heaven, or, you know, like blessing from the Lord.

But the fact that he allows us and causes us to do service to him, it's greater than anything else we could do or receive. Like when you get to heaven, it's that, the service that you've actually done to God that you will be rewarded for.

So those rewards in heaven are really almost just a token. What are we going to do with our crowns? We're going to take them off and throw them at Jesus's feet. Like the rewards in heaven are just a token of the true reward, which is the fact that we get to serve him, that we get to do things for him, that he causes us to do things.

So like Jesus did, I have set the Lord always before me. Put the Lord in front of you is like, that's, that's what I'm striving for. I'm striving for the Lord because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.

So when you have him, he's going to grab you by the hand. When you have him in front of your face and you're grabbing by the hand, spiritually speaking, and he's going to walk you through all the wiles of life.