Psalm 16

Psalm 16 | New International Version:

Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”

Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

RAMP: READ / ANALYZE / MEDITATE / PRAY

R: Read the Passage

Read the passage fully — twice!

Psalm 16 was written by our boy, David, and is considered a Psalm of trust. I think you’ll see why!

A: Analyze

Journal your response to these questions:

1. What does this say about God?

When I look at the list of who God is according to this Psalm, the overarching and headlining theme is that God is good. We sing about it as kids and it seems so simple. But, think about the goodness of God. He keeps us safe, He gives us exactly what we need, He counsels us, He never abandons us, He makes His ways known to us. He is good. And He is good to us.

2. What does this say about you?

Take a look at all the times David says “I will.” Can you echo his statements in your own life? If not, that’s ok, but lay it before the Lord and ask Him to show you where you can trust Him more deeply.

3. Is there a command to follow?

I think it’s safe to say trusting God is an implied command of this passage.

4. Is there a sin to repent of?

Knowing how good God is and how good He has been to you, what is the hardest for youth trust Him with? Ask God to not only forgive you, but to help you trust Him more. He is not upset or mad at you for trusting yourself or others more than you trust Him — in fact, He wants to help you trust Him more. Let Him. Be honest with your areas of distrust or your lack of trust. And let Him show you how trustworthy He truly is.

5. Is there a promise to claim?

What a beautiful promise we see in verse 11:

• To know the path of life

• To know He fills us with joy in His presence

• To know eternal pleasures are His to give

What more could we ever hope for?! In His goodness, He gives Himself to us — His knowledge, His presence, His peace, His pleasures.

M: Meditate

Don’t rush this part — sit in this Psalm.

• Let it rub you the wrong way until it rubs you the right way. Wrestle with it until He wins — allowing yourself to struggle and fight back until you surrender to and see His goodness.

• Allow yourself to question His plan for your life until your heart trusts Him.

• Give Him permission to prove you wrong.

• Thank Him for His goodness, and thank Him for going to whatever lengths necessary to show you how good He truly is.

P: Pray

Pray these notes as long as you need to. Write them down, journal them if that’s helpful and don’t stop praying until you believe He is good.

Nicole’s Notes:

Let’s talk more about God's goodness. Take a moment to think about the goodness of God in your own life. Think big-picture goodness, like how He has given you family or how good He is in His God-ness. And then get more and more specific and personal. How do you see His goodness in your day-to-day life? How has He been good to you in the last few months? What about in the last week? How has He been good to you already today?

I know many of you are journaling through RAMP, so stop reading my words for just a moment and instead write yours — that’s exactly what David did, and we now have this beautiful Psalm. Write down how and where you have seen God’s goodness in your own life.

Praise Him for His goodness in your life. Thank Him for being so kind to you.

God’s goodness is something we can see and acknowledge, because once we start thinking about it, we see His goodness everywhere. In His nature He is good. At the most simple and basic definition of the word, He is good. He cannot be anything but good. And He cannot make a decision or a move that is not in line with His character. Everything He is and everything He does is good. As we grow more and more into the likeness of Christ, we take on this quality — a fruit of living in the Spirit of God (see Galatians 5:22-26).

And then we read verse 4 and we are face-to-face with a familiar place. How easily it can be for us to turn our backs on God and pursue something so less-good. When we pursue the ‘goodness’ of other things over God Himself, we find ourselves right in the middle of verse 4. We’ve all been there, and we can all attest to the truth of increased sorrows. As we chase temporary satisfactions over the eternal satisfaction found in Christ, we always come up with more sorrows than joy. A commentary author called this settled joy — not despair or complaint, but a joy we’ve just settled for. It’s temporary and not eternal. It quenches the immediate thirst, but doesn’t meet the needs of our soul.

David had experienced both, too. If you think back to before David was anointed King and just worked as a shepherd boy, you’ll remember he was the youngest in a long line of brothers. As you can imagine, his inheritance was slim. Add to that how mad his brothers were, and you can see how the idea of inheritance may have been a sore subject. While David may not have had an earthly inheritance, He believed the goodness of God provided something even better — a heavenly and eternal inheritance. And in his confidence in the goodness of God, he could say and believe verses 5-11.

I remember reading this chapter many, many years ago and getting very offended at verse 6. It was a time in my life where I wasn’t making a habit of recognizing God’s goodness in my life and I spent every day wishing for more or bigger or better. I felt a little trapped, a little underutilized and a little cranky at my current situation. And then I found myself reading Psalm 16. I honestly got mad. How dare God lead me to this passage. How dare He expect me to look at the boundary lines He had put in place and say they were pleasant. Those boundary lines I was supposed to be grateful for were exactly what I felt trapped by. How unfair.

Let me paint the picture more clearly — I saw the ‘boundary lines’ as literal lines around my life. This is what my thoughts sounded like:

• “Why do I have to live here?"

• “Why do I have to do this job?"

• “Isn’t there something else you want for me, God?"

• “Isn’t there a more impressive life I can live?"

• “Why can’t we live there and do that?"

I asked God to make that verse true in my heart. I asked God to change my perspective to see His boundary lines as good — as a reflection of and an extension of His goodness. At the time, I could not imagine a day where I could say verse 6 with belief. But I knew God’s word was true, and if David could say it, I could eventually say it. I wrote it in my journal and didn’t move on from studying/meditating on it for months.

Because let’s be honest — the life I lived then was a good life. The job I had was a good job. No one would look at my life at that point and think it was anything other than good. But I couldn’t see it for what it was. I was doing what God had given me to do and I didn’t want it. I was ungrateful. I was selfish. I wanted something else — a different calling than the one I had been given. The boundary lines around what God had given me were not pleasant. They seemed unfair and limiting.

I don’t have a powerful or profound story about when it became believable. But I think that’s the most beautiful part. Did my circumstances change? Yes, slightly. Did my heart change? Yes, profoundly.

I bet David had a similar experience. God’s goodness isn’t just apparent when He does something all of a sudden or miraculously. Oftentimes, His goodness is on the best display when He changes our hearts slowly — answering our prayers to trust Him. Don’t miss the significance of this — HE changes our hearts to trust HIM. He gets you, He knows how hard it is for you to trust Him. And He never grows impatient with us, instead, He does His work inside our hearts so we can fully trust Him.

For David, the lines around God’s plan for His life didn’t make sense. It surely could have been easier or more pleasant from David’s perspective. And quite literally, the boundary lines drawn for God’s people seemed limiting. But from God’s perspective they were just right and a part of His greater purpose.

I don’t typically send you on a wild goose chase through scripture, but this is too good. Read Acts 17:24-28 below and stand in awe of God’s goodness in providing ‘boundary lines’ around our life:

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.

The boundary lines of God are not designed to restrict us, but to protect us. They are not intended to squish our own dreams, but to allow us to flourish within HIS dreams FOR us. With a content heart rooted in trust, we can see His lines around our life as pleasant.

When we get to the place where we can say and believe verse 6, we will never loosen our grip on verse 11.

• When we see Him as GOOD, we will trust His path of life.

• When we trust His path of life, we will call HIS boundary lines pleasant.

• When we live inside HIS boundary lines, we experience the JOY of His presence.

• In His presence, we long for His eternal pleasures and desire them above the temporary pleasures of this world.

Psalm 16 | The Message:

Keep me safe, O God, I’ve run for dear life to you.

I say to God, “Be my Lord!” Without you, nothing makes sense.

And these God-chosen lives all around—what splendid friends they make!

Don’t just go shopping for a god. Gods are not for sale.

I swear I’ll never treat god-names like brand-names.

My choice is you, God, first and only. And now I find I’m your choice!

You set me up with a house and yard. And then you made me your heir!

The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart.

Day and night I’ll stick with God; I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.

I’m happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.

You canceled my ticket to hell—that’s not my destination!

Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face.

Ever since you took my hand, I’m on the right way.