Sermon for June 16th, 2024

Psalm 16:1-11

A Miktam of David. 1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 2 I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’ 3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight. 4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink-offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips. 5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. 7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. 8 I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. 10 For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. 11 You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Psummer of Psalms VII: Psalm 16

The summer between my sophomore and junior year of college I participated in an ROTC program called “basic training.” Since it was ROTC, it wasn’t quite as intense as actual basic training for the army, and was only about half as long, but it did take place at Fort Knox Kentucky, in real Army barracks with real drill sergeants, and it included a lot of real aspects of basic training, like waking up at 4am for daily PT, getting yelled at, marching in formation, taking off your gas mask in the gas chamber and reciting your social security number until you puked… oh, and my favorite: Land Navigation. This was in 1995, so well before cell phones and smart watches with GPS built in. We were each paired up with a buddy, given a paper map, a pencil, a compass, several coordinates, and then dropped off in the middle of the woods.

Now, I’ve always been good with a map and a compass, and I knew that. So even though we were exhausted from running around everywhere with heavy rucksacks on our backs, I set off at a pretty fast clip, hitting every single coordinate with very little help from my buddy. I was confident. I had this. Time to shine.

We were on the way to our last coordinate, our extraction point, and we could see our drill sergeants in the distance waiting for us—but they hadn’t seen us yet. It looked like we would be the first ones to arrive, although it would be close—there was another team that was coming up fast just behind us. But if we booked it, we could be first. I was super excited. And that’s where my buddy stopped us in our tracks. I have long since forgotten her name, but I think she was from Nebraska. She wasn’t nearly as good at navigation as I was, but (and I say this in hindsight) she was wise beyond her years.

She said, “Wait a minute. What do we get if we’re the first ones?” I said, “glory and fame.” She rolled her eyes a little bit, and said, “what else?” I said, “I don’t know; maybe we get to eat before everyone else?” I was very hungry. But she pointed out that dinner did not seem to be ready and waiting for us, even though it was the next thing on our itinerary after land navigation. Instead, she said, “let that other team go in first. We’ll stay here and watch what happens from a distance.”

So we did. We watched as they were briefly congratulated, and then immediately put to work carting around heavy water containers in preparation for dinner. The next group that came in got to peel potatoes while being yelled at by drill sergeants, and so on. My wise buddy and I found a nice soft grassy spot just out of sight where we could take turns resting and watching (so that at least we wouldn’t be last). We also found a bush full of very tasty blackberries to snack on. By the time we finally came in, about two hours later (and far from last), we were well rested, not nearly as hungry, and we too were congratulated for successfully completing our navigation. And shortly thereafter, dinner was ready.

Reflecting back years later, that was probably the most peaceful, enjoyable, and fun memory from my ROTC basic training experience. And you might be wondering what any of that has to do with Psalm 16!

Psalm 16 is what I would call a navigation psalm, a compass psalm. In the very last verse of the Psalm, the author says to God, “You show me the path… of life.” But just like in my ROTC experience, navigating successfully through life involves knowing what’s around you, knowing where you’re going, knowing when to move forward confidently… and also when to stand fast. It involves listening to wise counsel, avoiding traps, and being able to enjoy yourself along the way. So let’s jump right in…

The inscription at the beginning of the Psalm tells us that it is a Miktam of David. What’s a miktam? No one knows. Like so many labels and instructions in the Psalms, the meaning of this ancient Hebrew word has been lost to time. But Psalm 16’s connection with David, on the other hand, I think is helpful. Whether this Miktam (whatever that is) is BY David, or ABOUT David, or in HONOR of David—we know from the Scriptures that as a young man, David spent a lot of time wandering around the Judean wilderness, sometimes hiding or on the run from his enemies, and sometimes leading his merry band of outlaws into battle against them. Young David was almost always in trouble, and yet always confident that his God would protect him and lead him on the right path.

Hence verse 1: “Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” This is interesting because for many years while he was in hiding, David and his followers actually lived in a cave. He could have said, “in the cave, I take refuge.” We tend to think of a refuge as a place, but for David, it’s a person. Psalm 18, just two psalms after this one, and also a Psalm of David, uses similar language: The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

If your house—or your office, or your bedroom, or your favorite place—is your refuge, what happens when you leave that place? But if you see God as your refuge, you are protected wherever you go.

Verse two continues the Psalmist’s confident declaration of faith: “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” This is the right way to make a commitment—wholeheartedly and unequivocally. He doesn’t say, “Hey, you can be my God and we’ll see how it goes, but if something bad happens of if something better comes along, we may have to renegotiate this deal.” You are my Lord. I have NO GOOD apart from you. In other words, I’m all in, no matter what happens next.

So next, in verses 3 and 4, we come to a fork in the road. You don’t need a compass, a guide, if the path is clear cut and obvious. And we all know that life’s major decisions are often difficult. So here’s the choice: In verse 3, we have the “holy ones” and the “noble ones” contrasted with the idolatrous and blood-thirsty in verse 4. Easy enough, right? The Psalmist chooses the former, “in whom is all my delight” and rejects the latter group, refusing to even speak their names.

But what does that look like today? Who are the holy ones, the noble ones, the idolatrous and blood-thirsty ones? Does this mean I can’t be friends with someone who belongs to a different religion? I don’t think so. When the Psalmist says “holy” (kodesh) ones he probably does mean those who share his commitment to God. But “noble” אַדִּיר (adeer) ones in Hebrew, is a broader category. Strong’s concordance defines it as those who exhibit excellence, goodness, nobility. I think these are people who, while they may not share your commitment to God, live virtuous lives that are not in direct conflict with what God teaches us to do and be.

On the other hand, the idolatrous (both then and now) are those who place inanimate things (whether statues, or material possessions, or wealth, or power) on a higher pedestal than God, and center their lives around those things. Incidentally, there are plenty of self-identified Christians who, by their choices and actions, fall into this category. And blood-thirsty? Well, for the Psalmist, that may actually refer to some specific religious ritual that his Canaanite neighbors practiced. In any case, I think we know people today whose metaphorical desire for blood—or violence, or revenge, is the driving force in their lives. That, too, is the wrong path, but an easy enough one to stumble into.

In verse 5, the Psalmist says that “the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”

Portion usually refers to inheritance. And “cup” in the Bible is usually a symbol for one’s fate, one’s destiny. So when Jesus asks his disciples, “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink” he’s asking them if they are willing to share in his fate. The word “lot” here refers to casting lots, or (in our terms) a roll of the dice—specifically the outcome of that roll. So with all these analogies, the Psalmist is saying The Lord is my fate, my destiny. Or…using our compass metaphor, my “destination.” Destiny and Destination are derived from the same Latin root. Just like with the word “refuge” earlier, the Psalmist’s end goal is not a place, but a person. God is our destiny, our destination. You keep your eyes on your destination if you don’t want to get lost along the way.

Other compass points that guide us along the way? Verse 6 talks about our “goodly heritage” which is our upbringing, our training, our study of the scriptures, which establishes for us “pleasant boundary lines.” Verse 7 speaks of God’s counsel, which instructs our hearts even in the darkness of night when we cannot see clearly. And the final verses of Psalm 16 are filled with words like gladness, rejoicing, joy, and pleasure—all of which comes from a relationship with God, and trusting that this same God, according to verse 10, will never abandon us, leave us in a pit or lying on the ground.

To quote a certain Mandalorian…. This is the way. This is the path of life.

So if you are lost… if you are in trouble or on the run… If you are wandering in the wilderness… Or if you just want to find your way in this world…

Remember there are four points on a compass (North, South, East and West). And four points of guidance in Psalm 16:

• God is your heritage (where you came from, how you were formed and how you got here)
• God is your refuge (your protection and your counsel along the way)
• God is your happiness (the wind in your sails, the pep in your step)
• God is your destiny (your final destination, your heavenly home).

And someday when you finally get there, you might consider asking him what exactly a Miktam is.