We ask God to make the Scripture fresh, encouraging, and convicting to us as we sit under its ministry.
From Psalm 16
Gracious God and Father, as we come to sit under the ministry of your Word and Spirit, give us as sense of the privilege we enjoy as inheritors of your portion and protection, your covenants and your cup, your justice and your joy. Allow us each, and all of us together, to experience your pleasures as we draw near, through Jesus, to your right hand. And in view of the pleasures we experience in you and by your Spirit, convince our hearts that we can and must cast aside all the false gods and idols that tempt to rob us of your delights. Speak to us now, for your children are here, listening. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Psalm 16
A miktam of David.
1 Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
4 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.
5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
11 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.
We reflect on the Psalm of the Day and use it to examine our hearts and minds, leading us to confession of our sin. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 16 as we reflect on it together.
Please open your Bibles to Psalm 16.
Psalm 16 is a song that is meant to convince its singers that everything their hearts truly desire is found in our Lord alone. It calls us to confess this truth with our mouths (verse 2): “outside of you, I’ve got nothing good!” It calls us to sense this reality in our experience (verse 9): “make your heart glad and full of joy, singers!” Why? Because (verse 10) in the hands of this loving Lord, we are safe even in death.
And all this means that we must abandon all searches for other gods (verse 4).
How can we say that God gives all good gifts, that God himself is the best gift, that we are constantly experiencing the goodness of his generosity, and that one of those good gifts is salvation from death itself … and then run after other things to satisfy us, comfort us, and give us joy?
All of us have something good in our life from which we are trying to extract the joy that only comes in God himself. All of us have some idol tempting us to bow down to it and serve it.
Let us confess our sins together.
Take a moment to reflect and to confess your sins silently before the Lord.
Gracious God, we confess that we have run after idols. You’ve made good things and given them to us. And we have turned away from you, their maker and giver, and have attached ourselves to these things instead of to you. None of our false gods have lived up to their false promises. Only you have pleasures forevermore at your right hand. Therefore we confess our sins, and ask your forgiveness. Set our hearts on you and upon your Son alone, that our joy may be complete in him. For your name’s sake: Amen.
Dear Church: the psalmist says that people who constantly go after false gods suffer more and more. But the psalmist also says that when we abandon our pursuit of false gods, the Lord will not abandon us to the destruction our idolatry leads to. In Jesus Christ, who is at God’s right hand, having purchased your pardon with his blood and won everlasting life for you in his resurrection, you are given a full inheritance and all the pleasures of glory–just as if you had always treasured the Lord alone and had never served an idol. God is gracious! Rise up in his grace and forgiveness, and pursue the pleasures of his right hand alone, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Ruth Pfister, organ
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost,
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be:
World without end! Amen! Amen!