CCC Livestream - Jesus In The Psalms - Psalm 16
Live Worship Gathering: 4/5/2026
Preaching: Jason Purdy
I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 16.
Happy Resurrection Sunday!
I am so grateful to gather as God’s people this Lord’s Day.
We have been in a sermon series called Jesus in the Psalms.
And you may find that a peculiar title because the Psalms were written about
1,000 years before Jesus was ever born.
But we must understand that the Bible is clear that Jesus is both God and man.
So that means that Jesus as God, the second person of the trinity, has always
existed as eternal God, and inspired the Old Testament Scriptures to both speak
to the people in their day and point forward to the coming of Jesus and his day.
In that way, God’s word is also just as living and active in our day given it is the
word of God who rose Jesus from the dead and who is now sitting at the
Father’s right hand in heaven.
If you are visiting with us today and all of this seems a bit new and unfamiliar, I
am so glad you are here, and I promise to be as clear as I possibly can this
morning about why we as a people gather every week around the Bible and the
good news of Jesus’ resurrection.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I am the kind of person that loves to enjoy
things.
Good food, good music, good company, a good movie, a good laugh, a good
date with my wife, I love taking delight and pleasure when at all possible.
And the truth is: God created each one of us with a good capacity to experience
delight and pleasure.
Too oftentimes, we are tempted to believe that God, Christianity, and the Bible
are all about defeating things like delight and pleasure but nothing could be
further from the truth.
God is the creator of delight and pleasure, and as the creator, He is the source of
them as well.
CS Lewis wrote:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. 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.”
So, as we look at Psalm 16 today, I want us to see where true and lasting delight
and pleasure is found, and believe it or not, it is in the Resurrected Jesus.
Would you please follow along as I read this Psalm over us?
Psalm 16 ESV
A MIKTAM OF DAVID.
1 Preserve 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 saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
1. Pledge Your Loyalty To The Resurrected Jesus
Verse 1: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
David, the King of Israel, the one who as a teenage boy fought the giant Goliath,
is the one who originally wrote this Psalm under the influence of the Spirit of
God.
And here he is calling on God to preserve his life as he takes refuge in Him, which
leads us to ask the question:
Why must we as a people cry out for preservation and seek refuge in the first
place?
Here we are in the United States in 2026, and we have vehicles to drive, and
houses to live in, and more information in our pockets and at our fingertips than
any other generation in human history could dream of, so why would we need
to cry out for preservation? Why would we need to take refuge in something
outside of ourselves? Why are we not satisfied in all the delights and pleasures
this life and time have to offer?
Here’s why: because we are creatures, we are not the Creator.
God’s word tells us that there is one God and He is the maker of Heaven and
Earth and all things in it.
And God created all humanity as creatures to find all of their needs met and
desires satisfied in the one who created them.
The foundational reality of creatures is that we must find what we most
desperately need outside of ourselves, not within ourselves.
We need water, food, shelter, wisdom, and teaching all from outside of
ourselves in order to survive.
But, if God created us to find all of our needs met and desires satisfied in Him
alone, why in the world are we such a mess?
The Bible says we have all sinned against the God who created us by seeking to
delight in and have our souls satisfied in created things instead of the Creator
God.
And you think about it, if we have rejected the very reason we were created and
have sought glory and independence and delight and pleasure in ourselves and
in other created things instead of the Creator God, then we are separated from
our very Creator and our sin leads to death and punishment because we have
lost contact with the very God who is the source of our life and purpose.
So, here in this Psalm, we hear a man crying out to God to preserve his life as He
takes refuge in God, because He has come to realize He will never find it in
himself or in any created thing.
Have you come to that realization?
Verse 2: I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
Do you hear the pledge of loyalty from the man who is convinced that His
creator God is His only hope, and there is no good apart from God alone?
Because God is the source of all good, He must be Lord of our life in order for
anything else to truly be good.
The Bible says that we are spiritually dead in our sins and that nothing truly
good comes from us.
Because ever if you are out there trying to do good for as many people as you
can, if it is not motivated by a love for the glory of God, it is motivated toward
some other love for something created which makes it corrupt.
Why is it that sex is delightful, but it easily turns so corrupt?
Why is it that the meal is so good, but I’m craving another within hours?
Why is it I work and claw and climb and even if I meet all my goals, I’m not
nearly as satisfied as I thought I would be and all I see is yet another mountain
to climb?
Because the Creator God is the Lord and you have no true good apart from him.
Verse 3: As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all
my delight.
When Jesus was asked, “What is the first and greatest commandment in God’s
law?” this is what he answered:
Matthew 22:37–40 ESV
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first
commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
You see, God’s law is not a bunch of rules that you have to follow or he will
punish you.
God’s law is God showing us how He created us and why He created us and how
we are to find all of our needs met and desires satisfied by living out the life He
created us for.
And so here, we see in our passage, not only did the Psalmist have no good
apart from God alone, but the Psalmist has learned to love his neighbor, to love
the saints who have also pledged their loyalty to the resurrected Jesus.
It is those who have pledged themselves to the Lord Jesus who are saints and
excellent ones, and those who find delight, because they have now found it in
the right source which is God alone.
Verse 4: The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their
drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
That small “g” god refers to any created thing that people hope in and try to
take delight and pleasure in instead of the one true God.
And while all the false gods of this world promise delight and pleasure to the
senses, they never satisfy long term, and they always cry for more and more,
which leads to great sorrows.
The drink offerings of blood speak to the sinful hostility we have toward others
when we seek pleasure and refuge in false gods because when we grasping for
created things, we must be in hostility toward one another, violent toward one
another to make sure we tear others down in order to build us up.
This is why the prophets show us over and over again that those who are not
loving the Lord are violent toward one another as well.
But notice, the Psalmist won’t even take the name of those created things on his
lips because of his loyalty to the one true God.
Have you pledged your loyalty to the resurrected Jesus, or are you still living as
though created things will satisfy you?
2. Find Your Delight In The Resurrected Jesus
Verse 5: The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
My kids are ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen, so you better believe there is a lot
of conflict in my house over portions.
A portion is the piece that you get, no more, no less.
It also speaks of your sustenance, what is allotted to you in food, drink, and
land.
You know when you go to a steak restaurant, and the most chosen piece of meat
is the most expensive, because it is the best.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
It means that for a believer in Christ, it is the Lord that is your portion, He is your
promised inheritance in life and death, He is your hope.
While others grasp for fame, power, pleasure, wealth, or reputation in the midst
of created things; our portion is the greatest and most chosen portion: God
himself.
We hope in him, lean on him, take counsel from Him, and rest in Him, knowing
he is going to finish this work he started in us and will bring us all the way home.
Verse 6: The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a
beautiful inheritance.
This is once again imagery to consider what lines have been apportioned.
For those in Christ, the lines have fallen in pleasant places with a beautiful
inheritance.
Verse 7: I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart
instructs me.
Because we are creatures, we are not our own source of knowledge, wisdom,
and counsel.
We need knowledge, wisdom, and counsel from outside of ourselves.
For we who are in Christ, our counsel comes from the Lord through His word
and His Spirit.
Because we have the Spirit of God and the word of God, Paul writes in Romans
that He is confident that we are able to counsel one another with the word.
In the night also my heart instructs me.
The night is a metaphor for difficulties and sufferings, and when times are hard,
the heart that delights in the Lord is instructed and led by him.
We are not ultimately defined by our circumstances. We do not lose heart in the
midst of darkness. But we delight in the Lord who overcomes darkness.
Verse 8: I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I
shall not be shaken.
The idea of setting the Lord always before you has this sense of practicing the
presence of the Lord in everyday life.
Keeping His word, the presence of his Spirit, His desires and ways at the
forefront of your mind and heart so that the storms of life do not shake you,
because you are strongly aware of the one who has power and authority over
every storm.
Do you find your delight in the resurrected Jesus? Is He your hope? Your
blessing? Your portion and reward? Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is
good? Have you proved Him over and over by doing things His way, relying on
His counsel, and following his word?
Consider a CS Lewis quote once again: “It is not that people have tried Jesus
and found Him wanting; it is that they have tried everything else and found it
wanting, and then are too proud to try Jesus.”
3. Rest Your Security In The Resurrected Jesus
So far, this passage has shown you what your great need is, but it has not told
you how it is possible to actually have that need met.
You may think, well Pastor Jason, what do you mean? Aren’t I supposed to
pledge my loyalty to Jesus and find my delight in Jesus.
Yes, you are to do those things, and you must do those things, but the problem
is you cannot do those things on your own.
Remember, verse 2 said, “I have no good apart from you.”
But, like I told you earlier, because you have sinned by placing your hope and
trust in created things instead of the Creator God, you are apart from him.
And you cannot do anything good in order to bring yourself back, because apart
from him, you have no good.
So at this point, the command to pledge your loyalty to Jesus and find your
delight in Jesus are commands that condemn you, they do not commend you.
Because you are spiritually dead in your sin, and a dead heart cannot pledge its
loyalty to anything and it cannot take delight in anything.
You see, the good news of the gospel is not about what you are supposed to go
out and do for God, the good news of the gospel is all about what God has done
to save you from His wrath and for his glory.
Remember, I told you at the beginning that our series is called Jesus in the
Psalms.
Because while we were still sinners seeking to have all of our needs met and
desires satisfied in the created things of this world separated from God who is
our very life and purpose, God sent His son Jesus.
And Jesus is fully God and fully man, qualifies him to be the only man filled with
goodness.
And while Jesus was limited and tempted as a man in every way as we are,
Jesus overcame every temptation by the power of God.
Jesus fully delighted in the glory of His Father and the love He had for His people
even to the point of being shaken and poured out and hung on a Roman cross.
And on the cross, Jesus took the penalty of all your sin and all my sin onto
himself, the perfect God man made the perfect sacrifice for our sin.
When Jesus was on the cross, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you
forsaken me?” because Jesus became our sin on the cross to the point where
the Father turned his face away, and for the first time ever, Jesus felt no delight
and no pleasure from His father God, but instead, He took on the full force of
God’s wrath against your sin and my sin in great love for us.
And our sin that leads to death killed the Son of God on the cross.
That was our death. That was our punishment.
Yet, three days later on that Sunday morning, God rose His Son Jesus from the
grave in the resurrection.
And the resurrection is proof our Lord Jesus has conquered sin, Satan, death,
and hell on our behalf.
Verse 9: Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also
dwells secure.
How is it possible that your physical body or my physical body could dwell
secure when we know that we will die?
How is it possible that Jesus’ physical body could dwell secure after the beating,
and the crucifixion, after his death and His burial?
It is possible because God rose Jesus to life from the grave, and He promises
that all who trust in Him will also be raised to newness of life just as Jesus was
raised.
Verse 10: For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see
corruption.
Sheol is where dead bodies rot.
This is a promise first for Christ and then for everyone who puts their trust in
Christ.
You will not finally die and simply waste away back to the dirt.
You will not delight yourself in the dirt until you simply again become dirt.
In Christ, you will rise to resurrection life, and just as Jesus resurrected body
ascended back to Heaven and sits in the presence of God at his right hand, you
too will be raised to resurrection life to dwell in the presence of God for eternity
where you will have all your needs met and all your desires satisfied as you
worship Him alone.
This is the gospel - that God has done everything necessary in Christ to forgive
your sin, to adopt you into his family, to awaken your heart to spiritual life, and
to give you the eternal hope of living in the presence of God for eternity apart
from sin and death.
God has done this when you were dead, and the only way you come to life is
that you see the cross and resurrection of Jesus as the proof that God loves you,
and died and rose for you, and you can now find yourself in Christ, his death is
your death, his resurrected life is the hope and promise of your resurrected life.
When the Holy Spirit of God convicts you of your sin and rebellion against God,
and when He leads you to trust that God has done everything to save you in the
cross and resurrection of Jesus, God removes your dead heart of stone and gives
you are new heart of flesh that now knows how to love what God loves and
desire what God desires.
It’s only when God has given you that new heart alive to the Spirit that you are
empowered to pledge your loyalty to the resurrected Jesus and you can find
your delight in the resurrected Jesus.
That only comes with you trust and rest the security of your soul in the
resurrected Jesus.
Listen, you may be here today and be thinking, listen pastor, this all sounds well
and good for you church people, but you have no idea what I’ve been into.
You don’t understand the depth of my sin and corruption and the depths of the
sins that I have endured from others.
I don’t doubt that Jesus has done enough to forgive your sin and darkness, I’m
just not sure if he has done enough to forgive mine.
You want to know how I can be 100% confident that Jesus has done more than
enough to forgive you and cleanse you from all of your sin and give you a new
heart and a new life?
Here’s how: because your sin and darkness has not driven you all the way to
death, you are living, you are still here, but it already has led Jesus all the way to
death and back again.
One of my favorite phrases in all of the Psalms is deep cries out to deep.
And it means that the deep of my sin, darkness, and corruption cries out to the
deep of God’s great love that went even deeper all the way to Jesus’ death and
back again, and when I cry out in trust from the depth of my soul, the greater
depths of God’s love steps in and forgives and cleanses and gives you a new
heart and promises you life eternal apart from sin and death.
That’s all possible because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Verse 11: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is
fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
We are all tempted to believe that delight and pleasure is found in created
things - fame, reputation, money, food, sex, recreation, comfort - but those
always leave us hollow and desiring more.
We were created to find all of our needs met and desires satisfied in God alone,
and in the gospel of Jesus death and resurrection, God has made a way to know
him, to be satisfied in him, to delight in him both now and forever, and to
experience new pleasures for eternity in the fullness of joy in His presence.
Have you trusted in the gospel of Jesus Christ for your salvation? No one else
can trust for you.
It’s not about your parents faith. It’s not about simply knowing about the gospel
story. Do you know deep in your heart that his death was your death and his
resurrection is your resurrection?
If not, you don’t have to go do anything to prove to God that you are serious.
You don’t have to sit there and make vows to God that you will love him more
and love others better. Don’t do that.
Instead, cry out to God from your heart and say, “Preserve me God, for I am right
now taking refuge in you. I have no good apart from you. Be my chosen portion
and my delight. Give me a new heart to trust and obey you with my life.”
If God has given you faith to believe this morning, I want to tell you that God has
not only saved you from your sin, but He saves you into his family - the church.
Remember verse 3: It is the saints in the land that are his delight.
God reconciles not only to himself but to one another.
So, I want to invite all who believe on the Lord Jesus to pledge your loyalty to
the resurrected Jesus, find your delight in the resurrected Jesus, and rest your
security in the resurrected Jesus as you follow him and commit yourself to his
family the church.