BeyondSeeLevel

Psalms 16:1-11

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.

When we read the Psalms 16:1-11, we’re reading David expressing his heart of gladness as he reflected on all the hardships he had endured. It was about 15 years between the time David was anointed king and when he actually became king. (that’s a lesson all by itself right there). And over the course of his life, he had lots of people that wanted him dead and that did not want him as king.

We know that David wasn’t a perfect man. He sinned. And still, God recognizes David as being a man after His heart. He had a sincere heart for God and he had a heart of repentance. He was sorrowful when He sinned and sought God’s forgiveness and restoration when he fell short.

Throughout David’s life, we see how he trusted God in every season. He trusted God when he was scared for his life. He trusted God to restore him when he fell short. He trusted God in his hour of grief. He trusted God to lead him. And he trusted God in his victories. So David learned that he could trust God in every season, because he realized that God had sustained him in every season.

He had a relationship with God and as we read through the Psalms, we see how passionately he would pour out his heart to God. Crying. Begging. Praising. And everything in between.

So here in Psalms 16, we see David recognize just what God had done for him. David spoke directly to God in prayer.

Verse 1 David recognizes that God is the One that keeps him safe from all his enemies. And that God is his safe place.

Verse 2 David in letting God know that without having God in his life, he has absolutely nothing.

Verse 3 David is honoring God for the body of believers, the holy people of God, he’s a part of.

Verse 4 As he reflects on the benefits of being in the body of believers, David states the fate of those that are not part of the holy people of God that serve other gods. He says that their end is suffering.

Verses 5-6 Davd is saying that God is the reason he’s had such a full and wonderful life.

Verses 7-8 David praises God for counseling him with guidance and instruction. And because of this, he couldn’t be shaken.

Verse 9 Because of how God had taken care of him, David expresses that he has peace on the inside and the outside.

Verses 10-11 David shifts from praising God for taking care of him in his life, to praising God for taking care of him even in his death. David blesses God for the heavenly eternity that he hadn’t even entered into yet. But He believed God for it.

David is saying that just because I die doesn’t mean that God will stop taking care of me. Just because I die doesn’t mean that I lose fellowship with God. Just because I die doesn’t mean that God will abandon me.He has me in life and He has me in death.

Death posed no threat to David because he took comfort in his relationship with God. And he knew that not even death would interfere with the fellowship he had with God.

When Jesus was resurrected from the grave He conquered death. The prophecy written in Hosea 13:14 “O death, where is your sting?!” was fulfilled. Satan thought that Jesus’ death would be an end to Him. He thought that when Jesus was buried in a tomb that He would live no more. Satan thought he won. But he was wrong! That’s why the tomb was borrowed. Jesus knew that it was temporary and that He’d be giving it back.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Understand….We have victory over death through Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only one that could accomplish such great, eternal victory. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. Jesus had no sin. Therefore, not even a physical death could conquer Him.

This verse is talking about those that belong to Christ. Those that have obeyed the saving gospel and have been covered by the blood of Christ.

If we die in sin, outside of a relationship with Jesus, death conquers us. But dying in the Lord, saved from our sin by the perfect, sinless blood of Jesus Christ, death has no power over us. We conquer death.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, we have the same victory over death and sin that Jesus has.

Romans 8:37 declares that we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. Death is not an end for the child of God. Death is the beginning of our eternal fellowship and life with God.

2 Corinthians 5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

When Paul says “we have a building from God” he’s not including everybody. He’s talking about those that belong to the Lord.

Are you part of the “we”?

Sometimes get caught up in how people die. We want to know did they suffer? Were they sick? Was it unexpected? We want to know all the details. And somehow the answers to these questions determine the depth of our sorrow and grief. Or even our ability to have peace in their death.

But Paul tells Timothy that we can celebrate in death no matter how a person dies, when they are in the body of believers that have been saved through faith by Jesus.

Paul knew his time to die would be soon. He was beheaded!

Look what Paul tell Timothy.

2 Tim 4:6-8

6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

In other words, Paul is saying, I will die soon. They’re going to kill me. But it’s not over for me. I’m going to be with the Lord. So don’t get caught up in physical suffering or how we die. But rejoice that we’re going to be with the Lord for eternity.

As a matter of fact, later in this same verse he says, “For our light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison”.

Paul lets us know that if we are to be with God in eternity, we’re going to have to shed this old body to get a new one.

1 Corinthians 15:50-54

50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Your physical body cannot be with God in heaven.

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed

When we die, God is going to give us an immediate total makeover to prepare us to dwell with Him in eternity.

52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

God is going to give us a new body that cannot be destroyed by sickness, by suffering, by disease or by murder. It will be an imperishable body, a body that will live forever, untouched by the world and satan.

53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

But not everyone gets access to this imperishable body that will live forever. You must be clothed in the garment of salvation through faith and obedience in Jesus Christ.

54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

In Christ Jesus, death cannot defeat us. In Christ Jesus, death cannot destroy us. Death has no victory or power over the child of God. Physical death is a friend to those that belong to Jesus because it gives way to eternal life.

But physical death is an enemy to those that do not know God through faith in Jesus Christ because the bible says that after death, comes judgment. There will be no more do-overs or second, 3rd or 4th chances to repent and give your life to God.

Brother Paul speaks to the believers in Rome and to us today.

Romans 14:8-9 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

So I leave you with these questions:

Do you have faith that Jesus is the Son of God?

Have you obeyed the saving gospel of Christ?

When you die, will death have victory over you or will you have victory over death?

*Tressa Jo

When we consider what kind of spiritual appetite we have, we have to understand that there are other spirits that can lead you, other than God’s spirit. And when this happens, our sense of spirituality becomes rooted in things other than the word of God. And this disqualifies us from having the faith that pleases God. Because the faith that pleases God is rooted in His Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Not in sage. Not in the universe. Not in crystals. Not gods and goddesses. Not zodiac signs. Not in horoscopes. Not your ancestors. Not in your inner self.

But the faith that pleases God is established, founded and rooted in His Word. We need to understand that the devil is a deceiver.

These things may seem harmless because they help us feel better about ourselves and may even give us a sense of community and belonging and individuality. They may even help us feel connected to a higher source of power.

The thing about these pseudo approaches to faith, is that they don’t require you to repent or change your ways. They don’t expose you to the parts of your heart that displease God. Only God and His Word can do that.

As a matter of fact, they have you believing that you are good within yourself. You’re beautiful. You’re powerful. You’re strong. You determine the path for your life.

And while this sounds great in this era of self-love and mental health awareness, this is extremely spiritually dangerous. It’s dangerous because it draws people further away from relying on God, to relying on our own strength and abilities. In essence, we don’t realize that following these pseudo forms of faith provoke us to become our own god. We’re trying to look within ourselves for our own sufficiency.

Paul said it’s in God that we live, we move and we have our very being. We don’t have the ability to give ourselves life. Neither do we have the ability to guide our own lives.

The devil sends these deceptive spirits all the time. And if we’re not rooted in the Word of God, which empowers us to discern these ungodly, deceptive spirits, we’re going to fall prey.

Whenever and wherever there’s Word deficiency in our lives, there is a faith deficiency in our lives.

This made me think of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron in Leviticus 10. They offered up what the Bible calls “strange fire” to the Lord. The fire was strange because it wasn’t approved or authorized by God.

Lev 10:2 says that as they offered up this unauthorized worship to God, fire came out from the presence of God and consumed them and they died.

This communicates a few things to me.

God determines what He wants us to offer Him. We don’t get to determine what pleases God.

God determines if what we offer pleases Him. We can’t assume that just because we offer it, that God is pleased.

The unauthorized thing that we offer to God, can be the same thing that ends up consuming us. And this is exactly what happens.

These pseudo faiths are consuming and destroying us because they’re pulling us further and further from trusting in the true and living God.

Nadad and Abihu were consumed with fire on the spot. We won’t necessarily be consumed this same way, but we will still be consumed in other ways. Mentally, emotionally, physically, financially. And more importantly spiritually.

The bible teaches us that warning comes before destruction. One way that Satan deceives us is to make us think that we are weak in the faith when we’re actually strong because we’re rooted in the Word of God. And he does this when we’re consumed by how we feel, and not by what we know what is true about God.

The flip side of that is…

Then he deceives us by making us think that we’re strong in the faith, when we’re actually weak because we’re not rooted in the Word of God. And he does this when we’re consumed by how we feel. And the scariest part of being driven by how we feel is we can feel saved when we’re not. We can feel like we’re walking in God’s will when we’re not. We can feel like we’re pleasing to God when we’re not.

We have to understand that we are only as strong as we are committed to studying the Word of God. Every other source of strength is a pseudo strength.

It’s serious in the Old Testament and it’s serious in the New Testament.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…

**Tressa Jo