Before I knew God through Christ, as a child advertisements and TV images helped form in my mind what I thought the good life would be. I pictured myself as an adult having lots of money, wearing fine mens clothes and jewelery as well as lounging at the beach. Now that I am in Christ I could not care less about the clothing and jewelery. The beach sounds nice and I would not mind a few days or weeks, (oh, maybe a month or two) at one. However, while that would be a blessing, that is not the real good
life.Many kings in years gone by thought they had the good life. They had power and riches. King David of Israel knew what the good life really was, and it is not derived from earthly things. By the Holy Spirit in Psalm 16 verse 6 he did say the lines had fallen to him in pleasant places, but in the verses after that he explained it was because he chose the blessing and blessings of God. Consider the last verse, verse 11: “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” From this we will see the following three things we should be doing to have and enjoy the really good life.
I. Follow His Path 11a
“You will make known to me the path of life.”
The Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, show Jesus Christ is that path, the way, to real life here and for all of eternity. John 14:6 records that Jesus said He was the Way and the Life, and John 15:1-6 shows we must be in Him and He in us in order for us to have His life. Upon surrendering to God through Christ, Christ the living Word is placed within us. His Holy Spirit then directs and empowers the true disciple’s life.
Interesting is the fact that the three parts of verse 11 correspond with three preceding verses working backward from verse 10, which correspond to this first part of verse 11. Verse 10 is, “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” This, of course, was a prophecy about Christ, and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just “a nice story.” It is an actual fact that gave natural and supernatural results affecting both the physical realm and spiritual realm.
God has shown that the Way for real life now and forever means to be crucified, buried, and risen with Christ. Things in this world will weigh us down. We might even become discouraged. Unless we are close to Him we might even go back to the corruption of the world. However, we are exhorted in Colossians 3:1-2, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
II. Flourish In His Presence 11b
“In Your presence is fullness of joy.”
The first step for being in the presence of God is to be born again, yielding to His Holy Spirit in making a full surrender to Him through Christ, and receiving Him not only as Savior but as King of your life enthroned in you. This would include confession of sin at that time. However, we must continue to confess to Him any sins afterwards, asking Him to cleanse us and cause us to desire to forsake sin.
Foundational to being in the presence of God is worship. We should not just worship Him while attending church, but we should worship Him everyday, and endeavor to do so every moment. Along with that is prayer, where we simply communicate with God, keeping in mind that it is to be both ways -- we not only speak to Him but we listen to Him as He speaks to our spirit.
As we live in such a manner in Him the fruits of the Holy Spirit grow within us. Joy, mentioned in our message text, is one of those fruits. His joy can energize us {1}. The joy from God includes vibrant life and power to press on now, and the sure hope of eternal blessing in eternity.
The previous point, “Follow His Path”, mentioned Colossians 3:1-2. Colossians comes to mind again when I read the phrase, “fulness of joy”, because by the Holy Spirit Paul had heavily used the term “fulness” in Colossians. A theme of Colossians is the preeminence of Christ. So, with the word “fulness” in our message text I must think that Christ is to be the main joy of our life and He is all the joy we need to satisfy us. Once we are saved, born again, we must endeavor to keep His precious joy. Here are two passages that will help us to do that:
John 15:8-11-- “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
1 John 1:4-6-- “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with
Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”On this second passage, “These things we write” refers to the entire epistle of 1 John. Every new Christian should read that epistle as soon as possible. And every Christian should read it from time to time. But not only should we read it, we should lay it to heart and lovingly obey what the Holy Spirit said through the Apostle John.
So along with confessing sin, worshiping Him, and communing with Him, it is also loving obedience toward holiness within and without that blesses us with His joy. And, Christ’s presence with fulness of joy blesses our entire being now and for eternity. Verse 9 of Psalm 16 brings out that truth since “heart" may correspond to our spirit, “glory" to our soul, and of course “flesh" speaks of our body: “Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely.”
III. Firmly Hold His Hand 11c
“In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
This final phrase is definitely connected to verse 8, “I have set YHVH (The Existing One) continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” To have The Existing One at one’s right hand is a foundational pleasure. However, as we see we must choose to continually set Him before us. We are to always put Him first and always focus on Him. Our right hand speaks to the fact we need to put Him in full authority of our lives. Thus, we will be able to say “I will not be shaken.”
While verse 8 states God is at our right hand, the final phrase of verse 11 speaks of God’s right hand. Verse 8 encourages us to put God in full authority of our lives, and verse 11 indicates we are to stay in His authority. Problems and attacks come against any true Christian, but the true Christian finds it is a great blessing to stay in God’s authority. There we will be blessed though we are bombarded with burdens from without.
Full salvation is the primal blessing at His right hand. Truly being in His presence surpasses anything else. Other blessings include His peace, contentment, godly joy, assurance, guidance, and much, much more while we sojourn on earth. Then, there are the eternal blessings of salvation, being in the presence of God, fellowship with Him, and much, much more.
It is important to observe and take to heart that by the Holy Spirit the psalmist says such good, holy pleasures are at God’s right hand. They will not be found with relatives, friends, neighbors, churches, fellowships, clubs, bars, or anything or anyone else. Once our spiritual eyes are opened and our heart enthrones the King of Kings, we then know being in God through Christ is the best place to be. This is the only really good life one can have.
Again, and finally, this is true though many horrible things may happen to us in this life. Whether you have been abused, forsaken, forgotten, tormented or anything else, when we come to Him and in faith surrender our all to Him, making Christ king of our life, and following through with the directives of this psalm and other Holy Scriptures, He can make the bitter to be sweet. Just Moses obeyed God to cut down a certain tree and cast it into bitter waters to make them sweet (Exodus 15:22-26), as we lovingly trust and obey Him, He who was crucified (represented by the tree cast into the bitter waters) will cause us to be blessed in Him. We can have the really good life no matter what.
Notes:
{1} Please read Joyous Oil Of Power at http://holybibletreasures.expertscolumn.com/article/joyous-oil-of-power .
This article was written in the form of a sermon (message) outline with comments. God willing by July 29, 2017 (hopefully much sooner), you should be able to hear the actual message (sermon) by selecting a link at http://www.sapphirestreams.com/life/audioM.html#M458 .
Unless otherwise noted all Holy Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible changing LORD to YHVH as it rightly should be when the text so indicates and adding “(The Existing One)” to readily express the meaning of His Name without making repeated explanations in articles. * = For other versions the spelling of some words is updated for our time in addition to changing LORD to YHVH as it rightly should be when the text so indicates.
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