In Psalm 16 David writes, "Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You" (Psa 16:1-2). So, follow what he's saying. He is counting on God to preserve him. Not his very good friends (Psa 16:3). Not his good circumstances (Psa 16:6). God. In Him he takes refuge. Why? Why does he count solely on God to preserve him? Why is God his refuge? "You are my Lord," he says as the first explanation. Now "Lord" is different than "LORD" in this text. "LORD" refers to YHWH while "Lord" in the Hebrew is adonai, as in "master." Because God is over David, he takes refuge in God. But the second reason he gives is more telling. "I have no good apart from You." The only good in David's existence was God. He goes on to talk about the excellent "saints in the land" (Psa 16:3) and "lines have fallen for me in pleasant places" (Psa 16:6) and "my flesh dwells secure" (Psa 16:9). David is living well. But, he says, "I have no good apart from You." He says, "In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psa 16:11). Not elsewhere. Not in people or places or things. Not in circumstances or wealth or fame or power. "I have no good apart from You."
It only gets more telling when you think about Psalm 14 where David writes, "There is none who does good, not even one" (Psa 14:3). Really, David? Not one. No good at all? That's what David says. And if you look at that through the lens of Psalm 16, you see why. "I have no good apart from You." The only good that exists is God. In fact, that's what Jesus said, wasn't it? "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone" (Luke 18:19). But we're pretty sure that David was wrong, and, in taking that position, we're pretty sure that Jesus was, too. And if that doesn't give us pause, we are simply proving that natural man has no good.
How about you? Where do you find your good? You see, this is the secret. This is the solution. We who follow Christ don't want to sin and, yet, we find ourselves doing it. Why? Because we don't actually believe "I have no good apart from You." If we did, pursuing all those sinful pleasures would lose its allure since they have no good. But we still delude ourselves into thinking we have some good apart from Him. Oh, God, may our hearts be turned always and only to You, to see You as the only possible good and the best possible good. In this, like David, we, too, will find refuge.
2 comments:
love your last paragraph...oh so true
As we've seen, some would reject your analysis as absurd because we all know people who are and do good. It doesn't matter what David said. He clearly had issues. It doesn't matter what Jesus said. He wasn't speaking rhetorically, or metaphorically, or figuratively, or...or...well, He didn't mean "good" even though He said it. It would seem to some there can be no difference in what "good" truly is and how we use the word to describe ourselves versus others. One person is not good because of wicked things he does, while the next person is good because he doesn't do those things. Never mind the next person has work to do to be more like what God desires of us...he's still "good"...to us. But that's not "good" enough since only God is good.
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