To Whom Shall I
Turn
Psalms 16:1-11;
Romans 8:22
Jim Davis
All of creation is dying for a rebirth.
Paul writes, “We
know that the whole creation has
been groaning as in the pains of
childbirth right up to the
present time” (Romans 8:22 NIV).
The world continues to cry out
for rebirth. The cries in the
streets indicate all is not
well. Governments are failing.
Financial institutions are
failing. Churches are failing.
The world’s technological
rebirth has done little to give
a meaningful rebirth. As the
world gropes for a new world
order, one can only wonder where
it will lead.
You would think
sifting through the ruins of
past civilizations would point
us in the right direction for
help.
History reveals collapsing
civilizations’ inability to
bring about the kind of rebirth
needed for survival. Eventually
you would think that mistakes
are made for learning not
repeating.
Regretfully there is not much encouragement to
look for eternal solutions.
The words of God sound as
foolish to the masses as it did
to those seeking to follow Jesus
when he was on earth.
John 6:63-69
63 The Spirit
gives life; the flesh counts for
nothing. The words I have spoken
to you are spirit and they are
life. 64 Yet there are some of
you who do not believe." For
Jesus had known from the
beginning which of them did not
believe and who would betray
him. 65 He went on to say, "This
is why I told you that no one
can come to me unless the Father
has enabled him."
66 From this time
many of his disciples turned
back and no longer followed him.
67 "You do not
want to leave too, do you?"
Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter
answered him, "Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life. 69 We believe
and know that you are the Holy
One of God."
God’s word seems
as foreign to us as it did to
most of those who heard Christ
speak.
Looking to religion is
mindboggling. I really can’t
imagine what it would be like
for a person to walk into the
typical church for the first
time in their life. How relevant
would the church seem compared
to what they might expect—to
what they think they should be
seeking. Honestly, sometimes in
my difficult moments I feel as
lost as I have ever been.
Sometimes I feel more lost than
I have ever been. In our darkest
hour we may want to turn away
from God. Then we ask ourselves,
“Lord, to whom shall we go??
At times we feel as forgotten as the psalmists
crying:
Psalms 42:9
9 I say to God my
Rock,
"Why have you
forgotten me? NIV
The book of
Psalms is a perfect place to
peer into the hearts of those
struggling in collapsing world
orders—those struggling in the
midst of personal failure.
This is the
beauty of biblical salvation
history. We are allowed to sift
through the historical ruins of
the past as we peer into the
hearts of those struggling in
the midst of collapsing world
orders and personal failure.
At times the psalmists feel so lost we find
them asking God to seek them.
Psalms
119:174-176
74 I long for
your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is
my delight.
175 Let me live
that I may praise you,
and may your laws
sustain me.
176 I have
strayed like a lost sheep.
Seek your
servant,
for I have not
forgotten your commands. NIV
The psalmist
longs for God to salvage his
life.
God’s laws sustain him as surely
as his laws sustain the
universe. It is God that gives
us life and breath and
everything else (Acts 17:25).
For this the psalmist delights
in God’s law and praises God.
Yet he strays like a helpless
sheep. He asks God to seek him.
These sentiments bring to mind
the earlier verse above when
Jesus says no person can come to
God until God enables us to do
so (John 6:65). We are totally
dependent upon God to sustain
us. It seems as though the
psalmist understood this concept
long before Jesus spoke it. He
delights in God’s law. Yet his
salvation is dependent upon God
seeking him. He can’t do it on
his own—he is straying and in
need of God’s seeking.
In
our darkest moments we come to
realize--God is our only
refuge—God is our only hope—God
is our only source of strength.
We find ourselves
crying out as the psalmist.
Psalms 16
16:1 A miktam of
David.
Keep me safe, O
God,
for in you I take
refuge.
2 I said to the
LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I
have no good thing."
3 As for the
saints who are in the land,
they are the
glorious ones in whom is all my
delight.
4 The sorrows of
those will increase
who run after
other gods.
I will not pour
out their libations of blood
or take up their
names on my lips.
5 LORD, you have
assigned me my portion and my
cup;
you have made 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 have set the
LORD always before me.
Because he is 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
grave,
nor will you let
your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made
known to me the path of life;
you will fill me
with joy in your presence,
with eternal
pleasures at your right hand.
NIV
The
psalmist sees God as his only
place of safety. Why
does the psalmist take refuge in
God? It is simple.
Apart from God there is No Good Thing!
Apart from God there is no good thing in
which we can trust.
The psalmist
writes, “I said to the LORD,
"You are my Lord; apart from you
I have no good thing" (Psalms
16:2). Goodness is the one
attribute that defines all of
God’s attributes. Goodness
defines everything he plans and
does. Outside of God there is no
good thing in which we can
trust.
We live in
a world seeking rebirth by
redefining goodness by each
person’s self-designed standard
of truth. We seek
rebirth by redefining our
self-image as we overlook the
fact that we are made in God’s
image. He has stamped his image
upon our hearts.
We are
beginning to realize we need to
look elsewhere. It is obvious we
are failing. In a world
that is failing miserably we
must remember the goodness of
God.
God’s goodness means God’s love is
unfailing.
The psalmist
cries out “Turn, O LORD, and
deliver me; save me because of
your unfailing love” (Psalms 6:4
NIV). The psalmist pleads for
God to act. There is not a
moment in God’s existence in
which he is not trying to do
what is absolutely best for each
of us. Evil may muddy the water
making it difficult to see the
goodness of God. Satan uses our
weaknesses to remind us we do
not measure up. God made us weak
to remind us that his grace is
sufficient (1 Corinthians
12:7-10). He is present. He is
at work. God’s goodness will not
allow him to abandon us in our
troubles. There is not a moment
in God’s entire existence that
he is not committed to loving
us. We may fail him. He will not
fail us.
I have to
remind myself that God forgave
all my sins before I was ever
born. Satan seeks to
give all kinds of reasons why we
should not accept forgiveness.
God’s unfailing
work makes our lot secure.
Psalms 16:5-6
5 LORD, you have
assigned me my portion and my
cup;
you have made my
lot secure.
6 The boundary
lines have fallen for me in
pleasant places;
surely I have a
delightful inheritance.
Everything God
has done for the psalmist has
been geared toward giving him a
delightful inheritance.
There is not a
moment that God is not seeking
the psalmist highest good. It
may not always appear to be so
in the immediate, but when the
dust settles. God is there. He
assigns to each of us our
portion and our cup. It is a
pleasant place to live. The
stories of Esther, Daniel and
David are vivid reminders of
God’s ability to make our lot
secure and pleasant. God did not
abandon them. God gave each
their portion among collapsing
world orders. They were more
secure than the entire world.
Psalms 16:9-11
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
grave,
nor will you let
your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made
known to me the path of life;
you will fill me
with joy in your presence,
with eternal
pleasures at your right hand.
NIV
The verses
go beyond talking about the
resurrection of the body.
In the 86th psalm
David’s troubles would be the
death of him except for God’s
intervention.
Psalms 86:13-14
13 For great is
your love toward me;
you have
delivered me from the depths of
the grave.
14 The arrogant
are attacking me, O God;
a band of
ruthless men seeks my life —
men without
regard for you. NIV
These verses could apply to numerous
troubles in David’s life.
His enemies were out to kill
him. His enemies had no regard
for God. There were times when
he was as good as dead. Many had
written him off. In spite of all
of David’s blunders God did not
abandon him, but opened for him
a path to life.
Psalms 16:5-6
5 LORD, you have
assigned me my portion and my
cup;
you have made my
lot secure.
6 The boundary
lines have fallen for me in
pleasant places;
surely I have a
delightful inheritance.
How many times
have we gone through
overwhelming circumstances
burdened with internal conflict
beyond our control?
As we come out of those troubles
unscathed we begin to realize
through it all God made our lot
secure. How many times have we
rejoiced realizing through it
all God not only made our lot
secure—he made our lot pleasant.
It may have not seemed pleasant
as we fought our spiritual
demons. Yet through hindsight we
are pleasantly reminded God
never abandoned us.
God is at
work--through it all heaven is
searching our minds and hearts
to ascertain the exact perfect
plan for God to carry out in our
lives despite all our
weaknesses.
Romans 8:26-27
26 In the same
way, the Spirit helps us in our
weakness. We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the
Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot
express. 27 And he who searches
our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints in
accordance with God's will.
God is seeking us—his Spirit searches
our minds and hearts.
He is actively at
work devising a plan which will
draw us to him. David praises
God for his counsel.
Psalms 16:7-8
7 I will praise
the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my
heart instructs me.
8 I have set the
LORD always before me.
Because he is at
my right hand,
I will not be
shaken.
God’s plan is not
so rigid and static that we only
make the choices he wants us to
make.
His plan is fluid enough to
maneuver through all of our
blunders and mishaps as he
searches our hearts for his
perfect plan for our lives. Paul
picks up on this in Philippians
when he writes: “God who began
his work in you will bring it to
completion” (Philippians 1:6).
His intercession is all
consuming.
Hope is not found
in the psalmists’ attempts to be
good.
Hope doesn’t come from his
ingenious planning. His hope
rests in the goodness of God,
which sustains him and is
constantly seeking him.
It is thoughts
like this that provoke Peter to
praise God in the midst of
troubles.
1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to
the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! In his great mercy
he has given us new birth into a
living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, 4 and into an
inheritance that can never
perish, spoil or fade — kept in
heaven for you, 5 who through
faith are shielded by God's
power until the coming of the
salvation that is ready to be
revealed in the last time. 6 In
this you greatly rejoice, though
now for a little while you may
have had to suffer grief in all
kinds of trials. 7 These have
come so that your faith — of
greater worth than gold, which
perishes even though refined by
fire — may be proved genuine and
may result in praise, glory and
honor when Jesus Christ is
revealed. 8 Though you have not
seen him, you love him; and even
though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible and
glorious joy, 9 for you are
receiving the goal of your
faith, the salvation of your
souls. NIV
We are reborn to
a living hope as we begin to
realize outside of God there is
no goodness.
Romans 7:21-25
21 So I find this
law at work: When I want to do
good, evil is right there with
me. 22 For in my inner being I
delight in God's law; 23 but I
see another law at work in the
members of my body, waging war
against the law of my mind and
making me a prisoner of the law
of sin at work within my
members. 24 What a wretched man
I am! Who will rescue me from
this body of death? 25 Thanks be
to God — through Jesus Christ
our Lord! NIV
The psalmist
believed failing to seek God
would only increase his misery.
Psalms 16:4
The sorrows of
those will increase
who run after
other gods.
I will not pour
out their libations of blood
or take up their
names on my lips.
Discovering God
as my refuge brings me to a
realization that I must trust in
his unfailing love and power.
God Is Great
Not only is God
good; God is great.
God’s greatness makes his
goodness all the more
compelling. We see power abused
by those wreaking havoc on our
world. Yet God is greater than
all. He is powerful enough to
secure our lot regardless of a
powerful world order set against
us. God’s people sit at his
right hand of power.
Psalms 16:11
11 You have made
known to me the path of life;
you will fill me
with joy in your presence,
with eternal
pleasures at your right hand.
NIV
I must stop
focusing on how strong I must
be.
When Christ ascended to the
right hand of the Father, he
lifted us up to sit with him in
heavenly places.
Ephesians 2:4-7
4 But because of
his great love for us, God, who
is rich in mercy, 5 made us
alive with Christ even when we
were dead in transgressions — it
is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with
Christ and seated us with him in
the heavenly realms in Christ
Jesus, 7 in order that in the
coming ages he might show the
incomparable riches of his
grace, expressed in his kindness
to us in Christ Jesus. NIV
God’s incomparable power (Ephesians 1:18-23)
is revealed through the richness
of his incomparable grace.
Try to imagine the
position God has given the
Christian. God has raised us up
to sit with Christ in the
heavenly realms. Christ’s
resurrection points to an
eternal view of life—the
psalmist rejoices as he
contemplates life from an
eternal perspective long before
Christ came into our world.
Psalms 16:9-11
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
grave,
nor will you let
your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made
known to me the path of life;
you will fill me
with joy in your presence,
with eternal
pleasures at your right hand.
NIV
Viewing salvation
from God’s right hand allows us
to look down on creation with a
realization of who is in charge.
When John was exiled to the isle
of Patmos God gave him a
heavenly view of life on planet
earth. He sees the world order
from God’s perspective. He
beholds how Christ has made
Christians kings and priests in
God’s kingdom. God reveals
Christ walking among the
assemblies of his people with
full knowledge of their
struggles. Christians in Ephesus
are losing their love for God.
Christians in Smyrna are
afflicted and poor. Some will be
thrown into prison for their
faith. Satan’s throne was in the
city of Pergamum. The
persecution was acute. Some were
teaching false doctrines turning
believers away from the faith.
The Christians in Thyatira were
doing more good works in the
midst of persecution than they
were at the beginning. Yet there
was a wicked element among them
drawing disciples away from God.
The believers in Sardis had a
reputation for being alive—but
they were dead. The church in
Philadelphia was weak and
struggling, but faithful. The
believers in Laodicea were
lukewarm.
John sees the
horsemen of the apocalypse
riding out bringing conquest,
war, death, famine, and
pestilence throwing the world
into turmoil. In the midst of
all of this John sees all those
martyred standing before God’s
throne crying out: "How long,
Sovereign Lord, holy and true,
until you judge the inhabitants
of the earth and avenge our
blood?" (Revelation 6:10). This
all is happening in real time as
the inhabitants of earth are
struggling with evil. This is
not a scene of the end. It is a
scene of what was going on then
and what is going on now.
In the next scene
John’s vision reveals God’s
judgment on the world.
Revelation
6:12-17
12 I watched as
he opened the sixth seal. There
was a great earthquake. The sun
turned black like sackcloth made
of goat hair, the whole moon
turned blood red, 13 and the
stars in the sky fell to earth,
as late figs drop from a fig
tree when shaken by a strong
wind. 14 The sky receded like a
scroll, rolling up, and every
mountain and island was removed
from its place.
15 Then the kings
of the earth, the princes, the
generals, the rich, the mighty,
and every slave and every free
man hid in caves and among the
rocks of the mountains. 16 They
called to the mountains and the
rocks, "Fall on us and hide us
from the face of him who sits on
the throne and from the wrath of
the Lamb! 17 For the great day
of their wrath has come, and who
can stand?" NIV
This is not
something that will only happen
when the world ends.
This happens as civilizations
crumble under the weight of
their failure to seek God. The
world is in full swing as those
martyred cry for justice. This
is a scene where the prayers of
the martyred are being answered
on earth as they cry out "How
long, Sovereign Lord, holy and
true, until you judge the
inhabitants of the earth and
avenge our blood?" It is going
on now as I write.
We must not place the word of God in a
historical setting that
obliterates the meaning of his
word for the present.
This is about the
ongoing work of God in each
generation. The earth continues
to rotate on its axis. God is on
his throne. The departed saints
continue to call out for justice
on earth. God is bringing
salvation as he suffers long to
redeem his creation. He has not
abandoned us to a grave of
despair.
Johns vision also
allows him to view the end
result of God’s culminating work
when the world ends.
Revelation 7:9-10
9 After this I
looked and there before me was a
great multitude that no one
could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne and
in front of the Lamb. They were
wearing white robes and were
holding palm branches in their
hands. 10 And they cried out in
a loud voice:
"Salvation
belongs to our God,
who sits on the
throne,
and to the Lamb."
NIV
Salvation belongs
to our God.
Too often we get lost in the
details of our theologies and
never really see the big
picture. Our personal weaknesses
convince us we are hopeless. Yet
God is in control. Nothing is
hid from God. His plan is
ongoing. It is not static. All
of heaven is presently involved
in salvaging my life. God
counsels my heart in the night.
God’s spirit is searching my
mind and heart to tailor a
perfect plan for me. The angels
are ministering to my needs
(Hebrews 1:14).
John’s
vision gives us an eternal
vantage point as we sit with
Christ at the right hand of God.
We begin to realize the
impact of God’s incomparable
power and his incomparable
grace. The world is God’s and
Christ reigns.
Revelation 11:18
"The kingdom of
the world has become the kingdom
of our Lord and of his Christ,
and he will reign
for ever and ever." NIV
As we see
the martyred ones standing
before God’s throne, we begin to
realize the full impact of being
faithful until death. We
begin to understand these
verses:
Romans 8:31-39
31 What, then,
shall we say in response to
this? If God is for us, who can
be against us? 32 He who did not
spare his own Son, but gave him
up for us all — how will he not
also, along with him, graciously
give us all things? 33 Who will
bring any charge against those
whom God has chosen? It is God
who justifies. 34 Who is he that
condemns? Christ Jesus, who died
— more than that, who was raised
to life — is at the right hand
of God and is also interceding
for us. 35 Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall
trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword? 36
As it is written:
"For your sake we
face death all day long;
we are considered
as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all
these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved
us. 38 For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any
powers, 39 neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. NIV
God is seeking us
and he has made our lot secure.
Conclusion:
Goodness is
the sum total of all of God’s
attributes. It is the
foundational principle upon
which God exists. It is not that
God does good deeds, but that
God is good. When God created
the heavens and the earth, he
said it is good. Creation was
good because the sum total of
all God’s powerful work resulted
in something good. In the midst
of all that is going on in a
crumbling world order I can rest
in the fact that God is good and
God is powerful.
God’s power gives
him sovereignty over the world
in which we live. This is the
refuge we must seek. It was the
refuge the psalmist sought.
One of my
childhood prayers, which I was
taught says:
God is Good!
God is Great!
Let us thank him
for our food!
Today I would
like to add: Let us thank him
for our portion and our cup in
life for surely his mercies are
overflowing.
Now pray the
prayer of the psalmist:
Psalms 16
16:1 A miktam of
David.
Keep me safe, O
God,
for in you I take
refuge.
2 I said to the
LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I
have no good thing."
3 As for the
saints who are in the land,
they are the
glorious ones in whom is all my
delight.
4 The sorrows of
those will increase
who run after
other gods.
I will not pour
out their libations of blood
or take up their
names on my lips.
5 LORD, you have
assigned me my portion and my
cup;
you have made 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 have set the
LORD always before me.
Because he is 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
grave,
nor will you let
your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made
known to me the path of life;
you will fill me
with joy in your presence,
with eternal
pleasures at your right hand.
NIV
