Most Christians lack a full commitment to Christ. We are content with a "one-foot-in and one-foot-out" relationship with God. This is a great way to limit your joy, but there is another way to live.

How to Limit Your Joy

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The riots of London. Sixteen thousand police, triple the normal number, out last night as waves of violence spread across England. Police now authorized to use water cannons and plastic bullets.

Swell

Welcome to HT, I’m CM sharing the Gs that’s all about Jesus and a program called How to Limit Your Joy – as we look at Psalm 16. Later on we’ll hear music again from a brand new album by Fernando Ortega that will help find our joy in the Lord. Meantime in England, joy is on the wane as riots spread from the capitol to other major cities around the country. The Prime Minister came back from vacation as did the mayor of London. We’ve posted a video with a young boy who was knocked down, was bleeding, and then was helped up, only to have the helper turn against him again. It’s not violent, but it shows the depth of the sin in this world. Something to think about and talk about under Going Deeper on our home page … haventoday.org.

On the line with us from London is Christian journalist and author Craig Borlase. Welcome, Craig, to HT.

Craig Borlase in London. HAVEN Today and How to Limit Your Joy.

SONG – The Joy of the Lord – Twila Paris – Greatest HIts

Sometimes we can trace our lack of joy right back to our self-protective half-hearted commitment to Jesus. We limit our joy because we limit his scope in our lives. We live cautiously, holding on to things, calculating the odds when all the time he’s calling us to throw caution to the wind and follow Him.



Joy just naturally comes flooding in when we do that. When the dams collapse and we give our lives over to Jesus -- when we stop living with one foot in and one foot out and throw in our lot with Jesus -- our depression lifts and our hearts fill with joy.



It sounds good. We want our lives to be all about Jesus. The trouble is, we don’t know how. We’re not there and we don’t know how to get there. We need help. And just like with everything else, we can look to Jesus to help us with this one, too. One of the biggest helps he gives us is the Psalms. They’re powerful prayers – prayers filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and praying them can change your life. I know this is true because it’s been true in my own life. Christians in the past meditated on the psalms as a way to enter into a life of deeper joy. They prayed them, line by line, and they let the words become their own words.



So let’s that with Psalm 16

Psalms 16.0 A miktam of David.



Psalms 16.1 Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. 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. LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 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.

It starts out:

“A miktum of David”

This is important. It’s tells us that the one who’s talking is King David of the Bible. These are royal prayers and as God’s royal people we can pray them, too. They help us understand who we are – more than that – they pour new life into us -- eternal life. That word miktum is a mystery – not one knows what it means -- but we know that all the psalms that are called miktums are crisis psalms. There’s great danger. Life with God doesn’t keep us out of trouble. As Psalms 34.19 says, “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all.”



Verse 1

“Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge”.

What a relief to find that the first thing the Lord wants us to do is take refuge in him. Refuge is a major theme in the Psalms starting in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is like a curtain being pulled back and on the stage are all the nations rebelling against God. God enters and the first thing he does is laugh and then he rebukes them by saying “I have installed my King on Zion my Holy Hill.” In the short run that king was David but in the long run it’s Jesus. Jesus is God’s King – the answer to the rebellion of his world. The Psalm ends by saying, “How blessed are they who take refuge in him,” As believers we can pray this prayer because we have taken refuge in him. We’ve taken refuge from judgment, refuge from our enemies, refuge from life itself with all its troubles. We’re in the safe place – the haven. When we’re in a crisis we can remind the Lord of this fact and ask him to keep us safe.

“Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.”



Verse 2

“I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

David is remembering. He’s remembering what he said to the Lord in the past and he’s taking his stand there again, “You are my Lord. I don’t have any other Lord’s. You are the one who created the heavens and the earth; you are my Lord. Every single good thing I have comes from you”. And David knows that his Lord is a great giver. Every good thing in life comes from him – by grace – not because we earn them and David knows that God’s generosity is overflowing. But we should know it so much better than David because we know God gave us his own Son.” Romans 8.32 “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?”

Everyone wants good things to come into their lives. Blessings. But most of the world doesn’t know where they comes from.

A friend of mine works as a checker in a grocery store. They were having a drawing where the winner got a gift certificate to use in the store and a woman who’d just checked out was writing her name on the entry form.

She said to my friend, “Wish me luck.”

My friend Matthew said, “I don’t believe in luck.”

Matthew’s from Scotland so imagine him saying this in a Scottish accent - which I won’t even try to imitate.

“I don’t believe in luck.”

She looked at him in amazement and said, “What about karma?”

In an even deeper Scottish accent, Matthew said, “Even less.”

She couldn’t believe it. She said, “Then what DO you believe in?”

Matthew, with his full Scottish brogue, boomed out, “The grace of God.”



Yes Matthew! The grace of God! Not everyone in the world can pray this prayer but as believers in Jesus we can:

“Oh God you are my God apart from you I have no good thing.”



Verses 3 and 4:

“As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. 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”.



David is taking his stand with the Lord’s people – the saints. Today they’re called the church. Some of us have negative feelings when we hear the word church but this psalm gives us new eyes to see the people of God the way he sees them: they’re glorious because they’re robed in his glory and he delights in them – he smiles with pleasure when he looks at them. He loves to be with them, flawed as they are because they belong to the Him. David is taking his stand with the people of the Lord. They’re his people. We need to take our stand with the church and not with “those who run after other gods.” In his day these gods were actual stone idols. People worshipped them for what they could get out of them. They poured blood out on the altars so the gods would give them what they wanted. In our day the idols are more subtle -- body image, money, power, applause, security -- but people still run after idols and we can easily be part of that stampede. We need to grasp the sobering reality of this psalm, “their sorrows will increase.” We don’t want to pour out our life-blood on the altars of the gods of this world.

“As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. 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.”



Verses 5 and 6

“LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”



David just sort of sits back and revels in everything the Lord has given him. He has the eyes to see reality as it really is -- to see that even though he might be in trouble, and even though all around him unbelievers are living in comfort without all the troubles he has in his life, still, he’s the one who’s blessed. He’s the one who’s rich -- because he has the Lord. Being disinherited by the world can be an honor and a blessing because it points us to our true inheritance. God didn’t give the Levites any land but he gave them something better, he said, “I AM your portion and your inheritance.” David looks around at his portion and he says, “This is a really nice place – it’s not hot and dry and ugly – it’s beautiful. I love being here. I don’t want to be anywhere else. We need eyes to see our inheritance – that we have the Lord, that we’re the ones who’re truly rich. We need to tell him how we feel about it:

“Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary liens have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”



Verses 7 and 8


“I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

David is still looking around at his inheritance and seeing how good it is. He praises the Lord because he counsels him. Those who chase after other gods are on their own, trying to figure things out for themselves. Not David. The Lord counsels him. He comes to him even at night and fills his heart with truth. This is the privilege of every believer. Jesus said, “They will all be taught by God.” He was quoting Isaiah. The Father has taught each and every one us personally, like a tutor, like a personal counselor. Jesus promised to send us the Spirit of truth in John 16.13 “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” Imagine the privilege we’ve been given that the living God counsels us. Father, Son and Spirit. In the mist of our confusion he leads us out into the light – especially through his Word – through the Bible. And David knows what this means – it means he’ll never be shaken. He’s set the Lord before him – and he won’t be moved. This phrase has overtones of standing victorious in a courtroom or a battle. David is shielded by the Lord in these situations. The truth the Lord has taught him is like a shield, a defense. As believers in Jesus we all get dragged into the courtroom by our Enemy. Satan challenges us to battle on a regular basis and he has all kinds of weapons – accusation, temptation, condemnation, confusion. But we have set the Lord before us and he is able to handle our enemy. He does it by counseling us in the truth – especially the truth Gospel. And nothing will be able to shake us.

“I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”



Verses 9-11

“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 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.”



David is overflowing with joy at this point. He knows he doesn’t have to worry about his physical body. We do a lot of worrying about our physical bodies but David knows his body’s okay because the Lord isn’t going to leave him in the grave. He’ll raise him up. In Acts Peter says David is really talking about Jesus because David are still in the grave but Jesus was raised from the grave. But because Jesus was raised, David and all of God’s people are going to be raised from the dead and given new glorious imperishable bodies. Knowing this means David simply isn’t worried about anything. The Lord has shown him the path of life and he’s walking in it. He know his future – he’s going to resurrected and filled with joy in the presence of the Lord. He’s going to luxuriate in eternal pleasures. I think it’s being sure about these things – this future -- that sets us free to live and all out life for the Lord. We can pray these words with David and then live like we believe them – and we’ll experience the joy that comes from living all out for Jesus.

“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 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.”

SONG – The King of Love My Shepherd Is – Fernando Ortega - Come Down Oh Love Divine

Mail Close (underneath Fernando instrumental)