Psalm 16:8,11
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
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.
Last April my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. To mark the milestone I started making plans for us to take a special three-day trip to a resort – just the two of us. I considered trying to make the trip a surprise – waiting until the day of our departure to tell my wife to pack her suitcase – but then I made what turned out to be a very wise decision. I told her about the trip two months ahead of time. Two things happened as a result of that decision. First, we had a lot of fun planning the trip together. But second, and perhaps more importantly, the anticipation of the trip created a sense of joy in each of us and in our relationship. Think about that for just a moment. How can something that has not happened yet create joy in the here and now? How can the future impact how we experience life now? We usually think that what we do in the present, the here and now, creates or shapes the future – the there and then. And this is, of course, true in many ways. Yet it is also true that the future, or our hope in – and anticipation of the future creates and shapes our present!
Psalm 16 ends with this sense of promises and therefore anticipated joy in the future that creates joy and gladness in the present. Read the words again:
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
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 expressing both the joy that comes when we walk with God on the path of life NOW – and the joyous anticipation that I ours as we trust the promise of eternal pleasures in heaven THEN!
Take a few moments to read the whole of Psalm 16 again slowly and prayerfully. As you do – allow God’s promise of delight, gladness and joy to permeate your mind and heart!
Psalm 16:1-11
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.
Brian Coffey
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2 comments:
What a good lesson: that our future shapes our present. I can't help but remember the poignant lines from Le Petit Prince (a required reading in high school french class), and the chapter about the fox (?) who wanted to know WHEN his friend was coming, because the anticipation is so sweet! I also like that David says "You WILL fill me with joy in your presence..." That says to me that even in this life, when we may have happiness but not JOY sometimes (even Christians struggle with realizing the joy God intends for us), we can look forward to real Joy later. And that brings some happiness/joy now...
I have long been sad about my past and my everyday was effected by what happened in the past, my present was dark because I was looking in the wrong direction, I was looking back away from the promise of the future and not the future of marriage, kids or wealth but the future of the promise of the coming of God the day the trumpets will sound. I have turned around and I have found happiness, nothing has changed in my life on earth, I did not win the lottery or had a baby I simply looked at life from the present to the future, now my present day is affected by the promise of Psalm 16. I will always remember my past but I will no longer let my past control my life. I have joy in patiently waiting for THAT day.
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