As shared, what an admirable and widely admired by those who knew her woman. Let me invite you to consider for a few moments the one she admired most. We become like what we behold or who we behold. And in large measure, Winnie was who she was because of who she fixed her eyes on.
And I'd like to invite you to consider Psalm 16. If Winnie, in all the wholeness and health and happiness and holiness of heaven were to send word to us, what might she say? Well, perhaps it would be what God says here in Psalm 16. So here then, his word, a michton of David, preserve me, O God, for in view I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you as for the saints and the land. They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. The stars of those who run after another God shall multiply.
They drink offerings of blood I will not pour out and take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot. The lion's have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night. Also, my heart instructs me. I have sent the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your holy ones see corruption. You make known to me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Amen, let's pray together. Father comfort us by this word.
Grant us eyes to see ears to hear the hope you give us in Jesus. In his name, amen. Well, this is a psalm of King David, a michton as it's described, which admittedly we're not quite sure what that means. We're not only understood to be a musical or liturgical term of some kind, which does highlight that the psalms were for use in worship, to be sung or to be read, to be a help in the midst of a world of sin and misery.
When facing death, the Lord's believing people have been able to gather and sing. It's a wonder, isn't it? We sing. We do so because the Lord has promised us life beyond death.
He's given us words to sing. And here in Psalm 16, this song points us to the Lord Jesus, his deliverance through death, his delight in his people and his people's delight in him. I want you to think about those three things. First, I want us to see the deliverance of the Lord Jesus himself through death.
It's in verses nine and 10, therefore my heart is glad, my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure, for you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your holy one see corruption. That last phrase is in the New Testament and applied to Jesus in a variety of places. Peter and Paul make use of it, but in Acts chapter two, Peter says of King David being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. In other words, while Psalm 16 was written by David, and some of it certainly was about David, this portion particularly looked beyond David.
For David died and his body is still in the grave. But there is one who died who rose in his body from the dead. The holy one says the psalmist, even Jesus, who took flesh and dwelt among us, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, a man who wept at the grave of Lazarus, who wept for all the diseases and all the deformities and all the deaths that have come because of humanity's defiance of God. And eventually, like Winnie herself, he suffered, suffered immobility.
Going only where others could take him as Winnie in her last days, even weeks, could not escape her own condition. Well neither did her Savior escape his. He was hung immobilized upon a cross. And amidst it all, the psalmist tells us his heart was glad.
His whole being rejoiced, his flesh was secure, for he knew that his heavenly father would not abandon his soul to shield the realm of the dead, nor would he let, and indeed he did not let, his holy one see corruption. His body laid in the tomb dead, but preserved by the power of God was raised by that same power. And in his resurrection, we have the promise of the hours. As when he sold his united to Christ by the Spirit through faith, so her body remains united to Christ by the Spirit.
What is sown as Paul will elsewhere say into the earth, that is our body, it's perishable, what is raised is imperishable. What is sown is sown in dishonor, but it's raised in glory, it's sown in weakness, it's raised in power, it's sown in an actual body, it's raised a spiritual body. And the Lord himself, one day, will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the voice of an Archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord. And so we will always be with the Lord, because he lives, we live, she lives, because he is risen, she too, will be raised.
And so likewise all who trust in him as their Lord and Savior. And so then why did the Lord Jesus endure the miseries of this life that we are liable to? Because of his love, because of his care for us. Notice the delight of the Lord in his people.
It's there in verse 3, if you remember that, yes, David spoke these words, but great David's greater son had these words in his heart, in his mind, as for the saints in the land. They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. That verse 4, he doesn't delight in those who run after other gods. His delight is in the saints.
His excellent ones, they are called. That was David's delight surely, but how much more of the delight of our Lord Jesus. We must not imagine Jesus going begrudgingly to the cross, as if God the Father said to him, I want you to save my people from their sins. And Jesus said, do I have to?
Or, they are not really worth it, are they? No, no, do not think that way. Remember the joy set before him, he endured the cross. And what joy was that?
It was the joy of bringing many sons and daughters to glory with him. He isn't sorry. He died on the cross for our sins. He's never regretted doing so.
Provocatively, I might say, if he had to do it again, in other words, he would without hesitation. But of course, he doesn't need to. He suffered once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He gladly died the just for the unjust to bring us to God.
And who does he bring? Well, he brings his enemies. He brings sinners. He brings the chief of sinners.
You know, when he didn't become a saint when she got to heaven, she was already a saint upon the earth and is now also a saint in heaven. And she was a saint, not because in herself she was saintly, but because her Lord chose her and her Lord set her apart for himself, delivered her out of the kingdom of darkness, and brought her into the kingdom of light to belong to him. And here on earth, our dear sister, when he knew the joy of being redeemed by Jesus. I mean, just look at what she chose for us to sing all the songs she chose to be sung.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul.
The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, forgiveness, receives. He knows his delight in her more fully now wrapped up in his nails, guard hands as she sees him face to face. What is it? What effect does the Lord's delight in his people have upon them?
Well, I might just say consider the tributes you heard, but notice how the Psalmist puts it four things quickly and we're done. They delight in the Lord. That is, it's the fruit that shows up in your life when you know that he delights in you and gave himself for you. Jesus becomes to you your supreme good, your benefactor, your confidence, your hope of glory.
He is when he's supreme good, verses one and two, preserve me, oh God, for in you I take refuge. Don't think he hasn't preserved her. He has consummated her preservation. And I say to the Lord, you are my Lord.
I have no good apart from you. And when he said that, she was a grateful person knowing every good gift came to her from the Lord, Yahweh himself. She had no good apart from this Lord who is Jesus. And her last week some of our folks had the privilege of visiting just to sit with her when she was in rehab in hospice.
Some of you here did so. One couple told me they sat with Winnie who slept much of it. Wasn't super clear headed when awake as that happened at the end. But as they were leaving when he said to them, I don't know what you did for me, but thank you for everything you did.
She wasn't clear headed about what had been done, but she was clear-hearted in thankfulness that God had sent his people to visit her. She was grateful because she knew her highest good wasn't her health or her wholeness here, but her Savior. And she knows Jesus is her benefactor as the psalmist says. And the Lord has my chosen portion of my cup.
You hold my lot. It's as though David says Yahweh himself is my food and my drink. He's the one who sustains me and refreshes me. When we have Yahweh our supreme good, we also have a sufficient portion of his good gifts.
We may not possess a great deal of earthly things. Winnie didn't. But when we have Jesus, we have everything else he knows we need. And every spiritual blessing in him says the psalmist verse 6, the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.
Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Life as was mentioned by others wasn't just a bed of roses for Winnie. She endured hardship. She suffered more recently.
The death of her beloved husband of over 60, some 64, 65 years. But how good the Lord was to her. She would often say when I visited and to some of you, she'd been given by him of course, not only salvation, but a loving husband, four children, eight grandchildren, twelve great grandchildren, many friends everywhere they lived, family who nursed her in old age and cared for her in poor health. These were all good gifts from Jesus to her.
And so we'll sing with Winnie in a moment. And as I say, it is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand has provided. Great is thy faithfulness. Lord unto me. Thirdly she knew the Lord Jesus was her confidence.
First aid I've set the Lord always before me because he's at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure.
Winnie knew who anchored her when the stuff of life might alarm her because the Lord was at her right hand walking with her even in the valley in the shadow of death. She was not shaken. The presence of the good shepherd comforted her. Those satan should buffer.
The trials should come. This blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul. It is well. It is well.
It is well says Winnie. And all the more now it is well with my soul. And finally she knew the Lord Jesus was her hope of glory. His verse 11 points us to it.
You may know to me the path of life. John over the great Puritan lay on his deathbed as his secretary. And on his behalf of letter to friends. I am still in the land of the living.
Stop sit on him. Change that and say I am yet in the land of the dying. And I hope soon to be in the land of the living. Winnie lived on that path of eternal life.
Jesus had made it known to her. And Winnie waited for more of course as we all do here and now. And she has received what she hoped for verse 11 in his presence. There is fullness of joy.
Her happiness is complete. As she saw through a glass darkly, now she beholds Jesus face to face. And she hears and I am going to say it a third time. Well done.
Good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. She knows the pleasures of the fullness of wholeness and health and happiness and holiness in the presence of God at his right hand. So if Winnie came back to us for a moment what would she say?
She would say Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. And he is glorious and heaven is happiness in holiness and please join me. She would say by putting your trust in Jesus. Great things he has taught us.
Great things he has done. And great are rejoicing through Jesus his son. But pure and higher and greater will be our wonder, our transport. In Jesus we see.
Come to the Father through Jesus his son. Give him the glory. Great things he has done. Let's pray together.
Haggress us, God we bless you and thank you for this hope. We thank you that you loved us and gave your son and Jesus. You loved us and gave yourself for us. To reconcile us to God.
To make us your own. We thank you for the promise that all who trust in you will be raised even as you are raised. And thank you that you have gone to prepare a place for us. And you will come again and take us to be where you are even at the right hand of the Lord God Almighty.
Make us we pray sensible of the brevity of our own lives here on this earth and of the eternity of the life which is to come. And so grant us the grace to rest in our Savior and so be at peace with you and grant we ask in the months and years ahead that you might soften every sorrow of this family as they remember when he now with you. And keep us all who are still in the body in everlasting fellowship with all that wait for you on earth and with all that are with you in heaven in union with him who is the resurrection and the life who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God world without end. Amen.
Amen. Let's stand as great as thy faithfulness.