The Good Life

        "I said to the Lord, You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing" (Psalm 16:2). Some thirty-one years ago, Helena and I choose Psalm 16 as our wedding text. Rev. De Bolster, then president of Redeemer College, preached on this psalm during our marriage ceremony. I admit that I don't remember what he said. I do remember that it was a very hot July afternoon. Regardless, it was a good choice. We are invited to live life from the perspective of verse 2, "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.'" Consider this question: "What makes life good?" Before you read or listen on, answer the question for yourself. Don't give the right answer. Be honest and give the answer that is true for you. What makes your life good? In Psalm 16, David invites us to give this answer, "As long as God is with me, life is good. And since God is always with me, life is good." David was not avoiding the troubles of life. He knew enough of them: facing Goliath, running for his life from Saul, dealing with his internal temptations, his son rebelling against him. I also suspect that David would have agreed with the Heidelberg Catechism that we have three basic enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil (A 127). These three continually attempt to draw us away from God. And so, David begins the Psalm with, "Keep me safe, O God." The good life begins with trusting in God to keep us close to Him. Yes, we can read the Bible daily and pray continually, we can worship with God's people and contribute to kingdom causes, including the local church. We can and should do these things along with other spiritual disciplines. They are tools that God uses to nurture our faith. However, we engage in all these knowing that it is God himself, through his Spirit that keeps us spiritually safe. God is good; we can trust him in this. Further, David takes delight in those who belong to God and is abhorred by those who oppose Him. We can't delight in God while turning our noses at His people. Enjoying the presence of God means we will stick with His people and delight in them. At the same time, there will be within us an abhorrence of all things evil. We will flee from them. Not that we will avoid people who don't believe in Jesus, but we will not participate in those activities that draw us away from God. From here, David describes how his life is good and secure because all things come from God himself. At the end he gives us one of the few Old Testament glimpses of the future resurrection. Peter quotes this psalm in his sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). David recognized that God would not abandon him when he dies. He would also, I think, agree with the opening words of the Heidelberg Catechism, "My only comfort is that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ." I'm not sure I grasped the full meaning of Psalm 16 when we choose it all those years ago. But what better way to go through life than with these words of security. So again, we end with Jude's doxology: To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jude 24,25).