““Confusion” is the feeling of inner disorder and uncertainty that leads to an inability to make sense of one’s surroundings, intentions and obligations.”
Confusion is the inability to think as clearly or quickly as you normally do. You may feel disoriented and have difficulty paying attention, remembering, and making decisions. Through Psalm 16, we see that when God’s people experience confusion amidst distress, they remember who he is to them and partake of Him who is their inheritance for present struggles and eternal satisfaction.
(A) Confusion: Amidst distress, who do we call, where do we go?(Ps 16:1-7)
The psalm begins with the psalmist speaking in an urgent and direct tone in Ps 16:1. He begins with a sense of desperation even though he knows God and knows how to honour Him. He cries out to God with a raw cry. There are no pleasantries. Ps 16:10 gives us a sense of the urgency and problem he is facing.
God is his comforter and protector, for in him the psalmist find refuge. This psalm is situated in the first book of the Psalter and Psalms 1-41 reinforces the idea that life in this sin-infested world has deviated from God’s design. When stress dominates, we see how God’s people can express their emotions and also process it in a biblically faithful and healthy way that does not deny and suppress what is being experienced but reconciles it with the reality of knowing God.
It’s important to highlight that the Psalmist here is King David, God’s anointed King of Israel, over God’s chosen people. The point here is that distress can befall even God’s anointed. He might have experienced difficulty remembering who God was to him and as he calls out to God, he reinforces who God is to him. He is a refuge and a safe space against his enemy.
David makes a distinction between “LORD” and Lord in Ps 16:2. LORD is God’s personal, covenantal name and reminds Israel that God is a relational God. He chose to be their God by none of their merit. It calls to mind the perfection of God coming down to be with undeserving people. The word, “Lord” speaks of God as master, a sovereign ruler. And king David is saying to God, “God Almighty, you are ruler over me, and in turn I am your subject.” We expect the first thought to be about David pledging his allegiance, but what we hear is David focusing on how the Lord’s righteous rule over his life produces in him much good. In fact, he states that there is no good apart from him and that all the good in his life came and comes from God. Spoken from a King himself… that God’s rule is his source of well-being and found nowhere else!
David is in great distress, but there is no way that he would ever conceive of a future of not living life as God’s own subject and servant, not a moment apart from him. As he later writes in Ps 37:25, there is no good to be found apart from God and there is nothing on earth he desires. In his distress and confusion, David calls to the God that is his refuge. He calls to God his master, and to God his true source of wellbeing.
Interestingly, meditating on God’s rule, led David to think about God’s people, the saints in the land (Ps 16:3). The trials of life does not lead David into an inward spiral that leads him into solitude. Neither does it drive him to bitterness. Instead, his mind shifts to those who honour God and considers themselves to be God’s people. He calls them the excellent ones and recognises that God delights in them. And so he will too.
Suffering and trials aren’t individualists experiences. It should turn our gaze towards God and then towards His people. Do we shrink away from GOd’s people when we are suffering and when the pressures of life are applied? When it is tiring to share the struggles we face, may we look to the brothers and sisters in Christ and see that they are our delight. We need each other to reminds ourselves that the rule of the Lord in our life is good! Pain is temporary and we have a greater hope. God is still sovereign, and we are all under this same God!
The footnote at the end of Ps 16:3 indicates that he could be addressing the saints in Ps 16:4, thus he is warning the saints against running after other gods. It is normal and it is okay to be confused when trials come. But what matters is what God’s people do with that confusion, that moment when life hits you and the wind gets knocked out of you.
Trials and sufferings will come our way and it is more important how we respond to it. Ps16:2 warns of entertaining a life apart from God. Now in verse 4, it warns us about normalising life apart from God. It shows us a walking after and pursuing the other gods actively. The multiplying of sorrow and pain reminds us of the curse on Eve and Adam in Gen 3. God’s judgment is not an arbitrary one, and it is not clouded by anger too. It is certain and exact.
In Ps 16:6, David speaks of a “beautiful inheritance”. The inheritance received by Israel is the land in Caanan and it was explained in Josh 14:1-5 how it was portioned out. Eleazer the priest and Joshua the Son of Nun carried out the aportioning of the promised land to Israel. The lines drawn out are the exact boundaries of where one’s land ended and the other’s began.
In Num 26:52-56, we read of how this was done. The land was not doled out in a haphazard manner, but each obtained land according to his tribe. In each allotment, we get the sense that there was divine oversight over the distribution of land as God instructed Moses. The whole process was carried out without favourtism and determined according to the list of members in each tribe.
Here, the psalmist says the Lord is his inheritance. There is a deep sense of contentment in the God who has allocated land to him too. He is content in this just and wise God. David is possibly on the run and being chased by Saul now. He is a refugee in search of a refuge, yet is able to say that the Lord is his portion. He is not shortchanged and overlooked because God is his portion. He did not take for granted but celebrates the beauty of what he has in God. David clings to what’s said in Num 26:52-56, that is what all Israel needs to see. Beyond physical land and comfort, Israel needed to see that God is their comfort.
What do you think of God? Perhaps consider how we live in a privileged time where despite COVID, we can gather physically to read and hear from God’s word. David had a lot of reasons to desire more when on his run from Saul and as we read this psalm, let us consider how we can be deeply contented in the life stage and circumstances that God has put us in because He is our refuge and inheritance.
In Ps 16:7, we see again what David thinks of God. God is his counsellor, and David points out how he does so at night. God doesn’t just strong-arm him into something. There is a sense of gentleness. And we know how nights can be difficult, and when endless introspection leads to spiralling. God is not silent! God instructs (Ps 16:7b). Instructing is a nurturing term, and yet there is firmness too. There is a sense that the truths are hard, but there is still a schooling of the hard truths of life.
In the wake of confusion and amidst distress, who do we call, where do we go?
David models for us the biblical playbook of what to do when our minds are clouded with fear. He teaches us to refocus on who God is in personal and specific ways.
(B) Resolution: The path revealed that leads to full and eternal pleasures (Ps 16:8-11)
Thus, in light of all his past reflections, David says that he sets the LORD always before him and will not be shaken even though the circumstances around him could be shaky (ps 16:8). This emotion seems to be experienced by his whole body, as he describes is whole being rejoicing and his flesh dwells secure (Ps 16:9). What a distinct contrast this is from the first verse, which was a raw cry out to God! There is also ultimate comfort in the God who doesn’t abandon his soul to Sheol. This confidence is not rooted in the psalmist’s own achievements. It is wholly rooted in the assurance that God provides through His character.
But we also know that Peter (Acts 2) and Paul (Acts 13) also speak about God. Sin is our real struggle. We are always desiring to run after other gods. The reality of Ps 16:10 lived out in Christ means that we have real forgiveness of sin and sin no longer has a grip on us.
At the end of the psalm, David declares that he was searching for the path that leads to life and he found fullness of joy and limitless pleasures (Ps 16:11). We read this and possibly struggle to believe that it is true. But as we read this and continue on in COVID or whatever confusing circumstances you find yourself in, let us continue to preach to our souls who God is to us. He came to make us His own even though we want to run after other pleasures. Let us turn to Him and fill our minds with the pleasures that are at His right hand. Let us not give ourselves away to lesser pleasures that distract.
How would our lives look differently to others if we truly believed that fullness of joy and everlasting pleasures only can be found in the presence of God?