Psalm 16

⁰³          As for the saints in the land,

                        they are the excellent ones,

                        in whom is all my delight.

⁰⁴          The sorrows of those shall multipy

who [give] offerings to strange gods.

            Their drink offerings of blood I will not taste,

                        nor take up their names on my lips.

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Saints & Sinners

For the Lord’s Day:  the 18^th of January 2004

Introduction:  Delitzsch comments upon the childlike simplicity with which David “submits himself unconditionally, and … without exception” to the Lord God of heaven and earth.  He further develops through several pages of grammatical syntax the almost obvious import of knowing God in the traditional vertical alignment, and therefore accepting equally without debate the familial horizontal alignment with others of God’s people which is by necessity honored and cherished. 

 

Verse three describes this secondary relationship of the elect of every nation who have been called into Christ’s Church.  I can still have fond memories of fellow Christians that I met while serving in the military, all because of the little cross on the lapel of my jacket that caught their attention.  That along with my position as a Chaplain’s Assistant opened many doors and helped to develop fond friendships in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Even today, email from around the world encourages me in the same sense – that God’s people, like David realize a mutual attraction to one another. 

 

Calvin encourages us in this rich vein of familial relationships:  David “speaks of ‘the saints who are on the earth,’ because it is the will of God that, even in this world, there should be conspicuous marks, and as it were visible escutcheons, of his glory, which may serve to conduct us to himself.  The faithful, therefore, bear his image, that, by their example, we may be stirred up to meditation upon the heavenly life.  For the same reason, the Psalmist calls them ‘excellent,’ or honorable because there is nothing which ought to be more precious to us than the righteousness and holiness, in which the brightness of God’s Spirit shines forth; just as we are commanded in the preceding psalm to prize and honor those who fear God.” 

 

Calvin goes on in this regard:  “We ought, therefore, highly to value and esteem the true and devoted servants of God, and to regard nothing as of greater importance than to connect ourselves with their society; and this we will actually do if we wisely reflect in what true excellence and dignity consist, and do not allow the vain splendor of the world and its deceitful pomps to dazzle our eyes.”

 

I can still remember the growing pains of being a teenager without many connections.  My former school which I had attended for ten years was disbanded by the State and suddenly I was cast adrift in a much larger pond of humanity to find a place.  And in that wider lake of multitudinous humanity – choices that could lead to trouble were much more in evidence.  Christian charity and friendship was much more difficult to find and establish.

 

In college it was almost impossible to find any Christian fellowship, but at least the Army was composed of more serious people and the faithful found each other around the world all the more easily since it was the more conservative pastors who served in the military than those liberal secularist chaplains on campus.

 

Development:  So all in all – we realize that David cherishes the fellowship and friendship of the saints in the faith.  There is of course the flip side wherein we must live among the worldly and do business and carry on commerce in their midst.  Calvin makes the transition in verses with this comment:  “The Psalmist now describes the true way of maintaining brotherly concord with the saints, by declaring that he will have nothing to do with unbelievers and the superstitious.”

 

Once, at my former position I was once asked if I had any Sodomite friends, I made it clear that while I might have to work in the same building with some, I did not as a matter of principle even hang out with adulterers or fornicators – let alone the worst of the worldly perverts.  We had an uneasy truce in the work place – if the worst of sinners didn’t mention their perversions and insist upon acceptance, those of us who were Christian would not go out of our way to try and convert them.  And yet, more than a few times – my counsel in this regard was requested, ignored completely no doubt – but the reasoning behind my morality was fairly well known.

 

I still remember the struggles of a young wife in our congregation over twelve years ago.  She worked for a publisher and as she was slowly being converted – her former friends at the job began more and more to ignore her and push her out of their worldly loop socially and even in the work place.  She was very frustrated because she was very careful not to make her new found faith a matter of dispute, but nevertheless – her former worldly friends pushed her more and more into the fellowship of the saints.

 

Sadly today in most workplaces this natural phenomenon is being sanctioned as the best policy of the corporate order.  People who are dramatically Christian in conscience are pushed aside so that no one may be offended with their ongoing witness.  So just as the worldly and wicked are pressing the Christian truths into the closet of disdain and ignorance, all manner of acceptable superstitions have become palatable. 

 

In verse four, David makes three points in regard to the various religions of sinners.  First, he prophetically affirms that:  “The sorrows of those shall multiply who [give] offerings to strange gods.”  Spurgeon reminds us:  “The same loving heart which opens towards the chosen people is fast closed against those who continue in their rebellion against God.”

 

In many places, in order to find work – our illegal immigrants will make up a social security number.  The government generally does nothing – since those funds only enhance the system’s ability to pay out the ultimate “rewards” to those honest citizens who have paid their due and more for many years.  However, if the illegals would ever want to collect – traditionally they would have been out of luck because their investments could never come back to them.

 

It is in this same manner that David warns that not only will the worshippers of false gods not receive their just portion – but also He notes that their sorrows will grow worse and worse because of their false religiosity in having invested their monies in something without any determinate value.  Except for the ordinary common graces of living within God’s creation – those who invest their fortunes in false gods shall see no return on their spiritual portfolio.

 

I remember an argument with a worldly businessman who dearly loved his Federal Reserve Notes.  I had simply stated that they had value only as long as the general population thought they did, and once that confidence was shaken the wealth of the nation would be absolutely worthless.  My, you would have thought the second coming was being announced in the streets to hear his panic that his own precious idol could suddenly be counted worthless!

 

I still remember the great Johnny Carson toilet paper shortage that began with the comedian’s joking announcement late one evening.  Since I worked the next day and was in total ignorance of the comedic event – I was absolutely surprised to find that section of the store picked clean down to the bare shelves.  I mentioned it to the boss and he had to come back to look, since he thought I was teasing him.  We had enough stock in back to replenish the shelves, only to see them emptied again by closing time.  A frantic phone call to the warehouse to add the product on the evening truck only bought another day and a half.  Within a week – the warehouses began rationing their shipments and the production facilities went into overtime.  It was six weeks before the nation could enjoy the comedic effect of the panic.  And of course, the paper companies laughed all the way to the bank!

 

The second item in this list of David’s observations on the wicked religions that draw sinners away to their bitter end is this:  “Their drink offerings of blood I will not taste.”  In other words, David announces here that he is not in communion with such religious perverts.  In today’s world, while different people may have different levels of participation I am not in communion with the greater majority of those denominations that claim they are Christian.  I had stopped taking regular communion in my original denomination when one of the newly ordained feminists growled at me to take the bread and thus swallow her place in office.  Since – she had made communion something other than it should have been, I declined.

 

Now, we have to realize that there is something more going on here since many of the pagan religions would allow the blood of the sacrifices to be drunk as part of the ritual.  It really didn’t matter if the sacrifice was human or animal, a sad fact that relates to the increasing paganism in remote corners of our own fair land.  This is why some specific practioners of witchcraft should be executed whenever they work their way up the food chain to destroy a human life.  There is an incredible story of drug dealers south of the border, who discovered an undercover agent in their midst.  They proceeded to stir him up in the soup they were going to bath themselves and their car in – to render themselves invisible so that they could cross the border.  Then in a drug-induced stupor they were surprised when they were sighted.  They sped away trying to elude capture, but ended up dead in a ditch.

 

We have to remember that there are dark things loose again in our time, that have not seen the light of day for many, many decades.  These practices are highlighted by the media and as we draw the hint from the next item, we should learn to shun even the hint of such wicked and pagan things.

 

Application:  David’s third proposal is altogether reasonable for all of those who fall within the pale of Christ’s Church:”nor take up their names on my lips.”  Hopefully, you have heard the phrase:  “We should not even speak of such things”?  This was once a fairly common reaction to the details of pagan beliefs and practices.  I had discovered by accident twenty years ago that not every collection of Greek legends and myths was as pristine as the recognized collections of Bullfinch and others.  I had ordered a sample text book for school and was horrified at how earthy and downright pestilent those “civilized” Greeks had really been.  Another reference book from 1998, I have removed from the library, because even the once well known and respected Oxford University Press had taken it upon themselves to list an absolutely necessary reference to “Homer” within the middle of a three page centerfold on another abysmal topic.

 

So much for educational and moral decorum, there are many reasons to limit our children’s access to the media and public education and the wide open door access to things once kept hidden away in closets is one of them.  Unfortunately, it is the opposition party that is now in control and they are making every possible effort to keep any knowledge of the Judeo-Christian heritage and the former Western Civilization apart from ordinary common knowledge.  A wealthy businessman had proposed a whole department on the Western Heritage at a major university.  They took his millions and proceeded to bank the monies instead of using them.  When his proposed school was not established, he sued for the return of his investment and received it back to spend in a better place.

 

I know, this is a difficult line to follow, my father once got in minor trouble for using the library copy of Shakespeare rather than the edited version being used in school back in the thirties.  At this point in time, I hardly ever go into a public library because their whole collection is based on popularity rather than academic usefulness and morality.  Within the context of a truly Christian and Classical education – there are many necessary discussions to determine how our children’s education may proceed.  And we are torn between intellectual honesty and protecting the innocence of our heirs for as long as practical.  I once read that the Song of Songs in the Old Covenant was not made available for the Hebrew population until they were in their forties.

 

I do not think we should be that extreme, but yet – the current worldly models must be rejected and a new sense of proper decorum re-established as we find it necessary to re-invent an educational system to serve the heirs of David.  And in learning from him, we must know and realize that there are reasonable limits that may be established in our public discourse and our educational programs.  When we first went on the web, I was surprised to learn that there were half a dozen words used there which limited our being able to attain a family friendly rating from a fundamentalist organization designed to monitor the web.  However, since the topics were usually related to spiritual adultery, a theme that is common throughout the scriptures, we decided that the truth of God’s revelation in this matter was more important than screening every word of every sentence.  Of course, there are some things that I do not say, so as not to attract that portion of society wishing to defining hate crimes in every place where they might be offended with a knowledge of what God determines is sin.  However, David’s premise here is one that is reasonable and good: to abstain from dwelling on worldly things and to promote as Paul encourages the Philippians:   “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.“  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

The Westminster Confession & Catechisms.

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