Daily Scripture: Psalm 16:7 I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel.
Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set Yahweh always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices.
My body shall also dwell in safety.
10 For you will not leave my soul in Sheol,[a]
neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life.
In your presence is fullness of joy.
In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 16:10 Sheol is the place of the dead.
Reflection Questions:
In Psalm 16, the psalmist asked for God's protection and guidance. In exuberant, even hyperbolic poetic words, the psalmist said God's protection would see him through even life-threatening challenges. In Acts 2:25-28, Peter pointed to David's tomb in Jerusalem, and said only the risen Jesus had fully received the divine promise of deliverance from the grave. (In Acts 13:35, Paul also used this Psalm to reinforce his preaching of Jesus.)
We celebrated Easter on April 20. We remembered again that Jesus said, "Because I live, you will live too" (John 14:19). Pastor Hamilton reminded us that, in Frederick Buechner's phrase, "the worst thing is never the last thing." Have you personally claimed the Easter faith, incorporating the promise that "you won't abandon my life to the grave" into every day of your walk with God?
Psalm 16 began, "Protect me, God." For the psalmist, as for most of us, those words first speak of safety from physical harm. Yet we also marked Easter in the shadow of the tragic shooting death of 3 people at the Jewish Community Center, a few blocks from our church. Could martyrs like the apostle Paul, or Jesus himself, pray "Protect me, God"? What are some key ways besides physical well-being that God protects you?
Today's Prayer:
Loving Lord, protect me today—from wandering from your path for my life, from the ways evil and apathy tug at my heart, from the ego that thinks I know better than you do. And yes, if you will, from physical harm, too. Amen.
Insight from Donna Karlen
Donna Karlen serves as the Campus Communications Specialist at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.
“Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body rests secure.” Psalm 16:9
Glad hearts and rejoicing souls certainly were not the initial responses to the first Easter. As Pastor Glen described the scene in his message last weekend, Jesus’ followers were filled with disbelief and racked with discouragement. And no doubt they had found little rest during the days following the death of their teacher, their friend – their every hope for life. The cross had taken all that from them.
Jesus was no longer theirs.
I have never doubted that I belong to God. He created me, watches over me – as today’s Psalm says, God shows me the path of life. And because of that first Easter, Jesus has given me a ticket to heaven. No disbelief or discouragement here on that point! And my heart is glad and my soul does rejoice because I belong to him.
But the amazing thing – or rather another amazing thing – is that Jesus belongs to me.
In the Sunday 5 pm worship service, we sang the popular Christian song, Oceans. It includes some lyrics that literally send a shiver of joy through me when I hear or sing them: “I am yours and you are mine.” Doesn’t it just get to your every hope for life to know that Jesus belongs to us?
Those first Easter believers took some time to get to the hope, joy and power of Easter. They disbelieved and felt discouraged because they thought they had lost Jesus.
It didn’t take them long to realize that through Easter, they really had just begun to find him.
He is ours, and we are his.
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