Around 20 years ago, Gregg Easterbrook wrote a book called The Progress Paradox. His point was quite clear: the more we have, the worse we feel.
He outlines the data that demonstrates that life for many people in this world—not all, but many, if not most—has continued to improve over the past 20, 40, 60 years. He walks through the metrics. Here are a few examples:
Life expectancy, infant mortality, healthcare, food security, disposable income, modern conveniences, leisure activities, and safety all have (generally) an upward movement.
Yet, at the same time, following almost the same trajectory as these technological and material benefits increase, so do levels of anxiety and depression tend to rise. These blessings that are designed to increase our stability and security often don’t, and at times even decrease. Why?
We can talk about a myriad of what I would call secondary causes, things like periods of political unrest, family breakdown, social media, and inflation. There are many others, and I’m not minimizing those. Those are all significant. But I want us, for a few moments, to look at the reason beneath the reasons. What we could call the primary cause.
If you’ll turn to Psalm 16— If you didn’t bring a Bible, there are Bibles under the seat in front of you. Psalm 16 could be titled “A Psalm of Confidence.” Look at a few signs of confidence in this Psalm:
Verse 1, “in you I take refuge.” I find my security in you.
Verse 8, “I shall not be shaken.”
Verse 9, “my flesh also dwells secure.”
Verse 10, “for you will not abandon my soul.”
King David begins with a prayer (“Preserve me, O God”) and then a resolve (“for in you I take refuge”). Then he explains why God is his refuge with another resolve. Verse 2,
“I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2).
All my good is in my God. All my goodness is in my God. “I have no good apart from you.” My ultimate security, significance, and satisfaction are in you.
David is essentially saying, “I can have everything, but without you, it feels like nothing.” Or, “I can have nothing, but with you, it feels like everything.” He is explaining the ultimate cause of the progress paradox: “I have no good apart from you.”
This statement really extends throughout the whole Bible. Just to give an example, we could go back to Genesis 1. When God created the world, he declared it what? Good. “It was good,” six times. “It was very good,” one time.
God is inviting Adam and Eve into his goodness. He gives himself to them to enjoy his presence and his provision. As Matthew McCullough points out,
“Only humans were made not just to reflect God’s goodness, but to recognize his goodness through experience and, even more, to relate to him through it. Humans were made to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).’”
Taste and see. Gerbils can reflect his goodness. People taste and see and experience his goodness.
When Adam and Eve, in the garden, enjoyed God’s good gifts—what are those? Things like a good meal, or friendship, or marriage, or sex, or children, or meaningful work—they experienced it all from, through, to God. “I have no good apart from you.” Until Genesis 3, in what we call “the fall.”
In Genesis 3, they began to wonder if God might be the enemy of good rather than the source. Satan whispers to Eve, tempting her to eat the forbidden fruit, in verse 5:
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing [what?] good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
In other words, he was promising Eve the capacity to define and experience good independently from God. Satan is essentially just saying the opposite of David: “I can have good apart from you.”
By the way, that word good—in verse six, for example, Genesis 3:6, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good”—same word, “towb,” same Hebrew word, that David uses in Psalm 16. McCullough continues:
“Grasp at good apart from God, and every good thing comes laced with sorrow. Childbirth is painful. Work is frustrating and often futile. Life itself is now shadowed by death. And through it all, we’re still surrounded by good, but apart from God, nothing good is good enough.”
Nothing good is good enough. This is the real progress paradox. The more good I get apart from God, the more susceptible I become to discontentment, anxiety, regret, and insecurity.
But David in Psalm 16 describes a better way— how all my good can be in my God. He gives three practical examples and then one ultimate result. Look at the three practical examples:
1. God’s goodness is experienced through his people, through his people.
Verse 3,
“As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight” (Psalm 16:3).
David is saying, “When I’m looking for a hero, I don’t look among the celebrities or the influencers, the powerful political figures… I look among the saints of the land.”
“Saints” means holy ones, those set apart. Holy ones are not dead Christians who did enough to merit sainthood (“the saints”). No, saints are set apart by and to God. People who say with David, “I have no good apart from you!”
David is saying in verse three, to the saints, “I experience God’s goodness through y’all.” Do you? I do. I really do. I taste and see God is good as I see and live and experience his goodness with you. It’s a beautiful thing. And I’m not, and David’s not, minimizing the fact that when you live in community, you can disappoint one another, hurt one another.
Sometimes people think it’s safer just to live in isolation or alienation so as not to risk what we call today “church hurt,” but David is saying the alternative is not minimizing the reality of church hurt. There are whole Psalms that are all about church hurt. David gets it. He’s saying the alternative is, verse four,
“The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips” (Psalm 16:4).
David is saying the same thing Adam and Eve learned the hard way: that trying to find good apart from God leads to sorrow. The progress paradox. So I will delight in those who delight in you. Number one, we experience his goodness through his people.
2. God’s goodness is experienced through his generosity.
Verse 5,
“The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:6).
A couple of definitions there: “My chosen portion” could be defined as “my allotted portion,” meaning God is the one who gives me what I need. Like the priests of the Old Testament who were told, “You will not have this, your own property,” but in Numbers 18:20, “I am your portion and your inheritance.”
“My cup” represents all that God provides, like when David prayed, “My cup overflows” in Psalm 23:5.
“My lot” is either referring to the casting of lots (i.e. the means of identifying God’s provision) or the provision itself. Either way, David is describing all that God has given us, verse six, as “a beautiful inheritance.” The lines can refer to boundary lines, all that he provides.
The overall thrust of verses 5 and 6 is summarized in James 1:
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above…”
Isn’t that interesting that James says, “Do not be deceived?” Remember Adam and Eve in the garden? Don’t buy the lie that you can find ultimate good apart from God. We experience his goodness through his generosity. Verses 5 and 6 are oozing with the beauty of contentment as we find our good in our God.
3. God’s goodness is experienced through his counsel, through his counsel.
Verse 7:
“I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 16:7-8).
He is saying that hearing his counsel is directly connected to being unshaken. His word is like a security guard. As my heart is aligned with his counsel, it instructs me in the night.
The word “instruct” there, the Hebrew is “yasar.” It’s a very strong word. It has the idea of corrective instruction, discipline, training. Let me illustrate.
Last week, Karen and I went back to MD Anderson for her latest scan, and it was not good: four new tumors (one of them is quite sizable) in her abdomen. Then the one in her lung has grown.
It was heavy news. The leiomyosarcoma specialist once again gave a serious, sobering prognosis, but she has a treatment she wants us to try.
After the appointment, we walked from the hospital to the hotel we were staying in, had a teary talk, read the Scriptures, and prayed those promises into our hearts.
Once again, the Spirit met us, surrounded us with a peace that passes all human understanding, a peace that—Philippians 4—guards our hearts. So much so, Karen takes a nap.
I did some reading for a little while, then we got ready, went out to a nice restaurant with our dear friends, the Kuruvillas (who were members here for many years, now live in Houston), and had a delightful evening.
Some people would say, “You’re delusional. Do you not understand what’s happening?” And maybe we are. It’s not the worst thing people have said about me. But it is a stunning thing to see how the Spirit counsels us through his word, applying his promises to our hearts, even before we see all the answers fleshed out, all the solutions provided.
“We’re going to trust you, Lord. All my good is in my God!” The fruit of that is confidence, not a delusional confidence that evades reality or a delusional confidence that trusts in itself or human cures. All my good is in my God, or as verse 8 says:
“…because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8).
There is a stability and a confidence that come when we experience the goodness of God through his counsel. His whispers are stronger than our jitters. His word is more firm than our worries.
David is experiencing God’s goodness through God’s people, through God’s counsel, through God’s generosity— these three examples. But look at the ultimate result, verse 9:
“Therefore [because all my good is in my God] my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol [the grave, the pit, the place of decay], or let your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:9-10).
David is here describing his whole being as experiencing joyful confidence. Where does this come from? Peter answers this question in his big sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2. He describes the death and resurrection of Jesus, and then he quotes Psalm 16.
Acts 2:25, “For David says concerning him—”
Who’s that? Jesus. Don’t miss that. Peter is saying, “You want to know who ultimately is being described in Psalm 16? It’s Jesus.”
“For David says concerning [Jesus], ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoiced, my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption’” (Acts 2:25-27).
The Apostle Paul does the same thing. He quotes this psalm when he was teaching in a synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia. He talks about Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, and then Acts 13:35,
“Therefore he says also in another psalm [Psalm 16], ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption” (Acts 13:35-37).
Paul is saying, David—in the short-term—experienced corruption. Eventually, he will experience the fulfillment of his own words and incorruptible physical resurrection. But the only reason David experiences the fulfillment of his words is because the Son of David did not stay in the grave.
So Psalm 16 points to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. When you are in Jesus, you get this confidence. Look at where Psalm 16 ends with some of the most beautiful words in the Bible. Verse 11,
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
All my good is in my God forever. Do you have this kind of confidence?
Last week, when Karen and I were flying back from Houston, we had to go through the Houston airport. Some of you know what I’m about to say. We had the privilege of standing in long lines in security.
Early in the morning, when we got there, I was sensing my spirit already descending into grumbling toward our beloved Congress. We boarded a train to go from one concourse, through another, through another…
As we’re driving on this train, we’re seeing the line that we will stand in to come back toward the security where we just were. It’s that long, hours of waiting.
I knew I had a choice: get a really bad attitude or— I asked the Lord, “Would you possibly have a divine appointment for us? Like someone you want us to talk with?”
For those several hours waiting in line, Karen talked to a young couple right in front of us pretty much the whole time. I talked to a poor young man right behind us who was stuck with me for hours. He had nowhere to go.
This guy, I love him, 21, an iron worker, had already experienced so much pain in life. His parents are divorced. He was kind of tossed from home to home. He’s currently living with his grandmother.
I asked him, “Do you have any spiritual beliefs?” I like that question because it’s vague, and somebody can go wherever with it.
He said, “Not really.” But then he said, “But I do have a great-grandmother who is praying for me and trying to get me to go with her to church.” Isn’t that interesting? That God may have designed this long line in answer to her prayer. Much to his dismay.
Throughout the conversation, another question I asked him was, “If you could ask God anything, what would it be? Like right now?”
He said, “What happens when we die?” Like, what’s next?
Of course, I said, “That’s a really good question,” because I think any human who doesn’t ask that question is not thinking. That’s the guarantee in life, sooner or later.
So we had a wonderful time walking through the life and death and burial and resurrection of Jesus and how he answers the question, “What’s next?”
He’s the only one who came from and back to heaven. The only one who was sinless and could pay for our sins so that when we die, we have eternal life. That is where we get confidence.
When he asked that question (“What’s going to happen next?”), he had fear in his eyes. Brothers and sisters, I pray no one in here will leave today with fear in your eyes or in your heart.
Jesus died so that we can have confidence— not in ourselves, not in some sort of delusion that we can find good on our own. Jesus came and died and rose that we might live and die with confidence. He will show us the path of life. In his presence is fullness of joy. At his right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. One more example:
Dr. Piyush Jani is a surgeon at Cambridge University Hospital. He grew up a Hindu in Kenya. Then his family, when he was 13, moved to England.
When he was a young man, he did some things that revealed his heart in a way he had never seen his heart. He realized that he was a liar and he was proud and self-deceived, and yet he couldn’t find a way of removing his guilt.
He believed in karma, so he knew he was guaranteed to face the guilt in the future. Through a Christian co-worker who modeled forgiveness, he began to taste forgiveness (something he had never experienced before), and he learned that forgiveness is found in Jesus.
He began reading his Bible, attending church, and over time, he became convinced that trying harder is not the answer. Jesus is the answer! He repented, and he believed in Jesus. Listen to what he says about his life now, and pick up on the confidence of past, present, future:
“So, what is my life like now as a Christian?
“First, I am confident that my sins have been forgiven (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). My past is dealt with. [Is yours?]
“Second, I live day by day in God’s power. The same power which raised Christ from the dead is at work in my life (Ephesians 1:19-20). I have resources to love God and my neighbour. Therefore, I have help to live in the present. [Do you have power today?]
“Third, I do not fear death or judgment (John 5:4; Romans 8:1). Christ has overcome sin and death. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who belong to Christ. Jesus has promised to save me completely and forever. My future is secure.”
What a provision! He goes on later and asks this question:
“Why am I so confident? Partly because there is so much evidence that the resurrection of Jesus Christ took place in history…providing us with deep assurance that Jesus’s promises to act on our behalf are trustworthy.
“This is why I no longer follow the Hindu tradition I was raised with. I worship a Saviour who was crucified and has risen again, and he has my past, present, and future completely covered.”
Do you have your past, present, and future completely covered? Confidence in life and death.
I’m going to invite the worship team to come. Please stand, all of us. Let’s stand together. We’re going to respond by reveling in this freedom and confidence, right before some of us get baptized. We’re going to revel in his freedom and confidence.
As we do, I beg you, if you don’t have this through Jesus, cry out to him right now. Or if you want someone to talk to, I’d love nothing more than to pray with you or answer your questions. Let’s cry out to him together.
