Psalm 16: King David vs. Martha Stewart

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Oh, my goodness! I think I have fallen in love and have found a new favorite psalm! My favorites tend to change on a daily basis, but still! This is a psalm FULL of thoughts that I just totally relate to! Different psalms relate to different seasons in our lives, I suppose, but this one hits me right where I am right now.

“Keep me safe, O God.
for in you I take refuge.”

(Again with the refuge theme. I love that!)

“I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.'”

When I was reading this this morning, Martha Stewart and her famous trademark comment came to mind, and I could hear her saying in her velvety tones, “It’s a good thing.” (Let the reader beware: this is an obvious allusion to the fact that I hear voices, and anything I have to say SHOULD be held suspect. Well, you’ll see what I mean in a moment…)

Because my brain is just not right, the next thing that came to mind was King David, Israel’s Warrior King (and the man after God’s own heart) and Martha Stewart in a Smack Down. My money’s on the Warrior King, although Martha probably has her people on the phone with Absolom or the Philistines, getting insider info on how to fight dirty). And the headline reads:

King David Blows Martha Stewart Out of the WATER!!!

Back to what David really said…ahem….

Jaweh was HIS Lord. We forget that all around Israel, and even inside Israel, there WERE other choices. Very real, very tangible choices for who would be served as a deity. Different gods had different qualities to recommend themselves, depending on what power the worshiper needed.

But David’s choice was clear – he had made his choice. No other god would be served by him, but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Today, our choices of deities to serve are a little more veiled. The altars at which to leave our offerings are a little less concrete (or bronze or earthen). Our families, our homes, our personal pleasure, our sexuality, our appetites – all these deities whisper their attractiveness and their worthiness of our affections. They consume our thought lives and our efforts, as we serve them and their insatiable hunger for MORE of our time and devotion.

But David knew. He KNEW where true value, eternal value lies.

“Apart from YOU I have no good thing.”

God is so good. And so worthy. Of all our affection.

Won’t you take some time to be with Him and let things of eternal worth – TRULY good things – fill you up and renew your mind? Let Him give you His perspective on the issues with which you are wrestling? Take them to Your Father, and ask Him for new eyes, and a new heart, and the willingness to obey Him, whatever He calls you to do.

(And if you want to know more about where my heart is, go read the entire Psalm 16 for yourself. It is RICH, I tell ya! RICH!!! I could go on and on…but no one would read it….)