Psalm 16

I just keep coming back to it:

Of David.

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

I said to the LORD, "you are my lord; apart from you I have no good thing."
As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood or take their names on my lips.

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

I can remember the words of this Psalm being a rock for me in my college days, struggling with loneliness. Life is so different now, and it still speaks to me.

Then, it was necessary for me to live in faith that God was good, and saw my state, cared, and had given me a "pleasant place" even if it did not feel like it.

Then, I trusted that "houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the lord"(Prov. 19:14), and also that "an inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end." (Prov 20:21).

Then, in reading Psalm 16 combined with the above verses in Proverbs, God clearly spoke to my heart and said: "Wait. Delight in me where I have put you. Let me worry about the rest."

Now, I truly am in the most pleasant place of my life. I have been given an incredible inheritance in Heather. No man could ask for more. She is more than I ever dreamed a wife could be, way more than I ever imagined, even when I married her. I am humbled to be entrusted with her love. "Surely I have a delightful inheritance!!!"

Now, "my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices"

In the future, I will again have to put my trust in God's goodness and power. This current state of the summer of life cannot continue. It will pass into autumn and winter. Suffering and death will come.

In those future times, I hope I can still rejoice, and proclaim that "because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken," and "my body will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the grave"

The hope of the resurrection. Honestly to my scientific brain, it seems absurd. Totally foolish. Yet that is the promise God has given. I can no more stop believing in and trusting the LORD, than I can stop loving Heather. The resurrection is absurd, but it is where I must stand. Not out of fear. I do not fear death. I love life is the thing. It just seems too crazy to be true.

Resurrection of the body...the physical body is such a Hebrew concept. The Greeks are content to have an eternal spirit that uses the body as a vessel. Not so the Hebrews. There is no spirit without flesh. They are one and the same. If the body does not live again, there is no eternal life.

Again craziness, and I don't positively know that I buy it. Luckily it is not my problem. I will walk with YHWH God alone and not "run after other gods"

I put my trust in him, and he can do with me as he pleases.

Thank you God for your blessings....and for caring about a very lonely college kid, and an overly blessed adult. "Apart from you I have no good thing."

"In thy presence is fullness of life,
In thy right hand are pleasures forever."