Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make 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 keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him 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 realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. - Psalm 16
"Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."
This reminds me of another slightly deceptive verse in Psalms: "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Ps. 35:9) It seems to be saying that God will give you what you want. But that part about the desires of your heart is the second half of a sentence. The first half reads, "take delight in the Lord" then followed with "and he will give you the desires of your heart." That is: desire God and He will give you...God. He will give you what you want as long as what you want is God.
The verses in our passage describe the "boundary lines" describing the edges of a plot of land, one inherited. But that part about boundary lines is the second half of a sentence. The first half describes the inheritance like this: "Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup." That is, the inheritance received is the Lord himself.
Our problem is that we want too little. Our desires are too small, too tepid, our imaginations are too unambitious. We settle. We settle for so small. But giving up on choosing our boundary lines means that we inherit so much more. It is a scary thought. Sometimes we think that choosing the devil we know would be better than choosing the unknown what God would choose for us. We have to let go of our dreams first.
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