Let us turn now to the Old Testament
in the book of Psalms. I want to read Psalm 16. We read that remarkable sermon of
the Apostle Paul in Acts 13, the sermon preached at Antioch
there in Pisidia. But now turning to the Old Testament,
I'll read Psalm 16. The miktam of David. Preserve me, O God, for in thee
do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto
the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee,
but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent,
in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied
that hasten after another God. Their drink-offerings of blood
will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine
inheritance, and of my cup thou maintainest my lot. The lions
are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly
heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath
given me counsel. My reins also instruct me in
the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before
me. Because He is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and
my glory rejoices. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. thou wilt show me the path of
life, in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there
are pleasures for evermore. I want to take more particularly
for a text the words that we have here at the end in verses
9 and 10. Psalm 16 verses 9 and 10, Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall
rest in hope, for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. The Psalm
bears a title as does the following 17th Psalm.
Psalm 17 is a prayer of David. Psalm 16 we are told
is a miktan and it might say in the margin of your Bible that
that literally means a golden psalm. What we have here is a
golden psalm of David and what is that that really marks it
out as golden is in other fact that there is one greater than
David in this psalm, a greater than David that is speaking in
this psalm. It's a messianic psalm. It clearly
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no disputing the
fact, because the words that I've just read as a text are
taken up there in the New Testament, in the preaching of the apostles,
We have those two great sermons recorded in Acts amongst others
but thinking of Peter at Jerusalem in chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost
and then what we read there in Acts 13 of Paul's preaching on
that first missionary journey when they arrived there at the place where he was able to
open up the Word of God and preach that Gospel, Antioch in Pisidia. And if you turn just briefly
to what we have recorded there in the Acts, thinking in the
first place of Peter and what Peter has to say, I'm sure we're
all familiar with the content of that great sermon that he
preached. We know the consequence of that preaching, over 3,000,
were brought under great conviction 3000 were converted at that time
and there in the course of his preaching in Acts chapter 2 at
verse 25 Peter says David speaking concerning
him that is concerning Jesus Christ. David speaketh concerning
him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on
my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore doth
my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh
shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy gladness. It's quoting from the psalm.
And then he asks the question. Men and
brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David,
that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us
unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins,
according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his
throne, he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of
Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh
did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we all are witnesses. And so, Peter sees quite clearly
that Psalm 16 is messianic, it speaks of Christ
and Christ's experience, having died, having been buried, so
he did see no corruption, but was raised again from the dead
on the third day. And what we have in Peter, we
observe the same with regards to the Apostle Paul in that 13th
chapter and there at verse 35 he's speaking
of Christ wherefore he saith also in another psalm thou shalt
not suffer thine holy one to see corruption for David after
he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep
and was laid unto his father's and saw corruption But he whom
God raised again saw no corruption. And so when we read through this
golden psalm, we should seek to discern something of the Lord,
even Christ. And we can say in verse 6, The
lions are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly
heritage. For we know that he must see
of the travail of his soul, that He had not shed that precious
blood in vain, that He had not just made salvation a possibility
for men, but He had made that salvation sure and certain for
all those that were given to Him by the Father in the eternal
covenant. Verse 9, Therefore my heart is
glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul, in how neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. Or He would see the fruit of
all those sufferings and what sufferings they were that He
endured upon the cross. Well, as we come to this text
for a while this evening. I want to take up the theme of
Christ resting in hope. Here we see the Lord Jesus Christ
in the grave resting in hope. He would be preserved without
any corruption even in the realm of the dead. And how He speaks
here in verse 9, My heart is glad my glory rejoices may be
the reference glory there is to the tongue or probably to
to the soul his heart is glad his soul is rejoicing his flesh
also is resting in hope it's that parallelism that we have
in the Hebrew scriptures now this psalm then speaks to us
and speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ and in many ways
speaks to us of those inward sufferings. As I've said on other
occasions, that's the great beauty of the Psalms. We have the record
of Christ's life, of course, in the Gospels, the fourfold
Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But in the Psalms, time
and again, it's as if the veil is drawn aside and we're looking
into the very soul. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
as we come to consider the words that I've read as a text tonight,
two things that I want us to consider are that Christ in a
sense is glorious even in the grave. There's a glory about
Christ even when we find him in the grave, in the realm of
the dead. But then also in the second place
we see him as that one who is victorious over the grave. first of all then Christ glory
my flesh also shall rest in hope it says and the margin as that
the word rest literally means to dwell confident As he dies, and you know the
consequence of dying, and certainly there in the hot climate of the
Middle East, how soon would the body begin to decay and to corrupt. No, says Christ, my flesh also
shall dwell confidently in hope. how careful they were upon the
death of the Lord Jesus. We know, it's recorded in the
Gospels, how his body was begged by that man Joseph of Arimathea,
and how carefully he attends to that body. In the Gospel,
in John 19 for example, verse 40, they took the body of Jesus
and wound it in linen clothes with the spices as the manner
of the Jews is to bear it. Now in the place where he was
crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new sepulchre
wherein was never man yet laid. There lay they Jesus therefore
because the Jews preparation day was night and the sepulchre
was was nigh at hand. Here is the tomb then but there
had never been any body laid in this tomb. There had been
no corruption at all in this tomb. It was a new tomb. It belonged
to this man Joseph of Arimathea. And the fact that when Christ
died upon the cross there was a body to be dealt with indicates
to us quite clearly that he was no phantom spirit. that his humanity,
his human nature was a real human nature. There were those very
soon after the life and the death and the burial and the resurrection
of Christ, there were those heretics who came along, the Gnostics,
who suggested that he was nothing more than a phantom, he wasn't
a real man. We know the record that we have
in scripture is plain enough. He was truly a man. He had a physical body. And John
knew that. John knew that. John writes at
the beginning of that first epistle, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word
of life. how John was one who was favoured
to be so intimate with Christ there at the institution of the
Holy Supper he was lying upon the Lord's bosom he knew that
this was no phantom this was a real man and it's John again
writing there in the fourth chapter of that first epistle every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God
he says Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is not of God, but this is that spirit of antichrist.
How soon you see, even in the days of the apostles there were
false teachers, teaching heresy, denying the reality of Christ
Jesus in his human nature. but now there is a tremendous
emphasis in scripture on the fact that he is a man and we
sang it just now a man there is a real man and why? well many reasons why but think
of those words that we have for example in Hebrews chapter 2
and verse 14 for as much then as the children were partakers
of flesh and blood he likewise took part of the same that by
death he might destroy him that had the power of death and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage where he comes to identify with men and because
men are partakers of flesh and blood he will partake that same
human nature and yet his was of course a a sinless human nature
what was conceived by the Holy Ghost in Mary's womb, that holy
thing all that holy thing, that human nature joined to the eternal
Son of God in the great mystery of godliness God was manifest
in the flesh and here is that body that sinless
body laid in the grave but he would see no corruption neither
will thou suffer thine holy one nor that holy thing that human
nature sinless that holy thing could never see any corruption
at all and yet he dies and it's a real death that he dies and
following the death there's a funeral the body is taken and laid in
Joseph of Arimathea's new tomb. It's a solemn occasion, a funeral. It's a sorrowful occasion. If ever was so, we see it with
the saints of old in the Old Testament. Think of Abraham,
the father of the faithful, the father of all them that believe. Give me a possession of a burying
place, he says, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. upon
the passing of his beloved Sarah. He knew, you see, that the consequence
of death, of course, are mortal bodies. And so he would bury his dead
out of his sights, knowing what the consequence would be, how
solemn it is, the separation, between body and soul. Whilst
we are in possession of our souls, we're alive. This is how God
made man in the beginning. He created Adam out of the dust
of the earth. He made his body. Then he breathed
into his nostril the breath of life and he becomes a living
soul. These two stand together and so here what do we have?
In the experience of the one spoken of, even the Lord Christ,
we have separation. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell. The word, the trend of hell is
the word Sheol, literally meaning the realm of the dead. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.
There's a separation between the soul and the body, that holy
thing that had been formed in the womb
of the Virgin in Mary. Our body and soul clearly belong
together, we see that so evidently in those words of creation that
we just referred to there in Genesis chapter 2. And what is
the first death that comes upon man? It's when there's a separation
between body and soul and when a person is gone the corpse is lifeless, there's no
life there any longer. Oh, right at the beginning we
see that this has come about because of man's sin, because
of the disobedience of our first parents there in the garden of
Eden. Now God tells them of what that
curse is now. that they disobeyed. In the day
that they'll eat us thereof they shall surely die, says God. They
shall surely die. Dying they shall die. There's
that sense in which the death was immediate of course. There's
a spiritual death now because there's a separation between
Adam and Eve and God their creator. No more are they in fellowship
God comes into the garden and they want to hide themselves
away from God they don't want to commune with God there's a
dying that's immediately evident but then also there's a death
that will come dying thou shalt die and so the curse in the sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth
for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return and we see
it time and again in the language of Ecclesiastes where the preacher
Solomon speaks of the vanity of the world the world that lies
in the wicked one then shall the dust return to the earth
as it was and the spirits to God who gave it all out of the
dust and all turned to dust again and so there is this association between sin and death that awful curse that has come
upon man and the grave, really that place of corruption. The words again that we have
in scripture in Job, Job 24, 19, drought and he'd consume
the snow waters so doth the grave those who have sinned. All it is appointed unto man
once to die and then judgment. How solemn it is. There is that,
you see, about death and the funeral and the grave. It's no
wonder that in this secular day in which we live, things like
cremation become ever more and more popular. Why? Because it's
so much quicker. It's so much cleaner. It's also
clinical. Men don't like to face up to
what they are as sinners in the sight of God. And yet we know
that cremation really is a pagan practice. In the book of Amos
we see how the Moabites are rebuked of God because of what they did
to the king of Edom burning his bones in the lime. Now God rebukes
them. Because of that, because of that
sin, what they did to another king. Now, the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ
could and would never return to dust. That could never be. Because when we think of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we have to recognize the fact that his human
nature is innately immortal. it must be so because there's
no sin there when he is conceived he is preserved
free from all the taint of original sin he has a human mother, he's the
seed of the woman but he has no human father and in that miracle
of the virgin birth how the Holy Ghost so comes upon the virgin
she was a sinner was Mary in the Magnificat we see her rejoicing
in God her Saviour she was not a sinless woman like all others
she was conceived in sin shapen in iniquity but in the miracle
of that birth you see the Holy Ghost so works upon the womb
of that woman that what is conceived is holy, the holy thing no cause
of death is there in the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ
and so he could never return to the dust, there could never
be any corruption but he would rest in peace Just
as the margin declares, he could rest in confidence.
There would be a glorious resurrection. But there, even in the grave,
there is something so glorious with regards to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as I said, that body was
so carefully preserved in the grave it's recorded in all of
the four Gospels that they attended to his body and now after laying
that body in his grave Joseph of Arimathea brings a great stone
and rolls it at the door of the sepulchre There in Matthew 27
verse 60, he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher.
There was no way in which anyone could enter in, it was safe,
it was secure. But then subsequently there in
Matthew's account, Matthew 27 we see at the end of that chapter
how the high priest and the Pharisees were concerned that the disciples
of Jesus might come and steal away his body and say that he
was risen and they want Pontius Pilate to set a guard But he
refuses. He tells them to go and see to
it themselves and they do that very thing. They seal the stone
that Arimathea had put there against the door and they set
a watch. But still the Lord breaks through
all the barriers of the tomb and rises again from the dead.
But all these precautions Do they not ensure that there is
no possibility of any corruption in that place where the Lord
lies? In fact, there were two angels, weren't there, that kept
watch over that body because on the morning of the resurrection
when Peter and the others are there at the grave, they meet
these angels. They had a charge to keep that
sacred body of the Lord. And now, in all of these things,
what is Christ doing? He is consecrating the grave
for believers. That's a wondrous thing. In all
that He does, here upon the earth, the Lord Jesus is a public person. He lives for His people. He dies
for His people. He is buried for his people.
He rises again for his people. Everything he does is not just
for himself, it's for his people, the life that he lives. It's
that righteous life. It's that active obedience. He's
weaving that robe of righteousness with which his people are covered
in their justification. He is the Lord their righteousness.
In his dying He is making the great sin atoning sacrifice. He is dying the just for the
unjust. It's a substitutionary death that he dies. And also in his burial he is
consecrating the grave. I like the lines of the hymn,
Jesus who came to save the land for sinners slain, perfumed the
chambers of the grave and made in death again. He has perfumed the grave for
the believer. That's his ministry to his people,
then of course he rises again, he rises for his people. rising
again for our justification, entering heaven, and there He
will forever intercede for all that come to God by Him. All His ministry is a public
ministry, and He is glorious in every part of His ministry. Glorious then even here in the
grave. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption
but then also ultimately Christ is victorious over the grave because there is the resurrection
from the dead his flesh rests in hope will
rest and dwell there confidently because he was to be raised again. He was buried, says Paul, as
he opens that great 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, he was buried
and he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Remember how at the beginning of that chapter The Apostle emphasizes
the fact that all that Christ does is according to the Scriptures. His death is according to the
Scriptures and so too is his resurrection. It's in accordance
with the words that we have before us here in the psalm. When Christ is there at the grave
of his friend Lazarus Remember, as he commands them
to take away the stone from that grave, the sister of Lazarus
martyred says to the Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he
hath been dead four days. Four days. Well, Christ rises
from the dead on the third day. He saw no corruption. He conquered.
death as he had conquered sin and as he is that one who also
will conquer the grave. This is the ministry of the Lord
Jesus. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but
thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, the Lord is risen, and the
Lord is that one who is risen indeed. And so, as a consequence,
we have what we call the Lord's Day, that day that was observed
by the apostles, as we see throughout the Acts, the first day of the
week. It was the day of His resurrection.
And so it becomes the Christians' Sabbath day. or the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
And as we come together, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, and gather
that we might worship our God through Him who is the only mediator,
we mark that blessed, that glorious truth. We remember that Christ
is risen again from the dead. Death is a dreadful thing. It's
a consequence of man's sin. It's a curse that God has visited
upon men because of Adam's fall. And when we come to die, we die
alone, don't we? That's a solemn thought. No one
else dies with us. we experience that alone, others
might be with us loved ones might be present but our experience
is our own experience and we are told quite clearly it is
appointed unto men once to die we all must pass through that
experience except the Lord should return before we could die, we
know not, maybe the Lord will return but we are to be those
who are aware of our mortality that we can look to one who is
immortal one who has vanquished death and the grave even our
Lord Jesus Christ and he is mindful, is he not, of those who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage those
words that we referred to earlier in Hebrews 2.15 part of the reason
why he became a man and passes through all the experiences of
our humanity though he is sinless he identifies with us as sinners
and even goes the way of all men in that he dies upon the
cross and is taken and buried in the tomb but rising again
all we see him as that one who is able then to empathize with
his people but more than that to comfort his people or we have
not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities tempted in all points like as we are yet without
sin how he feels for us in all our infirmities not our sinful
infirmities because he knew no sin he is free from sin but how
he comes so close to us even experiencing death and rising
again from the dead or the last enemy that shall be destroyed
with all his death and when will that destruction come? At the
end when the dead in Christ are to rise first and what is the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus? That's the first fruits and that's
the guarantee as it were that there will be that general resurrection
in the last day Death will be swallowed up in victory. All
the importance then of Christ in His victories over the grave. And now the Apostle brings that
out in that 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. If Christ be not risen, he says,
then is our preaching vain. And your faith is also vain. now Paul is so direct so blunt
we might say if Christ is not risen what he is doing in preaching
the gospel is a vain useless thing but fight is also a vain
useless thing if Christ is not risen of all men then we have
cause to be the most miserable but the truth is Christ is risen
and we have it here in the psalm this golden psalm that speaks
to us of the Lord Jesus and speaks to us especially of his experience
in the grave where he is glorious and then he gloriously triumphs
over the grave it's interesting I think we even
have it at the end of the following 17th Psalm the last verse as for me I will
behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness always there not some reference there to Christ's
resurrection he awakes and there is still
there that blessed likeness He is the image of the invisible
God even as he comes forth from the grave. And here we see also something
of the believer's experience. David is the author of the psalm
and when David writes in the psalm he's not a man who's simply writing at
the dictates of God the Holy Spirit? That's not the way of
divine inspiration, is it? Holy men of God spoke as they
were moved by the Spirit, but we see quite clearly in the Psalms
that God brings his servants into deep waters, into trying
situations and circumstances, and they have to write out of
all the fullness of their soul's experience. They feel the things
that they're writing. There's a miracle in divine inspiration. And so the psalm is a psalm of
David and there's that in the psalm
that relates to the experiences of all the people of God. Although
principally the psalm speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore my heart is glad, and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption, thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Oh,
the Lord Jesus is that one who has gone before, he has risen,
he has ascended on high, he has entered heaven. But do not believers
sit together in those heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are believers to be those who
are continually setting their affections on those things that
are above, where Christ is at the right hand of God? I said,
verse 6, where he says, the lions are fallen unto me in pleasant
places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. Although the words
have belonged to Christ, He has a goodly heritage. He sees of
the travel of His soul. But isn't it also the experience
of those who are in Christ? Do we not see that the lions
fall unto us in pleasant places? That we have a goodly heritage
in Him? As we are His heritage, so He is our heritage. Now these things you see, all
of them written for our learning that we through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. What a glorious hope
is that that He said before the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, He has vanquished all the
powers of darkness. He has triumphed so gloriously
over Satan, over sin, over death, over the grave He is risen, He
is ascended, He is seated at the Father's right hand, He ever
lives, He is to return in power and glory to receive all His
people unto Himself. Oh, that we might have grace
to be those who believe these things, who embrace these truths,
who by the grace of God seek to live our lives in the light
of all these precious doctrines. Well, the Lord Bless to us the
words of the text reiterated of course there in the New Testament
in the preaching of both the Apostle Peter and the Apostle
Paul. O God grant that we might be
favoured with such apostolic faith. The Lord bless his word. Amen.