Psalm 16 begins with such a resounding statement...Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
Quite clearly, God, our creator, is the source of all goodness - the moral law flows from his character and it is shared in our own being at some degree. We delight in what is good because it is derivative from Him that is good. To deny God, to flee from the perfections of the holy one, to desire that which is less than Him, is to turn aside to false gods. Verse 4 says that those who run after another god, shall multiply their sorrows...such is the life of those who run after the gods of this world. Finding our joy, our hope, in things, in religions, in achievements only leave the soul barren - stricken with its own sorrows and the incomplete nature of being separated from God. Verse 5 offers quite another way.
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.
That inheritance is seen clearly in Ephesians 1:11-14
This inheritance, the kingdom of God and all its blessings, first and foremost the clearest relational reality of Him who is our good, shall be the possession of all those who respond in faith to the crucified and risen Son of God. Such is indeed a mystery, the people called to Christ, from Jew and Gentile, from every tribe, tongue and language - He shall be their portion and inheritance forever in the Kingdom where there is no disgrace of human sin. Verses 7-11 - It is God who gives instruction and counsel to his people, as we set him before us at all times. Walking, living, and loving in as constant a communion with him that we can, this is the place of his presence, a place of stability, firmness, a place which is not shaken. It is in this, the presence of God at our sides, that we receive a deep gladness of heart - the psalmist declare - my whole being rejoices! Oh, to have such gladness for my own life - some days the raptures of joy are there, but other days it ever dry and weary. The life in His presence is unending as God does not abandon the soul, he makes known to us the path of life, in his presence their is fullness of joy - at his right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Such should be the song of the children of God - to find their deepest and abiding pleasure in God himself and to enjoy and love all others, and other things only for his sake. Quick Note on Verse 10 - This is quoted by Paul in Acts 13:35 - referencing this to Jesus - that this Psalm predicts and points to the resurrection of Christ himself. Thus this Psalm serves as a great reminder of his resurrection and of our own - coming in the glorious inheritance we await. Out... --------11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.