This has been a week of major progress for pre-launch. We ordered tons more stuff. Kids ministry people have been on a tear. We’ve got a plan for welcome and traffic flow. We’ve got outside signage to direct people to our door. We are printing invitation cards for distribution. We have successfully set up BEFORE the service and we have sound and video! The custodial staff has been AMAZING! We have even successfully brewed coffee! We have some momentum.
These are the good moments – right? Let’s enjoy these in the midst of the hard work of church planting. Hopefully in these moments we stop and we express gratitude to God and thank him for his goodness to us. We know that there are days that are more challenging than others, but God remains the same. He is always good and in these moments of relative peace we exhale and hopefully feel some level of contentment. But here’s my question – what is contentment biblically? How do we stay content? Let’s continue our trek into various Pslams and head over to Psalm 16 to answer that question.
“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.” As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. 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.” (Psalms 16:1–6 ESV)
- Biblical contentment is a reliance on God. First we see David calling God his preserver, or actually maybe closer (Hebrew Shamar) is “keeper” and his “refuge.” He also says that he has “no good apart from you.” This is the picture of complete and total reliance. Now, we had better make sure that we are relying on is the truth for everything other than God will fail us. God will never fail us, leave us, or forsake us. I wonder – do we trust God in this way? You see the nature of sin is really at it’s core a lack of trust or faith in God. That God somehow doesn’t have the best for us that he is holding out on us. A sinful choice is really us saying, God I can’t rely on you. I will do things my way. I will give in to worry or despair, I will lash out with my words, I will find refuge in food, or rest, or alcohol, or work, or I will flat out ignore you…those things do not bring contentment, but contentment is only had thru a reliance on God.
- Biblical contentment is a delight in God. Look at David expressing delight! What is delight other than finding joy and happiness in something. Here David finds delight in God through his people. I immediately thought of you all, the church- you are my delight – God’s gift. The NT refers to this as the “inheritance of the saints” (Colossians 1:12 – we are each other’s inheritance as we share the joy of worshipping God with each other, we enjoy each other, this is fun, isn’t it? We have love for one another. We know that we feel this way about each other because we are saints (kadosh) Hebew = Holy Ones. Believers. Disciples of God. We delight then in what God has provided for us, specifically in this case each other.
- Biblical contentment is a choice. I know…it’s risky to say that. Somewhat cliche even. But it’s the reality found in this passage. David says “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup…” He makes a conscious decision in his soul that God is who He claims to be and he fully relies on Him and finds delight in Him. Conversely, we see that he knows that those who run after other Gods will find sorrow – multiplying sorrow. When we choose to veer off God’s path for our lives and take matters into our own hands, soul damage is the inevitable result. Some of this might just be the guilty nagging conscience of the Holy Spirit driving us to confession and repentance; some might be minor consequences of a stomach ache or bad health from poor self control; some of it might be serious financial struggles from years of financial sin or a wrecked marriage from not embracing God’s plan for husband and wife. If we chose to run after sin, we will have multiplying sorrow. This word for run after literally means to barter or exchange – point: sin always costs us something. But look at David – he makes his choice and he says “I will not embrace sin. I will not pursue worshiping anything else other than the one true God.” He will not even name even speak their names! Straight up – contentment is a choice. It actually is, and this Psalm teaches us that.
This all is wrapped up in the rock solid, never changing character of God. It’s been said that the only thing constant in life is change, circumstances will always change. God will not. In fact, God cannot. (James 1:17). Biblical contentment is centered on God, not anything else. As we go forward in our own individual spiritual walks and the planting of churches, may we center ourselves on God alone and enjoy the contentment that flows only from Him.
