David begins with a plea and a confession. 1"Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge," and then, 2"I have no good apart from you." Everything else in the psalm hangs on that second sentence. It is an odd thing to say in a psalm that goes on to name so many good things, and it sets the terms for all of them.
He looks around at two groups of people. The saints in the land are 3"the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight," while those who run after another god will find their sorrows multiplied. David has made his choice, and he will not even take their names on his lips.
The center of the psalm is 5"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup," and "portion" is a Levite's word. When Israel's tribes received their land, Levi received none, because the LORD told Aaron, "I am your portion and your inheritance" (Numbers 18:20). David belonged to Judah and had land of his own. He reaches across anyway and claims the Levite's inheritance as the better one. 6"The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places." The picture is of measuring cords marking out a family's land, and David says the boundaries have enclosed something beautiful. The pleasant place is the LORD himself.
David does not wait for the future to enjoy it. 7"I bless the LORD who gives me counsel." He sets the LORD always before him, and he draws the conclusion: 8"Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken." The right hand is where a helper stands. Setting the LORD before him is a habit, a practiced turning of the eyes back toward him through the ordinary hours of an ordinary day.
Then comes the psalm's great therefore. 9"My heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure." The confidence reaches past David: 10"you will not abandon my soul to Sheol." At Pentecost, Peter says David was speaking beyond himself, of the Christ whom God would not abandon to the grave (Acts 2:25-31). The portion David could not lose in life is the one his greater Son secured in death.
The psalm closes on a doorway. 11"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy." At his right hand the pleasures are endless. Joy that fills and joy that lasts are both found in one place, his presence, and the psalm ends with the path leading there.
You may know something about pleasant places: people you love, years behind you, a home, a long mercy that has carried you through more than you expected. Those are gifts, and they are worth being glad about this morning. Gifts like these are meant to point past themselves, and the psalm asks you to look beyond even the best of them to the Giver and to say what David said. Ask yourself if the LORD is your portion, or an idea about him.
Prayer
Father, we say with David that we have no good apart from you. Thank you for the pleasant places our lines have fallen. Guard our hearts from resting in things too small to hold us. Be our portion and our cup, always before us. Because you did not abandon your holy one to the grave, walk us the whole path of life into your presence. In the name of the risen Jesus, amen.