King David Sings About the Resurrection
Psalm 16
Finish the following phrase. “Real men don’t…” Some will remember the book, “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche.” This title always made me wonder, “Well then, what does a real man eat—raw steak off the bone?!” You might fill in the blank with the phrase “real men don’t cry.” I for one don’t believe this is true, but if there was any question about the matter, all doubts were crushed three weeks ago when the manly man of all men, Brett Favre, cried on national TV. Is anyone willing to go on record calling Favre a wimp or a girly man because he cried at his retirement? How about this phrase? “Real men don’t write poetry.” Maybe in the olden days men wrote poetry, but what are the chances that you would hear this conversation on a Tuesday morning in November? “Hey Joe, did you catch the big game last night?” “No Tom, I decided to stay up late and write love poems.”
I won’t make a judgment about “real men” eating quiche, but I believe that real men do cry and real men do write poetry, and the only evidence I need for my conclusion is King David. King David not only cried—a lot—and wrote lots of poetry, he also played the harp! Now if that is all we knew about David, then we might not be ready to elect him president of the Manly Man’s Club. But David also did other things which leave no room for doubt, like killing a lion with his hands, defeating the mighty warrior Goliath and becoming the greatest military leader in Israel’s history. Yes, David played the harp, but if you remember, he also dodged the deadly spears of King Saul while he was playing the harp!! David was a real man because he was brave, because he trusted the Lord, and because he wrote poetry which spoke of his trust in the Lord. There are 150 chapters in the book of Psalms and David’s name is attached to almost half of them—seventy three to be exact. In the book of 2 Samuel David is called “Israel’s singer of songs.” Without David’s poetry written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we would not have the rich variety and beauty of nearly half of the Psalms.
One of David’s most well known Psalms is Psalm 16. This is the ideal Psalm for us to look at this morning for two reasons: because we are in a series on the life of David and because it is resurrection day. In Psalm 16, David sang about the resurrection of Jesus. That’s right—one thousand years before Jesus was born, David sang of his resurrection. Let’s read his Psalm together.
1 Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.b
4 The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.
5 Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave,c nor will you let your Holy Oned see decay.
11 You have madee known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Did you catch the verse about Christ’s resurrection? The key is verse ten: because you will not abandon me to the grave nor will you let your Holy One see decay. For centuries this verse baffled the Jewish scholars. They reasoned that if David wrote this psalm, how could he have been referring to himself? David was assigned a grave and his body did succumb to decay, so to whom was David referring? For Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah, this psalm still baffles them to this day. But for Christians, this verse couldn’t be more clear, because Peter used this Psalm when he preached the very first Christian sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. Please turn to this chapter as we will be spending some significant time there.
As I said, this is the very first “Christian” sermon that was ever preached, on the Day of Pentecost, fifty days after he rose from the dead and a mere ten days after Jesus ascended to Heaven. The first thing you should notice about this sermon is that almost half of it is made up of quotations from the Old Testament. This should remind us of the absolute importance of the O.T. It is far too easy to view the O.T as boring and irrelevant, but do you think Peter saw the O.T. as boring and irrelevant? The entire Bible from beginning to end is the full revelation of God to mankind. The Christian gospel is inseparable from and founded upon the revelation of God under the old covenant. Peter preached his first sermon to thousands of Jews who understood the old covenant and all of whom were waiting for the Holy One, the anointed Messiah to come and rescue them. Peter told them of this Messiah and he did it by giving a long quote from the 16th chapter of Psalms. He quoted not just verse ten, but verses eight through eleven.
David said about him:
“‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
Then in verse 29 Peter began to explain to them what had baffled Jews for a thousand years. Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. Not only was David dead and buried, his tomb was prominently displayed just a few hundred yards from where Peter was preaching. If David had not been referring to himself in Psalm 16, who was he writing about? Peter answered this all important question. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,d that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
David had the honor of being the first king in the royal line of Jesus Christ, but he also had the privilege of writing a song about the resurrection of Christ. Peter was not claiming that David knew Jesus’ name or all the details, but like all of the prophets, David wrote about far more than he could ever understand. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter skillfully connected the 16th Psalm of David to the recent events in Jerusalem—the death and resurrection of the man called Jesus. We understand that the resurrection is the linch pin of Christianity upon which everything stands or falls. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, as Paul said, our faith is futile and we are still dead in our sins. (1 Co 15:17) If Jesus was not raised, then we are the most miserable of creatures and we are giving our lives to the greatest lie ever foisted upon mankind. But if the resurrection of Christ is true, then our faith is true and we have forgiveness of our sins. As it was true during Peter’s sermon, so it is true today—it all comes down to the resurrection of Christ.
Peter’s sermon had a powerful effect on thousands of listeners. The first effect it had was to convince his listeners about the deity of Christ. Jesus himself had raised several people from the dead. The Jews assembled that day would have known about these resurrections and some of them may have even witnessed a resurrection. If Jesus had been an ordinary man, his resurrection would have been on par with Lazarus’ resurrection—it would have been a miracle of God, but nothing else. But Jesus was no ordinary man. He claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah. He claimed to have the power to forgive sins. He claimed that he would die and be resurrected on the third day, and above all, he claimed to be God in human form. His resurrection, then, validated each and every one of these claims.
Notice how Peter concluded his sermon in v. 36. Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Jesus was Lord and Christ. He was God and he was Messiah, the Anointed One. Paul said the same thing in his introduction to Romans. Jesus…was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. If you have gone through our church’s membership class you will remember that I spend a good deal of time on the deity of Christ. I want each person in our church, at a moment’s notice, to be able to defend the deity of Christ using at least two key Scriptures. I hope that you could do that right now. But please understand that the resurrection itself validates the deity of Christ.
It’s deeply troubling to me that most of the world has gutted Jesus of his Godhead and has reduced him to a harmless man whose only goal was to teach people to be nice to each other. But an honest reading of the gospels will prove otherwise. Sam Harris is an outspoken atheist who in the last two years has sold two best-selling books about radical atheism. The fascinating thing about Harris is that he believes that the Bible teaches that Jesus was the Son of God who was raised from the dead in order to forgive sins. He has read the gospels and he believes that they teach the same message about Jesus that you and I believe. Now notice this—Harris does not believe that the Bible is true, but he does believe that the Bible clearly teaches these things. But the average man or woman on the street will not even give the Bible an honest reading.
A plain reading of Scripture will clearly show the deity and resurrection of Christ. But belief in these things is not sufficient for salvation. James tells us that every demon that roams the earth believes in the deity of Christ, but they are clearly not saved. Peter’s sermon also accomplished something else in his listeners—they were convicted of their sin. Notice their response in v. 37. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” This was no ordinary altar call where the pastor calls for every head to be bowed and every eye closed so you can raise your hand. These people were cut to their heart in conviction of their own sin. Do you know why they were so convicted? Look back at the middle of v. 23. “…and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” If you had been listening to Peter’s sermon that day, you would have understood two truths: Jesus is the Messiah and I killed him. Do you see, this is the essence of all sin—Jesus is the Messiah and we killed him. We did not just break one or two of the ten commandments. We didn’t just steal a little money. We didn’t just mistreat someone. It’s not as if we told a lie here and there. By our sin, each of us has participated in killing the Messiah. We are just as guilty as Peter’s hearers—some of whom actually screamed for his crucifixion.
The point of understanding and conviction of sin is a most crucial place to be, but it’s also a dangerous place to stop. If you have conviction of sin with no way out, you can end up like the man in this video clip. Listen carefully to his problem. He says, “God tried to stop me from killing an innocent man and I ignored the sign.”
“I need someone to look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness, because I am running out of time.” Like this man, everyone needs to have a conviction of sin, but no one should be left at sin’s doorstep. The message of the resurrection brings conviction of sin and calls people to repentance. But it does even more—it gives the answer. In answer to their gut-wrenching question, “what should we do,” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” This is a fantastic answer when you remember what the people were asking. In effect they said, “We are guilty of killing the Lord and Messiah, Jesus Christ. What should we do?” We are all aware of how sometimes we can feel guilty for the smallest infraction, so you can imagine you might feel if you suddenly became aware that you had a hand in killing the Messiah. It’s like what the man asked in the video clip. “Is atonement even possible? What does God want from me?” So the question is: How does a person find forgiveness for killing the Messiah? Answer: only the Messiah himself can forgive a sin like that.
Peter wasn’t finished with his sermon. Verse 40 reads, “With many other words he warned them and pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’” In the same way, I plead with you to accept this message, if you have not already. I am a real pastor who believes in a real God and real hell, because the Scripture is so crystal clear about all these things. But I also believe in a real Messiah and a real resurrection with real forgiveness. You have killed this Messiah and I plead with you to receive his offer of forgiveness, because you are running out of time.
And for the rest of you, I plead with you to live your life in the daily power of Christ’s resurrection. Ephesians tells us that we have this power at our disposal. “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” Resurrection power is the power to forgive sins, but it’s much more than that—it’s the power to live your life. What if we could take the power of the resurrection and apply it to our daily struggle with sin? Would that make a difference? Could the unlimited power of the resurrection help us to have victory over sin? The answer is so obvious it almost sounds like a stupid question. Could the power of the resurrection enable you to forgive those who have hurt you? Could the power of the resurrection bring healing to your marriage? Could the power of the resurrection fill up the empty hole in your heart that’s left over from the death of a loved one or other personal loss?
The question is not, will the power of the resurrection help us to live the Christian life, but rather, how can we live the Christian life without the power of the resurrection. But we do. How’s that going by the way? Are you succeeding in living life in your own strength? Look at the choice before us. On one hand we can live life in our own strength, or on the other hand we can live life in the power of the resurrection. Hmm, not a difficult choice, is it? I plead with you to live your life as if you believe in a real Messiah and a real resurrection with real power to help ypu in your very real life.
Rich Maurer
March 23, 2008