“As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.”
– Psalm 16:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever felt really scared? Have your hands ever begun to sweat profusely because you were so afraid? Have your knees ever begun to knock uncontrollably because you were so terrified? Have your arms ever begun to lock up because you were so petrified? Your grandpaa’s hands begin to sweat when he looks out from the top of a tall building or drives over a high bridge. Your grandpaa’s hands are clammy right now as he is thinking and writing about looking down from the top of a tall building or from a high bridge. When your grandpaa was a kid, one of the chores that your grandpaa’s dad had your grandpaa do each day in the winter was to feed silage to the cows that your grandpaa’s dad milked on his farm that was located one mile west and two miles north of Volga, South Dakota. It never bothered your grandpaa to climb up inside the silo’s chute to sometimes get close to the top of the silo that was on your grandpaa’s dad’s farm in which finely chopped up corn stalks and ears of corn – that was called silage, had been blown up and into by a silage blower – to throw down enough silage to feed your grandpaa’s dad cows. During silo filling time one fall, a young guy who was helping with the silo filling crew fill your grandpaa’s dad’s silo fell down the chute and broke both of his ankles. Even though your grandpaa’s dad would climb the ladder that was attached to the outside of his silo, your grandpaa could never climb that ladder up to the top of the silo let alone look down to the ground from the top of the silo when it was full. Your grandpaa does not like to drive at all the road that goes from Santa Clara, Guatemala to San Pablo, Guatemala. The first time that your grandpaa drove down this very steep, serpentine road, your grandmaa and grandpaa were in their Ford F-150 black, double cab pickup with two OC International summer team participants. The very first curve going down the hill from Santa Clara to San Pablo is so sharp that it leaves a feeling of driving right off into space. Only the open sky and Lake Atitlán way down below can be seen while going around the first sharp curve. As your grandpaa was in the process of making that first turn, Andrea – one of the two summer team participants, stuck her camera between your grandpaa’s head and the driver’s side door to take a photo as she was saying how beautiful the view was. Your grandpaa’s immediate reaction was to tell Andrea – who is a very nice, sweet young gal, to get the camera out of there right now. Your grandpaa had to mentally force his hands and arms to turn his pickup’s steering wheel as his arms and hands did not want to do the turning on their own. Heights will oftentimes make your grandpaa experience feel very unsettled. Your grandmaa in the meantime has no trouble climbing to the top of a fire tower, looking down from the side of a multi-story hotel or over the edge of steep cliff. Your grandmaa does not enjoy it at all flying in large airplanes but is okay with flying in a small plane. Your grandpaa has no trouble flying in airplanes.
What do you do when you are afraid? Do you try to find a place to hide when you are frightened? Do you get mad when you are scared? Do you yell for help when you are terrified? Do you pull a David when you are terrified? Psalm 16 is a psalm song called a miktam that David scribed while he was caught up a dangerous situation that had the potential of ending his life. The danger was so real that the only thing left for David to do was to desperately ask God for His help to save him from the imminent peril. David prayerfully petitioned God in this psalm song to keep him safe from the death threat that he was facing. David reverently affirmed God in this psalm song that He was the only hope that he still had and that for him to put his hope in a foreign idol or by pouring out a blood libation to a false god just was not going to happen. David steadfastly praised God in this psalm song for having given him a delightful inheritance. David joyously told God in this psalm song that because of Him, that his heart was glad, his tongue was rejoicing and his body was resting securely. David confidently reminded God that he knew that He would never abandon him to his grave. David used this psalm song to express his genuine joy of knowing that he was totally secure in God. David used this psalm song – which would become a psalm song that would be sung in the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem by a choir that was made up of guys from the Levi tribal clan in front of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who worshipped there, to say to God that he would never be shaken no matter what God allowed his enemies to throw at him.
The verse that really jumps out at your grandpaa in this psalm song is verse 3, “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.” How do you feel knowing that God delights in you? Do you need to be afraid if you know that God has called you His glorious ones? David with just his bare hands killed a bear and a lion. David with just a sling and a pebble killed a giant. David with just a few guys was able to defend himself against larger armies. Even after all the impossible things that David was able to do with God’s help, David still experienced fear. Do you think that you will ever be caught in a circumstance that is going to be worse that any of the scary life tests that God put David through? Your grandpaa knows that when he is allowing a height to petrify him, that he is not putting his trust in God – that he needs to turn to God to give him the strength to defeat his fear.
Psalm 16 (996)