All My Delight

Taught by Arlene
Notes by Linda

Today Arlene taught on Psalm 16. She opened by asking us what brought us delight. She followed this by saying that Psalm 16 is about what brought David delight. Arlene divided the psalm into six sections – each one focusing on a specific thing that delighted David.

(1)David Delighted in God as his refuge. (Psalm 16:1-2)
“Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."

Arlene first pointed out the difference in meaning of the name ‘lord’ that is used in this verse 2. In the first occurrence, ‘LORD’ refers to our personal covenant God, Yahweh. The word for the second "Lord" is Adonai which means master. Next she asked us why we thought David would say ‘apart from you I have no good thing’. The class gave many examples of David’s trials, victories and defeats. Arlene pointed out that no matter what David went through, he knew the truth - “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5b). Knowing God is with us gives us strength, no matter what we face.

(2)David delighted in those who delighted in God. (Psalm 16:3-4)
“As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. 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.”

As a comprehensive example of this, Arlene brought us to Psalm 101. “Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil. Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence” (Psalm 101:4-7). Arlene summarized this psalm by saying that David surrounded himself with those who lived what they spoke. He knew that those who surrounded themselves with idol worshipers would be ensnared.  They had been warned about this before entering into the promise land.   “Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them” (Deu. 11:16). Arlene then asked the question ‘how do we evangelize the world yet separate ourselves from its ways?’. The Word says “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). The ‘world’ in this instance is the world systems. This is the way or values under which the world operates (i.e. sexuality, self-reliance, materialism). As New Testament Christians this is not the way in which we should live our lives.

(3)David delighted in his inheritance. (Psalm 16:5-6)
“LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”

Arlene taught that in this verse David was using a metaphor.  The word for lot here was referring to the division of property when the Israelites claimed the Promised Land. “The LORD said to Moses, “The land is to be allotted to them as an inheritance based on the number of names. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one; each is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those listed” (Numbers 26:52-54). God had divinely ordered their lot. In the same way God has divinely ordered what comes into our lives. Arlene asked us if we could really accept all that what comes into our lives through the perfect or permissive will of God has been assigned by Him – regardless of how we see it. This also encompasses what we have lived or experienced prior to accepting Jesus as our LORD and Savior. God will use for good even what Satan has designed for evil. Arlene stressed that our life is not by chance. He will use these things to bring ministry and healing to others. A very important thing we have to realize is that we do need to come to God with these things. We need to ask Him to redeem them and use them for good. This will not happen apart from His divine power.

Another metaphor David uses in this passage from Psalm 16 is the reference to ‘boundaries’. In Numbers 34:1-2 we read “The LORD said to Moses, “Command the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries:”. Arlene explained that our boundaries are the people in our lives, our circumstances, our obstacles…really everything that comes into our lives. We see an additional facet of our inheritance in Joshua 18:3, “So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you?”. Not only are we given boundaries but we must also exercise our wills and take action in securing our spiritual inheritance within our God-given boundries. If you notice in this verse, God wanted to graciously give them the land but they had to be actively participating in the taking possession of it.  We are meant to conquer the challenges in our lives with the aid of God's grace.
While the Israelite’s lots, boundaries and inheritance in the Promised Land were physical ours are mirrored as New Testament Christians primarily in the spiritual realm. Arlene gave us the following parallels (with the Israelites first, ours second): earthly battles vs. spiritual battles, physical fruitfulness vs. fruit of the spirit/our service, wild animals, giants and enemies vs. trials and obstacles. Within both groups blessings follow obedience and grace is through faith. (As a side note, the first group of Israelites did not enter the Promised Land because of unbelief.)

As noted earlier, our inheritance is primarily spiritual.  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). This is our spiritual inheritance.


As a child of God, Arlene showed us that our inheritance as New Testament Christians is filled with the richest of blessings.  We have abundant life, abundant joy, abundant peace, abundant comfort, abundant delight, abundant self-discipline, abundant righteousness, abundant mercy and abundnat power. We have to choose to possess these things.

Arlene gave us a few examples of what it looks like when we are living with the understanding that “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (Psalm 16:6a). Fannie Crosby was the author of many of our most beloved hymns. She had been blinded inadvertently by a doctor. She had said that if she could have seen she would have been distracted by the physical world. Amy Carmichael was a famous missionary in India. The last 20 years of her life she was an invalid yet ran a large orphanage that rescued children who were sold at temple protitutes by their parents. Arlene reiterated that God may bring suffering into our lives for reasons we don’t understand to accomplish His divine purpose. He can transform a curse into a blessing.

(4)David delighted in the Lord’s counsel. (Psalm 16:7-8)
“I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

In this verse, ‘praise’ means to bless or speak well of. She explained that ‘night’ could mean a period of darkness. In times of darkness we cannot let our emotions rule us. We need to be mindful of the presence of God and the truth of His word. In this verse it speaks of God’s instruction. This instruction is given in firmness. We need to accept His teaching even when it is hard.

(5)David delighted in the stability he enjoyed with God. (Psalm 16:9-10)
“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”

Arlene pointed out that even though there was nothing in the Old Testament that spoke of heaven David knew that his physical death would not separate him from the presence of God. It is also noted that this verse is prophetic, pointing to Jesus, the Holy One of God.

(6)David delighted in the hope of eternal pleasures with God. (Psalm 16:11)
“You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

Arlene emphasized that the path between God and each of us is eternity. Revelation 21 gives us a powerful description of the glories of heaven. While this is something we can read in the Word we won’t be able to comprehend what God has in store for us until we are actually there.


In conclusion, Arlene asked us where we were in relation to David’s delight. If we are not where we would like to be she made the following suggestions: 1) Pray that He would be your delight. 2) We need to realize that sanctification is a process and we grow in our delight in God as we grow in our walk with God. The following words of Paul speak to this. As you read, keep in mind that Paul wrote this 30 years after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.

“What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”. (Phil 3:8-14).

Arlene pointed out that even though Paul had been striving after knowing His Saviour for 30 years he still had not obtained the kind of relationship that He so longed for.  He knew that Jesus was more then enough and all that he desired and worthy of "all his delight".

“In essence, there is only one thing God asks of us-that we be …people from whom God is everything and for whom God is enough.” Brennan Manning.