Psalm 16 is a psalm about our inheritances. Our lot rests secure in Him (vs 6)… from the very beginning of our journey we have each been given an inheritance. It is already safe in the Lord; our boundaries are already marked out for us from the beginning. What is our job then? To “set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” The Psalm is primarily about the inheritance of relationships: we have been given pleasant allotments; that is, we have been guaranteed relationships with “glorious ones in whom is all [our] delight”! (verse 3).
This is the essence of the teaching behind the story of Job. Job’s inheritance was larger than the one he thought he had! But at the beginning of his journey he lost what seemed to be everything that was beautiful; and during his personal wilderness he was barely able to stand up to his peers, let alone the ‘accuser of the brethren’ who roamed the earth to and fro, then accused the very Father in heaven. Job’s journey, like ours, was to stand up and ‘set flags’ around his rightful inheritance, as Derek was writing… And, as he discovered, his inheritance was larger and more wonderful than his originally “mapped” lines: “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first” (Job 42:12).
Our inheritance belongs to the Father! Nothing He has promised us will be lost because it originates from Him: “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup” (Psalm 16:5). Nothing will be lost because it beats in His heart before it beats in ours. Notice that in the story of Job the conflict happens in heaven first, and the conflict on earth plays out the heartache of heaven. The very Father was accused–is He not the one who caused Job to stand, even through all his friends’ accusations (which were reflections of the enemy’s accusations against God)? The Father defends himself, and He defends His inheritance: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”
Our motivation is to know more of God through this, because He himself has stood through the accusations that are coming against our personal inheritances. He showed me that our “allotments” are hidden in his breast, secure–we have to voice our flags and say, ‘thus far no more’ if we feel the enemy is trying to loot us or worse, get us to believe that it doesn’t get any freer or brighter! If we stay like Job and brave the wilderness, we will have to encounter thunder and humbling approaches to the Father, but we will have His heart and be fighting His battle.
