The Secret to Contentment

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.  The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. (Psalm 16:5-6)

​David lived a difficult life.  Some of it was caused by his own doing, by his own foolish choices, but much of it had to do with the fact that he spent a great deal of his life running from Saul, running from his own son, and battling foreign enemies, all of whom wanted him dead.  He also suffered the loss of his own infant son.  Making that worse was the fact that it was the result of his own sin.  Nevertheless, despite all the turmoil David went through, he was able to pen Psalm 16, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.  The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”  In other words, when speaking about the blessing he has in God, he uses the imagery of being able to choose the choicest portion of food and drink—“The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup”—or being able to choose the best and most lush piece of farm land—“you hold my lot.  The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places”—that is, the boundary lines of his property have fallen in pleasant places—"indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”  David recognizes that no matter what else is going on in life, no matter how difficult the circumstances, if all he has is God then his “lines have fallen for [him] in pleasant places; indeed, [he has] a beautiful inheritance.”  He recognizes that by being in a covenantal saving relationship with God, he has more treasure and more blessing he could ever possibly deserve or imagine.  Like Paul, David had learned the secret to being content.  He had learned to find his joy and satisfaction in God (Phil 4:11-12).