Tuesday, May 20’s devotional
“Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you. I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides you.’ As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones. All my delight is in them.” (Psalm 16:1–3, CSB)
We live for pleasure. Jeff put it plainly: “We pursue with the greatest effort and energy the things that we enjoy.” This isn’t just true of some people—it’s true of all of us. Pleasure motivates us. It drives our decisions, our relationships, and even our resistance to discomfort. But as Jeff pointed out, “It is not the pursuit of pleasure that is the problem… the problem is we are far too easily pleased.” What are you pursuing? What is your pleasure?
C.S. Lewis famously wrote that we are like children playing with mud pies in the slums, unwilling to leave them behind when someone offers us a holiday at the sea. Jeff explained, “Our desires for pleasure… are not too strong; they are too weak.” And here’s where Psalm 16 steps in—not to crush our joy, but to redirect it. David cries out to God, not for protection from enemies, but from himself: “God, preserve me… from that constant tug toward lesser—even sinful—pleasures.” He knew what it was like to settle for mud pies—and the sorrow it brought. Lust, deceit, and violence left a bitter trail in David’s past, and yet, in Psalm 16, we see him choosing the better joy.
Real joy—deep, lasting, eternal pleasure—is found not in what breaks the boundaries but in the God who drew them. David said, “You are my chosen portion… the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” God sets limits, yes, but those very limits lead us to Him, where the true delight lies. “All my delight is in them,” David says of the saints. The community of believers is part of God’s design to protect our joy and keep our hearts aligned with His.
Let us pray:
Father, reveal where we have settled for mud pies. Show us the lesser pleasures that lure our hearts away from You. Help us to believe that the lines You’ve drawn for our lives are pleasant and good. Redirect our desire to You—our greatest good, our highest joy, and our eternal pleasure. Preserve us, Lord, from the sorrows of idols and plant our joy deeply in Your presence. Amen.
Watch the sermon here.
This devotional content is not penned by the preacher. It is derived from the sermon notes. We aim to provide bite-sized reflections throughout the week for devotion and reflection.