Psalm 16:4
Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
Application
Are you running after another god perhaps without even realizing it? If you are the Bible makes it clear you can expect your life to stink. You have God’s promise that He will multiply sorrow in your life.
Yes that’s right—grief. God has NO tolerance for anyone who is running after any other god regardless of how pure your motive or how insignificant the God. He is a jealous God who refuses to share His throne with anyone or anything and that is in my best interest.
There isn’t anyone better to govern the universe than the God whose only begotten Son is Jesus Christ; therefore, it is in my best interest (and yours too) when He insists that He is the only God and all must serve Him and Him alone.
If your life is full of sorrow, if it feels like sorrow is being multiplied in your life, ask yourself am I putting a higher priority on anything than God? Are you pursuing anything more than God in your life? Repent.
If you are pursuing a future spouse more than God then you qualify. If you are pursuing a promotion, a tab, a badge, a position, a salary, an office, a trophy then you qualify. Repent.
God promises that your name will not be on His lips—now that’s scary. Repent. I want to know that God is thinking about me. I want to know that He knows me and knows my needs and is caring for me.
Even if I don’t fully understand all that the Psalmist meant when He spoke of God pouring out my drink offering—I know enough to know that when I offer to Him my prayers I don’t want them dumped out because God knows I am running from one god to another to another.
If I regard iniquity in my heart the only prayer God hears is my prayer of forgiveness, my petition of repentance—my cry for cleansing, from a repentant heart, full of God given faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Let me be on guard, at all times, that I am not pursuing anything more than the God whose Son died for my sins.
