"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." (Psalm 16:5-6)
Your pop culture philosophy teacher for this week is Mr. J.J. Abrams. If you have attended any of his classes -- the "Star Trek" movie, the season finale of "Lost," even a recent episode of "Fringe" -- you may have noticed that he wants you to think really hard about time travel.
More specifically, he wants you to wrestle with the age old debates about whether our paths are predetermined or whether we might be able to change our destiny. It's a fun bone to chew on, but it's also one that leaves us asking some difficult personal questions.
If could go back and change my past, would I? Is my "present reality" good enough? What is good? Should I accept things as they are or make every effort in my power to change my reality? If I had unlimited free will and unlimited power to change everything, would I make it better -- or far worse? And, finally, what does any of this have to do with Psalm 16?
Only this: David said to the one true God: "You are the only source of good things in my life. I will choose to be content with whatever you give me today -- to enjoy it, even -- and to look forward to all the good things you'll give me forever."
Whatever the answer to all those sticky questions, David focused in this psalm on tuning his heart to God's goodness -- and left the past, present, and future up to his powerful, loving, trustworthy Father.
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