Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.
Parallel Translations
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Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.
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Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
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Michtam of David. Keep me, O God; for I have taken refuge in Thee.
Cross-references (20)
Passages linked to Psalms 16:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 26:3-4 You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you. Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
- Psalms 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings,
- Psalms 31:23 Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints! Yahweh preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.
- Psalms 56:1 Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.
- 2 Timothy 1:12 For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.
- Psalms 7:1 Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,
- Psalms 116:6 Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me.
- Psalms 60:1 God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
- Psalms 84:12 Yahweh of Armies, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
- Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.
- Psalms 9:10 Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.
- Psalms 25:20 Oh keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you.
- Psalms 146:5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:
- Proverbs 2:8 that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.
- Psalms 17:5 My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped.
- Psalms 37:28 For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Psalms 97:10 You who love Yahweh, hate evil! He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
- Psalms 125:1 Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved, but remains forever.
- Psalms 22:8 “He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
- 2 Corinthians 1:9 Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain This is a prayer in which David commits himself…
This is a prayer in which David commits himself to the protection of God. He does not, however, here implore the aid of God, in some particular emergency, as he often does in other psalms, but he beseeches him to show himself his protector during the whole course of his life, and indeed our safety both in life and in death depends entirely upon our being under the protection of God. What follows concerning trust, signifies much the same thing as if the Holy Spirit assured us by the mouth of David, that God is ready to succor all of us, provided we rely upon him with a sure and steadfast faith; and that he takes under his protection none but those who commit themselves to him with their whole heart. At the same time, we must be reminded that David, supported by this trust, continued firm and unmoved amidst all the storms of adversity with which he was buffeted.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, a certain tune.
Or, a certain tune.
He showeth that we cannot call upon God except we trust in him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 16:1 « Michtam of David. » Preserve me,…
Psa 16:1 « Michtam of David. » Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
Michtam of David] i.e. David’s precious jewel, or psalm of gold, propter mirificam eius excellentiam, better worth than its weight in gold, both for the matter thereof, and the metre, Insignis Ode Davidis Trem επος χρυσουν, prae corona aestimatur hic Psalmus (R. Solomon). Aureum flumen orationis, said Cicero, concerning Aristotle’s Politics; there is in that book a golden flood of discourse; and Liber iste auro contra non carus, said another, concerning the lives of the philosophers written by Diogenes Laertius, No gold is comparable to that gallant piece. How much more may the same be said of this notable psalm! as that which, beside many other remarkable matters, lively setteth forth the mystery of Christ’s passion and resurrection, with the fruit of both; this he doth more like an evangelist than a prophet, and may, therefore, be called (as likewise Isaiah is) the evangelical prophet. And whereas, saith learned Beza, he calleth the Messiah Chasid, Psa 16:10 (that is, as I interpret it, that man upon whom the Father hath most plentifully poured out all his grace and bounty, which also we all draw from him alone by faith), David seemeth in this one word to have summed up the whole doctrine of the gospel.
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Ver. 1. Preserve me, O God] Keep me safe unto the kingdom, both temporal and eternal, which thou hast promised me; and now that I am fleeing to the Philistines for shelter, 1Sa 27:1 (for that is held to be the time when he composed this golden psalm), guard me, guide me, keep me by thy power through faith unto salvation. This prayer of his David was well assured should be granted; and, therefore, he giveth thanks, Psa 16:7.
For in thee do I put my trust] This was a most powerful plea, for to trust God is the highest honour we can do him, it is to set the crown upon his head. See Jdg 9:15. And if such shall be forsaken God will be a great loser in his glory, whereof he is very tender.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Preserve me from all mine enemies.
Preserve me from all mine enemies.
In thee do I put my trust; therefore thou art in honour and by promise obliged not to deceive my trust.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain This psalm is entitled Michtam, which some translate a…
This psalm is entitled Michtam, which some translate a golden psalm, a very precious one, more to be valued by us than gold, yea, than much fine gold, because it speaks so plainly of Christ and his resurrection, who is the true treasure hidden in the field of the Old Testament.
I. David here flies to God's protection with a cheerful believing confidence in it (Psa 16:1): "Preserve me, O God! from the deaths, and especially from the sins, to which I am continually exposed; for in thee, and in thee only, do I put my trust." Those that by faith commit themselves to the divine care, and submit themselves to the divine guidance, have reason to hope for the benefit of both. This is applicable to Christ, who prayed, Father, save me from this hour, and trusted in God that he would deliver him.
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II. He recognizes his solemn dedication of himself to God as his God (Psa 16:2): "O my soul! thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, and therefore thou mayest venture to trust him." Note, 1. It is the duty and interest of every one of us to acknowledge the Lord for our Lord, to subject ourselves to him, and then to stay ourselves upon him. Adonai signifies My stayer, the strength of my heart. 2. This must be done with our souls: "O my soul! thou hast said it." Covenanting with God must be heart-work; all that is within us must be employed therein and engaged thereby. 3. Those who have avouched the Lord for their Lord should be often putting themselves in mind of what they have done. "Hast thou said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord? Say it again then, stand to it, abide by it, and never unsay it. Hast thou said it? Take the comfort of it, and live up to it. He is thy Lord, and worship thou him, and let thy eye be ever towards him."
III. He devotes himself to the honour of God in the service of the saints (Psa 16:2, Psa 16:3): My goodness extends not to thee, but to the saints. Observe, 1. Those that have taken the lord for their Lord must, like him, be good and do good; we do not expect happiness without goodness. 2. Whatever good there is in us, or is done by us, we must humbly acknowledge that it extends not to God; so that we cannot pretend to merit any thing by it. God has no need of our services; he is not benefited by them, nor can they add any thing to his infinite perfection and blessedness. The wisest, and best, and most useful, men in the world cannot be profitable to God, Job 22:2; Job 35:7. God is infinitely above us, and happy without us, and whatever good we do it is all from him; so that we are indebted to him, not he to us: David owns it (Ch1 29:14), Of thy own have we given thee. 3. If God be ours, we must, for his sake, extend our goodness to those that are his, to the saints in the earth; for what is done to them he is pleased to take as done to himself, having constituted them his receivers. Note, (1.) There are saints in the earth; and saints on earth we must all be, or we shall never be saints in heaven. Those that are renewed by the grace of God, and devoted to the glory of God, are saints on earth. (2.) The saints in the earth are excellent ones, great, mighty, magnificent ones, and yet some of them so poor in the world that they need to have David's goodness extended to them. God makes them excellent by the grace he gives them. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, and then he accounts them excellent. They are precious in his sight and honourable; they are his jewels, his peculiar treasure. Their God is their glory, and a diadem of beauty to them. (3.) All that have taken the Lord for their God delight in his saints as excellent ones, because they bear his image, and because he loves them. David, though a king, was a companion of all that feared God (Psa 119:63), even the meanest, which was a sign that his delight was in them. (4.) It is not enough for us to delight in the saints, but, as there is occasion, our goodness must extend to them; we must be ready to show them the kindness they need, distribute to their necessities, and abound in the labour of love to them. This is applicable to Christ. The salvation he wrought out for us was no gain to God, for our ruin would have been no loss to him; but the goodness and benefit of it extend to us men, in whom he delighteth, Pro 8:31. For their sakes, says he, I sanctify myself, Joh 17:19. Christ delights even in the saints on earth, notwithstanding their weaknesses and manifold informities, which is a good reason why we should.
IV. He disclaims the worship of all false gods and all communion with their worshippers, Psa 16:4. Here, 1. He reads the doom of idolaters, who hasten after another God, being mad upon their idols, and pursuing them as eagerly as if they were afraid they would escape from them: Their sorrows shall be multiplied, both by the judgments they bring upon themselves from the true God whom they forsake and by the disappointment they will meet with in the false gods they embrace. Those that multiply gods multiply griefs to themselves; for, whoever thinks one God too little, will find two too many, and yet hundreds not enough. 2. He declares his resolution to have no fellowship with them nor with their unfruitful works of darkness: "Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, not only because the gods they are offered to are a lie, but because the offerings themselves are barbarous." At God's altar, because the blood made atonement, the drinking of it was most strictly prohibited, and the drink-offerings were of wine; but the devil prescribed to his worshippers to drink of the blood of the sacrifices, to teach them cruelty. "I will have nothing to do" (says David) "with those bloody deities, nor so much as take their names into my lips with any delight in them or respect to them." Thus must we hate idols and idolatry with a perfect hatred. Some make this also applicable to Christ and his undertaking, showing the nature of the sacrifice he offered (it was not the blood of bulls and goats, which was offered according to the law; that was never named, nor did he ever make any mention of it, but his own blood), showing also the multiplied sorrows of the unbelieving Jews, who hastened after another king, Caesar, and are still hastening after another Messiah, whom they in vain look for.
V. He repeats the solemn choice he had made of God for his portion and happiness (Psa 16:5), takes to himself the comfort of the choice (Psa 16:6), and gives God the glory of it, Psa 16:7. This is very much the language of a devout and pious soul in its gracious exercises.
1. Choosing the Lord for its portion and happiness. "Most men take the world for their chief good, and place their felicity in the enjoyments of it; but this I say, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, the portion I make choice of, and will gladly take up with, how poor soever my condition is in this world. Let me have the love and favour of God, and be accepted of him; let me have the comfort of communion with God, and satisfaction in the communications of his graces and comforts; let me have an interest in his promises, and a title by promise to everlasting life and happiness in the future state; and I have enough, I need no more, I desire no more, to complete my felicity." Would we do well and wisely for ourselves, we must take God, in Christ, to be, (1.) The portion of our inheritance in the other world. Heaven is an inheritance. God himself is the inheritance of the saints there, whose everlasting bliss is to enjoy him. We must take that for our inheritance, our home, our rest, our lasting, everlasting, good, and look upon this world to be no more ours than the country through which our road lies when we are on a journey. (2.) The portion of our cup in this world, with which we are nourished, and refreshed, and kept from fainting. Those have not God for theirs who do not reckon his comforts the most reviving cordials, acquaint themselves with them, and make use of them as sufficient to counterbalance all the grievances of this present time and to sweeten the most bitter cup of affliction.
2. Confiding in him for the securing of this portion: "Thou maintainest my lot. Thou that hast by promise made over thy self to me, to be mine, wilt graciously make good what thou hast promised, and never leave me to myself to forfeit this happiness, nor leave it in the power of my enemies to rob me of it. Nothing shall pluck me out of thy hands, nor separate me from thy love, and the sure mercies of David." The saints and their bliss are kept by the power of God.
3. Rejoicing in this portion, and taking a complacency in it (Psa 16:6): The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Those have reason to say so that have God for their portion; they have a worthy portion, a goodly heritage. What can they have better? What can they desire more? Return unto thy rest, O my soul! and look no further. Note, Gracious persons, though they still covet more of God, never covet more than God; but, being satisfied of his loving-kindness, they are abundantly satisfied with it, and envy not any their carnal mirth and sensual pleasures and delights, but account themselves truly happy in what they have, and doubt not but to be completely happy in what they hope for. Those whose lot is cast, as David's was, in a land of light, in a valley of vision, where God is known and worshipped, have, upon that account, reason to say, The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; much more those who have not only the means, but the end, not only Immanuel's land, but Immanuel's love.
4. Giving thanks to God for it, and for grace to make this wise and happy choice (Psa 16:7): "I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, this counsel, to take him for my portion and happiness." So ignorant and foolish are we that, if we be left to ourselves, our hearts will follow our eyes, and we shall choose our own delusions, and forsake our own mercies for lying vanities; and therefore, if we have indeed taken God for our portion and preferred spiritual and eternal blessings before those that are sensible and temporal, we must thankfully acknowledge the power and goodness of divine grace directing and enabling us to make that choice. If we have the pleasure of it, let God have the praise of it.
5. Making a good use of it. God having given him counsel by his word and Spirit, his own reins also (his own thoughts) instructed him in the night-season; when he was silent and solitary, and retired from the world, then his own conscience (which is called the reins, Jer 17:10) not only reflected with comfort upon the choice he had made, but instructed or admonished him concerning the duties arising out of this choice, catechized him, and engaged and quickened him to live as one that had God for his portion, by faith to live upon him and to live to him. Those who have God for their portion, and who will be faithful to him, must give their own consciences leave to deal thus faithfully and plainly with them.
All this may be applied to Christ, who made the Lord his portion and was pleased with that portion, made his Father's glory his highest end and made it his meat and drink to seek that and to do his will, and delighted to prosecute his undertaking, pursuant to his Father's counsel, depending upon him to maintain his lot and to carry him through his undertaking. We may also apply it to ourselves in singing it, renewing our choice of God as ours, with a holy complacency and satisfaction.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Preserve me, O God,.... Prayer is proper to Christ…
Preserve me, O God,.... Prayer is proper to Christ as man; he offered up many prayers and supplications to Cost, even his Father, and his God, and as the strong and mighty God, as the word (i) here used is commonly rendered by interpreters; with whom, all things are possible, and who is able to save; see Heb 5:7; and this petition for preservation was suitable to him and his case, and was heard and answered by God; he was very remarkably preserved in his infancy from the rage and fury of Herod; and very wonderfully was his body preserved and supported in the wilderness under a fast of forty days and forty nights together, and from being torn to pieces by the wild beasts among which he was, and from the temptations of Satan, with which he was there assaulted; and throughout the whole of his ministry he was preserved from being hindered in the execution of his office, either by the flatteries, or menaces, or false charges of his enemies; and though his life was often attempted they could not take it away before his time: and whereas Christ is in this psalm represented as in the view of death and the grave, this petition may be of the same kind with those in Joh 12:27; and put up with the same submission to the will of God; and at least may intend divine help and support in his sufferings and death, preservation from corruption in the grave, and the resurrection of him from the dead; and it may also include his concern for the preservation of his church, his other self, and the members of it, his apostles, disciples, and all that did or should believe in his name, for whom he prayed after this manner a little before his death; see Luk 22:31;
for in thee do I put my trust: or "have hoped" (k); the graces of faith and hope were implanted in the heart of Christ, as man, who had the gifts and graces of the Spirit without measure bestowed on him, and these very early appeared in him, and showed themselves in a very lively exercise, Psa 22:7; and were in a very eminent manner exercised by him a little before his death, in the view of it, and when he was under his sufferings, and hung upon the cross, Isa 1:6, Mat 27:46; and this his trust and confidence in God alone, and not in any other, is used as a reason or argument for his preservation and safety.
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(i) "Deus fortis seu potens", Muis; "Deus omnipotens", Cocceius, Michaelis. (k) "speravi in te", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain David professes his trust in God, his adherence to…
David professes his trust in God, his adherence to him and love of his people, ver. 1-3. His satisfaction in God, ver. 4-7. He speaks in the person of Christ, of Gods presence with him, of his resurrection and the glory that should follow, ver. 8-11. Michtam of David. Title of the psalm. Michtam - This seems to be a title belonging to the musick or the song, which, with the rest, is now lost and unknown. As David was both a member, and an eminent type, of Christ, he speaks of himself sometimes in the one and sometimes in the other capacity: and therefore having spoken of himself as a member of Christ, in the former part of the psalm, he proceeds to consider himself as a type of Christ, and being inspired by the holy Ghost: towards the close he speaks such things, as though they might be accommodated to himself in a very imperfect sense, yet could not properly, belong to any but to Christ, to whom therefore they are justly appropriated in the New Testament.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The contents of this Psalm are usually given in…
PSALM XVI
The contents of this Psalm are usually given in the following
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manner: David, sojourning among idolaters, and being obliged
to leave his own country through Saul's persecution, cries to
God for help; expresses his abhorrence of idolatry, and his
desire to be again united to God's people, 1-4;
and declares his strong confidence in God, who had dealt
bountifully with him, 5-7.
Then follows a remarkable prophecy of the resurrection of
Christ, 8-11.
NOTES ON PSALM XVI
The title of this Psalm in the Hebrew is מכתם לדוד michtam ledavid, which the Chaldee translates, "A straight sculpture of David." The Septuagint, Στηλογραφια τῳ Δαυιδ, "The inscription on a pillar to David;" as if the Psalm had been inscribed on a pillar, to keep it in remembrance. As כתם catham signifies to engrave or stamp, this has given rise to the above inscription. מכתם michtam also means pure or stamped gold; and hence it has been supposed that this title was given to it on account of its excellence: a golden Psalm, or a Psalm worthy to be written in letters of gold; as some of the verses of Pythagoras were called the golden verses, because of their excellence. Gold being the most excellent and precious of all metals, it has been used to express metaphorically excellence and perfection of every kind. Thus a golden tongue or mouth, the most excellent eloquence; so Chrysostom means, this eminent man having had his name from his eloquence; - a golden book, one of the choicest and most valuable of its kind, c. But I have already sufficiently expressed my doubts concerning the meanings given to these titles. See the note on the title of Psalm lx. Ps 60:1
That David was the author there can be no doubt. It is most pointedly attributed to him by St. Peter, Ac 2:25-31. That its principal parts might have some relation to his circumstances is also probable but that Jesus Christ is its main scope, not only appears from quotations made by the apostle as above, but from the circumstance that some parts of it never did and never could apply to David. From the most serious and attentive consideration of the whole Psalm, I am convinced that every verse of it belongs to Jesus Christ, and none other: and this, on reference, I find to be the view taken of it by my ancient Psalter. But as he is referred to here as the Redeemer of the world, consequently, as God manifested in the flesh, there are several portions of the Psalm, as well as in the New Testament, where the Divine and human natures are spoken of separately: and if this distinction be properly regarded, we shall find, not only no inconsistency, but a beautiful harmony through the whole.
Verse 1. Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.] On the mode of interpretation which I have hinted at above, I consider this a prayer of the man Christ Jesus on his entering on his great atoning work, particularly his passion in the garden of Gethsemane. In that passion, Jesus Christ most evidently speaks as man; and with the strictest propriety, as it was the manhood, not the Godhead, that was engaged in the suffering.
שמרני shomreni, keep me - preserve, sustain, this feeble humanity, now about to bear the load of that punishment due to the whole of the human race. For in thee, חסיתי chasithi, have I hoped. No human fortitude, or animal courage, can avail in my circumstances. These are no common sufferings; they are not of a natural kind; they are not proportioned to the strength of a human body, or the energy of a human spirit; and my immaculate humanity, which is subjected to these sufferings, must be dissolved by them, if not upheld by thee, the strong God. It is worthy of remark, that our Lord here uses the term, אל El, which signifies the strong God, an expression remarkably suited to the frailty of that human nature, which was now entering upon its vicarious sufferings. It will be seen with what admirable propriety the Messiah varies the appellations of the Divine Being in this address; a circumstance which no translation without paraphrase can express.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 16:1. Preserve me, O God — Hebrew —…
Psa 16:1. Preserve me, O God — Hebrew — שׁמרני, shamereeni, keep, support, guard, or defend me — These words are evidently spoken by one in trouble and distress, or in danger, either from his enemies or in some other way. As David was frequently in such circumstances, they were probably primarily spoken by him in his own person, as a member of Christ, and they are words which often suit the case of any believer, who has frequently need to pray for support under troubles and distresses, to be protected against his spiritual enemies, and preserved and kept from the sins to which he is exposed. For in thee do I put my trust — And therefore thou art in honour and by promise obliged not to deceive my confidence. The Hebrew, חסיתי בךְ, chasiti back, properly means, I have fled to thee for protection, the verb חסה, chasah, meaning, “recipere se ad aliquem, sub cujus protectione tutus sit, ut pulli sub alis gallinarum,” to betake one’s self to any one, under whose protection one may be safe, as chickens under the wings of the hens. Thus they who make God their refuge and strength, and by faith commit themselves to his care, shall be safe under the shadow of the Almighty, and shall find him a present help in the time of trouble. Dr. Horne, who considers the whole Psalm as “one continued speech, without change of person,” supposes the contents of this verse, as well as of the rest of the Psalm, to be spoken by Christ, who, he thinks, is here represented as making his supplication to the Father for the deliverance promised to, and expected by, him. Certainly the words are applicable to Christ, for he prayed, Father, save me from this hour, and trusted in God that he would deliver him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Preserve me, O God - Keep me; guard me;…
Preserve me, O God - Keep me; guard me; save me. This language implies that there was imminent danger of some kind - perhaps, as the subsequent part of the psalm would seem to indicate, danger of death. See Psa 16:8-10. The idea here is, that God was able to preserve him from the impending danger, and that he might hope he would do it.
For in thee do I put my trust - That is, my hope is in thee. He had no other reliance than God; but he had confidence in him - he felt assured that there was safety there.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Psalms 16
Psalms 16
Michtam of David.
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1 Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
2 O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord:
My goodness extendeth not to thee;
3 But to the saints that are in the earth,
And to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
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.
5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup:
Thou maintainest my lot.
6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places;
Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
7 I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel:
My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the Lord always before me:
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth:
My flesh also shall rest in hope.
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life:
In thy presence is fulness of joy;
At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
For the title vid. Introduction. The mention of the worship of idols, Psa_16:4, is not of such a character as to lead us to think of the times of the exile (Böttcher, Proben p. 42 sq., de inferis § 343 sq.); and the language does not lead to a time subsequent to the eighth century (Ewald), but to David (Hitzig). The special occasion in his life, however, cannot be known. Many think of the time of his abode at Ziklag (Knapp) among the Philistines, where desire after the pious (Jahn) and temptation to the worship of idols (Paul., Hitzig) were very natural. Hitzig thus explains Psa_16:3; Psa_16:5; Psa_16:9 by 1 Samuel 30 vid. below. Delitzsch thinks of a severe sickness in the latter part of David’s life, after the building of the palace of cedar,1 whilst Hupfeld disputes the idea that Psa_16:10 likewise shows that he was in great danger (Hengst.), and Böhl again, with the ancients, holds fast in general to the time of Saul’s persecution. The position of this Psalm in the order of Psalms is perhaps determined by the expression, “not be moved,” Psa_16:8 b, the same with which the previous Psalm closed.
Its Character.—The first clause contains in germ the thought of the entire Psalm, namely, that the pious man has always protection with God against all his enemies. From this assurance arises the cry of prayer Psa_16:1, whose form shows the experience of pressing danger, but immediately passes over into the confession of the way in which the Psalmist proposes to act in consequence of his relation to God (Psa_16:2) and to His people (Psa_16:3). The terse and bold manner, short even to obscurity, in the presentation of the contrast (Psa_16:4) in which the Psalmist maintains himself against the worshippers of idols, with all its sadness, yet maintains an energetic tone, then passes over into a uniform, undulating flow of a calmed frame of mind in the description (Psa_16:5-6) of the good chosen in God, and of the happiness allotted on account of this. It then turns, praising Jehovah (Psa_16:7), to testify of the position of the Psalmist established in Him (Psa_16:8), and rises from the assurance of this communion with God, not only to a jubilant declaration of present Divine protection (Psa_16:9), but in prophetic inspiration to a prophetic promise of the everlasting enjoyment of salvation (Psa_16:10-11). The following interpretation will explain the prophetic and Messianic character of this passage.
Str. I. Psa_16:1. [Alexander: “The prayer keep, save, or preserve me, implies actual suffering or imminent danger, while the last clause, I have trusted in Thee (A. V., In Thee do I put my trust”), states the ground of his assured hope and confident petition. … The preterite form implies that this is no new or sudden act, but one performed already. He not only trusts in God at present, but has trusted Him before. Comp. Psa_7:1; Psa_11:1.”—C. A. B.]
Str. II. Psa_16:2. I say to Jehovah.—The Rabb. and many interpreters, after the Chald. paraphrase, regard amart as an address to the soul which is here to be supplied [A. V., “O my soul, thou hast said”]. For reasons against this vid. Hupf., who yet, in order to get the first person which the other ancient translations give, would read not directly with Mich., Olsh., et al., amarti, after some Codd. in Kennic. and De Rossi, but after Gesenius accepts a defective orthography as Psa_140:12; Job_42:2; Eze_16:59, and 1Ki_8:48; but does not decide whether this failure of the yod has its reason merely in a defective writing, or in a pronunciation which had become common in the language of the people after the Aramaic manner, and after the analogy of the 2d fem. sing (Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch), and merely declares that he is opposed to the supposition of Hiller and Böttcher, who think of the present Aramaic pronunciation of the 1st person perfect, emreth.
My Lord.—The suffix, which has lost its significance in ordinary usage in its blending together with adôn, is here emphatic on account of the contrast (Hitzig, Delitzsch, Hupf.); yet it is not therefore to be read adonî (Mich.), as Psa_110:1, but as Psa_35:23 shows, adonai is to be retained (which with kametz is usual as plural majest. in order to designate God, with pattach forms the real plural=my Lords, vid. Gesenius, Thes.). The contrast of the Psalmist to the worshippers of idols is thus prepared, likewise in the second member of the verse, the strongly emphasized personal relation of the Psalmist to Jehovah, whom he has in Psa_16:1 called upon as El. (Aquil. ἰσχυρε), and now confesses as his Master and himself therefore as His servant. These references disappear in the translation: “the Lord,” preferred by De Wette et al.; which would render prominent, instead of the contrast of the Psalmist with the worshippers of idols, which is in accordance with the text, the contrast of Jehovah with the idols: Böhl regards it as cas. absol.=O Thou Lord!
My good,etc.—Luther’s translation: “I must suffer on Thy account for the saints,” is impossible to the language. Likewise all direct Messianic references are not only arbitrary and without reason, but entirely inadmissible on account of Psa_16:4 b. The first words, Psa_16:2 b, cannot mean anything else but “my good,” and indeed not in the moral sense=kindness, merit, virtue (Aquil., Calv. [A. V., goodness]), but in the sense of welfare, good, prosperity. If we could only translate, “my happiness is nothing on Thy account,” then we might attain in sense the explanation of Luther. But על does not mean propter, and בל (shortened form of בְלִי) does not mean nihil but non, and elsewhere always stands before a finite verb. But there is no verb here. To supply such a verb is not in any case to be guess work or to introduce an independent idea (as Grotius explains: my happiness is not desired with Thee), but must limit itself to that which is most natural, that is to the verb esse. Moreover, then the imperative form is not as natural as the simple copula. It is likewise not to be translated: “my welfare is not incumbent upon Thee; thither to the saints” (Böhl), although al may denote the duty incumbent upon any one. In this sense Isaki explains: the good which Thou showest me is not incumbent upon Thee as a duty, but the saints. We must translate: bonum meum non est supra te (Geier, Gesen. et al.). The Psalmist, who has already declared himself to be a servant of Jehovah, now explains, that he finds in Jehovah his highest good and all his happiness, yet he expresses this negatively, in order to exclude every thought of communion with idols (Psa_16:4). This is effaced by the translation of the Peschito; “my happiness from Thee;” it is likewise only unexactly rendered; by Jerome, sine te; by Symm., ἄνωυ σοῡ; little better by Cocc, Köster et al., by præter te. There is certainly a reference to the prohibition Exo_20:3 (Hengst., Ewald). But there it says: thou shalt have no other gods על כּני. This means properly, towards My person (Hupf., Hitzig), or, before My face (Böhl). The meaning of “by the side of” and “out side of,” in the sense of past by the side of, which excludes the object named, has not been proved in the language; but no more that of “on the side of the same,” to which formerly with the translation supra te, the explanations inclined. Likewise the translation of De Wette is ill-founded: all my welfare is not to me above thee. The pregnancy of the expression consists in this, that the Psalmist wishes to know his good and happiness, considered not as first being added to God and as an addition towering above Him, but that God Himself is his summum bonum. [Thus Riehm: “It is more closely to be explained: my happiness is not added to Thee=nothing, that must be added to Thee, makes me happy, but Thou alone, giving exclusive and full satisfaction. Comp. the analogous thought and expression Psa_73:25. With this agrees Psa_16:5, where Jehovah likewise is called the Psalmist’s portion.”—C. A. B.].2 This interpretation, which is correct in accordance with the language, answers so well to the context that it is superfluous to press out of כַּל by an artificial interpretation the idea of “only” (Hupf.: my happiness rests only on Thee). Hitzig even wishes to express אְַבָל (=immo, rather), and by distorted use of the words to gain the contrast of Master and benefactor (Thou art my Master, my happiness rests rather upon Thee). The sense would then be: whilst usually the servant cares for his Lord, here the contrary is the case. The Vulgate (quoniam bonorum meorum non eges) follows the Sept.: ὅτι τῶν ἀγαθῶν μου ὀυ χρείαν ἔχειζ. In the English, Dutch, Hirshberg and Berlenb. Bibles, in part likewise in Calvin and J. H. Mich., this translation then gains the explanation that all good which the speaker either acquires or experiences, does not refer to God, for whom (Berlenb.: “on whose account”) it is unnecessary, but to the saints for whom it is partly necessary, partly salutary. According to Stier these words are an intentional riddle and afford the ordinary reader the superficial sense: “only with Thee is my salvation,” but give to the deeper searcher of prophecy the deeper double meaning: my welfare (I seek, I will have) not with Thee, and my good actions (even in this denial are necessary and profitable) not for Thee, but with the saints on earth and for them. In accepting such a mystical double sense he finds a prelude to Php_2:6-9, and even explains thus far Luther’s previous translation: “I am not in good circumstances with Thee.” In conformity with the statement just made, our translation does not say: I prefer nothing to Thee; it is, moreover, not supplied or covered by the turn of expression: There is no happiness for me above and beyond Thee. The sense is, God is to me the essence and fulness of all good, therefore no affliction can diminish it, no prosperity increase it.
With the saints [A. V., “To the saints”].—The construction is exceedingly disputed and difficult. If we seek a verb for the dative, we find it only in the following verse. Then there arises a connection of words such as Deu_8:13; Prov. 4:10; 33:10, and the sense would be: the saints have many sorrows (they multiply themselves; Böttcher, Proben p. 42 sq.), or indeed according to another possible etymology: their idols (Ewald). But such a contrast is not in the text, as that the former saints and friends of the Psalmist had apostatized whilst he had remained faithful; the expressions which imply this are at once supplied and thus the desired thought is put into the text. In order to escape these difficulties and this violence to the text many interpreters regard this verse as a clause complete in itself. The majority then regard the first words as nominative absolute=as for the saints. But the examples adduced in support of such an interpretation are either misunderstood or false readings (vid. Böttcher 1. c.). This interpretation appears still more inadmissible in connection with the interpretation of the words which follow. According to Böttcher’s careful statement it is grammatically entirely inadmissible to take the stat. constr.אְַדִירֵי as stat. absol. and to translate: as to the saints … and the noble, I have all my delight in them. The attempt of Schnurrer (dissert, phil. crit. 1777), after the example of the Sept., to find a verb in adîrê, in order to translate, “As to the saints … whom I honor and in whom I have all my delight,” must at the same time undertake to transpose the ו in Psa_16:3 b, and thus alter the text twice. The proposal of Storr (comment, 1796), with whom Umbreit, De Wette et al. agree, to regard the ו, which is in conformity with the text, as the introduction of the conclusion (The saints … they are the noble in whom I have all my delight, in contrast with others who have their delight in other magnates), is full of meaning, and were it not for the interpretation of the first word in Psa_16:3 as stat. absol., in itself admissible, but yet taken closely, demands that הֵמָּה should be connected more closely with אְַדִירֵי. The interpretation: To the saints! as Isa_8:20, a calling upon God (Böhl), or the poet and his friends (Thol.), is grammatically unassailable; but has little correspondence with the course of thought of this Psalm and is foreign to its prevailing tone of prayer. Under these circumstances we are inclined to think of a connection with the previous verse. The relation of the clauses to one another as contrasted in the interpretation of Kimchi, Calvin, Stier, namely that, that good of the Psalmist cannot benefit God the Lord, but the saints, has already been considered; we have only to remark here that there is likewise no particle of contrast in the text. The proposal of Hensler, renewed after the ancient interpreters (Bemerkungen über Stellen der Psalmen, 1791), to regard טוֹבָתִי as in apposition to adonai and then to connect the following words closely = “nothing is above Thee (surpasses), the saints,” is shattered already on the fact that it is unusual to give the word בל the meaning of nihil. We cannot seriously think of a dependence of the dative lik’. doshim upon adonai=Thou art the Lord of the saints (Steudel, Programme of 1821), on account of the intermediate clause. We might rather accept a dependence upon amart=I speak to the saints, especially if the contents of the address, is not sought in the words: all my delight is in them (Kimchi, Flamin.), or in Psa_16:4 (Hofm., Weissagung und Erfüllung, I. 162), but in Psa_16:3 b, and indeed so, that the ו is removed to the beginning of Psa_16:3 a and the הֵמָּה to the beginning of Psa_16:3 b (Delitzsch)=and to the saints which are in the land: these are the noble in whom is all my delight. But without regard to the alteration of the text which is indeed simple, the address to the saints, placed parallel with the address to God, does not properly correspond with the tone which prevails elsewhere in the Psalm. It only remains, therefore, to regard the ל as the sign of belonging to (Calv., Hengst., Hupf.). But it does not follow from this, that the Psalmist says: his good and his happiness is with God or rests upon God, in so far as he belonged to the saints. He says rather, that he, in belonging to the saints, in whom is all his delight, does not regard and treat his good and happiness as something additional to God, but that he directly has regarded and confesses in this communion of saints that God Himself is his good and happiness. I regard this explanation of mine as corresponding with the context and the language. On the other hand the interpretation of the dative by Winer in his lexicon, “according to the example of,” weakens the sense and is not sufficiently proved in the language.—It is uncertain, whether we are to regard Psa_16:3 b as parallel with Psa_16:3 a and supply the lamed of the first clause at the beginning of the second before adîrê, whose stat. construct, is explained by the fact, that it belongs to the following clause which is in sense a relative clause (most interpreters), or whether we are not rather to regard the connection of clauses, so that the idea, of the saints is more closely defined as those who are in the land (or on the earth) and are the noble in whom, etc. (Böttcher). In any case the stat. construct, is not an expression of the superlative (Umbreit, Köster), and is likewise not only to be connected with the following noun=the noble, all my pleasure is in them (De Wette), or the noble, the totality of my delight is in them (Hengst.), but with the entire clause (Hupf.), although it is not to be explained thus; the splendid with all, whom I desire (Sachs). Köster leaves the ו disregarded by the translation: To the consecrated … they belong, the noble who please me entirely.3
The Kedoshim are according to the idea the ἄγιοι, the members of the people of God, as those consecrated to the service of Jehovah. The apposition, “who are on earth,” shows that the reference is to their objective relation to the covenant. This clause states, that the Psalmist speaks of the congregation which is upon earth not so much in distinction from the congregation in heaven or the angels (Aben Ezra), as with reference to his personal relation to God just mentioned. The explanation of those buried in the earth (Chald., Isaki) is entirely foreign to the text, and there is no evidence of a limitation to those who were in the Holy Land (Hupf.), in contrast to those members of the people of the covenant which were abroad. The following clause shows, however, that the Psalmist has not in mind the external communion of the so-called visible Church, but the living members of this Church as his associates. The adîrim are not the magnates, the aristocratic nobility in distinction from the saints, which among the lower classes, the àm haaretz are regarded as such, but the saints, in whom, as in the excellent and enlightened, the Divine δόξα appears reflected. According to Hitzig David was then in Philistia, 1 Samuel 27. Driven from his land, the temptation to apostatize from Jehovah was natural, 1Sa_26:19. To the rejection of the temptation Psa_16:4 of our Psalm is said to refer, and Psa_16:7 to the fact that David, at the command of God, had undertaken the pursuit of his enemies, and sent presents from the booty to the elders of the cities of Judah, 1Sa_30:26, who are therefore called his friends. These are the noble and the excellent in whom David has all his delight. It is true that David, as in Psa_16:2 b he is said to say that he had his success in battle from Jehovah, ought to have sent a part of the booty of this victory over the Amalekites, as a thank-offering, to the house of God and its priests; but there was then no central worship, 1Sa_22:18; comp. 1Ch_13:3. Therefore David has from abroad sent the present to those who belong to the national God. This then is supposed to be said by Psa_16:3, that it belongs to the saints in the land. David likewise says, Psa_16:4 a, how he himself has experienced that it fares badly with the heathen; similarly Psa_16:9; Psa_16:11, that fulness of joy rewards the service of Jehovah.4—Olshausen regards the text as entirely corrupted. The Vulgate translates, after the Sept: “In the saints, which are in His land, He has made wonderful all His (my) delight,” or after another reading already observed by Augustine, “He has wonderfully fulfilled all my desire.”
Str. IV. Psa_16:4. Many are their sorrows [A. V., Their sorrows shall be multiplied].—This clause is likewise disputed as to its construction and meaning. Some, as already mentioned, combine it with the preceding clause, but must then supply something essential. Others (Mich., Olsh., Maurer, Ewald), with Chald., Symm., Jerome, interpret עצב of idols. But only the masculine of this stem is used in the sense of: carved-work=images of idols. The feminine, which is here used, signifies: sorrows (Pesch., Aquil., Sept.). Since now it is connected with a suffix which refers to persons, which can be more closely indicated only in the following words, the next words are usually, with the Rabb., regarded as an asynd. relative clause. The masculine of the verb יִרְבוּ frequently occurs with the feminine of the noun when it precedes, and the expression “their sorrows,” instead of “the sorrows of those who,” is defended by Hitzig. Hupf. and Delitzsch, on the other hand, find this hard and inadmissible. The former would rather, with Schnurrer, Hensler, Ruperti (in Eichhorn’s All gemeiner Biblioth., vol. 6), read it as hiphil (=multiply [so A. V.]), whereby all would be normal. The latter divides Psa_16:4 a into two independent clauses, which represent the place of a nom. absol., and are to prepare the statement describing the internal difference between David and such people.—Many interpreters after the ancient translations regard the following words as a paraphrase of apostasy from God, whilst they translate: who hasten backwards. Schnurrer even changes אַחֵר into אַחֹר. It would be better to translate: who hasten elsewhere (Geier, Storr, Rosenm., De Wette, Stier), or hasten after another (Luther), hasten to others (namely idols, Gesen., Ewald). But מהר has the meaning of hasten only in the piel; in the kal only the meaning: purchase, namely for a wife, Exo_22:15, can be proved. Many interpreters (Salomo ben Melech, Calv., et al.), with reference to the figure of marriage, to represent the relation of the congregation to God, take the expression here in this way. Hitzig, who finds that there is considered here not the contrast between the faithful and the apostate in Israel, but between the worshippers of idols and the worshippers of Jehovah, translates: who strive to obtain another. Hupf. goes back to the meaning of “purchase,” without its reference to marriage, and to its relationship to מוּר to exchange; he thinks of the exchange of the hereditary true God for a false one (Psa_106:20; Hos_4:7; Jer_2:11), and reminds us of Isa_42:8; Isa_48:11; where אַחֵר likewise is in the singular and absolute. Thus most recent interpreters, among whom, however, Böttcher, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, hold fast to the allusion to the figure of wooing, and remark that there is here said not exactly “other gods,” as Exo_20:3 and frequently; but an indefinite expression is chosen, which leads not to the ordinary but to the so-called more elegant, worship of idols. It is questionable whether the following plural suffixes are to be referred to the worshippers of idols, with whom the Psalmist breaks off every kind of communion, with the refusal to commune with them in their offerings, and with whose names he will not defile his lips (Delitzsch), whom he will not mention in his prayers (Böhl); or whether they refer to the idols themselves, in favor of which are especially Exo_20:7; Exo_23:13 (make no mention of the name of other gods); Hos_2:19, and the contrast with Psa_16:5 (Calv., Grot., Böttch., Ewald, Hengst., Hupfeld, Hitzig [Perowne]).
The drink-offerings of the Israelites consisted of wine, and drink-offerings of blood are likewise not found among the heathen, but wine was mixed with blood (Zec_9:7) and drunken only in connection with terrible undertakings, under fearful oaths. This special reference, however, is far from the meaning of the text, which Isaki, Aben Ezra, J. D. Mich., Winer overlook. Some interpreters, therefore (Kimchi, Stier, Delitzsch), regard the expression as figurative of offerings made with bloody hands and conscience stained with blood, which make every offering unclean. Others better as a comparison, as if they consisted of blood instead of wine, Isa_66:3, to which comparison blood of grapes, Gen_49:11; Deu_32:14, forms the transition (Schnurrer, Hengst., Hupf.). According to Hitzig the מן is comparative, and the meaning is: I forbear to offer their drink offerings more than to offer their blood. The supposition that an action is mentioned which is only to be done by priests, and therefore because David could not have done this, this passage must have a Messianic interpretation (Böhl), overlooks the fact that the reference here is not at all and cannot be to the altar and the legally arranged functions, but to the refusal to participate in the worship of gods in a form which in the mouth of the Messiah would be entirely inappropriate. The Vulgate, after the Sept., differs entirely from the Hebrew: then weaknesses were multiplied; afterwards they hastened. I will not assemble their assemblies of blood, nor bring their name upon my lips.
Str. V. Psa_16:5. Portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.—מְנָת, besides 2Ch_31:4, only in the Davidic Psalms, is stat. const. and to be connected with both genitives (Hupf. upon Psa_11:6), but not in the sense of portion of food (Hupf.), together with portion of drink as the two parts of a feast, the usual figure of Divine favor and benefits, Psa_22:26; Psa_23:5; Pro_9:2; but corresponding with the other expressions of this Psalm a figurative expression of nourishing possession and quickening enjoyment, as the Psalmist has both in Jehovah through Jehovah’s favor. The first figure is brought about thus: in the general division of the land the tribe of Levi received no possession in the land, but was to live of the parts of the offerings which fell to the share of those who were occupied in Divine service about the sanctuary, on account of Jehovah, Deu_18:1-2. Jehovah Himself is, therefore, called their הֵלֶק = share, Deu_10:9, in special application to Aaron, Num_18:20; more widely extended to the entire house of Jacob, Jer_10:16, first brought about by the design that the entire people should be a kingdom of priests, Exo_19:6, and therefore applicable to every individual as well as to the whole body of saints and nobles, Psa_16:3.—From the division of the holy land by lot between the various tribes and their members originated likewise the expression גּוֹרל=ψῆφοζ, the lot taken out of an urn, which, however, since decision by lot was regarded as God’s act, has become in the Old Testament the symbol and type of all grants of the royal righteousness and grace of God, as the possession thereby given is the foundation and essence of all Divine blessing (Hupfeld). Since that which falls to any one by lot has the same name, gôral, e. g.Jdg_1:3; Isa_57:6, it is very natural to regard תּוֹמִיךְ as hiphil of a word ימךְ and to explain it after the analogy of the Arabic (A. Schultens): Thou enlarged that which has fallen to me by lot (Hengst., Böhl, et al.). Since, however, the meaning of the word is disputed, Böttcher and Köster go back to a root מוּךְ = Thou makest my lot to fall (that is, to fall out of the urn). This second meaning, however, given for the sake of explanation, is without example in the use of the word. The proposal of Ewald to regard the difficult form of the word likewise as nomen abstr. cannot be carried out. The present view of Böttcher is more likely, that it is a diminutive form, little or costly possession; thus: Thou art the jewel of my lot. Hupf. and Delitzsch go to the root תָמַךְ and regard the form as the participle תּוֹמֵךְ in incorrectly written =Thou who administerest my lot, or Thou who maintainest, keepest in its integrity that which has fallen to me by lot. Hitzig for this form refers to the analogy of אוֹביל, 1Ch_27:30, but regards the root which is ordinarily accepted, as inappropriate to the context and corrects as תָּמִיד = perpetuus, whilst he expresses the conjecture that תוֹמִיד might be an archaic expression (against which, however, Psa_16:8), and translates: Thou art constantly my possession.
Str. VI. Psa_16:6. Hitzig understands this verse locally of a beautiful region. Delitzsch regards the expression likewise=Elysian fields, but as a figurative designation of God Himself. The abstract loveliness, Job_36:11, is better, which, however, is not to be resolved into an adverb: in a lovely manner (Böttcher, Hupf., Böhl); for the expression is not to be separated from the local coloring and reference, Mic_2:5; Jos_17:5.—אַף (=likewise) is used here as confirmatory, giving gradation to the thought; the fact just mentioned is recognized in the feelings of the poet (Hupf.).
Str. VII. Psa_16:7. Advised [A. V., “hath given me counsel”], is not=cared for (Knapp), but=provided with good counsel, which some (Isaki, De Wette, Olsh.) refer to the general exhortation to the fear of God and faithfulness, others and indeed, on account of the following clause, more correctly (Kimchi, Calv., Hengst., Hupf.), to the action of God in the heart of the Psalmist in choosing and laying hold of the good above described. יִסֵּר (properly to set right) is often used of Divine teaching and warning, e. g.Psa_94:12; Isa_28:26; Deu_4:36; so that the warning of the reins seems to refer not to the thoughts (most interpreters), but rather is parallel to the advice of God (Calv., Hupf.).5
Str. VIII. Psa_16:8. Some regard the כּי (A. V., because) as=when, since they find the antecedent to the following clause introduced; most interpreters, however, regard it as = for, as a statement of the reason of the preceding statement. Standing or being at the right hand (Psa_109:31; Psa_110:6; Psa_121:5) is the figure of protecting nearness. [Perowne: “God in David’s eyes is no abstraction, but a Person, real, living, walking at his side.”—C. A. B.]. The subject הוּא is omitted, as Psa_22:28; Psa_55:20; Psa_112:4.
Str. IX. Psa_16:9. Glory.—[Delitzsch: “Therefore, because Jehovah is so near him to help him, his soul is transported in joy, שָׂמָח, and his glory, that is, his soul rejoiceth, whilst, as the fut. consec. expresses, his joy breaks forth in rejoicing. No passage of Scripture is so like this as 1Th_5:23. לֵב is πνεῦμα ((νοῦς)) כָּשבוֹד=ψυχμ́ (vid. Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 98), בָשָׂר, σῶμα; the ἀμέμπτως τηρηθῆναι, which the Apostle there wishes for his readers in respect to the three parts of their nature, David here expresses as a confident expectation.”—C. A. B.]
My flesh also shall dwell in safety.—[A. V., rest in hope]. The form of connection shows that flesh is not here as Rom_7:18 (Hitzig) periphrase of the person, but means the body. But the question is whether it means the body as living, being under the Divine protection in a condition of quiet happiness, undisturbed, and without danger from my hostile affliction (Hengstenberg, et al.), Ps. 4:9; Deut. 33:12, 38; Jer_23:6; Prov. 1:38; or whether not rather the same body with reference to its future rest in safety in the grave? It is true the following verse speaks of preservation (not in death but) from death, and the limitation of the meaning of Psa_16:10 a to preservation from the danger of death in a now threatening case, is possible from the language, Psa_30:4; comp. Psa_9:14. But if it is recognized not only by Clauss, Thol., Delitzsch, but also by Ewald and Hupf. with reference to Calvin, that the way of life and the joy with God in the following verses, refer to something more than merely deliverance of life from danger, and the supposition is natural, that it expresses the hope, that the pious shall not at all be the booty of death, but share in everlasting communion with God; then it is still more natural not to remain by the first steps of the recognition of a deeper and more comprehensive meaning. For in Psa_16:10 a the confidence is expressed, that God will not overlook or give up the soul to Sheol. Herein is expressed the hope of immortality in a wider sense; for Sheol is in any case the gathering place of departed souls in distinction from the grave which receives the body, Gen_37:35. Already in this connection Psa_16:9 b may indeed speak of the preservation and secure rest of the entombed body, and prepare the thought which the Sept. already anticipates with its κατασκηνώσει ἐπʹ ἐλπίθε. This is still more certain from Psa_16:10 b. For the expression: Thou wilt not give up thy חסיד to see שׁחת, as merely parallel with the previous = thou wilt not let him die, would have a form, which would lead to the thought that the speaker has the hope not to die at all, rather than to that recognized by Hupf., Ewald, et al., that he hopes for a blessed continuance of life with God extending beyond death. This leaves undecided whether it is to be regarded as in the manner of Enoch and Elias, or otherwise. But now it has not been proved that שַׁחַת must certainly be derived from שׁוּחַ = to sink down, and must be translated “grave,” as Psa_7:15, where the Sept. has likewise βόθρος. The derivation of שׁחת in the meaning διαφθορά, ruin, corruption, is indeed very possible (Gesen., Winer), Isa_49:9, admissible, Psa_55:23, more appropriate than the other, Job_17:14, scarcely to be denied. Since there the word is in the masc. gender in the signification of pit, in the feminine, however, according to Pro_26:27, the difference of meaning with a similarly of sound is still less doubtful, as there are parallels for it in all languages, likewise often in the Hebrew. Böhl adduces as especially convincing נחת, as meaning in the masc. sinking down, Job_36:16; Isa_30:30; comp. Psa_38:3, in fem, rest (derived from נוח). All the ancient translations have this interpretation with the exception of the Chald. The ancient Jews have had be little doubt of it, that from it has originated the rabbinical fable, that the body of David has never decayed. It forms the nerve of the evidence in the Messianic reference of this passage to the resurrection of Jesus, testified to as a fact in the sermons of Peter at Pentecost, (Act_2:25 sq.) and of Paul in the synagogue of Antioch (Act_13:35-37). It forms in our text an essential member in the progress of thought, and an important declaration of revelation respecting the resurrection of the body (vid., Doctrinal and Ethical). The חָסִיד is, according to Hupfeld’s admirable investigation of Psa_4:3, the bearer of the Divine grace in all the relations in which this is shown at work, first of all, and chiefly, according to the passive form, “standing in a state and covenant, of grace with Jehovah,” sometimes applied to the narrower circle of the pious, likewise to an individual servant of God as especially favored in the midst of the elect people of God; then, although seldom, likewise actively exercising grace as well of God, Psa_145:17; Jer_3:12, as of one man to another, Psa_12:1; Psa_18:25; Psa_43:1; comp. Mic_7:2. The Sept., with its Messianic interpretation, has likewise translated very properly τὸν ὅσίον σου. All the ancient translations, and most MSS., have the singular. The Masora likewise says: yod is not pronounced. Thus if this had read in the MSS. חְַסִידֶיךּ, as now likewise some, and especially ancient Spanish Codd. have it, this is not to be regarded as plural, but as singular, and indeed so that it is not so much to be regarded as the so-called emphatic plural or plural of majesty (Böhl, after the ancient interpreters) as rather the yod is to be considered as, Gen_16:5; Psa_9:14; Jer_46:15, as a sign of the seghol, (Hitzig).
Psa_16:11. Make known (A. V., show) ידע is frequently used not of theoretical knowledge, but of practical experience. The way of life, (A. V., “path of life”) = way to life (Pro_5:6) leads upwards in contrast to Sheol, which is downward, Pro_15:24; comp. Pro_2:19; Pro_6:23; Pro_10:17.—At thy right hand.—Comp. Pro_3:16, so that God administers. The explanation of Hengst. by thy right hand, as delivering and punishing, Pro_17:7, is against the parallel (in thy presence, demanded by the את of association).—נֶצַח denotes not only enduring Joy in contrast to fleeting pleasures of the world, but likewise enduring forever. The word is an accusative adverb instead of לנצח, hence Sept. correctly, ἐις τὸ τέλος.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. He who has living faith in the true God, turns to Him in every threatening danger, not only in sickness and danger of death, but with every experience of the insecurity of human life, and under the impressions of its painful perplexities. But the same faith which drives the oppressed to God, opens their lips to prayer, and creates in them the assurance of being heard, as well as the confidence of being sheltered by God.
2. There are prayers and songs which have not only grown up from the soil of confessing the living God of revelation, and are supported by it as by its ground of faith and life, but which give expression to this confession as such, and thereby gain the form of didactic testimonies. These, on account of their lyrical and devotional character, retain their edifying as well as their comforting characteristics; they even advance to real prophetical discourse, when they originate in personal experience from communion with God, which is the essential substance of faith, and by virtue of this origin not only breathe in general the breath of another world, but reveal the mysteries of Divine life.
3. This prophetic testimony of the praying believer is on the one side confession, on the other, prophecy, yet in both respects brought about by the individual condition of the speaker, not less than by his historical position, particularly within the economy of the kingdom of God. This gives the present statement partly its peculiar vivid color, partly its internal as well as external limits
4. The true prophet knows his position, and does not deny it. But still less is he proud of it. In his relations to God he is at the same time His servant and friend. The Almighty God of revelation is his Lord and his only good. Whatever good he knows, loves, has, and seeks, is for him not something additional to God, but it is comprehended in God, and is his portion on account of his communion with God. But this is not a peculiar relation, distinguishing him from other men. On the contrary God has an elect people on earth. He has in the land and abode of the prophet members of the congregation of saints. The true prophet confesses and regards himself as one of them, and as being in communion with them, testifies to their communion with God.
5. Not every kind of Divine service is well pleasing to God, and religious differences are not to be regarded as trifling. The true prophet contends rather against the fatal delusion that it depends only upon its religious character, and not so much upon its concrete nature. He earnestly and decidedly separates himself from those who perform sacrifices and call indeed upon their gods, but yet renounce the true God, who is likewise their Creator, and would help them, and have exchanged Him for that which can and will only bring them trouble instead of salvation. His whole delight, on the other hand, is in the members of the congregation of God, who, notwithstanding their position as servants, are yet the noble and enlightened in whom the Majesty of God is glorified, and the glory of the saints reflected.
6. In this personal relation to God and to the congregation of God in the land, the prophet has and holds his highest good and his greatest happiness; he recognizes and praises his best jewel and his constant joy. He not only receives what he needs from God, but he has in and with God all that he needs and all his pleasure. But this does not make him proud. He remembers that this blessed relation to God has originated not from his own will; therefore he praises God who has proved to be the best for him. He remembers that notwithstanding his communion with God, he is yet not one with God, and that even unity would be very different from identity. If he lives in God and God in him, he is yet not swallowed up in God, and God has not been sunk in him. God is indeed no stranger to him, still less an enemy, yet God is and remains another person. Therefore day and night he longs and strives to preserve, strengthen, and deepen this communion, which is the ground of his confidence, the subject of his joy, and the source of his life. Eligant cupidi divitias, voluptuosi delicias pompatici dignitates, quibus fruantur, pars vero mea est et erit Deus in æternum (Gloss ordin).
7. Death, the Grave, and Hell, have lost their terrors to the man who is assured of this communion with God. He has God, and in God life; for God is life, eternal life, blessed life, unfathomable in its depth, inexhaustible in its fulness, all-sufficient in its glory and power. But living in this world and in the flesh he cannot escape death or avoid the grave; and as a servant of God knowing the Divine order and subject to it, he cannot forget or despise either of them. But as a friend of God he knows and feels that in all cases he is sheltered in God; for God cannot forsake the man who does not forsake Him, and the man who has no good except God, and will have nothing above God or beside Him, thereby gains with God and in God the fulness of joy and good.
8. He who has made this confidence of the assurance of faith and confession of it, a matter of experience in life, to him the hope of eternal life gains a personal meaning. He regards God as the source, contents, and aim not only of true and eternal life, but at the same time of his personal life. This illuminates for him the night of death. He knows that he, the favored friend of God, walking the way of life unto life in the obedience of faith, will even in death go to God, and will attain that which is in the presence of the angels, at the right hand of the only living God. Since this experience is still in the future, but is already now the object of his faith, the Psalmist prophesies whilst he confesses his hope of faith. There is likewise here in subject and form more than the “flashing up of the hope of immortality in the Old Testament.” It is true there is not yet given a doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, but yet a prophetic declaration of the assurance of participating in the eternal and blessed life of God, in which the germs of a doctrine of the resurrection are disclosed, which are rooted entirely in the ground of revelation, and for their development into clearness of recognition point far beyond themselves, their own time, and the person of the speaker.
9. The speaker is not the Messiah, either as a pre-existing person, or as a figure of speech, still less merely a pious poet who expresses obscure hopes in poetical hyperbole, but he is David as a prophet, 2Sa_23:2; Act_2:30. Whilst David on the basis of previous experience of personal communion with God, and under the impression of present experiences of the same, speaks in the hope of faith, of the sure continuance of the same extending into eternity; this is in expressions which have an entirely personal reference, yet not in the form of an application of a general truth to the Psalmist or others like him, but in such a way that it directly breaks through the reference to David, and must have called forth thoughts of prophetical illumination and Messianic meaning, so soon as the attention was directed to the very peculiar character of their conception. This might have been the case with David himself in subsequent reflection upon his Psalm in the sense of 1Pe_1:10-12. For this passage distinguishes between the statements of the prophets, and their own searching after, the special sense of their prophecies, and the particular meaning designed by the Spirit of Christ working in them. As a matter of course after the death of David, when this Psalm was used among the sacred songs of the congregation, its Messianic reference could not but increase in certainty and recognition among the congregation of God. But this does not imply that the Messianic interpretation of this as well as other passages of the Psalms, first originated from the reflection of the congregation (Schultz in den Theol. Stud. und Krit., 1866, Heft 1). Moreover with every recognition of historical accommodation, as well in understanding Messianic prophecy as in its origin and form, the sense of this passage is not to be limited to the idea, that David was in no danger of death so long as his kingdom was not destroyed with him, and that when he died his kingdom still remained (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis 2:1, 357). It is true many interpreters have not sufficiently distinguished between inquiry into the original sense of this passage, and the application of the truth drawn from it. Moreover they have not unfrequently introduced into the passage, or into the consciousness of David, ideas of the resurrection of the Messiah, and the participation therein of every member of the congregation, even in the Old Testament, who believes in Him. But this could only be known from the stand-point of its fulfilment in the New Testament. But three things are certainly in the text; (1) that David bases the confidence of his hope of participating in the life which is in God, and is imparted by God, upon his personal relation to God; (2) that this hope is expressed in words, which express more than David at first supposed or knew, and which have found their real fulfilment exclusively in a definite fact, namely, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; (3) that the manner of expression constitutes the passage in question a Messianic prophecy, yet not in a typical, but in a prophetical sense, such as it is likewise treated in the New Testament.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
It brings great blessings to confess God as our Lord; but the most delightful lot falls to those who lay hold of God Himself as their highest good, and make use of the communion of saints for this purpose.—The communion of saints cannot be united with a participation in the practices of those who have forsaken God.—The pious not only enjoy in this world a pleasure of which the world knows nothing; but they have to expect likewise pleasures which the world cannot receive.—He who has communion with God has to be very careful to cherish it, and therefore earnestly to use the institutions, means of grace, and advice provided for this.—Only those joys have an abiding value, which we find in the presence of God, and which we receive from the hand of God.—The best remedy against troubles and temptations of all kinds is to keep God constantly before our eyes and in our hearts. The assurance of the everlasting duration of our existence is comforting and refreshing only when it is connected with the believer’s hope of eternal life in the presence of God.—Everlasting life is assured to those who have made the living God their true Lord, their blissful good, their abiding portion.
Starke: The supports of our trust in God are His fatherly affection and pity for His children, as well as His infinite power as the Lord of all lords.—God has His saints and nobles not only in heaven, but likewise on earth.—He who recognizes the inheritance of the Lord as lovely and beautiful, will be disgusted with the inheritance of the world; he will refuse it, and shun no sufferings to gain the beautiful inheritance.—The evil spirit constantly excites the sinful heart to evil; but the Holy Spirit day and night awakens in believers holy desires, and excites them to good.—Faith is not an idle or lazy thought, but is active, busy, industrious to look to God and at no time to turn away the eyes of the heart from Him.—From the living trust of the heart in God, arises internal joy and sincere love to God and all creatures.—The tongue is given to man to glorify the Divine name, and joyfully recount his benefits.—If Christ the Head went to meet the desired issue of His sufferings with full assurance, then His members can likewise certainly believe that God will give all their troubles a glorious end, 2Ti_4:18.—The body of Jesus could not become corrupt because there were no sins in His members. We must become corrupt, because sin still dwells in our mortal bodies, but we thus lay aside the corruptible in order to arise incorruptible.—In this life Christians have in God’s word only a foretaste of heavenly joy; but in that life this joy will be complete; then it will no longer be said: happy to-day, sad tomorrow; but without intermission will they be entirely joyous from God, through God, and in God.—Luther: The chiefest and highest passion, trust in God, makes the difference between the people of God, which are His possession, and those who are not His people. The way of life is a work of the power and justice of God alone.
Menzel: He who knows and loves God, believes on Him; he who believes, praises Him and confesses Him; he who confesses Him is persecuted; he who is persecuted is comforted by God; he whom God comforts He instructs, and thence proceed the most beautiful fruits.—Frisch: He is rich enough for time and eternity who can at all times boast of his God alone.—The saints of God are likewise His nobles.—If we have God in view, and direct all that we do and have done according to His most holy point of view, no one on earth can deprive us of our inheritance.—Umbreit: He who has God for his cup really and truly derives from Him by means of faith in the most secret communion, the Holy Ghost and eternal life.—The most cheerful light springs up here from the depths of faith, and is poured over the gloomy grave.—Guenther: There is nothing more lovely or blessed for the children of God than blissful communion with God.—Diedrich: To have the grace of God and know it as always victorious, is the golden mystery, the excellent, heavenly wealth of believers, and all this has been given to them by God in His word.—If we are closely united with all saints in God, we are likewise internally separated from unbelievers; and he who declares himself one of the saints, must likewise feel that he is separated from them, and must confess that their condition is likewise unhappy, their nature is wicked and lost.
[Matth. Henry: Covenanting with God must be heart work, all that is within us must be employed therein and engaged thereby.—Christ delights even in the saints on earth, notwithstanding their weakness and manifold infirmities, which is a good reason why we should.—The saints and their bliss are kept by the power of God.—Death destroys the hope of man, Job_14:14, but not the hope of a good Christian, Pro_14:32. He has hope in his death, living hopes in dying moments; hopes that the body shall not be left forever in the grave; but, though it see corruption for a time, it shall at the end of time be raised to immortality. Christ’s resurrection is an earnest of ours, if we be His.—Barnes: No one can safely so familiarize himself with vice as to render it a frequent subject of conversation. Pollution will flow into the heart from words which describe pollution, even when there is no intention that the use of such words should produce contamination. No one can be familiar with stories or songs of a polluted nature, and still retain a heart of purity.—Spurgeon: The title of “His Excellency” more properly belongs to the meanest saint than to the greatest governor. The true aristocracy are believers in Jesus. They are the only Right Honorables. Stars and garters are poor distinctions compared with the graces of the Spirit.—The night season which the sinner chooses for his sins is the hallowed hour of quiet, when believers hear the soft still voices of heaven, and of the heavenly life within themselves.—Christ’s resurrection is the cause, the earnest, the guarantee, and the emblem of the rising of all His people. Let them, therefore, go to their graves as to their beds, resting their flesh among the clods as they now do upon their couches.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[1][This is more consistent with the general tone of the Psalm, the omission of any allusion to warlike enemies or troublous times, the maturity of the Psalmist’s faith and hope, the calmness with which he contemplates death, the consciousness of his entire acceptance with God, and above all the Messianic allusions vers 9–11. It may, however, have been composed under the influence of the prophecy of Nathan, 2 Samuel 7.—It could not consistently with the Messianic allusions have been earlier than this.—C. A. B.]
[2][Perowne translates: “I have no good beyond Thee. Literally my good (my happiness), as in Psa_106:5; Job_9:25, is not beyond or beside Thee. The ‘good’ here spoken of is in contrast with the ‘sorrows’ in Psa_16:4, and answers to the words, ‘my lot, my cup, my inheritance,’ in Psa_16:5-6. For the sentiment may be compared Psa_73:25, ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee.’... This is the one grand thought which stamps the Psalm, ‘Thou O Lord, art my portion, my help, my joy, my all in all.’ ” So also Alexander: “My happiness is not beside Thee, independent of, or separable from Thee?” The interpretation of Moll and Riehm is, however, far better.—C. A. B.]
[3][Perowne: “We may take ל in the sense of ‘belonging to,’ ‘joining myself to, and the passage would mean, ‘I have no good beyond Thee, belonging as I do to the fellowship of the saints, and the noble in whom,’ etc. Indeed some such meaning seems to be required by the context; for it is evident that it is the design of the Psalmist to contrast his own happy lot, and that of others who, like himself, had found their happiness in Jehovah, with the miserable condition of those ‘whose sorrows were increased, because they went after other gods.’ ”—C. A. B.]
[4][This theory of Hitzig is ingenious, but too artificial and strained. It does not agree in tone with other Psalms of that period. This Psalm certainly belongs to a later period in his life after the Messianic prophecy of Nathan.—C. A. B.]
[5][Perowne: “God has led me to find my joy in Him, and now in the night seasons, as the time most favorable to quiet thought, I meditate thereon. The heart itself is said to admonish, because it anxiously listens to the voice of God, and seeks to conform itself thereto.”—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Preserve me—See introductory note.
1. Preserve me—See introductory note.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Preserve me] Not that he is at the…
1. Preserve me] Not that he is at the moment in special danger; but only in God’s keeping (Psa_12:7; Psa_17:8) can soul and body be safe.
God] El, as in Psa_5:4; Psa_17:6.
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for in thee &c.] For in thee have I taken refuge. God is responsible for protecting His liegeman. See note on Psa_7:1, and cp. Psa_17:7.
1, 2. The Psalmist’s prayer and profession of faith.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) For in thee.—Better, for I have found refuge…
(1) For in thee.—Better, for I have found refuge in thee (as in Psa_7:1; Psa_11:1). The verb is in the preterite.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THE sixteenth psalm is so far connected with the…
THE sixteenth psalm is so far connected with the fifteenth that it is exclusively concerned, like the fifteenth, with the truly righteous man. It "depicts the true Israelite as rejoicing in God as the highest Good, and placing affiance in him in the face of Death and Hades" (Kay). The ascription of it to David in the title may well be acquiesced in. It has been called "a golden psalm," and the word "Michtam" in the title has been understood in this sense (Kimchi, Aben Ezra, margin of the Authorized Version); but that is more probably a musical term, like "Mizmor," Maschil," "Shiggaion," etc. It is "full of the spirit of David," and remarkably evangelical in tone; its Messianic character is attested by the Apostle Peter. (Act_2:25 Act_13:35) It seems to divide itself only into two strophes one extending from ver. 1 to the end of ver. 6, and the other from ver. 7 to the conclusion.
Preserve me, O God; i.e. keep me, guard me protect me both in body and soul. It does not appear that the writer is threatened by any special danger. He simply calls upon God to continue his protecting care. For in thee do I put my trust. In thee, and in thee only. Therefore to thee only do I look for protection and preservation.
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HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-11. "Once thine, ever thine:" the song of a saint, the vision of a seer.
This psalm yields many texts for instructive discourse; but it is not on any of them that we propose now to dwell, but on the psalm as a whole. It is one of the most evangelical in all the five books of the Psalms. It opens with a prayer and a plea; but its main current is that of joy and praise. It is moreover repeatedly quoted in the New Testament, where, by the Apostles Peter and Paul, some of its words are declared to be those of David the prophet, and to have received fulfilment in Christ, and in him alone. We cannot, however, apply all the psalm to the Messiah. Some of it is evidently the expression of a private personal experience, and the utterance of a joyously devout saint, whose joy and devotion have both been inspired by a revelation of God to him; while other parts of it are the still more elevated utterances of one who was borne along by the Holy Ghost, to tell of visions which he saw of One in whom his royal line should witness the culmination of its glory! The touching expressions in 2Sa_23:3-5 will account for both the words of the saint and the words of the seer which are here found. As the saint, David was inspired by revelation; as the seer, he was inspired for it. And by making these two main divisions we shall, perhaps, best homiletically expound the psalm.
I WE HAVE HERE THE SONG OF A SAINT INSPIRED BY REVELATION. In this light the contents of the psalm are very varied. We number them, not as re]lowing in exact logical or culminative order, but that we may call the student"s and preacher"s attention thereto, one by one; observing that we follow the Revised Version, which is most excellent. Here is:
1. A prayer and a plea. (Ver. 1) Apparently he is in peril; what, we do not know; but, as is his wont, he makes his hiding-place in God; and very touching is the plea he puts in: "for in thee do I put my trust." Our God loves to be trusted. The confidence which his people repose in him is in his sight of great price; and he will hot cannot disappoint them.
2. The psalmist has taken Jehovah to be his own God. Jehovah the eternal God the God of Israel, was his own sovereign Lord. And as he confided to him all his cares, so he yielded to him his entire homage.
3. He finds in God his supreme joy. "I have no good beyond thee". (cf. Psa_63:2-5) All the largest desires of the soul have their perfect satisfaction in God.
4. In his fellow-saints, he finds a holy brotherhood. In them is his delight. (Psa_42:4 Mal_3:16) The closest and dearest bond of permanent friendship is found in the fellowship of holy life and love in God.
5. He shuns the ungodly. In blended pity and anger he looks on those of his nation who have lapsed into idolatry, and exchanged the worship of Jehovah for the service of idols. (cf. Jer_2:13 Rom_1:25, Revised Version)
6. The portion which he has in God is secured to him. (Ver. 5) It cannot slip from his grasp, nor be snatched out of his hand, nor can he in any way be despoiled thereof. God will uphold him in possession, and will give him timely counsel and assistance (ver. 7).
7. God is ever before him, as a constantly present Friend. He is no abstraction. But one ever at his right hand, to guard, guide, advise, gladden, and strengthen. Yea, to give him a steadfast, unconquerable firmness in the midst of numerous foes.
8. Consequently, he has a heritage of wealth with which he is well pleased. (Ver. 6) The inheritance assigned to him as it were by lot, and marked out as it were by line, was one which gave him a plenitude of delight.
9. For he knows that the near and dear relationship between himself and God is one which not even death itself can Disturb. david caught a glimpse of the sublime truth of how much God had meant when he told Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob". (cf. Mat_22:31, Mat_22:32) We have almost the truth which is expressed in 1Th_5:10. "My flesh," he says, "shall rest in hope." Yea, more; David even peers beyond the unseen state (Sheol); he beholds it conquered, and the one whose God is the Lord delivered for ever from the hold of death. And even this is not all; but he sees far, far beyond, awaiting the believer, fulness of joy and eternal delights in the immediate presence of the great eternal God. So that the burden of the song may be summed up in our final thought on this aspect of the psalm, that:
10. Once God"s, he was his for ever! "Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol". (cf. Psa_48:14 Psa_73:26) Is it any wonder that, with such a heritage in Divine love, the psalmist should find his heart glow with joy, and that his tongue should break out into shouts of praise? Surely if such a God is ours, and ours for ever, we are well provided for, and shall be well guarded, throughout eternity.
II WE HAVE HERE ALSO THE VISION OF A SEER WHO WAS INSPIRED FOR A REVELATION. We have in that memorable sermon on the Day of Pentecost, when Peter opened up the kingdom to Israel, a remarkable reference to this very psalm. (cf. Act_2:25-31) In which the apostle declares that what David said respecting the Holy One, he spoke as a prophet, seeing far ahead the fulfilment of the covenant God had made with him. And in Act_13:34-37 the Apostle Paul makes an equally distinct reference to this psalm, while he even more emphatically declares this prophetic utterance to be a Divine declaration. And we get a plain and distinct account of such far distant scriptural forecasts in 2Pe_1:21. Thus we can clearly trace a second significance in the latter half of Psalm 16, as it recounts "the sure mercies of David." For, indeed, if it had not been for the Divine promise and oath made to him a promise and an oath the fulfilment of which could never be disturbed by the vicissitudes of time, there might not and probably would not have been the like joyful repose of the saint in God, in the prospect of death and of eternity. So that, although the vision of the prophet comes second in our consideration, it was really the first in importance, and the foundation of all the rest. And all this may be brought home in fruitful teaching, in four or five progressive steps.
1. David had had a direct revelation that his throne should be established for ever. (2Sa_23:3-5 2Sa_7:12-16 Ps 72 Psa_89:20-37) And to his dying day, amid all the disturbances of his house, this covenant, "ordered in all things and sure," was all his salvation, and all his desire.
2. In the foreglancings of prophetic vision he saw the Holy One in the coming age as its Ruler and its Head. ()
3. He beheld also the Holy One going down into the tomb. To Sheol; not hell, but Hades, the invisible realm of the departed.
4. He beheld the Holy One rising again. As the Lord and Conqueror of death; as the Head of the redeemed, he beheld him leaving the grave, and going forward and upward as their Forerunner. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus carries along with it that of all his followers.
5. It was on this sublime Messianic hope that the psalmist built his own. And, indeed, it was on this that such as Abraham fixed their gaze, with leaping gladness and thankful joy "That which is true of the members is true, in its highest sense, of the Head, and is only true of the members because they are joined to the Head" (Perowne); 1Th_5:10.
III IN COMBINING THE SONG OF THE SAINT AND THE VISION OF THE SEER, WE HAVE MOST ELEVATED AND ELEVATING TEACHING FOR OURSELVES.
1. Here is the great secret of life made known to and by the holy prophets. As one expositor remarks, the antithesis in the psalm is not between life here and life there, but between a life in God and a life apart from him.
2. That God should have disclosed this great secret by his Spirit can bring no difficulty whatever to those who understand communion with God.
3. The grand redemption of God"s grace is realized in a fellowship of holy souls in blest and everlasting relation to God as their Portion, their endless Heritage of infinite purity and delight.
4. This fellowship of life centres round him whom no death can retain in its hold, even round him who is the Resurrection and the Life. Believers are one in God because one in Christ.
5. His triumph over the tomb is the pledge of theirs. He has gone ahead as their Forerunner, and has in their name taken his place in the Father"s house, preparing theirs likewise.
6. Hence the entire blessing of God"s great salvation is summed up in the words, "Thou wilt show me the path of life." In which phrase, as Austinfinely says, "we have a guide, Thou; a traveller, me; a way, the path; the end, life. " Happy are they who choose this Guide, who follow this way, who inherit such a life! How the troubles and perils of this life seem to dwindle away when we can realize that such a God and such a home are ours! and not ours only, but also of all those who have said to Jehovah, "Thou art my Lord"! C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-11. Life-long convictions.
Happy the man who holds to his faith in God through all changes and chances of this mortal life! Religion to him is a reality. He speaks of what he knows. He commends what he has proved to be good. He can rejoice in the assurance that God, who has been with him hitherto, will keep him safely to the end, and that the portion which satisfied his soul in this life will satisfy his soul eternally. We may take the psalm as expressing certain life-long convictions.
I THAT GOD IS TO BE TRUSTED AS THE SUPREME GOOD. Man is prone to seek happiness apart from God. This proves both his littleness and his greatness: his littleness in turning from God; his greatness, as nothing earthly can satisfy him, and his soul is restless till it finds rest in God. "Thou art my Lord" is the true response to God"s declaration, "I am the Lord thy God". (Exo_20:2 Psa_73:25)
II THAT THE SAINTS ARE TO BE REGARDED AS EARTH"S TRUE NOBLES. When God has his right place, man gets his right place also. He is valued, not for his wealth, but for his worth; not for his circumstances, but for his character; not for his high standing among men, but for his near relation in love and holiness to God. If we love God, we shall love what God loves. If we delight in God, we shall delight in what God delighteth in. As a poet of our own has taught us only noble to be good. Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood.
III THAT WICKEDNESS, WHATEVER IT PROMISES, MUST IN THE END BRING WRETCHEDNESS. The wicked may be many; they may seem to prosper; they may appear as if they were to prevail, and have their own way in everything. There will be at times strong temptations to join them to live as they live, to eat, drink, and be merry. But the heart that has known God recoils with horror from such a thought. What can come of forsaking God, but misery? This is the witness of history, observation, and experience. And we should be thankful that it is so. It is a proof of God"s love, as well as of God"s righteousness. That "the way of transgressors is hard" puts for many a warning in their path, and sounds for many a merciful call in their ears. "Turn ye: why will ye die?". (Eze_33:11 Isa_55:1-7 Job_33:27-30)
IV THAT THE DESTINY OF THE GOOD IS DIVINELY ORDERED. Life is not fixed by chance, or by blind fate, or by man"s own designing and devising. It is of God"s ordering. (Pro_19:21) As it is with the stars above, so it is with souls beneath. They stand as God ordains. (Psa_119:91 Psa_147:3, Psa_147:4) As it was with Canaan, which was divided among the tribes by lot, (Num_26:55 Jos_13:6) so it is with the inheritance of God"s believing people; it is settled by the hand of God. In many things as to our birth, and kinsfolk, and associations, and so on we have no choice. But trusting in God, we cheerfully accept the place which he has appointed for us. And when we are free to choose, we seek counsel of God, and gladly and gratefully rest in his will. (Heb_13:5) What the King of Babylon did according to his lights when at the parting of the ways, (Eze_21:21) we do, in a higher way. (Act_9:6)
V THAT GODLINESS HAS THE PROMISE BOTH OF THIS LIFE AND OF THAT WHICH IS TO COME.
1. This life. (Vers. 6-8)
2. Guidance. (Ver. 7)
3. Protection. (Ver. 8)
4. The life to come. (Ver. 11)
This truth, dimly revealed of old, shines out brightly and beautifully in the gospel. W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-6. Grounds of the prayer for preservation.
This psalm is golden in thought, feeling, and expression. The substance of it is comprised in the first verse: "May God preserve him who has no other refuge in which he can hide but him!" The subject up to the end of the sixth verse may be called Grounds of the prayer for preservation.
I HE HAS TAKEN GOD FOR HIS SUPREME GOOD. (Ver. 2, "I said to Jehovah, Thou art my Lord; beside thee I have no good.") The "good" here in contrast with the "sorrows" in ver. 4. "Whom have I in heaven but thee," etc.? It is the answer of the soul to, "Thou shalt have no other gods but me." "Thou, O Lord, art my Portion, my Help, my Joy, my All in all.
II HE DELIGHTS IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF ALL THE GOOD. (Ver. 3) He trusts God in company with the best and noblest in the land. If they trust and serve, it is my privilege also. That is one thought. Another is I love the holy and the excellent who reflect most of God; not the worldly rich and great and powerful. The saints and only they are the excellent to him, even as they are to God. He is one with God. in this he is wholly on God"s side; therefore, he says, save me from impending danger.
III HE ABHORS APOSTATES AND THEIR IDOLS. (Ver. 4) He will be loyal, and refuse all participation in the fellowship or the rites of the surrounding idolaters. Even the names of the false gods he refuses to take upon his lips. Philosophy, and luxury, and commerce, and wisdom in government, and the glories of conquest, combined to recommend the seductive idolatries of Philistia, Phoenicia, Syria, Assyria, Egypt. But he regarded them all with righteous scorn. We have need of a strong and simple trust in God, and sympathy with the good, to be able to repudiate the idolatries that ever surround us the worship of wealth, success, fashion.
IV HE POSSESSES ALL THINGS IN GOD. (Vers. 5, 6) The Lord is the Portion of mine inheritance an allusion to the division of the land among the tribes. And this was preserved to him by the protecting power of God. God was also his meat and drink (equivalent to "cup"). "The lines," etc. in allusion to the ancient custom of marking out plots of land by measuring-lines. He had a goodly heritage. "What must not he possess who possesses the Possessor of all?" "All things are yours, for ye are Christ"s, and Christ is God"s. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain MICHTAM OF DAVID. This is usually understood to mean…
MICHTAM OF DAVID. This is usually understood to mean THE GOLDEN PSALM, and such a title is most appropriate, for the matter is as the most fine gold. Ainsworth calls it "David's jewel, or notable song." Dr. Hawker, who is always alive to passages full of savour, devoutly cries, "Some have rendered it precious, others golden, and others, precious jewel; and as the Holy Ghost, by the apostles Peter and Paul, hath shown us that it is all about the Lord Jesus Christ, what is here said of him is precious, is golden, is a jewel indeed!" We have not met with the term Michtam before, but if spared to write upon Ps 56:1-60:12, we shall see it again, and shall observe that like the present these psalms, although they begin with prayer, and imply trouble, abound in holy confidence and close with songs of assurance as to ultimate safety and joy. Dr. Alexander, whose notes are peculiarly valuable, thinks that the word is most probably a simple derivative of a word signifying to hide, and signifies a secret or mystery, and indicates the depth of doctrinal and spiritual import in these sacred compositions. If this be the true interpretation it well accords with the other, and when the two are put together, they make up a name which every reader will remember, and which will bring the precious subject at once to mind. THE PSALM OF THE PRECIOUS SECRET.
We are not left to human interpreters for the key to this golden mystery, for, speaking by the Holy Ghost, Peter tells us, "David speaketh concerning HIM." (Ac 2:25) Further on in his memorable sermon he said, "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." (Ac 2:29-31) Nor is this our only guide, for the apostle Paul, led by the same infallible inspiration, quotes from this psalm, and testifies that David wrote of the man through whom is preached unto us the forgiveness of sins. (Ac 13:35-38) It has been the usual plan of commentators to apply the psalm both to David, to the saints, and to the Lord Jesus, but we will venture to believe that in it "Christ is all; "since in the ninth and tenth verses, like the apostles on the mount, we can see "no man but Jesus only."
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The whole is so compact that it is difficult to draw sharp lines of division. It may suffice to note our Lord's prayer of faith, Ps 16:1, avowal of faith in Jehovah alone, Ps 16:2-5, the contentment of his faith in the present, Ps 16:6-7, and the joyous confidence of his faith for the future (Ps 16:8, 11).
Ver. 1. Preserve me, keep, or save me, or as Horsley thinks, "guard me, "even as bodyguards surround their monarch, or as shepherds protect their flocks. Tempted in all points like as we are, the manhood of Jesus needed to be preserved from the power of evil; and though in itself pure, the Lord Jesus did not confide in that purity of nature, but as an example to his followers, looked to the Lord, his God, for preservation. One of the great names of God is "the Preserver of men, "(Job 7:20,)and this gracious office the Father exercised towards our Mediator and Representative. It had been promised to the Lord Jesus in express words, that he should be preserved, Isa 49:7-8. "Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people." This promise was to the letter fulfilled, both by providential deliverance and sustaining power, in the case of our Lord. Being preserved himself, he is able to restore the preserved of Israel, for we are "preserved in Christ Jesus and called." As one with him, the elect were preserved in his preservation, and we may view this mediatorial supplication as the petition of the Great High Priest for all those who are in him. The intercession recorded in Joh 17:1-26 is but an amplification of this cry, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are." When he says, "preserve me, "he means his members, his mystical body, himself, and all in him. But while we rejoice in the fact that the Lord Jesus used this prayer for his members, we must not forget that he employed it most surely for himself; he had so emptied himself, and so truly taken upon him the form of a servant, that as man he needed divine keeping even as we do, and often cried unto the strong for strength. Frequently on the mountaintop he breathed forth this desire, and on one occasion in almost the same words, he publicly prayed, "Father, save me from this hour." (Joh 12:27.) If Jesus looked out of himself for protection, how much more must we, his erring followers, do so!
O God. The word for God here used is EL (la), by which name the Lord Jesus, when under a sense of great weakness, as for instance when upon the cross, was wont to address the Mighty God, the Omnipotent Helper of his people. We, too, may turn to El, the Omnipotent One, in all hours of peril, with the confidence that he who heard the strong crying and tears of our faithful High Priest, is both able and willing to bless us in him. It is well to study the name and character of God, so that in our straits we may know how and by what title to address our Father who is in heaven.
For in thee do I put my trust, or, I have taken shelter in thee. As chickens run beneath the hen, so do I betake myself to thee. Thou art my great overshadowing Protector, and I have taken refuge beneath thy strength. This is a potent argument in pleading, and our Lord knew not only how to use it with God, but how to yield to its power when wielded by others upon himself. "According to thy faith be it done unto thee, "is a great rule of heaven in dispensing favour, and when we can sincerely declare that we exercise faith in the Mighty God with regard to the mercy which we seek, we may rest assured that our plea will prevail. Faith, like the sword of Saul, never returns empty; it overcomes heaven when held in the hand of prayer. As the Saviour prayed, so let us pray, and as he became more than a conqueror, so shall we also through him; let us when buffeted by storms right bravely cry to the Lord as he did, "in thee do I put my trust."
Title. There is a diversity of opinion as to the meaning of the title of this Psalm. It is called "Michtam of David, "but Michtam is the Hebrew word untranslatedthe Hebrew word in English lettersand its signification is involved in obscurity. According to some, it is derived from a verb which means to hide, and denotes a mystery or secret. Those who adopt this view, regard the title as indicating a depth of doctrinal and spiritual import in the Psalm, which neither the writer nor any of his contemporaries had fathomed. According to others, it is derived from a verb which means to cut, to grave, to write, and denotes simply a writing of David. With this view agree the Chaldee and Septuagint versions, the former translating it, "a straight sculpture of David:" and the latter, "an inscription upon a pillar to David." Others again, look upon "Michtam, "as being derived from a noun which means gold, and they understand it as denoting a golden Psalma Psalm of surpassing excellence, and worthy of being written in letters of gold. This was the opinion of our translators, and hence they have rendered it on the marginA golden Psalm of David. The works of the most excellent Arabian poets were called golden, because they were written in letters of gold; and this golden song may have been written and hung up in some conspicuous part of the Temple. Many other interpretations have been given of this term, but at this distance of time, we can only regard it as representing some unassignable peculiarity of the composition. James Frame, 1858.
Title. Such are the riches of this Psalm, that some have been led to think the obscure title, "Michtam, "has been prefixed to it on account of its golden stores. For (Mtk) is used of the "gold of Ophir" (e.g., Ps 45:9), and (Mtkm) might be a derivative from that root. But as there is a group of five other Psalms (namely, Ps 56:1-60:12), that bear this title, whose subject matter is various, but which all end in a tone of triumph, it has been suggested that the Septuagint may be nearly right in their Sphlografia, as if "A Psalm to be hung up or inscribed on a pillar to commemorate victory." It is, however, more likely still that the term "Michtam" (like "Maschil"), is a musical term, whose real meaning and use we have lost, and may recover only when the ransomed house of Israel return home with songs. Meanwhile, the subject matter of this Psalm itself is very clearly thisthe righteous one's satisfaction with his lot. Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. Allow that in verse ten it is clear that our Lord is in this Psalm, yet the application of every verse to Jesus in Gethsemane appears to be farfetched, and inaccurate. How verse nine could suit the agony and bloody sweat, it is hard to conceive, and equally so it is with regard to verse six. The "cup" of verse five is so direct a contrast to that cup concerning which Jesus prayed in anguish of spirit, that it cannot be a reference to it. Yet we think it right to add, that Mr. James Frame has written a very valuable work on this Psalm, entitled "Christ in Gethsemane, "and he has supported his theory by the opinion of many of the ancients. He says, "All the distinguished interpreters of ancient days, such as Eusebius, Jerome, and Augustine, explain the Psalm as referring to the Messiah, in his passion and his victory over death and the grave, including his subsequent exaltation to the right hand of God; "and, in a foot note he gives the following quotations: Jerome. "The Psalm pertains to Christ, who speaks in it... It is the voice of our King, which he utters in the human nature that he had assumed, but without detracting from his divine nature... The Psalm pertains to his passion." Augustine. "Our King speaks in this Psalm in the person of the human nature that he assumed, at the time of his passion, the royal title inscribed will show itself conspicuous." C. H. S.
Whole Psalm. The present Psalm is connected in thought and language with the foregoing, and linked on to the following Psalm by catchwords. It is entitled in the Syriac and Arabic versions, a Psalm on the Election of the Church, and on the "Resurrection of Christ." Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., 1868.
Ver. 1. Preserve me, O God. Here David desireth not deliverance from any special trouble, but generally prayeth to be fenced and defended continually by the providence of God, wishing that the Lord would continue his mercy towards him unto the end; whereby he foresaw it was as needful for him to be safeguarded by God, his protection in the end, as at the time present; as also how he made no less account of it in his prosperity than in adversity. So that the man of God still feared his infirmity, and therefore acknowledgeth himself ever to stand in need of God his help. And here is a sure and undoubted mark of the child of God, when a man shall have as great a care to continue and grow in well doing, as to begin; and this praying for the gift of final perseverance is a special note of the child of God. This holy jealousy of the man of God made him so desire to be preserved at all times, in all estates, both in soul and body. Richard Greenham, 1531-1591.
Ver. 1. For in thee do I put my trust. Here the prophet setteth down the cause why he prayeth to God; whereby he declareth, that none can truly call upon God unless they believe. Ro 10:14. "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" In regard whereof as he prayeth to God to be his Saviour, so he is fully assured that God will be his Saviour. If, then, without faith we cannot truly call upon God, the men of this world rather prate like parrots than pray like Christians, at what time they utter these words; for that they trust not in God they declare both by neglecting the lawful means, and also in using unlawful means. Some we see trust in friends; some shoulder out, as they think, the cross with their goods; some fence themselves with authority; others bathe and baste themselves in pleasure to put the evil day far from them; others make flesh their arm; and others make the wedge of gold their confidence; and these men when they seek for help at the Lord, mean in their hearts to find it in their friends, good authority and pleasure, howsoever for fear, they dare not say this outwardly. Again, here we are to observe under what shelter we may harbour ourselves in the showers of adversity, even under the protection of the Almighty. And why? "Whoso dwelleth in the secret of the Most High, shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty." And here in effect is showed, that whosoever putteth his trust in God shall be preserved; otherwise the prophet's reason here had not been good. Besides, we see he pleads not by merit, but sues by faith, teaching us that if we come with like faith, we may obtain the like deliverance. Richard Greenham.
Michtam of David. Under the title of "The Golden Psalm, "Mr. Canon Dale has published a small volume, which is valuable as a series of good simple discourses, but ought hardly to have been styled "an exposition." We have thought it right to give the headings of the chapters into which his volume is divided, for there is much showiness, and may be some solidity in the suggestions.
Ver. 1. The seeking of the gold. The believer conscious of danger, trusting in God only for deliverance.
Ver. 1. The perfecting of the gold. The believer realising at God's right hand the fulness of joy and the pleasures for evermore.
Upon this suggestive Psalm we offer the following few hints out of many
Ver. 1. The prayer and the plea. The preserver and the truster. The dangers of the saints and the place of their confidence.
An Exposition upon some select Psalms of David... By ROBERT ROLLOCK. 1600. 16mo.
A Godly Exposition of the Sixteenth Psalm: in R. Greenham's "Works:" pp. 316-331. Folio: 1612.
In the "Works" of John Boys, 1626, folio, pp. 898-908, there is an Exposition of Psalm Sixteen,
"Devotions Augustinianae Flamma; or, Certayne Devout, Godly, and Learned Meditations. Written by the excellently accomplished gentleman, WILLIAM AUSTIN, of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire... 1637, " contains "Notes on the Sixteenth Psalme; more particularly on the last verse." Small folio.
The Golden Psalm. Being an Exposition practical, experimental, and prophetical of Psalm Sixteenth. By the Rev. THOMAS DALE, M.A. Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's, London, and Vicar of St. Pancras, Middlesex. London: 1847.
Christ in Gethsemane. An Exposition of Psalm Sixteen. By JAMES FRAME, Minister of Queen Street Chapel, Ratcliff, London: 1858.
Psalms 16:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I…
Psa_16:1-11
Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust.
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Faith in the presence of God
This term suggests that the Psalm is one of strongly marked, incisive thought. It is a Psalm doubly notable--
1. Because it contains one of the brightest and most unhesitating expressions of faith in the presence of God, as extending through and beyond death, and preserving the life both of soul and body. It therefore stands in marked contrast with the desponding doubts of such passages as Psa_88:1-18 --basing itself on the conviction, which our Lord declared to underlie the whole covenant, that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
2. Because it is quoted most explicitly in the New Testament as a Messianic prophecy, an inspired utterance, which was no doubt in some degree applied by the Psalmist to himself as having unity with God, and therefore defying death, but which could be in its full meaning spoken of the Messiah alone (Act_2:25-31; Act_13:35). For in Him alone was the, unity with God to be perfect--so that He should be at once the son of David, and yet God with us--therefore in Him alone was it impossible that humanity could be holden of death, either in the prison of Hades (1Pe_3:19) or the corruption of the grave. (Alfred Barry, D. D.)
Jehovah, the believers chief good
This poem naturally falls into three strophes.
1. The writers utterances to God, and Gods people of his supreme delight in Jehovah (Psa_16:1-4).
2. The direct statement of the blessedness of such a lot (Psa_16:5-8).
3. The assurance that it would prevail over death and the grave (Psa_16:9-11). Cheyne says, the Psalmist assumes successively the tone of profession, of description, and of prophecy.
I. The profession. In view of the fluctuations and uncertainties of the world, the writer invokes Gods preserving care, for the reason that this is his habitual resort. He neither has nor wishes any other. But this absolute dependence on the Most High is very far from being servile or constrained. It is spontaneous and joyous. He knows no fountain of true happiness save Jehovah. The love of saints and the abhorrence of idolatrous apostates go together.
II. The description (Psa_16:5-8). Here is an emphatic statement of the fact that nothing earthly, visible, material is what satisfies the Psalmist, but only Jehovah Himself. It is the Giver, not His gifts, that meets his wants. The happiness of such a condition is insisted on. In Davids eyes God is no abstraction, but a person real, living, walking by his side. Hence his abiding confidence. The whole utterance is one of strong triumphant faith.
III. The prophecy (Psa_16:9-11). Here the description of the present passes into a forecast of the future. Some of the terms are peculiar. Glory probably means tongue. Sheol is the place of departed spirits. Corruption may mean the pit. The poet is taking a calm outlook upon death and the grave as they lie before every man in the natural course of events. Shall this be the end of his career? Nay, heart and flesh alike are safe. David will not be abandoned to the dismal shades, nor will his bodily frame perish irrecoverably. The Psalm as a whole is a remarkable exhibition of Old Testament piety. (Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.)
A good hope
The heading of this Psalm, and of Psa_56:1-13; Psa_57:1-11; Psa_58:1-11; Psa_59:1-17; Psa_60:1-12, Michtam, may mean Golden Psalm, or Sculpture Psalm, this latter term indicating a Psalm of strong incisive thought. The Psalm seems, by its tone of fresh, joyous confidence, to belong to the early part of Davids career. It may have been written when David was in the wilderness of Ziph (1Sa_26:19). The Psalm may be used to illustrate the following points:
1. Only out of an experience of Gods gracious dealings can a full trust in God be gained. David had known God from his early shepherd life.
2. The uncertainty of all things on which men rely; men change or fail; riches take wings; of many possessions we tire, but trust in God never disappoints. He is the one satisfying good.
3. Those who have God at all must have Him for all in all. No idols must draw us away. Self-seeking and world-seeking pleasures may be our idols.
4. Keeping close to God is security for this world, and for the world to come. Really right is right with God, and whoever is really right is right forever. The joy we have in God, neither time, nor change, nor death can end. The following subjects are treated: Soul joy in God. Soul joy in the godly. Soul fear of the ungodly. Soul confidence in the present. Soul purpose to maintain the godly life. Soul assurance that God will maintain loving relations with the godly forever. (Robert Tuck, B. A.)
The good mans plea
The Psalmist entreats Divine protection, rejoices in his religious privileges, and expresses unbounded confidence in God.
I. A good mans cry for divine protection. Whether his peril arose from the idolatrous heathen or from domestic enemies, we cannot say; but it was sufficiently urgent to drive him to God for shelter. Is not this one of the chief uses of earthly trials?
II. A good mans arguments for a divine response.
1. He pleads his faith in God.
2. He pleads his own moral value (Psa_16:4-6). A holy exultation now thrills the Psalmists heart.
There are two sources of his joy.
1. The sight of the misery of idolaters.
2. The contemplation of his own blessedness. The figurative language of Psa_16:6 is derived from the division of the land of Canaan amidst the tribes of Israel. Precious truths underlie it.
(1) The nature of his inheritance.
(2) The certainty of his inheritance.
(3) The pleasantness of his inheritance. (Robert Rollocks.)
The Divine preservation
The Psalmist will be preserved; he will not only be created. There is a cold deism which says, Having been created, that is enough; the rest belongs to myself; I must attend to the details of life; creation may have been a Divine act, but all education, culture, progress, preservation must fall under my own personal care. The Psalmist begins in another tone. He opens his Psalm with the great word preserve--equal to, Attend to all my cares and wants; pity my feebleness; take hold of my right hand, and of my left hand, and be round about me, and never leave me for one moment to myself. That is true worship. Only a sense of the Divine nearness of that kind can adequately sustain a noble and growing religion. We need a daily prayer; we die for want of daily food; every morning must be a revelation in light, every night must be a revelation in rest. This is not a selfish preservation, a preservation from evil, or danger, or suffering only, but the kind of preservation that is necessary to growth. Who has not seen the guards round the trees, especially the little trees, the young growths, so that they may have a chance of taking hold of the earth, and lifting themselves up to the sun, and bringing out of themselves all the secret of the Divine purpose in their creation? A selfish preservation would be an impious desire, but the preservation being asked for as an opportunity of growth is a preservation for which the noblest souls may daily pray. It is, then, not enough to have been created; even that Divine act becomes deteriorated and spoiled, impoverished, utterly depleted of all ennobling purpose and inspiration, unless it be followed by continual husbandry or shepherdliness, nursing or culture--for the figure admits of every variety of change; the end being growth, strength, fruitfulness. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The portrait of a God-trusting soul
Such soul is represented in two aspects.
I. His experience under the influence of the present. He has--
1. A profound consciousness of his dependence for safety and for good. My goodness extendeth not to Thee. That is, my happiness is not independent of Thee.
2. A delight in the fellowship of the good. The saints, the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
3. An abhorrence of the practices of the wicked. Their drink offering of blood will I not offer.
4. An exultation in the Lord as his portion.
5. A high satisfaction with providential arrangements. The lines have fallen to me, etc.
II. In reference to the future. He is--
1. Thankful. I will bless the Lord.
2. Thoughtful. My reins also, etc.
3. Calm. I shall not be moved.
4. Happy. My heart is glad.
5. Trustful. My flesh also shall rest in hope--
(i) Of restoration to life. Thou wilt not leave, etc.
(ii) Of happiness. The path of life.
(iii) Of fulness of joy in Gods presence. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The plea of our trustfulness
The first thing David does is to commend himself to the protection of God, as the God in whom he had placed his confidence. This is what all of us will do who are living under the influence of vital and experimental religion. If we be among the number of His people, we may confide in Him with our whole heart, for every communication of His grace, and for every exercise of His power, which our varied circumstances may require. This trust we will constantly repose in God, because He is constantly deserving of it, and because it is constantly demanded for our personal comfort and stability. It will be especially active and vigorous when we are exposed to those peculiar difficulties and dangers by which every Christian is beset in the course of his pilgrimage. We may not rest satisfied with a mere consciousness of unlimited reliance on God; we may give it free expression in the language of devout and fervent supplication. We have found in God an all-sufficient refuge. This Psalm intimates that he had taken the Lord to be his Lord; and it is impossible for any of us, who are acquainted with our duty and our interest, to make a better or a different choice. He is entitled to the supremacy over us in every respect in which that supremacy can be either exercised by Him or acknowledged by us. It is not only our duty, it is also our interest, to take the Lord for our Lord. In this dedication of ourselves to God it is necessary that the heart be really and chiefly concerned. It is the soul that must say to Him, Thou art my Lord Aware of our aptness to forget what we have resolved and promised in reference to God, we must frequently remind our souls, as it were, of the ties by which they are voluntarily and solemnly bound to Him, and of the consequent obligations which they have to fulfil. We are not our own, but His. We cannot be too careful to prevent this impression from being impaired Another evil is to be guarded against the Pharisaical idea is apt to steal upon us, that we have something to boast of, that our labours may be beneficial to Him to whom they are rendered, and that on account of these we are entitled to His favour and protection. There cannot be a greater or more pernicious mistake. While our goodness extendeth not to God, so as that it can be useful to Him or meritorious in His sight, the Psalmist says, It extendeth to the saints that are in the earth. There are saints in the earth. But their holiness has much imperfection mixed with it, and comes far short of what the Divine law requires of them. It exists in their principles, in their desires, in their endeavours, and in their actual acquirements. Being thus saints, they are excellent. God is the standard of excellence, and they are like God. The Psalmist not only asserts the excellence of the saints, but declares that in them was all his delight. And such will be the case with us if our minds are actuated and governed by right sentiments. We shall delight in God as the centre of all perfection, and as the fountain of all good. We shall delight in such of His creatures as are entitled to our complacency from the resemblance which they bear to Him. It is to the saints, who are thus excellent, and in whom we take delight, that our goodness extends; we do them good according to our ability. Between them and us there is a spiritual and intimate relationship. And we are especially careful to let our goodness extend to them when they are suffering persecution on account of their marked separation from the world, and their faithful adherence to the cause of truth and duty. (A. Thomson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Psalms 16
Psalms 16
THE progress of thought in this psalm is striking. The singer is first a bold confessor in the face of idolatry and apostasy (Psa_16:1-4). Then the inward sweetness of his faith fills his soul, as is ever the reward of brave avowal, and he buries himself, bee-like, in the pure delights of communion with Jehovah (Psa_16:5-8). Finally, on the ground of such experience, he rises to the assurance that "its very sweetness yieldeth proof" that he and it are born for undying life (Psa_16:9-11). The conviction of immortality is then most vividly felt, when it results from the consciousness of a present full of God. The outpourings of a pure and wholesome mystic religion in the psalm are so entirely independent of the personality and environment of the singer that there is no need to encumber the study of it with questions of date. If we accept the opinion that the conception of resurrection was the result of intercourse with Persia, we shall have to give a post-exilic date to the psalm. But even if the general adoption of that belief was historically so motived, that does not forbid our believing that select souls, living in touch with God, rose to it long before. The peaks caught the glow while the valleys were filled with mists. The tone of the last section sounds liker that of a devout soul in the very act of grasping a wonderful new thought, which God was then and there revealing to him through his present experience, than of one who was simply repeating a theological truth become familiar to all.
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The first turn of thought (Psa_16:1-4) is clear in its general purport. It is a profession of personal adherence to Jehovah and of attachment to His lovers, in the face of idol worship which had drawn away some. The brief cry for preservation at the beginning does not necessarily imply actual danger, but refers to the possible antagonism of the idol worshippers provoked by the psalmists bold testimony. The two meanings of Martyr, a witness and a sufferer, are closely, intertwined in fact. He needs to be preserved, and he has a claim to be so, for his profession of faith has brought the peril. The remarkable expression in Psa_16:2 b is best understood as unfolding the depth of what lies in saying, My God. It means the cleaving to Him of the whole nature as the all-comprehending supply of every desire and capacity. "Good for me is none besides Thee." This is the same high strain as in the cognate Psa_73:25, where, as here, the joy of communion is seen in the very act of creating the confidence of immortality. The purest expression of the loftiest devotion lies in these few words. The soul that speaks thus to Jehovah turns next to Jehovahs friends and then to His foes. To the former it speaks, in Psa_16:3, of the gnarled obscurity of which the simplest clearing up is that adopted by the R.V. This requires a very small correction of the text, the omission of one letter (Waw = and) before "excellent," and the transference to the second clause of "these," which the accents append clumsily to the first. If we regard the to at the beginning, as the R.V. does, as marking simply reference ("as for"), the verse is an independent sentence: but it is possible to regard the influence of "I have said" as still continuing, and in that case we should have what the psalmist said to the saints, following on what he said to Jehovah, which gives unity to the whole context, and is probably best. Cheyne would expunge the first clause as a gloss crept in from the margin; and that clears the sense, though the remedy, is somewhat drastic, and a fine touch is lost, "I said to Thy loved ones, -these (and not the braggarts who strut as great men) are the truly excellent, in whom is all my delight." When temptations to forsake Jehovah are many, the true worshipper has to choose his company, and his devotion to his only Good will lead to penetrating insight into the unreality of many shining reputations and the modest beauty of humble lives of godliness. Eyes which have been purged to see God, by seeing Him will see through much. Hearts that have learned to love Jehovah will be quick to discern kindred hearts, and, if they have found all good in Him, will surely find purest delight in them. The solitary confessor clasps the hands of his unknown fellows.
With dramatic abruptness he points to the unnamed recreants from Jehovah. "Their griefs are many-they exchange (Jehovah) for another." Apparently, then, there was some tendency in Israel to idolatry, which gives energy to the psalmists vehement vow that he will not offer their libations of blood, nor take the abhorred names of the gods they pronounced into his lips. This state of things would suit but too much of Israels history, during which temptations to idol worship were continually present, and the bloody libations would point to such abominations of human sacrifice as we know characterised the worship of Moloch and Chemosh. Cheyne sees in the reference to these a sign of the post-exilic date of the psalm; but was there any period after the exile in which there was danger of relapse to idolatry, and was not rather a rigid monotheism the great treasure which the exiles brought back? The trait seems rather to favour an earlier date.
In the second section (Psa_16:5-8) the devout soul suns itself in the light of God, and tells itself how rich it is. "The portion of mine inheritance" might mean an allotted share of either food or land, but Psa_16:6 favours the latter interpretation. "Cup" here is not so much an image for that which satisfies thirst, though that would be beautiful, as for that which is appointed for one to experience. Such a use of the figure is familiar, and brings it into line with the other of inheritance, which is plainly the principal, as that of the cup is dropped in the following words. Every godly man has the same possession and the same prohibitions as the priests had. Like them he is landless, and instead of estates has Jehovah. They presented in mere outward fashion what is the very law of the devout life. Because God is the only true Good, the soul must have none other, and if it have forsaken all other by reason of the greater wealth of even partial possession of Him, it will be growingly rich in Him. He who has said unto the Lord, "Thou art my Lord," will with ever increasing decisiveness of choice and consciousness of sufficiency say, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." The same figure is continued in Psa_16:5 b. "My lot" is the same idea as "my portion," and the natural flow of thought would lead us to expect that Jehovah is both. That consideration combines with the very anomalous grammatical form of the word rendered "maintainest" to recommend the slight alteration adopted by Cheyne following Dyserinck and Bickell, by which "continually" is read, for it. What God is rather than what He does is filling the psalmists happy thoughts, and the depth of his blessedness already kindles that confidence in its perpetuity which shoots up to so bright a flame in the dosing verses (cf. Psalms 73). The consciousness of perfect rest in perfect satisfaction of need and desires ever follows possession of God. So the calm rapture of Psa_16:6 is the true utterance of the heart acquainted with God, and of it alone. One possession only bears reflection. Whatever else a man has, if he has not Jehovah for his portion, some part of himself will stand stiffly out, dissentient and unsatisfied, and hinder him from saying "My inheritance is fair to me." That verdict of experience implies, as it stands in the Hebrew, subjective delight in the portion and not merely the objective worth of it. This is the peculiar preeminence of a God-filled life, that the Infinitely good is wholly Good to it, through all the extent of capacities and cravings. Who else can say the same? Blessed they whose delights are in God! He will ever delight them.
No wonder that the psalmist breaks into blessing; but it is deeply significant of the freedom from mere sentimental religion which characterises the highest flights of his devotion, that his special ground of blessing Jehovah is not inward peace of communion, but the wise guidance given thereby for daily difficulties. A God whose sweet sufficiency gives satisfaction for all desires and balm for every wound is much, but a God who by these very gifts makes duty plain, is more. The test of inward devotion is its bearing on common tasks. True wisdom is found in fellowship with God. Eyes which look on Him see many things more clearly. The "reins" are conceived of as the seat of the Divine voice. In Old Testament psychology they seem to stand for feelings rather than reason or conscience, and it is no mistake of the psalmists when he thinks that through them Gods counsel comes. He means much the same as we do when we say that devout instincts are of God. He will purify, ennoble and instruct even the lower propensities and emotions, so that they may be trusted to guide, when the heart is at rest in Him. "Prayer is better than sleep," says the Mohammedan call to devotion. "In the night seasons," says the psalmist, when things are more clearly seen in the dark than by day, many a whisper from Jehovah steals into his ears.
The upshot of all is a firm resolve to make really his what is his. "I set Jehovah always before me"-since He is "always my lot." That effort of faith is the very life of devotion. We have any possession only while it is present to our thoughts. It is all one not to have a great estate and never to see it or think about it. True love is an intense desire for the presence of its object. God is only ours in reality when we are conscious of His nearness, and that is strange love of Him which is content to pass days without ever setting Him before itself. The effort of faith brings an ally and champion for faith, for "He is at my right hand," in so far as I set Him before me. "At my right hand,"-then I am at His left, and the left arm wears the shield, and the shield covers my head. Then He is close by my working hand, to direct its activity and to lay His own great hand on my feeble one, as the prophet did his on the wasted fingers of the sick king to give strength to draw the bow. The ally of faith secures the stability of faith. "I shall not be moved," either by the agitations of passions or by the shocks of fortune. A calm heart, which is not the same thing as a stagnant heart, is the heritage of him who has God at his side; and he who is fixed on that rock stands foursquare to all the winds that blow. Foolhardy self-reliance says, I shall never be moved, {Psa_10:6} and the end of that boast is destruction. A good man, seduced by prosperity, may forget himself so far as to say it, {Psa_30:6} and the end of that has to be fatherly discipline, to bring him right. But to say "Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved" is but to claim the blessings belonging to the possession of the only satisfying inheritance, even Jehovah Himself.
The heart that expands with such blessed consciousness of possessing God can chant its triumphant song even in front of the grave. So, in his closing strain the psalmist pours out his rapturous faith that his fellowship with God abolishes death. No worthy climax to the profound consciousness of communion already expressed, nor any satisfactory progress of thought justifying the "therefore" of Psa_16:9, can be made out with any explanation of the final verses, which eliminates the assurance of immortal life from them. The experiences of the devout life here are prophecies. These aspirations and enjoyments are to their possessor, not only authentic proofs "that God is and that He is the rewarder of the heart that seeks Him," but also witnesses of immortality not to be silenced. They "were not born for death," but, in their sweetness and incompleteness alike, point onwards to their own perpetuity and perfecting. If a man has been able to say and has said "My God," nothing will seem more impossible to him than that such a trifle as death should have power to choke his voice or still the outgoings of his heart towards, and its rest in, his God. Whatever may have been the current beliefs of the psalmists time in regard to a future life, and whether his sunny confidence here abode with him in less blessed hours of less "high communion with the living God," or ebbed away, leaving him to the gloomier thoughts of other psalms, we need not try to determine. Here, at all events, we see his faith in the act of embracing the great thought, which may have been like the rising of a new sun in his sky-namely, the conviction that this his joy was joy forever. A like depth of personal experience of the sweetness of communion with God will always issue in like far-seeing assurance of its duration as unaffected by anything that touches only the physical husk of the true self. If we would be sure of immortal life, we must make the mortal a God-filled life.
The psalmist feels the glad certainty in all his complex nature, heart, soul, and flesh. All three have their portion in the joy which it brings. The foundation of the exultation of heart and soul and of the quiet rest of flesh is not so much the assurance that after death there will be life, and after the grave a resurrection, as the confidence that there will be no death at all. To "see the pit" is a synonym for experiencing death, and what is hoped for is exemption from it altogether, and a Divine hand leading him, as Enoch was led, along the high levels on a "path of life" which leads to Gods right hand, without any grim descent to the dark valley below. Such an expectation may be called vain, but we must distinguish between the form and the substance of the psalmists hope. Its essence was unbroken and perfected communion with God, uninterrupted sense of possessing Him, and therein all delights and satisfactions. To secure these he dared to hope that for him death would be abolished. But he died, and assuredly he found that the unbroken communion for which he longed was persistent through death, and that in dying his hope that he should not die was fulfilled beyond his hope.
The correspondence between his effort of faith in Psa_16:8 and his final position in Psa_16:11 is striking. He who sets Jehovah continually before himself will in due time, come where there are fulness of joys before Gods face; and he who here, amid distractions and sorrows, has kept Jehovah at his right hand as his counsellor, defender and companion, will one day stand at Jehovahs right hand, and be satisfied forever more with the uncloying and inexhaustible pleasures that there abide.
The singer, whose clear notes thus rang above the grave, died and saw corruption. But, as the apostolic use of this psalm as a prophecy of Christs resurrection has taught us, the apparent contradiction of his triumphal chant by the fact of his death did not prove it to be a vain dream. If there ever should be a life of absolutely unbroken communion, that would be a life in which death would be abolished. Jesus Christ is Gods "Beloved" as no other is. He has conquered death as no other has. The psalm sets forth the ideal relation of the perfectly devout man to death and the future, and that ideal is a reality in Him, from whom the blessed continuity, which the psalmist was sure must belong to fellowship so close as was his with God, flows to all who unite themselves with Him. He has trodden the path of life which He shows to us, and it is life, at every step even when it dips into the darkness of what men call death, whence it rises into the light of the Face which it is joy to see, and close to the loving strong Hand which holds and gives pleasures forever more.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain “The first clause contains in germ the thought of…
INTRODUCTION
“The first clause contains in germ the thought of the entire psalm, namely, that the pious man has always protection with God against all his enemies. From this assurance arises the cry of prayer (Psa_16:1), whose form shows the experience of pressing danger, but immediately passes over into the confession of the way in which the Psalmist proposes to act in consequence of his relation to God (Psa_16:2) and to His people (Psa_16:3). In Psa_16:4 the Psalmist maintains himself against the worshippers of idols. In Psa_16:5-6 we have a description of the good chosen in God, and of the happiness allotted on account of this. It then turns, praising Jehovah (Psa_16:7), to testify of the position of the Psalmist established in Him (Psa_16:8), and rises from the assurance of this communion with God, not only to a jubilant declaration of present Divine protection (Psa_16:9), but in prophetic inspiration to a prophetic promise of the everlasting enjoyment of salvation (Psa_16:10-11).”—Moll. “The psalm is appropriate to the whole class of pious sufferers, of which Christ is the most illustrious representative. It is only in Him, therefore, that some parts of it can be said to have received their highest and complete fulfilment.”—Alexander.
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FAITH IN GOD
(Psa_16:1-2.)
The Psalmist in a time of trial thus expresses his confidence in God. This faith in God is:
I. Personal. “Preserve me, O God” (Psa_16:1). “Thou art my Lord” (Psa_16:2). It was an individualising faith. Just as Adam sought to hide himself amid the trees of the garden, so do we imagine our selves hidden in the multitude. Let us seek to realise our needful personality in the sight of God.
1. Let us realise Him as my Creator. Not as creating merely all worlds and all nations, but as specially forming me, and giving to me a singular and independent spirit. Think not only of the ocean of humanity as flowing from His creative hand; but remember that the dewdrop, I, Me, was the distinct creation of His almighty power and love.
2. As my Ruler. Philosophy has an utter contempt for individuals—it concerns itself with masses, multitudes, ages—God rules the universe. It must contemplate all on the sublime scale. We are often told that the danger of society in these days is in centralisation; certainly the danger in our philosophy is in aggregation. We are, in opposition to this, to believe in God, as my Ruler and my King.
3. As my Saviour. We are not to look on the Gospel message as a public proclamation on the street wall, but as an autograph letter from our clement King, addressed with our name, and left by the postman at our door. This faith in God is:
II. Absolute. “In Thee do I trust” (Psa_16:1).
1. He trusts in God only. In the 2d verse, he acknowledges God as His sovereign Lord. “Thou art my Lord,” “My supreme Lord;—who hast an absolute right to all my services.”—Kay. And in the 4th verse, he repudiates all other gods. He rests his whole weight on God, placing no expectations elsewhere. “God is recognised as the only source of individual enjoyment.”—Alexander.
2. He trusts in God for all. “My goodness extendeth not to thee” (Psa_16:2). “I have no good beyond thee.” “This is the one grand thought which stamps the psalm, ‘Thou, O Lord, art my portion, my help, my joy, my all in all.’ ”—Perowne. What the pagans vainly sought for in many gods, the Psalmist found in One; what the worldling vainly seeks for in many objects, the believer exults to find in the favour of God.
This faith is:
III. Habitual. “Do I put my trust.” Or, “For I have trusted in Thee.” “This is no new or sudden act, but one performed already. He not only trusts in God at present, but has trusted Him before. The recognition of God was not a mere momentary act, but a habitual affection of the mind.”—Alexander. There is such a thing as crying to God in a moment of trouble or danger, and neglecting Him in days of peace. A true faith is a constant faith. “I have set the Lord always before me” (Psa_16:8).
1. God will honour faith like this in the hour of danger. During the negro rebellion Mr. Francis Gardiner was travelling from one town to another, in Jamaica, in a gig. Some advised him to take firearms to protect himself, and he assented. He went a little way with the firearms, but soon returned, saying, “I am not comfortable with them:” and once more went on his journey without them. Soon he fell among a party of negroes, who stopped his horse. One said, “He is a missionary;” but the others said, “No, he is a Government spy.” Then they said, “If he be a Government spy he will have firearms; if a missionary, he will have no arms.” He was searched, and no firearms being found upon him, the negroes, instead of murdering him, led him safely on his journey. We generally have too much policy and too little faith.
2. Such faith will be honoured in the hour of trial. The world’s refuges fail just when they are most needed, but they who hide themselves in God shall not be confounded. Dr. Livingstone tells us of an African tree. “The Mopané-tree is pretty to look at in the bright sunshine of early morning, but the leaves hang perpendicularly as the sun rises high, and afford little or no shade through the day.” True image of worldly shelters and helpers! They look promising enough in the bright sunshine of the morning, in health, wealth, popularity; but, alas! when the burning heat of trial and trouble come, they fail, and the hot beams beat on our naked head! The Psalmist here takes God for his hiding-place, and he is safe and singing.
3. Such faith will be honoured in the hour of death. Jordan is deeper or shallower “according to our faith in the King of the place.” David has trusted in God, and, in presence of death and the grave, he shouts like a conqueror (Psa_16:9-11). If we emulate his faith, we shall know his triumph.
THE PEERAGE OF HEAVEN
(Psa_16:3.)
Alexander translates this verse: “As to the saints who are in the land, they are the nobles in whom is all my delight.” Thus the people of God are designated as peers, a divine aristocracy.
We observe:
I. Their patent of nobility. By what right are they called “nobles”? They are the children of the King. They have been begotten again to a Divine and immortal inheritance. And this fact they reveal—
1. By the dignity of their character. They show their lofty birth by their purity and sublimity of character and conduct. Their glory is not in purple, stars, and coronets, but in splendid moral qualities. “The excellent, properly the outwardly illustrious; the root-meaning is that of glitter, splendour, &c. It contains the idea of a moral as well as of a merely outward glory.”—Perowne.
2. By the elevation of their life. In all things they seek to act from great motives, by great principles, to great ends. One of our earls was derided because, when he was made knight of the garter, he put the garter on all his shovels, wheelbarrows, and pickaxes. But the moral noble puts the sign of his estate on all that he has, on all that he does, down to the commonest and most trifling things. In “that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts” (Zec_14:20-21). Thus are they real nobles, “men of whom the world is not worthy.” “Some think rich men to be excellent, some think learned men to be excellent, some count men in authority so to be; but here we are taught that those men are excellent who are sanctified by God’s graces.”—Greenham. “The title of ‘His Excellency’ more properly belongs to the meanest saint than to the greatest governor. The true aristocracy are believers in Jesus. They are the only Right Honourables. Stars and garters are poor distinctions compared with the graces of the Spirit.”—Spurgeon.
Observe:
II. Their oath of fealty. “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord” (Psa_16:2). He recalls his covenant with God. As the new-made peer swears fidelity to his king, so have the saints vowed to be the Lord’s. Let us remember this:
1. In the hour of danger to our comfort. We are God’s sworn ones, and shall He not ever shelter and save us?
2. In the hour of temptation to our caution. When allurements are held out to us to worldliness and sin, remember, “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord;” “The vows of God are upon us.” In the clearest, loftiest, most solemn moments of life, again and again have we pledged ourselves to God; let us not in a moment of excitement or weakness forget the glorious oath. The righteous man “sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not;” surely we shall change not wherein we have sworn to our eternal advantage.
“High Heaven, that heard the solemn vow,
That vow renewed shall daily hear,
Till in life’s latest hour I bow,
And bless in death a bond so dear.”
Observe:
III. Their bond of unity. What is the esprit de corps? (Psa_16:3). “The meaning of this verse is, that the Psalmist’s recognition of Jehovah as the Lord, and as the only source of happiness, is not peculiar to himself, but common to the whole body of the saints or holy ones, in whose society he delighted”—Alexander. What is expressed here “is love to God and love to His saints.”—Delitzsch. This is the spirit, the bond of union.
1. Love to God. This is the grand basis of their oneness, trust in God, love to God. “Where any two souls cry out simultaneously, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’ the portion wall is broken down, and they are bound together more firmly by a sigh than by the loftiest formulas. They but hinder real union prevailing among us who are always haggling about words and isolated expressions.”—Büchsel. A common faith in God is the innermost evangelical alliance.
2. Love to God’s people. “In whom is all my delight” (Psa_16:3). “In God’s land there are others who, like David, cleave to God, and with these he claims fellowship.”—Perowne. Where there is a true love to God, there will be a living delight in His people.
IV. Their uncompromising loyalty (Psa_16:4). Their sorrows shall be multiplied, “who wed themselves to another god.”—Kay. “Not idols merely, but any created object of supreme affection.”—Alexander. The Psalmist declares that he will not join in their impious services, nor even name the names of their divinities. He will have no complicity with such whatever. “It was a great consolation that, during his exile, being much with heathens, he had remained true to his God. He had not lifted up his hand to Dagon while protected in Philistia. He had not pronounced the name of an idol, which Moses had forbidden the Jews to do, nor had he attended the bloody altar of Moloch. Come then to this school, all ye lukewarm, ye degenerate souls, who trim between the world and the Church. It is of small moment to you to protract the hour of returning from market, or with whom you take the cheerful glass. Take care what you do: you may go a step too far.”—Sutcliffe.
Observe:
V. Their grand Inheritance (Psa_16:5-6). “The idea is, that in the Lord the Psalmist has all that he can wish or hope for.”—Alexander. And it is a secure and everlasting portion.
The old saying declares, “Carry great ensigns and you shall be great.” The believer carries “great ensigns”—a great name, a great service, a great king, a great future. May “all that name the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS
(Psa_16:5-6.)
I. Their inheritance is Divine.
1. God Himself. “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup” (Psa_16:5). “There is an allusion, probably, to the division of the land of Canaan among the tribes, no part of which was assigned to the tribe of Levi, because, as was expressly declared, Jehovah would be their portion or share (Num_18:20), and the gifts consecrated to Jehovah the provision for their support. That which was true nationally of Levi was true in its deepest spiritual import of every believing Israelite. ‘What must not he possess,’ says Savonarola, ‘who possesses the Possessor of all?’—Perowne. “In the text all Israel is viewed as a ‘spiritual priesthood;’ who, wholly devoted to God, had Him for their everlasting reward.”—Kay.
2. And God alone is the portion of His people. They ask for nothing beyond Him. Moll renders the 2d verse of this Psalm; “My happiness is not added to Thee. Nothing that must be added to Thee makes me happy, but Thou alone, giving exclusive and full satisfaction. Compare the analogous thought and expression, Psa_73:25.” Yet,
3. The saints have everything in God. “The heritage or portion thus described is God Himself, but considered as including all desirable possessions.”—Alexander. We have all gifts in the Giver. The “lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.” The blessing of God makes all places bright and happy; or, as some translate, in pleasant things. “It signifies both pleasant circumstances, and a pleasant locality.”—Delitzsch. The blessing of God imparts a profound charm and significance to all our possessions, relationships, circumstances. And finally the blessing of God makes all seasons bright. In the 7th verse, the night seasons are full of holy and happy communings. God’s smile makes all seasons bright, even the darkest. “If I say, The darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.” All places, all things, all seasons, “all are yours.”
This inheritance:
II. Is secure. “Thou maintainest my lot” (Psa_16:5). “Nor is this comparison unnecessary,” says Calvin, “for if often happens that the rightful owners are thrust out from their own possession, because there is none to defend them. But God hath given Himself to us as our inheritance in such wise that by His aid we are ever maintained in the enjoyment thereof.” David knew that his earthly power and glory might be torn away from him, but in God he had a kingdom which could not be moved. Thus in the 8th verse, “I shall never be moved.” “The gates of hell shall never prevail; Christ, our Samson, hath flung them off their hinges.”—Trapp.
It is:
III. Joyful (Psa_16:6). “I have a goodly heritage.” “Yea, my inheritance is acceptable unto me. What had come to him as his inheritance, he embraced with the full approval of his judgment and his affections.”—Kay. It was just what he wanted. Men of the world toil for wealth, splendour, power, notoriety, and having attained the object of their ambition, grieve over it, as the disappointed child grieves over the fingered butterfly. But in the knowledge, love, and service of God we realise a treasure and joy congenial and satisfying to our deepest nature.
It is:
IV. Permanent (Psa_16:9-11). Here the Psalmist exults in a glorious hope, full of immortality. “David’s hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God his own, to fall into the hands of death.”—Delitzsch. His life is hid with Christ in God, and so far from death spoiling him in any sense, it will but give him fuller possession of his glorious inheritance. How perishable all merely human good! There is a wild Indian story which tells of a girl falling in love with a handsome young warrior, who was however, really, but an image of snow. Immediately after their marriage they took a journey, and as the sun appeared in the horizon the bridegroom melted away. Man, falling in love with earthly things, is wasting his affections upon an image of snow: “The fashion of this world passeth away.” But rich and happy in the blessing of God, we are rich and happy for evermore.
“A house we call our own
Which cannot be o’erthrown:
In the general ruin sure,
Storms and earthquakes it defles;
Built immovably secure,
Built eternal in the skies.”
BEULAH
(Psa_16:9-11.)
The Psalmist is here on the mountain top. He gains a bright view of the glorious future, and is filled with rapture. He is assured of life, resurrection, immortality.
Observe:
I. The grandeur of his hope.
1. In the 10th verse, he exults to believe that he shall be altogether saved from the power of death and the grave. He believes that neither his nobler part, his glory, nor yet his body, shall suffer loss. God’s holy ones, God’s favourites, shall not be forsaken; their bodies not abandoned to the tomb, their souls not abandoned to the invisible world. But,
2. The Psalmist not only exults in being delivered from the power of death, he anticipates unknown glories (Psa_16:11). Passing out of the shadow of death, he will pass into the glorious light of God’s unveiled face. There is a path of life winding through the valley and shadow of death, leading through the churchyard, and leading right into the golden goal. “The glory to be revealed” is here indicated.
(1.) Its fulness. “Fulness of joy.” “Satiety, or rather satisfaction, in its strangest sense.”—Alexander.
(2.) Its variety. “Pleasures” “The plural, joys, denotes not only richness, but variety.”—Alexander. Our manifold nature will find all it needs when it thus drinks at the rivers of His pleasure.
(3.) Its perpetuity. “For evermore.”
II. The ground of his hope. A certain writer has defined commentators as, “The worthy folks that too often write on books as men with diamonds write on glass, obscuring light with scratches.” But on this passage before us we have the benefit of two inspired commentators, St. Peter and St. Paul, who quote this psalm in the 2d, 3d, and 13th chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. They show that the Psalmist had the Messiah in his illuminated eye when he uttered these soaring words. These words were true of David only in a very limited sense; they found their full realisation only in Him who was David’ Lord. We may regard David as exulting in these lofty prospects on the ground of his faith in the Messiah. Because Christ should thus triumph, he knew his triumph assured in Christ. “The hope of his own immortality was based upon, and bound up in, the life of Him who was at once his Son and his Lord. What was true of David in the lower sense, was true in the fullest and highest sense of Christ; was only true of David, because it was true of Christ; and is only true of any of us in and through Him, according to His own words, ‘Because I live, ye shall live also.’ ”—Perowne.
“The path of life,” is the work of Christ. “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” The Guide is the presence of Christ. The true Beulah is Calvary; from the shadow of the Cross we gain a clear and confident vision of the glory of the skies. “Yea, though I walk through the valley and the shadow of death,” &c.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Psa 16:1-2
Psa 16:1-2
That we may see the wondrous blessedness of this mighty gift of God Himself, given by Himself to us, let us investigate one simple question: Wherein does true happiness consist?
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I. Is it not above all in that which, in the highest sense of the word, we may call rest? This is no inactive, useless state. So far from it, is it not then, above all, when the man is thus at rest that he has really the best chance of developing all that is in him, and bringing all his talents to perfection? As on the imperturbed calmness of night the growth of all things seems to depend, so the man, unruffled by agitating passions and wearing anxieties, can then best expand his nature and fulfil the object of his being.
II. This rest, this power of being at rest, belongs, of all the functions of man’s being, to the heart alone, or, in other words, to the seat of his affections. And why? Because love satisfies the heart, and the heart can love, yea, is such that it can love Him who, being Himself infinite, is, if only He gives Himself to be loved, at once and for ever all that love can crave. By the sense of utter blankness which the heart experiences when it loves not, by the absolute incapacity of all earthly things to fill it, by its own strong cravings and yearnings, we learn that it is God’s will that its real and best affections should be concentrated on Him alone. Even as the needle rests from its strange, uneasy trembling then only when it points true to the pole, so the heart can then only be at rest when it is filled with the love of God.
III. This then is the reward of God’s faithful people. This loving God, all-wise, all-tender, all-sympathetic, all-great, all-sufficing, revealing Himself as Man to man, is He who gives Himself to the human heart to satisfy its longing for love. He who made the heart such that it yearns after Him and can find no peace but in Him, Himself becomes its portion. God is the reward of His people (1) in life; (2) in death; (3) in eternity. "At Thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore."
W. J. Butler, Cambridge Lent Sermons, 1864, p. 225.
References: Psalm 16—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xx., p. 206; J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 341; I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 279.
Psa 16:3
The history of mankind, whether secular or religious, resolves itself ultimately into the history of a few individuals. God carries out His work of continuous redemption by the energy of the chosen few. Into their hearts He pours the power of His Spirit; upon their heads He lays the hands of His consecration. The deliverance of men has never been wrought by the multitude, always by the individual.
From this method of God’s working we may learn:—
I. The secret, and the sole secret, of moral power. What was it which again and again overcame the world? Was it not faith, showing itself by self-sacrifice? Is not that secret open to the knowledge, feasible to the practice, of every one of us?
II. We may notice, secondly, that the work of these saints of God, being always and necessarily human, is never permanent in its results. Christianity is no stereotyped system; it is no human theology; as such it is nothing; only as a Divine effort, only as an eternal progress, only as a living force, only as an inspiring, continuous effort, can Christianity regenerate the world.
III. Notice that the apparent failures were never absolute. No good man, no saint of God, has ever lived or died in vain. The seed is not quickened except it die; even in its death, but only by its death, comes the promise of the golden grain. Heaven is for those who have failed on earth.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 337 (see also In the Days of thy Youth, p. 337, and Sermons and Addresses in America, p. 185).
Reference: Psa 16:3.—S. W. Skeffington, Our Sins or our Saviour, p. 270; Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 307. Psa 16:5.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 19.
Psa 16:5-6
I. The first thought that comes out of the words before us is this: All true religion has its very heart in deliberately choosing God as our supreme good. (1) The highest form of possession even of things is when they minister to our thought, to our emotion, to our moral and intellectual growth. We possess even them really according as we know them and hold communion with them. But when we get up into the regions of persons, we possess them in the measure in which we understand them, and sympathise with them, and love them. A friend or a lover owns the heart that he or she loves, and which loves back again; and not otherwise do we possess God. (2) This possession of God involves, and is possible only by, a deliberate act of renunciation. There must be a giving up of the material and the created if there is to be a possession of the Divine and the heavenly. Remember that nothing less than these are Christianity: the conviction that the world is second, and not first; that God is best, love is best, truth is best, knowledge of Him is best, likeness to Him is best, the willingness to surrender all if it come in contest with His supreme sweetness.
II. Notice the second point that is here, viz., that this possession is as sure as God can make it. "Thou maintainest my lot." (1) The Divine power surrounds the man who chooses God for his heritage, and nothing shall take that heritage from him. (2) He will help us, so that no temptations shall have power to make us rob ourselves of our treasure.
III. He who thus elects to find his treasure and delight in God is satisfied with his choice. "The lines are fallen in pleasant places; yea, the heritage is goodly to me."
A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 1st series, p. 205.
References: Psa 16:6.—J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., pp. 289, 312, 321, 376, 387; W. M. Statham, Ibid., vol. xxv., p. 180.
Psa 16:8
This text is not the exclamation of a man to whom a truth has come as a flash; it is the deliberate outcome of a long and varied retrospect.
I. God will not be, in any true sense, before our face unless we set Him there. It is a matter which involves our determination and effort, a matter of special training and practice.
II. This having God before the face requires persistency. The Psalmist tells us, not only of an act, but of a habit: "I have set the Lord always before my face."
III. One who thus keeps God before him makes discoveries. (1) He finds himself revealed. (2) Setting God before our face carries with it a power of growth. (3) It engenders hope. "Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."
M. R. Vincent, God and Bread, p. 59.
It will be admitted that few men get out of the powers with which they are endowed all they might get. And the reason is, their lives proceed without rule or system. They do not constrain the various forces of their nature into one direction, nor fling them with concentrated intensity on their object. Dissipation is the parent of mediocrity, because there is neither government, nor concentration, nor dominant idea in men’s lives.
I. A dominant idea is an idea which has taken such firm hold of the mind, that it necessarily presents itself along with any other idea that may arise, passes judgment upon it, and either allows it free course, or condemns it to inactivity and ultimate suppression. Restraining ruling ideas spring up naturally. The motions are the first parents of ideas. But early in man’s history, as in each individual life, is felt the force of some checking idea. Primitive man hears a voice rebuking mere animal desire, which says, "Thou shalt not eat of it," and the moment that voice is heard a moral nature has arisen and heaven becomes possible. But in many cases these intellectual centres, whose presence within us indicates our claim to be men, seem to arise accidentally, to be the product rather of external circumstances than of internal intention. They form almost without our notice. Side by side grow up other centres, quite unconnected with the former. At one time action is governed by one centre, and at another by another, and this is why we see the strange contradictions which surprise us in the lives of so many men. Instead of our lives being like some well-ordered State, they are more like mob anarchy, twisted and twirled by the last breath and the latest appeal—a shapeless jumble of good, bad, and indifferent.
II. How are we to get rid of this state of things? It is a question we ought to settle even if there be no God at all. To be trundled into a grave by anybody who will deign to give us a push is not a very fine business for the heirs of all the ages. This; anarchy must be made to cease by setting up some governing authority endowed with absolute power. We must make our chosen idea into an established monarchy. We must determine to bring it before the mind every day. We must settle with ourselves that that one thing must be recalled whatever else is forgotten.
III. What shall be our dominant idea? The most natural, the most necessary, the most regulating, the most inspiring, idea is that of God. The idea of God is our birthright, but it is for us to make it dominant, that a new order may arise in what has been a moral chaos. Where God is sin cannot be, and where God is all beauty must be. Let this idea but become dominant, a new heaven and a new earth will arise, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and speckled vanity will sicken soon and die. "Time will run back and fetch the age of gold."
W. Page-Roberts, Oxford Undergraduates’ Journal, June 10th, 1880.
References: Psa 16:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1305; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 18. Psa 16:8-10.—Archbishop Thomson, Lincoln’s Inn Sermons, p. 62. Psa 16:8-11.—A. Maclaren, Sunday Magazine, 1881, p. 738. Psa 16:9.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 52.
Psa 16:9-10
I. Although the sacred Scriptures teach us to think nothing of temporal death but merely as a sleep, while they would beyond all things impress on our minds a sense of the day of judgment and that which is to follow it, yet the little that is told us of the state of our souls before the day of the judgment, and immediately when they depart from the body, is of itself very deeply affecting, and awful. We know "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand," saith the Lord. They live unto God; they are in the place where the soul of Christ has been; they are with Christ; they are blessed beyond all earthly blessedness. And the unfaithful and disobedient also, they are immediately in a place from whence they cannot get forth, and a place of woe far more miserable than any suffering in this world.
II. Since therefore there are two states so important to us, in one of which we shall continue to be until the great day of final retribution, we know not how much of mercy and goodness and how much benefit to us may be contained in this one article of the Creed, that Christ descended into the place of the dead. By His descent into hell He has sanctified and blessed the place of our souls; every trial in this world He has sanctified by His own example and by His presence upon earth, showing the bright light of His footsteps going before, nor does He leave us when we depart into that unknown and dark world of spirits; but when earth is departing from beneath our feet, then we feel His hand and hear His voice, saying, "It is I: be not afraid."
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. ix., p. 120,
Psa 16:10
I. This verse proves most expressly the truth of our Saviour’s human soul and body; proves that as He took on Himself, really and truly, the substance of our nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, and lived and died in all respects a Man, sin only and sinful infirmity excepted, so also in His unseen state He continued to be a Man among men. His Divine soul went where other souls go; His precious body lay for a while in the grave, like other bodies. We know now for certain that souls departed and bodies in the grave, be they where they may, are within the merciful care of Him who is both God and man. He cannot fail to provide for them, for He has Himself gone through their condition, and can be touched with a feeling of what they require, as of all the other infirmities and imperfections of such a frail being as man.
II. Our comfort on further consideration will be found still more distinctly expressed. David’s expectation is, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," i.e., in the dark, unseen state. But when our Lord Himself spoke of it, His word was not "hell," but "Paradise." What the actual blessings of Paradise are Holy Scripture nowhere explains; but thus much it gives us to understand: that the holy souls there are with Christ, in some sense, so near and so blessed, that St. Paul most earnestly desired to depart thither. He knew well what he wrote, for, besides the especial teaching of the Holy Ghost, he had himself been caught up into Paradise, and found it, not a mere place for taking of rest in quiet sleep, but a place where heavenly thought can be exercised and heavenly words spoken in such perfection as is unutterable on earth.
III. The words of the text intimate that, however happy and comfortable soever the Paradise of the dead may be, it is not a place of final perfection, but a place of waiting for something better, a region, not of enjoyment, but of assured peace and hope. For so much is hinted in that God is thanked and glorified for not leaving our Saviour’s soul in that place. It was an act of His mighty power, to whom all things bow and obey, to open for the soul of Jesus Christ the doors of that happy, though as yet imperfect, abode, and to make a way for His final and unspeakable exaltation by again uniting that soul to His blessed body.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. ii., p. 73.
Without all question, this prophecy belongs in an especial sense to our Lord and Saviour. Yet we may, without presumption, go on to consider these heavenly promises as spoken to ourselves and to all who are in covenant with God through Jesus Christ. David spoke here in the sense of prophecy, and very likely was far from knowing himself the full meaning of all that he said. Still he could not mean less than this, that he had a fair and reasonable hope of being somehow delivered from the power of death and made partaker of heavenly joys in the more immediate presence of God.
I. We see here what kind of persons may reasonably hope to persevere in welldoing and in God’s favour, namely, those who make it a rule to live always as in God’s especial presence. "I have set God always before me, for He is on my right hand; therefore I shall not fall." If you want to have a cheerful and rational dependence on your own continuance in welldoing, this one thing you must do: you must set God always before you. You must never act as if you were alone in the world, as if you were out of His sight by whom only you are in the world at all.
II. If a man were endeavouring to keep on that safe ground of assurance—reasonable hope, grounded on habitual obedience—then he might without presumption look for the other comforts mentioned in the Psalm. He might indulge in a calm and reverential joy of heart, such as David’s when he sang, "Wherefore my heart was glad," such as that of the holy women when on Easter morning they saw the angels and "departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy."
III. Next, the Psalmist notices as another, the greatest of all fruits of holy trust in the Almighty, that it causes our very "flesh "—that is, our mortal body—to "rest in hope." It makes sleep quiet and secure. It takes out the sting of death. The chiefest of all privileges is to have hope in the grave, hope that through Him to whom these sacred promises belong of right our souls shall not be left in hell, in that dark, unknown condition to which, before the coming of Christ, the name of "hell" was usually given. The unseen region where the soul is to lodge is the place where once the spirit of our Saviour abode, and is therefore under His special protection. Thus we know how to think of the graves of our friends, and of those which are to be our own. We need not waste ourselves in ignorant and childish bewailings, but calmly and firmly trust, our friends to His care whose they are and whom they faithfully served.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times" vol. ii., p. 82.
References: Psa 16:10.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 57; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xviii., p. 215; C. Stanford, From Calvary to Olivet, p. 24; Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 308; Ibid., 2nd series, vol. vii., p. 40. Psa 16:11.—J. Taylor, Saturday Evening, pp. 298, 314; H. Moffatt, Church Sermons, vol. i., p. 49.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain The all-Obedient One.
The all-Obedient One.
Michtam of David.
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{Verse 1, El, God, but also "power, strength."
Verse 2, Adonai, which is the ordinary word for "Lord" when a title of God, but which is a plural form, just like that in Psa 8:1-9, but with the suffix of the first person singular; and so I have translated it, as does the common version.
This and the following verse are very variously translated. The knowledge of what is in the mind of the Spirit is of more value than mere critical acumen. If we see David only or principally, the difficulty of consistent rendering is very great, (as see Moll in Lange’s Commentary, who even denies tobhathi to be possibly moral goodness.) The translation here follows the common version, which the revision impoverishes into "I have no good beyond thee"; but that is found, and more strikingly expressed in the fifth verse. The next verse also keeps near to the common version. The "I have said," which seems allowable, and adopted by most today, cannot be connected with "to the saints", as many suggest, because the construct form addirei, "the excellent," requires "in whom" rather than "in them." And the sense would be again greatly impoverished.}
The first psalm here gives us Christ as the obedient One on earth. That He is Himself the speaker we may see from the tenth verse, which exclusively applies to Him. He alone is that "holy" or "pious one" who, as such, could not "see corruption" in the grave. So Peter conclusively argues, and he who knows Christ should recognize the features of his Beloved all through the psalm. The fourth verse is a difficulty, no doubt, although idolatry in its various forms was around the Lord, above all in His Galilean ministry. Galilee was then "Galilee of the Gentiles," and Israel too was far from clear. But the background also seems always that of the last days, or at least these are in prospect; and thus their peculiar features -for Israel will fall again into idolatry in the last days -are specialized accordingly. Perspective in the prophets is often greatly foreshortened; but this feature was not absent during the Lord’s sojourn in Israel.
Considering the psalm as a whole, a brief glance will show how fully Christ is told out here. The psalm has five divisions, -is therefore a little pentateuch: for the Pentateuch in the new light of Christianity covers, as we know, the whole of man’s spiritual life here, a divine "pilgrim’s progress"; and in this case we have the One perfect pilgrim seen all through.
First, in one verse, you have the character of His whole life, -so strange for Him indeed, if we consider what He was; and yet on that very account brought into prominence here. His life a life of dependence, a life of faith, Himself "Leader and Finisher of faith." "Preserve me, O God! for in Thee do I put my trust."
Then, two verses show Him taking distinctly His place, not as God in divine supremacy, but as Man with men, and for men, -for the saints, in whom is all His delight.
Next, three verses proclaim Jehovah Himself His portion; His lot therefore being maintained by Him in pleasant places.
Fourthly, two verses speak of Him as in His path, content to be led, a learner, taught of divine wisdom, the object before Him being only God; and thus of the unfaltering steadfastness ever of His steps.
While, lastly, three verses trace this path to its end in glory; a way of life found through death itself into the presence of God -the pleasures at His right hand for evermore.
The Lord enable us with wisdom and with reverence to look at these things more in detail; and may our "meditation of Him be sweet" indeed.
This psalm is the first with the inscription "Michtam" -"Michtam of David." For this there are three different meanings given, the common one being the marginal one, "a golden psalm"; but some say, "a hidden" one, a psalm with a hidden meaning; and some say "engraved," so as not to pass away. Delitzsch gives "a psalm with pithy sayings," an "epigram." There are five others similarly inscribed, 56 -60, but of very different character from the present, to which one might conceive either of the first meanings being appropriate; but they add nothing that one can realize as of value to the understanding of the psalm.
1. If the sixteenth psalm be pentateuchal, the comparison with the first pentateuch should have interest for us. The theme of the first book, Genesis, is life, and that not simply of fallen and ruined, but much more of restored and renewed man. Of this not only the typical side of the six days, but also those biographies of which it is so largely composed, very plainly speak. This new life, as developed in a world departed from God and under death, manifests itself in a practical life of faith, whose springs and resources are in the unseen things,which are, in contrast with the seen, the things eternal.
In us, because fallen, life begins with a new birth; and where it exists, it is found in contrast with another principle within us, Cain-like, the elder born. The "works of the flesh," too, alas, are found disfiguring, how much, the life of faith. We are now to contemplate the perfection of One in whom nature was never fallen, in whom there was no principle of evil, and upon whom (after thirty years passed in the world) the Father could set the seal of perfect approbation. There is no dark preface to His spiritual history; and yet as truly as -more truly than -with any of us, His life was a life of faith. Hard as it is (just because of what we know Him to be) to realize this, Scripture assures us of it in the fullest way. The epistle to the Hebrews, in giving the brotherhood of the sanctified to Him by whom they are sanctified, brings forward as applying to Him, a text exactly similar to the one before us: "I will put my trust in Him." (Heb 2:13). And again, in a passage to which we have referred, asserts Him to be the "author" -rather "leader" -"and finisher of faith," (Heb 12:2), the One who in His own Person completed the whole course of it. The glory of His Godhead must not, therefore, obscure for us the truth and perfection of His manhood. He is the One of whom it could be said, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given," while at the very same time "His name" was to be called "the Mighty God." (Isa 9:6.) And the gospel of Luke declares Him as a child to have grown in wisdom as in stature. How impossible for any uninspired writer to have given us such an account of Him who is "God over all, blessed forever"! But God is earnest to have us know the full grace thus expressed. "Descended into the lower parts of the earth" to reach us, He is seeking intimacy. He is assuring us of His ability to sympathize with us in every sinless human experience, "in all things tempted like as we are, sin apart." (Heb 4:15.)
This, too, is His perfection, which could not be manifest in the same way, if not subject to real and full trial. To explain or reconcile it with His Godhead, we may be quite unable: we are not called to do it. The blessed truth we need, and can accept, reverently remembering that "no one knoweth the Son, but the Father." (Mat 11:27.) The depths of His love are revealed in the abysses of His humiliation; and here we find our present satisfaction and our joy forever. We must, not for a moment, suffer ourselves to be deprived of it; we must not allow its reality to be dimmed.
"Preserve me, O Mighty: for in Thee have I taken refuge," is the language of One as absolutely in need of God, and hanging upon Him, as any one whosoever. He is in man’s world, such as sin has made it, not to hide Himself in any wise from its sorrows, but to know them all. Power may be in His hand, and manifested without stint in behalf of others; but for Himself He has none, will use none: to satisfy the hunger of forty days He will not make for Himself the bread which the need of others shall gain from Him without seeking. Conscious of the bleakness and barrenness of the scene into which he has come, "in Thee," He says, "I have taken refuge." The "dove in the clefts of the rock" is not our emblem only; it was His in days of keen distress when, "though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things that He suffered," (Heb 5:8); -learned, as a new thing for Him, what obedience was.
Precious assurance for us! Christ the very pattern of faith in its every character, in every circumstance of trial: feeling all. indeed, with His capacity for feeling, where was no callousness, or dullness, or incompetence of any kind. With this, then, the "golden" sixteenth psalm begins.
2. In the next two verses the speaker declares Jehovah to be His Lord. He to whom obedience was a strange thing takes expressly the place of it. We had swerved from the path, even where it began, in Eden, as soon as put on it: had turned every one to his own way, as if it were well proved that our wisdom was more than God’s, and as if we owed Him nothing who created us. He, the Creator, comes therefore now Himself to take up and prove the path of His own ordinance, -not as He had ordained it, however, but far otherwise; amid all to show us that it was still no worse than He was content to walk in; -to show how for Him it could be meat and drink to do His Father’s will: to approve and vindicate it at His own cost, when it cost Him all.
"Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God," was the one purpose of His heart on earth. We allow ourselves many objects. We shrink from the intolerable thought of an absolute sovereign will with a claim upon us at all times, and one strictly defined path from which there is to be no wandering. But God revealed as He is now revealed makes that sovereignty the joy of a soul that knows that His will can only be according to His nature. For us, love, able to show itself as that, characterizes all His ways with us. But what was it for Him who had (as we have not) to meet the prior demands of righteousness upon us, that love might be free to show itself toward us? His path was not that which the Father’s love to Him would have dictated. Would not a man "spare his own son that serveth him"? But He "spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us all." How wondrous a Leader have we, then, in the path of obedience, who came expressly to fulfill this: "by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"! (Heb 10:10.)
Thus He says now to Jehovah, "my goodness extendeth not to Thee," -words which are explained by that which follows: "it is for the saints that are upon the earth and the excellent." That is, it is not to profit me with Thee: it is, in fact, the expression of that divine goodness, the ’love" that "seeketh not its own," but the blessing of others; and this, while the Speaker takes His place distinctly as the Servant of Jehovah, to do His will. Here, evidently, then, is the keynote of all that follows: how important that we should realize its meaning!
No doubt it will be objected that David could not have used the words intelligently in this way. But he did speak of the resurrection of Christ in the tenth verse, as is plain, and as Peter bore witness to the Jews in his day (Act 2:30-31), and there there can be no plea of any typical fulfillment or experience of David himself at all. The prophets spoke better than they knew, and did not always understand what they foretold, as the same Peter insists (1Pe 1:11-12). Therefore to limit things to David’s intelligence is not intelligent, even if we knew (as we do not know) just how much that was.
Christ alone, then, could be the real Speaker here; and thus moved by Divine love toward men, He does not take the place before God to which His perfection would entitle Him. It is not to avail for Him, to give Him the place due to His absolute obedience: otherwise the death of the cross -death in any way -could never have been His portion. This obedience of His -this goodness manifested in obedience -was for the saints, the excellent of the earth, in whom was His delight. For this it must be "obedience unto death," -going as far as that. (Php 2:8.) He must empty himself of all, -sell all that He hath, if He would have what to Him is "treasure." (Mat 13:44.)
Thus He dignifies His poor people with such titles as the saints, the excellent." Nothing but grace in Him could account them so. Not that there is not in them true spiritual worth and moral beauty: they surely are, they must be, what He calls them. Yes; but they are made so by His call. And His heart looks on to the time of perfect consummation, when the glory of His workmanship shall be seen in them. "According to the time shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God wrought!" Thus shall we be not only, as Jacobs, "to the praise of the glory of His grace," but as Israels also, "to the praise of His glory," (Eph 1:6; Eph 1:12), which then shall be seen upon us.
Thus, then, the Lord descends to a path which displays His love to His own, and in which His personal claim on God is given up, that we might have claim. These two verses, therefore, give fittingly the Exodus section of this psalm, -which, as applied to Him, exhibits, not redemption, but the Redeemer. Not yet, indeed, is it seen how low His grace must stoop: the twenty-second psalm, for the first time, fully discloses that. Here it is the personal love which puts Him upon the path which, to accomplish such a purpose, cannot end but with the Cross.
3. Now comes the Leviticus section,which shows us what God is to this perfect man. He is His all: most beautifully told out in the words, "the measure of My portion and of My cup." As it was said of the Levites, "The Lord is their inheritance," so Christ is seen here as the true Levite.
But first we have, what has been objected as fatal to any Messianic interpretation of the psalms, the emphatic denunciation of those who "run after another" god. When we consider Israel’s history, it is not to be wondered that what is emphasized as the sin of the legal dispensation, Jehovah’s controversy with His people, even from the deliverance out of Egypt until their captivity in Babylon, should be denounced by the lips of Messiah. To say that in the days of the Herods and of heathen governors, the land swarming with the heathen, this evil was wholly extinguished even in Israel, so that it should be inappropriate for Him to utter His abhorrence of it, would surely be to go beyond the proof. Nor was the Lord’s prophecy of an "abomination of desolation, standing in the holy place," fulfilled by the idolatrous ensigns of the Romans after the capture of the city, but looks forward to a form of idolatry yet to be found in the midst of Israel, in days preceding, by a short time only, His coming again. (Mat 24:1-51.) Why, then, such a warning as this should be unsuitable to a Messianic standpoint it would be difficult to say.
To the law which prohibited all other gods, not only does His full heart respond; but he declares Jehovah to be His entire portion, -the measure of it, -its whole content. But who, then, can measure this? It is a measure immeasurable, leaving room for nothing beyond, nothing more to be added to it.
"My portion and my cup:" what is the difference? My portion is what belongs to me, -what is mine, whether or not I enjoy it. My cup is what I actually appropriate, or make my own. Eating and drinking are significant of actual participation and enjoyment. Many a person has in this world a portion which he cannot enjoy; and many a one has a portion which (through moral perversity, it may be,) he does not enjoy. With the Lord, indeed, His portion and His joy were one: Jehovah was the measure of both. He had nothing beside; He wanted nothing beside. These two things should be found, through grace, in the Christian also. For all it is true, that God is the measure of our portion, -we have no other. Oh, that it were equally true that He was the measure of our cup, -of our enjoyment!
How strange and sorrowful that for us both should not be realized! How wonderful that we should seek elsewhere what cannot be found, while we leave unexplored the glories of an inheritance which is actually our own. We covet a wilderness, while we neglect a paradise. "My people have committed two evils," says the Lord Himself; "they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have hewn out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns,which can hold no water." (Jer 2:13.)
And this is the reason why, when we turn to God, and would fain comfort ourselves in Him, we do not find the comfort. Our portion does not yield us for our cup. Would we wonder if we saw an Israelite returning from the worship of Baal refused acceptance at Jehovah’s altar? "Covetousness is idolatry," says the apostle. But what is covetousness? It is just the craving of a heart unsatisfied with its portion, for which the thing sought becomes the end that governs it: their lust, as you may see in many a heathen deity, becomes their god. "Their god is their belly" -the craving part -says the apostle again, "who mind earthly things." (Php 3:19.)
And "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." So here the voice of our blessed Forerunner: "Thou maintainest my lot." It is a sure abiding possession that does not leave the heart to unrest. And how blessed a portion! "The lines are fallen unto Me in pleasant places: yea, my inheritance is fair to Me." Yet it is the Son of God down here in a fallen world, who says this: at the same time a man of sorrows because of what the world was. And for us, be the wilderness what it may, God surely is undiminished by it. Yea. in the wilderness were wrought those miracles which made God known as a living reality. Where else did the manna fall morning by morning? Not even in. Canaan, when they entered there! And where else did the pillar of cloud and fire, changing its aspect for their need, go before them ever in the way, to find the path for them? Child of God, is it an evil path in which the Lord leads thee, and where these wonders are but signs for thee of deeper realities?
4. But the wilderness path itself is what now follows, the proving by the way: and again, how truly a man is He! "I will bless Jehovah, who has given me counsel; my reins also instruct me." It is the same Person who speaks in the prophetic word of Isaiah: "The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learner."* How real thus was His dependence, walking by the daily counsel of God, His ear early wakened to receive it! We remember how in His temptation in the wilderness, He applied to Himself the saying in Deuteronomy, that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live." So did He live, then, even as we; only in a perfection all His own. On the one hand there was the direct guidance of the word of God; on the other, His own Spirit-led thoughts, the fruit of that Word digested and assimilated, by which all His practical life was formed. What a place with Him had the Word! "Scripture which cannot be broken," as He said of it once in the face of unbelief. What a place should it not have with us!
{*The word is the same as for learned, before; but the sense requires the change.}
This retirement with God, this meditation by night, this daily sought, daily found guidance of God, -how much of it do we really know, in days of so much outward activity as these? The sweet communing of soul with a living Counselor and Lord, how much it is to be feared that this less characterizes the Christian’s life than it did of old, -in days that we deem much darker. Yet nothing can really make up for such a deficiency. It is in secret that the roots of faith lay hold of the sustenance that can alone mature into fruit in the outward life. "The secret of the Lord," which is "with them that fear Him," may we not say, is imparted in secret? How much does the Lord insist upon this secret life before God in His sermon on the mount, -"before your Father who seeth in secret"? Surely, there is little of this, as there should be; and must we not fear that it is becoming less?
It is literally, "my reins bind me," -my thoughts hold me fast: those deep inner thoughts, in which what we are in inmost reality expresses itself. Do such thoughts hold
us fast? And if so, what is their character? Do they speak joy or sorrow? Peace or anxiety? Of earth or of heaven? Does the Word of God blend with them in harmony, or reprove them? In that season of quiet whose continual recurrence God has ordained for us, to withdraw us from alien influences into ourselves, does the soul freely, gladly, rise to Him? Or where does it wander? Where else does it seek a more congenial companionship? Can we say, with the delight of one of old, "When I awake, I am still with Thee"?
Look now at the purpose which all this implies: "I have set Jehovah always before Me." These are the words of the same perfect Exemplar; and "he that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself to walk even as He walked." And who can doubt how the Man Christ Jesus walked? If we have other ends before us, -money, or reputation, or a life of ease, or what not, -is not our life, in its whole principle, different from His? If it be said, we all fail, -true: but failure in the carrying out of a right principle is one thing, and having a wrong one is quite another. "I have set Jehovah before Me" expresses purpose, the choice of the heart; and He could say "always," which we cannot. The essence of sin is, "we have turned every one to his own way"; and, if "Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all," this is not that, delivered from the curse of it, we may go on under its bondage; still less, as freely following it. No: if this be iniquity, "let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."
For Him who could say, "I have set Jehovah always before Me," what was the result? "Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." There was no tottering, no unsteadiness in His steps: no circumstances, no power of the enemy, could hinder or turn Him aside. All other aims may be defeated, all other hopes frustrated; but where God is before the soul, it can never miss its aim: this is the secret of all prosperity and success. If we have set the Lord before us, we may go forward with the fullest and most assured confidence. And this is, in fact, found in such a course. What hinders faith like a double mind? What strengthens it like a single eye? How can we trust God for a selfish project? How doubt that He will fulfill His own mind? In the path of faith it is that we find faith for the path; and there alone.
5. And now we have the final, the eternal result. The principles of divine government secure the blessing or the curse, as the contrary goals of obedience or disobedience: and this is what Deuteronomy insists upon. For Him whom we have now before us, the government of God could have no mingled results, no doubtful or hypothetical blessing. If death were before Him, we know it as what He found simply in the path of obedience, and in love to men. From it, therefore, the Father’s glory necessitated the resurrection of His holy One: "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest secure: for Thou wilt not leave to Sheol" -hades -"my soul; Thou wilt not suffer thy Pious One* to see corruption."
{*"Holy One" is not the sense, and "Pious (or godly) One" is very feeble; but we do not seem to be able to find a better word in English. Chasid speaks of tender, overflowing affection, in relation to God or to parents, and again of mercy overflowing from God to His creatures.}
There was but One who could come up out of death upon such a ground: He who, not for His sins, but in His matchless grace, went into it. "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him out of death, and was heard for His piety;* though He were Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and, being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." (Heb 5:7-9.) Thus as Captain of our salvation was the One always personally perfect perfected. In the psalm we do not see, indeed, this descent into death as an atoning work, but we do see it as part of a path into which His love to the saints had made Him enter. But thus we recognize it as indeed "the path of life," trodden by Him as Forerunner and Representative of the host of His redeemed. "Thou wilt show me," He says, "the path of life."
{*A different word, however, from that which is used in Greek for the Hebrew one of the psalm, and implying reverent fear of God.}
The path of life is the path that leads to this: for life in its full reality can only be enjoyed where God, its Source, is. Death is separation from the source of life. When the soul departs, the body left behind is dead; for soul and life are in Scripture one. So, man departed from God -for here the departure is on the reverse side -spiritual death becomes his condition. And the world takes its character from this: it is out of correspondence with God. The breach is witnessed of through its whole frame; on account of it the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together; and we too who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we also groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption -to wit, the redemption of our body. Thus, though we have life in us, it is a life whose proper display cannot yet be. a "life hid with Christ in God," until "Christ our life shall appear." Meanwhile our path leads up to this: opened for us through death itself by Him who going into it has abolished it, and brought life and incorruption to light by the gospel.
"In Thy presence fullness of joy." What, indeed, to Him who says this, -the Son of the Father, in His self-assumed exile, His face now toward the glory which He had with Him before the world was! There is really no "in," and to leave it out brings out better, perhaps, the force: "fullness of joys, Thy presence! At Thy right hand" -the place of approbation -"pleasures for evermore."
So for us the joy of heaven is defined in this: "we shall be ever with the Lord"; "where I am, there ye shall be also." The knowledge of the Father and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, characterizes now for us eternal life. Life in its fullness means for us, then, this knowledge in its own proper home. "In My Father’s house are many mansions," says our Lord to His disciples; "if it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you." He would not have suffered them unwarned to have enjoyed so dear an intimacy with Himself, if eternity were not to justify and perpetuate it. And for us, every taste of communion now, every moment of enjoyed intimacy is the pledge of its renewal and perfection in the joy beyond. If it were not so, He would not permit it. The glory into which He is gone could not change the heart of Him who once left it for our sakes. The One who descended is the same also who is ascended up. The Glorified is the Crucified. We shall see in His face above the tender lowly condescension of the days of His flesh: "we shall see Him as He is," only to find Him as He was: nearer as better known.
At His right hand, too, we shall all be; whatever special rewards there are, there will be gracious approbation for all It is sweet to know that whatever differences may obtain among us, the common joys will also be the deepest and greatest. Fruit of our own work which we may have, what can it be, compared with the fruit of His work, which we shall enjoy together? Children of God alike, the Father’s heart and home will be for all. To be members of Christ, His bride, joint-heirs with Him, will be our common portion. "Kings and priests unto His God and Father," He has made our common privilege. There is an unhappy legal tendency to make special rewards mean what is real distortion of all this, as if some of His own, after all He has done for them, might be left in comparative distance from Him. Even the "many mansions" of the Father’s house have been made to minister to such a thought. Nothing could be less like the real purport of those blessed, assuring words, which just emphasize the room for all, the taking in of all, and for eternity.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Ps. is the confident and joyous prayer of…
The Ps. is the confident and joyous prayer of one whose highest satisfaction is in God and in good men (Psa_16:2-3), who renounces all the ways of idolatry (Psa_16:4), and who finds in God not only ample wealth and happiness for the present (Psa_16:5-7), but also a continuous prospect of the truest life (Psa_16:8-11). The Ps. is quoted in Act_2:25; Act_13:35 as a prophecy of the Resurrection of Christ. While this is not its primary reference, and while the language does not necessarily involve all that is read into it in the NT., it is true that the thought of the Ps. suggests the hope of immortality, and that the Resurrection of Christ affords the most striking illustration of its meaning.
Title.—Michtam of David] The meaning is uncertain. 'Michtam' may possibly be 'a golden Psalm,' or it may have some musical reference.
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2. RV 'I have said unto the Lord (Jehovah), Thou art my Lord: I have no good beyond thee.'
3. RV 'As for the saints that are in the earth, They are the excellent in whom is all my delight.'
4. That hasten, etc.] RV 'that exchange the Lord for another god'. Drink offerings of blood] to be understood perhaps not literally, but in the sense of cruel and impure sacrifices. Their names] the names of the idols which are thus worshipped.
5, 6. There are two figures here, one contained in the words portion, lot, lines, heritage, suggested by the division of the land of Canaan among the tribes, and another contained in the word cup, which denotes the experiences of the Psalmist's life. In Num_18:20; God is the only portion of the Levites, who received no earthly territory. The writer here claims the same goodly heritage.
7. My reins] or as we should say, 'my heart': see Psa_7:9. God's inward voice heard in hours of quietness, is one of the chief blessings of His people.
8. I have set the Lord, etc.] the constant, deliberate, and conscious exercise of faith.
9. My glory] my soul: see Psa_7:5; Psa_108:1. Rest in hope] RV 'dwell in safety.' The primary reference is not to the dead body in the grave, but to the continuance of bodily life on earth.
10. In hell] RV 'to Sheol.' The meaning is, 'Thou wilt not suffer me to die.' Thine Holy One] RV 'thine holy one'; RM 'thy godly (or beloved) one.' The allusion is primarily to the Psalmist himself, though the passage is used by St. Peter (Act_2:25-28) to prove that the resurrection of Christ was in accordance with prophecy. Corruption] RM 'the pit,' the grave, the state of the dead.
11. The path of life] not specially of life after death, but of true life in the fellowship of God. In thy presence] the presence in which the Psalmist already lived (Psa_16:8).
At thy right hand] RV 'in thy right hand.'
For evermore] The contrast which the Ps. draws is not, perhaps, so much between life here and life hereafter, as between life without God and life with Him. In its very nature, however, the latter life is enduring, and hence the Psalmist's words contain ananticipation (though it may be a dim and only semi-conscious one) of the immortality which Christ has brought to light.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Michtam, "a prayer," or "meditation." See Psalms 56; Psalms…
Michtam
Michtam, "a prayer," or "meditation." See Psalms 56; Psalms 57; Psalms 59; Psalms 60.
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trust (See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain A Revelation of the Christ of God (16-24)
A Revelation of the Christ of God (16-24)
PSALM 16
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1. The obedient One (Psa 16:1-3)
2. The path He went (Psa 16:4-8)
3. Death and resurrection (Psa 16:9-11)
In the nine Psalms which compose this section Christ is marvellously revealed. We notice an interesting progress in the messianic message of this section, culminating in the manifestation of the King, the Lord of Glory in Psa 24:1-10. In the Sixteenth Psalm we behold Christ in His obedience on earth. See also Paul’s testimony in Act 13:35.
Psa 16:1-3. Here we hear Him speak, it is not David who speaks of himself. This we learn from Act 2:25, when Peter quoted this Psalm and states that David spoke concerning Him (Christ). As the all obedient One, in humiliation He lived the life of faith and dependence on God. He took the place of lowliness in which He said to Jehovah, “Thou art my Lord.” And this humiliation was for the saints and the excellent, His own people in whom is all His delight.
Psa 16:4-8. In that path the Lord was His portion and His cup, He was His All, nor did He want anything beside Him. “Thou maintainest my lot.” Thus He could say “the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly inheritance.” And so He walked in obedience, learning obedience though He was the Son, with the Lord always set before Him.
Psa 16:9-11. These last three verses show that He went into death, the death of the cross as seen in Psa 22:1-31, with the assurance that His soul should not be left in sheol and that His body should not see corruption. It is the promise of resurrection and after that glory, the way of life through death into the presence of God, to the right hand of God, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. It is a beautiful prophecy of Him who walked on earth in obedience, devoted to God, dying the sinner’s death, His resurrection and His presence in glory. We shall find these precious prophecies concerning Himself more fully revealed in this section.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Prophecy of Christ’s Suffering and Resurrection.
Prophecy of Christ’s Suffering and Resurrection.
According to Peter, Act 2:25-31, and Paul, Act 13:35, this psalm relates to Christ, expressing the feelings of His human nature in view of His sufferings and His victory over death and the grave, including His exaltation to the right hand of God. The words of Paul, Php 2:6-11, are a fine commentary to this psalm. Michtam, a hymn, or anthem, distinguished by the use of epigrams, of David.
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v. 1. Preserve Me, O God, protecting the Petitioner who speaks through David from harm and danger; for in Thee do I put My trust, seeking refuge in Jehovah alone.
v. 2. O My soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art My Lord; rather, "I say to Jehovah, My Lord art Thou," His Ruler, His all-powerful Stay and Defense; My goodness extendeth not to Thee, rather, "is not beyond Thee"; for He knows nothing that He can consider truly good beyond God; the Lord is His highest and most precious possession;
v. 3. but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent, in whom is all My delight, that is, God is the Speaker’s Lord for the holy ones who are on the earth and the excellent in the sight of God. He is in close relationship with these saints, with those who place their trust in the God of their salvation; He has all His delight in such truly excellent people, and He is therefore anxious to have them all become partakers of this delight.
v. 4. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god, trying to place anything else beside, or in the place of, the true God, whether it be mammon, honor, pride, lustful indulgence, or any other evil, the result of this foolish exchange being that the sorrows of the offenders are increased. Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, He will not sacrifice in their name, because their hands are steeped in blood, because their consciences are burdened with deeds of blood, nor take up their names into My lips, so much as mention them favorably in the hearing of God. He renounces all connection with the wicked world, everything that even savors of friendship with such blasphemers. Instead, He turns to Jehovah alone.
v. 5. The Lord is the Portion of Mine inheritance, the allotment of His portion, and of My cup; Thou maintainest My lot. His lot is the enjoyment of Jehovah’s mercy, who continues to shed upon Him the fullness of His kindness.
v. 6. The lines, the fortune allotted to Him by God, are fallen unto Me in pleasant places, in joyful regions, where it is a pleasure and a delight to be; yea, I have a goodly heritage, an inheritance of joy given to Him by Jehovah; all the glories of eternal bliss in heaven are His For this kindness of Jehovah the praises of the Speaker arise.
v. 7. I will bless the Lord, who hath given Me counsel, praising Jehovah for the counsel and assistance afforded Him in every emergency of His life; My reins also instruct Me in the night seasons, the inmost feelings of His heart and mind bring all these facts to His remembrance.
v. 8. I have set the Lord always before Me, over against His eyes, as the one object which He must never forget, upon which He must concentrate His grateful thoughts. Because He is at My right hand, I shall not be moved, with Jehovah at His side to uphold and sustain Him, He will never sink down, never be overcome.
v. 9. Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoiceth, the dignity of His soul is lifted up in exultation; My flesh also shall rest in hope, dwelling in security, His body resting in safety. The contrast shows that the body of the Messiah is thought of as separate from the soul in the rest of the grave. Even when His mortal body is placed in the grave, will it be secure under God’s protecting hand.
v. 10. For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, letting it be forgotten in the realms of the dead; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption, the decay of the grave, Job 17:14. The Messiah’s human body, though placed in the grave, was not to be subject to decay, the process of corruption was not to start in His case.
v. 11. Thou wilt show Me, true human being though He was, the path of life, the way which leads to the full and unlimited enjoyment of eternal life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy, before the face of Jehovah, in the gracious light of His countenance; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore, such as last throughout eternity. Jesus Christ, though laid in the grave, held by the power of death apparently like all human beings, His soul being separated from His body, yet was not subject to corruption and decay, but arose on the third day, His human nature now having entered upon the full use of the divine glory and majesty communicated to it in the incarnation. All believers, moreover, who are joined to Him in true fellowship, will with Christ be partakers of the eternal pleasures of heaven.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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A michtam of David
The meaning of the word "michtam" is uncertain. You may use the word "psalm" instead. This can be written as: "This is a psalm that David wrote."
take refuge in you
Going to Yahweh for protection is spoken of as taking refuge in him. AT: "go to you for protection" (See: Metaphor)
the holy people who are on the earth
Here "holy people" refers to God's own people who trust him. AT: "your people who live in this land" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
David
God
refuge
Yahweh
lord
good
earth
noble
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ps 16 In this psalm of confidence, the poet…
Ps 16 In this psalm of confidence, the poet moves quickly from a short petition (16:1), to expressions of passionate commitment to God and his people (16:2-6), to a conclusion of confident praise (16:7-11).
16:1 The psalmist feels safe because the Lord alone offers security (16:5-6), guidance (16:7-8), and the joy of his presence (16:9-11).
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