Acts 2:28(v11)You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
Acts 2:27-31(v10)because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay. You made known to me the ways of life. You…
Psalms 62:6(v8)He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken.
Jude 1:24(v11)Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
Acts 2:25-28(v8)For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my…
Show all 89 cross-references
Psalms 36:7-8(v11)How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings. They shall be abundantly…
Psalms 73:23(v8)Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand.
Psalms 121:5(v8)Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.
Revelation 7:15-17(v11)Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his…
Ephesians 3:19(v11)and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Acts 13:35-38(v10)Therefore he says also in another psalm, ‘You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.’ For David, after he had in his own generation…
Psalms 73:26(v8)My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalms 21:4-6(v11)He asked life of you and you gave it to him, even length of days forever and ever. His glory is great in your salvation. You lay honor and…
Psalms 110:5(v8)The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.
Proverbs 4:18(v11)But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day.
Psalms 17:15(v11)As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.
Psalms 49:15(v10)But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.
Psalms 109:31(v8)For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.
Matthew 7:14(v11)How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.
Revelation 1:18(v10)and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.
Matthew 5:8(v11)Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
2 Corinthians 4:17(v11)For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory,
Revelation 22:5(v11)There will be no night, and they need no lamp light or sun light; for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.
Isaiah 2:3(v11)Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his…
Acts 2:26(v9)Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;
Psalms 17:3(v7)You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not…
Psalms 63:6(v7)when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches.
Isaiah 50:4(v7)The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens…
Psalms 73:24(v7)You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Psalms 77:6(v7)I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires:
Proverbs 12:28(v11)In the way of righteousness is life; in its path there is no death.
1 Peter 3:22(v11)who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
Romans 8:11(v11)But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life…
Hebrews 11:27(v8)By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Psalms 30:12(v9)to the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
Psalms 42:8(v7)Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
1 Corinthians 13:12(v11)For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
Psalms 57:8(v9)Wake up, my glory! Wake up, lute and harp! I will wake up the dawn.
Psalms 139:24(v11)See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalms 15:5(v8)he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.
Psalms 119:55(v7)I have remembered your name, Yahweh, in the night, and I obey your law.
Isaiah 14:9(v10)Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the…
Isaiah 26:9(v7)With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the…
Matthew 25:33(v11)He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
1 John 3:2(v11)Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for…
Revelation 20:13(v10)The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his…
Deuteronomy 32:22(v10)For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the…
Psalms 4:7-8(v9)You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and their new wine are increased. In peace I will both lay myself down and…
Psalms 139:18(v8)If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
Isaiah 48:17(v7)Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you…
Jeremiah 17:10(v7)“I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
Luke 6:12(v7)In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God.
Luke 16:23(v10)In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.
Psalms 108:1(v9)My heart is steadfast, God. I will sing and I will make music with my soul.
Proverbs 8:14(v7)Counsel and sound knowledge are mine. I have understanding and power.
Mark 16:19(v11)So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
Luke 1:35(v10)The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one…
Numbers 6:6(v10)“ ‘All the days that he separates himself to Yahweh he shall not go near a dead body.
Job 14:14-15(v9)If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come. You would call, and I would…
Job 19:26-27(v9)After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger.…
Psalms 139:8(v10)If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
Isaiah 5:14(v10)Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who…
Luke 10:21-22(v9)In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these…
1 Corinthians 15:42(v10)So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.
1 Corinthians 15:50-55(v10)Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable. Behold, I…
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14(v9)But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have…
Leviticus 19:28(v10)“ ‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
Job 11:8(v10)They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
Psalms 9:17(v10)The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
Psalms 77:2(v7)In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
Psalms 119:7(v7)I will give thanks to you with uprightness of heart, when I learn your righteous judgments.
Psalms 119:148(v7)My eyes stay open through the night watches, that I might meditate on your word.
Proverbs 15:11(v10)Sheol and Abaddon are before Yahweh— how much more then the hearts of the children of men!
Proverbs 27:20(v10)Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; and a man’s eyes are never satisfied.
Isaiah 26:19(v9)Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the…
Daniel 9:24(v10)“Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
Amos 9:2(v10)Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.
Matthew 25:46(v11)These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Luke 4:34(v10)saying, “Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”
Acts 3:14-15(v10)But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised…
James 3:5-9(v9)So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! And the tongue is a…
Proverbs 2:19(v11)None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.
Proverbs 14:32(v9)The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.
Revelation 2:23(v7)I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each…
Isaiah 11:2-4(v7)Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of…
Psalms 22:2(v7)My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
Psalms 73:21(v7)For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.
Jeremiah 12:2(v7)You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root. They grow. Yes, they produce fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.
1 Peter 1:21(v11)who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Last of all, David confesses that it was entirely…
Last of all, David confesses that it was entirely owing to the pure grace of God that he had come to possess so great a good, and that he had been made a partaker of it by faith. It would be of no advantage to us for God to offer himself freely and graciously to us, if we did not receive him by faith, seeing he invites to himself both the reprobate and the elect in common; but the former, by their ingratitude, defraud themselves of this inestimable blessing. Let us, therefore, know that both these things proceed from the free liberality of God; first, his being our inheritance, and next, our coming to the possession of him by faith. The counsel of which David makes mention is the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, by which we are prevented from rejecting the salvation to which he calls us, which we would otherwise certainly do, considering the blindness of our flesh. “Ce qu’autrement nous ferions, veu l’aveuglement de nostre chair.” — Fr.
Calvin means that God taught David by secret inspirations.
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 translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv7–11God teacheth me continually by secret inspiration.
God teacheth me continually by secret inspiration.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Psa 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath…
Psa 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
Ver. 7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel] David frequently consulted with God by Abiathar the priest, whom God, by a sweet providence, sent unto him with an ephod for a comfort in his banishment, 1Sa 22:20. Saul had slain those that wear the ephod, therefore God answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets, 1Sa 28:6, as he did his servant David; who therefore blesseth him, when the other runneth from him to the witch for counsel, and from her to the sword’s point.
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My reins also instruct me] God hath not only illuminated me, whereby I shall be the better able to endure a great fight of affliction, Heb 10:32, but he hath also sanctified me, and honoured me with holy inspirations, and feeling of the Spirit of adoption, whereby mine internal thoughts and secret motions do dictate and suggest unto me what I ought to do and undertake. Methinks I hear a sweet still voice within me, saying, This is the way, walk in it; and this in the night season, when I am wrapped in rest and silence; or, night after night, the Spirit is a continual spring of counsel and comfort within me, prompting me to make God my portion, and to choose this good part that shall never be taken away from me.
In the night seasons] When commonly we are prone to evil ( Nox et Amor, &c. Ilia pudore vacat, &c. (Ovid.)), and which is the wicked man’s fittest opportunity, Job 24:13; Job 24:15-16, &c. It must not content us that God by his word hath given us counsel, but we must labour to be inwardly taught of God. A man may read the figure upon the dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes, unless the sun shine upon the dial; we may read the Bible over, and hear it opened and applied, but can learn nothing till the Spirit shine into our hearts, 2Co 4:6, and so our reins instruct us, &c.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Who hath given me counsel, Heb. consulted for me,…
Who hath given me counsel, Heb. consulted for me, i.e. by his wise and gracious counsel hath provided so good an heritage for me, and withal inspired that counsel and wisdom into me, by which I have chosen the Lord for my portion, and am so fully satisfied with him.
My reins, i.e. my inward thoughts and affections, (which are commonly signified by the reins, as Psa 7:9; 26:2; 73:21; 139:13; Jer 11:20; 12:2; 17:10) being inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit.
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Instruct me, i. e. direct me what course to take, how to please and serve God, and to put my whole trust and confidence in him, as it follows.
In the night seasons; not only in the day time, but also in the night, when others are asleep, but my mind is working upon God, and the things of God, and improving the silence, and leisure, and solitude of the night to holy meditations, and the exciting of my affections towards God.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v8All these verses are quoted by St. Peter in…
All these verses are quoted by St. Peter in his first sermon, after the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of pentecost (Act 2:25-28); and he tells us expressly that David in them speaks concerning Christ and particularly of his resurrection. Something we may allow here of the workings of David's own pious and devout affections towards God, depending upon his grace to perfect every thing that concerned him, and looking for the blessed hope, and happy state on the other side death, in the enjoyment of God; but in these holy elevations towards God and heaven he was carried by the spirit of prophecy quite beyond the consideration of himself and his own case, to foretel the glory of the Messiah, in such expressions as were peculiar to that, and could not be understood of himself. The New Testament furnishes us with a key to let us into the mystery of these lines.
I. These verses must certainly be applied to Christ; of him speaks the prophet this, as did many of the Old Testament prophets, who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow (Pe1 1:11), and that is the subject of this prophecy here. It is foretold (as he himself showed concerning this, no doubt, among other prophecies in this psalm, Luk 24:44, Luk 24:46) that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead, Co1 15:3, Co1 15:4.
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1. That he should suffer and die. This is implied here when he says (Psa 16:8), I shall not be moved; he supposed that he should be struck at, and have a dreadful shock given him, as he had in his agony, when his soul was exceedingly sorrowful, and he prayed that the cup might pass from him. When he says, "My flesh shall rest," it is implied that he must put off the body, and therefore must go through the pains of death. It is likewise plainly intimated that his soul must go into a state of separation from the body, and that his body, so deserted, would be in imminent danger of seeing corruption - that he should not only die, but be buried, and abide for some time under the power of death.
2. That he should be wonderfully borne up by the divine power in suffering and dying. (1.) That he should not be moved, should not be driven off from his undertaking nor sink under the weight of it, that he should not fail nor be discouraged (Isa 42:4), but should proceed and persevere in it, till he could say, It is finished. Though the service was hard and the encounter hot, and he trod the winepress alone, yet he was not moved, did not give up the cause, but set his face as a flint, Isa 50:7-9. Here am I, let these go their way. Nay, (2.) That his heart should rejoice and his glory be glad, that he should go on with his undertaking, not only resolutely, but cheerfully, and with unspeakable pleasure and satisfaction, witness that saying (Joh 17:11), Now I am no more in the world, but I come to thee, and that (Joh 18:11), The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? and many the like. By his glory is meant his tongue, as appears, Act 2:26. For our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in glorifying God. Now there were three things which bore him up and carried him on thus cheerfully: - [1.] The respect he had to his Father's will and glory in what he did: I have set the Lord always before me. He still had an eye to his Father's commandment (Joh 10:18, Joh 14:31), the will of him that sent him. He aimed at his Father's honour and the restoring of the interests of his kingdom among men, and this kept him from being moved by the difficulties he met with; for he always did those things that pleased his Father. [2.] The assurance he had of his Father's presence with him in his sufferings: He is at my right hand, a present help to me, nigh at hand in the time of need. He is near that justifieth me (Isa 50:8); he is at my right hand, to direct and strengthen it, and hold it up, Psa 89:21. When he was in his agony an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him, Luk 22:43. To this the victories and triumphs of the cross were all owing; it was the Lord at his right hand that struck through kings, Psa 110:5; Isa 42:1, Isa 42:2. [3.] The prospect he had of a glorious issue of his sufferings. It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, Heb 12:2. He rested in hope, and that made his rest glorious, Isa 11:10. He knew he should be justified in the Spirit by his resurrection, and straightway glorified. See Joh 13:31, Joh 13:32.
3. That he should be brought through his sufferings, and brought from under the power of death by a glorious resurrection. (1.) That his soul should not be left in hell, that is, his human spirit should not be long left, as other men's spirits are, in a state of separation from the body, but should, in a little time, return and be re-united to it, never to part again. (2.) That being God's holy One in a peculiar manner, sanctified to the work of redemption and perfectly free from sin, he should not see corruption nor feel it. This implies that he should not only be raised from the grave, but raised so soon that his dead body should not so much as being to corrupt, which, in the course of nature, it would have done if it had not been raised the third day. We, who have so much corruption in our souls, must expect that our bodies also will corrupt (Job 24:19); but that holy One of God who knew no sin saw no corruption. Under the law it was strictly ordered that those parts of the sacrifices which were not burnt upon the altar should by no means be kept till the third day, lest they should putrefy (Lev 7:15, Lev 7:18), which perhaps pointed at Christ's rising the third day, that he might not see corruption - neither was a bone of him broken.
4. That he should be abundantly recompensed for his sufferings, with the joy set before him, Psa 16:11. he was well assured, (1.) That he should not miss of his glory: "Thou wilt show me the path of life, and lead me to that life through this darksome valley." In confidence of this, when he gave up the ghost, he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit; and, a little before, Father, glorify me with thy own self. (2.) That he should be received into the presence of God, to sit at his right hand. His being admitted into God's presence would be the acceptance of his service and his being set at his right hand the recompence of it. (3.) Thus, as a reward for the sorrows he underwent for our redemption, he should have a fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore; not only the glory he had with God, as God, before all worlds, but the joy and pleasure of a Mediator, in seeing his seed, and the success and prosperity of his undertaking, Isa 53:10, Isa 53:11.
II. Christ being the Head of the body, the church, these verses may, for the most part, be applied to all good Christians, who are guided and animated by the Spirit of Christ; and, in singing them, when we have first given glory to Christ, in whom, to our everlasting comfort, they have had their accomplishment, we may then encourage and edify ourselves and one another with them, and may hence learn, 1. That it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us, and to see him continually at our right hand, wherever we are, to eye him as our chief good and highest end, our owner, ruler, and judge, our gracious benefactor, our sure guide and strict observer; and, while we do thus, we shall not be moved either from our duty or from our comfort. Blessed Paul set the Lord before him, when, though bonds and afflictions did await him, he could bravely say, None of these things move me, Act 20:24. 2. That, if our eyes be ever towards God, our hearts and tongues may ever rejoice in him; it is our own fault if they do not. If the heart rejoice in God, out of the abundance of that let the mouth speak, to his glory, and the edification of others. 3. That dying Christians, as well as a dying Christ, may cheerfully put off the body, in a believing expectation of a joyful resurrection: My flesh also shall rest in hope. Our bodies have little rest in this world, but in the grave they shall rest as in their beds, Isa 57:2. We have little to hope for from this life, but we shall rest in hope of a better life; we may put off the body in that hope. Death destroys the hope of man (Job 14:19), 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 for ever in the grave, but, though it see corruption for a time, it shall, at the end of the time, be raised to immortality; Christ's resurrection is an earnest of ours if we be his. 4. That those who live piously with God in their eye may die comfortably with heaven in their eye. In this world sorrow is our lot, but in heaven there is joy. All our joys here are empty and defective, but in heaven there is a fulness of joy. Our pleasures here are transient and momentary, and such is the nature of them that it is not fit they should last long; but those at God's right hand are pleasures for evermore; for they are the pleasures of immortal souls in the immediate vision and fruition of an eternal God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–11I will bless the Lord,.... As prayer, so thanksgiving…
I will bless the Lord,.... As prayer, so thanksgiving belongs to Christ, as man and Mediator; see Mat 11:25; and here he determines to praise the Lord, and give thanks to him for counsel and instruction:
who hath given me counsel; for though he himself is the Counsellor, with respect to his people, yet as man he received counsel from God, and the spirit of counsel rested on him, Isa 11:2; and fitted him for and directed him in the execution of his prophetic office; for the doctrine he taught was not his own, but his Father's; and he said nothing of himself but what his Father taught him, and instructed him to speak, Joh 6:16. And he also gave him counsel about the execution of his priestly office, or about his sufferings and death, and drinking of the cup, which he, with submission to the divine will, desired might pass from him; but having advice in this matter, most cheerfully and courageously yielded to take it, see Mat 26:39;
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my reins also instruct me in the night seasons; when engaged in prayer to God, in which he sometimes continued a whole night together, Luk 6:12; and especially in that dark and dismal night in which he was betrayed, when it was the hour and power of darkness with his enemies; then, his inward parts being influenced by the spirit of wisdom and counsel, directed him how to behave and conduct himself. Or "the reins" being the seat of the affections, and being put for them, may signify, that his strong affection for God, and love to his people, put him upon and moved him to take the steps he did, to deliver up himself into the hands of sinful men, in order to suffer and die for his friends, and obtain eternal salvation for them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv7–11The Lord - Hath inspired that wisdom into me,…
The Lord - Hath inspired that wisdom into me, by which I have chosen the Lord for my portion, and am so fully satisfied with him. Reins - My inward thoughts and affections, being inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit. Instruct - Direct me how to please God, and put my whole trust in him. Night - Even when others are asleep, my mind is working upon God, and improving the silence and solitude of holy meditations.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Verse 7. Who hath given me counsel] Jesus, as…
Verse 7. Who hath given me counsel] Jesus, as man, received all his knowledge and wisdom from God; Lu 2:40-52. And in him were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
My reins also instruct me] כליותי kilyothai, reins or kidneys, which from their retired situation in the body, says Parkhurst, and being hidden in fat, are often used in Scripture for the most secret workings and affections of the heart.
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The kidneys and their fat were always to be burnt in sacrifice, to indicate that the most secret purposes and affections of the soul are to be devoted to God.
In the night seasons.] That is, in the time of my passion, my secret purposes and determinations concerning the redemption of man support me. "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame;" Heb 12:2.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Psa 16:7. I will bless the Lord who hath…
Psa 16:7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel — The Hebrew,
יעצני, jegnatzani, may be rendered, hath consulted for me, that is, by his wise and gracious counsel hath provided so good a heritage for me: or, who hath inspired that counsel and wisdom into me by which I have chosen him for my portion and happiness, and am so fully satisfied with him. 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. My reins also — That is, my inward thoughts and affections (which are commonly signified by the reins, Psa 7:9; Psa 26:2; Jer 11:20; Jer 12:2; Jer 17:10) being inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit; instruct me — Admonish me concerning my duty and happiness, direct me what course to take, how to please and glorify God, and to put my whole trust in, and live to him; in the night seasons — Even when others are asleep my mind is employed about God and things divine, and engaged to improve the silence and solitude of the night in holy meditation, prayer, and devotion. 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 carry him through his undertaking. And we ought so far to apply it to ourselves as to learn from it wherein our duty and happiness consist, and to examine ourselves by it, whether we are properly influenced by such discoveries, and act accordingly.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv7–11I will bless the Lord, who hath given the…
I will bless the Lord, who hath given the counsel - Probably the reference here is to the fact that the Lord had counseled him to choose him as his portion, or had inclined him to his service. There is nothing for which a heart rightly affected is more disposed to praise God than for the fact that by his grace it has been inclined to serve him; and the time when the heart was given away to God is recalled ever onward as the happiest period of life.
My reins ... - See the notes at Psa 7:9. The “reins” are here put for the mind, the soul. They were regarded as the seat of the affections, Jer 11:20; Job 19:27. The meaning here is, that in the wakeful hours of night, when meditating on the divine character and goodness, he found instruction in regard to God. Compare Psa 17:3. Everything then is favorable for reflection. The natural calmness and composure of the mind; the stillness of night; the starry heavens; the consciousness that we are alone with God, and that no human eye is upon us - all these things are favorable to profound religious meditation. They who are kept wakeful by night “need” not find this an unprofitable portion of their lives. Some of the most instructive hours of life are those which are spent when the eyes refuse to close themselves in slumber, and when the universal stillness invites to contemplation on divine things.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv7–11given me counsel--cared for me.
given me counsel--cared for me.
my reins--the supposed seat of emotion and thought (Psa 7:9; Psa 26:2).
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instruct me--or, excite to acts of praise (Isa 53:11-12; Heb 12:2).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7–117. Counsel—God had made him wise and skilful in…
7. Counsel—God had made him wise and skilful in divine wisdom.
Reins—the word כליות, (kelayoth,) which occurs only in the plural, is always, in the common version, translated either kidneys or reins, the former the literal, the latter the figurative or physical sense, in which it denotes the tenderest inward sensibility. It is often associated with לב, (lebh,) heart, (Psa_26:2; Jer_11:20,) as denoting the innermost feeling, never with בשׂן, (beten,) or רחמים, (belly, or bowels,) or with קרב, (kereb,) inner part, all psychical terms. See on Psa_5:9.To be instructed by the reins, is to be admonished and corrected by the feelings, awakened by meditation, whether of a painful or pleasurable nature. The word יסר, (yahsar,) instruct, chasten, has commonly the idea of painful discipline, but here of joyful incentive to make Jehovah his portion.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–117. given me counsel] Taught me to choose Him…
7. given me counsel] Taught me to choose Him and to follow Him. Cp. Psa_32:8 (R.V.); Psa_73:24.
my reins also &c.] This clause may be taken as still depending on I will bless the Lord, and rendered, yea, that in the night seasons my reins have instructed me. In the quiet hours of the night God admonishes and instructs him through the voice of conscience. Cp. Psa_4:4; Psa_17:3. The reins stand for the organs of emotion, the feelings and conscience. ‘Heart and reins’ denote the whole innermost self, thought and will (Psa_7:9).
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7, 8. The mutual relation of the Psalmist and Jehovah.
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–11(7) Given me counsel . . .—i.e., led me…
(7) Given me counsel . . .—i.e., led me to a right and happy choice of the way of life.
My reins—i.e., my heart.
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Instruct me.—Better, warn me. Conscience echoes the voice of God. The Hebrew word, from a root meaning bind, includes the sense of obligation. Once heard, the Divine monition becomes a law to the good man, and his own heart warns him of the slightest danger of deviation from it.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv7–11I will bless the Lord, who hath given his…
I will bless the Lord, who hath given his counsel. God has become David"s "Counsellor", (see Psa_32:8) makes suggestions to him which he follows, and so guides his life that he feels bound to praise and bless him for it. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. The reins, according to Hebrew ideas, are the seat of feeling and emotion. David is "instructed" or "stimulated" (Hengstenberg) to bless God by the feelings which stir within him as he lies awake at night feelings, we must suppose, of affection and gratitude.
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. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Ver. 7-8. The occupying of the gold. The believer…
Ver. 7-8. The occupying of the gold. The believer seeking instruction from the counsels of the Lord by night, and realising his promise by day.
Ver. 7. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel. Praise as well as prayer was presented to the Father by our Lord Jesus, and we are not truly his followers unless our resolve be, "I will bless the Lord." Jesus is called Wonderful, Counsellor, but as man he spake not of himself, but as his Father had taught him. Read in confirmation of this, Joh 7:16 8:28 12: 49-50; and the prophecy concerning him in Isa 11:2-3. It was our Redeemer's wont to repair to his Father for direction, and having received it, he blessed him for giving him counsel. It would be well for us if we would follow his example of lowliness, cease from trusting in our own understanding, and seek to be guided by the Spirit of God.
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My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. By the reins understand the inner man, the affections and feelings. The communion of the soul with God brings to it an inner spiritual wisdom which in still seasons is revealed to itself. Our Redeemer spent many nights alone upon the mountain, and we may readily conceive that together with his fellowship with heaven, he carried on a profitable commerce with himself; reviewing his experience, forecasting his work, and considering his position. Great generals fight their battles in their own mind long before the trumpet sounds, and so did our Lord win our battle on his knees before he gained it on the cross. It is a gracious habit after taking counsel from above to take counsel within. Wise men see more with their eyes shut by night than fools can see by day with their eyes open. He who learns from God and so gets the seed, will soon find wisdom within himself growing in the garden of his soul; "Thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left." 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.
Ver. 7. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel. The Holy Ghost is a spirit of counsel, powerfully instructing and convincingly teaching how to act and walk, for he directs us to set right steps, and to walk with a right foot, and thereby prevents us of many a sin, by seasonable instruction set on upon our hearts with a strong hand; as Isa 8:11. For, as the same prophet says (Isa 11:2), he is the spirit of counsel and of might. Of counsel to direct; of might, to strengthen the inner man. Such he was to Christ the Head, of whom it is there spoken. For instance, in the agony (on the determination of which our salvation depended), and conflict in the garden, when he prayed, "Let this cup pass, "it was this good Spirit that counselled him to die; and he blessed God for it: "I bless the Lord that hath given me counsel." It was that counsel that in that case caused his heart to say, "Not my will, but thine." Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 7. My reins. Common experience shows that the workings of the mind, particularly the passions of joy, grief, and fear, have a very remarkable effect of the reins or kidneys, and from their retired situation in the body, and their being hid in fat, they are often used in Scripture to denote the most secret working of the soul and affections. John Parkhurst.
Ver. 7. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. This shows that God, who, he says, was always present to him, had given him some admonition in his dreams, or at least his waking thoughts by night, from whence he gathered a certain assurance of his recovery; possibly he might be directed to some remedy. Antonine thanks the gods for directing him in his sleep to remedies. Z. Mudge, in loc, 1744.
Ver. 7. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. We have a saying among ourselves, that "the pillow is the best counsellor; "and there is much truth in the saying, especially if we have first committed ourselves in prayer to God, and taken a prayerful spirit with us to our bed. In the quiet of its silent hours, undisturbed by the passions, and not harassed by the conflicts of the world, we can commune with our own heart, and be instructed and guarded as to our future course even in the night season. David especially seems to have made these seasons sources of great profit as well as delight. Sometimes he loved to meditate upon God, as he lay upon his bed; and it was no doubt as he meditated on the Lord's goodness, and on the way by which he had led him, that he was, as it were, constrained, even at midnight, to arise and pray. While, therefore, we acknowledge the pillow to be a good counsellor, let us with David here acknowledge also that it is the Lord who gives the counsel, and sends the instruction in the night season. Burton Bouchier.
Ver. 7. Taking counsel's opinion. Of whom? Upon what? Why? When? How? What then?
Ver. 7. Upward and inward, or two schools of instruction.
Psalms 16:8*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7–11My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
Psa_16:7
My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
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Man taking counsel of his reins
The ancients regarded the reins, or kidneys, located in a retired part of the body, as the seat of the moral and spiritual sentiments, especially of the intuitional convictions, in distinction from those which have been acquired from philosophy or the experience of others. To be instructed by ones reins is therefore to give heed to the voice of the soul itself.
1. The soul articulates itself in conscience, which gives wiser counsel regarding duty than any court of casuistry; in the sense of God, which men cannot divest themselves of, as even Rousseau confesses, Keep your life such as would lead you to desire that there should be a just God, and you will have no doubt of His existence; in the vital instinct, which predicts immortality, etc. Infidelity would be impossible if men would take the counsel of their own reins. In the silent depths of the soul the echoes of Gods voice are always sounding.
2. We will hear these echoes best when all is quiet about us--the janglings of the busy day ceased. The soul expands towards the infinite when the narrow arena of earthly competitions disappears, as the stars show themselves when darkness has blotted out the scenes on earth.
3. The best interpreter of the counsel of the reins is the Word of God. It reveals us to ourselves. Of Jesus it was said that He knew what was in man. Francis Quarles (1644) represents God as saying--
I, that alone am Infinite, can try
How deep within itself thine heart doth lie;
Thy seamans plummet can but reach the ground--
I find that which thy heart itself neer found.
(Homiletic Review.)
Psa_16:7-8
I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
The night counsels of the Lord
Under whatever circumstances the Lord gives His people counsel, they will find reason to bless His holy name. Well does this Psalm bear the title of Michtam--that is, a golden Psalm. Note--
I. The kind of counsel given to the believer. It was, that by no arguments, however specious or however backed by circumstances, should he be diverted from faithful allegiance to God. There were many such arguments. Saul tried to draw him off from God. David tells how they have driven me out this day from the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods. But the Lords counsel, was, Wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Now, the Lord gives similar counsel to all His people. David was a representative man. The transcript of his feelings forms a commonplace book for all Gods servants in which they may find a counterpart of their own. As David was, so are they, anointed of the Lord. As Saul persecuted David, so Satan persecutes them, and seeks to make them do despite to the Spirit of grace.
II. The times and circumstances under which this counsel is frequently sought and obtained. It is night counsel, My reins (thoughts) also instruct me in, etc. The night seems to be no uncommon time for communications to pass between God and His people. David seems to have had frequent experience of this. I remembered Thee upon my bed, etc. When the sense of responsibility comes upon a young man and the weight of care is felt, often, though fatigued with the toil of the day, will he at night think seriously and long over his position and its needs. Sometimes he can say, as in Psa_77:1-20, Thou boldest mine eyes waking; I am so troubled that I cannot sleep, etc. And often his meditations are very gloomy--Will the Lord cast off forever, and will He be favourable no more? And after more of this there comes the telling of the Lords sympathy, I said this is mine infirmity, but I will remember, etc. He says again and again, I will, I will remember, I will meditate. It was difficult, but he was determined. And here he says, I will thank the Lord, who hath given me counsel. And our blessed Lord had His night conflicts--He was in all points made like unto His brethren. And He was heard in that He feared. Let us copy His example--do what He did, and you, too, shall find counsel. (T. E. Hankinson, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn vv8, 11
Psalms
ONE SAYING FROM THREE MEN
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GOD WITH US, AND WE WITH GOD
Psa 16:8, Psa 16:11.
There are, unquestionably, large tracts of the Old Testament in which the anticipation of immortality does not appear, and there are others in which its presence may be doubtful. But here there can be no hesitation, I think, as to the meaning of these words. If we regard them carefully, we shall not only see clearly the Psalmist’s hope of immortal life, but shall discern the process by which he came to it, and almost his very act of grasping at it; for the first verse of our text is manifestly the foundation of the second; and the facts of the one are the basis of the hopes of the other. That is made plain by the ‘therefore’ which, in one of the intervening verses, links the concluding rapturous anticipations with the previous expressions.
If, then, we observe that here, in these two verses which I have read, there is a very remarkable parallelism, we shall get still more strikingly the connection between the devout life here and the perfecting of the same hereafter. Note how, even in our translation, the latter verse is largely an echo of the former, and how much more distinctly that is the case if we make a little variation in the rendering, which brings it closer to the original. ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ says the one,-that is the present. ‘In Thy presence is fulness of joy,’ says the other,-that is the consequent future. And the two words, which are rendered in the one case ‘before me’ and in the other case ‘in Thy presence,’ are, though not identical, so precisely synonymous that we may take them as meaning the same thing. So we might render ‘I have set the Lord always before my face’: ‘Before Thy face is fulness of joy.’ The other clause is, to an English reader, more obviously parallel: ‘Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved’-shall be steadied here. ‘At Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore’-the steadfastness here merges into eternal delights hereafter.
So then, we have two conditions set before us, and the link between them made very plain. And I gather all that I have to say about these words into two statements. First, life here may be God’s presence with us, to make us steadfast. And secondly, if so, life hereafter will be our presence with God to make us glad. That is the Psalmist’s teaching, and I will try to enforce it.
I. First, then, life here may be God’s presence with us, to make us steadfast.
Mark the Psalmist’s language. ‘I have set the Lord always in front of me-before my face.’ Emphasis is placed on ‘set’ and ‘always.’ God is ever by our sides, but we may be very far away from Him, ‘though He be not far off from every one of us,’ and if we are to have Him blazing, clear and unobscured above and beyond all the mists and hubbub of earth, we shall need continual effort in order to keep Him in our sight. ‘I have set the Lord’-He permits me to put out my hand, as it were, and station Him where I want Him, that I may always have Him in my sight, and be able to look at Him and be calm and blessed.
You cannot do that, if you let the world, and wealth, and business, and anxieties, and ambitions, and cares, and sorrows, and duties, and family responsibilities, jostle and hustle Him out of your minds and hearts. You cannot do it if, like John Bunyan’s man with the muckrake, you keep your eyes always down on the straw at your feet, and never lift them to the crown above. How many men in Manchester walk its streets from year’s end to year’s end, and never look up to the sky except to see whether they must take their umbrellas with them or not? And so all the magnificence and beauty of the daily heavens, and the nightly gemming of the empty places with perpetually burning stars, are lost to them! So, God is blazing there in front of us, but unless we set ourselves to it, we shall never see Him. You have to look, by a conscious effort, over and away from the things that are ‘seen and temporal’ if you want to see the things that are ‘unseen and eternal.’
But if you disturb the whole tenor of your being by agitations and distractions and petty cares, or if you defile it by sensual and fleshly lusts, and animal propensities gratified, and poor, miserable, worldly ambitions and longings filling up your souls, then God can no more be visible before your face than the blessed sun can mirror himself in a storm-tossed sea or in a muddy puddle. The heart must be pure, and the heart must be still, and the mind must be detached from earth, and glued to Heaven, and the glasses of the telescope must be sedulously cleansed from dust, if we are to be blessed with the vision of God continuously before our face.
Then note, still further, that if thus we have made God present with us, by realising the fact of His presence, when He comes, He comes with His hands full. ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ says the Psalmist. And then he goes on to say, ‘Because He is at my right hand.’ Not only in front of you, then, David, to be looked at, but at your side! What for? What do we summon some one to come and stand beside us for? In order that from his presence there may come help and succour and courage and confidence. And so God comes to the right hand of the man who honestly endeavours through all the confusions and bustles of life to realise His sweet and calming presence. Where He comes He comes to help; not to be a spectator, but an ally in the warfare; and whoever sets the Lord before him will have the Lord at his right hand.
And then, note, still further, the steadfastness which God brings. I have spoken of the effort which brings God. I speak now of the steadfastness which He brings by His coming. The Psalmist’s anticipation is a singularly modest one. ‘Because He is at my right hand I shall’-What? Be triumphant? No! Escape sorrows? No! Have my life filled with serenity? No! ‘I shall not be moved.’ That is the best I can hope for. To be able to stand on the spot, with steadfast convictions, with steadfast purposes, with steadfast actions-continuously in one direction; ‘having overcome all, to stand’-that is as much as the best of us can desire or expect, in this poor struggling life of ours.
What a profound consciousness of inward weakness and of outward antagonism there breathes in that humble and modest hope, as being the loftiest result of the presence of Omnipotence for our aid: ‘I shall not be moved’! When we think of our inner weakness, when we remember the fluctuations of our feelings and emotions, when we compare the ups and downs of our daily life, or when we think of the larger changes covering years, which affect all our outlooks, our thoughts, our plans; and how
‘We all are changed by still degrees,
All but the basis of the soul,’
it is much to say, ‘I shall not be moved.’ And when we think of the obstacles that surround us, of the storms that dash against us, how we are swept by surges of emotion that wash away everything before their imperious onrush, or swayed by blasts of temptation that break down the strongest defences, or smitten by the shocks of change and sorrow that crush the firmest hearts, it is much to say, in the face of a world pressing upon us with the force of the wind in a cyclone, that our poor, feeble reed shall stand upright and ‘not be moved’ in the fiercest blast. ‘What went ye out for to see?’ ‘A reed shaken with the wind’-that is humanity. ‘Behold! I have made thee an iron pillar and brazen walls, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail’-that is weak man, stiffened into uprightness, and rooted in steadfastness by the touch of the hand of a present God.
And, brother! there is nothing else that will stay a man’s soul. The holdfast cannot be a part of the chain. It must be fastened to a fixed point. The anchor that is to keep the ship of your life from dragging and finding itself, when the morning breaks, a ghastly wreck upon the reef, must be outside of yourself, and the cable of it must be wrapped round the throne of God. The anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which will neither break nor drag, can only be firm when it ‘enters into that within the veil.’ God, and God only, can thus make us strong! So, dear friends, let us see to it that we fasten our aims and purposes, our faith and love, our submission and obedience, upon that mighty Helper who will be with us and make us strong, that we may ‘stand fast in the Lord and in the power of His might.’
II. Now, secondly, notice how, if so, life hereafter will be our presence with God, to make us glad.
I have already pointed out briefly the connection between these two portions of my text, and I need only remark here that the link which holds them together is very obvious. If a man loves God, and trusts Him, and ‘walks with Him,’ after the fashion described in our former verse, then there will spring up, irrepressible and unconquerable, a conviction in that man’s soul that this sweet and strong communion, which makes so much of the blessedness of life, must last after death. Anything is conceivable rather than that a man who walks with God shall cease to be! Rather, when he ‘is not’ any more ‘found’ among men, it is only because ‘God took him.’ Thus the emotions and experiences of a truly devout soul are {apart from the great revelation in Jesus Christ which hath brought ‘life and immortality to light’} the best evidence and confirmation of the anticipation of immortal life. It cannot be, unless our whole intellectual faculties are to be put into utter confusion, that such an experience as that of the man who loves God, and tries to trust Him, and walk before Him, is destined to be brought to nothingness with the mere dissolution of this earthly frame. The greatness and the smallness, the achievements and the failures, of the religious life as we see it here, all bear upon their front the mark of imperfection, and in their imperfection prophesy and proclaim a future completion. Because it is so great in itself, and because, being so great, its developments and influence are so strangely and sadly checked, the faith that knits a man to Christ demands eternity for its duration, and infinitude for its perfection. Thus, he that says ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ goes on to say, with an undeniable accuracy of inference, ‘Therefore Thou wilt not leave my soul in the under world.’ God is not going to forget the soul that clave to Him, and anything is believable sooner than that.
Our texts not only assert this connection and base the confidence of immortality on the present experiences of the spirit that trusts in God, but also give the outline, at least, of the correspondences between the imperfections of the present and the perfectnesses of the future. And I cast this into two or three words before I close.
This is the first of them. If you will turn your faces to God, amidst all the flaunting splendours and vain shows and fleeting possessions of this present, His face will dawn on you yonder. We can say but little of what is meant by such a hope as that. But only this we can say, that there will be, as yet unimaginable, new wealths of revelation of the Father, and to match them, as yet unimaginable new inlets of apprehension and perception upon our parts, so that the sweetest, clearest, closest, most satisfying vision of God that has ever dawned on sad souls here, shall be but ‘as in a glass darkly’ compared with that face to face sight. We live away out on the far-off outskirts of the system where those great planets plough along their slow orbits, and turn their languid rotations at distances that imagination faints in contemplating, and the light and the heat and the life that reach them are infinitesimally small. We shall be shifted into the orb that is nearest the sun; and oh! what a rapture of light and life and heat will come to our amazed spirits: ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ Twilight though the light has been, I have tried to keep it. I shall be of the sons of light close to the Throne and shall see Thy face. I shall be satisfied when I wake out of this sleep of life into Thy likeness.
Then, again, if you will keep God at your right hand here, He will set you on His hereafter. Keep Him here for your Companion, for your Ally, for your Advocate, to breathe strength into you by the touch of His hand, as some feeble man, leaning upon a stronger arm, may be upheld. If you will do that, then the place where the favoured servants stand will be yours; the place where trusted counsellors stand will be yours; the place where the sheep stand will be yours; the place where the Shepherd sits will be yours; for He to whom it is said, ‘Sit Thou at My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,’ says to us, ‘Where I am there shall also My servant be.’ Keep God by your sides, and you will be lifted to Christ’s place at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Lastly, if we let ourselves be stayed by God amidst the struggle and difficulty, we shall be gladdened by Him with perpetual joys. The emphasis of the last words of my text is rather on the adjectives than on the nouns-full joy, eternal pleasure. And how both characteristics contradict the experiences of earth, even the gladdest, which we fain would make permanent! For I suppose that no earthly joy is either central, reaching the deepest self, or circumferential, embracing the whole being of a man, but that only God can so go into the depths of my soul as that from His throne there He can flood the whole of my nature with felicity and peace. In all other gladnesses there is always in the landscape one bit of sullen shadow somewhere or other, unparticipant of the light, while all around is blazing. And we need that He should come to make us blessed.
Joys here are no more lasting than they are complete. As one who only too sadly proved the truth of his own words, burning out his life before he was six-and-thirty, has said-
‘Pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed!
Or like the snowflake in the river.
A moment white-then gone for ever.’
Oh! my friend, ‘why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?’ The life of faith on earth is the beginning, and only the beginning, of that life of calm and complete felicity in the heavenly places.
I have shown you the ladder’s foot, ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ The top round reaches the throne of God, and whoever begins at the bottom, and holds fast the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end, for him the great promise of the Master will come true, and Christ’s ‘joy will remain in him and his joy shall be full.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn vv9–10thy flesh
thy flesh
The 16th Psalm is a prediction of the resurrection of the King. As a prophet David understood that, not at His first advent, but at some time subsequent to His death and resurrection Messiah would assume the Davidic throne. See Act 2:25-31; Luk 1:32; Luk 1:33; Act 15:13-17. See "Davidic Covenant," (See Scofield "2Sa 7:14"); "Kingdom (O.T.)," See Scofield "Zec 12:8".
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See Psalms 22, next in order of the Messianic Psalms.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 9, 11I set Yahweh before me at all times
I set Yahweh before me at all times
"I always remember that Yahweh is with me"
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so I will not be shaken from his right hand
This can be stated in active form. AT: "nothing will take me away from his side" (See: Active or Passive)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 9, 10, 1116:7-8 God’s instruction brings life (16:11; see 5:8; 23:1-3;…
16:7-8 God’s instruction brings life (16:11; see 5:8; 23:1-3; 32:8; 73:24). • The psalmist so deeply depends on the Lord for strength and joy that he senses that God is right beside him (16:11; see 73:23; 109:31; 110:1, 5; 121:5). • Peter quoted 16:8-11 in his sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–11 Last of all, David confesses that it was entirely…
Last of all, David confesses that it was entirely owing to the pure grace of God that he had come to possess so great a good, and that he had been made a partaker of it by faith. It would be of no advantage to us for God to offer himself freely and graciously to us, if we did not receive him by faith, seeing he invites to himself both the reprobate and the elect in common; but the former, by their ingratitude, defraud themselves of this inestimable blessing. Let us, therefore, know that both these things proceed from the free liberality of God; first, his being our inheritance, and next, our coming to the possession of him by faith. The counsel of which David makes mention is the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, by which we are prevented from rejecting the salvation to which he calls us, which we would otherwise certainly do, considering the blindness of our flesh. “Ce qu’autrement nous ferions, veu l’aveuglement de nostre chair.” — Fr.
Calvin means that God taught David by secret inspirations.
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 On vv7–11 God teacheth me continually by secret inspiration.
God teacheth me continually by secret inspiration.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–11 Psa 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath…
Psa 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
Ver. 7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel] David frequently consulted with God by Abiathar the priest, whom God, by a sweet providence, sent unto him with an ephod for a comfort in his banishment, 1Sa 22:20. Saul had slain those that wear the ephod, therefore God answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets, 1Sa 28:6, as he did his servant David; who therefore blesseth him, when the other runneth from him to the witch for counsel, and from her to the sword’s point.
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My reins also instruct me] God hath not only illuminated me, whereby I shall be the better able to endure a great fight of affliction, Heb 10:32, but he hath also sanctified me, and honoured me with holy inspirations, and feeling of the Spirit of adoption, whereby mine internal thoughts and secret motions do dictate and suggest unto me what I ought to do and undertake. Methinks I hear a sweet still voice within me, saying, This is the way, walk in it; and this in the night season, when I am wrapped in rest and silence; or, night after night, the Spirit is a continual spring of counsel and comfort within me, prompting me to make God my portion, and to choose this good part that shall never be taken away from me.
In the night seasons] When commonly we are prone to evil ( Nox et Amor, &c. Ilia pudore vacat, &c. (Ovid.)), and which is the wicked man’s fittest opportunity, Job 24:13; Job 24:15-16, &c. It must not content us that God by his word hath given us counsel, but we must labour to be inwardly taught of God. A man may read the figure upon the dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes, unless the sun shine upon the dial; we may read the Bible over, and hear it opened and applied, but can learn nothing till the Spirit shine into our hearts, 2Co 4:6, and so our reins instruct us, &c.
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 On vv7–11 Who hath given me counsel, Heb. consulted for me,…
Who hath given me counsel, Heb. consulted for me, i.e. by his wise and gracious counsel hath provided so good an heritage for me, and withal inspired that counsel and wisdom into me, by which I have chosen the Lord for my portion, and am so fully satisfied with him.
My reins, i.e. my inward thoughts and affections, (which are commonly signified by the reins, as Psa 7:9; 26:2; 73:21; 139:13; Jer 11:20; 12:2; 17:10) being inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit.
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Instruct me, i. e. direct me what course to take, how to please and serve God, and to put my whole trust and confidence in him, as it follows.
In the night seasons; not only in the day time, but also in the night, when others are asleep, but my mind is working upon God, and the things of God, and improving the silence, and leisure, and solitude of the night to holy meditations, and the exciting of my affections towards God.
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 On v8 All these verses are quoted by St. Peter in…
All these verses are quoted by St. Peter in his first sermon, after the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of pentecost (Act 2:25-28); and he tells us expressly that David in them speaks concerning Christ and particularly of his resurrection. Something we may allow here of the workings of David's own pious and devout affections towards God, depending upon his grace to perfect every thing that concerned him, and looking for the blessed hope, and happy state on the other side death, in the enjoyment of God; but in these holy elevations towards God and heaven he was carried by the spirit of prophecy quite beyond the consideration of himself and his own case, to foretel the glory of the Messiah, in such expressions as were peculiar to that, and could not be understood of himself. The New Testament furnishes us with a key to let us into the mystery of these lines.
I. These verses must certainly be applied to Christ; of him speaks the prophet this, as did many of the Old Testament prophets, who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow (Pe1 1:11), and that is the subject of this prophecy here. It is foretold (as he himself showed concerning this, no doubt, among other prophecies in this psalm, Luk 24:44, Luk 24:46) that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead, Co1 15:3, Co1 15:4.
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1. That he should suffer and die. This is implied here when he says (Psa 16:8), I shall not be moved; he supposed that he should be struck at, and have a dreadful shock given him, as he had in his agony, when his soul was exceedingly sorrowful, and he prayed that the cup might pass from him. When he says, "My flesh shall rest," it is implied that he must put off the body, and therefore must go through the pains of death. It is likewise plainly intimated that his soul must go into a state of separation from the body, and that his body, so deserted, would be in imminent danger of seeing corruption - that he should not only die, but be buried, and abide for some time under the power of death.
2. That he should be wonderfully borne up by the divine power in suffering and dying. (1.) That he should not be moved, should not be driven off from his undertaking nor sink under the weight of it, that he should not fail nor be discouraged (Isa 42:4), but should proceed and persevere in it, till he could say, It is finished. Though the service was hard and the encounter hot, and he trod the winepress alone, yet he was not moved, did not give up the cause, but set his face as a flint, Isa 50:7-9. Here am I, let these go their way. Nay, (2.) That his heart should rejoice and his glory be glad, that he should go on with his undertaking, not only resolutely, but cheerfully, and with unspeakable pleasure and satisfaction, witness that saying (Joh 17:11), Now I am no more in the world, but I come to thee, and that (Joh 18:11), The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? and many the like. By his glory is meant his tongue, as appears, Act 2:26. For our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in glorifying God. Now there were three things which bore him up and carried him on thus cheerfully: - [1.] The respect he had to his Father's will and glory in what he did: I have set the Lord always before me. He still had an eye to his Father's commandment (Joh 10:18, Joh 14:31), the will of him that sent him. He aimed at his Father's honour and the restoring of the interests of his kingdom among men, and this kept him from being moved by the difficulties he met with; for he always did those things that pleased his Father. [2.] The assurance he had of his Father's presence with him in his sufferings: He is at my right hand, a present help to me, nigh at hand in the time of need. He is near that justifieth me (Isa 50:8); he is at my right hand, to direct and strengthen it, and hold it up, Psa 89:21. When he was in his agony an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him, Luk 22:43. To this the victories and triumphs of the cross were all owing; it was the Lord at his right hand that struck through kings, Psa 110:5; Isa 42:1, Isa 42:2. [3.] The prospect he had of a glorious issue of his sufferings. It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, Heb 12:2. He rested in hope, and that made his rest glorious, Isa 11:10. He knew he should be justified in the Spirit by his resurrection, and straightway glorified. See Joh 13:31, Joh 13:32.
3. That he should be brought through his sufferings, and brought from under the power of death by a glorious resurrection. (1.) That his soul should not be left in hell, that is, his human spirit should not be long left, as other men's spirits are, in a state of separation from the body, but should, in a little time, return and be re-united to it, never to part again. (2.) That being God's holy One in a peculiar manner, sanctified to the work of redemption and perfectly free from sin, he should not see corruption nor feel it. This implies that he should not only be raised from the grave, but raised so soon that his dead body should not so much as being to corrupt, which, in the course of nature, it would have done if it had not been raised the third day. We, who have so much corruption in our souls, must expect that our bodies also will corrupt (Job 24:19); but that holy One of God who knew no sin saw no corruption. Under the law it was strictly ordered that those parts of the sacrifices which were not burnt upon the altar should by no means be kept till the third day, lest they should putrefy (Lev 7:15, Lev 7:18), which perhaps pointed at Christ's rising the third day, that he might not see corruption - neither was a bone of him broken.
4. That he should be abundantly recompensed for his sufferings, with the joy set before him, Psa 16:11. he was well assured, (1.) That he should not miss of his glory: "Thou wilt show me the path of life, and lead me to that life through this darksome valley." In confidence of this, when he gave up the ghost, he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit; and, a little before, Father, glorify me with thy own self. (2.) That he should be received into the presence of God, to sit at his right hand. His being admitted into God's presence would be the acceptance of his service and his being set at his right hand the recompence of it. (3.) Thus, as a reward for the sorrows he underwent for our redemption, he should have a fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore; not only the glory he had with God, as God, before all worlds, but the joy and pleasure of a Mediator, in seeing his seed, and the success and prosperity of his undertaking, Isa 53:10, Isa 53:11.
II. Christ being the Head of the body, the church, these verses may, for the most part, be applied to all good Christians, who are guided and animated by the Spirit of Christ; and, in singing them, when we have first given glory to Christ, in whom, to our everlasting comfort, they have had their accomplishment, we may then encourage and edify ourselves and one another with them, and may hence learn, 1. That it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us, and to see him continually at our right hand, wherever we are, to eye him as our chief good and highest end, our owner, ruler, and judge, our gracious benefactor, our sure guide and strict observer; and, while we do thus, we shall not be moved either from our duty or from our comfort. Blessed Paul set the Lord before him, when, though bonds and afflictions did await him, he could bravely say, None of these things move me, Act 20:24. 2. That, if our eyes be ever towards God, our hearts and tongues may ever rejoice in him; it is our own fault if they do not. If the heart rejoice in God, out of the abundance of that let the mouth speak, to his glory, and the edification of others. 3. That dying Christians, as well as a dying Christ, may cheerfully put off the body, in a believing expectation of a joyful resurrection: My flesh also shall rest in hope. Our bodies have little rest in this world, but in the grave they shall rest as in their beds, Isa 57:2. We have little to hope for from this life, but we shall rest in hope of a better life; we may put off the body in that hope. Death destroys the hope of man (Job 14:19), 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 for ever in the grave, but, though it see corruption for a time, it shall, at the end of the time, be raised to immortality; Christ's resurrection is an earnest of ours if we be his. 4. That those who live piously with God in their eye may die comfortably with heaven in their eye. In this world sorrow is our lot, but in heaven there is joy. All our joys here are empty and defective, but in heaven there is a fulness of joy. Our pleasures here are transient and momentary, and such is the nature of them that it is not fit they should last long; but those at God's right hand are pleasures for evermore; for they are the pleasures of immortal souls in the immediate vision and fruition of an eternal God.
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 On vv7–11 I will bless the Lord,.... As prayer, so thanksgiving…
I will bless the Lord,.... As prayer, so thanksgiving belongs to Christ, as man and Mediator; see Mat 11:25; and here he determines to praise the Lord, and give thanks to him for counsel and instruction:
who hath given me counsel; for though he himself is the Counsellor, with respect to his people, yet as man he received counsel from God, and the spirit of counsel rested on him, Isa 11:2; and fitted him for and directed him in the execution of his prophetic office; for the doctrine he taught was not his own, but his Father's; and he said nothing of himself but what his Father taught him, and instructed him to speak, Joh 6:16. And he also gave him counsel about the execution of his priestly office, or about his sufferings and death, and drinking of the cup, which he, with submission to the divine will, desired might pass from him; but having advice in this matter, most cheerfully and courageously yielded to take it, see Mat 26:39;
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my reins also instruct me in the night seasons; when engaged in prayer to God, in which he sometimes continued a whole night together, Luk 6:12; and especially in that dark and dismal night in which he was betrayed, when it was the hour and power of darkness with his enemies; then, his inward parts being influenced by the spirit of wisdom and counsel, directed him how to behave and conduct himself. Or "the reins" being the seat of the affections, and being put for them, may signify, that his strong affection for God, and love to his people, put him upon and moved him to take the steps he did, to deliver up himself into the hands of sinful men, in order to suffer and die for his friends, and obtain eternal salvation for them.
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 On vv7–11 The Lord - Hath inspired that wisdom into me,…
The Lord - Hath inspired that wisdom into me, by which I have chosen the Lord for my portion, and am so fully satisfied with him. Reins - My inward thoughts and affections, being inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit. Instruct - Direct me how to please God, and put my whole trust in him. Night - Even when others are asleep, my mind is working upon God, and improving the silence and solitude of holy meditations.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–11 Verse 7. Who hath given me counsel] Jesus, as…
Verse 7. Who hath given me counsel] Jesus, as man, received all his knowledge and wisdom from God; Lu 2:40-52. And in him were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
My reins also instruct me] כליותי kilyothai, reins or kidneys, which from their retired situation in the body, says Parkhurst, and being hidden in fat, are often used in Scripture for the most secret workings and affections of the heart.
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The kidneys and their fat were always to be burnt in sacrifice, to indicate that the most secret purposes and affections of the soul are to be devoted to God.
In the night seasons.] That is, in the time of my passion, my secret purposes and determinations concerning the redemption of man support me. "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame;" Heb 12:2.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7–11 Psa 16:7. I will bless the Lord who hath…
Psa 16:7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel — The Hebrew,
יעצני, jegnatzani, may be rendered, hath consulted for me, that is, by his wise and gracious counsel hath provided so good a heritage for me: or, who hath inspired that counsel and wisdom into me by which I have chosen him for my portion and happiness, and am so fully satisfied with him. 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. My reins also — That is, my inward thoughts and affections (which are commonly signified by the reins, Psa 7:9; Psa 26:2; Jer 11:20; Jer 12:2; Jer 17:10) being inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit; instruct me — Admonish me concerning my duty and happiness, direct me what course to take, how to please and glorify God, and to put my whole trust in, and live to him; in the night seasons — Even when others are asleep my mind is employed about God and things divine, and engaged to improve the silence and solitude of the night in holy meditation, prayer, and devotion. 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 carry him through his undertaking. And we ought so far to apply it to ourselves as to learn from it wherein our duty and happiness consist, and to examine ourselves by it, whether we are properly influenced by such discoveries, and act accordingly.
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 On vv7–11 I will bless the Lord, who hath given the…
I will bless the Lord, who hath given the counsel - Probably the reference here is to the fact that the Lord had counseled him to choose him as his portion, or had inclined him to his service. There is nothing for which a heart rightly affected is more disposed to praise God than for the fact that by his grace it has been inclined to serve him; and the time when the heart was given away to God is recalled ever onward as the happiest period of life.
My reins ... - See the notes at Psa 7:9. The “reins” are here put for the mind, the soul. They were regarded as the seat of the affections, Jer 11:20; Job 19:27. The meaning here is, that in the wakeful hours of night, when meditating on the divine character and goodness, he found instruction in regard to God. Compare Psa 17:3. Everything then is favorable for reflection. The natural calmness and composure of the mind; the stillness of night; the starry heavens; the consciousness that we are alone with God, and that no human eye is upon us - all these things are favorable to profound religious meditation. They who are kept wakeful by night “need” not find this an unprofitable portion of their lives. Some of the most instructive hours of life are those which are spent when the eyes refuse to close themselves in slumber, and when the universal stillness invites to contemplation on divine things.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–11 given me counsel--cared for me.
given me counsel--cared for me.
my reins--the supposed seat of emotion and thought (Psa 7:9; Psa 26:2).
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instruct me--or, excite to acts of praise (Isa 53:11-12; Heb 12:2).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–11 7. Counsel—God had made him wise and skilful in…
7. Counsel—God had made him wise and skilful in divine wisdom.
Reins—the word כליות, (kelayoth,) which occurs only in the plural, is always, in the common version, translated either kidneys or reins, the former the literal, the latter the figurative or physical sense, in which it denotes the tenderest inward sensibility. It is often associated with לב, (lebh,) heart, (Psa_26:2; Jer_11:20,) as denoting the innermost feeling, never with בשׂן, (beten,) or רחמים, (belly, or bowels,) or with קרב, (kereb,) inner part, all psychical terms. See on Psa_5:9.To be instructed by the reins, is to be admonished and corrected by the feelings, awakened by meditation, whether of a painful or pleasurable nature. The word יסר, (yahsar,) instruct, chasten, has commonly the idea of painful discipline, but here of joyful incentive to make Jehovah his portion.
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 On vv7–11 7. given me counsel] Taught me to choose Him…
7. given me counsel] Taught me to choose Him and to follow Him. Cp. Psa_32:8 (R.V.); Psa_73:24.
my reins also &c.] This clause may be taken as still depending on I will bless the Lord, and rendered, yea, that in the night seasons my reins have instructed me. In the quiet hours of the night God admonishes and instructs him through the voice of conscience. Cp. Psa_4:4; Psa_17:3. The reins stand for the organs of emotion, the feelings and conscience. ‘Heart and reins’ denote the whole innermost self, thought and will (Psa_7:9).
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7, 8. The mutual relation of the Psalmist and Jehovah.
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 On vv7–11 (7) Given me counsel . . .—i.e., led me…
(7) Given me counsel . . .—i.e., led me to a right and happy choice of the way of life.
My reins—i.e., my heart.
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Instruct me.—Better, warn me. Conscience echoes the voice of God. The Hebrew word, from a root meaning bind, includes the sense of obligation. Once heard, the Divine monition becomes a law to the good man, and his own heart warns him of the slightest danger of deviation from it.
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 On vv7–11 I will bless the Lord, who hath given his…
I will bless the Lord, who hath given his counsel. God has become David"s "Counsellor", (see Psa_32:8) makes suggestions to him which he follows, and so guides his life that he feels bound to praise and bless him for it. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. The reins, according to Hebrew ideas, are the seat of feeling and emotion. David is "instructed" or "stimulated" (Hengstenberg) to bless God by the feelings which stir within him as he lies awake at night feelings, we must suppose, of affection and gratitude.
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 On vv7–11 Ver. 7-8. The occupying of the gold. The believer…
Ver. 7-8. The occupying of the gold. The believer seeking instruction from the counsels of the Lord by night, and realising his promise by day.
Ver. 7. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel. Praise as well as prayer was presented to the Father by our Lord Jesus, and we are not truly his followers unless our resolve be, "I will bless the Lord." Jesus is called Wonderful, Counsellor, but as man he spake not of himself, but as his Father had taught him. Read in confirmation of this, Joh 7:16 8:28 12: 49-50; and the prophecy concerning him in Isa 11:2-3. It was our Redeemer's wont to repair to his Father for direction, and having received it, he blessed him for giving him counsel. It would be well for us if we would follow his example of lowliness, cease from trusting in our own understanding, and seek to be guided by the Spirit of God.
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My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. By the reins understand the inner man, the affections and feelings. The communion of the soul with God brings to it an inner spiritual wisdom which in still seasons is revealed to itself. Our Redeemer spent many nights alone upon the mountain, and we may readily conceive that together with his fellowship with heaven, he carried on a profitable commerce with himself; reviewing his experience, forecasting his work, and considering his position. Great generals fight their battles in their own mind long before the trumpet sounds, and so did our Lord win our battle on his knees before he gained it on the cross. It is a gracious habit after taking counsel from above to take counsel within. Wise men see more with their eyes shut by night than fools can see by day with their eyes open. He who learns from God and so gets the seed, will soon find wisdom within himself growing in the garden of his soul; "Thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left." 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.
Ver. 7. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel. The Holy Ghost is a spirit of counsel, powerfully instructing and convincingly teaching how to act and walk, for he directs us to set right steps, and to walk with a right foot, and thereby prevents us of many a sin, by seasonable instruction set on upon our hearts with a strong hand; as Isa 8:11. For, as the same prophet says (Isa 11:2), he is the spirit of counsel and of might. Of counsel to direct; of might, to strengthen the inner man. Such he was to Christ the Head, of whom it is there spoken. For instance, in the agony (on the determination of which our salvation depended), and conflict in the garden, when he prayed, "Let this cup pass, "it was this good Spirit that counselled him to die; and he blessed God for it: "I bless the Lord that hath given me counsel." It was that counsel that in that case caused his heart to say, "Not my will, but thine." Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 7. My reins. Common experience shows that the workings of the mind, particularly the passions of joy, grief, and fear, have a very remarkable effect of the reins or kidneys, and from their retired situation in the body, and their being hid in fat, they are often used in Scripture to denote the most secret working of the soul and affections. John Parkhurst.
Ver. 7. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. This shows that God, who, he says, was always present to him, had given him some admonition in his dreams, or at least his waking thoughts by night, from whence he gathered a certain assurance of his recovery; possibly he might be directed to some remedy. Antonine thanks the gods for directing him in his sleep to remedies. Z. Mudge, in loc, 1744.
Ver. 7. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. We have a saying among ourselves, that "the pillow is the best counsellor; "and there is much truth in the saying, especially if we have first committed ourselves in prayer to God, and taken a prayerful spirit with us to our bed. In the quiet of its silent hours, undisturbed by the passions, and not harassed by the conflicts of the world, we can commune with our own heart, and be instructed and guarded as to our future course even in the night season. David especially seems to have made these seasons sources of great profit as well as delight. Sometimes he loved to meditate upon God, as he lay upon his bed; and it was no doubt as he meditated on the Lord's goodness, and on the way by which he had led him, that he was, as it were, constrained, even at midnight, to arise and pray. While, therefore, we acknowledge the pillow to be a good counsellor, let us with David here acknowledge also that it is the Lord who gives the counsel, and sends the instruction in the night season. Burton Bouchier.
Ver. 7. Taking counsel's opinion. Of whom? Upon what? Why? When? How? What then?
Ver. 7. Upward and inward, or two schools of instruction.
Psalms 16:8*
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 On vv7–11 My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
Psa_16:7
My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
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Man taking counsel of his reins
The ancients regarded the reins, or kidneys, located in a retired part of the body, as the seat of the moral and spiritual sentiments, especially of the intuitional convictions, in distinction from those which have been acquired from philosophy or the experience of others. To be instructed by ones reins is therefore to give heed to the voice of the soul itself.
1. The soul articulates itself in conscience, which gives wiser counsel regarding duty than any court of casuistry; in the sense of God, which men cannot divest themselves of, as even Rousseau confesses, Keep your life such as would lead you to desire that there should be a just God, and you will have no doubt of His existence; in the vital instinct, which predicts immortality, etc. Infidelity would be impossible if men would take the counsel of their own reins. In the silent depths of the soul the echoes of Gods voice are always sounding.
2. We will hear these echoes best when all is quiet about us--the janglings of the busy day ceased. The soul expands towards the infinite when the narrow arena of earthly competitions disappears, as the stars show themselves when darkness has blotted out the scenes on earth.
3. The best interpreter of the counsel of the reins is the Word of God. It reveals us to ourselves. Of Jesus it was said that He knew what was in man. Francis Quarles (1644) represents God as saying--
I, that alone am Infinite, can try
How deep within itself thine heart doth lie;
Thy seamans plummet can but reach the ground--
I find that which thy heart itself neer found.
(Homiletic Review.)
Psa_16:7-8
I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
The night counsels of the Lord
Under whatever circumstances the Lord gives His people counsel, they will find reason to bless His holy name. Well does this Psalm bear the title of Michtam--that is, a golden Psalm. Note--
I. The kind of counsel given to the believer. It was, that by no arguments, however specious or however backed by circumstances, should he be diverted from faithful allegiance to God. There were many such arguments. Saul tried to draw him off from God. David tells how they have driven me out this day from the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods. But the Lords counsel, was, Wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Now, the Lord gives similar counsel to all His people. David was a representative man. The transcript of his feelings forms a commonplace book for all Gods servants in which they may find a counterpart of their own. As David was, so are they, anointed of the Lord. As Saul persecuted David, so Satan persecutes them, and seeks to make them do despite to the Spirit of grace.
II. The times and circumstances under which this counsel is frequently sought and obtained. It is night counsel, My reins (thoughts) also instruct me in, etc. The night seems to be no uncommon time for communications to pass between God and His people. David seems to have had frequent experience of this. I remembered Thee upon my bed, etc. When the sense of responsibility comes upon a young man and the weight of care is felt, often, though fatigued with the toil of the day, will he at night think seriously and long over his position and its needs. Sometimes he can say, as in Psa_77:1-20, Thou boldest mine eyes waking; I am so troubled that I cannot sleep, etc. And often his meditations are very gloomy--Will the Lord cast off forever, and will He be favourable no more? And after more of this there comes the telling of the Lords sympathy, I said this is mine infirmity, but I will remember, etc. He says again and again, I will, I will remember, I will meditate. It was difficult, but he was determined. And here he says, I will thank the Lord, who hath given me counsel. And our blessed Lord had His night conflicts--He was in all points made like unto His brethren. And He was heard in that He feared. Let us copy His example--do what He did, and you, too, shall find counsel. (T. E. Hankinson, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv8, 11
Psalms
ONE SAYING FROM THREE MEN
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GOD WITH US, AND WE WITH GOD
Psa 16:8, Psa 16:11.
There are, unquestionably, large tracts of the Old Testament in which the anticipation of immortality does not appear, and there are others in which its presence may be doubtful. But here there can be no hesitation, I think, as to the meaning of these words. If we regard them carefully, we shall not only see clearly the Psalmist’s hope of immortal life, but shall discern the process by which he came to it, and almost his very act of grasping at it; for the first verse of our text is manifestly the foundation of the second; and the facts of the one are the basis of the hopes of the other. That is made plain by the ‘therefore’ which, in one of the intervening verses, links the concluding rapturous anticipations with the previous expressions.
If, then, we observe that here, in these two verses which I have read, there is a very remarkable parallelism, we shall get still more strikingly the connection between the devout life here and the perfecting of the same hereafter. Note how, even in our translation, the latter verse is largely an echo of the former, and how much more distinctly that is the case if we make a little variation in the rendering, which brings it closer to the original. ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ says the one,-that is the present. ‘In Thy presence is fulness of joy,’ says the other,-that is the consequent future. And the two words, which are rendered in the one case ‘before me’ and in the other case ‘in Thy presence,’ are, though not identical, so precisely synonymous that we may take them as meaning the same thing. So we might render ‘I have set the Lord always before my face’: ‘Before Thy face is fulness of joy.’ The other clause is, to an English reader, more obviously parallel: ‘Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved’-shall be steadied here. ‘At Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore’-the steadfastness here merges into eternal delights hereafter.
So then, we have two conditions set before us, and the link between them made very plain. And I gather all that I have to say about these words into two statements. First, life here may be God’s presence with us, to make us steadfast. And secondly, if so, life hereafter will be our presence with God to make us glad. That is the Psalmist’s teaching, and I will try to enforce it.
I. First, then, life here may be God’s presence with us, to make us steadfast.
Mark the Psalmist’s language. ‘I have set the Lord always in front of me-before my face.’ Emphasis is placed on ‘set’ and ‘always.’ God is ever by our sides, but we may be very far away from Him, ‘though He be not far off from every one of us,’ and if we are to have Him blazing, clear and unobscured above and beyond all the mists and hubbub of earth, we shall need continual effort in order to keep Him in our sight. ‘I have set the Lord’-He permits me to put out my hand, as it were, and station Him where I want Him, that I may always have Him in my sight, and be able to look at Him and be calm and blessed.
You cannot do that, if you let the world, and wealth, and business, and anxieties, and ambitions, and cares, and sorrows, and duties, and family responsibilities, jostle and hustle Him out of your minds and hearts. You cannot do it if, like John Bunyan’s man with the muckrake, you keep your eyes always down on the straw at your feet, and never lift them to the crown above. How many men in Manchester walk its streets from year’s end to year’s end, and never look up to the sky except to see whether they must take their umbrellas with them or not? And so all the magnificence and beauty of the daily heavens, and the nightly gemming of the empty places with perpetually burning stars, are lost to them! So, God is blazing there in front of us, but unless we set ourselves to it, we shall never see Him. You have to look, by a conscious effort, over and away from the things that are ‘seen and temporal’ if you want to see the things that are ‘unseen and eternal.’
But if you disturb the whole tenor of your being by agitations and distractions and petty cares, or if you defile it by sensual and fleshly lusts, and animal propensities gratified, and poor, miserable, worldly ambitions and longings filling up your souls, then God can no more be visible before your face than the blessed sun can mirror himself in a storm-tossed sea or in a muddy puddle. The heart must be pure, and the heart must be still, and the mind must be detached from earth, and glued to Heaven, and the glasses of the telescope must be sedulously cleansed from dust, if we are to be blessed with the vision of God continuously before our face.
Then note, still further, that if thus we have made God present with us, by realising the fact of His presence, when He comes, He comes with His hands full. ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ says the Psalmist. And then he goes on to say, ‘Because He is at my right hand.’ Not only in front of you, then, David, to be looked at, but at your side! What for? What do we summon some one to come and stand beside us for? In order that from his presence there may come help and succour and courage and confidence. And so God comes to the right hand of the man who honestly endeavours through all the confusions and bustles of life to realise His sweet and calming presence. Where He comes He comes to help; not to be a spectator, but an ally in the warfare; and whoever sets the Lord before him will have the Lord at his right hand.
And then, note, still further, the steadfastness which God brings. I have spoken of the effort which brings God. I speak now of the steadfastness which He brings by His coming. The Psalmist’s anticipation is a singularly modest one. ‘Because He is at my right hand I shall’-What? Be triumphant? No! Escape sorrows? No! Have my life filled with serenity? No! ‘I shall not be moved.’ That is the best I can hope for. To be able to stand on the spot, with steadfast convictions, with steadfast purposes, with steadfast actions-continuously in one direction; ‘having overcome all, to stand’-that is as much as the best of us can desire or expect, in this poor struggling life of ours.
What a profound consciousness of inward weakness and of outward antagonism there breathes in that humble and modest hope, as being the loftiest result of the presence of Omnipotence for our aid: ‘I shall not be moved’! When we think of our inner weakness, when we remember the fluctuations of our feelings and emotions, when we compare the ups and downs of our daily life, or when we think of the larger changes covering years, which affect all our outlooks, our thoughts, our plans; and how
‘We all are changed by still degrees,
All but the basis of the soul,’
it is much to say, ‘I shall not be moved.’ And when we think of the obstacles that surround us, of the storms that dash against us, how we are swept by surges of emotion that wash away everything before their imperious onrush, or swayed by blasts of temptation that break down the strongest defences, or smitten by the shocks of change and sorrow that crush the firmest hearts, it is much to say, in the face of a world pressing upon us with the force of the wind in a cyclone, that our poor, feeble reed shall stand upright and ‘not be moved’ in the fiercest blast. ‘What went ye out for to see?’ ‘A reed shaken with the wind’-that is humanity. ‘Behold! I have made thee an iron pillar and brazen walls, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail’-that is weak man, stiffened into uprightness, and rooted in steadfastness by the touch of the hand of a present God.
And, brother! there is nothing else that will stay a man’s soul. The holdfast cannot be a part of the chain. It must be fastened to a fixed point. The anchor that is to keep the ship of your life from dragging and finding itself, when the morning breaks, a ghastly wreck upon the reef, must be outside of yourself, and the cable of it must be wrapped round the throne of God. The anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which will neither break nor drag, can only be firm when it ‘enters into that within the veil.’ God, and God only, can thus make us strong! So, dear friends, let us see to it that we fasten our aims and purposes, our faith and love, our submission and obedience, upon that mighty Helper who will be with us and make us strong, that we may ‘stand fast in the Lord and in the power of His might.’
II. Now, secondly, notice how, if so, life hereafter will be our presence with God, to make us glad.
I have already pointed out briefly the connection between these two portions of my text, and I need only remark here that the link which holds them together is very obvious. If a man loves God, and trusts Him, and ‘walks with Him,’ after the fashion described in our former verse, then there will spring up, irrepressible and unconquerable, a conviction in that man’s soul that this sweet and strong communion, which makes so much of the blessedness of life, must last after death. Anything is conceivable rather than that a man who walks with God shall cease to be! Rather, when he ‘is not’ any more ‘found’ among men, it is only because ‘God took him.’ Thus the emotions and experiences of a truly devout soul are {apart from the great revelation in Jesus Christ which hath brought ‘life and immortality to light’} the best evidence and confirmation of the anticipation of immortal life. It cannot be, unless our whole intellectual faculties are to be put into utter confusion, that such an experience as that of the man who loves God, and tries to trust Him, and walk before Him, is destined to be brought to nothingness with the mere dissolution of this earthly frame. The greatness and the smallness, the achievements and the failures, of the religious life as we see it here, all bear upon their front the mark of imperfection, and in their imperfection prophesy and proclaim a future completion. Because it is so great in itself, and because, being so great, its developments and influence are so strangely and sadly checked, the faith that knits a man to Christ demands eternity for its duration, and infinitude for its perfection. Thus, he that says ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ goes on to say, with an undeniable accuracy of inference, ‘Therefore Thou wilt not leave my soul in the under world.’ God is not going to forget the soul that clave to Him, and anything is believable sooner than that.
Our texts not only assert this connection and base the confidence of immortality on the present experiences of the spirit that trusts in God, but also give the outline, at least, of the correspondences between the imperfections of the present and the perfectnesses of the future. And I cast this into two or three words before I close.
This is the first of them. If you will turn your faces to God, amidst all the flaunting splendours and vain shows and fleeting possessions of this present, His face will dawn on you yonder. We can say but little of what is meant by such a hope as that. But only this we can say, that there will be, as yet unimaginable, new wealths of revelation of the Father, and to match them, as yet unimaginable new inlets of apprehension and perception upon our parts, so that the sweetest, clearest, closest, most satisfying vision of God that has ever dawned on sad souls here, shall be but ‘as in a glass darkly’ compared with that face to face sight. We live away out on the far-off outskirts of the system where those great planets plough along their slow orbits, and turn their languid rotations at distances that imagination faints in contemplating, and the light and the heat and the life that reach them are infinitesimally small. We shall be shifted into the orb that is nearest the sun; and oh! what a rapture of light and life and heat will come to our amazed spirits: ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ Twilight though the light has been, I have tried to keep it. I shall be of the sons of light close to the Throne and shall see Thy face. I shall be satisfied when I wake out of this sleep of life into Thy likeness.
Then, again, if you will keep God at your right hand here, He will set you on His hereafter. Keep Him here for your Companion, for your Ally, for your Advocate, to breathe strength into you by the touch of His hand, as some feeble man, leaning upon a stronger arm, may be upheld. If you will do that, then the place where the favoured servants stand will be yours; the place where trusted counsellors stand will be yours; the place where the sheep stand will be yours; the place where the Shepherd sits will be yours; for He to whom it is said, ‘Sit Thou at My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,’ says to us, ‘Where I am there shall also My servant be.’ Keep God by your sides, and you will be lifted to Christ’s place at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Lastly, if we let ourselves be stayed by God amidst the struggle and difficulty, we shall be gladdened by Him with perpetual joys. The emphasis of the last words of my text is rather on the adjectives than on the nouns-full joy, eternal pleasure. And how both characteristics contradict the experiences of earth, even the gladdest, which we fain would make permanent! For I suppose that no earthly joy is either central, reaching the deepest self, or circumferential, embracing the whole being of a man, but that only God can so go into the depths of my soul as that from His throne there He can flood the whole of my nature with felicity and peace. In all other gladnesses there is always in the landscape one bit of sullen shadow somewhere or other, unparticipant of the light, while all around is blazing. And we need that He should come to make us blessed.
Joys here are no more lasting than they are complete. As one who only too sadly proved the truth of his own words, burning out his life before he was six-and-thirty, has said-
‘Pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed!
Or like the snowflake in the river.
A moment white-then gone for ever.’
Oh! my friend, ‘why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?’ The life of faith on earth is the beginning, and only the beginning, of that life of calm and complete felicity in the heavenly places.
I have shown you the ladder’s foot, ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ The top round reaches the throne of God, and whoever begins at the bottom, and holds fast the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end, for him the great promise of the Master will come true, and Christ’s ‘joy will remain in him and his joy shall be full.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv9–10 thy flesh
thy flesh
The 16th Psalm is a prediction of the resurrection of the King. As a prophet David understood that, not at His first advent, but at some time subsequent to His death and resurrection Messiah would assume the Davidic throne. See Act 2:25-31; Luk 1:32; Luk 1:33; Act 15:13-17. See "Davidic Covenant," (See Scofield "2Sa 7:14"); "Kingdom (O.T.)," See Scofield "Zec 12:8".
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See Psalms 22, next in order of the Messianic Psalms.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9, 11 I set Yahweh before me at all times
I set Yahweh before me at all times
"I always remember that Yahweh is with me"
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so I will not be shaken from his right hand
This can be stated in active form. AT: "nothing will take me away from his side" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
bless
advice
right hand
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 On vv7, 9, 10, 11 16:7-8 God’s instruction brings life (16:11; see 5:8; 23:1-3;…
16:7-8 God’s instruction brings life (16:11; see 5:8; 23:1-3; 32:8; 73:24). • The psalmist so deeply depends on the Lord for strength and joy that he senses that God is right beside him (16:11; see 73:23; 109:31; 110:1, 5; 121:5). • Peter quoted 16:8-11 in his sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.