Psalm 16

 Psalm 16 

from Favourite Psalms by John Stott

You Will Not Abandon My Soul

A Miktam[a] of David.

16 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
    I have no good apart from you.”

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
    in whom is all my delight.[b]

4 The sorrows of those who run after[c] another god shall multiply;
    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names on my lips.

5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.[d]
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being[e] rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.[f]

11 You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Present Faith and Future Hope

Although this psalm opens with a prayer (Preserve me, O God), it is in reality a believer's testimony regarding both his present faith and his future hope. Having taken refuge in God (verse 1), he has found in him his greatest good (verses 2, 6 and 7) and is convinced that even death cannot rob him of that true life which consists of fellowship with God (verses 11 and 12). These final verses were applied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ by Peter on the day of Pentecost and by Paul in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 2 verses 24 to 31; 13 verses 34 to 37).

Present Faith (verses 1 to 6)

What it means to put one's trust in God or to take refuge (verse 1) in him, is explained in verse 2 (compare Psalm 73 verse 24). The believer has turned from the pleasures of sin and the vanities of the world to seek and find his good in God. Delighting in God, he delights also in the godly, the saints (verse 3).

In the ungodly, however, who have exchanged the true and living God for another god (verse 4), the believer takes no delight. He knows that they have great trouble - their sorrows shall multiply. He affirms with resolve that he will neither offer their idolatrous libations of blood nor even mention the names of their false deities (verse 5). To do so would be incompatible with his wholehearted devotion to the Lord of whom he now writes in the most exalted terms (verses 5 and 6). The Lord has assigned him his portion (alluding probably to a portion of food rather than of land) and his cup, thus both satisfying his hunger and quenching his thirst. Further, he has found God to be a beautiful inheritance, just like the Levitical priests, who were given no inheritance in Canaan because their inheritance was the Lord (Numbers 18 verse 20).

Future Hope (verses 7 to 11)

David, who according to the apostles Peter and Paul was the author of this psalm, now breaks out into thanksgiving (verse 7) that the Lord has given him counsel and that at night his heart instructs him. What this divine instruction is which he has received he does not make clear. It seems best to refer it to the remaining verses of the psalm.

God draws near to David and speaks to him; his own heart teaches him while in the stillness of the night he meditates on his intimate fellowship with God. He learns to draw from his experience this mighty deduction; that because God is ever before him and beside him (verse 8), I shall not be shaken. In other words, the blessings of his communion with God cannot be limited to his satisfaction only, they include his security also. His present faith brings a future hope.

David now rejoices in heart and soul because he is convinced that his body also may dwell secure (verse 9). He goes on to elaborate his new assurance in direct speech to God (verse 11).

Three levels of interpretation are possible in these verses, all of which are true. Literally they express the writer's confidence that he will not die, that his soul will not be delivered to the grave - the translation of the Hebrew Sheol, the abode of the dead. Now will his body see corruption. We do not know, the historical circumstances in which the psalm was written, but it may possibly express the confidence which sustained David during his months as an outlaw, that he would not be delivered into the hand of Saul.

The implication of these verse goes further than this, however. The corollary to deliverance from death is treading the path of life; and this life is seen to be no mere physical survival, but the enjoyment of God's presence bringing joy and eternal pleasures. It is in fact what the New Testament calls "eternal life", communion with God, which physical death cannot interrupt. It is unlikely that David understood fully what he was writing, since life and immortality were only clearly revealed by Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1 verse 10); yet his words find their true fulfillment only in the consummation of eternal life beyond the grave,

When Peter applied these verses to the resurrection of Jesus, he went so far as to say that David cannot have been referring primarily to himself, since he died and was buried. He went on "But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay." (Acts 2 verses 30 and 31)

We must be careful not to make Peter say more than he actually did say. He himself in his first letter (1 Peter 1 verses 10 to 12) explained that the prophets did not fully understand to what the Spirt of Christ within them was referring when predicting Christ's sufferings and subsequent glory. We need not therefore assert that David was making a deliberate and conscious prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus which was fully intelligible to himself. it is enough to say that, caught up by the Spirit of prophecy, he was led to write words about the conquest of death and the fulness of life and joy in the presence of God which would be finally fulfilled not in his own experience but in that of his illustrious descendant.