This Psalm is titled, A Michtam of David. The
title Michtam is commonly understood
as golden; though others think it is
related to a word meaning to cover. Since the Psalms with this title (16, 56-60) are
written from times of peril, some think the idea is of covering the lips in the
sense of secrecy, as if this were a secret or silent Psalm given in a time of
crisis. This is a wonderful Psalm relating how David found the secret of
contentment and great gladness even in pressing times; and also speaks
powerfully of Jesus and His work for us.
A.
Davids confidence in God.
1. (1-3) What Davids soul said to the Lord.
Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.
O my soul, you have
said to the Lord,
You are my Lord,
My goodness is nothing apart from You.
As for the saints who are on the earth,
They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.
a. Preserve me, O God, for
in You I put my trust: It seems that David wrote this Psalm from a
time of trouble, because he asked for preservation, took confidence in that he
would not be moved (Psalm 16:8), and had confidence in some kind or
resurrection (Psalm 16:10). Yet the tone
of this Psalm is not despair or complaint; it is settled joy. Despite his
trouble, David had a praising confidence in his God.
i. This was a most powerful plea, for to trust God is the
highest honour we can do him, it is to set the crown upon his head. (Trapp)
ii. Specially present the prayer in a spiritual sense.
Preserve me from the world; let me not be carried away with its excitements;
suffer me not to be before its blandishments, nor to fear its frowns. Preserve
me, from the devil; let him not tempt me above what I am able to bear. Preserve
me from myself; keep me from growing envious, selfish, high-minded, proud,
slothful. Preserve me from those evils into which I see others run, and
preserve me, from those evils into which I am myself most apt to run; keep me,
from evils, known and from evils unknown. (Spurgeon)
b. You are my Lord:
This is what Davids soul had said to the Lord.
David happily said that Yahweh (Lord) was his master (Lord).
i. David knew how to speak to
his own soul; Psalms 42:6 and 43:5 are other examples. It is a good thing to
speak good things to our own soul.
c. My goodness is nothing
apart from You: David knew that at his very best – all of his
goodness – was nothing apart
from God.
It was nothing
when it came to making David righteous before God; he needed God to bring His
righteousness to David.
It was nothing
because Davids goodness was itself a
gift of God; therefore apart from Him it was nothing.
It was nothing
because Davids goodness, as precious
as it was, was of small value without his relationship with God.
i. I receive all good from thee, but no good can I return
to thee; wherefore I acknowledge thee to be most rich, and myself to be most
beggardly. (Greenham, cited in Spurgeon)
d. As for the saints who are
on the earth: David proclaimed regarding Gods people on this earth,
They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my
delight. David delighted in
the people of God, despite all their failings, scandals, and embarrassments.
i. This is an obvious failing for many followers of Jesus
Christ today. They are so negative about the people of God that they find
themselves unable to see any excellence in the Gods people, unable to delight in them.
ii. This is a practical matter, for it is a way by which
we can measure our relationship to the Lord. Do you love other Christians? Do
you find it good and rewarding to be with them? Do you seek their company? This
is a simple test. Those who love the Lord will love the company of those who
also love him. (Boice)
2. (4-6) The folly of idolatry and the blessing of
honoring the Lord.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
Nor take up their names on my lips.
O Lord, You
are the portion of my inheritance and my
cup;
You maintain my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
a. Their sorrows shall be
multiplied who hasten after another god: David understood that those
who served other gods found many sorrows
in life.
i. David knew that his life, lived after God, was not an
easy one. He experienced many hardships because he remained faithful to God.
Nevertheless, he also knew that life lived after another
god was even more difficult.
It was the attitude of Peter in John 6:66-69, when he said Lord, to whom shall
we go?
ii. There is a distinct echo of the story of the Fall in
the phrase, multiply their sorrows,
since very similar words were spoken to Eve in the Hebrew of Genesis 3:16.
There could hardly be a more ominous allusion to what follows from apostasy.
(Kidner)
b. Their drink offerings of
blood I will not offer: David allowed his knowledge of the futility of pagan beliefs to effect his behavior. Therefore,
he would not follow the pagans in their vain practices.
i. Many heathens sacrificed to
their idols (that is, to devils) with mans blood, against all laws of humanity
and piety. (Trapp) In addition, the priests of Baal offered their own blood to
their false god; some Roman Catholics and Muslims also whip themselves to blood,
offering their blood to their twisted conception of God.
c. O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You
maintain my lot: After stating that there was nothing found in the
pagan gods, David explained the good he received from Yahweh.
i. You are the portion of my
inheritance: David was the youngest son in a family with many sons.
He could expect no inheritance from
his family; yet he took joy and comfort in the fact that God was the portion of his inheritance,
and he knew that he had a good inheritance.
The lines that marked out his
inheritance had fallen to him in pleasant places.
ii. God said to the priests in the days of Moses: I am
your portion and your inheritance (Numbers 18:20). David understood that this
was a promise given not only to the priests, but also to all who would trust
God to be the portion of their inheritance. Every godly man has the same
possession and the same prohibitions as the priests had. Like them he is
landless, and instead of estates had Jehovah. (Maclaren)
iii. You maintain my lot:
This described the portion of Davids
inheritance. David was confident that God would maintain
what He had first given to him.
iv. This attitude did not come easily or always to David.
He complained to Saul in 1 Samuel 26:19: for they have driven me out this
day from sharing in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other
gods. Yet here in this Psalm he comes back
to the conclusion that the Lord is his inheritance and will maintain his lot.
v. Davids words here speak of contentment. He is content with what God has given him. A mark
of our age – especially with the Baby Boom generation and perhaps even
more with those following – is discontentment, boredom, and restlessness.
A generation with short attention spans, the constant need for excitement and
adrenaline rushes, and 24-hour a day entertainment needs to know by experience
what David knew.
B.
The benefits of Davids confidence.
1. (7-8) The benefits of guidance and security.
I will bless the Lord
who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
I have set the Lord
always before me;
Because He is at my
right hand I shall not be moved.
a. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel:
The false gods of the nations could never give counsel
the way the Lord gave it to David.
When David needed guidance, God gave it to him, and therefore David praised
God.
b. My heart also instructs
me in the night seasons: This was because Davids heart was
instructed first by God and His Word, and therefore could also instruct him in
the ways of God. This is an example of the benefits that come from the
transformation of thinking spoken of in Romans 12:1-2.
i. The Psalms also know that it can be vain to stay up late to try and figure your problems
(Psalm 127:1-2). Yet David knew the joy of communing with God in the night seasons and receiving guidance
from Him.
ii. 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. (Trapp)
c. I have set the Lord always before me: This
speaks of a decision David made to put
God first in his life. He determined that God would always be his focus, his
perspective.
i. In the ultimate sense, only Jesus did this perfectly.
He was always in the intimate presence of His Father. The method taken by
Christ, as man, to support himself in time of trouble, and persevere unto the
end, was to maintain a constant and actual sense of the presence of Jehovah,
whom when he thus saw standing at his right hand, read, at the appointed hour,
to succor and deliver him, he then feared not the powers of earth and hell
combined for his destruction. (Horne)
ii. That effort of faith is the very life of devotion. .
. . God is only our in reality when we are conscious of His nearness, and that
is strange love of Him which is content to pass days without ever setting Him
before itself. (Maclaren)
d. Because He is at my right
hand I shall not be moved: This was the plain result of Davids
decision to put God first. There was a standing and security in Davids life
that would not have otherwise existed.
2. (9-11) The benefits of joy and preservation.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness
of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures
forevermore.
a. Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: David continued to describe
the benefits of his decision to set the Lord
always before him (Psalm 16:8). This
decision brought a gladness and a
glory to Davids life.
i. For those who do not live out a
true commitment to God, it is easy for them to think of what such a commitment costs them. This is not entirely bad, because this kind of
decision to set the Lord
always before ones self does have a cost,
and the cost should be counted and appreciated. It may cost certain pleasures,
popularity, anonymity, family relationships, life goals, career choices,
financial priorities, and so forth.
ii. Yet David also tells us some
of the benefits of such a life decision:
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices.
There was happiness and a glory David knew by this life commitment that he
would not have known otherwise.
iii. David could maturely
understand both the costs and the benefits, and sing a song of praise about his
life decision.
b. My
flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol:
David described a further benefit of his life decision to set the Lord always before him. It was the confidence of Gods care and
blessing in the life beyond. David had the settled hope
(a confidence, not a simple wish), that God would not leave his soul in the grave (Sheol),
but that his life would continue on in the presence of God.
i. This statement is a wonderful
declaration of trust in some sort of resurrection and afterlife. Yet the Psalms
contain both such confident statements and other more doubtful words about the
life beyond (such as in Psalm 6:5 and 88:11). This cloudy understanding of the
afterlife in the Old Testament does not surprise the reader of the New
Testament, who knows that Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10).
c. Nor
will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption: Wonderfully (and
perhaps unknowingly), David spoke beyond himself. In one sense David was indeed
the Holy One of God, whose soul would
not be left in the grave. Yet in a greater and more literal sense, only Jesus
Christ fulfills this in His resurrection.
i. This was perceived by Peter on
the Day of Pentecost, who said that these words went beyond David who was
obviously dead, buried in a grave, and whose body had long ago decayed into
dust (Acts 2:25-31).
ii. In quoting and applying this passage from Psalm 16 to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, Peter showed a remarkably sophisticated understanding of the work of Jesus on the cross. He understood that because Jesus bore our sin without becoming a sinner, He remained the Holy One, even in His death. Since it is incomprehensible that Gods Holy One should be bound by death, the resurrection was absolutely inevitable. As Peter said: It was not possible that He should be held by death (Acts 2:24).
iii. The fact that Jesus remained Gods Holy One despite the ordeal of the cross demonstrates that Jesus bore the penalty of human sin without becoming a sinner Himself. It also shows that this payment of sins was perfect and complete, they only type of payment a Holy One could make. In these ways (as Peter understood), the resurrection proves the perfection of Jesus work on the cross.
iv. We might imagine Jesus taking
this promise to Himself in the agony before and during the crucifixion, and
even afterwards. It was as though our Lord had stayed his soul upon these
words as He left this world and entered the unseen. . . . He sang, as He went,
this hymn of immortal hope. (Meyer)
d. You
will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy:
With these words David seemed to understand that the benefits of this life
commitment to God were received in both this life, and the life beyond.
i. The path
of life is something enjoyed by the believer both now, and in
eternity. God gives us eternal life to enjoy as a present gift, extending into
eternity.
ii. In
Your presence is fullness of joy: This was a joy David could
experience now (in the context of his previously mentioned gladness and
rejoicing), but also ultimately receive when in the more immediate presence of God.
iii. Peter also quoted these lines in his message on the Day of Pentecost. They show that instead of being punished for His glorious work on the cross, Jesus was rewarded, as prophetically described in the Psalm.
e. At
Your right hand are pleasures forevermore: David had full confidence
that his life with God – both now and forevermore
– would be marked by the highest and best pleasures.
This is life lived above shallow entertainments and excitements.
i. These pleasures
are enjoyed at a place: We are also
told that heaven is to be enjoyed at the right hand of God. The right hand,
even on earth, is the place of favor, and the place of honor, and they place of
security. The right-hand place is always regarded as the place of dignity and
nobility in all courts. God is not going to give his people any left-handed
heaven, but they are to dwell at his right hand for evermore.
ii. At
Your right hand are pleasures forevermore: This tells that both in
this life and the life beyond, true pleasures
forevermore are found at the right
hand of God, not in separation from Him.
iii. In his fictional work The
Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis wrote in the
voice of a senior devil, complaining about the unfair advantage that God has
against the devils as they do their dark work: Hes a hedonist at heart. All
those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a faade. Or only like
foam on the sea shore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more
pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are pleasures for
evermore. Ugh! I dont think He has the least inkling of that high and austere
mystery to which we rise in the Miserific Vision. Hes vulgar, Wormwood. He has
a bourgeois mind. He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things
for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least—sleeping,
washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working, Everything
has to be twisted before its any
use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our
side.
iv. The conclusion of this Psalm
is especially wonderful when we consider how it began. The refugee of verse 1
finds himself an heir, and his inheritance beyond all imagining and all
exploring. (Kidner)
v. When we go back to the first verse, we remember that this life of gladness and rejoicing and fullness of joy is not a problem-free life. It is a life that may be challenged, and face attack on many levels. Yet in that a life commitment to God has been made and is enjoyed, it is a secure, happy, blessed life.
2008 David Guzik - No
distribution beyond personal use without permission