START WITH SCRIPTURE:
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OBSERVE:
This Psalm is called a Miktam of David. Unfortunately, the meaning of Miktam is a little elusive. There are a collection of Psalms that share this inscription — Psalms 56 – 60. In some translations, miktam is translated To the Chief Musician, as though it provides instructions for how it is to be sung or accompanied. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible suggests that miktam has an ancient Akkadian etymology that means to cover, which would suggest the metaphor of covering sin, or expiation.
In this Psalm, David is asking for God’s protection, and confessing that he has no other source of hope:
My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord.
Apart from you I have no good thing.”
He then draws a stark contrast between the saints in whom David delights and those who offer false worship to false gods:
As for the saints who are in the earth,
they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god.
The next verse provides evidence of a violation of Levitical kosher laws:
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
nor take their names on my lips.
Kosher laws have to do with foods that are prepared according to Jewish law. Leviticus 17 is quite clear about prohibitions against consuming blood, and the rationale behind it:
Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life. Therefore I have said to the children of Israel, “No person among you may eat blood, nor may any stranger who lives as a foreigner among you eat blood” (Leviticus 17:10-12).
Because of the life that is in the blood, it is a sacred thing that is offered in the sacrifice of bulls and lambs for the expiation of sins.
When New Testament authors speak of the atoning power of blood, they speak of the blood of Jesus as our sacrifice:
whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance (Romans 3:25).
The drinking of the blood of sacrifices at pagan rituals was regarded as an act of great offense to the sacrificial blood offered to God.
David transitions neatly away from the imagery of drinking blood to another metaphor very similar:
Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup.
Yahweh’s cup is far more fulfilling.
David goes on to describe the blessings that Yahweh has offered. These are manifold:
- You made my lot secure.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
David describes the allotment of land that has been granted — not only to him but to all the Israelites, with land and inheritance. - Yahweh provides counsel and
my heart instructs me in the night seasons. - Yahweh provides guidance and strength:
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. - Emotionally and physically God provides happiness and safety:
Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices.
My body shall also dwell in safety.
The “good life” of Shalom (peace, security, wholeness) is holistic, involving body, soul and mind.
And then we have a foreshadowing of the promise of eternal life that is revealed in the New Testament:
For you will not leave my soul in Sheol,
neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
Sheol is the shadowy place of the dead. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology says that:
Sheol is devoid of love, hate, envy, work, thought, knowledge, and wisdom ( Ecclesiastes 9:6 Ecclesiastes 9:10 ). Descriptions are bleak: There is no light ( Job 10:21-22 ; 17:13 ; Psalms 88:6 Psalms 88:12 ; 143:3 ), no remembrance ( Psalm 6:5 ; 88:12 ; Eccl 9:5 ), no praise of God ( Psalm 6:5 ; 30:9 ; 88:10-12 ; 115:17 ; Isa 38:18 )in fact, no sound at all ( Psalm 94:17 ; 115:17 ). Its inhabitants are weak, trembling shades ( Job 26:5 ; Psalm 88:10-12 ; Isa 14:9-10 ) who can never hope to escape from its gates ( Job 10:21 ; 17:13-16 ; Isa 38:10 ). Sheol is like a ravenous beast that swallows the living without being sated ( Prov 1:12 ; 27:20 ; Isa 5:14 ). Some thought the dead were cut off from God ( Psalm 88:3-5 ; Isa 38:11 ); while others believed that God’s presence reached even to Sheol ( Psalm 139:8 ).
The promise to the holy one, however, is deliverance even from the decaying effects of death.
David completes this Psalm with a triumphant expression of praise and thanksgiving to Yahweh, who provides guidance, eternal pleasures, and best of all, his presence:
You will show me the path of life.
In your presence is fullness of joy.
In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
APPLY:
It shouldn’t escape notice that Psalm 16 is quoted by Peter in his famous Pentecost sermon (click here for the SOAR on this week’s lectionary reading from Acts 2:14a, 22-32). Peter quotes this section, with a slightly different translation of Psalm 16:8-11:
I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest in hope,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
you will not let your holy one see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence (Acts 2:25-28).
The message of Psalm 16 is that the soul that finds its solace and hope in God alone will be secure — protection in this life, the enjoyment of what God apportions out, and even life eternal.
Peter, however, points out that the ultimate gift of life and salvation is secured by Jesus alone. These words from Psalm 16, he says, can really only apply originally to Jesus. And because of our faith in Jesus, we also enjoy:
- a good inheritance.
- Godly counsel and instruction even in the night seasons, the “dark nights of the soul.”
- protection from God.
- a glad heart, a joyful tongue, and a safe body.
- deliverance from Sheol
- guidance on the path of life, the presence of God which brings fullness of joy, and pleasures forever more.
RESPOND:
John Wesley was an Anglican cleric who preached the Gospel to thousands throughout Britain and Ireland, and founded the United Societies that eventually became the Methodist Church. He rode by horse when he was young, by carriage as he grew old, and traveled thousands of miles — incurring persecution along the way. In all of it, he was an apostle of grace, love, and, yes, spiritual discipline.
When Wesley was 87 years old, he lay dying. But some of his last words were these:
The best of all is, God is with us!
These are fitting words for any servant of God, and reflect the words of the Psalmist:
In your presence is fullness of joy.
Our Lord, we find all of our good and our blessing in you — security, pleasant places, good inheritance, counsel, gladness, safety, and ultimately eternal life and fullness of joy. Thank you for the goodness of life that you provide, now and forever. Amen.
PHOTOS:
"God is the Highest Good (Psalm 16:11)" by John 9:25 (CHRIST Alone SAVES) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
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