Psalm 16

The Psalm in front of us like several previous Psalms in book 1 focuses on the “flawless humanity” of the one Lord Jesus Christ, the God and man. That is the fullest sense of meaning that this Psalms gives. We don’t need to make an apology for this reading as the Scriptures tell us that David as a prophet, united to Christ by faith, spoke in the Spirit of Christ about the Christ to come.

Ash: “With the perspective of the whole of Scripture, we may say that David was a man in Christ, at least in foreshadowing. Just as the righteousness he enjoyed came from God through the covenant promises that would be fulfilled in Christ, so both his desires for God (16:1–8a) and his assurance of eternal life (16:8b–11) came ultimately from his trust in the covenant that would be fulfilled in Christ.”

So David writes and experiences this Psalm by faith through the Spirit of Christ. He and those among him know-the Scriptures tell us-that this is not realized in the life of David or any other King for that matter. These realities look off into the future, to be realized in One who was yet to come. They pondered this Psalm in their hearts.

Memorize this verse, at least know where its located. This is the Holy Spirit infallibly telling us who the OT was about, what is the content, and in what way that was communicated.

1 Peter 1:10–12 “10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them(David) it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.”

The Spirit spoke through the prophets, the Spirit testified that he spoke by the prophets, and to us today, the Spirit testifies that he testified of what he spoke in and through the prophets. What is it that he testifies to? The gospel. The sufferings and glory of Christ.

Structure

A prayer of faith moving into 1

Ash: A Pledge of loyalty 2-4

A profession of delight 5-8

Concludes with an expression of sublime confidence 8-11

Psalms 1–50 Structure

David’s prayer (

#1

A Michtam of David. 1 Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.

David begins by affirming that he has indeed trusted in God’s Messiah:

Psalm 2:12 “12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Faith is commanded by God, approved by God, rewarded by God, and further

Faith takes refuge in God. Faith calls upon the Lord Romans 10:13 “13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.””

But it is not just an initial call out to God and then you’re good to go. I’ve checked that box off. Faith calls upon God and often. It is a pattern, it is the life of the believer. God himself is the very source of your spiritual health and strength, and the believer constantly applies himself to his Lord in this regard, throughout life. David teaches this to us here, as he has already considered blessed for having trusted the Son in Psalm 2, but here appeals to God for preserving mercies.

2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.”

David isn’t keeping his options open. His Lord is his all. He isn’t looking around to see if there are other goods greater or stronger or quicker to help. A sinful habit of mine that I hate, is the way I engage in conversations with people, while I have something else on my mind, I’m not devoted, I’m distracted. Most often it is trying to keep an eye on my children. But sometimes I’m thinking about what I have to do yet that day, that I have to be heading for the door. That’s a vice. That is wrong.

It ought not to be that way with how we view the Lord. We say the Lord is our good, yet we keep an eye out for other goodnesses that perhaps might fill in for where God is lacking……

And What David tells us here is that he doesn’t not consider God with one eye on him, and one eye elsewhere. God as the highest good, is all of David’s goodness. David seeks all goodness from God, and all goods received, he traces back up to God. Yet, even David would not fulfill this for the entirety of his life as his tragic sin with Bathsheba would prove. But not so with the Lord Jesus. Jesus kept this pledge with undivided heart. When all through his life, the temptation to place other goods before God were there, yet he never bent. Perfect in his devotion to God.

Undivided in heart. You are my Lord, no good apart from you. My Lord, no good, before you. Its an “echo” of the first commandment. Where going to see the fulness of the obedience to both tables of the law in this and the previous Psalm, but It also sets up for the contrast of verse 4. David knows what happens when one chases after other so called goods.

3 As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

David loves the saints. He doesn’t consider there standing among men, but who they are before God. Do they share my love for God, then regardless of rank or standing among men, they are indeed excellent, high ranking, the majestic ones, and I delight in them. David delights in those who delight in God. David loves those who love God.

Jesus loves the saints. He loves his church. He delights in them.

Jesus delight in the saints, is a delight that goes back into eternity. “From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.” Pro 8. Tells us:

30 Then(when is then? Eternity) I was beside Him as a master craftsman;

And I was daily His delight,

Rejoicing always before Him,

31 Rejoicing in His inhabited world,

And my delight was with the sons of men.

David writes verse three as one amongst us as a fallen sinner, but Christ says it as one both amongst us in the flesh, and above us and before us as the eternal God. Even the one who made us for himself, for his own delight, and pleasure and glory. Now notice how we have the ability to read this Psalm as the Words of David, the Words of Jesus, and now our own words toward the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ.

It is he, the Lord Jesus Christ to whom the Christian says today, Psalm 16:1–2 “1 Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. 2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.”” O Christ. The one who lived this Psalm to its fulfillment, is the one we have fellowship with now, today. And we pray it and sing it with devotion to our Lord. Jehovah in the flesh. Risen and exulted.

……………

He’s given his evaluation of the holy ones, but he must also give his evaluation of those who go after another god.

4 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.

Those who chase after other gods or other goods, will be frustrated. There sorrows will multiply. If you are a believer or an unbeliever, you understand to varying degrees that created goods as ends in themselves, cannot make you happy. The pleasure you get from them is fleeting, and it only brings sorrow in its place. The god of vocation, the god of family, the god of sexual pleasure, the god of business, the god accomplishment, all lead to sorrow if they are the end themselves. And this Priest-King will not offer these offerings before God. He will not intercede, he will not name their names, the idols or the idol worshippers. John 17:9 “9 “I pray for them(the saints). I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.”

This section answers a question that should have arisen after one has read Ps 15. Why refrain from a live of unbridled pleasure.

Because the Lord is better than all that. And the Lord is the portion of David now.

5 O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot.

6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.

It is a reference to the promised land, but used as a metaphor. The Lord is Davids portion and cup. It reminds one of the Levites portion in the promised land. Where was their portion of land located?

Numbers 18:20 “20 Then the Lord said to Aaron: “You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.”

Hamilton: By saying these things, David colors himself with a priestly, Aaronic hue, ……..to shade kingship in Israel with priestly overtones. Adam was a royal priest, Israel was to be a royal priesthood, and now King David speaks of his inheritance in priestly terms, anticipating the King who will come as the great high priest.

His portion was not in the promised land and it wasn’t to be that way for the other tribes either, they where to see the Lord as there inheritanc and portion as well. God did not intend them to get stuck on the physical and temporal. It contrasts with Psalm 11:6 “6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind Shall be the portion of their cup.”

It’s not just that David is getting out of sheol. The LORD is Davids inheritance.

The inheritance of the righteous is God, yes it is also where he is which is heaven. But it is such because the LORD himself is there. That is the desire of the righteous, not a reunion with family, not what abilities our glorified bodies will have, but a continual vision of the one in whom our soul delights, has already delighted in. If indeed your soul delights in him.

But, Jim Hamilton reminds us that we shouldn’t take inheritance and portion in the land lightly: What was land for an Israelite at the time of the writing? It was his or her life. Reputation, well being, inheritance. It was okay to see it as such, but what they needed to see, what we need to see today is that the LORD is all that and some. Again, part of the insanity of unbelief, of sin….is that we try to seek pleasure apart from God, we try to seek refuge apart from God, we try to find meaning apart from God. God made the world, God created pleasure, God himself is the only real refuge from all danger, God is the telos the goal of all his creatures. The gods we form and fashion to fill our needs and desires don’t exist, they are false gods, they cannot speak, hear, taste, touch, smell, move. The eyes of faith looks through the good things in this life to God. To stop at the gift turns it into a God, to go beyond it is to enjoy and truly worship and delight in God.

Davids life is bound up in his covenant Lord as a refuge, as his goodness, as his portion, this is like Paul in Phil 1, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. There is a sense in which for Paul, there is something in his life that doesn’t change at death. Think about that.

and where does he learn all this, where is he taught and instructed to believe and think, and be affected thus?

7 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.

At this point, Davids most immediate contact with the LORD is via his Word. Where does one get instruction and counsel. Psalm One tells us that the righteous man does not get his councel from the ungodly, ie, the world, in whatever way(various) the world pulls away from the true God. He does not take counsel there.

Rather he meditates on the LORDS law, which we know this word extends beyond just the LORDS commands but to promises as well, it can be understood as his Word in total. He delights in it, and he meditates on God’s law day and night. Like the faithful King.

One comm: These statements indicate that as David reflects on the Torah day and night, the Lord visits him, and God’s biblical counsel corrects any wayward inclinations he might feel. In doing so, he is putting the Lord before his face.

8 I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

David lives his life Coram Deo. Before the face of God. To live before men as we’ve discussed before is to become a theologian of glory. You lose the ability to see things for what they really are. The world sees suffering and thinks, God didn’t approve of that person, they see power and might and prosperity, and think, that person is blessed and approved of God. Living before God’s face however, sees things as they really are, through the cross, it sees things soberly. Proseprity may mean God’s blessing, but it also may mean God’s judgement. Suffering may mean judgement for wrongdoing, but it also may entail suffering for righteousness sake. The one who lives before the face of God sees things as they are and thus is not moved. They don’t totter.

Consider Jesus as he approaches the hour of his passion. If he sees his circumstance merely through the eyes of the world, surely he would have to conclude that he is out of Gods favor and is going to death for some wrong he had done, that he is cursed of God. But so far from that, he goes with the Lord set before him as always. He goes unmoved, unflinching, not because its Jesus against the world, but because he knows who the LORD is, he knows what he came to do, he knows it is the LORD’s will. He won’t totter because God is at his right hand. He has done the good pleasure of the LORD. Psalm 15:5 “5 He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.” The Psalmist is saying, here I’ve fulfilled Psalm 15 and now I have a right into God’s holy presence. Speaking in the form of a servant, Jesus had no need to fear, because he had done the will of God with delight and joy. Augustine: As Jesus words, “I did not take my eye off him who abides always, for I looked forward to speeding back to him when my passage through temporal things should be over.”

No doubt these are the Psalms Jesus is meditating upon as passion approaches.

Psalm 3. The Lord will hear Jesus from his holy hill, Jesus may ascend the hill of the Lord. What can move the one who has such standing before the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, if you be united to Christ by faith, and you are one who out of love for God( filail fear not servial fear) is on the trajectory of doing well pleasing unto God, why should you fear. Why should you fear anything if you’ve done the will of God, if you live a life before God’s face, as in his presence, in the fear of Him, then why would you fear even death. God has promised that that one will not be moved, he or she will not totter. To the contrary, be very afraid if you do not live before Gods face, and if you be outside of Christ. Fear, it is right to do so, because it is not the world that you need to fear, who can kill the body, but fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. You should fear the one whom you are rejecting for a little pleasure. Because if you remain in unbelief, while you filling up your pleasure and ease in this life, you will be raised up to endure the wrath of God that has been filled up, to poor out upon image bearers who have rejected their maker and sustainer( who would be their redeemer) for the entirety of their short and insignificant existence. If that be you today, repent, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Today is the day of salvation.

The Psalmist living before God’s face. Resolved to do his will even in the midst of opposition and persecution, is glad, and joyful.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.

The presence of God is already a reward for the righteous, and so is their righteous living. Denying your self, is already a reward that brings blessing with it. *Dear Christian, learn this well, both in your duties towards God in Christ and his church. You will never ever go away unfilled if you attend to your obligations to Christ and his body by faith. Everything Jesus did was to God and on behalf of the church. And while on the one hand, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, yet at the same time he was the most glad and joyful man to ever live. His food, his satisfaction was to do the will of the Father.

We gather twice a week for a short amount of time. And I garuntee no one who has coming by faith and putting themselves at Gods disposal, has gone away disappointed. Its impossible. Morning and evening worship and Wednesday prayer. You won’t go away and say, my time would have been better spent elsewhere. In your private home life, you won’t regret praying to much or studying your Bible to much. *Give yourself to God, and God will give you joy and gladness just as he gave his faithful covenant servant. You have the mind of Christ. Put it on.

My flesh also will rest in hope.

What does the blameless one of Ps 15 have to fear, further, what could keep back gladness and rejoicing and confidence? He knows the end of the will of God, the end of the promise, is God’s blessed presence. John 17:5 “5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

He says “my flesh will dwell in hope”. This is assurance following the joy of obedience, of a virtuous life. Psalm 15:1 “1 Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?” As the Lords anointed, the one who has kept himself from vice, I will abide, I will dwell says Christ. And the Christian knows that he will as well, not by his own virtue, by by that which Christ has won for him or her. Christ could rest assured on his own merits, we on Christs merits. You see how Christ would have sung that song then and how he sings it now as he is the King and leader of his church. Then for himself, and as to what he would accomplish for his people and what the Father would give him as a result of his obedience. Now on our behalf, as the reigning exalted King who is now by his Spirit bringing us to glory. It becomes ours only in Christ. And it is glorious when we can see the psalms, and read them , and pray and sing them this way.

Hamilton asks the question again: Why would anyone live as Ps 15 describes? Because they have experienced God as Ps 16 describes.

But the present joy and experience of God, the present hope we know leads to something greater, even resurrected glory.

God through David, is trying to win us over to the fact that resurrected glory won’t be something totally new or unexpected for the believer. It will be a passing from one experience of God to another-yes, far more glorious experience- but not something altogether foreign or unexpected.

Better put by one comm:

“In Psalm 16. A vague, inchoate hope of eternal life is expressed, born of a conviction that a friendship with God which has become so real in this life cannot be extinguished by death.”

Out of this confidence

10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

How could that happen with one so intimate so closely united to God, how could God leave one in the grave who has so kept himself unstained in every way from the world, holy and undefiled. This one who has kept both tables of the law. Such a one cannot stay in the grave!

This is indeed what has been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ as attested by the Holy Spirit, through the apostles, in the Holy Scriptures. Acts 2:22–28 “22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. 25 For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. 27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’”

Glorious assurance for us here.

The resurrection is the most well attested historical event in the ancient world. Thats good, thats great that’s encouraging. But what can give you an unshakeable assurance that it really happened, what can you rest your soul upon. This is the article of the Christian faith, without which, we can just pack up and go home. Go eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die, we would join those of verse 4. What gives us assurance that it happened? For us as reformed protestants, Its the fact that God said it. God spoke it. God told us what he did in raising Christ from the dead. Listen, you’ve heard me say this before, remember this pattern.

God said he was gonna do it – – he did it – – and then told us that he did it. This is what happened in the resurrection. Told us in the OC, did it in Christ, tells us that he did it by the Holy Spirit.

We believe in one God,

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds,

who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again,? according to the Scriptures;

Our faith does not rest on the attestation of historians. Though we are glad to discover that this event is so well attested, we are glad to find all sorts of archeological disoveries that support biblical events.

But ultimatley, our infallable assurance of faith, can only be infallible if It rests upon the Word of God. God said in the resurrection I have justified my Son. And through faith in the risen Christ, his person and work, his life death and resurrection, we are freely justified, declared righteous and not guilty for his sake. He has been raised and we have been raised up with him. And if we have been raised now, shall we not also be raised then. Yes. If this be yours by faith, then what or who have you to fear? Death, hell, the devil. No. Man. No. You have peace with God. You are now free to love and serve God, as his beloved child. Not fearing condemnation, not fearing hell, only fearing you’ll displease your gracious and good Lord. Go forward and be what you are this week beloved, already seated in heaven with Christ, already raised from the dead, to be raised yet at the last day in glory, already royalty.

If you are not in Christ, then trust to him today. If you have not believed, there isn’t a problem with the evidence, there is a problem with you! And its not a problem with God, he doesn’t need to take you back to the res in a time machine, or give a vision of the risen Lord to you. No you need to change, you need a new heart, you need to be born again, you need to be given ears to hear as the risen Lord speaks from heaven today. Lord I want to believe, help my unbelief. Thats the only appropriate plea for the unbeliever. Lord you don’t owe anything to a rebel like me but show me your Son. The broken and contrite heart God will not despise.

11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Imagine the most blissful situation.

You will walk right into eternity. The believer has already been walking on the path of life. Yet one day that walking will be transformed into somethjng far more glorious than it already is. 

It is the joy of both who our triune God is and what he gives. Inseperable. The presence of God is fulness of joy and eternal pleasures are given by him. 

Fullness = fully satisfying. Why is it not fully satisfying at present.  Not something lacking in the object of that satisfaction. Because of our remaining sin. When that goes away at death or second coming. 

This eternal fulness of joy in God is what all image bearers were created for, and is what the believer is headed towards.

What began as a plea in faith for refuge in verse 1 has now become an inexpressible state of eternal joy and bliss. Faith will give way to sight, until then we solder on.

Lets pray.

Our perspective:

We cannot yearn for God outside of Christ. No one comes to the Father…….It begins there. In fact our yearnings for God are for God in Christ. In yearning for God, we are yearning for Christ, because he is God in the flesh for us and our salvation. The longing and fellowship now, and the resurrection to come are ours in Christ Jesus, who has risen, has ascended never to die again. Death, the Devil, and hell have all been overcome by Jesus. They hold no power over him all through his flawless obedience to death.

You say, well I don’t see him pastor. Indeed, who hopes for what he sees. Yet the hope of the Christian is not a wish. It is a certain hope, in God’s Word, in Gods faithfulness.

It is not for the worldly wise. It is foolish to the world. A man who claimed to be God, lived a perfect life, was put to death by pontius pilate, and supposedley rose again 2000 + yrs ago. This is your message. I’m suppose to beleive that. Forsake all earthly pleasures for that. Face persecution, suffering, or even death, for that message. Yes. Further, its free, I don’t have to earn it, sounds too good to be true. The world says, you’re outta your mind. Indeed to the world, to the natural man, it is. He or she cannot see, hear, believe, if this be you call upon the Lord today. Give me eyes to see Lord, a heart to believe.

For us who believe, indeed, it does come with a cost, and with loss. It is a constant warfare inside of denial of everything the world around us endulges in often times without hindrance or censequence. But even in the suffering, there are great delights for the Christian. Peace with God, joy in his presence and fellowship, gladness in tasting of his salvation each week, month, and year. A growing weight and anticipation of the glory to come. The believer has come to understand that the fleeting pleasures of life are no real pleasure at all, certainly not pleasure outside of God. That having Christ as ones portion is indeed greater than having the whole world. Because as we mentioned, he made the world, he fashioned you, even after his own image and likeness. In true righteousness and holiness.