Psalm XVI
1 Preserve me, 0 God: for in thee do I put my trust.
2 O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: My goodness extendeth not to thee;
3 But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is
all my delight.
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god:
Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: — thou maintainest my lot.
6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly
heritage.
7 I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the Lord always before me:
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall
rest in hope.
10 For thou wilt not leaA’e my soul in hell;
Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: — in thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
It is not sin alone that characterises our world. Misery goes ^^/’Jorpow’“^”’^’ hand in hand with sin. And hence, as the preceding Psalm set before us One who was holy in the midst of a world lying in wickedness, though breathing its air, walking on its highway, handling its objects, and conversing with its inhabitants, so this Psalm exhibits One who is happy, truly happy, notwithstanding a world of broken cisterns around him, and the sighs borne to his ear on every breeze. This happy One is “tJie Man of Sorrows” — no other than He! For Peter, in Acts ii. 31, declares, “David speaketh concerning Him!”
This happy One (followed in all ages by his chosen ones) walks through many a varied scene, and at every step expresses satisfaction and perfect contentment with the Father’s arrangements. In verses 1, 2, he tells, with complacent delight, into whose hands it is he has committed his all: “Thou art my Lord,” — my soul has said this with all its strength. And
“Mj, goodness is not over Thee;” whatever is good or blessed in my lot, makes no pretensions to add anything to thy blessedness, to overshadow thee; nor do I allow the bliss I enjoy to supersede Him who blesses me.* And does not every member of his body respond to all this! Who of them does not reply, “My Lord and my God! thou art the very bower of bliss under which I sit. We are blessed in thee; but thou needest not us to bless thee I”
Satisfied with his Father as God, and Lord, and Guardian, he is equally so with the sphere within which he must move: “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” None on earth, seem to Him so pleasant and “honourable” (D^’’’7^<), (see Psa. viii. 1) as the saints. And not less is He pleased with his separation from all idols and all idolatry. (See ver. 3 and 4.) And does not every member of his body respond, “Amen!” gladly recognising their own company as the circle within which is “all their delight.” But how instructive and wonderfid it is to find, in ver. 5, such entire contentedness with the Lord’s doings, and such a recognition of his will. For it was enemies that brought him many a bitter draught to drink, the vinegar and the gall, — it was “not an enemy,” but worse far, a perfidious friend, that plunged the dagger into his heart; and yet in all this he sees the Lord giving him his cup and portion. Nor less remarkable is it to hear, in ver. 6, the Man of Sorrows tell that his lines have fallen to him in pleasant places! He that had nowhere to lay his head, how happy is He! What
* As for “goodness,” see Psalm cvi. 6, and the equivalent ^iZC of Psalm cxxviii. 5. In the “T!’»’py there may be reference to the sky over our head. Such a passage as Psalm cviii. 5 is parallel; “Great aljovc the heavens” — the heavens not above thee, but thou over them.
PSALM XVI. — Messiah’s satisfaction with his lot. 53
a calm contentment sits upon bis pensive brow! Earth and hell are unable to destroy his blessed lot. He has (ver. 7) found communion with his Father, when others sleep, — in the retired valleys and hills of Galilee, on the Mount of Olives, in the wilderness. The presence and care of his Father is a fund of enjoyment in itself (Ver. 8.) All may be scattered and leave him alone; but yet he is not alone, for the Father is with him.
Such joys as these still gladden every believer’s soul, even as they did refresh the “Author and Finisher of our Faith.” He drank of these brooks by the way, “therefore was his heart glad.” That he might endure to the end, and as man endure, he tasted of needful draughts in his sore undertaking; and his draughts of refreshment were of the kind which we have seen above. We, too, can taste the same, and we need the same. Nor less do we need what follows in ver. 9, secure confidence in prospect of death, and (ver. 10) the hope of blessed resurrection. Our Head laid his flesh in the Joseph’s sepulchre, expecting the future result, a speedy resurrection. His soul was not to be left long separate from his body — out of paradise it was soon to come, and on the third day to rejoin its body ere corruption could begin. But we, too, his members, are as sure of a return of our souls from j)aradise to join our bodies on the Resurrection Morn, when “this corruptible shall put on incorruption.” And thus to the Head and members shall their full satisfaction be realized, and that for ever. He and they shall tread the path of life, and enter into “fulness of joy, pleasures for evermore,” — the blessedness of the eternal kingdom.
Such are the riches of this Psalm that some have been led to think the obscure title, “Michtam,” has been prefixed to it on account of its golden stores. For DJIS is used of the “gold of Ophir,” {e.g., Psa. xlv. 10), and DJlIlp might be a derivative from that root. But as there is a group of five other Psalms (viz., lvi., lvii., lviii., lix., Ix.) that bear this title, whose subject matter is various, but which all end in a tone of triumph, it has been suggested that the Septuagint may be nearly right in their 2rj5Xo7ga/a, as if “A Psalm to be hung up or inscribed on a pillar to commemorate victory.” It is, puiweler,
The tone.
51 PSALM XVII. — DISSATISFACTION WITH A PRESENT WORLD.
more like still that the term, “Michtam” (like “Maschil”), is a musical term, whose real meaning and use we have lost, and may recover only when the ransomed house of Israel return home with songs. Meanwhile the subject-matter of this Psalm itself is very clearly this —
The Righteous One’s satisfaction with his lot.