Psalm 16 (New King James Version)

A Michtam of David.

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

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.

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.

7 I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs 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 rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16 is one of my favorites.

From his prayer for preservation and declaration of trust in the Lord in verse 1, David reminds himself that he has no goodness of his own to trust in or to base his appeal on. He declares his delight in the saints, those who follow God, and states by contrast that he will not follow after false gods. He knows enough of Israel’s history even at that point to know what happened when Israel forsook the one true God to follow false gods and the multiplied sorrows that followed them until they repented.

I love verses 5-6. It hearkens back to the time when Israel finally came to the promised land and every tribe received their inheritance, the “lot” that fell to each. Our inheritance, our lot, is the Lord Himself. Truly the lines fall fallen to us in pleasant places and we have, as the KJV puts it, a “goodly heritage.”

We can bless and thank the Lord for the counsel He gives us through His word and by directing our decisions as we pray. David often writes of meditating on God and His word at night. Many times in bed at night I’ve thought over a problem, prayed about it, and thought on God’s Word in relation to it. What better way to fall asleep — spending time quietly with Him without all the distractions of the day, committing our way to the Lord, and seeking His wisdom, resting in His care.

Verse 8, to me, seems to work in kind of a cycle: “I have set the LORD always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” The way not to be moved off course is to set Him always before us. Therefore — because He is before us and will take care of us — our “hearts [are] glad, and our glory rejoices; our flesh also will rest in hope.” His care extends beyond the grave — some day He will resurrect us to a new body (though I know this is specifically talking about the coming Messiah whose flesh would not decay at all.)

I don’t have a “life verse” per se, but verse 11 would be one I would consider if I did. I put that verse on graduation cards because people are then seeking the “path of life” in which they should go at that time, but all of us need to follow along God’s path each step of the way. “In Your presence is fullness of joy.” Amen! What a glorious statement! There is a sense in which we are in His presence all the time, but it’s a different thing to consciously abide in His presence. And when people don’t want to give up the world’s pleasures, I wish they would remember the last line of this Psalm, that at His right hand there are pleasures forever more — pure, holy pleasures, more wonderful than they could imagine.

Thanks again to Erica at Butterfly Kisses for beginning and hosting Psalms Sunday.