Psalm 16
Date: May 5th, 2024
Speaker: Sam Crites
Scripture: Psalm 16
Exegetical Outline
MIT: YHWH satisfies David with eternal life, eternal joy, and eternal pleasure.
1. 1-4: David has taken shelter in the Lord because God is his greatest good and God’s true people are his greatest delight.
2. 5-7: David has chosen to follow the Lord and God has given him an inheritance and wise counsel.
3. 8-11: David has set his heart on the Lord and is glad, knowing that not even death can separate him from the Lord; David has found life, joy and pleasure forevermore.
Homiletical Outline
MIS: God preserves his people by satisfying their temporal desires with his eternal presence.
1. Loving the right things is the key to personal delight. (1-4)
2. Seeking the Lord is the key to contentment. (5-7)
3. The hope of resurrection is the key to joy. (8-11)
Introduction:
If you will permit me, I would like to take a little time before we actually read Psalm 16 to explain to you something that is essential to understanding this psalm before we dive in. This will be a longer intro, but I think it will help you to understand what is taking place in Psalm 16 from the beginning.
Psalm 16 is a complicated psalm to understand because David is both speaking for himself and he is speaking on behalf of someone else. When we read Psalm 16 as a standalone psalm, it sounds like a prayer of deliverance and a song of praise that David could have penned at any point in his life. But there is a deeper and richer meaning behind that psalm that comes to light as we read Psalm 16 within the context of the other psalms to which it belongs.
Psalm 16 is the second psalm in a series of psalms that run from Psalm 15 – Psalm 24. As we saw last week, these psalms speak of David’s hope in the future king that was promised him in 2 Samuel 7, a king from his own bloodline that would sit on the throne of David forever. This psalm is both David speaking for himself about his own life and it is David speaking prophetically on behalf of that second son that was yet to come.
This makes this psalm challenging to interpret and understand. It is as if David were an actor in a play. The actor is using his own voice and his own body in the normal course of his life and yet he is doing it in such a way as to bring to life a character in the story. If Bill the actor is playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, it is appropriate to say that Bill is on the stage speaking and Romeo is on the stage speaking.
This prophetic overlapping of voices in Scripture is a special form of prophecy called typology. David’s normal life, with all of the freedom and messiness and complex decision making, are prophetically superintended by God to reveal patterns and even words that his greater son, the Messiah, will live out in the future.
Not only is typology difficult to understand, but it is also difficult to identify. If we are not careful, bible students can run amuck across the old testament finding typological relationships in all the major characters and stories of Scripture. The safest way to know if there is a legitimate typological relationship between Christ and someone in the Old Testament is to have the New Testament explicitly tell you what is taking place.
Here we are on solid footing in Psalm 16, because Peter in Acts 2 says this is what is taking place. Turn to Acts 2:22-36 with me and lets begin reading in verse 22.
Acts 2:22-36
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,
“ ‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
I want you to observe a couple things about how Peter explains the relationship between David and Jesus. First, as Peter is explaining the resurrection of Christ, he says that David spoke about Christ in Psalm 16 and then he quotes the relevant passage. What Peter says is that David is speaking about Jesus in these verse, but notice the pronoun that David uses and that Peter quotes. It is the first person singular. So, the first thing to see is that David is speaking about himself, but Peter says he is speaking about Jesus Christ. So one key to understanding what is taking place in Psalm 16 is that David can both speak as himself and he can speak as Christ at the exact same time.
The second thing we learn from Peter is that this is a special form of prophecy. In verses 29-31 he says that David could not have actually been speaking about himself because these things never happened to him. David’s body did see corruption because Peter says that he died and his grave is with us to this day, meaning that his body was not preserved through death, it went through the same decomposition that all bodies go through. Rather, David knew two things when he wrote Psalm 16. Verse 30 says that he knew the promise God had already made to him in the Davidic Covenant, and in verse 31 it says that he knew that God would raise Jesus Christ from the dead.
So as we read Psalm 16, the special prophetic relationship between David and Jesus Christ is not an accident. David knew exactly what he was saying, exactly who he was talking about, and exactly what would happen to him. He knew that the Messiah would be killed and that God would raise him from the dead.
And finally, David knew that he was speaking of someone greater than himself. Peter’s reference for this is Psalm 110:1, but this is an interpretive principle that we can apply to all of the Psalms. When David is speaking of the only begotten Son, the one that was promised to him in 2 Samuel 7, he knows who he is talking about. It is not some vague hope in a Messiah that he doesn’t know. He knew that the king that was promised to him was the same son that was promised to Eve, and the seed that was promised to Abraham, and the prophet that was promised to Moses. David wrote the psalms to help all of God’s people know his Lord that God had revealed to him through the prophet Nathan.
Keep these things in mind as we read Psalm 16. This psalm is both a psalm spoken by David and a psalm spoken by Christ. Let’s read.
Psalm 16
16 A Miktam of David.
1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”
3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
In Psalm 16, David gives voice to a most basic human desire, the desire to be satisfied. Part of what it means to be human is to want. We have basic wants like food, shelter, and water, but we also have more complicated wants like delight, contentment and joy. Psalm 16 is about how God satisfies these greater desires. The main idea of Psalm 16 this week is this: God preserves his people by satisfying their temporal desires with his eternal presence.
At the beginning of Psalm 16, David cries to God for preservation and shelter. By the end of the Psalm, God has revealed to David the path of life, the fullness of joy and pleasures that never end. How does David go from crying out to God in need to completely satisfied in who God is? David teaches us three keys for deep satisfaction in God.
First, loving the right things is the key to delight. I struggled to find the right word for this point so I decided to use the exact word David uses in verse 3. David tells us that he is delighted in God and in God’s people. Delight is something that every human being desires. God made us to be creatures that seek pleasure. The problem is that we seek our delight in the wrong things. What delights David is God, his greatest good, and God’s people. Other men run after other gods but David tells us that sorrow will be their only reward. The key to delight is loving God and loving God’s people.
Second, David teaches us that seeking God is the key to contentment. Unlike the fools in verse 4, David has chosen to seek God. He has taken YHWH as his chosen portion and his cup. This language of portion, cup, and lot are allusions to Joshua dividing the promised land among the Israelites as their God given portion. That God is David’s portion means that he has a true inheritance. Not merely a piece of fertile ground, but a God who counsels him, soothing his fears and anxieties. The Word of God satisfies David’s concerns so that he is content, even in the darkest night.
Lastly, David teaches us that the hope of resurrection is the key to joy. This is where Acts 2 genuinely changes the way that we understand what David was originally trying to say. In verse 7, alluding to Deuteronomy 30, David says that he has set his heart on the Lord, he has followed the path of life, so that no matter what comes, he is glad. There is a joy and happiness in his life that is so unshakable even the reality of death cannot dampen it, because he knows the one that has promised him eternal life. For the Christian, death is not final. There is a life to come, so all the trials and discomforts of this life pass around the Christian like a stream passes by a boulder. We are to be so rooted in the hope of the resurrection that the currents of this life can never move us.
How is a Christian supposed to make it to the end? David says in Psalm 16 that you endure to the end by the preservation of God. In the moments when you have longings, he delights. In the moments when you are in need, he provides contentment. In the moments when you are sad, he provides joy. God preserves his people by satisfying their temporal desires with his eternal presence.
Loving the right things is the key to personal delight.
Let’s consider our first point: loving the right things is the key to personal delight. Let’s reread verses 1-4:
Psalm 16:1-4
1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”
3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
The context for Psalm 16 follows on the heels of Psalm 15. David, despairing over the depravity of man asked in Psalm 15, who could possibly be worthy to stand in the presence of God on his holy hill? His answer to the question came to us in Psalm 15 and Psalm 24. In Psalm 15 he says only a perfect man and in Psalm 24 he says only a perfect God. David knew that humanity needed a god-man to rescue them from their total fallenness, and he knew that the king that was promised to him would be that god-man. All of the psalms that we are going to study from Psalm 15 to Psalm 24 have to do with that king, the one that was promised to David in 2 Samuel 7.
So as we open Psalm 16, that David is asking God to preserve him should be no surprise. David is aware that he is not the man that is required. He is not perfect. He needs God to preserve him because David is not the perfect king that he knows he needs to be. But he does know what he should be.
In these first four verses, David tells us the secret to finding true delight in this life, namely, we must love the right things. Now, this sermon is not the motivational kind of sermon about 3 keys to success in life or 5 secrets to being the perfect husband. This is a real sermon. We all truly desire to be delighted. We are creatures that God has made to experience pleasure, and David is demonstrating for us how to genuinely find that in life.
So if you are unhappy in life, Psalm 16 says it is because you delight in the wrong things. You either set your affections on the wrong thing or you love the right thing in the wrong way. Let Psalm 16 be a mirror into which you look to evaluate your loves. If David has found the key to true delight then do your loves match David’s loves?
David speaks to God and says three things. First, he says he loves God because God is his greatest good. Second, he says he loves God’s people because they are his true delight. And finally, he says that he will not love those that chase after other gods, because he knows that that path only leads to sorrow.
The important thing to see in these first four verses is that true pleasure is found in loving that which is worthy of our affection. God has not left us in the dark here. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 22:34-40 that the summary of all of the commands in the Law and prophets breaks down into two great commandments, love God and love others. Listen to what Jesus said:
Matthew 22:34-40
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
This is exactly what David demonstrates in Psalm 16. He says in verse 2 that God is his Lord and he has no good apart from him. The Hebrew literally translates, “I have no good that is higher than you.” David loves the Lord because God is the ultimate good. There is nothing in all of the universe that is of more value than God.
And since David loves God, he also loves what God loves, namely the saints that are in the land, the excellent ones. Brothers and sisters that is us. In 1 Peter 2:9-10 says:
1 Peter 2:9-10
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The alternative, David says, in verse 4, is to turn away from God and his people and chase after other gods. That path only leads to sorrow. It only leads to misery. If you want to be delighted in this world, the only way is to set your hearts on that which is eternal. Love God and love his people and you will have pleasures forevermore.
So Psalm 16 sets before you the same choice that Moses set before the nation of Israel as they were about to enter the promised land. Choose life by loving the Lord your God or choose death by turning your hearts toward other gods that are not gods. The key to delight is to love the right things, namely, to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
Seeking the Lord is the key to contentment.
The next key that David demonstrates for us is the key to personal contentment. Look at verses 5-7.
Psalm 15:5-7
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
The second point of our sermon is that seeking the Lord is key to Christian contentment. By seeking the Lord, I mean by seeking to know him. David says in verse 5 that God has chosen to give himself to David as David’s chosen portion and cup, that the Lord holds his lot. The ESV actually makes a confusing translation in verse 5 that could be read as if David is choosing God, but that is not what is taking place. Let me explain.
Verses 5 and 6 are an allusion to the giving of the land. In the Abrahamic Covenant, God promised his people, through their father Abraham, three things: blessing, a seed or a nation, and land. Not just any land, but a specific land, the land of Canaan. Joshua, Moses’s protégé, leads the people into the land to conquer it and divide it among the children of Israel. Every single Israelite was given a portion of land that was theirs by right in perpetuity, meaning that no matter what happened, even if they sold it, it would eventually be given back to them.
It was their inheritance and it was doled out to them by lot. From a human perspective, it seemed random and a matter of chance, but God superintended the process to give every single Israelite the exact portion he desired for them to have.
David is saying that God is his allotted portion. A mystery to him but a choice by God to receive God as his most beautiful and perfect inheritance. So David continues the metaphor in verse 6 that this is a happy accident. The dice have fallen in a pleasant way. The property lines of his inheritance have fallen in a desirable way. He is pleased with the inheritance that the Lord has chosen for him, namely, that God has given himself to David.
So David response comes in verse 7. He blesses the Lord who gives him counsel and reflects on the Lord’s teachings in the dark of night as he lies in his bed. So what does this have to do with contentment?
What could be a more natural human desire than to have a place where you belong? A home and a portion of land to call you own. For David, God is that portion. He is that inheritance. He is David’s home. No matter what takes place in life, David belongs somewhere. He belongs with God. This means David always has a source of counsel and wisdom, and as God teaches David from his word, David grows in knowledge and understanding. Psalm 1:1-3 says:
Psalm 1:3
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
As David lies on his bed and considers the teachings of God and the fact that he belongs to the Father, David becomes as secure as a tree planted by a stream. His roots grow down deep into the fertile soil of God’s word, securing his position in this life and drawing up nourishment and life regardless of the season that David finds himself in. He has contentment in all seasons of life.
Christian, are you content? This is a uniquely Christian virtue. We are the only people on the planet that can rest in solid assurance, regardless of the circumstances of life, because we belong somewhere. We have a home and a place and we are known. No matter what happens we are nourished by the life giving water of God’s word. God wants you to find the contentment that David has found.
I would confess to you that I struggle with this. Many nights I lie on my bed and sleep escapes me. I do not meditate on God’s word and think about all the things that he has taught me. I worry and bother myself over things that I cannot control. Many times it’s about the Church. What should I do about this pastoral issue with this member? I cannot believe I spoke so poorly in this situation. What creative way can I motivate the people to do this or that? All of these demonstrate that I am missing the contentment that David has found. Instead of relying on the sovereignty of God to do what he has already promised to do, namely build his Church, I take burdens onto my shoulders that only belong on God’s shoulders.
How many would be honest and say that they do the same? What we are learning today is not new to most of us. It is easy for us to say that God is in control, but it is challenging to live like that. God holds out contentment to all of his children as their inheritance. The more we grow in our knowledge of who he is, the easier it will be to trust that he will do what he promises that he will do. Seeking the Lord, growing in our knowledge of who he is for us in Christ, is the key to Christian contentment.
The hope of resurrection is the key to joy.
Finally, the last thing David has to teach us in Psalm 16 is that the hope of resurrection is the key to joy. Let’s read verses 8-11:
Psalm 16:8-11
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
This is where interpreting Psalm 16 becomes more complicated than merely reading what David is saying as if David alone is speaking it. We need to look at the text from two different perspective. So, first, we are going to talk about this text from David’s perspective and then we will finish our time together considering what it meant for Peter to say these are the words of the Messiah.
From David’s perspective, the message is fairly straight forward. David has already set his heart upon God like Moses commanded him to do and is secure in the assurance that no matter what happens he will not be shaken. This confidence, he says in verse 9, leads him to be glad and to make his whole being rejoice, because his flesh dwells securely. Even in the face of death, David is confident in the saving power of his God, because, David says in verse 11, that God has promised his people eternal life.
Which makes us ask the question, what was the basis of David’s confidence? How did he square the promise that God would give his people eternal life with the reality that all people die? The answer can only be that death, for God’s people, is temporary. Sheol, the place of death, is not a place for God’s people, Psalm 9:17 says that Sheol is only a place for the wicked.
This is what Abraham believed when he went to sacrifice Isaac. Listen to Hebrews 11:7-19:
Hebrews 11:17-19
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
The author of Hebrews tells us that Abraham’s faith was so strong that he believed that even if God genuinely meant for him to go through with sacrificing Isaac, the only son of promise, that God was able to give him back what death had robbed.
This is the same hope that David is speaking of in Psalm 16. Confidence in the resurrection that is to come is the source of the Christian’s joy. We are a glad and joyful people because we have no enemies. Not even death, the great enemy of all of Adam’s race, is a threat to God’s people, because the greater Adam has conquered sin, death and the grave.
So practically, what does that mean for the Christian’s life. Are we to constantly skip around, untouched by sorrow and grief? No. The type of gladness David demonstrates in Psalm 16 is realistic, meaning it is rooted in reality. It takes in all that we can see and feel in this life, the pain and sadness and brokenness of a world corrupted by sin, while at the same time, it takes in all that we cannot see, the hope and the promise that it will not always be this way. This world is temporary and there is something coming on the far side of death that will make all of this worth it. A world so glorious that the pains and aches of this world will fade into a distant memory that is forgotten in the light of that glorious future. That hope, the hope that not even death can touch the people of God, is the hope that makes David glad today. It brings him joy in this moment because he God has made him secure and firmly planted his feet on the path that leads to life. The hope of resurrection is the key to joy in the Christian life.
Conclusion
As we conclude, I told you that we would consider these last verses, not as the words of David, but in a greater and truer sense, as the words of Jesus Christ, David’s greater son. Verses 8-11 are Jesus’s words as he faces the cross.
In the garden, Christ prayed with such fervor that he sweat drops of blood. He desperately wanted another way. But there was no other way. He set God before himself by submitting to the will of the Father, which was also his own will as God. The human will of Jesus gave way to his divine will as God, and Jesus left the garden with a peace and contentment that surpasses understanding. He had a confidence facing his torturers that can only be described as joy. In fact that is exactly how Hebrews 12:2 describes it.
Hebrews 12:2
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
It was a deep seated gladness and joy that allowed Christ to endure the cross, but where did that joy come from? It came from the promise of God spoken through the prophet David recorded in God’s word in Psalm 16. Jesus’s joy came from Scripture. God had promised him that his death would not be permanent. The Father would not abandon the Son to Sheol or let his body molder in the grave. He would bring him back from the dead. God would preserve him and deliver him through all the sufferings he experienced in his life, especially from the corruption of death. The promise of resurrection, Peter and David say, was the source of the joy that allowed Christ to endure the cross.
Brother and sisters, consider all that Christ has promised us in Psalm 16 today: delight, contentment, and joy. If these promises carried Christ through the cross, how could they not carry you through all of life’s circumstances? Is there anything that you will experience that could come close to Christ’s physical and spiritual suffering on the cross?
Do not forfeit the peace this passage is offering you. Trust in a God. He preserves his people by satisfying all of their desires with who he is in Christ.
Let’s pray.