Bible Commentaries

Psalms 16:1. Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

Notice how the psalmist urges the prevailing plea of faith. A trusted God will be a preserving God. If thou, believer, canst truly say that thou art trusting God in any time of trouble or danger, thou wilt be safe enough in his keeping.

Psalms 16:2-3. O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, is whom is all my delight.

“I cannot do thee any good, thou art too great to need anything from me; but I may be the means of blessing to thy people, thy saints may reap some little benefit from what I do. They are the company I keep, they are the choicest friends I know, and if thou wilt but help me to do something for thee which shall bring blessing to them, I shall indeed rejoice”

Psalms 16:4. 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.

We must be faithful to God, to the God revealed to us in the Book of God, the God of the Old Testament of the New Testament, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must keep to him, not make another god after our own imagination. It is practical idolatry even to conceive of God otherwise than he is revealed in Holy Scripture. This we must not do, but say, concerning the God of the Bible, “This God is our God for over and ever.”

Psalms 16:5. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

One of the great houses of nobility has for its motto the words, “I will maintain it.” But David’s is a better one: “Thou maintainest my lot.” God is the best Defender that his people can ever have.

Psalms 16:6. The lines are fallen into me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

Many of us have proved this to be true in our experience. May we continue gratefully contented and more than contented, delighted with whatever God appoints for us!

Psalms 16:7-8. I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the LORD always before me?

“In my acts by day, and my thoughts by night,”

Psalms 16:8. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Now across the sacred page there comes the wondrous revelation of a glorious One who speaks in the very words that are recorded here. Though, possibly, we have not recognized him, these words that follow apply specially to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalms 16:9. Therefore my heart is glad,

Because, in the night watches, he had sought his Father, and found help in him, he could say, “Therefore my heart is glad.”

Psalms 16:9-10. And my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;

Or, rather, Hades, the abode of the dead.

Psalms 16:10. Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Now David was gathered to his fathers, and his body saw corruption, as the apostle Peter rightly observed, so it is clear that he is not speaking of himself here, not in the first place, at any rate, but of “great David’s greater Son,” our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: “Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”

Psalms 16:11. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hands there are pleasures for evermore.