Psalm 16
11 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Acts 2×4Psalms 17×2Psalms 31×2Psalms 73×2Isaiah 26×1Exodus 23×1
Summary
Chapter summary
A michtam of David: 'Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I take refuge.' Jehovah is his portion and cup; the lines are fallen in pleasant places. 'I have set Jehovah always before me… my flesh also shall dwell in safety. For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption': the resurrection text Peter (Acts 2) and Paul (Acts 13) preach of Christ. 'In thy presence is fulness of joy.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 16The history
"Michtam" in the heading marks a small group of psalms (16, 56–60) and its meaning is uncertain — suggestions run from "golden" to "inscription." It is honest to say the term has not been recovered.
The heart of the psalm is land law. When Israel entered Canaan the land was divided by lot, and each family's portion was marked by boundary stones and measured with a surveyor's cord. That plot was meant to stay in the family forever; moving a neighbor's boundary stone was a crime named in the Law. So "the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places" is a farmer's sentence about a good inheritance — and the psalmist applies it to God himself: "the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance."
Behind that lies the case of the Levites, who received no tribal territory at all. Their portion, the Law says, is the Lord. The psalm takes the one landless tribe's arrangement and makes it the best deal in Israel.
"Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer" points at what the neighbors did. Israel's drink offering was wine poured out beside the altar; Canaanite and other regional cults involved blood rites and the invoking of other gods by name. The psalm refuses even to say those names.
What it meant to them
To an Israelite, everything depended on holding your ground — literally. This psalm said the deepest holding was not the field but the God who assigned it.
The closing lines pressed past the grave: "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." First hearers took it as confidence that God would not abandon his servant to death; Peter and Paul later argued in public that David died and was buried, so the words reach past him to the risen Messiah.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 16
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 16. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 8 · Quoted here
'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell': Peter at Pentecost, resurrection proof.
Acts 2:25→David says about Him: ‘I saw the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 10 · Quoted here
'not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption': Paul at Antioch.
Acts 13:35→So also, He says in another Psalm: ‘You will not let Your Holy One see decay.’
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 10 · Spoken beforehand, fulfilled here
'not see corruption'
Acts 2:27→because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 10 · A picture of Christ
God would not abandon His Holy One to Sheol
Acts 2:31→Foreseeing this, David spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His body see decay.
MannaFest topical index
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.