A MIKTAM of David.
1Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.
2I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
3As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.
4The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.
5LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
9Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
11You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Original Meaning
ALTHOUGH IT BEGINS with a brief petition (“Keep me safe, O God”), Psalm 16 is primarily a psalm of confident resting in God. Following the initial plea (16:1), the psalm continues with a profession of faith (16:2), a statement of the psalmist’s refusal to worship other gods (16:3–4), a confident commitment to Yahweh (16:5–8), and (5) an expression of confidence and joy in Yahweh (16:9–11).
The Heading (16:0)
THE PSALM IS attributed to David and includes a new term, miktam, which appears elsewhere in the Psalter only in the five consecutive Davidic Psalms 56–60. Although a variety of explanations have been offered, the meaning of miktam remains obscure.1 Probably the most influential suggestion is that of Mowinckel, who insists that the term is derived from a root meaning “cover” and should be understood as an “atonement psalm.”2 But such a designation seems out of sync with the content of this song, which has nothing to do with forgiveness of sin. More recently, several commentators have preferred an interpretation through the Targumim to an “inscribed stela.”3 The idea is that a standing stone inscribed with the content of this psalm would have been left in the temple as an offering gift. Since we have no evidence of such a practice in Israel, we should exercise caution in understanding the elusive meaning of the term.
The Initial Plea (16:1)
THE PSALM BEGINS with a petition for the protective care of Yahweh. As there is no real sense of distress exhibited in the rest of the psalm, the plea is more a desire for continued protection than for deliverance from specific trouble, as is borne out by the Hebrew word šmr (“watch, guard, keep”). Thus, the psalm has generally been understood as a psalm of confidence rather than a plea for deliverance. The psalmist realizes that the potential for suffering, attack, or failure is always present, and so he preemptively assumes a position of complete reliance on Yahweh as protective refuge.4 This commitment picks up on the general description of the previous Psalm 15, especially the concluding promise that the one who emulates the character exhorted in the body of the psalm will enter God’s presence and so “never be shaken” (15:5). The psalmist of Psalm 16 is laying claim to and accessing the refuge offered in that earlier psalm.
It is remarkable, although not unique, that the psalmist’s words are here addressed to “God” (ʾel) rather than to Yahweh. The more generic form of address is occasionally used in the Psalter (cf. 17:6) and even dominates in the Elohistic Psalter collection,5 but it is less than common outside that collection, particularly in the expression of petition.
Profession of Faith (16:2)
THE DEGREE OF variation represented by competing translations of verse 2 of this psalm indicates the extent of textual difficulty encountered in the Hebrew.6 The issue concerns who is speaking in the confessional words of 16:2a (NIV “I said to the LORD”). The choice is between the first-person voice of the psalmist or the second-person voice of another. The choice made affects and is affected by the translation of verses 2–4, especially the understanding of who the “holy ones” (NIV “saints”) and “glorious ones” are. In what follows, I will outline both viewpoints briefly, since the question is, in my opinion, almost impossible to resolve.
I said to the Lord. If the first-person singular form is chosen, then verses 2–4 are the words of the psalmist and express an almost palpable sense of confidence in the protective care of Yahweh. Verse 2 becomes an extension of the confidence expressed in the last half of verse 1 and is an example of a towering profession of faith in Yahweh. Yahweh is the psalmist’s “highest good” (lit. Heb., “[you are] my good—there is none above you”).7
You said to the Lord. Craigie,8 opting for the second masculine singular translation of the consonantal text (“you said”), discovers a balance between verse 2 “(you said) to Yahweh . . .” and verse 3 “(you said) to the holy one . . .” and takes even verse 2 as the statement of those who lack sufficient loyalty to remain faithful to Yahweh. Placing such opposite viewpoints in the mouth of a single speaker suggests a rather confused and syncretistic faith that offends the single-minded loyalty of the psalmist. In this view the “you” is speaking out of one side of his mouth by claiming loyalty to Yahweh, while at the same time proclaiming to the pagan deities his “delight” out of the other side. The harsh critique and disclaimer that follows in 16:4 then reflects the psalmist’s absolute and personal rejection of such wishy-washy accommodation and stakes out his clear commitment to Yahweh alone.
Refusal to Worship Other Gods (16:3–4)
AS FOR THE SAINTS. Those who take verse 2 as the psalmist’s direct address to Yahweh follow two different paths, depending on how they understand the word qedošim (“holy ones” in v. 3). Despite the fact that the normal Hebrew word designating the pious faithful is ḥasidim, many (including NIV at this point) take qedošim to mean “saints,” understand verse 3 as a positive commendation of the “glorious faithful” in the land of Israel, and connect the verse with the preceding statements in 16:1–2. Other commentators, however, drawing on rather persuasive evidence that qedošim is a reference to the pagan Canaanite deities,9 link verse 3 with the negative comments in the following verse 4. In this case, the expression of delight in the “holy ones” and “glorious ones” (16:3) becomes a negative example of false allegiance to pagan gods, which stands in sharp contrast with the proper commitment to Yahweh expressed in verse 1.
Sorrows . . . will increase. It is not clear whether the psalmist expresses a desire that those seeking other gods may suffer or is merely describing the consequences of their disloyalty to Yahweh.10 Regardless, the opening statement of 16:4 disassociates the psalmist from the wrong-headed dependence on pagan deities characteristic of those described in 16:3. The worshipers of other deities are described as “running” urgently or excitedly after them. Their haste demonstrates their misguided need or joyous attachment to what is false. Rather than simply “sorrows,” the verse describes the increase of their “painful sore spots,” like bruises from blows or the sores of Job.
I will not. The loyalty of the psalmist to Yahweh is expressed by complete rejection of any involvement in the false worship of other gods. Two acts of worship are mentioned, both of which the psalmist eschews. (1) The first act is pouring out blood from the sacrificial victim as a sign of submission to a deity and as a plea for deliverance from divine wrath. The terms “libation” (a liquid poured out as an offering) or “oblation” (any act of worship or sacrifice) are often used to describe liquid offerings of wine or blood that were poured out as sacrifices to the deity. While Israelite priests did manipulate the blood of sacrificial offerings—putting some on the “horns” of the altar with their fingers, sprinkling the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy Place, and pouring the remainder at the “foot” of the altar—a distinction was always drawn between what Israel did with sacrificial blood and the “libations” of the pagans. The verb nsk (“pour out as a libation”) is never used to describe Israel’s manipulation of blood.
When Israelites “pour out” sacrificial blood, the word špk is used. Precisely what the difference in practice is remains unclear, but the prohibitions in the law (Deut. 12:16, 24; 15:23) against eating sacrificial blood suggests that the pagan blood libations involved ritual drinking of sacrificial blood—an act abhorrent to Israelites, who even followed rigid kosher rules in which blood was drained from meat used as food. It is thought that in Israelite religious practice, libations of wine may have substituted for blood libations.11
(2) In addition to rejecting the ritual pouring and drinking of sacrificial blood, the psalmist also indicates loyalty to Yahweh by refusing to “lift [take] up the names” of the pagan deities. The picture is one of the pagan worshiper lifting the libation cup to his lips to drink the sacrificial blood—here identified with the “names” of the pagan gods—in an act of allegiance and commitment to them. There is no evidence, however, that the phrase “lift up the name [of a deity]” is an idiom for a particular ritual act. Rather, it seems a simple reference to the frequent use of the divine name in prayer, ritual, and magical rites within the pagan cult.12 The prohibition against abuse of the divine name Yahweh is an indication of the seriousness attached to the voicing of the divine name in Israel. Even the name Yahweh itself provides certain safeguards against such abuse.13
Commitment to Yahweh (16:5–8)
HAVING REJECTED ANY allegiance to pagan gods, the psalmist now recognizes Yahweh as “my portion” and “my cup.” He lifts upon his lips the name of Yahweh rather than of other gods.
A delightful inheritance. The metaphor shifts and overlaps from the “portion” in the ritual “cup” to the “portion” (ḥeleq) of the land distributed by “lot” (goral) with “boundary lines” (ḥabalim), marking off the ancestral “inheritance” (naḥalah). These four terms are all associated with the distribution of the land to the tribes of Israel following the conquest of Canaan.14
The implication of the psalmist’s memory of the land division is counter to the prevailing thought of some that the Canaanite deities were the powers at work in the fertility and prosperity of crops and herds by virtue of their long identification with the land. Many Israelites apparently turned to the established deities, thinking them more effective than Yahweh, who had only recently arrived as a deity. The psalmist, by contrast, knows that it is Yahweh who apportions the land to whom he will and who provides for its security and prosperity. Therefore, “lifting up the names” of the pagan deities is of no avail. The pleasant circumstances that surround the psalmist are the result of the blessing of Yahweh.
I will praise the LORD. As is usually the case, the NIV translates the Hebrew ʾabarek as “I will praise” rather than the more direct and literal “I will bless.” While this interpretive move is nowhere (to my knowledge) explained, it may reflect a hesitancy to accept that humans are able to bless God, who is complete and ineffable in himself. The Hebrews, however, frequently speak of humans doing just that—blessing God. They had no difficulty in conceiving that humans could do more than simply express the awe and wonder of God’s person and deeds that constitute the heart of praise. The Israelites understood that grateful humans desire to give to God something more than laudatory praise, and that is what blessing is all about—the desire to heap good and benefit on the one blessed.
We may debate theologically over whether these expressions of blessing have any effect on the complete, immutable God, but we cannot deny the ardent desire to give good to God that these expressions represent. To translate brk as “praise” deflects and obscures the issue and ultimately waters down the intent and purpose of the original Hebrew.
Who counsels me. In the preceding section, Yahweh was seen as the provider of the psalmist’s secure and blessed environment. The boundaries of the psalmist’s inheritance were assigned by God and fell in pleasant and delightful places (16:5–6). Now the psalmist acknowledges that Yahweh continues to provide counsel and instruction, remaining always at the psalmist’s right hand. The verb “counsel” (yʿṣ) has the sense of “give advice, provide counsel.” The NIV Study Bible notes an apt connection with the “way of life” that Yahweh makes known to the psalmist in 16:11. Again, though the psalmist’s “heart”15 is described as providing instruction (Heb. “chastise, discipline; teach, train”) during the night, it is clear in the context that it is Yahweh who is shaping the psalmist in this way.
I have set the LORD always before me. Yahweh is counselor and instructor; now he is the psalmist’s “guide.” He is “before” the psalmist, leading in the secure path. The psalmist can trust this path because Yahweh is “at [his] right hand”—the place of support and protection (16:8b). As a result the psalmist is confident that “I will not be shaken” (16:8c)—the same kind of confidence expressed previously in 15:5. There an unshakable foundation was created by a pattern of life adhered to by those who would enter God’s presence. Here in 16:8, the psalmist reaches this firm footing by acknowledging the continuous presence of Yahweh with the psalmist. The juxtaposition of these two psalms and these similar phrases and concerns leaves the impression that the narrator of Psalm 16 is claiming to have fulfilled the requirements set out in Psalm 15, so that Yahweh’s presence is assured and the secure foundation of life attained.
Confidence and Joy in Yahweh (16:9–11)
MY HEART . . . my tongue. Because of that secure foundation, the psalmist sings out with a glad “heart” and a joyful “tongue.” The NIV’s reference to the “tongue” interprets a difficult original context. The literal rendering of the Hebrew text is “my glory [kebodi] rejoices.”16 Some Hebrew manuscripts present a slightly different consonantal text, where the result would be kebedi (“my kidney”) rejoices. The kidneys were considered inner indicators of human emotion and deliberation (cf. v. 7b). The NIV’s translation relies on the Septuagint rendering.17
My body also will rest secure. If the NIV’s use of the LXX is followed, the passage follows an instructive pattern. Inner joy (the heart) breaks forth into audible praise (the tongue), and emotional joy is grounded in the physical security of “the body” (16:9b). The phrase “rest secure” renders the Hebrew yiškon labeṭaḥ (“dwells in trust/safety”).18 The sense of security comes from the psalmist’s “trust” in Yahweh, as becomes clear in the following verses.
The reason for the psalmist’s feeling of security in Yahweh is introduced by the Hebrew particle ki (“because”) in 16:10. The reasons given fall into three categories: (1) deliverance from death (16:10); (2) continued guidance (16:11a); and (3) the gift of divine presence (16:11b–c).
The psalmist is secure because Yahweh will not abandon him to “the grave.” This is the third reference to šeʾol, the abode of the dead, in the Psalter.19 To enter šeʾol was to depart from all forms of human existence and activity without hope of return. Although all humans eventually entered šeʾol through death, the only hope for escape from its clutches lay in the hands of Yahweh.
There is no clear belief in immortality or resurrection expressed here. Although Acts 2:25–31; 13:35–37 quotes this passage and interprets it to explain the resurrection of Jesus, the interpretation assumes that in its original context the psalm held out no hope of resurrection to David or other humans, only for the Davidic Messiah yet to come in Jesus. Thus, most likely the psalmist’s immediate hope is for divine intervention to prevent death in his present circumstance.
Your Holy One. This phrase is variously understood, as the different translations attest. The underlying Hebrew word (ḥasid [“pious, devout, faithful one”]) describes the person who is consistently loyal in fulfilling the demands of the covenant—the practical equivalent of those “who fear the LORD.” The translations vary in whether this term refers to the psalmist, who would thus be acknowledged as one of the pious believers, or to a more specific Holy One—the coming Messiah. The NIV’s capitalization of the phrase indicates support for the latter interpretation—one that accords with the use of this passage in Acts 2 and 13 as part of an argument that understands the resurrection of Jesus as evidence that Jesus is the Holy One, since God did not abandon him to Sheol or allow him to “see decay.”
However, most translations (rightly in my opinion) take the former tack and translate the phrase with some variation of “faithful servant” or “godly one.” Thus, the use of the passage in Acts follows a more typological mode of interpretation, in which Jesus is understood as the ultimate “type” of faithful servant who was not abandoned by God to Sheol and decay.
Made known . . . the path of life. Besides being confident of divine deliverance from the threat of death, the psalmist is also assured of continued guidance on the right path. The revelation that is described could be a reference to the instruction provided by the preceding Psalm 15:5, which promises an unshakable place in the presence of God. Here the psalmist makes clear that the “path of life” is not some vague, impossible demand, but a path set out and made known by the God who is the psalmist’s counselor and teacher (16:7)—who desires humans to know him and makes the path to his presence plain.
What the psalmist of Psalm 15 desired—to dwell in the presence of Yahweh (15:1)—the psalmist of Psalm 16 joyously anticipates as a promised reality. With death avoided and the way to God made clear, he can only rejoice at being filled (Heb. śbʿ [“be satiated, satisfied”]) with joy and “eternal pleasures” in the divine presence.
The psalm concludes with a reference to the “right hand” of Yahweh (16:11) that balances the earlier mention of the “right hand” of the psalmist (16:8). As Yahweh stood always at the psalmist’s right hand, present to guide and protect, so the psalmist is assured of being “forever” at the right hand of Yahweh to experience the benefits and blessings of his presence.
BOUNDARY LINES. The central imagery of Psalm 16 is drawn subtly from the narratives surrounding the apportionment of the land following the Conquest (cf. Josh. 12–24). This context provides understanding for the whole passage.
1. In the opening verses the psalmist denies any association with other gods, claiming to be bound exclusively to Yahweh (16:2–4; cf. Josh. 23:7–8, 15–16; 24:14–24).
2. In 16:5–6 the psalmist rejoices in the portion (ḥeleq)20 assigned by lot (goral), whose boundary lines (ḥabalim)21 shape the psalmist’s inheritance (naḥalah).22 The blessings of the land are firmly in mind (16:6).
3. The presence of Yahweh to counsel, instruct, and guide the psalmist dominates verses 7 and 8. Because of the divine presence the psalmist is unshakably confident (16:8; cf. Josh. 1:5; Pss. 15:5c; 25:12; 32:8).23
4. In verses 9 and 10 the psalmist uses language of security that is primarily associated with Israel’s possession of the land (16:9b; cf. Deut. 33:12, where the same phrase—“rest secure”—is used as in Ps. 16:9b).
5. God shows the psalmist the path (or way) of life as opposed to the “way of death.”24 The necessity of choice between these two alternatives is characteristic of the exhortation of Deuteronomy, although there the emphasis is on “living long in the land” (cf. Deut. 4:40; 30:15–16).
Psalm 16 has taken these traditional images of hope in the land and subtly shifted them in order to spiritualize the land/inheritance imagery. Rather than focus on physical land, the psalmist attests that Yahweh is his “portion” and “cup.” This shift reflects reinterpretation by the exilic or postexilic community, who no longer experience the land. It would be quite a statement to say that, even in exile, “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance” (16:6). Such a declaration of faith is only possible for those who have learned by experience that the blessings of the presence of Yahweh are distinct from residence in the ancestral land and that the “path of life” can be walked even in a strange and alien land. Unlike the lamenting psalmist of Psalm 137 (“How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?” 137:4), the voice here acknowledges that wherever one finds the presence of Yahweh, “there is fullness of joy . . . pleasures forevermore” (lit. trans. of 16:11).
Contemporary Significance
RESTING SECURE. WHERE do we find our security? Can we say along with exilic Israel that “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places”? As I drive around my neighborhood, I am surprised by the growing number of signs posted on residences announcing the installation of a protective “security system.” Such signs are intended, of course, to forestall burglaries by announcing beforehand that any attempt at breaking in will set off an alarm and bring security forces to the scene. I have even noted “false” security cameras for sale in catalogs, intended to give the impression of security where none exists! In a society obsessed by the possession of “things,” concern for security against robbery has grown to epidemic proportions.
And we live in a relatively secure society as a whole. While times and places within our society can be insecure, I would guess that most of you who purchase and read this commentary do not live your lives in constant fear for your life and property. We may lock our doors regularly and even install a security system, but few of us have experienced the destabilizing effects of a burglary. Those among us who do are the exception rather than the rule.
This is certainly not the case in many areas of our world. Civil war, violent lawlessness, rampant poverty, debilitating drought, devastating earthquakes, and destructive storms are a way of life for much of the two-thirds world. And even parts of our own relatively secure society can experience the destabilizing effects of natural disaster—earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flooding, fire—and uncontrolled human evil (riots and destruction, terrorist bombings, public school shootings).25 Is our security dependent on things or circumstances? Or, like the psalmist, is our assurance wholly in God, who is our portion and cup?
Psalm 16 testifies that even at the most unstable and threatening moments of our lives—when all other forms of security fail and leave us without defense—Yahweh is still our “portion and . . . cup.” German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced this overpowering presence of God while imprisoned and awaiting execution. Many of us have experienced the same assurance of divine presence even when the rest of our worlds are in turmoil: when our job is suddenly taken away at fifty-five years of age; when our husband dies and leaves us without protection in a hostile world; when our prodigal son leaves home to go to a foreign land. In these situations—and many others like them—Psalm 16 wants us to know that Yahweh is our “portion and . . . cup,” our “delightful inheritance” with its boundary lines falling in “pleasant places.”
In God’s presence, the insecurities of life do not just disappear, but we are empowered in him to find the path of life within and through those painful times when we seem to approach the very gates of Sheol itself. In God’s presence we discover there is “[fullness of] joy” and “eternal pleasures” (16:11).
In the original version of his hymn “Forth in Thy Name” based on Psalm 16:2, 8, and 11, Charles Wesley penned a song of commitment to find and respond to God’s presence in everyday life and work. The hymn concludes with his summation of a life lived confidently in the awareness of God’s presence now and forevermore (16:11) in the hopeful final phrase: “And closely walk with Thee to heaven.” May we too discover and acknowledge God at our right hand—joy, pleasure, cup, and portion—as we journey through this life with him and to him.