Psalm 16

Keep me safe, my God,
    for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
    apart from you I have no good thing.”
I say of the holy people who are in the land,
    “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
    I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
    or take up their names on my lips.
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
    you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
    even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
    With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
    my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
    nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

• Psalm 16:1-11

Type of Psalm

Psalms of Affliction: Psalms where the psalmist is crying out in pain or distress, asking God where He is in the psalmist’s time of need.  But no matter how dire the circumstances or how long the lament, there seems to always be a word of praise.  Otherwise, why do we go to God in such times, other than to recognize Him as the only one who can help us?

Prophetic psalms: Prophetic psalms are those psalms containing prophecy that is not specifically Messianic prophecy.

Matthew Henry’s Summary

“This psalm has something of David in it, but much more of Christ. It begins with such expressions of devotion as may be applied to Christ; but concludes with such confidence of a resurrection as must be applied to Christ, to him only, and cannot be understood of David, as both St. Peter and St. Paul have observed, Acts 2:24; 13:36. I. David speaks the language of all good Christians, professing his confidence in God, ver. 1, his consent to him, ver. 2, his affection to the people of God, ver. 3, his adherence to the true worship of God.  II. He speaks of himself as a type of Christ, and so he speaks the language of Christ himself, to whom all the rest of the psalm is expressly and at large applied, Acts 2:25, &c. He spoke, 1. Of the special presence of God with the Redeemer in his services and sufferings, ver. 8. 2. Of the prospect which the Redeemer has of his own resurrection and the glory that should follow, which carried him cheerfully through his undertaking, ver. 9-11.”

• Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Psalm 16:11 “Are you a brief journey away from painful encounters? Are you only steps away from the walls of your own heartache?
“Learn a lesson from your master. Don’t march into battle with the enemy without first claiming the courage from God’s promises. May I give you a few examples?
“When you are confused: ‘ “I know what I am planning for you,” says the LORD. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you” ‘ (Jeremiah 29:11).
“If you feel weighted by yesterday’s failures: ‘So now, those who are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty’ (Romans 8:1).
“On those nights when you wonder where God is: ‘I am the Holy One, and I am among you’ (Hosea 11:9).”

• Max Lucado, And the Angels Were Silent

My Thoughts

God is the source of our safety.  He is our refuge, our sanctuary.  We would have no good thing if it were not for God.

David talks about those who run after other gods, how they suffer more and more.  Throughout the Bible, the people of God suffer, some from punishment, some from testing and trials.  But David is saying that those who chase after false gods suffer more and more.  They suffer the same as us, but the first more suffering is that those that believe have God to share the burden.  Then, to paraphrase C. S. Lewis, our pain and suffering is due to the shadow of the pain, the suffering for no good reason.  What I mean is that they are left staring at a statue that they have worshipped, and they see that the statue cannot help them.  So, they suffer doubly.  No one to share the burden and the reminder that they worshipped an impotent god.

But God is our portion and our cup.

Then, David talks of pleasant boundaries.  Most of his adult life was taken up in establishing those boundaries.  Either he had defeated his neighbors, or the neighbors gave him tribute rather than being destroyed themselves.  And the inheritance that went to Solomon were those pleasant boundaries.  Solomon took one small piece of land.  Otherwise, he lived a peaceful life, and all nations from Egypt to Philistia to the Euphrates were under his rule.  The boundaries of Israel did not stretch that far, but Solomon’s influence did, safe and pleasant boundaries indeed.

But the heart that seeks God instructs.  The heart that seeks God is glad.

And the souls of the faithful will not decay and die.  We will forever be in the presence of God with great Joy.

In a subtle way, David argues life after death here, a life of pure Joy.

Psalm 17

Hear me, Lord, my plea is just;
    listen to my cry.
Hear my prayer—
    it does not rise from deceitful lips.
Let my vindication come from you;
    may your eyes see what is right.
Though you probe my heart,
    though you examine me at night and test me,
you will find that I have planned no evil;
    my mouth has not transgressed.
Though people tried to bribe me,
    I have kept myself from the ways of the violent
    through what your lips have commanded.
My steps have held to your paths;
    my feet have not stumbled.
I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;
    turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
Show me the wonders of your great love,
    you who save by your right hand
    those who take refuge in you from their foes.
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings
from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
    from my mortal enemies who surround me.
They close up their callous hearts,
    and their mouths speak with arrogance.
They have tracked me down, they now surround me,
    with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.
They are like a lion hungry for prey,
    like a fierce lion crouching in cover.
Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down;
    with your sword rescue me from the wicked.
By your hand save me from such people, Lord,
    from those of this world whose reward is in this life.
May what you have stored up for the wicked fill their bellies;
    may their children gorge themselves on it,
    and may there be leftovers for their little ones.
As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face;
    when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

• Psalm 17:1-15

Type of Psalm

Psalms of Affliction: Psalms where the psalmist is crying out in pain or distress, asking God where He is in the psalmist’s time of need.  But no matter how dire the circumstances or how long the lament, there seems to always be a word of praise.  Otherwise, why do we go to God in such times, other than to recognize Him as the only one who can help us?

Didactic psalms: These psalms are psalms that are intended to teach.  In most cases the psalm instructs us in moral principles.

Matthew Henry’s Summary

“David, being in great distress and danger by the malice of his enemies, does, in this psalm, by prayer address himself to God, his tried refuge, and seeks shelter in him. I. He appeals to God concerning his integrity, ver. 1-4. II. He prays to God still to be upheld in his integrity and preserved from the malice of his enemies, ver. 5-8, 13. III. He gives a character of his enemies, using that as a plea with God for his preservation, ver. 9-12, 14. IV. He comforts himself with the hopes of his future happiness, ver. 15.”

• Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Psalm 17:6 “Nicodemus came to Jesus in the middle of the night. The centurion came in the middle of the day. The leper and the sinful woman appeared in the middle of crowds. Zacchaeus appeared in the middle of a tree. Matthew had a party for him.
“The educated. The powerful. The rejected. The sick. The lonely. The wealthy. Who would have ever assembled such a crew? All they had in common were their empty hope chests, long left vacant by charlatans and profiteers. Though they had nothing to offer, they asked for everything: a new birth, a second chance, a fresh start, a clean conscience. And without exception their requests were honored.”

• Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday

My Thoughts

David starts by asking for justice.  He ends by an imprecatory statement that those who attack David eat something that God has prepared for such people, letting them and their children gorge on such “food.”

But David starts by praising God for His great wonders.  He then pleads that God will keep him safe.

But David’s enemies attack, they are arrogant and brazen.  They are like hungry lions looking for prey, similar to how the Apostle Peter describes Satan.  Thus from David to Peter, we see these enemies for what they are, not humans, but the forces of evil.

In such a distinction, it would indeed be just to have God rise up and bring our enemy, the evil of this world, down.  And God has promised to one day do that.  But until that day, we each have our victory by going from this world to God’s heavenly kingdom.

As for the imprecatory verse that was missed in my original post about types of psalms, it has made some errors, but I cannot find the original source (having built the list into a computer-based training application roughly 25 years ago).

Psalm 18

I love you, Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
    my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
    and I have been saved from my enemies.
The cords of death entangled me;
    the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
    the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the Lord;
    I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
    my cry came before him, into his ears.
The earth trembled and quaked,
    and the foundations of the mountains shook;
    they trembled because he was angry.
Smoke rose from his nostrils;
    consuming fire came from his mouth,
    burning coals blazed out of it.
He parted the heavens and came down;
    dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
    he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
    the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
    with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
    the voice of the Most High resounded.
He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
    with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed
    and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, Lord,
    at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
    he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
    from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
    but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me.
The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
    according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
    I am not guilty of turning from my God.
All his laws are before me;
    I have not turned away from his decrees.
I have been blameless before him
    and have kept myself from sin.
The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
    according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
    to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
    but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
You save the humble
    but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
    my God turns my darkness into light.
With your help I can advance against a troop;
    with my God I can scale a wall.
As for God, his way is perfect:
    The Lord’s word is flawless;
    he shields all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the Lord?
    And who is the Rock except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength
    and keeps my way secure.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
    he causes me to stand on the heights.
He trains my hands for battle;
    my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You make your saving help my shield,
    and your right hand sustains me;
    your help has made me great.
You provide a broad path for my feet,
    so that my ankles do not give way.
I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
    I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
I crushed them so that they could not rise;
    they fell beneath my feet.
You armed me with strength for battle;
    you humbled my adversaries before me.
You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
    and I destroyed my foes.
They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
    to the Lord, but he did not answer.
I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
    I trampled them like mud in the streets.
You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
    you have made me the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
    foreigners cower before me;
    as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
They all lose heart;
    they come trembling from their strongholds.
The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
    Exalted be God my Savior!
He is the God who avenges me,
    who subdues nations under me,
    who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
    from a violent man you rescued me.
Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
    I will sing the praises of your name.
He gives his king great victories;
    he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
    to David and to his descendants forever.

• Psalm 18:1-50

Type of Psalm

Psalms of thanksgiving for God’s mercies to individuals:  Giving God thanks as noted.

Matthew Henry’s Summary

“This psalm we met with before, in the history of David’s life, 2 Sam. 22. That was the first edition of it; here we have it revived, altered a little, and fitted for the service of the church. It is David’s thanksgiving for the many deliverances God had wrought for him. The poetry is very fine, the images are bold, the expressions lofty, and every word is proper and significant; but the piety far exceeds the poetry. Holy faith, and love, and joy, and praise, and hope, are here lively, active, and upon the wing. I. He triumphs in God, ver. 1-3. II. He magnifies the deliverances God had wrought for him, ver. 4-19. III. He takes the comfort of his integrity, which God had thereby cleared up, ver. 20-28. IV. He gives to God the glory of all his achievements, ver. 29-42. V. He encourages himself with the expectation of what God would further do for him and his, ver. 43-50.”

• Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Psalm 18:30 “ When God doesn’t do what we want, it’s not easy. Never has been Never will be. But faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life and he will get us through it.
“Remember, disappointment is cured by revamped expectations.
“I like the story about the fellow who went to the pet store in search of a singing parakeet.  Seems he was a bachelor and his house was too quiet. The store owner had just the bird for him, so the man bought it.
“The next day the bachelor came home from work to a house full of music. He went to the cage to feed the bird and noticed for the first time that the parakeet had only one leg.
“He felt cheated that he’d been sold a one-legged bird, so he called and complained.
“ ‘What do you want,’ the store owner responded, ‘a bird who can sing or a bird who can dance?’
“Good question for times of disappointment.”

• Max Lucado, He Still Moves Stones

My Thoughts

I wrote recently that my mother felt that saying “I love you, God” was too familiar and touching on blasphemy, but David starts with those words.  What a beginning!

In various places in the Bible, God is referred to as the rock, a fortress, a refuge, our shield, and our salvation, but in David’s introduction to this psalm he uses them all.  If he’d thrown in firm foundation, would we have them all?

Then David praises God.

But there was a reason for this preamble.  God has saved David from his enemies.  David nearly gets maudlin with the cords of death entangling him.

But David cried out to the Lord for rescue.  David speaks of how God rescued him.

Then while David is speaking of how God came to his rescue, he mentions God’s mouth like a flame, eyes like burning coals, hailstorms and lightning.  Then the power that God displays in verses 7-15 is similar, maybe not parallel, to the End Times prophecies.  We first get a glimpse of the glory of God looking like what the Apostle John saw in Jesus on Patmos, and then something similar to End Times prophecies.  But this could simply be David explaining how, in his faith of God to rescue him, his poetic way of saying things foreshadowed prophetic visions of others who saw the End Times in their visions.

Then God reached down and held him.  The God of the universe took out the time to touch David.  David then talks of being blameless and pure.  But we know David has sinned.  Thus verses 30-36 discusses how God has made us blameless by washing away our sins, those who love Him.

This is followed, verses 37-45, by David slipping from his poetic story of God chasing his enemies to how God used him as an instrument.  This was all God’s victory, but God used David and his army to accomplish portions of the enemy’s defeat.

And as the psalm started, David uses verses 46-50 to again praise God.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Psalm 16

“1. Judging from your appointment calendar or your daydreams this past week, what do you ‘delight’ in?
“2. What ‘gods’ are you tempted to pursue? What sorrows do they bring?
“3. In this psalm, David moves from refugee to an heir of God’s kingdom: Which do you feel more like now? Why?”

Psalm 17

“1. On what basis do you make your plea before God: Your integrity? The heartlessness of your enemies? God’s love? Some combination? Or do you rarely see God as judge?
“2. What makes the biggest difference in how and why you live compared with people who do not know God: (a) God’s love? (b) God’s righteousness? (c) God’s reward?
“3. In what situation now do you need deliverance from people or forces that seem out to get you?”

Psalm 18

“1. Much religion is the honoring, fearing or appeasing of God. ls it easy or hard for you to say ‘l love you, Lord’? When are you most aware of God’s love for you?
“2. Would God shake heaven and earth to save you? Do you think God would even lift a finger to save you? Why? Why doesn’t God save his many children dying of hunger and war?
“3. Who fights your battles, you or God? What is the balance?
“4. Habakkuk 3:19 quotes verse 33 to build up hope in the face of a national crisis. What verse would you choose to describe how you want to see God work in your nation? Why that verse?
“5. The group members may hold a short time of praise, offering short prayers beginning like this psalm: ‘I love you, O Lord, because …’ ”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There is one set of questions for each psalm.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.