Today, I received an unusual request. A friend asked for my thoughts on Psalms 16. What follows is what/how the verses "spoke to me" this evening...

1 Keep me safe, O God,
       for in you I take refuge.

 2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
       apart from you I have no good thing.

This reminds me of Jesus declaring that He can do nothing without His Father (John 5:19) and his warning to his disciples that they can do nothing without him (John 15:5).

Relationship is the key to true results. Or, put another way, without true relationship, without a life surrendered and connected to Him who made us for Himself, whatever we do is deemed meaningless from eternity's perspective. It's like a sphere within which life is poured out on all our actions and apart from which our best and most perfect work is in vain because they were not begotten of God's love.

 3 As for the saints who are in the land,
       they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

 4 The 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.

There is a contrast here between saints (possibly priests) - glorious, delighted in, faithfully serving God in the land - and idolaters (possibly the pagan people living in the nearby lands) upon whom the Psalter utters a curse of sorrow.  

Sorrow is ultimately the reward of they who actively say No to the One True God, who diligently pursue ("run after") falsehood and false humanity. This is not ignorance we are talking about. This is not incompletely, imperfect theology. his is not the totality of the "unevangelised". This is a purposeful turning of the heart, a hardening of one's soul.

And sorrow - deep, aching, infinite - is the fruit of damnation, of eternal separation with God. What's striking is also God sorrows after those whom He condemns to sorrow forever...

5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
       you have made my lot secure.

 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
       surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Security, reputation, career paths, wealth and assets - they are from our Lord's hand. It is God's business to watch over it, multiply it as He sees fit. We are merely to be faithful and responsible, NEVER to worry.

God's alloted "boundary lines" are neither absolute nor irrevocable. Surely God delights in giving us good things, far beyond simply adequacy.

Let's give thanks to God our generous provider. Let's learn the Psalter's sharply grateful perspective - he COULD, if he chose to, looked at all those things he DIDN't have!

 7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
       even at night my heart instructs me.

 8 I have set the LORD always before me.
       Because he is at my right hand,
       I will not be shaken.

 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
       my body also will rest secure,

Listening to God is a 24/7 affair. It's not something we 'do' as much as it's something we 'live' each day. It is a disposition, an ingrained part of our hearts (which stays tuned even at night - when the mind has shut down?). "When your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light!" (Matthew 6:22)

There is no need for a life hermeneutic of worry or regrets felt in advance. Because the Lord is "always before you", in your mind's eye. You are at peace. And your body knows it.


          10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, 
             nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

A prophetic fore-shadowing of Christ's resurrection (Hebrews 7:14), suggesting that perhaps a) our lives must model Christ's who always had His Father before Him (even unto death on a Cross) b) Christ's work was to weed out the poison of death flowing through us, to ensure the grave will not prevail and c) there is a glorious resurrection awaiting us and all those who are at present "seeing decay".

 11 You 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.

Joy! Pleasures! How God longs to crown us and clothe us with pure delight and bliss! The present making-known of life's true path is a deposit of future ecstasy. Aren't we all hedonists and sensualists at heart? Can we not look forward to a glorious bestownment of unimaginable godly indulgence by our Heavenly Father?

Can we walk the straight and narrow road? Never looking back?

You are my Lord...apart from You I have no good thing. Amen.