This is a Psalm that we have looked at before. But now, in the light of what we are learning about judgment and about the Atonement, we have to just stay in the Scriptures constantly and reexamine all that we have learned, as You begin to show us or as You continue to show us new things in the Bible. And yet, how the Scriptures are perfect and we grow in our knowledge. Yet again, it is all to Your glory, to the glory of God. But we will read through Psalm 16 here and then look at these verses. Psalm 16:
Michtam of David. Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, …
I am sorry, let me start again. I want to get in the habit of saying Jehovah; I have been trying to do that for some time:
Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. 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, in whom is all my delight. 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. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 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: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
This Psalm starts out:
Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
A testimony of any child of God is that we put our trust in God and ask Him that He would keep or watch over us or observe. Those three words there are different words that this word “preserve” has been translated into. For example, if you look right back there at Psalm 12, in verses 6-7 we read:
The words of the LORD …
Speaking of the Bible, speaking of His Word:
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, …
And that is the same word that is translated “preserve” there in Psalm 16:1:
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Or in Job 14:16, He uses that word again. In Job 14:15-16, we read:
Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
The words “watch over” there again are the same Hebrew word that they translated “preserve” in Psalm 16:1:
Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
Now in Psalm 16:2, we read:
O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
This word that they translated “extendeth,” we are just going to have to trust the translators there. I am no Hebrew expert. In the Interlinear, there is not even a Strong’s number for that word. There is a Hebrew word there in the original text if you look at it, but I looked at three different commentaries—Calvin; Matthew Henry; and Jamison, Faucett, and Brown—and those people are all very well schooled in the original languages and all three of them had different ideas of what this was saying. If it does say in verses 2-3:
… my goodness extendeth not to thee; But to the saints that are in the earth, …
This is a Messianic Psalm, and as we go on, we will see it especially as it is cited in Acts. In a Messianic Psalm (and many of them were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by David) we are to hear Christ speaking. So He is speaking of His goodness, and when He says that it:
… extendeth not to thee; But to the saints that are in the earth, …
It means the goodness of Christ does not go out to God, as if God needed any goodness. It goes on:
… to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
I am just going to trust that this translation is correct. Look at Proverbs 8 and we will see that this has been basically saying the same thing. Proverbs 8 is speaking of Wisdom, and in verse 4, Wisdom starts to speak in the first person as if God or Christ were speaking to us through His Word. Proverbs 8:4-5 says:
Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
Let us skip down to verses 24-31. This is still Wisdom speaking; He says:
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
It is the same idea as in Psalm 16:2-3:
… my goodness extendeth not to thee; But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
And we read in other places that the true believers are the delight of Christ and of God. Back here in Psalm 16, again in Psalm 16:3, He says:
But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, …
Again, the “excellent” refers to those whom the excellence of God has been imputed to. In Psalm 8:1, we read:
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
So we read in Psalm 16:3:
But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, …
That is, those that God has made excellent in imputing the righteousness of Christ to them.
I would like to go back again to Proverbs 8 and just show you something. In verse 23, He says:
I was set up from everlasting, …
Again, this is Wisdom speaking, and we are to hear Christ speaking here:
I was set up …
If you look at that word in the Hebrew, very often it is translated “poured out,” as an offering. And as we go on in this, I believe it is speaking of Christ being that offering from “before the foundation of the world,” because when you go down here to verse 24 (He is still speaking), He says:
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; …
And the word “brought forth” there is often translated “travail.” Again in the next verse, He says:
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
Again, it is a Hebrew word, and it does not mean the delivery of a baby. It is associated with the pain associated with the delivery of a baby. God uses that pain very often in the Bible in association with judgment. Verse 24:
When there were no depths, I was …
Travailed or even pained or grieved, as that word is often translated. Again, He repeats it in verse 25:
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I …
Travailed, was I pained, grieved. And I believe we are going to see these things more and more as we search the Scriptures and as God continues to cause His people to grow in knowledge. But I just wanted to show you that for those of you who really get into the meat of the Word, you can look at that.
All right, let us go back here to Psalm 16 in verse 4. He is talking about the judgment that is going to fall on those that worship idols, that go after false gods. He says in Psalm 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.
In verses 5-6, He says:
The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Here, He is speaking of how the Lord God Himself, the Kingdom of God, is the inheritance of the true believer. That word “portion” means a share. Turn to Genesis 31; I believe in this verse He uses both words, “portion” and “inheritance.” In Genesis 31:14, we read:
And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?
So He is linking the words “portion” and “inheritance” there. Again, it is simply speaking of how the Lord or the Kingdom of God is the inheritance of the true believers. When the Israelites came into the Promised Land, the twelve sons of Jacob were given inheritances, and each one of their inheritances was divided by line in the land of Canaan, which represented the Kingdom of God. So that is what it means there when He says, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.”
But the end of Psalm 16:5 says:
… thou maintainest my lot.
That word “maintain” is translated “uphold” if you look at Psalm 63:8. And again, it is simply speaking of how God upholds our inheritance and upholds us. Psalm 63:7-8 says:
Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
It is the same word. He says in Psalm 16:5:
… thou maintainest [uphold] my lot.
And again, the “lot” is simply another word for speaking of the inheritance of a child of God. Look at Daniel 12. Again, it is speaking of the Kingdom of God, which that physical land of Canaan represented. In Daniel 12, the very end of the book of Daniel, in Daniel 12:12-13, we read:
Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way …
God is speaking to Daniel:
But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
Daniel will stand in the Kingdom of God at the end of his days. It is the same word “lot” as we read in Psalm 16:5:
… thou maintainest my lot.
Or upholds my lot. Again, in verse 6 of Psalm 16, He says:
The lines …
Or the borders. The word “lines” actually means “cords” or “rope,” but it is speaking of the borders of their inheritance. He says:
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; …
And again, that word “pleasant” has to do with the Kingdom of God. Look at Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24 starts out in verses 1-4:
Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. Through wisdom is an house builded; …
And we know that Christ is the Wisdom of God, and the house spoken of there is the house of God:
Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
It is the same word “pleasant” that we read in Psalm 16:6:
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; …
Again, it is speaking of the Kingdom of God. But look at that verse there, Proverbs 24:4:
And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
If you turn to Isaiah 53, in Isaiah 53 (speaking of the suffering of Christ; He endured the wrath of God) we read in verse 10, Isaiah 53:10-11:
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
By Christ’s “knowledge” of the wrath of God He will “justify many.” And also, remember that word “soul” as we look at verse 10 in Psalm 16. So go back to Psalm 16:6; again it says:
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Again, it is speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven, the inheritance of the child of God. Verse 7 says:
I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: …
What is the counsel that God gives us? It is His Word. Look at Psalm 73; in this beautiful passage, in Psalm 73 verses 23-26, He says:
Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, …
The “Word of God”:
… and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
God guides His people with this His counsel. There are many places in the Bible where we could look at that word. In Psalm 119:24, He says:
Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.
It is the same word. This is where we get our counsel, from the “Word of God.” Psalm 16:7 again says:
I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
That word “reins” literally means “kidneys,” but God uses it often just to refer to our whole inner self. And again, upon salvation, God dwells in us. Christ lives in us, as we read in Galatians 2:20. We have the mind of Christ, we read in one of the Epistles, upon salvation, and that inward man instructs us in the “night seasons.” And the “night seasons” is speaking of when there is tribulation or darkness in our pilgrimage on this earth. Just one verse, look at Romans 7:22. Romans 7:22 says:
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
That is really the same principle. God dwells in us and our inner self now only wants to glorify God and to do His will. Psalm 16:7 again says:
I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
Verse 8 says:
I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
That word “moved” is translated “slip” in Psalm 94:18. You do not have to turn there, but it is God again, it is God that holds us up. In Psalm 16:9-10, we read:
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Go back to Isaiah 53 again, and we will look at how He spoke of the soul of Christ in the Atonement. Isaiah 53:10-11 says:
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
So again, in Psalm 16:10, we read:
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; …
In “sheol,” in the grave:
… neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Now if we read about the Crucifixion of Christ, we read about that thief, the one thief who was saved. Christ told him, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” That means that in the Atonement there, or in that picture at the Cross, His soul did not go into the grave. Immediately upon His death, He went to be with the Father in Heaven; His body was put in the grave. We have to go to Acts 2 now where this passage is cited. This is Peter speaking here in his sermon on Pentecost day, speaking of Christ. We read in Acts 2:23-25:
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, …
Now He is going to cite this passage in Psalm 16. God is teaching us another principle here. He is teaching us how we are to read a Messianic Psalm, that we are to hear Christ speaking when we read those Messianic Psalms. Again, verses 25-27 say:
For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Back here in Psalm 16, again in verse 10, He says:
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; …
He uses that word “soul” to refer to the Spirit sometimes. Sometimes He uses it to refer to the entire person with “the breath of life” in him. Turn to Psalm 49. In Psalm 49:6-9, we read:
They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
It is the same word “soul” that we are reading here in Psalm 16. Many places though in the Bible, He uses that word “soul” to speak of a human with life, but also that he still has that “breath of life” in him and the soul. He says again in Psalm 16:10:
… thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; …
And that is the word “sheol” that you are all familiar with. It can simply mean “the grave.” Look at Jonah 2 (Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah). In Jonah, when Jonah was thrown out of that ship, that boat, into the ocean, again that was a picture of Christ being under the wrath of God. In Jonah 2:1-2, we read:
Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
That word “hell” there, again it is the word “sheol” that we are reading here in Psalm 16:10:
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
This word “corruption” is sometimes translated “destruction.” Oftentimes it is translated “the pit.” Look at one verse; turn to Isaiah 38, and let me start in verse 16. This is the prayer of Hezekiah after the Lord gave him fifteen more years to live. Isaiah 38:16-17 says:
O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: …
It is the same word in “from the pit of corruption,” and certainly it is speaking of eternal death:
… for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
This is a beautiful passage again, and a comfort to many sinners, to those that have eternal life. So back here in Psalm 16:10-11, we read:
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Again, it is speaking of the pleasures of the Kingdom of God. But I believe now that we are beginning to see, and we are going to see it all through the Bible, that Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” and it was before He formed this creation that the Atonement was made, as we read in Romans 1:3-4:
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
In other words, He was not the Son until He rose from the dead. He successfully went through that Atonement, He suffered the wrath of God, from “before the foundation of the world.” We read in 1 Peter 1:18-20:
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
Or in Ephesians 1:3-4, we read:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
We were chosen by Him, in Him, from “before the foundation of the world,” and that payment was made from “before the foundation of the world.”
We will close with Revelation 13:8 and 17:8. Revelation 13:7-8 says:
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Or Revelation 17:8 says:
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
I think we are going to see more and more that God’s people were chosen from “before the foundation of the world.” It was all done before this world was formed, as was the Atonement.
Shall we pray.