A Study of Psalm 16 (verse 11, Presence)

¹ Preserve me, God, because I take refuge in you.

² I say to Yahweh, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have nothing good.” ³ I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” ⁴ The sorrows of those who hurry after other gods will multiply. I will not pour out their bloody libations, nor take their names on my lips. ⁵ Yahweh is my assigned portion and my cup. You safeguard my allotment. ⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I will praise Yahweh, who gives me counsel. Even at night my heart instructs me.

⁸ I have set Yahweh before me continually. Because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken. ⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices, my body will live securely. ¹⁰ For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol or allow Your holy one to see the pit. ¹¹ You will make known to me the path of life. There is fulness of joy in Your presence, pleasures at your right hand forever.

Although the Greek version, the Septuagint, translates the first verb here as a past or perfect tense, “You have made known to me,”[1] the Hebrew most likely should be translated as a present or future tense, action that has not been completed, thus “You make known (and continue to do so)” or, as I prefer, “You will make known to me the path of life.” And this maintains the parallel with verse 10: “You will not abandon me (future tense),” and “You will make known to me (future tense).” Yahweh has revealed to David (vv.8,9) that he will not be “shaken” but rather will be “secure,” that David (vv.10,11) will not lose his life, will not be “abandoned,” but will live in God’s “presence.”

David will not go to Sheol, which is in some sense apart from Yahweh,[2] but will be on the path of life, in the presence of Yahweh, in which is full joy and pleasure. Once again the Septuagint has “paths” plural instead of “path” singular like the Hebrew has, but there is little appreciable difference. In either case David is granted life, rescued from death, by God’s gracious hand. And in God’s presence (Hebrew, “before His face”) there is fulness of joy. There will be abundance of joy, more than enough to satisfy David, like the seven years of abundance Joseph predicted for Egypt (Genesis 41:29), like the food Boaz offered Ruth so that she had all she wanted (Ruth 2:14).

And at Yahweh’s right hand, where David will be the close, loyal associate to serve Yahweh, there will be the provision of pleasure, loveliness, sweetness, pleasantness and delight.[3] God’s right hand is the source of all His strength and provision.[4] As David declared or confessed in verse 6, Yahweh, as David’s portion, is his delightful and beautiful inheritance.

Is David talking about life with Yahweh after death? Not likely, though if he were asked about that he would no doubt say this would be true. No, he is talking about walking before God in the land of the living, buoyed by God’s provision of preservation, the preservation he asked for in verse 1, that he confessed he relied upon in verses 2-6, and that he was promised he would have in verses 7-11.

 

[1] It is the Septuagint that Peter seems to be quoting in Acts 2 and it is thus in the past tense, “You have made known.”

[2] Psalm 88:³For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draws near to the grave (sheol). ⁴ I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength, ⁵ Adrift among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, And who are cut off from Your hand. ⁶ You have laid me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the depths.

[3] The term used here can have all these connotations (pleasure, Psalm 16:11; loveliness, 2 Samuel 1:23; sweetness or pleasantness, Psalm 81:2; and delight, Song of Solomon 1:19).

[4] Ps 18:35; 20:6; 21:8; 44:3; 45:4; 48:10; 60:5; 63:8; 74:11; 77:10; 78:54; 80:15; 89:13; 98:1; 108:6; 118:15,16; 138:7; 139:10; Is 41:10; 48:13; Lam 2:3,4