A Study of Psalm 16 (verse 3, Fellowship)

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.”

Fellowship is a communion of fellows, an association and alliance with people who share your interests, a society of shared beliefs, commitments and traditions, a partnership in achieving shared goals. Who are you in fellowship with? A nation, say America, is a fellowship of citizens who share a belief in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness as equals who govern themselves by the guidelines of the Constitution of the United States, partnered in the quest of making life good for all of her citizens. If you are committed to that fellowship, you are truly American. You confess that commitment verbally when you pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. And you confess it whenever you live in accordance with its ideals.

David, in Psalm 16, is confessing his allegiance to Yahweh God by confessing his allegiance to the people of God:

I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” (Psalm 16:3)

The phrase, “I say of,” is not there in the Hebrew but is understood: “I say to Yahweh (v.1) You are my Lord…and of the holy ones…you are all my delight.” The holy ones, the qedoshim, the saints, the set apart ones of Israel who believe in Yahweh as David does, and who live in Yahweh’s land, Israel, these are the ones with whom David is confessing that he has fellowship.

They are holy by virtue of being God’s chosen people:

For you are a people holy to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deuteronomy 7:6)

They are holy by virtue of being constituted under His law given through Moses and by virtue of being redeemed out of slavery in Egypt by Yahweh:

⁴⁴ I am Yahweh your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy ones, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. ⁴⁵ I am Yahweh, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy ones, because I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44,45)

They are holy to Yahweh by virtue of being connected to His sacred land that He gave them as an inheritance:

I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to Yahweh. (Jeremiah 2:2,3)

David declares this fellowship with the holy ones by saying, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” They are the addirē, a Hebrew term that when used of God is best translated “majestic,” but of humans a lesser majesty, “noble ones.” For David, even the most common Israelite who trusts in Yahweh is a prince, a noble among the world’s population.

And he delights in them, favors them, finds them more appealing than any other, because they are holy, because they serve the Lord Yahweh, as he does. His is a righteous fellowship, a fellowship of the righteous, a holy and sacred fellowship.

David’s confession in verses 2 and 3 can be rightly said to be a confession to obeying the two great commandments: Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. God should answer his prayer for preservation from the imminent danger he is facing because He loves God and he loves his neighbor.