VERSE OF THE DAY
Psalm 16:8 (New Living Translation)
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I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
For I am never alone the Lord is always with me. I shall not be moved he walks along side me always I’m never alone. He promised to never leave. We shall be confident and trust we are never alone and seek faith.
What happens when you put God first in your life?
Giving God the first priority enables us to experience peace in our lives. Knowing that our lives are directed by God gives us comfort and peace and saves us from unnecessary worry. God is a caring God, and he doesn’t want us to worry about anything (1 Peter 5:7).May 8, 2019
What is the meaning of putting God first?
To truly put God first you have to let go of what others think and follow your heart. This means letting go of what your parents, spouse, kids, boss, and friends think. When you put God first, you give yourself a voice. You express yourself in a way that is true to you. You set boundaries and respect yourself.Jul 2, 2014
Psalm 16
Psalm 16 – The Benefits of a Life-Commitment to God
This psalm is titled A Michtam of David. The title Michtam is commonly understood as golden; others think it is related to a word meaning to cover. Since the psalms with this title (16, 56-60) are written from times of peril, some think the idea is of covering the lips in the sense of secrecy, as if this were a secret or silent psalm given in a time of crisis. This is a wonderful song relating how David found the secret of contentment and great gladness even in pressing times; it also powerfully predicts Jesus and His work for us.
A. David’s confidence in God.
1. (1-3) What David’s soul said to the LORD.
Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.
O my soul, you have said to the LORD,
“You are my Lord,
My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
As for the saints who are on the earth,
“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
a. Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust: It seems that David wrote this psalm from a time of trouble, because he asked for preservation, knew that he would not be moved (Psalm 16:8), and had confidence in some kind of resurrection (Psalm 16:10). Yet the tone of this psalm is not despair or complaint; it is settled joy. Despite his trouble, David had a praising confidence in his God.
i. “This was a most powerful plea, for to trust God is the highest honour we can do him, it is to set the crown upon his head.” (Trapp)
ii. “Preserve me from the world; let me not be carried away with its excitements; suffer me not to be before its blandishments, nor to fear its frowns. Preserve me, from the devil; let him not tempt me above what I am able to bear. Preserve me from myself; keep me from growing envious, selfish, high-minded, proud, slothful. Preserve me from those evils into which I see others run, and preserve me, from those evils into which I am myself most apt to run; keep me from evils known and from evils unknown.” (Spurgeon)
b. You are my Lord: This is what David’s soul had said to the LORD. David happily said that Yahweh (LORD) was his master (Lord).
i. David knew how to speak to his own soul; Psalms 42:5 and 43:5 are other examples. It is a good thing to speak good things to our own soul.
c. My goodness is nothing apart from You: David knew that his very best – all of his goodness – was nothing apart from God.
· It was nothing when it came to making David righteous before God; he needed God to bring His righteousness to David.
· It was nothing because David’s goodness was itself a gift of God; therefore apart from Him, it was nothing.
· It was nothing because David’s goodness, as precious as it was, was of small value without his relationship with God.
i. “I receive all good from thee, but no good can I return to thee; wherefore I acknowledge thee to be most rich, and myself to be most beggardly.” (Greenham, cited in Spurgeon)
d. As for the saints who are on the earth: David proclaimed regarding God’s people on this earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” David delighted in the people of God, despite all their failings, scandals, and embarrassments.
i. This is an obvious failing for many followers of Jesus Christ today. They are so negative about the people of God that they find themselves unable to see any excellence in God’s people, unable to delight in them.
ii. “This is a practical matter, for it is a way by which we can measure our relationship to the Lord. Do you love other Christians? Do you find it good and rewarding to be with them? Do you seek their company? This is a simple test. Those who love the Lord will love the company of those who also love him.” (Boice)
2. (4-6) The folly of idolatry and the blessing of honoring the LORD.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
Nor take up their names on my lips.
O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
a. Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god: David understood that those who served other gods found many sorrows in life.
i. David knew that his life, lived for God, was not an easy one. He experienced many hardships because he remained faithful to God. Nevertheless, he also knew that life lived for another god was even more difficult. It was the attitude of Peter in John 6:66-69, when he said “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
ii. “There is a distinct echo of the story of the Fall in the phrase, multiply their sorrows, since very similar words were spoken to Eve in the Hebrew of Genesis 3:16. There could hardly be a more ominous allusion to what follows from apostasy.” (Kidner)
b. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer: David allowed his knowledge of the futility of pagan beliefs to affect his behavior. Therefore, he would not follow the pagans in their vain practices.
i. “Many heathens sacrificed to their idols (that is, to devils) with man’s blood, against all laws of humanity and piety.” (Trapp) In addition, the priests of Baal offered their own blood to their false god; some Roman Catholics and Muslims also whip themselves to blood, offering their blood to their twisted conception of God.
c. O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot: After stating that there was nothing found in the pagan gods, David explained the good he received from Yahweh.
i. You are the portion of my inheritance: David was the youngest son in a family with many sons. He could expect no inheritance from his family; yet he took joy and comfort in the fact that God was the portion of his inheritance, and he knew that he had a good inheritance. The lines that marked out his inheritance had fallen to him in pleasant places.
ii. God said to the priests in the days of Moses: “I am your portion and your inheritance” (Numbers 18:20). David understood that this was a promise given not only to the priests, but also to all who would trust God to be the portion of their inheritance. “Every godly man has the same possession and the same prohibitions as the priests had. Like them he is landless, and instead of estates has Jehovah.” (Maclaren)
iii. You maintain my lot: This described the portion of David’s inheritance. David was confident that God would maintain what He had first given to him.
iv. This attitude did not come easily or always to David. He complained to Saul in 1 Samuel 26:19: for they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, “Go, serve other gods.” Yet here in this psalm, he comes back to the conclusion that the LORD is his inheritance and will maintain his lot.
v. David’s words here speak of contentment. He is content with what God has given him. A mark of our age – especially with the Baby Boom generation and perhaps even more with those following – is discontentment, boredom, and restlessness. The generation with short attention spans, the constant need for excitement and adrenaline rushes, and 24-hour-a-day entertainment, needs to know by experience what David knew.
B. The benefits of David’s confidence.
1. (7-8) The benefits of guidance and security.
I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs 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.
a. I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel: The false gods of the nations could never give counsel the way the LORD gave it to David. When David needed guidance, God gave it to him, and therefore David praised God.
b. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons: David’s heart was instructed first by God and His Word, and therefore his heart could also instruct him in the ways of God. This is an example of the benefits that come from the transformation of thinking spoken of in Romans 12:1-2.
i. Solomon says in Psalm 127:1-2 that it can be vain to stay up late to try to figure out your problems. Yet David, Solomon’s father, knew the joy of communing with God in the night seasons and receiving guidance from Him.
ii. “Methinks I hear a sweet still voice within me, saying, This is the way, walk in it; and this in the night season, when I am wrapped in rest and silence.” (Trapp)
c. I have set the LORD always before me: This speaks of a decision David made to put God first in his life. He determined that God would always be his focus, his perspective.
i. In the ultimate sense, only Jesus did this perfectly. He was always in the intimate presence of His Father. “The method taken by Christ, as man, to support himself in time of trouble, and persevere unto the end, was to maintain a constant and actual sense of the presence of Jehovah…he then feared not the powers of earth and hell combined for his destruction.” (Horne)
d. Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved: This was the plain result of David’s decision to put God first. There was a standing and security in David’s life that would not have otherwise existed.
2. (9-11) The benefits of joy and preservation.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
a. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: David continued to describe the benefits of his decision to set the LORD always before him (Psalm 16:8). This decision brought a gladness and a glory to David’s life.
i. For those who do not live out a true commitment to God, it is easy for them to think of what such a commitment costs them. This is not entirely bad, because this kind of decision to set the LORD always before one’s self does have a cost, and the cost should be counted and appreciated. It may cost certain pleasures, popularity, anonymity, family relationships, life goals, career choices, financial priorities, and so forth.
ii. Yet David also tells us some of the benefits of such a life decision: my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. There was happiness and a glory David knew by this life commitment that he would not have known otherwise.
iii. David could maturely understand both the costs and the benefits, and sing a song of praise about his life decision.
b. My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol: David described a further benefit of his life decision to set the LORD always before him. It was the confidence of God’s care and blessing in the life beyond. David had the settled hope (a confidence, not a simple wish) that God would not leave his soul in the grave (Sheol), but that his life would continue on in the presence of God.
i. This statement is a wonderful declaration of trust in some sort of resurrection and afterlife. Yet, Psalms contains both such confident statements and other more doubtful words about the life beyond (such as in Psalm 6:5 and 88:11). This cloudy understanding of the afterlife in the Old Testament does not surprise the reader of the New Testament, who knows that Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10).
c. Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption: Wonderfully (and perhaps unknowingly), David spoke beyond himself. In one sense David was indeed the Holy One of God, whose soul would not be left in the grave. Yet in a greater and more literal sense, only Jesus Christ fulfills this in His resurrection.
i. This was perceived by Peter on the Day of Pentecost, who said that these words went beyond David who was obviously dead, buried in a grave, and whose body had long ago decayed into dust (Acts 2:25-31).
ii. In quoting and applying this passage from Psalm 16 to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, Peter showed an inspired understanding of the work of Jesus on the cross. He understood that because Jesus bore our sin without becoming a sinner, He remained the Holy One, even in His death. Since it is incomprehensible that God’s Holy One should be bound by death, the resurrection was absolutely inevitable. As Peter said: It was not possible that He should be held by death (Acts 2:24).
iii. The fact that Jesus remained God’s Holy One despite the ordeal of the cross demonstrates that Jesus bore the penalty of human sin without becoming a sinner Himself. It also shows that this payment of sins was perfect and complete, the only type of payment a Holy One could make. In these ways (as Peter understood), the resurrection proves the perfection of Jesus’ work on the cross.
iv. We might imagine Jesus applying this promise to Himself in the agony before and during the crucifixion, and even afterwards. “It was as though our Lord had stayed his soul upon these words as He left this world and entered the unseen…He sang, as He went, this hymn of immortal hope.” (Meyer)
d. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy: With these words David seemed to understand that the benefits of this life commitment to God were received in both this life, and the life beyond.
i. The path of life is something enjoyed by the believer both now, and in eternity. God gives us eternal life to enjoy as a present gift, extending into eternity.
ii. In Your presence is fullness of joy: This was a joy David could experience now (in the context of his previously mentioned gladness and rejoicing), but also ultimately receive when in the more immediate presence of God.
iii. Peter also quoted these lines in his message on the Day of Pentecost. They show that instead of being punished for His glorious work on the cross, Jesus was rewarded, as prophetically described in this psalm.
e. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore: David had full confidence that his life with God – both now and forevermore – would be marked by the highest and best pleasures. This is life lived above shallow entertainments and excitements.
i. These pleasures are enjoyed at a place: “We are also told that heaven is to be enjoyed at the right hand of God. The right hand, even on earth, is the place of favor, and the place of honor, and the place of security. The right-hand place is always regarded as the place of dignity and nobility in all courts. God is not going to give his people any left-handed heaven, but they are to dwell at his right hand for evermore.” (Spurgeon)
ii. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore: This tells that both in this life and the life beyond, true pleasures forevermore are found at the right hand of God, not in separation from Him.
iii. In his fictional work The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis wrote in the voice of a senior devil, complaining about the “unfair advantage” that God has against the devils as they do their dark work: “He’s a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a façade. Or only like foam on the sea shore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are ‘pleasures forevermore’. Ugh! I don’t think He has the least inkling of that high and austere mystery to which we rise in the Miserific Vision. He’s vulgar, Wormwood. He has a bourgeois mind. He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least – sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our side.”
iv. The conclusion of this psalm is especially wonderful when we consider how it began. “The refugee of verse 1 finds himself an heir, and his inheritance beyond all imagining and all exploring.” (Kidner)
v. When we go back to the first verse, we remember that this life of gladness and rejoicing and fullness of joy is not a problem-free life. It is a life that may be challenged and face attack on many levels. Yet in that a life commitment to God has been made and is enjoyed, it is a secure, happy, blessed life.
(c) 2020 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – ewm@enduringword.com
Categories: Old Testament Psalms
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◄ What Does Psalm 16:8 Mean? ►
I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Psalm 16:8(NASB)
Verse Thoughts
David was a man after God’s own heart and many of the psalms he penned foretold of Jesus… the coming Messiah Who would rise from the dead, ascend into heaven, and sit at the right hand of the majesty on high, until God finally places all His enemies under His feet.
This hymn of David describes the Lord delighting in His saints and details God’s children joyously celebrating their fellowship with the Father. It portrays God as the portion of our inheritance, and we discover in this Psalm, words of David that were directly quoted by the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, where we read, “I foresaw the Lord continually before me, because He is at my right hand – that I may not be moved.”
Although written by David, this Messianic psalm makes clear reference to the resurrection of Christ and His glorious ascension into heaven, where at this very moment He is seated in heavenly places – on the very throne of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and He is interceding on behalf of all who are called by His name.
David’s proclamation of God’s goodness, his delight in God’s faithfulness, and his hatred of those that do evil in the sight of the Lord, is a prophetic peep into the heart of our heavenly Saviour Who alone could truly proclaim, “I have set the LORD continually before Me; because He is at My right hand -I will not be shaken.” Through the eyes of Israel’s great king David, we have a portrait of Christ, the perfect Man Who lived His life in utter dependence upon the Father in Whom He found His full sufficiency.
David penned the heart of Christ with these wonderful words, “Whom have I in heaven but You and there is none on earth that I desire beside You.” This Messianic Psalm bears witness to the Person and character of Christ… for He only said and did those things that He heard from the Father… for He delighted to say, “Thy will not Mine be done.”
Just as David’s was a man whose heart was right towards the Lord and who stood in stark contrast to those that worshipped other god’s… and upon whose heads God will pour out great judgement and wrath… even so, Christ’s earthly life is the exemplification of a man Whose heart was perfect before God – a life that demonstrates that the pathway to life and joy only comes through Him.
Through the prophetic pen of Israel’s king David, we see Christ, Who is the example of the perfect Man Whose heart is sanctified unto the Lord, and Who lifted up His voice in humble prayer and obedient praise to God for His guidance and counsel. May we seek to set the LORD continually before our own eyes, knowing that He is forever at our right hand and by His grace we will never be shaken.
Source: https://dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com/psalm-16-8
What does Psalm 16:8 mean? [⇑ See verse text ⇑]
Here, David testifies that he trusts in the Lord to protect and defend him. In ancient writing, the “right hand” represented someone’s ultimate strength and power. In the case of David, the sense that God was at his right hand was a feeling of confidence.
Along the same lines, David has identified the Lord as his guide (Psalm 16:7), now he identifies God as his guard. Having the Lord as a protection kept David confident and unafraid. Nothing would move or shake him. He was secure in all the blessings the Lord had bestowed on him. This goes beyond a shallow assumption that David will survive—as the following passage shows, this is a confidence that God is eternally with David even if he meets death (Psalm 16:9–11).
In John 10:28–29 Jesus promises to safeguard all who trust in Him. He says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” David knew that even if he walked through the valley of the shadow of death he did not have to fear because the Lord, his Shepherd, would protect him (Psalm 23:4).
Context Summary
Psalm 16:5–8 expresses David’s elation in God and gives reasons for it. This celebratory tone is set up by the prior passage, which established God as David’s ultimate refuge and source of goodness. The verses in this section form the core of the psalm’s joyful song. David rejoices in his relationship with the Lord, in his inheritance in Israel, and in the Lord’s direction for his life.
Chapter Summary
David asks the Lord for protection, trusting in God as a safe place from enemies and evil. He confesses that apart from the Lord he has nothing good. This psalm exudes David’s joy, using words such as “delight,” “pleasant,” “glad,” “rejoices,” “joy,” and “pleasures.” David celebrates his relationship with God. Because the Lord is with him always, David feels secure, even in the face of death. This is because his eternal destiny is assured. His celebration foreshadows the Messiah, who would conquer death and experience resurrection.
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