Psalms 16:1

PSALM 16

THE RESURRECTION OF THE MESSIAH[1]; A MYSTERY POEM OF DAVID[2]; THE GOLDEN PSALM[3]; A PROPHECY OF JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD (MICHTAM OF DAVID)

The fourth title given here is our own which we have preferred without denying in any sense the application of the others.

The superscription given here in parenthesis is of uncertain meaning, some suggesting that it means "The Golden Psalm," and others denying that meaning. This uncertainty probably prompted Leupold's designation of it as, "The Mystery Psalm of David." Dummelow admitted the "possibility" that "Michtam" may mean "The Golden Psalm," but added that, "It may have some musical meaning."[4]

Thanks to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and their confident quotation of fully half of this Psalm in the New Testament, the psalm carries no mystery whatever for us. It is a confident and dogmatic promise of God's resurrection of his Holy One from the grave, so quickly after his death that no corruption whatever should destroy his body. We shall cite these quotations fully a little later.

It is important to note that the overall theme of this psalm is "The Righteous Man," a theme that removes, absolutely, the application of it in any major sense to David, and restricts its application to the Only One who was ever truly and completely righteous, namely, Christ. Rawlinson stressed this: The sixteenth psalm is so far connected with the fifteenth that it is exclusively concerned, like the fifteenth, with "The Truly Righteous Man."[5]

Specifically, "The language of Psalms 16:10 cannot be used of David in any sense whatever. David's body saw corruption."[6]

There is absolutely no excuse whatever for limiting that promise and understanding it to mean that, "David's body would not be suffered to lie in the grave forever."[7] Such a meaning contradicts what the text says.

Psalms 16:1-4

"Preserve me, O God; for in thee do I take refuge.

O my soul, thou hast said unto Jehovah. Thou art my Lord;

I have no good beyond thee.

As for the saints that are in the earth,

They are the excellent in whom is all my delight.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that give gifts for another god:

Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer,

Nor take their names upon my lips."

The tone of these verses leaves no doubt whatever that a supernatural Person is in view.

"I have no good beyond thee." Can this be anyone other than Jesus Christ? Could it refer to David? Did he have no "good" beyond the Lord? How about Bathsheba?

"The saints that are in the earth." These are here contrasted with Him who is in heaven, certainly not with David, or any other person on earth.

As McCaw suggested, the continuation here of the earmarks of one who is truly righteous includes the following:

(1) God is the object of his trust; he takes refuge in Him (Psalms 16:1).

(2) Yahweh is his sovereign lord, beyond whom there is no good thing (Psalms 16:2).

(3) He acknowledges the value and fellowship of the saints (Psalms 16:3).

(4) He shuns all false worship (Psalms 16:4).[8]

"Drink-offerings of blood." The commentators available to us profess to know of no examples, even among the ancient pagans, of such drink-offerings, and suggest that the meaning is that "all of the gifts and sacrifices to pagan deities are as displeasing to God as if they were indeed drink-offerings of blood." To us, however, there seems to be a positive indication in such words as these that there were indeed pagan worshippers who offered such drink-offerings to their gods and goddesses.

Some of the natives of Columbia, South America eat what they call "blood pudding" which is not very far removed from "drinking blood." This so-called "blood pudding" was offered to us who attended the Pan American Lectures in Medellin, Columbia, just a few years ago.

Rawlinson believed that there were sufficient grounds for the conjecture that, "Such offerings may have been employed in the worship of Moloch."[9]