Psalms 16:5

"Jehovah 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 Jehovah who hath given me counsel;

Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons.

I have set Jehovah always before me:

Because lie is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."

The first two verses here are loaded with terminology that is suggestive of the division of the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel, in which situation it will be remembered that the Levites had no portion except God. They did not inherit the land as did the other tribes.

The Holy One in the focus of this prophecy was another who, like the Levites, had his portion in God. This too excludes the application of the prophecy to David. Certainly the King of Israel was a landed potentate of the first rank; and, in no sense, was his portion "in Jehovah." His portion also included the kingship over all Palestine.

"Jehovah ... hath given me counsel." The import of this goes far beyond the inspiration evident in David's writings. Only of Jesus Christ is it possible to be said that "His words are indeed the words of God." John 12:48-50 emphasizes this truth dramatically:

"He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I spake not from myself; but the Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is the life eternal; the things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak."

Nothing of this type of counseling from God was ever either promised or attained on the part of David.

"I have set Jehovah always before me." This was never done by David, or any other king of Israel; and as Kidner pointed out, "Of the Messiah alone can such words as these be perfectly and literally true. for example, the always of this verse."[10] The apostle Peter himself confirmed the accuracy of that opinion in Acts 2:25, where he quoted Psalms 16:8 and through the rest of this Psalm, stating specifically that David said these things concerning Jesus Christ the Messiah.

Many of the errors on the part of commentators reluctant to find any reference here to someone other than David are due to one of the silly rules of radical critics who have postulated the proposition that faith in the resurrection from the dead does not appear in Israel at all until that nation's contact with Persia, following the Babylonian captivity. This false proposition is mentioned by Alexander Maclaren.[11]

FAITH IN THE RESURRECTION

True belief in the resurrection existed in Israel long prior to any contact of that nation with Persia; and besides that, Persia never had any certain word whatever about the resurrection; and Israel certainly could not have learned anything from Persia, especially anything about the resurrection, of which Persia itself was ignorant.

Here is the proof of the knowledge of the resurrection throughout the whole history of Israel, beginning with the ancestor of all Jews, namely, Abraham.

(1) Abraham would never have lifted the knife to slay Isaac, if he had not truly believed in the power of God to raise the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19).

(2) Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and the prophets, Samuel, David, and all the ancient Jewish worthies:

"Subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens, etc. Women received their dead by a resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, THAT THEY MIGHT OBTAIN A BETTER RESURRECTION" (Hebrews 11:32-34).

These remarkable lines indicate that all of the achievements of ancient Jewish heroes were made possible by their faith in the resurrection of the dead.

(3) Job believed that, even after the worms had destroyed his body that, "In his flesh he should see God," as clear a prophecy of the resurrection as can be imagined. The genius of George Frederick Handel's Messiah reaches its glorious climax in that soul-stirring aria regarding the Messiah, that "HE SHALL STAND ..." at the latter day upon the earth.

(4) Centuries before Israel had any contact with Persia, Isaiah promised that, "Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust. The earth shall cast forth the dead." (Isaiah 26:19). (See our comment on this and similar passages in Vol. 1 of our Major Prophets Series.)

(5) The Prophet Daniel prophesied categorically a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked (Daniel 12:2).

(6) Isaiah 25:7 is also a prophecy of the conquest of death, that is, the resurrection. The only veil that was a covering for all the peoples of this earth is death; and this corresponds with the typical and symbolical significance of the veil as "death" standing as the principal demarcation between earth and heaven. See our comment on this in the works mentioned in the paragraph above.

(7) Ezekiel's chapter on the "Valley of the Dry Bones" is also a portion of the Bible that could never have been written without the general belief of the Hebrew nation in the doctrine of the resurrection.

While it is true that the Old Testament revelation of the doctrine of the Resurrection falls short of the vivid promises of it in the New Testament, those who deny its actual existence in the Old Testament as well must be classified as "untaught" in the word of the Lord.