Bible Commentary - Psalms 16

This psalm defies simple interpretations.  If we follow my usual exercise of weighing the overall message by looking at the first verse, we should think that this psalm is a prayer for God’s protection or deliverance.  To an extent, I think that it is.  However, I don’t think it fits neatly into that category.

Structurally, it does not follow the usual prayer pattern of “problem statement”, followed by petition, followed by thanksgiving.  Instead, this psalm has two distinct sections.  The first section is verses 2-4, which is David’s claim of righteous behavior.  It might not be obvious why this is a claim of righteous behavior, but when we look at similar passages in other psalms I hope it will become more clear.

In particular, it is very similar thematically to Psalm 15.  David is declaring that first, he “delights” in the holy people (v. 3).  Second, David is saying that he will not “take up the names” of those who “run after other gods” (v. 4).  I see this as another way of saying that David does not want to have any association with idolaters (i.e. the wicked), while he rejoices in those who do good.  It’s phrased differently, but the sentiment is similar to Psalm 15:4, where the righteous man “despises a vile man, but honors those who fear the LORD.”  Earlier in Psalm 12:8, David was lamenting how the wicked “freely strut about when what is vile is honored by the sons of men.”  This is something I discussed at length in my commentary on Psalm 15, but the basic idea is that honoring the righteous and despising the wicked are traits that David values as a characteristic of righteousness.  Here, we can see that it is a trait that David claims for himself as well.

The second, and longer, section of this psalm is verses 5-11 where David colorfully praises God for his “counsel” (v. 7) and because God will not “abandon me” (v. 10).

In a sense, this section is a continuation of the theme from verse 1 which is that God is David’s refuge, but it also seems like more than that.  Verses 5-6 establish that the LORD is the “portion” or “inheritance” of David.  Interestingly, the last time this kind of language was used was all the way back in Deuteronomy 10:9 (repeated in Deut 18:2) when Moses said that the inheritance of the Levites was the LORD.

This made sense in their case because the Levites did not receive any inheritance in the promised land, besides the Levitical cities.  Therefore in exchange for an inheritance of land, the Levites received an “inheritance” of the sacrificial offerings that the people bring to the temple to offer to God.  The Levites also received a tithe from their fellow tribes, which was perhaps an even more significant amount of food and substituted for the agricultural work that the rest of the tribes would have engaged in (with their inheritance of land as the basis of that agriculture).  In that sense, swapping out an inheritance of land for sacrifices and tithes for the Levites made sense, and it also conveniently freed up the Levites’ time such that they could administrate the temple worship system.  They were, to put it simply, religious professionals, clerks, etc. in assistance to the Aaronic priesthood.

In the case of this psalm, it says that the LORD is “my portion”, but this is almost certainly intended metaphorically to mean that God’s presence or acceptance is the “portion” that we receive.  It begs the question of who we receive this inheritance from.  Does it come from our parents?  For the Jews, it seems like a plausible answer as their faith was very clearly a national and ethnic faith.  I think it’s more likely that the giver is God himself.  I doubt that David was viewing God’s presence as an inheritance in any traditional sense.  I doubt that David was thinking to himself, “when I die I will leave God’s presence for my children”, as you might otherwise leave a house or fields or other property.

Instead, I think David is using the term inheritance in an almost mystical sense to refer to the “good thing” that he possesses in his life, quite similar to verse 2.  More often than not, the promised land itself serves as a metaphor for God’s dwelling in the midst of Israel, and I believe David is extending that into a personal sense by referring to God as his own inheritance, rather than the collective inheritance of his whole people.

Verses 7-8 discuss how God “counsels” David and instructs him, while David in turn keeps his “eyes always on the LORD”, both to receive his instruction as well as to maintain his personal connection to God’s presence (his inheritance).

Moving on to verses 9-11, this is where David offers thanksgiving in response to his initial prayer in v. 1.  We see a contrast between life and death, with David spared from death and delivered into “the path of life” and the promise of “eternal pleasures” at the right hand of God.

Taking this psalm as a whole, I feel like this psalm as a whole is really about David’s central focus on God in his life.  Verses 2 and 5 in particular carry a strongly exclusive tone where he says that God alone is his good thing, God alone is his portion and inheritance.  God alone is his refuge (v. 1), and in this David rejoices because he knows that he can trust God to bring him through the challenges of life.