Psalms 16:1. Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
Ah, brethren! When we think of our daily dangers, and when we remember the sinfulness of our nature, this petition may well be our frequent prayer: «Preserve me, O God;» and this may well be our plea, as well as the psalmist's: «for in thee do I put my trust.» We do trust in the name of the Lord, for we can never expect to be preserved except by his protecting grace.
Psalms 16:2-3. O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; but to, the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
«My God, I would fain prove my gratitude to thee if I could; but what can I do for One so great as thou art? Thou art infinitely above me; thou needest nothing at my hands. What, then, can I do to show my love to thee? By my care for thy people I may prove what I would do for thee if I could. Are they hungry? I will feed them. Are they sick? I will visit them. If my goodness cannot reach the great Head of the Church, it shall at least wash the feet, for I do love thee, O my God; and I want, in some practical way, to show that I love, thee!»
Psalms 16:4. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
He who sincerely loves the true God cannot have any regard for his rivals; he will have no communion with false gods in any shape or form.
Psalms 16:5. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup:
That is the believer's portion, his God. The Levites, as a tribe, had no inheritance in the land of Canaan; but God was their portion, and who shall dare to say that they had not the best of it? Now, child of God, if you could have your choice, what would you choose, goods or God? Earthly wealth, or the God who is the source of all good things?
Psalms 16:5. Thou maintainest my lot.
One of our great men has for his motto, «I will maintain it.» But the psalmist's is a much better one: «Thou maintainest my lot.» It is better to have God for our Guardian than to have all possible human strength with which to defend ourselves.
Psalms 16:6. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
The Jewish rulers stretched the measuring or dividing lines over the plots of land that fell to the different members of the family; but here the man of God declares that, since God was his portion, the lines had fallen to him in pleasant places. There is no choice of places, or times, or circumstances, with the man who thoroughly loves his God. He can find God in loneliness, and so enjoy the best company, if he has God in poverty, he has great riches, O happy man, who has God to be his all!
Psalms 16:7. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel:
«He has talked with me, checked me, rebuked me, instructed me, encouraged me: ‘I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel.'» That does not, at first sight, look as if it were one of the choicest of blessings, yet the psalmist mentions it immediately after he has declared that the lines have fallen unto him in pleasant places, as if he felt that one of the choicest blessings of the covenant was that God had been his Counsellor.
Psalms 16:7. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
«God makes my heart, my conscience, my inmost being, to give me instruction. What a blessing that must have been to David! A man who has no inward monitor, because he has stifled his conscience, so that it no longer holds him by the ear, and speaks with him, is poor indeed; but blessed is he who has his God and his conscience to counsel and instruct him.
Psalms 16:8. I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved.
Brother, have you always acted on the straight? Have you so conducted your business that you need not be ashamed for God himself to look at it? Then do not be afraid of anything that may happen to you, for you will come out all right at the last. There may be great trouble in store for you, and you may be stripped of all that you possess; but you shall never be ashamed.
Psalms 16:9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
Every good thing belongs to the man who belongs to God. He need not be afraid even of the grave, for he can adopt the language which is here prophetically used for Christ himself. He is not afraid to die, for he can say:
Psalms 16:10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
«Sheol» the place of the departed, the intermediate state into which the soul passes at death.
Psalms 16:10. Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
In the fullest sense, this verse belongs to Christ alone; but, still, what belongs to the Head is also the portion of the members of his mystical body.
Psalms 16:11. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 16:1, and 63.
And this is the portion of every believer. «Here little, but hereafter much,» says Bunyan; but I will venture to alter it, and say, «Here much, but hereafter more shall be our inheritance from age to age.»