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Scott's Reference Library
See: November 16, 2003 | November 19, 2006 | November 15, 2009
Psalm 16:1 through Psalm 16:11 (NIV)
1 Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.
2 I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.
5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSE 1
David flees to God’s protection, with cheerful, believing confidence. Those who
have avowed that the Lord is their Lord, should often put themselves in mind of
what they have done, take the comfort of it, and live up to it. He devotes
himself to the honour of God, in the service of the saints. Saints on earth we
must be, or we shall never be saints in heaven. Those renewed by the grace of
God, and devoted to the glory of God, are saints on earth. The saints in the
earth are excellent ones, yet some of them so poor, that they needed to have
David’s goodness extended to them. David declares his resolution to have no
fellowship with the works of darkness; he repeats the solemn choice he had made
of God for his portion and happiness, takes to himself the comfort of the
choice, and gives God the glory of it. This is the language of a devout and
pious soul. Most take the world for their chief good, and place their happiness
in the enjoyments of it; but how poor soever my condition is in this world, let
me have the love and favour of God, and be accepted of him; let me have a title
by promise to life and happiness in the future state; and I have enough. Heaven
is an inheritance; we must take that for our home, our rest, our everlasting
good, and look upon this world to be no more ours, than the country through
which is our road to our Father’s house. Those that have God for their portion,
have a goodly heritage. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, and look no further.
Gracious persons, though they still covet more of God, never covet more than
God; but, being satisfied of his loving-kindness, are abundantly satisfied with
it: they envy not any their carnal mirth and delights. But so ignorant and
foolish are we, that if left to ourselves, we shall forsake our own mercies for
lying vanities. God having given David counsel by his word and Spirit, his own
thoughts taught him in the night season, and engaged him by faith to live to
God. Verses 8-11, are quoted by St. Peter in his first sermon, after the pouring
out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:25-31; he declared that David
in them speaks concerning Christ, and particularly of his resurrection. And
Christ being the Head of the body, the church, these verses may be applied to
all Christians, guided and animated by the Spirit of Christ; and we may hence
learn, that it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us. And if
our eyes are ever toward God, our hearts and tongues may ever rejoice in him.
Death destroys the hope of man, but not the hope of a real Christian. Christ’s
resurrection is an earnest of the believer’s resurrection. In this world sorrow
is our lot, but in heaven there is joy, a fulness of joy; our pleasures here are
for a moment, but those at God’s right hand are pleasures for evermore. Through
this thy beloved Son, and our dear Saviour, thou wilt show us, O Lord, the path
of life; thou wilt justify our souls now, and raise our bodies by thy power at
the last day; when earthly sorrow shall end in heavenly joy, pain in everlasting
happiness.