Psalms 16

PReserve me From all mine Enemies. O God: for in thee do I put my trust Therefore thou art in Honour and by Promise obliged not to deceive my Trust..

O my soul Which words are fitly understood: For it is manifest he speaks to one Person of another. And it is usual with David to turn his Speech to his Soul, as Psal. 42. 6. and 43. 5., thou hast said Thou hast oft times avowed and professed it, and dost still persist to do so. unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord By Creation and preservation and otherwise; to whom I owe all Service and Obedience upon that account.: my goodness Whatsoever Piety or Virtue, or Goodness is in me, or is done by me., extendeth not to thee (i. e.) Does not add any thing to thy Felicity, for thou dost not need me nor my Service, nor art capable of any advantage from it: Or, is not for thee, as this word is used, Gen. 16. 5. 2 Sam. 1. 26. (i. e.) For thy use or Benefit. Or, is not upon thee, (i. e.) It lays no Obligation upon thee, as this very word is taken, Iudg. 19. 20. Psal. 56. 12. Ezek. 45. 17. All comes to the same thing. The Sense is, God is al-sufficient and infinitely happy, and the Author of all the good that is in, or is done by any of his Creatures; and therefore cannot prevent nor oblige God any further, than he is graciously pleased to oblige himself. Thus he renounceth all Opinion of merit, and though he urged his trust in God, as a motive to persuade God to preserve him, v. 1. yet he here declares that he did not do it, as thinking that God was indebted to him for it.;

But (i. e.) But my goodness extendeth, which is easily understood out of the former Verse: From which also there may be fetched another Supplement. O my Soul, thou hast said, to the Saints, &c. to the Saints that are in the Earth (i. e.) To those holy and righteous Persons that live upon Earth with me: To these only or principally my goodness is extended. Because I cannot reach thee, I indeavour to pay a singular Respect and Love, and Kindness to all Saints, for thy sake whose Friends and Servants they are, and whose image they bear. This may seem more properly to agree to David, than to Christ, whose goodness was principally designed for, and imparted to Sinners, and did not find men Saints, but make them so; nor was it confined to them, that lived with him upon the Earth, but extended to all the Believers of all Ages before and after him., and to the excellent Or, the magnificent, or mighty, or honourable, to wit, the Saints, as he now called them, whom, because they were mean and despicable in the Eyes of the World, he honours with their just Titles, and by appropriating them to the Saints he sufficiently intimates that all other men how great sover, are but ignoble and vile Persons, as he had called them, Psal. 15. 4. in whom is all my delight (i. e.) Whose Company and Conversation is most Pleasant and desirable to me Compare Psal. 119. 63..

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God Or, that present, or endow (as this Verb signifies, Exod. 22. 16.) another God, to wit, with Oblations, as it follows. God is not expressed in the Hebrew text, but seems fitly and necessarily to be understood, because of the following Offerings, which are made to none that is not either really or by Reputation a God. The Sense is, Idolaters, notwithstanding all their zeal or cost about their Idols, gain nothing to themselves, but abundance of sorrow and misery. This he mentioneth partly as one Reason, why he would have no fellowship with them in their Idolatrous worship, which he adds in this Verse: and partly that by this Comparison he might illustrate and commend his own Happiness, in having the Lord for his Portion, of which he speaks, v. 5, 6. Or thus, let their sorrows be multiplied, &c. Having showed his great Respect and Affection to the Saints, and excellent Servants of the true God, he now declares what an abhorrency he had for those that forsake the true God, and worship Idols. To whom he wisheth increase of their sorrows, whereby they may either be awakened and converted to the Lord again, or may be cut off; if they be impenitent and incorrigible.: their drink offrings Under which he comprehends all their Offerings, the reason being for Substance the same in all: but he mentions these particularly, because of a special Corruption in them above their other Sacrifices, to wit, that the very matter of them was unlawful, as we shall see: Which also might serve both to convince and deter those Israelites which harkened after Idolatry, and made no Conscience of maintaining Communion with Idolaters, which was the Case of many of them in Saul's time; and to justifie himself for his Detestation of them, and of all fellowship with them. of blood In which the Gentiles used (as divers learned men have observed) to Offer and sometimes to drink part of the Blood of their Sacrifices, whether of Beasts or of Men, as either of them were Sacrificed. Which must needs be very hateful to God, because he had so severely forbidden the drinking of Blood to his people either at their Sacrifices, or in their common Food. will I not offer, nor take up their names (i. e.) Of those other Gods mentioned before. I abhor the very name and memory of them. Not that he thought it unlawful to name these Idols, which is frequently done by the holy Prophets, but to express the odiousness of the thing by his loathing of the very name and shadow of them. Compare Exod. 23. 13. Deut. 12. 3. Hos. 2. 16, 17. Eph. 5. 3. Or the Sense is, I will not swear by them: For taking up ones names is used for swearing, Exod. 20. 7. into my lips.

The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance Or, of my devision, (i. e.) Of that inheritance which God has mercifully divided, or distributed to me, and which I by his grace have chosen for my self. I envy not the vast Riches and Glory of Idolaters, but do heartily rejoyce in God as my portion, and desire no better nor no other Felicity. God who has suffered other Nations to walk in their own Idolatrous ways, has granted this favour to me, to know and worship him the only true God. And as other Nations have chosen, and do adhere to their false Gods, so have I chosen God and will cleave to him., and of my cup The same thing repeated in other Words. The portion of my Cup, is the portion which is put into my Cup, as the ancient manner was in feasts, where each had his portion of Meat, and of Wine allotted to him. See Psal. 11. 6. The Cup oft denotes a Mans portion o... Condition, as Mat. 20. 22. and 26. 39.: thou maintainest my lot (i. e.) My inheritance divided to me by lot, as the Custome then was, Ios. 18. 11. Iudg. 1. 3. u As thou hast given me an excellent lot, having planted me among thine own People, and in that place which thou hast chosen for thy dwelling and worship, so, I doubt not, thou wilst uphold a... d preserve me there, in spight of all the malicious designs of mine Enemies that seek to drive me thence.

The lines (i. e.) My portion, which was measured with lines. Comp. Ios. 17. 5. Deut. 3. 4. are fallen unto me in pleasant places In a sweet land flowing with Milk and Hony, and above all blessed with the Presence and Knowledge, and Service of the true God.; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

I will bless the LORD, who has given me counsel Heb. consulted for me, (i. e.) By his wise and gracious Counsel has provided so good an heritage for me, and withal inspired that Counsel and Wisdom into me, by which I have chosen the Lord for my Portion, and am so fully satisfied with him.; my reins (i. e.) My inward thoughts and affections (which are commonly signified by the Reins, as Psal. 7. 9. and 26. 2. and 73. 21. and 139. 13. Ier. 11. 20. and 12. 2. and 17. 10.) being inspired and moved by the holy Spirit. also instruct me (i. e.) Direct me what course to take, how to please and serve God, and to put my whole Trust and Confidence in him, as it follows. in the night-seasons Not only in the day time, but also in the night, when others are asleep, but my mind is working upon God, and the things of God, and improving the silence and leasure, and solitude of the night to holy Meditations, and the exciting of my affections towards God..

* I have set the LORD always before me (i. e.) I have always presented him to my mind, as my Rule and Scope, as my Witness and Judge, as my Patron and Protector in the discharge of my Office, and in all my Actions. Hitherto David seems to have spoken in his own Person, and with special respect to himself, but now he seems to have been transported by an higher Inspiration of the Spirit of Prophecy, and to be carried above himself, and to have an Eye to the man Christ Jesus, who is and was the end of the Law, and the great Scope of all the Prophets, and to speak of himself only as a Type of Christ, and with more special respect unto Christ, in whom this and the following Verses were much more truly and fully accomplished than in himself. Christ as man did always set his Fathers will and Glory before him, as he himself oft declareth, especially in St. Iohn's Gospel.: because * he is at my right hand To wit, to strengthen me, for the right hand is the chief seat of a Man's strength, and Instrument of Action, to Protect, assist and Comfort me, as this Phrase signifies, Psal. 109. 31. and 110. 5. And this assistance of God was necessary to Christ as man., I shall not be moved Or, removed, either from the discharge of my Duty, or from the attainment of that Glory and Happiness which is prepared for me. Though the Archers shoot grievously at me, and both men and Devils seek my Destruction, and God sets himself against me as an Enemy, withdrawing his favour from me and filling me with deadly sorrows, through the Sense of his anger; yet I do not despair but am assured that God will deliver me out of all my Distresses..

Therefore Upon this ground and Confidence. my heart The proper seat of joy and of all the Affections. is glad, and my glory Either 1. my soul, which is indeed the Glory of a man. Or rather 2. my Tongue, which also is a mans Glory and Priviledge, above all other living Creatures, and the Instrument of glorifying both God and man; and which is oft called a mans Glory, as Gen. 49. 6. Psal. 30. 12. and 57. 8. and 108. 1. and 149. 5. And so this very Word is translated, Act. 2. 26. And thus the distinction between Heart and Glory, and Flesh is more certain and evident. rejoyceth Or, exsulteth, (i. e.) Declares or expresseth my inward joy. For this Verb signifies not so much internal joy, as the outward and visible Demonstrations of it, in Words or Gestures and Carriages.: my flesh also shall rest (i. e.) My body shall quietly and rest in the Grave, to which I am hastening. in hope (i. e.) In confident assurance of it's Incorruption there, and of it's Resurrection to a blessed and immortal Life, as it is explained v. 10, 11. The flesh or body is in it self, but a dead and senceless lump of Clay, yet Hope is here ascribed to it figuratively, as it is to the brute Creatures, Rom. 8. 19. because there is Matter and Foundation for such hope, if it were capable of it, the good promised and expected being certainly future.

For thou will not leave my soul (i. e.) My Person, as this word is every where used, by a Syne... doche of the part, and then the Person by another Synecdoche of the whole is put for the Body. The soul is oft put for the Body, either for the living Body, as Psal. 35. 13. and 105. 18. or for the Carkass or dead Body, as it is taken, Levit. 19. 28. and 21. 1. Numb. 5. 2. and 6. 6. 9. 11. and 9, 10. and 19. 11. 13. And so it is interpreted in this very place, as it is produced, Act. 2. 29, &c. and 13. 36, 37. in hell (i. e.) In the Grave or state of the Dead, as appears, 1. From the Hebrew word Scheol, which is very frequently so understood, as is undeniably evident from Gen. 42. 38. Numb. 16. 30. Iob 14. 13. Comp. with 17. 13. Psal. 18. 5. and 30. 3. and 141. 7. Eccles. 9, 10. Ezek. 32. 21, 27. Ionab 2, 2. and many other places. 2. From the following clause of this Verse. 3. From Act. 2. and 13. where it is so expounded and applied.; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One (i. e.) Me thy holy Son, whom thou hast sanctified and sent into the World. It is peculiar to Christ, to be called the holy one of God, Mark. 1. 24. Luk. 4. 34. to see corruption Or Rottenness, (i. e.) To be corrupted or putrified in the Grave, as the Bodies of others are. Seeing is oft put for perceiving by experience. In which men are said to see good, Psal. 34. 13. and to Death, or the Grave, Psal. 89. 48 Luk. 2. 26. Io.... 8. 51. and to see sleep, Eccles. 8. 16. And the Hebrew word though sometimes by a Metonymy it signifies the Pit or place of Corruption, yet properly and generally it signifies Corruption or Perdition as Iob 17. 14. and 33. 18. 30. Psal. 35. 7. and 55.... 3. Ion.... 2. 6. and is so rendred by the seventy Jewish Interpreters, Psal. 107. 20. Prov. 28. 10. Ier. 13, 14, and 15. 3 Lament. 4. 20. Ezek. 19. 4. and 21. 31. And so it must be understood here, although some of the Jews to avoid the force of this Argument render it the Pit. But in that Sense it is not true, for, whether it be meant of David, as they say, or of Christ, it is confessed that both of them did see the Pit, (i. e.) Were laid in the Grave. And therefore it must necessarily be taken in the other Sense now mentioned; and so it is properly and literally true in Christ alone, although it may in a lower and Metaphorical Sense be applied to David, who had a just and well grounded Confidence, that although God might bring him into great Dangers and Distresses, which are called the sorrows of Death, and the pains of Hell, Psal. 116. 3. yet God would not leave him to Perish in or by them..

Thou wilt show me (i. e.) Give me an exact and experimental knowledge of it for my own Comfort, and the benefit of my People. the path of life (i. e.) The way that leadeth to Life, not to a temporal and mortal Life here, for he is supposed to be dead and buried, v. 10. But to an endless and immortal, and blessed Life after death in the presence of God, as it followeth; the way to which is by the Resurrection of the Body. So the Sense is Thou wilst raise me from the Grave and Conduct me to the place and state of everlasting Felicity.: in thy presence Heb With or before my Face. (i. e.) In that heavenly Paradise, where thou art graciously and gloriously present, where thou dost clearly and fully discover thy Face, and the light of thy Countenance; whereas in this Life thou hidest thy Face and shewest us only thy Back-parts, and we are in a state of absence from thee, and see thee only through a Glass darkly, and enjoy thee but in part. is fulness of joy (i. e.) Full and perfect joy and Satisfaction, which it is in vain to expect in this Life, and is only to be found in the sight of thee. See Exod. 33. 14. Psal. 17. 15. Mat. 5. 8. 1. Ioh. 3. 2., at thy right hand Which he mentions as a place of greatest Honour, as this was Gen. 48. 13, &c. 1 Kings 2. 19. Psal. 45. 9. and the place where the Elect and Saints are placed at the last day, Mat. 25. 33, &c. and lastly, at the place where Christ himself is said to sit, Psal. 110. 1. Mat. 26. 64. Col. 3. 1. Heb. 1. 3. there are pleasures for evermore Everlasting delights in the Contemplation and fruition of God..