Chapter 2—Psalm 16
The birth of the King having been announced in Psalm 2, we have next to retrace His footsteps as He walked upon earth as a man. Power to be exercised by Him as God's' King seems only natural and right, but a position of lowly dependence is one which man would never have assigned to Him. Yet this was the place He took when upon earth, who will one day rule all nations with a rod of iron, for He was to show what Adam had failed to exhibit—the proper character and position of the lowest in rank of God's intelligent creatures, called by Him, man.
Perfect God and perfect man, what ever be the relative position He occupies, in it He is perfect.
As man on earth, He entered fully into His place, and acted throughout as befits the creature. And this we have traced out to us in the Word, not only in those books which recount His history, but in the Psalm and Prophets, which mark out beforehand the road appointed Him to traverse. Among the Psalms which describe Him upon earth, Psalm 16 must be included. Twice in the Acts do' we find it quoted (2:25-28; 13: 35), and both times it is expressly applied to Christ. Peter, taking up the question of David's authorship, points out that he wrote not of himself, but of another. The Psalm is a psalm of David, but the hope it expresses belongs to a Person very different from the youngest son of Jesse. David's sepulcher, existing at that day, proved he did not write of himself. "He is both dead and buried," is all that the Apostle could say of him. He died, was buried, and is risen, is the testimony which he bore to Christ. "David speaketh concerning Him," is the language of the Spirit by Peter, with reference to His own words by David. At Antioch, in Pisidia, Paul, addressing a mixed company of Jews and Greeks, and anticipating the objection that might be raised against the Messiahship of Jesus, because He had died, quoted this Psalm, to show that His resurrection was predicted. David saw corruption, but He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Thus at Jerusalem and again at Antioch, it was clearly shown that Psalm 16 had reference to another than the writer—even to David's Son, who is also David's Lord.
Glancing over it, we may see that only one speaker is introduced throughout it. In Psalm 2 we had three; here we have but one, so He, whose hope it expresses at the close, is the same whose dependence it declares at the beginning; for while part of the Psalm any saint might take up, whose walk was conformed to the standard it describes, One only has ever been upon earth, who could apply it all to Himself. Enoch and Elijah can tell of a road to heaven, which passes not through the gates of death; but none of God's saints who have entered death, have passed through it without their bodies being subjected to corruption. For observe, the Psalm speaks not of the state and portion of the unclothed spirit, but of the reunion of body and soul after each should go to their respective places—the former to the grave, the latter to hell, or hades (Sheol). Death, however, is here only in prospect, the walk which preceded it being the subject of the Spirit's description.
Like a lake whose surface is unruffled by the least breath of any disturbing element, reflecting the very color and calmness of the heavens above it, disclosing, too, beauties in its depths, a bright shining object, at once attractive and soothing—such is the character of our blessed Lord and Master as brought out to us in this Psalm, in which we mark no trace of the opposition that He met with from men, nor of the unevenness of the road over which He journeyed. With one exception (v. 4) there is nothing here to intimate the presence on earth of a will which did not, like His, bow to that of God. It is One, as He walked with God, whose footsteps we have here delineated, and just what we meet with elsewhere in the Word, so useful to us who are often so dull of comprehension; we have but one aspect of the Lord's work upon earth given to us in this Psalm to contemplate. The full picture, with every feature in harmony, we get in the Gospels, while different aspects of His life are brought before us in the Old Testament scriptures. The principle of His walk, the character of His service, the treatment He experienced, the grace and gentleness which He manifested—all these, blended together in the Gospels, are described particularly and separately by the Prophets who lived before the cross. So, while noting His perfection throughout, we may study for our profit the different features of His character, who is both God and man, our Savior and our Lord.
To turn now to the Psalm before us, which gives us the principles of His walk before God—it begins with declaring His dependence, and ends with expressing His confidence. "Preserve Me, 0 God," is the first utterance. "Thou wilt show Me the path of life," is the closing expression of confidence. How fully then He took the place of a creature, who should ever be dependent upon the Creator. To be as gods, was the bait held out but too successfully to Eve in the garden of Eden; the refusal to leave the path of dependence upon God, characterized the second Man, when tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Yet all the while He was God. The stormy sea obeyed His behest, and was stilled; fishes were brought in abundance to Peter's net, and one fish brought him the exact sum demanded as tribute from the disciple and his Master; the winds, too, dropped at His word; the devils owned His authority; and death released its grasp, when He bade Lazarus to come forth. Power then He had; all nature obeyed His bidding, who took so dependent a place as to say, "Preserve Me, 0 God: for in Thee do I put My trust." Is it degrading for a man to own himself dependent on a superior being? Is independence of God what the creature may desire? These questions receive a complete answer from the acts of God's Son down here. He was as a creature dependent, and throughout He remained so.
His dependence affirmed, His associates are next described—"My goodness extendeth not to Thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom [in them, not in whom] is all My delight." A position of isolation was not that designed by God for man. Separation from evil doers is to characterize His saints (Rom. 16:1717Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. (Romans 16:17); 1 Cor. 5; Titus 3:1010A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; (Titus 3:10); James 4:44Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)); but a misanthropic spirit was never the result of divine teaching, nor is a pharisaic standard of moral fitness one upon which God looks with approval. As man, the Lord owns a distance between Himself and God. "My goodness extendeth not to Thee." And though the only Man, who from His own holiness might have withdrawn Himself from contact with sinners, He was found in their company, and tells us in the Psalm that in them was all His delight. Man in nature loves the company of the great, and those best known to fame. The Lord Jesus found His delight in the saints (those separated to God) and in the excellent (those obedient to the Word). With others, just mentioned in verse 4, He could have no communion. On earth for God, with those who were on God's side, He could and did consort. Publicans, as Levi and Zacchaeus; sinners, as the woman of John 4; those who had been demoniacally possessed, as Mary Magdalene and the man of Gadara, found themselves at home in His presence. Those from whom a Pharisee would have studiously kept aloof, He allowed to approach (Luke 7). It was this which so puzzled Simon the Pharisee. He thought he knew much about that woman, but the Lord showed that He knew more, and allowed her to touch His feet, and accepted as personal service the expression of her heart's deep thankfulness. With publicans and sinners He would eat; He abode in the house of Zacchaeus, and passed two days with the Samaritans of Sychar. The "friend of publicans and sinners," men in derision called Him, who associated with the saints, and with the excellent. From John's disciples He chose some of His own—those who having been, baptized of John in Jordan, confessing their sins, owned that a standing before God on the ground of their own righteousness was a hopeless thing. What then was the reason of this action on His part, so unaccountable to many about Him? The excellent were those who confessed they had sinned; the saints were such as turned from their former ways to follow the Shepherd of the flock. When God made a decree for the waters of the sea, when He appointed the foundations of the earth, the delights of Wisdom were with the sons of men as distinguished from the angelic creation (Prov. 8:3131Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:31)). The fall of man came, and the Lord subsequently appeared upon earth. Then we find it was no longer simply a question between men and angels, but between two different classes of men, the self-righteous and impenitent on the one hand, and the repentant sinners on the other. Unchanged was His delight in men, but manifested under new circumstances. "The saints that are in the earth, and... the excellent," were the classes that He singled out, and drew around Himself. What grace does this bring into notice! Holy, harmless, undefiled Himself, the poor penitents and the sin-burdened souls could find a ready welcome from Him. Men called them publicans and sinners; He calls them saints and excellent. The former expressed what they thought of them; see how God regarded them: so it was fitting that, when addressing God, by such terms should He describe them. What joy to souls, when drawn by grace to Christ, to know God thus regards them, and that He can thus describe them. How entirely their past sinfulness is put out of sight, and how clearly their present character in God's eyes is kept in view. Saints and excellent, such were His companions; such are those with whom forever He will be associated. At the outset of His ministry such were found in His company at the close of His life, one such was with Him, cheered by the dying words of the Savior of sinners, "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise."
His associates having been described, we next learn how He viewed His appointed path. And here we must surely feel, that great indeed is the distance between us and Him, though by grace partakers of the divine nature, and having Him for our life. The description of His associates tells us of His grace; what follows speaks of His perfectness. Others had turned away from God -to seek satisfaction from unhallowed sources (v. 4); He owned that Jehovah was the portion of His inheritance and of His cup, and accepted what God provided. Circumstances, whatever they might be, He regarded as ordered by God, in whom He found His portion, which therefore, was unfailing and unchanging. He, too, maintained His lot. Able by His presence to overawe souls, and by His word to control the course and actions of demons, He did not assert His rights, but left it to Jehovah to maintain His lot. How truly, how fully, He was the dependent One, though alone of men He could say, "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering." Isa. 50:33I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. (Isaiah 50:3). Thus, leaving all in Jehovah's hands to provide for Him—what Adam failed to do—He could say, "The lines are fallen unto Me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." No garden of Eden, as Adam had, was His home upon earth, to delight Himself in the abounding fruits of the Creator's beneficence and power. Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, possessing not, as He ministered to others, what the foxes and birds could count upon as their own, a fixed resting-place for His head (Matt. 8:2020And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Matthew 8:20)), and even indebted at times to godly women for the supply of His bodily wants (Luke 8:33And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance. (Luke 8:3)), His experience of Jehovah's providential care He has left on record for His people's instruction.
Meek, He was also lowly; for in nothing would He be independent of Jehovah, though He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. From His infancy it was noticed that He was filled with wisdom; as He grew up, we learn that He increased in wisdom (Luke 2:40, 5240And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. (Luke 2:40)
52And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52)); and when He appeared as a teacher among His countrymen, knowing Him as a carpenter, and believing Him to be the son of a carpenter, they inquired in astonishment, from whence did He derive it all? (Luke 4:2222And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? (Luke 4:22); Mark 6:22And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? (Mark 6:2); John 6:4242And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? (John 6:42)) He tells us in this Psalm, that the source of strength for Him as a man was the fountain of knowledge for Him likewise (vs. 7).
Thus He blessed the Lord who bestowed it; and His will being in full harmony with God's mind, when others were asleep His reins instructed him.
Dependent, meek, lowly, teachable, upon that from which man shrinks He could look unmoved. To death, man's natural end since the fall, He who was sinless looks forward. Having set Jehovah always before Him, He would not be moved; for the One who had upheld Him in life, would bring Him through death; nay, more than that, would not leave Him for any time in it; for God's presence was the goal to which, as man, He was journeying. Elsewhere we find Him contemplating death as that which cuts short all connection with earth (Psalm 102); here He views it as that which lay in His road to God's presence, the aspect in which God's saints can now regard it likewise. Earth is not the only stage on which men will move; so death does not terminate man's existence, nor cut short the saints' enjoyment. It is the portal to another sphere, and, for those who have a portion in heaven, a door to endless joy. Beyond death then He here looked. To be in God's presence was His desire; for the path of life for Him, as for millions of God's saints, lay through the gates of death. Pleasures for evermore He desired, and He points out where they can be enjoyed. How truly He knew man's place upon earth, and shared in the hopes and joys of God's saints. Life beyond death, in the fullest joy, because in God's presence, and there to abide forever, is the closing thought of the Psalm. Across the brief period of time, to that which has for us a beginning, but has no end, called eternity, are we here in thought conducted; from a scene ever changing to God's presence, where all is stable and abiding, our eyes are now turned; the portion indeed of God's heavenly saints, but the portion of His well-beloved Son likewise, who, born into this world, went through it as a man, and passed out of it by death.
Had men according to their own wisdom undertaken to track out the Lord's path here below, how different would their accounts of it have been from what we have here! Each might have seen Him through the medium of their own thoughts, and at best have recorded their impressions about Him; but here we have His own thoughts and feelings laid bare by Himself. And surely, as we take in what He expresses in this Psalm, we get a better understanding of the value and character of the gift which He gave to His own just before departing out of this world to go to His Father—"My peace I give unto you." John 14:2727Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27). Here, in a degree unequaled, we have that peace portrayed, and may learn how to share in it, as in Col. 3:1515And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. (Colossians 3:15) we are exhorted to let it rule in our hearts. For "the peace of God" we should doubtless there read, the "peace of Christ." Thus we get mirrored in the Word a walk of subjection to God, as exemplified in the Son of the Highest. Far, far, surely most will admit that they walk behind Him who is our life; and often have not the children of God had experience of just the opposite to that peace which He so fully enjoyed, from failing to learn of Him, in whom "There only could God fully trace A life divine below."