Devotedness
Psalm 16 gives us the life of a perfectly dependent man, and this was brought out most fully in the life of the Lord Jesus. His life of dependence was characterized by both devotedness and confidence. Psalm 16:8 shows us devotedness: “I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” If we decided on our own path, what would we say? I have set the Lord sometimes before me, and the “sometimes” fewer than the other times. Sometimes we set each other before us; oftener we set ourselves. He says, “I have set the Lord always before me.” He has nothing before His mind but the Lord, Jehovah. There was His devotedness. “Lo, I come to do Thy will,” He says, and again, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).
Confidence
There is also confidence. “Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” Think of this: Does not God delight to put Himself at the right hand of the soul that simply trusts in Him? God says, If you put Me always before you, I shall bring Myself very near; I will put Myself at your right hand. If you set Me always before you, I will bring Myself as near as I can. What does God put Himself at your right hand for? That you may put your right hand into His right hand and be upheld by Him. “Thy right hand hath holden me up” (Psa. 18:35). “Thou hast holden me by my right hand” (Psa. 73:23).
What can God alone do to the man who sets Jehovah at His right hand? Jehovah’s answer to the dependent man is this: “Sit Thou at my right hand.” You have Him putting Jehovah at His right hand down here; that gives confidence. And to the man who says, “I have set the Lord always before me,” Jehovah answers, I will set that man at My right hand in glory. The thought of the right hand coming in here brings out the end of the pathway of the blessed Lord Jesus. How does He reach that glory? Through death, and thus we get the lovely connection of Psalm 110 with Psalm 16 in Peter’s sermon of Acts 2:25-36.
Joy
Now we have in Psalm 16:9 that which gives Him joy in view of all that was before Him. “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.” “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).
Assurance
In Psalm 16:10 we have the assurance in view of death. “Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy One to see corruption.” The holy One is that which He was intrinsically and practically. He can go even into death in full assurance, and so can the believer. Christ, of course, saw no corruption. First Corinthians 15:54 gives the other side for the believer: “When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption.” He was so holy that if He got into death as the end of a pathway of grace and obedience, the only thing God could possibly do was to take Him out of death and set Him in glory.
Association With God in Glory
Psalm 16:11 gives us the close of the pathway: “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” It is God Himself who is the fullness of His joy. Pleasures in what way? I believe they are in association with Him. He has had God down here, and when at His right hand, there are eternal associations with Him there.
This psalm gives to us in a blessed way the divine life coming out in a man down here on this earth. First dependence; then thorough subservience or subjection; then fellowship, fidelity, God the portion of the soul, satisfaction; then worship and counsel, devotedness and confidence, joy, assurance in view of death, and finally association with God in glory.
May the Lord keep us walking more in the footprints of the blessed Master, for His own name and His glory’s sake.
Christian Truth, Vol. 31