Psalm 16:1-6 Preserve me, O God: for in you do I put my trust.… This psalm is golden in thought, feeling, and expression. The substance of it is comprised in the first verse: "May God preserve him who has no other refuge in which he can hide but him!" The subject up to the end of the sixth verse may be called - Grounds of the prayer for preservation. I. HE HAS TAKEN GOD FOR HIS SUPREME GOOD. (Ver. 2, "I said to Jehovah, Thou art my Lord; beside thee I have no good.") The "good" here in contrast with the "sorrows" in ver. 4. "Whom have I in heaven but thee," etc.? It is the answer of the soul to, "Thou shalt have no other gods but me." "Thou, O Lord, art my Portion, my Help, my Joy, my All in all." II. HE DELIGHTS IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF ALL THE GOOD. (Ver. 3.) He trusts God in company with the best and noblest in the land. If they trust and serve, it is my privilege also. That is one thought. Another is - I love the holy and the excellent who reflect most of God; not the worldly rich and great and powerful. The saints and only they are the excellent to him, even as they are to God. He is one with God. in this - he is wholly on God's side; therefore, he says, save me from impending danger. III. HE ABHORS APOSTATES AND THEIR IDOLS. (Ver. 4.) He will be loyal, and refuse all participation in the fellowship or the rites of the surrounding idolaters. Even the names of the false gods he refuses to take upon his lips. Philosophy, and luxury, and commerce, and wisdom in government, and the glories of conquest, combined to recommend the seductive idolatries of Philistia, Phoenicia, Syria, Assyria, Egypt. But he regarded them all with righteous scorn. We have need of a strong and simple trust in God, and sympathy with the good, to be able to repudiate the idolatries that ever surround us - the worship of wealth, success, fashion. IV. HE POSSESSES ALL THINGS IN GOD. (Vers. 5, 6.) The Lord is the Portion of mine inheritance - an allusion to the division of the land among the tribes. And this was preserved to him by the protecting power of God. God was also his meat and drink (equivalent to "cup"). "The lines," etc. - in allusion to the ancient custom of marking out plots of land by measuring-lines. He had a goodly heritage. "What must not he possess who possesses the Possessor of all?" "All things are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." - S. Parallel Verses KJV: {Michtam of David.} Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. |
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