Psalm 16 (CSB)
A Miktam of David.
1 Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you.
2 I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have nothing good besides you.”
3 As for the holy people who are in the land,
they are the noble ones.
All my delight is in them.
4 The sorrows of those who take another god
for themselves will multiply;
I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
and I will not speak their names with my lips.
5 Lord, you are my portion
and my cup of blessing;
you hold my future.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me
in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I will bless the Lord who counsels me—
even at night when my thoughts trouble me.
8 I always let the Lord guide me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad
and my whole being rejoices;
my body also rests securely.
10 For you will not abandon me to Sheol;
you will not allow your faithful one to see decay.
11 You reveal the path of life to me;
in your presence is abundant joy;
at your right hand are eternal pleasures.
This was part of my daily reading this morning. As I have said in other posts, I do my very best to understand the original context of a passage when I am reading it. I do believe that most of them have a universal application but it is important to see what the original author was saying. Sometimes we have to admit that there will be some things that can’t be understood or applied to our personal situation.
For example, this psalm is labeled a miktam of David. We don’t know what that word means. There are five other psalms (56-60) that share this designation. They were all written by King David. They all have a specific tune given and with one exception (58) they specify the reason they were written. This is all fascinating to me but isn’t the reason I wanted to discuss Psalm 16.
At the risk of snatching things out of context and distorting David’s intentions, I want to look at verses 7-9. In the preceeding verses David contrasts the faithful in Israel to those who worship idols. He also praises God for blessing him and Israel. Many of the blessings given to David were his and his alone. Some of them extended to his offspring and others pointed to the Messiah. Verse 10 is one such verse. It is understood as a reference to the resurrection of Jesus. However, verses 7-8 do address something that I think we all can relate to.
I often wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. I credit this to an overactive imagination and anxiety. Many of the thoughts that swarm through my mind during these moments are about things that are completely out of my control. I don’t want to worry but sometimes it just happens. I try to remember 1 Peter 5:7 (cast all your cares on him) but it doesn’t always work. Philippians 4:6-7 is another “go to” passage in such times. I think it’s time to add Psalm 16:7-9 to the list.
I imagine that the things keeping David aware were much larger than the ones that cause me to lose sleep. I am not a king or even the leader of a large group of people. I do have family issues (we all do) but none quite as dramatic as David. His own son rebelled against him and tried to kill him. David, while being a man after God’s own heart, was a complete mess. I can relate. I can also learn from David.
David says that he turns to Yahweh (the LORD) when his thoughts “trouble” him. He seeks God’s counsel and once he accepts it, his “heart is glad,” his “whole being rejoices,” and his body “rests securely” knowing that God is in control. The hardest thing for me to do during those late night/early morning worry sessions is to just stop and listen. There’s a reason God tells us to “be still” and let Him handle it. In the last verse David reminds us that there is joy in the presence of Yahweh. He’s revealed the path of life (Jesus) and one day the cares and anxieties of this world will be no more.
Grace and peace.
That 80s Pastor Dude 