John Calvin Commentary Psalms 16:8

"I have set Jehovah always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." — Psalms 16:8 (ASV)

I have set Jehovah, etc. The Psalmist again shows the firmness and stability of his faith. To set God before us is nothing other than to keep all our senses bound and captive, so that they may not run out and go astray after any other object. We must look to him with eyes other than those of the flesh, for we will seldom be able to perceive him unless we elevate our minds above the world; and faith prevents us from turning our backs on him.

The meaning, therefore, is that David kept his mind so intently fixed on the providence of God that he was fully persuaded that whenever any difficulty or distress befell him, God would always be at hand to assist him. He also adds continually, to show us how he constantly depended on God's assistance, so that, amidst the various conflicts with which he was agitated, no fear of danger could make him turn his eyes to any other quarter than to God in search of help.

Thus, we ought to depend on God in such a way that we continue to be fully persuaded of his being near to us, even when he seems to be removed to the greatest distance from us. When we have thus turned our eyes towards him, the masks and the vain illusions of this world will no longer deceive us.

Because he is at my right hand. I read this second clause as a distinct sentence from the preceding. To connect them together as some do in this way, I have set the Lord continually before me, because he is at my right hand, would give a meager meaning to the words and take away much of the truth taught in them, as it would make David say that he measured God’s presence according to his experience of it—a way of speaking that would not be at all fitting.

I consider, therefore, the words, I have set the Lord continually before me, as a complete sentence, and David set the Lord before him for the purpose of constantly turning to him in all his dangers. For his greater encouragement to be very hopeful, he sets before himself what it means to have God’s assistance and fatherly care: namely, that it implies God keeping his own people, with whom he is present, firm and unmoved. David then considers himself secure against all dangers and promises himself certain safety, because, with the eyes of faith, he beholds God as present with him.

From this passage, we are furnished with an argument that overthrows the fabrication of the Sorbonists—that the faithful are in doubt with respect to their final perseverance—for David, in very clear terms, extends his reliance on God's grace to the future. And certainly, it would be a very miserable condition to tremble in uncertainty every moment, having no assurance of the continuation of God’s grace towards us.