John Gill Commentary Psalms 16

Preserve me, O God
Prayer is proper to Christ as man; he offered up many prayers and supplications to God, even his Father, and his God, and as the strong and mighty God, as the word ^F9 here used is commonly rendered by interpreters; with whom, all things are possible, and who is able to save; see (Hebrews 5:7) (Luke 6:12) (Matthew 26:39Matthew 26:42Matthew 26:44) (John 17:1) ; and this petition for preservation was suitable to him and his case, and was heard and answered by God; he was very remarkably preserved in his infancy from the rage and fury of Herod; and very wonderfully was his body preserved and supported in the wilderness under a fast of forty days and forty nights together, and from being torn to pieces by the wild beasts among which he was, and from the temptations of Satan, with which he was there assaulted; and throughout the whole of his ministry he was preserved from being hindered in the execution of his office, either by the flatteries, or menaces, or false charges of his enemies; and though his life was often attempted they could not take it away before his time:

and whereas Christ is in this psalm represented as in the view of death and the grave, this petition may be of the same kind with those in (John 12:27) (Matthew 26:39Matthew 26:42) ; and put up with the same submission to the will of God; and at least may intend divine help and support in his sufferings and death, preservation from corruption in the grave, and the resurrection of him from the dead; and it may also include his concern for the preservation of his church, his other self, and the members of it, his apostles, disciples, and all that did or should believe in his name, for whom he prayed after this manner a little before his death; see (Luke 22:31Luke 22:32) (John 17:11John 17:15John 17:20John 17:24) ;

for in you do I put my trust :
or "have hoped" ^F11 ; the graces of faith and hope were implanted in the heart of Christ, as man, who had the gifts and graces of the Spirit without measure bestowed on him, and these very early appeared in him, and showed themselves in a very lively exercise, (Psalms 22:7) (Luke 2:49) ; and were in a very eminent manner exercised by him a little before his death, in the view of it, and when he was under his sufferings, and hung upon the cross, (Isaiah 1:6–9) (Matthew 27:46) (Psalms 16:9Psalms 16:10) (22:8) ; and this his trust and confidence in God alone, and not in any other, is used as a reason or argument for his preservation and safety.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (la) "Deus fortis seu potens", Muis; "Deus omnipotens", Cocceius, Michaelis.
• F11: (Kb ytyox) "speravi in te", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus.

[O my soul], you have said unto the Lord
Some take these to be the words of David speaking to the church, who had owned the Lord to be her Lord, and had declared what follows; others think they are the words of God the Father to his Son, suggesting to him what he had said; but they are rather an apostrophe, or an address of Christ to his own soul; and the phrase, "O my soul", though not in the original text, is rightly supplied by our translators, and which is confirmed by the Targum, and by the Jewish commentators, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi;

you are my Lord ;
Christ, as man, is a creature made by God; his human nature is the true tabernacle which God pitched and not man, and on this consideration he is his Lord, being his Creator; and as Mediator Christ is his servant, and was made under the law to him, obeyed him, and submitted to his will in all things; so that he not only in words said he was his Lord, but by deeds declared him to be so;

my goodness extends not to you ;
such who suppose that David here speaks in his own person, or in the person of other believers, or that the church here speaks, differently interpret these words: some render them, "my goodness [is] not above you"^F12; it is far inferior to yours, it is not to be mentioned with it, it is nothing in comparison of it; all my goodness, happiness, and felicity lies, in you, (Psalms 73:25) ; others, "I have no goodness without you": the sense is the same as if it was "I have said", as read the Greek, Vulgate Latin, and Oriental versions, and so Apollinarius; I have none but what comes from you; what I have is given me by you, which is the sense of the Targum; see (James 1:17) ; others, "my goodness is not upon you"^F13; does not lie upon you, or you are not obliged to bestow the blessings of goodness on me; they are not due to me, they spring from your free grace and favour; to this sense incline Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi; see (Luke 17:10) (Romans 11:35) ; others, "you have no need of my goodness"; nor will it profit you, so R. Joseph Kimchi; see (Job 22:2Job 22:3Job 35:7Job 22:8) ; or the words may be rendered, "O my goodness", or "you are my good, nothing is above you"^F14; no goodness in any superior to God.

But they are the words of Christ, and to be understood of his goodness; not of his essential goodness as God, nor of his providential goodness, the same with his Father's; but of his special goodness, and the effect of it to his church and people; and denotes his love, grace, and good will towards them, shown in his incarnation, sufferings, and death; and the blessings of goodness which come thereby; such as a justifying righteousness, forgiveness of sin, peace, and reconciliation, redemption, salvation, and eternal life. Now though God is glorified by Christ in his incarnation, sufferings, and death, and in the work of man's redemption, yet he stood in no need of the obedience and sufferings of his Son; he could have glorified his justice another way, as he did in not sparing the angels that sinned, in drowning the old world, and in burning Sodom and Gomorrah, and in other instances of his vengeance; though there is glory to God in the highest in the affair of salvation by Christ, yet the good will is to men; though the debt of obedience and sufferings was paid to the justice of God, whereby that is satisfied and glorified, yet the kindness in paying the debt was not to God but to men, described in (Psalms 16:8) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: (Kyle lb ytbwj) "bonum meum non est supra te", Gejerus.
• F13: "Bonum meum non est super te", Montanus, Cocceius.
• F14: So Gussetius, p. 299.

[But] to the saints that [are] in the earth
Who are sanctified or set apart by God the Father in election; whose sins are expiated by the blood of Christ in redemption, and who are sanctified or made holy by the Spirit of God in the effectual calling; and who live a holy life and conversation: these are said to be "in the earth", not to distinguish them from the saints in heaven, to whom the goodness of Christ extends as to them, unless it be to distinguish them from the angels in heaven, who are called saints, (Deuteronomy 33:2) ; as Aben Ezra observes; but to point out the place of their abode, scattered up and down in the earth; and to show that love, grace, goodness, and kindness of Christ reaches to them in the present state of things, notwithstanding all their meanness and imperfection in themselves, and their despicableness in the eyes of others; see (John 13:1) ;

and [to] the excellent ;
the same with the saints, who though reckoned by men the faith of the world, and the offscouring of all things, are in high esteem with Christ; they are "nobles" ^F15 in his account, as the word is rendered in (Jeremiah 30:21) ; they are princes in all the earth, and these princes are kings; they are made kings and priests unto God by Christ;

They wear and live like kings, and have the attendance, power, riches, and glory of kings; they are guarded by angels, they have power with God, they are rich in faith, and heirs of a kingdom;

in whom [is] all my delight ;
Christ's delights were with these sons of men before the world was, and have always continued with them; they are his "Hepbzibah" and "Beulah", as in (Isaiah 62:4) ; hence he became incarnate, and suffered and died for them, and makes application of all the blessings of his grace and goodness to them.

FOOTNOTES:

• F15: (yryda) "magnificis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Rivetus; "nobilibus delectationis meae", Gejerus; "ducibus eorum", Cocceius; so Michaelis.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied
Not the sorrows of the saints and excellent ones, by seeing the idolatry of men, as Aben Ezra interprets it; but the sorrows of such [that] hasten [after] another [god] ;
a false god, an idol, to serve and worship it; for, generally speaking, idolaters are more forward, eager, and hasty to attend a false worship, than the worshippers of the true God are to attend his service:

now their sorrows are many, even in their worship, by cutting their bodies with knives and lancets, as the worshippers of Baal did; and by sacrificing their own children, which, notwithstanding their rash and precipitate zeal, could not fail of giving them pain and uneasiness; and, besides temporal punishments inflicted on them for their idolatry by God, and stings of conscience, which must sometimes attend them, the wrath of God lies upon them, and they will have their portion in the lake of fire, and the smoke of their torment will ascend for ever and ever.

Some render the words, "their idols are multiplied"; and so the Chaldee paraphrase,``they multiply their idols, and after that hasten to offer their sacrifices;'' when men leave the true God, they know not where to stop; the Heathens had not less than thirty thousand gods, and the Jews when they fell into idolatry ran in the same way, (Jeremiah 2:28) (11:13) (Hosea 8:11) . The word "god" is not in the original text, though the supplement is countenanced by the Jewish writers ^F16 , who interpret it in this way;

but I rather think the text is to be understood not of Heathen idolaters, but of unbelieving Jews, who, rejecting the true Messiah, hasten after another Messiah, king, and saviour; when Jesus the true Messiah came they received him not; but when another came in his own name they were eager to embrace him, (John 5:43) ; and to this day they are hastening after another; and in their daily prayers pray that the coming of the Messiah might be (hdyhmb) , "in haste", in their days ^F17 ; and the sense of the passage is, that the sorrows of the Jews, rejecting the Messiah and hastening after another, would come thick and fast upon them, until wrath came upon them to the uttermost, (Matthew 24:6–8) (1 Thessalonians 2:16) ; and it holds good of all, whether Jews or Gentiles, that hasten after another saviour; that say to the works of their hands, that they are their gods, or go about to establish a righteousness of their own, or seek for life and salvation by their own doings; these, sooner or later, will lie down in sorrow, (Isaiah 50:11) ;

their drink offerings of blood will I not offer :
meaning not the libations of the Gentiles, which were not wine, according to the law, (Numbers 15:10) ; but blood, even sometimes human blood; but the sacrifices of the Jews, which were either got by blood, murders and robberies, and on that account were hateful to God, (Isaiah 61:8) ; or rather the sacrifices of bloodthirsty persons, whose hands were full of blood, (Isaiah 1:11–15) ; and such were the offerings of the priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, in Christ's time, who were the children of them that killed the prophets, and sought after the blood of Christ.

Or it may be rendered, "I will not offer their drink offerings because of blood" ^F18 ; meaning his own blood shed for the remission of sins, which being obtained, there remains no more offering for sin; and so the words may express the abolition of all legal sacrifices, and the causing of them to cease through the blood and sacrifice of Christ. This shows the person speaking to be a priest, and therefore could not be David, but must be the Messiah, who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek; and who had a better sacrifice to other up than any of the offerings of the Jews, even his own self, by which he has put away sin for ever. He adds,

nor take up their names into my lips ;
not the names of idol deities, nor of their worshippers, but of the Jews that rejected him as the Messiah, for whom he would not pray, (John 17:9) ; and so as he refused to offer their sacrifices, he would not perform the other part of his priestly office for them in intercession; though this may also have respect to the rejection of the Jewish nation as the people of God; writing a "Loammi", (Hosea 1:9) , upon them, declaring them to be no longer the children of the living God; leaving their names for a curse, a taunt, and a proverb in every place; expressing the utmost abhorrence of them, and showing the utmost indignation at them, as persons whose names were not worthy or fit to be mentioned, (Ephesians 5:3) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Ben Melech, & Abendana in loc.
• F18: (Mdm) "propter sanguinem", Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.

The Lord [is] the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup ,
&c.] This is said by Christ as a priest, and in allusion to the Levitical priests, who had no inheritance in the land of Canaan with their brethren, but the Lord was their part and portion, and their inheritance, (Numbers 18:20) (Deuteronomy 18:1Deuteronomy 18:2) ; and it expresses the strong love and affection Christ has for the Lord as his God, the delight and pleasure he had in him, and the satisfaction he had in the enjoyment of him and communion with him, and that it was his meat and drink to serve him, and to do his will; and though his goodness did not extend to him, yet his goodness and happiness as man lay in him:

unless the sense should be, ``the Lord is he who gives me the portion of mine inheritance;'' meaning his church and people, all the elect of God, who are Christ's portion and inheritance, given him by the Father; see (Deuteronomy 32:9) (Psalms 2:8) ; And assigns to me my cup, as of blessings, so of sorrows and sufferings, which being measured out, filled up, and put into his hand by his Father, he freely took it, (John 18:11) ;

you maintain my lot ;
that is, either his interest in God himself, as his covenant God, which always continued; or the lot of goods, of grace and glory, put into his hands for his people, which always remains; or rather the saints themselves, who, as they are Christ's portion and inheritance, so they are his lot; in allusion to the land of Canaan, which was divided by lot: these Jehovah took hold of, kept, preserved, and upheld, as the word ^F19 signifies; so that they shall never totally and finally fall and perish; and this sense is countenanced by what follows.

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: (Kymwt) "sustentas", Musculus, Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth; "sustentans", Montanus, Michaelis; "tenuisti", Cocceius; "tenendo quasi sustentans", Gejerus.