Matthew Henry Commentary Psalms 16

David flees to God's protection with cheerful, believing confidence. Those who have avowed that the Lord is their Lord should often remind themselves of what they have done, take comfort from it, and live up to it. He devotes himself to the honor of God in the service of the saints. We must be saints on earth, or we will never be saints in heaven.

Those renewed by the grace of God and devoted to the glory of God are saints on earth. The saints on earth are excellent individuals, yet some of them are so poor that they needed David's goodness to be extended to them. David declares his resolution to have no fellowship with the works of darkness; he repeats the solemn choice he had made of God for his portion and happiness, draws comfort from this choice, and gives God the glory of it.

This is the language of a devout and pious soul. Most people take the world for their chief good and place their happiness in its enjoyments; but however poor my condition is in this world, let me have the love and favor of God and be accepted by him; let me have a title by promise to life and happiness in the future state, and I have enough. Heaven is an inheritance; we must take that for our home, our rest, our everlasting good, and consider this world to be ours no more than the country through which we journey to our Father's house.

Those who have God for their portion have a good heritage. Return to your rest, O my soul, and look no further. Gracious people, though they still covet more of God, never covet more than God; but, being satisfied with his loving-kindness, are abundantly satisfied with it: they do not envy anyone their carnal mirth and delights. But so ignorant and foolish are we, that if left to ourselves, we will forsake our own mercies for lying vanities.

God having given David counsel by his word and Spirit, his own thoughts taught him in the night, and led him by faith to live for God. Verses 8–11 are quoted by Saint Peter in his first sermon after the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25–31); he declared that David, in those verses, speaks concerning Christ, and particularly of his resurrection. And Christ being the Head of the body, the church, these verses may be applied to all Christians, guided and animated by the Spirit of Christ; and from this we may learn that it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us.

And if our eyes are always toward God, our hearts and tongues may always rejoice in him. Death destroys the hope of man, but not the hope of a real Christian. Christ's resurrection is a guarantee of the believer's resurrection. In this world sorrow is our lot, but in heaven there is joy, a fulness of joy; our pleasures here are for a moment, but those at God's right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Through this your beloved Son, and our dear Savior, you will show us, O Lord, the path of life; you will justify our souls now, and raise our bodies by your power on the last day, when earthly sorrow will end in heavenly joy, and pain in everlasting happiness.