Psalm 16:5-11

Psalm 16:5-11 (NRSV)

⁵ The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

I have a goodly heritage. 

⁷ I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

⁸ I keep the Lord always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;

my body also rests secure.

¹⁰ For you do not give me up to Sheol,

or let your faithful one see the Pit. 

¹¹ You show me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy;

in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16:5-11 became an important part of Christian tradition, with Acts 2:25-28 quoting verses 8-11b in the LXX version and verse 10b in Acts 13:35. These quotes properly provide a theological context for understanding the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It shows that the destiny of Jesus, the one who lived faithful to the Shema of Israel, tied his destiny to his communion with his heavenly Father. He became the fulfillment of the hope of the psalmist. 

In Psalm 16:5-8 the poet focuses upon communion with the Lord. ⁵ The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. The “cup” may be the one used in worship. It may refer to the good destiny the Lord has for him. Communion with the Lord now means the destiny of the person is closely connected with the Lord. It refers to material blessing as well. The poet then affirms: you hold my lot. The poet sees the Lord in all places. "You, Lord, are all I have, and you give me all I need; my future is in your hands" (16:5, TEV). ⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. The allusion is to the Levitical state.  These verses contain four closely parallel expressions: my chosen portion, my lot, boundary lines ... in pleasant places and a goodly heritage. They allude to the land the Lord gave to the Israelite tribes to settle on, after the conquest of the previous inhabitants. Nuances of meaning exist between the terms, but do not press them, as the poet uses the words metaphorically. ⁷ I bless [praise] the Lord. Such a thought is common. Bless the Lord, O my soul (Psalm 103:1, 2, 104:1, 35) as well as the angels all the works of the Lord (103:20-22). David encourages the assembly to bless the Lord (I Chronicles 29:20). The people shall bless the Lord their God when they enter the good land the Lord has given them (Deuteronomy 8:10). He blesses or praises the Lord who gives me counsel. The counsel of the Lord guides him (Psalm 73:24).  In the night also my heart (Hebrew “loins,” or even “kidneys,” the seat of intimate thought and sentiment) instructs me. The Lord speaks to the author in the silence of the night. The song of the Lord is in his heart at night (Psalm 42:8). He communes with his heart in the night and even meditates and searches his spirit (Psalm 77:6). All night long he thinks of the Lord who has helped him (Psalm 63:6-7). The heart (conscience, will, the moral sense) directed by the Lord will lead him. ⁸ I keep the Lord always before me,acknowledging the presence of the Lord by keeping the Lord in mind. Because he is at my right hand, (the position of prominence) I shall not be moved (the niphal stem of the Hebrew verb mot, pronounced moat, means to be moved, shaken, upended, tottered or made to stagger). To have the Lord so close means the psalmist will not be moved. We find this sentiment often in the psalms. The psalmist rests securely with the Lord; the Lord will make him firm. Those who lead blameless lives shall not be moved (15:5). Through the steadfast love of the Lord the king shall not be moved (21:7). With God amid the city it shall not be moved (46:5). The righteous who cast their burden upon the Lord shall not be moved (55:22). With the Lord as his rock, salvation, and fortress, he shall not be moved (62:2, 6).

Psalm 16: 9-11 have the theme of rejoicing in hope. ⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure (betah[1]). We should note that heart, soul, and body here are in parallel with each other. The same is true of gladness, rejoicing, and resting secure. The noun and the related verb mean to trust, in the sense of feeling safely confident in God's good hands. The prophet can say that the Lord will keep one perfect peace those who trust the Lord (Isaiah 26:3). The believer's "blessed assurance" comes from God. Gladness and joy abound. ¹⁰ For you do not give me up to Sheol. One might translate verse 10a “You are not abandoning my life/my soul, (a more poetic way of saying "me,") to Sheol." "Sheol" is the shadowy world of the dead or the grave; it appears 63 times in the NRSV. Even in Sheol, God is there (Psalm 139:8). Further, the Lord does not let your faithful one [hasid] see the Pit. In parallel with verse 10a, verse 10b, "You are not letting your faithful one see the Pit." Pit can simply be an equivalent of Sheol. However, some translate it as rot or decay, following the LXX/Septuagint Greek's understanding.  This personal experience of confidence and trust in God eventually leads this community of believers toward the notion that not even death can break the relationship. His faith and total commitment to God call for a union that defies dissolution, hence he must pray to escape death that would break that union. Death will not be a trap, but rather, will manifest the life-giving power of God.  Assurance of this is present communion with God.  Life with God now will continue beyond earth, though the "how" is not explained. ¹¹ You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The one who trusts in God is fully satisfied.

We are in good times when the boundary lines fall into place. It might be well to spend some time on this notion of boundaries. Robert Frost (1873-1963) famously wrote “Mending Wall,” inspired by a wall in the field. 

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

We may not like the wall. What are we keeping in and what are we keeping out? Good fences set the boundary between joining properties. We need physical boundaries. When we think of border disputes between nations leading to war, boundaries between neighbors that become ambiguous, and the sense of personal boundaries each of us has that others can invade, we know how this psalmist feels. Some of us have a more difficult time than others do in maintaining our personal boundaries and in respecting the boundaries of others.

However, if the psalmist is like many people, he will not leave well enough alone. The boundary lines may have fallen for him in pleasant places, but sooner or later, he will grow dissatisfied with the status quo of the settled life and go looking for what is beyond the boundary lines, deliberately throwing a wrench into his life. The husband can get tired of his lady, simply being together too long, feeling like a worn out recording of a favorite song and falling into the same old dull routine (Escape – The Pina Colada Song). We can become strangers to each other during the dangling conversation and its superficial sighs that have become the border of our lives (Dangling Conversation by Simon & Garfunkel). Everything is the same back in my little town (My Little Town by Simon & Garfunkel). The sameness, monotony, and routine can drag us down. We like the stimulation of the new. Yet, we need to exercise some caution. The attraction of the stimulating new experience can be self-sabotage, but it has an intentional quality. It can mask our hesitation to learn the gift that arises out of commitment and faithfulness. Most of us have realized that we need to identify and stop engaging in behaviors that inadvertently short-circuit our efforts to get ahead in the job, have happy relationships, reach long-term goals, reduce stress in daily routine, maintain healthy self-esteem and generally have a productive life. For many of us, life itself is the best therapist as we learn from our errors and hopefully learn from the errors of others. Even more insidious, however, is when we know we are doing something self-destructive and we do it anyway (Romans 7). We may have a wonderful marriage but chose to explore beyond the boundary of that commitment for something different. Maybe we are simply bored with how well things are going. We say negative things about others that come back to hit us where it hurts. We overcommit. We enable abusive relationships. We fear success so we undermine our path toward it. We do not live within our means. We make rash decisions. We show up for work or school drunk. We procrastinate. We insist on maintaining friendships with people who are wrong for us. The list of self-destructive and willful behavior is long. The stupid stuff we apparently feel compelled to inflict on ourselves from time to time is part of the riddle of what it means to be human. Something in us has a perverse need to intrude on our lives when everything is going well and introduce a complicating component, a discordant note or an element of tumultuous change. We tend to drop one of those things into our lives precisely when things are on an even keel. It is as if something within us becomes uneasy when our lives finally become balanced and harmonious. Many of us will not wear the same type of clothes two days in a row, let alone stay in the same circumstances for too long. We have restlessness when it comes to the way things are, so we change jobs, careers, values, appearances, hobbies, and spouses. Obviously, considering the situation, such some of this restlessness is a good thing, some is neutral, and some is self-destructive. It will take some wisdom and discernment to know the difference. 

The temptation is present, even for Christians, to be Christians with a difference by accepting the cultural fashion of the day and simply add a Christian coloring to it. Christians can develop a horror of the same old thing.[2] As creatures of time, change is a constant. We develop personality and character over time. New relationships and circumstances bring change into our lives. We long for both constancy and change. Yet, if we make an idol out of change, we can develop heresy in our faith, folly in our way of life, infidelity in marriage, and lack of faithfulness in friendship. If we make an idol out of constancy, we can develop a romanticized vision upon the past that refuses to engage and learn from the present. We need change, of course, but we need to exercise wisdom in our embrace of it. The same is true of constancy. Deriving pleasure in novelty for the sake of novelty is a dangerous, idolizing path. Frankly, some boundaries are present for our protection. Some mountains we face are not supposed to move. Some doors are to remain shut. We may experience it as a lack of freedom, but such boundaries may help us stay on a healthy path.

---

[1] (with a hard t and hard h)

[2] C.S. Lewis noted this in his book The Screwtape Letters. 

If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian coloring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.
The horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart - an endless source of heresies in religion, folly in counsel, infidelity in marriage and inconstancy in friendship. The humans live in time and experience reality successively. To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things; in other words, they must experience change. And since they need change, the Enemy [God] ... has made change pleasurable to them, just as he has made eating pleasurable. But since he does not wish them to make change, any more than eating, an end in itself, he has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world he has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme. ...
Now, just as we pick out and exaggerate the pleasure of eating to produce gluttony, so we pick out this natural pleasantness of change and twist it into a demand for absolute novelty. ... The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other to the law of diminishing returns.