January 3
“Therefore My heart is glad and My glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave My soul in hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show Me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore,” Psalm 16:9-11.
Psalm 16 is another Messianic Psalm, a psalm in which the promised Messiah is speaking to Jehovah. Perhaps you noticed that in the three verses of the psalm quoted above, all of the pronouns, My and Me, are capitalized, since it is the Son of God speaking. Throughout the psalm, the Messiah is expressing the feelings of His human nature as He looks into the future toward His suffering and death. Then He speaks of His victory over death and the grave. He speaks of His gladness, His joy, and His hope as He speaks of His resurrection from the grave and His exaltation at the right hand of God.
On what do we base all these conclusions? Scripture interprets Scripture. The Bible explains itself. The Bible is its own best commentary. In the New Testament, both the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter identify this psalm as being a Messianic Psalm.
When the apostle Paul was preaching in the synagogue in Antioch, he referred to the Savior as speaking in Psalm 16, from which he quotes. The author of the Book of Acts writes, “God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’ Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’ For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins,” Acts 13:33-38.
Paul quotes from Psalm 16 and identifies Jesus as speaking. Jesus suffered, died, and was buried, but His body saw no corruption. His body did not begin to decay. Corruption of His body was not required for our salvation.
On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter gave a New Testament quotation of the psalm: “For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before My face, for He is at My right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore My heart rejoiced, and My tongue was glad; moreover My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave My soul in hell, nor will you allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to Me the ways of life; You will make Me full of joy in Your presence,’” Acts 2:25-28.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, and rose again, was not conquered by sin, death, or the devil. He conquered sin, death, and the devil for us. He has ascended into heaven and is at the right hand of God, ruling the whole universe. Our faith and trust is in Him as God’s Son and our only Savior, who has gone on before us to prepare a place for us, and who is coming again to receive us to Himself in heaven.
“I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living Head.
He lives, triumphant from the grave;
He lives eternally to save;
He lives all-glorious in the sky;
He lives exalted there on high.
He lives to silence all my fears;
He lives to wipe away my tears;
He lives to calm my troubled heart;
He lives, all blessings to impart.” Amen.