PSALM 16
1A David michtam.
for I shelter in You.
2I said to the LORD,
“My Master You are.
3As to holy ones in the land
and the mighty who were all my desire,
4let their sorrows abound—
I will not pour their libations of blood,
I will not bear their names on my lips.
5The LORD is my portion and lot,
it is You Who sustain my fate.
6An inheritance fell to me with delight,
my estate, too, is lovely to me.
7I shall bless the LORD Who gave me counsel
through the nights that my conscience would lash me.
8I set the LORD always before me,
on my right hand, that I not stumble.
9So my heart rejoices and my pulse beats with joy,
my whole body abides secure.
10For You will not forsake my life to Sheol,
You won’t let Your faithful one see the Pit.
11Make me know the path of life.
Joys overflow in Your presence,
delights in Your right hand forever.
PSALM 16 NOTES
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1. David michtam. What sort of composition is indicated by this term remains uncertain. The Septuagint translators thought it was an inscription incised in stone.
Guard me, O God, / for I shelter in You. The subject of this psalm, a confession of faith, is unusual. Some scholars, because of the apparent references to pagan worship in verses 3 and 4, have imagined that the poem is the self-dedication of a Canaanite convert to the worship of YHWH, but this is by no means a necessary inference, and it must be said that much of verses 3 and 4 is obscure. In any case, a native Israelite could easily have been immersed in pagan practices.
2. is only through You. The textual difficulties of this whole segment of the poem begin here, because the Hebrew bal-ʿaleikha is unclear.
3. holy ones . . . / mighty. Any translation here is guesswork. These terms might refer to local deities, as many interpreters have supposed, or they might indicate Canaanite (?) potentates who were idol worshippers.
who were all my desire. The “were” is an interpretive addition, on the assumption that the speaker at a point in the past had attachments to paganism. But the phrase in context is enigmatic.
4. let their sorrows abound. Again, the translation is conjectural.
another did they betroth. The translation assumes, with other interpreters, that “another” refers to another god and that the verb maharu means to espouse or betroth, but neither reading is certain.
I will not pour their libations of blood. At last, the text becomes transparent. This is a clear affirmation that the speaker will distance himself from pagan rites.
6. inheritance . . . / estate. Given the emphasis of the previous verse on the LORD as the speaker’s portion and lot, the inheritance he now celebrates is probably not a reference to real estate but to his being happy in his sense of sustaining connection (see the next verse) with the God of Israel.
7. conscience. The Hebrew says “kidneys,” thought to be the seat of conscience. It is not clear how peoples of the ancient Near East arrived at the ascription of sundry functions to the various internal organs.
8. my pulse beats with joy. The Masoretic Text has kevodi, “my glory,” but some manuscripts show keveidi, “my liver.” Elsewhere I have translated this word as “heart,” but that inner organ already appears in the immediately preceding phrase, and to keep the strong somatic imagery of the line, the translation here substitutes “pulse,” yielding the sequence heartpulse-body. Though the prevalent meaning of basar is “flesh,” it does appear frequently in Leviticus in the sense of “body.”
11. Joys overflow in Your presence. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “a satiety of joys in Your presence.”