Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 16:8
I have set the LORD always before me: because [he is] at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
8. The true ‘practice of the Presence of God’ (Psa 119:30; Psa 18:22). The LXX has, I beheld the Lord always before my face.
at my right hand ] As advocate (Psa 109:31), or champion (Psa 110:5; Psa 121:5). A warrior defending another person would naturally stand on his right.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have set the Lord always before me – By night as well as by day; in my private meditations as well as in my public professions. I have regarded myself always as in the presence of God; I have endeavored always to feel that, his eye was upon me. This, too, is one of the certain characteristics of piety, that we always feel that we are in the presence of God, and that we always act as if his eye were upon us. Compare the notes at Act 2:25.
Because he is at my right hand – The right hand was regarded as the post of honor and dignity, but it is also mentioned as a position of defense or protection. To have one at our right hand is to have one near us who can defend us. Thus, in Psa 109:31, He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him, etc. So Psa 110:5, The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. Psa 121:5, the Lord is thy Keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The idea is, that as we use the right hand in our own defense, we seem to have an additional and a needed helper when one is at our right hand. The sense here is, that the psalmist felt that God, as his Protector, was always near him; always ready to interpose for his defense. We have a somewhat similar expression when we say of anyone that he is at hand; that is, he is near us.
I shall not be moved – I shall be safe; I shall not be disturbed by fear; I shall be protected from my enemies. See Psa 10:6; Psa 15:5. Compare Psa 46:5. The language here is that of one who has confidence in God in time of great calamities, and who feels that he is safe under the divine favor and protection.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 16:8
I have set the Lord always before me.
Facing God
Convictions are of two kinds. They are born of emergencies and experience. The former are instinctive, springing into life full grown. The latter mature slowly. A ship strikes a rock and begins to sink. The conviction of danger, and of possible destruction, takes shape at once in the minds of all on board. This is the conviction of emergency, But the conviction of a mans worth must come by experience, and must wait long for its maturity. Belief is not conviction, but only its germ. Conviction is faith in fruition, which takes time. The text is the utterance of such conviction, and it is the keynote of the whole Psalm.
I. It is of the greatest importance what that is which is continually before us. That which is constantly in a mans eye must help very largely to shape him. I have heard a very significant criticism on a certain picture, to the effect that, though it was a good piece of artistic work, it was not a good picture to live with. You would not wish to have hanging up in your sitting room, and constantly in sight of your children, a picture of Herodias with the head of John the Baptist, or of a crazed mother in the act of murdering her babe. You try to keep pictures of wholesome subjects as well as of beautiful forms before your childrens eyes; because you know that they are insensibly educated by familiarity with such things. In an age of few books, men and women learned mostly by the eye. It was not wholly nor mostly idolatry which filled the old churches up with pictures. The visitor to St. Marks, in Venice, may follow for himself the footsteps of the earlier catechumen; ]passing into the Christian temple through a vestibule of Old Testament history wrought in mosaic pictures, and then reading on the walls and domes within the truths of crucifixion, resurrection, the baptism of the Spirit, and the coming of the Lord to judgment,–all arranged in the order of Christian thought. The peasant who passed over the old wooden bridge over the torrent at Lucerne had daffy before him, in the painted compartments of the bridge, a reminder of that other stream which all must cross sooner or later. Nature sets her mark on character. If her surroundings are gloomy and savage they impart a sombre tone to the men who live among them:–Men tend to be narrowed or broadened by their daily task. The man who has columns of figures forever before him may easily degenerate into a mere calculating machine. If the thing which is constantly before us is larger and better than ourselves, its hourly presence rebukes our littleness and our badness, and works to assimilate us to itself. If it is worse than ourselves it draws downward. There was philosophy as well as enthusiasm in the apostles exhortation to run, looking unto Jesus, and in Paul keeping his eye on the prize of his high calling, and reaching forth to that which is before.
II. But it may be asked, is not God always before us? Can we help its being so? Assuredly we can. David does not say, The Lord is always, etc., but, I have set Him always, etc. His own will and act have had something to do with the matter. He has been at pains to bring God into the foreground, and to keep Him there. Because God is ever manifesting Himself, because every common bush is afire with Him, it does not follow that men recognise the fact. They do not. There is abundance of sweet music, but there are multitudes of people to whom it means no more than the rumble of the carts in the streets.
III. Thus, then, God will not be in any true sense before our face unless we set Him there. It needs special training, determination, and practice. There is a spiritual inertia to be overcome, and a perverse tendency. The bar of steel does not point naturally to the pole, but anywhere. It must be acted on from without, must have magnetic virtue imparted to it. And persistency is needed. I have set the Lord always before me. It was not enough that once or twice God was in the line of vision, He was to be kept there. A compass needle would be to a sailor of no more account than a knitting needle, if only by some shock it were made to point northwards. It is the fact of its always pointing there that gives it its value. And it is this fact of persistence which gives value to Davids saying. When a man has shut himself up to one thing as the source and strength of his happiness he will find out a great deal about that one thing. Thus did Robinson Crusoe, when he found out that he should have to live on his island. And so is it with men and God.
IV. Many are the discoveries which the man who sets the Lord always before him will make.
1. He finds Him self-revealed. In the Shinto temples in Japan the shrines contain no altars, pulpits, or pictures, but only a circular steel mirror. What it means is not known. But it would be an appropriate symbol for a Christian shrine. James draws a picture of a man beholding his natural face in a glass. The man who studies God studies self at the same time.
2. It carries with it a power of growth. For God is ever going before us and beckoning us on. A mountain is a constant temptation to climb, and when we find yet higher summits beyond we want to climb them also. And so is it in learning of God.
3. It engenders hope. Amid the darkness and vagueness of the Old Testament future, this Psalm is like a sweet flute note amid the crash and discord of a vast orchestra. I know of nothing more soothing than these verses. I shall not be moved; all is well, because He is at my right hand. (Marvin Vincent, D. D.)
The earthly and heavenly forms of companionship with God
Now, the two expressions, before me and in Thy presence, are substantially synonymous and convertible. Notice the other clause. He is at my right hand. At Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. God before my face, and I before Gods face; God at my right hand, and I glad at His.
I. If we turn our faces to God here His face will shine on us yonder. I have set the Lord always before my eyes. Before Thy face is fulness of joy. The one is the summing up of the devout mans life on earth. What can the other be but the prophecy of the devout mans life in heaven? Observe how for us, here and now, circumstanced and occupied and distracted as we are, that clear consciousness of Gods presence will inevitably fade and shatter unless we are careful to preserve it. I have set the Lord,–that implies a great deal of definite effort, of fixed will, of stem resistance to and rejection of hindrances and things that come between. Gods presence cannot be proved. The consciousness of it depends upon our whole nature. It is what people call a moral thing; and it rises and falls like a sensitive thermometer, if a cloud comes between the bulb and the sun. You can crowd Him out of your minds by plunging yourselves fiercely into your daily duties, however sacred and elevated these may be. No more than the sunshine can be flashed back from a tarnished steel mirror, can the consciousness of Gods presence live in an impure soul. And the heart must be kept still, flee from agitation, from the storms of passion and the tyranny of eager desires. A cats paw that ruffles the surface of the lake shatters the image; and unless our hearts are quieted from earth they will never mirror heaven. Walk thou before Me, and be perfect, is at once a commandment and a promise. And they only are wise who answer, I will walk before the Lord in the land, and the light of the living. As I have already said, this thrilling and continual consciousness of the Divine presence is the surest basis for the expectation of immortal life. It is too precious to die; it is too great and pure and noble to have anything to fear from the accident of corporal death. So we come to consider that higher form of the Divine presence which is suggested by the contrast in my second text. In Thy presence is fulness of joy. But that presence is not secured by the individuals efforts, but is poured upon him in its effulgence from the throne itself. If I try to keep God in sight here, yonder He reveals Himself in all His greatness. We are not to understand that that future vision which is all expressed in these words of my second text–before Thee–consists in any measure which is analogous to the sight of the body. Nor are we, I suppose, to understand that then, any more than now, we are able to comprehend the incomprehensible and infinite. The face of God is the Scriptural expression for that side of the Divine nature which is capable of being manifested by Him, and apprehended by us; and Jesus Christ is the face of God. Yonder it is that we shall see Him as He is; and yonder it is the Christ whom, having not seen we love, and whom seeing we shall see the Father. There will be, as I suppose, new and unimaginable modes of manifestation, about which the less that we say the wiser we are. For if our experience here on earth teaches us anything, it teaches us that the body shuts us off from as much as it brings us into contact with; and that our senses are but like little slits in some grim old fortress, only wide enough to let in the requisite light and air, and that beyond their limits in both directions there are notes of which the vibrations are too numerous, or too few, in a given time to be apprehended by our ears; and rays in the spectrum at either end, which the human eye cannot see. So that, with new modes of manifestation and new capacities of apprehension, we shall draw nearer and nearer to the sun that we beheld here shining through the mists and the clouds. If we, amidst the shows and gauds of time and the crowds of thronging men and the distractions of our daily occupations, steadfastly seek and see the Lord, and have beams coming from Him, as a light shining in a dark place, He will lift us yonder, and turn the whole benediction of the sunlight Of His face upon us, and, saturated with the brightness, we shall walk in the light of His countenance and be amongst the people of the blessed.
II. If we keep the Lord at our right hand He will set us at His right hand. The emblem of the right hand has a double meaning in Scripture, one part of which applies more to our present and the other to our future. When we speak of having at our right hand anyone, we mean as counsellor, companion, strengthener, ally; as fellow fighter, guide, and defender. And it is in that capacity that we have to set the Lord at our right hand. If we have Him by our sides we are never alone. I suppose that the saddest fate for a man is to live solitary. I suppose that we mortal millions live alone after all companionship; like islands in a waste of ocean, with no communications. Ah! How many of us have known what it is for the one that stood at our right hand to vanish, to change. If we live so companioned, counselled, championed, by a God made present, not by His omnipresence but by our consciousness of it, then be sure of this, that the time will come when He who came to earth, as it were, and stood at our right hand, will lift us to the heavens, and plant us at His. I at His right hand. What does that mean? Let me quote you two or three plain words. The sheep at His right hand; the goats at His left. It means that. It means favour, acceptance in that great day of account. And he called his name Benjamin:–the son of his right hand. It means that; paternal love, a yearning heart, a longing to pour all a Fathers blessing on the child. And it means that the man, thus acquired and taken to the Fathers heart, is distinguished and honoured–grant that these, my two sons, may sit, the one at Thy right hand, the other at Thy left. Nor must we forget that there is still a loftier conception attached to this emblem of the right hand, which was not within the horizon of the Psalmist, but is within ours. Jesus Christ our Brother has been exalted to that session at Gods right hand, which indicates in disturbance, completed work, royalty and power. And He, hath said, I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also. So if He is at my right hand, as champion, I shall be at His right hand and share in His dominion.
III. If we stay ourselves on God, amidst struggle and change here, He will gladden us yonder with perpetual joys. Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. A very humble result to be accomplished by so great a thing as the actual presence of God at a mans side. Only this, that I will be able to keep my place, and stand steadfast. And there is only one thing that will make us steadfast, and that is that we should be, if I might use such a figure, bolted and lashed on to, or rather incorporated into, the changeless steadfastness of the unmoved God. God comes to us here, and is sword and shield; yonder He will be palm and crown. In Thy presence is fulness of joy. Every faculty and capacity will be satisfied, every yearning met, and nothing left to desire but the continuance which is guaranteed, and the increase as capacity increases, which is as certain. Here there is always something lacking; yonder there is fulness of joy and no satiety. Pleasures for evermore–both because there is an uninterrupted succession of such–like the ripples upon a sunlit sea, that all day long come rolling to the beach and break in music and sparkles of light; and because each pleasure is in itself perpetual, seeing that there is no possibility of these delights becoming stale and common. Thus begin with realising the Divine presence. We must begin all this on earth. The seed of heaven is sown in the furrows of this world. Philosophers talk to us about the law of continuity. That applies in regard to the life here and the life hereafter. If you ever are to come into the blessedness of the life yonder, you must begin with the life of faith in Jesus Christ here and now. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
God as a dominant idea
Dissipation is the parent of mediocrity. Because there is neither government nor concentration nor dominant idea in mens lives, they never do much, never grow any size. The subject before us is self-government by means of a dominant idea. A dominant idea is an idea which mixes itself with all other ideas, giving them its own colour and character; so that you cannot take out any thought from a mind in which a dominant idea exists and analyse it, but you shall find traces of this one idea. Constantly we meet with men who have one thought by which they explain everything, and they infect us with a dominant feeling that they are very tiresome. Restraining, ruling ideas spring up naturally. The emotions are the first parents of ideas. Primitive man hears a voice rebuking mere animal desire, which says, Thou shalt not cat of it, and the moment that voice is heard a moral nature has arisen and heaven becomes possible. The great majority of men allow their lives, as they do their beliefs, to go anyhow. They have never formed a distinct opinion as to the shape their life is to take. It is in our power to choose what idea we shall be ruled by, and, having chosen, it is in our power to make the idea a ruling one. We must determine to associate our idea with all our pleasures and labours; to bring it before our mind every day. And what shall be our dominant idea? The idea of God is our birthright. The idea of God stands upon exactly the same ground as all our other intuitions. Clifford says, Belief in God and in a future life is a source of refined and elevated pleasure to those who can hold it. Here is the idea ready to our hand. The idea is your birthright, but you have to make it dominant. (W. Page Roberts, M. A.)
The practice of the presence of God
God always sees us, whether we think of it or not. It makes no difference as to the fact whether we believe it or not. But it makes all the difference to ourselves. It makes just the difference between a godly man and an ungodly man. The truly religious man is he who has formed the habit of living under the influence of the thought of the presence of God. To set the Lord always before us is the secret of good living, is the true preparation for heaven. This is one reason why regular habits of prayer, of worship, of reading Gods Word, of Holy Communion are so helpful and cannot safely be neglected. They are means of drawing near to God, of coming into His presence. If we are doing anything, whether work or amusement, in which we could not bear to think of God, we may be sure that work or amusement is wrong. There is a beautiful custom in some countries. Sacred pictures are placed at intervals by the wayside, among the mountains and woods, in the streets of villages and towns. They are roughly made, badly painted and tinselly, but for all that they are reminders to people of holy thoughts; they are meant to call the mind of the passers-by in the midst of work or amusement to God. And how are we to set Him before us? How are we to think of Him? We may set Him before us in the completeness of His Divine Being–God the Father, the Son, the Spirit. Try to form the habit of setting the Lord always before you; for if He is at your right hand you shall never fall. Always in earnest prayer at the beginning of every day. Always when things go well with you, and in trouble, turning to Him as the one trusted help and refuge. (J. E. Vernon, M. A.)
The setting of the Lord before us
This and the following verses are quoted by Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost.
1. Those who set the Lord always before them have an habitual impression of His all-seeing eye and immediate presence. David, we know, had this habitual impression. He was aware how highly important to him was this near presence of the Almighty, and what a beneficial, influence it shed over all his prospects.
2. It implies an habitual regard to the Lords will as the rule of our actions. Faithful Christians must make it their constant study to ascertain what is the will of God respecting themselves, and then set this will before them as the rule of their life. It should not only be a consideration with them, but their chief consideration. Those who make the will of God their rule cannot err. They look at it as sailors to the pole star, in order that they may direct their course thereby.
3. It implies making the Lords glory the end of all our aims. The glory of the Lord is that one object of surpassing importance which absorbs all other considerations. To set the Lord always before us is to keep this end always in view.
4. It implies making Him the object of our trust and dependence in all circumstances.
1. The practice of setting the Lord always before us is a bright evidence of the sincerity of our faith. Faith is a living and abiding principle, constantly in operation. Faith is that principle within the man which realises and embodies everything which is spiritual.
2. A constant sense of the presence of God is a sure means of counteracting the influence of the fear of man, which bringeth a snare.
3. A sense of the Lords constant presence would be a spur to our diligence and activity in endeavouring to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. A persuasion that the eye of the Lord is in every place, beholding the evil and the good, would have a wonderful effect in exciting the runners of the Christian race to put forth their utmost powers to strain every nerve, that they may come in first to the goal. Now see a few lights in which you should make it your habit to set the Lord always before you–
(1)You are directed to set before yourselves the Lord as your chief good, the highest object of your aims.
(2) We are to look upon God, in Christ, as our owner. God possesses a right over us as our Maker and Preserver.
(3) We are to set the Lord Jesus before us as a Judge. We should not merely give a general assent to the truth of the judgment which will hereafter take place, and that Christ will occupy the throne then, but we are to consider Him as seated now upon the tribunal, and taking cognisance of all our transactions. (T. Chambers, M. A.)
Things that intercept the Divine presence
There are three things that, taken together, build up for us a very thick triple wall between us and God. There is sense, and all that it reveals to us; there are duties, necessary, possibly blessed, but actually often disturbing and limiting; and the thickest and most opaque of the three screens, there are the sins which dim our capacity, and check our inclination of realising the Divine presence. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Thought must concentrate itself upon God
That needs that we shall shut out a great deal besides, as a man that wants to see something on the horizon will hold his palm above his eyes to exclude nearer objects and the glare that dazzles. It needs that we shall resolutely concentrate our thoughts upon Him. We have to be ignorant of a great deal if we would know any of the sciences, or of the practical arts. And we have to shear off not less if we would know the best knowledge, and be experts in the highest art in life. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
God near and yet afar
There may as well be no God, as far as a great many of us are concerned, in the most important matters of our lives, as a God that we never think about. He is not far from every one of us; but we may be very far from Him, and we are very far from Him unless by effort we set Him before us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The stability of the good man
The presumptuous man in one of the Psalms speaks thus: In my prosperity I said, I shall not be moved. But when prosperity fled self-confidence fled with it, and at length he learned to say, as he goes on to tell us, by Thy favour Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled. Ah! think of the instability of our resolutions, think of the fluctuations of our thoughts, think of the surges of our emotions, think of the changes that by subtle degrees pass over us all, so as that the old mans grey hair and bowed form is less unlike his childish buoyancy and clustering ringlets than are his senile thoughts and memories to his juvenile expectations. And think of the forces that are brought to bear upon us, the shucks of calamity and sorrow by which we are beaten and battered, the blasts of temptation by which we are sometimes all but overthrown, the floods that come and beat upon our house. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Steadfastness
That steadfastness will come to us by the actual communication of strength, and it will come to us because in the consciousness of the Divine presence there lies a charm that takes the glamour out of temptation and the pain out of all wounds. He being with us, the dazzling, treacherous brilliancies of earth cease to dazzle and betray. He being with us, sorrow itself and pain and all the ills that flesh is heir to have little power to shake the soul. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Pleasure for evermore
That presence which amidst strife, warfare, weakness, and mutability manifested itself in its gift of steadfastness will then, amidst the tranquillity of heaven, manifest itself in a joy unlike all earthly joy, in that it is full; and yet more unlike, if I may say so, all earthly joy in that it is perpetual. Here there is ever something lacking in all our gladness, some guest at the table that sulks and will not partake and rejoice, some unlit window in the illumination, some limitation in the gladness; yonder it shall be full. I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness. Here, thank God! we have brooks by the way; there we shall stoop down and drink from the fountain, the ocean of joy. And the gladness is perpetual, in that, having nothing to do with physical causes or externals, there is no cause of change and no certainty of reaction. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The habitual recognition of God
If we observe the pursuits of men of the world we see how they set their object, be it what it may, always before them. Success cannot be had without this. The same necessity exists in religion. If we would desire any real help now, and promised blessings hereafter, God must be to us ever present. Such piety is attended with Gods constant protection and friendship.
I. What it is to set the Lord always before us. It is to maintain a supreme and habitual regard for God, according to the relations which He sustains towards us. In the world, if a man has fixed his supreme regard on wealth, though he may often think and talk on other subjects, yet he never forgets this one. Let anything occur that will affect it, and you will always find that his object is before him. Now, it is in the same way that we set the Lord always before us. We shall always regard Him as infinitely perfect–as our Lawgiver and Sovereign; as our Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor; as our Redeemer and Sanctifier; as a covenant God; as our Judge and Rewarder. Now, so to habitually regard God as to secure the practical influence of all these perfections and relations of God upon us is to set the Lord always before us.
II. The advantage of so doing.
1. In the daily business of our life–to keep us diligent, just in our dealings, and honest in all our transactions.
2. In the more unimportant and ordinary occurrences of life–to keep us faithful in lifes little things, contented, cheerful, patient, devout.
3. In temptation we shall not be moved. It guards the heart against the world and Satan.
4. In holy obedience we shall be steadfast therein.
5. Preparation for all the scenes of life, for death and heaven. In prosperity he will remember God; in adversity he will trust God; in death he will be without fear; in the judgment day he will have confidence. And we can thus set God always before us. Is it safe or wise ever to forget Him? Do we thus set God always before us? What will they do from whose thoughts God is habitually excluded, when He shall be revealed in the clear light of eternity? (M. W. Taylor, D. D.)
Our great Example
The terms of this portion of the Psalm show distinctly that it is prophetic of the Messiah.
I. The first prediction is that Christ, when He should come, would set Jehovah continually before Him, i.e. He would live on earth realising by faith the presence of an unseen God, to dwell continually in His sight. Our Lord did this. He said, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.
II. Jehovah would be at His right hand. We find our Lord continually sustaining Himself by the consoling presence of His Father. And all who tread in His steps may share in His consolation.
III. His heart would be glad. How could He be otherwise, when He knew the resources of the Father? Our Lord walked with God on earth, rejoicing in hope of the glory that should be revealed. So also may we, and do we?
IV. His flesh should rest in hope. This implies–
1. His death. His death was predicted no less than His triumph. He looked forward to His death, and repeatedly foretold it. And He resolutely met it. Let us ask for grace to enter into His spirit.
2. The limitation of deaths dominion. I have power, said He, to lay it (My life) down, and I have power to take it again. I lay it down of Myself. He did as He had said. He took again that dishonoured body, to be dishonoured no more.
V. God would guide him to the path of life. Thou wilt show Me, etc. The way of the grave did not seem the gate of life, but in reality it was so. Conclusion: He will bring us there. Decide for Him now. Sympathise with Him in His glory. (Baptist W. Noel.)
The habitual thought of God
David could only do this mentally. No man hath seen God at any time. And when he says always he does not mean that he was always actually thinking of Him. We cannot do this. We are not to be slothful in business. Yet David means that he believed and felt God to be near him, and that he would frequently hold communion with God. This leads to a state of mind in which we can readily recur to God in our thoughts. Let us do this, setting the Lord always before us.
I. As our protector. Our religious course is a constant warfare. We need the courage which only the presence of the Lord can impart.
II. As our leader.
III. As our example.
IV. As cult observer. Nothing escapes His notice. A heathen philosopher admonished his disciples to imagine that the eye of some illustrious personage was always upon them. But what is the eye of Plato to that of God? What stimulus this to zeal. (William Jay.)
On habitual remembrance of God
Our text directs our thoughts to the greatest of all Beings, the source of all happiness.
I. What it is to set God always before us. Represent to yourself the proceedings of men, who have proposed to themselves as their main pursuit the possession of some worldly attainment. Observe in what manner they set their object, be it what it may, always before their eyes. Contemplate the votary of science. Behold him absorbed in laborious researches: in the investigation of causes and effects; in the construction of theories, and the explanation of the phenomena of nature. Behold him day after day bending all the powers of his mind to the invention and application of mechanism; to the arrangement and superintendence of experiments; to the development and illustration of philosophical truth. At home and abroad, in cities and in the fields, in solitude and in society, behold him steadily bearing in mind the object to which he has dedicated his life. Survey the votary of ambition. Behold every nerve, every faculty, upon the stretch to supplant, to undermine, or to surpass his rivals, and to attain the dizzy preeminence to which he aspires. Receive then a lesson from the children of this world (Luk 16:8). Then wilt thou discern what it is to set the Lord thy God always before thee.
II. The different characters under which it is our duty to do this.
1. Regard Him as Creator. If you deem life a blessing, remember Him–
2. As your Preserver.
3. As your Redeemer and Sanctifier.
4. As your Sovereign and your Judge. See then that you obey Him, lest you be destroyed forever.
III. Give examples of the duty of thus setting the Lord always before you.
1. In prosperity–by being grateful to Him.
2. In adversity, sickness, and death–by trusting Him, submitting to Him patiently, remembering how little your sufferings in comparison with your sins. Look up to Him and be comforted.
3. In youth–by not withholding from the planter the prime of the fruit. When wilt thou serve thy God if not now?
4. In age–by remembering that the night cometh; work, while it is called today; seek mercy while yet it may be found.
5. Under all circumstances, in common duties, as well as in specially religious acts. If you are cultivating your farm; if you are selling your articles in the market or in a shop; if you are serving a master in your daily labour; if you are managing the concerns of your friend or of your country: remember that God is contemplating all your motive, all your thoughts, all your words, all your actions; and that for all your motives and thoughts and words and actions you will have to render an account at the judgment seat of Christ (Rev 20:12).
IV. The recompense. The Lord is at their right hand; they shall not be moved (1Sa 2:30; Joh 14:23). (T. Gisborne, M. A.)
The secret of a happy life
In the preceding verses we read, The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have, etc. The speaker, therefore, is a very contented and happy man. How is it that he is able to feel so happy? Let us seek out the way. Perhaps his road may fit our feet. But who is the person who is thus singularly content? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who by the Spirit here speaks. All this is so much the more encouraging to us because if He, the Man of Sorrows, was nevertheless able to possess so sweet content, it must be possible for us, whose lot is not so bitter. We are not sent to make atonement for sin, and hence our sorrows are few compared with our Lords. Our text clearly imparts to us the secret of this peace, It is–
I. Living in the Lords presence always. I have set . . . always before me. Now, this means–
1. That we should make the Lords presence the greatest of all facts to us. Jesus did so. He saw God everywhere. From morning to evening, until you fall asleep as in the embraces of your God, see Him everywhere. This is happy living.
2. The making of Gods glory the one object of our lives.
3. So to live that the presence of God shall be the rule and support of our obedience. So Jesus did. The Masters eye is to many servants most important, to make them careful and diligent. For many are eye servers and men pleasers. But how should we live if God were seen looking on? He is looking on.
4. As the source from which we are to derive solace and comfort under every trial. This it was that made Him suffer and never complain.
5. That we are to hold perpetual communion with God. He was always in converse with the Father, and He could say, I knew that Thou hearest Me always.
6. We must follow this life, because of our delight and joy in it. Such a life cannot be lived in any other manner. If you find walking with God dull, then you have not the first essentials of such a life. You must be born again. If you are the Lords you will delight in living near to Him. You may lose your roll, like Christian in the arbour, and you may go back again and find it, lint it is very hard going back over the same ground. The hardest part of the road to heaven is that which has to be traversed three times: once when you go over it at first, a second time when you have to return with weeping to find your lost evidences, and then again when you have to make up for lost time. Abiding with God creates peace like a river.
II. Trusting always in the Lords presence, Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
1. With any regret or remorse as to the past. Christ had many sorrows but no regrets.
2. From our consistency in the way of true religion.
3. With terror.
4. By temptation, so as to be swept into surprising sin.
5. So as to fail at last. Conclusion:
1. You who are not Christians, you are not happy. Set the Lord before you.
2. You who are not Christians, but think yourselves happy. How flail the pillar on which your happiness rests.
3. You Christians who are not happy; here is counsel for you.
4. You happy Christians, you can be happier still by coming nearer to God, This is heaven below. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
The faithful heart and the present God
This Psalm touches the high-water mark of the religious life in two aspects–its ardent devotion, and its clear certainty of eternal blessedness beyond the grave. These two are connected as cause and effect.
I. The effort of faith. I have set the Lord always before me. It took a dead lift of conscious effort for the Psalmist to keep himself continually in touch with that unseen God. This is the very essence of true religion. Mark how the Psalmist came to this effort. It was because his whole soul clave to God, with the intelligent and reasonable conviction and apprehension that in God alone was all he needed. If a man does not think about God and His love it is all one as if he had not Him and it.
II. The ally of faith. The second portion of the text is to be interpreted as the consequence of the effort. He is at my right hand. The Psalmist means that by the turning of his thoughts to God and the effort he makes–the effort of faith, imagination, love, and desire–to bring himself as close as he can to the great heart of the Father, he realises that presence at his side in an altogether different manner from that in which it is given to stones and rocks and birds and beasts and godless men. That Divine Presence is the source of all strength and blessedness. At my right hand; then I stand at His left, and close under the arm that carries the shield; and close by my instrument of activity, to direct my work; my Protector, my Ally, my Director.
III. The courageous stability of faith. Not be moved. That is true all round, in regard of all the things which may move and shake a man. The secret of a quiet heart is to keep ever near God. We shall not be moved by circumstances. How quietly we may live above the storms if we only live in God. The Psalmist feels that the great change from life to death will not move him, in so far as his union with God is concerned. A realisation of true communion with God is the guarantee that the man who has it shall never die. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. I have set the Lord always before me] This verse, and all to the end of Ps 16:11, are applied by St. Peter to the death and resurrection of Christ. Ac 2:25, c.
In all that our Lord did, said, or suffered, he kept the glory of the Father and the accomplishment of his purpose constantly in view. He tells us that he did not come down from heaven to do his own will, but the will of the Father who had sent him. See Joh 17:4.
He is at my right hand] That is, I have his constant presence, approbation, and support. All this is spoken by Christ as man.
I shall not be moved.] Nothing can swerve me from my purpose nothing can prevent me from fulfilling the Divine counsel, in reference to the salvation of men.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. I have always presented him to my mind as my rule and scope, as my witness and judge, as my patron and protector, in the discharge of my office, and in all my actions. Hitherto David seems to have spoken in his own person, and with special respect to himself; but now he seems to have been transported by a higher, inspiration of the Spirit of prophecy, and to be carried above himself, and to have an eye to the man Christ Jesus, who is and was the end of the law, and the great scope of all the prophets, and to speak of himself only as a type of Christ, and with more special respect unto Christ, in whom this and the following verses were much more truly and fully accomplished than in himself. Christ as man did always set his Fathers will and glory before him, as he himself oft declareth, especially in St. Johns Gospel.
He is at my right hand, to wit, to strengthen me, (for the right hand is the chief seat of a mans strength, and, instrument of action,) to protect, assist, and comfort me, as this phrase signifies, Psa 119:31; 90:5. And this assistance of God was necessary to Christ as man.
I shall not be moved, or, removed, either from the discharge of my duty, or from the attainment of that glory and happiness which is prepared for me. Though the archers shoot grievously at me, and both men and devils seek my destruction, and God sets himself against me as an enemy, withdrawing his favour from me, and filling me with deadly sorrows, through the sense of his anger; yet I do not despair, but am assured that God will deliver me out of all my distresses.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. With God’s presence and aidhe is sure of safety (Psa 10:6;Psa 15:5; Joh 12:27;Joh 12:28; Heb 5:7;Heb 5:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have set the Lord always before me, Not his fear only, or the book of the law, as Jarchi interprets it, but the Lord himself; or, “I foresaw the Lord always before my face”, Ac 2:26; as Christ is set before men in the Gospel, to look unto as the object of faith and hope, to trust in and depend upon for life and salvation; so Jehovah the Father is the object which Christ set before him, and looked unto in the whole course of his life here on earth; he had always an eye to his glory, as the ultimate end of all his actions; and to his will, his orders, and commands, as the rule of them; and to his purposes, and counsel, and covenant, to accomplish them; and to his power, truth, and faithfulness, to assist, support, and encourage him in all his difficulties and most distressed circumstances;
because [he is] at my right hand: to counsel and instruct, to help, protect, and defend: the phrase is expressive of the nearness of God to Christ, his presence with him, and readiness to assist and stand by him against all his enemies; see Ps 109:31; so the Targum paraphrases it, “because his Shechinah rests upon me”;
I shall not be moved: as he was not from his place and nation, from the duty of his office, and the execution of it, by all the threats and menaces of men; nor from the fear, worship, and service of God, by all the temptations of Satan; nor from the cause of his people he had espoused, by all the terrors of death, the flaming sword of justice, and the wrath of God; but, in the midst and view of all, stood unshaken and unmoved; see Isa 42:4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Prophecy Relating to the Messiah; Sufferings and Consequent Glory of Christ. | |
8 I have set 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 glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. 10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11 Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
All these verses are quoted by St. Peter in his first sermon, after the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of pentecost (Acts ii. 25-28); and he tells us expressly that David in them speaks concerning Christ and particularly of his resurrection. Something we may allow here of the workings of David’s own pious and devout affections towards God, depending upon his grace to perfect every thing that concerned him, and looking for the blessed hope, and happy state on the other side death, in the enjoyment of God; but in these holy elevations towards God and heaven he was carried by the spirit of prophecy quite beyond the consideration of himself and his own case, to foretel the glory of the Messiah, in such expressions as were peculiar to that, and could not be understood of himself. The New Testament furnishes us with a key to let us into the mystery of these lines.
I. These verses must certainly be applied to Christ; of him speaks the prophet this, as did many of the Old-Testament prophets, who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow (1 Pet. i. 11), and that is the subject of this prophecy here. It is foretold (as he himself showed concerning this, no doubt, among other prophecies in this psalm, Luk 24:44; Luk 24:46) that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead,1Co 15:3; 1Co 15:4.
1. That he should suffer and die. This is implied here when he says (v. 8), I shall not be moved; he supposed that he should be struck at, and have a dreadful shock given him, as he had in his agony, when his soul was exceedingly sorrowful, and he prayed that the cup might pass from him. When he says, “My flesh shall rest,” it is implied that he must put off the body, and therefore must go through the pains of death. It is likewise plainly intimated that his soul must go into a state of separation from the body, and that his body, so deserted, would be in imminent danger of seeing corruption–that he should not only die, but be buried, and abide for some time under the power of death.
2. That he should be wonderfully borne up by the divine power in suffering and dying. (1.) That he should not be moved, should not be driven off from his undertaking nor sink under the weight of it, that he should not fail nor be discouraged (Isa. xlii. 4), but should proceed and persevere in it, till he could say, It is finished. Though the service was hard and the encounter hot, and he trod the winepress alone, yet he was not moved, did not give up the cause, but set his face as a flint, Isa. l. 7-9. Here am I, let these go their way. Nay, (2.) That his heart should rejoice and his glory be glad, that he should go on with his undertaking, not only resolutely, but cheerfully, and with unspeakable pleasure and satisfaction, witness that saying (John xvii. 11), Now I am no more in the world, but I come to thee, and that (John xviii. 11), The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? and many the like. By his glory is meant his tongue, as appears, Acts ii. 26. For our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in glorifying God. Now there were three things which bore him up and carried him on thus cheerfully:– [1.] The respect he had to his Father’s will and glory in what he did: I have set the Lord always before me. He still had an eye to his Father’s commandment (Joh 10:18; Joh 14:31), the will of him that sent him. He aimed at his Father’s honour and the restoring of the interests of his kingdom among men, and this kept him from being moved by the difficulties he met with; for he always did those things that pleased his Father. [2.] The assurance he had of his Father’s presence with him in his sufferings: He is at my right hand, a present help to me, nigh at hand in the time of need. He is near that justifieth me (Isa. l. 8); he is at my right hand, to direct and strengthen it, and hold it up, Ps. lxxxix. 21. When he was in his agony an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him, Luke xxii. 43. To this the victories and triumphs of the cross were all owing; it was the Lord at his right hand that struck through kings,Psa 110:5; Isa 42:1; Isa 42:2. [3.] The prospect he had of a glorious issue of his sufferings. It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, Heb. xii. 2. He rested in hope, and that made his rest glorious, Isa. xi. 10. He knew he should be justified in the Spirit by his resurrection, and straightway glorified. See Joh 13:31; Joh 13:32.
3. That he should be brought through his sufferings, and brought from under the power of death by a glorious resurrection. (1.) That his soul should not be left in hell, that is, his human spirit should not be long left, as other men’s spirits are, in a state of separation from the body, but should, in a little time, return and be re-united to it, never to part again. (2.) That being God’s holy One in a peculiar manner, sanctified to the work of redemption and perfectly free from sin, he should not see corruption nor feel it. This implies that he should not only be raised from the grave, but raised so soon that his dead body should not so much as being to corrupt, which, in the course of nature, it would have done if it had not been raised the third day. We, who have so much corruption in our souls, must expect that our bodies also will corrupt (Job xxiv. 19); but that holy One of God who knew no sin saw no corruption. Under the law it was strictly ordered that those parts of the sacrifices which were not burnt upon the altar should by no means be kept till the third day, lest they should putrefy (Lev 7:15; Lev 7:18), which perhaps pointed at Christ’s rising the third day, that he might not see corruption–neither was a bone of him broken.
4. That he should be abundantly recompensed for his sufferings, with the joy set before him, v. 11. He was well assured, (1.) That he should not miss of his glory: “Thou wilt show me the path of life, and lead me to that life through this darksome valley.” In confidence of this, when he gave up the ghost, he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit; and, a little before, Father, glorify me with thy own self. (2.) That he should be received into the presence of God, to sit at his right hand. His being admitted into God’s presence would be the acceptance of his service and his being set at his right hand the recompence of it. (3.) Thus, as a reward for the sorrows he underwent for our redemption, he should have a fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore; not only the glory he had with God, as God, before all worlds, but the joy and pleasure of a Mediator, in seeing his seed, and the success and prosperity of his undertaking, Isa 53:10; Isa 53:11.
II. Christ being the Head of the body, the church, these verses may, for the most part, be applied to all good Christians, who are guided and animated by the Spirit of Christ; and, in singing them, when we have first given glory to Christ, in whom, to our everlasting comfort, they have had their accomplishment, we may then encourage and edify ourselves and one another with them, and may hence learn, 1. That it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us, and to see him continually at our right hand, wherever we are, to eye him as our chief good and highest end, our owner, ruler, and judge, our gracious benefactor, our sure guide and strict observer; and, while we do thus, we shall not be moved either from our duty or from our comfort. Blessed Paul set the Lord before him, when, though bonds and afflictions did await him, he could bravely say, None of these things move me, Acts xx. 24. 2. That, if our eyes be ever towards God, our hearts and tongues may ever rejoice in him; it is our own fault if they do not. If the heart rejoice in God, out of the abundance of that let the mouth speak, to his glory, and the edification of others. 3. That dying Christians, as well as a dying Christ, may cheerfully put off the body, in a believing expectation of a joyful resurrection: My flesh also shall rest in hope. Our bodies have little rest in this world, but in the grave they shall rest as in their beds, Isa. lvii. 2. We have little to hope for from this life, but we shall rest in hope of a better life; we may put off the body in that hope. Death destroys the hope of man (Job xiv. 19), but not the hope of a good Christian, Prov. xiv. 32. He has hope in his death, living hopes in dying moments, hopes that the body shall not be left for ever in the grave, but, though it see corruption for a time, it shall, at the end of the time, be raised to immortality; Christ’s resurrection is an earnest of ours if we be his. 4. That those who live piously with God in their eye may die comfortably with heaven in their eye. In this world sorrow is our lot, but in heaven there is joy. All our joys here are empty and defective, but in heaven there is a fulness of joy. Our pleasures here are transient and momentary, and such is the nature of them that it is not fit they should last long; but those at God’s right hand are pleasures for evermore; for they are the pleasures of immortal souls in the immediate vision and fruition of an eternal God.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
8. I have set Jehovah, etc. The Psalmist again shows the firmness and stability of his faith. To set God before us is nothing else than to keep all our senses bound and captive, that they may not run out and go astray after any other object. We must look to him with other eyes than those of the flesh, for we shall seldom be able to perceive him unless we elevate our minds above the world; and faith prevents us from turning our back upon him. The meaning, therefore, is, that David kept his mind so intently fixed upon the providence of God, as to be fully persuaded, that whenever any difficulty or distress should befall him, God would be always at hand to assist him. He adds, also, continually, to show us how he constantly depended upon the assistance of God, so that, amidst the various conflicts with which he was agitated, no fear of danger could make him turn his eyes to any other quarter than to God in search of succor. And thus we ought so to depend upon God as to continue to be fully persuaded of his being near to us, even when he seems to be removed to the greatest distance from us. When we shall have thus turned our eyes towards him, the masks and the vain illusions of this world will no longer deceive us.
Because he is at my right hand. I read this second clause as a distinct sentence from the preceding. To connect them together as some do in this way, I have set the Lord continually before me, because he is at my right hand, would give a meagre meaning to the words, and take away much of the truth which is taught in them, as it would make David to say, that he measured God’s presence according to the experience he had of it; a mode of speaking which would not be at all becoming. I consider, therefore, the words, I have set the Lord continually before me, as a complete sentence, and David set the Lord before him for the purpose of constantly repairing to him in all his dangers. For his greater encouragement to hope well, he sets before himself what it is to have God’s assistance and fatherly care, namely, that it implies his keeping firm and unmoved his own people with whom he is present. David then reckons himself secure against all dangers, and promises himself certain safety, because, with the eyes of faith, he beholds God as present with him. From this passage we are furnished with an argument which overthrows the fabrication of the Sorbonists, (330) that the faithful are in doubt with respect to their final perseverance; for David, in very plain terms, extends his reliance on the grace of God to the time to come. And, certainly, it would be a very miserable condition to be in, to tremble in uncertainty every moment, having no assurance of the continuance of the grace of God towards us.
(330) The Doctors of the Sorbonne, a university in Paris.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) At my right hand.Comp. Psa. 109:31; Psa. 110:5; Psa. 121:5. The image seems to be a military one: the shield of the right-hand comrade is a protection to the man beside him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Set the Lord always before me Acting as under his eye, and “as seeing Him who is invisible,” Heb 11:27.
At my right hand Close to me, and at the place for most opportune aid. This and the following verses are Messianic and evangelical in the highest sense. (See Act 2:25; and note.) As such, the interpretation must proceed upon a literal and historic sense only so far as that is an ectype of the prophetic and spiritual. It is impossible to compress the language of these verses within the limits of the personal history of David.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I Have Set YHWH Always Before Me’ (8-11).
‘I have set YHWH always before me,
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices,
My flesh also will dwell in safety.
For you will not leave my soul to Sheol,
Nor will you suffer your holy one (or ‘beloved one’ – chasid – a man separated by covenant love) to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life,
In your presence is fullness of joy,
In your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Indeed the psalmist’s joy in God is such that he desires that it go on for ever (Psa 16:11), and indeed is confident that it will do so. And to that end he has set YHWH always before him. He meditates day and night in His word (Psa 1:2-3). He walks with Him by faith (Gen 5:22). He looks constantly to Him. And because YHWH stands at his right hand as his mighty Champion, (as a king’s champion would stand at his king’s right hand) he knows that nothing can disturb him or remove him from YHWH’s presence. But while it may be a walk of faith, it is not a dreamy faith, it is a positive, responsive faith as genuine faith must be, faith that produces a glorious life. And because he is there in YHWH’s presence he knows that he will not be moved. He will remain there constantly.
This gives him great gladness of heart. ‘Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices.’ His ‘heart’ represents his will, mind and emotions, his ‘glory’ the spiritual life within him, made in the image and likeness of the elohim (Gen 1:26-27). It is the latter especially which makes man glorious. So both his heart and his spirit (his glory) rejoice within him in what YHWH is to him. His spiritual emotion and ecstasy is rapidly expanding. He feels immortal.
Thus when he thinks of the coldness and darkness of the grave with all it involves of worm-eaten bodies, of lifelessness, of dankness, of emptiness and especially of the horror of ‘uncleanness’ and God-forsakenness, he knows instinctively that YHWH must somehow preserve him from it (as He preserved Enoch – Gen 5:22). He can surely not allow him, as one of God’s holy ones (qethoshim – Psa 16:3), as the anointed of YHWH, as separated to YHWH by His covenant love, and faithful (chasid) to Him, to see such corruption. There is undoubtedly an awareness here that he is seen as a holy one (both one set apart in holiness to YHWH, and one beloved of YHWH and devout, separated and faithful) and that because he is such ‘a holy one’ YHWH will give him a long life, and keep him from an early grave, and from early corruption. But is that all it means? Not if we take the language literally. And such an interpretation misses the whole point which is that one who is so close to God that he feels that they are inseparable, cannot believe that the unclean grave can claim him, any more than it did Enoch.
There is in fact clearly so much more in David’s mind. The grave eventually creeps up on us all. Eventually we do all see corruption of our physical bodies. But David would hardly go into such ecstasies about a few short years of life, even though it would be with God, if that were to be its end. It would almost be to come down from his high level to the trite and mundane. Rather he is at this time of ecstasy so conscious of YHWH and His presence with him, and of what God has wrought in him, that he is confident at this moment that as God’s ‘holy one’ (both qadosh and chasid) he is beyond all corruption, that the grave has no hold on him, that he can never finally die and perish and suffer corruption, for it would not be seemly.
He is here seized with what it means to be a ‘holy one’ (qadosh) and a separated one (chasid – one bound by God’s covenant love, and devotion and faithfulness). He is fully aware of the holiness of all that was in the Tabernacle, set apart from the mundane and untouchable because it was God’s, and made holy (qdsh), seemingly there to go on for ever. No corruption could enter there. And he saw himself as similarly God’s ‘holy one’ (Psa 16:3), God’s set apart one, anointed by Him and set apart in holiness as His, so that though his body descend to the world of the grave, to Sheol, as all men’s bodies must, corruption will not be able to seize hold of him, indeed will not be able to touch what he essentially is. There is that in him which is beyond ‘corruption’, which is incorruptible, that which is bound up with God. For God must surely see His anointed, separated one and somehow deliver him from the after effects of death. It must be so, for he is holy, set apart totally to Him. He is YHWH’s ‘holy one’, His anointed. And what is YHWH’s is so holy, and so without blemish and so whole, that it is set apart from the profane world and all that is profane, including the grave with its uncleanness. He may even have had in mind that when certain holy offerings were burnt on the altar the blood was put on the horns of the altar pointing upwards and its smoke went up to God as a pleasing odour.
So there is reason to think that he is at this moment confident of life with God through and beyond the grave in the presence of His holiness, as His beloved and separated one. Compare for this thought Isa 26:19 contrasted with 14, where God’s dew was the dew of light falling on His people so that the shades could not hold them but had to cast them forth. There His light, and the people who had experienced His light, were incompatible with the darkness of Sheol. In the same way David feels that his ‘holy life’ and anointing from God is incompatible with the corruption of the grave.
We must not see this as a thought out doctrine but as something arising from his there and then experience of God, in the ecstasy of beholding YHWH. At this time, and as placed on record for ever, he was confident that he would somehow live on with God, free from corruption, although in an undefined way. For him an end in Sheol was out of the equation. And what would be true for him he would see as true also for such of his sons who were anointed and faithful to God, for they too would be God’s anointed.
‘You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ There is an eternal ring to this. He feels that, rather than having to face his end in death, life awaits him, continuing in this life and beyond, a life of joy and abounding in delights. YHWH will show him the path of continuous life, abjuring death. And in YHWH’s presence he will find fullness of joy continually. Yes, at His right hand, as His chosen one, His anointed, he will find everlasting pleasure and delights that will never end.
So in the ecstasy of the moment, and of his poetic and divine inspiration, David has been lifted up into a new sphere, the thought that for those who walk with God (perhaps he had Enoch in Gen 5:22 in mind), and especially for him as God’s anointed one, death cannot be the final end. It would be to soil that holy relationship, and to soil what has been made holy, something no longer contaminated by a profane creation, and was the inward human equivalent of the furniture in the Tabernacle which could not be touched by earthiness. So inevitably God and they must go on for ever.
Next day his thoughts might descend again to the mundane world, and his assurance dim, and the glory partly evaporate, but here recorded for ever in his psalm, and sometimes repeated elsewhere (Psa 17:15; Psa 23:6; Psa 49:14-15; Psa 73:24; Psa 139:5-12), are the foundations of a glory that was yet to be revealed, not yet fully thought out but clear to him at that moment nonetheless. And surely something of its glory would stay with him. And the corollary of his thinking might have been that this would also be true of all God’s true people (Psa 116:15), His holy ones (Psa 16:3), His ‘holy, separated and faithful ones’, as Isaiah makes clear. If so it was a first reaching out to the idea of an afterlife. But here his concentration is really only on his own relationship with God.
But most true, of course, would it necessarily be of the greater David, Who as God’s unique Holy One, the final David, would rule over his kingdom for ever, and could never be allowed to remain in the grave to suffer the tarnish of corruption. The thought that was true of the psalmist would be even more true of Him. His place and destiny was with His Father in the beauty and otherness of His holiness. Thus in having this glorious vision and speaking thus of himself, David spoke even more, although partly unaware of it, of the Holy One yet to come, his Greater Son. For within his dream were all his descendants who were faithful to YHWH. And his spiritual logic would apply even more specifically to this One.
Of course it was an idealistic picture. His flesh, if taken literally, would finally see corruption. But by ‘flesh’ David probably meant his whole self as a human being, himself as he was, (I as I am in my flesh), not just his body. It was he as ‘the holy and faithful one’ who could not suffer corruption.
That is why in Act 2:25-36 Peter points out that if the words are taken literally these words are more true of Jesus than they could ever be of David, for David’s body had suffered corruption, while that of Jesus had not. But that was to literalise what David spoke of in ecstasy, and to emphasise the flesh aspect. David knew that what was holy in him must survive, although he did not know how. But, says Peter, David spoke as a prophet, and here was an even greater and more literal fulfilment in the Seed of the house of David Who would be the everlasting king (Dan 7:14; Eze 37:25). For He was not just holy in soul, His very body was most holy. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was the Holy One. And no part of Him could therefore see corruption, as David had indicated. Let all therefore recognise that Jesus is supremely both Lord and Anointed One par excellence with the power of an endless life (Act 2:24-36).
Note on chasid. This is the adjective from the noun chesed which means ‘covenant love’. In the Psalms almost without exception (over a hundred times) chesed signifies God’s covenant love towards man, His compassion, lovingkindness and mercy revealed in the covenant relationship. Thus chasid might quite reasonably be seen as signifying ‘one subject to YHWH’s covenant love’, a chosen one and precious. But such love is a love that demands response, a two-way relationship, and so it also signifies one who is faithful to and separated by the covenant, one who is devout and godly. No man can be a chasid who does not respond appropriately. The first meaning, however, predominates in the Psalms.
Note on David’s Concept of ‘Everlasting Life’.
There were already in Scripture a number of pointers to the possibility of ‘everlasting life’ to the special few. Adam had originally been intended to live for ever (Gen 3:22). That was the privilege that was lost by sin. But it did make clear that it was possible, and Enoch had later walked with God and had thus escaped death (Gen 5:24). He had been granted everlasting life. Thus it was clearly available on a rare basis to one especially holy who walked with God. And now God had set David apart and had promised to the seed of David that he would reign over an everlasting kingdom (2Sa 7:13). Thus God had planted the idea of everlastingness in David’s heart, and had established with him an everlasting covenant (Isa 55:3). It was only a step from this to the realisation, when in a kind of spiritual ecstasy, that as God’s ‘holy one’, especially anointed by Him, the grave could not retain him, and that he could somehow enjoy God’s pleasures for evermore (compare Mic 5:2 where the future son of David comes from ‘everlastingness’). The same idea would in Isa 26:19 expand into a concept of resurrection for all God’s holy ones. But here David might well have limited it to himself and his heirs.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 16:8. Before me That is, he always had a regard to his Father’s will, without swerving from it in any respect (See Joh 17:4.); and, consequently, was always assured of the assistance of God, and of the faithfulness of his promises. At my right hand, is a figurative expression, signifying the efficacious succour of God in favour of his people. See Psa 73:23; Psa 109:31; Psa 109:31.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 514
CHRISTS RESURRECTION AND GLORY
Psa 16:8-11. I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
IF the people of God had hope only in this life, they would be in a most pitiable condition; because they are debarred by conscience from the pleasures of sin, and are exposed to a multitude of trials on account of their religion. But their views of immortality bear them up, so that the sufferings of this present time appear to them insignificant, and unworthy of any serious concern. The Psalmist penned this psalm under some deep affliction; which, however, lost all its force as soon as ever he directed his views to the eternal world.
But the words before us can scarcely be applied at all to David in his own person: they are spoken by him rather in the person of Christ, whom he typically represented; and to whom, in the New Testament, they are expressly, repeatedly, and exclusively applied. In this view they are a most remarkable prophecy relating to Christ; and they declare,
I.
His support in life
In an assurance of his Fathers continual aid, he was unmoved by any difficulties
[Various were the trials which Jesus was called to endure; but in all he preserved a perfect equanimity. When his sufferings were fast approaching, he spake of them without any emotions of fear [Note: Mat 20:18-19.]: when dissuaded from exposing himself to them, he was indignant at the proposal [Note: Mat 16:22-23.]: when warned of Herods murderous intentions, he poured contempt on his feeble, unavailing efforts [Note: Luk 13:31-33.]: when standing before Pilates tribunal, he witnessed a good confession [Note: Joh 18:37. 1Ti 6:13.]; and, alike unmoved by hopes or fears, informed his judge, that the authority exercised by him was both given, and limited, by a superior power [Note: Joh 19:11.]. He saw God as ever present to succour and support him; and was well assured, that as nothing could be done but according to his determinate counsel, so his aid should be all-sufficient for him [Note: Psa 89:21. Isa 42:1.]. Hence in the whole of his deportment he maintained an invincible firmness, a dignified composure. At all times he acted on the principles described by the Prophet Isaiah, and fulfilled in the utmost extent his prophecy concerning him [Note: Isa 50:7-9.].]
Nor need the weakest of his members fear, if they look for support from the same quarter
[Many of Gods people have experienced the very same support as was enjoyed by Christ. Davids friends endeavoured to create in his mind desponding fears: but his confidence in an almighty Protector kept him steadfast [Note: Psa 11:1-4.]; and determined him to preserve an undaunted spirit, however great or multiplied his trials might be [Note: Psa 27:1; Psa 27:3.]. Paul also, in the view of certain and accumulated troubles, could say, None of these things move me [Note: Act 20:23-24.]. Thus may every believer triumph. The man who trusts in God is in an impregnable fortress, that has salvation for walls and bulwarks [Note: Isa 26:1. Psa 125:1, Psa 125:2.]. If only our eyes be opened to see clearly, we may behold ourselves, like Elisha, encompassed with chariots of fire and horses of fire; and may laugh at the impotent attempts of men or devils [Note: 2Ki 6:16-17.].]
The more immediate scope of the prophecy is to declare,
II.
His comfort in death
Our blessed Lord submitted cheerfully to his death in a certain expectation of a speedy resurrection
[Greatly as he was oppressed and overwhelmed with sorrow, he yet restrained not his tongue [Note: This is meant by my glory rejoiceth.] from joyful acknowledgments. His last discourses, and his intercessory prayer, abundantly testify the composure of his spirit, and the elevation of his mind. Look we for the ground of his consolation? we shall find it in those repeated expressions, I go to my Father; Father, I come to thee [Note: Joh 16:28; Joh 17:11.]. He knew that his flesh, that holy thing formed in the virgins womb [Note: Luk 1:35.], and which he gave for the life of the world [Note: Joh 6:51.], should never become an abomination [Note: Christs resurrection on the third day was typified by that ordinance of the law, Lev 7:17-18.], but that, though immured in the silent tomb, it should be raised thence, before it could corrupt: and that his soul, though separate from it for a season, should soon be re-united to it, to be a joint partaker of the same kingdom and glory.]
Such consolation too have all his members in a dying hour
[Christ rose, not as a private individual, but as the first-fruits of them that slept [Note: 1Co 15:20.]. And every one that believes in him may consider death as a sleep, and the grave as a bed whereon he is to rest [Note: Act 7:60. Isa 57:2.] till the morning of the resurrection. The bodies of the saints are indeed doomed to death and corruption on account of sin [Note: Rom 8:10.]: but they shall be raised again, and fashioned like unto Christs glorious body [Note: Php 3:21.]: this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality [Note: 1Co 15:53-54.]. In expectation of this, the martyrs of old would not accept deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection [Note: Heb 11:35.]: and, in the hope of it, we also may put off this tabernacle with joy, knowing that it shall be reared anew in a far better form [Note: 2Co 5:1-2.].]
Connected with this hope in his death, we behold,
III.
His prospect in eternity
The state to which Jesus was to rise was a state of inconceivable and endless glory
[No sooner were death and the grave vanquished by Jesus in the resurrection, and he was thereby declared to be the Son of God with power, than the way to the regions of glory was opened to him; that way, which, with myriads of attendant angels, he trod soon afterwards, that he might receive all the fruits of his victorious death. Then sat he down at the right hand of his Father, not any more to taste a cup of sorrow, but to possess a fulness and perpetuity of unutterable joy. Blessed prospect! well might he be animated by it in the midst of all his trials; and, for the joy set before him, endure the cross, and despise the shame [Note: Heb 12:2.].]
Such too are the delightful prospects of all his saints
[They see, in the death and resurrection of Christ, the way to heaven opened: and, if they look to him as the resurrection and the life [Note: Joh 11:25-26.], a fulness and perpetuity of joy awaits them also at their departure hence. Who can conceive what happiness they will feel in the vision and fruition of their God [Note: Rev 21:3-4; Rev 21:21-22.]? Well may they long to depart, that they may be with Christ; and account all their afflictions light and momentary, in the view of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, with which they will be crowned in the day of the Lord Jesus [Note: 2Co 4:17-18.].]
Infer,
1.
What rich sources of consolation does faith open to believers under all their troubles!
[Faith beholds God always present, always active, to succour his people: it looks forward also to the future state both of body and soul, enabling us to weigh the concerns of time and eternity in the scale together, and thereby to see the vanity of the one in comparison of the other. To be happy, therefore, we must live by faith.]
2.
How certain is the salvation of those who believe in Christ!
[If Jesus be the Messiah, and have in himself a sufficiency for the salvation of his people, then have we nothing to do but to believe in him. But St. Peter, quoting the entire text, infers from it the certainty of his Messiahship [Note: Act 2:25-28; Act 2:36.]; and St. Paul, referring to the same, infers his sufficiency to save his people [Note: Act 13:35-39.]. Let us then make him our refuge, our foundation, and our ALL.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
How peculiarly this belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, hath been already observed; and if the Reader desires (as he ought to do) to enter into the clearest apprehension of this most precious prophecy, I refer him to Act 2:25-36 and Act 13:35-39 . And if we add to these what the Apostle, under the Holy Ghost, declared to be the whole scope and tendency of the prophets ministry, when the Spirit of Christ, which, was in them, did signify of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow, we shall have yet a clearer light thrown upon this important scripture. 1Pe 1:11 . When we have paid all due attention to this glorious scripture, as referring to the great Head of his Church, we may then, with lively faith, consider also the interest his body, the church, have in the same. If the grave could not hold Jesus, neither can it forever make any of his members prisoners. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a sure pledge and earnest of his people’s. He arose in a public capacity, and thereby became the first fruits of them that slept. Precious Lord! thou art gone before; and, as thou saidst, only to prepare a place for thy people to follow thee. Hence their flesh shall rest in hope. And they can and do say, in the consciousness of being part of Jesus, that though, after their skin, worms destroy this body, yet in the flesh they shall see God. Oh! thou that art the resurrection and the life, be thou the joy, the hope, the portion, and the sure resurrection of thy people in grace here, and glory hereafter. Job 19:25-27 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me: because [he is] at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Ver. 8. I have set the Lord always before me ] Heb. I have equally set, or proposed. The apostle translateth it, “I foresee the Lord always before my face,” Act 2:25 . I set the eye of my faith full upon him, and suffer it not to take to other things; I look him in the face, oculo irretorto, as the eagle looketh upon the sun; and oculo adamantino, with an eye of adamant, which turns only to one point; so here, I have equally set the Lord before me, without irregular affections and passions. And this was one of those lessons that his reins had taught him, that the Holy Spirit had dictated unto him.
Because he is as my right hand
I shall not be moved
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
ONE SAYING FROM THREE MEN
GOD WITH US, AND WE WITH GOD
Psa 16:8
There are, unquestionably, large tracts of the Old Testament in which the anticipation of immortality does not appear, and there are others in which its presence may be doubtful. But here there can be no hesitation, I think, as to the meaning of these words. If we regard them carefully, we shall not only see clearly the Psalmist’s hope of immortal life, but shall discern the process by which he came to it, and almost his very act of grasping at it; for the first verse of our text is manifestly the foundation of the second; and the facts of the one are the basis of the hopes of the other. That is made plain by the ‘therefore’ which, in one of the intervening verses, links the concluding rapturous anticipations with the previous expressions.
If, then, we observe that here, in these two verses which I have read, there is a very remarkable parallelism, we shall get still more strikingly the connection between the devout life here and the perfecting of the same hereafter. Note how, even in our translation, the latter verse is largely an echo of the former, and how much more distinctly that is the case if we make a little variation in the rendering, which brings it closer to the original. ‘I have set the Lord always before me ,’ says the one,-that is the present. ‘In Thy presence is fulness of joy,’ says the other,-that is the consequent future. And the two words, which are rendered in the one case ‘before me’ and in the other case ‘in Thy presence,’ are, though not identical, so precisely synonymous that we may take them as meaning the same thing. So we might render ‘I have set the Lord always before my face’: ‘Before Thy face is fulness of joy.’ The other clause is, to an English reader, more obviously parallel: ‘Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved’-shall be steadied here. ‘At Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore’-the steadfastness here merges into eternal delights hereafter.
So then, we have two conditions set before us, and the link between them made very plain. And I gather all that I have to say about these words into two statements. First, life here may be God’s presence with us, to make us steadfast. And secondly, if so, life hereafter will be our presence with God to make us glad. That is the Psalmist’s teaching, and I will try to enforce it.
I. First, then, life here may be God’s presence with us, to make us steadfast.
You cannot do that, if you let the world, and wealth, and business, and anxieties, and ambitions, and cares, and sorrows, and duties, and family responsibilities, jostle and hustle Him out of your minds and hearts. You cannot do it if, like John Bunyan’s man with the muckrake, you keep your eyes always down on the straw at your feet, and never lift them to the crown above. How many men in Manchester walk its streets from year’s end to year’s end, and never look up to the sky except to see whether they must take their umbrellas with them or not? And so all the magnificence and beauty of the daily heavens, and the nightly gemming of the empty places with perpetually burning stars, are lost to them! So, God is blazing there in front of us, but unless we set ourselves to it, we shall never see Him. You have to look, by a conscious effort, over and away from the things that are ‘seen and temporal’ if you want to see the things that are ‘unseen and eternal.’
But if you disturb the whole tenor of your being by agitations and distractions and petty cares, or if you defile it by sensual and fleshly lusts, and animal propensities gratified, and poor, miserable, worldly ambitions and longings filling up your souls, then God can no more be visible before your face than the blessed sun can mirror himself in a storm-tossed sea or in a muddy puddle. The heart must be pure, and the heart must be still, and the mind must be detached from earth, and glued to Heaven, and the glasses of the telescope must be sedulously cleansed from dust, if we are to be blessed with the vision of God continuously before our face.
Then note, still further, that if thus we have made God present with us, by realising the fact of His presence, when He comes, He comes with His hands full. ‘I have set the Lord always before me,’ says the Psalmist. And then he goes on to say, ‘Because He is at my right hand.’ Not only in front of you, then, David, to be looked at, but at your side! What for? What do we summon some one to come and stand beside us for? In order that from his presence there may come help and succour and courage and confidence. And so God comes to the right hand of the man who honestly endeavours through all the confusions and bustles of life to realise His sweet and calming presence. Where He comes He comes to help; not to be a spectator, but an ally in the warfare; and whoever sets the Lord before him will have the Lord at his right hand.
And then, note, still further, the steadfastness which God brings. I have spoken of the effort which brings God. I speak now of the steadfastness which He brings by His coming. The Psalmist’s anticipation is a singularly modest one. ‘Because He is at my right hand I shall’-What? Be triumphant? No! Escape sorrows? No! Have my life filled with serenity? No! ‘I shall not be moved.’ That is the best I can hope for. To be able to stand on the spot, with steadfast convictions, with steadfast purposes, with steadfast actions-continuously in one direction; ‘having overcome all, to stand’-that is as much as the best of us can desire or expect, in this poor struggling life of ours.
What a profound consciousness of inward weakness and of outward antagonism there breathes in that humble and modest hope, as being the loftiest result of the presence of Omnipotence for our aid: ‘I shall not be moved’! When we think of our inner weakness, when we remember the fluctuations of our feelings and emotions, when we compare the ups and downs of our daily life, or when we think of the larger changes covering years, which affect all our outlooks, our thoughts, our plans; and how
‘We all are changed by still degrees,
All but the basis of the soul,’
And, brother! there is nothing else that will stay a man’s soul. The holdfast cannot be a part of the chain. It must be fastened to a fixed point. The anchor that is to keep the ship of your life from dragging and finding itself, when the morning breaks, a ghastly wreck upon the reef, must be outside of yourself, and the cable of it must be wrapped round the throne of God. The anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which will neither break nor drag, can only be firm when it ‘enters into that within the veil.’ God, and God only, can thus make us strong! So, dear friends, let us see to it that we fasten our aims and purposes, our faith and love, our submission and obedience, upon that mighty Helper who will be with us and make us strong, that we may ‘stand fast in the Lord and in the power of His might.’
II. Now, secondly, notice how, if so, life hereafter will be our presence with God, to make us glad.
Our texts not only assert this connection and base the confidence of immortality on the present experiences of the spirit that trusts in God, but also give the outline, at least, of the correspondences between the imperfections of the present and the perfectnesses of the future. And I cast this into two or three words before I close.
This is the first of them. If you will turn your faces to God, amidst all the flaunting splendours and vain shows and fleeting possessions of this present, His face will dawn on you yonder. We can say but little of what is meant by such a hope as that. But only this we can say, that there will be, as yet unimaginable, new wealths of revelation of the Father, and to match them, as yet unimaginable new inlets of apprehension and perception upon our parts, so that the sweetest, clearest, closest, most satisfying vision of God that has ever dawned on sad souls here, shall be but ‘as in a glass darkly’ compared with that face to face sight. We live away out on the far-off outskirts of the system where those great planets plough along their slow orbits, and turn their languid rotations at distances that imagination faints in contemplating, and the light and the heat and the life that reach them are infinitesimally small. We shall be shifted into the orb that is nearest the sun; and oh! what a rapture of light and life and heat will come to our amazed spirits: ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ Twilight though the light has been, I have tried to keep it. I shall be of the sons of light close to the Throne and shall see Thy face. I shall be satisfied when I wake out of this sleep of life into Thy likeness.
Then, again, if you will keep God at your right hand here, He will set you on His hereafter. Keep Him here for your Companion, for your Ally, for your Advocate, to breathe strength into you by the touch of His hand, as some feeble man, leaning upon a stronger arm, may be upheld. If you will do that, then the place where the favoured servants stand will be yours; the place where trusted counsellors stand will be yours; the place where the sheep stand will be yours; the place where the Shepherd sits will be yours; for He to whom it is said, ‘Sit Thou at My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,’ says to us, ‘Where I am there shall also My servant be.’ Keep God by your sides, and you will be lifted to Christ’s place at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Lastly, if we let ourselves be stayed by God amidst the struggle and difficulty, we shall be gladdened by Him with perpetual joys. The emphasis of the last words of my text is rather on the adjectives than on the nouns- full joy, eternal pleasure. And how both characteristics contradict the experiences of earth, even the gladdest, which we fain would make permanent! For I suppose that no earthly joy is either central, reaching the deepest self, or circumferential, embracing the whole being of a man, but that only God can so go into the depths of my soul as that from His throne there He can flood the whole of my nature with felicity and peace. In all other gladnesses there is always in the landscape one bit of sullen shadow somewhere or other, unparticipant of the light, while all around is blazing. And we need that He should come to make us blessed.
Joys here are no more lasting than they are complete. As one who only too sadly proved the truth of his own words, burning out his life before he was six-and-thirty, has said-
‘Pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed!
Or like the snowflake in the river.
A moment white-then gone for ever.’
I have shown you the ladder’s foot, ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ The top round reaches the throne of God, and whoever begins at the bottom, and holds fast the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end, for him the great promise of the Master will come true, and Christ’s ‘joy will remain in him and his joy shall be full.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
I have set, &c. Quoted in Act 2:25-28; Act 13:35.
not be moved. Compare Psa 15:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I have: Psa 139:18, Act 2:25-28, Heb 11:27
he is: Psa 73:23, Psa 73:26, Psa 109:31, Psa 110:5, Psa 121:5
I shall: Psa 15:5, Psa 62:6
Reciprocal: Gen 5:22 – General Gen 13:18 – altar Gen 24:40 – before Gen 48:15 – did walk Psa 4:8 – I will Psa 21:7 – he shall Psa 30:6 – I shall Psa 36:11 – hand Psa 54:3 – they have Psa 55:22 – suffer Pro 10:30 – never Pro 28:14 – Happy Isa 38:3 – I have Act 26:23 – the first
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 16:8. I have set the Lord always before me I have always presented him to my mind as my witness and judge, as my patron and protector, in the discharge of my office, and in all my actions. Hitherto David seems to have spoken chiefly in his own person, and with special regard to himself, but now he appears to be transported by the Spirit of prophecy, to be carried above himself, and to have an eye to the man Christ Jesus only, who is, and was, the end of the law, and the great subject and scope of all the prophecies. In other words, having hitherto spoken of himself as a member, he now begins to speak of himself as a type of Christ, in whom this, and the following verses, were truly and fully accomplished. Christ, as man, did always set his Fathers will and glory before him, as he himself often declares: see Joh 10:18; Joh 14:31. He is at my right hand To strengthen, protect, assist, and comfort me. And this assistance of God was necessary to Christ as man. I shall not be moved Either from the discharge of my duty, or from the attainment of that glory and happiness which are prepared for me. Though archers shoot grievously at me, and both men and devils seek my destruction, and God sets himself against me as an enemy; yet I am assured, he will deliver me from all my distresses.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16:8 I have set the LORD always before me: because [he is] at my right hand, I {g} shall not be moved.
(g) The faithful are sure to persevere to the end.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Because the Lord Himself was the main focus of David’s attention and satisfaction, he knew no one would shake him in any major way from his stability in life (cf. Psa 15:5 c). David described giving God first place in his life as having placed God at his right hand, the place of greatest honor and authority in the ancient East. Since David was a king, the place he gave God was especially honorable. Because David had delegated his defense to God, he knew his "right hand Man" would not fail him.
Peter quoted Psa 16:8-11 on the day of Pentecost as a messianic prophecy (Act 2:25-28). These words were true of Jesus Christ. They apply to Him.