Psalm 16: “Rise Heart, Thy Lord is Risen”

My dad died around Good Friday. The night was dark. The moon was full. My heart was empty. My mind, however, was clear. (Easter was coming.) It was just as that literary giant of the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson, explained: “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”^[1] Nothing is more clarifying than death.

Inscribed on my father’s gravestone lies a word of silent defiance. He requested it be put there. It was his own miktam.^[2]

Psalm 16:11

Thou wilt shew me the path of life:

in thy presence is fulness of joy;

at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (KJV)

My dad was not the first to use Psalm 16 as a confident testimony in the face of death. A King, whose goings forth were from old, was. Because that King did, my dad could, too. What King is that?

The Holy One of Psalm 16.

The Hope of Psalm 16: God’s Holy One

The introit of Psalm 16 records a King’s confident cry in the face of grave danger (Ps. 16:1).^[3] He is indeed in danger of the grave, as the end of the psalm shows (Ps. 16:10). Even the choral context of Book 1 (Psalms 3–41), from which David’s solo arises in Psalm 16, is one where God’s King is on the run. Book 1 opens in Psalm 3 with Absalom’s betrayal; it closes in Psalm 41 with betrayal by a dear friend.^[4] Thus, heartbreaking betrayal brackets the first book of the Psalter as “the covenant king is chased even by those whose loyalty he most ought to possess—a dear son (Ps. 3) and a ‘close friend’ ([Ps.] 41:9).” ^[5] Under such duress, is it any wonder that the King cries out in Ps. 16:1, “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge”? Like a man fleeing to a city of refuge, this outlaw King has fled to God as his refuge.

Now, in Psalm 16, he knows he will die. A few psalms later we will even hear his moans and watch his cruciform death (Ps. 22:1–2, 16–18). Even so, the King declares, “Lord, I have no good apart from you” (Ps. 16:2).^[6] It’s an “emphatic confession of faith.”^[7]

Remarkably, this King is not afraid of death. No, “my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices,” he sings (Ps. 16:9a). He boasts “that even my flesh dwells secure” (Ps. 16:9b). Yes, because “I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Ps. 16:8). These are “bold words” remarks Derek Kidner, “pure bravado.” ^[8] The immediate context reveals this King’s stunning confidence even in the face of death. “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption” (Ps. 16:10). His confidence is not that he will be preserved from death, but in death.

Psalm 16 brings news of a resolute cry and a raised corpse. The refugee of Ps. 16:1 becomes an heir to eternal life in Ps. 16:11.^[9] The British expositor G. Campbell Morgan summarized Psalm 16 as a “song of satisfaction.”^[10] It is, indeed, a song of satisfaction, even in death, for on the other side are “fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore”—God himself (Ps. 16:11).

But there is more in David’s miktam than his experience.^[11] A key word in this psalm is the phrase “holy one” (khasid) in Ps. 16:10: God will not let his “holy one (khasid) see corruption.” Who is that holy one?^[12] Whoever it is, David’s hope hangs there. So do the hopes of his people. All people.

A thousand years pass. Two men suddenly stand up. They are about to make known to all, what David knew all along.

The Hermeneutical Horizon of Psalm 16:
Acts 2:22–36 and Acts 13:26–41

Apostolic Insight

An ordinary fisherman with a foot-shaped mouth and a converted rabbi with a mighty intellect both turn to the same passage. It is Psalm 16. They make a most astounding claim about Jesus of Nazareth, recently crucified.

On two different occasions, Peter, during Pentecost in Jerusalem, and Paul, during a synagogue gathering in Antioch, argue from Psalm 16 that God raised up Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24–32; 13:34–37). In doing so, they declare boldly that God “made him both Lord and Christ (Messiah),” “that through this man forgiveness of sins [might be] proclaimed” (Acts 2:36; 13:38). Undoubtedly, it was the Lord himself who taught his followers to read the Scriptures in such a messianic way—even Psalms.^[13] Had Jesus not showed them in that marvelous Emmaus Road Bible study how “everything written about me in . . . the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44)? The two transformed apostles saw in Psalm 16 one of the most direct prophecies of Christ’s resurrection in the Old Testament.

Peter and Paul preached joyfully from Psalm 16 to establish historical and redemptive realities of the world-altering significance of Jesus’s bodily resurrection. Christ truly “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” a historical fact predicted in the Scriptures of Psalm 16 and one at the very heart of the life-giving gospel (1 Cor. 15:4).

About King David’s View

From the superscription, the apostles knew that Psalm 16 was a piece of David’s personal sheet music.^[14] They also knew David’s composition was not finally about him, a fact David knew himself. When Peter preaches from Ps. 16:8–11 in Acts 2:25–32, he makes four remarkable and inspired assertions.^[15]

First Apostolic Assertion

Firstly, Peter explains that royal David’s solo in Psalm 16 was not about himself; it was “concerning him [Jesus]” (Acts 2:25). Then, Peter quotes Ps. 16:8–11 (Acts 2:25–28), which says in part, “You will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption” (Ps. 16:10). Peter reminds his hearers, however, that “David . . . both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day” (Acts 2:29). If David spoke of a “Holy One” not seeing corruption, yet David’s body calcined to dust, Peter implies that David was surely speaking of a King, a Holy One, to come.

Second Apostolic Assertion

Peter makes a second remarkable assertion to make clear that David was speaking of another King in Psalm 16. David was a prophet (Acts 2:30a).^[16] David spoke of his role during his prophetic oracle in 2 Samuel 23, explaining, “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:1–2). David could speak of a King to come because God enabled him to do so.

Third Apostolic Assertion

Peter continues to explain David’s prophetic words from Psalm 16, asserting thirdly, that “being a prophet,” David “[knew] God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on the throne” (Acts 2:30). The psalmist even sang of God’s oath to David back in Ps. 132:11: “The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: ‘One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.’” Indeed, in the dazzling promises of 2 Samuel 7, the Lord first made that “revelation to . . . [David], saying, ‘I will build you a house’ . . . that it may continue forever” (2 Sam. 23:27, 29). Thus, King David was self-conscious of a Messiah-King who would come after him, and long past David’s death, later prophets like Isaiah were still speaking of the “sure mercies (khesed) [to] David” yet to come (Isa. 55:3 KJV).^[17]

The apostle Paul, that converted Rabbi, uses the very passage from Isaiah 55, in combination with Psalm 16, to argue that Jesus is the truly longed-for Messiah whom God raised up (Acts 13:30, 34–35). Paul argues exegetically that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was part of the “sure mercies” that God promised to David, mercies David sang about long ago in Psalm 16.^[18] That was not simply David’s voice in Psalm 16; it was also the Messiah’s.

Fourth Apostolic Assertion

Fourthly, Peter asserts the remarkable reality that King David the prophet knew—the Messiah would rise from dead, and that, before any decay set in. No wonder the psalmist erupts with ecstasy, saying, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 118:23). Peter (and Paul) reason that back in Psalm 16, based on the Lord’s covenant promises, that David “foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he [would not be] abandoned to Hades, nor [would] his flesh see corruption” (Acts 2:31 // Ps. 16:10).

Peter and Paul, then, provide apostolic insight about King David’s own viewpoint.^[19] When David spoke of the one whose heart was glad, who would have fullness of joy in God’s presence, David sang not of himself, but “concerning him,” the King whom God would raise up in three days, before his body would ever see corruption (cf. John 11:39).^[20]

God’s Holy One and Our Hope

In the end, it is not David’s voice we hear in Psalm 16; it is Christ’s.^[21] David sets his hope, not in his life being preserved, but in the Holy One who would come after him. David would die and see corruption, but not so with God’s Holy One. David was a king, but not the Risen King whose corpse saw no corruption. Yet, since the Messiah passed through death and out the other side, we may also sing with David: “Preserve me, O God, for I have taken refuge in you as well. Your Holy One faced death that I might know the path of life.”

Donald Grey Barnhouse, a well-known Presbyterian pastor of the past century, told a story to his grieving children as he drove to the funeral of their mother (his wife).

On the way to the funeral, an enormous truck had pulled past them, throwing its shadow across them. [Barnhouse] asked his children, ‘Would you rather be run over by the truck or by the shadow of the truck?’ The eleven-year-old had said, ‘Shadow, of course!’ ‘Well, that’s what happened to your mother,’ Donald had replied. ‘Only the shadow of death passed over her, because death itself ran over Jesus. But he rose again, He lives—and so does she, in heaven!’^[22]

Whether standing at the graveside of a departed loved one, as I and countless others have, or facing down one’s own diagnosis of death, in and because of Christ, we may personally take up the resolute cries of Psalm 16, just as my dad did. We have been hit with the shadow, but Christ with the truck. And with that poet-parson George Herbert, we may confidently say, “Rise Heart, Thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise without delays.”^[23] He is risen, indeed.^[24]

~~~~~

1. Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, ed. Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald (London: Bickers and Son, 1874), 2:215. ↑

2. Though a precise understanding of the Hebrew term miktam remains uncertain, one possible meaning is “inscription,” as in, an inscription on a tomb. (This would fit my father’s intentions.) For example, Craigie sees “inscribed” as “the most probable” meaning among six common interpretations. Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50, 2nd ed., WBC 19 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 154. ↑

3. While precise divisions of Psalm 16 are difficult, David appears to divide the poetic structure in two main sections that begin and end the same way. After his opening cry in Ps. 16:1, David begins each main section addressing YHWH (Ps. 16:2, 7), and he ends each main section with an expression of pleasure (delight) (Ps. 16:11). Based on such observations, an outline would be: Ps. 16:1, 2–6, 7–11. See this helpful visual breakdown of the Hebrew text provided by Psalms: Layer by Layer. ↑

4. Psalms 1 and 2 function as an introduction to the entire psalter, and thus Psalm 3 is the formal beginning to Book 1 (Psalms 3–41). ↑

5. David “Gunner” Gundersen, “A Story in the Psalms? Narrative Structure at the ‘Seams’ of the Psalter’s Five Books,” in Reading the Psalms Theologically, ed. David M. Howard Jr. and Andrew J. Schmutzer, Studies in Scripture & Biblical Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2023), 84. ↑

6. The Hebrew text of Ps. 16:2–4 is difficult; translations differ. For a discussion of the issues, see “Psalm 16 Exegetical Issues,” Psalms: Layer-by-Layer. ↑

7. David “not only trusts in the Lord, [he] trusts the Lord alone.” Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 178–179. ↑

8. Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, TOTC 15 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 102. Psalms 15–24, the immediate literary chiastic context of Psalm 16, also underline the theme of trust sounded in Psalm 16. Set within the chiastic unit of Psalm 15–24, Carissa Quinn even refers to the parallel psalms of 16 and 23 as “awaiting the arrival with confidence.” Carissa Quinn, The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15–24, Studies in Scripture & Biblical Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2023), 62. ↑

9. Kidner marvelously remarks that the refugee turned heir in Psalm 16 “finds his inheritance beyond all imagining and exploring.” Kidner, Psalms 1–72, 103. ↑

10. G. Campbell Morgan, An Exposition of the Whole Bible: Chapter by Chapter in One Volume (Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1959), 226. ↑

11. Miktam appears six times in the Psalter: once in Book 1 (Ps. 16) and five consecutive times in Book 2 (Pss. 56–60). David composed all six in a context of deep distress; all but Psalm 16 tie to historical events in David’s life or “to the choirmaster.” This may be one of many canonical indications that the entirety of Psalm 16 is a uniquely prophetic psalm, along the lines of Psalm 110. At the least, Psalm 16 is, as Waltke calls it, a “typico-prophetic” psalm. Bruce K. Waltke and James M. Houston, The Psalms as Christian Worship: An Historical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 339. ↑

12. For messianic significance surrounding the phrase “holy one” (khasid) in the Old Testament, see Walter C. Kaiser Jr., “The Promise to David in Psalm 16 and Its Application in Acts 2:25–33 and 13:32–37,” JETS 23.3 (1980): 219–229. ↑

13. See Peter Ho’s work as an example of how the New Testament writers’ understanding of Jesus fulfilling the messianic hopes of the Psalter is a formidable and reasonable interpretation. Peter C. W. Ho, “The Shape of Davidic Psalms as Messianic,” JETS 62 (2019): 515–531. ↑

14. Waltke and Houston explain more than seven reasons for the originality of the superscripts. Waltke and Houston, The Psalms as Christian Worship, 88–92. See also, Brad Baugham, “The God Who Makes Us Sing and Trust His King: A Canonical Approach to Preaching the Psalms” (DMin diss., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2021), 57–62. ↑

15. After surveying ancient approaches to understanding Peter’s use of Ps. 16:8–11, Gregory Trull evaluates seven modern views: hermeneutical error, Jewish hermeneutics, sensus plenior, canonical approach, typology, single message, and direct prophecy. Gregory V. Trull, “Views on Peter’s Use of Psalm 16:8–11 in Acts 2:25–32,” Bibliotheca Sacra 161 (April–June 2004): 194–214. Some of these views should be rejected outright (e.g., the “hermeneutical error” view). ↑

16. Though not as clear in English, Peter uses three participles to mark out his assertions about David and Jesus in Acts 2:30–31: “being (huparchōn) a prophet,” “knowing (eidos) of God’s oath to him,” and “foreseeing (proidōn) the Messiah’s resurrection.” ↑

17. Not all agree that David was self-aware when he spoke of the Messiah in Psalm 16. For example, John Stott argues that “we need not . . . assert that David was making a deliberate and conscious prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus which was fully intelligible to himself.” John Stott, Growing Close to God (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), 17. Contra Stott’s view, others like Jim Hamilton argue that “David understood himself as a prefiguring type of the future king God promised,” that while “David consciously and intentionally speaks of his own experience, . . . yet he means to present himself as a type, a foreshadowing prefigurement of the seed from his line.” James M. Hamilton Jr., “David’s Biblical Theology and Typology in the Psalms: Authorial Intent and Patterns of the Seed of Promise,” in Reading the Psalms Theologically, 63–78. ↑

18. Although Peter Gentry acknowledges that the scholarly consensus takes the phrase “the sure mercies of David” as an objective genitive, he argues for taking the phrase as a subjective genitive instead. The grammar of the passage, Gentry argues, means that the sure mercies are done “by David rather than for David.” See Peter J. Gentry, “Rethinking the ‘Sure Mercies of David’ in Isaiah 55:3,” Westminster Theological Journal 69 (2007): 279–304. ↑

19. For more detailed insights regarding the apostolic understanding of Psalm 16, see Gregory V. Trull, “An Exegesis of Psalm 16:10,” Bibliotheca Sacra 161 (July–Sept 2004): 304–321; Gregory V. Trull, “Peter’s Interpretation of Psalm 16:8–11 in Acts 2:25–32,” Bibliotheca Sacra 161 (Oct–Dec 2004): 432–448. ↑

20. Waltke explains that “since the body’s decomposition becomes apparent between the third and fourth days (cf. John 11:38f.), he must be raised from the dead within three days.” Waltke and Houston, The Psalms as Christian Worship, 336. ↑

21. For two sermonic examples, one that takes part of Psalm 16 as David’s experience fulfilled in Christ and one that takes Psalm 16 as primarily messianic, see respectively, Brad Baugham, “Our Refuge” sermon, Emmanuel Bible Church, Aug 18, 2013, and Micah McCormick, “Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees the Believer’s Joy,” sermon, Emmanuel Bible Church, Feb 26, 2006. ↑

22. Margaret N. Barnhouse, That Man Barnhouse (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1983), 186. ↑

23. George Herbert, “Easter” in The Temple (1633). https://ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/Easter.html ↑

24. Many thanks to Kai Soltau, Jared Garcia, Micah McCormick, Katherine Baugham, Carson Baugham, and Jeremy Farmer who offered valuable input for this article. ↑