Psalms 16:10

Psalms 16:10

I. This verse proves most expressly the truth of our Saviour's human soul and body; proves that as He took on Himself, really and truly, the substance of our nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, and lived and died in all respects a Man, sin only and sinful infirmity excepted, so also in His unseen state He continued to be a Man among men. His Divine soul went where other souls go; His precious body lay for a while in the grave, like other bodies. We know now for certain that souls departed and bodies in the grave, be they where they may, are within the merciful care of Him who is both God and man. He cannot fail to provide for them, for He has Himself gone through their condition, and can be touched with a feeling of what they require, as of all the other infirmities and imperfections of such a frail being as man.

II. Our comfort on further consideration will be found still more distinctly expressed. David's expectation is, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," i.e.,in the dark, unseen state. But when our Lord Himself spoke of it, His word was not "hell," but "Paradise." What the actual blessings of Paradise are Holy Scripture nowhere explains; but thus much it gives us to understand: that the holy souls there are with Christ, in some sense, so near and so blessed, that St. Paul most earnestly desired to depart thither. He knew well what he wrote, for, besides the especial teaching of the Holy Ghost, he had himself been caught up into Paradise, and found it, not a mere place for taking of rest in quiet sleep, but a place where heavenly thought can be exercised and heavenly words spoken in such perfection as is unutterable on earth.

III. The words of the text intimate that, however happy and comfortable soever the Paradise of the dead may be, it is not a place of final perfection, but a place of waiting for something better, a region, not of enjoyment, but of assured peace and hope. For so much is hinted in that God is thanked and glorified for not leaving our Saviour's soul in that place. It was an act of His mighty power, to whom all things bow and obey, to open for the soul of Jesus Christ the doors of that happy, though as yet imperfect, abode, and to make a way for His final and unspeakable exaltation by again uniting that soul to His blessed body.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. ii., p. 73.

Without all question, this prophecy belongs in an especial sense to our Lord and Saviour. Yet we may, without presumption, go on to consider these heavenly promises as spoken to ourselves and to all who are in covenant with God through Jesus Christ. David spoke here in the sense of prophecy, and very likely was far from knowing himself the full meaning of all that he said. Still he could not mean less than this, that he had a fair and reasonable hope of being somehow delivered from the power of death and made partaker of heavenly joys in the more immediate presence of God.

I. We see here what kind of persons may reasonably hope to persevere in welldoing and in God's favour, namely, those who make it a rule to live always as in God's especial presence. "I have set God always before me, for He is on my right hand; therefore I shall not fall." If you want to have a cheerful and rational dependence on your own continuance in welldoing, this one thing you must do: you must set God always before you. You must never act as if you were alone in the world, as if you were out of His sight by whom only you are in the world at all.

II. If a man were endeavouring to keep on that safe ground of assurance reasonable hope, grounded on habitual obedience then he might without presumption look for the other comforts mentioned in the Psalm. He might indulge in a calm and reverential joy of heart, such as David's when he sang, "Wherefore my heart was glad," such as that of the holy women when on Easter morning they saw the angels and "departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy."

III. Next, the Psalmist notices as another, the greatest of all fruits of holy trust in the Almighty, that it causes our very "flesh " that is, our mortal body to "rest in hope." It makes sleep quiet and secure. It takes out the sting of death. The chiefest of all privileges is to have hope in the grave, hope that through Him to whom these sacred promises belong of right our souls shall not be left in hell, in that dark, unknown condition to which, before the coming of Christ, the name of "hell" was usually given. The unseen region where the soul is to lodge is the place where once the spirit of our Saviour abode, and is therefore under His special protection. Thus we know how to think of the graves of our friends, and of those which are to be our own. We need not waste ourselves in ignorant and childish bewailings, but calmly and firmly trust, our friends to His care whose they are and whom they faithfully served.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times"vol. ii., p. 82.

References: Psalms 16:10. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 57; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xviii., p. 215; C. Stanford, From Calvary to Olivet,p. 24; Expositor,3rd series, vol. v., p. 308; Ibid.,2nd series, vol. vii., p. 40. Psalms 16:11. J. Taylor, Saturday Evening,pp. 298, 314; H. Moffatt, Church Sermons,vol. i., p. 49.