Psalms 16:11

Thou wilt shew me&c. Lit. Thou wilt cause me to know (Psalms 143:8) the path of life: not only preserve me from death, but lead me onward in that fellowship with Thee which alone is worthy to be called life. See Proverbs 10:17; Proverbs 15:24; Matthew 7:14; John 17:3. -The path of life" is not merely a path which leads to life, but one in which life is to be found. It is -the path of righteousness" (Proverbs 12:28). -The way of life" is frequently contrasted in the Book of Proverbs with ways that lead to Sheol and death. Cp. too Deuteronomy 30:15. It leads onward in the light of God's Presence; and in that Presence is satisfying fulness of joys. Cp. Psalms 17:15; Psalms 21:6; Psalms 4:6-7; Proverbs 19:23.

at thy right hand R.V. rightly, in thy right hand, as the sole Dispenser of all lasting good. Cp. Proverbs 3:16. The world's joys fade; God's joys alone are eternal.

Comp. Hooker's noble words (Eccl. Pol. i. ii. 2): "Then are we happy when fully we enjoy God, as an object wherein the powers of our souls are satisfied even with everlasting delight; so that although we be men, yet by being unto God united we live as it were the life of God."

Psalms 16:8 were quoted by St Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28), and Psalms 16:10 bby St Paul at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:35), as a prophecy of Christ's resurrection. The quotation is made from the LXX., which is a free rendering of the Hebrew. St Peter shews that David's glowing words of faith and hope (the argument will be the same if the psalm was the work of some other writer) were not fully realised in himself. He did not finally escape from death. Were his words then a mere idle dream? No! Guided by the Holy Ghost he -looked forward" to Christ. Over Him Whose fellowship with God was perfect and unbroken by sin, death could have no dominion (Acts 2:24). In His Resurrection the words first found their adequate realisation, their fulfilment. But their prophetic character does not exclude their primary reference to the Psalmist's own faith and hope.

But the question must be asked, What was the meaning which the Psalmist's words had for himself? Does he speak of fellowship with God in this life only, or does he pierce the veil, and realise not only the possibility but the certainty of a continued life of conscious fellowship with God hereafter, and even of the resurrection of the body?

It is difficult to divest the words of the associations which have gathered round them, and impartially to weigh their original meaning. On the one hand, however, it is unquestionable that similar language is used elsewhere of deliverance from temporal death, and enjoyment of fellowship with God in this life; while in other psalms we find the gloomiest anticipations of death, and the dreariest pictures of the state of the departed. On the other hand it is clear that the words admitof reference to an unending life of fellowship with God.

The truth may be (as will be seen more clearly in Psalms 17) that the antithesis is not between life here and life hereafter, but between life with and life without God; and for the moment, in the overpowering sense of the blessedness of fellowship with God, death fades entirely from the Psalmist's view.

The doctrine of a future life is however involved in the Psalmist's faith. He grounds his hope of deliverance on his relation to Jehovah; and such a relation could not be interrupted by death (Matthew 22:32). But this truth could only be apprehended gradually and through long struggles, and only fully realised when Christ "annulled death, and brought life and incorrupt ion to light through the Gospel." (2 Timothy 1:10.)

For ourselves the words must bear the fuller meaning with which Christ's resurrection has illuminated them. To us they must speak of that -eternal life" which is begun here, and is to be consummated hereafter (John 6:47; John 6:54; John 14:19).