Psalm 16 — The Portion That Outlives the Grave
“Miktam of David.” The title itself is a riddle. Miktam may mean something engraved, a golden saying, or even a covering. However we render it, Psalm 16 feels like an inscription hammered into metal under pressure. Yesterday, Psalm 15 asked who can dwell unshaken on God’s holy hill. Psalm 16 answers: the one whose portion is God Himself.
Portion and Lines “You hold my lot… The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (English Standard Version). In Iron Age Israel, boundary lines were marked by cords and stones; moving a marker was a theft cursed in Deuteronomy. Across the Ancient Near East, land grants were recorded on carved kudurru stones, ringed by gods who enforced the borders. David, often landless and hunted, dares to say: my true marker is not a stone in soil but the Lord who “holds my lot.” He speaks like a Levite—“The Lord is my portion” (Numbers 18:20)—though he is a king. This is countercultural: identity is not secured by acreage, title, or algorithmic reputation, but by communion. Note the wordplay: the “pleasant” (na’im) places of v.6 blossom into the “pleasures” (na’imot) at God’s right hand in v.11. The geography of joy moves from map to Presence.
Renouncing Rival Altars “Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips” (English Standard Version). In a polytheist economy, naming a god meant entering that god’s network of obligations. David refuses even to speak those names (cf. Exodus 23:13). Western readers may miss how social, not merely private, this is: idolatry was a way to ‘get things done’—crops, fertility, security. David opts out. Today the altars are subtler: we “pour out” attention, money, and words to systems that promise control. Psalm 16 calls for a liturgical detox—change your libations, change your life.
Night School of the Heart “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me” (English Standard Version). The Hebrew says kilyot—“kidneys,” the ancient seat of conscience. God tutors us in the dark, when our curated defenses sleep. There is a grammatical quirk in v.2 (“You [fem.] said to the LORD…”), which many take as David addressing his own soul. It is as if the psalm models an inner liturgy: talk to your soul until your soul talks back with truth. Try a nightly examen with this psalm—name your refuges, relocate them in God.
Two Right Hands and One Empty Tomb “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken… at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (English Standard Version). Notice the beautiful inversion: God is at my right hand; pleasure is at His. My stability comes from His nearness; my destiny from His enthronement. Then the line that detonates history: “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your Holy One see corruption” (English Standard Version). The Hebrew reads “your faithful one” (chasidcha), but the Greek Septuagint—followed by Peter and Paul—renders “your Holy One” (Acts 2:25–31; 13:35). Augustine hears Christ speaking from the tomb; Calvin hears David’s hope cresting into the Messiah’s certainty. Either way, resurrection is not an add-on but the inner logic of a life whose portion is God. The cup of destiny (v.5) becomes, in Christ, the cup of salvation (Psalm 116:13). You cannot be finally dispossessed if your inheritance is indestructible.
Suggested cross-references - Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 10:9 — The Lord as portion - Psalm 1; Proverbs 3:6 — The path of life - Psalm 116:13; 1 Corinthians 10:21 — Which cup, which table? - Acts 2:25–31; Acts 13:35 — Christ and Psalm 16 - Philippians 3:20–21; 1 Peter 1:3–4 — Resurrection and inheritance
Hymn to pray or sing today: “Be Thou My Vision.”
Prayer Lord, my portion and my cup, engrave this psalm upon my heart. Teach me in the night to set You before me in the day. Break the spell of rival names; cleanse my lips and my libations. Fix me at Your right hand, even as You stand at mine, until my flesh rests secure and my joy is full in Your presence. Through Jesus, Your Holy One, risen and reigning. Amen.