Psalms 16:11

Thou wilt show me the path of life,.... Not the way of life and salvation for lost sinners, which is Christ himself; but the resurrection of the dead, which is a passing from death to life; and was

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Thou wilt show me the path of life - i:e., the path to life; Hebrew, lives.

Thou wilt show me, i.e. give me an exact and experimental knowledge of it, for my own comfort, and the benefit of my people. The path of life, i.e. the way that leadeth to life; not to a temporal and mortal life here, for he is supposed to be dead and buried, ; but to an endless, and immortal, and blessed life after death in the presence of God, as it followeth; the way to which is by the resurrection of the body. So the sense is, Thou wilt raise me from the grave, and conduct me to the place and state of everlasting felicity. In thy presence, Heb. with or before thy face, i.e. in that heavenly paradise, where thou art graciously and gloriously present, where thou dost clearly and fully discover thy face, and the light of thy countenance; whereas in this life thou hidest thy face, and shewest us only thy back parts, and we are in a state of absence from thee, and see thee only through a glass darkly, and enjoy thee but in part. Fulness of joy, i.e. full and perfect joy and satisfaction, which it is in vain to expect in this life, and is only to be found in the sight of thee. See . At thy right hand; which he mentions as a place of greatest honour, as this was, , &c.; , and the place where the elect and saints are placed at the last day, , &c.; and lastly, at the place where Christ himself is said to sit, . Pleasures for evermore; everlasting delights in the contemplation and fruition of God.

Psalms 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.Ver. 11. Thou wilt show me the path of life] This being applied to Christ, seemeth to show that as man he did not yet fully understand that inexplicable glory wherewith the Father would glorify him after death with himself, John 17:5. Sure it is, that David did not, nor can any man living, 1 Corinthians 2:9 : here is as much said as can be said (but words are too weak to utter it). For quality, there is in heaven joy and pleasures. For quantity, a fulness, a torrent, whereat they drink without let or loathing. For constancy, it is at God’ s right hand, who is stronger than all, neither can any take us out of his hand; it is a constant happiness without intermission. And for perpetuity, it is for evermore. Heaven’ s joys are without measure, mixture, or end. Contra Acheron, ab ααχαιρειν, quod sit illaetabilis unda; vel ab αχος and υριν ( ut vult Plato) quod fluat luctuosis undis.

(11) There are.—The italics in the Authorised Version spoil the triplet:— “Thou wilt show me the path of life, In thy presence fulness and joy, At thy right hand pleasures for evermore.” It is another image for the same thought which dominates the psalm—the thought of the happiness of being with God. The fair heritage, the serene happiness, the enduring pleasure always to be found at God’s right hand, are all different modes of expressing the same sense of complete satisfaction and peace given by a deep religious trust touched, ever so faintly, by a ray of a larger hope beginning to triumph over death itself.

Verse 11. Thou wilt show me the path of life] I first shall find the way out of the regions of death, to die no more. Thus Christ was the first fruits of them that slept. Several had before risen from the dead, but they died again. Jesus rose from the dead, and is alive for evermore. Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead was the first entrance out of the grave to eternal life or lives, חיים chaiyim, for the word is in the plural, and with great propriety too, as this resurrection implies the life of the body, and the life of the rational soul also. In thy presence] פניך paneycha, thy faces. Every holy soul has, throughout eternity, the beatific vision, i.e., "it sees God as he is," because it is like him; 1 John 3:2. It drinks in beatification from the presence of the Eternal TRINITY. Thy right hand] The place of honour and dignity; repeatedly used in this sense in the Scriptures. Pleasures for evermore.] נצח netzach, onwardly; perpetually, continually, well expressed by our translation, ever and more; an eternal progression. Think of duration in the most extended and unlimited manner, and there is still more; more to be suffered in hell, and more to be enjoyed in heaven. Great God! grant that my readers may have this beatific sight; this eternal progression in unadulterated, unchangeable, and unlimited happiness! Hear this prayer for His sake, who found out the path of life, and who by his blood purchased an entrance into the holiest! Amen and Amen. For the application of the whole Psalm to David, see the analysis at the end, which is a little altered from David's Harp Strung and Tuned. The remains of this Psalm in the old Psalter are worthy to be inserted: - Ver. 7. Benedicam Dominum qui tribuit michi intellectum, c. Trans. I sal blis the Lord that gaf til me undirstandyng and over that til the nyght, suyled me my neres. Par. That es I sal luf the fader that hafs gyfen undyrstandyng til my servauntes, thurgh the qwilk the herytage of heven may be sene and welded; and aver that undyrstandyng, in the qwilk I saw, sais Crist, al sothefast thynges and haly. Of that I sal lof him that my nerys that es the Jewis of qwas kynd I toke flesch, that es my kyn snybbed me in wranges and temptaciounis, and passiouns, til the nyght, that es al the dede thai missaid hym, als so oure nerys; that es our fleschely delytes makes us worthy snybbyng til our dede; for perfytely may we noght be with outen syn, qwyles we lyf. Ver. 8. Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo, c. Trans. I pervaide God ay in my syght for he es at the ryght hand til me, that I be nout styrred. Par.

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 16:8-11 were quoted by St Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28), and Psalms 16:10 b by 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.

Thou wilt show me the path of life - In this connection this means that though he was to die - to descend to the regions of the dead, and to lie down in the dark grave - yet there WAS a path again to

11. Thou wilt show me the path of life—Thou wilt cause me to see (make known to me) the path of life, contrasted with to see corruption, in previous verse.