To ancient Hebrews, the words of our Scriptures were the pop
songs everyone knew, the history that defined their identity, even the
after-dinner entertainment of the day.
In Bronze Age society stories and songs were the mass media of a
pre-literate culture. If I wrote a song that you had never heard before, but
used these three words, “Dandy,” “Doodle,” “Yankee,” you would immediately recognize
a historical connection, even if what I was writing on the surface had nothing to do with history.
This is the case with Psalm 16, I think. The three words
that would have rung familiar to the ancient Hebrew listener are “portion,” “cup,”
and “boundary.” Now, many modern translations may not even have these key
words. The problem with many modern translations is they must make sense to
people who may be Biblically illiterate. So publishers eliminate the very
key words necessary to hear how the song would have been heard in the 10th
century BC and in later epochs. We know this happened to a huge extent during the
Babylonian Captivity of the Jews in the 5th and 6th
centuries BC. The old language became
less and less used and many people forgot the meaning of words. In fact, in
Psalm 16 verse 6 there is a word with Babylonian roots, the word for “delightful”
or “wonderful.” So, we know that the form in which we now read Psalm 16 comes from after the 5th Century, not from the pen of David.
Is it possible for us three thousand years removed to know how Psalm 16 might have sounded in
the ears of David’s contemporaries? The only way to even begin to accomplish this is to use
the older texts of Scripture to interpret the newer ones. Four hundred years
before David, in the earliest days of the Israeli national identity, portion,
cup, and boundary would have triggered two thoughts: a covenant meal and land distribution. There’s no one verse in the Old Testament that
mentions all three of these concepts. So we have to do a bit of detective work
to see what two stories David may be linking up, either in his own inspired imagination or from something well-known in his time but lost to us.
Portion and cup are words associated with a meal. A servant received his or her portion of food
and drink from the master. David sings this song to his God and Master, Yahweh. There’s only one sacred meal in which the worshipper of Yahweh had a “portion” and a “cup;” the peace
offering detailed in Leviticus 3, 7:15-16, and 22:29-30. The peace offering was how reconciliation
occurred after two parties had a falling out. The peace offering initiated a
covenant meal between God and sinners.
What about the concept of boundary lines changing or being
assigned as an inheritance? This recalled two events that were inseparably linked in the Hebrew mind:
first, the covenant ceremony led by Joshua at Shechem (Joshua 24); and second,
the Jubilee legislation that provided for an a complete economic reset of all
debts and deals as a reminder that the land belonged to Yahweh (Leviticus 25). In Deuteronomy 15, there is some evidence that
this reset may have occurred every seven years in the earliest days of the theocracy. I think it
entirely possible that David composed Psalm 16, out of the remnants of an ancient liturgy of covenant renewal, a shared meal, and the redistribution or reaffirmation of holy boundaries. Psalm 16:1 is pure covenantal
language. “I will be your God and you will be my people.” Preserve me, O God, I
refuge in you. I will do my part and you will do your part. It was the way every treaty was worded in the Bronze Age.
When that ancient covenant liturgy was first made, Israel
was not in the Promised Land of Canaan. They were on the other side of the
Jordan, preparing to go in and take the land that belonged to other peoples,
specifically, the Canaanites, a fierce and militarily superior nation. Why would David think about that portion, cup, and boundary? It may
have been the time of the Feast of Covenant Renewal (later called Tabernacles or
Booths) that David saw in the situation of those ancient Hebrews awaiting the
conquest of Canaan, a picture of his own plight. Many of David's Psalms carry inscriptions of the historical context which occasioned the song. Many are from the time David is on the run from Saul. Psalm 16 carries no such historical reference,
but it does picture a man on the run in verse 1, like an unintended criminal
fleeing to the cities of Refuge (Deuteronomy 4:41ff.), needing safe sanctuary. This fits perfectly the time that Saul, King of the
Jews, is pursuing David with the intent to kill the son of Jesse. But only David knows from the great prophet and priest, Samuel himself,
that the Kingship has been withdrawn from Saul and given to David. So, here’s
David, the rightful king, with no portion or cup from his Master, no
inheritance at all, an outlaw with only God’s big idea and God’s Word and Presence to
sustain him.
David sings about the covenant blessings of belonging
body and soul to Yahweh. The LORD himself instructs David (Psalm 16:7) with the
counsel of His Word. David knows the presence of God surrounding him; God makes
himself real to David (v.8). While Saul threatens him with murder, David has an
abiding joy and certain promise that the Holy One of his family will not be abandoned
in the grave to rot (v.10). He has everything he needs while outwardly having
nothing.
How similar to Jesus a thousand years after David. He, too, was announced to be God’s
King of the Jews, but he had nothing, no power, no title, and no prospects but
death and suffering. Pilate asks, "You are a King then?" Jesus answers, "Are you saying this of your own accord or did you hear this from others?" Jesus is checking to see if the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in Pilate. But alas, no. So Jesus answers, "My kingdom is not from the world." Jesus' kingship is a different kind of King than Pilate could ever conceive. But look at the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, stricken, bloodied. What a King! Every one of his followers would desert
him in his hour of need. But like David was preserved, so Jesus was preserved by God's covenant faithfulness.
Between the resurrection and his ascension, Jesus
spent hours in Bible study with his disciples, showing them how the Old
Testament was really all about him. He must have pointed out Psalm 16 specifically,
since Peter refers to it in his Pentecost sermon as prophesying the
resurrection of David’s Holy Son (Acts 2:25-28). It's not hard to imagine our Savior praying the words of Psalm
16 in Gethsemane’s Garden and with Psalm 22 while hanging on the cross, a great
song of abiding trust and confidence in the promises of God when it seems that
all is lost.
Jesus, on the eve of his great Exodus, transformed the Passover into the covenant-renewing peace offering meal of reconciliation in his body and blood.
He knew the struggles of the flesh, being tempted in every way we are, yet
without sin. When Jesus said, "As often as you do this you remember me," he's not talking about religious reminiscing. We are actually participating in the same Kingdom building God was doing in ancient Israel, rehearsing the covenant faithfulness
of God this side of Jordan's stormy banks. We are like David, awaiting an unseen inheritance
that is ours by faith in the victory of Jesus over death and the grave. When it seems darkest, God is preserving us through the counsel of His Word, through the love of His
saints, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, showing us the path
of life, the fullness of joy, and wonder of permanence forever more.
