My Refuge and Supreme Good: Covenant Loyalty Alone
The believer finds no good apart from the Lord, delighting in His people and rejecting the increasing sorrows of those who follow other gods.
Psalms 16:1–4 (BSB)
1 Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge.
2 I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.”
3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.
4 Sorrows will multiply to those who chase other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood, or speak their names with my lips.
What is the big idea of Psalms 16:1–4?
The believer finds no good apart from the Lord, delighting in His people and rejecting the increasing sorrows of those who follow other gods.
How does Psalms 16:1–4 point to Christ?
Jesus Christ is the only one who perfectly delights in the Father and the 'holy people' without fail; He refused the 'sorrows' of this world to drink the cup of our judgment, so that He could become our eternal and only Good.
Authorial Intent
To express an exclusive covenant loyalty to Yahweh as the only source of goodness and to repudiate all forms of idolatrous worship.
Chapter: Psalm 16
Refuge, Fullness of Joy, and the Path of Life
Those who take refuge in the LORD find their supreme good, secure inheritance, unshaken stability, and fullness of joy in his life-giving presence.