If we were to go to the NT we would find that both Peter and Paul referred to Psalm 16 when they preached on the resurrection of Christ. Listen to Peter’s words in Acts 2:25,27 “For David says concerning Him, ‘For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let Your Holy One see corruption.” Listen to Paul’s words to the rulers of the synagogue in Acts 13:35 “Therefore he [David] says also in another psalm, “You will not let Your Holy One see corruption.” Both Peter and Paul understood David to be speaking of Christ and the resurrection. David not only believed the Messiah would come, but he knew that He would die, and He also knew that He would not stay dead but God would raise Him.

The difference this made for David before the coming Resurrection of Christ is the same difference this makes in our lives after the Resurrection of Christ. David’s present and future joys were rooted in Christ’s resurrection, and so are our present and future joys!

In Psalm 16:9-10 we see David’s present joys rooted in the resurrection of Christ. As David sings of his salvation in the Lord, as he sings of future grace, his joy rises and his assurance of salvation deepens. David is assured of his body and his soul, even when it comes to his own death. When David says “my flesh dwells secure. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol” that is what he meant in v1 when he cried “Preserve me, O God” David is confident his prayer for preservation will be answered based upon the resurrection of Christ! David knows that while the Messiah will die, He will not remain dead. In fact, the decay of death will not even have the time or chance to set upon Him, for He will rise. And that’s exactly what gives David so much confidence in his own salvation because David’s salvation rests on and in Christ. David hangs all the hopes of his own resurrection upon the resurrection of Christ. And that’s where we must hang all of our hopes as well. For Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

In Psalm 16:11 we see David’s future joys rooted in the resurrection of Christ. What is this path of life, this fullness of joy, these pleasures forevermore? Or maybe I should ask it this way, “Who?” Who is pleasures forevermore at the right hand of the Father? Is it not Christ? Who is fullness of joy in the presence of God? Is it not Christ? Who is the path of life made known to us? Is it not Christ? Christ is life and joy and pleasures forevermore, and He is guaranteed to be so, because He is risen and He sets today at Father’s right hand.

Is this not exactly what Christ prays for in John 17:24? “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

To see Jesus, to see His glory, that is pleasures forevermore! And we will see Christ in His glory because He has risen, and one day, we will rise to be with Him!