Psalm 16 This is what the Lord has said in Psalm 16. Mictum of David Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god. Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintain'st my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yet I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life, in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. and may the Lord bless the reading of His word to our hearts today. As we come to Psalm 16, we find a new word to understand in the psalm title. The Hebrew word is mikdam. As you see it in the King James, it's pretty much how modern translations continue to handle this word. Instead of translating the word, the translators simply transliterate the Hebrew letters into English letters. Only three English translations of about 20 translations, which I saw, give any translation at all. The New Jerusalem Bible suggests, in a quiet voice of David. The New English translation considers it simply, a prayer of David. And Young's literal translation rendered the title, a secret treasure of David. Obviously, miqdam is a difficult Hebrew word to pin down as far as its meaning is concerned. In my dissertation on the Psalm titles, I presented various suggestions for the meaning of this word, but ultimately had to say that I was not confident of its meaning. Nevertheless, miqdam is part of the inspired Word of God and given by Him for our benefit, so we should do our best to understand it. When commentators come to these difficult words in the psalm titles, they have different responses. Many of them presume that the psalm titles were not original to the psalms and therefore these words are not important to understand anyway. Others give the common suggestions that these words represent ancient musical instruments or the first words of an ancient tune by which the psalm was to be sung. These suggestions are just guesses offered because no other solution seemed appealing. These suggestions also provide no information for the psalm itself, but not that they have to either. When dealing with this word, mictum, several suggestions have been offered as to its meaning. I would like to focus on the two which I think are the most possible, and then I'd like to suggest one to be the most probable. The first suggestion is that the word miktam is the word miktav, meaning a writing. Those who offer this suggestion say that the original miktav was changed by some mistake on the part of scribes to miktam, the change of one Hebrew letter. Now this part of the explanation is immediately unacceptable. We believe that God not only gave the word of God, but he also preserved the word of God, even down to its very letters, from any human error. Jesus said as much, saying, For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot, which is the smallest Hebrew letter, or one tittle, which is part of a letter, which distinguishes it from other Hebrew letters, shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5.18. Nevertheless, we may suggest that Mictum could be another way to spell Mictah. This would be an acceptable suggestion. In other words, what I am suggesting is something along the lines of English in America and English in England. We speak the same language, but some of our English words are spelled differently here than they are over there. So the Hebrew word for writing may have been miktav in some regions of Israel and miktam in other areas. We have a very interesting account in the book of Judges where how you pronounce the word actually was a matter of life and death for Israelites. During the time of the judge Jephthah, the Ephraimites were insulted that Jephthah did not ask for their help in fighting the foreign invaders. this led to a battle between the Ephraimites and the Gileadites. During this battle, Judges 12.5-6 records, the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites, and it was so that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over, that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay, Then said they unto him, Say now, Shibboleth. And he said, Sibboleth. For he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan, and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. Though this is an example of a difference in pronunciation of words in Israel, There may also have been differences in spelling, probably resulting from different pronunciations in different regions. Though I am far from an expert on possible changes in words in the Hebrew language, Christian David Ginsburg has noted several changes in the spelling of a word, comparing one biblical passage with another. He does not note any change of spelling based on an interchange of the Hebrew letters Beth and Mem, which is what I am suggesting with miktam and miktav. Yet phonetically the sound v could probably be easily confused with the sound m resulting in different pronunciation and spelling of the same word in different regions of Israel. Now this suggestion that miktam in the psalm titles is just a different spelling of miktav is very tempting for two particular reasons. The first reason is that the Septuagint, the ancient translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek language, translates miktam by this term stelagraphia, stelagraphia, which means an inscription which is similar to a writing. The second reason is that the word miktav is found in another song title outside of the Psalter. Isaiah 38 records a poem written by King Hezekiah. In verse 9 there is a song title given before the song begins. This song title reads, The writing, the miktav of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness. The word writing in this title is Miktab. So if Miktab and Miktam are the same word, this would be another usage of this word in a song title outside of the Psalter. Hezekiah's title is very similar to the titles found in the Psalter, so this word being used in both would be another similarity between Hezekiah's title and those of the Psalter. The result of this suggestion is that this difficult word, Mictam, is just the usual word, Mictab, meaning simply a writing. This is clearly appropriate for the psalm titles, being therefore translated, a writing of David. The second suggestion for Mictam seems to be the most popular suggestion among the commentators. besides the shallow guesses of a long-forgotten tune or musical instrument, which are really no option at all. This second suggestion understands miktam to be derived from ketam, meaning gold, and the preposition min, meaning from. So the word would mean from gold, or of gold. In other words, these miktam psalms, would be made of gold, golden Psalms, implying that they are very precious and valuable. In my opinion, this is the best suggestion for the meaning of Mictum, because it is the straightforward meaning of the Hebrew. It requires no unproven theory of alternate spellings or of similar matters previously unknown. Now this would not imply that other psalms in the Psalter are not as golden or precious as these five Mictum psalms. In my studying of the psalm titles, I have found many notations which could have been placed on numerous psalms, and yet only found on one or two of them. For example, only Psalm 60 has the notation to teach, yet all the psalms are meant to teach in some way or another. The fact that only five psalms would have this indication of being golden merely reflects on how David identified these psalms when they were written. It is a further evidence that these titles were added by the psalmist themselves, not later editors. Later editors would have added this title to all the psalms which were in front of them, because all the psalms are precious as gold, but the psalmist with only one psalm in front of him at one time identified each psalm differently. So why would psalm 16 and 56-60 be identified as golden psalms? Some have suggested that psalm 16 is golden because it makes reference to the resurrection of Christ which is truly a precious event and doctrine for believers. Psalm 1610 says For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. This is applied to Christ's resurrection in the New Testament, as we will see shortly. But Psalms 56-60 cannot be considered golden for this reason, because they do not make reference to Christ's resurrection. If we were to look for common themes among these psalms, we would find a common theme of danger present that the psalmist being secured in faith by God. Danger is actually present least in Psalm 16 among these mictum psalms. Psalm 16 1 says, Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. This phrase and others in the psalm imply that danger is near and the psalmist needed God to preserve him from it. The other mictum psalms are far more expressive about the danger present. In fact it is found even in their titles. Psalm 56 title is Mictum of David when the Philistines took him in Gath. Psalm 57 has Mictum of David when he fled from Saul in the cave. Psalm 59 reads Mictum of David when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him. Psalm 60 has Mictum of David to teach when he strove with Aram, Naharam, and with Aram-Zobah when Joab returned as Motavidim in the Valley of Saul 12,000. Beside these pre-scripts, Psalm 56-58 also have Do Not Destroy in their postscript, indicating that the psalm is Saul's death near at hand. These psalms were written in precarious situations, but all of the psalms also express God's deliverance. So these psalms would be considered golden or very precious psalms to David as he wrote them in times of great danger and seeing God's great deliverance from that danger. Now let us consider the second part of the psalm title, that it is of David or by David. We have noted in our discussion of previous psalms that Davidic authorship is often questioned by critical scholars and by other scholars who see the psalm titles as later additions to the psalms. One of the arguments that these indications of authorship in the psalm titles are correct is that the New Testament supports these notations. The New Testament authors did not make note of all the psalms in their titles, but certain psalms are quoted in the New Testament and said to be by David in agreement with the psalm title connected to the psalm. Jesus, for example, quotes Psalm 110, verse 1, saying, For David himself said by the Holy Ghost. Peter, in Acts 2, 34-35 quotes Psalm 110, referring to David as its author, saying, For David is not ascended into heaven, but he saith himself, And then in Acts 1, 16 and 20, Peter considers David the author of Psalms 69 and 109. Paul mentions David as the author of Psalms 32 in Romans chapter 4 verse 6 and also Psalm 69 in Romans chapter 11 verses 9 through 10, which both bear David's name. The psalm we are looking at, Psalm 16, is also quoted by Peter in Acts 2 verses 25-28. For David, speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. From these New Testament references to the Psalms and the Davidic authorship, let us notice that David is clearly considered the author of these Psalms. David, the New Testament author state, was the one who spoke these words. This shows the New Testament to be in clear agreement with statements of the psalm titles. David did actually write the psalms which mention him in the title. He was not the one whom the psalm was sent to, or written in honor of, or from whose collection they found the psalm, as scholars suggest. These psalms were written by David. Finally, let us make some brief observations about Psalm 16 how we are to interpret it in light of what the New Testament authors say. We have two passages which mention Psalm 16 in the New Testament. Both are found in the Book of Acts. One is by Peter in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. The other is by Paul in Acts 13. Peter says in Acts 2 verses 2-31, For David speaketh concerning him I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad, wherever also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the way of life, thou shalt make me full of joy with thy counsel. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, and neither his flesh did see corruption. But then Paul says in Acts 13, 35-37, Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to seek corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised again saw no corruption. First, from the words of Peter, let us notice again that David is the author. David is the one speaking in the Psalms. The critics are wrong in saying that David did not write Psalm 16. Second, Peter says that David was a prophet speaking of a future event. Again, the critics are wrong in saying that the Bible does not speak of future events. When the prophets are given God's words, they can speak of future events because God can reveal it to them. Third, Both Peter and Paul recognized that though David spoke the psalm, he was not speaking about himself, he was speaking about Christ. David was dead and had seen corruption come to his body. Christ was raised from the dead before corruption came to his body. Again, the critics are wrong when they examine the psalms and say, this never happened to David, so David could not have written it. Well, sometimes what David wrote was not about David at all. sometimes it was about Christ, other times he speaks more generally and poetically so that the various situations and troubles of all believers of all generations can be so wonderfully expressed by David's Psalms. So let us notice that Psalm 16, or at least the portion about the resurrection in Psalm 16, is not about David, it is about Christ. Then fourth, Let us observe that the resurrection is not a concept created by New Testament Christians. It is well expressed by the Old Testament prophets. The resurrection was as much their hope as it is our hope. As David foresaw Christ's resurrection, so he rejoiced in his own resurrection in Christ. As we look back on Christ's resurrection, so we look forward to our own resurrection as well. Psalm 16 is a psalm written by David. As we will see, it is a psalm seeking God's help in trouble. It is a psalm which expresses David's joy in God over the sorrows that the idolaters get in turning to their gods. But it is also a psalm which rejoices in Jesus Christ and in his resurrection. As we reflect upon the psalm and its meaning, whether we consider the psalm title to indicate a golden psalm by David, or merely a writing by David, let us consider the psalm to be precious and rejoice in our resurrection which awaits all of us who have put our confidence in Christ.