Psalm 16 – ph

by | Mar 12, 2014 | Psalms, Psalter Hymnal, Uncategorized

Psalm 16

I concur with the proposed Sing Psalms text with “Leominster” (as edited by MCPC). I am not familiar with “Stirling” (a recent tune found in the BPW).

Text: Sing Psalms, 2003, alt. MCPC, 2013 (SMD)

1 Preserve me, O my God; you are my refuge true.
2 I say, “O LORD, you are my Lord: I have no good but you.
3 The godly in the land, for holiness renowned,
they are the finest ones, in whom all my delight is found.

4 The ones who chase false gods will multiply their pain,
I will not sacrifice to them; I will not speak their names.
5 O LORD, you are to me my cup and portion sure;
the share that is assigned to me you guard and keep secure.

6The land allotted me is in a pleasant site;
my beautiful inheritance is surely my delight.
7 I bless the LORD my God, whose counsel guides my choice;
and even in the night my heart recalls instruction’s voice.

8 Before me constantly I set the LORD alone.
Since he remains at my right hand, I won’t be overthrown.
9 And so my heart is glad; my tongue with joy will sing.
My body too will rest secure in hope unwavering.

10 For you will not forsake my soul unto the grave,
nor will you leave your Holy One to see the tomb’s decay.
11 The path of life you show; your presence is full joy;
at your right hand, O LORD my God, are pleasures evermore.

Tune: Leominster (George William Martin, 1826; arr. Arthur S. Sullivan, 1874)

Commentary

Psalm 16 is titled, “A Miktam of David.” We do not know what “miktam” means.

Psalms 14-16 belong together. Psalm 14 declares that “there is none who does good.” Psalm 15 declares in reply that some may still dwell in God’s presence. And Psalm 16 shows how.

“Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to Yahweh, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

The first point is that the only way to avoid Psalm 14–the fool who says there is no God, is through trusting in Yahweh. The only way to become the blameless man of Psalm 15, is through trusting in the Lord. All that is good, I owe to you.

And because I take refuge in you, I also delight in your people: “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” In other words, I do not delight in the counsel of the ungodly. I do not sit in the seat of the scornful. I delight to share in the communion of saints–the fellowship of God’s people. Psalm 15 had said that the man who may dwell in God’s tent is the man who despises a vile person, but who honors those who fear Yahweh. Now Psalm 16 fleshes this out: I delight in the saints, but I will not join with those who run after other gods. Therefore, taking refuge in the Lord also means delighting in the fellowship of his church. Worship and fellowship are intimately bound up together. They cannot exist in isolation.

With God as his portion, David delights in the beautiful inheritance that is his. Yes, trials and temptations may surround us, but we must never forget the glory that is set before us. Because the Lord is his portion, the Psalmist declares, “I bless Yahweh who gives me counsel; in the night my heart also instructs me.” The nearness of the Lord brings counsel and instruction. And because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Why is the Psalmist glad? Why does his “whole being” (or glory, in the Hebrew) rejoice? Why does his flesh dwell secure? Because “you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” God had not yet revealed the details of the resurrection, but he gave to David a glimpse of the joy of eternal life. And Psalm 16 shows us that the road to eternal life leads through death. Israel had to understand that the route to glory led through suffering. David sees that Sheol (the grave) is in his future. He knows that one day he will die. But he prophesies that God will not abandon his soul to Sheol, nor will He allow his holy one to see corruption.

Peter understood what this meant. Once Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and has poured out the Holy Spirit, Peter realized that this was what David was talking about. On the Day of Pentecost (the feast of firstfruits–as all Israel is bringing the portion for the priests and Levites) the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the church. The firstfruits of the Kingdom of God comes upon the people of God. And Peter realized that this meant that Psalm 16 was about Jesus!

The Son of David literally did not see corruption!

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.  Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.  This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.  Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” (Acts 2:29-33)

And as Jesus has walked the path of life, as he has been made full of gladness in the presence of his Father, so now you and I may share in his life and in his joy. Jesus has entered his inheritance. And in Jesus, the whole of the new humanity comes into the inheritance of the new creation.

Israel was called to sing this eschatologically. They were called to sing of this future glory in the present. And so are we. We, who live in the last days, who have beheld the beginning of the age to come in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must keep our hearts and minds fixed on the glory that will be revealed in the revelation of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As you meditate upon the death of Christ–in his suffering for us, and as you meditate upon his resurrection and glory at the right hand of the Father, you must see that his death and resurrection were the accomplishment of the last-days redemption promised through the prophets. And therefore, as you meditate upon the glory that will be ours in Christ Jesus, do not forget that the Holy Spirit is the downpayment of that inheritance. You already have a foretaste of heaven in the presence of Christ.

 

Structure:

The BPW opens its third stanza in the middle of verse 5, which does not lend itself to singing with understanding. The Sing Psalms text allows for greater clarity and understanding of the flow of the text.

 

Translation Notes:

My chief objection to the text that we have adopted is the replacement of “drink offerings of blood” (or “libations of blood”) with “sacrifices,” since it ruins the parallel in verse 5 with the LORD as my chosen portion and *cup.* But given the structural concerns outlined above, I would not wish to use the BPW text.

Many believe that Psalm 16 is not speaking of the afterlife, but simply that God will rescue him and save him from death. The key verses are v9-11.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being [lit., glory] rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption [lit., the pit].
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Plainly the Psalmist has a confidence that pertains both to body and his soul. God’s holy one will not see the pit. Does this just mean: “I won’t die yet”? If so, then the whole Psalm becomes rather pathetic: “I’ve got a good piece of real estate, and God will let me live a little longer. Sure, then I’ll die and return to nothingness — but hey, I get to have some fun for a while!!”

The word translated “forevermore” (or evermore in our version) is *netsach* — which means “eminence, enduring, everlasting, or perpetual.” It is used 18 times in the Psalms, ordinarily to refer to things that either are (or seem to be) going on forever. If Psalm 16 is simply saying that “perpetual pleasures” are at the right hand of God — but that human can only enjoy them temporarily and then descend into the grave forever, then Psalm 16 makes no sense.

Put simply, Peter got it right in Acts 2 — and Paul in Acts 13 — when they affirm that David was speaking of the resurrection of the Christ. How well David understood this is an open question (2 Peter 1:21 says that prophets did not always understand what they were saying), but we must affirm that Psalm 16 speaks of the resurrection of Christ.

 

Tune Notes:

“Leominster” is used in the Trinity Hymnal with Psalms 16 (692) and 45 (169), “Not What My Hands Have Done” (461), “A Few More Years Shall Roll” (540). It is also used for Psalm 16 in the Trinity Psalter, and for Psalms 25 and 108 in the Book of Psalms for Singing/Worship.

I am delighted that Tim Shafer (professor of musicology at Penn State) has permitted me to share his musical comments from our committee’s work. This is what he said regarding Leominster:

“Leominster is an extended six phrase tune comprising two bar forms (mm. 1-8 a a1 b; mm. 9-16 c c1 d). Throughout the unfolding of these six phrases, the tune presents a slow progression from sedate assuredness to stately confidence subtly tinged with victory.

The opening pair of phrases are marked by the repeated note and slowly rising melody, yet the sequence is down a second. The abgesang phrase (the b phrase) responds with a confident triadic rise, while yet containing the repeated note motive.

The progress of assertion continues with the short c phrases of the second bar structure. Here, dotted rhythms are introduced, subtly cueing strength. The sequence of these two phrases, unlike the first pair, now ascends, and by a third. The d phrase climaxes the tune by continuing the sequence, rising a fourth higher to the tonic in the dotted rhythm and a slow scalar descent to conclude.

Leominster contains significant musical referents that support the affect of Psalm 16 and would make a very good choice of a familiar tune for this text.”

Conclusion

I think that Psalm 16 *needs* to have a really good tune. Leominster definitely has the chops to last.

My sermon on Psalm 16 can be found here.

For a recording of Leominster with Psalm 16, listen here (using the Trinity Psalter’s Yoda-ish text).

– Peter J. Wallace

 

Do We Really Need a Psalter Hymnal? A Reply to Donald Poundstone

by | Feb 25, 2014 | Psalmody, Psalter Hymnal

 

Now that Donald Poundstone has published his objections to the Psalter Hymnal project (New Horizons, March 2014), I should state that much of my original essay was conceived as a response to Poundstone, since he and I engaged in a friendly dialogue in a seminar on psalmody at First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon, in the summer of 2013. There are a few points, however, that I wish to highlight in response to Mr. Poundstone.

Curses, Hostility, and Death

The first area has to do with the interpretation of Scripture. I believe that Poundstone has significantly misunderstood the Psalms (and the New Testament) in the areas of curses, hostility to the nations, and death.

1) He ignores the New Testament use of the invocation of curses or imprecations. I am very disappointed that Poundstone did not deal with my argument from 2 Thessalonians 1 (which I made in Portland). Anyone who wishes to argue that “it is not for us to invoke curses on those who oppose the gospel and us” (p8), must deal with Paul’s invocation of curses on “those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thess 1:8) Further, I pointed out in our discussion that Jesus and the apostles often invoke curses on those who oppose the gospel (e.g., Matthew 23, Acts 13:10, Acts 18:6) — but Poundstone pretends that these verses do not exist in the New Testament. (See my essay for more details).

2) He misrepresents the attitude of the Psalms toward the nations. It is true that the Pharisees viewed the nations with fear, contempt, and hostility — but that was not the attitude of the Psalms! Psalm 87 is perhaps the most famous, with its declaration that the nations are born in Zion, but numerous Psalms call for the nations to praise the Lord (Psalms 47, 65, 66, 67, 72 come to mind immediately). As I pointed out in Portland — and again in my essay — there are only two occasions when the Psalmists call for curses: 1) when the nations are invading and destroying God’s people, and 2) when wicked Israelites are persecuting and destroying God’s people. Anyone who does even a cursory reading of the Psalms will know that the latter is generally seen as a worse problem than the former. The overall trajectory of the Psalms is positive toward the nations — albeit there are particular moments when the nations deserve judgment, just like there are particular moments when Israel deserves judgment. In other words, for the Psalms, “judgment begins with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17).

It would appear that Poundstone believes that the Word of God taught Israel to hate the nations. Poundstone is right to say that the New Testament taught the Jews to have a different attitude than they did — but that was because the Pharisees had misunderstood the Scriptures! His essay would lead me to believe that Poundstone views the Psalms from a Pharisaic standpoint — not from a Christian standpoint.

3) This problem grows far worse in his final objection. With respect to the view of death and a future life in Psalm 6 and Psalm 88, Poundstone says that “However we try to make these gloomy words sound Christian, they in fact differ greatly from the transparent confidence and joy made known to us through Christ’s empty tomb” (p9). Apparently, for Poundstone, God inspired something that wasn’t true. I’m sure that this is not what he means to say — but he has said it so repeatedly (in Portland, in private correspondence, and now in New Horizons) that I do not know how else to take him. Poundstone has claimed to follow Geerhardus Vos’ approach to progressive revelation, but when confronted with Vos’s own approach to the Psalms’ view of death, he has rejected it.

 

Why Full Psalmody Is Necessary for Christian Worship

This brings me to a more substantial topic. Why insist on metrical versions of all 150 Psalms? Because Poundstone’s approach to how to sing the Psalms is intimately connected to how we understand God, the Scriptures, and ourselves. Let me put it bluntly: I believe that the primary reason why Poundstone thinks that the NT teaches contrary to the Psalms on “cursing, hostility, and death” is because he has spent his whole life singing songs that tell him this.

Poundstone wants the OPC to continue following Watts’ dictum to “give King David a Christian voice” (p9). While I do not object to “Psalm-based hymns” (to borrow Larry Wilson’s phrase), I think that one of the chief dangers of Watts’ approach is demonstrated in Poundstone’s essay — namely, that we start to think that the Psalms are not really Christian. Since our psalm portions and psalm paraphrases tend to avoid the “unpleasant” parts of the Psalms, we start to think that those “unpleasant” parts are not in the New Testament either! Paul may apply the imprecatory Psalms to the Jewish leaders of his day (Romans 11:7-10, using Psalm 69:22-23), but we insist on never imitating Paul because we have deleted Psalm 69:22-23 from our hymnals!

I would be fine with the practice of chanting the Psalms straight out of the English Bible, but since our tradition has a long practice of using metrical translations, I am willing to continue that practice. The important thing is to use all 150 Psalms in the regular worship of God. If we do not, we will wind up recreating god in our own image.

I will freely admit that singing the Psalms is an uncomfortable experience for myself and for my congregation. There are times when I almost wish that God hadn’t said it that way. But that’s the point: I don’t get to decide who God is! As Poundstone illustrates beautifully, if you spend your whole life singing only “Christianized” Psalms, then you will wind up with only part of the NT as well! After all, who gets to decide which parts of the Psalms should be excised? Watts? Poundstone? Me? Whatever we cut out will result in the impoverishment of our doctrine and practice.

After all, what is the purpose of our singing? Some seem to think that the sole purpose is to praise God. But Scripture includes both the vertical and the horizontal — think of Paul’s charge to the Colossians: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16). The point of our singing in daily life has a strong horizontal aspect — a point that resonates with the Psalms as well, since they were designed not merely as sung praise — but included lengthy didactic songs that were designed to teach Israel the history of salvation (think also of the Songs of Moses in Exodus 15 and Deuteronomy 32).

I cannot find a single sentiment in the Psalms that is not also expressed in the New Testament. Certainly there are different emphases, but the doctrines and attitudes that you find in the Psalms are entirely appropriate for NT Christians to sing — when applied correctly in Christ.

Peter J. Wallace