In light of my recent communications to you, how sweet was it for me to come to Psalm 16 this morning in my daily readings! I have two “delicacies” of truth for your soul to suck on and savor this day.
David asks for the Lord’s preservation, declaring, “I take refuge in you.” The Lord is his “strong tower.”
But it is what he goes on to declare in verse 2 that is so wonderful for us to consider:
Delicacy No. 1
I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.’
He owns the LORD as his Sovereign, his Master, his Ruler and Orderer and Governor. It is a confession of submission, but a willing one. It is a “endearing” submission in which the LORD is “embraced.” He does not say, “You are Lord over me”—which is true—but, rather, “You are my Lord.” This, to the psalmist, is a most beneficial sovereignty and relationship.
“I have no good besides You,” or, in the words of the ESV, “I have no good apart from You.” What a gloriously wonderful confession! “All my good, all my welfare, is wrapped up and contained in You.”
As Asaph says in Psalm 73: “the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge” (v. 28). Nothing apart from the LORD is “good” where David is concerned. The LORD is his absolute good and his comparative good. The LORD is his best “good.” Having the LORD as his Lord is all the “good” he needs.
The LORD as his Lord is good enough. This relation he sees as his chief and sufficient good. Remove all other “good” and he has lost nothing good, having the LORD. Linked in humble dependency to the LORD, he is linked to all the good he needs! Nothing can compare to the good he finds in the LORD. All other “good” is lesser “good” to what is found in and comes from his LORD. All other “good” is as “no good” apart from the LORD.
“You are the fountain from which I will drink, the ocean in which I will swim, the pasture in which I will rest, the sun under which I will walk” (cf. Ps. 84:11-12). “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Ps. 73:25). “You are my all in all, my one and only best thing!”
And if this was not enough, hear what David says in the first line of verse 5:
Delicacy No. 2
The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup.
To Aaron the LORD said in Numbers 18:20: “You shall have no inheritance in [the] land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.” “I will be enough for You. I will be your possession.” David is saying, in effect, “The LORD is possession enough for me. What He is, has, and gives is all I need, all I seek. He is my future fullness and my present sustenance.”
The faithful Hengstenberg wrote:
“The Lord is for His people a cup which is never empty, and never suffers them to become thirsty, the source of all good; He provides them richly with everything that can contribute to their refreshment during life, so that it [is] thankless folly . . . to seek for refreshment elsewhere.”
If the LORD is our portion, then omnipotence is our portion. If the LORD is our portion, then wisdom is our portion. If the LORD is our portion, then all goodness and grace is our portion. If the LORD is our portion, then His promises is our portion, His glory is our portion. If the LORD is our portion, then heaven and earth are our portion.
As Calvin says, “[H]e who has God as his portion is destitute of nothing which is [necessary for] a happy life.” Beloved, if this is so, then what can trouble really deprive you of?
May these “delicacies” be the sweet consolation and confidence and confession of our souls!
Blessings in the Son!
