You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
A man facing death speaks the closing verse of Psalm 16. Yet he speaks of life, joy and pleasure beyond death. The apostles later used his words as proof that Christ rose. That raises the two questions this verse keeps putting to readers: whose path is this, and where does it end?
Words the Apostles Applied to the Resurrection
Peter and Paul both quoted this psalm in public preaching. Their argument rested on one point: David himself died and stayed dead. So the words had to belong to someone else.
H H SnellDavid clearly foretold the resurrection of Christ in Psalm 16. Peter quoted the psalm on the day of Pentecost, and Paul quoted it at Antioch, to prove that Scripture was fulfilled when He rose from the dead. They argued that David did not speak of himself. He was a prophet, yet he was buried and his body decayed. The One God raised saw no corruption. In death His soul was not left in hades, the place of the dead, and His body did not decay. He entered resurrection, the path of life, and went up to the right hand of God.
A Path That Runs Through Death
The route to this joy was not around the grave but straight through it. That is why the verse comes straight after words about the soul not being left in death.
Hamilton SmithThe path of life, walked by the Lord, led through death. This is not death as making atonement for His people. It shows the blessedness of a life that death cannot touch. It is the path of life through death. Here the prospect of death raises no cloud on His spirit. He is not cast down at the thought of death. His heart is glad and His tongue rejoices, for His flesh will rest in hope. For the one walking the path of life, death is only a means to the fuller enjoyment of the life.
"You Will Show Me" — the Language of Dependence
Notice who does the showing. The speaker does not announce what He will do; He waits to be shown. Commentators point to that wording as the mark of a man leaning wholly on God.
J. N. DarbyThere is not a step of the path of life that He has not walked. He has marked out the path of divine life right up to blessing… "You will show me the path of life." How dependent for everything! He does not say, "I will rise up," but "You will show me." He passed through death in dependence on His Father. Here was the blessed perfection of a man with God… He could go back to the throne of God without a stain, and take man back with Him into the glory He came from. There is manhood now in the presence of God.
A Way Opened for Others to Walk
Because He went first, the path is no longer His alone. Writers describe Him as making a road where there was none.
J. N. DarbyIn this place of death He opens a path for us. His Father and God shows Him the "path of life." He was the life, but He had to track the path of life through this place of death, where nothing speaks of God — a wide wasteland with no road through it. Christ has tracked the path Himself… He had to open the path of life through a world of sin and misery, in obedience, all the way up to God. It must be through death for us, because we are sinners. Now He says to us, "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me."
Fullness of Joy Is the Presence Itself
The joy is not something handed out in God's presence; the presence is the joy. And what satisfied Christ's hope becomes the measure of ours.
J. N. DarbyWe are in God's presence, where fullness of joy is. Where God's presence shows itself, it fills everything and shuts out all that is against it. It is bound to make us completely and perfectly happy. It was enough for Christ's hope, and He knew that presence best of all — so it is enough for ours.
Some of that joy is tasted now, and some waits.
The Christian's FriendIn His presence, even here on earth, our fullest joy is found, and the fullness itself awaits us, and is surely very near at hand!
Pleasures That Never Run Out
The last phrase names both a place and a length of time. Commentators press the word "evermore": it answers every fear that good things end.
Andrew Miller"Your right hand" — the place of dignity, power and special privilege. "Fullness of joy" — nothing lacking. "Pleasures for evermore." This is not only the place of honour and joy. It is our everlasting place — "for evermore." Nothing lesser is mixed in, and there is no fear that these pleasures will ever end.
Summary
- Path — the way to fullness of joy runs through death, not around it; Christ walked it first and made it out for us.
- Proof — Peter and Paul quoted this psalm to show David spoke not of himself but of the One who saw no corruption.
- Posture — "You will show me," not "I will rise up": He walked the whole path in dependence on God.
- Presence — God's presence fills everything and shuts out all that is against it, and there joy is full.
- Permanence — the right hand is a place of honour, and "evermore" means these pleasures have no end.