The Scripture behind the Scripture
Thou Wilt Not Leave My Soul in Hell
Psalm 16:10 expresses confidence that God will not leave the psalmist's soul in the grave nor let his Holy One see corruption. Peter preaches it in Acts 2:27 and Paul in Acts 13:35 as pointing to the resurrection of Jesus.
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”Psalm 16:10
“Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”Acts 2:27
“Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”Acts 13:35
In its own place
In its own place. Psalm 16 is a psalm of David, a song of trust in which the psalmist takes God as his only good and portion. He rejoices in the Lord as his refuge, delights in the fellowship of the faithful, and sets the Lord always before him. Near its climax he declares that his heart is glad and his flesh shall rest in hope, for God will not leave his soul in the grave, the place of the dead, nor allow his faithful one to see corruption. In its original setting this is an expression of confident trust that God will preserve the psalmist's life and not abandon him to death. Many readers understand David to be voicing his assurance that God will keep him from an untimely or God forsaken death, or more deeply a hope that the bond with God is stronger than the grave itself. The Hebrew word rendered hell in the King James is Sheol, the realm of the dead, not a place of torment in the later sense. The verse breathes a hope that communion with the living God cannot finally be severed even by death, a hope stretching beyond what David could have fully explained.
Where the New Testament takes it up
This is a direct quotation, and it follows the Greek Septuagint at a decisive point. At Pentecost in Acts 2:27, Peter quotes Psalm 16, including Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. He then argues that David cannot be speaking ultimately of himself, since David died, was buried, and his tomb was still known, and his body did see corruption. Therefore, Peter reasons, David spoke as a prophet of the resurrection of the Messiah, whose soul was not left in the grave and whose flesh did not decay. Paul makes the identical argument in Acts 13:35, quoting the same line and stressing that the one God raised saw no corruption, unlike David. Both apostles lean on the wording see corruption, which follows the Septuagint rendering. The underlying Hebrew can carry the sense of the pit or the grave, and the Greek makes the bodily decay explicit, which serves the resurrection argument. The apostolic reasoning is careful and honest, acknowledging that David died and decayed, and concluding that the psalm's confidence finds its true and complete fulfillment only in the risen Christ, whose body God did not permit to corrupt.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Peter and Paul present Jesus as the one in whom Psalm 16 comes fully true. David's hope that God would not abandon his faithful one to the grave was realized supremely when God raised Jesus, whose body did not see corruption. The resurrection is God's answer to the psalm's confidence, showing that fellowship with God really is stronger than death. Because Jesus rose, the trust breathed in Psalm 16 is vindicated not only for him but for all who are joined to him. His flesh rested in hope and was raised incorruptible, and that guarantees the same future for his people. What David could voice only as trust, and could not himself attain since he died and decayed, the Son of David has secured. The empty tomb is the proof that God did not leave his Holy One in the grave.
Questions people ask
How do Peter and Paul argue from this psalm?
They note that David died, was buried, and his body decayed, so the psalm's promise of no corruption cannot ultimately be about David himself. They conclude he spoke prophetically of the Messiah, whose body God did not let corrupt, fulfilled in the risen Jesus.
Does hell here mean a place of torment?
No. The Hebrew word is Sheol, the realm of the dead, and the sense is the grave. The verse is about God not abandoning his faithful one to death, which the apostles saw fulfilled in the resurrection.