A messianic psalm
Psalm 16: Not Abandoned to the Grave
Psalm 16 is David's song of confident trust. He takes refuge in the LORD as his only good, delights in God's people, and refuses other gods. Because the LORD is at his right hand, his heart is glad and secure. He trusts that God will not abandon his soul to the grave or let His faithful one see corruption.
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”Psalm 16:10
The psalm itself
Psalm 16 is a psalm of quiet confidence, a miktam of David. He begins by seeking refuge and confessing that apart from God he has no good thing. He turns from the false gods others chase and finds his portion and inheritance in the LORD alone. He blesses God for counsel that guides him even through the night. Because he keeps the LORD always before him, with God at his right hand, he will not be shaken. His whole being rests secure, confident that God will not abandon him to death's power or let His faithful servant come to ruin. In its own setting the psalm expresses David's trust that fellowship with the living God is stronger than any threat, including the shadow of the grave.
How the New Testament reads it of Christ
Peter quotes Psalm 16 at Pentecost in Acts 2:25 to 31, and Paul cites it in Acts 13:35, both reading it of Jesus. Peter argues plainly that David died and his tomb was still known, so David could not have been speaking only of himself. As a prophet, David foresaw the resurrection of the Messiah, whose soul was not left in the grave and whose body did not see corruption. The apostles treat the line about not seeing decay as fulfilled specifically in Christ's rising on the third day, before His body could corrupt. This is a direct and load bearing quotation, one of the earliest scriptural proofs the church offered for the resurrection, applied by name to Jesus the risen Lord.
Christ in this psalm
David spoke of his own trust, yet the words reach beyond him, for David died and his body did decay. In Christ alone they come fully true. Jesus kept the Father always before Him, entrusted His life to God, and went into death confident He would not be abandoned there. On the third day, before corruption could touch His body, God raised Him. The path of life the psalm names became the resurrection road, leading through death into the joy and pleasures at God's right hand. So the psalm holds a double horizon. David's genuine confidence in God becomes, in the Messiah, an unbreakable promise that the grave could not hold the Holy One.
Questions people ask
Did David write Psalm 16 about himself or about Jesus?
David wrote it as his own confident trust in God, even facing death. But Peter argues in Acts 2:29 to 31 that David died and his tomb remained, so the promise of not seeing corruption pointed beyond David to the Messiah. So the psalm is David's true confidence that finds its fullest and literal fulfillment in the risen Christ.
How is Psalm 16 a proof of the resurrection?
In Acts 2:25 to 31 and 13:35 the apostles quote the line that God's Holy One would not see corruption. Since David died and decayed, they argue the words were fulfilled in Jesus, whose body did not decay because He rose on the third day. It became one of the earliest scriptural arguments for the resurrection.