Psalms 16:11, commentary and pictures

God points people to the way that leads to eternal life, whose end is complete joy in His presence and lasting delights at His right hand. David spoke these words as prophecy about Christ, foretelling His resurrection and exaltation to follow His suffering and death. God fulfilled this by raising Jesus before His body decayed and seating Him at His own right hand in everlasting joy, from where He still cares for believers on earth. That joy is already received by those who take hold of God's promises through Christ, surrender fully to Him, and live in harmony with Him. It is pure, satisfying and eternal, unlike short-lived worldly pleasures, and it brings cheerfulness, peace and spiritual strength even amid affliction and labor for others.

Path to Eternal Life

The path of life is the way that leads to eternal life. People are pointed to that path by being taught God's commandments and led to the truth, and seeds of truth sown in them can take root and bring life eternal. Its destination is eternal life, fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore at God's right hand. That life is worth a lifelong, persevering effort. Reaching it requires earnest effort to enter through the strait gate, since merely seeking to enter is not enough.

The psalm describes the character of those who possess Christ's character and represent it in the world. They belong to the class who will receive eternal life, whose faith takes hold of God's promises through Jesus Christ and whose practical obedience to God's commandments helps form their character. Those who overcome will see God's face and find fullness of joy in His presence and pleasures at His right hand forever. Those who find in Christ their all in all will share this fullness of joy and these pleasures throughout eternity.

That fullness of joy will be bestowed on His sleeping saints at the resurrection morning, when Jesus claims them as His own. It expresses the hope of meeting again with fullness of joy and of being at home in heaven, saved forever. There the weary find rest and trouble from the wicked comes to an end. Reaching that home requires continual watchfulness and keeping one's life unspotted from the world.

Christ Foretold and Exalted

The words are David's words concerning Christ, taken up by Peter to show that the Scriptures spoke beforehand of Christ's resurrection. They belong to Peter's appeal to David in establishing Christ's position, tracing Christ's lineage to David whom the Jews honored as a patriarch.

David spoke them prophetically of Christ, foreseeing the ways of life and fullness of joy in God's presence. He saw Christ's future life and ministry, including resurrection and ascension. In Peter's explanation the words belong to Jesus and form part of David's prophecy of Christ's death and resurrection, with the promise about the ways of life and joy in God's presence pointing to the life and joy following the resurrection.

The prophecy was fulfilled in that God raised Jesus from the grave and exalted Him to heaven. God did not leave Christ among the dead, and Christ's body did not decay or see corruption. He was raised before His body decayed.

After finishing His earthly work of sacrifice and revealing the Father by dying on the cross, rising from the dead, and ascending to heaven, Christ is seated at God's right hand in God's presence where there is complete and everlasting joy. His exaltation there matches His humiliation and suffering and magnifies the law. Even while there He has not forgotten His believing people on earth, but assures them of His care by sending the Holy Spirit to them to perfect His work.

Present Joy in God

Receiving God's promises brings fullness of joy, for His precious gifts made available through the Redeemer's sacrifice satisfy the heart's deepest needs and last for eternity. Those who come to Him as children, claim His promises, and plead them before Him receive and enjoy these gifts. Delight is found in His presence as the One called upon in affliction and as comfort, hope, and salvation day and night.

The joy found with God is pure, satisfying, and eternal, unlike polluted, unsatisfying worldly pleasures that last only a short time. God meets His people's needs, satisfies the soul with His righteousness, and fills it with joy, and His blessings remain fresh and grow more precious through eternity. In Christ the soul's hunger is satisfied, while the excitement of selfish pleasure cannot provide enduring joy. Lasting pleasure comes from Him alone.

Full and lasting joy is found in Christ, whose grace revealed in the word, and His Spirit and teaching, satisfy the soul like a fountain of living water. This joy is found in His gracious presence in His word, His Spirit, His teaching and His love, which are as a satisfying fountain and as cool streams to every soul. Every other source to which men resort proves unsatisfying, and worldly desires, pleasures, and amusements cannot satisfy or heal the soul. The indwelling Saviour is a source of spiritual power whose influence refreshes others and awakens in them a desire for strength, purity, holiness, peace, and joy without sorrow.

This fullness of joy is found in entire surrender to God and when the heart is brought into harmony with Him. Such joy leads to praise from a full heart, rather than a need to seek amusement. Believers become participants in that joy as God's permitted afflictions and trials work out His purposes of love and make them partakers of His holiness. Living in the Lord's presence brings cheerfulness, happiness, and peace rather than gloom. Christ's presence is like bright sunshine, and faith in Him keeps darkness and despair from surrounding the soul.

Christ is present with His servants in their labors for others even to the end of the world, and that presence gives complete joy and lasting delight. Because of the provision made by Christ, His workers have assurance of success through the Holy Spirit even when they meet obstacles and difficulties and bitter relentless enemies. As they keep following on to know the Lord whose going forth is prepared as the morning, and follow the path of service through obstacles and difficulties, Christ's presence brings fullness of joy and lasting pleasures.