The Lord is Our Guardian (Psalm 16:9–10) - Radical

The Lord is Our Guardian (Psalm 16:9–10)

Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy ones see corruption.
– Psalm 16:9–10

Oh yes, this would be the Psalm to read and pray according to on resurrection Sunday, the day when we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. Because this psalm, these verses, specifically Psalm 16:10 is quoted later in Acts chapter 13, as Paul is preaching in Pisidian Antioch, and he says, “We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers all throughout the Old Testament, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus as it’s written.” Then he quotes from Psalm 2, “You are my son today I’ve begotten you. And as for the fact that he has raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way.”

Psalm 16:9–10 Promises God Will Not Abandon Us

And then he quotes, “I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore,” he says also in another psalm, and he quotes from Psalm 16, “You will not let your Holy One see corruption.” Yes, God did not let his son see corruption. God poured out the judgment, to you and me in our sin upon his son on a cross, and he died to pay the price for that sin. And yet three days later, God raised him from the dead. God did not abandon him to Sheol or let his Holy One see corruption. And just to keep going as a result for all who are in Jesus, for all who trust in Jesus as the Savior and Lord of your life. You can know that when you die, you will not be abandoned to death, to eternal suffering in Hell and experiencing the judgment due your sin.

You will not see corruption because all who are in Jesus will live forever with him. So yes, Psalm 16:9 makes a lot of sense. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure.

Psalm 16:9–10 Points to the Promise of the Resurrection

Jesus, we praise you today as the risen and exalted savior and Lord of our lives. We praise you for dying on the cross for us. And we praise you, God, for raising Jesus from the dead. You are the resurrection and the life and everyone who believes in you, though he dies, though she dies, we will live. All glory be to your name. Our heart is glad. Our whole being rejoices and our flesh dwell, secure today. We praise you that we don’t have to fear anything today because you have taken the worst thing that could happen to us, death itself, and you’ve turned it into the best thing that will happen to us, entrance into your presence to spend eternity with you.

Oh God, we pray that today many people would put their trust in Jesus. God, we pray for friends and family members and coworkers and classmates and neighbors. And God, all kinds of people in our spheres of influence. We pray over our cities, we pray over the people around us. Draw many people to faith in Jesus today, to life in Jesus we pray. God help us to be bold and sharing the gospel today and inviting people to hear this good news. Just like Acts 13 proclaimed this good news.

Praying for the Nations

And God, we pray for the spread of this good news to all the nations. God, we pray and plead for thousands of people, groups, and billions of people who have little to no access to this good news right now who are unreached by it.

God, please, please, please use our lives to get this good news to them. And help us to live to the full, to play the parts you’re calling us to play toward that end so that every person in the world might know, hear of, have the opportunity to receive this good news in their arts so that their hearts might be glad. And their whole beings would rejoice because they dwell secure in the resurrected king of kings.

We pray this in his name, according to your word in Psalm 16, fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus, centuries later. Amen.

David Platt

David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.

David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.

He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.

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