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Psalms 16:2
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Psalms 16:2 in Other Translations
Psalms 16:2 Meaning and Commentary
[O my soul], thou hast said unto the Lord
Some take these to be the words of David speaking to the church, who had owned the Lord to be her Lord, and had declared what follows; others think they are the words of God the Father to his Son, suggesting to him what he had said; but they are rather an apostrophe, or an address of Christ to his own soul; and the phrase, "O my soul", though not in the original text, is rightly supplied by our translators, and which is confirmed by the Targum, and by the Jewish commentators, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi;
thou [art] my Lord;
Christ, as man, is a creature made by God; his human nature is the true tabernacle which God pitched and not man, and on this consideration he is his Lord, being his Creator; and as Mediator Christ is his servant, and was made under the law to him, obeyed him, and submitted to his will in all things; so that he not only in words said he was his Lord, but by deeds declared him to be so;
my goodness [extendeth] not to thee;
such who suppose that David here speaks in his own person, or in the person of other believers, or that the church here speaks, differently interpret these words: some render them, "my goodness [is] not above thee" F12; it is far inferior to thine, it is not to be mentioned with it, it is nothing in comparison of it; all my goodness, happiness, and felicity lies, in thee, ( Psalms 73:25 ) ; others, "I have no goodness without thee": the sense is the same as if it was "I have said", as read the Greek, Vulgate Latin, and Oriental versions, and so Apollinarius; I have none but what comes from thee; what I have is given me by thee, which is the sense of the Targum; see ( James 1:17 ) ; others, "my goodness is not upon thee" F13; does not lie upon thee, or thou art not obliged to bestow the blessings of goodness on me; they are not due to me, they spring from thy free grace and favour; to this sense incline Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi; see ( Luke 17:10 ) ( Romans 11:35 ) ; others, "thou hast no need of my goodness"; nor wilt it profit thee, so R. Joseph Kimchi; see ( Job 22:2 Job 22:3 Job 35:7 Job 22:8 ) ; or the words may be rendered, "O my goodness", or "thou art my good, nothing is above thee" F14; no goodness in any superior to God. But they are the words of Christ, and to be understood of his goodness; not of his essential goodness as God, nor of his providential goodness, the same with his Father's; but of his special goodness, and the effect of it to his church and people; and denotes his love, grace, and good will towards them, shown in his incarnation, sufferings, and death; and the blessings of goodness which come thereby; such as a justifying righteousness, forgiveness of sin, peace, and reconciliation, redemption, salvation, and eternal life. Now though God is glorified by Christ in his incarnation, sufferings, and death, and in the work of man's redemption, yet he stood in no need of the obedience and sufferings of his Son; he could have glorified his justice another way, as he did in not sparing the angels that sinned, in drowning the old world, and in burning Sodom and Gomorrah, and in other instances of his vengeance; though there is glory to God in the highest in the affair of salvation by Christ, yet the good will is to men; though the debt of obedience and sufferings was paid to the justice of God, whereby that is satisfied and glorified, yet the kindness in paying the debt was not to God but to men, described in ( Psalms 16:8 ) .
F12 (Kyle lb ytbwj) "bonum meum non est supra te", Gejerus.
F13 "Bonum meum non est super te", Montanus, Cocceius.
F14 So Gussetius, p. 299.