In Acts 2, Peter quotes Psalm 16 and refers to Jesus, that God would not abandon him to the grave nor allow his body to decompose. He observes that David could not have been talking about himself because David was still in the grave. Jesus on the other hand, was not.
Strictly speaking, the Psalm could only be speaking of Jesus.
And yet, the Psalm speaks of the hope we all have, that the grave will not be the end.
Who can have this hope?
Certainly those who make it their aim to adopt the mindset of the writer who asserts:
* his relationship with God is the most important thing in the world to him (vs. 1). He has placed God in a position of honor, at his right hand (vs. 8).
* God is the guide of his life.
* all his blessings are delightful and God is the source of all of them.
* he has nothing to fear. God is protecting him.
* even in death, he has the joy of knowing he will awake in God’s presence and God will fill him with eternal pleasures.
Perhaps most important of all in this Psalm is the trading of places. Because the psalmist places God at the place of prominence (his right hand), God will, in turn, place the psalmist at God’s right hand.
Thinking like the psalmist is the key to acting like the psalmist, and eventually, experiencing the security of the psalmist in this life, and the one to come.