they (only used when emphatic) · personal pronoun, 3rd person masculine plural
earth
בָּאָ֣רֶץba.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
excellent
וְ֝אַדִּירֵ֗יve.'a.di.Rei
H117
wide or (generally) large · conjunction + adjective, masculine plural construct
delight
חֶפְצִיchef.tzi-
H2656
pleasure · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Proverbs 12:26 The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the s…
2 Chronicles 6:41 Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with sal…
Malachi 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son t…
Acts 9:13 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
Psalms 30:4 Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Psalms 101:6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 16:1-7
This psalm is entitled Michtam, which some translate a golden psalm, a very precious one, more to be valued by us than gold, yea, than much fine gold, because it speaks so plainly of Christ and his resurrection, who is the true treasure hidden in the field of the Old Testament.
I. David here flies to God's protection with a cheerful believing confidence in it (Psa 16:1): "Preserve me, O God! from the deaths, and especially from the sins, to which I am continually exposed; for in thee, and in thee only, do I put my trust." Those that by faith commit themselves to the divine care, and submit themselves to the divine guidance, have reason to hope for the benefit of both. This is applicable to C…
saints--or, persons consecrated to God, set apart from others to His service.
in the earth--that is, land of Palestine, the residence of God's chosen people--figuratively for the Church.
excellent--or, "nobles," distinguished for moral excellence.
John Gill on Psalms 16:3
But to the saints that are in the earth,.... Who are sanctified or set apart by God the Father in election; whose sins are expiated by the blood of Christ in redemption, and who are sanctified or made holy by the Spirit of God in the effectual calling; and who live a holy life and conversation: these are said to be "in the earth", not to distinguish them from the saints in heaven, to whom the goodness of Christ extends as to them, unless it be to distinguish them from the angels in heaven, who are called saints, Deuteronomy 33:2; as Aben Ezra observes; but to point out the place of their abode, scattered up and down in the earth; and to show that love, grace, goodness, and kindness of Christ…
Psalm 16:2-3
2. Thou shalt say unto Jehovah, Thou art my Lord, my well-doing extendeth not unto thee. 3. Unto the saints who are on the earth, and to the excellent; all my delight is in them.
2. Thou shalt say unto Jehovah. David begins by stating that he can bestow nothing upon God, not only because God stands in no need of any thing, but also because mortal man cannot merit the favor of God by any service which he can perform to him. At the same time, however, he takes courage, and, as God accepts our devotion, and the service which we yield to him, David protests that he will be one of his servants. To encourage himself the more effectually to this duty he speaks to his own soul; for th…
The Church Fathers
"To the saints who are on His earth" [Psalm 16:3]: to the saints who have placed their hope in the land of the living, the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose spiritual conversation is, by the anchor of hope, fixed in that country, which is rightly called God's earth; although as yet in this earth too they be conversant in the flesh. "He has wonderfully fulfilled all My wishes in them." To those saints then He has wonderfully fulfilled all My wishes in their advancement, whereby they have perceived, how both the humanity of My divinity has profited them that I might die, and the divinity of the humanity that I might rise again.
To the saints who are in his land, he made all his wishes wonderful in them. In place of which it is written in the Hebrew: "To the saints who are in the land, and to my exalted ones, is all my will in them." These goods of which you have no need, O Father, my saints do need—the saints in whom I have made all my wishes to be wonderful. But I made my wishes wonderful not outside them, but in them: so that, while each one is corrected, and understands both who he was before and who he has now begun to be, my wonderful wishes may be brought about in them; yet only if, going out from Egypt and crossing the desert, they are able to enter the land of promise, which land is the beginning of the land of the living. Nor is this at once contrary to it—that wonders are said to be done only in the land of God—namely that in the field of Tanis, that is, in Egypt, wonders were done. For there is a great distance between the wonders done by Moses and those done by Jesus. There one flees from Egypt, here one enters into Judea; there lord Pharaoh is avoided, here those who are to serve are taken captive; there frogs and gnats and soot and hail and darkness are employed among the wonders, here command is given to the sun and to the moon; there God goes before the people in a pillar of cloud and of fire, here the Savior himself comes to meet them holding a sword and declaring that he will fight for his army. Do you see how the wonders that were in the land of promise are greater than those done in Egypt or in the desert? But we may understand the land of God as the Church, since to the saints who are in the Church all the wishes of God seem to be wonderful; for to those who are outside the Church nothing seems wonderful which by its own nature is wondrous. Let us therefore be in the land of God, and let us be transformed into the image of the Savior, and he will make all his wishes wonderful in us.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Michtam — Writing; i.e., a poem or song found in the titles of Ps. 16; 56-60. Some translate the word “golden”, i.e., precious. It is rendered in the LXX. by a word meaning “tablet inscription” or a…
Resurrection of Christ — One of the cardinal facts and doctrines of the gospel. If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain (1 Cor. 15:14). The whole of the New Testament revelation rests on this as an historical fact. On the…
Saint — One separated from the world and consecrated to God; one holy by profession and by covenant; a believer in Christ (Ps. 16:3; Rom. 1:7; 8:27; Phil. 1:1; Heb. 6:10). The “saints” spoken of in Jude 1:14…
Affections · Should be set upon the people of God — Should be set upon the people of God
Affections, The · Should be set: Upon the people of God — Should be set: Upon the people of God
Communion Of Saints · Delight of — Delight of
Righteousness · They who walk in, and follow: Are the excellent of the earth — They who walk in, and follow: Are the excellent of the earth
Titles And Names Of Saints · Excellent, The — Excellent, The
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The Psalm begins with a prayer that is based upon faith, the special meaning of which becomes clear from Psa 16:10 : May God preserve him (which He is able to do as being אל, the Almighty, able to do all things), who has no other refuge in which he has hidden and will hide but Him. This short introit is excepted from the parallelism; so far therefore it is monostichic, - a sigh expressing everything in few words. And the emphatic pronunciation שׁמרני shāmereni harmonises with it; for it is to be read thus, just as in Psa 86:2; Psa 119:167 shāmerah (cf. on Isa 38:14 עשׁקה), according to the express testimony of the Masora.
(Note: The Masora observes גרשין בספרא ב, i.e., twice in the Psalter…
I said to the Lord: The various writers of the psalms pray, lament, and praise the Lord throughout the Psalter, and the Lord answers them (see 12:5-6).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 16:3
But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
"But to the saints that are in the earth." These sanctified ones, although still upon the earth, partake of the results of Jesus' mediatorial work, and by his goodness are made what they are. The peculiar people, zealous for good works, and hallowed to sacred service, are arrayed in the Saviour's righteousness and washed in his blood, and so receive of the goodness treasured up in him; these are the persons who are profited by the work of the man Christ Jesus; but that work added nothing to the nature, virtue, or happiness of God, who is blessed for evermore. How much more forcibly is this true of us,…
