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Psalm 16 · a question people ask

"As for the saints who are on the earth" (16:3). Who are they?

In the text

The psalm names them only this way: "they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight" (16:3). In Hebrew saints is qedoshim, from qadosh, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "sacred, holy", and excellent is addir, the majestic of "how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:1) (tap excellent). Just before, these words are said to the LORD: "You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing" (16:2). Just after comes another group: "Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips" (16:4). The Law has a command like it: "don’t invoke the name of other gods or even let them be heard out of your mouth" (Exodus 23:13). The psalm doesn't say more about who the saints are, or who the others are, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“My soul, you have said to the LORD, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.” As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips.”
Psalm 16:2-4 · World English Bible
“For the Chief Musician; on an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by David. LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens!”
Psalm 8:1 · World English Bible
““Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don’t invoke the name of other gods or even let them be heard out of your mouth.”
Exodus 23:13 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 16

Psalm 16: The path of life

Psalm 16 speaks of the LORD in the words of dividing the land: portion, lot, lines, inheritance (16:5-6). Its "I shall not be moved" (16:8) is, in Hebrew, the wicked man's words in Psalm 10:6, said here because the LORD is at his right hand. And Peter, pointing to David's tomb, says David "spoke about the resurrection of the Christ" (Acts 2:31).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions