Meditation: Psalm 16:11
“You make known to me the path of life;
Psalm 16:11 (NIV Version)
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
I came across this passage in my recent reading session. The phrases ‘joy in His presence and ‘eternal pleasures at His right hand’ were ones that I wanted to explore further as they stood out from the rest.
This Psalm was written by David, whose life was not exactly one that was smooth sailing and full of positive life experiences. His life had an enormous share of suffering and for him to use these phrases in his Psalm is of particular significance.
The general idea that we have about a successful, good or happy life is one that has no suffering or at the least one with little suffering. As I mentioned before, in David’s life, he had just about everything that we could list as low moments. He suffered the death of his children, his close friends turned on him, he was hunted as an outlaw for most of his life for doing absolutely nothing wrong, his own son usurped him and wanted him killed. And yet, he has written some of the most positive Psalms.
God was the only source of David’s positive outlook and that’s pretty much what he is saying in this verse. He gives God the credit for making the ‘path of life’ known to him, he credits His presence for providing him with Joy and that he mentions His right hand as the place of ‘eternal pleasures’. I particulary like this phrase ‘eternal pleasures’. It seems to suggest pleasures that are not momentary but eternal. I’m sure that everyone is actually seeking this kind of pleasure, but most people, sadly, never find it in their lives.
To me the gist of this verse is that the path to life and real happiness lies in God alone. We who do have a relationship with God sometimes forget this fact. David had these moments at times too. This comes back to the fact that we’re all humans living imperfect lives in an imperfect world. This certainly doesn’t imply that we should not strive for perfection. We should all hope to and strive to tap into God at all times, to attain these feelings and knowledge on a more constant basis. Here’s to ‘eternal pleasures at His right hand’!
