A text this morning is found
in the psalm that we read, Psalm 16 and verses 9 and 10. Psalm 16 verses 9 and 10, Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall
rest in hope, for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption." Parts of
a psalm that bears the title, Mictam of David, and we're told
in the margin what that Hebrew word Mictam means. It means a golden psalm, the
golden psalm of David, and surely one particular reason why this
is golden is because it is messianic. It's a psalm that speaks to us
quite specifically of the Lord Jesus and there's no disputing
of that fact. We have the authority of the
Apostles, the authority of the New Testament Scriptures because
we find both Peter and Paul in the course of their ministry
making reference to this psalm. In that great sermon that Peter
preaches on the day of Pentecost, we find him making reference
to the words that we've just read in Acts chapter 2, verse
25. David speaketh concerning him,
says Peter. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh shall
rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life, thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, says Peter,
let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that
he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto
this day, therefore being a prophet. And knowing that God hath sworn
with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.
He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see
corruption. Peter then plainly unfolds the
significance of the words of our text and says that they have
their fulfillment, their accomplished in Christ, in his burial, and
Christ also in his resurrection from the dead. And then again,
in that portion that we were reading in the 13th chapter of
the Acts, we find Paul also there in the sermon that's recorded,
the sermon that he preached at Antioch in Pisidia. Verse 35,
he says, He, that is David, saith also
in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was
laid unto his father's hand, saw corruption. But he whom God
raised again saw no corruption." Oh, this golden psalm, it speaks
to us of that blessed truth concerning Christ, who saw no corruption,
though laid in the grave. He rose again on the third day. And so, here at the end of verse
9, Christ, through David, says, My flesh also shall rest in hope. This is Christ in the grave,
my flesh also shall rest in hope. And that's the theme that I want
us to consider this morning, Christ's preservation in the
grave, how that he was glorious, laid in the grave, and then of
course he was victorious over the grave, and that's the twofold
division that I want us to follow as we look at the words of our
text. What does he say here at the
beginning of verse 9? Therefore my heart is glad and
my glory rejoices. And it is said that by the word
glory we ought to think in terms of his tongue. His heart is glad,
his tongue is rejoicing. If you turn to other Psalms you'll
see it in Psalm 30 and verse 12. It says to the end that my
glory may sing praise to Thee and not be silent. And the margin
says that my glory is a reference to my tongue. My tongue may sing
and we find it in several of the Psalms. Again in Psalm 57
and verse 8. Awake up my glory or my tongue
awake sultry and harp, I myself will awake early." And then one
other reference in the Psalms, in the opening verse of Psalm
108, we see the word glory again clearly as reference to the tongue. Oh God, my heart is fixed, I
will sing and give praise even with my glory. And so coming
back to these words in the 16th Psalm, Therefore my heart is
glad, and my glory rejoiceth. But if you look at the marginal
references in some of those other verses we just made reference
to in Psalm 30 and verse 12 and Psalm 57 and verse 8, Besides suggesting that glory
refers to the tongue, it also says it may refer to the soul. And so here in this ninth verse,
my heart is glad, my Soul rejoices. The statements can be said to
be parallel statements. Speaking of the same thing, heart
then answers to the soul, the inward part. This is man's glory,
is it not? That man was made a living soul,
it is that that distinguishes man from the brute beast. But
how there is here seen to be great rejoicing, and rejoicing
at what? that the Lord God was pleased
to preserve the Lord Jesus Christ from all corruption. He saw no
corruption. He was laid in the grave. And how was he laid in the grave
with that sure and that certain hope? As we see again here in
the margin at the end of verse 9, my flesh also shall confidently
dwell in hope. That's the force of the word
that we have that is rendered rest in the text. To dwell confidently. Oh here we see then the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as I said before, one of
the great beauties, of course, of the Book of Psalms is the
way in which it speaks to us of those inward experiences of
the Lord Jesus as the veil is drawn aside and we are favoured
to look into that human soul. There is Christ as He comes to
the end of that great work, as He comes and finishes that task
that was committed to his charge in the eternal covenant and he
rests he rests in blessed hope therefore my heart is glad my
glory, my tongue, my soul rejoices my flesh also shall rest in hope. Well, as I said, we will follow
this twofold division and first of all to consider something
about the Lord Jesus Christ was so glorious even when he was
laid in the grave. He died that most ignominious
death really. He was crucified. It was a cruel
act of execution, was it not? That Romish way of dealing with
those who were guilty of horrible crimes. And yet, the Lord Jesus
Christ is glorious even as He submits to all the humiliation
of that cruel death of the cross. My flesh also, He says, shall
rest in hope. Remember how after His death
we're told of Joseph of Arimathea coming and begging the body of
the Lord, and how together with With Nicodemus that body is prepared
and then laid in the grave. The end of John chapter 19, then
took they the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with
the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bear it. And in the
place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the
garden a new sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid, there
laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day
for the sepulcher was nigh at hand." Here we see them attending
to that physical body of the Lord Jesus. It's evident, is
it not, that this was no phantom spirit, that Christ's human nature
was real. they attend to his body, they
prepare it for laying in the sepulchre. And it's John of course
there in the gospel who records that particular detail. It's
John who in his first general epistles who faithfully sets
forth the truth of the reality of the Lord's humanity the very
opening verse of that epistle John says that which was from
the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes
which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the
word of life John surely is making a point against those various
strange heretics that were beginning to manifest themselves as Gnostics
amongst others who denied the truth of the Lord's human nature. John goes on to say every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God
and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist. how John's language is so strong
against those heresies, those who would deny the truth of the
Lord's humanity. And it's not just John, it's
also true, is it not, with regards to the other apostles, Paul speaks
the same. They all speak really with one
voice. And writing, therefore, there
in Hebrews chapter 2, we see how the Apostle Paul asserts
that blessed truth of Christ's humanity. For as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy
him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage." We read there of those who were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. How solemn a thing it is, the
article of death. How it is that so often torments
men. They don't like the thought of
it. death, funeral. These are serious and solemn
and sorrowful occasions. And it's not surprising really
that men don't like to face up to that awful truth. What is
death? It's a reminder of sin. There would of course be no death
if there were no sin. And so Men don't like to be reminded
of that. They, in many ways, want to make
a life thing, even of dying. And you see death notices so
often in the newspapers. They don't want any black. They
don't want anything that's too solemn. Wear bright colors. It's going to be a celebration
of someone's life. There's no real recognition that
after death there comes the judgment. It's true that Abraham When he
obtains from the sons of Heth a place to bury his dead, he
wants to bury the dead out of his sight. Give me, he says,
a possession of a burying place that I may bury my dead out of
my sight. Oh, he was so much aware of the
great patriarch, so much aware of what death was. But now he
faces up to it. The men today don't want to face
up to these things. It is, of course, there at death,
there is that separation, the separation of the soul from the
body. And when a person has died, we
do refer to their mortal remains in an impersonal way. We speak of the body, the person
is gone. the soul has departed, or there
is that separation, and we're reminded of it here in the words
of the psalmists. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, he says, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption. What are we to make of this word,
hell? Well, the Hebrew word that's
used here is the word shahol. and it simply means the realm
of the dead. It's not specifically a reference
to hell where the spirits of the damned are sent, but it simply
refers to the truth of dying, the realm of the dead. When the
person dies, there is a separation. The Soul is no more in the body. The soul has now departed. And it is clear from the biblical
account that we have of man's creation that God made man body
and soul. And clearly therefore body and
soul are intended to be together, to be united. How the Lord God
formed man of the dust of the earth, we're told, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul. How sin then is that that has
come as an awful intruder. At death there is that separation,
the body. having the soul torn from it. It's part of that curse that
came because of man's fall, because of man's disobedience to the
commandment of God. We have the account, as you know,
the historic account in the third chapter of the book of Genesis.
And what does God say to the man? He speaks to the various
parties that are involved. He speaks to the woman. He speaks to the serpent. He speaks to the man. In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to
the earth. For dust thou art, and out of
dust shalt thou return. Man was made of the dust of the
earth. And so, man is returned to that from whence he was taken. Again, in the book of Ecclesiastes,
the book of the preaching. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 7,
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the
Spirit to God who gave it. There is the separation. the
spirit, the soul, separated from the body. The body returning
to the earth and the spirit going to God who guided the realm of
the dead. Again in chapter 3 and verse
20 of Ecclesiastes, all are of the dust and all turn to dust
again. Now, when we read of the dust,
and we are reminded, are we not, of that association between sin
and the place of corruption. The body sees corruption. The
body returns to its original states. This is what happens
when the body is laid in the grave. There's a very striking
verse in the book of Job. In Job chapter 24 and verse 19
it says, "...drought and heat concern the snow waters, so does
the grave those which have sinned." How the grave consumes those
which have sinned. How the body returns to its elemental state. In some ways it's the reason
why people in general today prefer cremation, it's so much quicker,
it's so much cleaner, it's much more clinical. But of course
the roots of cremation are not Christian, they're not associated
with Judeo-Christianity, when we come to read the Old and the
New Testament, we see what the practice was. It was burial and
not cremation. In fact, the origins of cremation
are quite pagan. But men prefer that, you see.
It's so much cleaner, much more critical. But what a precious
truth is set before us here concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Though
He experienced His death, and he really and truly dies upon
the cross, yet his body sees no corruption at all. This is the statement that we
have here in this particular verse. It's so clear. Neither
wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Luther says here, Christ's flesh
should not return to dust, but should, in peace, die with the
fullest expectation. And what was that expectation?
It is that hope that is spoken of in verse 9, My flesh also
shall rest in hope. Or there will be the resurrection.
The Lord Jesus Christ is glorious even as He lies there in the
grave, having experienced death, having offered up himself, having
given his soul, as it were, as the great sacrifice. Remember
how when he comes to the end of his sufferings, that's the
language that he uses. Into thy hands I commit my spirit,
he says. And so he yields up his soul.
He gives himself, he dies. And yet he dies with that great
expectation, that blessed hope of the resurrection. And so,
how that body of the Lord Jesus Christ is so carefully preserved. It must be preserved free from
every taint of corruption there in the grave. He is laid in a
new tomb. A tomb that had never housed
any dead body. And that point is made quite
specifically in the account of the various evangelists in the
Gospels, in Luke chapter 23. And there, at the end of the
chapter, we're told, verse 50, Behold, there was a certain man
named Joseph, a counselor, and he was a good man and a just,
the Simon not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He
was of Arimathea, the city of the Jews, who also himself waited
for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and
begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped
it in linen, and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein
never man before was laid. Now we have to take account time
and again of the detail of these things. It was a new tomb. It had never seen anything of
corruption. It had never seen a dead body
before. It was not a place associated
in any way with corruption. This is to ensure, you see, that
Christ's body is being preserved. And then we're told, are we not,
this man rolls a great stone to the door of the sepulchre
so that no one is able to tamper with that body that had been
laid in it. Not only is the stone rolled
to the door but we see how that the stone was actually sealed.
We are told about the high priest and the Pharisees, they come
to Pontius Pilate and they speak of how the disciples will come
and steal away the body of the Lord and they want Pilate to
attend to these things to prevent such a thing from taking place
in Matthew chapter 27 verse 62 now we read the next
day that followed the day of the preparation the chief priests
and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying sir we remember
that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, after three
days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre
be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come
by night and steal him away, and say unto the people he is
risen from the dead, so the last hour shall be worse than the
first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch, go your way,
make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulchre
sure. sealing the stone and setting
a watch. All the stone had been rolled
against the entrance by Joseph and Nicodemus, but now these
Jews come and they want to make it all together secure. So they seal the stone and they
set a watch. And it's not only watched over
by those appointed by the Jews, but we also know that there were
angels, angels who kept watch over the Lord's body, because
when on the morn of the resurrection Mary and then Peter and John
arrive at the empty sepulchre, they see angels, do they not?
One at the head and one at the foot where the body lay. The
angels had kept watch over the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how He
is glorious, even in all the humiliation of His dying, how
He is preserved, free from every corruption there in the tomb. And all of this, of course, is
the way whereby the Lord Jesus sees himself consecrating the
grave for his people, consecrating the grave for those who are believers. The hymn says, Jesus who came
to save, the lamp the sinner slain, perfumed the chambers
of the grave and made in death again. Oh, the Lord Jesus, He
ministers to His people, you see, at every turn, at every
experience of our human life, the Lord is there. He is glorious,
I say. Even lying there in the grave,
He sees no corruption. And then, in the second place,
we see Him as that one who is even victorious over the grave. He's victorious over the grave.
Thou wilt not leave my soul, he says. Thou wilt not leave
my soul in hell, in Sheol, in the place of the
dead. Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine
Holy One to see corruption. The Scripture must all be fulfilled.
As we said at the outset, this psalm is messianic, It's a prophetic
psalm. It's a psalm of David, yes, and
David is, in many ways, speaking out of his own experiences, as
he does in all the psalms. And yet, David is speaking of
things far greater than himself. He is speaking of his greatest
psalm. And the psalm has, with regards
to every other prophetic scripture, It must be fulfilled. And it
is fulfilled. It's fulfilled in Christ. When Paul writes in that 15th chapter,
that great chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, he
speaks of Christ as that one who comes to fulfill the Scriptures. Look at the language that we
have there. in the opening part of that chapter. And what Paul says here is that
really he is declaring the Gospel. I declare unto you the Gospel,
he says, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received,
and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. What a tremendous
statement we have at the opening part of that chapter. But then
he says this concerning Christ, "...he died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures." Everything
about the Lord Jesus is in accordance with those things that are written
in the Word of God. Did He not say to the Jews, Himself
serves the Scriptures? These are they that testify of
Me. His death is in accordance with
the Scriptures. He's burial. And He's rising
again from the dead. It's all in accordance with the
Scriptures. He is that One who has come to
fulfill all righteousness. He has come to fulfill all those
things that were written concerning Him. Now when in the exercise
of His ministry, in the course of His earthly ministry, we see
the Lord Jesus performing miracles, and amongst those miracles, raising
the dead to life again, we're told in John chapter 11 how he
raises from the dead his friend Lazarus when Christ there in John 11
commands that they take away the stone from that tomb of Lazarus
we have the response of Lazarus' sister Martha she says Lord by
this time he stinketh for he hath been dead, four days. Hot climate there in the Middle
East of course, and he'd been lying there in the grave for
that period of four days and she was aware by now, in spite
of the Jewish manner, the careful way in which they would prepare
the body for burial, in spite of all that she was aware that
corruption would already have begun to take place. He has been
dead four days. But what do we read concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ? He rises again on the third day. He is one who saw no corruption. He conquered sin. He conquered
death. He conquered the grave. And the
Lord Jesus is that one who is vindicated. as the father raises
him to life again. Coming to the end of that 15th
chapter of John, we made reference to the opening part. When we
come to the end, all remember that great song of triumph really
that we find the Apostle uttering, O death where is thy sting? O
grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Or the Lord is
risen, and the Lord is risen indeed. He is not only glorious
as we see Him lying there in the grave, but when we see Him
as that One who rises again from the dead, He triumphs over the
grave and all that the grave speaks of. the awful curse that
has come because of sin he has vanquished all these things the
Lord is risen the Lord is risen indeed they say and so we observe
of course this day this first day of the week as our Sabbath
day we call it the Lord's day in remembrance of him who rose
again on that day because we think of a greater work that
God has accomplished even than the wondrous work of creation.
All God did make all things out of nothing. All through faith
we understand how that God simply spoke and by that fear brought
creation itself into being, but in his wisdom He was pleased
to do it over a period of six days, and then he rests on the
seventh day, having finished all that work, and sanctifies
the day, and we see it established there in Genesis chapter 2 as
a creation ordinance. It's a creation ordinance, it
doesn't just belong to the Jews, because it's part of their Ten
Commandments, it's what God has given to His creatures. But now
under the Gospel, the Christian does not observe the Jewish Sabbath
day, we observe this day because we remember that greater work
that Christ accomplished when He offered up Himself, when He
died, when He lay in the tomb, when He rose again on the third
day. All He has now finished, all
that work that the Father had given Him to do, we keep then
the Christian Sabbath. But what glorious work is this? Death is such a dreadful thing. As we said, it is a solemn reminder
of the awfulness of man's rebellion, man's sin. And when we come to
experience death, really, there is that sense in which we die
alone. Well, we trust the Lord will be there for the day of
our departing out of this world. But we die alone, others of our
Family and our friends, they don't die with us. We have to
face that dreadful monster alone. It is appointed unto men once
to die, it says. And after the judgment. No wonder, as we've seen there
in Hebrews 2, 15, there are some who through fear of death through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. But the great thing is that the
Lord Jesus Christ is able to empathize with his people. Oh,
it is such a comfort, is it not, that the Lord has known all these
experiences. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
experienced what it is to die, experienced what it is to lie
in the tomb We have not a high priest, you
see, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. What a tremendous thing it is
that he is able to sympathize with his people. And as we've said so many times
with regards to that statement of the Apostle in Hebrews 4 and
verse 15, the double negative lends such an emphasis upon the
truth of what is being declared. He doesn't say we have an high
priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities. No, the language
is more emphatic than that. We have those two negatives which
make such a positive. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities why Paul is
saying he is most definitely touched he feels for us he has
experienced our human frailty no sinful infirmity in him he
is that one who is altogether without any sin and yet he knows
our human condition and as a man he He experienced what it was
for body and soul to be separated one from the other. And yet he
says, My heart is glad, my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall
rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. How he can minister then to his
people. He is that one who was triumphed at one who has proved
to be victorious in rising again from the dead and we're told
again in that great 15th chapter in 1st Corinthians Paul says
the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Why he has
triumphed over sin He has triumphed over the law, which is the strength
of sin. He has triumphed over the drive,
which is the curse of sin. And the last enemy that shall
be destroyed, of course, is death itself. Death, says Paul, is
swallowed up in victory. And how is that? It's in the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said in that 15th chapter,
Paul is speaking so clearly of the Gospel. That's how he opens the chapter.
He reminds them of the message that he had been proclaiming
and preaching. And he says this, if Christ be not risen, then
is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain.
Ye are yet in your sin. If Christ is not risen, what's
the point, what's the purpose of all the preaching of the Apostle?
If Christ is not risen, what is the point or purpose of any
faith in the Lord Jesus? If Christ is not risen, ye are
yet in your sin. The Psalm that we have before
us here, Psalm 16, is a Messianic Psalm. It's a prophecy of the
Lord Jesus Christ but it is also, as we said, David's experience. It's an experimental psalm, as
all the psalms are experimental. David and all the psalmists,
they speak out of the fullness of their own souls, the Lord's
dealings with them. And David here addresses his
prayer unto God, preserve me O God, For in thee do I put my
trust. Here is one who comes to God
in faith. It's the prayer of faith, is
it not? And here we have not only faith
but also hope. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
he says here. Therefore my heart is glad, my
glory, my tongue, my soul rejoices. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy at thy right hand. There are pleasures for evermore.
why David is so bound up in Christ that Christ is that one who is
David's holiness and he can speak of himself as the holy one, every
believer can do that if we're those whose confidence, whose
trust, whose faith is all together in Christ, we're one with it The psalm is full of comfort,
is it not, to those who know Christ, whose faith and whose
hope is in Him. Sin is not going to have dominion.
Nor can sin's curse have any dominion. Christ was delivered
for our offenses, says Paul. Christ was raised again for our
justification. And so here we see the believers.
hope and that hope why it centers of course only in the Lord Jesus
Christ there is no separation can be made between Christ and
his people there might be that separation that comes at the
end of our mortal life when the soul departs from the body but
there is never any separation from the Lord Jesus Christ he
goes with his people into death into the grave through the grave, and ultimately, of course, in that general resurrection
at the end of time, of which the Lord Jesus Christ, as we
read again in 1 Corinthians 15, is but the firstfruits, the guarantee
of that glorious full harvest that is yet to bear. Here we
see then again something of the wonder of that great work that
Christ accomplished. Yes, the work, of course, is
completed, it's finished when he makes the one sacrifice for
sins forever. But now he is constantly ministering
to his people. And he ministers to his people
even as he descends into the grave and rises again from the
dead and descends on high. For the Lord then be pleased
to comfort us with these scenes for his name's sake. Amen. In closing we say the number
487 and the tune is in Diademata number 77. and hope and joy succeed. The
great good news is gladness here. The Lord is with you.