Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Wednesday, May 22, 2013 Read – Psalm 16 Psalm 16 is a lament spoken by a person who knows the difficulty of attempting to remain faithful in the midst of an unfaithful people. It is a call for all people to let the Lord be their chosen portion. Like most laments Psalm 16 gives way to praise of God. The psalmist’s praise is centered around the experience that God has rescued the psalmist from death – “for you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit” (Psalm 16:10). The translation that Luke used was known as the Septuagint – a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. In the process of translation the Hebrew images give way to Greek images. “Sheol” becomes “Hades” – both are the place of the dead. And, more significantly the “Pit” becomes “corruption” since the Pit was the place where decay would occur. The Psalm works well for Luke. Jesus’ body was dead – but it did not remain entombed long enough to decay. So, God’s vindication of Jesus in the resurrection fulfills the Psalm literally! It is unlikely that the original psalmist meant it exactly that way – his song of thanksgiving and praise is that God spared him from death itself. But that does not matter to Luke – he can use the Psalm to point out first of all that the psalmist could not be talking about himself – especially if the psalmist was David since David’s tomb was available for all to see. The psalmist, David, certainly meant someone else – for Luke that someone is Jesus, the Messiah. Old words take on new meaning. We might quibble about seeing something in a Psalm that its original writer may not have meant. For Luke, the words of the Psalm could take on this new meaning and help in the proclamation of Jesus the one God has made Lord and Messiah.