God’s Word for You
Psalm 16:7-8 I bless the Lord
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, April 4, 2026
7 I bless the LORD who guides me.
At night my heart instructs me.
Christ our Lord prays: “I bless the Lord… my heart instructs me at night.” The second line implies that the guidance of the Lord takes place all the time; even at night his holy Word lives in the mind. The Hebrew ‘aph (אַף) “even, indeed” implies that this is something unexpected or surprising. We see this word in the temptation account, when the serpent says to the woman, “Did God ‘indeed’ say…?” (Genesis 3:1). And again, when wicked Haman boasts, “I am ‘indeed’ the only person Queen Esther invited…” (Esther 5:12). Here the word shows that the Lord’s guidance is not only present in the daytime or when Jesus is awake, but “indeed, even” when he is asleep. He says that it is “my heart” that instructs, or more literally, “my kidneys,” which were considered the seat of a person’s moral character (Psalm 26:2). We say “heart” because that is our way of speaking in English.
Certainly Jesus had the Word of God constantly in his heart. We see an example of this in the account of his temptation. When attacked by the devil’s words, he countered with passages from Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:16 and 6:13, which shows or at least suggests that he was meditating on those parts of the Scripture either that day or the day before. And this was without a text: he was remembering the text and quoting it from memory.
The Lord says that he blesses the Lord, which here means to proclaim the heavenly Father as worthy of praise. This should be our response to God’s goodness, his protection, love, mercy, and all of his other good blessings. When he was preaching, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven” (Luke 6:22-23). And who was more hated, more excluded, more insulted, more rejected than Jesus Christ? But there is no greater reward in heaven than the reward Christ has been given by his heavenly Father, for he is seated at the Father’s right hand (Mark 16:19).
8 I have set the LORD always before me;
since he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Christ prays, “I have set the Lord always before me; he is at my right hand, and I will not be shaken.” Here is a unique statement, for although the heavenly Father invites his Son Jesus to sit at his right hand (Psalm 110:1; Hebrews 1:13), here the Son says that the Father is always at his right hand. How could it be any different? I know of a man who loved his father so much that when it was time for him to get married, he asked both his only brother and his father to stand with him as his groomsmen, and his only hard choice was which one to ask to be his best man. Would that we all were as close to our heavenly Father! In fact, this should answer the impertinent question of the mother of James and John, who wanted Jesus to let one of her boys sit at his right and the other at his left in his kingdom. Rather, each one of us who loves and believes in Jesus should place him at our own right hand, so that he is our constant companion, or daily guide and our nightly instructor.
Here is Christ in his suffering, especially in Gethsemane, praying to his Father to protect him and to remain with him at all times in the ordeal ahead. Since Acts 2 and Acts 13 show that this Psalm is about Christ, we correctly apply all of the verses to him, especially here in the second part of the Psalm. But since Christ fulfilled all of this, we can take the words to heart and make them our own, as well. “This Psalm comforts us as death approaches. Through restless nights we calm our troubled hearts with the counsel of God’s Word.”
Of course, these verses also point out terrible sins. What is the opposite of having the Word of God in our hearts at night? Isn’t it when men plot evil in their beds (Micah 2:1)? But for all who repent, who turn away from their sins in faith, our Savior Jesus offers and gives forgiveness. Trust in him, every sinner, everyone, and he will bring you home to be with him in heaven forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.