David Bahn – Reflections

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These reflections grow out of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Job 8-10; Psalm 16.

Psalm 16:5-11

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
⁶ The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.
⁸ I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.

¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Job – at this point in the story – would have a difficult time speaking the words of Psalm 16. That is not only because of his suffering, but also because Job lived long before the psalms of David were written. He could not yet say, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” Those words would ring hollow in his ears.

Job is in dire straits. By God’s permission, he has lost his property, his children, and now even his health. The limits God has set for Satan still leave ample room for affliction. His wife urges him to curse God and die. His friends are convinced that he must have committed some great sin to deserve such calamity.

Psalm 16 stands in stark contrast to Job’s lament. David praises God for the blessings he is experiencing and acknowledges God’s goodness, faithfulness, and love at that moment in his life.

Most biblical scholars believe this psalm was written early in David’s life – when he was vulnerable and dependent, not yet secure in power, and consciously choosing trust in the Lord over alternative forms of protection.

David says, “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup… The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (vv. 5–6). This is striking because David has no land, no throne, and no inheritance – except God’s promise. Yet he praises God in faith.

David will one day face great trouble. He will fall into grave sin. The lines will not always fall for him in pleasant places. In that way, he is like Job. And like Job, David will at times rail against God. But God remains the center of their lives. Neither of them defines his “portion” apart from the Lord.

Job could not yet say the words of Psalm 16. David could say them – but only for a season. Ultimately, those words belong fully to one man alone: Jesus Christ. Only he could say without qualification that the lines fell for him according to the Father’s will. Only he could trust the Lord as his portion all the way through suffering, death, and the grave. And because he was not abandoned to the tomb, we now learn to speak words of trust – sometimes through tears – knowing that our lines, however painful they may seem now, are held in the hands of a faithful God.