David and resurrection.

Psalm 16.8-11.

One of the better-known Old Testament references to resurrection comes from a מִכְתָּ֥ם/mikhtám, a type of psalm, which King David ben Jesse wrote in the 11th century BC. Since psalms are poetry, it’s entirely possible David meant this metaphorically—that the LORD’d rescue him as if he were dead and gone and had to be brought back to life. But when Simon Peter quoted this verse in Acts 2, he certainly didn’t understand it this way. He was entirely sure David, a prophet inspired by the Holy Spirit, was actually talking about resurrection. Specifically the resurrection of David’s final successor, Christ Jesus.

In the mikhtám, David switches back and forth between referring to the LORD in third person (“the LORD, who hath given me counsel,” v7), and speaking directly to the LORD in second person (“thou maintainest my lot,” v5). This passage starts in the third person, then moves to second.

Psalm 16.10 KWL

8I always place the LORD in front of me

so he is at my right hand.

I will not shake.

9Therefore my heart is happy.

My honor rejoices; my flesh lives in faith.

10For you¹ will not leave my lifeforce in the afterlife.

You¹ will not leave your¹ loved one to see ruin.

11You¹ will show me the road to life.

I have complete joy in your¹ presence.

It is always pleasant at your¹ right hand.

People nowadays think of one’s “right hand,” or “right-hand man,” as a trusted subordinate position. That’s not how the ancients imagined it. Your right-hand person was a friend. So when the LORD’s at David’s right hand in v8, then David’s at the LORD’s in v11, it means they’re friends. Certainly not that the LORD is David’s subordinate!

More folks are familiar with the KJV’s version of verse 10: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” Ps 16.10 KJV Of course this gives ’em the wrong idea. “Hell” is not an appropriate translation of שְׁא֑וֹל/šeól, meaning “grave” or “afterlife.” This isn’t necessarily a place of torment or punishment, as you’d imagine when you read the word “hell” or even “hades.” Properly it’s the afterlife—the place our ghosts go once we die. Not to dwell forever, but to await resurrection and judgment. I refer you to Jesus’s Dives and Lazarus Story, and what very few details of the afterlife we can glean from it.

“Holy One” is likewise not an appropriate translation of חֲ֝סִידְ/kheçíd, “loving one” or “loved one.” It’s based on the word חֶסֶד/kheçéd, “love,” or sometimes “lovingkindness” or “covenantal love,” depending on the translation. It’s the Old Testament equivalent of ἀγάπη/aghápi, “charitable love,” the love Paul and Sosthenes defined in 1 Corinthians 13, and the love God is. This describes a person who loves God in the very same way God loves us—patiently, kindly, self-denyingly. Okay yeah, this kind of love would make such a person holy, but it’s still not an appropriate translation. So why does the KJV go with it? Because tradition. The Septuagint translated kheçíd as ὅσιόν/ósión, “holy one,” and the Vulgate as sanctum, “holy one”—and John Wycliffe started the whole English-language bible tradition by translating the Vulgate. “Holy one” has leaked into our bibles from there.

Anyway since Simon Peter’s first sermon was to people from all over the Roman Empire and beyond, Ac 2.8-11 he no doubt preached it in Greek, and quoted the Greek bible translation they’d all know—the Septuagint.

Acts 2.25-28 KWL

25For David says of Jesus,

‘I’ve always foreseen the Lord before me,

for he’s at my right hand,

so I might not be shaken.

26This is why my heart is cheered up

and my tongue rejoices

and my body will still live in hope.

27For you¹ won’t leave my lifeforce behind in the afterlife,

nor leave your¹ holy one to see decay.

28You¹ made your¹ living road known to me,

and you’ll¹ fill me with happiness with your¹ presence.’ ” Ps 16.8-11

David, Peter pointed out, was a prophet—and by that time David’d been dead a thousand years, so obviously it wasn’t he who was the “holy one” whose corpse had never seen decay. So he must’ve been talking about someone else—obviously Jesus, who hadn’t remained dead long enough to decay. Ac 2.29-31

Jesus’s resurrection, and ours.

Simon Peter’s interpretation of this passage has become the official Christian interpretation of this passage: David must’ve been talking about Jesus’s resurrection, not his own. David wasn’t talking about resurrection for himself, but for his descendant, who’d be Messiah, king of Israel, forever.

And I would argue David could totally have been thinking about himself, and his own resurrection. It’s just the Holy Spirit who inspired David to write psalms, had different ideas. This passage describes Jesus way better than it does David. Like Peter implied, David was long dead, and had obviously experienced διαφθοράν/diafthorán, “decay, rot, corruption.” He was bones and dust by then. Psalm 16.10 doesn’t accurately describe David. Metaphorically, maybe—like Jesus said, every long-gone saint is still alive to God, who doesn’t see rot and decay when he looks at us. The timeline of your entire life consists of maybe a century of fallen humanity… and a trillion-plus years as a resurrected saint. Of course God sees our fulfilled potential whenever he looks at us. That’s who we are to him.

But Jesus’s quote Lk 20.38 doesn’t properly refer to how God exists in every point in time, He said it to confirm there is a resurrection. We will live again.

While we don’t see a lot of resurrection-talk in the Old Testament, we see enough to know the ancient Hebrews had some idea that this is how God will end the world. They may not have understood it as Revelation spells it out, but they had a loose idea they’d somehow be raised to new life. Maybe not realize that’d also include the creation of New Heaven and New Earth, nor that we’d go live there with Jesus in New Jerusalem. Maybe not fully understand all things will be made new—us included. But they did know God’s plan for their future didn’t end in death, nor in some nice Egyptian-style underworld. It ends in life.

And Jesus’s resurrection is evidence of this. He got raised, so we get raised. 2Co 4.14