I was reading Psalm 16 this morning, and I ran into a comment by Derek Kidner in his commentary on Psalms for the old Tyndale series. Kidner pointed out that parts of this psalm were seeds for a Charles Wesley hymn. First, the Psalm and then the hymn!

“Psa. 16:1       Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

²           I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

                        I have no good apart from you.”

Psa. 16:3         As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

                        in whom is all my delight.

Psa. 16:4         The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

                        their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

                        or take their names on my lips.

Psa. 16:5         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.

Psa. 16:7         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.

Psa. 16:9         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.

Psa. 16:11       You make known to me the path of life;

                        in your presence there is fullness of joy;

                        at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (English Standard Version)

And here is the hymns:

“Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go,
my daily labour to pursue;
thee, only thee, resolved to know,
in all I think or speak or do.

The task thy wisdom hath assigned
O let me cheerfully fulfil;
in all my works thy presence find,
and prove thy good and perfect will.

Preserve me from my calling’s snare,
and hide my simple heart above,
above the thorns of choking care,
the gilded baits of worldly love.

Thee may I set at my right hand,
whose eyes my inmost substance see,
and labour on at thy command,
and offer all my works to thee.

Give me to bear thy easy yoke,
and every moment watch and pray,
and still to things eternal look,
and hasten to thy glorious day;

For thee delightfully employ
whate’er thy bounteous grace hath given,
and run my course with even joy,
and closely walk with thee to heaven.”

I am going to memorize this psalm and this hymn! It will take me a while. I am not good at memorizing, but this is all too good to trust to my faulty memory. Memorization is the way to go, not general memory.

I was struck—as, indeed, I am always struck whenever I read this psalm—by the words

“. . . in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Apparently, the psalmist did not think that the LORD was a celestial kill-joy. Rather, if anything, God liked/likes to enjoy and give enjoyment.

But then the Wesley hymn made me think about pacing myself in joy. In the next-to-last line, Wesley prays to “. . . run his [literally “my”] course with even joy”.

I am a morning person. I wake up with the birds, and along with the birds, I wake up singing. However, I frequently fail to pace myself. My joy has a nasty habit of evaporating even before the morning dew. My song falls silent before lunch time on most days.

Today, however, I decided to try to pace myself, to run my course with even joy. And guess what?! I did. I am posting these musings as the night is coming on. And I am still running and with morning joy. It would seem that this really is possible! (However, I will admit that I had an afternoon nap, which didn’t hurt.)