You made known to me the ways of life;
You will fill me with gladness in Your presence;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)
The person of the Lord Savior is introduced throughout the psalm. In the first theme, in accord with His acceptance of human form, He addresses the Father to ask to be saved, because He has always put His hope in Him. By this He does not in any sense lessen His divinity, but reflects the nature of His humanity (by nature I means the source and strength of the substance of anything). He further adds how His saints are chosen not through desires of the flesh but by spiritual virtues, and claims that all His sufferings have been directed towards the glory of His inheritance. In His second theme He gives thanks to the Father, who by appearing at His right hand has by the power of His omnipotence overcome the wickedness of this world. He maintains that because of this His soul has been freed from hell, and He recounts that after the glory of the resurrection He has been set among the delights at His right hand.
When He had completed all He had to say on the sanctity of His body, this verse, which is appropriate also to the just who choose to obey His commands, introduces the conclusion. You have made known to me the ways of life, in other words, “Through Me You have brought the human race to a knowledge of the path of life, so that by walking humbly in Your commandments they might avoid the poison of deadly pride.” You shall fill me to the brim, that is, quite full. Filling to the brim is adding to fullness, and he who does so pours into a vessel already full. That joy fills in such a way that it is all preserved for ever. The verse also shows that all just men in that blessed state will be filled with the joy of the Lord’s presence, and He attests that He can be filled among them because He is the Lord. But let us examine a little more carefully why He says here that He will be filled with delights at the right hand of the Father, whereas earlier He said: For he is at my right hand, that I be not moved. The fact is that in this world, in which He suffered scourgings in the flesh which He assumed, was struck with slaps, and was spattered with spittle yet defeated by none of its hardships, it was fitting to say that the Lord was always seen at His right hand. He overcame the opposition of the world because He moved not an inch from contemplation of the Father. There He has now laid aside the hardships of this world; and His humanity is filled with the glorification of His whole majesty and rules united to the Word with the Father and the holy Spirit for ever. Even to the end signifies perfection and eternity, for His glory abides in its perfection, and will be limited by no season.
Let us meditate on the immensity of the gift of salvation which this psalm offers for our instruction. It gives us confidence in sufferings and promises eternal glory in hope, so that through this teaching of our future happiness we do not fear the hardships of the present. This is heavenly schooling, learning for life, the lecture-hall of truth, and most indubitably a unique discipline which occupies its pupils with thoughts that bear fruit, not with the flattery of empty words. It is appropriate also to examine the significance of the number fifteen; in our opinion it denotes the fifteen steps by which one mounted the wonderful dimensions of the temple at Jerusalem, thus demonstrating that when we overcome the five bodily senses through the grace of the Trinity, we attain by this blessed gift the basilica of holy Church. This gift will be granted also by this psalm, if with the Lord’s protection we hug close His most salutary preaching.
Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 16.1, 11
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