Sending an Angel for Our Benefit: Psalm 16:1-11

When looking at all the prophecies and connection-points between the Old Testament and Jesus’ ministry, one of the best, most amazing connections relates specifically with Jesus’ resurrection. This particular connection point happens to be found in the book of Psalms. In this psalm of David, we get an amazing foreshadowing of the protection God provides to His people, and included in this psalm is the strong theme of the resurrection.

With that as our foundation, let’s read what David wrote. Our Old Testament passage for this episode is found in Psalm, number 16, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, David writes:

¹ Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
² I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good besides You.”
³ As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
⁴ The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.

⁵ The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
⁶ The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

⁷ I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
⁸ I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
¹⁰ For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
¹¹ You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

In this psalm, we discover that David trusts fully in the Lord and that because of his trust in the Lord, he believes his soul will not be abandoned in Sheol, which, is the Hebrew word for the grave, or the place of the dead, if I’m not mistaken.

However, it is interesting that within that very same verse, which is verse 10, David writes prophetically that God would not allow His Holy One to undergo decay. While some people might assume that David is speaking about himself in this phrase, a technical reading of the verse draws our attention to David speaking this of someone other than himself. In other words, the first phrase of verse 10 could be said to be David speaking about himself. However, the second phrase, which begins with the word “Nor” transitions to speaking about someone other than David.

Over the past few years, I’ve begun to like logic puzzles, and the clues that use the word “nor” or “neither” are fascinating. When I was just beginning, when I saw a clue written with the format neither A nor B equals C, I originally believed that A and B could be the same. However, as I delved further into logic-puzzle-thought, I soon learned that the full clue being shared is that A, B, and C are all unique elements from one another.

Using our logic-puzzle-logic on our passage draws our attention to David clearly moving the focus away from himself with the second phrase he shares in verse 10, which then fixes our understanding of David’s “Holy One of God” to refer to the Messiah.

Moving forward to the New Testament and to Jesus’ life, we turn our attention onto Jesus’ resurrection. While we could use any one of the four gospels to describe this point in Jesus’ ministry, let’s read about the resurrection from Matthew’s gospel, because Matthew frames the details of the resurrection in an amazing way.

In Matthew, chapter 28, starting in verse 1, Matthew writes:

¹ Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. ² And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. ³ And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. ⁴ The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. ⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. ⁶ He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. ⁷ Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

In the early morning hours of resurrection morning, the last thing on any of Jesus’ followers’ minds was on Jesus not being in the grave. I suspect that if Jesus’ disciples understood and believed Jesus’ resurrection like Jesus had tried to tell them earlier in His ministry, some, or perhaps even all eleven remaining disciples, would have been at the tomb to witness the angel arriving to roll the stone away.

It is interesting in my mind that Matthew’s gospel is the only one of the gospels to describe as much of the resurrection as he does. All the other gospels focus on the women who went to the tomb simply finding the tomb empty. However, Matthew’s gospel describes how the religious leaders had posted guards at the tomb to keep it secure, and that the arrival of the angel from heaven terrified these hardened soldiers.

A subtle side theme we can see in Matthew’s details of the resurrection is that one angel soldier for God is more than capable of scattering the best defenses humanity can muster. I suspect the religious leaders put their best efforts forward to keep the tomb secure, but it was no match for one angel from heaven.

However, I also always find it fascinating that this angel is only tasked with rolling the stone away, and perhaps also keeping the stone off of the entrance. This angel does not appear to actively be involved with Jesus’ life returning to His body. Instead, this angel’s task is letting Jesus out of the grave.

Actually, if we look at Jesus’ actions after this point, with Him appearing and disappearing among the various groups of disciples, I suspect that the angel at the tomb did not need to free Jesus from the grave.

Instead, I suspect that the angel was sent for the benefit of the women, and all of Jesus’ followers to remove the stone and let them see that the grave was indeed empty. If the stone had stayed put, and Jesus had supernaturally left the tomb without leaving a trace, there would be cause to believe the resurrected Jesus was an impostor. If the stone had stayed where it was locking the entrance to the grave, all of Jesus’ followers would likely have discounted or rejected the risen Messiah because everyone would assume Jesus’ body still lay behind the stone. It is also likely that the women would never have seen an empty tomb because the soldiers present would have turned them away.

This tells us that God sent an angel to validate the resurrection by opening the grave, scaring away those who would have likely attempted to close it back up, and showing all of Jesus’ followers that Jesus was no longer there. The angel who rolled the stone away was given for our benefit and what this angel did on resurrection morning vindicates Jesus’ own testimony, as well as David’s psalm that looked forward to the resurrection.

Jesus promised and predicted to His followers that He would be raised back to life following His death. While His followers did not know what to make of Jesus saying these things, especially since they all believed the popular view of the Messiah up to that point, specifically the detail that the Messiah would not face death, they missed the details that allowed for the Messiah to temporarily taste death.

Just like David wrote, God the Father would not abandon the Holy One of God or let His body decay. Instead, after Jesus lay in the tomb over the Sabbath day, marking Him resting following the completion of the work of salvation, Jesus returns to life and into the next phase of His ministry.

However, this seems like a great place to end this episode. While it might seem as though there is nowhere to go from here looking at prophecies Jesus fulfilled in His lifetime, I’ve saved some of the best, most amazing prophecies to look at as we move forward towards the end of our year podcasting, and that much closer to Jesus’ return.

As we come to the close of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Trust that because Jesus conquered death and the grave, when we place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Him, we have nothing to fear regarding death. When we die allied with Jesus, our resurrection is assured.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. God wants a personal relationship with you, and the relationship God wants with you can begin today, and it extends past the end of pain, disease, sin, and even death. God wants a personal relationship with you that lasts for eternity.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!