Prophecy Fulfilled

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. Psalm 16:10

Undergo Decay – In the Old Testament, what happens after death is not clearly articulated.  There are a few verses about the underworld, called Sheol, but it is a place where everyone goes when they die.  Since the focus of the Old Testament is life on this earth under God’s direction, there is little if any of the contemporary preoccupation with heaven.  The big question in the Old Testament is not “Where you will go when you die?”  It is “Who do you serve while you live?”

So, that makes this verse a little unusual.  This oddity causes Christian commentators to see Messianic prophecy in this statement, especially since this is the interpretation placed on the verse by Peter (Acts 2:27) and Paul (Acts 13:35).  The verse becomes a reflection on the death of Yeshua, not a statement about David.  Since David died and his body did undergo decay, it’s not likely that this verse could be applied to David.  As a prophecy about Yeshua, this verse makes sense.  Yeshua was not abandoned in Sheol and He did not undergo decay.  He was raised from the dead to new life.  Understanding this verse as prophecy is the reason that “Holy One” is capitalized in our translation.

But if this verse is about Yeshua, then its interpretation violates one of the cardinal principles of biblical exegesis, namely, the first effort of exegesis is to understand the verse in the way that the original audience would have understood it.  If this verse is about Yeshua, then it would be impossible for anyone living at the time of David to understand the meaning of the verse.  Now, we could argue that it is prophecy and therefore the meaning is deferred until the time of its fulfillment, but that still leaves us with a big question mark for the original audience.  Of course, if the original audience also saw it as prophecy, then maybe they would say, “Well, we can’t understand this now, but some day it will be clear.”  But it’s still a problem, isn’t it?  Do you think that David wrote these words into his poem without understanding what they really meant? Something very unusual is happening here.

A great deal of critical work has been done on this verse.  That work attempts to place the meaning of the text in the timeframe and cultural setting of the author, staying true to the principle of exegesis.  In other words, this verse needs to be read within the setting of the rest of the psalm; a psalm about David’s protection and confidence in the Lord.  With this interpretation in mind, the verse does make sense to its original audience.  David says that God will not allow him to see death under the present circumstances.  In other words, God will rescue him from his enemies and he will not end up in Sheol today.  This fits the whole message of the psalm; a psalm about God’s care for his servant.  This ordinary meaning is further supported by the fact that the LXX changed the context of the verse by treating it as eschatological.  Interestingly, Peter quotes the verse as it is found in the LXX, not the Hebrew text.  You can follow all these arguments here.

OK, so what’s the point of all this linguistic mumbo-jumbo?  Is the verse about Yeshua or not?  The answer is “Yes” and “No.”  Peter and Paul, both Hebrews and both familiar with the LXX, clearly saw the verse as prophecy.  More importantly, the translators of the LXX, who were all Jewish rabbis, also saw the verse as eschatological.  In other words, no Christian interpretation was needed for these Jews to see that the verse meant more than it could have meant in David’s time.  So, the verse is about Yeshua.  But, at the same time, the verse in its original form in the Hebrew text can be read as nothing more than a statement about David’s trust in God.  It is not overtly prophetic.  In other words, it becomes prophetic by hindsight, when Peter and Paul recognize that it fits the circumstances of Yeshua’s resurrection.  This is an important lesson for us.  What appears prophetic is the result of seeing the words after the action has been completed.  What we like to call prophecy is often only identifiable because the events have already happened.

You might want to consider this the next time someone starts telling you about everything that is going to happen according to the Bible.  Even the Jewish rabbis didn’t see it coming until after it arrived.  Makes you wonder about our penchant for prophecy, doesn’t it?

Topical Index:  prophecy, interpretation, Psalm 16:10, Sheol, decay