Psalm 16 expresses security, joy, fulfilment and loyalty. For David, in this Psalm, these things flow from one place, His proximity to God. God is his everything – “without you, nothing makes sense.” (v2b) – he sets up the tone of the Psalm very early with these words.

He expresses loyalty by rejecting the gods others chase after in verse 4. From there he affirms his loyalty to God and the loyalty God shows to him. From this flows David’s joy, security and fulfilment. The point is that his identity is seated in how he understands his relationship with the Divine – nothing else. Of course, life circumstances can affect how he feels at any given time, as expressed in the highs and lows of previous Psalms, but the thread that runs through all of them is that his greatest sense of who he is, is determined by where he feels he sits with God.

Whether you believe in God or not, we need to be asking what is shaping our identity; our sense of who we are. What drives how we feel about ourselves, our place in the world and how we’re doing in life in any given moment? Is our life driven by the ups and downs of external circumstances outside of anything we can affect, or do we have something firmer on which we base our identity?

In Psalm 16 we see the strength of having our life based on a constant – something firm and ultimately, unchanging rather than on the fickleness of externals that change with the wind – how other people view us, what we do, or what we have/own.

The questions of identity are worth asking if we want to move in the direction of a healthy life and encourage others towards the same.

May we be people whose identities are grounded in something firm and we may then act out of that strength rather than limiting ourselves to that which is fickle and ever changing.

Read more of my reflections on the Psalms.

Here’s why I’m walking this journey through the Psalms.