“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” -Psalm 16:11
Unsurpassed in beauty, the concluding expression sets forth for meditation the very key to vitality and human flourishing. In being delivered from death (vs. 10), David’s physical life is not only prolonged, but God makes known (reveals) the very path to life that is really and ultimately eternal life. The fullness of joy is found not in temporal possessions and relations, but in the presence (literally, the face) of Almighty God Himself. Think of Dante’s beatific vision. It is in the service of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords that pleasures are most abundant and satisfying.
As C. S. Lewis noted, “Our desires are not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”