What Does Psalm 16:2 Mean in the King James?

O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;

Psalm 16:2 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Your goodness cannot add to God; the verse leaves open where that goodness can reach.

THE MEANING

You can name the LORD as your own Lord without imagining that your goodness makes God more complete. Your good is real, but it does not enrich God as though God were lacking.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that God depends on your goodness to become whole or cared for.

THE ROOT

טוֹבָתִי

tovati

GROWS FROM

טוב

ṭ-w-b

Good, pleasing, beneficial.

The Hebrew word is tovati, “my good,” from tov. The root holds goodness together with what is pleasing or beneficial, while the verse says this good does not reach God as something that completes or enriches God.

ALSO GROWS

tov: Good; pleasing.

טוֹב

This is the seed word in “my goodness,” showing that the verse speaks of good itself, not only a moral reputation.

tovah: Goodness; welfare or a good thing.

טוֹבָה

This related form keeps goodness concrete: a good experienced in life, even when it is not a contribution God needs.

THE PATTERN

God does not need human goodness to supply what is lacking, yet goodness shared with people can reach God.

If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

Psalm 50:12 · KJVGod’s fullness means human offerings do not meet a need in God.

Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Acts 17:25 · KJVThe verse presents God as giver of all things, not as one made complete by what people supply.

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40 · KJVGoodness reaches God through its presence among people.

THE THREAD

But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.

Psalm 16:3 · KJV

The next verse gives goodness a human setting: delight rests among the people on the earth. Together, the verses distinguish what God does not need from the people in whom goodness finds its living expression.

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