Cipher 24. Psalm 16. Sorrows for Another god than YHWH (Ps 16-1-8)
1. WHO? (16:1) Preserve me, O God for in thee do I take refuge.
2. WHY pray? (16:2) thou hast said unto YHWH, Thou art my Lord:
3. HOW He helps? (16:2). I have no good beyond Thee.
4. WHAT god? (16:4-5) Their sorrows shall be multiplied that give gifts for another god:
5. WHEN? (16:6). Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer,
6. WHERE? (16:6). Nor take their names upon my lips
7. WHICH way? (16:8). I have set YHWH always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. (from YHWH)
Commentary: Written 269 times in the Old Testament, Babylon was the adversary of Israel and most likely the, another god above. The city of Babylon was known for its pagan worship of false gods, like the triune gods of Sumaria, Egypt, Greece, Rome and others. The carrying away to Babylon splits the generations of the Son of Man, and appears later in Psalm 137:1,8: By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion. O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed. Babylon was also a metaphor for Rome. The connection between the Babylon and Roman empires is the destruction in history of Jerusalem and the Temple, first by Babylon and later by Rome.