Psalm 16:10–11, ESV
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The psalm does not linger on the descent into death. It simply states that the Holy One will not be abandoned to Sheol and will not see corruption. What it does set before the reader is what follows: the path of life, fullness of joy in the Father’s presence, and pleasures forevermore at His right hand.
Peter takes these words in Acts 2 and Paul in Acts 13 as spoken about Jesus. David died and was buried; the Holy One was not left in Sheol. The crucifixion is the passage. The path, the presence, and the right hand are the destination already fixed before Him.
Hebrews 12:2 names the reality from the other side of the event: “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” The joy is not added afterward. It is the reason the endurance is possible. Psalm 16 supplies the content of that joy in the concrete terms of the text, security of the flesh that will not see corruption, and the right hand that follows the cross.
The view beyond the crucifixion is the view the words already face: the path of life, the fullness of joy, and the right hand that follows. It is the same view that makes endurance possible for those who share the path.
