Psalm 16:4 is a warning that chasing other gods brings sorrow, paired with a personal vow to refuse their worship and their names. David, the traditional author of the psalm, speaks it in the first person as a declaration of loyalty to the LORD. The verse sits inside a prayer of trust in which he asks God to keep him safe because he has taken refuge in Him alone.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips.
Psalm 16:4 (WEB)
What Psalm 16:4 Means
The verse begins with a consequence rather than a command: people who pour their devotion into other gods will find their sorrows multiply. The psalmist is not describing a single punishment but a pattern, the way divided loyalty tends to produce more grief than it relieves. Those who give gifts to other gods are investing in something that cannot deliver what it promises.
The second half is a vow. The psalmist says he will not offer the drink offerings of blood that such worship involved, and he will not even speak the names of those gods. Refusing to offer and refusing to speak are both acts of separation. The verse promises that loyalty to God means a life that does not borrow its hope from elsewhere, but it does not promise that a faithful person will never suffer.
The Context of Psalm 16:4
Psalm 16 is a psalm of David, found in the book of Psalms, a collection of Israel’s prayers and songs. Its audience was Israel’s worshiping community, and the psalm was written to be prayed aloud by people who knew the temptation to mix faith in the LORD with the religious practices of surrounding nations. The psalm’s central confession comes just before our verse: “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.”
Read in that setting, verse 4 is the other side of verse 2. Because the psalmist has said that all good comes from God, the rival gods offer nothing he needs. The verses just after it describe the LORD as his portion, his cup, and his pleasant inheritance, which makes the refusal feel like contentment rather than deprivation.
Key Phrases in Psalm 16:4
Exodus 20:3
“You shall have no other gods before me.
(WEB)
This commandment states the principle behind David’s vow: the LORD alone is to be worshiped, and no rival gods may be placed alongside Him. Reading it beside Psalm 16:4 shows that the psalmist’s refusal was rooted in the covenant Israel had received at Sinai.
1 John 5:21
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
(WEB)
John closes his letter by urging believers to keep away from idols. Like Psalm 16:4, the verse treats loyalty to God as a matter of guarding the heart against substitutes that promise life but cannot give it.
A Short Prayer From Psalm 16:4
Lord, you know how easily my heart wanders to things that promise relief but leave me more tired and afraid. Help me see the sorrows that come from trusting what cannot save, and give me a settled refusal to bow to those things. Make you my first refuge and my good portion, so that my words, my worries, and my choices are shaped by you alone. Keep me close when I am tempted to look elsewhere. Amen.
