To be perfectly blunt, this sounds like a bad idea. This model mixes up some things which should stay separate.

From this spec, I see three data tables list, node, datum.

list

• id
• name

node

• id
• position_in_list
• list_id
• datum_id

datum

• id
• data_value_1
• data_value_2
• …

OK, so obviously you won't have a datum table, but it's a placeholder for your real data.

A list name 'foo' in the can then be reconstructed with:

SELECT nodedatum.*
  FROM datum
  LEFT JOIN node ON datum.id = node.datum_id
  LEFT JOIN list ON node.list_id = list.id  
WHERE list.name = 'foo'
  BY node.position_in_list