2 Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; and I am saved from my enemies.
KJVKing James Version
1 I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 (18-1) For the Leader. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who spoke unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul; (18-2) And he said: I love thee, O LORD, my strength.
2 (18-3) The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in Him I take refuge; my shield, and my horn of salvation, my high tower.
3 (18-4) Praised, I cry, is the LORD, and I am saved from mine enemies.
Psalms 144:2(v2)my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.
Psalms 62:7(v2)My salvation and my honor is with God. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
Psalms 19:14(v2)Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer.
Proverbs 18:10(v2)Yahweh’s name is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.
Psalms 91:2(v2)I will say of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”
Show all 53 cross-references
2 Samuel 22:1-51(v1)David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand…
Psalms 62:2(v2)He alone is my rock, my salvation, and my fortress. I will never be greatly shaken.
Colossians 1:11(v1)strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy,
2 Samuel 22:3(v2)God is my rock in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from…
Jeremiah 16:19(v2)Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth,…
Isaiah 32:2(v2)A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large…
1 John 4:19(v1)We love him, because he first loved us.
Psalms 91:4(v2)He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.
Isaiah 12:1-6(v1)In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort…
Proverbs 2:7(v2)He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
Hebrews 2:13(v2)Again, “I will put my trust in him.” Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.”
Psalms 28:1(v2)To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.
Philippians 4:13(v1)I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Psalms 34:19(v1)Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.
Psalms 91:15(v3)He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.
Psalms 116:1-6(v1)I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy. Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as…
Psalms 145:3(v3)Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable.
Psalms 62:8(v3)Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.
Luke 1:71(v3)salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
Romans 8:31-39(v3)What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up…
Psalms 28:7-8(v1)Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will…
Psalms 118:14(v1)Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation.
Psalms 144:1-2(v1)Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to battle: my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my…
1 Samuel 2:1-10(v1)Hannah prayed, and said: “My heart exults in Yahweh! My horn is exalted in Yahweh. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice…
2 Samuel 22:4(v3)I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.
Psalms 116:16(v1)Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your servant girl. You have freed me from my chains.
Psalms 18:32(v1)the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?
Psalms 36:1(v1)A revelation is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: “There is no fear of God before his eyes.”
Psalms 55:16(v3)As for me, I will call on God. Yahweh will save me.
Psalms 59:11(v2)Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.
Psalms 96:4(v3)For Yahweh is great, and greatly to be praised! He is to be feared above all gods.
Exodus 15:1-21(v1)Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, “I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has…
Psalms 28:1-2(v3)To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.…
Psalms 75:10(v2)I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
Acts 13:36(v1)For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw decay.
Hebrews 3:5(v1)Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken,
Nehemiah 9:5(v3)Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless Yahweh…
Psalms 50:15(v3)Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
Psalms 132:17(v2)I will make the horn of David to bud there. I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.
Philippians 4:6-7(v3)In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace…
Judges 5:1-31(v1)Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying, “Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people…
Psalms 5:2-3(v3)Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for I pray to you. Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will…
Revelation 4:11(v3)“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of…
Revelation 5:12-14(v3)saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and…
Acts 2:21(v3)It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Psalms 48:1(v3)Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.
Psalms 65:1-2(v3)Praise waits for you, God, in Zion. Vows shall be performed to you. You who hear prayer, all men will come to you.
Psalms 76:4(v3)Glorious are you, and excellent, more than mountains of game.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (27 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1–31. And he said, etc. I will not stop…
1. And he said, etc. I will not stop to examine too minutely the syllables, or the few words, in which this psalm differs from the song which is recorded in the twenty-second chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. When, however, we meet with any important difference, we shall advert to it in the proper place; and we find one in the remarkable sentence with which this psalm commences, I will love thee affectionately, O Jehovah, my strength, which is omitted in the song in Samuel. As the Scripture does not use the verb רהם, racham, for to love, except in the conjugation pihel, and as it is here put in the conjugation kal, some of the Jewish expositors explain it as here meaning to seek mercy; as if David had said, Lord, since I have so often experienced thee to be a merciful God, I will trust to and repose in thy mercies for ever. And certainly this exposition would not be unsuitable, but I am unwilling to depart from the other, which is more generally received. It is to be observed, that love to God is here laid down as constituting the principal part of true godliness; for there is no better way of serving God than to love him. No doubt, the service which we owe him is better expressed by the word reverence, that thus his majesty may prominently stand forth to our view in its infinite greatness. But as he requires nothing so expressly as to possess all the affections of our heart, and to have them going out towards him, so there is no sacrifice which he values more than when we are bound fast to him by the chain of a free and spontaneous love; and, on the other hand, there is nothing in which his glory shines forth more conspicuously than in his free and sovereign goodness. Moses, therefore, (Deuteronomy 10:12,) when he meant to give a summary of the law, says,
“And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to love him?”
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In speaking thus, David, at the same time, intended to show that his thoughts and affections were not so intently fixed upon the benefits of God as to be ungrateful to him who was the author of them, a sin which has been too common in all ages. Even at this day we see how the greater part of mankind enjoy wholly at their ease the gifts of God without paying any regard to him, or, if they think of him at all, it is only to despise him. David, to prevent himself from falling into this ingratitude, in these words makes as it were a solemn vow, Lord, as thou art my strength, I will continue united and devoted to thee by unfeigned love.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv2–3He useth this diversity of names, to show that…
He useth this diversity of names, to show that as the wicked have many means to hurt, so God hath many ways to help.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Psa 18:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm]…
Psa 18:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day [that] the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, » I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
To the chief Musician] Some render it, Ad triumphandum; and well they may; for this is old David’s επινικιον, or triumphant song after so many victories and deliverances; and it is twice recorded in Scripture, with very little variation, {see 2Sa 22:1-51} for the great worth and weightiness of the matter; that we may the more observe it, and be the better versed in it. This here recorded seemeth to be the review of it, and hence those small additions and alterations that are found here and there, but not of any great moment.
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A Psalm of David] Who having now gotten some breathing while from his troubles, gave not himself to idleness or worldly pleasures (as the Romans used to do after that they had once ridden in triumph), but, calling to mind God’s great mercies towards him, composed this sweet psalmody to his glory.
The servant of the Lord] So he styled himself before, Psa 36:1, when he first entered upon the kingdom; and now here again, when being to lay it down together with his life, he breatheth out his holy soul to God in this divine ditty.
Sic ubi fata vocant, &c.
This he did after that, as a faithful servant of the Lord, he had done all the wills of God, Act 13:22, had served out his full time, Psa 18:36, and dwelt in God’s house to length of days, Psa 23:6.
Who spake unto the Lord the words of this song] God lets out his mercies to us for this rent of our praises; and is content we have the benefit of them, so he may have the glory. The Hebrews give this note here; every man for whom there is wrought a miracle of mercy, and he thereupon uttereth a song, hath his sins forgiven him. This is better yet than that of the Papists, who promise pardon of sin to those that shall hear two masses a day. We who have received so many mercies should compass God about with songs of deliverances, and not only servire Deo, sed et adulari, serve God and make obeisance, as Tertullian hath it.
From the hand of all his enemies] Heb. From the palm of other enemies, as less considerable, but from the hand (or clutched fist) of Saul.
And from the hand of Saul] His greatest enemy, and of longest continuance. So Christ is said to save his people from their sins, by a specialty, Mat 1:21, because they do us the most mischief.
Ver. 1. I will love thee, O Lord my strength] Heb. I will love thee dearly and entirely, ex intimis visceribus, from the very heart-root, from the bottom of my bowels; with like intention of affection, as a tender hearted mother doth her dearest babe, that is her own bowels; herself of the second edition. Neither did David herein supererogate: For God requireth to be loved with all the heart, mind, soul, strength, as one that is best worthy; good without measure, that hath loved us without measure, and therefore is without measure by us to be beloved. Modus sit sine mode (Bern.). Not that we are bound to love God in quantum est diligibilis so much as he is lovely or love worthy; for so God can only love himself; but, Nihil supra, aeque, aut contra, nothing must we love above God or so much as God, much less against God; we must be able to say affectionately, with David, Psa 73:25-26, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." And as Bernard, Amo te, Domine, plus quam mea, meos, me I love thee, Lord, more than my goods, my friends, myself. A Christian begins with loving God for himself, but he ends in loving himself, and all other, both persons and things, in and for God. His friend he loveth in the Lord, his foes for the Lord; but God he loveth absolutely, and for himself, affecting not only a union with him, but even a unity, his heart being turned, as it were, into a very lump of love, as was Mary’s, Luk 7:47. Histories tell of a certain woman that came to Vespasian the emperor, professing that she was in love with him; he commanded that a liberal reward should be given her for the same; and when his steward asked him under what item he should put that gift in the book of account, Vespasiano adamato, said the emperor, Item, To her that loved Vespasian. God, saith the apostle, is not unrighteous, to forget your labour of love, &c., Heb 6:10. "I love them that love me," saith Christ, Pro 8:17. And his love is not like the winter sun, which hath light, but no heat; he is the strength of his people, their rock, fortress.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–3The servant of the Lord; who esteemeth it a…
The servant of the Lord; who esteemeth it a greater honour to be thy servant, than to be king of Israel, and who doth entirely devote himself to thy service and glory.
In the day that the Lord delivered him, i.e. after the death of Saul, and the conquest of all his succeeding enemies, and his own firm establishment in his kingdom.
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David professeth his love to God, Psa 18:1, and his confidence in his attributes, Psa 18:2. He praises God for deliverance out of trouble, Psa 18:3-5. His experience of God’s hearing him in an awful manner, Psa 18:6-31. He acknowledgeth God’s help against his enemies, Psa 18:32-50.
Most affectionately and with my whole soul; as the Hebrew word signifies. I can return thee no better thing for all thy favours than my love and heart, which I pray thee to accept. By loving him he understands not only his inward affection, but also all the outward expressions and testimonies of it, praising, and glorifying, and serving of him.
O Lord, my strength; from whom alone I have received all my strength, and success, and settlement, and in whom alone I trust, as it follows, Psa 18:2.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1The title gives us the occasion of penning this…
The title gives us the occasion of penning this psalm; we had it before (Sa2 22:1), only here we are told that the psalm was delivered to the chief musician, or precentor, in the temple-songs. Note, The private compositions of good men, designed by them for their own use, may be serviceable to the public, that others may not only borrow light from their candle, but heat from their fire. Examples sometimes teach better than rules. And David is here called the servant of the Lord, as Moses was, not only as every good man is God's servant, but because, with his sceptre, with his sword, and with his pen, he greatly promoted the interests of God's kingdom in Israel. It was more his honour that he was a servant of the Lord than that he was king of a great kingdom; and so he himself accounted it (Psa 116:16): O Lord! truly I am thy servant. In these verses,
I. He triumphs in God and his relation to him. The first words of the psalm, I will love thee, O Lord! my strength, are here prefixed as the scope and contents of the whole. Love to God is the first and great commandment of the law, because it is the principle of all our acceptable praise and obedience; and this use we should make of all the mercies God bestows upon us, our hearts should thereby be enlarged in love to him. This he requires and will accept; and we are very ungrateful if we grudge him so poor a return. An interest in the person loved is the lover's delight; this string therefore he touches, and on this he harps with much pleasure (Psa 18:2): "The Lord Jehovah is my God; and then he is my rock, my fortress, all that I need and can desire in my present distress." For there is that in God which is suited to all the exigencies and occasions of his people that trust in him. "He is my rock, and strength, and fortress;" that is, 1. "I have found him so in the greatest dangers and difficulties." 2. "I have chosen him to be so, disclaiming all others, and depending upon him alone to protect me." Those that truly love God may thus triumph in him as theirs, and may with confidence call upon him, Psa 18:3. This further use we should make of our deliverances, we must not only love God the better, but love prayer the better - call upon him as long as we live, especially in time of trouble, with an assurance that so we shall be saved; for thus it is written, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Act 2:21.
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II. He sets himself to magnify the deliverances God had wrought for him, that he might be the more affected in his returns of praise. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy, which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it.
1. The more imminent and threatening the danger was out of which we were delivered the greater is the mercy of the deliverance. David now remembered how the forces of his enemies poured in upon him, which he calls the floods of Belial, shoals of the children of Belial, likely to overpower him with numbers. They surrounded him, compassed him about; they surprised him, and by that means were very near seizing him; their snares prevented him, and, when without were fightings, within were fears and sorrows, Psa 18:4, Psa 18:5. His spirit was overwhelmed, and he looked upon himself as a lost man; see Psa 116:3.
2. The more earnest we have been with God for deliverance, and the more direct answer it is to our prayers, the more we are obliged to be thankful. David's deliverances were so, Psa 18:6. David was found a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. Though distress drive us to prayer, God will not therefore be deaf to us; nay, being a God of pity, he will be the more ready to succour us.
3. The more wonderful God's appearances are in any deliverance the greater it is: such were the deliverances wrought for David, in which God's manifestation of his presence and glorious attributes is most magnificently described, Psa 18:7, etc. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. (1.) He appeared a God of almighty power; for he made the earth shake and tremble, and moved even the foundations of the hills (Psa 18:7), as of old at Mount Sinai. When the men of the earth were struck with fear, then the earth might be said to tremble; when the great men of the earth were put into confusion, then the hills moved. (2.) He showed his anger and displeasure against the enemies and persecutors of his people: He was wroth, Psa 18:7. His wrath smoked, it burned, it was fire, it was devouring fire (Psa 18:8), and coals were kindled by it. Those that by their own sins make themselves as coals (that is, fuel) to this fire will be consumed by it. He that ordains his arrows against the persecutors sends them forth when he pleases, and they are sure to hit the mark and do execution; for those arrows are lightnings, Psa 18:14. (3.) He showed his readiness to plead his people's cause and work deliverance for them; for he rode upon a cherub and did fly, for the maintaining of right and the relieving of his distressed servants, Psa 18:10. No opposition, no obstruction, can be given to him who rides upon the wings of the wind, who rides on the heavens, for the help of his people, and, in his excellency, on the skies. (4.) He showed his condescension, in taking cognizance of David's case: He bowed the heavens and came down (Psa 18:9), did not send an angel, but came himself, as one afflicted in the afflictions of his people. (5.) He wrapped himself in darkness, and yet commanded light to shine out of darkness for his people, Isa 45:15. He is a God that hideth himself; for he made darkness his pavilion, Psa 18:11. his glory is invisible, his counsels are unsearchable, and his proceedings unaccountable, and so, as to us, clouds and darkness are round about him; we know not the way that he takes, even when he is coming towards us in ways of mercy; but, when his designs are secret, they are kind; for, though he hide himself, he is the God of Israel, the Saviour. And, at his brightness, the thick clouds pass (Psa 18:12), comfort returns, the face of affairs is changed, and that which was gloomy and threatening becomes serene and pleasant.
4. The greater the difficulties are that lie in the way of deliverance the more glorious the deliverance is. For the rescuing of David, the waters were to be divided till the very channels were seen; the earth was to be cloven till the very foundations of it were discovered, Psa 18:15. There were waters deep and many, waters out of which he was to be drawn (Psa 18:16), as Moses, who had his name from being drawn out of the water literally, as David was figuratively. His enemies were strong, and they hated him; had he been left to himself, they would have been too strong for him, Psa 18:17. And they were too quick for him; for they prevented him in the day of his calamity, Psa 18:18. But, in the midst of his troubles, the Lord was his stay, so that he did not sink. Note, God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will sustain them and bear them up under their troubles in the mean time.
5. That which especially magnified the deliverance was that his comfort was the fruit of it and God's favour was the root and fountain of it. (1.) It was an introduction to his preferment, Psa 18:19. "He brought me forth also out of my straits into a large place, where I had room, not only to turn, but to thrive in." (2.) It was a token of God's favour to him, and that made it doubly sweet: "He delivered me because he delighted in me, not for my merit, but for his own grace and good-will." Compare this with Sa2 15:26, If he thus say, I have no delight in thee, here I am. We owe our salvation, that great deliverance, to the delight God had in the Son of David, in whom he has declared himself to be well pleased.
In singing this we must triumph in God, and trust in him: and we may apply it to Christ the Son of David. The sorrows of death surrounded him; in his distress he prayed (Heb 5:7); God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, into a large place, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–3I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. These…
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. These words are not in twenty second chapter of Second Samuel: the psalm there begins with Psa 18:2. The psalmist here expresses his love to the Lord, and his continuance in it; that Jehovah the Father was, is, and ever will be the object of Christ's love, is certain; and which has appeared by his readiness in the council and covenant of grace to do his will; by his coming down from heaven to earth for that purpose; by his delight in it, it being his meat and drink to do it; and by his sufferings and death, which were in compliance with, and obedience to it, Joh 14:31; and as in David, so in all regenerate ones, there is love to God; Jehovah is loved by them in all his persons; Jehovah the Father is loved, and to be loved, for the perfections of his nature, because of the works of his hands, of creation and providence; and particularly because of his works of special grace and goodness, and especially because of his love wherewith he has loved his people, Jo1 4:19. Jehovah the Son is loved, and to be loved, above all creatures and things whatever, sincerely and heartily, fervently and constantly; because of the loveliness of his person, the love of his heart, and his works of grace and redemption; all of him is lovely; and he is to be loved, and is loved, in his person, offices, relations, people, word, and ordinances: Jehovah the Spirit is loved, and to be loved, because of his person and perfections, and operations of grace; as a sanctifier, comforter, the spirit of adoption, the earnest and pledge of eternal glory. The word here used signifies the most intimate, tender, and affectionate love; it often designs mercy and bowels of mercy; so Aben Ezra interprets it of seeking mercy of God: the reasons are as follow in this verse and Psa 18:2, because "the Lord is my strength"; so he was to Christ as man, who as such was the man of his right hand, the Son of Man, whom he made strong for himself, to do his work, and for his glory, Psa 80:17; he promised to strengthen him, and he did, Psa 89:21; and so he is the strength of all his saints, even Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit; he is the strength of their hearts both in life and at death; he is the strength of their graces, who strengthens that which he has wrought for them, and in them; he strengthens them to do their duty, to bear the cross, and every affliction, and against every enemy of their souls; and this renders him very lovely and amiable to them.
; and so he is the strength of all his saints, even Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit; he is the strength of their hearts both in life and at death; he is the strength of their graces, who strengthens that which he has wrought for them, and in them; he strengthens them to do their duty, to bear the cross, and every affliction, and against every enemy of their souls; and this renders him very lovely and amiable to them.
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Psalms 18:2
psa 18:2
psa 18:2
psa 18:2The Lord is my rock,.... To whom the saints have recourse for shelter and safety, for supply, support, and divine refreshment; and in whom they are secure, and on whom they build their hopes of eternal life and happiness, and so are safe from all enemies, and from all danger. Christ is called a Rock on all these accounts, Psa 61:2;
and my fortress; or garrison; so the saints are kept in and by the power of God as in a garrison, Pe1 1:5;
and my deliverer: out of all afflictions, and from all temptations, and out of the hands of all enemies; from a body of sin and death at last, and from wrath to come;
my God; the strong and mighty One, who is able to save, and who is the covenant God and Father of his people;
my strength, in whom I will trust; as Christ did, and to whom these words are applied in Heb 2:13; and as his people are enabled to do even under very distressing and discouraging circumstances, Job 13:15;
my buckler; or shield; who protects and defends them from their enemies, and preserves them from the fiery darts of Satan;
and the horn of my salvation; who pushes, scatters, and destroys their enemies, and saves them; a metaphor taken from horned beasts; so Christ, the mighty and able Saviour, is called, Luk 1:69;
and my high tower; such is the name of the Lord, whither the righteous run and are safe, Pro 18:10; and where they are above and out of the reach of every enemy; see Isa 33:16; in Sa2 22:3, it is added, "and my refuge, my Saviour, thou savest me from violence". These various epithets show the fulness of safety in Jehovah, the various ways he has to deliver his people from their enemies, and secure them from danger; and the psalmist beholding and claiming his interest in him under all these characters, rendered him exceeding lovely and delightful to him; and each of them contain a reason why he loved him, and why, in the strength of grace, he determined to love him. God may be regarded in all these characters by Christ as man.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–2David triumphs in God, ver. 1-3. Praises God for…
David triumphs in God, ver. 1-3. Praises God for his past deliverances, ver. 4-19. Takes the comfort of his integrity, which God had thereby cleared up, ver. 20-28. Gives God the glory of all his victories, ver. 29-42. Express his hope of what God would do farther, ver. 43-50. This psalm with some few and small variations, is written, 2 Sam. xxii, 1-51. It was composed by David towards the end of his life, upon the occasion here mentioned. To the chief musician, A psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song, in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he said: Title of the psalm. Servant - Who esteems it a greater honour to be thy servant, than to be king of Israel. Saul - After the death of Saul, and the conquest of all his succeeding enemies, and his own firm establishment in his kingdom.
Love - Most affectionately, and with my whole soul; as the Hebrew word signifies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–3David's address of thanks to Jehovah, 1-3.
PSALM XVIII
David's address of thanks to Jehovah, 1-3.
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A relation of sufferings undergone, and prayers made for
assistance, 4-6.
A magnificent description of Divine interposition in behalf
of the sufferer, 7-15;
and of the deliverance wrought for him, 16-19.
That this deliverance was in consideration of his
righteousness, 20-24;
and according to the tenor of God's equitable proceedings,
25-28.
To Jehovah is ascribed the glory of the victory, 29-36;
which is represented as complete by the destruction of all
his opponents, 37-42.
On these events the heathen submit, 43-45.
And for all these things God is glorified, 46-50.
NOTES ON PSALM XVIII
The title: "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul."
Except the first clause, this title is taken from 2Sa 22:1. The reader is requested to turn to the notes on 2Sa 22:1, for some curious information on this Psalm, particularly what is extracted from Dr. Kennicott. This learned writer supposes the whole to be a song of the Messiah, and divides it into five parts, which he thus introduces: -
"The Messiah's sublime thanksgivings, composed by David when his wars were at an end, towards the conclusion of his life. And in this sacred song the goodness of God is celebrated, 1. For Messiah's resurrection from the dead, with the wonders attending that awful event, and soon following it. 2. For the punishment inflicted on the Jews; particularly by the destruction of Jerusalem. And, 3. For the obedience of the Gentile nations. See Ro 15:9; Heb 2:13; and Mt 28:2-4; with Mt 24:7; Mt 24:29."
And that the title now prefixed to this hymn here and in 2Sa 22:1, describes only the time of its composition, seems evident; for who can ascribe to David himself as the subject, 2Sa 22:5-6; 2Sa 22:8-17; 2Sa 22:21-26; 2Sa 22:30; 2Sa 22:42; 2Sa 22:44, c.?
In Dr. Kennicott's remarks there is a new translation of the whole Psalm, p. 178, c.
The strong current of commentators and critics apply this Psalm to Christ and to oppose a whole host of both ancients and moderns would argue great self-confidence. In the main I am of the same mind and on this principle chiefly I shall proceed to its illustration; still however considering that there are many things in it which concern David, and him only. Drs. Chandler and Delaney have been very successful in their illustration of various passages in it; all the best critics have brought their strongest powers to bear on it; and most of the commentators have laboured it with great success; and Bishop Horne has applied the whole of it to Christ. My old Psalter speaks highly in its praise: "This Psalme contenes the sacrement of al chosyn men, the qwilk doand the law of God thurgh the seven fald grace of the Haly Gast fra al temptaciouns, and the pouste of dede and of the devel lesid: this sang thai syng til God; and thankes him and says, I sal luf the Lord, noght a day or twa, bot ever mare: my strength, thurgh quam I am stalworth in thoght."
Verse 1. I will love thee] Love always subsists on motive and reason. The verb רחם racham signifies to love with all the tender feelings of nature. "From my inmost bowels will I love thee, O Lord!" Why should he love Jehovah? Not merely because he was infinitely great and good, possessed of all possible perfections, but because he was good to him: and he here enumerates some of the many blessings he received from him.
My strength.]
1. Thou who hast given me power over my adversaries, and hast enabled me to avoid evil and do good.
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Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v1Psa 18:1-3. I will love thee — Hebrew, ארחמךְ,…
Psa 18:1-3. I will love thee — Hebrew, ארחמךְ, erchamecha, I will love thee most affectionately, and with my whole soul. I can make thee no better return for all thy favours than my love, which I pray thee to accept. By loving the Lord, however, here and elsewhere, we are not only to understand giving him the inward affection of the soul, but also all the proper outward expressions and testimonies of it, in praising, glorifying, and serving him. O Lord, my strength — From whom alone I have received all my strength, and success, and my establishment in the peaceable possession of the kingdom, and in whom alone I trust, as it follows. The Lord is my rock and my fortress — To which I flee for refuge, as the Israelites did to their rocks and strong holds; and as David himself did when driven into banishment by Saul, and forced to conceal himself in rocks and caverns, and to retreat for safety to steep hills and precipices rendered by nature almost inaccessible. See Jdg 6:2; 1Sa 13:6; 1Sa 23:19; 1Sa 23:25; 1Sa 24:2. My buckler — Or, shield, by whom I have been protected, amidst the dangers of those perilous wars in which I have been engaged, as the soldier is by the shield in his hand. The horn of my salvation — By which I have both defended myself and subdued my enemies: a metaphor taken from the horns of animals, which are their ornament and strength; by which they both protect themselves, and assault those who oppose or injure them. The horn is frequently put for strength and power, by the sacred writers, as Psa 92:10; Amo 6:13, and elsewhere, as also for riches and dignity. The reader will observe that this verse contains a continued chain of metaphors, and is a sublime paraphrase on the first commandment, declaring that Jehovah, the God of Israel, alone, was the foundation of his confidence, and the author of his security and happiness: by whom he had been supported under his troubles, and delivered out of them; whose protection had secured him, and whose power had broken and scattered his enemies; by whose mercy and truth he was now set up on high above them all. I will call — Or, I did call, and was saved. For the future tense is commonly used for that which is past. And this seems best to agree with the whole context.
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Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–3I will love thee, O Lord - This verse…
I will love thee, O Lord - This verse is not found in the song in 2 Sam. 22. It appears to have been added after the first composition of the psalm, either by David as expressive of his ardent love for the Lord in view of his merciful interpositions in his behalf, and on the most careful and most mature review of those mercies, or by the collector of the Psalms when they were adapted to purposes of public worship, as a proper commencement of the psalm - expressive of the feeling which the general tenor of the psalm was fitted to inspire. It is impossible now to determine by whom it was added; but no one can doubt that it is a proper commencement of a psalm that is designed to recount so many mercies. It is the feeling which all should have when they recall the goodness of God to them in their past lives.
My strength - The source of my strength, or from whom all my strength is derived. So Psa 27:1, “The Lord is the strength of my life.” Psa 28:8, “he is the saving strength of his anointed.” Compare Psa 29:11; Psa 46:1; Psa 73:26; Psa 81:1; Psa 140:7.
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Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 18
Psalms 18
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
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1 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:
So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
4 The sorrows of death compassed me,
And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about:
The snares of death prevented me.
6 In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried unto my God:
He heard my voice out of his temple,
And my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled;
The foundations also of the hills moved
And were shaken, because he was wroth.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
And fire out of his mouth devoured:
Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down:
And darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly:
Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his secret place;
His pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed,
Hail stones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
And the Highest gave his voice;
Hail stones and coals of fire.
14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
15 Then the channels of waters were seen,
And the foundations of the world were discovered
At thy rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16 He sent from above, he took me,
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity:
But the Lord was my stay.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place;
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his judgments were before me,
And I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before him,
And I kept myself from mine iniquity.
24 Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
25 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful;
With an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;
26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure;
And with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people;
But wilt bring down high looks.
28 For thou wilt light my candle:
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by thee I have run through a troop;
And by my God have I leaped over a wall.
30 As for God, his way is perfect:
The word of the Lord is tried:
He is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
31 For who is God save the Lord?
Or who is a rock save our God?
32 It is God that girdeth me with strength,
And maketh my way perfect.
33 He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet,
And setteth me upon my high places.
34 He teacheth my hands to war,
So that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation:
And thy right hand hath holden me up,
And thy gentleness hath made me great.
36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me,
That my feet did not slip.
37 I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them:
Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise:
They are fallen under my feet.
39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle:
Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.
40 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies;
That I might destroy them that hate me.
41 They cried, but there was none to save them:
Even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.
42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind:
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people;
And thou hast made me the head of the heathen:
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me:
The strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
45 The strangers shall fade away,
And be afraid out of their close places.
46 The Lord liveth; and blessed be my Rock;
And let the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God that avengeth me,
And subdueth the people under me.
48 He delivereth me from mine enemies:
Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me:
Thou hast delivered me from the violent man.
49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen,
And sing praises unto thy name.
50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king;
And sheweth mercy to his anointed,
To David, and to his seed for evermore.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Title.—The title, as far as the words of David, is like that of Psalms 36, the rest of it reminds us strongly of Deu_31:30, in part of Exo_15:1; Num_21:17; and is found likewise in 2 Samuel 22, where this Psalm appears in its historical connection, with some differences, yet essentially the same. In most cases the Psalm of our collection has the original and better readings (vid. below upon its relation to 2 Samuel 22). All this is in favor of the view that it was in one of those historical books from which the author of the book of Samuel made extracts. The use of this Psalm in Psalms 116, 144 is in favor of its great antiquity, as well as the use of Psa_18:30 in Pro_30:5, and Psa_18:33 in Hab_3:19. So many particulars in the contents and expressions of the Psalm agree with David, that only Olsh. and Hupf. think of a later author. There is likewise no valid reason for regarding the closing verse as a later addition (Hitzig against Hupf.). But being authentic, inasmuch as it presupposes the prophecy 2 Samuel 7, it refers to the latter period of David’s life, if not even to the time of his dying song, 2 Samuel 23. The prominent features of the subject agree with this, and do not allow us to mistake the retrospective view of a very important period of life, especially agitated by war and like events, but yet brought by grace to a satisfactory conclusion; and they lead to a period in which David, after having come forth victorious over domestic feuds, and as a king victorious likewise over other nations, and widely feared, on the one side praises the help afforded him by God as a sign of His condescension and favor, and on the other celebrates this as the reward of his devotion to Jehovah. Hitzig, therefore, refers, especially Psa_18:43-44, to the fact mentioned 2Sa_8:9 sq., that the son of a distant king brought gifts to David, when on his return from Aram, he had likewise conquered the Edomite, and stood at the end of his expedition of war; and when the shadows which the rebellion of Absalom, and the transgression committed with Bathsheba and on her account, threw upon his life and his soul, had not yet troubled the sunshine of his happiness. The mention of Saul after all his enemies renders him conspicuous as the most dangerous of all, who is the last to be forgotten, although his time had long since passed away. The form in which these facts are put together, shows that we have here a retrospect which extends over a long period, but which occurred on the day of the composition of the Psalm, and originated the tone of the song together with its sentiments. The name, servant of Jehovah, which David gives to himself in his prayers, Psa_19:11; Psa_19:13; Psa_144:10; 2Sa_7:20, and there in a general sense in which every pious Israelite might use it, is here in the title, as in Psalms 36, in the pregnant meaning of an official name and honorable title as Moses bears it, Deu_34:5; Jos_24:29; the prophets, Jer_7:25 and elsewhere, on account of their historical position as the specially commissioned instruments of God; and David likewise has received it being recognized as such by the mouth of Jehovah, Psa_89:3; Psa_89:20. A parallel to its use in the title of several Psalms is found in its use at the beginning of most of the epistles of the apostles.
Its Contents and their Arrangement.—First, there is an expression of tender resignation to Jehovah (Psa_18:1), the Protector and Lord, consequently sought and never sought in vain (Psa_18:2); then follows the principal clause (Psa_18:3), the unfolding of which forms the essential subject of the Psalm, namely: the thankful confession, that this Jehovah has delivered the Psalmist from his enemies in answer to prayer. The greatness of the danger is illustrated (Psa_18:4-5); the prayer is warmly mentioned and its having been heard (Psa_18:6). His coming to help in the earthquake and tempest (not merely figurative as Hupf. contends) is magnificently and surprisingly described (Psa_18:7-15); the deliverance by the hand of God in the moment of the greatest danger is thankfully recognized as a proof of His good pleasure (Psa_18:16-19), to reward the pious conduct of His servant (vers 20–25), which is founded in the moral nature of God Himself (Psa_18:24-27), and gives the reason and pledge of this support of the Psalmist’s life (Psa_18:28-29). Then the Psalmist begins to praise Jehovah as the only true God and faithful Helper (Psa_18:30-31). This is interrupted in form by the retrospective review (although there is actually a praising God) which the Psalmist makes with reference to his repeated experiences of the assistance of God in domestic feuds, and in foreign wars (Psa_18:32-45). It is then, however, taken up again directly, and brought to a satisfactory conclusion in two strophes, first, the summing up of thanksgiving for the abundance of help afforded as just described (Psa_18:46-48), and then in vows of thanksgiving which look far beyond the bounds of Israel (Psa_18:49-50), in faith in the Messianic promise and destiny given to David and his seed.
Its Relation to 2 Samuel 22—The older view maintained by Hengst. was that the origin of the double recension of this Psalm of thanksgiving (שִׁירָה instead of שִׁיר, which is used elsewhere in titles) was to be referred to David himself, and indeed so that 2 Samuel 22 is a later but independent variation, with expressions which were chosen, emphatic, and at times explanatory. Gramberg supposes an intentional revision of the text of the Psalm, but attempts (in Winer, Exeget. Stud.I. 1 to show, by a close comparison, that 2 Samuel 22 affords throughout easier and worse readings, by a different hand from that of the author. On the other hand, Von Lengerke (Comment. Crit., 1833), sought to show that the better readings are found now in the one, now in the other, that the deviations were not intentional, but accidental, occasioned by oral tradition, and the carelessness of the copyist; and that both texts have about the same value; that the orthography, however, on account of the less frequent use of the vowel signs, bears an ancient character. The latter is explained by Ewald from the use of an ancient MS. Hupfeld shows that even in the orthography no sure principle can be carried out, that most of the variations in 2 Samuel 22 do not at all deserve the preference sometimes given to them, and derives them from careless copying and tradition. Hitzig now again maintains the independence of both recensions, neither of which gives the original pure text entirely, yet he supposes that the form of the text of Psalms 18 is for the most part preferable, and explains it thus: That the Psalms incorporated in a historical book share the fate of all historical texts; the respect for their poetical form, rythm and movement very soon yielded and disappeared before the care for the simple sense, not to speak of the fact that the text was afterwards accented as prose, whilst in the book of Psalms it was accented as poetry. Delitzsch thinks that the annals of David (dibrê ha yamin) were the source of 2 Samuel 22, in which the Psalm had been incorporated, and from which likewise the historian derived much besides. He agrees with Hupfeld, but remarks that 2 Samuel 22 shows the license of popular language. Olsh. finds in this evidence of a free interpolation with literary productions before the close of the Canon.
Str. I. Psa_18:1. I love Thee affectionately [A. V., I will love thee].—אהב is elsewhere the only word used in Hebrew to express the love of men to God and the word used here, רחם, is found only in the Piel and in the sense of pity. But this word in the Aramaic has in the kal the meaning of love, and Aramaic expressions are not infrequent in the more ancient as well as in the later Hebrew writings. The proposal of Hitzig, therefore, to correct the ח by מ and change the vowel points, is unnecessary. The sense, which would be: “I will extol Thee,” would be very appropriate at the beginning of a song of praise and thanksgiving. But to doubt of an expression of love to God in the mouth of David, because among the ancient Hebrews the fear of God was alone proper, love only after Deu_6:5, is connected with a criticism of sacred history and its historical monuments, which condemns itself by its unavoidable necessity of doing violence to the text. In the parallel passage, 2 Samuel 22, this verse has manifestly fallen off, by shortening, whilst a compensation has been made by an enlargement of the next verse, which the accents then divide into two verses, by the addition, after the word fortress, of the clause: my refuge, my deliverer, who delivered me from violence. Likewise in the first line of this verse “my deliverer” is used as Psa_144:2, and in the second line: God (Elohe) my rock as Psa_18:46.
Psa_18:2. [There is in this verse a heaping up of metaphors, vid.Psalms 31; Psalms 71; Psalms 144 Perowne: “The images, which are most of them of a martial character, are borrowed from the experience of David’s life, and the perpetual struggles in which he was engaged. Some of them were suggested by the natural configuration of Palestine. Amid the ‘rocks’ and ‘fastnesses’ of his native land, and the ‘high tower’ perched on some inaccessible crag, he with his little band of outlaws, had often found a safe hiding-place from the wrath of Saul.”—My Rock.—Alexander: “As the rock (סֶלַע) of the first clause suggests the idea of concealment and security, so the rock (צוּר) of the second clause [A. V., ‘My strength’] suggests that of strength and immobility. The figure is borrowed from Deu_32:4, and reappears in Psa_92:15. Compare Isaiah’s phrase, rock of ages (Isa_26:4), and Jacob’s phrase, the stone of Israel (Gen_49:24.”14—My stronghold (A.V., fortress).—Hupf.: “מְצוּרָה is in general a strong and not easily accessible place, affording refuge and safety; a mountain, a cave, a wilderness, etc. Comp. 1Sa_23:14; 1Sa_23:19; 1Sa_24:1; Jdg_6:2; Isa_33:16; Job_39:28.”—My shield (A. V., buckler, a species of shield). Vid.Psa_3:4 and Gen_15:1, where God calls Himself Abram’s shield.”—C. A. B.]—Horn of my salvation.—The horn is frequently the figure of strength and victorious power, yet the reference here is not to attack, but to protection. Hence the figure is not borrowed from the horn of the buffalo (most interpreters), or indeed of the summits of mountains [called horns in many languages, e.g. Matterhorn, Faulhorn, etc.—C. A. B.], but of the altar,1Ki_2:28 (Hitzig).15—[My height (A. V., high tower)—Alexander: “The Hebrew word properly denotes a place so high as to be beyond the reach of danger.” It is a high rock or crag affording a safe refuge, vid.Psa_9:9.—C. A. B.]
Many interpreters, with the ancient translations (likewise Maurer, Hengst., Hupf.), regard Jehovah and Eli as subjects, the names which follow each time as His predicates, seven of which would thus be contained in Psa_18:2, to which Hengst. attaches some importance. Most recent interpreters, however (Hitzig and Delitzsch likewise), find as in all the names, so likewise in Jehovah and Eli, amplifications of the suffix of the verb, which begins the Psalm, yet not as its real object., but as taking up the vocative of the first line. Only Hitzig would change Eli into גאלי=my Redeemer, according to Ps. 19:15.
Str. II. Psa_18:3. Jehovah is not a vocative in this verse (Storr), but in apposition to the words placed before for emphasis: the one who is praised, that is, who is the subject of the praises of Israel, Psa_48:1; Psa_96:4; Psa_113:3; Psa_145:3; perhaps the glorious One (Hupf.), that is, He to whom glory and majesty is ascribed. The imperfects are not to be taken as futures (many ancient interpreters), since the following strophe shows that the reference is to praising God on account of Divine help already experienced; but hardly as preterites with reference to a previous special deliverance (Hitzig). It is true, they are thus used frequently from ver 6 onwards, but they depend upon the perfects which occur from Psa_18:4 on. If now these words which immediately follow are found to be a recapitulation of many particular experiences, the description of which makes use of the tempest, taken from other theophanes only as a figurative illustration (Ewald, Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch); then the imperfects are taken as indefinite designations of the past. In this not unusual poetical use they occur without doubt in Psa_18:20; Psa_18:28 sq. of this Psalm. But there it treats really of a recapitulation of particular and similar features with a retrospect of the moral action of the Psalmist and of the experiences made by him in consequence of this. Yet here the entire description seems to refer to a particular case, only it does not follow that Psa_18:3 should be put at the same time as Psa_18:6 a. The motto of the entire Psalm appears first, namely, in the form of a general clause prepared by the predicate used in calling upon Jehovah. But it is not necessary, on this account, to translate with G. Baur: praised be Jehovah, I cry.
Str. III. Psa_18:4. Bands of death.—The Sept. and the Rabbins translate sorrows [A. V.]; and 2 Samuel 22, where the clause begins with “then” [A. V., when], another word is used = waves. The parallel clauses agree very well with this, the verb not so well; and our reading is likewise in Psa_116:3, and is likewise very ancient (Calvin, Hupfeld).—Brooks of evil [A. V., floods of ungodly men]. —בְּלִיַּעַל– literally=not to go up, is generally but not exclusively used (Hengst.) for moral unthriftiness, as unworthiness; and is then taken by most interpreters as a personification of ungodly enemies and their attacks, by some (Jerome, Luther, J. H. Mich., Stier) is understood directly of the person of the devil, according to 2Co_6:15, comp. 2Sa_23:6; but the physical signification (Ruding.), partly recognized by Calv. and without doubt in Nah_1:11; Psa_41:8 (Hupf.), is recognized by most recent interpreters as here parallel with death and the lower world, yet not mythologically, the lower world with its streams (J. H. Mich.), but as abysmal evil and perdition.16
[Psa_18:5. Bands of the under-world (A. V., sorrows of hell).—For the explanation of Sheol or under-world vid.Psa_6:5.—Snares of death.—De Wette: “Snares of death are figurative of the danger of death; for slings and the like are frequent figures of danger and waylaying (Job_18:9-10; Psa_64:5; Psa_140:5).”—Prevented me.—Barnes: “The word here used in Hebrew, as our word prevent did originally, means to anticipate, to go before. The idea here is that those snares had, as it were, suddenly rushed upon him, or seized him. They came before him in his goings, and bound him fast.”—C. A. B.]17
[Psa_18:6. In my distress.—Under the experience of the brooks of evil, the snares of death and the bands of the under-world mentioned, probably referring to the anguish of the most trying periods of his persecution by Saul.—And cried.—The anxiety of soul demanding immediate relief expresses itself in the cry.—Temple.—Perowne: “Not the temple or tabernacle on Mt. Zion, but the temple in heaven wherein God especially manifests His glory, and where He is worshipped by the heavenly hosts—a place which is both temple and palace.”—And my cry came before him.—Barnes: “It was not intercepted on the way, but came up to Him.”—Into his ears.—“Indicating that He certainly heard it.” The cry of the suffering Psalmist, in peril of death, speeds its way with more than the speed of light, to the palace of Jehovah, to His very presence, into His very ears, and the response is given with the same wonderful directness by Jehovah. Perowne: “The deliverance is now pictured as a magnificent theophany. God comes to rescue His servant as He came of old to Sinai, and all nature is moved at His coming. Similar descriptions of the Divine manifestation, and of the effects produced by it, occur Psa_68:7-8; Psa_77:14-20; Exodus 19; Jdg_5:4; Amo_9:5; Mic_1:3; Habakkuk 3; but the image is nowhere so fully carried out as here. David’s deliverance was, of course, not really accompanied by such convulsions of nature, by earthquake, and fire, and tempest, but his deliverance, or rather his manifold deliverances, gathered into one as he thinks of them, appear to him as a marvellous proof of the Divine Power, as verily effected by the immediate presence and finger of God, as if He had come down in visible form to accomplish them. The image is carefully sustained throughout. First, we have the earthquake, and then, as preluding the storm, and as herald of God’s wrath, the blaze of the lightning (Psa_18:7-8). Next, the thick gathering of clouds, which seem to touch and envelop the earth; the wind, and the darkness which shrouds Jehovah riding on the cherubim (9–11). Lastly, the full outburst of the storm, the clouds parting before the presence and glory of Jehovah, and pouring upon the earth the burden with which they were heavy—the thunder, and the lightning, and the hail,—the weapons of Jehovah by which, on the one hand, He discomfits His enemies, and, on the other, lays bare the depths of the sea, and the very foundations of the world, that He may save His servant who trusts in Him (11–16).”—C. A. B.]
Str. IV. Psa_18:7. Foundations of the mountains [A. V., hills].—2 Samuel 22 has instead of the earth, the heavens, and it is generally understood of the mountains as the pillars of the heavens (Job_26:11). [Jehovah is represented as moved, by the cry of the suffering Psalmist, to anger, His wrath is kindled against His enemies with the brooks of evil and the snares of death. The earth and its foundations shake under the emotions of Divine wrath.—Smoke in his nostrils.—Hupfeld: “Wrath is poetically represented as the nose snorting, taken from the action of an angry man (Calv., Geier), or rather beast, as a horse, lion (Rosenm.), comp. particularly the description of the crocodile, Job_41:11 sq.; as then that is indeed the proper meaning of אף (from אנף snort, that is, breathe through the nose), and hence likewise among the Greeks and Romans the nose was the seat and organ of wrath. Here it is increased to smoke. as it is often said of the wrath of God, אַפּוֹ יֶעְשַׁן, His nose (or His wrath) smokes, Psa_74:1; Psa_80:4; Deu_29:19. This is connected with fire (as Isa_65:5), the usual figure of wrath in all languages, and here indeed from His mouth, parallel with the smoke in the nose, as with the crocodile, Job_41:13.”—Burning coals blazed from it, that is, from the mouth, parallel with fire out of His mouth devoured (Hupfeld, Delitzsch, et al.), not as the A. V., coals were kindled by it.—Delitzsch: “When God is angry, according to the Old Testament ideas, the power of wrath present in Him is kindled, and flames up, and breaks forth. The snorting of wrath may therefore be called the smoke of the fire of wrath (Psa_74:1; Psa_80:3); smoke is as the breath of fire and the violent hot breath, which is drawn in and out through the nose of the wrathful (comp. Job_41:12), is as smoke, which curls upward from the internal fire of wrath. The fire of wrath “devours out of the mouth.” that is, flames forth from the mouth, devouring all that it lays hold of, with men in angry words, with God in fiery powers of nature which correspond with His wrath and serve it, especially the fire of the lightning. It is first of all the lightning which is here compared to the flaming up of glowing coals. The power of the wrath of God, realizing itself, becomes a flame, and before its fire is entirely discharged, announces itself in lightnings.” The reference in this strophe is to the approaching storm with its distant flashes of lightning.—C. A. B.]
Str. V. Psa_18:9. [He bowed the heavens and came down.—The storm is near at hand, the dark masses of clouds descend and seem almost to touch the earth, vid.Psa_144:5; Exo_19:18; Isa_64:1. Parallel with this is the second clause.—Dark clouds under his feet.—Comp. Nah_1:3 sq., where the clouds are called the “dust of His feet.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:10. [He rode upon the cherub and did fly.—As in the preceding verse the presence of Jehovah in the dark and overhanging storm-cloud is represented by His agency in bowing the clouds and treading them down to the earth, so in this verse His presence in the strong wind which precedes the outbreaking of the storm is represented by His riding upon the cherub. The cherub is used here as a collective for the plural. The cherubim are composite creatures, embracing in one the forms of the ox, the lion, the eagle and man; they represent in the unity of their conception the entire creation in its most perfect form as the servant of Jehovah, through the faces and forms of the four most prominent and characteristic creatures which reflect the attributes and glory of God. They are represented as the bearers of the throne of Jehovah (Ezekiel 1, 10), the guardians of Eden (Gen_3:24), and the most holy place and the mercy-seat. They fly in a whirlwind and with flaming fire and lightning (Eze_1:4; Eze_1:13), and “the noise of their wings is like the noise of great waters” (Eze_1:24), the glory of God is above the cherubim which form His living chariot.18—C. A. B.]
Soar on the wings of the wind [A. V., fly].—2 Samuel 22 has instead of soar a weaker word, He appeared [A. V., was seen], yet not in all MSS.; perhaps it originated merely by a slip of the pen, changing ד into ר. [This clause is parallel with the preceding; the wind which accompanies the chariot of the cherubim is represented as winged. As Jehovah rides upon the cherubic car, He soars, borne by the wings of the wind, vid.Psa_104:3; Isa_66:15; Nah_1:3. Hupfeld, with Calvin, thinks that the cherub here represents the storm wind, or the clouds; Riehm, that we have here an indication of the original meaning of the cherub, but it is better to regard the clauses as parallel yet distinct in idea, Jehovah rides upon the cherubic chariot as the God of the Covenant, and soars on the wings of the wind as the God of nature.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:11. He made darkness His veil [A. V., His secret place.—Barnes: “The word rendered secret place—סֵתֶר—means properly a hiding; then something hidden, private, secret. Hence it means a covering, a veil. Comp. Job_22:14; Job_24:15. Here the meaning seems to be that God was encompassed with darkness. He had, as it were, wrapped Himself in night, and made His abode in the gloom of the storm.”—Round about him belongs to covering and not to pavilion, as A. V.—His tent is parallel with veil and dependent upon the same verb, not with the copula, as in A. V. (His pavilion were). C. A. B.].—2 Samuel 22 has, instead of darkness of waters [A. V., dark waters], a word, which has originated perhaps by a slip of the pen, to which according to the Arabic we can only give the meaning of “collection of waters.” 2 Samuel 22 has likewise: He made darkness tabernacles round about Him, which is a weakening of the idea of the Psalm. [This verse is a description of the storm in its momentary lull, before bursting forth. The angry Jehovah stays His cherubic car, veils Himself with the dark clouds, and piles up the darkness of waters and the thick clouds like a tent in which He meant to dwell.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:12. [Hupfeld: “Finally the storm of Divine wrath breaks forth and discharges itself in thunder, hail and lightnings, etc., on the heads of the wicked.”—C. A. B ] The reading of 2 Samuel 22, from the brightness before Him coals of fire burned [A. V., Through the brightness before Him were coals of fire kindled] is easier. Many interpreters likewise would blot out the strange word “His clouds,” and translate: hail and coals of fire went forth, or rushed forth (Hupf.). If this remain, our translation, after Hupf. and Delitzsch, is the best recommended: From the brightness before him passed through his clouds hail and coals of fire.—For the interpretations: “vanished” (Alex., Jerome, Calv.), or “broke up,” so that hail and coals of fire went forth (Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., Rosenm.), or that the last words are to be taken as an outcry of astonishment (Hengst., Ewald, Olsh.), are doubtful and find no support in the parallel words in Psa_18:13 (G. Baur), as if the repeated breaking forth of the lightning would be pictured by the restoration of those words which had been taken away. For in Psa_18:13, these words not only are lacking in 2 Samuel 22, but likewise in the Sept. of our Psalm; they disturb the structure of the verse, and find no support (as Hengst. contends) in the reference to Exo_9:23, where the connection of words is different. If, however, their dependence upon the verb, sent forth [A. V., gave], is maintained, then the poetry of that interpretation is lost. [The A. V., “At the brightness (that was) before Him His thick clouds passed, hail (stones) and coals of fire,” does not give a good sense. The idea is that Jehovah discharged through the darkness that veiled His brightness the weapons of His wrath, hail and coals of fire. Comp. the description of the destruction of the Canaanites, Jos_10:11, fire mingled with hail plaguing the Egyptians, Exo_9:24, so also in Isa_28:17; Isa_30:30.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:13. Instead of in the heavens,2 Samuel 22 has the reading: from heaven, which most interpreters prefer.
Psa_18:14. The suffix êm [them, object of the verb, scattered and discomfited] refers not to the arrows and lightnings (ancient interpreters), but to the enemies, who are not named, it is true, yet are before the mind of the Psalmist. Ewald refers it to the waters which are directly mentioned, on account of the easy grammatical connection. Instead of He shot (or He threw, which meaning רב has in Gen_49:23), many interpreters read here, in place of the verb, the well-known adverb rab=many, in abundance.
[Str. VI. Psa_18:15. This storm of Divine wrath not only scattered and discomfited the enemies of the Psalmist as the Canaanites before Joshua, and the Egyptians before Moses, but likewise burst in fury upon the earth, laying bare the beds of the waters, as of the Red Sea and the Jordan, for the passage of the Israelites, disclosing the foundations of the world. This was accomplished by the strong wind, the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.—C. A. B.]
[Str. VII. Psa_18:16. The Psalmist here leaves the figure of the Theophany and returns to the more simple ideas of Strophe III. He realizes once more his own personal danger, in peril of death and exposed to the brooks of evil and the bands of Sheol. Jehovah reached from above—He stretched forth His hand (not as in A. V., He sent from above), He laid hold of me (A. V., took me, not so good), and drew me up out of great waters, that is, the brooks of evil, which have well nigh overwhelmed the Psalmist and snared him in their bands of death. Nothing can be more simple and touchingly beautiful than this description of his deliverance. Alexander supposes a reference here to the “historical fact and the typical meaning of the deliverance of Moses, and a kind of claim upon the part of David to be regarded as another Moses.”
Psa_18:17. The Psalmist now leaves his figures of speech and states in simple terms that Jehovah delivered him from his strong enemy. This strong enemy was probably Saul.
Psa_18:18. They fell upon me in the day of my calamity (A. V., prevented me, incorrect); but Jehovah was his support; they could not overcome Him.
Psa_18:19. Large place.—He brought him forth from his straits of trouble, and gave him ample room to recover himself and extend himself to his heart’s content, vid.Psa_4:1.—C. A. B.]
[Str. VIII. Psa_18:20-23. This strophe gives the reason why Jehovah delighted in him and delivered him. His profession of personal integrity is like that of the previous Psalm (Psa_17:3). Perowne: “The words are, in truth, words of child-like, open-hearted simplicity, not of arrogant boastfulness.” They are not inconsistent with the latter period of his life. David in his life was guilty of great sins and suffered Divine chastisements and confessed that he was receiving the penalty of his crimes, yet in this Psalm, where he is praising the deliverances of his God, he likewise shows that these were testimonies of Divine favor to him and of approval of his uprightness and integrity. If in other Psalms David is sincere in his confessions under the experience of Divine chastisement, he is likewise sincere in this Psalm in his professions under the experience of Divine deliverances. The penitential Psalms stand for themselves and the Psalms which assert innocence and uprightness stand for themselves, there is no inconsistency if we recognize the difference of experience in the godly man as expressed in these two classes of Psalms. Delitzsch: “In this strophe Psalms 18 has the same tone as Psalms 17. and for this reason it follows it. Compare the testimony of David himself 1Sa_26:23 sq., the testimony of God 1Ki_14:8, the testimony of history 1Ki_15:5; 1Ki_11:4.”—C. A. B.]
Str. IX. Psa_18:25. 2 Samuel 22 has instead of man,hero [A. V. does not distinguish, but has man in both versions—C. A. B.]. The other, differences in this section are still less important and relate only to grammatical forms or differences in orthography. [Barnes: “From the particular statement respecting the Divine dealings with himself the Psalmist now passes to a general statement (suggested by what God had done for him) in regard to the general principles of the Divine administration. That general statement is, that God deals with men according to their character; or that He will adapt His providential dealings to the conduct of men. They will find Him to be such towards them as they have shown themselves to be towards Him.” Delitzsch: “The truth here expressed, is not that the idea which man forms of God is constantly the mirror of his soul, but that the dealing of God with men is the mirror of the relation in which God puts Himself to him.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:27. In 2 Samuel 22 is either: Thine eyes Thou didst let fall upon the proud; or, Thine eyes (look) upon the proud, (whom) Thou dost humiliate [A. V., Thine eyes (are) upon the haughty (that) Thou mayest bring (them) down].
Str. X. Psa_18:28. Thou makest light my lamp [A. V., “Thou wilt light my candle.” The Hebrew imperfects are not here futures but indefinite designations of continued and incomplete action.—C. A. B.]. Lamp not=light=happiness (the majority of interpreters), but burning lamp, the putting out of which shows the desolation of the tabernacle, the abandonment of the house (Harmar, Beob. aus dem Orient, I. 180 sq.), and therefore is frequently used as figurative of destruction and ruin, as well of the individual (Job_18:6; Job_21:17; Jer_25:10; Pro_13:9; Pro_20:20; Pro_24:20), as particularly of his race (2Sa_21:17); as the continual burning and care of the lamp serves as a figure of the preservation of life and the condition of prosperity (Job_29:3; Pro_31:18), and is especially applied to the continuance of the house of David (1Ki_11:36; 1Ki_15:4; 2Ki_8:19; Psa_132:17; De Wette, Hupf., Delitzsch). This passage is abbreviated in 2 Samuel 22, and so used that Jehovah Himself is called the lamp of David. In 2 Samuel 22 “my God” is lacking in the second member of the verse.
[Psa_18:29. For by thee I run upon troops, and by my God I leap over walls (A. V., I have run through a troop. … have I leaped over a wall).—The imperfects are not preterites, but are indefinite, as generally in this Psalm (vid. notes on Psa_18:3). Barnes: “The word troop here refers to bands of soldiers, or hosts of enemies. The word rendered run through [A. V.] means properly to run; and then, as here, to run or rush upon in a hostile sense; to rush with violence upon one. The idea here is, that he had been enabled to rush with violence upon his armed opposers; that is, to overcome them and secure a victory. The allusion is to the wars in which he had been engaged.” The second clause carries on the idea of the first, he attacks the troops of his enemies, he breaks their ranks, he rushes upon their fortified towns, he mounts and leaps over their walls and captures them. Comp. Joe_2:7. This had been his experience of the gracious help of his God who had enabled him to do this.—C. A. B.]
[Str. XI. Psa_18:30. Delitzsch: “הָאֵל [(As for) God, A. V.] is nom. abs. as הַצּוּר, Deu_32:4; this ancient Mosaic expression sounds here again as 2Sa_7:22, in the mouth of David. The article of הָאֵל points to the God historically revealed. His way is faultless and unblamable. His word is צְרוּפָה, not drossy ore, but pure gold, freed from dross, Psa_12:7. He who withdraws himself in Him, the God of promise, is shielded from all dangers. Pro_30:5 is borrowed from this passage.”
Psa_18:31. Hupfeld: “Jehovah alone is true God, that is, Who can and will help. This is parallel with צוּר, rock (comp. Psa_18:2), here used at once, as the name of God, as Deu_32:4; Deu_32:15; Deu_32:18; Deu_32:30 sq., 37; Isa_44:8, etc.; frequently as a clause in contrast with the vain idols, especially Deu_32:31; 1Sa_2:2; but likewise with all the false props and idle hopes on which man gladly builds instead of on God only (Calv.).”—C. A. B.]
[Str. XII. Psa_18:32. The God who girdeth me with strength. (A. V. (It is) God that). The reference is to “our God” of Psa_18:31. Alexander: The imparting of a quality or bestowing of a gift is in various languages described as clothing. Thus the English words endue and invest have almost lost their original meaning. The figure of girding is peculiarly significant, because in the oriental dress the girdle is essential to all free and active motion.—My way perfect.—Hupfeld: “Manifestly is correlative of the same phrase, Psa_18:30 applied to God, as the effect of it and thereby mediately the same as, even, easy, free, that is a successful way.”
Psa_18:33. He maketh my feet like hind’s feet. Barnes: “So Hab_3:19. He will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.’ The hind is the female deer, remarkable for fleetness or swiftness. The meaning here is, that God had made him alert or active, enabling him to pursue a flying enemy, or to escape from a swift-running foe.”19—And setteth me upon my high places. Alexander: “My heights, those which are to be mine by right of conquest and by Divine gift. The heights may be the natural highlands of the country or the artificial heights of its fortified places.”20
Psa_18:34. He teacheth my hands to war.—Barnes: “The skill which David had in the use of the bow, the sword, or the spear, all of which depends on the hands,—he ascribes entirely to God.”—And mine arms bend the bow of brass.—(A. V., incorrectly, “So that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.”) Perowne: “נִחֲתָה, not (as Kimchi) Niph. of חתת ‘is broken’ but Piel of נחת, ‘to press down and so to bend,’ so Hupf., De Wette, Ewald, Delitzsch, Alexander, et al. Perowne: “Here the bending of a bow of brass (or bronze, rather, χαλκός, which seems to have been tempered, and rendered pliable like steel with us), indicates his great strength (comp. Job_20:24.) In Homer, Ulysses leaves behind him at Ithaca a bow which no one but himself could bend.”—C. A. B.]
Str. XIII. Psa_18:35. Condescension,—[A. V., gentleness]. The word עֲנָוָה always means, merely the bowing of one’s self and not the humiliation of another. Therefore the translation of Luther, after the Sept., Vulg., “If Thou humiliatest me, Thou makest me great,” is inadmissible. It is true this word, which expresses the idea of humility (Pro_15:32; Pro_22:4) is used with reference to God only in this passage; since however in Psa_45:4 it denotes the corresponding attribute of the condescension of the king, it is unnecessary to explain, with Hitzig, after the Arabic; Thy care, favor; or with Olsh. to correct עַנְוָתְךָ with עֶזְרָתְךָ that is thy help. The reading 2 Sam. עֲנֹתְךָ is hardly to be explained as if the ו merely quiesces (Kimchi); still less is the meaning to be forced by altering the vowel points עַגֹתְךָ (J. H. Mich., Hengst.) to that of ‘humility’ (Sept., Pesch., Theod., Symm.); but to translate, there, with the Chald., Thy hearing [A. V. does not distinguish but uses the same word, gentleness.—C. A. B.]
[Psa_18:36. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.—Barnes: “The idea here is, ‘Thou hast made room for my feet, so that I have been enabled to walk without hindrance or obstruction.’ So in Psa_31:8, ‘Thou hast set my feet in a large room.’ The idea is, that he was before straitened, compressed, hindered in his goings, but that now all obstacles had been taken out of the way, and he could walk freely.—That my feet did not slip. Margin, ‘mine ankles.’ The Hebrew word means properly a joint; small joint; especially the ankle. The reference here is to the ankle, the joint that is so useful in walking, and that is so liable to be sprained or dislocated. The meaning is that he had been enabled to walk firmly; that he did not limp.”—C. A. B.]
[Str. XIV. Psa_18:37-40. The consequences of Divine assistance were the subjugation and destruction of his enemies. Delitzsch: “Thus fighting in God’s strength, with God’s weapons and under God’s assistance he beat, subjected, annihilated all his enemies in domestic and foreign wars. According to Hebrew syntax, all this is retrospective.
Psa_18:40. And my enemies, Thou gavest to me the back.—(A. V. Thou hast also given me the neck of mine enemies. Hupfeld: “נתן צרֶֹף., is elsewhere intransitive (2Ch_29:6.)= פנה עֹרֶף ,חפךְ עֹרֶף (Jos_7:8; Jos_7:12) to turn the back=terga dare, vertere, flee; is here causative to make the enemies’ backs that is fugitives as Exo_23:27, and in like sense Psa_21:12. שּׁית שְׁכֶם to make backs: necks, backs,=present their necks or backs to the pursuers, who see them only on this side and thus only as necks and backs. Comp. Jer_18:17. “I will see them as backs and not as face, that is behind and not before.” So Gesen., De Wette, Delitzsch, Perowne, Alexander, et al. Barnes, however, prefers the A. V. and understands it “complete subjection,—as when the conqueror places his foot on the necks of his foes.”—C. A. B.
Str. XV. Psa_18:41. 2 Samuel 22 has, they looked [instead of, they cried]. [Delitzsch: “Their prayer to their idols and even to Jehovah forced by necessity, because it was directed to Him for their own interests and too late, was vain.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:42. 2 Samuel 22 has: “dust of the earth” [instead of dust before the wind]; and in the second member again: “I did stamp them.” [Barnes: “As the fine dust is driven by the wind, so they fled before me. There could be no more striking illustration of a discomfited army flying before a conqueror.”—As the dust in the streets.—Barnes: “The idea is, that he poured them out, for so the Hebrew word means, as the dirt or mire in the streets. As that is trodden on, or trampled down so they, instead of being marshalled for battle, were wholly disorganized, scattered and left to be trodden down as the most worthless object is.”—C. A. B.]
Str. XVI. Psa_18:43. Strifes of the people—This is referred by Hengst., Hitzig, Delitzsch, to the internal conflicts with reference to Saul and Absalom, and they then explain in the same way the reading 2 Samuel 22עַמִּי= my people; whilst Olsh. supplies the thought, “with other nations;” and the Rabbins regard this form as plural. Many likewise regard the עם of the Psalm as plural, which however with this interpretation is best regarded as collective (Hupf.) But the goyim in the following member favors the first mentioned interpretation, as likewise in the third member the עם acquires by the following relative clause, the closer meaning of people previously unknown to the Psalmist, as foreign and distant. In the first member the construction is like Isa_26:2; Isa_49:8; 2 Samuel 22 has [in the second clause]: thou hast kept me as, or thou preservedst me to be, the head of the heathen.—[Head of the heathen. Hupfeld. “It is questionable whether this is historical of the subjection of some foreign nations, or whether it is not rather in ideal universality=sovereignty of the world, as Psalms 22.” It is probable that it has rather a historical reference. This is more in keeping with the entire Psalm as retrospective.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:44. At the hearing of the ear.—This is regarded by most interpreters as in contrast to their own beholding (Job_42:5,)=they heard, without seeing me, or as soon as the sound of command from the distance had come to them, or better, as soon as they heard the report of the name and victories of David, (Deu_2:25; Jos_6:27; Jos_9:9 : Isa_23:5). On account of the mention of obedience, which immediately follows, others (Stier, Hupf., Camph), regard the expression as like the German, “at the word of,” with reference to the command they had received and its prompt execution. Sachs supposes a repetition of the previous word and explains: “They only know me by the knowledge of the ear.”—Sons of foreign parts dissembled to me.—[A. V. Strangers shall submit themselves. Alexander: “Sons of outlands will lie.”—C. A. B]. The humble expressions of the conquered, which have been forced, are often mentioned as lies, hypocrisy and flattery.
Psa_18:45. The sons of foreign parts faded away.—The victorious power of David has struck them as a fiery wind (Isa_40:7), therefore they wither away.—Trembled [A. V., be afraid]. It follows from Mic_7:17, comp. Hos_11:11, that חרג must have the meaning of tremble. It is likewise found in cognate dialects. The word used in 2 Samuel 22 instead of this חגר which many MSS. and ancient translations likewise have in the Psalm, means, gird themselves, which, however, is an unusual expression of equipping oneself for flight. The meaning, limp (Sept. Vulg., Pesch., Kimchi), however, occurs in cognate dialects and is accepted by Hitzig.
Str. XVII. Psa_18:46. Hitzig, likewise, with many recent interpreters, regards Psa_18:46 sq. as optative, as if the cry of homage and rejoicing addressed to the king, which, however is יְחִי (1Sa_10:24; 1Ki_1:39), is here applied to God. But it is better with Sept., Jerome, Cleric., to regard these words as declarative clauses in the sense of doxologies (Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch).
Psa_18:47. The rare word used here for subdue, [יַדְבֵּר] is in 2 Samuel 22 supplied by the usual word [ירד].
Psa_18:48. Many interpreters understand the Man of violence to be particularly Saul (even Hitzig and Hengst.). Most interpreters regard the expression as collective (Pro_3:31).
Str. XVIII. Psa_18:49-50. [Delitzsch: “The praise of such a God, who does to David as He has promised, is not to remain limited to the narrow space of Israel. If the Anointed of God makes war upon the heathen with the sword, yet it is that finally the blessing of the knowledge of Jehovah, and the salvation of Jehovah which he serves as mediator, may break its way to them in this manner. With entire propriety Paul, Rom_15:9, adduces Psa_18:49 of this Psalm, together with Deu_32:43, and Psa_117:1, as proof that salvation belongs likewise to the Gentiles according to the Divine mercy. What is stated in verse 50 as the reason and the subject of the praise which extends beyond Israel; is if David is its author, as Hitzig recognizes, a very consistent echo of the Messianic promise, 2Sa_7:12-16. And Theodoret without impropriety appeals to the closing words עַד־עוֹלָם against the Jews. In whom else, than in Christ, the Son of David, has David’s fallen throne enduring existence, and all that has been promised to David’s seed, everlasting truth and reality? The praise of Jehovah, the God of David His anointed, is, according to its final meaning, praise of the Father of Jesus Christ”—C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. In a thankful and pious heart the demonstrations of the love of God beget a sincere and hearty return of love, in the expression of which the feelings of affection meet it and pervade it with the recognition of great obligations and the vow of entire consecration, (Deu_6:5). Those, however, who love the Lord, are as the sun, which ascends in its power (Jdg_5:31). It is not in vain that they take refuge with God, who is the strength of those who trust in Him, and on the one side delivers and protects them, on the other fills them with strength to continue in the hope of faith.
2. The thankful retrospect of previous deliverances strengthens the faith in future help from God; and he who bears in mind, that the God invoked by him is the Lord of Glory, whom the congregation praises with adoration, joins in, on his part with one song of praise after another and finds his joy in the declaration of the benefits of God, his pleasure in the glory of the Lord. Ecclesia semper vincit semperque pugnat et superatis præteritis malis paratus ad futura mala superanda. (Luther).
3. God’s being enthroned on high and dwelling in the heavens, does not separate Him from His servants on earth; it merely exhibits Him in His exaltation above all the powers of the world and the Abyss; it no more prevents Him from hearing the sighs and supplications of the oppressed, than from making known His presence to help in gracious condescension to the needs of men.
4. The revelations of God in the world are not always accompanied by striking phenomena in nature, still less are thunder and lightning His constant attendants or the sure sign of His coming. But partly, the appearance of God in history has really at times been announced and accompanied by such phenomena (Exodus 19; Psalms 68; Psalms 77; Habakkuk 3; Hag_2:7; 2Th_1:8); partly, God as Lord of nature uses them as the instruments employed by Him, and means to deliver His servants and punish their enemies. It is, however, of great importance, to recognize the work of the Lord therein, and amidst the shaking of the world, through the powers of nature’s life, to discern the grasp of the hand of God.
5. To behold the form of the Divine Being is still future and yet to be expected (Psa_17:15). Hence the Theophanies of the Old Testament are all partly typical, partly symbolical; they are mysteries as well as revelations. It is particularly the clouds, which veil the light, which is not to be endured by mortal eyes (Exo_23:20, and elsewhere) and is inaccessible to any creature (1Ti_6:16), in which God dwells and which forms as the reflection of His light-nature, the resplendence of His glory, δοξα, כבוד, and so the approach of man to God is partly made possible, partly declared. This figurative language is taken partly from the sphere of the phenomena of nature which are visible in the heavens, in accordance with which light is called His garment (Psa_104:2), the clouds His tent (Job_36:29; Psalms 97), the thunder His voice (Psa_18:13; Job_37:2), lightning, however, and the storm as instruments of His righteous punishments (Jdg_5:4; Isa_30:27 sq., Isa_50:3; Isa_68:8; Psalms 97), often in connection with earthquakes (Psa_77:18; Psa_114:4; Joel 2:10; 4:16; Nah_1:5; Is. 24:28). At the basis of the symbolism of nature lies the idea, that certain peculiarities in the nature and action of God correspond with it. Thence God Himself is at times described as present and active in these phenomena of nature, not merely accompanied by them, and in bold but contemplative expressions the stirring up and expression of His wrath is represented as the kindling of His light-nature in all the turns of fiery and flaming figures, until that smoke issues from His nostrils snorting with wrath (Deu_19:9; Psa_74:1; Psa_80:4), and devouring fire from His mouth, (comp. the description of the crocodile, Job_41:10 sq.), from the coals which glow within Him. These natural phenomena, not so much in themselves, as under certain circumstances and more particular forms, form partly the symbol, partly the means of a Theophany. In the present description the personal interference of God to deliver His servant and judge His enemies, although accompanied by natural phenomena is yet particularly characterized by the mention of the Cherub. For however questionable the etymology and precise meaning of this word may be, yet this much is certain, that the forms thereby designated as well in their artistic representation upon the ark of the covenant, (Exodus 25) and in the temple in manifold ways; as in the prophet’s vision (Ezekiel 1; Ezekiel 10; Revelation 4), where they are represented as living beings, not less than in the narrative, (Genesis 3) and in the standing representation of Jehovah, that He is enthroned above the Cherubim (Num_7:89; 1Sa_4:4; 1Sa_6:2; 2Ki_19:15; Isa_37:16), constantly appeal in the closest relation to the revelation of the royal majesty of Jehovah in the world. On this very account they are in a direct connection with the clouds which indicate the presence of God in the world and are the means of His appearance, as then the Shekinah likewise has its place between the wings of the Cherubim (Lev_16:2; Num_7:89). From this follows, that these are neither a further symbol of these clouds (Riehm, de natura et notione symbolica Cheruborum 1864), nor in our passage merely a finishing of the figure, that Jehovah rides upon the wind-clouds (Calv. Hupf.: Psa_104:3; Isa_19:1; Isa_66:15; Nah_1:3). Still less, are they to be compared with the mythological thunder horses of the king of heaven. (J. D. Mich.).
6. He who is deprived of all means of resistance to his enemies, seems entirely given over into their power, and yet has God still as his friend, that man is not entirely lost; his day of misfortune becomes a day noteworthy to him for his deliverance by the hand of the Lord, who delivers His elect from all the straits of trouble. Election, however, is not arbitrary, the love of God is not a blind and unrighteous predilection, His good pleasure is not an unreasonable favor. A reciprocity of action, an interchange of a moral character takes place, which has as its contents the thought of recompense, for its foundation the ethical nature of God, by virtue of which God not only appears to every man, as he himself is minded and situated, but likewise on His part acts in a way corresponding to this (1Sa_26:23; Isa_29:14; Isa_31:3; Job_5:13; Pro_3:34). But he who pleads the purity of his hands and the honesty of his heart and his walking in the ways of God, must see to it, that self-praise is not heard in it, such as springs from self-righteousness, but that it is only a testimony of the fruitfulness, with which a man has served God and kept himself from trespasses, and which presupposes entire consecration to God, and declares itself as judging oneself with and according to God’s word and law. Such a self-witness is then confirmed by the judgment of God (1Ki_14:8). In this connection there can be no reference to pride and self-exaltation, inasmuch as the thought of recompense includes likewise the certainty of the humiliation of the proud (Isa_2:11), whom Jehovah hates (Pro_6:17).
7. Jehovah is the only true and real God. He alone can and will help. It is well for him, who relies upon His providence, trusts in His promises, resorts to His protection. He will experience the Divine assistance, so that he, armed with power from on high, not only escapes the attacks of his enemies, but is in a position, to completely overcome his adversaries, whose cry to God is not heard, because it is not a cry of prayer from a heart turned to God, but is only a cry of anxiety, extorted by necessity.
8. The difference between the Old and New Testament is very clearly to be recognized in the treatment of enemies and the description of them. It is true on the one side that even in the Old Testament private revenge is repudiated and God is declared to be the avenger of blood already. Gen_9:5. On the other side likewise in the New Testament the magistrates are represented as the servants of God who bear the sword (Rom_13:4). And the reference here in this Psalm is to the duty of the king. But a Christian king who has won victories over the enemies of Divine ordinances and institutions through Divine assistance and had as a duty to make an end not only of the actions but likewise of the life of the adversaries of the kingdom of God, could not immediately use either for his thanksgiving or his vows at the celebration of victory, some of the expressions used here. The authority for transferring and transforming them from the Old Testament into the New Testament stand-point lies in the fact that David mentions the exhibitions of vengeance as given to him by God, whereby they receive their justification and at the same time their limitation.
9. Thanksgiving for all the help, protection, and benefits received from God, are not to be limited to the sphere of those who have directly participated therein, but are to be heard as far as possible. And it is not only to resound in all the world, but is intentionally to be carried into all the world. He who understands his position as a servant of God, whether it be high or low, has likewise to lay hold of the task of declaring God as his own, and to unite with it the work of spreading abroad the name of God among those who know Him not. The heathen are not to be combated with the sword, but with the word of God; the blessing of the knowledge of God, however, is the best means of healing the wounds of war.
10. The everlasting continuance of that which David has thankfully laid hold of for himself and his seed in faith in the certainty of the Divine promise, and which he partly lauds, partly praises in Messianic hope, is, after the earthly throne of David’s line had long fallen, secured and pledged by Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul, in Rom_15:9, therefore cites likewise Psa_18:49 of this Psalm, together with Deu_32:43, and Psa_117:1, as an evidence that the heathen likewise are to attain the salvation in Christ according to the mercy of God, and in order to this end are to hear the preaching of the Gospel, and to be received and treated as members of the Christian Church. “When David gives thanks for his victories, he at the same time prepares a prophecy of Christ’s person and victories.” (Luther).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
With God! That is the true watchword in war and in peace.—A pious king gains one victory after another in domestic strifes and foreign wars.—The Almighty, at times, makes use of the powers of nature in a striking manner in order to accomplish His purposes. It is necessary to observe the government of God in natural phenomena not less than in historical events. God reveals Himself in natural phenomena likewise; but at the same time He veils Himself in them. There is no need so great, but that God can deliver us from it.—He who has perceived the hand of the Lord on himself, and gives the glory to God for the salvation he has received, is capable of being a servant of God, and is able to become in the hand of the Lord an instrument of the Divine judgment, and a tool of Divine grace.—God blesses His servants likewise with temporal goods, chiefly, however, with eternal salvation, but both by grace.—God in His action, governs Himself according to the conduct of men; and yet the cause and foundation of our salvation is not human righteousness, but Divine grace.—God is a just Rewerder; but there is a great difference between the reward of grace and punishment.—The name of God is likewise to be proclaimed among the heathen, for this David and his seed on whom the Divine grace rests forever, have an incomparable importance.—Even the most pious man has not yet complete moral perfection; but sincere piety brings abiding blessing; for it leads to both these things, to observation of the law and seeking of grace.—He who earnestly strives to avoid guilt, directs his attention to the Divine law.
Bugenhagen: If it please God that we should suffer for His glory and the salvation of ourselves and others how can we refuse.
Starke: If David, when at the height of his glory, called himself the servant of the Lord in order to show his deep humility, then be ye likewise thus minded; the higher thou art humble yourself the more.—This great king ascribes his deliverance from his enemies not to his own power, but to the Lord, in whose honor he sings a song of praise; would that he had many followers now among the great of this world!—Hearty love to God arises from believing knowledge and reflection upon His benefits.—If God is our rock, who will overthrow us? If He is our stronghold, then we are safe; if He is our deliverer, He will not let us alone in our necessity; if He is our retreat, we are invincible; if He is our shield, no arrow will hit us; yes, if He is the horn of our salvation, no one will deprive us of our salvation.—Believers not only cry to God when they are in distress (even the ungodly do this) but they pray always; yet their longing for grace is redoubled, the more their need increases. The signs of God’s wrath in nature are indeed terrible, but they are not to be reckoned in comparison with the everlasting and horrible punishments of hell.—No abyss has ever been so deep, no enemy so cruel and powerful, and no disaster so terrible, as to put to shame the confidence of believers in their God.—According as you behave towards God, so you have Him; if you seek Him as a gracious God, you will find Him such; if you regard God as your Father, He will regard you as His child; if however you mock His children, beware, He will mock you again (Pro_1:24 sq.)—God is not only almighty and gracious for Himself, but all that He is, He is to those who hope in Him.—Our God in the highest is He, whose power the idols of the heathen have experienced.—Victory over our enemies must be sought from God, and not ascribed to our own strength and wisdom; yet we are not to reject the use of proper means (1Ki_20:13 sq.)—A believer must use aright the power of God, and not leave off the struggle until the enemies are overcome.—The ungodly likewise pray, but with impenitent hearts, and not from true faith, therefore God likewise does not hear such prayers (Joh_9:31).—That is a blessed revenge of the Messiah, when God brings His enemies to repent of their wickedness and accept Him as their King. Since you cannot recompense God for all His benefits, yet love Him for them, and praise His name.
Osiander: When our affairs are bad we should trust in God; when they are good, we should not be proud.—Arndt: Three things are necessary to victory; the shield of God, God’s right, and our humility, which does not rely upon human power, but upon Divine power.—Baumgarten: When God occasions great movements in the realm of nature, and in human society, He designs all to be for the deliverance of His children.—Calvin: There is promised us an invincible protection against all the onsets of the devil, all the craft of sin, all the temptations of the flesh.—Renschel: By humility we rise, by pride we come down.—Herberger: The world goes in many crooked ways, but he who walks with God advances from one virtue to another.—Frisch: The most of your love you give to the world which yet does not respond to your love. With God however it is well spent. He has first loved you, daily bestows much good upon you, and will continue His love to you forever.—Bogatzki: We must likewise learn to appropriate our God and Saviour according to all His names and offices, according to all that He is and has, and to attach to every name of God and Christ the little word “my,” and say: He is that likewise to me.—O. v. Gerlach: To contemplate God’s glorious attributes, praise them and magnify them, is for believers the very proper means of deliverance.—Guenther: All that is great and glorious, that is worthy of praise, has not been done by heroes, but God has done it through them. But as soon as the glory is to be given to God, all the thoughts of the poet must assume the form of a song of praise.—Taube: The enemies of God have nothing so much to fear as the faith of the friends of God
[Matth. Henry: God will not only deliver His people out of their troubles in due time, but He will sustain them, and bear them up under their troubles in the meantime.—When we set ourselves to praise God for one mercy, we must be led by that to observe the many more with which we have been compassed about and followed all our days.—Barnes: No man dishonors himself by acknowledging that he owes his success in the world to the Divine interposition.—Spurgeon: The clefts of the Rock of Ages are safe abodes.—To be saved singing is to be saved indeed. Many are saved mourning and doubting; but David had such faith that he could fight singing, and win the battle with a song still upon his lips. How happy a thing to receive fresh mercy with a heart sensible of mercy enjoyed, and to anticipate new trials with a confidence based upon past experiences of Divine love!—Prayer is that postern gate which is left open even when the city is straitly besieged by the enemy; it is that way upward from the pit of despair to which the spiritual miner flies at once when the floods from beneath break forth upon him.—O honored prayer, to be able thus, through Jesus’ blood, to penetrate the very ears and heart of Deity.—Prayer has shaken houses, opened prison doors, and made stout hearts to quail. Prayer rings the alarm bell, and the Master of the house arises to the rescue, shaking all things beneath His tread.—Blessed is the darkness which encurtains my God; if I may not see Him, it is sweet to know that He is working in secret for my eternal good.—Sweet is pleasure after pain. Enlargement is the more delightful after a season of pinching poverty and sorrowful confinement. Besieged souls delight in the broad fields of the promise when God drives off the enemy and sets open the gates of the environed city.—Rest assured, if we go deep enough, sovereign grace is the truth which lies at the bottom of every well of mercy. Deep sea fisheries in the ocean of Divine bounty always bring the pearls of electing, discriminating love to light.—Backsliders begin with dusty Bibles, and go on to filthy garments.—God gives us holiness, then rewards us for it. The prize is awarded to the flower at the show, but the gardener reared it; the child wins the prize from the school-master, but the real honor of his schooling lies with the master, although instead of receiving he gives the reward.—Second thoughts upon God’s mercy should be, and often are, the best. Like wine on the lees our gratitude grows stronger and sweeter as we meditate upon divine goodness.—It is God’s making Himself little which is the cause of our being made great. We are so little that if God should manifest His greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under His feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies, and bow to see what angels do, looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great.—The grace of God sometimes runs like fire among the stubble, and a nation is born in a day. “Love at first sight” is no uncommon thing when Jesus is the wooer. He can write Cæsar’s message without boasting, Veni, vidi, vici; His Gospel is in some cases no sooner heard than believed. What inducements to spread abroad the doctrine of the cross!—Those who are strangers to Jesus are strangers to all lasting happiness; those must soon fade who refuse to be watered from the river of life.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[14][Delitzsch: “סֶלַע means properly the cleft of the rock, then the rock as riven into clefts; and צוּר the hard and great rock (Aram. טוּר, mountain).”—“Accordingly the idea of a safe (and convenient) hiding-place, predominates in סַלְעִי, that of a firm foundation and inaccessibleness in צוּרִי. The one figure reminds us of the Edomite סֶלַע, Isa_16:1; Isa_42:11, the Πέτρα [Petra], described by Strabo, xvi. 4, 21, enclosed by steep rocks; the other of the Phœnician rock island צוּר [Tyre], the refuge place of the sea.”—C. A. B.]
[15][But there is no reference in the context to the temple or the altar or the throne of God, as places of refuge; the reference is entirely to the mountains and caves and rocks and warlike means of defence. The connection of horn with shield might favor the defensive horns of the buffalo, but the following word and the general tenor of the passage favor the reference to the summits of hills or mountains. On these rocky, horn-like summits David had often found refuge when pursued by Saul. It is a beautiful figure of the protecting care of Jehovah, which lifts David to a lofty and inaccessible peak, where his salvation is sure.—C. A. B.]
[16][De Wette: “Waves, great waters are, especially to the Hebrews, a frequent figure of misfortunes, danger (Psa_18:16; Psa_32:6; Psa_42:7; Psa_69:1); so likewise to the Greeks.”—C. A. B.]
[17][For the explanation of the mingling of bands and brooks and snares we may think of those brooks of Palestine which are ordinarily dry, or containing but little water, but when the storms burst upon the land, they rush in torrents, overflow their banks and entrap the unwary in their waters; they lay hold of him, bind him fast, surround him, and lead him to his death. Thus the Kishon overwhelmed the host of Sisera. And the Psalmist was in corresponding danger from the storm of evil with its rushing flood and ensnaring waters, vid. especially Psa_42:7; Psa_69:1-2.—C. A. B.]
[18][For a full discussion of the Cherubim vid. Bähr., Symbolik d. Mos. Cult. I. 311 sq., 340 sq.; Herder, Geist d. Heb. Poes. I. 1, 6; Hengst., Büch. Mosis und Ægypt. 157 sq.; Riehm, Comm. de natura et notione symbolica Cheruborum; Herzog, Real-Encyclopädie Cherubim; Fairbairn, Typology I. 185 sq.; Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, art. Cherubim, etc.—C. A. B.]
[19][De Wette: “Swiftness in running was a celebrated virtue of the ancient heroes, because fleeing was no disgrace and often a necessary stratagem. Achilles is called πόδας ὠκύς II. a. 58, with renown; 1Ch_12:8, it is said of two heroes: as roes upon the mountain in swiftness; comp. 2Sa_1:23. Hamas ed. Freytag, p. 84 sq.”—C. A. B.]
[20][This is the view of Calvin and Hengst., but it is strongly opposed by De Wette and Hupf., who contend that David alludes to swiftness of flight and refuge upon his high places. The Psalmist is, however, speaking of the help of the Lord, in giving him strength and power, and it is better to interpret this verse consistently with the preceding and following, of attacking and conquest, and not of fleeing from his enemies.—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–3The various terms used describe God as an object…
The various terms used describe God as an object of the most implicit and reliable trust.
rock--literally, "a cleft rock," for concealment.
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strength--a firm, immovable rock.
horn of my salvation--The horn, as the means of attack or defense of some of the strongest animals, is a frequent emblem of power or strength efficiently exercised (compare Deu 33:17; Luk 1:69).
tower--literally, "high place," beyond reach of danger.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1–21. I will love thee—I will tenderly love thee.…
1. I will love thee—I will tenderly love thee. The word denotes strong and tender love, as that of a parent.
My strength—We delight to call God our strength when we love him and feel our weakness.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–31. I will love thee] Fervently do I love…
1. I will love thee] Fervently do I love thee, a word occurring nowhere else in this form, and denoting tender and intimate affection. This verse is omitted in 2 Sam.
1–3. Introductory prelude, in which one title is heaped upon another to express all that experience had proved Jehovah to be to David.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–3(1) I will love thee.—Better, Dearly do I love…
(1) I will love thee.—Better, Dearly do I love thee. The line is wanting in Samuel.
My strength.—This strikes the keynote of the whole poem. The strong, mighty God is the object in David’s thought throughout. It is a warrior’s song, and his conception of Jehovah is a warrior’s conception.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–3THIS psalm has many characteristics which distinguish it, not…
THIS psalm has many characteristics which distinguish it, not only from all that have preceded it in the collection, but from all those which are assigned to David by their titles. In the first pace, it is the longest of such psalms, extending, as it does, to fifty distinguish it, not only from all that have verses, or a hundred and fourteen lines, but from all Hebrew poetry. Next, it is continuous, not broken into strophes (Hengstenberg). Thirdly, it appears, not only in the Psalter, but also in one of the historical books the Second Book of Samuel, in what seems to be a second edition. Further, it is in itself a very remarkable composition, being distinguished alike by "vigour and grace; full of archaic grandeur, and yet free from abrupt transitions and thoughts labouring for utterance, such as make some of the earlier psalms difficult to understand" ("Speaker"s Commentary"). Hitzig calls it "an unrivalled production of art and reflection.
The authorship of David is generally allowed, and indeed has been questioned only by three recent critics Olshausen, Von Lengerke, and Professor Cheyne. The period at which it was written is declared in the title to be "when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul a date which is quite in accord with the contents of the poem. For while it celebrates his deliverance from perils of various kinds from a "strong enemy" (ver. 17), from a "flood of ungodly men" (ver. 4), from the near approach of death (vers. 4, 5), and from a host of foreign enemies (vers. 29-43) there is no allusion in it to domestic foes, and no indication of remorse for any special sin. The exact time cannot be fixed; but it was probably soon after the series of victories described in 2Sa 10, and before the events recorded in 2Sa 11 and 2Sa 12.
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It is thought, with some reason, that the psalm was composed for a great occasion of public thanksgiving. Most likely it was processional, and therefore not broken into strophes, but continuous. Still, we may trace in it,
(1) an introduction, or prologue (vers. 1-3), which is an ascription of praise;
(2) a central mass, chiefly in a narrative form (vers. 4-45), recounting God"s goodness; and
(3) a conclusion, or epilogue (vers. 46-50), which is mainly thanksgiving. The central mass is further broken up by the interposition into the narrative of a passage (vers. 19-27) declaring the grounds of the favour and protection which God had extended to the psalmist, and, so far, "setting forth the subjective principles on which the Lord imparts his aid" to his servants (Hengstenberg).
I will love thee, O Lord, my Strength. This opening is very remarkable. The verb translated "I will love" expresses the very tenderest affection, and is elsewhere never used to denote the love of man towards God, but only that of God towards man. The entire verse, moreover, is withdrawn from the "second edition" of the psalm (2Sa 22) which was perhaps prepared for liturgical use as too sacred and too private to suit a public occasion.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-50. The conqueror"s song of praise and hope.
It is not our purpose, nor is it our province, in this section of the "Pulpit Commentary," to write homilies on specific texts; but rather to deal with this psalm (as we have done with others) as a whole for it is a unity and to show how grand a basis it presents for the pulpit exposition of the provisions of "the everlasting covenant" to which allusion is made in the last verse of the psalm. The student and expositor might with advantage refer at the outset to Isa_4:3, "I will give you the sure mercies of David," with the view of showing that the promises made to David do immeasurably transcend any merely personal reference; that they include all the blessings which come to us through him who, though David"s Son, was yet David"s Lord. There is no reason to doubt the Davidic authorship of the psalm. There are, moreover, more data than most psalms present, to aid us in deciding the approximate date of its composition. We have it recorded in 2Sa_22:4-51. This gives us one historic clue to its date. Besides, the tone of triumph which is heard throughout it was scarcely heard in the later days of David, after his great crime had darkened the remainder of his earthly life. Vers. 19-24 could scarcely have been written after that catastrophe, even though it be urged that David writes rather of his administration as king than of his behaviour as a man. Regarding, then, the inscription at the head as showing us the occasion on which the psalm was first penned, and taking into account the prophetic far-reaching-ness of its closing words, we are called on to view it in a double aspect one historical, the other typical.
I LET US SKETCH ITS CONTENTS AS HISTORICALLY REFERRING TO KING DAVID AND HIS CONQUESTS.
1. Here is a distinct reference to David as king. And while we should miss very much of the significance of the psalm, were we to omit the larger view to which we shall presently refer, yet, on the other hand, if we omit the strictly historical application, our use of the psalm will be strangely incomplete. As, without the historic setting, there would be no basis on which to set anything further, so, without the larger view, there would be no adequate superstructure set up upon that basis. Combine both, and the glory of the psalm stands forth as combining inspiration and revelation in the contents of this triumphant song (see ver. 50, where the remarkable, phrase occurs, "his king;" i.e. God"s king). David was God"s appointed king for Israel, and as such he tunes his harp for Jehovah"s praise.
2. With David as king, God had made a covenant. This is implied in ver. 50, where the mercies already granted are referred to as pledged "for evermore.
3. David had been plunged into fierce conflict. (See vers. 4, 5) The study of David"s life will furnish us with a host of facts in this direction.
4. Conflict had driven him to earnest prayer. (Ver. 6) Again and again had he passed through this experience. (see Psa_34:6 Psa_138:3) The believer"s most piercing cries are sent upward to God, when he is being pierced by the sharpest arrows of affliction. How is it that we so often need the pressure of sorrow to quicken us from languor in prayer. Sad, that prayer should be forced out rather than drawn out]
5. Prayer had been followed by timely deliverance. This is set forth in poetry which is truly sublime (see vers. 7-16). "The Divine deliverance was seen:
a. In girding the assailed one with strength (ver. 39).
b. In rescuing him from his pursuers (ver. 16).
c. In causing the foe to be prostrate under the conqueror"s feet (ver. 40).
d. In bringing forth the conqueror to liberty and gladness (ver. 19).
6. Such deliverance led him to triumph in God. It may be asked, however, "Is not such joy in God rather of an inferior order, when it arises because God has done for us just what we wished?" Perhaps so. But that is not a correct setting of the case before us. It is this: God had promised deliverance. David pleaded with God on the ground of the promise; and he found the great Promiser true. Hence the jubilation. When prayers that are presented on the basis of God"s promise are abundantly answered, gratitude may well burst forth in holy song (see vers. 1, 2). What joy to a believer to read in the trials and reliefs of life a perpetual revelation of the loving-kindness of God!
7. The mercies of the past assure him of help in the future. (Ver. 50) "For evermore." Even so. So often has prayer been turned to praise, so often have we cast our burden at God"s feet, and borne a song away, that we cannot doubt him now. Rather will we sing, "Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice." God has helped us, and will "for evermore.
II LET US NOTE ITS CONTENTS TYPICALLY, AS FULFILLED AND FULFILLING IN ONE WHO IS OF DAVID"S SEED, YET IS DAVID"S LORD. Although it is easy to explain the greater part of the phrases of this psalm by incidents in David"s personal career, there are some which seem to tower above his or any man"s experience, and which can be adequately interpreted only as the psalm is regarded as having not only historical meaning, but also typical and predictive significance. How this manifests itself will appear, we trust, from the present outlines.
1. The kingship of David was not only personal, but also typical and prophetic. That such was the case may be gathered from the last verse of this psalm, and also from a study of the following passages: 2Sa_7:12-16 2Sa_23:2-5 Psa_16:8-10 Psa_89:20-37 Psa_132:11-18 Ps 110 Mat_22:41-45 Act_2:25-36 Act_13:32-37. That gracious redemptive work, which began with the calling out of Abraham, (Isa_51:2, Hebrew) was being carried forward through David with a view to its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is seated on David"s throne. And the glory of King David is infinitely surpassed in David"s Lord; while the promises made to David and his seed are made over to all who are in blessed covenant relation to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. (Isa_4:3)
2. The Lord Jesus and his saints are gone forth to war. (Ver. 34) In a high and holy sense, as the kingship of David was typical, so also were his wars. One of the early visions of the seer of Patmos indicated this. He sees One who speaks of himself as the Root and Offspring of David (Rev_22:16) going forth conquering and to conquer; (Rev_6:2) and, indeed, the entire Book of the Apocalypse might be called the "Book of the Wars of the Lord.
3. The issue of the great conflict is already foreseen. The "for evermore" with which the psalm closes spans the whole of the present dispensation, and reaches forward to the time when Jesus shall have "all enemies beneath his feet." This is beyond doubt. The everlasting covenant is "ordered in all things and sure.
4. Ere this final victory, there will intervene many a struggle and many a rescue. While David"s Lord is on high, controlling the conflict, and administering all, the saints are in the midst of the struggle. As individuals they are called to "wrestle against the world-rulers of darkness." Ministers of the gospel are to "endure hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." And the Church, as a whole, will have to undergo many a severe struggle. At times it may seem as if the cause were all but lost. But the great Commander will ensure his army all timely rescue as well as final triumph.
5. All the enemies of Christ will be put to shame. (Isa_60:12 Rom_16:20 Psa_18:40-42; also vers. 13, 14, 45)
6. The great King will receive the homage of the peoples, and be exalted above all. (Vers. 43, 44) The expression in ver. 43, "the Head of the nations," can be fully accomplished only in Christ as our victorious Lord. "All nations shall serve him.
7. All who are now fighting on the.Kings side will share his victory. That which is the result for David is ensured also to "his seed" (ver. 50). As our Lord is not alone in the war, so he will not be alone when the war is over. His triumph will be that also of those who are his.
8. The result of all will be a new disclosure of God. (Vers. 1, 2, 30, 31, 46, 47) Just as David"s career was ever unfolding to him the faithfulness and love of God, so will the result of the Church"s conflict reveal to believers how great, how vast, was the scheme of mercy for men"s deliverance, and for the discomfiture of the powers of ill. The glory of God will stand out revealed in the day of final triumph, putting doubts and fears to fight, as his love stands forth vindicated in the glorious result of all. And the oft-repeated Scripture phrase, "They shall know that I am the Lord," will be fulfilled with a glory and grandeur beyond our utmost stretch of thought.
9. All this is now God"s noblest prophecy, and will be hereafter the theme of the saints noblest song. Psalm 18, may well be regarded as finding its exposition, its supplement, in Rev. 5. In the psalm we have God"s providences forecast; in the Apocalypse we have God"s providences reviewed. In the former David"s conquests are recited; in the latter the conquests of the Root of David. In the former we have the song of the victorious David; in the latter the new song of the victorious Seed of David. And by as much as David"s Lord is greater than David, by so much will the new song of the redeemed transcend the noblest flights of Hebrew praise. C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-50. A retrospect of life.
The sailor tells of the perils of the sea; the traveller recounts the varied incidents of his career; and the soldier who has passed through battles and sieges can speak of hairbreadth escapes and moving accidents by flood and field. So it is with human life. We have the power of looking back; we can in imagination revive the past, and as scene after scene rises before us, our heart is thrilled with various emotions. And what we have experienced and recalled, we can set forth to others. The opening of this psalm is very touching and beautiful. It is as if the fire which had been burning within could no longer be restrained. The psalmist"s pent-up feelings must find an outlet. Before and beyond all, he must let his full heart speak. "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." This may be regarded as the key-note, and it is touching how the psalmist dwells upon it, with variations, as if he could not let it go (ver. 2). Love to God was not an impulse, or the result of purposes, but the very habit and delight of his soul. Name after name, and epithet after epithet, is pronounced, each having its own peculiar associations, and each; not only expressing, but exciting his love the more. In this retrospect of life we have
I THE PERILS ESCAPED. Various images are employed. We see how enemies increased and dangers thickened. In the midst of one terrible scene of tumult and storm, where all perils are gathered into one, the psalmist seems about to be engulfed. But in his helplessness, the hand of God from out of the cloud lays hold of him, and draws him forth from the great waters. His cry for help was not in vain. So let us remember with gratitude God"s goodness. There are some that dishonour the great memories of life, because they forget God. Let us acknowledge the hand of God, not only in the crises of our life, but also in the countless instances in which God has shielded us from dangers that we knew not, and saved us from evils and mischances of our daily life which else might have been our ruin.
II THE PRINCIPLES EVOLVED. Trials are a test. There are certain principles which we should do well to hold fast, whatever comes.
1. Gods Fatherly care. Relation stands. God does not change his love, though he may change his ways. Through all afflictions he cleaves to his people, and his people should cleave to him.
2. The efficacy of prayer. There are infinite resources with God, but they are only available to us by prayer. We may not be able to see how help can come, or relief may reach us in ways different from what we expected; but let us have faith in God"s Word. "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee." To this David and all the saints bear witness.
3. That all things are working to a perfect end. God is just, and will do justly. God is good, and he cannot will us aught but good. Let us trust him utterly. "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord". (Lam_3:26 Rom_8:28)
III THE BLESSINGS ENJOYED. Light shines in the darkness. Strength is evolved out of weakness. Progress is made in spite of opposition. Peace is enjoyed in the midst of trouble. Hope is cherished in the face of difficulties and sorrows. Victory is assured over every foe. And why? Because God is with his people (vers. 31-45).
IV THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS DEMANDED. (Vers. 46, 50) The psalm concludes with a joyous burst of praise, in which, with brief touches, scenes previously described are recalled, and the rich fulness of the Divine goodness is set forth. There is personal thanksgiving for God"s love and mighty works. But there is more. There is the acknowledgment of God as the God of all flesh not only of David and of Israel, but of all nations. And there is the grand hope expressed that, as God had brought the nations around within the dominion of Israel, so he would draw all the nations of the earth within the benign and blessed rule of Messiah. (Rom_15:9) "In Christ, the Son of David, David"s fallen throne has lasting continuance; and in him everything that was promised to David"s seed has eternal truth and reality. According to its final prospect, the praise of Jahve, the God of David, his Anointed, is praise of the Father of Jesus Christ" (Delitzsch). W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-50. The retrospect of a life: a sermon for the close of the year.
"In this magnificent hymn the royal poet sketches in a few grand outlines the history of his life. By God"s help he had subdued every enemy, and now, in middle life, looking back with devout thankfulness on the past, he sings this great song of praise to the God of his life." Divisions of the psalm:
1. The introduction, setting forth all that Jehovah is to David (vers. 1-3).
2. The record of David"s sufferings and peril, and the mighty deliverance by which he was rescued (vers. 4-19).
3. The reason for this deliverance, in the character of God and the principles of his government (vers. 20-30).
4. The blessings which David had received in his life; his own preservation and that of his race; help and strength in battle, rule over all enemies (vers. 31-45).
5. Joyful thanksgiving and acknowledgment of all God"s mercies (vers. 46-50). The general subject of the psalm is The retrospect of a life. The interest of such a retrospect depends on the following conditions:
I WHETHER A MAN HAS HAD A HISTORY OR NOT. (Ver. 43.) Anything to distinguish his life from the uneventful lives of the myriads who are born, pass through life, and die, and leave no trace behind them. But Moses and David, Paul and others, gave birth to history, and have mingled in the greatest affairs of a nation and of the world, and have much to think of and celebrate when they look hack. So of modern great men. They animated and created their opportunities. Have we made our lives in any way worth looking back upon? Domestic history. Thinkers as well as actors make history. What Christ has done.
II WHETHER A MAN HAS SEEN GOD IN HIS LIFE OR NOT. (Vers. 19, 29, 32, 39) To most men God has been only remotely related to their lives a power at the back of things generally, but not occupying every single event and experience of their existence. To David and all the great saints of the world, God was everything and everywhere in his life. God had anointed him for every work and every office; and every event was a manifestation of his love and righteousness and power. The consciousness of such a past is very grand and elevating. Our life is rich or poor accordingly. Sense of God in common life and duties.
III WHETHER THE LIFE HAS BEEN RIGHTEOUS OR WICKED. (Ver. 20) We turn our eyes from a life that has been ill spent, and are filled with reproach and sorrow. If we know that we have lived a wicked life, we know that we are unworthy and guilty, and are self-condemned. Whether David wrote this psalm before or after his sin with Bathsheba, we cannot say; but he affirms his righteousness in the most emphatic way. "He has kept the ways of the Lord, and has not wickedly departed from him." Such a retrospect is full of deep power and sense of triumph.
IV WHETHER A MAN HAS ACHIEVED HIS OBJECTS OR NOT. (Vers. 37, 38, 48) David was a king, and had been in many wars and troubles; but he had, through God, triumphed over all his difficulties and foes. How many of us fail, or only partly succeed, in the things we aim at, because we have been profane and faithless!
V WHETHER WE HAVE A FUTURE TO ANTICIPATE, AS WELL AS A PAST TO REMEMBER. To some the past is all; they have no future. But David had a bright future as well as a glorious past. "In thy presence is fulness of joy," etc. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv1–3To the Chief Musician a Psalm of David, the…
To the Chief Musician a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. We have another form of this Psalm, with significant variations (2Sa 22:1-51), and this suggests the idea that it was sung by David at different times when he reviewed his own remarkable history, and observed the gracious hand of God in it all. Like Addison's hymn beginning, "When all thy mercies, O my God, "this Psalm is the song of a grateful heart overwhelmed with a retrospect of the manifold and marvellous mercies of God. We will call it THE GRATEFUL RETROSPECT. The title deserves attention. David, although at this time a king, calls himself, "the servant of Jehovah, "but makes no mention of his royalty; hence we gather that he counted it a higher honour to be the Lord's servant than to be Judah's king. Right wisely did he judge. Being possessed of poetic genius, he served the Lord by composing this Psalm for the use of the Lord's house; and it is no mean work to conduct or to improve that delightful part of divine worship, the singing of the Lord's praises. Would that more musical and poetical ability were consecrated, and that our chief musicians were fit to be trusted with devout and spiritual psalmody. It should be observed that the words of this song were not composed with the view of gratifying the taste of men, but were spoken unto Jehovah. It were well if we had a more single eye to the honour of the Lord in our singing, and in all other hallowed exercises. That praise is little worth which is not directed solely and heartily to the Lord. David might well be thus direct in his gratitude, for he owed all to his God, and in the day of his deliverance he had none to thank but the Lord, whose right hand had preserved him. We too should feel that to God and God alone we owe the greatest debt of honour and thanksgiving.
If it be remembered that the second and the forty-ninth verses are both quoted in the New Testament (Heb 2:13 Ro 15:9) as the words of the Lord Jesus, it will be clear that a greater than David is here. Reader, you will not need our aid in this respect; if you know Jesus you will readily find him in his sorrows, deliverance, and triumphs all through this wonderful psalm.
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Ps 18:1-3 are the proem or preface in which the resolve to bless God is declared. Delivering mercy is most poetically extolled from Ps 18:4-19; and then the happy songster Ps 18:20-28, protests that God had acted righteously in thus favouring him. Filled with grateful joy he again pictures his deliverance, and anticipates future victories Ps 18:29-45; and in closing speaks with evident prophetic foresight of the glorious triumphs of the Messiah, David's seed and the Lord's anointed.
Ver. 1. I will love thee, O Lord. With strong, hearty affection will I cling to thee; as a child to its parent, or a spouse to her husband. The word is intensely forcible, the love is of the deepest kind. "I will love heartily, with my inmost bowels." Here is a fixed resolution to abide in the nearest and most intimate union with the Most High. Our triune God deserves the warmest love of all our hearts. Father, Son and Spirit have each a claim upon our love. The solemn purpose never to cease loving naturally springs from present fervour of affection. It is wrong to make rash resolutions, but this when made in the strength of God is most wise and fitting.
My strength. Our God is the strength of our life, our graces, our works, our hopes, our conflicts, our victories. This verse is not found in 2Sa 22:1-51, and is a most precious addition, placed above all and after all to form the pinnacle of the temple, the apex of the pyramid. Love is still the crowning grace.
Whole Psalm. The general argument of the Psalm may be thus stated: it is a magnificent eucharistic ode. It begins with a celebration of the glorious perfections of the Divinity, whose assistance the speaker has so often experienced. He describes, or rather, he delineates, his perils, the power of his enemies, his sudden deliverance from them, and the indignation and power of his divine deliverer manifested in their overthrow. He paints these in so lively colours, that while we read we seem to see the lightning, to hear the thunders, to feel the earthquake. He afterwards describes his victories, so that we seem to be eye witnesses of them, and take part in them. He predicts a wide extended empire, and concludes with a lofty expression of grateful adoration of Jehovah, the Author of all his deliverances and triumphs. The style is highly oratorical and poetical, sublime, and full of uncommon figures of speech. It is the natural language of a person of the highest mental endowments, under a divine inspiration, deeply affected by remarkable divine benefits, and filled with the most lofty conceptions of the divine character and dispensations. John Brown, D.D., 1853.
Whole Psalm. Kitto, in "The Pictorial Bible, "has the following note upon 2Sa 22:1-51: "This is the same as Ps 18:1-50... The Rabbins reckon up seventy-four differences between the two copies, most of them very minute. They probably arose from the fact that the poem was, as they conjecture, composed by David in his youth, and revised in his later days, when he sent it to the chief musician. The present is, of course, to be the earlier copy."
Whole Psalm. The eighteenth Psalm is called by Michaelis more artificial, and less truly terrible, than the Mosaic odes. In structure it may be so, but surely not in spirit. It appears to many besides us, one of the most magnificent lyrical raptures in the Scriptures. As if the poet had dipped his pen in "the brightness of that light which was before his eye, "so he describes the descending God. Perhaps it may be objected that the nodus is hardly worthy of the vindex to deliver David from his enemies, could Deity ever be imagined to come down? But the objector knows not the character of the ancient Hebrew mind. God in its view had not to descend from heaven; he was nigha cloud like a man's hand might conceala cry, a look might bring him down. And why should not David's fancy clothe him, as he came, in a panoply befitting his dignity, in clouds spangled with coals of fire? If he was to descend, why not in state? The proof of the grandeur of this Psalm is in the fact that it has borne the test of almost every translation, and made doggerel erect itself, and become divine. Even Sternhold and Hopkins its fiery whirlwind lifts up, purifies, touches into true power, and then throws down, helpless and panting, upon their ancient common. Perhaps the great charm of the eighteenth, apart from the poetry of the descent, is the exquisite and subtle alternation of the I and the Thou. We have spoken of parallelism, as the key to the mechanism of Hebrew song. We find this as existing between David and Godthe delivered and the delivererbeautifully pursued throughout the whole of this Psalm. "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." "I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised." "He sent from above; he took me; he drew me out of many waters." "Thou wilt light my candle." "Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation." "Thou hast girded me with strength unto battle." "Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies." "Thou hast made me the head of the heathen." It has been ingeniously argued, that the existence of the I suggests, inevitably as a polar opposite, the thought of the Thou, that the personality of man proves thus the personality of God; but, be this as it may, David's perception of that personality is nowhere so intense as here. He seems not only to see, but to feel and touch, the object of his gratitude and worship. George Gilfillan, in "The Bards of the Bible, "1852.
Whole Psalm. He that would be wise, let him read the Proverbs; he that would by holy, let him read the Psalms. Every line in this book breathes peculiar sanctity. This Psalm, though placed among the first, was penned among the last, as the preface assures us, and is left as the epitome of the general history of David's life. It is twice recorded in the Scripture 2Sa 22:1-51, and in this book of Psalms, for the excellency and sweetness thereof; surely that we should take double notice of it. Holy David, being near the shore, here looks on his former dangers and deliverances with a thankful heart, and writes this Psalm to bless the Lord: as if each of you that are grown into years should review your lives and observe the wonderful goodness and providence of God towards you; and then sit down and write a modest memorial of his most remarkable mercies, for the comfort of yourselves and posterity; an excellent practice. What a comfort would it be for you to read how good your God was to you father or grandfather, that are dead and gone! So would your children rejoice in the Lord upon the reading of his goodness to you; and you cannot have a better pattern for this than holy David, who wrote this Psalm when he was threescore and seven years old; when he had outlived most of his troubles, and almost ready for his journey to his Father in heaven, he resolves to leave this good report of him upon earth. And I pray mark how he begins: he sets not up trophies to himself, but triumphs in his GodI will love thee, O Lord, my strength. As the love of God is the beginning of all our mercies, so love to God should be the end and effect of them all. As the stream leads us to the spring, so all the gifts of God must lead us to the giver of them. Lord, thou hast saved me from sickness, "I will love thee; "from death and hell, "I will love thee; "on me thou hast bestowed grace and comfort, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." And after he had heaped on God all the sweet names he could devise (Ps 18:2), as the true saint thinks he can never speak too well of God, or too ill of himself, then he begins his narrative. 1. Of his dangers (Ps 18:4); "Snares of death, ""Floods of ungodly men, " "Sorrows of hell." Hell and earth are combined against each holy man, and will trouble sufficiently in this world, if they cannot keep him out of a better. 2. Of his retreat, and that was, earnest prayer to God (Ps 18:6), I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God. When our prayers are cries ardent and importunate, then they speed: My cry came before him, even into his ears. The mother trifles while the child whimpers, but when he raises his note strains every nerve and cries every veinthen she throws all aside, and gives him his desire. While our prayers are only whispers, our God can take his rest; but when we fall to crying, "Now will I arise, saith the Lord." 3. Of his rescue (Ps 18:7-20), by the powerful and terrible arm of the Lord, who is in a lofty strain brought in to his servant's help, as if he would mingle heaven and earth together, rather than leave his child in the lion's paws. 4. Of the reason of this gracious dealing of God with him (Ps 18:20, etc.). He was a righteous person, and he had a righteous cause. And thereupon he turns to God, saying, Thou hast dealt with me just as thou art wont to do, with the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright. Richard Steele's "Plain Discourse upon Uprightness, "1670.
Whole Psalm. Sometimes the Lord cheers and comforts the heart of his people with smiling and reviving providences, both public and personal. There are times of lifting up, as well as casting down by the hand of providence. The scene changes, the aspects of providence are very cheerful and encouraging; their winter seems to be over; they put off their garments of mourning; and then, ah, what sweet returns are made to heavenly gracious souls! Doth God lift them up by prosperity? they also will lift up their God by praises. See title, and Ps 18:1-3. So Moses, and the people with him (Ex 15:1-27), when God had delivered them from Pharaoh, how do they exalt him in a song of thanksgiving, which for the elegancy and spirituality of it, is made an emblem of the doxologies given to God in glory by the saints. Re 15:1. John Flavel.
Title. "The servant of the Lord; "the name given to Moses (Jos 1:1, 13, 15, and in nine other places of that book) and to Joshua (Jos 24:29 Jud 2:8); but to none other except David (here, and in the title to Ps 36:1-12). Compare Ac 13:36, uphreteoas. This is significant; reminding us of the place occupied by David in the history of Israel. He was the appointed successor of Moses and Joshua, who extended the power of Israel over the whole region allotted to them by Divine promise. W. Kay, 1871.
Title. This Psalm, which is entitled a shirah (or song), is David's hymn of praise to God for his deliverance from all his enemies (see the title, and above, 2Sa 22:1-51), and has an appropriate place in the present group of Psalms, which speak of resurrection after suffering. It is entitled a Psalm of David, "the servant of the Lord, "and thus is coupled with another psalm of deliverance, Ps 36:1-12. Christopher Wordsworth.
Ver. 1. I will love thee, O Lord. The word whereby the psalmist expresses his entire affection, in the noun signifieth a womb, and imparts such an affection as cometh from the innermost part of man (Mxr., matrix), from his bowels, from the bottom of his heart, as we speak. It is, therefore, oft put for such pity and compassion as moveth the bowels. Some, therefore, thus translate that phrase, "From my innermost bowels will I love thee, O Lord." To give evidence of his entire and ardent love of God, he oft professes his wonderful great love to God's commandments, whereof he saith with admiration, "Oh, how I love thy law! I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. I love them exceedingly" (Ps 119:97, 127, 167); therefore, he saith to God, "Consider how I love thy precepts" (Ps 119:159). William Gouge, 1575-1653.
Ver. 1. I will love thee. Intimately as a mother loves the child that comes out of her womb. Westminster Assembly's Annotations, 1651.
Ver. 1-2. God hath, as it were, made himself over to believers. David doth not say, God will give me or bestow salvation upon me; but he saith, "He is the horn of my salvation." It is God himself who is the salvation and the portion of his people. They would not care much for salvation if God were not their salvation. It more pleaseth the saints that they enjoy God, than that they enjoy salvation. False and carnal spirits will express a great deal of desire after salvation, for they like salvation, heaven, and glory well; but they never express any longing desire after God and Jesus Christ. They love salvation, but they care not for a Saviour. Now that which faith pitches most upon is God himself; he shall be my salvation, let me have him, and that is salvation enough; he is my life, he is my comfort, he is my riches, he is my honour, and he is my all. Thus David's heart acted immediately upon God, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. It pleased holy David more that God was his strength, than that God gave him strength; that God was his deliverer, than that he was delivered; that God was his fortress, his buckler, his horn, his high tower, than that he gave him the effect of all these. It pleased David, and it pleases all the saints more that God is their salvation, whether temporal or eternal, than that he saves them: the saints look more at God than at all that is God's. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 1-2. David speaks like one in love with God, for he doth adorn him with confession of praise, and his mouth is filled with the praise of the Lord, which he expresses in this exuberance and redundancy of holy oratory. Edward Marbury.
James Hervey has two sermons upon "Love to God" from this text.
There is "An Exposition" of this Psalm in "A Critical History of the Life of David. By SAMUEL CHANDLER, D.D., F.R., and A.S.S., "
1766. 2 vol., 8vo.
The Sufferings and Glories of the Messiah: an Exposition of Psalm XVIII., and Isaiah52:13; 53:12. By JOHN BROWN, D.D.,
1853.
Psalms 18:2*
Ver. 1-2. See Psalms on "Ps 18:1" for further information.
Ver. 1-2. See Psalms on "Ps 18:1" for further information.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.
Psa_18:1-3
I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.
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The tale of a life
In this magnificent hymn the royal poet sketches, in a few grand outlines, the tale of his life--the record of his marvellous deliverances, and of the victories which Jehovah had given him--the record, too, of his own heart, the truth of its affection towards God, and the integrity of purpose by which it had ever been influenced. Throughout that singularly chequered life, hunted as he had been by Saul before he came to the throne, and harassed perpetually after he became king by rivals, who disputed his authority and endeavoured to steal away the hearts of his people--compelled to fly for his life before his own son, and engaged afterwards in long and fierce wars with foreign nations--one thing had never forsaken him, the love and presence of Jehovah. By His help he had subdued every enemy, and now, in his old age, looking back with devout thankfulness on the past, he sings this great song of praise to the God of his life. With a heart full of love he will tell how Jehovah delivered him, and then there rises before the eyes of his mind the whole force and magnitude of the peril from which he had escaped. So much the more wonderful appears the deliverance which accordingly he represents in a bold poetical figure, as a stooping of the Most High from heaven to save him--who comes, as He came of old to Sinai, with all the terror and gloom of earthquake, and tempest, and thick darkness. But God delivers those only who trust in Him and who are like Him. There must be an inner life of communion with God, if man will know His mercy. Hence David passes on to that covenant relationship in which he had stood to God. He had ever been a true Israelite, and therefore God, the true God of Israel, had dealt with him accordingly. And thus it is at the last that the servant of Jehovah finds his reward. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
Have we permission to love God
It will awaken surprise in you to hear this question, yet it cannot exceed mine on hearing it, as I once did, from a distinguished man whom I had long regarded as truly devout. Being together at the house of his relative, this man, of worldwide reputation as a man of genius, astonished me with this question, What do you understand by love to God? I looked at him with surprise; but before I could speak he added, I know what fear of God means; but I do not understand what is meant when I am called upon to love God. Had I uttered the thought which arose in my mind I should have said, I always supposed you to be a Christian; can it be possible that you have need that one should teach you the alphabet of religious experience? But I put questions to him, encouraged by his frank nature, and I now discovered that his difficult was this, that loving God implied a degree of familiarity which seemed to him unsuitable in a finite creature when approaching his Creator. He acknowledged that the language of the Bible encouraged the idea of familiarity in our intercourse with God; still, he preferred to explain all such permission by what he called Orientalism. In vain was it urged in reply that Orientalism rather forbade than encouraged liberty in approaching Majesty; prostration, even to abjectness, was enjoined on ministers of state, as well as menial servants. Hence there are two extremes against which we have need to be on our guard. One is familiarity; the other is stoicism. The apostles maintain a just medium between these extremes. The question which I have already mentioned as put to me by a man of distinguished genius was also expressed by a plain man, a mechanic, he was in the last stages of a decline, but in full possession of his faculties. Once as I was leaving his bedside he said, One thing more I wish to ask: I lie here and talk with God in a way which startles me. I use expressions of endearment, address Him by affectionate names, make requests as a child to a parent, indulge in words of adoration; all of which, on second thought, seem to me too free for a mortal to use in his intercourse with his Master. Yet my feelings are so strong that I cannot restrain myself. I said to him, You ask, May you love God thus? The Saviour says, quoting the Old Testament, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. Do you ever exceed this. An expression of satisfaction came over his face. The next day he had gone to see Him whom not having seen he loved. The words of the text leave no room to question that the, predominant feeling of David was this, I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. Then he proceeds to heap up epithets of love to God. He draws them from his experience in wildernesses and caves. Had he been a seafaring man we doubtless should have had him saying, Thou art my lighthouse, my pilot, my harbour; to Thee I am homeward bound; with Thee I am safe home. How enthusiastic in passionate expression of love to God is all true religious poetry. And when a man is converted, how his heart goes out in love to God. See this in Paul. And here is one instance from the preaching of the Gospel, and there are scores of such. A man was riding home on horseback after evening service, meditating on what he had heard. He was secretly persuaded to yield himself up to God, when all at once light from heaven broke upon his mind, revealing to him the way of salvation by Christ with a sense of peace with God and the joy of pardoned sin; so that he found himself in a new world. Unable to contain his joy at the discovery, having no one at home who could enter into his feelings, turning his horses head, he rode back three miles to the ministers house, and called him to the door. Taking both of the ministers hands in his, he cried out, Oh, sir! what a God we have! which was the substance of all that he said, for it was impossible for words to express his emotions, and he mounted and rode home, singing and praying. No one would have found it more impossible than he to answer the question, What do you understand by loving God?--he whose whole being was at that hour flooded with it could have found no words to define his emotions. Does anyone say, Of what value can such emotions be to God? We might answer him, Of what value is anything to God? He will one day give up this globe to fire. There is nothing of any value to God except love. The whole object of God in the Bible seems everywhere to have been to make men love Him.
I. The experience of men in the Bible shows us that the sum of human duty is to love God. See the Book of Deuteronomy, to which our Lord so often referred. It is full of expostulations to urge Israel to love God. Joshua, too, does not hid them tremble, as he well might, in view of their stupendous history, but love the Lord. Some will say this seems very strange. Let such consider that there is no way in which, on account of the hardness of our hearts, God brings us to love Him more effectually than by His terrible dispensations. When night comes down in the Azores the lavender beds yield perfumes which all day long the hot sun had consumed. After a storm we look for sea mosses and pebbles which the working of the sea has ,brought on shore. The Lord hath said that He will dwell in the thick darkness--so spoke Solomon, and it is true. If God desires to draw a Christian very near to Himself, He will almost always send a heavy trial upon him. David said, When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold. We see Christians who have been grievously afflicted, cleaving to God the more that He smites them. If God has set His love on a man He may honour him by great trials. He cannot trust all to bear great trials. He said of Saul of Tarsus, I will show him how great things he must suffer, for My sake. Probably there is nothing which excites the admiration of angels more than to see us loving God the more that He afflicts us. Then they see the power of faith; how it makes a man endure as seeing Him who is invisible.
II. The Cross of Christ is the Divine testimony to man, not only that he may but that he must love God. See how John in his epistles insists on this, that God is Love. The governing principle in God is love. Other attributes belong to Him, but He is none of them. God is Love. Therefore He must desire the love of His people. They are born of the Spirit. Shall man, His new creation, be a cold, phlegmatic, intellectual being? May we be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God. (N. Adams, D. D.)
A text that looks two ways
I. Backward, upon the mercies and deliverances of God. These are expressed in the titles used--strength, rock, fortress, etc. These are synonymous phrases, signifying one and the same thing. There is not here merely the exuberance of a poetical style. The apparent exaggeration in Davids hymn flows from the abundance of a devout and grateful heart labouring to empty and discharge its fulness. How well such a full acknowledgment would become us!
II. Forward, in the returns of duty, to which he engageth himself.
1. Of love (Psa_18:1).
2. Of trust (Psa_18:1).
3. Of praise and prayer (Psa_18:3).
We are to love God for His own excellencies, because He requires it, and in response to His love. Trust is an act of friendship, and the greatest fruit it yields, mutual confidence, springing naturally from mutual affection. (J. Dolben, D. D.)
A song of thanksgiving in review of a troublous life
This Psalm is a fervent outpouring of gratitude, not for any single deliverance, but for all the deliverances of his tried and stormy life.
I. A life greatly troubled. Four facts concerning ungodly men. They were worthless, numerous, violent, and indefatigable. And our sufferings, as Davids, grow out of our physical constitution, our social relationships, our moral delinquencies and remorses.
II. A God equal to all emergencies. God appears to David in his trials in a two-fold aspect--passive and active: resting as a rock, and moving as a thunderstorm.
1. God appeared to him as his all-sufficient protector. A refuge impregnable, ever accessible, and everlasting.
2. God appeared as his triumphant deliverer. The description of God moving for his deliverance is grandly poetic. This poetic description is both natural and religious. Three observations are suggested--
(1) It is a movement in answer to prayer.
(2) It is a movement sublimely grand.
(3) It is a movement completely effective.
III. A soul alive with true sentiments.
1. Love. Love to God is the essence of goodness, and the sum total of mans obligation.
2. Trust. This is connected with love. True love has respect to excellence, and will ever lead to trusting.
3. Praise. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. Worship is heaven. (Homilist.)
Love to God possible..
I cannot love God, said a thoughtless man, for I have never seen Him. Canst thou not? replied his companion. Then thou canst do less than the little blind girl who sits under the shade of the chestnut tree on the village green. She can love her father and mother, though she has never seen them, and will never see them till the latest hour of her life.
Jesus is my love
The Lollards Tower in London, constructed by Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his palace at Lambeth, at the cost of six hundred pounds, was often filled with persons accused of heresy. The walls of this dungeon still bear witness to the sorrows and hopes of those who suffered in this place. The words Jesus amor meus (Jesus is in Love), written by some poor martyr, may still be seen upon the wall in the Lollards Tower.
Davids thanksgiving for his deliverance
Many songs of thanksgiving were composed by David. Perhaps it would be too bold for us to say that this Psalm excels them all; but we may say without hesitation, that none of them excels this.
I. Of Davids deliverance from the hands of his enemies. In the early part of Davids life he obtained signal instances of Gods preserving mercy. A lion and a bear came to destroy a lamb of his fold; David had the courage to attack both these fierce animals in defence of the young of his flock, and the Lord delivered him. A great deliverance was granted to himself, and through him to his people, when the Lord delivered into his hand the terrible giant of Gath. Many and wonderful were the deliverances which he obtained from Saul. David sometimes thought it necessary for himself to leave the Lords land and to seek refuge among strangers, who were not such heathens as many of his own people. Among them, too, he found protection and obtained great deliverances. The king of Moab behaved to him with kindness, so far as we know. Among the Philistines he was more than once in extreme danger. But the Lord was still his stay and his helper. When the Philistines were brought low by many terrible engagements, David was still exposed to great perils, but the Lord preserved him whithersoever he went. Neither Moabites, nor Ammonites, nor Syrians of different kingdoms could stand before him, either singly or in conjunction, for the Lord taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight. But when the Lord had given him rest from his enemies round about, evil rose up against him out of his own kingdom and out of his own house. Sheba rose up after Absalom to seek his life, but he soon lost his own, as his predecessor in wickedness had done. These were some of Davids deliverances from his many visible enemies; and they were attended and sweetened by other deliverances, not less, but still more important. He was sometimes almost overwhelmed by fear and dejection of spirit. He was often in great bodily distress; but he cried unto the Lord and was healed (Psa_30:1-12). But the most dangerous of his troubles were those which he suffered from the law in his members warring against the law in his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members.
II. Of God as the deliverer of David. Salvation is of the Lord (Psa_3:8). Everywhere we find him giving to the Lord the glory of the salvation wrought for him. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. The God of my rock, in Him will I trust: He is my shield and the horn of my salvation; my high tower and my refuge, my Saviour, Thou savest me from violence (2Sa_22:2-3). For who is God save the Lord? Who is a rock save our God? (2Sa_22:32). We know that there were many heroes who obtained a just and glorious name for the valiant exploits which they performed in the defence of their king and country. One of them had the honour of preserving the life of David when the hand of a terrible giant was lifted up against him. And there were many besides his mighty men to whom he was greatly indebted for signal service. His life was at one time saved by the kindness and wit of his wife Michal, at another time by the good offices of Jonathan, and even the Philistines were at one time made the instruments of preserving the life of that champion of Israel who was to be the destroyer of their power. But we never find David employing his fine genius in celebrating the exploits of these heroes to whom he was so greatly indebted. God is pleased for the most part to employ means and instruments in His works of mercy or of vengeance. But they do neither less nor more than God has intended to accomplish by them. It was God who made use of the Philistines for the salvation of David at Selah-hammah-lekoth. They were far from meaning so, neither did their heart think so. God employed not only men on earth, but the angels of heaven, for the deliverance of David from his enemies, and therefore, in his commendations of the goodness of God to himself, he assures us that the angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear the Lord, and delivers them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them (Psa_35:1-28). Whatever were the means employed for the deliverances of David, no doubt was left in the mind of any reasonable man concerning the great Author of his salvation. The Lord gave us sensible proofs of His presence with David and of His indignation against his enemies, as if He had in the literal sense bowed the heavens and come down. Had we hearts like David we would often be rejoicing in God, and singing His praises, when our corrupt dispositions prompt us to utter complaints as if God had forgotten to be gracious, because He will not resign the management of all our affairs into our own hands.
III. Of this Psalm of thanksgiving to God felt all His deliverances. In this Psalm we find David expressing--
1. The ardour of his love to that God who had blessed him with so many and such wonderful deliverances. Dearly he loved the God of his salvation, before he needed any of the deliverances which gave occasion to this Psalm. But every new deliverance increased the ardour of his love.
2. We find him expressing his firm reliance on God as the God of his salvation. His faith was powerfully invigorated by every new deliverance. And would we not greatly dishonour Him if we withheld from Him our confidence after a thousand proofs of His special favour? (Psa_18:2-3).
3. He expatiates on the greatness, on the grace, on the glory of these salvations which had been wrought for him. He illustrates the greatness of the salvations by representing the dreadful danger from which he was delivered. The terrors of death had fallen upon him. He was like a brand plucked out of the burning, or like a man raised out of the grave. His deliverance was the answer of fervent cries addressed to God from the depths into which he was cast. We are too much disposed to look with a careless eye on the great works of God.
4. He celebrates the excellency of those Divine perfections which were manifested in his deliverance. He shews forth the glory of that righteousness which appeared in the gracious rewards bestowed on himself, and the vengeance inflicted on his wicked enemies. He shows forth the glory of the Lord as the God of salvation, who bad given striking and incontestable proofs of His saving power and grace in the salvations wrought for him. None of the gods of the nations had ever given any proofs of their power to save their worshippers that trusted in them. Great things God had done for David. David had himself performed wonderful things, and achieved victories that were to make him famous through all generations. But not to himself, but to his God was the praise due.
5. He praises God, and expresses his unshaken confidence in Him for the great things that were yet to be done for him, and for his seed after him. On the whole, we are taught by this Psalm what improvement we ought to make of the great works of God, recorded in His Word. If David saw and admired and celebrated in such strains of rapture his deliverance from the hand of his enemies, can we sufficiently admire the glory that shines forth in the whole train of providential administration recorded in the volume of inspiration? Manifold were the salvations wrought by God for Abraham and Jacob, for Moses and the people of Israel. Nor ought we to forget any of Gods deliverances wrought for ourselves. Nor ought we to forget the obligations that lie upon us to praise God for our friends and brethren. (G. Lawson.)
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer.
Shutting the gates of Derry
In token of his gratitude to Jehovah for deliverance from Sauls malevolence, David wrote this Psalm, a glowing composition, in which martial similes abound. Thanksgiving is not only a national, but an individual duty. There are few today who seem to apprehend this obligation. With simple truthfulness it might be affirmed of most of us--Prayers are many, thanks are rare. How many of us who, in critical moments and in sad emergencies, resorted to our God for deliverance and protection, sought His presence again when He heard our prayer and saw our tears? Not without deep meaning and subtle experience of human perversity did David write, I will pay Thee my vows which I spake with my mouth when I was in trouble. (M. B. Hogg, B. A.)
The horn of my salvation.--
The horn of my salvation
The allusion here is doubtful. Some have supposed the reference to be to the horns of animals, by which they defend themselves and attack their enemies. God is to me, does for me, what their horns do for them. Others consider it as referring to the well-established fact, that warriors were accustomed to place horns, or ornaments like horns, on their helmets. The horn stands for the helmet; and the helmet of salvation is an expression equivalent to a saving, a protecting helmet. Others consider the reference as to the corners or handles of the altar in the court of the tabernacle or temple, which are called its horns. Others suppose the reference to be to the highest point of a lofty and precipitous mountain, which we are accustomed to call its peak. No doubt, in the Hebrew language, horn is used for mountain, as in Isa_5:1. A very fertile mountain is called a horn of oil. The sense is substantially the same whichever of these views we take; though, from the connection with shield or buckler, I am induced to consider the second of these views as the most probable. It seems the same idea as that expressed (Psa_140:7), Thou hast covered, and Thou wilt cover my head in the day of battle. (John Brown.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 18
Psalms 18
THE description of the theophany (Psa_18:7-19) and that of the psalmists God-won victories (Psa_18:32-46) appear to refer to the same facts, transfigured in the former case by devout imagination and presented in the latter in their actual form. These two portions make the two central masses round which the psalm is built up. They are connected by a transitional section, of which the main theme is the power of character to determine Gods aspect to a man as exemplified in the singers experience; and they are preceded, and followed by an introduction and a conclusion, throbbing with gratitude and love to Jehovah, the Deliverer.
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The Davidic authorship of this psalm has been admitted even by critics who are slow to recognise it. Cheyne asks, as if sure of a negative answer, "What is there in it that suggests the history of David?" ("Orig. of Psalter," p. 205). Baethgen, who "suspects" that a Davidic psalm has been "worked over" for use in public worship, may answer the question: "The following points speak for the Davidic authorship. The poet is a military commander and king, who wages successful wars, and subdues peoples whom he hitherto did not know. There is no Israelite king to whom the expressions in question in the psalm apply so closely as is the case with David." To these points may be added the allusions to earlier trials and perils, and the distinct correspondence, in a certain warmth and inwardness of personal relation to Jehovah, with the other psalms attributed to David, as well as the pregnant use of the word to flee to a refuge, applied to the souls flight to God, which we find here (Psa_18:2) and in the psalms ascribed to him. If the clear notes of the psalm be the voice of personal experience, there is but one author possible-namely, David-and the glow and intensity of the whole make the personification theory singularly inadequate. It is much easier to believe that David used the word "temple" or "palace" for Jehovahs heavenly dwelling, than that the "I" of the psalm, with his clinging sense of possession in Jehovah, his vivid remembrance of sorrows, his protestations of integrity, his wonder at his own victories, and his triumphant praise, is not a man, but a frosty personification of the nation.
The preluding invocation in Psa_18:1-3 at once touches the highwater mark of Old Testament devotion, and is conspicuous among its noblest utterances.
Nowhere else in Scripture is the form of the word employed which is here used for "love." It has special depth and tenderness. How far into the centre this man had penetrated, who could thus isolate and unite Jehovah and himself, and could feel that they two were alone and knit together by love! The true estimate of Jehovahs ways with a man will always lead to that resolve to love, based on the consciousness of Gods love to him. Happy they who learn that lesson by retrospect; happier still if they gather it from their sorrows while these press! Love delights in addressing the beloved and heaping tender names on its object, each made more tender and blessed by that appropriating "my." It seems more accordant with the fervent tone of the psalm to regard the reiterated designations in Psa_18:2 as vocatives, than to take "Jehovah" and "God" as subjects and the other names as predicates. Rather the whole is one long, loving accumulation of dear names, a series of invocations, in which the restful heart murmurs to itself how rich it is and is never wearied of saying, "my delight and defence." As in Psalms 17, the name of Jehovah occurs twice, and that of God once. Each of these is expanded, as it were, by the following epithets, and the expansion becomes more extended as it advances, beginning with one member in Psa_18:1, having three in Psa_18:2 a-and four in Psa_18:2 b. Leaving out the Divine names proper, there are seven in Psa_18:2, separated into two groups by the name of God. It may be observed there is a general correspondence between the two sets, each beginning with "rock" (though the word is different in the two clauses), each having the metaphor of a fortress, and "shield and horn of salvation," roughly answering to "Deliverer." The first word for rock is more properly crag or cliff, thus suggesting inaccessibility, and the second a rock mass, thus giving the notion of firmness or solidity. The shade of difference need not be pressed, but the general idea is that of safety, or by elevation above the enemy and by reason of the unchangeable strength of Jehovah. In that lofty eyrie, a man may look down on all the armies of earth, idly active on the plain. That great Rock towers unchangeable above fleeting things. The river at its base runs past, the woods nestling at its feet bud and shed their leaves, but it stands the same. David had many a time found shelter among the hills and caves of Judah and the South land, and it may not be fancy that sees reminiscences of these experiences in his song. The beautiful figure for trust embodied in the word in Psa_18:2 b belongs to the metaphor of the rock: It is found with singular appropriateness in Psalms 57, which the title ascribes to David "in the cave," the sides of which bent above him and sheltered him, like a great pair of wings, and possibly suggested the image, "In the shadow of Thy wings will I take refuge." The difference between "fortress" and "high tower" is slight, but the former gives more prominence to the idea of strength, and the latter to that of elevation, both concurring in the same thought as was expressed by "rock," but with the additional suggestion of Jehovah as the home of the soul. Safety, then, comes through communion. Abiding in God is seclusion from danger. "Deliverer" stands last in the first set, saying in plain words what the preceding had put in figures. "My shield and the horn of my salvation" come in the centre of the second set, in obedience to the law of variety in reiteration which the poets artistic instincts impose. They shift the figure to that of a warrior in actual conflict. The others picture a fugitive from enemies, these a fighter. The shield is a defensive weapon; horns are offensive ones, and the combination suggests that in conflict we are safe by the interposition of Gods covering power, and are armed by the same power for striking at the foe. That power ensures salvation whether in the narrower or wider sense. Thus Jehovah is all the armour and all the refuge of His servant. To trust Him is to have His protection cast around and His power infused for conflict and victory. The end of all lifes experience is to reveal Him in these characters, and they have rightly learned its lessons whose song of retrospect begins with "I will love Thee, Jehovah," and pours out at His feet all happy names expressive of His sufficiency and of the singers rest in possessing Him. Psa_18:3 is not a resolution for the future-"I will call; so shall I be saved"-but the summing up of experience in a great truth: "I call, and I am saved." It unfolds the meaning of the previous names of God, and strikes the keynote for the magnificent sequel.
The superb idealisation of past deliverances under the figure of a theophany is prepared for by a retrospect of dangers, which still palpitates with the memory of former fears. "A sorrows crown of sorrow is remembering happier things," and a joys crown of joy is remembering past perils. No better description of Davids early life could have been given than that contained in the two vivid figures of Psa_18:4-5. If we adopt the more congruous reading of the other recension of the psalm in 2 Samuel 22, we have in both members of Psa_18:4 a parallel metaphor. Instead of "sorrows" or "cords" (both of which renderings are possible for the text of the psalm here), it reads "breakers," corresponding with "floods" in the second clause. "Destruction" is better than ungodly men as the rendering of the unusual word "Belial." Thus the psalmist pictures himself as standing on a diminishing bit of solid ground, round which a rising flood runs strong, breaking on its crumbling narrowness. Islanded thus, he is all but lost. With swift transition he casts the picture of his distress into another metaphor. Now he is a hunted creature, surrounded and confronted by cords and snares. Sheol and Death have marked him for their prey, and are drawing their nets round him. What is left for him? One thing only. He has a voice, and he has a God. In his despair one piercing cry breaks from him; and, wonder of wonders, that thin shoot of prayer rises right into the heavenly palace temple and the ears of God. The repetition of "I called upon the Lord" connects this with Psa_18:3 as the experience on which the generalisation there is based. His extremity of peril had not paralysed the psalmists grasp of God as still "my God," and his confidence is vindicated. There is an eloquent contrast between the insignificance of the cause and the stupendous grandeur of the effect: one poor mans shrill cry and a shaking earth and all the dread pomp attending an interposing God. A cupful of water poured into a hydraulic ram sets in motion power that lifts tons; the prayer of faith brings the dread magnificence of Jehovah into the field. The reading of 2 Samuel is preferable in the last clause of Psa_18:6, omitting the superfluous "before Him."
The phenomena of a thunderstorm are the substratum of the grand description of Jehovahs delivering self-manifestation. The garb is lofty poetry; but a definite fact lies beneath, namely some deliverance in which the psalmist saw Jehovahs coming in storm and lightning flash to destroy, and therefore to save. Faith sees more truly because more deeply than sense. What would have appeared to an ordinary looker on as merely a remarkable escape was to its subject the manifestation of a present God. Which eye sees the "things that are,"-that which is cognisant only of a concatenation of events, or that which discerns a Person directing these? The cry of this hunted man has for first effect the kindling of the Divine "wrath," which is represented as flaming into action in the tremendous imagery of Psa_18:7-8. The description of the storm in which God comes to help the suppliant does not begin with these verses, as is commonly understood. The Divine power is not in motion yet, but is, as it were, gathering itself up for action. The complaining prayer is boldly treated as bringing to Gods knowledge His servants straits, and the knowledge as moving Him to wrath towards the enemies of one who takes shelter beneath His wings. "What have I here that my"-servant is thus bestead? saith the Lord. The poet can venture to paint a picture with the pen, which the painter dare not attempt with the pencil. The anger of Jehovah is described in words of singular daring, as rising like smoke from His nostrils and pouring in fire from His lips, from which blazing brands issue. No wonder that the earth reels even to the roots of the mountains, as unable to endure that wrath! The frank anthropomorphism of the picture, of which the features are taken from the hard breathing of an angry man or animal, {compare Jobs crocodile in Job_41:10-13} and the underlying conception are equally offensive to many; but as for the former, the more "gross" the humanising of the picture, the less likely is it to be mistaken for prose fact, and the more easy to apprehend as symbol: and as for the latter, the New Testament endorses the conception of the "wrath of God," and bids us take heed lest, if we cast it away, we maim his love. This same psalm hymns Jehovahs "gentleness"; and the more deeply His love is apprehended, the more surely will His wrath be discerned as its necessary accompaniment. The dark orb and its radiant sister move round a common centre.
Thus kindled, Gods wrath flashes into action, as is wonderfully painted in that great storm piece in Psa_18:9-15. The stages of a violent thunder tempest are painted with unsurpassable force and brevity.
First we see the low clouds: far nearer the trembling earth than the hidden blue was, and seeming to press down with leaden weight, their boding blackness is above us; but
"Whose foot shall we see emerge,
Whose from the straining topmost dark?"
Their low gathering is followed by the sudden rush of wind, which breaks the awful calm. In its "sound," the psalmist hears the winnowing of mighty wings: those of the cherub on whom, as a living chariot, Jehovah sits throned. This is called "mythology." Is it not rather a poetic personification of elemental powers, which gives emphasis to their being Gods instruments? The cherubim are in Scripture represented in varying forms and with different attributes. In Ezekiel they assume a composite form due apparently to Babylonian influences; but here there is no trace of that, and the absence of such strongly supports a pre-exilic date.
Blacker grows the gloom, in which awed hearts are conscious of a present Deity shrouded behind the livid folds of the thunderclouds, as in a tent. Down rushes the rain; the darkness is "a darkness of waters," and also "thick clouds of the skies," or "cloud masses," a mingled chaos of rain and cloud. Then lightning tears a way through the blackness, and the language becomes abrupt, like the flash. In Psa_18:12-13 the fury of the storm rages. Blinding brightness and deafening thunder-claps gleam and rattle through the broken words. Probably Psa_18:12 should be rendered, "From the brightness before Him there came through His clouds hail and brands of fire." Hidden in the cloudy tent is the light of Jehovahs presence, sparkles from which, flung forth by Him, pierce the solid gloom; and men call them lightnings. Then thunder rolls, the voice of the Most High. The repetition in Psa_18:13 of "hail and brands of fire" gives much abrupt force and one is unwilling to part with it. The reason for omitting it from the text is the want of grammatical connection, but that is rather a reason for retaining it, as the isolated clause breaks in on the continuity of the sentence, just as the flash shoots suddenly out of the cloud. These lightnings are Gods arrows; and, as they are showered down in flights, the psalmists enemies, unnamed since Psa_18:3, scatter in panic. The ideal character of the whole representation is plain from the last element in it-the description in Psa_18:15 of laying bare the seas depths, as the waters were parted at the Exodus. That voice and the fierce blast from these fire-breathing nostrils have dried the streams, and the oozy bed is seen. Gods "rebuke" has power to produce physical changes. The earthquake at the beginning and the empty ocean bed at the end are both somewhat outside the picture of the storm, and complete the representation of all nature as moved by the theophany.
Then comes the purpose of all the dread magnificence, strangely small except to the psalmist. Heaven and earth have been shaken, and lightnings set leaping through the sky, for nothing greater than to drag one half-drowned man from the floods. But the result of the theophany is small only in the same fashion as its cause was small. This same poor man cried, and the cry set Jehovahs activity in motion. The deliverance of a single soul may seem a small thing, but if the single soul has prayed it is no longer small, for Gods good name is involved. A nation is disgraced if its meanest subject is left to die in the hands of foreign enemies, and blood and treasure are not wasted if poured out lavishly for his rescue. God cannot let a suppliant who has taken shelter in His tent be dragged thence. Therefore there is no disproportion between the theophany and the individual deliverance which is its sole result.
The psalmist lays aside the figure in Psa_18:17-18, and comes to the bare fact of his deliverance from enemies, and perhaps from one especially, formidable ("my enemy," Psa_18:17). The prose of the whole would have been that he was in great danger and without means of averting it, but had a hair-breadth escape. But the outside of a fact is not all of it; and in this mystical life of ours poetry gets nearer the heart of things than does prose, and religion nearer than either. It is no miracle, in the narrow meaning of that word, which the psalmist sings; but his eye has seen the unseen force which moves all visible events. We may see the same apocalypse of a present Jehovah, if our eyes are purged, and our hearts pure. It is always true that the cry of a trustful soul pierces heaven and moves God; it is always true that He comes to His servant sinking and crying, "Lord, save me; I perish." The scene on the Galilean lake when Christs strong grasp held Peter up, because his fear struck out a spark of faith, though his faith was darkened with fear, is ever being repeated.
The note slightly touched at the close of the description of the deliverance dominates the second part of the psalm (Psa_18:20-31), of which the main theme is the correspondence of Gods dealings with character, as illustrated in the singers experience, and thence generalised into a law of the Divine administration. It begins with startling protestations of innocence. These are rounded into a whole by the repetition, at the beginning and end, of the same statement that God dealt with the psalmist according to his righteousness and clean-handedness. If the author is David, this voice of a good conscience must have been uttered before his great fall, after which he could, indeed, sing of forgiveness and restoring grace, but never again of integrity. Unlike as the tone of these verses is to that deeper consciousness of sin which is not the least of Christs gifts, the truth which they embody is as much a part of the Christian as of the earlier revelation. True, penitence must now mingle with conscious rectitude more abundantly than it does in this psalm; but it is still and forever true that God deals with His servants according to their righteousness. Cherished sin separates from Him, and forces His love to leave cries for help many times unanswered, in order that, filled with the fruit of their doings, His people may have a wholesome fear of again straying from the narrow way. Unless a Christian can say, "I keep myself from mine iniquity," he has no right to look for the sunshine of Gods face to gladden his eyes, nor for the strength of Gods hand to pluck his feet from the net. In noble and daring words, the psalmist proclaims as a law of Gods dealings his own experience generalised (Psa_18:25-27). It is a bold reversal of the ordinary point of view to regard man as taking the initiative and God as following his lead. And yet is not life full of solemn facts confirmatory of the truth that God is to a man what the man is to God? That is so both subjectively and objectively. Subjectively, our conceptions of God vary with our moral nature, and objectively the dealings of God are moulded according to that nature. There is such a thing as colour blindness in regard to the Divine character, whereby some men cannot see the green of faithful love or the red of wrath, but each beholds that in God which his vision fits him to see; and the many-sided dealings of God are different in their incidence upon different characters, so that the same heat melts wax and hardens clay; and further the actual dealings are accurately adapted to the state of their objects, so that each gets what he needs most: the loving heart, sweet love tokens from the Divine Lover; the perverse, thwartings which come from a God "contrary" to them who are contrary to Him. "The history of the world is the judgment of the world." But the first of the designations of character in Psa_18:25 hints that before mans initiative had been Gods: for "merciful" is the pregnant word occurring so often in the Psalter, and so impossible to translate by any one word. It means, as we have already had occasion to point out, one who is the subject of the Divine lovingkindness, and who therefore loves God in return. Here it seems rather to be taken in the sense of loving than of beloved. He who exercises this lovingkindness, whether towards God or man, shall find in God One who exercises it to him. But the word itself regards mans lovingkindness towards God as being the echo of Gods, and so the very first step in determining the mutual relations is Gods, and but for it there would never have been that in man which God could answer by showing Himself as loving. The contrasted dealings and characters are summed up in the familiar antithesis of Psa_18:27. The "afflicted" or humble are the type of God-pleasing character, since humility, such as befits dependent creatures, is the mother of all goodness, and "high looks" the master sin, and the whole drift of Providence is to lift the lowly and abase the proud.
The psalmists swift thought vibrates throughout this part of the song between his own experience and the general truths exemplified in it. He is too full of his own deliverance to be long silent about it, and, on the other hand, is continually reminded by it of the wide sweep of the beneficent laws which have been so fruitful of good to him. The most precious result of individual mercy is the vision obtained through it of the universal Lover of souls. "My God" will be widened into "our God," and "our God" will rest upon "my God," if either is spoken from the hearts depths. So in Psa_18:27-29 the personal element comes again to the front. The individualising name "My God" occurs in each verse, and the deliverance underlying the theophany is described in terms which prepare for the fuller celebration of victory in the last part of the psalm. God lights the psalmists lamp, by which is meant not the continuance of his family (as the expression elsewhere means), but the preservation of his own life, with the added idea, especially in Psa_18:28 b, of prosperity. Psa_18:29 tells how the lamp was kept alight, namely by the singers victory in actual battle, in which his swift rush had overtaken the enemy, and his agile limbs had scaled their walls. The parallelism of the clauses is made more complete by the emendation adopted by Lagarde, Cheyne, Baethgert, etc., who read Psa_18:29 a, -" I [can] break down a fence," but this is unnecessary. The same combination of running and climbing occurs in Joe_2:7, and the two clauses of Psa_18:33 seem to repeat those of Psa_18:29. The swift, agile warrior, then, traces these physical powers to God, as he does more at large in later verses.
Once more, the song passes, in Psa_18:30, to the wider truths taught by the personal deliverance. "Our God" takes the place of "my God"; and "all who take refuge in Him" are discerned as gathering, a shadowy crowd, round the solitary psalmist, and as sharing in his blessings. The large truths of these verses are the precious fruit of distress and deliverance. Both have cleared the singers eyes to see, and tuned his lips to sing, a God whose doings are without a flaw whose word is like pure gold without alloy or falsehood, whose ample protection shields all who flee to its shelter, who alone is God, the fountain of strength, who stands firm forever, the inexpugnable defence and dwelling place of men. This burst of pure adoration echoes the tones of the glorious beginning of the psalm. Happy they who, as the result of lifes experience, solve "the riddle of this painful earth," with these firm and jubilant convictions as the very foundation of their being.
The remainder of the psalm (Psa_18:32-50) describes the victorious campaign of the psalmist and the establishment of his kingdom. There is difficulty in determining the tenses of the verbs in some verses, and interpreters vary between pasts and futures. The inclination of the greater number of recent commentators is to carry the historical retrospect uninterruptedly through the whole context, which, as Hupfeld acknowledges, "allerdings das bequemste ist," and those who suppose occasional futures interspersed (as the R.V. and Hupfeld) differ in the places of their introduction. "Everything here is retrospective," says Delitzsch, and certainly that view is simplest: and gives unity to the whole. The name of God is never mentioned in the entire section, except as vainly invoked by the flying foe. Not till the closing doxologies does it appear again, with the frequency which marks the middle part of the psalm. A similar sparse use of it characterises the description of the theophany. In both cases there is a peculiar force given by the stream of verbs without expressed nominatives. The hurrying clauses here vividly reproduce the haste of battle, and each falls like the blow of a battle mace wielded by a strong arm. The equipment of the king for the fight (Psa_18:32-36). the fierce assault, flight of the foe and their utter annihilation (Psa_18:37-42), the extension by conquest of the singers kingdom (Psa_18:43-44), successively pass before us as we listen to the panting words with the heat of battle in them; and all rises at last into exuberant praise, which re-echoes some strains of the introductory burst of thanksgiving.
Many mythologies have told how the gods arm their champions, but the psalmist reaches a loftier height than these. He ventures to think of God as doing the humble office of bracing on his girdle, but the girdle is itself strength. God, whose own "way is perfect" (Psa_18:30) makes His servants "way" in some measure like His own; and though, no doubt, the figure must be interpreted in a manner congruous with its context, as chiefly implying "perfection" in regard to the purpose in hand-namely, warfare - we need not miss the deeper truth that Gods soldiers are fitted forconflict by their "ways" being conformed to Gods. This mans "strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure." Strength and swiftness are the two characteristics of antique heroes, and Gods gift bestowed both on the psalmist. Light of foot as a deer and able to climb to the robber forts perched on crags, as a chamois would, his hands deft, and his muscular arms strong to bend the bow which others could not use, he is the ideal of a warrior of old; and all these natural powers he again ascribes to Gods gift. A goddess gave Achilles his wondrous shield, but what was it to that which God binds upon this warriors arm? As his girdle was strength, and not merely a means of strength, his shield is salvation, and not merely a means of safety. The fact that God purposes to save and does act for saving is the defence against all dangers and enemies. It is the same deep truth as the prophet expresses by making "salvation" the walls and bulwarks of the strong city where the righteous nation dwells in peace. God does not thus arm His servant and then send him out alone to fight as he can, but "Thy right hand holds me up." What assailant can beat him down, if that hand is under his armpit to support him? The beautiful rendering of the A.V., "Thy gentleness," scarcely conveys the meaning, and weakens the antithesis with the psalmists "greatness," which is brought out by translating "Thy lowliness," or even more boldly "Thy humility." There is that in God which answers to the peculiarly human virtue of lowliness; and unless there were, man would remain small and unclothed with God-given strength. The devout soul thrills with wonder at Gods stooping love, which it discerns to be the foundation of all His gifts and therefore of its blessedness. This singer saw deep into the heart of God, and anticipated the great word of the one Revealer, "I am meek and lowly in heart." But Gods care for him does not merely fit him for the fight: it also orders circumstances so as to give him a free course. Having made his "feet like hinds feet," God then prepares paths that he should walk in them. The work is only half done when the man is endowed for service or conflict; a field for his powers must be forthcoming, and God will take care that no strength given by Him lies idle for want of a wrestling ground. Sooner or later feet find the road.
Then follow six verses (Psa_18:37-42) full of the stir and tumult of battle. There is no necessity for the change to futures in the verbs of Psa_18:37-38, which the R.V. adopts. The whole is a picture of past conflict, for which the psalmisthad been equipped by God. It is a literal fight, the triumph of which still glows in the singers heart and flames in his vivid words. We see him in swift pursuit, pressing hard on the enemy, crushing them with his fierce onset, trampling them under foot. They break and flee, shrieking out prayers, which the pursuer has a stern joy in knowing to be fruitless. His blows fall like those of a great pestle, and crush the fleeing wretches, who are scattered by his irresistible charge, like dust whirled by the storm. The last clause of the picture of the routed foe is better given by the various reading in 2 Samuel, which requires only a very slight alteration in one letter: "I did stamp them as the mire of the streets." Such delight in the enemys despair and destruction, such gratification at hearing their vain cries to Jehovah, are far away from Christian sentiments; and the gulf is not wholly bridged by the consideration that the psalmist felt himself to be Gods anointed, and enmity to him to be treason against God. Most natural as his feelings were, perfectly consistent with the level of religion proper to the then stage of revelation, capable of being purified into that triumph in the victory of good and ruin of evil without which there is no vigorous sympathy with Christs battle, and kindling as they do by their splendid energy and condensed rapidity an answering glow in even readers so far away from their scene as we are, they are still of "another spirit" from that which Christ has breathed into the Church, and nothing but confusion and mischief can come of slurring over the difference. The light of battle which blazes in them is not the fire which Jesus longed to kindle upon earth.
Thus far the enemies seem to have been native foes rebelling against Gods anointed or, if the reference to the Sauline persecution is held by. seeking to prevent his reaching his throne. But, in the concluding verses of this part (Psa_18:43-45), a transition is made to victory over "strangers," i.e. foreign nations. "The strivings of the people" seems to point back to the war described already, while "Thou hast made me the head of the nations" refers to external conquests. In 2 Samuel the reading is "my people," which would bring out the domestic reference more strongly; but the suffix for "my" may be a defective form of writing the plural; if so, the peoples in Psa_18:43 a are the "nations" of Psa_18:43 b. In any case the royal singer celebrates the extension of his dominion. The tenses in Psa_18:44-45, which the R.V. again gives as futures (as does Hupfeld), are better regarded, like all the others, as pasts. The wider dominion is not inconsistent with Davidic origin, as his conquests were extended beyond the territory of Israel. The picture of the hasty surrender of the enemy at the very sound of the conquerors name is graphic. "They lied unto me," as the words in Psa_18:44 b are literally, gives forcibly the feigned submission covering bitter hate. "They fade away," as if withered by the simoom, the hot blast of the psalmists conquering power. "They come trembling [or, as 2 Samuel reads, come limping] from their strongholds."
Psa_18:46-50 make a noble close to a noble hymn, in which the singers strong wins never flags nor the rush of thought and feeling slackens. Even more absolutely than in the rest of the psalm every victory is ascribed to Jehovah. He alone acts; the psalmist is simply the recipient. To have learned by lifes struggles and deliverances that Jehovah is a living God and "my Rock" is to have gathered lifes best fruit. A morning of tempest has cleared into sunny calm, as it always will, if tempest drives to God. He who cries to Jehovah when the floods of destruction make him afraid will in due time have to set to his seal that Jehovah liveth. If we begin with "The Lord is my Rock," we shall end with "Blessed be my Rock." Thankfulness does not weary of reiterating acknowledgments; and so the psalmist gathers up once more the main points of the psalm in these closing strains and lays all his mass of blessings at the feet of the Giver. His deliverance from his domestic foes and his conquests over external enemies are wholly Gods work, and therefore supply both impulse and material for praises which shall sound out beyond the limits of Israel. The vow to give thanks among the nations has been thought fatal to the Davidic origin of the psalm. Seeing, however, that some foreign peoples were conquered by him, there was opportunity for its fulfilment. His function to make known the name of Jehovah was the reason for his victories. David had learned the purpose of his elevation, and recognised in an extended kingdom a wider audience for his song. Therefore Paul penetrates to the heart of the psalm when he quotes Psa_18:49 in Rom_15:9 as a proof that the evangelising of the Gentiles was an Old Testament hope. The plain lesson from the psalmists vow is that Gods mercies bind and if felt aright will joyfully impel, the receiver to spread His name as far as his voice can reach. Love is sometimes silent, but gratitude must speak. The most unmusical voice is tuned to melody by thankfulness, and they need never want a theme who can tell what the Lord has done for their soul.
The last verse of the psalm is sometimes regarded as a liturgical addition, and the mention of David gratuitously supposed to be adverse to his authorship, but there is nothing unnatural in a kings mentioning himself in such a connection nor in the reference to his dynasty, which is evidently based upon the promise of perpetual dominion given through Nathan. The Christian reader knows how much more wonderful than the singer knew was the mercy granted to the king in that great promise, fulfilled in the Son of David, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and who bears Gods name to all the nations.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1“This magnificent triumphal hymn was composed by David in…
INTRODUCTION
“This magnificent triumphal hymn was composed by David in celebration of his deliverance from his enemies. But the sublimity of the figures used in it, and the consent of ancient commentators, even Jewish as well as Christian, but, above all, the citations, made from it in the New Testament, evince that the kingdom of Messiah is here pointed at under that of David. It may thus be divided into five parts.
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Part I. Consisting of the first three verses, is the proem of the song.
Part II. Celebrates miraculous deliverances from a state of affliction and distress.
Part III. Thanksgiving; five verses, from the twentieth to the twenty-fourth.
Part IV. Celebrates success in war; eighteen verses, from the twenty-fifth to the forty-second.
Part V. The establishment of Messiah’s kingdom; eight verses, from the forty-third to the fiftieth.”—Bishop Mant.
TRUE LOVE
(Psa_18:1.)
This verse gives a picture of the human heart in its sublimest mood. It is an eloquent expression of the loftiest affection. The love of the Psalmist was “true,” because,
I. The object of it was right. “I will love Thee.” Not, nature. Some expend the whole fund of their admiration and delight on the works of God. They admire creation, idealise it, idolise it. They give a fanciful life to sun and moon and stars, to the firmament, to the earth, and then worship them. This love inspires our naturalistic, pantheistic poetry—a poetry sadly popular. Not, humanity. We see many lavish their affection on their friends, and a certain philosophy tells us that the noblest object of love is the human race. We see J. S. Mill in England, and Comte in France, denying the love of God, and then adoring in the most extravagant fashion a couple of women. We may easily fall into the same mistake—loving the creature more than the Creator. There is, indeed, no sin in loving, in fervently loving, such of our fellows as may appear in our eyes to be beautiful or noble; but that our love should be confined to these is the fault of faults. Not, self. How common is self-idolatry! To be wholly occupied with our own interests—ever burning incense to our own greatness! How many are their own divinities, living to glorify, to serve, to worship themselves! Not, the world. The Apostle says that the love of the world is enmity with God. What is this love of the world which is opposed to the love of the Father? The setting of our affections on the gifts of God—wealth, rank, honours, learning. There are many such. They are lovers of pleasure, fortune, fame, more than lovers of God. They forget, or almost forget, the Giver in the gift. God is true object of love.
1. He should be the first object. The Psalmist begins with extolling God. The first verse of every chapter in our life should be: “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.”
2. He is the worthy object. To love creation, or its gifts, is to love what is dead. Love is only worthily placed on a living person. To love the creatures, is to love what is imperfect: when we love any person, we love not so much the actual person, but rather an ideal person. Their merits, their charms, exist to a large extent in our imagination. But God is the all-perfect One; all perfections exist actually and absolutely in Him.
3. He is the chief object. “Thee” only Thee; all other creatures or things in Thee. “Nothing must we love above God, or so much as God, much less against God.”—Trapp.
II. The measure of it was right.
1. It was a boundless love. The just measure of love to God is a measureless love. “I will love Thee.” “The word signifies to love with the greatest intensity.”—Phillips. “Affectionately do I love Thee.”—Moll. “Fervently do I love Thee, O Jehovah, my strength.”—Perowne. The Psalmist loved God from the depths of his heart; loved Him with a burning, boundless affection. As one has said: “Every river does the most good whilst it keeps within its banks, except the Nile, and that does the most good when it overflows its banks; so each human passion is best kept within bounds; except love to God, and that is best when it overflows, when it is shed abroad.”
2. It was an everlasting love. It overflowed both space and time. “The future form, I will love, represents it as a permanent affection, and expresses a fixed purpose. “I not only love Thee now, but am resolved to do so for ever.”—Alexander. “Nothing shall separate me from the love of God,” &c.
“What though my flesh and heart decay,
Thee shall I love in endless day!”
III. The inspiration of it was right.
“O Lord, my strength.” The Psalmist’s heart was touched by the love of God. “The simple form of the verb is here used to denote the reciprocal affection of the inferior party.”—Alexander. He had felt God’s love to himself, and in return He loved God. “We love Him because He first loved us.” A true love to God is something more than a mere intellectual admiration, something more than a moral appreciation; it is the offspring of a consciously, indebted, and deeply-moved heart. The idea of the mystics, that we must love God simply for His own sake, is not scriptural. We love much because much has been forgiven us; because great gifts have been imparted to us; because great deliverances have been wrought out for us.
Remember—the love of God is the secret of strength and victory. The love of God gives us the victory over all inward foes. Great is the purifying power of this sublime affection. “Faith which worketh by love, and purifies the heart.” “The love of God gives us the victory over all outward foes” (Rom_8:35-39). “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might” (Jdg_5:31).
DIVINE SALVATION
(Psa_18:2-3.)
We observe:
I. The Psalmist’s confession (Psa_18:2).
He acknowledges,
1. That God was his deliverer. “Jehovah is my stronghold,” &c. “My God is my strength,” &c. The Psalmist does not impute his deliverance from Saul and his other enemies, to his own prowess, or to secondary causes; God was his help. There was a power of supernatural faith in David lifting him above the temptation to idealise and deify aspects of nature. The rocks and fortresses and strongholds of the country, where many of David’s exploits were performed, might have led a less devout mind to forget God, and ascribe its triumphs to its own prowess, combined with geographical advantages. Not so with David. His faith penetrated secondary causes, and visible helps and agencies only became the symbols of the invisible. “Jehovah is my stronghold,” &c. Let us give the glory of our deliverances to God—not to self, or nature, or chance. Let us give all the glory to God. Not a word here about geographical help, or human help, or self-help. If we thus honour God, God shall honour our faith, and save us in all natural and spiritual perils.
2. God was his perfect deliverer. Seven is the number of perfection; and here we have according to the reading of Perowne seven metaphors crowded together setting forth the perfection of God as the Saviour of His people. “Jehovah (is) my stronghold and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God is my rock wherein I find refuge, my shield and horn of my salvation, my high tower.” God is a perfect Saviour. “Rock;” “shield;” “horn;” indicate various forms of defence and shelter, of immunity and deliverance.
(1.) God preserves His people in the day of evil. He is a garrison to them in the time of trial and temptation. Talk of the seven wonders of the world! what are they but imperfect images of the magnificent bulwarks which God raises about His people?
“On every aide He stands,
And for His Israel cares;
And safe in His Almighty hands
Their souls for ever bears.”
(2.) God delivers His people from the power of evil. He is more than a defender, He is a deliverer. He causes our foes to raise the siege, and leave us unharassed and unharmed.
(3.) God causes His people to triumph over the enemies by whom they have been menaced. “The horn of my salvation.” As the “shield” stands for a weapon of defence, so the “horn” stands for a weapon of offence. “The horn is a symbol of strength in attack.”—Perowne. God not only shelters and delivers His people, but He enables them to carry the war into the enemies’, camp, and to reap glorious spoils in the battle. God not only saves His people, but “Satan is bruised under their feet; He not only delivers His Church from the wrath of men and devils, but strengthens it to overthrow the kingdom of darkness.
3. God was his personal deliverer. “My” rock, “my” fortress, “my” deliverer. The tried saint feels that he has a personal and peculiar interest in God. God’s manifestations of help and power are so rich and multiform in their character that they carry a separate secret for every separate heart. Just as there were rocks and strongholds about Bethlehem and Engedi that David’s eye had marked for many a year, and that his own foot only knew how to climb; so there are forms of Divine help and blessing, as many and as varied as God’s relations to individual souls, and the secret paths to the attainment of which lie within our individual faith. Let us not be afraid of tribulation, for it unites us all the more intensely with God. Peril deepens experience and individualises the relations in which we stand to God. But for the years of danger in which his youth had been spent, the Psalmist would never have been able to realise all that power of intense, believing, personal appropriation, signified by the use of the possessive pronoun, “My strength:” “My fortress:” “My God.”
We observe:
II. The Psalmist’s resolution (Psa_18:3). “I will call upon the Lord,” &c. Having shown that the Lord is worthy to be praised and trusted, how natural it is that this resolution should follow! And yet, how often is it the case that we acknowledge the glorious perfections of our God in our lips, and yet do not follow up the acknowledgment with a hearty practical confidence! Call upon the Lord for help, and you praise Him in so doing; call upon the Lord, so shall you be saved from your enemies. Some say that children, weak in every other respect, have such strong voices that they may be able to cry aloud, and thus secure help in times of danger; the children of God, weak and helpless amid foes and perils, have a cry to pierce the heavens and bring down help. Cry! cry aloud! and God shall save.
DE PROFUNDIS
(Psa_18:4-19.)
Consider:
I. The Psalmist’s peril (Psa_18:4-5).
“The sorrows of death” (Psa_18:4). “According to the reading of 2Sa_22:5, ‘the breakers of death.’ The metaphor is taken from those dangerous waves which our mariners cull whitebreakers.”—Horsley. “The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.”—Perowne. “The reference is here to wicked men, whose number and violence are indicated by the figure of torrents and overflowing streams.”—Alexander. “The sorrows of hell,” &c. (Psa_18:5). The bands of the grave, the snares of death. “By bands we are probably to understand the cordage of a net, such as fowlers spread for birds.”—Alexander. “Death is represented as a hunter with a cord and net.”—Delitzsch. Whichever way the Psalmist turns there is dreadful danger. Thus are we found in our sinful estate. We are in the power of evil. Sin as a torrent carries us away; the devil has entangled us in the meshes of his net; there seems no way of escape from the second death. When our eyes are opened to our true situation we are overwhelmed with horror. Thus do we sometimes find ourselves in days of trouble and persecution. We are compassed about with sorrow and darkness. There seems to be no way of escape.
II. The Psalmist’s prayer (Psa_18:6).
1. Its fervency. “Called.” “Cried.”
2. Its singleness. “I called upon Jehovah; i.e., when I am in trouble I call on Jehovah only, and make my supplication to no other deliverer.”—Phillips.
3. Its efficacy. “He heard my voice out of His temple,” &c. “Not the temple, or tabernacle, on Mount Zion, but the temple in heaven, where in God especially manifests His glory, and where He is worshipped by the heavenly hosts—a place which is both temple and palace.”—Perowne. What wonderful tenderness and oversight are suggested by the answer that met the Psalmist’s cry! The temple full of music, but the cry of distress carries as far as the angelic symphonies, and reaches an all-sensitive ear; the temple full of radiance and glory and beauty, but away amidst the gloom of the under-world a Divine eye sees the prostrate and struggling form of a servant of God; God hears the cry out of His very temple, and leaves the very temple, as described in the subsequent verses, for the help and deliverance of His servant. The celestial world is a world full of glory, music, and joy; and yet, it is quick to sympathise with a world of want and sorrow. Do not restrain prayer because of heaven’s distance; not because of its magnificence; not because of its sanctity, for it is a “temple,” a place of mercy and reconciliation.
III. The Psalmist’s preservation (Psa_18:7-19). “It is true we find no express record of any incident in David’s life of the kind recorded in 1Sa_7:10, but it must be some real experience, which David here idealises.”—Delitzsch.
Observe:
1. The power of the Divine Helper (Psa_18:7-9). “The earth shook and trembled,” &c. Whilst God was a rock and refuge to David, He was a power that rocked the very mountains, to say nothing of the frail fortresses of the Psalmist’s foes. God is a wall of fire to His people, but a consuming fire to His enemies.
2. The swiftness of the Divine Helper (Psa_18:10). “He rode upon a cherub, and did fly,” &c. “He is a present help in the time of trouble.”
“Ere we can offer our complaints,
Behold him present with his aid.”
3. The mystery of the methods of the Divine aid (Psa_18:11). “He made darkness His veil.”—Moll. “The word rendered secret place—means properly a hiding.”—Barnes. In strange ways God saves His people. Be patient and believing.
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,” &c.
As the 12th verse intimates, it is not all obscurity. “At the brightness that was before Him the thick clouds were scattered.” There were out-gleams. So if we keep our eye on the Divine government we shall often get glimpses of the light and love by which it is pervaded.
4. The efficacy of the Divine aid (Psa_18:13-18). God’s power utterly discomfited the foes of His people. In the 7th verse “the earth shook and trembled, the foundations also of the hills moved;” in the 13th verse the “heavens” shake, and pour down hailstones and fire. No wonder that the wicked were “scattered” in dire confusion. Let us not forget that this glorious power is pledged to the weakest saint. Our enemies may be too strong for us, but they are not too strong for Him.
5. The fulness of the Divine deliverance (Psa_18:19). God’s help never stops at the mere point of deliverance. God’s power never comes down to help us out of our perils only; it comes to bring us to better things than we had known heretofore.
NATURE AND THE SUPERNATURAL
(Psa_18:7-19.)
The Psalmist does something more here than “idealise” nature, we think that he suggests some important thoughts concerning the relation of nature to the supernatural. Dr. Farrar in his “Chapters on Language” observes: “What Mr. Ruskin has called ‘the pathetic fallacy,’ is the indomitable desire to see in nature, or at least to attribute to her, a sympathy in our joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. Hence, to the imagination of the Psalmist and prophet, ‘the hills clap their hands;’ ‘the valleys sing;’ ‘the morning stars shout for joy;’ ‘the fir-trees howl,’ &c., &c. In modern poets the same fancy recurs with constant intensity, so that there is hardly a single aspect of nature which has not been made to express or to interpret the thoughts and passions of mankind, and hardly a single modern poem which does not illustrate this imaginative power,” p. 214. But there is something far deeper than this in the relation of God’s people to nature; they not only see their experience mirrored in nature, but have the assurance that nature sympathises with them, and ministers to them in a far more profound sense. In that portion of the psalm which is now before us, we see:
I. Nature as obedient to supernatural power. We see God moving heaven and earth. All forces doing His bidding—the wind, the clouds, the lightning, the thunder, the mountains, the sea. The Psalmist in this song may have “idealised” some of his experiences, but his idealisation assumes the obedience of nature to the will of God. The Scriptures constantly teach this. The Old Testament is full of it, and the New. Reason sanctions it. It is so natural to think of the world being plastic to the will of God, that when men cease to believe in God being able to modify nature they soon cease to believe in Him at all. Experience confirms it. There are few good men but who are firmly persuaded that God has interfered with the natural order on their behalf. Science can prove nothing to the contrary. Science not only tells us of the invariability of law, but she tells us with equal emphasis of the modificability of law; and if the human will can modify natural law, who shall set the limits of the Divine interference with the natural order!
We see:
II. Nature as the executant of a supernatural will. We see in this psalm nature as an executant of the Divine anger. How all the forces of nature are here arrayed against the wicked! Nature is God’s minister to execute wrath upon them that do evil. It seems sometimes as if nature were against God, and for sin and sinners; but if we look further down we shall see that nature is on the side of God and righteousness. Let the wicked remember that the visible universe is God’s vast arsenal, and when once He is angry He can turn all the bright and beautiful things of nature into the swift ministers of death and ruin. We see nature also as an executant of the Divine grace. There is a dark side of nature for the enemies of God—there is a bright side for the friends of God. All this storm and earthquake was in mercy to David. Child of God, know nature to be thy friend! We are too apt to look upon nature as rigid and inexorable, and in no way sensitive to the generous will of Heaven. In our fear and suffering we look out upon nature and think how reckless she is of our sorrowful moods; we aggravate our sufferings by deeming nature unsympathetic, as we should aggravate them by encountering the face of a foe. Remember, if your purposes and life are only in perfect accord with God, God is always with you to aid, and the colossal and apparently immobile forces of nature are fluttering like threads of gossamer in delicate sympathy with all His manifestations of care and help and succour for you.
We see:
III. Nature ministering to supernatural purpose. Not to material, but to moral and spiritual ends. Remember the higher ministry of nature. Nature is really but a mass of means which God uses for the salvation and sanctification of His creatures. Heathen fables tell us of nature being affected by great military and political events, but God’s Word shows us nature ministering to great moral and religious ends, and this is well worthy of credence. The inferior universe serves the higher universe. We may well believe that the sun was darkened at man’s redemption; that natural law and phenomena are controlled with a view to man’s moral education; that ordinary laws and processes are disturbed to secure man’s immortal salvation.
THE BOW IN THE CLOUD
(Psa_18:16-20.)
The Psalmist in the preceding verses has shown us the earth rent by earthquakes and the heavens blackened by thunder-clouds, here we see the rainbow span the horrible tempest—God’s pity and aid to His afflicted servant. The rainbow has various colours, and there are several aspects of God’s government towards His afflicted people shining out brightly in this paragraph.
Notice:
I. The supremacy of God’s government. “He sent from above” (Psa_18:16). All was shaken on the earth, all eclipsed in the sky, but above the firmament God sits in perfect repose. Above all the storms and revolutions of earth God reigns, and reigns with undisturbed sovereignty. It is a mighty comfort to the believer to be able to cry, amid wars and tumults and eclipses: “Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Oh! that the people of God would look in dark days in the right direction! “He sent from above.” We look to society, or to self; to history, to posterity; to earth beneath us, to the world around us; we look anywhere instead of looking up. Await salvation “from above.” In our dark days the door of hope is a door which opens into heaven; let us knock at that door, and wait the help which is never denied. “God being enthroned on high, and dwelling in the heavens, does not separate Him from His servants on earth; it merely exhibits Him in His exaltation above all the powers of the world and the abyss; it no more prevents Him from hearing the sighs and supplications of the oppressed, than from making known His presence, to help in gracious condescension to the needs of men.”—Moll.
II. The discriminativeness of God’s action. “He took me, He drew me out of many waters” (Psa_18:16). The frightful storm which has just been pictured sweeping the world seems as if it would involve the guilty and the innocent in one common ruin, but we are reminded that it is not so. In the midst of these appalling displays the Psalmist was safe. The Hand that was hurling lightnings and hailstones and coals of fire, was outstretched in the gentle task of helping the imperilled good. When human authority seeks to punish, it is frequently undistinguishing, and strikes the innocent with the guilty. And it often seems as if the Divine authority were equally undistinguishing. The great laws which govern nature, society, and human life, seem blind and indiscriminating; but let us be sure that it is not so. “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” Fear God, and serve Him with all your heart, and you shall know that there is a law which discerns between the evil and the good. “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee” (Psa_91:5-8).
III. The tenderness of God’s methods. “He drew me out of many waters.” “There is peculiar beauty in the word translated draw, which is the root of the name Moses, and occurs, besides the place before us, only in the explanation of that name recorded by Himself” (Exo_2:10).—Alexander. In this psalm God is seen surrounded by awful terrors, but yet He deals with His servant in great gentleness. He has thunder, lightning, hailstones, for His foes—music, sunbeams, dewdrops, for His people. “He drew me.” Softly, tenderly, does God withdraw His servants from scenes of peril.
IV. The effectiveness of God’s aid (Psa_18:17-18). The Psalmist was no match for his foes. They were strong, and they took advantage of his weakness. “They fell upon me in the day of my calamity.”—Moll. And in his various wars David repeatedly sustained partial defeats. But the Lord was his stay. “They prevented me in the day of my calamity; i.e., came on me suddenly, unawares, when I was unprovided and helpless, and must have destroyed me had not God upheld and supported me when I was in danger of perishing. God was to the Psalmist for a staff to support him. What the staff is to one that is ready to fall, the means of recovering and preserving him; that was God to David in the time of his extremity.”—Dr. Chandler quo. by Spurgeon. Our enemies may easily be too much for us, but they cannot prevail against God. Believer! rest in God. Extremity of help will come in extremity of need; and when you are the weakest, God shall glorify Himself the most by working out your uttermost salvation.
V. The bountifulness of God’s grace (Psa_18:19). “He brought me forth to a wide place.”—Phillips. If we are faithful to God, our temptations and sorrows are ever working out for us a more perfect liberty, a higher being, a greater weight of glory.
THE GREAT SALVATION
(Psa_18:16.)
There can be little doubt but that David in this place is idealising some of his own experiences; but that eye is very dim which cannot perceive in the Psalmist’s language something far beyond a description of his own immediate temporal danger and rescue. We have not exhausted the meaning of this magnificent hymn until we have seen in it a foreshadowing of the world’s redemption in Jesus Christ.
Behold:
I. A great danger. What is that danger? A world of Sinners on the brink of hell. The Psalmist pictures himself surrounded by death and hell, and altogether helpless in their grasp. It is a picture of the world, considered apart from the truth and mercy of God in Jesus Christ. The race had fallen under the power of sin, and the whole earth was filled with wickedness and wretchedness. Man could not help himself, could not deliver himself from the tyranny of the devil. And each individual sinner feels that his sins have brought him to the brink of the pit. Floods of ungodliness are sweeping him onward to the ocean of wrath. We are perishing sinners.
Behold:
II. A Divine deliverer. “He sent from above.” Down in a gulf of dark despair we wretched sinners lay, when God’s eye pitied us, and His right arm brought salvation. There was no help in us. Man has no resource within himself to cope with the great tide of sin and wrath. No help around us. Society cannot save us. No man can redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him. There was no human helper, no angelic helper, and so God Himself becomes our helper. Guilty man was like a broken ship in a storm, no haven in view, no friendly sail bearing down to his relief, no lighthouse star to cheer, no life-boat on the wave, when God marked his signals of distress, and out of the opened heaven sent him a Saviour, even Christ the Lord. “He tent from above.” He sent His Word. The oracles of God. He sent His Son. May we not say, “He came from above”! He sent His Spirit. God has come down to the scene of woe, and invites us to make Him our deliverer. Mark ,
1. the strength of this Saviour. “He took me.” This expresses the strength of His grasp. His right hand doeth valiantly. If our soul is in His hand, who shall tear us out of it? Mark ,
2. the tenderness of this Saviour. “He drew me.” As humane men bend over one who has been rescued from the river, and apply warmth to the chilly limbs, and chafe the livid hands, and pour cordials into the lips, and keep on hour after hour with their tender ministries, until the closed eyes open, and the pallid cheek is tinged with crimson, and the silent lips break into the music of speech; so Christ bends lovingly over sinners plucked from black depths, and by his longsuffering and tenderness arouses and perfects in them a Divine and immortal life.
Behold:
III. A complete redemption. “He drew me out of many waters.” He gives us redemption from sin, sorrow, fear, death, hell. Christ is an ark to save the world, and to save us all from many sorrows. Noah’s ark floats on the waters, but its door was shut. A thousand eager eyes of drowning men might behold it, a thousand cries might be addressed to it, but it gave no response. For a while, men, women, children might cling to it, only, however, to be washed into the awful gulf. But Christ is an ark, the door of which is wide open, and every sinking despairing soul may enter in and be saved. And as the ark brought Noah in safety to the new earth; so Christ shall bring His people in safety “into a large place.” He shall land them in heaven.
ULTIMATE REASONS
(Psa_18:19.)
“He delivered me, because He delighted in me.”
We inquire:
I. Why God delivers and honours men? “Because He delighted in me.” God’s regard to man does not spring,
1. From the fact that He could not do without us. He could do without us. We are not necessary to Him. “What shall a man profit God?”
2. Neither is this regard explained by any claim we might have on God, arising from the fact that He is our Creator. By a thousand wilful transgressions we have forfeited any such claim. One of our writers insists: “If a created being has no rights which his Creator is bound to respect, there is an end to all moral relations between them.” But who does not feel that through his sin and folly he has lost all “rights,” and must cast himself upon the mercy of God?
3. Neither does God esteem any man on the ground of any physical or intellectual quality that he may possess. The creature’s skill or force, the piercing wit, the active limb, these are all too mean delights for God. Apart from moral excellences they have no charms in His eyes.
4. Neither can this regard be explained on the ground of any arbitrary election. We are not to imagine that God, for some inscrutable reasons, delights in some and rejects others. On what grounds, then, does God delight in men?
(1.) On the ground of faith. This was the position of the Psalmist. “In Thee have I trusted.” If we honour God with our confidence, He will honour us with His protection. As we trust in God, we make ourselves dear to God; as we trust in Him, we have claims upon Him.
(2.) On the ground of moral character. In Psa_18:20-27 the Psalmist shows why God delighted in him. According to our moral sincerity and circumspection will God delight in us and bless us. “God deals with men according as He sees their hearts to be towards Him. Those who walk before Him in simplicity and uprightness of heart may expect His succour.”—Perowne. There is nothing arbitrary or partial in God; He will delight in us all, and enrich us with the uttermost salvation, if we trust Him; and prove the sincerity of our faith by our obedience. We observe several
II. Practical lessons suggested by this truth.
1. Let us not perplex ourselves by imagining any favouritism in God. Acceptance with God is on broad grounds, equally open to us all.
2. Let us remember that we cannot recommend ourselves to God on any grounds of nature. We are defaulters, and have lost that moral beauty in which alone God can delight.
3. It is only by believing in God’s grace that we can enjoy that grace.
4. It is only by moral sincerity and earnestness that we can retain that grace
GOOD THINGS FOR GOOD PEOPLE
(Psa_18:20-27.)
In these verses the Psalmist shows that the love of God for His people is not a blind and unrighteous predilection, but that the just and righteous God loves righteousness. Observe here two great canons of the Divine rule. First:
I. God deals with us as we deal with Him. (Psa_18:20-25.) “The truth, which is here enunciated is, that God’s conduct to man is the reflection of the relation in which man has placed himself to God.”—Delitzsch. David does not mean in these protestations to lay claim to perfection and sinlessness, but he asserts the sincerity of his desire to please God, and the uprightness of his conduct before God. “David here, as in the last psalm, asserts not his freedom from sin, but the consciousness of his own integrity.”—Perowne. And because he thus sought to recognise God, and glorify Him—God watched over him, and blessed him. The destiny which God prepares for a man is a reflection of the man’s personal character. As shadows and echoes represent their originating substances and sounds; so in the discriminating character of God’s judgments there is a complete response to personal character. He who honours God, is honoured by God.
1. Let us remember that we cannot expect God’s help except so far as we are pure in purpose and life.
2. Let us observe the loftiness of the standard of conduct which we must observe if we are to claim Divine patronage. “All His judgments were before me” (Psa_18:22). And they were constantly before Him. “And I did not put away His statutes from me” (Psa_18:22). We must not pick and choose the statutes, but must observe them all, even those which try as the most; and observe them always, even unto the end. Learn:
II. God deals with us as we deal with one another. (Psa_18:26.) “The Psalmist, in this and following verses, intimates that the plan of God’s providential conduct to men, is to act towards them as they act towards each other. This is an undoubted principle of His moral government, and ought to constitute a strong motive for the exercise of all Christian virtues in the social relations of life.”—Phillips. Throughout the Word of God this truth is insisted upon. It is recognised in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” If we are harsh to our brother, God shall exact from us; if we deceive our brother, God shall permit us to be blinded by strong delusions; if we defraud our brother, God shall spoil us; if we will not forgive our brother, neither shall our heavenly Father forgive us. God stands behind society, and marks our integrity or faithlessness in all the social relations of life, and deals with us accordingly. Whatsoever a man sows, and wheresoever he sows, that shall he reap. Let us, by the grace of God, keep clean hands, and sow golden seeds, and blessed shall the harvest be. Lessons:
1. There can be no salvation except through righteousness. On this ground alone will God bless us on earth; on this ground only admit us to heaven (Rom_2:6-9).
2. There can be no righteousness except through grace. David does not formally recognise here this fact, but elsewhere he recognises it fully, and here he assumes it. God’s grace originates the lofty righteousness here spoken of. It is a Divine righteousness. God’s grace preserves this righteousness. It keeps us “from our iniquity.” God’s grace crowns this righteousness. Giving to it vast rewards.
BESETTING SINS
(Psa_18:23.)
“I kept myself from mine iniquity.” David certainly means here some particular sin to which he was most prone.
Observe:
I. We are all the subjects of special weaknesses and temptations.
1. Each nation has its besetting sin. Scientific observers tell us that different races of men have different kinds of weeds following in their wake, so that a careful observer can, in travelling, see at once, by merely noticing the prevailing weeds, whether Europeans or Asiatics, Negroes or Indians, have dwelt at certain places. So each nation has its peculiar sin.
2. Each age has its besetting sin. In the history of morals we find bow various vices have prevailed at various times. Now an age of cruelty; now of intemperance; now of superstition; now of scepticism. Has not our own age its besetting sin?
3. Each individual has his besetting sin. John Hunter held that two general diseases cannot co-exist in the same individual. It is somewhat thus with man morally. Usually a man will be under the influence of some one particular passion or temptation. All sins are in us seminally, potentially, sympathetically, but in some one direction we are specially in danger. This may arise from our constitution. “As in the natural man, though there be all the faculties, yet some faculties are in some more lively and vigorous than in others, some are more witty, some are more strong, some quick of sight, some have a ready ear, and others a nimble tongue, &c. So it is in the old man also; there is all the power of sin in an unregenerate man, but in some more dexterous one way than another.”—Strong quo. by Spurgeon. Or it may arise from our situation. “There are more temptations to some sins than others, from the different professions or courses of life men take upon themselves. If they follow the court, I need not tell you what temptations and snares there are to divers sins, and what danger there is of falling into them. If they be listed in the camp, that tempts them to rapine and violence, neglect of God’s worship, and profaneness. If they exercise trading and merchandise, they meet with greater enticements to lying and cozening, over-reaching and unjust dealing; and the mystery of some trades, as had men manage them, is a downright ‘mystery of iniquity.’ If husbandry, to anxiety about the things of the world, a distrust of God’s providence, or murmuring against it. Nay, I could wish in the most sacred profession of all there might be an exception made in this particular; but Paul tells us that even in his days ‘some preached Christ even of envy and strife,’ some for filthy lucre only, as well as some of good will.”—Dove quo. by Spurgeon.
We proceed:
II. To make several observations touching this particular class of sins.
1. These besetting sins are to be conquered. We are sometimes ready to apologise for these sins. We are ready to regard them as hereditary, incurable. The Scriptures do not regard any taint of blood as ineradicable, any passion as invincible, any temptation as insurmountable. The Old Testament says, “I kept myself from mine iniquity.” The New Testament says, “Lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets you.” To say that religion will not strengthen us to master the easily besetting sin, is to say that it fails where, and when, we need salvation most
2. In the subduing of our besetting sin lies the great struggle of life. Our love to God, our allegiance to Him, is tested, not by ten commandments, but rather by one or two of them. The question of our moral character is fought out on some one question. If we conquer here, we conquer along the whole line; if we fail here, guilty in one point we are guilty in all. The great battle with the Philistine host is decided by single combat. Smiting this single sin the day is ours, we put to flight the army of the aliens. This sin beneath our feet, and the crown is on our head.
3. We must estimate our character according to our relation to the besetting sin. We sometimes flatteringly estimate our character by reckoning up the sins to which we have no inclination. This is a fatal miscalculation. Is it not a maxim in mechanics, that a thing is no stronger than its weakest part? This is as true in morals as in mechanics. When we seek to estimate our character let us ask, how do we stand in regard to our weak points? Are we gaining, or losing ground there? Never mind the strong points. If we perpetually fail in one point let us remember that that is the true index to our character, and that a score of untried virtues will not atone for the one virtue which fails whenever it is put into the fire.
Observe finally:
The discipline by which the easily besetting sin is to be subdued.
1. We must seek the grace of God. It is impossible for us to cast aside these sins in our own strength. We must “look unto Jesus.” We are to be made perfect by looking at Him, the perfection of beauty, and ever claiming His power and grace.
2. We must exert ourselves. “I kept myself from mine iniquity.” “God, indeed, in our first conversion works upon us as He did upon the earth, or Adam’s body in paradise, before He breathed a soul into it and made it a living creature; such a power as Christ put forth on Lazarus in his grave, for we are ‘dead in trespasses and sins;’ but yet being living he must walk and act of himself, the Lord will have us to co-operate together with Him, for we are built upon Christ, not as dead, but as ‘living stones.’ ”—Strong quo. by Spurgeon.
THE LIGHT OF LIFE
(Psa_18:28.)
Here the Psalmist recognizes God as,
I. The source of his Light. “For Thou givest light to my lamp; Jehovah, my God, maketh my darkness to be bright.”—Perowne. In 2Sa_22:29, “Thou, O Jehovah, art my lamp.” In days of deep perplexity, in the presence of painful problems, God was his counsellor. Blessed are those who seek light in God! Take your candles to Him, and He shall light them with a shining lustre. Take your understanding to Him, and He shall make it to shed pure illuminations; take your heart to Him, and He shall make it burn with heavenly brightness. Light your candles at the radiant luminary of the Spirit, the Word, the Throne.
II. The source of his joy. “Light is often in Scripture expressive of joy or comfort,” for “truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun” (Ecc_11:7; Psa_97:11; Psa_92:4). By a natural opposition, as light is expressive of joy and comfort; so is darkness, of sorrow and misery. The Psalmist, however, speaks in this place of artificial light, a “candle” or “lamp;” which has been supposed to be illustrated by the custom prevailing in Egypt, of never suffering their houses to be without lights, but burning lamps even through the night, so that the poorest people would rather retrench part of their food than neglect it.”—Bishop Mant. “The lamps lighted in the house is the image at once of prosperity and continuance of life and happiness.”—Perowne. Amid the darkness which everywhere presses upon us, God is the lamp of His people, the source of their comfort and gladness.” A lamp or candle in the house is a common Hebrew figure for prosperity, and its extinction for distress. See Job_18:5-6; Job_21:17; Pro_24:20.”—Alexander. And when God deserts a man, all the light of life is gone.
III. The source of his glory. David himself was called the lamp of Israel (1Ki_11:36, &c.) He was its light and its glory. And God was David’s light and glory. “David’s life and dominion, as the covenant king, is the lamp which God’s favour has lighted for the well-being of Israel, and His power will not allow this lamp (2Sa_21:17) to be quenched.”—Delitzsch. Blessed are all those who find in God their life and glory. They want nothing more. He fills them with joy; He crowns them with beauty and glory.
1. God is a full Light. All other lights are partial and dim. He is a Sun; He giveth grace and glory, &c. Fulness of light, felicity, honour, in fellowship with Him. He is everything. “The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory” (Isa_60:19).
2. God is a true Light. Nothing but the pure white light. “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” The light He imparts never leads astray; the joy He gives has no sorrow added to it; the honour and glory He gives to His children has no abatement or stain, they are altogether kings.
3. God is a safe Light. Nothing can extinguish the central orb. And if we put our trust in God, if we draw the supplies of life from Him, nothing can extinguish our joy and hope. We see how David’s life and joy and glory were often threatened with total extinction, but the hand of God preserved him, the very darkness of death was lit again into day.
4. God is an everlasting light. “Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isa_60:20).
FULL CONQUEST
(Psa_18:29-34.)
In these verses we have the Psalmist exulting as “more than a conqueror.”
Observe:
I. The fulness of his victory (Psa_18:29).
1. He has vanquished a host of enemies. A “troop.”
2. He has utterly vanquished them. “Through a troop.” Divided them, broken them up, scattered them.
3. He has done it easily. “I have run through a troop.” I “leaped over a wall.” He did not secretly undermine it, or painfully batter it, or just succeed in scaling it, he leaped over it. All enemies, all obstructions, have been triumphantly vanquished.
II. The source of his victory (Psa_18:29-34). “By thee” (Psa_18:29). “In thee, and in my God, i.e., in intimate union with Him and possession of Him, a much stronger sense than that of mere assistance (by thee), which, however, is included.”—Alexander.
1. The Psalmist trusted in God. He identified himself with God (Psa_18:30). He entertained a lofty sense of God’s truth, and faithfulness, and power.
2. The Psalmist trusted in God alone (Psa_18:31). God is a rock, a ground of confidence that cannot be shaken, and God alone is such a rock. And
3. God gave him the victory. God does all (Psa_18:32). “Perfect, i.e., absolutely smooth, free from stumblings and errors, leading straight forward to a divine goal.”—Delitzsch. Strength in both its beginning and continuance is of God. He “girds” with strength at the outset and maketh the whole “way perfect” (Psa_18:33). God establishes his feet. Enables him to stand where it seemed impossible to find footing; to scale heights which seemed utterly impracticable (Psa_18:34). God gave him wisdom and prowess to defeat his foes. “It is not the bow of brass which has been David’s protection, but Jehovah’s shield covered him; Jehovah’s right hand held him up; Jehovah’s wonderful condescension made him great; Jehovah made room for him to stand, and subdue those that rose up against him.”—Perowne.
Lessons:
1. We shall gain the victory of life by allying ourselves with God. All life is a warfare to us, as it was to David; and we shall achieve the victory only in Divine strength. In the natural world we see how feeble men are whilst they use only their own strength, their own eyes, hands, feet. It is when they learn how to avail themselves of God’s power that they accomplish marvels. The human hand is feeble, but it uses God’s power, and the dynamite rends asunder the rocks, the steam drives the mighty ship or thundering wheels of mills, the electric spark tells our wishes on the other side of the world. We are slow, feeble, local, considered in ourselves; but when science has taught us to avail ourselves of God’s power, we dare winds and seas and mountains. So in the moral world. We are feeble indeed in ourselves, we cannot do the things that we would; but when we listen to revelation, and by thought, and faith, and prayer, lay hold of God’s strength, we can do all things.
2. If we ally ourselves with God’s strength, the victory of life shall be most complete and brilliant. We shall more than prevail. The “high places” of Christian experience shall be reached; the “high places” of the world, the most difficult undertakings of Christian zeal, shall be proudly compassed; the “high places” of Christian hope shall be climbed, and we shall shout the song of victory on those tablelands, of which God Himself is sun and moon.
GOD’S SHIELD
(Psa_18:35.)
“Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation.”
This “shield” indicates:
I. The availableness of God’s help. The fortress can only shelter within its precincts, but the shield is with the warrior wherever he may go. Whatever may be our lot, however singular and exposed, God is with us to uphold and save. You may have to leave the fortress of a sweet pure home, and go into the midst of gay and worldly society, the “shield” goes with you; you may have to leave the fortress of a moral neighbourhood, to dwell amid the tents of wickedness, the shield goes with you; you are compelled to leave the fortress of a Christian Church and dwell where you are cut off from Christian privileges and fellowship, the shield goes with you; you are compelled to leave the fortress of a Christian country to dwell in heathenish lauds, the shield goes with you. In all places you may realise God’s aid. Your shield is ever with you.
This shield indicates:
II. The many-sidedness of God’s protecting love. The great round shield preserves the warrior from top to toe. So the loving hand of God shelters our whole personality, and all our interests. Be sure that Satan would seek to wound us in the eye, to darken our understanding; in the heart, to make us faint; in the knee, to injure our devoutness; but God’s protecting love shelters us altogether. Our happiness, character, circumstances; in life, in death, in eternity.
The shield indicates:
III. The invincibility of God’s strength. It is the shield of “salvation.” Whoever places himself in the hands of God is safe. If we meet evil in our own strength we shall be overcome, but confide in this Divine armour, and you come out of life’s battle without a scratch. Does Satan tempt you to error? Confront him as the Saviour did, with God’s Word; let “His truth be thy shield and buckler.” Are you tempted to sin? Be strong in the truth, and love, and righteousness of God, inwrought by the Holy Spirit into your soul. This shield quenches every fiery dart.
Lessons:
1. Let the believer who has triumphed in life’s battles give glory to his Shield. David had escaped the insidious temptation to self-glory, and all his own strength and prowess he humbly ascribed to God. Let us remember that God helps us, not only outwardly by His providence, but inwardly also by a thousand untracked influences, therefore all the praise is His.
2. Let the believer ever hold fast that Shield. Never be without it. Ever living in close communion with God. Never have it to look for.
3. Let those who have been worsted in life’s conflicts learn to put their trust in God. Baffled, wounded, humbled, turn from your poor broken self to the immortal love and strength of a Divine Saviour.
“O send me not away! for I would drink,
E’en I, the weakest, at the fount of life;
Chide not my steps, that venture near the brink,
Weary and fainting from the deadly strife.
“Went I not forth undaunted and alone,
Strong in the majesty of human might?
Lo! I return, all wounded and forlorn,
My dream of glory lost in shades of night.
“Was I not guided for the battle-field?
Bore! not helm of pride and glittering sword!
Behold the fragments of my broken shield,
And lend to me thy heavenly armour, Lord!”
DIVINE GENTLENESS
(Psa_18:35.)
“Thy gentleness hath made me great.”
Notice:
I. The greatness of the good. “Hath made me great.” David was great politically, intellectually, but this greatness must be understood as moral. The Psalmist humbly, but exultingly, recognises the fact that the grace of God had ennobled his nature, crowned him with spiritual glory and honour. The end of religion is to make men great. And moral greatness is true greatness. It alone excites true admiration; makes its possessor happy; it alone abides.
Notice:
II. The gracious discipline through which this greatness is realised. “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” We are discrowned kings, and through gentleness God seeks to put the diadem on our head again. Many believe only in force and terror as restorative factors, but if we look around we see on every side the triumphs of gentleness. It is so in nature. Power, amazing power is on every hand, yet acting most softly; and because it acts so softly filling the landscapes with beauty and fruitfulness. Thus it is in art. Gentleness is everything. And this it is in society. In the physician, the parent, the tutor, you see the grand results of gentleness. God, the most powerful Being in the universe, is also the most gentle, and through gentleness seeks to raise his fallen children to true and lasting greatness.
Mark this first:
1. In God’s dealing with us in our sinful state. The aspect of God to a guilty world is altogether kind and inviting. The aspect of the Divine Providence. “He maketh his sun,” &c. Of the Divine Truth. Great and gracious promises to sinners are on every page of God’s Word. Of the Divine Spirit. The spirit of God is ever acting in the dark heart of sinners—seeking to inspire, to soften, to save. Infinite love struggles with human perversity, and so we see our way back again to the skies.
2. God’s dealings with us in our penitential state. Our first approaches to God are usually full of imperfection, and the best penitent needs large indulgence. Our motives imperfect; our methods faulty; our faith feeble. Our tears are not pure; our sackcloth equivocal. God grants us this indulgence. We are often rough with penitents; but at a thousand imperfections God winks, and through this gentleness cheers on the penitent to greater things. “A bruised reed,” &c.
3. God’s dealings with us in our accepted state. We see this
(1.) In what He accepts from us. Every Christian man has the full and clear conviction that he is never all that he ought to be—his actual life is painfully below his ideal life. And yet we have the conviction equally full and clear, that although we, and our works, are far from perfection, yet God accepts us and them; and it is this truth which ever encourages us onwards to loftier attainments and experiences.
(2.) In what He does with us. There is gentleness in all the discipline of life. “He does not permit us to be tried above what we are able to bear.” Our afflictions may often seem severe, but they are the expression of the Divine pitifulness. Indeed many commentators translate the text: “Thy afflictions have made me great,” “Thy humbling, thy chastening, thy disciplining.”—Phillips. “Even Thine afflicting hand tendeth to make me great.”—French. “Thy loving correction.”—Prayer Book.
4. God’s dealing with us in our backsliding states. How the Redeemer brought back backsliding Peter to repentance and life! (Isa_54:7-8.) Sinner, do not despise this gentleness. You will not be driven to heaven—will you be drawn? Believer, economise all the fine influences of life. “I will guide thee with mine eye.” “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” Improve all the delicate impulses and attractions of the Divine world which lies about you, and ever acts upon you. Let us pray for greater sensitiveness to the love of God; and just as the silver moon, with its soft charm, draws the ocean waters round the globe, until they have glassed the stars of every sky, and sung their anthems on every shore; so shall the good Spirit of God master the wild elements of our nature, and lead us on, and lead us out, until we have seen all God’s glory, and shown forth all His praise.
THE MORALITY OF PRAYER
(Psa_18:41.)
I. Prayer must be offered in a right cause.
Prayer offered in a wrong cause can never be availing. In the preceding verses we see Providence helping a righteous cause. The Psalmist’s relation to God was not a selfish contract for help, as between the heathen and his idol—the Psalmist sympathised with God’s rights and designs. God scatters many prayers in the air, because they are offered in a purely selfish cause. Many prayers also are rejected because offered in a wicked cause. “Prayer is so notable a weapon that even the wicked will take to it in their fits of desperation. Bad men have appealed to God against God’s own servants, but all in vain; the kingdom of heaven is not divided, and God never succours his foes at the expense of his friends. There are prayers to God which are no better than blasphemy, which bring no comfortable reply, but rather provoke the Lord to greater wrath.”—Spurgeon.
II. Prayer must be offered in a right spirit.
1. The spirit of penitence. Sorrow for past sins—but there was none of that in these heathen. The spirit of repentance is necessary to availing prayer, and if that spirit is wanting, our prayers are abomination. “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.” (Isa_1:15-16.)
2. The spirit of righteousness. “The cry extorted in terror, and not coming from an upright heart (Psa_18:24, &c.), is not heard. See opposite, Psa_18:6.”—Perowne. We must live in the love and practice of goodness. “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” “Lifting up holy hands.” Remember the morality of prayer, and remember it in your daily doings. You are either building up, or cutting the sinews of your future prayers, by your present conduct. Righteousness is necessary to prayer—not as a channel of merit for our prayers up to God, but as a plane of moral possibility in our lives down which God’s answer can come back to us. Let us be severe in the purity of our thought and life, or we shall soon have to utter the lament of the poet:
“God sends me back my prayers, as a father
Returns unop’ed the letters of a son
Who hath dishonoured him.”
3. The spirit of confidence. The spirit of these heathen was that of terror and despair. “As nature prompteth men in an extremity to look up for help; but because it is but the prayer of the flesh for ease, and not of the spirit for grace, and a good use of calamities, and not but in extreme despair of help elsewhere, therefore God hears them not. In Samuel it is, ‘They looked, but there was none to save them;’ q.d. If they could have made any other shift, God should never have heard of them.”—Trapp. Prayer must be the language of confidence.
III. Prayer must be offered at a right time. They cried first to their own gods, and when there was none to answer, then they cried to Israel’s God. They prayed too late. Men often do. There is an accepted time in which God will hear prayer, and it is our duty not to let that time pass. (Pro_1:24-33; Joh_8:21; Luk_16:24; Rev_6:16.)
VICTORY FOR CHRIST AND VICTORY IN CHRIST
(Psa_18:37-50.)
We have here a picture,
I. Of Christ’s victory over His foes.
“This Psalm looks beyond David. David and David’s rule over the nations are but a type and image of Christ, and of that spiritual kingdom which He came to establish.”—Perowne. We have suggested here,
1. The completeness of Christ’s victory (Psa_18:37-42). All Christ’s enemies are to be “put under His feet.” And all of them completely under His feet. Many teachers, systems, institutions, which are proud enough now in their opposition to Christ, will be very low before Christ has done with them. The victories of the Church are perpetually stopping at certain points, and complete and permanent triumph seems scarcely ever attained. But let us not be discouraged; Christ shall ride on till the last foe has fallen.
2. The rapidity of Christ’s march. Up to a certain point David had to fight with varying fortune, but a time came when fighting was no longer necessary; a panic seized the hearts of the foe, and they melted away. Subsequent victories were won by the moral influence of the first victories. May it not be thus with the progress of Messiah’s kingdom? Slowly has that kingdom seemed to prevail up to now; but, these preliminary struggles won, may not the triumphs of the Gospel be far more multiplied and swift? Satan shall “fall as lightning.”
3. The universality of Christ’s reign (Psa_18:43; Psa_18:49). David ruling over Israel and over the heathen tribes, was a foreshadowing of Christ exalted over all the lands. Blessed are all those who submit to Christ. His conquest means freedom and life and glory to all who accept it. Alas! for those who will not have this man to rule over them. Man or multitude, king or kingdom, whatever sets itself against the truth as it is in Jesus, must be broken.
Observe:
II. The saint’s victory in Christ. We may well see in David’s triumph over his foes a picture of that spiritual triumph which Christ ensures to all his people.
1. Do not be content until all your sins are overcome.
2. Until all your sins are utterly vanquished. “Beat them small as the dust before the wind.”
3. Until you have destroyed them for ever. Fight, until God crown you king to all eternity.
(1.) Fight in Christ. Be sure of that. See that He girds you, leads you, saves you.
(2.) Put forth all personal effort. David did not leave invisible powers to fight for him, but threw himself also into the fight.
(3.) Give God the glory of every victory (Psa_18:49-50).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1There are three dark shadows which fall across every…
Psa 18:28
There are three dark shadows which fall across every human life.
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I. There is, first of all, the shadow of sin. It falls dark and thick upon the life of human beings. Sin is the transgression in will or in fact of the eternal moral law, of that law which, unlike the law of nature, could not be other than what it is, unless God could be other than what He is, of that law which is not an arbitrary enactment of His will, but the outflow of the expression of His very being. Sin thus is the contradiction of God, the resistance of the created will to the will of the Creator. And this resistance means darkness, not in the sky above our heads, but, far worse, darkness in the moral nature, darkness in the moral intelligence, darkness at the centre of the soul.
II. The shadow of pain. As the races and generations pass, whatever else may distinguish them from each other, whatever else they may have in common, they pass each and all, sooner or later, under the weird shadow of pain. How to deal with pain, how to alleviate it, how to do away with it—these have been questions which men have discussed for thousands of years; and anodynes there are, such as they are, for pains of body and pains of mind, anodynes of very varying moral worth, but of which this much must be said, that they do but at most curtail the fringe of the great realm of pain.
III. The shadow of death. The thought that death must come at last casts over thousands of lives a deep gloom. There is the uncertainty of the time and manner of its approach; there is the unimaginable experience of what in itself it will be; there is the dread of what may or may not follow it.
Sin, pain, death—these are the three shadows that fall across the life of men in this day of preparation for the great future; and that our Lord makes these dark shadows to be light is the experience in all ages of thousands of Christians. Only a robust faith in the unseen, only the faith of our Lord and God, can relieve the human heart when face to face with these solemn and irremovable conditions of our human life. So long as they last, the religion of the Crucified will last too.
H. P. Liddon, Contemporary Pulpit Extra No. 4, p. 92.
Psa 18:30
I. Consider this great and deep utterance in application to God’s material works. Let us look at the various phenomena that are around us, and we shall see that the light, and air, and heat, and cold, and the heavenly bodies, the laws of electricity, the various kinds of climate under which men are living—all these are marvellously adapted to the end for which they are designed. All that came from the hand of God was very good, and it is the entrance and result of moral evil that has brought an apparent imperfection into the world, so that we are unable to look at the material works of God without having to qualify what the Psalmist says.
II. So it is in God’s government of the world. Notwithstanding all that has been said about the Fall, and the present want of symphony and harmony in things, and the strange, bewildering tokens that something has gone wrong and made imperfect that which seems destined to be perfect, we maintain that when the issues of God’s government in the world shall be known it shall be found true that His way was perfect.
III. This truth might be applied to the Gospel. If we look at man on the one hand and at God on the other, and at what the Gospel is designed to accomplish, we can see that God’s way is perfect.
IV. The text may be brought to bear on God’s dealings with His people individually. It is a text to be laid hold on by faith. God never put a wrong burden on anybody’s back. His child must be educated, and trained, and disciplined, because he has to be brought home.
V. If by faith we are enabled to use the text now, with all life’s riddles to puzzle out, and when we have all God’s dark dealings to try us, a day is coming when all these mysteries will be cleared up in the flooding light of eternity, and the song of the saints will be, "As for God, His way is perfect."
J. C. Miller, Penny Pulpit, No. 1035.
Psa 18:35
Consider how the gentleness of a loving correction makes God’s children great. For we ought, all of us, to wish to be great—great in the school of Christ, great in the Divine life, great in holiness, great in usefulness. There could not be a worse mistake than telling any Christian to crush or to curb his ambition. It is one of those natural passions which are virtues or vices according to their end. As an end, ambition is self, and therefore sin. As a means to God’s glory, ambition is the highest grace. Point your ambition right, and then push it to the utmost.
I. We all have felt how we are always getting under the power of the little, everyday circumstances in which we live, and how, whatever may be our exceptional elevations, we are drawn down habitually to the lowness of the level of our common life. A real sorrow is a great liberator: it takes us out of the old groove of triviality; it restores things to their right proportion, making the little great, and the great little. Correction, whatever else it does, sets a man free, and puts him in a position that he may become great.
II. A time of sorrow is, and must be, a time of thought. And what most of us want is to be brought really to think. It is not too much to say that every one who is at the pains to think, and to think truly, will become great. But it specially leads us to think about our own state before God, for as soon as ever we are in sorrow it is in the gentleness of God that He wishes to comfort us.
III. Loving correction brings us into contact with the greatness of God. If a mind is conversant with what is great, it must become greater. There is a dignity in grief, and God only matches with that dignity.
IV. It is the great humiliation of sorrow which makes it magnifying. For what is greatness? Humility. And there is no humbler like a great sorrow.
V. But, above all, it is because it unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ that correction makes us great. There is nothing great before God but Christ; and every other thing is great before God as He sees it in Christ, as it is identified with Christ.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 4th series, p. 245.
I. We find rising out of these words the question, What is the greatness which in the Christian is produced by God’s gentleness? It is excellence in that for which especially man was originally created. Now, as we learn from Scripture that man was made in the image of God, it follows that men are great in the proportion in which they are like Him. The greatness of manhood is greatness in holiness. It is a moral thing, for the truest manliness and the highest Godlikeness are convertible terms.
II. Consider how God’s gentleness can be said to make us great. The human heart is always more deeply affected by tenderness than by sternness. If you wish to drag a man by force, his nature is to resist you; but if you attempt to attract him by love, it is equally his nature to follow you. God, who has given us this nature, seeks to save us in accordance with it. (1) God has manifested His gentleness in the mission and work of Jesus Christ, and makes proclamation of pardon and regeneration to every one who will accept them through His Son. (2) The words of the text are verified in the manner in which God receives individuals into His love, and so begins in them the greatness of holiness. (3) The truth of the text is made apparent also in the manner in which God in Christ Jesus trains His people after they have come to Him. He teaches them more and more of His grace; yet, in truest tenderness, He teaches them as they are able to bear it.
This subject has a twofold application. (1) It presents Jehovah to the sinner in a very affectionate attitude. (2) It shows the Christian how he should seek to bring others to Jesus. The gentleness of God should be repeated and reproduced in us.
W. M. Taylor, Limitations of Life, and Other Sermons, p. 344.
I. The longsuffering of God declares His power. What He does not punish now, He can punish by-and-bye; what He does not punish here, He can punish there; what not in this world, in the next. He is, in the words of the Psalmist, "strong and patient," patient because He is strong, because all power belongeth unto Him.
II. The longsuffering of God is a declaration of His love, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He sees the saint in the sinner, the saint that shall be in the sinner that is, the wheat in the tare, the shepherd feeding the sheep in the wolf tearing the sheep.
III. This tardiness of vengeance, this lame foot with which it seems to lag and halt after successful wickedness, is no pledge of safety to the sinner. It argues no listlessness, no moral indifference to the eternal distinctions between good and evil, on the part of Him who is the Judge of the whole earth, and by whom actions are weighed. It means (1) that Christ has died for sinners, and (2) that God can afford to wait. Flee from Him thou canst not. To flee to Him is thy only way of deliverance.
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey, p. 339.
I. Greatness is always a work of time. This is true even of apparent greatness, mere elevation of state. Emphatically is it true that moral greatness is a work of time. Character is a growth, generally a very slow growth. We must not give up our assurance of Christian excellence; that were to abandon our hope of heaven. Neither must we suppose that so great an achievement can only be accomplished by stormy and violent ways. The "hidings of power" are the mark of God. His "gentleness" makes us great.
II. God must be gentle; for gentleness is a sign of perfection.
III. The idea of God’s gentleness comes out of our knowledge of His unchangeableness.
IV. Consider the influence of God’s gentleness on Christian character: it makes us great. (1) Two of the prime elements of personal greatness—nobility of purpose and purity of motive—are directly stimulated by the gentleness of God. (2) Wisdom is another element of greatness; and we need time that we may be wise. (3) Steadfastness in its two forms—perseverance in good resolve and patience under difficulty—is given us by the gentle dealing of our God.
V. This subject throws light on our perplexities (1) about conversion; (2) about Christian perfection.
A. Mackennal, Life of Christian Consecration, p. 67.
God’s gentleness lies in His consenting to the use of indirection as a way of gaining His adversaries. Force and cruel absolutism are put by; the irritations of a jealous littleness have no place; and the great God and Father, intent on making His children great, follows them and plies them with the gracious indirections of a faithful and patient love.
I. Observe how far off this gentleness is from the practice, and even capacity generally, of mankind. True greatness is a character too lofty for any but the greatest and most Divinely tempered souls.
II. Some evidence will be demanded that God pursues any such method of indirection, or of rectorial gentleness, with us. See then (1) how openly He takes this attitude in the Scriptures. (2) It is the very genius of Christianity to prevail with man, or to bring him back to obedience and life, by a course of loving indirection. When a soul is really born of God, it will be the result of what the Spirit has wrought, by a long, and various, and subtle, and beautiful process, too delicate for human thought to trace. (3) We see this gentleness in God’s management of our experience. Doing everything to work on our feeling, temperament, thought, will, and so on our eternal character, He still does nothing by direct impulsion.
III. The end God has in view is to make us great. He has a much higher respect for the capabilities of our human nature, and much higher designs concerning it, than we have ourselves. While God is ever engaged in bringing down our loftiness in evil and perversity, He is just as constantly engaged in making us loftier and stronger in everything desirable—in capacity, and power, and all personal majesty. He wants to make us great in will, in intellect, in courage, enthusiasm, self-respect, firmness, superiority to things and matters of condition, great in sonship with Himself.
IV. Holding such a view of God’s ends and the careful indirections by which He pursues them, we cannot fail to note (1) the softened aspect given to what are often called the unaccountable severities of human experience. (2) How strangely weak and low is the perversity of many when they require it of God to convert them by force, or drive them heavenward by storm. (3) Let us adjust our conceptions to that which is the true pitch and scale of our magnanimity and worth as Christian men. Be it ours to live with a sense of our high calling upon us; abiding in all the holy magnanimities of love, honour, sacrifice, and truth; sincere, exact, faithful, bountiful, and free; showing thus to others, and knowing always in ourselves, that we do steadily aspire to just that height of good into which our God Himself has undertaken to exalt us.
H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 18.
References: Psa 18:35.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 683; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 100; E. Leach, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 232; Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the Old Testament, p. 105; C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 215.
Psa 18:50
This is Christ’s resurrection psalm; He is the King, and the deliverance spoken of not in this verse only, but frequently throughout the Psalm, is specially His deliverance, His deliverance as the Representative of His own. It is a psalm of deliverance or salvation; the two words are the same. The whole history of the Bible from beginning to end pertains to what God calls deliverance.
I. First of all, we find in David’s history a history of deliverance. David was a man of like passions with ourselves, not faultless, not perfect, but falling again and again into sin, and yet plucked out of that iniquity into which he fell by the interposing hand of Him who had great deliverances always in store for him.
II. Israel’s history is a history of deliverance, and very remarkably so. Each section of Israel’s history contains a gospel for us. Each one of Israel’s deliverances proclaims glad tidings of great joy to us in our weakness, weariness, and exposure to continual danger from enemies on the right hand and on the left.
III. Then you have, in the third place, Christ’s history as a history of deliverance, Messiah’s history. His deliverances were ours, and as such we are to regard them, and to triumph in them. He was saved from the hands of His enemies that we also might be saved.
IV. The history of the Church is a history of deliverance—deliverances just at the time when she was lowest, deliverances which put a new song in her mouth, and sent her on a new career of gladness and usefulness.
V. The history of each believer is a history of deliverance—deliverance from first to last, deliverance at the hand of the faithful Deliverer, He who came in the name of the Lord to save us, who is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
H. Bonar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 177.
References: Psalm 18—A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 153; I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 315. Psa 19:1.—R. Lee, Sermons, pp. 279, 294, 308, 325, 342, 359; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 195.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v1God manifesting Himself for His Anointed.
God manifesting Himself for His Anointed.
(To the chief musician: [a psalm] of David, the servant of Jehovah, who spake unto Jehovah the words of this song, in the day when Jehovah had delivered him out of the grasp of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. And he said:)
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We come now, in the third psalm of this series, to the manifestation of God in behalf of Messiah, whose deliverance and exaltation involve the deliverance and blessing of the people with whom He has linked Himself. But the result is wider than this also: He is made the Head of the nations, and a people that He had not known before serve Him.
But a large part of the psalm is taken up with the way in which God has displayed Himself in all this, -His personal intervention, His character as manifested, -all that makes Him the object of His people’s praise. And this revelation of Himself is, as this implies, their blessing and happiness forever, as it is that of all His creatures, -unfallen and redeemed alike.
This psalm is found also at the end of David’s history in the book of Samuel,* the occasion of it being given similarly in each place, and the end of the psalm itself assuring us of its application to David in the first place, though a greater than he shines through continually. At this we have no possible cause to wonder, knowing him to be in his life so largely typical of God’s "Beloved" and King, for whom we look.
{*A comparison with Samuel will show, however, many differences, for the most part slight, which the known MSS. give us no help in removing, and which, therefore, we may suppose to be designed, even though we may not have read our Bibles carefully enough to apprehend their meaning.}
In perfect accord with its character, the first forty-five verses of the psalm are in triplets throughout; these dividing into six main portions, the seventh closing with five verses of praise.
1. The psalm begins, as it ends, with praise. Jehovah, the living and unchanging God, is celebrated in it as the Rock of faith, and that in double character: the first word "means properly," as Delitzsch observes, "a cleft in a rock, then a cleft rock"; the second, a great and hard mass of rock." Accordingly, in the first, "the idea of a safe (and comfortable) hiding-place preponderates"; in the second, "that of firm ground and inaccessibility. The one figure calls to mind the well-watered Edomitish Sela, surrounded with precipitous rocks, . . . the other calls to mind the Phoenician rocky island Tzur (Tyre), the refuge in the sea." The cleft Rock is a figure for the Christian full of tender, wonderful associations; the firm, impregnable, eternal Rock, yet cleft for a refuge to the soul fleeing to it for escape. And this double thought is varied and expanded through all these epithets with which the psalmist declares the good cause he has for fervent love toward his God. They are capable also of double application, as the language of the Lord, or of those whom we have seen that He here identifies Himself with and represents. We shall find, of course, in this as in other psalms, passages in which One personality shines out, forbidding association of any other with it. We may find, perhaps, those in which it is easier at least to recognize the many for whom He stands (or some of these), than it is their Representative. This we may expect. One passage (verse 23) which, as it reads in the common and other versions, could not be applied to Him, should receive, it is believed, another meaning. In general,we may expect to find unmistakably through these psalms the Voice like which there is no other, while yet we shall sufficiently discern that He who speaks has linked Himself with others, so that His cause and theirs are one.
The third verse gives the realization of Jehovah as the rock of the soul: "I call upon Jehovah, the object of my praise, and I am saved from my enemies." This is what he who speaks has found; and all that follows here is the expansion of it.
2. Accordingly we go back to the "strait" out of which he cries to God, and is answered. And once more we find that it is the shadow which darkens the world which he is facing. The toils of death are round him, escape shut off; and it is death as we have seen it, and as the conscience recognizes it, -death as the doom of sin.
The words are simple enough, but all the more has their meaning to be gathered from their context and connections, rather than learned directly. And this is characteristic of the psalms, as it is of much of the Old Testament. We have to bring in the light of the New in order to be able to see what is hidden in it for us: it is the Old Testament itself that bids us remember that "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," as it is "the honor [or glory] of kings to search out a matter." (Pro 25:2.) Would that in this research into Scripture "kings" were more plentiful!
Here the person of the speaker is of all importance; and however He may identify Himself with others, in this psalm it is Christ who is this throughout. Thus, when He says "the torrents of Belial put me in fear," we have to consider in what sense it would be possible for Him to say this. Belial -though it seems better to anglicize than to translate the Hebrew word means, evidently, "worthlessness," the "ungodly men" of the common version, which the revised changes into "ungodliness."* The word is, indeed, much more than the English one, of a moral significance very positive, and not negative merely. In the moral and spiritual spheres, there is nothing merely negative: simple indifference here is crime. Thus Belial is used in the New Testament as standing for the direct opposite of Christ; and the "sons of Belial," in the language of the Old, are always those lawless ones who,whenever the occasion arises, manifest themselves as law-breakers, hostile to God and man. The "torrents of Belial" are undoubtedly such corrupt and lawless men; only marking their wickedness as that which produces fear in Him who speaks here. Their power, whatever it were, surely could not, any more than death could in its physical suffering, or in aught beyond it. For Him, the sting of it would be as judgment from God; and such it was, of necessity, for Him who took it as the Sin-bearer and Substitute for sinners. Thus wrath was in it, separation from Him who was of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, though this was upon Him only.
{*"Perdition," "the abyss," -adopted by Delitzsch and others, are not justified by the texts appealed to, such as Psa 41:8, Nah 1:11, and 2Co 6:15: these do not depart from the regular meaning.}
"The torrents of Belial" must then have "put Him in fear," by the horror of what sin was to Him, as He realized it in the light in which He lived with God, from the joy of that well-known, glorious Presence, earth itself but the footstool of Deity. He had come into it but to do, amid sorrow and suffering, the Father’s will, which man could violate at his pleasure, and count it pleasure, and imagine it freedom to do so! For this He was to die, taking the sinner’s place; men like these -His creatures, with His stamp defaced in them -driving the nails which fastened Him to the cross, plunging the spear into His side, sealing Him up in His grave, defying Him to come out of it again! Giving Himself up freely to all this, while struck with the awful horror of it all, well might He exclaim, "The torrents of Belial put me in fear!"
Sin itself, -just to know it aright, could it be known fully, -in a soul where there was no callousness such as it induces, -what a supreme agony would it be!
And the due of sin, -to bear that death, as no saint has known, -as no sinner could ever know it, -the living death of the Heir and Fountain of Life; the Life eternal proving the nameless woe of the shadow of death, where faith could no more say, "But Thou art with Me."
It is impossible to speak of it aright. Scripture itself leaves the veil upon it. Those who, moved by the Spirit of God to give us the story of the cross, as from their various points of view they regard it, stand in the hush of the night that falls, pointing, as it were in silence, to the sacred Figure "lifted up from the earth," and upon its head the crown of thorns.
"I cry . . . and Thou answerest not," are the words of the psalm of atonement; but then again, "when He cried unto Him, He heard." (Psa 22:2; Psa 22:24.) Both things, of course, true: each suited in its place. The psalm here celebrates the hearing, and that out of the sanctuary, -the answer of God in His holiness to the Holy One: with that answer, and its result in blessing for the people of God (that is, for Israel and the millennial nations,) the rest of the psalm is occupied.
3. We have now therefore the appearing of God in behalf of His suffering Holy One. But when we come to the detail of this intervention, while it may well apply to the accompaniments of the resurrection of Christ, and no doubt has this in view, on the other hand the description as a whole irresistibly reminds us of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. Indeed the actual theophany, the heavens bowed as God comes down, the judgment executed upon the enemies, ending with the exaltation of Christ over the nations of the earth, -all this connected as it is together, carries us on to events yet future, when God will out-do the wonders in Egypt in a new deliverance of Israel from the hands of the nations their enemies, and bring in the final blessing of which prophecy is full. (Mic 7:15.) This accounts for the apparent glance back at the exodus; while it is really the answer of God to Christ’s work of atonement, which accounts equally for His voice being heard as it is, all through. Thus we find the same representative character of the Lord as in the previous psalm, and the confirmation of the view of that which has been already taken.
(a.) The twelve verses of this section, one might expect to have the usual 3 x4 division, and so they have. The first three show us God as the Almighty, the earth and the heavens bearing witness to His power alike. The earth to the foundations of the hills trembles before Him; His wrath is a consuming fire; the heavens are bowed under Him as He comes down. This witness of nature to His presence, readily as we understand it, and simple as it really is, has yet lessons for us which would serve us well if they were better learned. Creation is not only a mirror of divine perfections: it is pervaded by His power, and sensitive to His slightest movement. There is an intimate sympathy thus between the natural and spiritual, which we feel far better than we can explain, and which makes the face of nature a constant parable of spiritual things. This, superstition has misused on the one hand, while on the other the growing wisdom of the day, with its continual fresh discovery of governing laws, loses sight of or refuses what it helps to demonstrate. For laws governing without a governor are themselves an irrational superstition, no less so because a profane one. There is in nature, as they own, an inscrutable power which transcends it; and this, too, a "power that makes for righteousness." Christianity alone tells us Whose this power is.
(b.) In the second triplet of verses the Almighty becomes the Judge.* The cherub, from the first view in Eden to its Apocalyptic representatives in the last book of the New Testament, is always connected with divine government, -the throne of God as ruling over the earth. The ark and mercy-seat are still this throne in relation to Israel, and the cherubim there are of one piece with the latter, their faces looking to the place where the atoning blood is sprinkled before God. He was said to dwell between the cherubim and these express the executive righteousness of the throne; and in their fourfold character as lion, ox, with the face of a man, and flying eagle, we find represented power, patient service, intelligence, and yet inscrutability. (Pro 30:19.) The riding upon the cherub here, therefore, indicates judicial action, and the "wings of the wind" combine the speed and power of the storm blast, a figure which the next verses carry on.
{*A new symbolism for the number two; but "judgment" is in fact discernment; that is, division, separation, putting a difference, and thus comes rightly under this number.}
Yet in judgment God is rather hidden than displayed: it is His "strange work." Thus He makes the darkness His covert. It is His contrary, inasmuch as He is love and light; and yet He uses it as His pavilion, and, while not it, is in it. The judgment, where it comes, is in fact, in its most awful feature, separation from Him, -from the Light; while it is yet not merely that. From these thick clouds the light flashes forth, -hailstones and coals of fire (see Exo 9:13-35, notes); for God is displayed even in the judgment that separates from Him.
(c.) The third triplet gives the full display. It is now plainly Jehovah who thunders in the heavens, and the Most High who gives His voice. And we see where the bolt strikes: His arrows are lightnings, with which Messiah’s enemies are scattered and discomfited. The earth is laid bare to its foundations, and the channels of waters are seen: words which remind us of Israel’s passage of the Sea, and which may find in the future also their fulfillment in the drying up of the Euphrates. (Rev 16:12.)
The judgment of God is also the revelation of the earth at all times, and will finally declare the moral character of all its history. This is one great end of prophecy, to enable us beforehand to judge with God the condition of things through which we are now passing, according to that final judgment in which we find them to end. And that final disclosure will it not be in some sense also the eternal safeguard of His people from all the power of evil, the springs of which will be then laid bare? Scripture speaks of that day as the day of manifestation; and this will not be surely of the individual merely to himself, but of all in the presence of all; making all to see light in God’s light. Will not the "holiness of truth" be thus fully confirmed and established for eternity, sealed with the broad seal of God, and demonstrated by the example of all, evil and good alike? Will not the books that are opened then be in effect and effectively the Deuteronomy of the land so reached for every pilgrim?
(d) We now come to the experience of the deliverance, in which we find expressions of weakness,which might at first make one doubt as to its being the Lord’s voice that is heard at all here. But the connection would assure us of it, and the place of thorough human dependence is that which He takes all through the psalm. Thus it was that, having assumed the burden of sin, and laying down His life, He committed Himself in peace into the Father’s hand, to take again from Him the life laid down. The language of the sixteenth psalm we have seen to be the expression of this confidence: "therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest securely: because thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor wilt Thou suffer Thy pious One to see corruption." Thus resurrection is His justification from God, the seal put upon His completed work; the justification, therefore, of all for whom He stands, -of all who through grace believe in Him. In this identification of Himself with them, He comes for the moment into the place of weakness and simple dependence upon the arm of Another for deliverance.
"He reached from above, He took me: He drew me out of many waters." In the last clause of the sentence we have a word only used once beside in the explanation of the name given to Moses, and from which that was derived; but the reference is only by way of comparison; for a greater than Moses is here. "He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me." Thus the deliverance is the manifestation and glory of Jehovah Himself. "They confronted me in the day of my calamity: but Jehovah was my stay."
Jehovah’s character is thus brought out, as it is the glory of the gospel in every part, that it reveals Him. We "believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." Thus we know Him to be for us, in His righteousness as well as in His love, and that very attribute which we had most reason to dread as sinners, is that upon which, because of the work of Christ for sinners, we can rest with undisturbed security. It is His righteousness that justifies the believer in Jesus. It is His righteousness that we are "made" to be now "in Christ." (2Co 5:21.)
4. But we are now to be shown the character of the One for whom God thus comes in; and in this section, under the number which speaks both of testing and practical walk, we have (set side by side with the character of God Himself) His assured and perfect claim to be heard and answered. Nothing is more unmistakable in the Lord, as we see Him in the full truth of manhood upon earth, than the distinct and emphatic assumption of unspotted perfection at all times. "Meek and lowly in heart" though He was, and clear in His enunciation of man’s fallen condition, He never for a moment takes His place among men in any sense that could imply the slightest resemblance to them in this respect. His separateness is indeed so plain that He need not much assert it. Yet He can say as the ground of the Father’s constant presence with Him (manifested as it was by His mighty works), -"I do always those things that please Him." And to His opposers even can put as a question admitting but of one answer, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" (Joh 8:29; Joh 8:46.)
The psalmist maintains here for the One he personates a similar perfection, which David for himself, in his "last words," disclaims. So, indeed, might any among mere men. It is He in whom, opening the heavens to do so, the Father proclaims His delight, who is, as we have seen, the real Speaker, -the true David, who is also David’s seed.
(a) The divine delight in Him has its ground and justification in His perfect obedience. He is righteous not only in intent, but in the cleanness of His hands also. With Him is not the misery of shortcoming of the end of His desire and aim. What He designs He carries through. As He speaks so He is; and His speech is with fullest knowledge. Thus He can say, "I have kept Jehovah’s ways"; and His recompense is according to His righteousness.
(b) The measurement of all with Him is not by His own thoughts either. He is not a law to Himself, nor does He do simply what is right in His own eyes. Knowing what He is, one might perhaps expect that; and if inspiration were the weak and fallible thing which men now make it, you could not account for the absolute respect which He who even as man had the Spirit given Him without measure, ever paid it. "But how, then, should the Scripture be fulfilled?" was with Him a decisive argument. On the cross, with the parching thirst of the crucified upon Him, it is only "that the Scripture might be fulfilled," that He gives voice to this craving. Truly could He say, then, "All His judgments were before Me; nor did I put His statutes from Me." This was no desultory or fragmentary or unbalanced obedience. All was in due proportion and perfect symmetry. It was obedience: the will of God recognized and governing Him in all things.
"I was also perfect with Him," He says: "and I kept myself from perverseness being mine." * The word rendered "iniquity" in the common version, it is agreed means "perverseness," -the spirit that would distort or turn aside the force of the divine commands. And again He affirms that Jehovah has recompensed Him according to His righteousness, and according to the cleanness of His hands before those holy eyes.
{Verse 25, "Merciful" is not an adequate rendering for chasid, nor do we seem able to give the antithesis in English "pious" cannot be applied to God, nor is "holy" the force as applied to Him. The term as suiting God and man together here should express the affectionate sense of relationship on man’s part towards God, and on His part towards man.}
{*The translation here, which differs from that adopted in 2Sa 22:1-51, though not the simplest, is, I think, the real meaning of me-avoni. Geier, Delitzsch, and Cheyne agree that this is the sense, and there does not seem any way of reconciling "my iniquity" with the perfection of the man, Christ Jesus.}
Now the character of God is put side by side with this. He deals with men according to what He sees them to be. The disposition they show toward Him He shows in like manlier toward them: the attitude which they assume He assumes; while of course His grace beseeches them to change that which is estranged and hostile, and to be reconciled to Him. But this last has no application to Him who is before us here, and does not therefore come in.
Then He brings low the lofty and saves the humble; and death is that by which God levels all the pride of man, bringing up from death itself those who have accepted its sentence in the practical meaning of it. Thus we have the principle of resurrection, in which the power of God acts beyond the sentence, so affirming it, and yet showing His grace. And this grace, after this manner, He has shown in Christ, and shown also to a people identified in grace with Him.
This is the God, then, before whom Christ is, and who answers Him, -though He stoop to death to find the answer, because of His identification with the need of others.
5. We are now carried on into the future, in order to see this answer, as it takes effect in the judgment of the nations who have rejected God and His Anointed. The present time we must not expect to find in Old Testament prophecy; and thus in that to which the Lord appeals in the synagogue of Nazareth (Isa 61:1-2), "the acceptable year of the Lord," which He was there to proclaim, passes on immediately to the "day of judgment of our God," and so to the restoration of Israel. The psalm here is in the same way connected with Jewish hopes and promises. The suffering Christ becomes, in exaltation, the Conqueror and Judge. As Son of man He comes in the clouds of heaven; as Son of man all judgment is committed to Him. Thus He still maintains His dependence: "Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." We need not wonder, then, that at the beginning of this section, He as the Speaker ascribes in a similar way His power to God.
(a) Besides being a fifth section of the psalm, this has again five subsections, the verses still being in triplets, God manifesting Himself still in all, Jehovah being known in the judgment that He executes.
"For it is Thou that lightest my lamp: Jehovah my God enlighteneth my darkness." So may He say, who, though the Son of God, has been in the darkness of desertion at the cross. We think, naturally, of the tabernacle lamp and its identification of divine glory (the gold) with the almond fruit of resurrection, the sign of coming summer, and we remember how He is presented in the Apocalypse as the "Faithful Witness, and the First-born of the dead, and" -as He is going to be manifested directly -"the Ruler of the kings of the earth." (Rev 1:5.) Just so where He is coming out as this last, we are permitted first of all to see Him as come out of the darkness, where He has removed all hindrance to earth’s blessing, that we may rejoice in His assumption of power and possession of the inheritance which is now His.
All enemies and obstacles are now to give way before Him: "For by Thee I run through a troop: and by my God I leap over a wall." And then we have affirmed the character of Him whom the King represents and in whose power He acts: the Mighty One, perfect in His way; the Unchangeable, whose word is tried; and the sure defense of all who take refuge in Him.
(b) And who beside is God? Where else is the Rock of confidence for faith? This is the question that will be pressed for speedy settlement when Christ appears. For now is the time of which it is predicted that "Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Jehovah, and His Name one." (Zec 14:9.) Heathenism is swept away at once; all forms of idolatry are brought to an end together; infidelity will cease from the earth, and agnosticism be no more: even though man’s heart may as really refuse the known, as it once did "the unknown God."
This Mighty One girds with strength the One whose place is still therefore one of loving service to Him, and makes His way perfect as is His own. His progress is uninterrupted, therefore. "He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet," -able to surmount all difficulties, -"and setteth Me on my heights," the mountains of the chosen land. For in that day "the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." (Isa 2:2.) For Jehovah’s throne in Zion shall once again and finally be filled with a human tenant, who shall perfectly represent Him; and "the government shall be upon His shoulder," whose name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of eternity,* the Prince of peace." (Isa 9:6.)
{* Not "everlasting Father," which has led to wrong thoughts, but "Father of eternity": the One who brings all things into the condition in which they will abide forever.}
(c) But the way this is realized is not, as one might think, by the preaching of the gospel of peace. It must be the "effect of righteousness," and the Davidic phase of the kingdom must precede the Solomonic. We return, therefore, to see Him as the warrior-King: His hands trained for war; Himself covered impenetrably with the shield of God’s salvation; sustained by His strong right hand; and withal, as meek as a Conqueror as in His life of grace of old, He says, "Thy condescension also has made Me great." His steps are still directed by Him who makes room thus for each one He takes; and His ankles waver not.
(d) Thus we see His enemies now prostrate before Him: He pursues and overtakes them; they fall and rise not; and again it is God who girds Him with, the strength He manifests, and casts the pertinacious foe beneath His feet.
(e) The end is reached in the fifth section. His foes turn their backs and flee in vain: God has given them up into His hand. They cry in despair at last, even to Jehovah now; but there is no reality in it, and they find no Saviour. They are beaten down as dust, and poured out as the mire of the streets.
6. The "rod of iron" of the second psalm is now sketched in three brief but emphatic verses. He is delivered from the strivings of the people -in Samuel, "my" people -Israel, in their old rebellious state, and made head of the nations, a people formerly unknown to Him. These are obedient as soon as they hear of Him; and there is a manifest power which forbids opposition. Strangers in heart bow perforce, though remaining such: and here we see already the cause of that fresh uprising of evil with which the millennial kingdom ends. And this condition of things shows why Satan, bound in the abyss for a thousand years, is permitted to come out of it at the close to bring out the reality. The visible power of God with the blessing attendant upon Messiah’s sway is proved vain to bring man to God. Opposition to Him is no mere fruit of ignorance. In that day there will be none: the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea"; and yet of very many it will be said, as it was of those in the day of Christ’s previous sojourn among men: "Now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father." (Joh 15:24.)
Thus the devil is permitted to do His final work. The awful inveteracy of sin is manifested. He comes out of a thousand years’ restraint; and with his doom at last before his eyes, to work out still unrepentantly the ruin of others and his own. And men on their side turn from the blessedness in which they have shared to listen to his deception. Thus the last verse finds its fulfillment: "sons of the stranger fade away, and are afraid out of their close places." All is manifest at last, and the work of probation is over: eternity, in fact, has come.
7. The last five verses are an ascription of praise to God, in the same character as at the beginning of the psalm, and summing up in brief the mercies which have been recounted. He is the living and unchanging God, the Rock of faith, the Saviour; the avenging Judge, subduer of the peoples; the God of resurrection, thus lifting up above all enemies. For this cause He is praised among the nations. And the close celebrates the whole as loving-kindness to Jehovah’s King, to David and his seed alike.
Thus, it is plain, the first series of these psalms ends; and in the nineteenth we go back to find a new beginning.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1Of all the Pss. this is the one which…
Of all the Pss. this is the one which can be ascribed with greatest confidence to David. It is found, with some variations, in 2 Samuel 22, and the title is largely taken from 2Sa_22:1. It consists of a series of triumphant thanksgivings to God, with which the writer connects a highly figurative account of his deliverance from danger (Psa_18:4-19), an assertion of his own uprightness (Psa_18:20-24), and a description of the victories he has won by God's assistance (Psa_18:29-48).
1. I will love thee] RV 'I love thee.' This v. is omitted in 2 S. It was perhaps inserted when the Ps. was adapted for use by the congregation in the Temple.
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2. Notice the succession of figures drawn from the experiences of a warrior's life in a country where natural strongholds as well as artificial fortresses were common. Strength] RV 'strong rock.' Buckler] RV 'shield.' So in Psa_18:30. Horn] a symbol of irresistible strength.
4. Sorrows] RV 'cords.' So in Psa_18:5.
5. Hell] RV 'Sheol,' the state of the dead. Prevented] RV 'came upon.' So in Psa_18:18. Psa_18:4-5 mean that David felt himself in peril of death.
6. His temple] in heaven.
7-16. In these vv. the manifestation of God's power to deliver is poetically described as the physical appearance of God Himself, accompanied by the most impressive natural phenomena, such as earthquake and thunderstorm. He is conceived as dwelling in the heart of the thunderstorm, surrounded by fires which break forth as lightning through -the cloud.
10. A cherub] Cherubim are most familiar to readers of Scripture as symbolic figures appearing in the furniture and decoration of the tabernacle and the Temple. They also appear in Ezekiel's vision of the mystic chariot as the bearers of God's throne (Ezekiel 1, 10). Here the cherub seems to be a personification of the storm cloud, as the parallel idea in the next clause shows.
12. Read, 'From the brightness before him there passed through his thick cloud hailstones and coals of fire.' Coals of fire] lightning.
13. His voice] the thunder.
14. His arrows] another figure for lightning.
15. The drying up of the Red Sea is woven into the imagery of the storm.
16. Many waters] the emblem of David's troubles. The whole sublime manifestation of God was on his behalf.
19. A large place] the opposite of 'straits.'
24-26. David finds in his own case an illustration of the truth that God deals with all men according to their works, opposing those who oppose Him, as well as showing His perfections to those who are like Him.
27. High looks] RV 'the haughty eyes.'
28. My candle] RV 'my lamp,' the symbol of David's prosperity: see Job_18:6.
29. This v. may refer to the pursuit of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30) and the capture of Jerusalem (2Sa_5:6-8).
33. Hinds' feet] agile, swift, and sure. My high places] The figure of the hind, climbing precipitous hills, is continued.
34. A bow of steel, etc.] RV 'mine arms do bend a bow of brass' (i.e. copper or bronze), a harder task than to bend a wooden bow.
35. Gentleness] RM 'condescension.' For the thought cp. Psa_113:6; Isa_57:15 : see also Psalms 23.
36. Enlarged my steps] given me freedom to move without obstruction.
40. Given me the necks of mine enemies] RV 'made mine enemies turn their backs unto me.'
43. Heathen] RV 'nations.' So in Psa_18:49. David subdued all the countries around Palestine (2 Samuel 8). Shall serve] This and the following future tenses to the end of Psa_18:45 are better rendered as past.
45. Be afraid] RV 'come trembling.'
47. People] RY 'peoples.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1Psalm 18
Psalm 18
The Story of God’s Power in Behalf of Christ
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1. In the jaws of death (Psa 18:1-6)
2. God appearing and delivering (Psa 18:7-18)
3. God gave Him glory (Psa 18:19-27)
4. His enemies subdued (Psa 18:28-42)
5. The head of the nations (Psa 18:43-45)
Psa 18:1-6. This is another remarkable Psalm. Though David wrote it not everything could be his experience. He was a prophet (Act 2:30) and prophesied; much in this Psalm is prophecy describing the deliverance of Christ from the jaws of death and the glory God has given Him, and this deliverance and glory also concerns the remnant of His earthly people in “that day.” The Psalm begins with an outburst of praise and it ends with His praise among the nations. Hebrew authorities tell us that the proper translation of “The LORD is my Rock” is “Jehovah, my cleft of the rock.” It is Christ the rock, cleft for us, in whom the believer has found His refuge. And He Himself was saved from His enemies and in Him His people are saved and will be saved from their enemies (Psa 18:3). It is His own death experience which is described in Psa 18:4-6. “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of Belial (marginal reading) made me afraid.” Then in His distress He called and cried unto God and was heard.
Psa 18:7-18. In these verses we have the answer in behalf of Christ. It is a wonderful description of God’s power and His appearing. It is the manifestation and glory of Jehovah in deliverance. “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me from great waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hate me for they were too strong for me.” This describes His resurrection.
At the same time while all this shows His experience as the author and finisher of the faith, it is also the experience of His trusting people, and the deliverance of that remnant living during the tribulation period.
Psa 18:19-27. The Lord has recompensed Him for His righteousness. He not only raised Him from the dead “but gave Him glory.” He was brought forth into a large place. He was delivered because God delighted in Him and He has rewarded Him. Verse 23 as it stands in the authorized version can not apply to Christ. It is in fact a poor translation. The translation in the Numerical Bible is very satisfactory. “I was also perfect with Him and kept myself from perverseness being mine.”
Psa 18:28-42. He will save an humble people and all His enemies will be conquered by Him. While much in this section was David’s experience, who overcame all his enemies, in its prophetic meaning it must apply to the Lord Jesus. Psalm 18:37-42 speak prophetically of this coming great victory when all His enemies will be made the footstool of His feet.
Psa 18:43-45. He becomes the head of the nations. “Thou hast made me the head of the nations” cannot apply to David and his experience, but it is David’s Son and David’s Lord who will head the nations of the earth. It is the coming kingdom which is described in verse 44. “As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me, the strangers (Gentiles) shall submit themselves unto me.” The marginal reading is suggestive, “they shall yield feigned obedience unto Me,” which tells us that the obedience of many during the kingdom reign of our Lord will not be whole-hearted and therefore the revolt at the end of the thousand years (Rev 20:1-15). His praise will then be heard among the nations (Psa 18:49-50).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1A Psalm of Thanksgiving for Deliverance and Victory.
A Psalm of Thanksgiving for Deliverance and Victory.
To the chief musician, for performance in the liturgical service of the Tabernacle and the Temple, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, His prophet and minister in making known the Word of the Lord and in doing His will, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, in the last part of Saul’s reign, 2Sa 7:1; and he said, Cf 2 Samuel 22.
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A Recital of God’s Blessings
v. 1. I will love Thee, with the most tender affection, O Lord, my Strength, in protecting and defending him.
v. 2. The Lord is my Rock, his safe place of concealment, and my Fortress, his Stronghold, affording refuge and safety, and my Deliverer; my God, my Strength, his Rock of Ages, firm, immovable, in whom I will trust; my Buckler, the large shield which protected the whole body against injury, and the Horn of my salvation, the horn of the altar being the figure of protective strength and victorious deliverance, and my high Tower, inaccessible to the enemies. Having thus given the reason for his firm trust, the psalmist gives a recital of some of the occasions when his confidence was justified.
v. 3. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, for all the favors shown in the past; so shall I be saved from mine enemies; that had been his constant experience.
v. 4. The sorrows of death, the bands of death, compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid, the brooks of abysmal evil and perdition terrifying him.
v. 5. The sorrows of hell, the bands of the realm of death, compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me, going ahead, anticipating his every move, seizing upon him suddenly.
v. 6. In my distress I called upon the Lord, when the persecution of Saul and other troubles came upon him, and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of His temple, out of the palace of heaven, the throne of His glory, and my cry came before Him, being hindered by nothing on its way, even into His ears, so that God certainly heard it. David now describes, in a highly poetic form, how the Lord worked His deliverance.
v. 7. Then the earth shook and trembled, with violent earthquakes; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wroth.
v. 8. There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, from His angry snorting, and fire out of His mouth devoured, with a consuming power; coals were kindled by it, glowing coals blazing out from Him, the description being that of a violent thunderstorm.
v. 9. He bowed the heavens also, as the dark masses of clouds roll and descend, and came down; and darkness was under His feet, the dark storm-clouds being His footstool.
v. 10. And He rode upon a cherub, an angelic minister who represented the entire creation as serving Jehovah, and did fly; yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind, whose rushing might fitly represent His dignity.
v. 11. He made darkness His secret place, to veil and to hide Him; His pavilion round about Him, the tent of His dwelling, were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies, heavy with vapor, ready to shed the rain in streams.
v. 12. At the brightness that was before Him, out from the brightness which surrounded His throne, His thick clouds passed hailstones and coals of fire, for Jehovah discharged through the clouds that veiled His brightness the weapons of His wrath, hail and bolts of lightning.
v. 13. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, the roll of thunder following the strokes of lightning, and the Highest gave His voice, hailstones and coals of fire.
v. 14. Yea, He sent out His arrows, the sharp points of His lightning, and scattered them, the enemies being obliged to flee in all directions; and He shot out lightnings and discomfited them, so that they were utterly at a loss, helpless in their confusion. So great was the force of the storm, moreover, that the very beds of the waters were laid bare.
v. 15. Then the channels of waters were seen, the water being forced away by the mighty wind, and the foundations of the world, the very depths of the earth, were discovered at Thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils, the storm which denoted His anger.
v. 16. He sent from above, stretching out His hand, reaching down; He took me, He drew me out of many waters, so that David was not carried away in the great catastrophe which struck the earth.
v. 17. He delivered me from my strong enemy, Saul chiefly being meant, and from them which hated me, all those who sought to harm him; for they were too strong for me.
v. 18. They prevented me, falling upon him suddenly, in the day of my calamity; but the Lord was my Stay, supporting him so that all their wickedness came to naught.
v. 19. He brought me forth also, from all his straits of trouble, into a large place, to full safety and relief; He delivered me because He delighted in me, His regard for David being His motive for acting as He did.
v. 20. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, the evidence of which came out in his entire conduct and life; according to the cleanness of my hands, in the management of his personal and official affairs, hath He recompensed me.
v. 21. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, closely followed the paths pointed out to him by Jehovah, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
v. 22. For all His judgments were before me, the obligations which His commandments laid upon all men, and I did not put away His statutes from me, namely, all the precepts of His covenant.
v. 23. I was also upright before Him, in the outward observance of the Law, and I kept myself from mine iniquity, from bold transgression and wickedness.
v. 24. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight. It was not arrogant boastfulness which caused David to make these statements, but the simplicity and trust of his heart.
v. 25. With the merciful Thou wilt show thyself merciful, showing kindness to him who practised kindness; with an upright man Thou wilt show Thyself upright;
v. 26. with the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward, God’s dealing with men being the mirror of the relation in which God puts Himself to him, rewarding every man according to his deserts.
v. 27. For Thou wilt save the afflicted people, delivering them from the trouble which oppresses them, but wilt bring down high looks, humbling those who exalt themselves.
v. 28. For Thou wilt light my candle, making the lamp of his happiness and its light very bright; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness, bringing him relief after the misfortunes which he endured.
v. 29. For by Thee I have run through a troop, rushing upon hostile bands and overthrowing them; and by my God have I leaped over a wall, capturing the fortified towns of the enemies with ease. In the same manner all Christians will experience the gracious help of Jehovah against all the enemies of their souls if they but cling to their trust in the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1–2General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
he sang to Yahweh the words of this song
"he sang this song to Yahweh"
on the day that Yahweh rescued him
"after Yahweh had rescued him"
from the hand of Saul
Here "hand" stands for the power of Saul. AT: "from Saul's power" (See: Metonymy)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1–3Ps 18 This royal drama of divine rescue (also…
Ps 18 This royal drama of divine rescue (also found with minor variations in 2 Sam 22:1-51) encourages readers who are following the laments and requests for rescue in Pss 16 and 17. The psalmist describes the dramatic nature of God’s rescue in three different ways (18:7-15, 16-19, 30-36). The psalm also extends hope that a future Son of David will be totally victorious over evil (18:43-50; cp. Ps 2).
18:title David was a faithful servant of the Lord, charged with the responsibility of establishing God’s kingdom on earth (see 78:70; 132:10; 144:10). • The Lord rescued David from all his enemies when he enabled David to conquer them (see 2 Sam 8:1-14).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. And he said, etc. I will not stop…
1. And he said, etc. I will not stop to examine too minutely the syllables, or the few words, in which this psalm differs from the song which is recorded in the twenty-second chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. When, however, we meet with any important difference, we shall advert to it in the proper place; and we find one in the remarkable sentence with which this psalm commences, I will love thee affectionately, O Jehovah, my strength, which is omitted in the song in Samuel. As the Scripture does not use the verb רהם, racham, for to love, except in the conjugation pihel, and as it is here put in the conjugation kal, some of the Jewish expositors explain it as here meaning to seek mercy; as if David had said, Lord, since I have so often experienced thee to be a merciful God, I will trust to and repose in thy mercies for ever. And certainly this exposition would not be unsuitable, but I am unwilling to depart from the other, which is more generally received. It is to be observed, that love to God is here laid down as constituting the principal part of true godliness; for there is no better way of serving God than to love him. No doubt, the service which we owe him is better expressed by the word reverence, that thus his majesty may prominently stand forth to our view in its infinite greatness. But as he requires nothing so expressly as to possess all the affections of our heart, and to have them going out towards him, so there is no sacrifice which he values more than when we are bound fast to him by the chain of a free and spontaneous love; and, on the other hand, there is nothing in which his glory shines forth more conspicuously than in his free and sovereign goodness. Moses, therefore, (Deuteronomy 10:12,) when he meant to give a summary of the law, says,
“And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to love him?”
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In speaking thus, David, at the same time, intended to show that his thoughts and affections were not so intently fixed upon the benefits of God as to be ungrateful to him who was the author of them, a sin which has been too common in all ages. Even at this day we see how the greater part of mankind enjoy wholly at their ease the gifts of God without paying any regard to him, or, if they think of him at all, it is only to despise him. David, to prevent himself from falling into this ingratitude, in these words makes as it were a solemn vow, Lord, as thou art my strength, I will continue united and devoted to thee by unfeigned love.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–3 He useth this diversity of names, to show that…
He useth this diversity of names, to show that as the wicked have many means to hurt, so God hath many ways to help.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Psa 18:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm]…
Psa 18:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day [that] the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, » I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
To the chief Musician] Some render it, Ad triumphandum; and well they may; for this is old David’s επινικιον, or triumphant song after so many victories and deliverances; and it is twice recorded in Scripture, with very little variation, {see 2Sa 22:1-51} for the great worth and weightiness of the matter; that we may the more observe it, and be the better versed in it. This here recorded seemeth to be the review of it, and hence those small additions and alterations that are found here and there, but not of any great moment.
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A Psalm of David] Who having now gotten some breathing while from his troubles, gave not himself to idleness or worldly pleasures (as the Romans used to do after that they had once ridden in triumph), but, calling to mind God’s great mercies towards him, composed this sweet psalmody to his glory.
The servant of the Lord] So he styled himself before, Psa 36:1, when he first entered upon the kingdom; and now here again, when being to lay it down together with his life, he breatheth out his holy soul to God in this divine ditty.
Sic ubi fata vocant, &c.
This he did after that, as a faithful servant of the Lord, he had done all the wills of God, Act 13:22, had served out his full time, Psa 18:36, and dwelt in God’s house to length of days, Psa 23:6.
Who spake unto the Lord the words of this song] God lets out his mercies to us for this rent of our praises; and is content we have the benefit of them, so he may have the glory. The Hebrews give this note here; every man for whom there is wrought a miracle of mercy, and he thereupon uttereth a song, hath his sins forgiven him. This is better yet than that of the Papists, who promise pardon of sin to those that shall hear two masses a day. We who have received so many mercies should compass God about with songs of deliverances, and not only servire Deo, sed et adulari, serve God and make obeisance, as Tertullian hath it.
From the hand of all his enemies] Heb. From the palm of other enemies, as less considerable, but from the hand (or clutched fist) of Saul.
And from the hand of Saul] His greatest enemy, and of longest continuance. So Christ is said to save his people from their sins, by a specialty, Mat 1:21, because they do us the most mischief.
Ver. 1. I will love thee, O Lord my strength] Heb. I will love thee dearly and entirely, ex intimis visceribus, from the very heart-root, from the bottom of my bowels; with like intention of affection, as a tender hearted mother doth her dearest babe, that is her own bowels; herself of the second edition. Neither did David herein supererogate: For God requireth to be loved with all the heart, mind, soul, strength, as one that is best worthy; good without measure, that hath loved us without measure, and therefore is without measure by us to be beloved. Modus sit sine mode (Bern.). Not that we are bound to love God in quantum est diligibilis so much as he is lovely or love worthy; for so God can only love himself; but, Nihil supra, aeque, aut contra, nothing must we love above God or so much as God, much less against God; we must be able to say affectionately, with David, Psa 73:25-26, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." And as Bernard, Amo te, Domine, plus quam mea, meos, me I love thee, Lord, more than my goods, my friends, myself. A Christian begins with loving God for himself, but he ends in loving himself, and all other, both persons and things, in and for God. His friend he loveth in the Lord, his foes for the Lord; but God he loveth absolutely, and for himself, affecting not only a union with him, but even a unity, his heart being turned, as it were, into a very lump of love, as was Mary’s, Luk 7:47. Histories tell of a certain woman that came to Vespasian the emperor, professing that she was in love with him; he commanded that a liberal reward should be given her for the same; and when his steward asked him under what item he should put that gift in the book of account, Vespasiano adamato, said the emperor, Item, To her that loved Vespasian. God, saith the apostle, is not unrighteous, to forget your labour of love, &c., Heb 6:10. "I love them that love me," saith Christ, Pro 8:17. And his love is not like the winter sun, which hath light, but no heat; he is the strength of his people, their rock, fortress.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The servant of the Lord; who esteemeth it a…
The servant of the Lord; who esteemeth it a greater honour to be thy servant, than to be king of Israel, and who doth entirely devote himself to thy service and glory.
In the day that the Lord delivered him, i.e. after the death of Saul, and the conquest of all his succeeding enemies, and his own firm establishment in his kingdom.
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David professeth his love to God, Psa 18:1, and his confidence in his attributes, Psa 18:2. He praises God for deliverance out of trouble, Psa 18:3-5. His experience of God’s hearing him in an awful manner, Psa 18:6-31. He acknowledgeth God’s help against his enemies, Psa 18:32-50.
Most affectionately and with my whole soul; as the Hebrew word signifies. I can return thee no better thing for all thy favours than my love and heart, which I pray thee to accept. By loving him he understands not only his inward affection, but also all the outward expressions and testimonies of it, praising, and glorifying, and serving of him.
O Lord, my strength; from whom alone I have received all my strength, and success, and settlement, and in whom alone I trust, as it follows, Psa 18:2.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The title gives us the occasion of penning this…
The title gives us the occasion of penning this psalm; we had it before (Sa2 22:1), only here we are told that the psalm was delivered to the chief musician, or precentor, in the temple-songs. Note, The private compositions of good men, designed by them for their own use, may be serviceable to the public, that others may not only borrow light from their candle, but heat from their fire. Examples sometimes teach better than rules. And David is here called the servant of the Lord, as Moses was, not only as every good man is God's servant, but because, with his sceptre, with his sword, and with his pen, he greatly promoted the interests of God's kingdom in Israel. It was more his honour that he was a servant of the Lord than that he was king of a great kingdom; and so he himself accounted it (Psa 116:16): O Lord! truly I am thy servant. In these verses,
I. He triumphs in God and his relation to him. The first words of the psalm, I will love thee, O Lord! my strength, are here prefixed as the scope and contents of the whole. Love to God is the first and great commandment of the law, because it is the principle of all our acceptable praise and obedience; and this use we should make of all the mercies God bestows upon us, our hearts should thereby be enlarged in love to him. This he requires and will accept; and we are very ungrateful if we grudge him so poor a return. An interest in the person loved is the lover's delight; this string therefore he touches, and on this he harps with much pleasure (Psa 18:2): "The Lord Jehovah is my God; and then he is my rock, my fortress, all that I need and can desire in my present distress." For there is that in God which is suited to all the exigencies and occasions of his people that trust in him. "He is my rock, and strength, and fortress;" that is, 1. "I have found him so in the greatest dangers and difficulties." 2. "I have chosen him to be so, disclaiming all others, and depending upon him alone to protect me." Those that truly love God may thus triumph in him as theirs, and may with confidence call upon him, Psa 18:3. This further use we should make of our deliverances, we must not only love God the better, but love prayer the better - call upon him as long as we live, especially in time of trouble, with an assurance that so we shall be saved; for thus it is written, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Act 2:21.
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II. He sets himself to magnify the deliverances God had wrought for him, that he might be the more affected in his returns of praise. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy, which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it.
1. The more imminent and threatening the danger was out of which we were delivered the greater is the mercy of the deliverance. David now remembered how the forces of his enemies poured in upon him, which he calls the floods of Belial, shoals of the children of Belial, likely to overpower him with numbers. They surrounded him, compassed him about; they surprised him, and by that means were very near seizing him; their snares prevented him, and, when without were fightings, within were fears and sorrows, Psa 18:4, Psa 18:5. His spirit was overwhelmed, and he looked upon himself as a lost man; see Psa 116:3.
2. The more earnest we have been with God for deliverance, and the more direct answer it is to our prayers, the more we are obliged to be thankful. David's deliverances were so, Psa 18:6. David was found a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. Though distress drive us to prayer, God will not therefore be deaf to us; nay, being a God of pity, he will be the more ready to succour us.
3. The more wonderful God's appearances are in any deliverance the greater it is: such were the deliverances wrought for David, in which God's manifestation of his presence and glorious attributes is most magnificently described, Psa 18:7, etc. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. (1.) He appeared a God of almighty power; for he made the earth shake and tremble, and moved even the foundations of the hills (Psa 18:7), as of old at Mount Sinai. When the men of the earth were struck with fear, then the earth might be said to tremble; when the great men of the earth were put into confusion, then the hills moved. (2.) He showed his anger and displeasure against the enemies and persecutors of his people: He was wroth, Psa 18:7. His wrath smoked, it burned, it was fire, it was devouring fire (Psa 18:8), and coals were kindled by it. Those that by their own sins make themselves as coals (that is, fuel) to this fire will be consumed by it. He that ordains his arrows against the persecutors sends them forth when he pleases, and they are sure to hit the mark and do execution; for those arrows are lightnings, Psa 18:14. (3.) He showed his readiness to plead his people's cause and work deliverance for them; for he rode upon a cherub and did fly, for the maintaining of right and the relieving of his distressed servants, Psa 18:10. No opposition, no obstruction, can be given to him who rides upon the wings of the wind, who rides on the heavens, for the help of his people, and, in his excellency, on the skies. (4.) He showed his condescension, in taking cognizance of David's case: He bowed the heavens and came down (Psa 18:9), did not send an angel, but came himself, as one afflicted in the afflictions of his people. (5.) He wrapped himself in darkness, and yet commanded light to shine out of darkness for his people, Isa 45:15. He is a God that hideth himself; for he made darkness his pavilion, Psa 18:11. his glory is invisible, his counsels are unsearchable, and his proceedings unaccountable, and so, as to us, clouds and darkness are round about him; we know not the way that he takes, even when he is coming towards us in ways of mercy; but, when his designs are secret, they are kind; for, though he hide himself, he is the God of Israel, the Saviour. And, at his brightness, the thick clouds pass (Psa 18:12), comfort returns, the face of affairs is changed, and that which was gloomy and threatening becomes serene and pleasant.
4. The greater the difficulties are that lie in the way of deliverance the more glorious the deliverance is. For the rescuing of David, the waters were to be divided till the very channels were seen; the earth was to be cloven till the very foundations of it were discovered, Psa 18:15. There were waters deep and many, waters out of which he was to be drawn (Psa 18:16), as Moses, who had his name from being drawn out of the water literally, as David was figuratively. His enemies were strong, and they hated him; had he been left to himself, they would have been too strong for him, Psa 18:17. And they were too quick for him; for they prevented him in the day of his calamity, Psa 18:18. But, in the midst of his troubles, the Lord was his stay, so that he did not sink. Note, God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will sustain them and bear them up under their troubles in the mean time.
5. That which especially magnified the deliverance was that his comfort was the fruit of it and God's favour was the root and fountain of it. (1.) It was an introduction to his preferment, Psa 18:19. "He brought me forth also out of my straits into a large place, where I had room, not only to turn, but to thrive in." (2.) It was a token of God's favour to him, and that made it doubly sweet: "He delivered me because he delighted in me, not for my merit, but for his own grace and good-will." Compare this with Sa2 15:26, If he thus say, I have no delight in thee, here I am. We owe our salvation, that great deliverance, to the delight God had in the Son of David, in whom he has declared himself to be well pleased.
In singing this we must triumph in God, and trust in him: and we may apply it to Christ the Son of David. The sorrows of death surrounded him; in his distress he prayed (Heb 5:7); God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, into a large place, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. These…
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. These words are not in twenty second chapter of Second Samuel: the psalm there begins with Psa 18:2. The psalmist here expresses his love to the Lord, and his continuance in it; that Jehovah the Father was, is, and ever will be the object of Christ's love, is certain; and which has appeared by his readiness in the council and covenant of grace to do his will; by his coming down from heaven to earth for that purpose; by his delight in it, it being his meat and drink to do it; and by his sufferings and death, which were in compliance with, and obedience to it, Joh 14:31; and as in David, so in all regenerate ones, there is love to God; Jehovah is loved by them in all his persons; Jehovah the Father is loved, and to be loved, for the perfections of his nature, because of the works of his hands, of creation and providence; and particularly because of his works of special grace and goodness, and especially because of his love wherewith he has loved his people, Jo1 4:19. Jehovah the Son is loved, and to be loved, above all creatures and things whatever, sincerely and heartily, fervently and constantly; because of the loveliness of his person, the love of his heart, and his works of grace and redemption; all of him is lovely; and he is to be loved, and is loved, in his person, offices, relations, people, word, and ordinances: Jehovah the Spirit is loved, and to be loved, because of his person and perfections, and operations of grace; as a sanctifier, comforter, the spirit of adoption, the earnest and pledge of eternal glory. The word here used signifies the most intimate, tender, and affectionate love; it often designs mercy and bowels of mercy; so Aben Ezra interprets it of seeking mercy of God: the reasons are as follow in this verse and Psa 18:2, because "the Lord is my strength"; so he was to Christ as man, who as such was the man of his right hand, the Son of Man, whom he made strong for himself, to do his work, and for his glory, Psa 80:17; he promised to strengthen him, and he did, Psa 89:21; and so he is the strength of all his saints, even Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit; he is the strength of their hearts both in life and at death; he is the strength of their graces, who strengthens that which he has wrought for them, and in them; he strengthens them to do their duty, to bear the cross, and every affliction, and against every enemy of their souls; and this renders him very lovely and amiable to them.
; and so he is the strength of all his saints, even Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit; he is the strength of their hearts both in life and at death; he is the strength of their graces, who strengthens that which he has wrought for them, and in them; he strengthens them to do their duty, to bear the cross, and every affliction, and against every enemy of their souls; and this renders him very lovely and amiable to them.
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Psalms 18:2
psa 18:2
psa 18:2
psa 18:2The Lord is my rock,.... To whom the saints have recourse for shelter and safety, for supply, support, and divine refreshment; and in whom they are secure, and on whom they build their hopes of eternal life and happiness, and so are safe from all enemies, and from all danger. Christ is called a Rock on all these accounts, Psa 61:2;
and my fortress; or garrison; so the saints are kept in and by the power of God as in a garrison, Pe1 1:5;
and my deliverer: out of all afflictions, and from all temptations, and out of the hands of all enemies; from a body of sin and death at last, and from wrath to come;
my God; the strong and mighty One, who is able to save, and who is the covenant God and Father of his people;
my strength, in whom I will trust; as Christ did, and to whom these words are applied in Heb 2:13; and as his people are enabled to do even under very distressing and discouraging circumstances, Job 13:15;
my buckler; or shield; who protects and defends them from their enemies, and preserves them from the fiery darts of Satan;
and the horn of my salvation; who pushes, scatters, and destroys their enemies, and saves them; a metaphor taken from horned beasts; so Christ, the mighty and able Saviour, is called, Luk 1:69;
and my high tower; such is the name of the Lord, whither the righteous run and are safe, Pro 18:10; and where they are above and out of the reach of every enemy; see Isa 33:16; in Sa2 22:3, it is added, "and my refuge, my Saviour, thou savest me from violence". These various epithets show the fulness of safety in Jehovah, the various ways he has to deliver his people from their enemies, and secure them from danger; and the psalmist beholding and claiming his interest in him under all these characters, rendered him exceeding lovely and delightful to him; and each of them contain a reason why he loved him, and why, in the strength of grace, he determined to love him. God may be regarded in all these characters by Christ as man.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–2 David triumphs in God, ver. 1-3. Praises God for…
David triumphs in God, ver. 1-3. Praises God for his past deliverances, ver. 4-19. Takes the comfort of his integrity, which God had thereby cleared up, ver. 20-28. Gives God the glory of all his victories, ver. 29-42. Express his hope of what God would do farther, ver. 43-50. This psalm with some few and small variations, is written, 2 Sam. xxii, 1-51. It was composed by David towards the end of his life, upon the occasion here mentioned. To the chief musician, A psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song, in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he said: Title of the psalm. Servant - Who esteems it a greater honour to be thy servant, than to be king of Israel. Saul - After the death of Saul, and the conquest of all his succeeding enemies, and his own firm establishment in his kingdom.
Love - Most affectionately, and with my whole soul; as the Hebrew word signifies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 David's address of thanks to Jehovah, 1-3.
PSALM XVIII
David's address of thanks to Jehovah, 1-3.
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A relation of sufferings undergone, and prayers made for
assistance, 4-6.
A magnificent description of Divine interposition in behalf
of the sufferer, 7-15;
and of the deliverance wrought for him, 16-19.
That this deliverance was in consideration of his
righteousness, 20-24;
and according to the tenor of God's equitable proceedings,
25-28.
To Jehovah is ascribed the glory of the victory, 29-36;
which is represented as complete by the destruction of all
his opponents, 37-42.
On these events the heathen submit, 43-45.
And for all these things God is glorified, 46-50.
NOTES ON PSALM XVIII
The title: "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul."
Except the first clause, this title is taken from 2Sa 22:1. The reader is requested to turn to the notes on 2Sa 22:1, for some curious information on this Psalm, particularly what is extracted from Dr. Kennicott. This learned writer supposes the whole to be a song of the Messiah, and divides it into five parts, which he thus introduces: -
"The Messiah's sublime thanksgivings, composed by David when his wars were at an end, towards the conclusion of his life. And in this sacred song the goodness of God is celebrated, 1. For Messiah's resurrection from the dead, with the wonders attending that awful event, and soon following it. 2. For the punishment inflicted on the Jews; particularly by the destruction of Jerusalem. And, 3. For the obedience of the Gentile nations. See Ro 15:9; Heb 2:13; and Mt 28:2-4; with Mt 24:7; Mt 24:29."
And that the title now prefixed to this hymn here and in 2Sa 22:1, describes only the time of its composition, seems evident; for who can ascribe to David himself as the subject, 2Sa 22:5-6; 2Sa 22:8-17; 2Sa 22:21-26; 2Sa 22:30; 2Sa 22:42; 2Sa 22:44, c.?
In Dr. Kennicott's remarks there is a new translation of the whole Psalm, p. 178, c.
The strong current of commentators and critics apply this Psalm to Christ and to oppose a whole host of both ancients and moderns would argue great self-confidence. In the main I am of the same mind and on this principle chiefly I shall proceed to its illustration; still however considering that there are many things in it which concern David, and him only. Drs. Chandler and Delaney have been very successful in their illustration of various passages in it; all the best critics have brought their strongest powers to bear on it; and most of the commentators have laboured it with great success; and Bishop Horne has applied the whole of it to Christ. My old Psalter speaks highly in its praise: "This Psalme contenes the sacrement of al chosyn men, the qwilk doand the law of God thurgh the seven fald grace of the Haly Gast fra al temptaciouns, and the pouste of dede and of the devel lesid: this sang thai syng til God; and thankes him and says, I sal luf the Lord, noght a day or twa, bot ever mare: my strength, thurgh quam I am stalworth in thoght."
Verse 1. I will love thee] Love always subsists on motive and reason. The verb רחם racham signifies to love with all the tender feelings of nature. "From my inmost bowels will I love thee, O Lord!" Why should he love Jehovah? Not merely because he was infinitely great and good, possessed of all possible perfections, but because he was good to him: and he here enumerates some of the many blessings he received from him.
My strength.]
1. Thou who hast given me power over my adversaries, and hast enabled me to avoid evil and do good.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v1 Psa 18:1-3. I will love thee — Hebrew, ארחמךְ,…
Psa 18:1-3. I will love thee — Hebrew, ארחמךְ, erchamecha, I will love thee most affectionately, and with my whole soul. I can make thee no better return for all thy favours than my love, which I pray thee to accept. By loving the Lord, however, here and elsewhere, we are not only to understand giving him the inward affection of the soul, but also all the proper outward expressions and testimonies of it, in praising, glorifying, and serving him. O Lord, my strength — From whom alone I have received all my strength, and success, and my establishment in the peaceable possession of the kingdom, and in whom alone I trust, as it follows. The Lord is my rock and my fortress — To which I flee for refuge, as the Israelites did to their rocks and strong holds; and as David himself did when driven into banishment by Saul, and forced to conceal himself in rocks and caverns, and to retreat for safety to steep hills and precipices rendered by nature almost inaccessible. See Jdg 6:2; 1Sa 13:6; 1Sa 23:19; 1Sa 23:25; 1Sa 24:2. My buckler — Or, shield, by whom I have been protected, amidst the dangers of those perilous wars in which I have been engaged, as the soldier is by the shield in his hand. The horn of my salvation — By which I have both defended myself and subdued my enemies: a metaphor taken from the horns of animals, which are their ornament and strength; by which they both protect themselves, and assault those who oppose or injure them. The horn is frequently put for strength and power, by the sacred writers, as Psa 92:10; Amo 6:13, and elsewhere, as also for riches and dignity. The reader will observe that this verse contains a continued chain of metaphors, and is a sublime paraphrase on the first commandment, declaring that Jehovah, the God of Israel, alone, was the foundation of his confidence, and the author of his security and happiness: by whom he had been supported under his troubles, and delivered out of them; whose protection had secured him, and whose power had broken and scattered his enemies; by whose mercy and truth he was now set up on high above them all. I will call — Or, I did call, and was saved. For the future tense is commonly used for that which is past. And this seems best to agree with the whole context.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 I will love thee, O Lord - This verse…
I will love thee, O Lord - This verse is not found in the song in 2 Sam. 22. It appears to have been added after the first composition of the psalm, either by David as expressive of his ardent love for the Lord in view of his merciful interpositions in his behalf, and on the most careful and most mature review of those mercies, or by the collector of the Psalms when they were adapted to purposes of public worship, as a proper commencement of the psalm - expressive of the feeling which the general tenor of the psalm was fitted to inspire. It is impossible now to determine by whom it was added; but no one can doubt that it is a proper commencement of a psalm that is designed to recount so many mercies. It is the feeling which all should have when they recall the goodness of God to them in their past lives.
My strength - The source of my strength, or from whom all my strength is derived. So Psa 27:1, “The Lord is the strength of my life.” Psa 28:8, “he is the saving strength of his anointed.” Compare Psa 29:11; Psa 46:1; Psa 73:26; Psa 81:1; Psa 140:7.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 18
Psalms 18
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
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1 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:
So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
4 The sorrows of death compassed me,
And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about:
The snares of death prevented me.
6 In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried unto my God:
He heard my voice out of his temple,
And my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled;
The foundations also of the hills moved
And were shaken, because he was wroth.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
And fire out of his mouth devoured:
Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down:
And darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly:
Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his secret place;
His pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed,
Hail stones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
And the Highest gave his voice;
Hail stones and coals of fire.
14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
15 Then the channels of waters were seen,
And the foundations of the world were discovered
At thy rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16 He sent from above, he took me,
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity:
But the Lord was my stay.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place;
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his judgments were before me,
And I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before him,
And I kept myself from mine iniquity.
24 Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
25 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful;
With an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;
26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure;
And with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people;
But wilt bring down high looks.
28 For thou wilt light my candle:
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by thee I have run through a troop;
And by my God have I leaped over a wall.
30 As for God, his way is perfect:
The word of the Lord is tried:
He is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
31 For who is God save the Lord?
Or who is a rock save our God?
32 It is God that girdeth me with strength,
And maketh my way perfect.
33 He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet,
And setteth me upon my high places.
34 He teacheth my hands to war,
So that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation:
And thy right hand hath holden me up,
And thy gentleness hath made me great.
36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me,
That my feet did not slip.
37 I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them:
Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise:
They are fallen under my feet.
39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle:
Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.
40 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies;
That I might destroy them that hate me.
41 They cried, but there was none to save them:
Even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.
42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind:
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people;
And thou hast made me the head of the heathen:
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me:
The strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
45 The strangers shall fade away,
And be afraid out of their close places.
46 The Lord liveth; and blessed be my Rock;
And let the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God that avengeth me,
And subdueth the people under me.
48 He delivereth me from mine enemies:
Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me:
Thou hast delivered me from the violent man.
49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen,
And sing praises unto thy name.
50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king;
And sheweth mercy to his anointed,
To David, and to his seed for evermore.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Title.—The title, as far as the words of David, is like that of Psalms 36, the rest of it reminds us strongly of Deu_31:30, in part of Exo_15:1; Num_21:17; and is found likewise in 2 Samuel 22, where this Psalm appears in its historical connection, with some differences, yet essentially the same. In most cases the Psalm of our collection has the original and better readings (vid. below upon its relation to 2 Samuel 22). All this is in favor of the view that it was in one of those historical books from which the author of the book of Samuel made extracts. The use of this Psalm in Psalms 116, 144 is in favor of its great antiquity, as well as the use of Psa_18:30 in Pro_30:5, and Psa_18:33 in Hab_3:19. So many particulars in the contents and expressions of the Psalm agree with David, that only Olsh. and Hupf. think of a later author. There is likewise no valid reason for regarding the closing verse as a later addition (Hitzig against Hupf.). But being authentic, inasmuch as it presupposes the prophecy 2 Samuel 7, it refers to the latter period of David’s life, if not even to the time of his dying song, 2 Samuel 23. The prominent features of the subject agree with this, and do not allow us to mistake the retrospective view of a very important period of life, especially agitated by war and like events, but yet brought by grace to a satisfactory conclusion; and they lead to a period in which David, after having come forth victorious over domestic feuds, and as a king victorious likewise over other nations, and widely feared, on the one side praises the help afforded him by God as a sign of His condescension and favor, and on the other celebrates this as the reward of his devotion to Jehovah. Hitzig, therefore, refers, especially Psa_18:43-44, to the fact mentioned 2Sa_8:9 sq., that the son of a distant king brought gifts to David, when on his return from Aram, he had likewise conquered the Edomite, and stood at the end of his expedition of war; and when the shadows which the rebellion of Absalom, and the transgression committed with Bathsheba and on her account, threw upon his life and his soul, had not yet troubled the sunshine of his happiness. The mention of Saul after all his enemies renders him conspicuous as the most dangerous of all, who is the last to be forgotten, although his time had long since passed away. The form in which these facts are put together, shows that we have here a retrospect which extends over a long period, but which occurred on the day of the composition of the Psalm, and originated the tone of the song together with its sentiments. The name, servant of Jehovah, which David gives to himself in his prayers, Psa_19:11; Psa_19:13; Psa_144:10; 2Sa_7:20, and there in a general sense in which every pious Israelite might use it, is here in the title, as in Psalms 36, in the pregnant meaning of an official name and honorable title as Moses bears it, Deu_34:5; Jos_24:29; the prophets, Jer_7:25 and elsewhere, on account of their historical position as the specially commissioned instruments of God; and David likewise has received it being recognized as such by the mouth of Jehovah, Psa_89:3; Psa_89:20. A parallel to its use in the title of several Psalms is found in its use at the beginning of most of the epistles of the apostles.
Its Contents and their Arrangement.—First, there is an expression of tender resignation to Jehovah (Psa_18:1), the Protector and Lord, consequently sought and never sought in vain (Psa_18:2); then follows the principal clause (Psa_18:3), the unfolding of which forms the essential subject of the Psalm, namely: the thankful confession, that this Jehovah has delivered the Psalmist from his enemies in answer to prayer. The greatness of the danger is illustrated (Psa_18:4-5); the prayer is warmly mentioned and its having been heard (Psa_18:6). His coming to help in the earthquake and tempest (not merely figurative as Hupf. contends) is magnificently and surprisingly described (Psa_18:7-15); the deliverance by the hand of God in the moment of the greatest danger is thankfully recognized as a proof of His good pleasure (Psa_18:16-19), to reward the pious conduct of His servant (vers 20–25), which is founded in the moral nature of God Himself (Psa_18:24-27), and gives the reason and pledge of this support of the Psalmist’s life (Psa_18:28-29). Then the Psalmist begins to praise Jehovah as the only true God and faithful Helper (Psa_18:30-31). This is interrupted in form by the retrospective review (although there is actually a praising God) which the Psalmist makes with reference to his repeated experiences of the assistance of God in domestic feuds, and in foreign wars (Psa_18:32-45). It is then, however, taken up again directly, and brought to a satisfactory conclusion in two strophes, first, the summing up of thanksgiving for the abundance of help afforded as just described (Psa_18:46-48), and then in vows of thanksgiving which look far beyond the bounds of Israel (Psa_18:49-50), in faith in the Messianic promise and destiny given to David and his seed.
Its Relation to 2 Samuel 22—The older view maintained by Hengst. was that the origin of the double recension of this Psalm of thanksgiving (שִׁירָה instead of שִׁיר, which is used elsewhere in titles) was to be referred to David himself, and indeed so that 2 Samuel 22 is a later but independent variation, with expressions which were chosen, emphatic, and at times explanatory. Gramberg supposes an intentional revision of the text of the Psalm, but attempts (in Winer, Exeget. Stud.I. 1 to show, by a close comparison, that 2 Samuel 22 affords throughout easier and worse readings, by a different hand from that of the author. On the other hand, Von Lengerke (Comment. Crit., 1833), sought to show that the better readings are found now in the one, now in the other, that the deviations were not intentional, but accidental, occasioned by oral tradition, and the carelessness of the copyist; and that both texts have about the same value; that the orthography, however, on account of the less frequent use of the vowel signs, bears an ancient character. The latter is explained by Ewald from the use of an ancient MS. Hupfeld shows that even in the orthography no sure principle can be carried out, that most of the variations in 2 Samuel 22 do not at all deserve the preference sometimes given to them, and derives them from careless copying and tradition. Hitzig now again maintains the independence of both recensions, neither of which gives the original pure text entirely, yet he supposes that the form of the text of Psalms 18 is for the most part preferable, and explains it thus: That the Psalms incorporated in a historical book share the fate of all historical texts; the respect for their poetical form, rythm and movement very soon yielded and disappeared before the care for the simple sense, not to speak of the fact that the text was afterwards accented as prose, whilst in the book of Psalms it was accented as poetry. Delitzsch thinks that the annals of David (dibrê ha yamin) were the source of 2 Samuel 22, in which the Psalm had been incorporated, and from which likewise the historian derived much besides. He agrees with Hupfeld, but remarks that 2 Samuel 22 shows the license of popular language. Olsh. finds in this evidence of a free interpolation with literary productions before the close of the Canon.
Str. I. Psa_18:1. I love Thee affectionately [A. V., I will love thee].—אהב is elsewhere the only word used in Hebrew to express the love of men to God and the word used here, רחם, is found only in the Piel and in the sense of pity. But this word in the Aramaic has in the kal the meaning of love, and Aramaic expressions are not infrequent in the more ancient as well as in the later Hebrew writings. The proposal of Hitzig, therefore, to correct the ח by מ and change the vowel points, is unnecessary. The sense, which would be: “I will extol Thee,” would be very appropriate at the beginning of a song of praise and thanksgiving. But to doubt of an expression of love to God in the mouth of David, because among the ancient Hebrews the fear of God was alone proper, love only after Deu_6:5, is connected with a criticism of sacred history and its historical monuments, which condemns itself by its unavoidable necessity of doing violence to the text. In the parallel passage, 2 Samuel 22, this verse has manifestly fallen off, by shortening, whilst a compensation has been made by an enlargement of the next verse, which the accents then divide into two verses, by the addition, after the word fortress, of the clause: my refuge, my deliverer, who delivered me from violence. Likewise in the first line of this verse “my deliverer” is used as Psa_144:2, and in the second line: God (Elohe) my rock as Psa_18:46.
Psa_18:2. [There is in this verse a heaping up of metaphors, vid.Psalms 31; Psalms 71; Psalms 144 Perowne: “The images, which are most of them of a martial character, are borrowed from the experience of David’s life, and the perpetual struggles in which he was engaged. Some of them were suggested by the natural configuration of Palestine. Amid the ‘rocks’ and ‘fastnesses’ of his native land, and the ‘high tower’ perched on some inaccessible crag, he with his little band of outlaws, had often found a safe hiding-place from the wrath of Saul.”—My Rock.—Alexander: “As the rock (סֶלַע) of the first clause suggests the idea of concealment and security, so the rock (צוּר) of the second clause [A. V., ‘My strength’] suggests that of strength and immobility. The figure is borrowed from Deu_32:4, and reappears in Psa_92:15. Compare Isaiah’s phrase, rock of ages (Isa_26:4), and Jacob’s phrase, the stone of Israel (Gen_49:24.”14—My stronghold (A.V., fortress).—Hupf.: “מְצוּרָה is in general a strong and not easily accessible place, affording refuge and safety; a mountain, a cave, a wilderness, etc. Comp. 1Sa_23:14; 1Sa_23:19; 1Sa_24:1; Jdg_6:2; Isa_33:16; Job_39:28.”—My shield (A. V., buckler, a species of shield). Vid.Psa_3:4 and Gen_15:1, where God calls Himself Abram’s shield.”—C. A. B.]—Horn of my salvation.—The horn is frequently the figure of strength and victorious power, yet the reference here is not to attack, but to protection. Hence the figure is not borrowed from the horn of the buffalo (most interpreters), or indeed of the summits of mountains [called horns in many languages, e.g. Matterhorn, Faulhorn, etc.—C. A. B.], but of the altar,1Ki_2:28 (Hitzig).15—[My height (A. V., high tower)—Alexander: “The Hebrew word properly denotes a place so high as to be beyond the reach of danger.” It is a high rock or crag affording a safe refuge, vid.Psa_9:9.—C. A. B.]
Many interpreters, with the ancient translations (likewise Maurer, Hengst., Hupf.), regard Jehovah and Eli as subjects, the names which follow each time as His predicates, seven of which would thus be contained in Psa_18:2, to which Hengst. attaches some importance. Most recent interpreters, however (Hitzig and Delitzsch likewise), find as in all the names, so likewise in Jehovah and Eli, amplifications of the suffix of the verb, which begins the Psalm, yet not as its real object., but as taking up the vocative of the first line. Only Hitzig would change Eli into גאלי=my Redeemer, according to Ps. 19:15.
Str. II. Psa_18:3. Jehovah is not a vocative in this verse (Storr), but in apposition to the words placed before for emphasis: the one who is praised, that is, who is the subject of the praises of Israel, Psa_48:1; Psa_96:4; Psa_113:3; Psa_145:3; perhaps the glorious One (Hupf.), that is, He to whom glory and majesty is ascribed. The imperfects are not to be taken as futures (many ancient interpreters), since the following strophe shows that the reference is to praising God on account of Divine help already experienced; but hardly as preterites with reference to a previous special deliverance (Hitzig). It is true, they are thus used frequently from ver 6 onwards, but they depend upon the perfects which occur from Psa_18:4 on. If now these words which immediately follow are found to be a recapitulation of many particular experiences, the description of which makes use of the tempest, taken from other theophanes only as a figurative illustration (Ewald, Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch); then the imperfects are taken as indefinite designations of the past. In this not unusual poetical use they occur without doubt in Psa_18:20; Psa_18:28 sq. of this Psalm. But there it treats really of a recapitulation of particular and similar features with a retrospect of the moral action of the Psalmist and of the experiences made by him in consequence of this. Yet here the entire description seems to refer to a particular case, only it does not follow that Psa_18:3 should be put at the same time as Psa_18:6 a. The motto of the entire Psalm appears first, namely, in the form of a general clause prepared by the predicate used in calling upon Jehovah. But it is not necessary, on this account, to translate with G. Baur: praised be Jehovah, I cry.
Str. III. Psa_18:4. Bands of death.—The Sept. and the Rabbins translate sorrows [A. V.]; and 2 Samuel 22, where the clause begins with “then” [A. V., when], another word is used = waves. The parallel clauses agree very well with this, the verb not so well; and our reading is likewise in Psa_116:3, and is likewise very ancient (Calvin, Hupfeld).—Brooks of evil [A. V., floods of ungodly men]. —בְּלִיַּעַל– literally=not to go up, is generally but not exclusively used (Hengst.) for moral unthriftiness, as unworthiness; and is then taken by most interpreters as a personification of ungodly enemies and their attacks, by some (Jerome, Luther, J. H. Mich., Stier) is understood directly of the person of the devil, according to 2Co_6:15, comp. 2Sa_23:6; but the physical signification (Ruding.), partly recognized by Calv. and without doubt in Nah_1:11; Psa_41:8 (Hupf.), is recognized by most recent interpreters as here parallel with death and the lower world, yet not mythologically, the lower world with its streams (J. H. Mich.), but as abysmal evil and perdition.16
[Psa_18:5. Bands of the under-world (A. V., sorrows of hell).—For the explanation of Sheol or under-world vid.Psa_6:5.—Snares of death.—De Wette: “Snares of death are figurative of the danger of death; for slings and the like are frequent figures of danger and waylaying (Job_18:9-10; Psa_64:5; Psa_140:5).”—Prevented me.—Barnes: “The word here used in Hebrew, as our word prevent did originally, means to anticipate, to go before. The idea here is that those snares had, as it were, suddenly rushed upon him, or seized him. They came before him in his goings, and bound him fast.”—C. A. B.]17
[Psa_18:6. In my distress.—Under the experience of the brooks of evil, the snares of death and the bands of the under-world mentioned, probably referring to the anguish of the most trying periods of his persecution by Saul.—And cried.—The anxiety of soul demanding immediate relief expresses itself in the cry.—Temple.—Perowne: “Not the temple or tabernacle on Mt. Zion, but the temple in heaven wherein God especially manifests His glory, and where He is worshipped by the heavenly hosts—a place which is both temple and palace.”—And my cry came before him.—Barnes: “It was not intercepted on the way, but came up to Him.”—Into his ears.—“Indicating that He certainly heard it.” The cry of the suffering Psalmist, in peril of death, speeds its way with more than the speed of light, to the palace of Jehovah, to His very presence, into His very ears, and the response is given with the same wonderful directness by Jehovah. Perowne: “The deliverance is now pictured as a magnificent theophany. God comes to rescue His servant as He came of old to Sinai, and all nature is moved at His coming. Similar descriptions of the Divine manifestation, and of the effects produced by it, occur Psa_68:7-8; Psa_77:14-20; Exodus 19; Jdg_5:4; Amo_9:5; Mic_1:3; Habakkuk 3; but the image is nowhere so fully carried out as here. David’s deliverance was, of course, not really accompanied by such convulsions of nature, by earthquake, and fire, and tempest, but his deliverance, or rather his manifold deliverances, gathered into one as he thinks of them, appear to him as a marvellous proof of the Divine Power, as verily effected by the immediate presence and finger of God, as if He had come down in visible form to accomplish them. The image is carefully sustained throughout. First, we have the earthquake, and then, as preluding the storm, and as herald of God’s wrath, the blaze of the lightning (Psa_18:7-8). Next, the thick gathering of clouds, which seem to touch and envelop the earth; the wind, and the darkness which shrouds Jehovah riding on the cherubim (9–11). Lastly, the full outburst of the storm, the clouds parting before the presence and glory of Jehovah, and pouring upon the earth the burden with which they were heavy—the thunder, and the lightning, and the hail,—the weapons of Jehovah by which, on the one hand, He discomfits His enemies, and, on the other, lays bare the depths of the sea, and the very foundations of the world, that He may save His servant who trusts in Him (11–16).”—C. A. B.]
Str. IV. Psa_18:7. Foundations of the mountains [A. V., hills].—2 Samuel 22 has instead of the earth, the heavens, and it is generally understood of the mountains as the pillars of the heavens (Job_26:11). [Jehovah is represented as moved, by the cry of the suffering Psalmist, to anger, His wrath is kindled against His enemies with the brooks of evil and the snares of death. The earth and its foundations shake under the emotions of Divine wrath.—Smoke in his nostrils.—Hupfeld: “Wrath is poetically represented as the nose snorting, taken from the action of an angry man (Calv., Geier), or rather beast, as a horse, lion (Rosenm.), comp. particularly the description of the crocodile, Job_41:11 sq.; as then that is indeed the proper meaning of אף (from אנף snort, that is, breathe through the nose), and hence likewise among the Greeks and Romans the nose was the seat and organ of wrath. Here it is increased to smoke. as it is often said of the wrath of God, אַפּוֹ יֶעְשַׁן, His nose (or His wrath) smokes, Psa_74:1; Psa_80:4; Deu_29:19. This is connected with fire (as Isa_65:5), the usual figure of wrath in all languages, and here indeed from His mouth, parallel with the smoke in the nose, as with the crocodile, Job_41:13.”—Burning coals blazed from it, that is, from the mouth, parallel with fire out of His mouth devoured (Hupfeld, Delitzsch, et al.), not as the A. V., coals were kindled by it.—Delitzsch: “When God is angry, according to the Old Testament ideas, the power of wrath present in Him is kindled, and flames up, and breaks forth. The snorting of wrath may therefore be called the smoke of the fire of wrath (Psa_74:1; Psa_80:3); smoke is as the breath of fire and the violent hot breath, which is drawn in and out through the nose of the wrathful (comp. Job_41:12), is as smoke, which curls upward from the internal fire of wrath. The fire of wrath “devours out of the mouth.” that is, flames forth from the mouth, devouring all that it lays hold of, with men in angry words, with God in fiery powers of nature which correspond with His wrath and serve it, especially the fire of the lightning. It is first of all the lightning which is here compared to the flaming up of glowing coals. The power of the wrath of God, realizing itself, becomes a flame, and before its fire is entirely discharged, announces itself in lightnings.” The reference in this strophe is to the approaching storm with its distant flashes of lightning.—C. A. B.]
Str. V. Psa_18:9. [He bowed the heavens and came down.—The storm is near at hand, the dark masses of clouds descend and seem almost to touch the earth, vid.Psa_144:5; Exo_19:18; Isa_64:1. Parallel with this is the second clause.—Dark clouds under his feet.—Comp. Nah_1:3 sq., where the clouds are called the “dust of His feet.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:10. [He rode upon the cherub and did fly.—As in the preceding verse the presence of Jehovah in the dark and overhanging storm-cloud is represented by His agency in bowing the clouds and treading them down to the earth, so in this verse His presence in the strong wind which precedes the outbreaking of the storm is represented by His riding upon the cherub. The cherub is used here as a collective for the plural. The cherubim are composite creatures, embracing in one the forms of the ox, the lion, the eagle and man; they represent in the unity of their conception the entire creation in its most perfect form as the servant of Jehovah, through the faces and forms of the four most prominent and characteristic creatures which reflect the attributes and glory of God. They are represented as the bearers of the throne of Jehovah (Ezekiel 1, 10), the guardians of Eden (Gen_3:24), and the most holy place and the mercy-seat. They fly in a whirlwind and with flaming fire and lightning (Eze_1:4; Eze_1:13), and “the noise of their wings is like the noise of great waters” (Eze_1:24), the glory of God is above the cherubim which form His living chariot.18—C. A. B.]
Soar on the wings of the wind [A. V., fly].—2 Samuel 22 has instead of soar a weaker word, He appeared [A. V., was seen], yet not in all MSS.; perhaps it originated merely by a slip of the pen, changing ד into ר. [This clause is parallel with the preceding; the wind which accompanies the chariot of the cherubim is represented as winged. As Jehovah rides upon the cherubic car, He soars, borne by the wings of the wind, vid.Psa_104:3; Isa_66:15; Nah_1:3. Hupfeld, with Calvin, thinks that the cherub here represents the storm wind, or the clouds; Riehm, that we have here an indication of the original meaning of the cherub, but it is better to regard the clauses as parallel yet distinct in idea, Jehovah rides upon the cherubic chariot as the God of the Covenant, and soars on the wings of the wind as the God of nature.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:11. He made darkness His veil [A. V., His secret place.—Barnes: “The word rendered secret place—סֵתֶר—means properly a hiding; then something hidden, private, secret. Hence it means a covering, a veil. Comp. Job_22:14; Job_24:15. Here the meaning seems to be that God was encompassed with darkness. He had, as it were, wrapped Himself in night, and made His abode in the gloom of the storm.”—Round about him belongs to covering and not to pavilion, as A. V.—His tent is parallel with veil and dependent upon the same verb, not with the copula, as in A. V. (His pavilion were). C. A. B.].—2 Samuel 22 has, instead of darkness of waters [A. V., dark waters], a word, which has originated perhaps by a slip of the pen, to which according to the Arabic we can only give the meaning of “collection of waters.” 2 Samuel 22 has likewise: He made darkness tabernacles round about Him, which is a weakening of the idea of the Psalm. [This verse is a description of the storm in its momentary lull, before bursting forth. The angry Jehovah stays His cherubic car, veils Himself with the dark clouds, and piles up the darkness of waters and the thick clouds like a tent in which He meant to dwell.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:12. [Hupfeld: “Finally the storm of Divine wrath breaks forth and discharges itself in thunder, hail and lightnings, etc., on the heads of the wicked.”—C. A. B ] The reading of 2 Samuel 22, from the brightness before Him coals of fire burned [A. V., Through the brightness before Him were coals of fire kindled] is easier. Many interpreters likewise would blot out the strange word “His clouds,” and translate: hail and coals of fire went forth, or rushed forth (Hupf.). If this remain, our translation, after Hupf. and Delitzsch, is the best recommended: From the brightness before him passed through his clouds hail and coals of fire.—For the interpretations: “vanished” (Alex., Jerome, Calv.), or “broke up,” so that hail and coals of fire went forth (Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., Rosenm.), or that the last words are to be taken as an outcry of astonishment (Hengst., Ewald, Olsh.), are doubtful and find no support in the parallel words in Psa_18:13 (G. Baur), as if the repeated breaking forth of the lightning would be pictured by the restoration of those words which had been taken away. For in Psa_18:13, these words not only are lacking in 2 Samuel 22, but likewise in the Sept. of our Psalm; they disturb the structure of the verse, and find no support (as Hengst. contends) in the reference to Exo_9:23, where the connection of words is different. If, however, their dependence upon the verb, sent forth [A. V., gave], is maintained, then the poetry of that interpretation is lost. [The A. V., “At the brightness (that was) before Him His thick clouds passed, hail (stones) and coals of fire,” does not give a good sense. The idea is that Jehovah discharged through the darkness that veiled His brightness the weapons of His wrath, hail and coals of fire. Comp. the description of the destruction of the Canaanites, Jos_10:11, fire mingled with hail plaguing the Egyptians, Exo_9:24, so also in Isa_28:17; Isa_30:30.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:13. Instead of in the heavens,2 Samuel 22 has the reading: from heaven, which most interpreters prefer.
Psa_18:14. The suffix êm [them, object of the verb, scattered and discomfited] refers not to the arrows and lightnings (ancient interpreters), but to the enemies, who are not named, it is true, yet are before the mind of the Psalmist. Ewald refers it to the waters which are directly mentioned, on account of the easy grammatical connection. Instead of He shot (or He threw, which meaning רב has in Gen_49:23), many interpreters read here, in place of the verb, the well-known adverb rab=many, in abundance.
[Str. VI. Psa_18:15. This storm of Divine wrath not only scattered and discomfited the enemies of the Psalmist as the Canaanites before Joshua, and the Egyptians before Moses, but likewise burst in fury upon the earth, laying bare the beds of the waters, as of the Red Sea and the Jordan, for the passage of the Israelites, disclosing the foundations of the world. This was accomplished by the strong wind, the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.—C. A. B.]
[Str. VII. Psa_18:16. The Psalmist here leaves the figure of the Theophany and returns to the more simple ideas of Strophe III. He realizes once more his own personal danger, in peril of death and exposed to the brooks of evil and the bands of Sheol. Jehovah reached from above—He stretched forth His hand (not as in A. V., He sent from above), He laid hold of me (A. V., took me, not so good), and drew me up out of great waters, that is, the brooks of evil, which have well nigh overwhelmed the Psalmist and snared him in their bands of death. Nothing can be more simple and touchingly beautiful than this description of his deliverance. Alexander supposes a reference here to the “historical fact and the typical meaning of the deliverance of Moses, and a kind of claim upon the part of David to be regarded as another Moses.”
Psa_18:17. The Psalmist now leaves his figures of speech and states in simple terms that Jehovah delivered him from his strong enemy. This strong enemy was probably Saul.
Psa_18:18. They fell upon me in the day of my calamity (A. V., prevented me, incorrect); but Jehovah was his support; they could not overcome Him.
Psa_18:19. Large place.—He brought him forth from his straits of trouble, and gave him ample room to recover himself and extend himself to his heart’s content, vid.Psa_4:1.—C. A. B.]
[Str. VIII. Psa_18:20-23. This strophe gives the reason why Jehovah delighted in him and delivered him. His profession of personal integrity is like that of the previous Psalm (Psa_17:3). Perowne: “The words are, in truth, words of child-like, open-hearted simplicity, not of arrogant boastfulness.” They are not inconsistent with the latter period of his life. David in his life was guilty of great sins and suffered Divine chastisements and confessed that he was receiving the penalty of his crimes, yet in this Psalm, where he is praising the deliverances of his God, he likewise shows that these were testimonies of Divine favor to him and of approval of his uprightness and integrity. If in other Psalms David is sincere in his confessions under the experience of Divine chastisement, he is likewise sincere in this Psalm in his professions under the experience of Divine deliverances. The penitential Psalms stand for themselves and the Psalms which assert innocence and uprightness stand for themselves, there is no inconsistency if we recognize the difference of experience in the godly man as expressed in these two classes of Psalms. Delitzsch: “In this strophe Psalms 18 has the same tone as Psalms 17. and for this reason it follows it. Compare the testimony of David himself 1Sa_26:23 sq., the testimony of God 1Ki_14:8, the testimony of history 1Ki_15:5; 1Ki_11:4.”—C. A. B.]
Str. IX. Psa_18:25. 2 Samuel 22 has instead of man,hero [A. V. does not distinguish, but has man in both versions—C. A. B.]. The other, differences in this section are still less important and relate only to grammatical forms or differences in orthography. [Barnes: “From the particular statement respecting the Divine dealings with himself the Psalmist now passes to a general statement (suggested by what God had done for him) in regard to the general principles of the Divine administration. That general statement is, that God deals with men according to their character; or that He will adapt His providential dealings to the conduct of men. They will find Him to be such towards them as they have shown themselves to be towards Him.” Delitzsch: “The truth here expressed, is not that the idea which man forms of God is constantly the mirror of his soul, but that the dealing of God with men is the mirror of the relation in which God puts Himself to him.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:27. In 2 Samuel 22 is either: Thine eyes Thou didst let fall upon the proud; or, Thine eyes (look) upon the proud, (whom) Thou dost humiliate [A. V., Thine eyes (are) upon the haughty (that) Thou mayest bring (them) down].
Str. X. Psa_18:28. Thou makest light my lamp [A. V., “Thou wilt light my candle.” The Hebrew imperfects are not here futures but indefinite designations of continued and incomplete action.—C. A. B.]. Lamp not=light=happiness (the majority of interpreters), but burning lamp, the putting out of which shows the desolation of the tabernacle, the abandonment of the house (Harmar, Beob. aus dem Orient, I. 180 sq.), and therefore is frequently used as figurative of destruction and ruin, as well of the individual (Job_18:6; Job_21:17; Jer_25:10; Pro_13:9; Pro_20:20; Pro_24:20), as particularly of his race (2Sa_21:17); as the continual burning and care of the lamp serves as a figure of the preservation of life and the condition of prosperity (Job_29:3; Pro_31:18), and is especially applied to the continuance of the house of David (1Ki_11:36; 1Ki_15:4; 2Ki_8:19; Psa_132:17; De Wette, Hupf., Delitzsch). This passage is abbreviated in 2 Samuel 22, and so used that Jehovah Himself is called the lamp of David. In 2 Samuel 22 “my God” is lacking in the second member of the verse.
[Psa_18:29. For by thee I run upon troops, and by my God I leap over walls (A. V., I have run through a troop. … have I leaped over a wall).—The imperfects are not preterites, but are indefinite, as generally in this Psalm (vid. notes on Psa_18:3). Barnes: “The word troop here refers to bands of soldiers, or hosts of enemies. The word rendered run through [A. V.] means properly to run; and then, as here, to run or rush upon in a hostile sense; to rush with violence upon one. The idea here is, that he had been enabled to rush with violence upon his armed opposers; that is, to overcome them and secure a victory. The allusion is to the wars in which he had been engaged.” The second clause carries on the idea of the first, he attacks the troops of his enemies, he breaks their ranks, he rushes upon their fortified towns, he mounts and leaps over their walls and captures them. Comp. Joe_2:7. This had been his experience of the gracious help of his God who had enabled him to do this.—C. A. B.]
[Str. XI. Psa_18:30. Delitzsch: “הָאֵל [(As for) God, A. V.] is nom. abs. as הַצּוּר, Deu_32:4; this ancient Mosaic expression sounds here again as 2Sa_7:22, in the mouth of David. The article of הָאֵל points to the God historically revealed. His way is faultless and unblamable. His word is צְרוּפָה, not drossy ore, but pure gold, freed from dross, Psa_12:7. He who withdraws himself in Him, the God of promise, is shielded from all dangers. Pro_30:5 is borrowed from this passage.”
Psa_18:31. Hupfeld: “Jehovah alone is true God, that is, Who can and will help. This is parallel with צוּר, rock (comp. Psa_18:2), here used at once, as the name of God, as Deu_32:4; Deu_32:15; Deu_32:18; Deu_32:30 sq., 37; Isa_44:8, etc.; frequently as a clause in contrast with the vain idols, especially Deu_32:31; 1Sa_2:2; but likewise with all the false props and idle hopes on which man gladly builds instead of on God only (Calv.).”—C. A. B.]
[Str. XII. Psa_18:32. The God who girdeth me with strength. (A. V. (It is) God that). The reference is to “our God” of Psa_18:31. Alexander: The imparting of a quality or bestowing of a gift is in various languages described as clothing. Thus the English words endue and invest have almost lost their original meaning. The figure of girding is peculiarly significant, because in the oriental dress the girdle is essential to all free and active motion.—My way perfect.—Hupfeld: “Manifestly is correlative of the same phrase, Psa_18:30 applied to God, as the effect of it and thereby mediately the same as, even, easy, free, that is a successful way.”
Psa_18:33. He maketh my feet like hind’s feet. Barnes: “So Hab_3:19. He will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.’ The hind is the female deer, remarkable for fleetness or swiftness. The meaning here is, that God had made him alert or active, enabling him to pursue a flying enemy, or to escape from a swift-running foe.”19—And setteth me upon my high places. Alexander: “My heights, those which are to be mine by right of conquest and by Divine gift. The heights may be the natural highlands of the country or the artificial heights of its fortified places.”20
Psa_18:34. He teacheth my hands to war.—Barnes: “The skill which David had in the use of the bow, the sword, or the spear, all of which depends on the hands,—he ascribes entirely to God.”—And mine arms bend the bow of brass.—(A. V., incorrectly, “So that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.”) Perowne: “נִחֲתָה, not (as Kimchi) Niph. of חתת ‘is broken’ but Piel of נחת, ‘to press down and so to bend,’ so Hupf., De Wette, Ewald, Delitzsch, Alexander, et al. Perowne: “Here the bending of a bow of brass (or bronze, rather, χαλκός, which seems to have been tempered, and rendered pliable like steel with us), indicates his great strength (comp. Job_20:24.) In Homer, Ulysses leaves behind him at Ithaca a bow which no one but himself could bend.”—C. A. B.]
Str. XIII. Psa_18:35. Condescension,—[A. V., gentleness]. The word עֲנָוָה always means, merely the bowing of one’s self and not the humiliation of another. Therefore the translation of Luther, after the Sept., Vulg., “If Thou humiliatest me, Thou makest me great,” is inadmissible. It is true this word, which expresses the idea of humility (Pro_15:32; Pro_22:4) is used with reference to God only in this passage; since however in Psa_45:4 it denotes the corresponding attribute of the condescension of the king, it is unnecessary to explain, with Hitzig, after the Arabic; Thy care, favor; or with Olsh. to correct עַנְוָתְךָ with עֶזְרָתְךָ that is thy help. The reading 2 Sam. עֲנֹתְךָ is hardly to be explained as if the ו merely quiesces (Kimchi); still less is the meaning to be forced by altering the vowel points עַגֹתְךָ (J. H. Mich., Hengst.) to that of ‘humility’ (Sept., Pesch., Theod., Symm.); but to translate, there, with the Chald., Thy hearing [A. V. does not distinguish but uses the same word, gentleness.—C. A. B.]
[Psa_18:36. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.—Barnes: “The idea here is, ‘Thou hast made room for my feet, so that I have been enabled to walk without hindrance or obstruction.’ So in Psa_31:8, ‘Thou hast set my feet in a large room.’ The idea is, that he was before straitened, compressed, hindered in his goings, but that now all obstacles had been taken out of the way, and he could walk freely.—That my feet did not slip. Margin, ‘mine ankles.’ The Hebrew word means properly a joint; small joint; especially the ankle. The reference here is to the ankle, the joint that is so useful in walking, and that is so liable to be sprained or dislocated. The meaning is that he had been enabled to walk firmly; that he did not limp.”—C. A. B.]
[Str. XIV. Psa_18:37-40. The consequences of Divine assistance were the subjugation and destruction of his enemies. Delitzsch: “Thus fighting in God’s strength, with God’s weapons and under God’s assistance he beat, subjected, annihilated all his enemies in domestic and foreign wars. According to Hebrew syntax, all this is retrospective.
Psa_18:40. And my enemies, Thou gavest to me the back.—(A. V. Thou hast also given me the neck of mine enemies. Hupfeld: “נתן צרֶֹף., is elsewhere intransitive (2Ch_29:6.)= פנה עֹרֶף ,חפךְ עֹרֶף (Jos_7:8; Jos_7:12) to turn the back=terga dare, vertere, flee; is here causative to make the enemies’ backs that is fugitives as Exo_23:27, and in like sense Psa_21:12. שּׁית שְׁכֶם to make backs: necks, backs,=present their necks or backs to the pursuers, who see them only on this side and thus only as necks and backs. Comp. Jer_18:17. “I will see them as backs and not as face, that is behind and not before.” So Gesen., De Wette, Delitzsch, Perowne, Alexander, et al. Barnes, however, prefers the A. V. and understands it “complete subjection,—as when the conqueror places his foot on the necks of his foes.”—C. A. B.
Str. XV. Psa_18:41. 2 Samuel 22 has, they looked [instead of, they cried]. [Delitzsch: “Their prayer to their idols and even to Jehovah forced by necessity, because it was directed to Him for their own interests and too late, was vain.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:42. 2 Samuel 22 has: “dust of the earth” [instead of dust before the wind]; and in the second member again: “I did stamp them.” [Barnes: “As the fine dust is driven by the wind, so they fled before me. There could be no more striking illustration of a discomfited army flying before a conqueror.”—As the dust in the streets.—Barnes: “The idea is, that he poured them out, for so the Hebrew word means, as the dirt or mire in the streets. As that is trodden on, or trampled down so they, instead of being marshalled for battle, were wholly disorganized, scattered and left to be trodden down as the most worthless object is.”—C. A. B.]
Str. XVI. Psa_18:43. Strifes of the people—This is referred by Hengst., Hitzig, Delitzsch, to the internal conflicts with reference to Saul and Absalom, and they then explain in the same way the reading 2 Samuel 22עַמִּי= my people; whilst Olsh. supplies the thought, “with other nations;” and the Rabbins regard this form as plural. Many likewise regard the עם of the Psalm as plural, which however with this interpretation is best regarded as collective (Hupf.) But the goyim in the following member favors the first mentioned interpretation, as likewise in the third member the עם acquires by the following relative clause, the closer meaning of people previously unknown to the Psalmist, as foreign and distant. In the first member the construction is like Isa_26:2; Isa_49:8; 2 Samuel 22 has [in the second clause]: thou hast kept me as, or thou preservedst me to be, the head of the heathen.—[Head of the heathen. Hupfeld. “It is questionable whether this is historical of the subjection of some foreign nations, or whether it is not rather in ideal universality=sovereignty of the world, as Psalms 22.” It is probable that it has rather a historical reference. This is more in keeping with the entire Psalm as retrospective.—C. A. B.]
Psa_18:44. At the hearing of the ear.—This is regarded by most interpreters as in contrast to their own beholding (Job_42:5,)=they heard, without seeing me, or as soon as the sound of command from the distance had come to them, or better, as soon as they heard the report of the name and victories of David, (Deu_2:25; Jos_6:27; Jos_9:9 : Isa_23:5). On account of the mention of obedience, which immediately follows, others (Stier, Hupf., Camph), regard the expression as like the German, “at the word of,” with reference to the command they had received and its prompt execution. Sachs supposes a repetition of the previous word and explains: “They only know me by the knowledge of the ear.”—Sons of foreign parts dissembled to me.—[A. V. Strangers shall submit themselves. Alexander: “Sons of outlands will lie.”—C. A. B]. The humble expressions of the conquered, which have been forced, are often mentioned as lies, hypocrisy and flattery.
Psa_18:45. The sons of foreign parts faded away.—The victorious power of David has struck them as a fiery wind (Isa_40:7), therefore they wither away.—Trembled [A. V., be afraid]. It follows from Mic_7:17, comp. Hos_11:11, that חרג must have the meaning of tremble. It is likewise found in cognate dialects. The word used in 2 Samuel 22 instead of this חגר which many MSS. and ancient translations likewise have in the Psalm, means, gird themselves, which, however, is an unusual expression of equipping oneself for flight. The meaning, limp (Sept. Vulg., Pesch., Kimchi), however, occurs in cognate dialects and is accepted by Hitzig.
Str. XVII. Psa_18:46. Hitzig, likewise, with many recent interpreters, regards Psa_18:46 sq. as optative, as if the cry of homage and rejoicing addressed to the king, which, however is יְחִי (1Sa_10:24; 1Ki_1:39), is here applied to God. But it is better with Sept., Jerome, Cleric., to regard these words as declarative clauses in the sense of doxologies (Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch).
Psa_18:47. The rare word used here for subdue, [יַדְבֵּר] is in 2 Samuel 22 supplied by the usual word [ירד].
Psa_18:48. Many interpreters understand the Man of violence to be particularly Saul (even Hitzig and Hengst.). Most interpreters regard the expression as collective (Pro_3:31).
Str. XVIII. Psa_18:49-50. [Delitzsch: “The praise of such a God, who does to David as He has promised, is not to remain limited to the narrow space of Israel. If the Anointed of God makes war upon the heathen with the sword, yet it is that finally the blessing of the knowledge of Jehovah, and the salvation of Jehovah which he serves as mediator, may break its way to them in this manner. With entire propriety Paul, Rom_15:9, adduces Psa_18:49 of this Psalm, together with Deu_32:43, and Psa_117:1, as proof that salvation belongs likewise to the Gentiles according to the Divine mercy. What is stated in verse 50 as the reason and the subject of the praise which extends beyond Israel; is if David is its author, as Hitzig recognizes, a very consistent echo of the Messianic promise, 2Sa_7:12-16. And Theodoret without impropriety appeals to the closing words עַד־עוֹלָם against the Jews. In whom else, than in Christ, the Son of David, has David’s fallen throne enduring existence, and all that has been promised to David’s seed, everlasting truth and reality? The praise of Jehovah, the God of David His anointed, is, according to its final meaning, praise of the Father of Jesus Christ”—C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. In a thankful and pious heart the demonstrations of the love of God beget a sincere and hearty return of love, in the expression of which the feelings of affection meet it and pervade it with the recognition of great obligations and the vow of entire consecration, (Deu_6:5). Those, however, who love the Lord, are as the sun, which ascends in its power (Jdg_5:31). It is not in vain that they take refuge with God, who is the strength of those who trust in Him, and on the one side delivers and protects them, on the other fills them with strength to continue in the hope of faith.
2. The thankful retrospect of previous deliverances strengthens the faith in future help from God; and he who bears in mind, that the God invoked by him is the Lord of Glory, whom the congregation praises with adoration, joins in, on his part with one song of praise after another and finds his joy in the declaration of the benefits of God, his pleasure in the glory of the Lord. Ecclesia semper vincit semperque pugnat et superatis præteritis malis paratus ad futura mala superanda. (Luther).
3. God’s being enthroned on high and dwelling in the heavens, does not separate Him from His servants on earth; it merely exhibits Him in His exaltation above all the powers of the world and the Abyss; it no more prevents Him from hearing the sighs and supplications of the oppressed, than from making known His presence to help in gracious condescension to the needs of men.
4. The revelations of God in the world are not always accompanied by striking phenomena in nature, still less are thunder and lightning His constant attendants or the sure sign of His coming. But partly, the appearance of God in history has really at times been announced and accompanied by such phenomena (Exodus 19; Psalms 68; Psalms 77; Habakkuk 3; Hag_2:7; 2Th_1:8); partly, God as Lord of nature uses them as the instruments employed by Him, and means to deliver His servants and punish their enemies. It is, however, of great importance, to recognize the work of the Lord therein, and amidst the shaking of the world, through the powers of nature’s life, to discern the grasp of the hand of God.
5. To behold the form of the Divine Being is still future and yet to be expected (Psa_17:15). Hence the Theophanies of the Old Testament are all partly typical, partly symbolical; they are mysteries as well as revelations. It is particularly the clouds, which veil the light, which is not to be endured by mortal eyes (Exo_23:20, and elsewhere) and is inaccessible to any creature (1Ti_6:16), in which God dwells and which forms as the reflection of His light-nature, the resplendence of His glory, δοξα, כבוד, and so the approach of man to God is partly made possible, partly declared. This figurative language is taken partly from the sphere of the phenomena of nature which are visible in the heavens, in accordance with which light is called His garment (Psa_104:2), the clouds His tent (Job_36:29; Psalms 97), the thunder His voice (Psa_18:13; Job_37:2), lightning, however, and the storm as instruments of His righteous punishments (Jdg_5:4; Isa_30:27 sq., Isa_50:3; Isa_68:8; Psalms 97), often in connection with earthquakes (Psa_77:18; Psa_114:4; Joel 2:10; 4:16; Nah_1:5; Is. 24:28). At the basis of the symbolism of nature lies the idea, that certain peculiarities in the nature and action of God correspond with it. Thence God Himself is at times described as present and active in these phenomena of nature, not merely accompanied by them, and in bold but contemplative expressions the stirring up and expression of His wrath is represented as the kindling of His light-nature in all the turns of fiery and flaming figures, until that smoke issues from His nostrils snorting with wrath (Deu_19:9; Psa_74:1; Psa_80:4), and devouring fire from His mouth, (comp. the description of the crocodile, Job_41:10 sq.), from the coals which glow within Him. These natural phenomena, not so much in themselves, as under certain circumstances and more particular forms, form partly the symbol, partly the means of a Theophany. In the present description the personal interference of God to deliver His servant and judge His enemies, although accompanied by natural phenomena is yet particularly characterized by the mention of the Cherub. For however questionable the etymology and precise meaning of this word may be, yet this much is certain, that the forms thereby designated as well in their artistic representation upon the ark of the covenant, (Exodus 25) and in the temple in manifold ways; as in the prophet’s vision (Ezekiel 1; Ezekiel 10; Revelation 4), where they are represented as living beings, not less than in the narrative, (Genesis 3) and in the standing representation of Jehovah, that He is enthroned above the Cherubim (Num_7:89; 1Sa_4:4; 1Sa_6:2; 2Ki_19:15; Isa_37:16), constantly appeal in the closest relation to the revelation of the royal majesty of Jehovah in the world. On this very account they are in a direct connection with the clouds which indicate the presence of God in the world and are the means of His appearance, as then the Shekinah likewise has its place between the wings of the Cherubim (Lev_16:2; Num_7:89). From this follows, that these are neither a further symbol of these clouds (Riehm, de natura et notione symbolica Cheruborum 1864), nor in our passage merely a finishing of the figure, that Jehovah rides upon the wind-clouds (Calv. Hupf.: Psa_104:3; Isa_19:1; Isa_66:15; Nah_1:3). Still less, are they to be compared with the mythological thunder horses of the king of heaven. (J. D. Mich.).
6. He who is deprived of all means of resistance to his enemies, seems entirely given over into their power, and yet has God still as his friend, that man is not entirely lost; his day of misfortune becomes a day noteworthy to him for his deliverance by the hand of the Lord, who delivers His elect from all the straits of trouble. Election, however, is not arbitrary, the love of God is not a blind and unrighteous predilection, His good pleasure is not an unreasonable favor. A reciprocity of action, an interchange of a moral character takes place, which has as its contents the thought of recompense, for its foundation the ethical nature of God, by virtue of which God not only appears to every man, as he himself is minded and situated, but likewise on His part acts in a way corresponding to this (1Sa_26:23; Isa_29:14; Isa_31:3; Job_5:13; Pro_3:34). But he who pleads the purity of his hands and the honesty of his heart and his walking in the ways of God, must see to it, that self-praise is not heard in it, such as springs from self-righteousness, but that it is only a testimony of the fruitfulness, with which a man has served God and kept himself from trespasses, and which presupposes entire consecration to God, and declares itself as judging oneself with and according to God’s word and law. Such a self-witness is then confirmed by the judgment of God (1Ki_14:8). In this connection there can be no reference to pride and self-exaltation, inasmuch as the thought of recompense includes likewise the certainty of the humiliation of the proud (Isa_2:11), whom Jehovah hates (Pro_6:17).
7. Jehovah is the only true and real God. He alone can and will help. It is well for him, who relies upon His providence, trusts in His promises, resorts to His protection. He will experience the Divine assistance, so that he, armed with power from on high, not only escapes the attacks of his enemies, but is in a position, to completely overcome his adversaries, whose cry to God is not heard, because it is not a cry of prayer from a heart turned to God, but is only a cry of anxiety, extorted by necessity.
8. The difference between the Old and New Testament is very clearly to be recognized in the treatment of enemies and the description of them. It is true on the one side that even in the Old Testament private revenge is repudiated and God is declared to be the avenger of blood already. Gen_9:5. On the other side likewise in the New Testament the magistrates are represented as the servants of God who bear the sword (Rom_13:4). And the reference here in this Psalm is to the duty of the king. But a Christian king who has won victories over the enemies of Divine ordinances and institutions through Divine assistance and had as a duty to make an end not only of the actions but likewise of the life of the adversaries of the kingdom of God, could not immediately use either for his thanksgiving or his vows at the celebration of victory, some of the expressions used here. The authority for transferring and transforming them from the Old Testament into the New Testament stand-point lies in the fact that David mentions the exhibitions of vengeance as given to him by God, whereby they receive their justification and at the same time their limitation.
9. Thanksgiving for all the help, protection, and benefits received from God, are not to be limited to the sphere of those who have directly participated therein, but are to be heard as far as possible. And it is not only to resound in all the world, but is intentionally to be carried into all the world. He who understands his position as a servant of God, whether it be high or low, has likewise to lay hold of the task of declaring God as his own, and to unite with it the work of spreading abroad the name of God among those who know Him not. The heathen are not to be combated with the sword, but with the word of God; the blessing of the knowledge of God, however, is the best means of healing the wounds of war.
10. The everlasting continuance of that which David has thankfully laid hold of for himself and his seed in faith in the certainty of the Divine promise, and which he partly lauds, partly praises in Messianic hope, is, after the earthly throne of David’s line had long fallen, secured and pledged by Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul, in Rom_15:9, therefore cites likewise Psa_18:49 of this Psalm, together with Deu_32:43, and Psa_117:1, as an evidence that the heathen likewise are to attain the salvation in Christ according to the mercy of God, and in order to this end are to hear the preaching of the Gospel, and to be received and treated as members of the Christian Church. “When David gives thanks for his victories, he at the same time prepares a prophecy of Christ’s person and victories.” (Luther).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
With God! That is the true watchword in war and in peace.—A pious king gains one victory after another in domestic strifes and foreign wars.—The Almighty, at times, makes use of the powers of nature in a striking manner in order to accomplish His purposes. It is necessary to observe the government of God in natural phenomena not less than in historical events. God reveals Himself in natural phenomena likewise; but at the same time He veils Himself in them. There is no need so great, but that God can deliver us from it.—He who has perceived the hand of the Lord on himself, and gives the glory to God for the salvation he has received, is capable of being a servant of God, and is able to become in the hand of the Lord an instrument of the Divine judgment, and a tool of Divine grace.—God blesses His servants likewise with temporal goods, chiefly, however, with eternal salvation, but both by grace.—God in His action, governs Himself according to the conduct of men; and yet the cause and foundation of our salvation is not human righteousness, but Divine grace.—God is a just Rewerder; but there is a great difference between the reward of grace and punishment.—The name of God is likewise to be proclaimed among the heathen, for this David and his seed on whom the Divine grace rests forever, have an incomparable importance.—Even the most pious man has not yet complete moral perfection; but sincere piety brings abiding blessing; for it leads to both these things, to observation of the law and seeking of grace.—He who earnestly strives to avoid guilt, directs his attention to the Divine law.
Bugenhagen: If it please God that we should suffer for His glory and the salvation of ourselves and others how can we refuse.
Starke: If David, when at the height of his glory, called himself the servant of the Lord in order to show his deep humility, then be ye likewise thus minded; the higher thou art humble yourself the more.—This great king ascribes his deliverance from his enemies not to his own power, but to the Lord, in whose honor he sings a song of praise; would that he had many followers now among the great of this world!—Hearty love to God arises from believing knowledge and reflection upon His benefits.—If God is our rock, who will overthrow us? If He is our stronghold, then we are safe; if He is our deliverer, He will not let us alone in our necessity; if He is our retreat, we are invincible; if He is our shield, no arrow will hit us; yes, if He is the horn of our salvation, no one will deprive us of our salvation.—Believers not only cry to God when they are in distress (even the ungodly do this) but they pray always; yet their longing for grace is redoubled, the more their need increases. The signs of God’s wrath in nature are indeed terrible, but they are not to be reckoned in comparison with the everlasting and horrible punishments of hell.—No abyss has ever been so deep, no enemy so cruel and powerful, and no disaster so terrible, as to put to shame the confidence of believers in their God.—According as you behave towards God, so you have Him; if you seek Him as a gracious God, you will find Him such; if you regard God as your Father, He will regard you as His child; if however you mock His children, beware, He will mock you again (Pro_1:24 sq.)—God is not only almighty and gracious for Himself, but all that He is, He is to those who hope in Him.—Our God in the highest is He, whose power the idols of the heathen have experienced.—Victory over our enemies must be sought from God, and not ascribed to our own strength and wisdom; yet we are not to reject the use of proper means (1Ki_20:13 sq.)—A believer must use aright the power of God, and not leave off the struggle until the enemies are overcome.—The ungodly likewise pray, but with impenitent hearts, and not from true faith, therefore God likewise does not hear such prayers (Joh_9:31).—That is a blessed revenge of the Messiah, when God brings His enemies to repent of their wickedness and accept Him as their King. Since you cannot recompense God for all His benefits, yet love Him for them, and praise His name.
Osiander: When our affairs are bad we should trust in God; when they are good, we should not be proud.—Arndt: Three things are necessary to victory; the shield of God, God’s right, and our humility, which does not rely upon human power, but upon Divine power.—Baumgarten: When God occasions great movements in the realm of nature, and in human society, He designs all to be for the deliverance of His children.—Calvin: There is promised us an invincible protection against all the onsets of the devil, all the craft of sin, all the temptations of the flesh.—Renschel: By humility we rise, by pride we come down.—Herberger: The world goes in many crooked ways, but he who walks with God advances from one virtue to another.—Frisch: The most of your love you give to the world which yet does not respond to your love. With God however it is well spent. He has first loved you, daily bestows much good upon you, and will continue His love to you forever.—Bogatzki: We must likewise learn to appropriate our God and Saviour according to all His names and offices, according to all that He is and has, and to attach to every name of God and Christ the little word “my,” and say: He is that likewise to me.—O. v. Gerlach: To contemplate God’s glorious attributes, praise them and magnify them, is for believers the very proper means of deliverance.—Guenther: All that is great and glorious, that is worthy of praise, has not been done by heroes, but God has done it through them. But as soon as the glory is to be given to God, all the thoughts of the poet must assume the form of a song of praise.—Taube: The enemies of God have nothing so much to fear as the faith of the friends of God
[Matth. Henry: God will not only deliver His people out of their troubles in due time, but He will sustain them, and bear them up under their troubles in the meantime.—When we set ourselves to praise God for one mercy, we must be led by that to observe the many more with which we have been compassed about and followed all our days.—Barnes: No man dishonors himself by acknowledging that he owes his success in the world to the Divine interposition.—Spurgeon: The clefts of the Rock of Ages are safe abodes.—To be saved singing is to be saved indeed. Many are saved mourning and doubting; but David had such faith that he could fight singing, and win the battle with a song still upon his lips. How happy a thing to receive fresh mercy with a heart sensible of mercy enjoyed, and to anticipate new trials with a confidence based upon past experiences of Divine love!—Prayer is that postern gate which is left open even when the city is straitly besieged by the enemy; it is that way upward from the pit of despair to which the spiritual miner flies at once when the floods from beneath break forth upon him.—O honored prayer, to be able thus, through Jesus’ blood, to penetrate the very ears and heart of Deity.—Prayer has shaken houses, opened prison doors, and made stout hearts to quail. Prayer rings the alarm bell, and the Master of the house arises to the rescue, shaking all things beneath His tread.—Blessed is the darkness which encurtains my God; if I may not see Him, it is sweet to know that He is working in secret for my eternal good.—Sweet is pleasure after pain. Enlargement is the more delightful after a season of pinching poverty and sorrowful confinement. Besieged souls delight in the broad fields of the promise when God drives off the enemy and sets open the gates of the environed city.—Rest assured, if we go deep enough, sovereign grace is the truth which lies at the bottom of every well of mercy. Deep sea fisheries in the ocean of Divine bounty always bring the pearls of electing, discriminating love to light.—Backsliders begin with dusty Bibles, and go on to filthy garments.—God gives us holiness, then rewards us for it. The prize is awarded to the flower at the show, but the gardener reared it; the child wins the prize from the school-master, but the real honor of his schooling lies with the master, although instead of receiving he gives the reward.—Second thoughts upon God’s mercy should be, and often are, the best. Like wine on the lees our gratitude grows stronger and sweeter as we meditate upon divine goodness.—It is God’s making Himself little which is the cause of our being made great. We are so little that if God should manifest His greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under His feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies, and bow to see what angels do, looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great.—The grace of God sometimes runs like fire among the stubble, and a nation is born in a day. “Love at first sight” is no uncommon thing when Jesus is the wooer. He can write Cæsar’s message without boasting, Veni, vidi, vici; His Gospel is in some cases no sooner heard than believed. What inducements to spread abroad the doctrine of the cross!—Those who are strangers to Jesus are strangers to all lasting happiness; those must soon fade who refuse to be watered from the river of life.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[14][Delitzsch: “סֶלַע means properly the cleft of the rock, then the rock as riven into clefts; and צוּר the hard and great rock (Aram. טוּר, mountain).”—“Accordingly the idea of a safe (and convenient) hiding-place, predominates in סַלְעִי, that of a firm foundation and inaccessibleness in צוּרִי. The one figure reminds us of the Edomite סֶלַע, Isa_16:1; Isa_42:11, the Πέτρα [Petra], described by Strabo, xvi. 4, 21, enclosed by steep rocks; the other of the Phœnician rock island צוּר [Tyre], the refuge place of the sea.”—C. A. B.]
[15][But there is no reference in the context to the temple or the altar or the throne of God, as places of refuge; the reference is entirely to the mountains and caves and rocks and warlike means of defence. The connection of horn with shield might favor the defensive horns of the buffalo, but the following word and the general tenor of the passage favor the reference to the summits of hills or mountains. On these rocky, horn-like summits David had often found refuge when pursued by Saul. It is a beautiful figure of the protecting care of Jehovah, which lifts David to a lofty and inaccessible peak, where his salvation is sure.—C. A. B.]
[16][De Wette: “Waves, great waters are, especially to the Hebrews, a frequent figure of misfortunes, danger (Psa_18:16; Psa_32:6; Psa_42:7; Psa_69:1); so likewise to the Greeks.”—C. A. B.]
[17][For the explanation of the mingling of bands and brooks and snares we may think of those brooks of Palestine which are ordinarily dry, or containing but little water, but when the storms burst upon the land, they rush in torrents, overflow their banks and entrap the unwary in their waters; they lay hold of him, bind him fast, surround him, and lead him to his death. Thus the Kishon overwhelmed the host of Sisera. And the Psalmist was in corresponding danger from the storm of evil with its rushing flood and ensnaring waters, vid. especially Psa_42:7; Psa_69:1-2.—C. A. B.]
[18][For a full discussion of the Cherubim vid. Bähr., Symbolik d. Mos. Cult. I. 311 sq., 340 sq.; Herder, Geist d. Heb. Poes. I. 1, 6; Hengst., Büch. Mosis und Ægypt. 157 sq.; Riehm, Comm. de natura et notione symbolica Cheruborum; Herzog, Real-Encyclopädie Cherubim; Fairbairn, Typology I. 185 sq.; Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, art. Cherubim, etc.—C. A. B.]
[19][De Wette: “Swiftness in running was a celebrated virtue of the ancient heroes, because fleeing was no disgrace and often a necessary stratagem. Achilles is called πόδας ὠκύς II. a. 58, with renown; 1Ch_12:8, it is said of two heroes: as roes upon the mountain in swiftness; comp. 2Sa_1:23. Hamas ed. Freytag, p. 84 sq.”—C. A. B.]
[20][This is the view of Calvin and Hengst., but it is strongly opposed by De Wette and Hupf., who contend that David alludes to swiftness of flight and refuge upon his high places. The Psalmist is, however, speaking of the help of the Lord, in giving him strength and power, and it is better to interpret this verse consistently with the preceding and following, of attacking and conquest, and not of fleeing from his enemies.—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 The various terms used describe God as an object…
The various terms used describe God as an object of the most implicit and reliable trust.
rock--literally, "a cleft rock," for concealment.
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strength--a firm, immovable rock.
horn of my salvation--The horn, as the means of attack or defense of some of the strongest animals, is a frequent emblem of power or strength efficiently exercised (compare Deu 33:17; Luk 1:69).
tower--literally, "high place," beyond reach of danger.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1. I will love thee—I will tenderly love thee.…
1. I will love thee—I will tenderly love thee. The word denotes strong and tender love, as that of a parent.
My strength—We delight to call God our strength when we love him and feel our weakness.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. I will love thee] Fervently do I love…
1. I will love thee] Fervently do I love thee, a word occurring nowhere else in this form, and denoting tender and intimate affection. This verse is omitted in 2 Sam.
1–3. Introductory prelude, in which one title is heaped upon another to express all that experience had proved Jehovah to be to David.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 (1) I will love thee.—Better, Dearly do I love…
(1) I will love thee.—Better, Dearly do I love thee. The line is wanting in Samuel.
My strength.—This strikes the keynote of the whole poem. The strong, mighty God is the object in David’s thought throughout. It is a warrior’s song, and his conception of Jehovah is a warrior’s conception.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 THIS psalm has many characteristics which distinguish it, not…
THIS psalm has many characteristics which distinguish it, not only from all that have preceded it in the collection, but from all those which are assigned to David by their titles. In the first pace, it is the longest of such psalms, extending, as it does, to fifty distinguish it, not only from all that have verses, or a hundred and fourteen lines, but from all Hebrew poetry. Next, it is continuous, not broken into strophes (Hengstenberg). Thirdly, it appears, not only in the Psalter, but also in one of the historical books the Second Book of Samuel, in what seems to be a second edition. Further, it is in itself a very remarkable composition, being distinguished alike by "vigour and grace; full of archaic grandeur, and yet free from abrupt transitions and thoughts labouring for utterance, such as make some of the earlier psalms difficult to understand" ("Speaker"s Commentary"). Hitzig calls it "an unrivalled production of art and reflection.
The authorship of David is generally allowed, and indeed has been questioned only by three recent critics Olshausen, Von Lengerke, and Professor Cheyne. The period at which it was written is declared in the title to be "when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul a date which is quite in accord with the contents of the poem. For while it celebrates his deliverance from perils of various kinds from a "strong enemy" (ver. 17), from a "flood of ungodly men" (ver. 4), from the near approach of death (vers. 4, 5), and from a host of foreign enemies (vers. 29-43) there is no allusion in it to domestic foes, and no indication of remorse for any special sin. The exact time cannot be fixed; but it was probably soon after the series of victories described in 2Sa 10, and before the events recorded in 2Sa 11 and 2Sa 12.
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It is thought, with some reason, that the psalm was composed for a great occasion of public thanksgiving. Most likely it was processional, and therefore not broken into strophes, but continuous. Still, we may trace in it,
(1) an introduction, or prologue (vers. 1-3), which is an ascription of praise;
(2) a central mass, chiefly in a narrative form (vers. 4-45), recounting God"s goodness; and
(3) a conclusion, or epilogue (vers. 46-50), which is mainly thanksgiving. The central mass is further broken up by the interposition into the narrative of a passage (vers. 19-27) declaring the grounds of the favour and protection which God had extended to the psalmist, and, so far, "setting forth the subjective principles on which the Lord imparts his aid" to his servants (Hengstenberg).
I will love thee, O Lord, my Strength. This opening is very remarkable. The verb translated "I will love" expresses the very tenderest affection, and is elsewhere never used to denote the love of man towards God, but only that of God towards man. The entire verse, moreover, is withdrawn from the "second edition" of the psalm (2Sa 22) which was perhaps prepared for liturgical use as too sacred and too private to suit a public occasion.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-50. The conqueror"s song of praise and hope.
It is not our purpose, nor is it our province, in this section of the "Pulpit Commentary," to write homilies on specific texts; but rather to deal with this psalm (as we have done with others) as a whole for it is a unity and to show how grand a basis it presents for the pulpit exposition of the provisions of "the everlasting covenant" to which allusion is made in the last verse of the psalm. The student and expositor might with advantage refer at the outset to Isa_4:3, "I will give you the sure mercies of David," with the view of showing that the promises made to David do immeasurably transcend any merely personal reference; that they include all the blessings which come to us through him who, though David"s Son, was yet David"s Lord. There is no reason to doubt the Davidic authorship of the psalm. There are, moreover, more data than most psalms present, to aid us in deciding the approximate date of its composition. We have it recorded in 2Sa_22:4-51. This gives us one historic clue to its date. Besides, the tone of triumph which is heard throughout it was scarcely heard in the later days of David, after his great crime had darkened the remainder of his earthly life. Vers. 19-24 could scarcely have been written after that catastrophe, even though it be urged that David writes rather of his administration as king than of his behaviour as a man. Regarding, then, the inscription at the head as showing us the occasion on which the psalm was first penned, and taking into account the prophetic far-reaching-ness of its closing words, we are called on to view it in a double aspect one historical, the other typical.
I LET US SKETCH ITS CONTENTS AS HISTORICALLY REFERRING TO KING DAVID AND HIS CONQUESTS.
1. Here is a distinct reference to David as king. And while we should miss very much of the significance of the psalm, were we to omit the larger view to which we shall presently refer, yet, on the other hand, if we omit the strictly historical application, our use of the psalm will be strangely incomplete. As, without the historic setting, there would be no basis on which to set anything further, so, without the larger view, there would be no adequate superstructure set up upon that basis. Combine both, and the glory of the psalm stands forth as combining inspiration and revelation in the contents of this triumphant song (see ver. 50, where the remarkable, phrase occurs, "his king;" i.e. God"s king). David was God"s appointed king for Israel, and as such he tunes his harp for Jehovah"s praise.
2. With David as king, God had made a covenant. This is implied in ver. 50, where the mercies already granted are referred to as pledged "for evermore.
3. David had been plunged into fierce conflict. (See vers. 4, 5) The study of David"s life will furnish us with a host of facts in this direction.
4. Conflict had driven him to earnest prayer. (Ver. 6) Again and again had he passed through this experience. (see Psa_34:6 Psa_138:3) The believer"s most piercing cries are sent upward to God, when he is being pierced by the sharpest arrows of affliction. How is it that we so often need the pressure of sorrow to quicken us from languor in prayer. Sad, that prayer should be forced out rather than drawn out]
5. Prayer had been followed by timely deliverance. This is set forth in poetry which is truly sublime (see vers. 7-16). "The Divine deliverance was seen:
a. In girding the assailed one with strength (ver. 39).
b. In rescuing him from his pursuers (ver. 16).
c. In causing the foe to be prostrate under the conqueror"s feet (ver. 40).
d. In bringing forth the conqueror to liberty and gladness (ver. 19).
6. Such deliverance led him to triumph in God. It may be asked, however, "Is not such joy in God rather of an inferior order, when it arises because God has done for us just what we wished?" Perhaps so. But that is not a correct setting of the case before us. It is this: God had promised deliverance. David pleaded with God on the ground of the promise; and he found the great Promiser true. Hence the jubilation. When prayers that are presented on the basis of God"s promise are abundantly answered, gratitude may well burst forth in holy song (see vers. 1, 2). What joy to a believer to read in the trials and reliefs of life a perpetual revelation of the loving-kindness of God!
7. The mercies of the past assure him of help in the future. (Ver. 50) "For evermore." Even so. So often has prayer been turned to praise, so often have we cast our burden at God"s feet, and borne a song away, that we cannot doubt him now. Rather will we sing, "Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice." God has helped us, and will "for evermore.
II LET US NOTE ITS CONTENTS TYPICALLY, AS FULFILLED AND FULFILLING IN ONE WHO IS OF DAVID"S SEED, YET IS DAVID"S LORD. Although it is easy to explain the greater part of the phrases of this psalm by incidents in David"s personal career, there are some which seem to tower above his or any man"s experience, and which can be adequately interpreted only as the psalm is regarded as having not only historical meaning, but also typical and predictive significance. How this manifests itself will appear, we trust, from the present outlines.
1. The kingship of David was not only personal, but also typical and prophetic. That such was the case may be gathered from the last verse of this psalm, and also from a study of the following passages: 2Sa_7:12-16 2Sa_23:2-5 Psa_16:8-10 Psa_89:20-37 Psa_132:11-18 Ps 110 Mat_22:41-45 Act_2:25-36 Act_13:32-37. That gracious redemptive work, which began with the calling out of Abraham, (Isa_51:2, Hebrew) was being carried forward through David with a view to its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is seated on David"s throne. And the glory of King David is infinitely surpassed in David"s Lord; while the promises made to David and his seed are made over to all who are in blessed covenant relation to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. (Isa_4:3)
2. The Lord Jesus and his saints are gone forth to war. (Ver. 34) In a high and holy sense, as the kingship of David was typical, so also were his wars. One of the early visions of the seer of Patmos indicated this. He sees One who speaks of himself as the Root and Offspring of David (Rev_22:16) going forth conquering and to conquer; (Rev_6:2) and, indeed, the entire Book of the Apocalypse might be called the "Book of the Wars of the Lord.
3. The issue of the great conflict is already foreseen. The "for evermore" with which the psalm closes spans the whole of the present dispensation, and reaches forward to the time when Jesus shall have "all enemies beneath his feet." This is beyond doubt. The everlasting covenant is "ordered in all things and sure.
4. Ere this final victory, there will intervene many a struggle and many a rescue. While David"s Lord is on high, controlling the conflict, and administering all, the saints are in the midst of the struggle. As individuals they are called to "wrestle against the world-rulers of darkness." Ministers of the gospel are to "endure hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." And the Church, as a whole, will have to undergo many a severe struggle. At times it may seem as if the cause were all but lost. But the great Commander will ensure his army all timely rescue as well as final triumph.
5. All the enemies of Christ will be put to shame. (Isa_60:12 Rom_16:20 Psa_18:40-42; also vers. 13, 14, 45)
6. The great King will receive the homage of the peoples, and be exalted above all. (Vers. 43, 44) The expression in ver. 43, "the Head of the nations," can be fully accomplished only in Christ as our victorious Lord. "All nations shall serve him.
7. All who are now fighting on the.Kings side will share his victory. That which is the result for David is ensured also to "his seed" (ver. 50). As our Lord is not alone in the war, so he will not be alone when the war is over. His triumph will be that also of those who are his.
8. The result of all will be a new disclosure of God. (Vers. 1, 2, 30, 31, 46, 47) Just as David"s career was ever unfolding to him the faithfulness and love of God, so will the result of the Church"s conflict reveal to believers how great, how vast, was the scheme of mercy for men"s deliverance, and for the discomfiture of the powers of ill. The glory of God will stand out revealed in the day of final triumph, putting doubts and fears to fight, as his love stands forth vindicated in the glorious result of all. And the oft-repeated Scripture phrase, "They shall know that I am the Lord," will be fulfilled with a glory and grandeur beyond our utmost stretch of thought.
9. All this is now God"s noblest prophecy, and will be hereafter the theme of the saints noblest song. Psalm 18, may well be regarded as finding its exposition, its supplement, in Rev. 5. In the psalm we have God"s providences forecast; in the Apocalypse we have God"s providences reviewed. In the former David"s conquests are recited; in the latter the conquests of the Root of David. In the former we have the song of the victorious David; in the latter the new song of the victorious Seed of David. And by as much as David"s Lord is greater than David, by so much will the new song of the redeemed transcend the noblest flights of Hebrew praise. C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-50. A retrospect of life.
The sailor tells of the perils of the sea; the traveller recounts the varied incidents of his career; and the soldier who has passed through battles and sieges can speak of hairbreadth escapes and moving accidents by flood and field. So it is with human life. We have the power of looking back; we can in imagination revive the past, and as scene after scene rises before us, our heart is thrilled with various emotions. And what we have experienced and recalled, we can set forth to others. The opening of this psalm is very touching and beautiful. It is as if the fire which had been burning within could no longer be restrained. The psalmist"s pent-up feelings must find an outlet. Before and beyond all, he must let his full heart speak. "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." This may be regarded as the key-note, and it is touching how the psalmist dwells upon it, with variations, as if he could not let it go (ver. 2). Love to God was not an impulse, or the result of purposes, but the very habit and delight of his soul. Name after name, and epithet after epithet, is pronounced, each having its own peculiar associations, and each; not only expressing, but exciting his love the more. In this retrospect of life we have
I THE PERILS ESCAPED. Various images are employed. We see how enemies increased and dangers thickened. In the midst of one terrible scene of tumult and storm, where all perils are gathered into one, the psalmist seems about to be engulfed. But in his helplessness, the hand of God from out of the cloud lays hold of him, and draws him forth from the great waters. His cry for help was not in vain. So let us remember with gratitude God"s goodness. There are some that dishonour the great memories of life, because they forget God. Let us acknowledge the hand of God, not only in the crises of our life, but also in the countless instances in which God has shielded us from dangers that we knew not, and saved us from evils and mischances of our daily life which else might have been our ruin.
II THE PRINCIPLES EVOLVED. Trials are a test. There are certain principles which we should do well to hold fast, whatever comes.
1. Gods Fatherly care. Relation stands. God does not change his love, though he may change his ways. Through all afflictions he cleaves to his people, and his people should cleave to him.
2. The efficacy of prayer. There are infinite resources with God, but they are only available to us by prayer. We may not be able to see how help can come, or relief may reach us in ways different from what we expected; but let us have faith in God"s Word. "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee." To this David and all the saints bear witness.
3. That all things are working to a perfect end. God is just, and will do justly. God is good, and he cannot will us aught but good. Let us trust him utterly. "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord". (Lam_3:26 Rom_8:28)
III THE BLESSINGS ENJOYED. Light shines in the darkness. Strength is evolved out of weakness. Progress is made in spite of opposition. Peace is enjoyed in the midst of trouble. Hope is cherished in the face of difficulties and sorrows. Victory is assured over every foe. And why? Because God is with his people (vers. 31-45).
IV THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS DEMANDED. (Vers. 46, 50) The psalm concludes with a joyous burst of praise, in which, with brief touches, scenes previously described are recalled, and the rich fulness of the Divine goodness is set forth. There is personal thanksgiving for God"s love and mighty works. But there is more. There is the acknowledgment of God as the God of all flesh not only of David and of Israel, but of all nations. And there is the grand hope expressed that, as God had brought the nations around within the dominion of Israel, so he would draw all the nations of the earth within the benign and blessed rule of Messiah. (Rom_15:9) "In Christ, the Son of David, David"s fallen throne has lasting continuance; and in him everything that was promised to David"s seed has eternal truth and reality. According to its final prospect, the praise of Jahve, the God of David, his Anointed, is praise of the Father of Jesus Christ" (Delitzsch). W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-50. The retrospect of a life: a sermon for the close of the year.
"In this magnificent hymn the royal poet sketches in a few grand outlines the history of his life. By God"s help he had subdued every enemy, and now, in middle life, looking back with devout thankfulness on the past, he sings this great song of praise to the God of his life." Divisions of the psalm:
1. The introduction, setting forth all that Jehovah is to David (vers. 1-3).
2. The record of David"s sufferings and peril, and the mighty deliverance by which he was rescued (vers. 4-19).
3. The reason for this deliverance, in the character of God and the principles of his government (vers. 20-30).
4. The blessings which David had received in his life; his own preservation and that of his race; help and strength in battle, rule over all enemies (vers. 31-45).
5. Joyful thanksgiving and acknowledgment of all God"s mercies (vers. 46-50). The general subject of the psalm is The retrospect of a life. The interest of such a retrospect depends on the following conditions:
I WHETHER A MAN HAS HAD A HISTORY OR NOT. (Ver. 43.) Anything to distinguish his life from the uneventful lives of the myriads who are born, pass through life, and die, and leave no trace behind them. But Moses and David, Paul and others, gave birth to history, and have mingled in the greatest affairs of a nation and of the world, and have much to think of and celebrate when they look hack. So of modern great men. They animated and created their opportunities. Have we made our lives in any way worth looking back upon? Domestic history. Thinkers as well as actors make history. What Christ has done.
II WHETHER A MAN HAS SEEN GOD IN HIS LIFE OR NOT. (Vers. 19, 29, 32, 39) To most men God has been only remotely related to their lives a power at the back of things generally, but not occupying every single event and experience of their existence. To David and all the great saints of the world, God was everything and everywhere in his life. God had anointed him for every work and every office; and every event was a manifestation of his love and righteousness and power. The consciousness of such a past is very grand and elevating. Our life is rich or poor accordingly. Sense of God in common life and duties.
III WHETHER THE LIFE HAS BEEN RIGHTEOUS OR WICKED. (Ver. 20) We turn our eyes from a life that has been ill spent, and are filled with reproach and sorrow. If we know that we have lived a wicked life, we know that we are unworthy and guilty, and are self-condemned. Whether David wrote this psalm before or after his sin with Bathsheba, we cannot say; but he affirms his righteousness in the most emphatic way. "He has kept the ways of the Lord, and has not wickedly departed from him." Such a retrospect is full of deep power and sense of triumph.
IV WHETHER A MAN HAS ACHIEVED HIS OBJECTS OR NOT. (Vers. 37, 38, 48) David was a king, and had been in many wars and troubles; but he had, through God, triumphed over all his difficulties and foes. How many of us fail, or only partly succeed, in the things we aim at, because we have been profane and faithless!
V WHETHER WE HAVE A FUTURE TO ANTICIPATE, AS WELL AS A PAST TO REMEMBER. To some the past is all; they have no future. But David had a bright future as well as a glorious past. "In thy presence is fulness of joy," etc. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–3 To the Chief Musician a Psalm of David, the…
To the Chief Musician a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. We have another form of this Psalm, with significant variations (2Sa 22:1-51), and this suggests the idea that it was sung by David at different times when he reviewed his own remarkable history, and observed the gracious hand of God in it all. Like Addison's hymn beginning, "When all thy mercies, O my God, "this Psalm is the song of a grateful heart overwhelmed with a retrospect of the manifold and marvellous mercies of God. We will call it THE GRATEFUL RETROSPECT. The title deserves attention. David, although at this time a king, calls himself, "the servant of Jehovah, "but makes no mention of his royalty; hence we gather that he counted it a higher honour to be the Lord's servant than to be Judah's king. Right wisely did he judge. Being possessed of poetic genius, he served the Lord by composing this Psalm for the use of the Lord's house; and it is no mean work to conduct or to improve that delightful part of divine worship, the singing of the Lord's praises. Would that more musical and poetical ability were consecrated, and that our chief musicians were fit to be trusted with devout and spiritual psalmody. It should be observed that the words of this song were not composed with the view of gratifying the taste of men, but were spoken unto Jehovah. It were well if we had a more single eye to the honour of the Lord in our singing, and in all other hallowed exercises. That praise is little worth which is not directed solely and heartily to the Lord. David might well be thus direct in his gratitude, for he owed all to his God, and in the day of his deliverance he had none to thank but the Lord, whose right hand had preserved him. We too should feel that to God and God alone we owe the greatest debt of honour and thanksgiving.
If it be remembered that the second and the forty-ninth verses are both quoted in the New Testament (Heb 2:13 Ro 15:9) as the words of the Lord Jesus, it will be clear that a greater than David is here. Reader, you will not need our aid in this respect; if you know Jesus you will readily find him in his sorrows, deliverance, and triumphs all through this wonderful psalm.
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Ps 18:1-3 are the proem or preface in which the resolve to bless God is declared. Delivering mercy is most poetically extolled from Ps 18:4-19; and then the happy songster Ps 18:20-28, protests that God had acted righteously in thus favouring him. Filled with grateful joy he again pictures his deliverance, and anticipates future victories Ps 18:29-45; and in closing speaks with evident prophetic foresight of the glorious triumphs of the Messiah, David's seed and the Lord's anointed.
Ver. 1. I will love thee, O Lord. With strong, hearty affection will I cling to thee; as a child to its parent, or a spouse to her husband. The word is intensely forcible, the love is of the deepest kind. "I will love heartily, with my inmost bowels." Here is a fixed resolution to abide in the nearest and most intimate union with the Most High. Our triune God deserves the warmest love of all our hearts. Father, Son and Spirit have each a claim upon our love. The solemn purpose never to cease loving naturally springs from present fervour of affection. It is wrong to make rash resolutions, but this when made in the strength of God is most wise and fitting.
My strength. Our God is the strength of our life, our graces, our works, our hopes, our conflicts, our victories. This verse is not found in 2Sa 22:1-51, and is a most precious addition, placed above all and after all to form the pinnacle of the temple, the apex of the pyramid. Love is still the crowning grace.
Whole Psalm. The general argument of the Psalm may be thus stated: it is a magnificent eucharistic ode. It begins with a celebration of the glorious perfections of the Divinity, whose assistance the speaker has so often experienced. He describes, or rather, he delineates, his perils, the power of his enemies, his sudden deliverance from them, and the indignation and power of his divine deliverer manifested in their overthrow. He paints these in so lively colours, that while we read we seem to see the lightning, to hear the thunders, to feel the earthquake. He afterwards describes his victories, so that we seem to be eye witnesses of them, and take part in them. He predicts a wide extended empire, and concludes with a lofty expression of grateful adoration of Jehovah, the Author of all his deliverances and triumphs. The style is highly oratorical and poetical, sublime, and full of uncommon figures of speech. It is the natural language of a person of the highest mental endowments, under a divine inspiration, deeply affected by remarkable divine benefits, and filled with the most lofty conceptions of the divine character and dispensations. John Brown, D.D., 1853.
Whole Psalm. Kitto, in "The Pictorial Bible, "has the following note upon 2Sa 22:1-51: "This is the same as Ps 18:1-50... The Rabbins reckon up seventy-four differences between the two copies, most of them very minute. They probably arose from the fact that the poem was, as they conjecture, composed by David in his youth, and revised in his later days, when he sent it to the chief musician. The present is, of course, to be the earlier copy."
Whole Psalm. The eighteenth Psalm is called by Michaelis more artificial, and less truly terrible, than the Mosaic odes. In structure it may be so, but surely not in spirit. It appears to many besides us, one of the most magnificent lyrical raptures in the Scriptures. As if the poet had dipped his pen in "the brightness of that light which was before his eye, "so he describes the descending God. Perhaps it may be objected that the nodus is hardly worthy of the vindex to deliver David from his enemies, could Deity ever be imagined to come down? But the objector knows not the character of the ancient Hebrew mind. God in its view had not to descend from heaven; he was nigha cloud like a man's hand might conceala cry, a look might bring him down. And why should not David's fancy clothe him, as he came, in a panoply befitting his dignity, in clouds spangled with coals of fire? If he was to descend, why not in state? The proof of the grandeur of this Psalm is in the fact that it has borne the test of almost every translation, and made doggerel erect itself, and become divine. Even Sternhold and Hopkins its fiery whirlwind lifts up, purifies, touches into true power, and then throws down, helpless and panting, upon their ancient common. Perhaps the great charm of the eighteenth, apart from the poetry of the descent, is the exquisite and subtle alternation of the I and the Thou. We have spoken of parallelism, as the key to the mechanism of Hebrew song. We find this as existing between David and Godthe delivered and the delivererbeautifully pursued throughout the whole of this Psalm. "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." "I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised." "He sent from above; he took me; he drew me out of many waters." "Thou wilt light my candle." "Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation." "Thou hast girded me with strength unto battle." "Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies." "Thou hast made me the head of the heathen." It has been ingeniously argued, that the existence of the I suggests, inevitably as a polar opposite, the thought of the Thou, that the personality of man proves thus the personality of God; but, be this as it may, David's perception of that personality is nowhere so intense as here. He seems not only to see, but to feel and touch, the object of his gratitude and worship. George Gilfillan, in "The Bards of the Bible, "1852.
Whole Psalm. He that would be wise, let him read the Proverbs; he that would by holy, let him read the Psalms. Every line in this book breathes peculiar sanctity. This Psalm, though placed among the first, was penned among the last, as the preface assures us, and is left as the epitome of the general history of David's life. It is twice recorded in the Scripture 2Sa 22:1-51, and in this book of Psalms, for the excellency and sweetness thereof; surely that we should take double notice of it. Holy David, being near the shore, here looks on his former dangers and deliverances with a thankful heart, and writes this Psalm to bless the Lord: as if each of you that are grown into years should review your lives and observe the wonderful goodness and providence of God towards you; and then sit down and write a modest memorial of his most remarkable mercies, for the comfort of yourselves and posterity; an excellent practice. What a comfort would it be for you to read how good your God was to you father or grandfather, that are dead and gone! So would your children rejoice in the Lord upon the reading of his goodness to you; and you cannot have a better pattern for this than holy David, who wrote this Psalm when he was threescore and seven years old; when he had outlived most of his troubles, and almost ready for his journey to his Father in heaven, he resolves to leave this good report of him upon earth. And I pray mark how he begins: he sets not up trophies to himself, but triumphs in his GodI will love thee, O Lord, my strength. As the love of God is the beginning of all our mercies, so love to God should be the end and effect of them all. As the stream leads us to the spring, so all the gifts of God must lead us to the giver of them. Lord, thou hast saved me from sickness, "I will love thee; "from death and hell, "I will love thee; "on me thou hast bestowed grace and comfort, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." And after he had heaped on God all the sweet names he could devise (Ps 18:2), as the true saint thinks he can never speak too well of God, or too ill of himself, then he begins his narrative. 1. Of his dangers (Ps 18:4); "Snares of death, ""Floods of ungodly men, " "Sorrows of hell." Hell and earth are combined against each holy man, and will trouble sufficiently in this world, if they cannot keep him out of a better. 2. Of his retreat, and that was, earnest prayer to God (Ps 18:6), I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God. When our prayers are cries ardent and importunate, then they speed: My cry came before him, even into his ears. The mother trifles while the child whimpers, but when he raises his note strains every nerve and cries every veinthen she throws all aside, and gives him his desire. While our prayers are only whispers, our God can take his rest; but when we fall to crying, "Now will I arise, saith the Lord." 3. Of his rescue (Ps 18:7-20), by the powerful and terrible arm of the Lord, who is in a lofty strain brought in to his servant's help, as if he would mingle heaven and earth together, rather than leave his child in the lion's paws. 4. Of the reason of this gracious dealing of God with him (Ps 18:20, etc.). He was a righteous person, and he had a righteous cause. And thereupon he turns to God, saying, Thou hast dealt with me just as thou art wont to do, with the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright. Richard Steele's "Plain Discourse upon Uprightness, "1670.
Whole Psalm. Sometimes the Lord cheers and comforts the heart of his people with smiling and reviving providences, both public and personal. There are times of lifting up, as well as casting down by the hand of providence. The scene changes, the aspects of providence are very cheerful and encouraging; their winter seems to be over; they put off their garments of mourning; and then, ah, what sweet returns are made to heavenly gracious souls! Doth God lift them up by prosperity? they also will lift up their God by praises. See title, and Ps 18:1-3. So Moses, and the people with him (Ex 15:1-27), when God had delivered them from Pharaoh, how do they exalt him in a song of thanksgiving, which for the elegancy and spirituality of it, is made an emblem of the doxologies given to God in glory by the saints. Re 15:1. John Flavel.
Title. "The servant of the Lord; "the name given to Moses (Jos 1:1, 13, 15, and in nine other places of that book) and to Joshua (Jos 24:29 Jud 2:8); but to none other except David (here, and in the title to Ps 36:1-12). Compare Ac 13:36, uphreteoas. This is significant; reminding us of the place occupied by David in the history of Israel. He was the appointed successor of Moses and Joshua, who extended the power of Israel over the whole region allotted to them by Divine promise. W. Kay, 1871.
Title. This Psalm, which is entitled a shirah (or song), is David's hymn of praise to God for his deliverance from all his enemies (see the title, and above, 2Sa 22:1-51), and has an appropriate place in the present group of Psalms, which speak of resurrection after suffering. It is entitled a Psalm of David, "the servant of the Lord, "and thus is coupled with another psalm of deliverance, Ps 36:1-12. Christopher Wordsworth.
Ver. 1. I will love thee, O Lord. The word whereby the psalmist expresses his entire affection, in the noun signifieth a womb, and imparts such an affection as cometh from the innermost part of man (Mxr., matrix), from his bowels, from the bottom of his heart, as we speak. It is, therefore, oft put for such pity and compassion as moveth the bowels. Some, therefore, thus translate that phrase, "From my innermost bowels will I love thee, O Lord." To give evidence of his entire and ardent love of God, he oft professes his wonderful great love to God's commandments, whereof he saith with admiration, "Oh, how I love thy law! I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. I love them exceedingly" (Ps 119:97, 127, 167); therefore, he saith to God, "Consider how I love thy precepts" (Ps 119:159). William Gouge, 1575-1653.
Ver. 1. I will love thee. Intimately as a mother loves the child that comes out of her womb. Westminster Assembly's Annotations, 1651.
Ver. 1-2. God hath, as it were, made himself over to believers. David doth not say, God will give me or bestow salvation upon me; but he saith, "He is the horn of my salvation." It is God himself who is the salvation and the portion of his people. They would not care much for salvation if God were not their salvation. It more pleaseth the saints that they enjoy God, than that they enjoy salvation. False and carnal spirits will express a great deal of desire after salvation, for they like salvation, heaven, and glory well; but they never express any longing desire after God and Jesus Christ. They love salvation, but they care not for a Saviour. Now that which faith pitches most upon is God himself; he shall be my salvation, let me have him, and that is salvation enough; he is my life, he is my comfort, he is my riches, he is my honour, and he is my all. Thus David's heart acted immediately upon God, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. It pleased holy David more that God was his strength, than that God gave him strength; that God was his deliverer, than that he was delivered; that God was his fortress, his buckler, his horn, his high tower, than that he gave him the effect of all these. It pleased David, and it pleases all the saints more that God is their salvation, whether temporal or eternal, than that he saves them: the saints look more at God than at all that is God's. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 1-2. David speaks like one in love with God, for he doth adorn him with confession of praise, and his mouth is filled with the praise of the Lord, which he expresses in this exuberance and redundancy of holy oratory. Edward Marbury.
Ver. 1. Love's resolve, love's logic, love's trials, love's victories.
James Hervey has two sermons upon "Love to God" from this text.
There is "An Exposition" of this Psalm in "A Critical History of the Life of David. By SAMUEL CHANDLER, D.D., F.R., and A.S.S., "
1766. 2 vol., 8vo.
The Sufferings and Glories of the Messiah: an Exposition of Psalm XVIII., and Isaiah52:13; 53:12. By JOHN BROWN, D.D.,
1853.
Psalms 18:2*
Ver. 1-2. See Psalms on "Ps 18:1" for further information.
Ver. 1-2. See Psalms on "Ps 18:1" for further information.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.
Psa_18:1-3
I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.
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The tale of a life
In this magnificent hymn the royal poet sketches, in a few grand outlines, the tale of his life--the record of his marvellous deliverances, and of the victories which Jehovah had given him--the record, too, of his own heart, the truth of its affection towards God, and the integrity of purpose by which it had ever been influenced. Throughout that singularly chequered life, hunted as he had been by Saul before he came to the throne, and harassed perpetually after he became king by rivals, who disputed his authority and endeavoured to steal away the hearts of his people--compelled to fly for his life before his own son, and engaged afterwards in long and fierce wars with foreign nations--one thing had never forsaken him, the love and presence of Jehovah. By His help he had subdued every enemy, and now, in his old age, looking back with devout thankfulness on the past, he sings this great song of praise to the God of his life. With a heart full of love he will tell how Jehovah delivered him, and then there rises before the eyes of his mind the whole force and magnitude of the peril from which he had escaped. So much the more wonderful appears the deliverance which accordingly he represents in a bold poetical figure, as a stooping of the Most High from heaven to save him--who comes, as He came of old to Sinai, with all the terror and gloom of earthquake, and tempest, and thick darkness. But God delivers those only who trust in Him and who are like Him. There must be an inner life of communion with God, if man will know His mercy. Hence David passes on to that covenant relationship in which he had stood to God. He had ever been a true Israelite, and therefore God, the true God of Israel, had dealt with him accordingly. And thus it is at the last that the servant of Jehovah finds his reward. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
Have we permission to love God
It will awaken surprise in you to hear this question, yet it cannot exceed mine on hearing it, as I once did, from a distinguished man whom I had long regarded as truly devout. Being together at the house of his relative, this man, of worldwide reputation as a man of genius, astonished me with this question, What do you understand by love to God? I looked at him with surprise; but before I could speak he added, I know what fear of God means; but I do not understand what is meant when I am called upon to love God. Had I uttered the thought which arose in my mind I should have said, I always supposed you to be a Christian; can it be possible that you have need that one should teach you the alphabet of religious experience? But I put questions to him, encouraged by his frank nature, and I now discovered that his difficult was this, that loving God implied a degree of familiarity which seemed to him unsuitable in a finite creature when approaching his Creator. He acknowledged that the language of the Bible encouraged the idea of familiarity in our intercourse with God; still, he preferred to explain all such permission by what he called Orientalism. In vain was it urged in reply that Orientalism rather forbade than encouraged liberty in approaching Majesty; prostration, even to abjectness, was enjoined on ministers of state, as well as menial servants. Hence there are two extremes against which we have need to be on our guard. One is familiarity; the other is stoicism. The apostles maintain a just medium between these extremes. The question which I have already mentioned as put to me by a man of distinguished genius was also expressed by a plain man, a mechanic, he was in the last stages of a decline, but in full possession of his faculties. Once as I was leaving his bedside he said, One thing more I wish to ask: I lie here and talk with God in a way which startles me. I use expressions of endearment, address Him by affectionate names, make requests as a child to a parent, indulge in words of adoration; all of which, on second thought, seem to me too free for a mortal to use in his intercourse with his Master. Yet my feelings are so strong that I cannot restrain myself. I said to him, You ask, May you love God thus? The Saviour says, quoting the Old Testament, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. Do you ever exceed this. An expression of satisfaction came over his face. The next day he had gone to see Him whom not having seen he loved. The words of the text leave no room to question that the, predominant feeling of David was this, I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. Then he proceeds to heap up epithets of love to God. He draws them from his experience in wildernesses and caves. Had he been a seafaring man we doubtless should have had him saying, Thou art my lighthouse, my pilot, my harbour; to Thee I am homeward bound; with Thee I am safe home. How enthusiastic in passionate expression of love to God is all true religious poetry. And when a man is converted, how his heart goes out in love to God. See this in Paul. And here is one instance from the preaching of the Gospel, and there are scores of such. A man was riding home on horseback after evening service, meditating on what he had heard. He was secretly persuaded to yield himself up to God, when all at once light from heaven broke upon his mind, revealing to him the way of salvation by Christ with a sense of peace with God and the joy of pardoned sin; so that he found himself in a new world. Unable to contain his joy at the discovery, having no one at home who could enter into his feelings, turning his horses head, he rode back three miles to the ministers house, and called him to the door. Taking both of the ministers hands in his, he cried out, Oh, sir! what a God we have! which was the substance of all that he said, for it was impossible for words to express his emotions, and he mounted and rode home, singing and praying. No one would have found it more impossible than he to answer the question, What do you understand by loving God?--he whose whole being was at that hour flooded with it could have found no words to define his emotions. Does anyone say, Of what value can such emotions be to God? We might answer him, Of what value is anything to God? He will one day give up this globe to fire. There is nothing of any value to God except love. The whole object of God in the Bible seems everywhere to have been to make men love Him.
I. The experience of men in the Bible shows us that the sum of human duty is to love God. See the Book of Deuteronomy, to which our Lord so often referred. It is full of expostulations to urge Israel to love God. Joshua, too, does not hid them tremble, as he well might, in view of their stupendous history, but love the Lord. Some will say this seems very strange. Let such consider that there is no way in which, on account of the hardness of our hearts, God brings us to love Him more effectually than by His terrible dispensations. When night comes down in the Azores the lavender beds yield perfumes which all day long the hot sun had consumed. After a storm we look for sea mosses and pebbles which the working of the sea has ,brought on shore. The Lord hath said that He will dwell in the thick darkness--so spoke Solomon, and it is true. If God desires to draw a Christian very near to Himself, He will almost always send a heavy trial upon him. David said, When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold. We see Christians who have been grievously afflicted, cleaving to God the more that He smites them. If God has set His love on a man He may honour him by great trials. He cannot trust all to bear great trials. He said of Saul of Tarsus, I will show him how great things he must suffer, for My sake. Probably there is nothing which excites the admiration of angels more than to see us loving God the more that He afflicts us. Then they see the power of faith; how it makes a man endure as seeing Him who is invisible.
II. The Cross of Christ is the Divine testimony to man, not only that he may but that he must love God. See how John in his epistles insists on this, that God is Love. The governing principle in God is love. Other attributes belong to Him, but He is none of them. God is Love. Therefore He must desire the love of His people. They are born of the Spirit. Shall man, His new creation, be a cold, phlegmatic, intellectual being? May we be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God. (N. Adams, D. D.)
A text that looks two ways
I. Backward, upon the mercies and deliverances of God. These are expressed in the titles used--strength, rock, fortress, etc. These are synonymous phrases, signifying one and the same thing. There is not here merely the exuberance of a poetical style. The apparent exaggeration in Davids hymn flows from the abundance of a devout and grateful heart labouring to empty and discharge its fulness. How well such a full acknowledgment would become us!
II. Forward, in the returns of duty, to which he engageth himself.
1. Of love (Psa_18:1).
2. Of trust (Psa_18:1).
3. Of praise and prayer (Psa_18:3).
We are to love God for His own excellencies, because He requires it, and in response to His love. Trust is an act of friendship, and the greatest fruit it yields, mutual confidence, springing naturally from mutual affection. (J. Dolben, D. D.)
A song of thanksgiving in review of a troublous life
This Psalm is a fervent outpouring of gratitude, not for any single deliverance, but for all the deliverances of his tried and stormy life.
I. A life greatly troubled. Four facts concerning ungodly men. They were worthless, numerous, violent, and indefatigable. And our sufferings, as Davids, grow out of our physical constitution, our social relationships, our moral delinquencies and remorses.
II. A God equal to all emergencies. God appears to David in his trials in a two-fold aspect--passive and active: resting as a rock, and moving as a thunderstorm.
1. God appeared to him as his all-sufficient protector. A refuge impregnable, ever accessible, and everlasting.
2. God appeared as his triumphant deliverer. The description of God moving for his deliverance is grandly poetic. This poetic description is both natural and religious. Three observations are suggested--
(1) It is a movement in answer to prayer.
(2) It is a movement sublimely grand.
(3) It is a movement completely effective.
III. A soul alive with true sentiments.
1. Love. Love to God is the essence of goodness, and the sum total of mans obligation.
2. Trust. This is connected with love. True love has respect to excellence, and will ever lead to trusting.
3. Praise. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. Worship is heaven. (Homilist.)
Love to God possible..
I cannot love God, said a thoughtless man, for I have never seen Him. Canst thou not? replied his companion. Then thou canst do less than the little blind girl who sits under the shade of the chestnut tree on the village green. She can love her father and mother, though she has never seen them, and will never see them till the latest hour of her life.
Jesus is my love
The Lollards Tower in London, constructed by Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his palace at Lambeth, at the cost of six hundred pounds, was often filled with persons accused of heresy. The walls of this dungeon still bear witness to the sorrows and hopes of those who suffered in this place. The words Jesus amor meus (Jesus is in Love), written by some poor martyr, may still be seen upon the wall in the Lollards Tower.
Davids thanksgiving for his deliverance
Many songs of thanksgiving were composed by David. Perhaps it would be too bold for us to say that this Psalm excels them all; but we may say without hesitation, that none of them excels this.
I. Of Davids deliverance from the hands of his enemies. In the early part of Davids life he obtained signal instances of Gods preserving mercy. A lion and a bear came to destroy a lamb of his fold; David had the courage to attack both these fierce animals in defence of the young of his flock, and the Lord delivered him. A great deliverance was granted to himself, and through him to his people, when the Lord delivered into his hand the terrible giant of Gath. Many and wonderful were the deliverances which he obtained from Saul. David sometimes thought it necessary for himself to leave the Lords land and to seek refuge among strangers, who were not such heathens as many of his own people. Among them, too, he found protection and obtained great deliverances. The king of Moab behaved to him with kindness, so far as we know. Among the Philistines he was more than once in extreme danger. But the Lord was still his stay and his helper. When the Philistines were brought low by many terrible engagements, David was still exposed to great perils, but the Lord preserved him whithersoever he went. Neither Moabites, nor Ammonites, nor Syrians of different kingdoms could stand before him, either singly or in conjunction, for the Lord taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight. But when the Lord had given him rest from his enemies round about, evil rose up against him out of his own kingdom and out of his own house. Sheba rose up after Absalom to seek his life, but he soon lost his own, as his predecessor in wickedness had done. These were some of Davids deliverances from his many visible enemies; and they were attended and sweetened by other deliverances, not less, but still more important. He was sometimes almost overwhelmed by fear and dejection of spirit. He was often in great bodily distress; but he cried unto the Lord and was healed (Psa_30:1-12). But the most dangerous of his troubles were those which he suffered from the law in his members warring against the law in his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members.
II. Of God as the deliverer of David. Salvation is of the Lord (Psa_3:8). Everywhere we find him giving to the Lord the glory of the salvation wrought for him. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. The God of my rock, in Him will I trust: He is my shield and the horn of my salvation; my high tower and my refuge, my Saviour, Thou savest me from violence (2Sa_22:2-3). For who is God save the Lord? Who is a rock save our God? (2Sa_22:32). We know that there were many heroes who obtained a just and glorious name for the valiant exploits which they performed in the defence of their king and country. One of them had the honour of preserving the life of David when the hand of a terrible giant was lifted up against him. And there were many besides his mighty men to whom he was greatly indebted for signal service. His life was at one time saved by the kindness and wit of his wife Michal, at another time by the good offices of Jonathan, and even the Philistines were at one time made the instruments of preserving the life of that champion of Israel who was to be the destroyer of their power. But we never find David employing his fine genius in celebrating the exploits of these heroes to whom he was so greatly indebted. God is pleased for the most part to employ means and instruments in His works of mercy or of vengeance. But they do neither less nor more than God has intended to accomplish by them. It was God who made use of the Philistines for the salvation of David at Selah-hammah-lekoth. They were far from meaning so, neither did their heart think so. God employed not only men on earth, but the angels of heaven, for the deliverance of David from his enemies, and therefore, in his commendations of the goodness of God to himself, he assures us that the angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear the Lord, and delivers them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them (Psa_35:1-28). Whatever were the means employed for the deliverances of David, no doubt was left in the mind of any reasonable man concerning the great Author of his salvation. The Lord gave us sensible proofs of His presence with David and of His indignation against his enemies, as if He had in the literal sense bowed the heavens and come down. Had we hearts like David we would often be rejoicing in God, and singing His praises, when our corrupt dispositions prompt us to utter complaints as if God had forgotten to be gracious, because He will not resign the management of all our affairs into our own hands.
III. Of this Psalm of thanksgiving to God felt all His deliverances. In this Psalm we find David expressing--
1. The ardour of his love to that God who had blessed him with so many and such wonderful deliverances. Dearly he loved the God of his salvation, before he needed any of the deliverances which gave occasion to this Psalm. But every new deliverance increased the ardour of his love.
2. We find him expressing his firm reliance on God as the God of his salvation. His faith was powerfully invigorated by every new deliverance. And would we not greatly dishonour Him if we withheld from Him our confidence after a thousand proofs of His special favour? (Psa_18:2-3).
3. He expatiates on the greatness, on the grace, on the glory of these salvations which had been wrought for him. He illustrates the greatness of the salvations by representing the dreadful danger from which he was delivered. The terrors of death had fallen upon him. He was like a brand plucked out of the burning, or like a man raised out of the grave. His deliverance was the answer of fervent cries addressed to God from the depths into which he was cast. We are too much disposed to look with a careless eye on the great works of God.
4. He celebrates the excellency of those Divine perfections which were manifested in his deliverance. He shews forth the glory of that righteousness which appeared in the gracious rewards bestowed on himself, and the vengeance inflicted on his wicked enemies. He shows forth the glory of the Lord as the God of salvation, who bad given striking and incontestable proofs of His saving power and grace in the salvations wrought for him. None of the gods of the nations had ever given any proofs of their power to save their worshippers that trusted in them. Great things God had done for David. David had himself performed wonderful things, and achieved victories that were to make him famous through all generations. But not to himself, but to his God was the praise due.
5. He praises God, and expresses his unshaken confidence in Him for the great things that were yet to be done for him, and for his seed after him. On the whole, we are taught by this Psalm what improvement we ought to make of the great works of God, recorded in His Word. If David saw and admired and celebrated in such strains of rapture his deliverance from the hand of his enemies, can we sufficiently admire the glory that shines forth in the whole train of providential administration recorded in the volume of inspiration? Manifold were the salvations wrought by God for Abraham and Jacob, for Moses and the people of Israel. Nor ought we to forget any of Gods deliverances wrought for ourselves. Nor ought we to forget the obligations that lie upon us to praise God for our friends and brethren. (G. Lawson.)
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer.
Shutting the gates of Derry
In token of his gratitude to Jehovah for deliverance from Sauls malevolence, David wrote this Psalm, a glowing composition, in which martial similes abound. Thanksgiving is not only a national, but an individual duty. There are few today who seem to apprehend this obligation. With simple truthfulness it might be affirmed of most of us--Prayers are many, thanks are rare. How many of us who, in critical moments and in sad emergencies, resorted to our God for deliverance and protection, sought His presence again when He heard our prayer and saw our tears? Not without deep meaning and subtle experience of human perversity did David write, I will pay Thee my vows which I spake with my mouth when I was in trouble. (M. B. Hogg, B. A.)
The horn of my salvation.--
The horn of my salvation
The allusion here is doubtful. Some have supposed the reference to be to the horns of animals, by which they defend themselves and attack their enemies. God is to me, does for me, what their horns do for them. Others consider it as referring to the well-established fact, that warriors were accustomed to place horns, or ornaments like horns, on their helmets. The horn stands for the helmet; and the helmet of salvation is an expression equivalent to a saving, a protecting helmet. Others consider the reference as to the corners or handles of the altar in the court of the tabernacle or temple, which are called its horns. Others suppose the reference to be to the highest point of a lofty and precipitous mountain, which we are accustomed to call its peak. No doubt, in the Hebrew language, horn is used for mountain, as in Isa_5:1. A very fertile mountain is called a horn of oil. The sense is substantially the same whichever of these views we take; though, from the connection with shield or buckler, I am induced to consider the second of these views as the most probable. It seems the same idea as that expressed (Psa_140:7), Thou hast covered, and Thou wilt cover my head in the day of battle. (John Brown.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 18
Psalms 18
THE description of the theophany (Psa_18:7-19) and that of the psalmists God-won victories (Psa_18:32-46) appear to refer to the same facts, transfigured in the former case by devout imagination and presented in the latter in their actual form. These two portions make the two central masses round which the psalm is built up. They are connected by a transitional section, of which the main theme is the power of character to determine Gods aspect to a man as exemplified in the singers experience; and they are preceded, and followed by an introduction and a conclusion, throbbing with gratitude and love to Jehovah, the Deliverer.
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The Davidic authorship of this psalm has been admitted even by critics who are slow to recognise it. Cheyne asks, as if sure of a negative answer, "What is there in it that suggests the history of David?" ("Orig. of Psalter," p. 205). Baethgen, who "suspects" that a Davidic psalm has been "worked over" for use in public worship, may answer the question: "The following points speak for the Davidic authorship. The poet is a military commander and king, who wages successful wars, and subdues peoples whom he hitherto did not know. There is no Israelite king to whom the expressions in question in the psalm apply so closely as is the case with David." To these points may be added the allusions to earlier trials and perils, and the distinct correspondence, in a certain warmth and inwardness of personal relation to Jehovah, with the other psalms attributed to David, as well as the pregnant use of the word to flee to a refuge, applied to the souls flight to God, which we find here (Psa_18:2) and in the psalms ascribed to him. If the clear notes of the psalm be the voice of personal experience, there is but one author possible-namely, David-and the glow and intensity of the whole make the personification theory singularly inadequate. It is much easier to believe that David used the word "temple" or "palace" for Jehovahs heavenly dwelling, than that the "I" of the psalm, with his clinging sense of possession in Jehovah, his vivid remembrance of sorrows, his protestations of integrity, his wonder at his own victories, and his triumphant praise, is not a man, but a frosty personification of the nation.
The preluding invocation in Psa_18:1-3 at once touches the highwater mark of Old Testament devotion, and is conspicuous among its noblest utterances.
Nowhere else in Scripture is the form of the word employed which is here used for "love." It has special depth and tenderness. How far into the centre this man had penetrated, who could thus isolate and unite Jehovah and himself, and could feel that they two were alone and knit together by love! The true estimate of Jehovahs ways with a man will always lead to that resolve to love, based on the consciousness of Gods love to him. Happy they who learn that lesson by retrospect; happier still if they gather it from their sorrows while these press! Love delights in addressing the beloved and heaping tender names on its object, each made more tender and blessed by that appropriating "my." It seems more accordant with the fervent tone of the psalm to regard the reiterated designations in Psa_18:2 as vocatives, than to take "Jehovah" and "God" as subjects and the other names as predicates. Rather the whole is one long, loving accumulation of dear names, a series of invocations, in which the restful heart murmurs to itself how rich it is and is never wearied of saying, "my delight and defence." As in Psalms 17, the name of Jehovah occurs twice, and that of God once. Each of these is expanded, as it were, by the following epithets, and the expansion becomes more extended as it advances, beginning with one member in Psa_18:1, having three in Psa_18:2 a-and four in Psa_18:2 b. Leaving out the Divine names proper, there are seven in Psa_18:2, separated into two groups by the name of God. It may be observed there is a general correspondence between the two sets, each beginning with "rock" (though the word is different in the two clauses), each having the metaphor of a fortress, and "shield and horn of salvation," roughly answering to "Deliverer." The first word for rock is more properly crag or cliff, thus suggesting inaccessibility, and the second a rock mass, thus giving the notion of firmness or solidity. The shade of difference need not be pressed, but the general idea is that of safety, or by elevation above the enemy and by reason of the unchangeable strength of Jehovah. In that lofty eyrie, a man may look down on all the armies of earth, idly active on the plain. That great Rock towers unchangeable above fleeting things. The river at its base runs past, the woods nestling at its feet bud and shed their leaves, but it stands the same. David had many a time found shelter among the hills and caves of Judah and the South land, and it may not be fancy that sees reminiscences of these experiences in his song. The beautiful figure for trust embodied in the word in Psa_18:2 b belongs to the metaphor of the rock: It is found with singular appropriateness in Psalms 57, which the title ascribes to David "in the cave," the sides of which bent above him and sheltered him, like a great pair of wings, and possibly suggested the image, "In the shadow of Thy wings will I take refuge." The difference between "fortress" and "high tower" is slight, but the former gives more prominence to the idea of strength, and the latter to that of elevation, both concurring in the same thought as was expressed by "rock," but with the additional suggestion of Jehovah as the home of the soul. Safety, then, comes through communion. Abiding in God is seclusion from danger. "Deliverer" stands last in the first set, saying in plain words what the preceding had put in figures. "My shield and the horn of my salvation" come in the centre of the second set, in obedience to the law of variety in reiteration which the poets artistic instincts impose. They shift the figure to that of a warrior in actual conflict. The others picture a fugitive from enemies, these a fighter. The shield is a defensive weapon; horns are offensive ones, and the combination suggests that in conflict we are safe by the interposition of Gods covering power, and are armed by the same power for striking at the foe. That power ensures salvation whether in the narrower or wider sense. Thus Jehovah is all the armour and all the refuge of His servant. To trust Him is to have His protection cast around and His power infused for conflict and victory. The end of all lifes experience is to reveal Him in these characters, and they have rightly learned its lessons whose song of retrospect begins with "I will love Thee, Jehovah," and pours out at His feet all happy names expressive of His sufficiency and of the singers rest in possessing Him. Psa_18:3 is not a resolution for the future-"I will call; so shall I be saved"-but the summing up of experience in a great truth: "I call, and I am saved." It unfolds the meaning of the previous names of God, and strikes the keynote for the magnificent sequel.
The superb idealisation of past deliverances under the figure of a theophany is prepared for by a retrospect of dangers, which still palpitates with the memory of former fears. "A sorrows crown of sorrow is remembering happier things," and a joys crown of joy is remembering past perils. No better description of Davids early life could have been given than that contained in the two vivid figures of Psa_18:4-5. If we adopt the more congruous reading of the other recension of the psalm in 2 Samuel 22, we have in both members of Psa_18:4 a parallel metaphor. Instead of "sorrows" or "cords" (both of which renderings are possible for the text of the psalm here), it reads "breakers," corresponding with "floods" in the second clause. "Destruction" is better than ungodly men as the rendering of the unusual word "Belial." Thus the psalmist pictures himself as standing on a diminishing bit of solid ground, round which a rising flood runs strong, breaking on its crumbling narrowness. Islanded thus, he is all but lost. With swift transition he casts the picture of his distress into another metaphor. Now he is a hunted creature, surrounded and confronted by cords and snares. Sheol and Death have marked him for their prey, and are drawing their nets round him. What is left for him? One thing only. He has a voice, and he has a God. In his despair one piercing cry breaks from him; and, wonder of wonders, that thin shoot of prayer rises right into the heavenly palace temple and the ears of God. The repetition of "I called upon the Lord" connects this with Psa_18:3 as the experience on which the generalisation there is based. His extremity of peril had not paralysed the psalmists grasp of God as still "my God," and his confidence is vindicated. There is an eloquent contrast between the insignificance of the cause and the stupendous grandeur of the effect: one poor mans shrill cry and a shaking earth and all the dread pomp attending an interposing God. A cupful of water poured into a hydraulic ram sets in motion power that lifts tons; the prayer of faith brings the dread magnificence of Jehovah into the field. The reading of 2 Samuel is preferable in the last clause of Psa_18:6, omitting the superfluous "before Him."
The phenomena of a thunderstorm are the substratum of the grand description of Jehovahs delivering self-manifestation. The garb is lofty poetry; but a definite fact lies beneath, namely some deliverance in which the psalmist saw Jehovahs coming in storm and lightning flash to destroy, and therefore to save. Faith sees more truly because more deeply than sense. What would have appeared to an ordinary looker on as merely a remarkable escape was to its subject the manifestation of a present God. Which eye sees the "things that are,"-that which is cognisant only of a concatenation of events, or that which discerns a Person directing these? The cry of this hunted man has for first effect the kindling of the Divine "wrath," which is represented as flaming into action in the tremendous imagery of Psa_18:7-8. The description of the storm in which God comes to help the suppliant does not begin with these verses, as is commonly understood. The Divine power is not in motion yet, but is, as it were, gathering itself up for action. The complaining prayer is boldly treated as bringing to Gods knowledge His servants straits, and the knowledge as moving Him to wrath towards the enemies of one who takes shelter beneath His wings. "What have I here that my"-servant is thus bestead? saith the Lord. The poet can venture to paint a picture with the pen, which the painter dare not attempt with the pencil. The anger of Jehovah is described in words of singular daring, as rising like smoke from His nostrils and pouring in fire from His lips, from which blazing brands issue. No wonder that the earth reels even to the roots of the mountains, as unable to endure that wrath! The frank anthropomorphism of the picture, of which the features are taken from the hard breathing of an angry man or animal, {compare Jobs crocodile in Job_41:10-13} and the underlying conception are equally offensive to many; but as for the former, the more "gross" the humanising of the picture, the less likely is it to be mistaken for prose fact, and the more easy to apprehend as symbol: and as for the latter, the New Testament endorses the conception of the "wrath of God," and bids us take heed lest, if we cast it away, we maim his love. This same psalm hymns Jehovahs "gentleness"; and the more deeply His love is apprehended, the more surely will His wrath be discerned as its necessary accompaniment. The dark orb and its radiant sister move round a common centre.
Thus kindled, Gods wrath flashes into action, as is wonderfully painted in that great storm piece in Psa_18:9-15. The stages of a violent thunder tempest are painted with unsurpassable force and brevity.
First we see the low clouds: far nearer the trembling earth than the hidden blue was, and seeming to press down with leaden weight, their boding blackness is above us; but
"Whose foot shall we see emerge,
Whose from the straining topmost dark?"
Their low gathering is followed by the sudden rush of wind, which breaks the awful calm. In its "sound," the psalmist hears the winnowing of mighty wings: those of the cherub on whom, as a living chariot, Jehovah sits throned. This is called "mythology." Is it not rather a poetic personification of elemental powers, which gives emphasis to their being Gods instruments? The cherubim are in Scripture represented in varying forms and with different attributes. In Ezekiel they assume a composite form due apparently to Babylonian influences; but here there is no trace of that, and the absence of such strongly supports a pre-exilic date.
Blacker grows the gloom, in which awed hearts are conscious of a present Deity shrouded behind the livid folds of the thunderclouds, as in a tent. Down rushes the rain; the darkness is "a darkness of waters," and also "thick clouds of the skies," or "cloud masses," a mingled chaos of rain and cloud. Then lightning tears a way through the blackness, and the language becomes abrupt, like the flash. In Psa_18:12-13 the fury of the storm rages. Blinding brightness and deafening thunder-claps gleam and rattle through the broken words. Probably Psa_18:12 should be rendered, "From the brightness before Him there came through His clouds hail and brands of fire." Hidden in the cloudy tent is the light of Jehovahs presence, sparkles from which, flung forth by Him, pierce the solid gloom; and men call them lightnings. Then thunder rolls, the voice of the Most High. The repetition in Psa_18:13 of "hail and brands of fire" gives much abrupt force and one is unwilling to part with it. The reason for omitting it from the text is the want of grammatical connection, but that is rather a reason for retaining it, as the isolated clause breaks in on the continuity of the sentence, just as the flash shoots suddenly out of the cloud. These lightnings are Gods arrows; and, as they are showered down in flights, the psalmists enemies, unnamed since Psa_18:3, scatter in panic. The ideal character of the whole representation is plain from the last element in it-the description in Psa_18:15 of laying bare the seas depths, as the waters were parted at the Exodus. That voice and the fierce blast from these fire-breathing nostrils have dried the streams, and the oozy bed is seen. Gods "rebuke" has power to produce physical changes. The earthquake at the beginning and the empty ocean bed at the end are both somewhat outside the picture of the storm, and complete the representation of all nature as moved by the theophany.
Then comes the purpose of all the dread magnificence, strangely small except to the psalmist. Heaven and earth have been shaken, and lightnings set leaping through the sky, for nothing greater than to drag one half-drowned man from the floods. But the result of the theophany is small only in the same fashion as its cause was small. This same poor man cried, and the cry set Jehovahs activity in motion. The deliverance of a single soul may seem a small thing, but if the single soul has prayed it is no longer small, for Gods good name is involved. A nation is disgraced if its meanest subject is left to die in the hands of foreign enemies, and blood and treasure are not wasted if poured out lavishly for his rescue. God cannot let a suppliant who has taken shelter in His tent be dragged thence. Therefore there is no disproportion between the theophany and the individual deliverance which is its sole result.
The psalmist lays aside the figure in Psa_18:17-18, and comes to the bare fact of his deliverance from enemies, and perhaps from one especially, formidable ("my enemy," Psa_18:17). The prose of the whole would have been that he was in great danger and without means of averting it, but had a hair-breadth escape. But the outside of a fact is not all of it; and in this mystical life of ours poetry gets nearer the heart of things than does prose, and religion nearer than either. It is no miracle, in the narrow meaning of that word, which the psalmist sings; but his eye has seen the unseen force which moves all visible events. We may see the same apocalypse of a present Jehovah, if our eyes are purged, and our hearts pure. It is always true that the cry of a trustful soul pierces heaven and moves God; it is always true that He comes to His servant sinking and crying, "Lord, save me; I perish." The scene on the Galilean lake when Christs strong grasp held Peter up, because his fear struck out a spark of faith, though his faith was darkened with fear, is ever being repeated.
The note slightly touched at the close of the description of the deliverance dominates the second part of the psalm (Psa_18:20-31), of which the main theme is the correspondence of Gods dealings with character, as illustrated in the singers experience, and thence generalised into a law of the Divine administration. It begins with startling protestations of innocence. These are rounded into a whole by the repetition, at the beginning and end, of the same statement that God dealt with the psalmist according to his righteousness and clean-handedness. If the author is David, this voice of a good conscience must have been uttered before his great fall, after which he could, indeed, sing of forgiveness and restoring grace, but never again of integrity. Unlike as the tone of these verses is to that deeper consciousness of sin which is not the least of Christs gifts, the truth which they embody is as much a part of the Christian as of the earlier revelation. True, penitence must now mingle with conscious rectitude more abundantly than it does in this psalm; but it is still and forever true that God deals with His servants according to their righteousness. Cherished sin separates from Him, and forces His love to leave cries for help many times unanswered, in order that, filled with the fruit of their doings, His people may have a wholesome fear of again straying from the narrow way. Unless a Christian can say, "I keep myself from mine iniquity," he has no right to look for the sunshine of Gods face to gladden his eyes, nor for the strength of Gods hand to pluck his feet from the net. In noble and daring words, the psalmist proclaims as a law of Gods dealings his own experience generalised (Psa_18:25-27). It is a bold reversal of the ordinary point of view to regard man as taking the initiative and God as following his lead. And yet is not life full of solemn facts confirmatory of the truth that God is to a man what the man is to God? That is so both subjectively and objectively. Subjectively, our conceptions of God vary with our moral nature, and objectively the dealings of God are moulded according to that nature. There is such a thing as colour blindness in regard to the Divine character, whereby some men cannot see the green of faithful love or the red of wrath, but each beholds that in God which his vision fits him to see; and the many-sided dealings of God are different in their incidence upon different characters, so that the same heat melts wax and hardens clay; and further the actual dealings are accurately adapted to the state of their objects, so that each gets what he needs most: the loving heart, sweet love tokens from the Divine Lover; the perverse, thwartings which come from a God "contrary" to them who are contrary to Him. "The history of the world is the judgment of the world." But the first of the designations of character in Psa_18:25 hints that before mans initiative had been Gods: for "merciful" is the pregnant word occurring so often in the Psalter, and so impossible to translate by any one word. It means, as we have already had occasion to point out, one who is the subject of the Divine lovingkindness, and who therefore loves God in return. Here it seems rather to be taken in the sense of loving than of beloved. He who exercises this lovingkindness, whether towards God or man, shall find in God One who exercises it to him. But the word itself regards mans lovingkindness towards God as being the echo of Gods, and so the very first step in determining the mutual relations is Gods, and but for it there would never have been that in man which God could answer by showing Himself as loving. The contrasted dealings and characters are summed up in the familiar antithesis of Psa_18:27. The "afflicted" or humble are the type of God-pleasing character, since humility, such as befits dependent creatures, is the mother of all goodness, and "high looks" the master sin, and the whole drift of Providence is to lift the lowly and abase the proud.
The psalmists swift thought vibrates throughout this part of the song between his own experience and the general truths exemplified in it. He is too full of his own deliverance to be long silent about it, and, on the other hand, is continually reminded by it of the wide sweep of the beneficent laws which have been so fruitful of good to him. The most precious result of individual mercy is the vision obtained through it of the universal Lover of souls. "My God" will be widened into "our God," and "our God" will rest upon "my God," if either is spoken from the hearts depths. So in Psa_18:27-29 the personal element comes again to the front. The individualising name "My God" occurs in each verse, and the deliverance underlying the theophany is described in terms which prepare for the fuller celebration of victory in the last part of the psalm. God lights the psalmists lamp, by which is meant not the continuance of his family (as the expression elsewhere means), but the preservation of his own life, with the added idea, especially in Psa_18:28 b, of prosperity. Psa_18:29 tells how the lamp was kept alight, namely by the singers victory in actual battle, in which his swift rush had overtaken the enemy, and his agile limbs had scaled their walls. The parallelism of the clauses is made more complete by the emendation adopted by Lagarde, Cheyne, Baethgert, etc., who read Psa_18:29 a, -" I [can] break down a fence," but this is unnecessary. The same combination of running and climbing occurs in Joe_2:7, and the two clauses of Psa_18:33 seem to repeat those of Psa_18:29. The swift, agile warrior, then, traces these physical powers to God, as he does more at large in later verses.
Once more, the song passes, in Psa_18:30, to the wider truths taught by the personal deliverance. "Our God" takes the place of "my God"; and "all who take refuge in Him" are discerned as gathering, a shadowy crowd, round the solitary psalmist, and as sharing in his blessings. The large truths of these verses are the precious fruit of distress and deliverance. Both have cleared the singers eyes to see, and tuned his lips to sing, a God whose doings are without a flaw whose word is like pure gold without alloy or falsehood, whose ample protection shields all who flee to its shelter, who alone is God, the fountain of strength, who stands firm forever, the inexpugnable defence and dwelling place of men. This burst of pure adoration echoes the tones of the glorious beginning of the psalm. Happy they who, as the result of lifes experience, solve "the riddle of this painful earth," with these firm and jubilant convictions as the very foundation of their being.
The remainder of the psalm (Psa_18:32-50) describes the victorious campaign of the psalmist and the establishment of his kingdom. There is difficulty in determining the tenses of the verbs in some verses, and interpreters vary between pasts and futures. The inclination of the greater number of recent commentators is to carry the historical retrospect uninterruptedly through the whole context, which, as Hupfeld acknowledges, "allerdings das bequemste ist," and those who suppose occasional futures interspersed (as the R.V. and Hupfeld) differ in the places of their introduction. "Everything here is retrospective," says Delitzsch, and certainly that view is simplest: and gives unity to the whole. The name of God is never mentioned in the entire section, except as vainly invoked by the flying foe. Not till the closing doxologies does it appear again, with the frequency which marks the middle part of the psalm. A similar sparse use of it characterises the description of the theophany. In both cases there is a peculiar force given by the stream of verbs without expressed nominatives. The hurrying clauses here vividly reproduce the haste of battle, and each falls like the blow of a battle mace wielded by a strong arm. The equipment of the king for the fight (Psa_18:32-36). the fierce assault, flight of the foe and their utter annihilation (Psa_18:37-42), the extension by conquest of the singers kingdom (Psa_18:43-44), successively pass before us as we listen to the panting words with the heat of battle in them; and all rises at last into exuberant praise, which re-echoes some strains of the introductory burst of thanksgiving.
Many mythologies have told how the gods arm their champions, but the psalmist reaches a loftier height than these. He ventures to think of God as doing the humble office of bracing on his girdle, but the girdle is itself strength. God, whose own "way is perfect" (Psa_18:30) makes His servants "way" in some measure like His own; and though, no doubt, the figure must be interpreted in a manner congruous with its context, as chiefly implying "perfection" in regard to the purpose in hand-namely, warfare - we need not miss the deeper truth that Gods soldiers are fitted forconflict by their "ways" being conformed to Gods. This mans "strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure." Strength and swiftness are the two characteristics of antique heroes, and Gods gift bestowed both on the psalmist. Light of foot as a deer and able to climb to the robber forts perched on crags, as a chamois would, his hands deft, and his muscular arms strong to bend the bow which others could not use, he is the ideal of a warrior of old; and all these natural powers he again ascribes to Gods gift. A goddess gave Achilles his wondrous shield, but what was it to that which God binds upon this warriors arm? As his girdle was strength, and not merely a means of strength, his shield is salvation, and not merely a means of safety. The fact that God purposes to save and does act for saving is the defence against all dangers and enemies. It is the same deep truth as the prophet expresses by making "salvation" the walls and bulwarks of the strong city where the righteous nation dwells in peace. God does not thus arm His servant and then send him out alone to fight as he can, but "Thy right hand holds me up." What assailant can beat him down, if that hand is under his armpit to support him? The beautiful rendering of the A.V., "Thy gentleness," scarcely conveys the meaning, and weakens the antithesis with the psalmists "greatness," which is brought out by translating "Thy lowliness," or even more boldly "Thy humility." There is that in God which answers to the peculiarly human virtue of lowliness; and unless there were, man would remain small and unclothed with God-given strength. The devout soul thrills with wonder at Gods stooping love, which it discerns to be the foundation of all His gifts and therefore of its blessedness. This singer saw deep into the heart of God, and anticipated the great word of the one Revealer, "I am meek and lowly in heart." But Gods care for him does not merely fit him for the fight: it also orders circumstances so as to give him a free course. Having made his "feet like hinds feet," God then prepares paths that he should walk in them. The work is only half done when the man is endowed for service or conflict; a field for his powers must be forthcoming, and God will take care that no strength given by Him lies idle for want of a wrestling ground. Sooner or later feet find the road.
Then follow six verses (Psa_18:37-42) full of the stir and tumult of battle. There is no necessity for the change to futures in the verbs of Psa_18:37-38, which the R.V. adopts. The whole is a picture of past conflict, for which the psalmisthad been equipped by God. It is a literal fight, the triumph of which still glows in the singers heart and flames in his vivid words. We see him in swift pursuit, pressing hard on the enemy, crushing them with his fierce onset, trampling them under foot. They break and flee, shrieking out prayers, which the pursuer has a stern joy in knowing to be fruitless. His blows fall like those of a great pestle, and crush the fleeing wretches, who are scattered by his irresistible charge, like dust whirled by the storm. The last clause of the picture of the routed foe is better given by the various reading in 2 Samuel, which requires only a very slight alteration in one letter: "I did stamp them as the mire of the streets." Such delight in the enemys despair and destruction, such gratification at hearing their vain cries to Jehovah, are far away from Christian sentiments; and the gulf is not wholly bridged by the consideration that the psalmist felt himself to be Gods anointed, and enmity to him to be treason against God. Most natural as his feelings were, perfectly consistent with the level of religion proper to the then stage of revelation, capable of being purified into that triumph in the victory of good and ruin of evil without which there is no vigorous sympathy with Christs battle, and kindling as they do by their splendid energy and condensed rapidity an answering glow in even readers so far away from their scene as we are, they are still of "another spirit" from that which Christ has breathed into the Church, and nothing but confusion and mischief can come of slurring over the difference. The light of battle which blazes in them is not the fire which Jesus longed to kindle upon earth.
Thus far the enemies seem to have been native foes rebelling against Gods anointed or, if the reference to the Sauline persecution is held by. seeking to prevent his reaching his throne. But, in the concluding verses of this part (Psa_18:43-45), a transition is made to victory over "strangers," i.e. foreign nations. "The strivings of the people" seems to point back to the war described already, while "Thou hast made me the head of the nations" refers to external conquests. In 2 Samuel the reading is "my people," which would bring out the domestic reference more strongly; but the suffix for "my" may be a defective form of writing the plural; if so, the peoples in Psa_18:43 a are the "nations" of Psa_18:43 b. In any case the royal singer celebrates the extension of his dominion. The tenses in Psa_18:44-45, which the R.V. again gives as futures (as does Hupfeld), are better regarded, like all the others, as pasts. The wider dominion is not inconsistent with Davidic origin, as his conquests were extended beyond the territory of Israel. The picture of the hasty surrender of the enemy at the very sound of the conquerors name is graphic. "They lied unto me," as the words in Psa_18:44 b are literally, gives forcibly the feigned submission covering bitter hate. "They fade away," as if withered by the simoom, the hot blast of the psalmists conquering power. "They come trembling [or, as 2 Samuel reads, come limping] from their strongholds."
Psa_18:46-50 make a noble close to a noble hymn, in which the singers strong wins never flags nor the rush of thought and feeling slackens. Even more absolutely than in the rest of the psalm every victory is ascribed to Jehovah. He alone acts; the psalmist is simply the recipient. To have learned by lifes struggles and deliverances that Jehovah is a living God and "my Rock" is to have gathered lifes best fruit. A morning of tempest has cleared into sunny calm, as it always will, if tempest drives to God. He who cries to Jehovah when the floods of destruction make him afraid will in due time have to set to his seal that Jehovah liveth. If we begin with "The Lord is my Rock," we shall end with "Blessed be my Rock." Thankfulness does not weary of reiterating acknowledgments; and so the psalmist gathers up once more the main points of the psalm in these closing strains and lays all his mass of blessings at the feet of the Giver. His deliverance from his domestic foes and his conquests over external enemies are wholly Gods work, and therefore supply both impulse and material for praises which shall sound out beyond the limits of Israel. The vow to give thanks among the nations has been thought fatal to the Davidic origin of the psalm. Seeing, however, that some foreign peoples were conquered by him, there was opportunity for its fulfilment. His function to make known the name of Jehovah was the reason for his victories. David had learned the purpose of his elevation, and recognised in an extended kingdom a wider audience for his song. Therefore Paul penetrates to the heart of the psalm when he quotes Psa_18:49 in Rom_15:9 as a proof that the evangelising of the Gentiles was an Old Testament hope. The plain lesson from the psalmists vow is that Gods mercies bind and if felt aright will joyfully impel, the receiver to spread His name as far as his voice can reach. Love is sometimes silent, but gratitude must speak. The most unmusical voice is tuned to melody by thankfulness, and they need never want a theme who can tell what the Lord has done for their soul.
The last verse of the psalm is sometimes regarded as a liturgical addition, and the mention of David gratuitously supposed to be adverse to his authorship, but there is nothing unnatural in a kings mentioning himself in such a connection nor in the reference to his dynasty, which is evidently based upon the promise of perpetual dominion given through Nathan. The Christian reader knows how much more wonderful than the singer knew was the mercy granted to the king in that great promise, fulfilled in the Son of David, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and who bears Gods name to all the nations.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “This magnificent triumphal hymn was composed by David in…
INTRODUCTION
“This magnificent triumphal hymn was composed by David in celebration of his deliverance from his enemies. But the sublimity of the figures used in it, and the consent of ancient commentators, even Jewish as well as Christian, but, above all, the citations, made from it in the New Testament, evince that the kingdom of Messiah is here pointed at under that of David. It may thus be divided into five parts.
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Part I. Consisting of the first three verses, is the proem of the song.
Part II. Celebrates miraculous deliverances from a state of affliction and distress.
Part III. Thanksgiving; five verses, from the twentieth to the twenty-fourth.
Part IV. Celebrates success in war; eighteen verses, from the twenty-fifth to the forty-second.
Part V. The establishment of Messiah’s kingdom; eight verses, from the forty-third to the fiftieth.”—Bishop Mant.
TRUE LOVE
(Psa_18:1.)
This verse gives a picture of the human heart in its sublimest mood. It is an eloquent expression of the loftiest affection. The love of the Psalmist was “true,” because,
I. The object of it was right. “I will love Thee.” Not, nature. Some expend the whole fund of their admiration and delight on the works of God. They admire creation, idealise it, idolise it. They give a fanciful life to sun and moon and stars, to the firmament, to the earth, and then worship them. This love inspires our naturalistic, pantheistic poetry—a poetry sadly popular. Not, humanity. We see many lavish their affection on their friends, and a certain philosophy tells us that the noblest object of love is the human race. We see J. S. Mill in England, and Comte in France, denying the love of God, and then adoring in the most extravagant fashion a couple of women. We may easily fall into the same mistake—loving the creature more than the Creator. There is, indeed, no sin in loving, in fervently loving, such of our fellows as may appear in our eyes to be beautiful or noble; but that our love should be confined to these is the fault of faults. Not, self. How common is self-idolatry! To be wholly occupied with our own interests—ever burning incense to our own greatness! How many are their own divinities, living to glorify, to serve, to worship themselves! Not, the world. The Apostle says that the love of the world is enmity with God. What is this love of the world which is opposed to the love of the Father? The setting of our affections on the gifts of God—wealth, rank, honours, learning. There are many such. They are lovers of pleasure, fortune, fame, more than lovers of God. They forget, or almost forget, the Giver in the gift. God is true object of love.
1. He should be the first object. The Psalmist begins with extolling God. The first verse of every chapter in our life should be: “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.”
2. He is the worthy object. To love creation, or its gifts, is to love what is dead. Love is only worthily placed on a living person. To love the creatures, is to love what is imperfect: when we love any person, we love not so much the actual person, but rather an ideal person. Their merits, their charms, exist to a large extent in our imagination. But God is the all-perfect One; all perfections exist actually and absolutely in Him.
3. He is the chief object. “Thee” only Thee; all other creatures or things in Thee. “Nothing must we love above God, or so much as God, much less against God.”—Trapp.
II. The measure of it was right.
1. It was a boundless love. The just measure of love to God is a measureless love. “I will love Thee.” “The word signifies to love with the greatest intensity.”—Phillips. “Affectionately do I love Thee.”—Moll. “Fervently do I love Thee, O Jehovah, my strength.”—Perowne. The Psalmist loved God from the depths of his heart; loved Him with a burning, boundless affection. As one has said: “Every river does the most good whilst it keeps within its banks, except the Nile, and that does the most good when it overflows its banks; so each human passion is best kept within bounds; except love to God, and that is best when it overflows, when it is shed abroad.”
2. It was an everlasting love. It overflowed both space and time. “The future form, I will love, represents it as a permanent affection, and expresses a fixed purpose. “I not only love Thee now, but am resolved to do so for ever.”—Alexander. “Nothing shall separate me from the love of God,” &c.
“What though my flesh and heart decay,
Thee shall I love in endless day!”
III. The inspiration of it was right.
“O Lord, my strength.” The Psalmist’s heart was touched by the love of God. “The simple form of the verb is here used to denote the reciprocal affection of the inferior party.”—Alexander. He had felt God’s love to himself, and in return He loved God. “We love Him because He first loved us.” A true love to God is something more than a mere intellectual admiration, something more than a moral appreciation; it is the offspring of a consciously, indebted, and deeply-moved heart. The idea of the mystics, that we must love God simply for His own sake, is not scriptural. We love much because much has been forgiven us; because great gifts have been imparted to us; because great deliverances have been wrought out for us.
Remember—the love of God is the secret of strength and victory. The love of God gives us the victory over all inward foes. Great is the purifying power of this sublime affection. “Faith which worketh by love, and purifies the heart.” “The love of God gives us the victory over all outward foes” (Rom_8:35-39). “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might” (Jdg_5:31).
DIVINE SALVATION
(Psa_18:2-3.)
We observe:
I. The Psalmist’s confession (Psa_18:2).
He acknowledges,
1. That God was his deliverer. “Jehovah is my stronghold,” &c. “My God is my strength,” &c. The Psalmist does not impute his deliverance from Saul and his other enemies, to his own prowess, or to secondary causes; God was his help. There was a power of supernatural faith in David lifting him above the temptation to idealise and deify aspects of nature. The rocks and fortresses and strongholds of the country, where many of David’s exploits were performed, might have led a less devout mind to forget God, and ascribe its triumphs to its own prowess, combined with geographical advantages. Not so with David. His faith penetrated secondary causes, and visible helps and agencies only became the symbols of the invisible. “Jehovah is my stronghold,” &c. Let us give the glory of our deliverances to God—not to self, or nature, or chance. Let us give all the glory to God. Not a word here about geographical help, or human help, or self-help. If we thus honour God, God shall honour our faith, and save us in all natural and spiritual perils.
2. God was his perfect deliverer. Seven is the number of perfection; and here we have according to the reading of Perowne seven metaphors crowded together setting forth the perfection of God as the Saviour of His people. “Jehovah (is) my stronghold and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God is my rock wherein I find refuge, my shield and horn of my salvation, my high tower.” God is a perfect Saviour. “Rock;” “shield;” “horn;” indicate various forms of defence and shelter, of immunity and deliverance.
(1.) God preserves His people in the day of evil. He is a garrison to them in the time of trial and temptation. Talk of the seven wonders of the world! what are they but imperfect images of the magnificent bulwarks which God raises about His people?
“On every aide He stands,
And for His Israel cares;
And safe in His Almighty hands
Their souls for ever bears.”
(2.) God delivers His people from the power of evil. He is more than a defender, He is a deliverer. He causes our foes to raise the siege, and leave us unharassed and unharmed.
(3.) God causes His people to triumph over the enemies by whom they have been menaced. “The horn of my salvation.” As the “shield” stands for a weapon of defence, so the “horn” stands for a weapon of offence. “The horn is a symbol of strength in attack.”—Perowne. God not only shelters and delivers His people, but He enables them to carry the war into the enemies’, camp, and to reap glorious spoils in the battle. God not only saves His people, but “Satan is bruised under their feet; He not only delivers His Church from the wrath of men and devils, but strengthens it to overthrow the kingdom of darkness.
3. God was his personal deliverer. “My” rock, “my” fortress, “my” deliverer. The tried saint feels that he has a personal and peculiar interest in God. God’s manifestations of help and power are so rich and multiform in their character that they carry a separate secret for every separate heart. Just as there were rocks and strongholds about Bethlehem and Engedi that David’s eye had marked for many a year, and that his own foot only knew how to climb; so there are forms of Divine help and blessing, as many and as varied as God’s relations to individual souls, and the secret paths to the attainment of which lie within our individual faith. Let us not be afraid of tribulation, for it unites us all the more intensely with God. Peril deepens experience and individualises the relations in which we stand to God. But for the years of danger in which his youth had been spent, the Psalmist would never have been able to realise all that power of intense, believing, personal appropriation, signified by the use of the possessive pronoun, “My strength:” “My fortress:” “My God.”
We observe:
II. The Psalmist’s resolution (Psa_18:3). “I will call upon the Lord,” &c. Having shown that the Lord is worthy to be praised and trusted, how natural it is that this resolution should follow! And yet, how often is it the case that we acknowledge the glorious perfections of our God in our lips, and yet do not follow up the acknowledgment with a hearty practical confidence! Call upon the Lord for help, and you praise Him in so doing; call upon the Lord, so shall you be saved from your enemies. Some say that children, weak in every other respect, have such strong voices that they may be able to cry aloud, and thus secure help in times of danger; the children of God, weak and helpless amid foes and perils, have a cry to pierce the heavens and bring down help. Cry! cry aloud! and God shall save.
DE PROFUNDIS
(Psa_18:4-19.)
Consider:
I. The Psalmist’s peril (Psa_18:4-5).
“The sorrows of death” (Psa_18:4). “According to the reading of 2Sa_22:5, ‘the breakers of death.’ The metaphor is taken from those dangerous waves which our mariners cull whitebreakers.”—Horsley. “The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.”—Perowne. “The reference is here to wicked men, whose number and violence are indicated by the figure of torrents and overflowing streams.”—Alexander. “The sorrows of hell,” &c. (Psa_18:5). The bands of the grave, the snares of death. “By bands we are probably to understand the cordage of a net, such as fowlers spread for birds.”—Alexander. “Death is represented as a hunter with a cord and net.”—Delitzsch. Whichever way the Psalmist turns there is dreadful danger. Thus are we found in our sinful estate. We are in the power of evil. Sin as a torrent carries us away; the devil has entangled us in the meshes of his net; there seems no way of escape from the second death. When our eyes are opened to our true situation we are overwhelmed with horror. Thus do we sometimes find ourselves in days of trouble and persecution. We are compassed about with sorrow and darkness. There seems to be no way of escape.
II. The Psalmist’s prayer (Psa_18:6).
1. Its fervency. “Called.” “Cried.”
2. Its singleness. “I called upon Jehovah; i.e., when I am in trouble I call on Jehovah only, and make my supplication to no other deliverer.”—Phillips.
3. Its efficacy. “He heard my voice out of His temple,” &c. “Not the temple, or tabernacle, on Mount Zion, but the temple in heaven, where in God especially manifests His glory, and where He is worshipped by the heavenly hosts—a place which is both temple and palace.”—Perowne. What wonderful tenderness and oversight are suggested by the answer that met the Psalmist’s cry! The temple full of music, but the cry of distress carries as far as the angelic symphonies, and reaches an all-sensitive ear; the temple full of radiance and glory and beauty, but away amidst the gloom of the under-world a Divine eye sees the prostrate and struggling form of a servant of God; God hears the cry out of His very temple, and leaves the very temple, as described in the subsequent verses, for the help and deliverance of His servant. The celestial world is a world full of glory, music, and joy; and yet, it is quick to sympathise with a world of want and sorrow. Do not restrain prayer because of heaven’s distance; not because of its magnificence; not because of its sanctity, for it is a “temple,” a place of mercy and reconciliation.
III. The Psalmist’s preservation (Psa_18:7-19). “It is true we find no express record of any incident in David’s life of the kind recorded in 1Sa_7:10, but it must be some real experience, which David here idealises.”—Delitzsch.
Observe:
1. The power of the Divine Helper (Psa_18:7-9). “The earth shook and trembled,” &c. Whilst God was a rock and refuge to David, He was a power that rocked the very mountains, to say nothing of the frail fortresses of the Psalmist’s foes. God is a wall of fire to His people, but a consuming fire to His enemies.
2. The swiftness of the Divine Helper (Psa_18:10). “He rode upon a cherub, and did fly,” &c. “He is a present help in the time of trouble.”
“Ere we can offer our complaints,
Behold him present with his aid.”
3. The mystery of the methods of the Divine aid (Psa_18:11). “He made darkness His veil.”—Moll. “The word rendered secret place—means properly a hiding.”—Barnes. In strange ways God saves His people. Be patient and believing.
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,” &c.
As the 12th verse intimates, it is not all obscurity. “At the brightness that was before Him the thick clouds were scattered.” There were out-gleams. So if we keep our eye on the Divine government we shall often get glimpses of the light and love by which it is pervaded.
4. The efficacy of the Divine aid (Psa_18:13-18). God’s power utterly discomfited the foes of His people. In the 7th verse “the earth shook and trembled, the foundations also of the hills moved;” in the 13th verse the “heavens” shake, and pour down hailstones and fire. No wonder that the wicked were “scattered” in dire confusion. Let us not forget that this glorious power is pledged to the weakest saint. Our enemies may be too strong for us, but they are not too strong for Him.
5. The fulness of the Divine deliverance (Psa_18:19). God’s help never stops at the mere point of deliverance. God’s power never comes down to help us out of our perils only; it comes to bring us to better things than we had known heretofore.
NATURE AND THE SUPERNATURAL
(Psa_18:7-19.)
The Psalmist does something more here than “idealise” nature, we think that he suggests some important thoughts concerning the relation of nature to the supernatural. Dr. Farrar in his “Chapters on Language” observes: “What Mr. Ruskin has called ‘the pathetic fallacy,’ is the indomitable desire to see in nature, or at least to attribute to her, a sympathy in our joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. Hence, to the imagination of the Psalmist and prophet, ‘the hills clap their hands;’ ‘the valleys sing;’ ‘the morning stars shout for joy;’ ‘the fir-trees howl,’ &c., &c. In modern poets the same fancy recurs with constant intensity, so that there is hardly a single aspect of nature which has not been made to express or to interpret the thoughts and passions of mankind, and hardly a single modern poem which does not illustrate this imaginative power,” p. 214. But there is something far deeper than this in the relation of God’s people to nature; they not only see their experience mirrored in nature, but have the assurance that nature sympathises with them, and ministers to them in a far more profound sense. In that portion of the psalm which is now before us, we see:
I. Nature as obedient to supernatural power. We see God moving heaven and earth. All forces doing His bidding—the wind, the clouds, the lightning, the thunder, the mountains, the sea. The Psalmist in this song may have “idealised” some of his experiences, but his idealisation assumes the obedience of nature to the will of God. The Scriptures constantly teach this. The Old Testament is full of it, and the New. Reason sanctions it. It is so natural to think of the world being plastic to the will of God, that when men cease to believe in God being able to modify nature they soon cease to believe in Him at all. Experience confirms it. There are few good men but who are firmly persuaded that God has interfered with the natural order on their behalf. Science can prove nothing to the contrary. Science not only tells us of the invariability of law, but she tells us with equal emphasis of the modificability of law; and if the human will can modify natural law, who shall set the limits of the Divine interference with the natural order!
We see:
II. Nature as the executant of a supernatural will. We see in this psalm nature as an executant of the Divine anger. How all the forces of nature are here arrayed against the wicked! Nature is God’s minister to execute wrath upon them that do evil. It seems sometimes as if nature were against God, and for sin and sinners; but if we look further down we shall see that nature is on the side of God and righteousness. Let the wicked remember that the visible universe is God’s vast arsenal, and when once He is angry He can turn all the bright and beautiful things of nature into the swift ministers of death and ruin. We see nature also as an executant of the Divine grace. There is a dark side of nature for the enemies of God—there is a bright side for the friends of God. All this storm and earthquake was in mercy to David. Child of God, know nature to be thy friend! We are too apt to look upon nature as rigid and inexorable, and in no way sensitive to the generous will of Heaven. In our fear and suffering we look out upon nature and think how reckless she is of our sorrowful moods; we aggravate our sufferings by deeming nature unsympathetic, as we should aggravate them by encountering the face of a foe. Remember, if your purposes and life are only in perfect accord with God, God is always with you to aid, and the colossal and apparently immobile forces of nature are fluttering like threads of gossamer in delicate sympathy with all His manifestations of care and help and succour for you.
We see:
III. Nature ministering to supernatural purpose. Not to material, but to moral and spiritual ends. Remember the higher ministry of nature. Nature is really but a mass of means which God uses for the salvation and sanctification of His creatures. Heathen fables tell us of nature being affected by great military and political events, but God’s Word shows us nature ministering to great moral and religious ends, and this is well worthy of credence. The inferior universe serves the higher universe. We may well believe that the sun was darkened at man’s redemption; that natural law and phenomena are controlled with a view to man’s moral education; that ordinary laws and processes are disturbed to secure man’s immortal salvation.
THE BOW IN THE CLOUD
(Psa_18:16-20.)
The Psalmist in the preceding verses has shown us the earth rent by earthquakes and the heavens blackened by thunder-clouds, here we see the rainbow span the horrible tempest—God’s pity and aid to His afflicted servant. The rainbow has various colours, and there are several aspects of God’s government towards His afflicted people shining out brightly in this paragraph.
Notice:
I. The supremacy of God’s government. “He sent from above” (Psa_18:16). All was shaken on the earth, all eclipsed in the sky, but above the firmament God sits in perfect repose. Above all the storms and revolutions of earth God reigns, and reigns with undisturbed sovereignty. It is a mighty comfort to the believer to be able to cry, amid wars and tumults and eclipses: “Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Oh! that the people of God would look in dark days in the right direction! “He sent from above.” We look to society, or to self; to history, to posterity; to earth beneath us, to the world around us; we look anywhere instead of looking up. Await salvation “from above.” In our dark days the door of hope is a door which opens into heaven; let us knock at that door, and wait the help which is never denied. “God being enthroned on high, and dwelling in the heavens, does not separate Him from His servants on earth; it merely exhibits Him in His exaltation above all the powers of the world and the abyss; it no more prevents Him from hearing the sighs and supplications of the oppressed, than from making known His presence, to help in gracious condescension to the needs of men.”—Moll.
II. The discriminativeness of God’s action. “He took me, He drew me out of many waters” (Psa_18:16). The frightful storm which has just been pictured sweeping the world seems as if it would involve the guilty and the innocent in one common ruin, but we are reminded that it is not so. In the midst of these appalling displays the Psalmist was safe. The Hand that was hurling lightnings and hailstones and coals of fire, was outstretched in the gentle task of helping the imperilled good. When human authority seeks to punish, it is frequently undistinguishing, and strikes the innocent with the guilty. And it often seems as if the Divine authority were equally undistinguishing. The great laws which govern nature, society, and human life, seem blind and indiscriminating; but let us be sure that it is not so. “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” Fear God, and serve Him with all your heart, and you shall know that there is a law which discerns between the evil and the good. “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee” (Psa_91:5-8).
III. The tenderness of God’s methods. “He drew me out of many waters.” “There is peculiar beauty in the word translated draw, which is the root of the name Moses, and occurs, besides the place before us, only in the explanation of that name recorded by Himself” (Exo_2:10).—Alexander. In this psalm God is seen surrounded by awful terrors, but yet He deals with His servant in great gentleness. He has thunder, lightning, hailstones, for His foes—music, sunbeams, dewdrops, for His people. “He drew me.” Softly, tenderly, does God withdraw His servants from scenes of peril.
IV. The effectiveness of God’s aid (Psa_18:17-18). The Psalmist was no match for his foes. They were strong, and they took advantage of his weakness. “They fell upon me in the day of my calamity.”—Moll. And in his various wars David repeatedly sustained partial defeats. But the Lord was his stay. “They prevented me in the day of my calamity; i.e., came on me suddenly, unawares, when I was unprovided and helpless, and must have destroyed me had not God upheld and supported me when I was in danger of perishing. God was to the Psalmist for a staff to support him. What the staff is to one that is ready to fall, the means of recovering and preserving him; that was God to David in the time of his extremity.”—Dr. Chandler quo. by Spurgeon. Our enemies may easily be too much for us, but they cannot prevail against God. Believer! rest in God. Extremity of help will come in extremity of need; and when you are the weakest, God shall glorify Himself the most by working out your uttermost salvation.
V. The bountifulness of God’s grace (Psa_18:19). “He brought me forth to a wide place.”—Phillips. If we are faithful to God, our temptations and sorrows are ever working out for us a more perfect liberty, a higher being, a greater weight of glory.
THE GREAT SALVATION
(Psa_18:16.)
There can be little doubt but that David in this place is idealising some of his own experiences; but that eye is very dim which cannot perceive in the Psalmist’s language something far beyond a description of his own immediate temporal danger and rescue. We have not exhausted the meaning of this magnificent hymn until we have seen in it a foreshadowing of the world’s redemption in Jesus Christ.
Behold:
I. A great danger. What is that danger? A world of Sinners on the brink of hell. The Psalmist pictures himself surrounded by death and hell, and altogether helpless in their grasp. It is a picture of the world, considered apart from the truth and mercy of God in Jesus Christ. The race had fallen under the power of sin, and the whole earth was filled with wickedness and wretchedness. Man could not help himself, could not deliver himself from the tyranny of the devil. And each individual sinner feels that his sins have brought him to the brink of the pit. Floods of ungodliness are sweeping him onward to the ocean of wrath. We are perishing sinners.
Behold:
II. A Divine deliverer. “He sent from above.” Down in a gulf of dark despair we wretched sinners lay, when God’s eye pitied us, and His right arm brought salvation. There was no help in us. Man has no resource within himself to cope with the great tide of sin and wrath. No help around us. Society cannot save us. No man can redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him. There was no human helper, no angelic helper, and so God Himself becomes our helper. Guilty man was like a broken ship in a storm, no haven in view, no friendly sail bearing down to his relief, no lighthouse star to cheer, no life-boat on the wave, when God marked his signals of distress, and out of the opened heaven sent him a Saviour, even Christ the Lord. “He tent from above.” He sent His Word. The oracles of God. He sent His Son. May we not say, “He came from above”! He sent His Spirit. God has come down to the scene of woe, and invites us to make Him our deliverer. Mark ,
1. the strength of this Saviour. “He took me.” This expresses the strength of His grasp. His right hand doeth valiantly. If our soul is in His hand, who shall tear us out of it? Mark ,
2. the tenderness of this Saviour. “He drew me.” As humane men bend over one who has been rescued from the river, and apply warmth to the chilly limbs, and chafe the livid hands, and pour cordials into the lips, and keep on hour after hour with their tender ministries, until the closed eyes open, and the pallid cheek is tinged with crimson, and the silent lips break into the music of speech; so Christ bends lovingly over sinners plucked from black depths, and by his longsuffering and tenderness arouses and perfects in them a Divine and immortal life.
Behold:
III. A complete redemption. “He drew me out of many waters.” He gives us redemption from sin, sorrow, fear, death, hell. Christ is an ark to save the world, and to save us all from many sorrows. Noah’s ark floats on the waters, but its door was shut. A thousand eager eyes of drowning men might behold it, a thousand cries might be addressed to it, but it gave no response. For a while, men, women, children might cling to it, only, however, to be washed into the awful gulf. But Christ is an ark, the door of which is wide open, and every sinking despairing soul may enter in and be saved. And as the ark brought Noah in safety to the new earth; so Christ shall bring His people in safety “into a large place.” He shall land them in heaven.
ULTIMATE REASONS
(Psa_18:19.)
“He delivered me, because He delighted in me.”
We inquire:
I. Why God delivers and honours men? “Because He delighted in me.” God’s regard to man does not spring,
1. From the fact that He could not do without us. He could do without us. We are not necessary to Him. “What shall a man profit God?”
2. Neither is this regard explained by any claim we might have on God, arising from the fact that He is our Creator. By a thousand wilful transgressions we have forfeited any such claim. One of our writers insists: “If a created being has no rights which his Creator is bound to respect, there is an end to all moral relations between them.” But who does not feel that through his sin and folly he has lost all “rights,” and must cast himself upon the mercy of God?
3. Neither does God esteem any man on the ground of any physical or intellectual quality that he may possess. The creature’s skill or force, the piercing wit, the active limb, these are all too mean delights for God. Apart from moral excellences they have no charms in His eyes.
4. Neither can this regard be explained on the ground of any arbitrary election. We are not to imagine that God, for some inscrutable reasons, delights in some and rejects others. On what grounds, then, does God delight in men?
(1.) On the ground of faith. This was the position of the Psalmist. “In Thee have I trusted.” If we honour God with our confidence, He will honour us with His protection. As we trust in God, we make ourselves dear to God; as we trust in Him, we have claims upon Him.
(2.) On the ground of moral character. In Psa_18:20-27 the Psalmist shows why God delighted in him. According to our moral sincerity and circumspection will God delight in us and bless us. “God deals with men according as He sees their hearts to be towards Him. Those who walk before Him in simplicity and uprightness of heart may expect His succour.”—Perowne. There is nothing arbitrary or partial in God; He will delight in us all, and enrich us with the uttermost salvation, if we trust Him; and prove the sincerity of our faith by our obedience. We observe several
II. Practical lessons suggested by this truth.
1. Let us not perplex ourselves by imagining any favouritism in God. Acceptance with God is on broad grounds, equally open to us all.
2. Let us remember that we cannot recommend ourselves to God on any grounds of nature. We are defaulters, and have lost that moral beauty in which alone God can delight.
3. It is only by believing in God’s grace that we can enjoy that grace.
4. It is only by moral sincerity and earnestness that we can retain that grace
GOOD THINGS FOR GOOD PEOPLE
(Psa_18:20-27.)
In these verses the Psalmist shows that the love of God for His people is not a blind and unrighteous predilection, but that the just and righteous God loves righteousness. Observe here two great canons of the Divine rule. First:
I. God deals with us as we deal with Him. (Psa_18:20-25.) “The truth, which is here enunciated is, that God’s conduct to man is the reflection of the relation in which man has placed himself to God.”—Delitzsch. David does not mean in these protestations to lay claim to perfection and sinlessness, but he asserts the sincerity of his desire to please God, and the uprightness of his conduct before God. “David here, as in the last psalm, asserts not his freedom from sin, but the consciousness of his own integrity.”—Perowne. And because he thus sought to recognise God, and glorify Him—God watched over him, and blessed him. The destiny which God prepares for a man is a reflection of the man’s personal character. As shadows and echoes represent their originating substances and sounds; so in the discriminating character of God’s judgments there is a complete response to personal character. He who honours God, is honoured by God.
1. Let us remember that we cannot expect God’s help except so far as we are pure in purpose and life.
2. Let us observe the loftiness of the standard of conduct which we must observe if we are to claim Divine patronage. “All His judgments were before me” (Psa_18:22). And they were constantly before Him. “And I did not put away His statutes from me” (Psa_18:22). We must not pick and choose the statutes, but must observe them all, even those which try as the most; and observe them always, even unto the end. Learn:
II. God deals with us as we deal with one another. (Psa_18:26.) “The Psalmist, in this and following verses, intimates that the plan of God’s providential conduct to men, is to act towards them as they act towards each other. This is an undoubted principle of His moral government, and ought to constitute a strong motive for the exercise of all Christian virtues in the social relations of life.”—Phillips. Throughout the Word of God this truth is insisted upon. It is recognised in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” If we are harsh to our brother, God shall exact from us; if we deceive our brother, God shall permit us to be blinded by strong delusions; if we defraud our brother, God shall spoil us; if we will not forgive our brother, neither shall our heavenly Father forgive us. God stands behind society, and marks our integrity or faithlessness in all the social relations of life, and deals with us accordingly. Whatsoever a man sows, and wheresoever he sows, that shall he reap. Let us, by the grace of God, keep clean hands, and sow golden seeds, and blessed shall the harvest be. Lessons:
1. There can be no salvation except through righteousness. On this ground alone will God bless us on earth; on this ground only admit us to heaven (Rom_2:6-9).
2. There can be no righteousness except through grace. David does not formally recognise here this fact, but elsewhere he recognises it fully, and here he assumes it. God’s grace originates the lofty righteousness here spoken of. It is a Divine righteousness. God’s grace preserves this righteousness. It keeps us “from our iniquity.” God’s grace crowns this righteousness. Giving to it vast rewards.
BESETTING SINS
(Psa_18:23.)
“I kept myself from mine iniquity.” David certainly means here some particular sin to which he was most prone.
Observe:
I. We are all the subjects of special weaknesses and temptations.
1. Each nation has its besetting sin. Scientific observers tell us that different races of men have different kinds of weeds following in their wake, so that a careful observer can, in travelling, see at once, by merely noticing the prevailing weeds, whether Europeans or Asiatics, Negroes or Indians, have dwelt at certain places. So each nation has its peculiar sin.
2. Each age has its besetting sin. In the history of morals we find bow various vices have prevailed at various times. Now an age of cruelty; now of intemperance; now of superstition; now of scepticism. Has not our own age its besetting sin?
3. Each individual has his besetting sin. John Hunter held that two general diseases cannot co-exist in the same individual. It is somewhat thus with man morally. Usually a man will be under the influence of some one particular passion or temptation. All sins are in us seminally, potentially, sympathetically, but in some one direction we are specially in danger. This may arise from our constitution. “As in the natural man, though there be all the faculties, yet some faculties are in some more lively and vigorous than in others, some are more witty, some are more strong, some quick of sight, some have a ready ear, and others a nimble tongue, &c. So it is in the old man also; there is all the power of sin in an unregenerate man, but in some more dexterous one way than another.”—Strong quo. by Spurgeon. Or it may arise from our situation. “There are more temptations to some sins than others, from the different professions or courses of life men take upon themselves. If they follow the court, I need not tell you what temptations and snares there are to divers sins, and what danger there is of falling into them. If they be listed in the camp, that tempts them to rapine and violence, neglect of God’s worship, and profaneness. If they exercise trading and merchandise, they meet with greater enticements to lying and cozening, over-reaching and unjust dealing; and the mystery of some trades, as had men manage them, is a downright ‘mystery of iniquity.’ If husbandry, to anxiety about the things of the world, a distrust of God’s providence, or murmuring against it. Nay, I could wish in the most sacred profession of all there might be an exception made in this particular; but Paul tells us that even in his days ‘some preached Christ even of envy and strife,’ some for filthy lucre only, as well as some of good will.”—Dove quo. by Spurgeon.
We proceed:
II. To make several observations touching this particular class of sins.
1. These besetting sins are to be conquered. We are sometimes ready to apologise for these sins. We are ready to regard them as hereditary, incurable. The Scriptures do not regard any taint of blood as ineradicable, any passion as invincible, any temptation as insurmountable. The Old Testament says, “I kept myself from mine iniquity.” The New Testament says, “Lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets you.” To say that religion will not strengthen us to master the easily besetting sin, is to say that it fails where, and when, we need salvation most
2. In the subduing of our besetting sin lies the great struggle of life. Our love to God, our allegiance to Him, is tested, not by ten commandments, but rather by one or two of them. The question of our moral character is fought out on some one question. If we conquer here, we conquer along the whole line; if we fail here, guilty in one point we are guilty in all. The great battle with the Philistine host is decided by single combat. Smiting this single sin the day is ours, we put to flight the army of the aliens. This sin beneath our feet, and the crown is on our head.
3. We must estimate our character according to our relation to the besetting sin. We sometimes flatteringly estimate our character by reckoning up the sins to which we have no inclination. This is a fatal miscalculation. Is it not a maxim in mechanics, that a thing is no stronger than its weakest part? This is as true in morals as in mechanics. When we seek to estimate our character let us ask, how do we stand in regard to our weak points? Are we gaining, or losing ground there? Never mind the strong points. If we perpetually fail in one point let us remember that that is the true index to our character, and that a score of untried virtues will not atone for the one virtue which fails whenever it is put into the fire.
Observe finally:
The discipline by which the easily besetting sin is to be subdued.
1. We must seek the grace of God. It is impossible for us to cast aside these sins in our own strength. We must “look unto Jesus.” We are to be made perfect by looking at Him, the perfection of beauty, and ever claiming His power and grace.
2. We must exert ourselves. “I kept myself from mine iniquity.” “God, indeed, in our first conversion works upon us as He did upon the earth, or Adam’s body in paradise, before He breathed a soul into it and made it a living creature; such a power as Christ put forth on Lazarus in his grave, for we are ‘dead in trespasses and sins;’ but yet being living he must walk and act of himself, the Lord will have us to co-operate together with Him, for we are built upon Christ, not as dead, but as ‘living stones.’ ”—Strong quo. by Spurgeon.
THE LIGHT OF LIFE
(Psa_18:28.)
Here the Psalmist recognizes God as,
I. The source of his Light. “For Thou givest light to my lamp; Jehovah, my God, maketh my darkness to be bright.”—Perowne. In 2Sa_22:29, “Thou, O Jehovah, art my lamp.” In days of deep perplexity, in the presence of painful problems, God was his counsellor. Blessed are those who seek light in God! Take your candles to Him, and He shall light them with a shining lustre. Take your understanding to Him, and He shall make it to shed pure illuminations; take your heart to Him, and He shall make it burn with heavenly brightness. Light your candles at the radiant luminary of the Spirit, the Word, the Throne.
II. The source of his joy. “Light is often in Scripture expressive of joy or comfort,” for “truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun” (Ecc_11:7; Psa_97:11; Psa_92:4). By a natural opposition, as light is expressive of joy and comfort; so is darkness, of sorrow and misery. The Psalmist, however, speaks in this place of artificial light, a “candle” or “lamp;” which has been supposed to be illustrated by the custom prevailing in Egypt, of never suffering their houses to be without lights, but burning lamps even through the night, so that the poorest people would rather retrench part of their food than neglect it.”—Bishop Mant. “The lamps lighted in the house is the image at once of prosperity and continuance of life and happiness.”—Perowne. Amid the darkness which everywhere presses upon us, God is the lamp of His people, the source of their comfort and gladness.” A lamp or candle in the house is a common Hebrew figure for prosperity, and its extinction for distress. See Job_18:5-6; Job_21:17; Pro_24:20.”—Alexander. And when God deserts a man, all the light of life is gone.
III. The source of his glory. David himself was called the lamp of Israel (1Ki_11:36, &c.) He was its light and its glory. And God was David’s light and glory. “David’s life and dominion, as the covenant king, is the lamp which God’s favour has lighted for the well-being of Israel, and His power will not allow this lamp (2Sa_21:17) to be quenched.”—Delitzsch. Blessed are all those who find in God their life and glory. They want nothing more. He fills them with joy; He crowns them with beauty and glory.
1. God is a full Light. All other lights are partial and dim. He is a Sun; He giveth grace and glory, &c. Fulness of light, felicity, honour, in fellowship with Him. He is everything. “The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory” (Isa_60:19).
2. God is a true Light. Nothing but the pure white light. “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” The light He imparts never leads astray; the joy He gives has no sorrow added to it; the honour and glory He gives to His children has no abatement or stain, they are altogether kings.
3. God is a safe Light. Nothing can extinguish the central orb. And if we put our trust in God, if we draw the supplies of life from Him, nothing can extinguish our joy and hope. We see how David’s life and joy and glory were often threatened with total extinction, but the hand of God preserved him, the very darkness of death was lit again into day.
4. God is an everlasting light. “Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isa_60:20).
FULL CONQUEST
(Psa_18:29-34.)
In these verses we have the Psalmist exulting as “more than a conqueror.”
Observe:
I. The fulness of his victory (Psa_18:29).
1. He has vanquished a host of enemies. A “troop.”
2. He has utterly vanquished them. “Through a troop.” Divided them, broken them up, scattered them.
3. He has done it easily. “I have run through a troop.” I “leaped over a wall.” He did not secretly undermine it, or painfully batter it, or just succeed in scaling it, he leaped over it. All enemies, all obstructions, have been triumphantly vanquished.
II. The source of his victory (Psa_18:29-34). “By thee” (Psa_18:29). “In thee, and in my God, i.e., in intimate union with Him and possession of Him, a much stronger sense than that of mere assistance (by thee), which, however, is included.”—Alexander.
1. The Psalmist trusted in God. He identified himself with God (Psa_18:30). He entertained a lofty sense of God’s truth, and faithfulness, and power.
2. The Psalmist trusted in God alone (Psa_18:31). God is a rock, a ground of confidence that cannot be shaken, and God alone is such a rock. And
3. God gave him the victory. God does all (Psa_18:32). “Perfect, i.e., absolutely smooth, free from stumblings and errors, leading straight forward to a divine goal.”—Delitzsch. Strength in both its beginning and continuance is of God. He “girds” with strength at the outset and maketh the whole “way perfect” (Psa_18:33). God establishes his feet. Enables him to stand where it seemed impossible to find footing; to scale heights which seemed utterly impracticable (Psa_18:34). God gave him wisdom and prowess to defeat his foes. “It is not the bow of brass which has been David’s protection, but Jehovah’s shield covered him; Jehovah’s right hand held him up; Jehovah’s wonderful condescension made him great; Jehovah made room for him to stand, and subdue those that rose up against him.”—Perowne.
Lessons:
1. We shall gain the victory of life by allying ourselves with God. All life is a warfare to us, as it was to David; and we shall achieve the victory only in Divine strength. In the natural world we see how feeble men are whilst they use only their own strength, their own eyes, hands, feet. It is when they learn how to avail themselves of God’s power that they accomplish marvels. The human hand is feeble, but it uses God’s power, and the dynamite rends asunder the rocks, the steam drives the mighty ship or thundering wheels of mills, the electric spark tells our wishes on the other side of the world. We are slow, feeble, local, considered in ourselves; but when science has taught us to avail ourselves of God’s power, we dare winds and seas and mountains. So in the moral world. We are feeble indeed in ourselves, we cannot do the things that we would; but when we listen to revelation, and by thought, and faith, and prayer, lay hold of God’s strength, we can do all things.
2. If we ally ourselves with God’s strength, the victory of life shall be most complete and brilliant. We shall more than prevail. The “high places” of Christian experience shall be reached; the “high places” of the world, the most difficult undertakings of Christian zeal, shall be proudly compassed; the “high places” of Christian hope shall be climbed, and we shall shout the song of victory on those tablelands, of which God Himself is sun and moon.
GOD’S SHIELD
(Psa_18:35.)
“Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation.”
This “shield” indicates:
I. The availableness of God’s help. The fortress can only shelter within its precincts, but the shield is with the warrior wherever he may go. Whatever may be our lot, however singular and exposed, God is with us to uphold and save. You may have to leave the fortress of a sweet pure home, and go into the midst of gay and worldly society, the “shield” goes with you; you may have to leave the fortress of a moral neighbourhood, to dwell amid the tents of wickedness, the shield goes with you; you are compelled to leave the fortress of a Christian Church and dwell where you are cut off from Christian privileges and fellowship, the shield goes with you; you are compelled to leave the fortress of a Christian country to dwell in heathenish lauds, the shield goes with you. In all places you may realise God’s aid. Your shield is ever with you.
This shield indicates:
II. The many-sidedness of God’s protecting love. The great round shield preserves the warrior from top to toe. So the loving hand of God shelters our whole personality, and all our interests. Be sure that Satan would seek to wound us in the eye, to darken our understanding; in the heart, to make us faint; in the knee, to injure our devoutness; but God’s protecting love shelters us altogether. Our happiness, character, circumstances; in life, in death, in eternity.
The shield indicates:
III. The invincibility of God’s strength. It is the shield of “salvation.” Whoever places himself in the hands of God is safe. If we meet evil in our own strength we shall be overcome, but confide in this Divine armour, and you come out of life’s battle without a scratch. Does Satan tempt you to error? Confront him as the Saviour did, with God’s Word; let “His truth be thy shield and buckler.” Are you tempted to sin? Be strong in the truth, and love, and righteousness of God, inwrought by the Holy Spirit into your soul. This shield quenches every fiery dart.
Lessons:
1. Let the believer who has triumphed in life’s battles give glory to his Shield. David had escaped the insidious temptation to self-glory, and all his own strength and prowess he humbly ascribed to God. Let us remember that God helps us, not only outwardly by His providence, but inwardly also by a thousand untracked influences, therefore all the praise is His.
2. Let the believer ever hold fast that Shield. Never be without it. Ever living in close communion with God. Never have it to look for.
3. Let those who have been worsted in life’s conflicts learn to put their trust in God. Baffled, wounded, humbled, turn from your poor broken self to the immortal love and strength of a Divine Saviour.
“O send me not away! for I would drink,
E’en I, the weakest, at the fount of life;
Chide not my steps, that venture near the brink,
Weary and fainting from the deadly strife.
“Went I not forth undaunted and alone,
Strong in the majesty of human might?
Lo! I return, all wounded and forlorn,
My dream of glory lost in shades of night.
“Was I not guided for the battle-field?
Bore! not helm of pride and glittering sword!
Behold the fragments of my broken shield,
And lend to me thy heavenly armour, Lord!”
DIVINE GENTLENESS
(Psa_18:35.)
“Thy gentleness hath made me great.”
Notice:
I. The greatness of the good. “Hath made me great.” David was great politically, intellectually, but this greatness must be understood as moral. The Psalmist humbly, but exultingly, recognises the fact that the grace of God had ennobled his nature, crowned him with spiritual glory and honour. The end of religion is to make men great. And moral greatness is true greatness. It alone excites true admiration; makes its possessor happy; it alone abides.
Notice:
II. The gracious discipline through which this greatness is realised. “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” We are discrowned kings, and through gentleness God seeks to put the diadem on our head again. Many believe only in force and terror as restorative factors, but if we look around we see on every side the triumphs of gentleness. It is so in nature. Power, amazing power is on every hand, yet acting most softly; and because it acts so softly filling the landscapes with beauty and fruitfulness. Thus it is in art. Gentleness is everything. And this it is in society. In the physician, the parent, the tutor, you see the grand results of gentleness. God, the most powerful Being in the universe, is also the most gentle, and through gentleness seeks to raise his fallen children to true and lasting greatness.
Mark this first:
1. In God’s dealing with us in our sinful state. The aspect of God to a guilty world is altogether kind and inviting. The aspect of the Divine Providence. “He maketh his sun,” &c. Of the Divine Truth. Great and gracious promises to sinners are on every page of God’s Word. Of the Divine Spirit. The spirit of God is ever acting in the dark heart of sinners—seeking to inspire, to soften, to save. Infinite love struggles with human perversity, and so we see our way back again to the skies.
2. God’s dealings with us in our penitential state. Our first approaches to God are usually full of imperfection, and the best penitent needs large indulgence. Our motives imperfect; our methods faulty; our faith feeble. Our tears are not pure; our sackcloth equivocal. God grants us this indulgence. We are often rough with penitents; but at a thousand imperfections God winks, and through this gentleness cheers on the penitent to greater things. “A bruised reed,” &c.
3. God’s dealings with us in our accepted state. We see this
(1.) In what He accepts from us. Every Christian man has the full and clear conviction that he is never all that he ought to be—his actual life is painfully below his ideal life. And yet we have the conviction equally full and clear, that although we, and our works, are far from perfection, yet God accepts us and them; and it is this truth which ever encourages us onwards to loftier attainments and experiences.
(2.) In what He does with us. There is gentleness in all the discipline of life. “He does not permit us to be tried above what we are able to bear.” Our afflictions may often seem severe, but they are the expression of the Divine pitifulness. Indeed many commentators translate the text: “Thy afflictions have made me great,” “Thy humbling, thy chastening, thy disciplining.”—Phillips. “Even Thine afflicting hand tendeth to make me great.”—French. “Thy loving correction.”—Prayer Book.
4. God’s dealing with us in our backsliding states. How the Redeemer brought back backsliding Peter to repentance and life! (Isa_54:7-8.) Sinner, do not despise this gentleness. You will not be driven to heaven—will you be drawn? Believer, economise all the fine influences of life. “I will guide thee with mine eye.” “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” Improve all the delicate impulses and attractions of the Divine world which lies about you, and ever acts upon you. Let us pray for greater sensitiveness to the love of God; and just as the silver moon, with its soft charm, draws the ocean waters round the globe, until they have glassed the stars of every sky, and sung their anthems on every shore; so shall the good Spirit of God master the wild elements of our nature, and lead us on, and lead us out, until we have seen all God’s glory, and shown forth all His praise.
THE MORALITY OF PRAYER
(Psa_18:41.)
I. Prayer must be offered in a right cause.
Prayer offered in a wrong cause can never be availing. In the preceding verses we see Providence helping a righteous cause. The Psalmist’s relation to God was not a selfish contract for help, as between the heathen and his idol—the Psalmist sympathised with God’s rights and designs. God scatters many prayers in the air, because they are offered in a purely selfish cause. Many prayers also are rejected because offered in a wicked cause. “Prayer is so notable a weapon that even the wicked will take to it in their fits of desperation. Bad men have appealed to God against God’s own servants, but all in vain; the kingdom of heaven is not divided, and God never succours his foes at the expense of his friends. There are prayers to God which are no better than blasphemy, which bring no comfortable reply, but rather provoke the Lord to greater wrath.”—Spurgeon.
II. Prayer must be offered in a right spirit.
1. The spirit of penitence. Sorrow for past sins—but there was none of that in these heathen. The spirit of repentance is necessary to availing prayer, and if that spirit is wanting, our prayers are abomination. “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.” (Isa_1:15-16.)
2. The spirit of righteousness. “The cry extorted in terror, and not coming from an upright heart (Psa_18:24, &c.), is not heard. See opposite, Psa_18:6.”—Perowne. We must live in the love and practice of goodness. “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” “Lifting up holy hands.” Remember the morality of prayer, and remember it in your daily doings. You are either building up, or cutting the sinews of your future prayers, by your present conduct. Righteousness is necessary to prayer—not as a channel of merit for our prayers up to God, but as a plane of moral possibility in our lives down which God’s answer can come back to us. Let us be severe in the purity of our thought and life, or we shall soon have to utter the lament of the poet:
“God sends me back my prayers, as a father
Returns unop’ed the letters of a son
Who hath dishonoured him.”
3. The spirit of confidence. The spirit of these heathen was that of terror and despair. “As nature prompteth men in an extremity to look up for help; but because it is but the prayer of the flesh for ease, and not of the spirit for grace, and a good use of calamities, and not but in extreme despair of help elsewhere, therefore God hears them not. In Samuel it is, ‘They looked, but there was none to save them;’ q.d. If they could have made any other shift, God should never have heard of them.”—Trapp. Prayer must be the language of confidence.
III. Prayer must be offered at a right time. They cried first to their own gods, and when there was none to answer, then they cried to Israel’s God. They prayed too late. Men often do. There is an accepted time in which God will hear prayer, and it is our duty not to let that time pass. (Pro_1:24-33; Joh_8:21; Luk_16:24; Rev_6:16.)
VICTORY FOR CHRIST AND VICTORY IN CHRIST
(Psa_18:37-50.)
We have here a picture,
I. Of Christ’s victory over His foes.
“This Psalm looks beyond David. David and David’s rule over the nations are but a type and image of Christ, and of that spiritual kingdom which He came to establish.”—Perowne. We have suggested here,
1. The completeness of Christ’s victory (Psa_18:37-42). All Christ’s enemies are to be “put under His feet.” And all of them completely under His feet. Many teachers, systems, institutions, which are proud enough now in their opposition to Christ, will be very low before Christ has done with them. The victories of the Church are perpetually stopping at certain points, and complete and permanent triumph seems scarcely ever attained. But let us not be discouraged; Christ shall ride on till the last foe has fallen.
2. The rapidity of Christ’s march. Up to a certain point David had to fight with varying fortune, but a time came when fighting was no longer necessary; a panic seized the hearts of the foe, and they melted away. Subsequent victories were won by the moral influence of the first victories. May it not be thus with the progress of Messiah’s kingdom? Slowly has that kingdom seemed to prevail up to now; but, these preliminary struggles won, may not the triumphs of the Gospel be far more multiplied and swift? Satan shall “fall as lightning.”
3. The universality of Christ’s reign (Psa_18:43; Psa_18:49). David ruling over Israel and over the heathen tribes, was a foreshadowing of Christ exalted over all the lands. Blessed are all those who submit to Christ. His conquest means freedom and life and glory to all who accept it. Alas! for those who will not have this man to rule over them. Man or multitude, king or kingdom, whatever sets itself against the truth as it is in Jesus, must be broken.
Observe:
II. The saint’s victory in Christ. We may well see in David’s triumph over his foes a picture of that spiritual triumph which Christ ensures to all his people.
1. Do not be content until all your sins are overcome.
2. Until all your sins are utterly vanquished. “Beat them small as the dust before the wind.”
3. Until you have destroyed them for ever. Fight, until God crown you king to all eternity.
(1.) Fight in Christ. Be sure of that. See that He girds you, leads you, saves you.
(2.) Put forth all personal effort. David did not leave invisible powers to fight for him, but threw himself also into the fight.
(3.) Give God the glory of every victory (Psa_18:49-50).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 There are three dark shadows which fall across every…
Psa 18:28
There are three dark shadows which fall across every human life.
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I. There is, first of all, the shadow of sin. It falls dark and thick upon the life of human beings. Sin is the transgression in will or in fact of the eternal moral law, of that law which, unlike the law of nature, could not be other than what it is, unless God could be other than what He is, of that law which is not an arbitrary enactment of His will, but the outflow of the expression of His very being. Sin thus is the contradiction of God, the resistance of the created will to the will of the Creator. And this resistance means darkness, not in the sky above our heads, but, far worse, darkness in the moral nature, darkness in the moral intelligence, darkness at the centre of the soul.
II. The shadow of pain. As the races and generations pass, whatever else may distinguish them from each other, whatever else they may have in common, they pass each and all, sooner or later, under the weird shadow of pain. How to deal with pain, how to alleviate it, how to do away with it—these have been questions which men have discussed for thousands of years; and anodynes there are, such as they are, for pains of body and pains of mind, anodynes of very varying moral worth, but of which this much must be said, that they do but at most curtail the fringe of the great realm of pain.
III. The shadow of death. The thought that death must come at last casts over thousands of lives a deep gloom. There is the uncertainty of the time and manner of its approach; there is the unimaginable experience of what in itself it will be; there is the dread of what may or may not follow it.
Sin, pain, death—these are the three shadows that fall across the life of men in this day of preparation for the great future; and that our Lord makes these dark shadows to be light is the experience in all ages of thousands of Christians. Only a robust faith in the unseen, only the faith of our Lord and God, can relieve the human heart when face to face with these solemn and irremovable conditions of our human life. So long as they last, the religion of the Crucified will last too.
H. P. Liddon, Contemporary Pulpit Extra No. 4, p. 92.
Psa 18:30
I. Consider this great and deep utterance in application to God’s material works. Let us look at the various phenomena that are around us, and we shall see that the light, and air, and heat, and cold, and the heavenly bodies, the laws of electricity, the various kinds of climate under which men are living—all these are marvellously adapted to the end for which they are designed. All that came from the hand of God was very good, and it is the entrance and result of moral evil that has brought an apparent imperfection into the world, so that we are unable to look at the material works of God without having to qualify what the Psalmist says.
II. So it is in God’s government of the world. Notwithstanding all that has been said about the Fall, and the present want of symphony and harmony in things, and the strange, bewildering tokens that something has gone wrong and made imperfect that which seems destined to be perfect, we maintain that when the issues of God’s government in the world shall be known it shall be found true that His way was perfect.
III. This truth might be applied to the Gospel. If we look at man on the one hand and at God on the other, and at what the Gospel is designed to accomplish, we can see that God’s way is perfect.
IV. The text may be brought to bear on God’s dealings with His people individually. It is a text to be laid hold on by faith. God never put a wrong burden on anybody’s back. His child must be educated, and trained, and disciplined, because he has to be brought home.
V. If by faith we are enabled to use the text now, with all life’s riddles to puzzle out, and when we have all God’s dark dealings to try us, a day is coming when all these mysteries will be cleared up in the flooding light of eternity, and the song of the saints will be, "As for God, His way is perfect."
J. C. Miller, Penny Pulpit, No. 1035.
Psa 18:35
Consider how the gentleness of a loving correction makes God’s children great. For we ought, all of us, to wish to be great—great in the school of Christ, great in the Divine life, great in holiness, great in usefulness. There could not be a worse mistake than telling any Christian to crush or to curb his ambition. It is one of those natural passions which are virtues or vices according to their end. As an end, ambition is self, and therefore sin. As a means to God’s glory, ambition is the highest grace. Point your ambition right, and then push it to the utmost.
I. We all have felt how we are always getting under the power of the little, everyday circumstances in which we live, and how, whatever may be our exceptional elevations, we are drawn down habitually to the lowness of the level of our common life. A real sorrow is a great liberator: it takes us out of the old groove of triviality; it restores things to their right proportion, making the little great, and the great little. Correction, whatever else it does, sets a man free, and puts him in a position that he may become great.
II. A time of sorrow is, and must be, a time of thought. And what most of us want is to be brought really to think. It is not too much to say that every one who is at the pains to think, and to think truly, will become great. But it specially leads us to think about our own state before God, for as soon as ever we are in sorrow it is in the gentleness of God that He wishes to comfort us.
III. Loving correction brings us into contact with the greatness of God. If a mind is conversant with what is great, it must become greater. There is a dignity in grief, and God only matches with that dignity.
IV. It is the great humiliation of sorrow which makes it magnifying. For what is greatness? Humility. And there is no humbler like a great sorrow.
V. But, above all, it is because it unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ that correction makes us great. There is nothing great before God but Christ; and every other thing is great before God as He sees it in Christ, as it is identified with Christ.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 4th series, p. 245.
I. We find rising out of these words the question, What is the greatness which in the Christian is produced by God’s gentleness? It is excellence in that for which especially man was originally created. Now, as we learn from Scripture that man was made in the image of God, it follows that men are great in the proportion in which they are like Him. The greatness of manhood is greatness in holiness. It is a moral thing, for the truest manliness and the highest Godlikeness are convertible terms.
II. Consider how God’s gentleness can be said to make us great. The human heart is always more deeply affected by tenderness than by sternness. If you wish to drag a man by force, his nature is to resist you; but if you attempt to attract him by love, it is equally his nature to follow you. God, who has given us this nature, seeks to save us in accordance with it. (1) God has manifested His gentleness in the mission and work of Jesus Christ, and makes proclamation of pardon and regeneration to every one who will accept them through His Son. (2) The words of the text are verified in the manner in which God receives individuals into His love, and so begins in them the greatness of holiness. (3) The truth of the text is made apparent also in the manner in which God in Christ Jesus trains His people after they have come to Him. He teaches them more and more of His grace; yet, in truest tenderness, He teaches them as they are able to bear it.
This subject has a twofold application. (1) It presents Jehovah to the sinner in a very affectionate attitude. (2) It shows the Christian how he should seek to bring others to Jesus. The gentleness of God should be repeated and reproduced in us.
W. M. Taylor, Limitations of Life, and Other Sermons, p. 344.
I. The longsuffering of God declares His power. What He does not punish now, He can punish by-and-bye; what He does not punish here, He can punish there; what not in this world, in the next. He is, in the words of the Psalmist, "strong and patient," patient because He is strong, because all power belongeth unto Him.
II. The longsuffering of God is a declaration of His love, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He sees the saint in the sinner, the saint that shall be in the sinner that is, the wheat in the tare, the shepherd feeding the sheep in the wolf tearing the sheep.
III. This tardiness of vengeance, this lame foot with which it seems to lag and halt after successful wickedness, is no pledge of safety to the sinner. It argues no listlessness, no moral indifference to the eternal distinctions between good and evil, on the part of Him who is the Judge of the whole earth, and by whom actions are weighed. It means (1) that Christ has died for sinners, and (2) that God can afford to wait. Flee from Him thou canst not. To flee to Him is thy only way of deliverance.
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey, p. 339.
I. Greatness is always a work of time. This is true even of apparent greatness, mere elevation of state. Emphatically is it true that moral greatness is a work of time. Character is a growth, generally a very slow growth. We must not give up our assurance of Christian excellence; that were to abandon our hope of heaven. Neither must we suppose that so great an achievement can only be accomplished by stormy and violent ways. The "hidings of power" are the mark of God. His "gentleness" makes us great.
II. God must be gentle; for gentleness is a sign of perfection.
III. The idea of God’s gentleness comes out of our knowledge of His unchangeableness.
IV. Consider the influence of God’s gentleness on Christian character: it makes us great. (1) Two of the prime elements of personal greatness—nobility of purpose and purity of motive—are directly stimulated by the gentleness of God. (2) Wisdom is another element of greatness; and we need time that we may be wise. (3) Steadfastness in its two forms—perseverance in good resolve and patience under difficulty—is given us by the gentle dealing of our God.
V. This subject throws light on our perplexities (1) about conversion; (2) about Christian perfection.
A. Mackennal, Life of Christian Consecration, p. 67.
God’s gentleness lies in His consenting to the use of indirection as a way of gaining His adversaries. Force and cruel absolutism are put by; the irritations of a jealous littleness have no place; and the great God and Father, intent on making His children great, follows them and plies them with the gracious indirections of a faithful and patient love.
I. Observe how far off this gentleness is from the practice, and even capacity generally, of mankind. True greatness is a character too lofty for any but the greatest and most Divinely tempered souls.
II. Some evidence will be demanded that God pursues any such method of indirection, or of rectorial gentleness, with us. See then (1) how openly He takes this attitude in the Scriptures. (2) It is the very genius of Christianity to prevail with man, or to bring him back to obedience and life, by a course of loving indirection. When a soul is really born of God, it will be the result of what the Spirit has wrought, by a long, and various, and subtle, and beautiful process, too delicate for human thought to trace. (3) We see this gentleness in God’s management of our experience. Doing everything to work on our feeling, temperament, thought, will, and so on our eternal character, He still does nothing by direct impulsion.
III. The end God has in view is to make us great. He has a much higher respect for the capabilities of our human nature, and much higher designs concerning it, than we have ourselves. While God is ever engaged in bringing down our loftiness in evil and perversity, He is just as constantly engaged in making us loftier and stronger in everything desirable—in capacity, and power, and all personal majesty. He wants to make us great in will, in intellect, in courage, enthusiasm, self-respect, firmness, superiority to things and matters of condition, great in sonship with Himself.
IV. Holding such a view of God’s ends and the careful indirections by which He pursues them, we cannot fail to note (1) the softened aspect given to what are often called the unaccountable severities of human experience. (2) How strangely weak and low is the perversity of many when they require it of God to convert them by force, or drive them heavenward by storm. (3) Let us adjust our conceptions to that which is the true pitch and scale of our magnanimity and worth as Christian men. Be it ours to live with a sense of our high calling upon us; abiding in all the holy magnanimities of love, honour, sacrifice, and truth; sincere, exact, faithful, bountiful, and free; showing thus to others, and knowing always in ourselves, that we do steadily aspire to just that height of good into which our God Himself has undertaken to exalt us.
H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 18.
References: Psa 18:35.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 683; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 100; E. Leach, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 232; Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the Old Testament, p. 105; C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 215.
Psa 18:50
This is Christ’s resurrection psalm; He is the King, and the deliverance spoken of not in this verse only, but frequently throughout the Psalm, is specially His deliverance, His deliverance as the Representative of His own. It is a psalm of deliverance or salvation; the two words are the same. The whole history of the Bible from beginning to end pertains to what God calls deliverance.
I. First of all, we find in David’s history a history of deliverance. David was a man of like passions with ourselves, not faultless, not perfect, but falling again and again into sin, and yet plucked out of that iniquity into which he fell by the interposing hand of Him who had great deliverances always in store for him.
II. Israel’s history is a history of deliverance, and very remarkably so. Each section of Israel’s history contains a gospel for us. Each one of Israel’s deliverances proclaims glad tidings of great joy to us in our weakness, weariness, and exposure to continual danger from enemies on the right hand and on the left.
III. Then you have, in the third place, Christ’s history as a history of deliverance, Messiah’s history. His deliverances were ours, and as such we are to regard them, and to triumph in them. He was saved from the hands of His enemies that we also might be saved.
IV. The history of the Church is a history of deliverance—deliverances just at the time when she was lowest, deliverances which put a new song in her mouth, and sent her on a new career of gladness and usefulness.
V. The history of each believer is a history of deliverance—deliverance from first to last, deliverance at the hand of the faithful Deliverer, He who came in the name of the Lord to save us, who is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
H. Bonar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 177.
References: Psalm 18—A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 153; I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 315. Psa 19:1.—R. Lee, Sermons, pp. 279, 294, 308, 325, 342, 359; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 195.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 God manifesting Himself for His Anointed.
God manifesting Himself for His Anointed.
(To the chief musician: [a psalm] of David, the servant of Jehovah, who spake unto Jehovah the words of this song, in the day when Jehovah had delivered him out of the grasp of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. And he said:)
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We come now, in the third psalm of this series, to the manifestation of God in behalf of Messiah, whose deliverance and exaltation involve the deliverance and blessing of the people with whom He has linked Himself. But the result is wider than this also: He is made the Head of the nations, and a people that He had not known before serve Him.
But a large part of the psalm is taken up with the way in which God has displayed Himself in all this, -His personal intervention, His character as manifested, -all that makes Him the object of His people’s praise. And this revelation of Himself is, as this implies, their blessing and happiness forever, as it is that of all His creatures, -unfallen and redeemed alike.
This psalm is found also at the end of David’s history in the book of Samuel,* the occasion of it being given similarly in each place, and the end of the psalm itself assuring us of its application to David in the first place, though a greater than he shines through continually. At this we have no possible cause to wonder, knowing him to be in his life so largely typical of God’s "Beloved" and King, for whom we look.
{*A comparison with Samuel will show, however, many differences, for the most part slight, which the known MSS. give us no help in removing, and which, therefore, we may suppose to be designed, even though we may not have read our Bibles carefully enough to apprehend their meaning.}
In perfect accord with its character, the first forty-five verses of the psalm are in triplets throughout; these dividing into six main portions, the seventh closing with five verses of praise.
1. The psalm begins, as it ends, with praise. Jehovah, the living and unchanging God, is celebrated in it as the Rock of faith, and that in double character: the first word "means properly," as Delitzsch observes, "a cleft in a rock, then a cleft rock"; the second, a great and hard mass of rock." Accordingly, in the first, "the idea of a safe (and comfortable) hiding-place preponderates"; in the second, "that of firm ground and inaccessibility. The one figure calls to mind the well-watered Edomitish Sela, surrounded with precipitous rocks, . . . the other calls to mind the Phoenician rocky island Tzur (Tyre), the refuge in the sea." The cleft Rock is a figure for the Christian full of tender, wonderful associations; the firm, impregnable, eternal Rock, yet cleft for a refuge to the soul fleeing to it for escape. And this double thought is varied and expanded through all these epithets with which the psalmist declares the good cause he has for fervent love toward his God. They are capable also of double application, as the language of the Lord, or of those whom we have seen that He here identifies Himself with and represents. We shall find, of course, in this as in other psalms, passages in which One personality shines out, forbidding association of any other with it. We may find, perhaps, those in which it is easier at least to recognize the many for whom He stands (or some of these), than it is their Representative. This we may expect. One passage (verse 23) which, as it reads in the common and other versions, could not be applied to Him, should receive, it is believed, another meaning. In general,we may expect to find unmistakably through these psalms the Voice like which there is no other, while yet we shall sufficiently discern that He who speaks has linked Himself with others, so that His cause and theirs are one.
The third verse gives the realization of Jehovah as the rock of the soul: "I call upon Jehovah, the object of my praise, and I am saved from my enemies." This is what he who speaks has found; and all that follows here is the expansion of it.
2. Accordingly we go back to the "strait" out of which he cries to God, and is answered. And once more we find that it is the shadow which darkens the world which he is facing. The toils of death are round him, escape shut off; and it is death as we have seen it, and as the conscience recognizes it, -death as the doom of sin.
The words are simple enough, but all the more has their meaning to be gathered from their context and connections, rather than learned directly. And this is characteristic of the psalms, as it is of much of the Old Testament. We have to bring in the light of the New in order to be able to see what is hidden in it for us: it is the Old Testament itself that bids us remember that "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," as it is "the honor [or glory] of kings to search out a matter." (Pro 25:2.) Would that in this research into Scripture "kings" were more plentiful!
Here the person of the speaker is of all importance; and however He may identify Himself with others, in this psalm it is Christ who is this throughout. Thus, when He says "the torrents of Belial put me in fear," we have to consider in what sense it would be possible for Him to say this. Belial -though it seems better to anglicize than to translate the Hebrew word means, evidently, "worthlessness," the "ungodly men" of the common version, which the revised changes into "ungodliness."* The word is, indeed, much more than the English one, of a moral significance very positive, and not negative merely. In the moral and spiritual spheres, there is nothing merely negative: simple indifference here is crime. Thus Belial is used in the New Testament as standing for the direct opposite of Christ; and the "sons of Belial," in the language of the Old, are always those lawless ones who,whenever the occasion arises, manifest themselves as law-breakers, hostile to God and man. The "torrents of Belial" are undoubtedly such corrupt and lawless men; only marking their wickedness as that which produces fear in Him who speaks here. Their power, whatever it were, surely could not, any more than death could in its physical suffering, or in aught beyond it. For Him, the sting of it would be as judgment from God; and such it was, of necessity, for Him who took it as the Sin-bearer and Substitute for sinners. Thus wrath was in it, separation from Him who was of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, though this was upon Him only.
{*"Perdition," "the abyss," -adopted by Delitzsch and others, are not justified by the texts appealed to, such as Psa 41:8, Nah 1:11, and 2Co 6:15: these do not depart from the regular meaning.}
"The torrents of Belial" must then have "put Him in fear," by the horror of what sin was to Him, as He realized it in the light in which He lived with God, from the joy of that well-known, glorious Presence, earth itself but the footstool of Deity. He had come into it but to do, amid sorrow and suffering, the Father’s will, which man could violate at his pleasure, and count it pleasure, and imagine it freedom to do so! For this He was to die, taking the sinner’s place; men like these -His creatures, with His stamp defaced in them -driving the nails which fastened Him to the cross, plunging the spear into His side, sealing Him up in His grave, defying Him to come out of it again! Giving Himself up freely to all this, while struck with the awful horror of it all, well might He exclaim, "The torrents of Belial put me in fear!"
Sin itself, -just to know it aright, could it be known fully, -in a soul where there was no callousness such as it induces, -what a supreme agony would it be!
And the due of sin, -to bear that death, as no saint has known, -as no sinner could ever know it, -the living death of the Heir and Fountain of Life; the Life eternal proving the nameless woe of the shadow of death, where faith could no more say, "But Thou art with Me."
It is impossible to speak of it aright. Scripture itself leaves the veil upon it. Those who, moved by the Spirit of God to give us the story of the cross, as from their various points of view they regard it, stand in the hush of the night that falls, pointing, as it were in silence, to the sacred Figure "lifted up from the earth," and upon its head the crown of thorns.
"I cry . . . and Thou answerest not," are the words of the psalm of atonement; but then again, "when He cried unto Him, He heard." (Psa 22:2; Psa 22:24.) Both things, of course, true: each suited in its place. The psalm here celebrates the hearing, and that out of the sanctuary, -the answer of God in His holiness to the Holy One: with that answer, and its result in blessing for the people of God (that is, for Israel and the millennial nations,) the rest of the psalm is occupied.
3. We have now therefore the appearing of God in behalf of His suffering Holy One. But when we come to the detail of this intervention, while it may well apply to the accompaniments of the resurrection of Christ, and no doubt has this in view, on the other hand the description as a whole irresistibly reminds us of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. Indeed the actual theophany, the heavens bowed as God comes down, the judgment executed upon the enemies, ending with the exaltation of Christ over the nations of the earth, -all this connected as it is together, carries us on to events yet future, when God will out-do the wonders in Egypt in a new deliverance of Israel from the hands of the nations their enemies, and bring in the final blessing of which prophecy is full. (Mic 7:15.) This accounts for the apparent glance back at the exodus; while it is really the answer of God to Christ’s work of atonement, which accounts equally for His voice being heard as it is, all through. Thus we find the same representative character of the Lord as in the previous psalm, and the confirmation of the view of that which has been already taken.
(a.) The twelve verses of this section, one might expect to have the usual 3 x4 division, and so they have. The first three show us God as the Almighty, the earth and the heavens bearing witness to His power alike. The earth to the foundations of the hills trembles before Him; His wrath is a consuming fire; the heavens are bowed under Him as He comes down. This witness of nature to His presence, readily as we understand it, and simple as it really is, has yet lessons for us which would serve us well if they were better learned. Creation is not only a mirror of divine perfections: it is pervaded by His power, and sensitive to His slightest movement. There is an intimate sympathy thus between the natural and spiritual, which we feel far better than we can explain, and which makes the face of nature a constant parable of spiritual things. This, superstition has misused on the one hand, while on the other the growing wisdom of the day, with its continual fresh discovery of governing laws, loses sight of or refuses what it helps to demonstrate. For laws governing without a governor are themselves an irrational superstition, no less so because a profane one. There is in nature, as they own, an inscrutable power which transcends it; and this, too, a "power that makes for righteousness." Christianity alone tells us Whose this power is.
(b.) In the second triplet of verses the Almighty becomes the Judge.* The cherub, from the first view in Eden to its Apocalyptic representatives in the last book of the New Testament, is always connected with divine government, -the throne of God as ruling over the earth. The ark and mercy-seat are still this throne in relation to Israel, and the cherubim there are of one piece with the latter, their faces looking to the place where the atoning blood is sprinkled before God. He was said to dwell between the cherubim and these express the executive righteousness of the throne; and in their fourfold character as lion, ox, with the face of a man, and flying eagle, we find represented power, patient service, intelligence, and yet inscrutability. (Pro 30:19.) The riding upon the cherub here, therefore, indicates judicial action, and the "wings of the wind" combine the speed and power of the storm blast, a figure which the next verses carry on.
{*A new symbolism for the number two; but "judgment" is in fact discernment; that is, division, separation, putting a difference, and thus comes rightly under this number.}
Yet in judgment God is rather hidden than displayed: it is His "strange work." Thus He makes the darkness His covert. It is His contrary, inasmuch as He is love and light; and yet He uses it as His pavilion, and, while not it, is in it. The judgment, where it comes, is in fact, in its most awful feature, separation from Him, -from the Light; while it is yet not merely that. From these thick clouds the light flashes forth, -hailstones and coals of fire (see Exo 9:13-35, notes); for God is displayed even in the judgment that separates from Him.
(c.) The third triplet gives the full display. It is now plainly Jehovah who thunders in the heavens, and the Most High who gives His voice. And we see where the bolt strikes: His arrows are lightnings, with which Messiah’s enemies are scattered and discomfited. The earth is laid bare to its foundations, and the channels of waters are seen: words which remind us of Israel’s passage of the Sea, and which may find in the future also their fulfillment in the drying up of the Euphrates. (Rev 16:12.)
The judgment of God is also the revelation of the earth at all times, and will finally declare the moral character of all its history. This is one great end of prophecy, to enable us beforehand to judge with God the condition of things through which we are now passing, according to that final judgment in which we find them to end. And that final disclosure will it not be in some sense also the eternal safeguard of His people from all the power of evil, the springs of which will be then laid bare? Scripture speaks of that day as the day of manifestation; and this will not be surely of the individual merely to himself, but of all in the presence of all; making all to see light in God’s light. Will not the "holiness of truth" be thus fully confirmed and established for eternity, sealed with the broad seal of God, and demonstrated by the example of all, evil and good alike? Will not the books that are opened then be in effect and effectively the Deuteronomy of the land so reached for every pilgrim?
(d) We now come to the experience of the deliverance, in which we find expressions of weakness,which might at first make one doubt as to its being the Lord’s voice that is heard at all here. But the connection would assure us of it, and the place of thorough human dependence is that which He takes all through the psalm. Thus it was that, having assumed the burden of sin, and laying down His life, He committed Himself in peace into the Father’s hand, to take again from Him the life laid down. The language of the sixteenth psalm we have seen to be the expression of this confidence: "therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest securely: because thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor wilt Thou suffer Thy pious One to see corruption." Thus resurrection is His justification from God, the seal put upon His completed work; the justification, therefore, of all for whom He stands, -of all who through grace believe in Him. In this identification of Himself with them, He comes for the moment into the place of weakness and simple dependence upon the arm of Another for deliverance.
"He reached from above, He took me: He drew me out of many waters." In the last clause of the sentence we have a word only used once beside in the explanation of the name given to Moses, and from which that was derived; but the reference is only by way of comparison; for a greater than Moses is here. "He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me." Thus the deliverance is the manifestation and glory of Jehovah Himself. "They confronted me in the day of my calamity: but Jehovah was my stay."
Jehovah’s character is thus brought out, as it is the glory of the gospel in every part, that it reveals Him. We "believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." Thus we know Him to be for us, in His righteousness as well as in His love, and that very attribute which we had most reason to dread as sinners, is that upon which, because of the work of Christ for sinners, we can rest with undisturbed security. It is His righteousness that justifies the believer in Jesus. It is His righteousness that we are "made" to be now "in Christ." (2Co 5:21.)
4. But we are now to be shown the character of the One for whom God thus comes in; and in this section, under the number which speaks both of testing and practical walk, we have (set side by side with the character of God Himself) His assured and perfect claim to be heard and answered. Nothing is more unmistakable in the Lord, as we see Him in the full truth of manhood upon earth, than the distinct and emphatic assumption of unspotted perfection at all times. "Meek and lowly in heart" though He was, and clear in His enunciation of man’s fallen condition, He never for a moment takes His place among men in any sense that could imply the slightest resemblance to them in this respect. His separateness is indeed so plain that He need not much assert it. Yet He can say as the ground of the Father’s constant presence with Him (manifested as it was by His mighty works), -"I do always those things that please Him." And to His opposers even can put as a question admitting but of one answer, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" (Joh 8:29; Joh 8:46.)
The psalmist maintains here for the One he personates a similar perfection, which David for himself, in his "last words," disclaims. So, indeed, might any among mere men. It is He in whom, opening the heavens to do so, the Father proclaims His delight, who is, as we have seen, the real Speaker, -the true David, who is also David’s seed.
(a) The divine delight in Him has its ground and justification in His perfect obedience. He is righteous not only in intent, but in the cleanness of His hands also. With Him is not the misery of shortcoming of the end of His desire and aim. What He designs He carries through. As He speaks so He is; and His speech is with fullest knowledge. Thus He can say, "I have kept Jehovah’s ways"; and His recompense is according to His righteousness.
(b) The measurement of all with Him is not by His own thoughts either. He is not a law to Himself, nor does He do simply what is right in His own eyes. Knowing what He is, one might perhaps expect that; and if inspiration were the weak and fallible thing which men now make it, you could not account for the absolute respect which He who even as man had the Spirit given Him without measure, ever paid it. "But how, then, should the Scripture be fulfilled?" was with Him a decisive argument. On the cross, with the parching thirst of the crucified upon Him, it is only "that the Scripture might be fulfilled," that He gives voice to this craving. Truly could He say, then, "All His judgments were before Me; nor did I put His statutes from Me." This was no desultory or fragmentary or unbalanced obedience. All was in due proportion and perfect symmetry. It was obedience: the will of God recognized and governing Him in all things.
"I was also perfect with Him," He says: "and I kept myself from perverseness being mine." * The word rendered "iniquity" in the common version, it is agreed means "perverseness," -the spirit that would distort or turn aside the force of the divine commands. And again He affirms that Jehovah has recompensed Him according to His righteousness, and according to the cleanness of His hands before those holy eyes.
{Verse 25, "Merciful" is not an adequate rendering for chasid, nor do we seem able to give the antithesis in English "pious" cannot be applied to God, nor is "holy" the force as applied to Him. The term as suiting God and man together here should express the affectionate sense of relationship on man’s part towards God, and on His part towards man.}
{*The translation here, which differs from that adopted in 2Sa 22:1-51, though not the simplest, is, I think, the real meaning of me-avoni. Geier, Delitzsch, and Cheyne agree that this is the sense, and there does not seem any way of reconciling "my iniquity" with the perfection of the man, Christ Jesus.}
Now the character of God is put side by side with this. He deals with men according to what He sees them to be. The disposition they show toward Him He shows in like manlier toward them: the attitude which they assume He assumes; while of course His grace beseeches them to change that which is estranged and hostile, and to be reconciled to Him. But this last has no application to Him who is before us here, and does not therefore come in.
Then He brings low the lofty and saves the humble; and death is that by which God levels all the pride of man, bringing up from death itself those who have accepted its sentence in the practical meaning of it. Thus we have the principle of resurrection, in which the power of God acts beyond the sentence, so affirming it, and yet showing His grace. And this grace, after this manner, He has shown in Christ, and shown also to a people identified in grace with Him.
This is the God, then, before whom Christ is, and who answers Him, -though He stoop to death to find the answer, because of His identification with the need of others.
5. We are now carried on into the future, in order to see this answer, as it takes effect in the judgment of the nations who have rejected God and His Anointed. The present time we must not expect to find in Old Testament prophecy; and thus in that to which the Lord appeals in the synagogue of Nazareth (Isa 61:1-2), "the acceptable year of the Lord," which He was there to proclaim, passes on immediately to the "day of judgment of our God," and so to the restoration of Israel. The psalm here is in the same way connected with Jewish hopes and promises. The suffering Christ becomes, in exaltation, the Conqueror and Judge. As Son of man He comes in the clouds of heaven; as Son of man all judgment is committed to Him. Thus He still maintains His dependence: "Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." We need not wonder, then, that at the beginning of this section, He as the Speaker ascribes in a similar way His power to God.
(a) Besides being a fifth section of the psalm, this has again five subsections, the verses still being in triplets, God manifesting Himself still in all, Jehovah being known in the judgment that He executes.
"For it is Thou that lightest my lamp: Jehovah my God enlighteneth my darkness." So may He say, who, though the Son of God, has been in the darkness of desertion at the cross. We think, naturally, of the tabernacle lamp and its identification of divine glory (the gold) with the almond fruit of resurrection, the sign of coming summer, and we remember how He is presented in the Apocalypse as the "Faithful Witness, and the First-born of the dead, and" -as He is going to be manifested directly -"the Ruler of the kings of the earth." (Rev 1:5.) Just so where He is coming out as this last, we are permitted first of all to see Him as come out of the darkness, where He has removed all hindrance to earth’s blessing, that we may rejoice in His assumption of power and possession of the inheritance which is now His.
All enemies and obstacles are now to give way before Him: "For by Thee I run through a troop: and by my God I leap over a wall." And then we have affirmed the character of Him whom the King represents and in whose power He acts: the Mighty One, perfect in His way; the Unchangeable, whose word is tried; and the sure defense of all who take refuge in Him.
(b) And who beside is God? Where else is the Rock of confidence for faith? This is the question that will be pressed for speedy settlement when Christ appears. For now is the time of which it is predicted that "Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Jehovah, and His Name one." (Zec 14:9.) Heathenism is swept away at once; all forms of idolatry are brought to an end together; infidelity will cease from the earth, and agnosticism be no more: even though man’s heart may as really refuse the known, as it once did "the unknown God."
This Mighty One girds with strength the One whose place is still therefore one of loving service to Him, and makes His way perfect as is His own. His progress is uninterrupted, therefore. "He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet," -able to surmount all difficulties, -"and setteth Me on my heights," the mountains of the chosen land. For in that day "the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." (Isa 2:2.) For Jehovah’s throne in Zion shall once again and finally be filled with a human tenant, who shall perfectly represent Him; and "the government shall be upon His shoulder," whose name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of eternity,* the Prince of peace." (Isa 9:6.)
{* Not "everlasting Father," which has led to wrong thoughts, but "Father of eternity": the One who brings all things into the condition in which they will abide forever.}
(c) But the way this is realized is not, as one might think, by the preaching of the gospel of peace. It must be the "effect of righteousness," and the Davidic phase of the kingdom must precede the Solomonic. We return, therefore, to see Him as the warrior-King: His hands trained for war; Himself covered impenetrably with the shield of God’s salvation; sustained by His strong right hand; and withal, as meek as a Conqueror as in His life of grace of old, He says, "Thy condescension also has made Me great." His steps are still directed by Him who makes room thus for each one He takes; and His ankles waver not.
(d) Thus we see His enemies now prostrate before Him: He pursues and overtakes them; they fall and rise not; and again it is God who girds Him with, the strength He manifests, and casts the pertinacious foe beneath His feet.
(e) The end is reached in the fifth section. His foes turn their backs and flee in vain: God has given them up into His hand. They cry in despair at last, even to Jehovah now; but there is no reality in it, and they find no Saviour. They are beaten down as dust, and poured out as the mire of the streets.
6. The "rod of iron" of the second psalm is now sketched in three brief but emphatic verses. He is delivered from the strivings of the people -in Samuel, "my" people -Israel, in their old rebellious state, and made head of the nations, a people formerly unknown to Him. These are obedient as soon as they hear of Him; and there is a manifest power which forbids opposition. Strangers in heart bow perforce, though remaining such: and here we see already the cause of that fresh uprising of evil with which the millennial kingdom ends. And this condition of things shows why Satan, bound in the abyss for a thousand years, is permitted to come out of it at the close to bring out the reality. The visible power of God with the blessing attendant upon Messiah’s sway is proved vain to bring man to God. Opposition to Him is no mere fruit of ignorance. In that day there will be none: the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea"; and yet of very many it will be said, as it was of those in the day of Christ’s previous sojourn among men: "Now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father." (Joh 15:24.)
Thus the devil is permitted to do His final work. The awful inveteracy of sin is manifested. He comes out of a thousand years’ restraint; and with his doom at last before his eyes, to work out still unrepentantly the ruin of others and his own. And men on their side turn from the blessedness in which they have shared to listen to his deception. Thus the last verse finds its fulfillment: "sons of the stranger fade away, and are afraid out of their close places." All is manifest at last, and the work of probation is over: eternity, in fact, has come.
7. The last five verses are an ascription of praise to God, in the same character as at the beginning of the psalm, and summing up in brief the mercies which have been recounted. He is the living and unchanging God, the Rock of faith, the Saviour; the avenging Judge, subduer of the peoples; the God of resurrection, thus lifting up above all enemies. For this cause He is praised among the nations. And the close celebrates the whole as loving-kindness to Jehovah’s King, to David and his seed alike.
Thus, it is plain, the first series of these psalms ends; and in the nineteenth we go back to find a new beginning.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Of all the Pss. this is the one which…
Of all the Pss. this is the one which can be ascribed with greatest confidence to David. It is found, with some variations, in 2 Samuel 22, and the title is largely taken from 2Sa_22:1. It consists of a series of triumphant thanksgivings to God, with which the writer connects a highly figurative account of his deliverance from danger (Psa_18:4-19), an assertion of his own uprightness (Psa_18:20-24), and a description of the victories he has won by God's assistance (Psa_18:29-48).
1. I will love thee] RV 'I love thee.' This v. is omitted in 2 S. It was perhaps inserted when the Ps. was adapted for use by the congregation in the Temple.
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2. Notice the succession of figures drawn from the experiences of a warrior's life in a country where natural strongholds as well as artificial fortresses were common. Strength] RV 'strong rock.' Buckler] RV 'shield.' So in Psa_18:30. Horn] a symbol of irresistible strength.
4. Sorrows] RV 'cords.' So in Psa_18:5.
5. Hell] RV 'Sheol,' the state of the dead. Prevented] RV 'came upon.' So in Psa_18:18. Psa_18:4-5 mean that David felt himself in peril of death.
6. His temple] in heaven.
7-16. In these vv. the manifestation of God's power to deliver is poetically described as the physical appearance of God Himself, accompanied by the most impressive natural phenomena, such as earthquake and thunderstorm. He is conceived as dwelling in the heart of the thunderstorm, surrounded by fires which break forth as lightning through -the cloud.
10. A cherub] Cherubim are most familiar to readers of Scripture as symbolic figures appearing in the furniture and decoration of the tabernacle and the Temple. They also appear in Ezekiel's vision of the mystic chariot as the bearers of God's throne (Ezekiel 1, 10). Here the cherub seems to be a personification of the storm cloud, as the parallel idea in the next clause shows.
12. Read, 'From the brightness before him there passed through his thick cloud hailstones and coals of fire.' Coals of fire] lightning.
13. His voice] the thunder.
14. His arrows] another figure for lightning.
15. The drying up of the Red Sea is woven into the imagery of the storm.
16. Many waters] the emblem of David's troubles. The whole sublime manifestation of God was on his behalf.
19. A large place] the opposite of 'straits.'
24-26. David finds in his own case an illustration of the truth that God deals with all men according to their works, opposing those who oppose Him, as well as showing His perfections to those who are like Him.
27. High looks] RV 'the haughty eyes.'
28. My candle] RV 'my lamp,' the symbol of David's prosperity: see Job_18:6.
29. This v. may refer to the pursuit of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30) and the capture of Jerusalem (2Sa_5:6-8).
33. Hinds' feet] agile, swift, and sure. My high places] The figure of the hind, climbing precipitous hills, is continued.
34. A bow of steel, etc.] RV 'mine arms do bend a bow of brass' (i.e. copper or bronze), a harder task than to bend a wooden bow.
35. Gentleness] RM 'condescension.' For the thought cp. Psa_113:6; Isa_57:15 : see also Psalms 23.
36. Enlarged my steps] given me freedom to move without obstruction.
40. Given me the necks of mine enemies] RV 'made mine enemies turn their backs unto me.'
43. Heathen] RV 'nations.' So in Psa_18:49. David subdued all the countries around Palestine (2 Samuel 8). Shall serve] This and the following future tenses to the end of Psa_18:45 are better rendered as past.
45. Be afraid] RV 'come trembling.'
47. People] RY 'peoples.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 18
Psalm 18
The Story of God’s Power in Behalf of Christ
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1. In the jaws of death (Psa 18:1-6)
2. God appearing and delivering (Psa 18:7-18)
3. God gave Him glory (Psa 18:19-27)
4. His enemies subdued (Psa 18:28-42)
5. The head of the nations (Psa 18:43-45)
Psa 18:1-6. This is another remarkable Psalm. Though David wrote it not everything could be his experience. He was a prophet (Act 2:30) and prophesied; much in this Psalm is prophecy describing the deliverance of Christ from the jaws of death and the glory God has given Him, and this deliverance and glory also concerns the remnant of His earthly people in “that day.” The Psalm begins with an outburst of praise and it ends with His praise among the nations. Hebrew authorities tell us that the proper translation of “The LORD is my Rock” is “Jehovah, my cleft of the rock.” It is Christ the rock, cleft for us, in whom the believer has found His refuge. And He Himself was saved from His enemies and in Him His people are saved and will be saved from their enemies (Psa 18:3). It is His own death experience which is described in Psa 18:4-6. “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of Belial (marginal reading) made me afraid.” Then in His distress He called and cried unto God and was heard.
Psa 18:7-18. In these verses we have the answer in behalf of Christ. It is a wonderful description of God’s power and His appearing. It is the manifestation and glory of Jehovah in deliverance. “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me from great waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hate me for they were too strong for me.” This describes His resurrection.
At the same time while all this shows His experience as the author and finisher of the faith, it is also the experience of His trusting people, and the deliverance of that remnant living during the tribulation period.
Psa 18:19-27. The Lord has recompensed Him for His righteousness. He not only raised Him from the dead “but gave Him glory.” He was brought forth into a large place. He was delivered because God delighted in Him and He has rewarded Him. Verse 23 as it stands in the authorized version can not apply to Christ. It is in fact a poor translation. The translation in the Numerical Bible is very satisfactory. “I was also perfect with Him and kept myself from perverseness being mine.”
Psa 18:28-42. He will save an humble people and all His enemies will be conquered by Him. While much in this section was David’s experience, who overcame all his enemies, in its prophetic meaning it must apply to the Lord Jesus. Psalm 18:37-42 speak prophetically of this coming great victory when all His enemies will be made the footstool of His feet.
Psa 18:43-45. He becomes the head of the nations. “Thou hast made me the head of the nations” cannot apply to David and his experience, but it is David’s Son and David’s Lord who will head the nations of the earth. It is the coming kingdom which is described in verse 44. “As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me, the strangers (Gentiles) shall submit themselves unto me.” The marginal reading is suggestive, “they shall yield feigned obedience unto Me,” which tells us that the obedience of many during the kingdom reign of our Lord will not be whole-hearted and therefore the revolt at the end of the thousand years (Rev 20:1-15). His praise will then be heard among the nations (Psa 18:49-50).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 A Psalm of Thanksgiving for Deliverance and Victory.
A Psalm of Thanksgiving for Deliverance and Victory.
To the chief musician, for performance in the liturgical service of the Tabernacle and the Temple, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, His prophet and minister in making known the Word of the Lord and in doing His will, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, in the last part of Saul’s reign, 2Sa 7:1; and he said, Cf 2 Samuel 22.
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A Recital of God’s Blessings
v. 1. I will love Thee, with the most tender affection, O Lord, my Strength, in protecting and defending him.
v. 2. The Lord is my Rock, his safe place of concealment, and my Fortress, his Stronghold, affording refuge and safety, and my Deliverer; my God, my Strength, his Rock of Ages, firm, immovable, in whom I will trust; my Buckler, the large shield which protected the whole body against injury, and the Horn of my salvation, the horn of the altar being the figure of protective strength and victorious deliverance, and my high Tower, inaccessible to the enemies. Having thus given the reason for his firm trust, the psalmist gives a recital of some of the occasions when his confidence was justified.
v. 3. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, for all the favors shown in the past; so shall I be saved from mine enemies; that had been his constant experience.
v. 4. The sorrows of death, the bands of death, compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid, the brooks of abysmal evil and perdition terrifying him.
v. 5. The sorrows of hell, the bands of the realm of death, compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me, going ahead, anticipating his every move, seizing upon him suddenly.
v. 6. In my distress I called upon the Lord, when the persecution of Saul and other troubles came upon him, and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of His temple, out of the palace of heaven, the throne of His glory, and my cry came before Him, being hindered by nothing on its way, even into His ears, so that God certainly heard it. David now describes, in a highly poetic form, how the Lord worked His deliverance.
v. 7. Then the earth shook and trembled, with violent earthquakes; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wroth.
v. 8. There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, from His angry snorting, and fire out of His mouth devoured, with a consuming power; coals were kindled by it, glowing coals blazing out from Him, the description being that of a violent thunderstorm.
v. 9. He bowed the heavens also, as the dark masses of clouds roll and descend, and came down; and darkness was under His feet, the dark storm-clouds being His footstool.
v. 10. And He rode upon a cherub, an angelic minister who represented the entire creation as serving Jehovah, and did fly; yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind, whose rushing might fitly represent His dignity.
v. 11. He made darkness His secret place, to veil and to hide Him; His pavilion round about Him, the tent of His dwelling, were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies, heavy with vapor, ready to shed the rain in streams.
v. 12. At the brightness that was before Him, out from the brightness which surrounded His throne, His thick clouds passed hailstones and coals of fire, for Jehovah discharged through the clouds that veiled His brightness the weapons of His wrath, hail and bolts of lightning.
v. 13. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, the roll of thunder following the strokes of lightning, and the Highest gave His voice, hailstones and coals of fire.
v. 14. Yea, He sent out His arrows, the sharp points of His lightning, and scattered them, the enemies being obliged to flee in all directions; and He shot out lightnings and discomfited them, so that they were utterly at a loss, helpless in their confusion. So great was the force of the storm, moreover, that the very beds of the waters were laid bare.
v. 15. Then the channels of waters were seen, the water being forced away by the mighty wind, and the foundations of the world, the very depths of the earth, were discovered at Thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils, the storm which denoted His anger.
v. 16. He sent from above, stretching out His hand, reaching down; He took me, He drew me out of many waters, so that David was not carried away in the great catastrophe which struck the earth.
v. 17. He delivered me from my strong enemy, Saul chiefly being meant, and from them which hated me, all those who sought to harm him; for they were too strong for me.
v. 18. They prevented me, falling upon him suddenly, in the day of my calamity; but the Lord was my Stay, supporting him so that all their wickedness came to naught.
v. 19. He brought me forth also, from all his straits of trouble, into a large place, to full safety and relief; He delivered me because He delighted in me, His regard for David being His motive for acting as He did.
v. 20. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, the evidence of which came out in his entire conduct and life; according to the cleanness of my hands, in the management of his personal and official affairs, hath He recompensed me.
v. 21. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, closely followed the paths pointed out to him by Jehovah, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
v. 22. For all His judgments were before me, the obligations which His commandments laid upon all men, and I did not put away His statutes from me, namely, all the precepts of His covenant.
v. 23. I was also upright before Him, in the outward observance of the Law, and I kept myself from mine iniquity, from bold transgression and wickedness.
v. 24. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight. It was not arrogant boastfulness which caused David to make these statements, but the simplicity and trust of his heart.
v. 25. With the merciful Thou wilt show thyself merciful, showing kindness to him who practised kindness; with an upright man Thou wilt show Thyself upright;
v. 26. with the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward, God’s dealing with men being the mirror of the relation in which God puts Himself to him, rewarding every man according to his deserts.
v. 27. For Thou wilt save the afflicted people, delivering them from the trouble which oppresses them, but wilt bring down high looks, humbling those who exalt themselves.
v. 28. For Thou wilt light my candle, making the lamp of his happiness and its light very bright; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness, bringing him relief after the misfortunes which he endured.
v. 29. For by Thee I have run through a troop, rushing upon hostile bands and overthrowing them; and by my God have I leaped over a wall, capturing the fortified towns of the enemies with ease. In the same manner all Christians will experience the gracious help of Jehovah against all the enemies of their souls if they but cling to their trust in the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
he sang to Yahweh the words of this song
"he sang this song to Yahweh"
on the day that Yahweh rescued him
"after Yahweh had rescued him"
from the hand of Saul
Here "hand" stands for the power of Saul. AT: "from Saul's power" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
psalm
David
servant
Yahweh
word
hand
Saul (OT)
love
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–3 Ps 18 This royal drama of divine rescue (also…
Ps 18 This royal drama of divine rescue (also found with minor variations in 2 Sam 22:1-51) encourages readers who are following the laments and requests for rescue in Pss 16 and 17. The psalmist describes the dramatic nature of God’s rescue in three different ways (18:7-15, 16-19, 30-36). The psalm also extends hope that a future Son of David will be totally victorious over evil (18:43-50; cp. Ps 2).
18:title David was a faithful servant of the Lord, charged with the responsibility of establishing God’s kingdom on earth (see 78:70; 132:10; 144:10). • The Lord rescued David from all his enemies when he enabled David to conquer them (see 2 Sam 8:1-14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.