Psalms 18

1 How I love you, Lord! You are my defender.

2 The Lord is my protector; he is my strong fortress. My God is my protection, and with him I am safe. He protects me like a shield; he defends me and keeps me safe.

3 I call to the Lord, and he saves me from my enemies. Praise the Lord!

4 The danger of death was all around me; the waves of destruction rolled over me.

5 The danger of death was around me, and the grave set its trap for me.

6 In my trouble I called to the Lord; I called to my God for help. In his temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help.

7 Then the earth trembled and shook; the foundations of the mountains rocked and quivered, because God was angry.

8 Smoke poured out of his nostrils, a consuming flame and burning coals from his mouth.

9 He tore the sky open and came down with a dark cloud under his feet.

10 He flew swiftly on his winged creature; he traveled on the wings of the wind.

11 He covered himself with darkness; thick clouds, full of water, surrounded him.

12 Hailstones and flashes of fire came from the lightning before him and broke through the dark clouds.

13 Then the Lord thundered from the sky; and the voice of the Most High was heard.

14 He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; with flashes of lightning he sent them running.

15 The floor of the ocean was laid bare, and the foundations of the earth were uncovered, when you rebuked your enemies, Lord, and roared at them in anger.

16 The Lord reached down from above and took hold of me; he pulled me out of the deep waters.

17 He rescued me from my powerful enemies and from all those who hate me - they were too strong for me.

18 When I was in trouble, they attacked me, but the Lord protected me.

19 He helped me out of danger; he saved me because he was pleased with me.

20 The Lord rewards me because I do what is right; he blesses me because I am innocent.

21 I have obeyed the law of the Lord; I have not turned away from my God.

22 I have observed all his laws; I have not disobeyed his commands.

23 He knows that I am faultless, that I have kept myself from doing wrong.

24 And so he rewards me because I do what is right, because he knows that I am innocent.

25 O Lord, you are faithful to those who are faithful to you; completely good to those who are perfect.

26 You are pure to those who are pure, but hostile to those who are wicked.

27 You save those who are humble, but you humble those who are proud.

28 O Lord, you give me light; you dispel my darkness.

29 You give me strength to attack my enemies and power to overcome their defenses.

30 This God - how perfect are his deeds! How dependable his words! He is like a shield for all who seek his protection.

31 The Lord alone is God; God alone is our defense.

32 He is the God who makes me strong, who makes my pathway safe.

33 He makes me sure-footed as a deer; ¹ he keeps me safe on the mountains.

34 He trains me for battle, so that I can use the strongest bow.

35 O Lord, you protect me and save me; your care has made me great, and your power has kept me safe.

36 You have kept me from being captured, and I have never fallen.

37 I pursue my enemies and catch them; I do not stop until I destroy them.

38 I strike them down, and they cannot rise; they lie defeated before me.

39 You give me strength for the battle and victory over my enemies.

40 You make my enemies run from me; I destroy those who hate me.

41 They cry for help, but no one saves them; they call to the Lord, but he does not answer.

42 I crush them, so that they become like dust which the wind blows away. I trample on them like mud in the streets.

43 You saved me from a rebellious people and made me ruler over the nations; people I did not know have now become my subjects.

44 Foreigners bow before me; when they hear me, they obey.

45 They lose their courage and come trembling from their fortresses.

46 The Lord lives! Praise my defender! Proclaim the greatness of the God who saves me.

47 He gives me victory over my enemies; he subdues the nations under me

48 and saves me from my foes. O Lord, you give me victory over my enemies and protect me from violent people.

49 And so I praise you among the nations; ² I sing praises to you.

50 God gives great victories to his king; he shows constant love to the one he has chosen, to David and his descendants forever.

Psalms 18 Commentary

Chapter 18

David rejoices in the deliverances God wrought for him. (1-19) He takes the comfort of his integrity, which God had cleared up. (20-28) He gives to God the glory of all his mighty deeds. (29-50)

Verses 1-19 The first words, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength," are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. 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. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. God's manifestation of his presence is very fully described, ver. ( 7-15 ) . Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time. Can we meditate on ver. 18, without directing one thought to Gethsemane and Calvary? Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christ's deepest calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Father's love were withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, ( Hebrews 5:7 ) . God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.

Verses 20-28 Those that forsake the ways of the Lord, depart from their God. But though conscious to ourselves of many a false step, let there not be a wicked departure from our God. David kept his eye upon the rule of God's commands. Constant care to keep from that sin, whatever it be, which most easily besets us, proves that we are upright before God. Those who show mercy to others, even they need mercy. Those who are faithful to God, shall find him all that to them which he has promised to be. The words of the Lord are pure words, very sure to be depended on, and very sweet to be delighted in. Those who resist God, and walk contrary to him, shall find that he will walk contrary to them, ( Leviticus 26:21-24 ) . The gracious recompence of which David spoke, may generally be expected by those who act from right motives. Hence he speaks comfort to the humble, and terror to the proud; "Thou wilt bring down high looks." And he speaks encouragement to himself; "Thou wilt light my candle:" thou wilt revive and comfort my sorrowful spirit; thou wilt guide my way, that I may avoid the snares laid for me. Thou wilt light my candle to work by, and give me an opportunity of serving thee. Let those that walk in darkness, and labour under discouragements, take courage; God himself will be a Light to them.

Verses 29-50 When we praise for one mercy, we must observe the many more, with which we have been compassed all our days. Many things had contributed to David's advancement, and he owns the hand of God in them all, to teach us to do likewise. In verse Verse 32 , and the following verses, are the gifts of God to the spiritual warrior, whereby he is prepared for the contest, after the example of his victorious Leader. Learn that we must seek release being made through Christ, shall be rejected. In David the type, we behold out of trouble through Christ. The prayer put up, without reconciliation Jesus our Redeemer, conflicting with enemies, compassed with sorrows and with floods of ungodly men, enduring not only the pains of death, but the wrath of God for us; yet calling upon the Father with strong cries and tears; rescued from the grave; proceeding to reconcile, or to put under his feet all other enemies, till death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed. We should love the Lord, our Strength, and our Salvation; we should call on him in every trouble, and praise him for every deliverance; we should aim to walk with him in all righteousness and true holiness, keeping from sin. If we belong to him, he conquers and reigns for us, and we shall conquer and reign through him, and partake of the mercy of our anointed King, which is promised to all his seed for evermore. Amen.

Cross References

• 1. 18.33Hebrews 3.19.
• 2. 18.49Romans 15.9.

Footnotes

• [a]. winged creature: [See Word List.]
• [b]. [One ancient translation (and see 2 S 22.14)] was heard; [Hebrew] was heard hailstones and flashes of fire.

Chapter Summary

To the chief Musician, [a Psalm] of David. This is the same with that in 2 Samuel 22:1, with some variations, omissions, and alterations:

the servant of the Lord; not only by creation, nor merely by regeneration, but by office, as king of Israel, being put into it by the Lord, and acting in it in submission and obedience to him; just as the apostles under the New Testament, on account of their office, so style themselves in their epistles:

who spake unto the Lord the words of this song; that is, who delivered and sung this song in so many express words, in public, before all the congregation of Israel, to the honour and glory of God:

in the day [that] the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, Not that this psalm was composed and sung the selfsame day that David was delivered from Saul, and set upon the throne; for it seems to have been written in his old age, at the close of his days; for immediately after it, in the second book of Samuel, it follows, "now these be the last words of David," 2 Samuel 23:1: but the sense is, that whereas David had many enemies, and particularly Saul, who was his greatest enemy, the Lord delivered him from them all, and especially from him, from him first, and then from all the rest; which when he reflected upon in his last days, he sat down and wrote this psalm, and then sung it in public, having delivered it into the hands of the chief musician for that purpose. There are two passages cited out of it in the New Testament, and applied to Christ; Psalm 18:2, in Hebrews 2:13, and Psalm 18:49 in Romans 15:9; and there are many things in it that very well agree with him; he is eminently the "servant" of the Lord as Mediator; he was encompassed with the snares and sorrows of death and hell, and with the floods of ungodly men, when in the garden and on the cross God was his helper and deliverer, as man; and he was victorious over all enemies, sin, Satan, the world, death and hell; as the subject of this psalm is all along represented: and to Christ it does most properly belong to be the head of the Heathen, whose voluntary subjects the Gentiles are said to be, Psalm 18:43; and which is expressed in much the same language as the like things are in Isaiah 55:4; which is a clear and undoubted prophecy of the Messiah; to which may be added, that the Lord's Anointed, the King Messiah, and who is also called David, is expressly mentioned in Psalm 18:50; and which is applied to the Messiah by the Jews {q} as Psalm 18:32 is paraphrased of him by the Targum on it;

and he said; the following words:

{q} Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 2. & Midrash Tillim in Tzeror Hammor, fol. 47. 3.