Psalms 18:33-43

33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and sets me upon my high places.

34 He trains my hands for the battle, so that a bow of bronze shall be broken by my arms.

35 In the same manner thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand will hold me up, and thy meekness shall multiply me.

36 Thou shall enlarge my steps under me, and my knees shall not tremble.

37 I shall pursue my enemies and overtake them: neither shall I turn again until they are consumed.

38 I shall smite them, and they will not be able to rise: they shall fall under my feet.

39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued my enemies under me.

40 Thou hast also given me the necks of my enemies that I might destroy those that hate me.

41 They cried out, but there was no one to save them: even unto the LORD, but he did not answer them.

42 Then I beat them as small as the dust before the wind: I scattered them 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 Gentiles: a people whom I did not know served me.

Psalms 18:33-43 Meaning and Commentary

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.