Psalms 18:1-19

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

1 ^[a]I love you, LORD, my strength.

2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield^[b] and the horn^[c] of my salvation, my stronghold.

3 I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

5 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

7 The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

8 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.

9 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

10 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky.

12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

13 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.^[d]

14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them.

15 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.

17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.

18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.

19 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Psalms 18:1-19 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.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 15:2; S Deuteronomy 33:29; S 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalms 22:19; Psalms 28:7; Psalms 59:9; Psalms 81:1; Isaiah 12:2; Isaiah 49:5; Jeremiah 16:19
• 2. S Exodus 33:22; Psalms 19:14
• 3. Psalms 28:8; Psalms 31:2,3; Isaiah 17:10; Jeremiah 16:19
• 4. Psalms 40:17
• 5. Psalms 2:12; Psalms 9:9; Psalms 94:22
• 6. S Genesis 15:1; Psalms 28:7; Psalms 84:9; Psalms 119:114; Psalms 144:2; Psalms 59:11
• 7. S 1 Samuel 2:1; S Luke 1:69; Psalms 75:10
• 8. S 1 Chronicles 16:25; Psalms 48:1
• 9. S Psalms 9:13
• 10. Psalms 116:3
• 11. Psalms 93:4; Psalms 124:4; Isaiah 5:30; Isaiah 17:12; Jeremiah 6:23; Jeremiah 51:42,55; Ezekiel 43:2
• 12. Proverbs 13:14; Psalms 116:3
• 13. S Deuteronomy 4:30
• 14. Psalms 30:2; Psalms 99:6; Psalms 102:2; Psalms 120:1
• 15. Psalms 66:19; Psalms 116:1; Psalms 34:15
• 16. S Job 16:18
• 17. Psalms 97:4; Isaiah 5:25; Isaiah 64:3
• 18. S Judges 5:4
• 19. S Judges 5:5
• 20. S Job 9:5; Jeremiah 10:10; Psalms 68:7-8
• 21. S Job 41:20
• 22. S Exodus 15:7; S Exodus 19:18; S Job 41:21; Psalms 50:3; Psalms 97:3; Daniel 7:10
• 23. Proverbs 25:22; Romans 12:20
• 24. S Genesis 11:5; S Psalms 57:3; Psalms 144:5
• 25. S Exodus 20:21; S Deuteronomy 33:26; S Psalms 104:3
• 26. S Genesis 3:24; Ezekiel 10:18; Psalms 80:1
• 27. S Deuteronomy 33:26
• 28. Psalms 104:3
• 29. S Exodus 19:9; S Deuteronomy 4:11; Psalms 97:2
• 30. S Job 22:14; Isaiah 4:5; Jeremiah 43:10
• 31. Psalms 104:2
• 32. S Joshua 10:11
• 33. S Job 36:30; Psalms 97:3
• 34. S Exodus 9:23; S 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalms 29:3; Psalms 104:7
• 35. S Deuteronomy 32:23
• 36. S Job 36:30; Revelation 4:5
• 37. S Judges 4:15; Psalms 144:6
• 38. S Psalms 11:3
• 39. Psalms 76:6; Psalms 104:7; Psalms 106:9; Isaiah 50:2
• 40. S Exodus 15:8
• 41. Exodus 15:5; Psalms 69:2; Proverbs 18:4; Proverbs 20:5; Psalms 144:7
• 42. ver 48; Psalms 38:19; Psalms 59:1; Psalms 143:9
• 43. S Judges 18:26; Psalms 35:10
• 44. Proverbs 1:27; Proverbs 16:4; Jeremiah 17:17; Jeremiah 40:2; Obadiah 1:13
• 45. Psalms 20:2; Isaiah 3:1; Psalms 59:16
• 46. Psalms 31:8
• 47. S Numbers 14:8; Psalms 118:5

Footnotes

• [a]. In Hebrew texts 18:1-50 is numbered 18:2-51.
• [b]. Or "sovereign"
• [c]. "Horn" here symbolizes strength.
• [d]. Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (see also 2 Samuel 22:14); most Hebrew manuscripts "resounded," / "amid hailstones and bolts of lightning"