Psalms 18:42

42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I cast them out as the dirt in the streets.

Psalms 18:42 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 18:42

Then did I beat them small, as the dust before the wind
They being given up by God, and he not answering to their cries; the phrase denotes the utter ruin and destruction of them, and represents their case as desperate and irrecoverable; being, as it were, pounded to dust, and that driven away with the wind: just as the destruction of the four monarchies is signified by the iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold, being broken to pieces, and made like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and carried away with the wind, so that no place is found for them any more, ( Daniel 2:35 ) ;

I did cast them out as the dirt of the streets;
expressing indignation and contempt: in ( 2 Samuel 22:43 ) ; it is, "I did stamp them as the mire of the street, [and] did, spread them abroad"; which also denotes the low and miserable condition to which they were reduced, and the entire conquest made of them, and triumph over them; see ( Isaiah 10:6 ) ( Micah 7:10 ) ; compare with this ( 2 Samuel 12:31 ) .

Psalms 18:42 In-Context

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

41 They cried, but [there was] none to save [them]: [even] to the LORD, but he answered them not.

42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I 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 to me.