Psalms 18:42

42 Then they were crushed as small as dust before the wind; they were drained out like the waste of 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 By you their backs are turned in flight, so that my haters are cut off.

41 They were crying out, but there was no one to come to their help: even to the Lord, but he gave them no answer.

42 Then they were crushed as small as dust before the wind; they were drained out like the waste of the streets.

43 You have made me free from the fightings of the people; you have made me the head of the nations: a people of whom I had no knowledge will be my servants.

44 From the time when my name comes to their ears they will be ruled by me: men of other countries will, with false hearts, put themselves under my authority.