Psalms 18

The LORD Is My Rock

1

For the choirmaster. Of David the servant of the LORD, who sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

1 I love You, O LORD, my strength. ¹

2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.

5 The cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.

7 Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger.

8 Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.

9 He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet.

10 He mounted a cherub and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him.

12 From the brightness of His presence His clouds advanced— hailstones and coals of fire. ^[a]

13 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded— hailstones and coals of fire. ^[b]

14 He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them.

15 The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of 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 foes too mighty for me.

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

19 He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.

20 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.

21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all His ordinances are before me; I have not disregarded His statutes.

23 And I have been blameless before Him and kept myself from iniquity.

24 So the LORD has repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.

25 To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

26 to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.

27 For You save an afflicted people, but You humble those with haughty eyes.

28 For You, O LORD, light my lamp; my God lights up my darkness.

29 For in You I can charge an army, and with my God I can scale a wall.

30 As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

31 For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?

32 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way clear.

33 He makes my feet like those of a deer and stations me upon the heights.

34 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

35 You have given me Your shield of salvation; Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness exalts me. ^[c]

36 You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back until they were consumed.

38 I crushed them so they could not rise; they have fallen under my feet.

39 You have armed me with strength for battle; You have subdued my foes beneath me.

40 You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.

41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the LORD, but He did not answer.

42 I ground them as dust in the face of the wind; I trampled them ^[d] like mud in the streets.

43 You have delivered me from the strife of the people; You have made me the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

44 When they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cower before me.

45 Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their strongholds.

46 The LORD lives, and blessed be my Rock! And may the God of my salvation be exalted—

47 the God who avenges me and subdues nations beneath me,

48 who delivers me from my enemies. You exalt me above my foes; You rescue me from violent men.

49 Therefore I will praise You, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing praises to Your name. ^[e]

50 Great salvation He brings to His king. He shows loving devotion to His anointed, 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. (2 Samuel 22:1–51)

Footnotes

• [a]. Or bolts of lightning; also in verse 13
• [b]. Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and LXX do not include—hailstones and coals of fire; see 2 Samuel 22:14.
• [c]. Or and Your help exalts me or and You stoop down to make me great
• [d]. Some Hebrew manuscripts, LXX, and Syriac (see also 2 Samuel 22:43); MT I poured them out
• [e]. Cited in Romans 15:9

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.