Psalms 18

1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.

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

3 The LORD should be praised. I called on him, and I was saved from my enemies.

4 The ropes of death had become tangled around me. The torrents of destruction had overwhelmed me.

5 The ropes of the grave had surrounded me. The clutches of death had confronted me.

6 I called on the LORD in my distress. I cried to my God for help. He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry for help reached his ears.

7 Then the earth shook and quaked. Even the foundations of the mountains trembled. They shook violently because he was angry.

8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and a raging fire came out of his mouth. Glowing coals flared up from it.

9 He spread apart the heavens and came down with a dark cloud under his feet.

10 He rode on one of the angels as he flew, and he soared on the wings of the wind.

11 He made the darkness his hiding place, the dark rain clouds his covering.

12 Out of the brightness in front of him, those rain clouds passed by with hailstones and lightning.

13 The LORD thundered in the heavens. The Most High made his voice heard with hailstones and lightning.

14 He shot his arrows and scattered them. He flashed streaks of lightning and threw them into confusion.

15 Then the ocean floor could be seen. The foundations of the earth were laid bare at your stern warning, O LORD, at the blast of the breath from your nostrils.

16 He reached down from high above and took hold of me. He pulled me out of the raging water.

17 He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, because they were too strong for me.

18 On the day when I faced disaster, they confronted me, but the LORD came to my defense.

19 He brought me out to a wide-open place. He rescued me because he was pleased with me.

20 The LORD rewarded me because of my righteousness, because my hands are clean. He paid me back

21 because I have kept the ways of the LORD and I have not wickedly turned away from my God,

22 because all his judgments are in front of me and I have not turned away from his laws.

23 I was innocent as far as he was concerned. I have kept myself from guilt.

24 The LORD paid me back because of my righteousness, because he can see that my hands are clean.

25 [In dealing] with faithful people you are faithful, with innocent people you are innocent,

26 with pure people you are pure. [In dealing] with devious people you are clever.

27 You save humble people, but you bring down a conceited look.

28 O LORD, you light my lamp. My God turns my darkness into light.

29 With you I can attack a line of soldiers. With my God I can break through barricades.

30 God's way is perfect! The promise of the LORD has proven to be true. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

31 Who is God but the LORD? Who is a rock except our God?

32 God arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

33 He makes my feet like those of a deer and gives me sure footing on high places.

34 He trains my hands for battle so that my arms can bend an [archer's] bow of bronze.

35 You have given me the shield of your salvation. Your right hand supports me. Your gentleness makes me great.

36 You make a wide path for me to walk on so that my feet do not slip.

37 I chased my enemies and caught up with them. I did not return until I had ended their lives.

38 I wounded them so badly that they were unable to get up. They fell under my feet.

39 You armed me with strength for battle. You made my opponents bow at my feet.

40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and I destroyed those who hated me.

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

42 I beat them into a powder as fine as the dust blown by the wind. I threw them out as though they were dirt on the streets.

43 You rescued me from my conflicts with the people. You made me the leader of nations. A people I did not know will serve me:

44 As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me. Foreigners will cringe in front of me.

45 Foreigners will lose heart, and they will tremble when they come out of their fortifications.

46 The LORD lives! Thanks be to my rock! May God my Savior be honored.

47 God gives me vengeance! He brings people under my authority.

48 He saves me from my enemies. You lift me up above my opponents. You rescue me from violent people.

49 That is why I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the nations and make music to praise your name.

50 He gives great victories to his king. He shows mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his descendant 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.

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.