Psalm 18

1 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

2 The Lord is my firm support, and my refuge, and my deliverer; my God is my helper, I will hope in him; he is my defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper.

3 I will call upon the Lord with praises, and I shall be saved from mine enemies.

4 The pangs of death compassed me, and the torrents of ungodliness troubled me exceedingly.

5 The pangs of hell came round about me: the snares of death prevented me.

6 And when I was afflicted I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: he heard my voice out of this holy temple, and my cry shall enter before him, even into his ears.

7 Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains were disturbed, and were shaken, because God was angry with them.

8 There went up a smoke in his wrath, and fire burst into a flame at his presence: coals were kindled at it.

9 And he bowed the heaven, and came down: and thick darkness was under his feet.

10 And he mounted on cherubs and flew: he flew on the wings of winds.

11 And he made darkness his secret place: round about him was his tabernacle, even dark water in the clouds of the air.

12 At the brightness before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire.

13 The Lord also thundered from heaven, and the Highest uttered his voice.

14 And he sent forth his weapons, and scattered them; and multiplied lightnings, and routed them.

15 And the springs of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blasting of the breath of thy wrath.

16 He sent from on high and took me, he drew me to himself out of many waters.

17 He will deliver me from my mighty enemies, and from them that hate me; for they are stronger than I.

18 They prevented me in the day of mine affliction: but the Lord was my stay against them.

19 And he brought me out into a wide place: he will deliver me, because he has pleasure in me.

20 And the Lord will recompense me according to my righteousness; even according to the purity of my hands will he recompense me.

21 For I have kept the way of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all his judgments were before me, and his ordinances departed not from me.

23 And I shall be blameless with hem, and shall keep myself from mine iniquity.

24 And the Lord shall recompense me according to my righteousness, and according to the purity of my hands before his eyes.

25 With the holy thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent.

26 And with the excellent man thou wilt be excellent; and with the perverse thou wilt shew frowardness.

27 For thou wilt save the lowly people, and wilt humble the eyes of the proud.

28 For thou, O Lord, wilt light my lamp: my God, thou wilt lighten my darkness.

29 For by thee shall I be delivered from a troop; and by my God I will pass over a wall.

30 As for my God, his way is perfect: the oracles of the Lord are tried in the fire; he is a protector of all them that hope in him.

31 For who is God but the Lord? and who is a God except our God?

32 It is God that girds me with strength, and has made my way blameless:

33 who strengthens my feet as hart’s feet, and sets me upon high places.

34 He instructs my hands for war: and thou hast made my arms as a brazen bow.

35 And thou hast made me secure in my salvation: and thy right hand has helped me, and thy correction has upheld me to the end; yea, thy correction itself shall instruct me.

36 Thou has made room for my goings under me, and by footsteps did not fail.

37 I will pursue mine enemies, and overtake them; and I will not turn back until they are consumed.

38 I will dash them to pieces and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet.

39 For thou hast girded me with strength for war: thou hast beaten down under me all that rose up against me.

40 And thou has made mine enemies turn their backs before me; and thou hast destroyed them that hated me.

41 They cried, but there was no deliverer: even to the Lord, but he hearkened not to them.

42 I will grind them as the mud of the streets: and I will beat them small as dust before the wind.

43 Deliver me from the gain sayings of the people: thou shalt make me head of the Gentiles: a people whom I knew not served me,

44 at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me: the strange children lied to me.

45 The strange children waxed old, and fell away from their paths through lameness.

46 The Lord lives; and blessed be my God; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

47 It is God that avenges me, and has subdued the nations under me;

48 my deliverer from angry enemies: thou shalt set me on high above them that rise up against me: thou shalt deliver me from the unrighteous man.

49 Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name.

50 God magnifies the deliverances of his king; and deals mercifully with David his anointed, and his seed, for ever.

Psalm 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.