Psalms 18

1 I love you, Lord. You are my strength.

2 The Lord is my rock, my protection, my Savior. My God is my rock. I can run to him for safety. He is my shield and my saving strength, my defender.

3 I will call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I will be saved from my enemies.

4 The ropes of death came around me; the deadly rivers overwhelmed me.

5 The ropes of death wrapped around me. The traps of death were before me.

6 In my trouble I called to the Lord. I cried out to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my call for help reached his ears.

7 The earth trembled and shook. The foundations of the mountains began to shake. They trembled because the Lord was angry.

8 Smoke came out of his nose, and burning fire came out of his mouth. Burning coals went before him.

9 He tore open the sky and came down with dark clouds under his feet.

10 He rode a creature with wings and flew. He raced on the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his covering, his shelter around him, surrounded by fog and clouds.

12 Out of the brightness of his presence came clouds with hail and lightning.

13 The Lord thundered from heaven; the Most High raised his voice, and there was hail and lightning.

14 He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies. His many bolts of lightning confused them with fear.

15 Lord, you spoke strongly. The wind blew from your nose. Then the valleys of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the earth were seen.

16 The Lord reached down from above and took me; he pulled me from the deep water.

17 He saved me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me, because they were too strong for me.

18 They attacked me at my time of trouble, but the Lord supported me.

19 He took me to a safe place. Because he delights in me, he saved me.

20 The Lord spared me because I did what was right. Because I have not done evil, he has rewarded me.

21 I have followed the ways of the Lord; I have not done evil by turning away from my God.

22 I remember all his laws and have not broken his rules.

23 I am innocent before him; I have kept myself from doing evil.

24 The Lord rewarded me because I did what was right, because I did what the Lord said was right.

25 Lord, you are loyal to those who are loyal, and you are good to those who are good.

26 You are pure to those who are pure, but you are against those who are bad.

27 You save the humble, but you bring down those who are proud.

28 Lord, you give light to my lamp. My God brightens the darkness around me.

29 With your help I can attack an army. With God's help I can jump over a wall.

30 The ways of God are without fault. The Lord's words are pure. He is a shield to those who trust him.

31 Who is God? Only the Lord. Who is the Rock? Only our God.

32 God is my protection. He makes my way free from fault.

33 He makes me like a deer that does not stumble; he helps me stand on the steep mountains.

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

35 You protect me with your saving shield. You support me with your right hand. You have stooped to make me great.

36 You give me a better way to live, so I live as you want me to.

37 I chased my enemies and caught them. I did not quit until they were destroyed.

38 I crushed them so they couldn't rise up again. They fell beneath my feet.

39 You gave me strength in battle. You made my enemies bow before me.

40 You made my enemies turn back, and I destroyed those who hated me.

41 They called for help, but no one came to save them. They called to the Lord, but he did not answer them.

42 I beat my enemies into pieces, like dust in the wind. I poured them out like mud in the streets.

43 You saved me when the people attacked me. You made me the leader of nations. People I never knew serve me.

44 As soon as they hear me, they obey me. Foreigners obey me.

45 They all become afraid and tremble in their hiding places.

46 The Lord lives! May my Rock be praised.

47 God gives me victory over my enemies and brings people under my rule.

48 He saves me from my enemies. You set me over those who hate me. You saved me from cruel men.

49 So I will praise you, Lord, among the nations. I will sing praises to your name.

50 The Lord gives great victories to his king. He is loyal to his appointed king, to David and his descendants forever. For the director of music. A psalm of David.

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.