Psalm 18:34-46

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

35 You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great.

36 You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.

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

38 I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.

39 You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me.

40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes.

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

42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust; I trampled them^[a] like mud in the streets.

43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations. People I did not know now serve me,

44 foreigners cower before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.

45 They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.

46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!

Psalm 18:34-46 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 144:1
• 2. Psalms 3:5; Psalms 37:5,17; Psalms 41:3; Psalms 51:12; Psalms 54:4; Psalms 55:22; Psalms 119:116; Isa 41:4,10,13; Isaiah 43:2; Isaiah 46:4
• 3. Psalms 31:8
• 4. S Job 18:7; Psalms 66:9
• 5. S Leviticus 26:7; Psalms 37:20; Psalms 44:5
• 6. Psalms 68:21; Psalms 110:6
• 7. Psalms 36:12; Psalms 140:10; Isaiah 26:14
• 8. Psalms 47:3
• 9. ver 32; Isaiah 45:5,24
• 10. ver 47; Psalms 47:3; Psalms 144:2
• 11. S Joshua 7:12; Psalms 21:12
• 12. ver 37; Psalms 94:23
• 13. S 2 Kings 14:26; Psalms 50:22
• 14. S 1 Samuel 8:18; S 1 Samuel 14:37; Jeremiah 11:11; Job 27:9; Proverbs 1:28
• 15. S Deuteronomy 9:21; S Isaiah 2:22
• 16. 2 Samuel 8:1-14
• 17. Isaiah 52:15; Isaiah 55:5
• 18. Psalms 54:3; Psalms 144:7,11; Isaiah 25:5; Psalms 66:3
• 19. S 1 Samuel 17:32; 2 Corinthians 4:1; Hebrews 12:3
• 20. Isaiah 66:2; Hosea 3:5; Hosea 11:10
• 21. Psalms 9:9; Micah 7:17
• 22. S Joshua 3:10; S 1 Samuel 14:39; 2 Corinthians 13:4
• 23. ver 31; Exodus 33:22
• 24. Psalms 21:13; Psalms 35:27; Psalms 40:16; Psalms 108:5
• 25. S 1 Chronicles 16:35; S Luke 1:47; Psalms 51:14

Footnotes

• [a] Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac and Targum (see also 2 Samuel 22:43); Masoretic Text "I poured them out"