Psalms 18

1 (17-1) <Unto the end, for David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this canticle, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: and he said:> (17-2) I will love thee, O Lord, my strength:

2 (17-3) The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my support.

3 (17-4) Praising, I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies.

4 (17-5) The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me.

5 (17-6) The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and the snares of death prevented me.

6 (17-7) In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and I cried to my God: And he heard my voice from his holy temple: and my cry before him came into his ears.

7 (17-8) The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them.

8 (17-9) There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it.

9 (17-10) He bowed the heavens, and came down, and darkness was under his feet.

10 (17-11) And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.

11 (17-12) And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.

12 (17-13) At the brightness that was before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire.

13 (17-14) And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Highest gave his voice: hail and coals of fire.

14 (17-15) And he sent forth his arrows, and he scattered them: he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.

15 (17-16) Then the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were discovered: At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the spirit of thy wrath.

16 (17-17) He sent from on high, and took me: and received me out of many waters.

17 (17-18) He delivered me from my strongest enemies, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

18 (17-19) They prevented me in the day of my affliction: and the Lord became my protector.

19 (17-20) And he brought me forth into a large place: he saved me, because he was well pleased with me.

20 (17-21) And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands:

21 (17-22) Because I have kept the ways of the Lord; and have not done wickedly against my God.

22 (17-23) For all his judgments are in my sight: and his justices I have not put away from me.

23 (17-24) And I shall be spotless with him: and shall keep myself from my iniquity.

24 (17-25) And the Lord will reward me according to my justice: and according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.

25 (17-26) With the holy thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent:

26 (17-27) And withe the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.

27 (17-28) For thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.

28 (17-29) For thou lightest my lamp, O Lord: O my God, enlighten my darkness.

29 (17-30) For by thee I shall be delivered from temptation; and through my God I shall go over a wall.

30 (17-31) As for my God, his way is undefiled: the words of the Lord are fire-tried: he is the protector of all that trust in him.

31 (17-32) For who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God?

32 (17-33) God, who hath girt me with strength; and made my way blameless.

33 (17-34) Who hath made my feet like the feet of harts: and who setteth me upon high places.

34 (17-35) Who teacheth my hands to war: and thou hast made my arms like a brazen bow.

35 (17-36) And thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath held me up: And thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end: and thy discipline, the same shall teach me.

36 (17-37) Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; and my feet are not weakened.

37 (17-38) I will pursue after my enemies, and overtake them: and I will not turn again till they are consumed.

38 (17-39) I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet.

39 (17-40) And thou hast girded me with strength unto battle; and hast subdued under me them that rose up against me.

40 (17-41) And thou hast made my enemies turn their back upon me, and hast destroyed them that hated me.

41 (17-42) They cried, but there was none to save them, to the Lord: but he heard them not.

42 (17-43) And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.

43 (17-44) Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people; thou wilt make me head of the Gentiles.

44 (17-45) A people which I knew not, hath served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.

45 (17-46) The children that are strangers have lied to me, strange children have faded away, and have halted from their paths.

46 (17-47) The Lord liveth, and blessed by my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

47 (17-48) O God, who avengest me, and subduest the people under me, my deliverer from my enraged enemies.

48 (17-49) And thou wilt lift me up above them that rise up against me: from the unjust man thou wilt deliver me.

49 (17-50) Therefore will I give glory to thee, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing a psalm to thy name.

50 (17-51) Giving great deliverance to his king, and shewing mercy to David, his anointed: and to his seed for ever.

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.