Psalm 18

Psalms 18:1-3

The Hebrew title, not carried by this floor's text, dates the song to the day the Lord delivered David from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and names him the servant of the Lord, the same song appearing again nearly word for word at 2 Samuel 22. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength opens with a verb the Hebrew uses nowhere else in the Psalter for love toward God, tender rather than merely dutiful. The chain of titles that follows, rock, fortress, deliverer, strength, buckler, horn of salvation, high tower, piles up defensive images from a soldier's own vocabulary, each one answering a different kind of danger David had actually faced.

Psalms 18:4-6

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid names the danger in two images, a funeral procession closing in and a flood rising, sorrows the same word used elsewhere of a woman in labor. The sorrows of hell compassed me about repeats the first line with sheol in place of death, the snares of death prevented me adding a hunter's trap to the flood and the funeral. In my distress I called upon the Lord turns from danger to the single act that answers it, and he heard my voice out of his temple states that the prayer reached its mark before the deliverance itself is described.

Psalms 18:7-9

Then the earth shook and trembled opens a theophany, God's appearing pictured in the language Sinai used, the foundations of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth naming the earthquake as anger rather than accident. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured borrows the picture of a storm cloud and lightning for breath and speech, the anthropomorphism deliberate rather than literal. Coals were kindled by it closes the opening image on fire answering fire, wrath pictured as heat before the storm proper begins.

Psalms 18:10-15

He bowed the heavens also, and came down pictures the theophany as a personal descent, darkness under his feet keeping the storm cloud between the throne and the earth. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly draws on the same living-creature imagery Ezekiel later develops at length, the wind itself made a chariot. He made darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies keeps God hidden inside the storm even while acting through it, and the hail, coals of fire, thunder, the Highest's voice, arrows and lightnings that follow through verse 15 continue the same weather picture for the same appearing, the arrows the psalmist's own word for lightning bolts.

Psalms 18:16-19

He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters shifts abruptly from cosmic storm to personal rescue, the same verb order Exodus uses of Moses drawn from the water, a connection several of the older writers note by name. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me, for they were too strong for me names the enemy's advantage honestly rather than minimizing it, deliverance credited entirely to God rather than to David's own strength. He brought me forth also into a large place closes the rescue on open space after confinement, delivered because he delighted in me naming pleasure, not merit, as the reason given.

Psalms 18:20-24

rewarded me according to my righteousness: The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me states a claim that reads strangely beside the doctrine of grace if taken as sinlessness, and the older commentators read it instead as relative righteousness, David's innocence of the specific charge his enemies pressed rather than a claim of a flawless life. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God narrows the claim further, departure rather than perfection the thing denied. I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity repeats the same limited claim through verse 24, righteousness measured against the accusation at hand rather than against the whole of life.

Psalms 18:25-27

With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright states a principle of reciprocity that runs through the whole psalm, God's dealing answering the disposition brought to him. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward extends the principle to its harder edge, froward met with froward rather than kindness. For thou wilt save the afflicted people, but wilt bring down high looks applies the principle to the very conflict the psalm has been describing, pride opposed and affliction relieved by the same God.

Psalms 18:28-30

For thou wilt light my candle turns from principle back to personal testimony, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness naming guidance rather than only rescue. For by thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall credits two kinds of victory, breaking through and going over, to the same source. As for God, his way is perfect, the word of the Lord is tried closes the stanza on God's own character rather than David's exploits, and he is a buckler to all those that trust in him returns to the opening chain of images.

Psalms 18:31-34

For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God? states outright the claim the whole psalm has been building toward, no other rescuer left possible after everything just described. It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect, and he maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places, teaching hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms, each verb crediting the readiness for battle entirely to God's own equipping rather than to natural skill.

Psalms 18:35-36

Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation names the same protection the opening verses claimed, now specifically credited as a gift rather than an achievement. Thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great pairs strength with gentleness, the word for gentleness elsewhere rendered condescension or humility, God's own stooping named as the cause of David's greatness. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip closes the pair on stability, the same steadiness verse 33 credited to sure footing now credited directly to God's own hand.

Psalms 18:37-42

I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them opens a war report that runs without apology through verse 42, victory described in plain and violent terms because it is written as the testimony of a king rather than a private citizen's prayer. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise, they are fallen under my feet, thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle, and thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies name a total victory, submission pictured as a hand on the defeated neck. They cried, but there was none to save them, even unto the Lord, but he answered them not marks the reversal of the psalm's own opening, David's cry heard and answered while his enemies' cry finds no such God, and then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind closes the stanza on total defeat.

Psalms 18:43-45

Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people widens the victory from personal enemies to national rivals. And thou hast made me the head of the heathen, a people whom I have not known shall serve me extends David's rule past Israel's own borders to nations he had not previously governed. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me pictures a reputation doing what an army has not yet done, and the strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places closes the stanza on submission without a further battle, fear alone accomplishing what force elsewhere required.

Psalms 18:46-48

The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock returns the psalm to the opening title after the long war report, praise following naturally from victory. And let the God of my salvation be exalted, it is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me credits the whole campaign once more to God alone rather than to David's own generalship, the same move the psalm has made at every turn. He delivereth me from mine enemies, yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me, thou hast delivered me from the violent man closes the deliverance theme that opened the psalm, the violent man answering the strong enemy of verse 17.

Psalms 18:49-50

Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name turns the victory outward, David's praise deliberately sung where the nations he has just described can hear it. Paul quotes this verse at Romans 15:9 as one of his proof texts that God's mercy was always meant to reach the Gentiles, an argument the New Testament itself makes from these words. Great deliverance giveth he to his king, and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore closes the psalm on the covenant of 2 Samuel 7, mercy promised not only to David but to his seed for evermore, the throne's future secured in the same breath as its present victory.