Psalms 18:1
in Psalms 18I love You, O LORD, my strength.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.
KJV
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
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This verse in Psalms 18
Commentary
18 notes on this verseI will love thee, O Lord, my strength. These words are not in twenty second chapter of Second Samuel: the psalm there begins with Psa 18:
This site's exposition
I love You, O LORD
on Psalms 18:1-3
The psalm opens with love for the LORD, then a run of titles. Rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, shield, horn of salvation and stronghold are a soldier's words for cover, each naming a different danger. He calls on the LORD and is saved from his enemies.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Christ, then, and the Church, that is, whole Christ, the Head and the Body, says here, "I will love You, O Lord, My strength" [Psalm 18:1]. I will love You, O Lord, by whom I am strong.
Christ, then, and the Church, that is, whole Christ, the Head and the Body, says here, "I will love You, O Lord, My strength" [Psalm 18:1]. I will love You, O Lord, by whom I am strong.
Take care not to let trust in your own strength steal on you, for you are human, and "cursed be everyone who puts his hope in man." But put your trust fully and with your whole heart in God, and he will be your strength; trust him lovingly and gratefully and say to him humbly and faithfully, "I will love you, O Lord, my strength," because that very charity of God, when it is perfected in us, "casts out fear."
Let us ask the Lord and say, "Who is he who loves you?" He will respond to us through his Gospel and say, "He who hears my words and does them, this is the one who loves me."
This psalm has a title consistent with the theme, as can be found also in [2 Samuel]. Blessed David uttered it in thanksgiving, in fact, toward the end of his life when reminding himself of all the favors he had been granted by God throughout …
11 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers2 voices
The phrase "I shall love" does not mean I shall love you from this point on since you always provided me with many things; rather, the tense has been changed, and the meaning is, my love and affection for you, my master, were always right …
David has consecrated this hymn of triumph on the occasion of his victory over his enemies and opponents to the Author of all victories.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 5 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
"I will love you, O Lord, my fortitude; the Lord is my firmament and my refuge and my deliverer." Catherine and Lucy were strong through the love of God. If we are not bound to the Lord through charity, we easily lose our fortitude.
In the preceding Psalm the Psalmist prayed to be delivered from his enemies; here, having been delivered, he gives thanks. And first he gives thanks for the benefit of deliverance. Second, he breaks forth into praise of the deliverer, at "the heavens declare the glory …
The Reformation1 voice
As the Scripture does not use the verb rhm, racham, for to love, except in the conjugation pihel, and as it is here put in the conjugation kal, some of the Jewish expositors explain it as here meaning to seek mercy; as if David had said, Lord, since I have so often experienced thee to be a merciful God, I will trust to and repose in thy mercies for ever.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Love - Most affectionately, and with my whole soul; as the Hebrew word signifies.
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
"I will love thee, O Lord." With strong, hearty affection will I cling to thee; as a child to its parent, or a spouse to her husband. The word is intensely forcible, the love is of the deepest kind. "I will love heartily, with my inmost bowels." Here is a fixed resolution to abide in the nearest and most intimate union with the Most High. Our triune God deserves the warmest love of all our hearts. Father, Son and Spirit have each a claim upon our love.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The various terms used describe God as an object of the most implicit and reliable trust. rock--literally, "a cleft rock," for concealment. strength--a firm, immovable rock. horn of my salvation--The horn, as the means of attack or defense of some of the strongest animals, is a frequent emblem of power or strength efficiently exercised (compare De 33:17;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
"I will love thee, O Lord." With strong, hearty affection will I cling to thee; as a child to its parent, or a spouse to her husband. The word is intensely forcible, the love is of the deepest kind. "I will love heartily, with my inmost bowels." Here is a fixed resolution to abide in the nearest and most intimate union with the Most High. Our triune God deserves the warmest love of all our hearts. Father, Son and Spirit have each a claim upon our love. The solemn purpose never to cease loving naturally springs from present fervour of affection. It is wrong to make rash resolutions, but this when made in the strength of God is most wise and fitting. "My strength." Our God is the strength of our life, our graces, our works, our hopes, our conflicts, our victories. This verse is not found in 2 Samuel 22, and is a most precious addition, placed above all and after all to form the pinnacle of the temple, the apex of the pyramid. Love is still the crowning grace.
I will love thee - Love always subsists on motive and reason. The verb רחם racham signifies to love with all the tender feelinys of nature. “From my inmost bowels will I love thee, O Lord!” Why should he love Jehovah? Not merely because he was infinitely great and good, possessed of all possible perfections, but because he was good to him: and he here enumerates some of the many blessings he received from him. My strength - 1. Thou who hast given me power over my adversaries, and hast enabled me to avoid evil and do good.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I will love thee, O Lord - This verse is not found in the song in 2 Sam. 22. It appears to have been added after the first composition of the psalm, either by David as expressive of his ardent love for the Lord in view of his merciful interpositions in his behalf, and on the most careful and most mature review of those mercies, or by the collector of the Psalms when they were adapted to purposes of public worship, as a proper commencement of the psalm - expressive of the feeling which the general tenor of the psalm was fitted to inspire. It is impossible now to determine by whom it was added; but no one can doubt that it is a proper commencement of a psalm that is designed to recount so many mercies. It is the feeling which all should have when they recall the goodness of God to them in their past lives. My strength - The source of my strength, or from whom all my strength is derived. So Psa 27:1, “The Lord is the strength of my life.” Psa 28:8, “he is the saving strength of his anointed.” Compare Psa 29:11; Psa 46:1; Psa 73:26; Psa 81:1; Psa 140:7.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
on the day the Lord saved him etc. When he became old and all his troubles had already passed over him and he was saved from them.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
4 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּאמַ֡ר | vaiyomar | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אֶרְחָמְךָ֖ | ʾerchamekha | I love you | H7355 → | 47 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| חִזְקִֽי׃ | chizki | strength my | H2391 → |
וַיֹּאמַ֡רand he said
vaiyomarH559 →5305 times
אֶרְחָמְךָ֖I love you
ʾerchamekhaH7355 →47 times
יְהוָ֣הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
חִזְקִֽי׃strength my
chizkiH2391 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Philippians 4:13I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
it leads to
- Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 41:10
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand…
- 2 Corinthians 12:9–10
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of…
- Colossians 1:11
being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully
- Isaiah 40:29–31
He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.
- Ephesians 6:10
Through
1 John 4:19We love because He first loved us.
it leads to
- 1 John 4:10
And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- John 15:16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
- 1 John 4:10
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on 16 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Arnobius the Younger, COMMENTARY ON PSALM 18; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 18; Augustine of Hippo, LETTER 218; Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 5; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 1; Diodorus of Tarsus, COMMENTARY ON PSALM 18; Eusebius of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:1; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.