To the chief musician, a psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
18
📚I will love you, O LORD,my strength.
18:1 This psalm is found with a few changes in 2 Samuel chapter 22. This is the song of the victorious warrior. His battles have been as “the servant of the LORD” (Title), and he gives all the glory to the Lord alone for the victories. Now the battles of believers are spiritual battles. We must fight against sin, and the flesh in us, and Satan and his hordes without – 1 Cor 9:26; Eph 6:11-12; Col 3:5; 1 Tim 6:12. We are to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ – 2 Tim 2:3. David loved the Lord (the Hebrew word means the love between parents and children, the love that moves the heart to overflowing affection). Blessed is the man who loves God. Everything will turn out for his good – Rom 8:28. It will prove to be the secret of his victory. God Himself was David’s strength for the fight – Ps 21:1; 46:1; 68:28; 84:5; Ex 15:2; Isa 12:2; 40:31; 1 Chron 16:11.⚜
2 📚The LORD is my rock 📖,
and my fortress,
and my deliverer;
my God, my strength in
whom I will trust,
my shield, and the horn
of my salvation,
and my high refuge.
3 📚I will call to the LORD,
who is worthy to
be praised;
so I will be saved
from my enemies.
18:3 This was the continual experience of his whole life. It can and should be ours also – 1 Cor 10:13; 2 Tim 4:18; 2 Pet 2:9.⚜
4 📚The sorrows of death
surrounded me,
and the floods of ungodliness
made me afraid.
5 📚The sorrows of hell 📖
surrounded me;
the snares of death
confronted me.
6 📚In my distress
I called to the LORD,
and cried out to my God.
He heard my voice
from his temple,
and my cry came before him,
into his ears.
18:4-6 David remembers times of extreme danger and distress, but he knew what to do. Cannot we see Christ in these verses? See Acts 2:24; and Heb 5:7.⚜
7 📚Then the earth shook
and trembled;
also the foundations
of the hills moved
and were shaken,
because he was angry.
18:7 From here to v 19 we see God’s answer to David’s cry. How powerful is the prayer of a righteous person! – Jam 5:16-18; Luke 18:1-8. The prayer of a single believer is sometimes followed by marvelous results. It is not recorded in David’s history that God ever came in an earthquake or storm to deliver him but it could have happened at one time or another – or possibly David is using very poetic language to describe another kind of deliverance.⚜
8 📚A smoke went up out
of his nostrils,
and devouring fire out
of his mouth.
Coals were kindled by it.
18:8 A picture of great wrath. God is angry when wicked men persecute His people – 1 Thess 2:6-7.⚜
9 📚He bowed the heavens also,
and came down,
and darkness was under
his feet.
18:9 Man’s need and true prayer bring God down.⚜
10 📚And he rode on a cherub 📖
and flew;
yes, he flew on the wings
of the wind.
11 📚He made darkness
his secret place.
His canopy around him
was dark waters
and thick clouds
of the skies.
12 📚From the brightness that was
before him his thick clouds
passed with hailstones
and coals of fire.
13 📚The LORD also thundered
in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered
his voice,
hailstones and coals
of fire 📖.
14 📚He sent out his arrows
and scattered them,
and he shot out lightning flashes
and routed them.
15 📚Then the channels
of waters were seen,
and the foundations
of the world were uncovered
at your rebuke,
O LORD, at the blast of breath
from your nostrils.
18:11-15 God is pictured as arriving in the storm. The dark clouds are His clothing, the thunder is His voice, lightening flashes are His arrows, the wind is His breath. The language is poetical, full of beautiful metaphors. Writers of the Bible never worshiped the forces of nature or called them gods. They saw the one true God behind them.⚜
16 📚He stretched down
from above,
he took hold of me,
he drew me out of
many waters.
17 📚He delivered me from
my strong enemy,
and from those
who hated me;
for they were too strong
for me.
18:16-17 David was drowning, as it were, in troubles and dangers, and God drew him out of them. Observe that his enemies were too strong for him. Yes, but not too strong for the Lord.⚜
18 📚They confronted me
in the day of my calamity;
but the LORD was my support.
18:18 Disaster almost overwhelmed him but he had someone upon which to lean (this is the meaning of the Hebrew verb).⚜
19 📚He also brought me out
into a broad place;
he delivered me,
because he delighted in me.
18:19 See Ps 31:8; 118:5. David begins to set forth the reason why God came and wonderfully rescued him. God was well pleased with both his character and actions. He was a man after God’s own heart – see the note at 1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22. If we want to be delivered when trouble comes we should try to live lives pleasing to God. The perfect fulfillment of this verse, of course, is in the Lord Jesus (Matt 3:17; Heb 5:7).⚜
20 📚The LORD rewarded me
according to my
righteousness;
according to the cleanness
of my hands he has repaid me.
21 📚For I have kept the ways
of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed
from my God.
22 📚For all his judgments were
before me,
and I did not put away
his statutes from me.
23 📚I was also upright before him,
and I kept myself from my sin.
18:23 David was well aware of his sinful nature and his besetting temptations. Indeed, no one in the Bible speaks of his sin more than David – Ps 25:7, 11, 18; 31:10; 32:5; 38:3-4, 18; 39:8; 40:12; 41:4; 51:3, 5; 69:5; 103:10, 12. But even in that matter where he was most prone to sin he kept himself by the grace of God. He knew that he hated his sins, mourned over them, forsook them, was cleansed from them and forgiven. He knew that he loved God and righteousness and that he sought to keep from sin and to live an upright life.⚜
24 📚Therefore the LORD has repaid me
according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness
of my hands in his sight.
18:20-24 This is not self-righteousness, but a simple setting forth of the facts by the inspiration of God’s Spirit (see Ps 17:3).⚜
25 📚With the merciful you will show
yourself merciful;
with an upright man you will show
yourself upright;
26 📚With the pure you will show
yourself pure;
and with the twisters 📖 you will show
yourself able to twist.
18:25-26 Here is one very important principle of God’s dealings with people. In some measure at least He acts toward them as they act toward Him and others – Ps 62:12; Lev 26:3-5, 23, 24, 27, 28; Prov 3:34; Matt 5:7; 6:14-15; Rom 2:5-6. This is a principle of perfect justice. It is in accordance with the law God gave. Does God, then, change His character when He deals with different kinds of people? No, He merely reveals that side of His character which suits the person and the case. He will see that the faithful, blameless, and pure will thus learn in experience more of God’s faithfulness, blamelessness, and purity. But the wicked and deceitful will learn that God can outwit them and make their own crookedness to work against them – Ps 5:10; 7:16; 9:16; 1 Cor 3:19.⚜
27 📚For you will save lowly people;
but will bring down haughty looks.
28 📚For you will make my lamp 📖
give light;
the LORD my God will enlighten 📖
my darkness.
29 📚For by you I have run
through a troop,
and by my God I have leaped
over a wall.
30 📚As for God,
his way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tested
and proven.
He is a shield to all
those who trust in him.
18:30 Deut 32:4; Zeph 3:5. God knows how to deal with every individual and with the world as a whole. He never makes a mistake, never acts unjustly, never fails to do what He should do. Sinful men, not understanding this, blame Him for all sorts of things which happen on earth. See note on Ps 47:2. On His Word see Ps 12:6; Prov 30:5.⚜
31 📚For who is God
except the LORD?
Or who is a rock 📖
except our God?
32 📚It is God who arms me
with strength,
and makes my way perfect.
18:32 In Hebrew the word “perfect” here is the same word used of God above. David does not say that God had made him perfect – only his way. God perfectly equipped him for the fight he had to face, the work he had to do. He made him honest and upright in his behavior. This is what God wants for us all (Deut 18:13; Ps 101:2, 6).⚜
33 📚He makes my feet like deer’s feet,
and sets me on my high places.
34 📚He teaches my hands to war,
so that my arms can bend
a bow of bronze.
35 📚You have also given me
the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand has
held me up,
and your gentleness has
made me great.
18:35 God’s gentleness is what makes truly great, not man’s restless striving after position and power.⚜
36 📚You have enlarged
my path under me,
so that my feet did not slip.
18:33-36 All his abilities and powers and successes he attributes to God’s grace alone.⚜
37 📚I have pursued my enemies
and overtaken them.
I did not turn back until
they were consumed.
38 📚I have wounded them
so that they were not able
to rise.
They are fallen under my feet.
39 📚For you have armed me
with strength to the battle.
You have subdued under me
those who rose up against me.
40 📚You have also given me
the necks of my enemies,
so that I might destroy
those who hate me.
41 📚They cried out,
but there was no one to
save them; to the LORD,
but he did not answer them.
42 📚Then I beat them as fine as
the dust before the wind.
I hurled them out like dirt
in the streets.
18:37-42 References from the history of David – 1 Sam 30:16-19; 2 Sam 5:6-10, 17-25; 8:1-14; 2 Sam 10:17-19.⚜
43 📚You have delivered me from the strivings
of the people;
and you have made me
the head of the nations.
A people whom I have
not known will serve me.
44 📚As soon as they hear of me,
they obey me;
the foreigners submit
themselves to me.
45 📚The foreigners fade away,
and frightened come
from their strongholds.
46 📚The LORD lives!
Blessed be my rock!
Let the God of my salvation
be exalted!
47 📚It is God who
avenges me,
and subdues the peoples
under me.
48 📚He delivers me
from my enemies,
and you lift me up
above those who rise up
against me.
You have delivered me
from the violent man.
49 📚Therefore I will give thanks
to you,
O LORD, among the nations,
and sing praises to
your name.
50 📚He gives great deliverance
to his king,
and shows mercy
to his anointed,
to David, and to his offspring
forever.
18:46-50 David would never think of attributing to himself the success and victories he gained. From first to last it was all of God. So shall it be with us if we get the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil (Rom 8:37; 2 Cor 1:21; 2:14; 2 Cor 3:5).⚜
18:50 Here David remembers the covenant God made with him about this (Ps 89:3-4; 1 Chron 17:7-14). He expresses his confidence that God would keep this covenant. This verse finds its perfect fulfillment in David’s descendant, Jesus Christ the Lord (Matt 1:1; Rom 1:3). In fact, thinking of spiritual warfare and victory the enlightened believer can see Christ all through this psalm. Christ is as much in the Psalms as He is everywhere in the Old Testament (see Luke 24:25-27, 44).⚜