Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

Psalm 18

Royal Thanksgiving for Victory

To the leader. A Psalm of David the servant of the L ord, who addressed the words of this song to the L ord on the day when the L ord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:

I love you, O L ord, my strength.

The L ord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,

my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the L ord, who is worthy to be praised,

so I shall be saved from my enemies.

The cords of death encompassed me;

the torrents of perdition assailed me;

the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called upon the L ord;

to my God I cried for help.

From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears.

Then the earth reeled and rocked;

the foundations also of the mountains trembled

and quaked, because he was angry.

Smoke went up from his nostrils,

and devouring fire from his mouth;

glowing coals flamed forth from him.

He bowed the heavens, and came down;

thick darkness was under his feet.

He rode on a cherub, and flew;

he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his covering around him,

his canopy thick clouds dark with water.

Out of the brightness before him

there broke through his clouds

hailstones and coals of fire.

The L ord also thundered in the heavens,

and the Most High uttered his voice.

And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;

he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.

Then the channels of the sea were seen,

and the foundations of the world were laid bare

at your rebuke, O L ord,

at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

He reached down from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of mighty waters.

He delivered me from my strong enemy,

and from those who hated me;

for they were too mighty for me.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity;

but the L ord was my support.

He brought me out into a broad place;

he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

The L ord rewarded me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.

For I have kept the ways of the L ord,

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his ordinances were before me,

and his statutes I did not put away from me.

I was blameless before him,

and I kept myself from guilt.

Therefore the L ord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

With the loyal you show yourself loyal;

with the blameless you show yourself blameless;

with the pure you show yourself pure;

and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.

For you deliver a humble people,

but the haughty eyes you bring down.

It is you who light my lamp;

the L ord, my God, lights up my darkness.

By you I can crush a troop,

and by my God I can leap over a wall.

This God—his way is perfect;

the promise of the L ord proves true;

he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

For who is God except the L ord?

And who is a rock besides our God?—

the God who girded me with strength,

and made my way safe.

He made my feet like the feet of a deer,

and set me secure on the heights.

He trains my hands for war,

so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You have given me the shield of your salvation,

and your right hand has supported me;

your help has made me great.

You gave me a wide place for my steps under me,

and my feet did not slip.

I pursued my enemies and overtook them;

and did not turn back until they were consumed.

I struck them down, so that they were not able to rise;

they fell under my feet.

For you girded me with strength for the battle;

you made my assailants sink under me.

You made my enemies turn their backs to me,

and those who hated me I destroyed.

They cried for help, but there was no one to save them;

they cried to the L ord, but he did not answer them.

I beat them fine, like dust before the wind;

I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

You delivered me from strife with the peoples;

you made me head of the nations;

people whom I had not known served me.

As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;

foreigners came cringing to me.

Foreigners lost heart,

and came trembling out of their strongholds.

The L ord lives! Blessed be my rock,

and exalted be the God of my salvation,

the God who gave me vengeance

and subdued peoples under me;

who delivered me from my enemies;

indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries;

you delivered me from the violent.

For this I will extol you, O L ord, among the nations,

and sing praises to your name.

Great triumphs he gives to his king,

and shows steadfast love to his anointed,

to David and his descendants forever.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

50. He worketh great deliverances, etc This concluding verse clearly shows why God had exercised such goodness and liberality towards David, namely, because he had anointed him to be king. By calling himself God’s king, David testifies that he had not rashly rushed into that office, nor was thrust into it by conspiracies and wicked intrigues, but, on the contrary, reigned by lawful right, inasmuch as it was the will of God that he should be king. This he proves by the ceremony of anointing; for God, in anointing him by the hand of Samuel, had asserted his right to reign not less than if he had visibly stretched forth his hand from heaven to place and establish him on the royal throne. This election, he says, was confirmed by a continued series of great deliverances; and from this it follows, that all who enter on any course without having the call of God, are chargeable with avowedly making war against him. At the same time, he attributes these deliverances to the goodness of God as their cause, to teach us, that that kingdom was founded purely and simply upon the good pleasure of God. Farther, from the concluding sentence of the psalm, it appears, as I have said before, that David does not here so much recount by way of history the singular and varied instances of the grace of God which he had personally experienced, as predict the everlasting duration of his kingdom. And it is to be observed, that by the word seed we are not to understand all his descendants indiscriminately; but we are to consider it as particularly referring to that successor of David of whom God had spoken in 2 Samuel 7:12, promising that he would be a father to him. As it had been predicted that his kingdom would continue as long as the sun and the moon should shine in the heavens, the prophecy must necessarily be viewed as descending to him who was to be king not for a time, but for ever. David, therefore, commends his seed to us, as honored by that remarkable promise, which fully applies neither to Solomon nor to any other of his successors, but to the only begotten Son of God; as the apostle, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, (Hebrews 1:4,) teaches us, that this is a dignity in which he excels the angels. In conclusion, we shall then only duly profit in the study of this psalm, when we are led by the contemplation of the shadow and type to him who is the substance.