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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Psalm 18 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/psalms/18.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/psalms/18.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/psalms/18-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../psalms/">Psalm</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../psalms/17.htm" title="Psalm 17">◄</a> Psalm 18 <a href="../psalms/19.htm" title="Psalm 19">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"><span class= "bld"> XVIII.</span><p>This magnificent ode is David’s, if anything at all of David’s has come down to us. Its recurrence in 2 Samuel 22, the mention of the monarch by name in the last verse (see, however, Note), and the general contents, in the eyes of all but one or two critics<span class= "note">[14]</span>, bear out the tradition of the title.<p><span class= "note">[14] Grätz, the latest commentator, allows part of this psalm to be David’s.</span><p>If no other literary legacy had been left by the Hebrew race, we should have from this psalm a clear conception of the character of its poetic genius. Its wealth of metaphor, its power of vivid word-painting, its accurate observation of nature, its grandeur and force of imagination, all meet us here; but above all, the fact that the bard of Israel wrote under the mighty conviction of the power and presence of Jehovah. The phenomena of the natural world appealed to his imagination as to that of poets generally, but with this addition, that they were all manifestations of a supreme glory and goodness behind them.<p>In rhythm the poem is as fine as in matter.<p><span class= "ital">Title.</span>—See <a href="/2_samuel/22-1.htm" title="And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:">2Samuel 22:1</a>. The differences are such as might be expected between a piece in a collection of hymns and the same introduced into an historical book.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-1.htm">Psalm 18:1</a></div><div class="verse">To the chief Musician, <i>A Psalm</i> of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day <i>that</i> the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">I will love thee</span>.—Better, <span class= "ital">Dearly do I love thee. </span>The line is wanting in Samuel.<p><span class= "bld">My strength.</span>—This strikes the keynote of the whole poem. The strong, mighty God is the object in David’s thought throughout. It is a warrior’s song, and his conception of Jehovah is a warrior’s conception.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-2.htm">Psalm 18:2</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD <i>is</i> my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, <i>and</i> my high tower.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Rock.</span>—Better here, <span class= "ital">cliff, </span>keeping “rock” for the next clause. In the first figure the ideas of height and shelter, in the second of broad-based and enduring strength, are predominant.<p><span class= "bld">Fortress.</span>—Properly, <span class= "ital">mountain castle. </span>We have the joint figure of the lofty and precipitous cliff with the castle on its crest, a reminiscence—as, in fact, is every one in this “towering of epithets”—of scenes and events in David’s early life.<p><span class= "bld">My God . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">my God, my rock, I trust in Him. </span>God is here <span class= "ital">El,</span> “the strong one.” In Samuel, “God of my rock.”<p><span class= "bld">Horn of my salvation.</span>—The allusion seems to be not to a means of attack, like the horn of an animal, but to a mountain peak (called “horn” in all languages—so <span class= "greekheb">κέρας</span><span class= "ital">, </span>Xen. <span class= "ital">Anab. v.</span> 6; “Cornua Parnassi,” Statius, <span class= "ital">Theb. </span>v. 532; and so in Hebrew, <a href="/isaiah/5-1.htm" title="Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:">Isaiah 5:1</a>, see margin), such as often afforded David a safe retreat. Render “my peak of safety.”<p><span class= "bld">High tower.</span>—The LXX. and Vulgate have “helper.” (Comp. <a href="/psalms/9-9.htm" title="The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.">Psalm 9:9</a>.) The word comes in so abruptly, that doubtless the addition in Samuel, “and my refuge, my Saviour, thou savest me from violence,” was part of the original hymn, completing the rhythm.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-3.htm">Psalm 18:3</a></div><div class="verse">I will call upon the LORD, <i>who is worthy</i> to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.</div>(3) Presents a trifling verbal variation from Samuel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-4.htm">Psalm 18:4</a></div><div class="verse">The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">The sorrows of death.</span>—The Hebrew word may mean either <span class= "ital">birth pangs </span>(LXX. and <a href="/acts/2-24.htm" title="Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be held of it.">Acts 2:24</a>, where see Note, <span class= "ital">New Testament Commentary</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>or <span class= "ital">cords. </span>The figure of the hunter in the next verse, “the snares of death,” determines its meaning there to be <span class= "ital">cords </span>(see margin). It is best, therefore, to keep the same rendering here: but there can be little doubt that the version in Samuel, <span class= "ital">breakers, </span>or <span class= "ital">waves, </span>is the true one, from the parallelism—<p>“Waves of death compassed me,<p>And billows of Belial terrified me.”<p>For <span class= "ital">Belial, </span>see <a href="/deuteronomy/13-13.htm" title="Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known;">Deuteronomy 13:13</a>. Here the parallelism fixes its meaning, “ruin.” For the ideas of peril and destruction, connected by the Hebrews with waves and floods, comp. <a href="/psalms/18-16.htm" title="He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.">Psalm 18:16</a>, also <a href="/psalms/32-6.htm" title="For this shall every one that is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come near to him.">Psalm 32:6</a>; <a href="/psalms/42-7.htm" title="Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterspouts: all your waves and your billows are gone over me.">Psalm 42:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/69-1.htm" title="Save me, O God; for the waters are come in to my soul.">Psalm 69:1</a>. Doubtless the tradition of the Flood and of the Red Sea helped to strengthen the apprehensions natural in a country where the river annually overflowed its banks. and where a dry ravine might at any moment become a dangerous flood. The hatred of the sea arose from quite another cause—viz., the dread of it as a highway for invasion.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-5.htm">Psalm 18:5</a></div><div class="verse">The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Hell.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">sheôl. </span>(See Note on <a href="/psalms/6-5.htm" title="For in death there is no remembrance of you: in the grave who shall give you thanks?">Psalm 6:5</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Prevented</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>suddenly seized upon. The poet seems to feel the cords already tightening on his limbe. He is not dead yet, but like to them who go down to <span class= "ital">sheôl. </span>This verse has one verbal difference from Samuel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-6.htm">Psalm 18:6</a></div><div class="verse">In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, <i>even</i> into his ears.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Out Of his temple.</span>—Rather, Place—plainly, as in <a href="/psalms/11-4.htm" title="The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.">Psalm 11:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/29-9.htm" title="The voice of the LORD makes the hinds to calve, and discovers the forests: and in his temple does every one speak of his glory.">Psalm 29:9</a>, the heavenly abode of Jehovah.<p><span class= "bld">My cry.</span>—In Samuel only, “my cry in his ears.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-7.htm">Psalm 18:7</a></div><div class="verse">Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">The earth shook.</span>—The sudden burst of the storm is the Divine answer to the sufferer’s prayer. For similar manifestations comp. <a href="/context/psalms/68-7.htm" title="O God, when you went forth before your people, when you did march through the wilderness; Selah:">Psalm 68:7-8</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/77-14.htm" title="You are the God that do wonders: you have declared your strength among the people.">Psalm 77:14-20</a>; <a href="/amos/9-5.htm" title="And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.">Amos 9:5</a>; <a href="/micah/1-3.htm" title="For, behold, the LORD comes forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread on the high places of the earth.">Micah 1:3</a>; <a href="/habakkuk/3-4.htm" title="And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.">Habakkuk 3:4</a>; but here the colours are more vivid, and the language more intense. In fact, the whole realm of poetry cannot show a finer feeling for nature in her wrath. We first hear the rumbling of the earth, probably earthquake preceding the storm (for volcanic phenomena of Palestine see Stanley’s <span class= "ital">Sinai and Palestine, </span>124), or possibly only its distant threatening. Comp.<p>“Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.”<p>BYRON.<p><span class= "bld">Foundations also of the hills.</span>—In Sam., “of the heavens”—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, the hills, called also “the pillars of heaven” (<a href="/job/26-11.htm" title="The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.">Job 26:11</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-8.htm">Psalm 18:8</a></div><div class="verse">There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">A smoke.</span>—Now the thunder-cloud forms—smoke, as it were, from the nostrils of God (comp. <a href="/psalms/74-1.htm" title="O God, why have you cast us off for ever? why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?">Psalm 74:1</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/29-20.htm" title="The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie on him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.">Deuteronomy 29:20</a> : the literal rendering is, “there ascended smoke in his nostrils”)—and intermittent flashes of lightning dart forth and play about the distant summits, seeming to devour everything in its path. (Comp. the expression lambent flame.”)<p><span class= "bld">Coals were kindled by it.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">flaming coals blazed from it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-9.htm">Psalm 18:9</a></div><div class="verse">He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness <i>was</i> under his feet.</div>(</span>9<span class= "ital">)</span> <span class= "bld">Darkness.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">black cloud. </span>The dark masses of rain-cloud are now gathered, and bend to the earth under the majestic tread of God. (Comp. <a href="/nahum/1-3.htm" title="The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.">Nahum 1:3</a>, “and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” (Comp. <a href="/psalms/144-5.htm" title="Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.">Psalm 144:5</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-10.htm">Psalm 18:10</a></div><div class="verse">And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Cherub.</span>—See <a href="/exodus/25-19.htm" title="And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on the two ends thereof.">Exodus 25:19</a>. This passage alone would show how naturally the idea of winged attendants on the Divine Being grew out of the phenomena of cloud and storm. No doubt many features of the developed conception were derived from contact with Assyrian art, but for the poetry of this passage we have only to think of those giant pinions into which cloud so often shapes itself, this clause being in close parallelism with “wings of the wind.” The variation in Samuel, “appeared” for “did fly,” is, no doubt, a transcriber’s error. For the picture we may compare Oceanus’ approach in <span class= "ital">Prometheus Vinctus:—</span><p>“On the back of the quick-winged bird I glode,<p>And I bridled him in<p>With the will of a God.”<p>MRS. BROWNING’S <span class= "ital">translation.</span><p>It has been, however, conjectured that for <span class= "ital">kherûb </span>we should read <span class= "ital">rekhûb, </span>“chariot,” as in <a href="/psalms/104-3.htm" title="Who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters: who makes the clouds his chariot: who walks on the wings of the wind:">Psalm 104:3</a>. Comp.<p>“And rushed forth on my chariot of wings manifold.”—<span class= "ital">ibid.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-11.htm">Psalm 18:11</a></div><div class="verse">He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him <i>were</i> dark waters <i>and</i> thick clouds of the skies.</div>(</span>11<span class= "ital">)</span> <span class= "bld">Secret place.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">veil. </span>Comp. <a href="/job/22-14.htm" title="Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he sees not; and he walks in the circuit of heaven.">Job 22:14</a>; <a href="/lamentations/3-44.htm" title="You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.">Lamentations 3:44</a>. A better arrangement of the members of this verse is, <span class= "ital">He made darkness His veil round about Him; His tent He made of dark waters and black clouds. </span>Literally, <span class= "ital">darkness of waters and blacknesses of clouds. </span>(Comp. <a href="/psalms/97-2.htm" title="Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.">Psalm 97:2</a>; <a href="/job/36-29.htm" title="Also can any understand the spreading of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?">Job 36:29</a>.) In Samuel, instead of “blacknesses” of clouds, the expression used is “bendings,” or “collectings,” and the parallelism is marred by the omission of “his veil.”<p>Always present to the Hebrew imagination, God is still invisible, veiled by thick clouds, and far withdrawn in His own ineffable brightness.<p>This verse gives suggestion of that momentary lull so common before the final fury of a storm bursts. In the Hebrew imagery Jehovah stays His winged car, and draws round Him, as if to take up His abode within them, thick curtains of cloud.<p>“We often see, against some storm,<p>A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,<p>The bold winds speechless, and the orb below<p>As hush as death.”—SHAKSPEARE: <span class= "ital">Hamlet.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-12.htm">Psalm 18:12</a></div><div class="verse">At the brightness <i>that was</i> before him his thick clouds passed, hail <i>stones</i> and coals of fire.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">At the brightness.</span>—This is obscure. Literally, <span class= "ital">From the brightness before him his clouds passed through </span>(Heb., <span class= "ital">avar</span>—LXX., <span class= "greekheb">διῆλθον</span>; Vulg., <span class= "ital">transierunt</span>)<span class= "ital"> hail and fiery coals. </span>In Samuel it is “From the brightness before him flamed fiery coals,” which is the description we should expect, and, doubtless, gives the sense we are to attach to our text. Through the dark curtain of clouds the lightnings dart like emanations from the Divine brightness which they hide. The difficulty arises from the position of <span class= "ital">avaiv, </span>“his clouds,” which looks like a subject rather than an object to <span class= "ital">avrû. </span>It has been conjectured, from comparison with Samuel, that the word has been inserted through error, from its likeness to the verb. If retained it must be rendered as object, “Out of the brightness of his presence there passed through his clouds hail and fiery coals.” And some obscurity of language is pardonable in a description of phenomena so overpowering and bewildering as “a tempest dropping fire.” A modern poet touches this feeling:—<p>“Then fire was sky, and sky fire,<p>And both one brief ecstasy,<p>Then ashes.”—R. BROWNING, <span class= "ital">Easter Day.</span><p>In the Authorised Version the thought is of a sudden clearing of the heavens, which is not true to nature, and the clause “hailstones and coals of fire” comes in as an exclamation, as in the next verse. But there it is probably an erroneous repetition, being wanting in Sam. and in the LXX. version of the psalm. Notice how the feeling of the terrible fury of the storm is heightened by the mention of “hail,” so rare in Palestine.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-13.htm">Psalm 18:13</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail <i>stones</i> and coals of fire.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">In</span> <span class= "bld">the heavens.</span>—The version in Samuel is from the heavens,” which is better. For the thunder as God’s voice see <a href="/psalms/29-3.htm" title="The voice of the LORD is on the waters: the God of glory thunders: the LORD is on many waters.">Psalm 29:3</a>, and Note.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-14.htm">Psalm 18:14</a></div><div class="verse">Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">He</span> <span class= "bld">sent out.</span>—In the majesty of the storm we have almost forgotten its cause, the Divine wrath against the enemies of the poet. They are abruptly recalled to our remembrance in the suffix (“them”) of the verbs in this verse. So the LXX. and Vulg. Many ancient interpreters, however, understood by <span class= "ital">them </span>“the lightnings,” while Ewald would carry the pronoun on to the “waters” in the next verse. Instead of “shot” (<span class= "ital">rab</span>) many render as if it were the adjective “many,” “his numerous lightnings.” But comp. <a href="/psalms/144-6.htm" title="Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out your arrows, and destroy them.">Psalm 144:6</a> and the verse in Samuel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-15.htm">Psalm 18:15</a></div><div class="verse">Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The channels.</span>—The description of the storm ends with the fury of the wind and the effects of the tempest on the earth’s surface. Comp. Psalms 29, and Milton:—<p>“Either tropic now<p>‘Gan thunder and both ends of heaven the clouds,<p>From many a horrid rift abortive pour’d<p>Fierce rain with lightning mix’d, water with fire,<p>In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds<p>Within their stony caves, but rush’d abroad<p>From the four hinges of the world and fell<p>On the vex’d wilderness.”<p>—Par. Reg. iv. 409416.<p>Here, to suit the poet’s purpose (see next verse), the rage of the tempest is made to spend itself on the water-floods. The “channels” are either torrent beds (<a href="/isaiah/8-7.htm" title="Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up on them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:">Isaiah 8:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/42-1.htm" title="As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God.">Psalm 42:1</a>; <a href="/job/6-15.htm" title="My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;">Job 6:15</a>), or as in Samuel (where for “waters” the text has “sea”) the depths of ocean. (Comp. <a href="/jonah/2-5.htm" title="The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.">Jonah 2:5</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-16.htm">Psalm 18:16</a></div><div class="verse">He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">He drew me.</span>—By an exquisite transition from the real to the figurative the poet conceives of these parted waters as the “floods of affliction” (<a href="/psalms/18-5.htm" title="The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.">Psalm 18:5</a>), from which Jehovah has rescued him by means of the very storm which was sent, in answer to his prayer, to overwhelm his enemies. Render at once more literally and forcibly, “He laid hold of me and drew me out of great waters.” The conception undoubtedly is that the “gates of death” are under these floods, and those being now parted, the sufferer can be reached and rescued.<p><a href="/context/psalms/18-17.htm" title="He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.">Psalm 18:17-19</a> show trifling variations between the two copies of the psalm.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-18.htm">Psalm 18:18</a></div><div class="verse">They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Prevented.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">fell upon me unawares. </span>See this use of the verb, generally however used in a good sense, in <a href="/psalms/18-5.htm" title="The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.">Psalm 18:5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-19.htm">Psalm 18:19</a></div><div class="verse">He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">A large place.</span>—Comp. <a href="/psalms/4-1.htm" title="Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: you have enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.">Psalm 4:1</a>. But there is direct historical allusion to the settlement of Israel in Canaan, as will be seen by a comparison of the Hebrew with <a href="/exodus/3-8.htm" title="And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good land and a large, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.">Exodus 3:8</a>, and <a href="/numbers/14-8.htm" title="If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which flows with milk and honey.">Numbers 14:8</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-20.htm">Psalm 18:20</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.</div>(20-23) for this protestation of innocence comp. Psalms 7, 17 and Job, <span class= "ital">passim. </span>Self-righteous pride and vindication of one’s character under calumny are very different things. If taken of the nation at large, comp. <a href="/numbers/23-21.htm" title="He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.">Numbers 23:21</a>. Here, also, the text in Samuel offers one or two trifling variations from ours.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-25.htm">Psalm 18:25</a></div><div class="verse">With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;</div>(25-27) It is better to change all the futures into our present. We cannot explain this description of God’s attitude to man, as if the poet were merely dealing with the conception of the Divine formed in the breast. No doubt his words are amply true in this sense. The human heart makes its God like itself, and to the pure and just He will be a pure and just God, to the cruel and unjust, cruel and unjust. But the definite mention of recompense in <a href="/psalms/18-24.htm" title="Therefore has the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.">Psalm 18:24</a>, and the reference to active interposition in behalf of the just in <a href="/psalms/18-27.htm" title="For you will save the afflicted people; but will bring down high looks.">Psalm 18:27</a>, leave us no option but to understand by “shew thyself” in <a href="/context/psalms/18-25.htm" title="With the merciful you will show yourself merciful; with an upright man you will show yourself upright;">Psalm 18:25-26</a>, not an inward conception, but an external manifestation. It is, in fact, nothing more than a re-statement of the truth of which the history of Pharaoh is the most signal historic declaration, and which we maintain whenever we speak of the natural consequences of sin as retributive justice, the truth which is summed up in the text, “whatsoever a mau soweth that shall he also reap.” We must at the same time remember that the form of the statement in the psalm is due to the view current in Israel before the development of the conception of Satanic agency, that all suggestions, evil as well as good, came from the mind of the Supreme Disposer of events.<p>(25) <span class= "bld">Man.</span>—The text of Samuel has “hero” (<span class= "ital">gebôr </span>instead of <span class= "ital">gebar</span>)<span class= "ital">.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-26.htm">Psalm 18:26</a></div><div class="verse">With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.</div>(</span>26<span class= "ital">)</span> <span class= "bld">Froward . . . froward.</span>—The use of this one word to render two different Hebrew terms is so far correct, as they both come from roots meaning primarily <span class= "ital">to twist. </span>Both are combined in <a href="/proverbs/8-8.htm" title="All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing fraudulent or perverse in them.">Proverbs 8:8</a>, “froward (margin, <span class= "ital">twisted</span>) or perverse,” and both are contrasted with “righteousness.” Plainly the metaphor might apply-either to the character itself, “twisted round,” “awry,” “perverse,” or to the line of conduct pursued, “bent,” “crooked,” or “wrong,” the opposite of “straight,” or “right.” “Froward” <span class= "ital">=from ward </span>(opposite to “toward”), seems to have more of the latter idea, but may combine both—<span class= "ital">a disposition turned away from good. </span>The poet therefore says, “God will turn away from those who turn away from him,” a thought which even with the Christian revelation we must admit true, for still it is true that—<p>“He that shuts love out, in turn shall be<p>Shut out from love.”—TENNYSON.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-27.htm">Psalm 18:27</a></div><div class="verse">For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">High looks.</span>—See variation in Samuel.<p><span class= "bld">The afflicted people.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">afflicted folk, </span>with no distinctive reference to Israel, except, of course, I when the poem became adapted for congregational use.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-28.htm">Psalm 18:28</a></div><div class="verse">For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">For thou wilt.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Thou makest bright my lamp. </span>In Samuel, “It is thou Jehovah who art my lamp.” This obvious metaphor is common in Hebrew, as in all literature. Light is an emblem of prosperity, happiness, or life itself. (Comp. <a href="/job/18-6.htm" title="The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.">Job 18:6</a>; <a href="/job/21-17.htm" title="How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft comes their destruction on them! God distributes sorrows in his anger.">Job 21:17</a>; <a href="/proverbs/13-9.htm" title="The light of the righteous rejoices: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.">Proverbs 13:9</a>, &c). It happens to be used very frequently of David and his family (<a href="/1_kings/11-36.htm" title="And to his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.">1Kings 11:36</a>; <a href="/1_kings/15-4.htm" title="Nevertheless for David's sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:">1Kings 15:4</a>; <a href="/2_kings/8-19.htm" title="Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him always a light, and to his children.">2Kings 8:19</a>). Comp. <a href="/psalms/132-17.htm" title="There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.">Psalm 132:17</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-29.htm">Psalm 18:29</a></div><div class="verse">For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.</div>(29) Better with the verbs in the present—<p>“For by thee I scatter a troop,<p>By thee I scale walls.”<p>A graphic reminiscence of warlike exploits. Some, however, read from Samuel “break down,” instead of “leap over.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-30.htm">Psalm 18:30</a></div><div class="verse"><i>As for</i> God, his way <i>is</i> perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he <i>is</i> a buckler to all those that trust in him.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">Tried.</span>—“Sterling gold,” not dross. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/12-6.htm" title="The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.">Psalm 12:6</a>; and for “shield,” <a href="/psalms/5-12.htm" title="For you, LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor will you compass him as with a shield.">Psalm 5:12</a>.) <a href="/proverbs/30-5.htm" title="Every word of God is pure: he is a shield to them that put their trust in him.">Proverbs 30:5</a> seems to be taken from this verse.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-31.htm">Psalm 18:31</a></div><div class="verse">For who <i>is</i> God save the LORD? or who <i>is</i> a rock save our God?</div>(31) Comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/32-31.htm" title="For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.">Deuteronomy 32:31</a>, where we see that “rock” was a common term among the tribes of Canaan for their divinities. Notice some trifling variations in Samuel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-32.htm">Psalm 18:32</a></div><div class="verse"><i>It is</i> God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.</div>(32) The verse should run on closely from the last. The italics spoil it.<p><span class= "bld">Girdeth.</span>—The importance of the girdle in a country where the dress was loose and flowing is shown by many passages of Scripture. It is essential to the warrior as here (comp. <a href="/ephesians/6-14.htm" title="Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;">Ephesians 6:14</a>, and the Greek expression, “to be girt” <span class= "ital">= to be armed</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>but also for all active exertion.<p><span class= "bld">Way.</span>—Here, not of conduct, but the <span class= "ital">military path, </span>the march. Notice the variation in Samuel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-33.htm">Psalm 18:33</a></div><div class="verse">He maketh my feet like hinds' <i>feet</i>, and setteth me upon my high places.</div>(33) This verse is borrowed in <a href="/habakkuk/3-19.htm" title="The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk on my high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.">Habakkuk 3:19</a>. For <span class= "ital">swiftness </span>as an essential of a warrior in Oriental esteem comp. <a href="/2_samuel/1-23.htm" title="Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.">2Samuel 1:23</a>, and the invariable epithet in Homer’s <span class= "ital">Iliad, </span>“swift-footed Achilles.” For “hind” comp. <a href="/genesis/49-21.htm" title="Naphtali is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words.">Genesis 49:21</a>. Observe “his feet” in Samuel.<p><span class= "bld">My high places.</span>—With allusion to the mountain fortresses the poet had scaled and won.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-34.htm">Psalm 18:34</a></div><div class="verse">He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.</div>(34) <span class= "bld">So that a bow.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and mine arms bend a bow of copper. </span>For the <span class= "ital">copper bow </span>comp. <a href="/job/20-24.htm" title="He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.">Job 20:24</a>. <span class= "ital">Nechushah, </span><span class= "greekheb">χαλκὸς</span>, is certainly not <span class= "ital">steel, </span>whether the custom of hardening iron was known to the Jews or not (see <a href="/jeremiah/15-12.htm" title="Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?">Jeremiah 15:12</a>, and art. “Steel,” in Smith’s <span class= "ital">Biblical Dict.</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>The LXX. and Vulgate have, “thou hast made mine arms a bow of copper.” For this test of strength we naturally compare the famous bow of Ulysses—<p>“So the great master drew the mighty bow,<p>And drew with ease.”—<span class= "ital">Odyssey, </span>POPE’S <span class= "ital">trans.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-35.htm">Psalm 18:35</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">Thy gentleness.</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">meekness, </span>as in margin. We cannot afford to sacrifice this striking foreshadowing of His saying of Himself, “I am meek and lowly,” to the scare of a word like <span class= "ital">anthropomorphism. </span>Why be afraid to speak of the Divine Being as <span class= "ital">meek </span>any more than as <span class= "ital">jealous. </span>The LXX. and Vulgate have “discipline,” probably through this timidity.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-36.htm">Psalm 18:36</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.</div>(36) <span class= "bld">Thou hast enlarged my steps.</span>—Comp. <a href="/psalms/31-8.htm" title="And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: you have set my feet in a large room.">Psalm 31:8</a>, which explains the phrase; also <a href="/psalms/18-19.htm" title="He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.">Psalm 18:19</a> above.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-37.htm">Psalm 18:37</a></div><div class="verse">I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.</div>(37-40) Another retrospective glance of the poet over his past wars. Notice slight variations in Samuel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-40.htm">Psalm 18:40</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">Thou hast also given.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">and as to mine enemies, thou gavest to me the back, </span>which either means “turned to flight so that only their backs were visible” (<a href="/jeremiah/18-17.htm" title="I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.">Jeremiah 18:17</a> and <a href="/psalms/21-12.htm" title="Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows on your strings against the face of them.">Psalm 21:12</a>), or alludes to the common symbolism of defeat—trampling on an enemy’s neck.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-41.htm">Psalm 18:41</a></div><div class="verse">They cried, but <i>there was</i> none to save <i>them: even</i> unto the LORD, but he answered them not.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">Cried.</span>—Sam. 22 has “looked.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-42.htm">Psalm 18:42</a></div><div class="verse">Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.</div>(42) <span class= "bld">Before the wind.</span>—In Samuel, the weaker “of the earth.”<p><span class= "bld">Cast them out</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>sweep them before me. In Samuel “stamp and tread them out.” So LXX. here “grind,” or “pound.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-43.htm">Psalm 18:43</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; <i>and</i> thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people <i>whom</i> I have not known shall serve me.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">People.</span>—The parallelism favours the interpretation which takes “people” as equivalent to <span class= "ital">peoples</span>—the Gentiles. But as in Samuel it is “my people,” explain it of the early political troubles of David. Notice also in Samuel “preserved,” instead of “made.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-44.htm">Psalm 18:44</a></div><div class="verse">As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">As soon as</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, at the bare mention of my victories. An actual instance is recorded (<a href="/2_samuel/8-9.htm" title="When Toi king of Hamath heard that David had smitten all the host of Hadadezer,">2Samuel 8:9</a>, <span class= "ital">seq.</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>For the expression, comp. <a href="/job/42-5.htm" title="I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees you.">Job 42:5</a>.<p><span class= "bld">The strangers shall.</span>—See margin. More literally, <span class= "ital">come with flattery. </span>In Samuel the two clauses are transposed and slightly varied.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-45.htm">Psalm 18:45</a></div><div class="verse">The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">Fade away</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, wither like vegetation before a scorching blast.<p><span class= "bld">Be afraid out of their close places.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">come trembling out of their castles. </span>LXX. and Vulgate have “grow old and came limping from their paths.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-46.htm">Psalm 18:46</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD liveth; and blessed <i>be</i> my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.</div>(46-50) The psalm concludes with a burst of joyous praise, in which the previous figures are recalled in brief touches.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-49.htm">Psalm 18:49</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.</div>(49) In <a href="/romans/15-9.htm" title="And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.">Romans 15:9</a>, St. Paul quotes this verse, together with <a href="/deuteronomy/32-43.htm" title="Rejoice, O you nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful to his land, and to his people.">Deuteronomy 32:43</a> and <a href="/psalms/117-1.htm" title="O praise the LORD, all you nations: praise him, all you people.">Psalm 117:1</a>, as proof that salvation was not in God’s purpose confined to the Jews. It seems almost too magnificent a thought in David, that he could draw the surrounding nations within the circle of the religion as he had drawn them within the dominion of Israel. Nor is it likely that an individual would use such an expression. Israel as a nation might praise God “among the nations.” Therefore this verse is adduced as an argument by those who assign a later date to the psalm. But perhaps we are only to think of the nations as brought (see <a href="/psalms/18-44.htm" title="As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves to me.">Psalm 18:44</a>) an <span class= "ital">unwilling </span>audience of the praises which the conqueror raises to his God for the strength that had subdued them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/18-50.htm">Psalm 18:50</a></div><div class="verse">Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.</div>(50) This verse is by many treated as a late liturgical addition to the hymn. The change to the third person is certainly somewhat suggestive of this, but by no means conclusive.<p>The question of the relation of the two copies of this hymn to each other is far too complicated and difficult for discussion here. Each has been again and again claimed as the original. The best explanation of the variations is that the compositions were independent copies of some original, and that the psalm, like many others, was altered in preparation for the choir use.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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