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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:

1

I love you, O L ord, my strength.

2

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.

3

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

so I shall be saved from my enemies.

 

4

The cords of death encompassed me;

the torrents of perdition assailed me;

5

the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

 

6

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.

 

7

Then the earth reeled and rocked;

the foundations also of the mountains trembled

and quaked, because he was angry.

8

Smoke went up from his nostrils,

and devouring fire from his mouth;

glowing coals flamed forth from him.

9

He bowed the heavens, and came down;

thick darkness was under his feet.

10

He rode on a cherub, and flew;

he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.

11

He made darkness his covering around him,

his canopy thick clouds dark with water.

12

Out of the brightness before him

there broke through his clouds

hailstones and coals of fire.

13

The L ord also thundered in the heavens,

and the Most High uttered his voice.

14

And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;

he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.

15

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.

 

16

He reached down from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of mighty waters.

17

He delivered me from my strong enemy,

and from those who hated me;

for they were too mighty for me.

18

They confronted me in the day of my calamity;

but the L ord was my support.

19

He brought me out into a broad place;

he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

 

20

The L ord rewarded me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.

21

For I have kept the ways of the L ord,

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22

For all his ordinances were before me,

and his statutes I did not put away from me.

23

I was blameless before him,

and I kept myself from guilt.

24

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

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

 

25

With the loyal you show yourself loyal;

with the blameless you show yourself blameless;

26

with the pure you show yourself pure;

and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.

27

For you deliver a humble people,

but the haughty eyes you bring down.

28

It is you who light my lamp;

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

29

By you I can crush a troop,

and by my God I can leap over a wall.

30

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.

 

31

For who is God except the L ord?

And who is a rock besides our God?—

32

the God who girded me with strength,

and made my way safe.

33

He made my feet like the feet of a deer,

and set me secure on the heights.

34

He trains my hands for war,

so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

35

You have given me the shield of your salvation,

and your right hand has supported me;

your help has made me great.

36

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

and my feet did not slip.

37

I pursued my enemies and overtook them;

and did not turn back until they were consumed.

38

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

they fell under my feet.

39

For you girded me with strength for the battle;

you made my assailants sink under me.

40

You made my enemies turn their backs to me,

and those who hated me I destroyed.

41

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

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

42

I beat them fine, like dust before the wind;

I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

 

43

You delivered me from strife with the peoples;

you made me head of the nations;

people whom I had not known served me.

44

As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;

foreigners came cringing to me.

45

Foreigners lost heart,

and came trembling out of their strongholds.

 

46

The L ord lives! Blessed be my rock,

and exalted be the God of my salvation,

47

the God who gave me vengeance

and subdued peoples under me;

48

who delivered me from my enemies;

indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries;

you delivered me from the violent.

 

49

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

and sing praises to your name.

50

Great triumphs he gives to his king,

and shows steadfast love to his anointed,

to David and his descendants forever.


6. In my distress, etc. It was a very evident proof of uncommon faith in David, when, being almost plunged into the gulf of death, he lifted up his heart to heaven by prayer. Let us therefore learn, that such an example is set before our eyes, that no calamities, however great and oppressive, may hinder us from praying, or create an aversion to it. It was prayer which brought to David the fruits or wonderful effects of which he speaks a little after, and from this it appears still more clearly that his deliverance was effected by the power of God. In saying that he cried, he means, as we have observed elsewhere, the ardor and earnestness of affection which he had in prayer. Again, by calling God his God, he separates himself from the gross despisers of God, or hypocrites, who, when constrained by necessity, call upon the Divine Majesty in a confused and tumultuous manner, but do not come to God familiarly and with a pure heart, as they know nothing of his fatherly favor and goodness. When, therefore, as we approach to God, faith goes before to illumine the way, giving us the full persuasion that He is our Father, then is the gate opened, and we may converse freely with Him and he with us. David, by calling God his God, and putting him on his side, also intimates that God was opposed to his enemies; and this serves to show that he was actuated by true piety and the fear of God. By the word temple we are not here to understand the sanctuary as in many other places, but heaven; for the description which immediately follows cannot be applied to the sanctuary. Accordingly, the sense is, that when David was forsaken and abandoned in the world, and all men shut their ears to his cry for help, God stretched forth his hand from heaven to save him.

7. Then the earth shook. David, convinced that the aid of God, which he had experienced, was of such a character, that it was impossible for him to extol it sufficiently and as it deserved, sets forth an image of it in the sky and the earth, as if he had said, It has been as visible as the changes which give different appearances to the sky and the earth. If natural things always flowed in an even and uniform course, the power of God would not be so perceptible. But when he changes the face of the sky by sudden rain, or by loud thunder, or by dreadful tempests, those who before were, as it were, asleep and insensible, must necessarily be awakened, and be tremblingly conscious of the existence of a presiding God. 400400     “Il faut necessa ement que les gens qui auparavant estoyent comme endormis et stupides se resueillent et apprehendent qu’il y a un Dieu.” — Fr. Such sudden and unforeseen changes manifest more clearly the presence of the great Author of nature. No doubt, when the sky is unclouded and tranquil, we see in it sufficient evidences of the majesty of God, but as men will not stir up their minds to reflect upon that majesty, until it come nearer to them, David, the more powerfully to affect us, recounts the sudden changes by which we are usually moved and dismayed, and introduces God at one time clothed with a dark cloud, — at another, throwing the air into confusion by tempests, — now rending it by the boisterous violence of winds, — now launching the lightnings, — and anon darting down hailstones and thunderbolts. In short, the object of the Psalmist is to show that the God who, as often as he pleases, causes all parts of the world to tremble by his power, when he intended to manifest himself as the deliverer of David, was known as openly and by signs as evident as if he had displayed his power in all the creatures both above and beneath.

In the first place, he says, The earth shook, and nothing is more dreadful than an earthquake. Instead of the words, the foundations of the mountains, it is in the song, as recorded in 2nd Samuel, the foundations of the heavens; but the meaning is the same, namely, that there was nothing in the world so settled and steadfast which did not tremble, and which was not removed out of its place. David, however, as I have already observed in the beginning, does not relate this as a piece of history, or as what had actually taken place, but he employs these similitudes for the purpose of removing all doubt, and for the greater confirmation of faith as to the power and providence of God; because men, from their slowness of understanding, cannot apprehend God except by means of external signs. Some think that these miracles were actually wrought, and performed exactly as they are here related; but it is not easy to believe this, since the Holy Spirit, in the narrative given of David’s life, makes no mention whatever of such wonderful displays of divine power in his behalf. We cannot, however, justly censure or find fault with this hyperbolic manner of speaking, when we consider our slowness of apprehension, and also our depravity, to which I have just now called your attention. David, who was much more penetrating and quick of understanding than ordinary men, finding he could not sufficiently succeed in impressing and profiting people of sluggish and weak understandings by a simple manner of speaking, describes under outward figures the power of God, which he had discovered by means of faith, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He doubtless hereby apprehended and knew more distinctly the omnipresent majesty of God, than the dull sort of common people perceive the hand of God in earthquakes, tempests, thunders, the gloomy lowerings of the heavens, and the boisterous winds. At the same time, it is proper to consider, that although God had, in a wonderful manner, displayed his grace in defending and maintaining David, many, nevertheless, thought that it was by his own skill, or by chance, or by other natural means, that all his affairs had come to a prosperous issue; and it was such stupidity or depravity as this which he saw in the men of his own time, that constrained him to mention and to summon together all parts of creation as witnesses for God. Some also justly and judiciously consider that, in the whole of this description, David has an allusion to the common deliverance of God’s chosen people from Egypt. As God then designed and established that event to be a perpetual memorial, from which the faithful might learn that he was the guardian and protector of their welfare, so all the benefits which, from that period, he bestowed upon his people, either as a public body or as private individuals, were, so to speak, appendages of that first deliverance. Accordingly David, in other places as well as here, with the view of exalting the succor which God had granted to his people, sets forth that most memorable instance of the goodness of God towards the children of Israel, as if it were the archtype or original copy of the grace of God. And surely, while many, seeing him an exile from his country, held him in derision as a man expelled from the family of God, and many murmured that he had violently and unrighteously usurped the kingdom, he had good ground to include, under the deliverance which had been common to all the people, the protection and safety which God had afforded to himself; as if he had said, I have been wrongfully cast off as an alien or stranger, seeing God has sufficiently shown, in the deliverance which he has wrought for me, that by him I am owned and acknowledged to be a distinguished and valuable member of the Church. We see how the prophets, whenever they would inspire the people with the hope of salvation, call their thoughts back to the contemplation of that first covenant which had been confirmed by those miracles which were wrought in Egypt, in the passage through the Red Sea and in Mount Sinai. When he says, The earth trembled, because he was wroth, it is to be understood as referring to the ungodly. It is a form of speech which God often employs, to say, that, being inflamed with indignation, he arms himself to maintain the safety of his people against their persecutors.

8. There went up a smoke by [or out of] his nostrils, etc The Hebrew word אף, aph, properly signifies the nose, or the nostrils. But as it is sometimes taken metaphorically for wrath, some translate it thus, There went up a smoke in his wrath, which, in my opinion, is not at all appropriate. David compares the mists and vapours which darken the air to the thick smoke which a man sends forth from his nostrils when he is angry. And when God, by his very breath, covers the heaven with clouds, and taking away from us the brightness of the sun and of all the stars, overwhelms us in darkness, by this we are very impressively taught how dreadful is his wrath. By the rendering which I have given, the figure here strikingly harmonises with the one in the clause which immediately follows, namely, that fire proceeding from his mouth consumed The Psalmist means, that God, without great labor or effort, as soon as he shall have sent forth a breath or blast from his nostrils, and opened his mouth, will kindle such a fire that its smoke will darken the whole world, and its intense heat devour it. What he adds, Coals were kindled by it, serves to distinguish this dreadful fire from a flame which blazes for a moment, and then is extinguished. The bowing of the heavens, denotes a time when the heavens are covered and obscured with clouds. When dense vapours occupy the middle of the air, the clouds seem to us to come down and to lie upon our heads. And not only so, but the majesty of God then approaching, as it were, nearer us, strikes us with dread dismay, and greatly distresses us, although before, when the sky was fair, agreeable, and tranquil, we took ample scope, and enjoyed ourselves with much gaiety. Again, let us remember, that the Scripture, under these descriptions of a clouded and darkened sky, pourtray to us the anger of God. When the sky is clear and unclouded, it seems as if it were the pleasant and benignant countenance of God beaming upon us, and causing us to rejoice; whereas, on the other hand, when the atmosphere is troubled, we feel a depression of the animal spirits which constrains us to look sad, as if we saw God coming against us with a threatening aspect. At the same time, we are taught that no change takes place either in the atmosphere or in the earth, but what is a witness to us of the presence of God.


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