Psalm 18:35 Komentář

This psalm we met with before, in the history of David's life, 2 Sa. 22. That was the first edition of it; here we have it revived, altered a little, and fitted for the service of the church. It is David's thanksgiving for the many deliverances God had wrought for him; these he desired always to preserve fresh in his own memory and to diffuse and entail the knowledge of them. It is an admirable composition. The poetry is very fine, the images are bold, the expressions lofty, and every word is proper and significant; but the piety far exceeds the poetry. Holy faith, and love, and joy, and praise, and hope, are here lively, active, and upon the wing. I. He triumphs in God (Psa 18:1-3). II. He magnifies the deliverances God had wrought for him (v. 4-19). III. He takes the comfort of his integrity, which God had thereby cleared up (Psa 18:20-28). IV. He gives to God the glory of all his achievements (Psa 18:29-42). V. He encourages himself with the expectation of what God would further do for him and his (Psa 18:43-50). To the chief musician, A psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 18 To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. This is the same with that in Sa2 22:1, with some variations, omissions, and alterations: the servant of the Lord; not only by creation, nor merely by regeneration, but by office, as king of Israel, being put into it by the Lord, and acting in it in submission and obedience to him; just as the apostles under the New Testament, on account of their office, so style themselves in their epistles: who spake unto the Lord the words of this song; that is, who delivered and sung this song in so many express words, in public, before all the congregation of Israel, to the honour and glory of God: in the day [that] the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, Not that this psalm was composed and sung the selfsame day that David was delivered from Saul, and set upon the throne; for it seems to have been written in his old age, at the close of his days; for immediately after it, in the second book of Samuel, it follows, "now these be the last words of David", Sa2 23:1, but the sense is, that whereas David had many enemies, and particularly Saul, who was his greatest enemy, the Lord delivered him from them all, and especially from him, from him first, and then from all the rest; which when he reflected upon in his last days, he sat down and wrote this psalm, and then sung it in public, having delivered it into the hands of the chief musician for that purpose. There are two passages cited out of it in the New Testament, and applied to Christ; Psa 18:2, in Heb 2:13, and Psa 18:49 in Rom 15:9; and there are many things in it that very well agree with him; he is eminently the "servant" of the Lord as Mediator; he was encompassed with the snares and sorrows of death and hell, and with the floods of ungodly men, when in the garden and on the cross God was his helper and deliverer, as man; and he was victorious over all enemies, sin, Satan, the world, death and hell; as the subject of this psalm is all along represented: and to Christ it does most properly belong to be the head of the Heathen, whose voluntary subjects the Gentiles are said to be, Psa 18:43; and which is expressed in much the same language as the like things are in Isa 55:4; which is a clear and undoubted prophecy of the Messiah; to which may be added, that the Lord's Anointed, the King Messiah, and who is also called David, is expressly mentioned in Psa 18:50; and which is applied to the Messiah by the Jews (q) as Psa 18:32 is paraphrased of him by the Targum on it; and he said; the following words: (q) Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 2. & Midrash Tillim in Tzeror Hammor, fol. 47. 3.

Thou hast enlarged my steps under me,.... Which is opposed to those straitened circumstances in which the psalmist was, Psa 18:4; and is expressive of deliverance from his enemies, by whom he was surrounded, besieged, and shut up; see Psa 31:8; and of freedom of walking at large, without being straitened for room, or interrupted by others, Pro 4:12; and of safety in standing; all which is true in a spiritual sense of believers in Christ, who being delivered by him out of the hands of their enemies, serve the Lord without fear in righteousness and holiness; walk at liberty by faith in Christ, and up and down in the name of the Lord their God; and have their feet established upon the Rock of ages, that sure and large foundation, Christ, from which there is no danger of slipping and falling; as follows; that my feet did not slip; so as to fall and perish; for sometimes the steps of the saints are well nigh slipped; yea, in some sense they stumble; slip, and fall, but not so as to be utterly cast down and perish eternally; the bottom on which they are is so broad, and the foundation so sure, that it is not possible they should. The words will bear to be applied to Christ, who was in very pressed and straitened circumstances, when beset with the bulls of Bashan, encompassed with dogs, and enclosed with the assembly of the wicked; and was in slippery places, when he sunk in deep mire where there is no standing, Psa 22:12; but now being delivered from all this, he is brought, as in Psa 18:19, into a large place, into heaven, and made higher than the heavens, and is set down at the right hand of God, from whence he can never be moved.

"And You have given me the defence of my salvation, and Your right hand has held me up" [Psalm 18:35]. And the favour of Your grace has held me up. "And Your discipline has directed me to the end." And Your correction, not suffering me to wander from the way, has directed me that whatsoever I do, I refer to that end, whereby I may cleave to You. "And this Your discipline, it shall teach me." And that same correction of Yours shall teach me to attain to that, whereunto it has directed me.

He who sits on the right of the Father corrects us with discipline, and accordingly he teaches us. For he directs the spirit with a right foundation; true understanding leads one into fullness.

"And you have given." Here he shows how the aforesaid things given to him are preserved by God outwardly; hence he says, "you girded me with strength," and yet "he protects me; and you have given me the shield of your salvation," that is, you have protected me for salvation, because the aforesaid things do not suffice unless the protection of God is present. Ps. 63: "You have protected me, O God, from the assembly of the malignant," etc. "And your right hand has upheld me," that is, the favor of your grace strengthened me in battle. Of this battle, Ezek. 3: "The hand of the Lord was with me, strengthening me." Or "your right hand," that is, your Son, "has upheld me," that is, has assumed my nature. Or "me," the weak one, to heal me. "And your discipline has corrected me unto the end," that is, finally and perfectly. Prov. 3: "Whom the Lord loves he corrects and chastises, and as a father he takes delight in his son." Hence "your discipline has corrected me unto the end." Regarding the second he says, "discipline," etc. It sometimes happens that someone doubts, and sometimes errs. But that one, namely God, corrects errors; hence "your discipline has corrected me unto the end," as was said above. Likewise, he directs the doubtful: "and your discipline itself will teach me." Ps. 118: "Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge." Regarding the third he says, "You have enlarged my steps beneath me," as if giving agility, and in it he fosters those who have wide steps when they are not constricted. Or spiritually, when the heart is prompt through charity toward the good. Ps. 118: "I have run the way of your commandments when you enlarged my heart." "And my footsteps have not been weakened," because he does not fail. Or "footsteps," that is, the signs that are left along the way.

"The servant of the LORD," which in the Hebrew precedes "David," is a significant part of the title (and not a mere epithet of David), denoting the inspired character of the song, as the production of one entrusted with the execution of God's will. He was not favored by God because he served Him, but served Him because selected and appointed by God in His sovereign mercy. After a general expression of praise and confidence in God for the future, David gives a sublimely poetical description of God's deliverance, which he characterizes as an illustration of God's justice to the innocent and His righteous government. His own prowess and success are celebrated as the results of divine aid, and, confident of its continuance, he closes in terms of triumphant praise. 2Sa. 22:1-51 is a copy of this Psalm, with a few unimportant variations recorded there as a part of the history, and repeated here as part of a collection designed for permanent use. (Psa. 18:1-50) I will love thee--with most tender affection.

thy gentleness--as applied to God--condescension--or that which He gives, in the sense of humility (compare Pro 22:4).

(Heb.: 18:36-37) Yet it is not the brazen bow in itself that makes him victorious, but the helpful strength of his God. "Shield of Thy salvation" is that consisting of Thy salvation. מגן has an unchangeable , as it has always. The salvation of Jahve covered him as a shield, from which every stroke of the foe rebounded; the right hand of Jahve supported him that his hands might not become feeble in the conflict. In its ultimate cause it is the divine ענוה, to which he must trace back his greatness, i.e., God's lowliness, by virtue of which His eyes look down upon that which is on the earth (Psa 113:6), and the poor and contrite ones are His favourite dwelling-place (Isa 57:15; Isa 66:1.); cf. B. Megilla 31a, "wherever Scripture testifies of the גבורה of the Holy One, blessed be He, it gives prominence also, in connection with it, to His condescension, ענותנוּתו, as in Deu 10:17 and in connection with it Deu 10:18, Isa 57:15 and Isa 57:15, Psa 68:5 and Psa 68:6." The rendering of Luther, who follows the lxx and Vulgate, "When Thou humblest me, Thou makest me great" is opposed by the fact that ענוה means the bending of one's self, and not of another. What is intended is, that condescension of God to mankind, and especially to the house of David, which was in operation, with an ultimate view to the incarnation, in the life of the son of Jesse from the time of his anointing to his death, viz., the divine χρηστότης καὶ φιλανθρωπία (Tit 3:4), which elected the shepherd boy to be king, and did not cast him off even when he fell into sin and his infirmities became manifest. To enlarge his steps under any one is equivalent to securing him room for freedom of motion (cf. the opposite form of expression in Pro 4:12). Jahve removed the obstacles of his course out of the way, and steeled his ankles so that he stood firm in fight and endured till he came off victorious. The praet. מעדו substantiates what, without any other indication of it, is required by the consecutio temporum, viz., that everything here has a retrospective meaning.