Psalm 18:45 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.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be my Rock,.... This, with what follows, is the concluding part of the psalm, which ends with a celebration of the Divine Being, and with thankfulness for mercies received from him. The psalmist praises him on account of what he is in himself, what he was to him, and had done for him: in himself he is the living God, "the Lord liveth": he has life in himself, essentially, originally, and independently; and is the fountain and author of life to all others, even to all creatures that have life, whether rational or irrational: he is the giver of natural life to all men, and the supporter of it; and of spiritual and eternal life to his chosen people; and he continues to live, and ever will; wherefore the saints may conclude that their life in every sense is safe and secure. Some render the phrase, by way of wish, "may the Lord live" (r); but then it must be understood only that he would show himself more abundantly to be the living God, and that he might be acknowledged so by others. The next clauses are by way of petition; "and blessed be my Rock"; on which he was built and established, to which he betook himself in times of distress, which was his place of defence, and from whence he had a supply; wherefore he desires he might be blessed, not by invoking or conferring a blessing on him, neither of which can be; there being none greater than he to call upon, and he being "Elshaddai", God all sufficient, and in no need of any; but by declaring his blessedness, by celebrating his greatness and goodness, and by ascribing blessing and honour and glory to him; and let the God of my salvation be exalted; God was the God of his salvation in a temporal sense, saving him daily from his many enemies; and in a spiritual sense, being the contriver, author, and applier of it to him; on which account he would have him be exalted both by himself, and in the high praises of his people; ascribing the whole of salvation to him, and giving him all the glory of it. Some render the words, "the God of my salvation is high" (s); he is the most high God, the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, and is above all others. In Sa2 22:47 the words are read, "and exalted be the God of the Rock of my salvation". (r) "vivat Jehova", Musculus, Tigurine version, Piscator, Muis; so some in Vatablus, Ainsworth. (s) "excelsus est", Gejerus.

"The strange children have lied unto Me." Children, not to be called Mine, but rather strange children, to whom it is rightly said, "You are of your father the devil," [John 8:44] have lied unto Me. "The strange children have waxen old" [Psalm 18:45]. The strange children, to whom for their renovation I brought the new Testament, have remained in the old man. "And they have halted from their own paths." And like those that are weak in one foot, for holding the old they have rejected the new Testament, they have become halt, even in their old Law, rather following their own traditions, than God's. For they brought frivolous charges of unwashen hands, [Matthew 15:2] because such were the paths, which themselves had made and worn by long use, in wandering from the ways of God's commands.

"Alien sons." Here the obstinacy of the Jews is set forth. And he calls them alien sons, because once they were sons begotten by God through the grace and teaching of the law. Ex. 4: "Israel is my firstborn son." But nevertheless they became strangers. Is. 1: "I have nourished and brought up children." And there follows, "they have turned away backward." And they are aliens for a threefold reason: because "they have lied to me," because "they have grown old," and because "they have limped." A person becomes estranged from God when he does not keep faith; and regarding this he says, "they have lied to me," that is, they have broken the covenant. Also, when they do not follow in the footsteps of the faithful fathers; hence, "they have grown old." A thing that has grown old is near its end. These were new from the beginning. 1 Chr. 12, when they say: "We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse." But gradually they grew tepid. Another kind of estrangement is when one totally departs; hence he says, "they have limped from their paths," as if lame in one foot, keeping the Old Testament poorly and rejecting the New. Or if it is referred to Christ: "alien sons have lied to me," because they made a covenant with God: Ex. 24: "All that God has spoken, we will do." Afterward they broke it: Ps. 65: "Your enemies shall lie to you in the multitude of your strength." Also the virtue that was in the fathers is not in the sons; therefore "they have grown old": Bar. 3: "Why is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies and have grown old in a foreign land?" Also "they have limped from their paths," that is, from the precepts of the law, because they walk with one foot, namely the literal sense, not the spiritual. Also, literally, "they have limped," because they followed only the traditions of the Pharisees: 3 Kgs. 18: "How long will you limp on two sides? If the Lord is God, follow him."

"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.