Psalm 18:5 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.

In my distress I called upon the Lord,.... The great Jehovah, the everlasting I AM, who is the most High in all the earth, and who is able to save, Heb 5:7; and cried unto my God; as Jesus did, Mat 27:46; so the members of Christ, when in distress, as they often are, through sin and Satan, through the hidings of God's face, a variety of afflictions, and the persecutions of men, betake themselves to the Lord, and call upon their God: a time of distress is a time for prayer; and sometimes the end God has in suffering them to be in distress is to bring them to the throne of his grace; and a great privilege it is they have that they have such a throne to come to for grace and mercy to help them in time of need, and such a God to sympathize with them, and help them; and their encouragement to call upon him, and cry unto him, is, that he is Jehovah, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent; who knows their wants, is able to help them, and is a God at hand to do it; He heard my voice out of his temple; that is, out of heaven his dwelling place; for the temple at Jerusalem was not built in David's time; and it may be observed, that the prayer of the psalmist, or whom he represents, was a vocal one, and not merely mental; and hearing it intends a gracious regard unto it, an acceptance of it, and an agreeable answer: for it follows, and my cry came before him, even into his ears; God did not cover himself with a cloud, that his prayer could not pass through; but it was admitted and received; it came up before him with acceptance; it reached his ears, and even entered into them, and was delightful music to them: see Joh 11:41.

"The pains of hell compassed Me about" [Psalm 18:5]. Among those that compassed Me about to destroy Me, were pains of envy, which work death, and lead on to the hell of sin. "The snares of death prevented Me." They prevented Me, so that they wished to hurt Me first, which shall afterwards be recompensed unto them. Now they seize unto destruction such men as they have evilly persuaded by the boast of righteousness: in the name but not in the reality of which they glory against the Gentiles.

"The sorrows." Here he pursues the second progression; and therefore he says, "the sorrows of hell," that is, sorrows similar to those of hell: Gen. 37: "I shall go down mourning into hell." Or the sorrows that are conceived from fear of hell. And these surround one when they are unavoidable. And these sorrows come because "the snares of death have anticipated me." What death? Prov. 21: "He who gathers treasures by a lying tongue is vain and foolish, and shall stumble upon the snares of death." Behold the necessity. But he applied the remedy of prayer. And first prayer is set forth; and therefore he says, "In my tribulation I called upon the Lord." Hos. 6: "In their tribulation they will rise early to me." Bar. 3: "Now, O Lord God," etc. Is. 55: "Seek the Lord while he may be found," etc. Ps. 49: "Call upon me in the day of tribulation, and I will deliver you." Wis. 7: "I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me." Next the devotion of the one praying is set forth, because "I cried out to my Lord," that is, with great devotion of the one praying: Ps. 119: "To the Lord in my tribulation," etc. Heb. 5: "With a strong cry and tears offering, he was heard." And he says, "I cried out to my Lord," not to a stranger. Deut. 10: "You shall worship the Lord your God," etc. Third, the hearing of the prayer is set forth, "he heard." He had said two things: that he called and that he cried out. And therefore he says that both his voice and his cry were heard. From where? "From his holy temple he heard my voice." The temple of God is the very excellence of his holiness, because the Lord is his own temple: Rev. 21: "I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God almighty is the temple thereof," etc. Likewise the temple is Christ himself: Jn. 2: "But he spoke of the temple of his body," in which God is by the union of the person. Also the just soul, in which God is by grace: 1 Cor. 3: "For the temple of God is holy, which you are." Also the Blessed Virgin: Ps. 5: "I will worship toward your holy temple," in whom, that is, through whom God heard us: Ps. 33: "He heard me and delivered me from all my tribulations." Also the Church: Ps. 10: "The Lord is in his holy temple." And from any of these temples he heard: 3 Kgs. 8: "If anyone shall know the wound of his heart, and shall spread forth his hands in this house, you will hear in the place of your dwelling." And not only does he say the prayer was heard, but also the cry; therefore he says, "and my cry before him entered into his ears." And he says "before him," that is, in his sight, because he sees all things: Ex. 3: "Seeing I have seen the affliction," etc. Or "before him," that is, in his good pleasure; or in the heart, where he alone beholds: 1 Sam. 16: "Man sees those things that appear, but God beholds the heart." "And it entered into his ears," by acceptance: Jas. 5: "Their cry has entered into the ears of the Lord." Or "into his ears," that is, into his clemency: Sir. 35: "The prayer of him who humbles himself shall pierce the clouds."

"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.

death--and hell (compare Psa 16:10) are personified as man's great enemies (compare Rev 20:13-14). prevented--encountered me, crossed my path, and endangered my safety. He does not mean he was in their power.