สดุดี 18:16 วิจารณ์

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.

He delivered me from my strong enemy,.... Which, as it may respect David, may be understood of Goliath the Philistine champion, who was a man of war from his youth; or Saul, king of Israel; and, as it may respect David's antitype, may design either the chief priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, who were men of power and influence; or more especially Satan, the strong man armed, with all his principalities and powers; or, likewise death, the last enemy, from whose pains and cords he was loosed when raised from the dead, and when he was delivered from every other strong enemy; and from them which hated me; from the old serpent the devil, between whom and him there has been a lasting enmity; and from the world, the people of the Jews, particularly the Pharisees, who bore an implacable hatred to Christ; for they were too strong for me; as Goliath and Saul were too strong for David of himself, so Christ's enemies were too strong for him; not as God, for he is the mighty God, the Almighty, and stronger than the strong man armed, but as man; for in his human nature he had a sinless weakness, which showed itself in his agonies in the garden; or a natural weakness, through which he was crucified; and this weak nature of Christ Satan attacked, and got an advantage over, and brought it to the dust of death, which is meant by his bruising his heel, though by it he got a broken head. But though Christ's enemies were too strong for him, considered merely as man, they not being, at least many of them, flesh and blood, but principalities and powers; yet being helped by his Father, and supported by his divine nature, he overcame them, and was delivered from them.

He has sent down from on high, and has fetched Me [Psalm 18:16]: by calling out of the Gentiles for an inheritance "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle." [Ephesians 5:27] "He has taken Me out of the multitude of waters." He has taken Me out of the multitude of peoples.

"He sent." Above the Psalmist treated the power of the deliverer; here he pursues in order the benefit of deliverance. And regarding this he does two things. First he gives thanks for deliverance regarding past things. Second, regarding future things that he hopes for, at "and I shall be spotless with him." Regarding the first he sets forth three things. First he narrates from what he was delivered. Second, the deliverance itself, at "and he became." Third, the cause of deliverance, at "he saved me." Regarding the first he does two things. First he shows himself delivered from great tribulations. Second, he explains how the tribulations were great, at "he rescued me." The Gloss says according to the letter, "he sent from on high"; as if to say: God is powerful, because he does all the aforesaid things, namely moving, etc., thundering, etc., having supreme power. "And this from on high," namely by his power, "he took me," snatching me away, "and received me," that is, raised me up, protecting me "from many waters," that is, from many tribulations. Ps. 33: "Many are the tribulations of the just, and from all of them," etc. Sir. 51: "You delivered me from the gates of tribulations that surrounded me, and from the pressure of the flame that surrounded me." Mystically, God sent his own Son "from on high," that is, from heaven: Jn. 6: "I descended from heaven, not to do my own will," etc. This is what was asked: Ps. 143: "Send forth your hand from on high." "And he delivered me from many waters." Ps. 18: "From the highest heaven is his going forth," etc. Or the Holy Spirit: Lam. 1: "From on high he sent fire." "And he took me," the infirm, to heal me. "And he received me from many waters," namely of Baptism, or from the multitude of sins. Or "he sent from on high," that is, his grace to just men: Jas. 1: "Every good gift," etc. "And he took me" to repentance: Is. 40: "Like a shepherd he will feed his flock, with his arm he will gather the lambs," etc. Hos. 11: "I was like a nurse to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms." Or of the peoples, because the faithful were taken from the multitude of the nations.

"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.

from above--As seated on a throne, directing these terrible scenes, God-- sent--His hand (Psa 144:7), reached down to His humble worshipper, and delivered him. many waters--calamities (Job 30:14; Psa 124:4-5).

(Heb.: 18:17-20) Then Jahve stretches out His hand from above into the deep chasm and draws up the sinking one. The verb שׁלח occurs also in prose (Sa2 6:6) without יד (Psa 57:4, cf. on the other hand the borrowed passage, Psa 144:7) in the signification to reach (after anything). The verb משׁה, however, is only found in one other instance, viz., Exo 2:10, as the root (transferred from the Egyptian into the Hebrew) of the name of Moses, and even Luther saw in it an historical allusion, "He hath made a Moses of me," He hath drawn me out of great (many) waters, which had well nigh swallowed me up, as He did Moses out of the waters of the Nile, in which he would have perished. This figurative language is followed, in Psa 18:18, by its interpretation, just as in Psa 144:7 the "great waters" are explained by מיּד בּני נכר, which, however, is not suitable here, or at least is too limited. With Psa 18:17 the hymn has reached the climax of epic description, from which it now descends in a tone that becomes more and more lyrical. In the combination איבי עז, עז is not an adverbial accusative, but an adjective, like רוּחך טובה Psa 143:10, and ὁ ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός (Hebrerbrief S. 353). כּי introduces the reason for the interposition of the divine omnipotence, viz., the superior strength of the foe and the weakness of the oppressed one. On the day of his איד, i.e., (vid., on Psa 31:12) his load or calamity, when he was altogether a homeless and almost defenceless fugitive, they came upon him (קדּם Psa 17:13), cutting off all possible means of delivering himself, but Jahve became the fugitive's staff (Psa 23:4) upon which he leaned and kept himself erect. By the hand of God, out of straits and difficulties he reached a broad place, out of the dungeon of oppression to freedom, for Jahve had delighted in him, he was His chosen and beloved one. חפץ has the accent on the penult here, and Metheg as a sign of the lengthening (העמדה) beside the ē, that it may not be read ĕ. (Note: In like manner Metheg is placed beside the ee of the final closed syllable that has lost the tone in חפץ Psa 22:9, ותּחולל Psa 90:2, vid., Isaiah S. 594 note.) The following strophe tells the reason of his pleasing God and of His not allowing him to perish. This כּי חפץ בּי (for He delighted in me) now becomes the primary thought of the song.