สดุดี 18:38 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.

For thou hast girded me with strength unto battle,.... See Psa 18:32; that natural strength, courage and valour, which David had, were from the Lord; and so is the Spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind, which believers have; and likewise that strength which Christ, as man, had and used in his combat with the powers of darkness; see Psa 80:17; thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me; as the psalmist ascribes his strength, so he attributes his success to the Lord; who likewise subdues the sins of his people, and all other enemies of theirs, and who also makes the enemies of his Son his footstool, Psa 110:1.

"I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand" [Psalm 18:38]: and they shall not hold out against me. "They shall fall under my feet." When they are cast down, I will place before me the loves whereby I walk for evermore.

"I will break them." Here he excludes their power of resisting; as if to say: they will not resist me, because "I will break them," that is, I will so diminish their forces that "they shall not be able to stand." Ps. 35: "All the workers of iniquity have fallen; they were cast out and could not stand." Job 38: "The exalted arm shall be broken," that is, they will not endure against me, or they will not be able to resist. Lev. 26: "You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you." And this is so because they will come into my power; and this is what he says, "They shall fall beneath my feet." We also ought to do this concerning evil movements and sins and demons. Mal. 4: "You shall trample the wicked when they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet." Lk. 10: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and upon all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." Gen. 4: "Its desire shall be under you, and you shall have dominion over it."

"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.