27 For it is thou that savest the afflicted people; but the haughty eyes wilt thou bring down.
Whoso secretly slandereth his neighbour, him will I destroy; him that hath a high look and a proud heart will I not suffer.
there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness;
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that *ye* by *his* poverty might be enriched.
I say unto you, This [man] went down to his house justified rather than that [other]. For every one who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.
Even all these things hath my hand made, and all these things have been, saith Jehovah. But to this man will I look: to the afflicted and contrite in spirit, and who trembleth at my word.
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy [place], and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
The look of their face doth witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom: they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have brought evil upon themselves.
And the afflicted people thou dost save; And thine eyes are upon the haughty, [whom] thou bringest down.
But I am afflicted and needy: the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer: my God, make no delay.
Many are the adversities of the righteous, but Jehovah delivereth him out of them all:
Arise, Jehovah, anticipate him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, thy sword;
They are enclosed in their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 18
Commentary on Psalms 18 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 18
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.
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.
Psa 18:1-19
The title gives us the occasion of penning this psalm; we had it before (2 Sa. 22:1), only here we are told that the psalm was delivered to the chief musician, or precentor, in the temple-songs. Note, The private compositions of good men, designed by them for their own use, may be serviceable to the public, that others may not only borrow light from their candle, but heat from their fire. Examples sometimes teach better than rules. And David is here called the servant of the Lord, as Moses was, not only as every good man is God's servant, but because, with his sceptre, with his sword, and with his pen, he greatly promoted the interests of God's kingdom in Israel. It was more his honour that he was a servant of the Lord than that he was king of a great kingdom; and so he himself accounted it (Ps. 116:16): O Lord! truly I am thy servant. In these verses,
In singing this we must triumph in God, and trust in him: and we may apply it to Christ the Son of David. The sorrows of death surrounded him; in his distress he prayed (Heb. 5:7); God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, into a large place, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.
Psa 18:20-28
Here,
Let those that walk in darkness, and labour under many discouragements in singing these verses, encourage themselves that God himself will be a light to them.
Psa 18:29-50
In these verses,
In singing these verses we must give God the glory of the victories of Christ and his church hitherto and of all the deliverances and advancements of the gospel kingdom, and encourage ourselves and one another with an assurance that the church militant will be shortly triumphant, will be eternally so.