6 In my distress I called upon Jehovah, and I cried out to my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and shook, because he was wroth.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals burned forth from it.
9 And he bowed the heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he flew fast upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his secret place, his tent round about him: darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
12 From the brightness before him his thick clouds passed forth: hail and coals of fire.
13 And Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.
14 And he sent his arrows, and scattered [mine enemies]; and he shot forth lightnings, and discomfited them.
15 And the beds of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered at thy rebuke, Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16 He reached forth from above, he took me, he drew me out of great waters:
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me; for they were mightier than I.
18 They encountered me in the day of my calamity, but Jehovah was my stay.
19 And he brought me forth into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 Jehovah hath rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his ordinances were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me;
23 And I was upright with him, and kept myself from mine iniquity.
24 And Jehovah hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25 With the gracious thou dost shew thyself gracious; with the upright man thou dost shew thyself upright;
26 With the pure thou dost shew thyself pure; and with the perverse thou dost shew thyself contrary.
27 For it is thou that savest the afflicted people; but the haughty eyes wilt thou bring down.
28 For it is thou that makest my lamp to shine: Jehovah my God enlighteneth my darkness.
29 For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.
30 As for ùGod, his way is perfect; the word of Jehovah is tried: he is a shield to all that trust in him.
31 For who is +God save Jehovah? and who is a rock if not our God?
32 The ùGod who girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect,
33 Who maketh my feet like hinds' [feet], and setteth me upon my high places;
34 Who teacheth my hands to war, and mine arms bend a bow of brass;
35 And thou didst give me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand held me up; and thy condescending gentleness hath made me great.
36 Thou didst enlarge my steps under me, and mine ankles have not wavered.
37 I pursued mine enemies, and overtook them; and I turned not again till they were consumed.
38 I crushed them, and they were not able to rise: they fell under my feet.
39 And thou girdedst me with strength to battle; thou didst subdue under me those that rose up against me.
40 And mine enemies didst thou make to turn their backs unto me, and those that hated me I destroyed.
41 They cried, and there was none to save; -- unto Jehovah, and he answered them not.
42 And I did beat them small as dust before the wind; I did cast them out as the mire of the streets.
43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; thou hast made me the head of the nations: a people I knew not doth serve me.
44 At the hearing of the ear, they obey me: strangers come cringing unto me.
45 Strangers have faded away, and they come trembling forth from their close places.
46 Jehovah liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 The ùGod who hath avenged me, and hath subjected the peoples to me;
48 Who hath delivered me from mine enemies: yea, thou hast lifted me up above them that rose up against me; from the man of violence hast thou delivered me.
49 Therefore will I give thanks to thee, Jehovah, among the nations, and will sing psalms to thy name.
50 [It is he] who giveth great deliverances to his king, and sheweth loving-kindness to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
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.