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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 18:4 - 18:4
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(Heb.: 18:5-7) In these verses David gathers into one collective figure all the fearful dangers to which he had been exposed during his persecution by Saul, together with the marvellous answers and deliverances he experienced, that which is unseen, which stands in the relation to that which is visible of cause and effect, rendering itself visible to him. David here appears as passive throughout; the hand from out of the clouds seizes him and draws him out of mighty waters: while in the second part of the Psalm, in fellowship with God and under His blessing, he comes forward as a free actor.
The description begins in Psa 18:5 with the danger and the cry for help which is not in vain. The verb אָפַף according to a tradition not to be doubted (cf. אֹופָן a wheel) signifies to go round, surround, as a poetical synonym of סָבַב, הִקִּיף, כִּתֵּר, and not, as one might after the Arabic have thought: to drive, urge. Instead of “the bands of death,” the lxx (cf. Act 2:24) renders it ὠδῖνες (constrictive pains) θανάτου; but Psa 18:6 favours the meaning bands, cords, cf. Psa 119:61 (where it is likewise חֶבְלי instead of the הַבְלי, which one might have expected, Jos 17:5; Job 36:8), death is therefore represented as a hunter with a cord and net, Psa 91:3. בְלִיַּעַל, compounded of בְּלִי and יַעַל (from יָעַל, וָעַל, root על), signifies unprofitableness, worthlessness, and in fact both deep-rooted moral corruption and also abysmal destruction (cf. 2Co 6:15, Βελίαρ = Βελίαλ as a name of Satan and his kingdom). Rivers of destruction are those, whose engulfing floods lead down to the abyss of destruction (Jon 2:7). Death, Belı̂jáal, and Sheôl are the names of the weird powers, which make use of David's persecutors as their instruments. Futt. in the sense of imperfects alternate with praett. בִּעֵת (= Arab. bgt) signifies to come suddenly upon any one (but compare also Arab. b‛ṯ, to startle, excitare, to alarm), and קִדֵּם, to rush upon; the two words are distinguished from one another like überfallen and anfallen. The הֵיכָל out of which Jahve hears is His heavenly dwelling-place, which is both palace and temple, inasmuch as He sits enthroned there, being worshipped by blessed spirits. לְפָנָיו belongs to וְשַׁוְעָתִי: my cry which is poured forth before Him (as e.g., in Psa 102:1), for it is tautological if joined with תָּבֹא beside וְשַׁוְעָתִי. Before Jahve's face he made supplication and his prayer urged its way into His ears.