Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 18:1 - 18:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Psa_18:1. 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, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
Notice that, though David was a king, he does not say so, but he prefers the higher title, “The servant of Jehovah.” He served his God by his song. Oh, that all who led our psalmody would serve God in it! It should always be with deep devotion that we sing the praises of God. “Who spake unto the Lord the words of this song.” He did not speak them to us; he spoke them to the Lord. Singing is peculiarly an address unto God; but neither prayer nor praise should be addressed to men. David “spake unto the Lord the words of this song, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies.” It is always well to sing when a deliverance is yet new; if we do not praise the Lord in the day of our deliverance, we are not likely to praise him many days afterwards. We remember how it is written that, when the Lord delivered Israel at the Red Sea, “Then believed they his words; they sang his praises.” So do thou time thy psalm as God times his mercies.
Psa_18:1 . I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
Not only, “I do love thee,” but “I will love thee.” Some resolutions are rash, and should not be made; but this is a resolution that we may well make. We are bound to make it if we have experienced the lovingkindness of the Lord. If God be our strength, then in the strength of God we may say, “I will love thee, O Lord. I will love thee, if others do not. Whatever else I may have to love, I will love thee. My relation to thee shall never be a cold one: ‘I will love thee.’ My whole nature shall go out towards thee.”
Psa_18:2. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
“My rock in which I hide; my fortress in which I am secure; my deliverer who in a thousand ways brings me out of every peril.” What a text those two words would make! I would like to preach from them: “My deliverer.” Why, that is a name that runs through the whole story of redemption, and the whole history of providence. it is a title which we may use toward God in heaven as well as upon earth: “My deliverer.” And now, as the psalmist advances in his song, he gives a very sweet title to the Lord,—
Psa_18:2. My God,
At first, the Lord was to him, “Jehovah “-a name of awe and majesty; but now on covenant terms with God, he uses a name of bold affectionateness, and near approach: “My God.”
Psa_18:2. My strength,
That is the second time he has used that title; it is one that will bear repeating again and again: “My strength.”
Psa_18:2. In whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
What a blessing it is that we can look upon God under so many aspects, and in every aspect feel him to be ours! “My God, my strength, my buckler, my salvation, my high tower.” To set those personal pronouns side by side with every blessed metaphor, and to call God ours under every emblem which we can heap together, this is the way to be indeed cheered and comforted. Calvin says, on this verse, that the saint is armed from head to foot, and even above his head, for he has given to him the horn of salvation to lift on high. God is everything to us, beloved. We want nothing outside of him; if we think we do want it, it is better to want it than to have it.
Psa_18:3. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised:
David first said, “I will love,” now he says, “I will call.” The “I wills” of the Psalms have furnished various writers with an admirable subject; and they may supply you with a profitable line of meditation: “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.” “I will mix praise with my prayer. There is no praying like that; if you have prayer in one hand, have praise in the other. The mixture of these two perfumes will make an exceedingly sweet incense to present unto the Lord. To praise and pray, to pray and praise, is an admirable way of living. Have I not often told you that it resembles our breathing? By prayer we breathe in, and by praise we breathe out.
Psa_18:3. So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Saved singing, saved praying; what a happy way to be saved,—calling upon God, and magnifying his name! Now follows a marvelous passage descriptive of the psalmist’s deliverance, one of the most wonderful pieces of poetry ever composed in any language. David begins by describing his previous position.
Psa_18:4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
Death had tied him round with the ropes of pain; they compassed him about. He seemed like one who was shipwrecked, struggling for his life; or he stood like a hunted stag in the midst of a pack of hounds.
Psa_18:5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
He could not stir a step without falling into a trap of some sort or other. What an awful
picture this is! I can hardly imagine that the case could be painted in much blacker colors. None but God could help him, it is evident; for his
sorrows were the sorrows of death. The floods that surged around him were the floods of ungodly men; and there are no wild beasts so much to be dreaded as ungodly men. They can do more harm to us than can lions in their dens. David’s sorrows were the sorrows of hell, and the snares that lay in his pathway were the snares of death.
Psa_18:6. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God:
He puts together the two names, “Jehovah” and “my God.” He says that he called upon Jehovah, and he cried unto his God. He began with calling, and he went on to crying. The longer we pray, the more intense our prayer becomes. David prayed thus in his distress. Every way except one was shut up, so that he could not escape; but there was a way open upward. Our enemies can never block up that way; you can always run the blockade, my brethren, if you know the way of sailing upward. You can never be shut out of the port of prayer, you will always find a harbour of refuge by crying unto God.
Psa_18:6. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
The music from all the harps of the redeemed and from the songs of cherubim did not so engross those blessed ears that they could not hear David’s cries. A child’s cry will get to a father’s ear. It was so with the psalmist; his was a cry full of anguish, and it entered into the ears of God. It did not go to the saints, and round about through human mediators; but it went direct to God’s ears.
Psa_18:7. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
Nothing touches God’s heart like an injury done to a child of his. “He was wroth,” and he did but stamp his foot, and the solid earth began to rock and tremble. He who laid the
foundations of the universe can soon shift its corner-stones if he pleases; and even the hills that send their roots so deep are easily moved by him.
Psa_18:8. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
Oriental imagery representing the indignation of the Most High. He is not subject to passions like ours, but he is thus described in order that we may understand his action. It is a high strain of poetry to teach us how God is moved by the affliction of his people. As when the hot breath comes from a man’s nostrils, so is it represented as if a smoke came from God’s nostrils; and as when a man opens his mouth to speak in anger, God is represented as so speaking that a fire issued from his mouth to devour the enemies of his people.
Psa_18:9-10. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And
he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He trod on the arch of the sky, and bent it beneath his divine weight. The cherubim are represented as standing over the mercy-seat, as though waiting there to perform errands of mercy; and the Lord is here said to ride upon a cherub, and to fly upon the wings of the wind. God comes swiftly for the deliverance of his people. Thou countest him slow ; but he is not slow in the fulfillment of his promises as men count slowness. When thou shalt understand all things,-if ever that shall be,—thou wilt see how speedily he flew to thy rescue.
Psa_18:11. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
Nobody can see God in the sunlight; but faith can see him in the dark, and can realize that the darkest providences are but the pavilion of Jehovah’s love.
Psa_18:12. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
The psalmist heaps together all the terrors of nature to show how God stirreth all things up for the rescue and the defense of his people. Over the head of all this blackness and these flames of fire you hear a voice
Psa_18:13. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! See how readily, when the Lord comes forth as a man of war (Jehovah is his name), he scattereth all his adversaries.
Psa_18:14-15. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightenings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
He had not to stretch out his hand: it was but his breath that shook the earth, and set the heavens on fire.
Psa_18:16. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
The psalmist saw another Moses, whose name signified. “I drew him out of the water”; and this is one of the names of Christ. Out of many waters was he drawn, our glorious covenant Head, and all his people are to be baptized into his name.
Psa_18:17. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
They were not too strong for God, and it almost seems as if he would not have come upon the scene if they had not been too strong for David. While David could fight them, he might fight them; “but what if they were too strong for me,” saith he, “he delivered me.” Oh, what a glorious thing it is to be put where you cannot help yourself, because then it shall be written, “he delivered me”! Let the heroes of the earth boast of all their mighty deeds; as for us, we will glory even in infirmity, for then the power of God doth rest upon us.
Psa_18:18-19. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
There is another wonderful text for a sermon: “He delivered me.” The first I gave you was “my deliverer.” Now here is the explanation of his assuming that title: “He delivered me, because he delighted in me.”
Psa_18:20. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me
For David had been slandered; they laid all manner of evil to his charge, and God therefore came forth for his defense, because his heart was right with the Lord. It was God’s grace that made him right, and the grace that had preserved him from sinning now delivered him from being slandered.