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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 18:1 - 18:35
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Psa_18:1. I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
What a blessed “I will”: “I will love thee”! He does love the Lord, and he declares that he will continue to do so. He feels that he must do so, for the Lord has been his strength. There are many aspects under which the love of our heart is most justly and fitly given to God, and this is one of them. If the Lord has been the strength of our heart, then let our heart love him.
Psa_18:2. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
How David heaps up the epithets! When the believer once begins to praise the Lord, there is no end to it. He can never even satisfy himself; much less can he hope to rise to the height of this great argument. Notice how many of those little pronouns there are. Luther used to say that the very marrow of divinity lies in the pronouns. Certainly, the sweetness-the honey of it lies here. Let me read the verse again, putting the emphasis on the pronouns: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”
Psa_18:3. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Calling upon him in prayer, and rendering praise to him, “so shall I be saved from mine enemies. You remember how the army of Jehoshaphat marched forth into the valley of Berachah, singing and praising the Lord; and they had no need to strike a blow, for the Lord gave them a glorious victory, when they began to sing and to praise; and we might have more victories if we had more praise and more prayer. Now David goes on to tell us what had happened to him, and what happened to the children of Israel when they came up out of the land of Egypt, and went into the wilderness.
Psa_18:4-5. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
That is, “went before me,” “lay in my pathway.” Did you ever have a window opened in your heart, so that you could see all the ruin of your nature,-all the possibilities of evil that lay asleep within your soul? Did you ever feel, as you gazed upon that sight, as if you were looking over the edge of the bottomless pit? Ah, then! you have been just in the condition which the psalmist here describes: “The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death lay in my pathway.”
Psa_18:6. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
That is a wonderful expression: “My cry came before him, even into his ears.” That is, of course, speaking after the manner of men, and we cannot speak in any other manner. God appeared to hear David’s cry as you and I hear a thing when we say, “It seemed to ring in my ears, I could not get rid of the sound of it.” What happened then?
Psa_18:7. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
The Lord was wroth with those who had made his child cry, as a father is angry with one who injures a beloved child of his, or as a mother is wroth with one who puts her babe to pain. The Lord made the earth to tremble because he was angry at the oppressors of his servant.
Psa_18:8. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
That is David’s graphic and striking representation of the indignation of God on his behalf.
Psa_18:9. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
This is a wonderful description of the interposition of God on behalf of his people. The scene referred to by David is probably the destruction of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and the deliverance of the children of Israel from their cruel enemies.
Psa_18:10. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
So swift is prayer to reach the heart of God; and so swift is God to come to the help of his people.
Psa_18:11-12. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
For all the dread artillery of heaven shall be used for the defense of the faithful. God will hold nothing in reserve when his people are in danger.
Psa_18:13. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
What made God speak in those terrible tones? It was the faint and feeble cry of his poor servant down below. Can you and I make thunder? Yes, we can. If we can thunder at the gates of heaven by prayer, God will thunder in the heavens in his omnipotence; he will quickly respond to his children’s cries. The first Christians, who were employed in the Roman armies, were called the thundering legion, because it was said that, once upon a time, when they prayed, God sent a thunderstorm to destroy their enemies; and, truly, a living Church of God, that is full of prayer, may be called a thundering legion.
Psa_18:14. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightning’s, and discomfited them.
What a wonderful picture this is,-as if the Eternal had taken down his bow, and aimed his shafts of lightning against the foes of his people!
Psa_18:15. 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.
At the Red Sea, Moses sang, “Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters; “but, here, David does not represent God as sending forth a great wind, but as if, in his eagerness to help his servant, his very nostrils gave forth such a mighty blast as made the sea to divide, so that “the channels of the waters were seen.” It is one of the most vivid pieces of poetry that ever fell from the pen of inspired or uninspired man.
Psa_18:16-17. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
When a child of God is in such a condition that he cannot help himself, and he cries to his Heavenly Father, then the Lord always helps him. Our proverb says, “God helps those that help themselves;” that is true, but there is something better than that. God helps those who cannot help themselves. That proves the greatness of his mercy, which endureth for ever. David said of his foes, “They were too strong for me,” but they were not too strong for the Lord to overthrow.
Psa_18:18. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.
“I leaned on him; I rested on him; I relied on him; and so I was made peaceful, calm, quiet, confident in him: ‘The Lord was my stay.’”
Psa_18:19. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
What sayest thou to that, believer? That God delights in thee,-that he finds something in thee, which he has put there by his grace, which is the object of his complacency? Is it not your likeness to his dear Son, whom he loves so much that, wherever he sees his image, there his love flows forth?
Psa_18:20. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
For when God gives a man holiness, he will give him happiness. Holiness and happiness usually go together; and if, for a while, they seem to be divided, they shall soon be united again.
Psa_18:21-24. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
The godly never see any merit in their own works, they never have any trust in them for salvation; yet they cannot help observing, with pleasure, that, when God enables them to walk uprightly, he sooner or later delivers them. If you come into any trouble because you fear God, and serve him, you will come out of it again; ay, and come out of it like the three holy children came out of the furnace, with not so much as the smell of fire remaining upon you.
Psa_18:25-26. With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
If a man walks in a froward way, and opposes God, he will soon find that God treats him in a similar fashion. Sinners shall surely smart for their sin. Rebels shall yet sing another tune, however loudly they may boast today, and scoff at God and his people.
Psa_18:27. For thou wilt save the afflicted people;
There is comfort there for any of you who are his people, and who are under his afflicting hand.
Psa_18:27. But wilt bring down high looks.
Pride excites the indignation of Jehovah; it is to the humble that he has regard.
Psa_18:28. For thou wilt light my candle the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Plead that promise if you are in the dark at this moment. If you are God’s child, he will bring you out into the light ere long.
Psa_18:29. For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.
God’s warriors have to fight in various ways, and in all they must quit themselves like men, and ascribe all their triumphs to their Lord.
Psa_18:30. As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
No armor of proof or shield of brass so well secures the warrior as the covenant God of Israel protects his warring people. He is himself the buckler of trustful ones.
Psa_18:31. For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?
Where can lasting hopes be fixed? Where can the soul find rest? Where is stability to be found? Where is strength to be discovered? Surely, in the Lord Jehovah alone can we find rest and refuge.
Psa_18:32-35. It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.
I think you will see that David has given us, in this Psalm, the reasons why he began by saying, “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.”