At length the warrior-king was at peace. The hairbreadth escapes of his flight from Saul, when his life was in hourly peril and he knew not whither to turn for safety; the miseries and bitterness of civil strife, through which though chosen by Jehovah to rule His people he had to fight his way to th... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will love thee_ Fervently do I love thee, a word occurring nowhere else in this form, and denoting tender and intimate affection. This verse is omitted in 2 Sam.... [ Continue Reading ]
Introductory prelude, in which one title is heaped upon another to express all that experience had proved Jehovah to be to David.... [ Continue Reading ]
The imagery which David uses is derived from the features of a country abounding in cliffs and caves and natural strongholds, with which he had become familiar in his flight from Saul. _The rock_, or cliff (_sela_) where he had been so unexpectedly delivered from Saul (1 Samuel 23:25-28): _the fortr... [ Continue Reading ]
Not merely a resolution or expression of confidence for the future (_I will call … so shall I be saved_); but the expression of a general conviction of God's faithfulness to answer prayer; whensoever I call … then am I saved &c. Cp. Psalms 56:9. This conviction is based on experience, and illustrate... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sorrows of death_ Rather, as R.V., The cords of death. But the word has been wrongly introduced here from Psalms 18:5, and the true reading should be restored from 2 Sam.: the waves (lit. _breakers_) of death. This gives a proper parallelism to _floods_in the next line. But the reading _cords_m... [ Continue Reading ]
In forcible figures David pictures the extremity of need in which he cried for help, and not in vain. Again and again there had been -but a step between him and death." (1 Samuel 20:3.) The perils to which he had been exposed are described as waves and torrents which threatened to engulf him or swee... [ Continue Reading ]
Render with R.V., The cords of Sheol were round about me: The snares of death came upon me. The Heb. word rendered _sorrows_in the A.V. may no doubt have the meaning _pangs_, and is so rendered by the LXX (ὠδῖνες θανάτου … ὠ. ᾁδου, cp. Acts 2:24). But the parallelism decides in favour of the rend... [ Continue Reading ]
_called … cried_ The tense in the original denotes _frequent_and _repeated_prayer. The text of 2 Sam. has _called_twice, no doubt by an error of transcription. _out of his temple_ The palace-temple of heaven, where He sits enthroned. See on Psalms 11:4. Cp. Psalms 18:16. _and my cry_&c. R.V., and... [ Continue Reading ]
The paronomasia of the original in the first line might be preserved by rendering, Then the earth did shake and quake. _the foundations_&c. Render: And the foundations of the mountains trembled. The strong mountains were shaken to their very bases. Cp. Isaiah 24:18; Habakkuk 3:6. The text in 2 Sam.... [ Continue Reading ]
Forthwith David's prayer is answered by the Advent of Jehovah for the discomfiture of his enemies. He manifests Himself in earthquake and storm. The majestic though terrible phenomena of nature are the expression of His presence. Nature in its stern and awful aspect is a revelation of His judicial w... [ Continue Reading ]
The startling boldness of the language will be intelligible if the distinctive character of Hebrew symbolism is borne in mind. It is no "gross anthropomorphism," for the poet did not intend that the mind's eye should shape his figures into a concrete form. His aim is vividly to express the awfulness... [ Continue Reading ]
The dark canopy of storm clouds, which is the pavement under His feet (Nahum 1:3), lowers as He descends to judgment. God is said to _come down_when He manifests His power in the world (Genesis 11:7; Genesis 18:21; Isaiah 64:1). The _darkness_, or better as R.V., thick darkness, in which He conceals... [ Continue Reading ]
As the Shechinah, or mystic Presence of Jehovah in the cloud of glory, rested over the cherubim which were upon the "Mercy-seat" or covering of the ark (2 Samuel 6:2; Psalms 80:1; Hebrews 9:5), so here Jehovah is represented "riding upon a cherub," as the living throne on which He traverses space.... [ Continue Reading ]
R.V. He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him; Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. The darkness of the rain-charged storm-cloud is the tent in which Jehovah shrouds His Majesty. Cp. Job 36:29; Psalms 97:2. The rhythm gains by the omission of _his hiding-place_, as... [ Continue Reading ]
The best rendering of this obscure verse seems to be: From the brightness before him there passed through his thick clouds hailstones and coals of fire. The flashes of lightning, accompanied by hail (Exodus 9:23-24), are as it were rays of the "unapproachable light" in which He dwells, piercing th... [ Continue Reading ]
_and the Highest_&c. R.V., and the Most High uttered his voice. _The Most High_is the title of God as the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. See Psalms 7:17; and Appendix, Note II. Thunder is the voice of God. See Psalms 29:3; Job 37:2-5. The words _hailstones and coals of fire_have no proper grammatica... [ Continue Reading ]
And he sent out &c. (R.V.) gives the connexion better than _Yea_. Lightnings are Jehovah's arrows. Cp. Psalms 77:17; Habakkuk 3:11. _Scattered them_clearly refers to the enemies whose destruction was the object of this Divine interposition (Psalms 18:3). _and he shot out lightnings_ the verb derive... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Exodus 15:9; Exodus 15:2 Sam. reads _destroyed_for _overtaken_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have wounded them_ Rather, I have smitten them through (Deuteronomy 33:11; Job 26:12). 2 Sam. has "Yea I consumed them, and smote them through," the first verb being probably a gloss. The R.V. renders the verbs in Psalms 18:37 as futures (_I will pursue_, &c.), but it is best to regard these ver... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Psalms 18:32 _a_. _those that rose up against me_ Enemies in general (Exodus 15:7; Deuteronomy 33:11), not necessarily rebellious subjects, though the word is specially applicable to them (Psalms 3:1).... [ Continue Reading ]
Thus God gave him victory over all his enemies.... [ Continue Reading ]
Yea mine enemies hast thou made to turn their backs unto me, And as for them that hated me, I cut them off. The first line means that his enemies were put to flight before him Exodus 23:27), not (as the A.V. seems to imply) that he planted his foot on their necks in token of triumph (Joshua 10:24)... [ Continue Reading ]
_They cried_ Cp. Psalms 18:6. The Heb. text in 2 Sam. has _they looked_for help (Isaiah 17:7-8), but the LXX supports the reading _cried_, which is certainly right. There is only the difference of one letter in the consonants of the two words (ישועו ישעו). Even _unto the Lord_ At first sight this m... [ Continue Reading ]
Two figures are combined to express the annihilation of David's enemies. They were, as it were, pounded to dust (2 Kings 13:7), and then scattered like that dust driven before the wind. Cp. Isaiah 29:5; Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 41:2 Sam. reads only "as the dust of the earth." _I did cast them out_&c. Flu... [ Continue Reading ]
The establishment of David's dominion at home and abroad.... [ Continue Reading ]
_from the strivings of the people_ 2 Sam. has "from the strivings of my people," and the reference seems to be to the civil war and internal dissension which disturbed the early years of David's reign, while Saul's house still endeavoured to maintain its position. See 2 Samuel 3:1. Through all these... [ Continue Reading ]
As soon as they heard of me they offered me obedience, Strangers came cringing unto me. At the mere report of David's victories foreign nations offered their allegiance, as for example Toi of Hamath. See 2 Samuel 8:9 ff. The word rendered _submit themselves_, marg. _yield feigned obedience_, denot... [ Continue Reading ]
The strangers faded away, And came trembling out of their fastnesses. Their strength and courage failed like a withering leaf or a fading flower (Isaiah 28:1; Isaiah 28:4), and they surrendered at discretion to the triumphant invader. Cp. Micah 7:17; 1 Samuel 14:11. The obscure reading in 2 Sam. m... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord liveth_ Life is the essential attribute of Jehovah. He is the Living God in contrast to the dead idols of the heathen. The experience of David's life is summed up in these words. It had been to him a certain proof that God is the living, active Ruler of the world. Cp. Joshua 3:10. _and le... [ Continue Reading ]
Concluding thanksgiving and doxology.... [ Continue Reading ]
Render: Even the God that executed vengeance for me, And subdued peoples under me. Vengeance is the prerogative of God (Psalms 94:1); it is His vindication of the righteousness and integrity of His servants. Such a thanksgiving as this does not shew a spirit of vindictiveness in David, but is a r... [ Continue Reading ]
My deliverer from mine enemies; Yea, thou didst set me on high from them that rose up against me, From the man of violence didst thou rescue me. My deliverer, as in Psalms 18:2; Psalms 18:2 Sam. has "that bringeth me forth." The man of violence might mean men of violence in general, but it is mor... [ Continue Reading ]
The celebration of Jehovah's faithfulness to His servant is not to be confined within the narrow limits of Israel. His praise is to be proclaimed among the nations, which, as they are brought under the dominion of His people, may eventually be brought to the knowledge of Jehovah. Cp. Psalms 96:3; Ps... [ Continue Reading ]
These closing words may be due to a later poet, who thus sums up the lessons of the Psalm. But they may well be David's own. He drops the first person, and surveys his own life from without, in the light of the great promise of 2 Samuel 7:12-16. These are the deliverances Jehovah has wrought for the... [ Continue Reading ]