Psalms 18:23

_I WAS ALSO UPRIGHT BEFORE HIM, AND I KEPT MYSELF FROM MINE INIQUITY._ I was also upright before him - literally, with Him (Genesis 17:1; Deuteronomy 18:13). See God's own testimony to David (1 Kings 14:8) "My servant David kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;" also 15:5. AND I KEPT MYSELF FROM MINE INIQUITY - i:e., from the iniquity to which I am liable. Herein he shows himself as not perfectly righteous, but a believer needing watchfulness and prayer to keep down his natural corruption (cf. note, Psalms 17:4). See an instance of his go

23._I was also upright with him. _All the verbs in this verse are put by David in the future tense, _I will be upright, etc. _because he does not boast of one act only, or of a good work performed by fits and starts, but of steady perseverance in an upright course. What I have said before, namely, that David takes God for his judge, as he saw that he was wrongfully and unrighteously condemned by men, appears still more clearly from what he here says, “I have been upright with him.” The Scriptures, indeed, sometimes speak in similar terms of the saints, to distinguish them from hypocrites, who content themselves with wearing the outward mask of religious observances; but it is to disprove the false reports which were spread against him that David thus confidently appeals to God with respect to them. This is still more fully confirmed by the repetition of the same thing which is made a lit...

20-28 Those that forsake the ways of the Lord, depart from their God. But though conscious to ourselves of many a false step, let there not be a wicked departure from our God. David kept his eye upon the rule of God's commands. Constant care to keep from that sin, whatever it be, which most easily besets us, proves that we are upright before God. Those who show mercy to others, even they need mercy. Those who are faithful to God, shall find him all that to them which he has promised to be. The words of the Lord are pure words, very sure to be depended on, and very sweet to be delighted in. Those who resist God, and walk contrary to him, shall find that he will walk contrary to them, Leviticus 26:21-3. The gracious recompence of which David spoke, may generally be expected by those who act from right motives. Hence he speaks comfort to the humble, and terror to the proud; "Thou wilt brin...

Verse Psalms 18:23. _I WAS ALSO UPRIGHT_] The times in which David was most afflicted were the times of his greatest uprightness. _Adversity_ was always to him a time of spiritual prosperity. _MINE INIQUITY._] Probably meaning what is generally termed _the_ _easily-besetting sin; the sin of his constitution_, or that to which the _temperament_ of his body most powerfully disposed him. What this was, is a subject of useless conjecture....

I WAS ALSO UPRIGHT BEFORE HIM - Margin, with. The meaning is that he was upright in his sight. The word rendered upright is the same which in Job 1:1 is rendered perfect. See the note at that passage. AND I KEPT MYSELF FROM MINE INIQUITY - From the iniquity to which I was prone or inclined. This is an acknowledgment that he was prone to sin, or that if he had acted out his natural character he would have indulged in sin - perhaps such sins as had been charged upon him. But he here says that, with this natural proneness to sin, he had restrained himself, and had not been deserving of the treatment which he had received. This is one of those incidental remarks which often occur in the Scriptures which recognize the doctrine of depravity, or the fact that the heart, even when most restrained, is by nature inclined to sin. If this psa

EXPOSITION THIS psalm has many characteristics which distinguish it, not only from all that have preceded it in the collection, but from all those which are assigned to David by their titles. In the first pace, it is the longest of such psalms, extending, as it does, to fifty distinguish it, not only from all that have verses, or a hundred and fourteen lines, but from all Hebrew poetry. Next, it is continuous, not broken into strophes (Hengstenberg). Thirdly, it appears, not only in the Psalter, but also in one of the historical books the Second Book of Samuel, in what seems to be a second edition. Further, it is in itself a very remarkable composition, being distinguished alike by "vigour and grace; full of archaic grandeur, and yet free from abrupt transitions and thoughts labouring for utterance, such as make some of the earlier psalms difficult to understand" ('Speaker's Commentary')...

I WAS ALSO UPRIGHT BEFORE HIM,.... In heart and conversation, being sincere and faithful; so David was in the sight of God; but this is much more true of Christ, in whom there was no unrighteousness nor guile, neither in his heart, nor in his lips; he was of perfect integrity, and faithful in all things to him that appointed him; AND I KEPT MYSELF FROM MINE INIQUITY; which some interpret of original sin, in which David was born, which dwelt in him, and prompted him to sin; but rather it refers to the taking away of Saul's life, which he might be tempted to do, as being his enemy that sought his life; and which he was put upon and urged to by some about him, and yet did it not. But it is best here also to apply these words to Christ; for though he had no iniquity of his own, yet he had the iniquities of his people on him, as their surety, and which he calls "mine", Psalms 40:1

Psalms 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. Psalms 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

Psalms 18 The Story of God's Power in Behalf of Christ _ 1. In the jaws of death (Psalms 18:1)_ 2. God appearing and delivering (Psalms 18:7) 3. God gave Him glory (Psalms 18:19) 4. His enemies subdued (Psalms 18:28) 5. The head of the nations (Psalms 18:43) Psalms 18:1. This is another remarkable Psalm. Though David wrote it not everyt

XVIII. See p. 367 for the reasons which make it impossible to ascribe this Ps. to David. Even scholars who hold traditional views admit that he cannot have written it as it stands, and that additional matter has been interpolated by later scribes. The language, which is Aramaic in its colouring, confirms the view that it is late, and so does the theophany in Psalms 18:3 when compared with Deuteronomy 32. Possibly a later writer composed it and put it by a very permissible license in David's mouth. If so, he paints David not as he was, but as a later age conceived him to be, a warrior on the one hand, a strict observer of the Law upon the other. The portrait would then agree with that given in Chronicles. It is, however, quite as likely that the Ps. is intended to glorify the success of a hero in the Maccabean age, the first time known in which legal piety was united with leadership in ba...