Psalms 18:40

_FOR THOU WILT LIGHT MY CANDLE: THE LORD MY GOD WILL ENLIGHTEN MY DARKNESS._ Here follows the fourth section of the psalm. The aid which God had given the Psalmist against foreign enemies, after he had been established on the throne, and which God would hereafter also give. That the view of God's grace to David is not restricted to the past, but extends to the future, and to his posterity to all generations, is proved by Psalms 18:50, "He showeth mercy to His anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore." How deep was the impression that God's promise respecting the establishment of David's seed in the kingdom forever, had made on David's mind, is seen in 2 Samuel 7:9; 2 Samuel 7:12;...

29-50 When we praise for one mercy, we must observe the many more, with which we have been compassed all our days. Many things had contributed to David's advancement, and he owns the hand of God in them all, to teach us to do likewise. In verse Psalms 18:32, and the following verses, are the gifts of God to the spiritual warrior, whereby he is prepared for the contest, after the example of his victorious Leader. Learn that we must seek release being made through Christ, shall be rejected. In David the type, we behold out of trouble through Christ. The prayer put up, without reconciliation Jesus our Redeemer, conflicting with enemies, compassed with sorrows and with floods of ungodly men, enduring not only the pains of death, but the wrath of God for us; yet calling upon the Father with strong cries and tears; rescued from the grave; proceeding to reconcile, or to put under his feet all...

Verse Psalms 18:40. _THE NECKS OF MINE ENEMIES_] Thou hast made me a complete conqueror. _Treading on the neck_ of an enemy was the triumph of the conqueror, and the utmost disgrace of the vanquished....

THOU HAST ALSO GIVEN ME THE NECKS OF MINE ENEMIES - Their necks to tread upon, as the result of victory; or their necks to be subject to me, as the neck of the ox is to his owner. The phrase is sometimes used in this latter sense to denote subjection (compare Jeremiah 27:12); but it is more commonly, when applied to war, used in the former sense, as denoting complete triumph or conquest. It was not uncommon to trample on the necks of those who were overcome in battle. See Joshua 10:24; Ezekiel 21:2; Genesis 49:8. The word used here - ערף _‛__ôreph_ - means properly neck

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')...

THOU HAST ALSO GIVEN ME THE NECKS OF MINE ENEMIES,.... Either to slay them, or to trample or put a yoke upon them; or rather the sense is, thou hast made them to fly before me, to turn their necks or backs unto me, as the word is used in Joshua 7:8; and it is expressive of an utter rout and vanquishing of them; THAT I MIGHT DESTROY THEM THAT HATE ME; they not being able to face him and stand against him....

Psalms 18:1. _I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength in whom I will trust; my buckler, and my horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I shall call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies._ At first he says, «I will love thee» then, «I will trust thee,» now he says «I will call upon thee,» and that calling upon God is specially in the sense of praising him; and when you have just experienced a divine deliverance, how full your spirit is of sacred gratitude! Psalms 18:4. 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. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cri

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...

Thus God gave him victory over all his enemies....