Psalms 18:5

_THE SORROWS OF DEATH COMPASSED ME, AND THE FLOODS OF UNGODLY MEN MADE ME AFRAID._ The sorrows ... the sorrows - rather, 'the cords ... the cords,' as the parallel word, "the snares" (Psalms 18:5), requires. OF DEATH PREVENTED - surprised or overtook me. Death or hell (Hades) is pictured as a hunter, from whose net-cords the animal cannot escape. Compare Acts 2:2, THE FLOODS OF UNGODLY MEN - Hebrew, 'of Belial.' See Deuteronomy 13:13; 2 Samuel 23:6; Matthew 1:11, margin. Saul is especially referred to: see...

We shall now make a few observations with respect to the words. The Hebrew word חבלי, _chebley, _means _cords _or _sorrows, _or any deadly evil, (395) which consumes a man’s health and strength, and which tends to his destruction. That the psalm may correspond with the song recorded in 2nd Samuel, formerly referred to, I do not disapprove of this word being here taken for _contrition, _because the phrase there employed is משברי מות,_mishberey maveth, _(396) and the noun משברי, _mishberey, _is derived from a verb which signifies to _break. _But as the metaphor taken from cords or snares agrees better with the verb _compass about, _the import of which is, that David was on all sides involved and entangled in the perils of death, I am disposed rather to adopt this interpreta

1-19 The first words, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength," are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. God's manifestation of his presence is very fully described, ver. Psalms 18:7. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of th...

Verse Psalms 18:5. _THE SORROWS OF HELL_] חבלי שאול _chebley sheol_, the _cables_ or _cords of the grave_. Is not this a reference to the _cords_ or _ropes_ with which they _lowered the corpse into the_ _grave_? or the bandages by which the dead were swathed? He was as good as dead. _THE SNARES OF DEATH PREVENTED ME._] I was just on the point of dropping into the pit which they had digged for me. In short, I was all but a dead man; and nothing less than the immediate _interference_ of God could have saved my life....

THE SORROWS OF HELL - Margin, “cords.” The word used here is the same which occurs in the previous verse, and which is there rendered “sorrows.” It is correctly translated here, as in that verse, “sorrows,” though the parallelism would seem to favor the interpretation in the margin - cords. If it means “sorrows,” the idea is, that such sufferings encompassed him, or seized upon him, as we associate in idea with the descent to the under-world, or the going down to the dead. If it means “cords, or bands,” then the idea is, that he was seized with pain as if with cords thrown around him, and that were dragging him down to the abodes of the dead. Luther, DeWette, Prof. Alexander, Hengstenberg, and others render the word, in each of these places, “bands.” On the word here rendered “hell,” שׁאול _sh__e__'ôl_, see the notes at...

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')...

THE SORROWS OF HELL COMPASSED ME ABOUT,.... Or "the cords of the grave" s, under the power of which he was detained for awhile; the allusion may be to the manner of burying among the Jews, who wound up their dead bodies in linen clothes; so that they were as persons bound hand and foot; and thus were they laid in the grave; see John 11:44; and so was Christ, till he was raised from the dead, when he showed himself to have the keys of hell and death, and to be no more under their power, or be held by them; THE SNARES OF DEATH PREVENTED ME; or "met" or "got before me" t the sense is, he was taken in them: this phrase designs the insidious ways and methods which the enemies of Christ took to ensnare him, and take away his life, and in which they succeeded; see Matthew 26:4. s חבלי ש

Psalms 18:1. _I will love thee, O Lord, my strength._ «I do love thee, and I will love thee yet more and more. I bind myself to thee for the future as well as the present.» 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._ Note how David delights to heap up poetic imagery to describe his God. They who glory in the Lord would fain speak worthily of him; and because there is no one object in nature that can fully set him forth, they mention many, as David does here. Like him, if we would convey even a faint idea of what God is to us, we must think of all things that are strong, and worthy of our confidence, and putting them all together,

HELL Hebrew, "Sheol," (_ See Scofield) - (Habakkuk 2:5). _...

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