PSALM 18

In Praise of War

 

Praises to the Savior, Yahweh (vv.1-3)

 

1 “I love You, O Yahweh, my strength.”

2 Yahweh is my rock (cela`)

and my fortress

and my deliverer,

My God, my rock, [1] [2]

in whom I take refuge;

My shield

and the horn of my salvation,

my stronghold.[3]

3 I call upon Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised,

And I am saved from my enemies. [4]

 

Description of Yahweh’s Deliverance (vv.4-19)

 

4 The cords of death encompassed me,

And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me.

5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me;

The snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon Yahweh,

And cried to my God for help;

He heard my voice out of His temple,

And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.

7 Then the earth shook and quaked;

And the foundations of the mountains were trembling

And were shaken, because He was angry.

8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils,

And fire from His mouth devoured;

Coals were kindled by it.

9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down

With thick darkness under His feet.

10 He rode upon a cherub and flew;

And He sped upon the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness His hiding place,

His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.[5]

12 From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds,

Hailstones and coals of fire.

13 Yahweh also thundered in the heavens,

And the Most High uttered His voice,

Hailstones and coals of fire.

14 He sent out His arrows, and scattered them,

And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them.

15 Then the channels of water appeared,

And the foundations of the world were laid bare

At Your rebuke, O Yahweh,

At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. [6]

16 He sent from on high,

He took me;

He drew me out of many waters.

17 He delivered me

from my strong enemy,

And from those who hated me,

for they were too mighty for me.

 

18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

But Yahweh was my stay.

19 He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me,

because He delighted in me.

 

 

Reason for Yahweh’s Deliverance: “Clean Hands/blameless” (vv.20-24)

 

 

20 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness;

According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.

21 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh,

And have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all His ordinances were before me,

And I did not put away His statutes from me.

23 I was also blameless with Him,

And I kept myself from my iniquity.

24 Therefore Yahweh has recompensed me according to my righteousness,

According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.

 

 

God saves the humble but abases the haughty (vv.25-29)

 

 

25 With the kind You show Yourself kind;

With the blameless (tamiym) You show Yourself blameless (tamam);

26 With the pure You show Yourself pure,

And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.

27 For You save an afflicted people,

But haughty eyes You abase.

28 For You light my lamp;

Yahweh my God illumines my darkness.

29 For by You I can run upon a troop;

And by my God I can leap over a wall.

 

 

Yahweh is blameless (vv.30-31)

 

30 As for God, His way is blameless;

The word of Yahweh is tried;

He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

31 For who is God[7], but Yahweh?        

And who is a rock, except our God,

 

 

 

God’s instruction/training for battle: “Trains my hands” (vv.32-45)

 

 

32 The God who girds me with strength

And makes my way blameless?

 

33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet,

And sets me upon my high places.

 

34 He trains my hands for battle,

So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

 

35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,

And Your right hand upholds me;

And Your gentleness makes me great.

 

36 You enlarge my steps under me,

And my feet have not slipped.

 

37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them,

And I did not turn back until they were consumed.

 

38 I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise;

They fell under my feet.

 

39 For You have girded me with strength for battle;

You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

 

40 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,

And I destroyed those who hated me.

 

41 They cried for help, but there was none to save,

Even to Yahweh, but He did not answer them.

 

42 Then I beat them fine as the dust before the wind;

I emptied them out as the mire of the streets.

 

43 You have delivered me from the contentions of the people;

You have placed me as head of the nations;

 

A people whom I have not known serve me.

44 As soon as they hear, they obey me;

 

Foreigners submit to me.

45 Foreigners fade away,

And come trembling out of their fortresses.

 

Praises to Savior Yahweh (vv.46-50)

 

46 Yahweh lives, and blessed be my rock;

And exalted be the God of my salvation,

47 The God who executes vengeance for me,

And subdues peoples under me.

48 He delivers me from my enemies;

Surely You lift me above those who rise up against me;

You rescue me from the violent man.

49 Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Yahweh,

And I will sing praises to Your name. [8]

50 He gives great deliverance to His king,

And shows lovingkindness to His anointed,

To David and his descendants forever.

 

 

 


[1] This is the first reference to God as “rock” (tsuwr) in the psalter.  The song of Moses refers to God as a rock 5x (Deuteronomy 32:4,15,18,30,31).  Reference to God as rock occurs about 17x in the Psalms (18:2,31,46; 19:14; 28:1; 31:2; 62:2,6,7; 71:3; 73:26; 78:35; 89:26; 92:15; 94:22; 95:1; 144:1).

 

[2] “Let us not think that only metaphysical analogies say something valid or make it possible to understand authentic aspects of God; poetic analogies are no less valid.  Metaphysical preaching by analogy attributes abstract concepts to God: God is being, power, wisdom.  Poetic analogy preaches through the concrete: God is a rock, a citadel, a bulwark…When God is refracted in multiple images of poetic language, we are given the pleasing, silent impression of realism.  It is as if God were already incarnate in the poetic word before becoming incarnate in flesh and blood.  It is as if the “many and various ways” (Heb 1:1) of that word were an imaginative rehearsal for the future historical incarnation” (Luis Alonso Schökel, The Literary Language of the Bible pp.71,72).

 

[3] This is a complex chiasmus.  Strength//horn; rock//rock; fortress//stronghold; deliverer//shield.

 

[4] Psalm 18 is a Psalm about “Spiritual Warfare” – warfare that is of God’s Spirit carried out by God’s Messiah/Christ— the anointed King (v.50; cf. Judges 3:9-10; 6:33-34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6,19; 15:14-15; 1 Samuel 11:6, 11-15; 16-17; Matthew 3:13-4:11).

 

[5] The beauty of v.11 in the Hebrew is striking with its emphasis on sound (alliteration and consonance) and form (chiastic).

 

[6] This echoes the language of Exodus 15:8-10 (Israel’s first song). 

 

[7] This name for God (eloah) “occurs in some of the oldest ot poetry (Deut 32:15, 17) and very frequently (forty-one times) in the debates between Job (an ancient believer) and his friends. It appears therefore to be an ancient term for God which was later dropped for the most part until the time of the exile and after, when there was great concern for a return to the more ancient foundations. It is not frequently used outside Job. It occurs once in Isa, once in Prov, twice in Hab, four times in the Ps, and then in the postexilic books: II Chr, Neh, and Dan, a total of five times. (TWOT 43)

 

[8] Quoted by Paul in Romans 15:9.

 

 

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