Psalm 18: 1–30
This Psalm celebrates the absolute efficacy of God’s care in the context of a fallen world and the sinful antagonism of enemies to fulfil His arrangements of eternal covenantal love to his people. It contains significant reflections on issues that will and can only be fulfilled by the Messiah, who will be a descendant of David. The Psalm ends with that double application of David’s praise, both for himself and his complete fulfillment in the promised Descendant. “He gives great deliverance to His king, and shows lovingkindness to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever” (Psalm 18:50).
I. We love the Lord as our protector.
“I love you, O Lord, my strength” (1).
A. Verses 2 and 3 give a clear and strong summary of the all-sufficiency of God’s omnipotence in service of His purpose and the protection of His people.
This strength is exhibited by One who is also the perfection of all virtue and excellence and “is worthy to be praised” (3).
B. Verses 4–6 describe the distress of David’s situation—cords and snares of death and Sheol, torrents of ungodliness.
Verses 4 and 5 give an immediate existential situation for David but also express, when magnified exponentially, the distress of the Anointed One who underwent the ravages of Satanic hatred as well as the verdict of death executed on Him as He died, the “righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18). David cried to God and from the place of His holy dwelling, God heard and answered. Jesus cried to God and was heard (Hebrews 5:7).
C. God put all his power and holy indignation into action to come to the help of His anointed king.
Metaphors of the power of nature signify the awesome involvement of the Lord in undertaking for the final vindication of the king. He bowed the heavens and rode on cherubs (9, 10).
D. Verses 16 and 17 summarize the action of God in rescuing the king from those who hated him and assumed every advantage of power over him.
See John 19:10, 15, 18. God granted the king’s enemies power over him until the work of wrath was done. Sin had performed the absolute height of its perverse rebellion and God’s release of him into its power intensified his own just action of making the King (John 10:14) a propitiation for sin (1 John 4:10).
E. Final deliverance came, for God “delighted in me” (19), that is David in his position of the king of Israel and the chosen lineage for the incarnation.
The Father delighted in the Son for his perfect obedience and his completion of the work the Father sent him to do (John 17:4, 5).
II. David has a profound impression and knowledge of the necessity of perfect righteousness for eternal life.
He saw himself, and by extension the Promised Seed, as pure before God, even as worthy of reward for his perfect righteousness.
A. The Psalms are filled with distinctions between the enemies of God and those who trust Him.
They delineate with energy and clarity the lives of those who pursue iniquity and despise God’s law in comparison with those who love his law and pursue its righteous commands with love and purpose (Psalm 1:6; 2:12; 3:7, 8; 4:2, 3; 5:6, 7; 6:8–10; 7:1, 9; 8:2; 9:3, 4; 10:12–15; 11:6, 7; 12:1–3; 13:4–6; 14:4, 5; 15:1–3; 16:4; 17:8, 9, 14, 15).
B. Also, they are clear that the way of salvation, the way of favor with God is trust in His goodness, righteousness, mercy, and lovingkindness (2:12; 3:3, 4; 4:1, 8; 5:7, 11–12; 6:4; 7:1, 17; 9:8, 9, 13, 14; 10:17; 11:1, 7; 12: 5; 13:5; 14:6, 7; 16: 1, 2; 17:7, 15).
David does not, therefore, in Psalm 18 declare that his standing before God is accomplished by his own righteousness. Rather, perfect righteousness is the condition of acceptance. He speaks as his Promised Seed (Romans 1:3).
C. Note the absoluteness of David’s language: “righteousness … cleanness of my hands, …kept the ways, … not wickedly departed, … I did not put away his statutes, … blameless with him, … kept myself from my iniquity, … recompensed me according to my righteousness, … the cleanness of my hands in his eyes” (20–24).
Reward has come from undiluted righteousness. Otherwise, David knows his own sin and his need of cleansing (Psalm 19:12, 13; 32: 5; 51). Paul quotes Psalm 32:1, 2 in his defense of justification by faith in the imputation of righteousness (Romans 4:5–8). In this Psalm, verse 32, David refers to this in saying, “Who is a rock except our God, the God who girds me with strength and makes my way blameless?”
D. The Psalms move quickly to Messianic prophecy (cf. Psalm 2; 16:9–11 w/ Acts 2:27, 31; Psalm 8:2 with Matthew 21:16; Psalm 34:20 with John 19:36; Psalm 110 with Acts 2:34, 35; Psalm 118:22).
David sees that his Greater Son, the forever king, will receive his reward—a people for his own possession cleansed by His blood and righteousness—through the perfection of his obedience (See Philippians 2:8–10).
III. David meditates on the transforming power of saving grace (25–29).
A. God’s grace to sinners, the picture of his lovely and complete righteousness, define every virtue that leads those who trust in him to be “imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1).
B. That these virtues are not causative of God’s favor but its product, is seen in verses 27–30.
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- The people that God saves are not kind and blameless and pure in themselves but, on the contrary, are afflicted (27). They have come to know their affliction from their own wickedness and the righteous judgment of wrath that hangs over them; they have fled for refuge (30c) to him. Thus He saves them. “Haughty eyes” (27), however, shall never have the spiritual vision to see salvation, for they have not discerned their danger but consider their own way as safe in itself.
- The Lord Himself has shown us this, not only as a vision of His moral perfection, but as a transforming power that His Spirit produces in us through the blamelessness of Christ. The kind, the blameless, and the pure, have seen God and seek the kingdom of heaven while on this earth (Matthew 5:6–10). They are products of an eternal covenant, one of the goals of which is to “make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20, 21).
- God’s light in His word presses aside our ignorance of his holy beauty, shines light into our darkness, and gives us holy desires. He also arms us for the certainty of our fight against the world, the flesh and the devil. Neither a hostile troop nor a high wall will be able to keep us from the invincibility of his purpose for us. See verses 8–11 for an expansion of this truth.
IV. Our confidence and strength come from the character of God and the certainty of divine revelation (30).
A. Now David looks to the Lord God in the immutable perfection of his intrinsic character, and says, “As for God, His way is blameless.”
God’s character and sovereign prerogative are foundations of the Ten Commandments and for the way in which He executes the gospel. He forbids his creatures to hold any diminutive perception of either his being or his right to be worshipped. He rescues his people according to his sovereign will and in accord with his holy wisdom. The blamelessness of God is the foundation for the unexceptionable affirmation of Romans 8:31–39.
B. God’s word reflects His character, His wisdom, and His holy purpose. “The word of the Lord is tried.”
That means tried and found to be genuine, of proven quality. Psalm 12:6 expands the word “tried.” “The words of the Lord are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” God’s word is inspired by the Holy Spirit, thus reflecting the very mind and purpose of God, sharing the quality of absolute truthfulness, and presenting with unmixed clarity his judgments and his mercies.
C. Because He alone is righteous, and Jesus, the royal descendant of David, fulfilled all righteousness, He shields from holy wrath all who take refuge in Him.
Poem for Psalm 18
The Lord our Maker is our strength,
Our rock, our fortress, and our shield.
The width and depth, the height and length,
Of love from us our hearts must yield.
The stronghold of his grace is raised
Though death and Sheol fight my soul.
His pow’r and purpose must be praised;
Salvation proves his kind control.
To sovereign grace all nature bends—
Angelic servants, wind and fire—
To carry forth His holy ends.
No force can alter His desire.
When enemies oppressed the king,
When sorrows offered no escape,
When hatred gave a mortal sting,
When victory they anticipate,
A surge of power, love’s release,
Put flight to enmity and death.
Sin’s penalty must surely cease;
Eternal life resumed His breath.
Righteousness found full expression,
Blameless purity brought pleasure,
Obedient love, matured perfection,
Unsurpassable the treasure.
“Preserved from all iniquity
My righteousness was full salvation!
Adopted sons with rich dignity,
Sinners saved—My compensation!”
Lives transformed from hate to kindness
Showing mercy guided by love,
Embracing light, gone dark blindness,
Grace transforming from above.
Our needs supplied by His great strength,
Weapons to battle every foe
No matter what the width or length
Or from above or from below.
Depths of mercy, heights of wisdom,
Purpose set by love eternal,
Tender ruler of His kingdom
Guards His own by pow’r supernal.
God’s way and word can have no flaw.
He speaks from His omniscient mind.
Words immutable evoke awe.
Unchanging justice is so kind.
