Psalm 18 (a): v. 1-19

This Psalm presents a challenge for blogging by its sheer size (50 verses). Therefore, I will try to break up larger Psalms such as this one into 2 or more posts. I realize the disadvantage of this approach is that it may disrupt the flow or I may miss the message of the entire Psalm, but I plan on addressing the Psalm as a whole in relation to Wesley's interaction with the Psalm as a whole, which he does in his Notes.

To the chief musician, a psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song, in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he said:

1 I love thee, O LORD, my strength.
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.
3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;
so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

4 The sorrows of death compassed me,
and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about;
the snares of death prevented me.

6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God;
he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled;
the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
and fire out of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down;
and darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly;
yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his secret place;
his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed,
hail stones and coals of fire.

13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice;
hail stones and coals of fire.
14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
15 Then the channels of waters were seen,
and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke,
O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

16 He sent from above, he took me,
he drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me;
for they were too strong for me.
18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity;
but the LORD was my stay.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
...

JW: David triumphs in God, ver. 1-3; praises God for his past deliverance, ver. 4-19; takes the comfort of his integrity, which God had thereby cleared up, ver. 20-28; gives God the glory of all his victories, ver. 29-42; expresses his hope of what God would do farther, ver. 43-50. This Psalm with some few and small variations, is written, 2 Samuel 22.1-51. It was composed by David towards the end of his life, upon the occasion here mentioned...

Title of the psalm. 'Servant' - Who esteems it a greater honour to be thy servant, than to be the king of Israel. 'Saul' - after the death of Saul, and the conquest of all his succeeding enemies, and his own firm establishment in his kingdom.

[On verse 1:] 'Love' - most affectionately, and with my whole soul; as the Hebrew word signifies.

[On verse 2:] 'Rock' - to which I flee for refuge, as the Israelites did to their rocks.

[On verse 7:] 'Then' - then God appeared on my behalf in a glorious manner, to the terror and confusion of all mine enemies, which is here compared to an earthquake.

[On verse 8:] 'There went...' - All these seem to be figurative expressions, denoting the greatness of his anger.

[On verse 9:] 'Came' - not by change of place, but by the manifestation of his presence and power on my behalf.

[On verse 19:] 'Brought' - out of my straits and difficulties, into a state of freedom and comfort. So he ascribes all his mercies to God's good pleasure, as the first spring of them.

I haven't commented on any of the "titles" (or pre-scripts you may call them) of any of the Psalms on this series yet, but this one stands out to me on a couple of fronts. First is the entitlement of David as servant (or slave) as opposed to referring to him as king. Assuming this pre-script was added on by a later editor, I'm curious by this move. Perhaps it is a recognition that David really saw himself in this light; hence, the title would acknowledge David's humility. The second thing is "...enemies, and...Saul." Perhaps there's nothing to this and the extra mentioning of Saul's name is just to indicate that Saul was a significant enemy of David. But I'm inclined to think that David never put Saul in the category of "enemy" even after Saul's death (for instance, examine his kindness to Mephibosheth, a descendant of Saul). Even though Saul continually sought David's death, David always respected the king and even spared his life when he had the opportunity to take it. In any case, Saul pursued David as an enemy and that certainly plays into the context of this Psalm.

Look at the images of strength in the first three verses! I'm taken to Martin Luther's 'A Mighty Fortress is Our God' in these verses. And David expresses a tender response, "love," to this strong God who is like a rock, a high tower, etc. God's strength...God's right arm is how we are saved from our enemy. So we, like David here, like the enslaved Israelites in Egypt before him (see Exodus 3.7), and like Christ after him (see Matthew 27.46, Mark 15.34), can cry unto the Lord in our distress and know that our cries are heard...even into [God's] ears.

We'll get more into the cry of dereliction ('My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?') when we get to Psalm 22. But I do want to mention here that I think it's appropriate to read verses 4-15 of Psalm 18 through the lens of the cross, and more particularly, to view the phenomena of the earthquake and clouds NOT as divine wrath against Jesus who had taken on our sin, but as divine sympathy with the righteous One who was suffering unjustly. To me, this has a much more theological and pastoral payoff than the notion that darkness means that God was showing his wrath against Jesus. It's more participatory. And that's not to say that we are saving ourselves, or that dying a righteous death is enough to undo all the sins we've committed. Rather, it's merely emphasizing what Paul did in so many places...union with Christ, even in his death and resurrection (see Philippians chapter 3). In that, then, we can see that verse 16 is the turning point, where God brings victory and deliverance and vindicates the righteous One by raising him from the dead. Notice the reference to waters, a reference we can clearly link with baptism, which is certainly about death and resurrection! And we are united to God in Christ through this. Death, indeed is a strong enemy, but God, our deliverer, is much stronger, and how about this: He "delights in" us!