CHAPTER 18

A PSALM OF DAVID: A HYMN OF THANKSGIVING

¹I will love You, O LORD, my strength. (This is virtually the same Psalm recorded in II Sam., Chpt. 22. David spoke these words to the Lord on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies from the hand of Saul.)

²The 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 (the Lord is all of this through the Cross; Christ is the Source, while the Cross is the means [I Cor. 1:1718]).

³I will call upon the LORD, Who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁴The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid (in these Verses, David thinks of Saul in his efforts to destroy him).

⁵The sorrows of Hell compass me about: the snares of death prevented me (the idea is, Saul would have banned David to Hell if he could have done so; as well, those presently in the apostate Church would do the same to those in the True Church if they had the power).

⁶In 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 (these Passages go far beyond David; even more so, they describe the mysterious sufferings of the Messiah at the Cross of Calvary).

⁷Then the Earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wroth (when Jesus died on Calvary, an earthquake rent the area of Jerusalem [Mat. 27:51]).

⁸There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it (this describes Gods anger, not at His Son, but at the sin which had caused all of this).

⁹He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under His feet (Matthew said, at the time of the Cross, there was darkness over all the land [Mat. 27:45]).

¹⁰And He rode upon a Cherub, and did fly: yes, He did fly upon the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

¹²At the brightness that was before Him His thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

¹³The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

¹⁴Yes, He sent out His arrows, and scattered them; and He shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

¹⁵Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

¹⁶He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

¹⁸They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my Stay.

¹⁹He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me; because He delighted in me (all of these previous Verses portray the actions of the Heavenly Father as it regards Christ and concerning the Cross of Calvary; these things, whatever they represent, took place in the spirit world).

²⁰The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands has He recompensed me (Satan had no claim on Jesus, because He had never sinned; therefore, death could not defeat Him and, in fact, He defeated both Satan and death, because He atoned for all sin [Col. 2:1415]).

²¹For I have kept the Ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God (Christ was the Perfect Sacrifice, and that He had to be in order to be accepted by the Father).

²²For all His Judgments were before me, and I did not put away His Statutes from me (the Lord abided by, and kept, every single Statute, Law, and Commandment, failing not even one time [Rom. 10:4]).

²³I was also upright before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity (the words, my iniquity, do not mean that Christ had a besetting sin, nor should they be understood here as intending the iniquity of the Elect whom He had made His Own, but they point to a form of iniquity especially planned by Satan for Him, and to which He Alone could be tempted; the third temptation in the wilderness is an example [Lk. 4:9]).

²⁴Therefore has the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight (Christ, as the Second Man, did what the first man, Adam, failed to do, which was to render a perfect obedience to God; likewise, such a perfect obedience, upon our Faith registered in Him and what He did at the Cross, becomes our perfect obedience).

²⁵With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with an upright man You will show Yourself upright (Mat. 5:7);

²⁶With the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the froward You will show Yourself froward (the pure will be met with purity, and the froward will be met with adversity).

²⁷For You will save the afflicted people; but will bring down high looks (the Lord gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud [I Pet. 5:5]).

²⁸For You will light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness (the true lamp which enlightens the darkness is the light of Gods Countenance).

²⁹For by You I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall (an euphemism for victory).

³⁰As for God, His Way is perfect: the Word of the LORD is tried: He is a Buckler to all those who trust in Him (Gods Word is tried in the fire; it has stood all tests; it has never failed those who have pleaded its Promises and met its terms before its Author).

³¹For Who is God save the LORD? or Who is a Rock save our God? (Absolute confidence may be placed in the Lord, Who is able to protect and preserve to the uttermost all who serve Him.)

GODS BLESSINGS

³²It is God Who girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect (perfection is found only in Christ; in the Sin-Offering, the sin of the sinner is given to Christ; in the Burnt-Offering, the Perfection of Christ is given to the sinner).

³³He makes my feet like hinds feet, and sets me upon my high places (He gives me secure possessions).

³⁴He teaches my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms (the language is figurative; when the Herodians, the Pharisees, the Scribes, and the Sadducees warred against Him with their bows of steel, He bent their bows and broke them; He showed the folly of their hard questions and confounded them).

³⁵You have also given me the shield of Your Salvation; and Your right Hand has held me up, and Your gentleness has made me great (the right hand speaks of power).

³⁶You have enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip (pertains to David in the final alternative, but to Christ in totality; His Feet never slipped even one time!).

³⁷I have pursued my enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed (every sin was atoned for at Calvary; none were left hanging).

³⁸I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet (considering that Believers are the Body of Christ, this means that all enemies are under our feet, because, first of all, they were put under His Feet [Col 1:1620]).

³⁹For You have girded me with strength unto the battle: You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

⁴⁰You have also given me the necks of my enemies; that I might destroy them who hate me (and that He did at the Cross).

⁴¹They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the LORD, but He answered them not (this speaks of the Pharisees, who cried to the Lord against Christ, but a prayer, of course, which could not be answered; no matter how religious man may be, if he opposes Christ and the Cross, God will not answer his prayer).

⁴²Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.

⁴³You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; and You have made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me (due to the Cross, the Gentile world has come to Christ; that obedience will be total in the coming Millennium).

⁴⁴As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me (to the Apostle Paul was given the responsibility of taking the Message of Redemption to the Gentile world; from that time, untold millions have accepted Christ).

⁴⁵The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places (which will take place in the coming Millennium).

⁴⁶The LORD lives; and blessed be my Rock; and let the God of my Salvation be exalted (at long last, in the Millennial Reign, sin will be put down, Satan will be locked away, and the song of the world will be The Lord liveth...).

⁴⁷It is God Who avenges me, and subdues the people under me.

⁴⁸He delivers me from my enemies: yes, You lift me up above those who rise up against me: You have delivered me from the violent man (while David was delivered from Saul, Christ was delivered from all His enemies).

⁴⁹Therefore will I give thanks unto You, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto Your Name (at this moment, untold millions in the Gentile world sing praises to the Lord).

⁵⁰Great deliverance gives He to His king; and shows mercy to His anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore (this speaks not only of David and the great victory that God gave him, but it speaks even more so of His Anointed, meaning the Son of David; also, this same victory is promised to all of us because of the Son of David, for it says, to His seed forever more).