David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul (v. 1). The song is Psalm 18 with many small differences — a word, a letter, a line — of the kind that arise when a text is sung and copied for centuries; neither is simply a corruption of the other, and the study treats them as two forms of one song. The heading names no date, and the study claims none; placed here, near the end of the book, it stands as the book's own summary of the reign, after Saul and before the last words of chapter 23. It should be read as poetry — the figures are figures.

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer — then verse 3 piles on my rock... my shield... the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour. Eight or nine names before the song has told us anything that happened. Rock is the word of Deuteronomy 32:4, He is the Rock, his work is perfect — Hannah sang neither is there any rock like our God (1 Samuel 2:2) at the beginning of this book, and David answers her at the end. Every figure is a place or a thing to hide behind; a man hunted in the wilderness of Engedi knew what a high tower and a fortress were, and sings of God as the place he ran to.

Verses 5-6 set the danger in the language of the deep: the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; the sorrows of hell — Sheol, the grave — compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me, that is, met me, got in front of me. The pictures are of a man drowning and a man trapped, and the song will answer both — he drew me out of many waters (v. 17) and a large place (v. 20). Readers should note that Saul in the heading is the only enemy named; the ungodly men are left general, so that the song could be sung by any of the afflicted, as the church has sung it.

In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. The whole of what David did is in one line: he called. His temple — the word is palace or temple, and here means the heavenly dwelling, as in Psalm 11:4, since the house on Moriah was not yet built; the study notes that those who place the song late in David's life need not take temple as the earthly one. The verse is the hinge of the song: what follows in verses 8-16 is what happens in heaven when a man on earth cries.

The theophany (vv. 8-16) is among the grandest in Scripture, and the study reads it as the poetry it is. The earth shook and trembled (v. 8) — Sinai (Exodus 19:18); smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth (v. 9) — the anger of God as the fire that met Israel at the mount; he bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet (v. 10) — the thick darkness of Exodus 20:21; he rode upon a cherub, and did fly — the LORD enthroned above the cherubim (1 Samuel 4:4) now moving to war; darkness pavilions round about him (v. 12); thunder... arrows... lightning (vv. 14-15). The narrative records no such storm; this pictures the answer to verse 7.

And he was seen upon the wings of the wind. Psalm 18:10 has he did fly upon the wings of the wind: the two Hebrew verbs differ by one letter, and either text makes sense; the study notes the variant as a plain example of how the two forms of the song diverge. Verse 16 ends the storm with the sea laid bare at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils — the Red Sea (Exodus 15:8). Readers should feel the proportion: the whole creation convulsed because one hunted man called. That is what the song claims about prayer, and the study lets the claim stand in its own grandeur.

The storm is over and the rescue is told in three verses, quietly: He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters (v. 17) — the verb is the one from which Moses' name is explained (Exodus 2:10), drawn out; he delivered me from my strong enemy... for they were too strong for me (v. 18); the LORD was my stay (v. 19). Then: He brought me forth also into a large place. Against the compassed... compassed... prevented of verses 5-6, room. Readers who have been pressed on every side will know what the figure means before they can explain it.

He delivered me, because he delighted in me. The reason given is not David's merit but God's pleasure — the same word used of a father's delight. The study notes this before verses 21-25, where righteousness is spoken of, so that the order of the song is kept: delight first, then the life that answers it. Christian readers have heard in he delighted in me the Father's word at Jordan, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17), and the study offers it as the church's reading. On its own terms the verse says what the whole book of Samuel has shown: David was chosen and kept because God wanted him, not because he deserved it.

Verses 21-25 are the part of the song readers find hardest after chapters 11-20: the LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands... I have kept the ways of the LORD... I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity. How can the man of Bathsheba and Uriah sing this? Some place the song in the years of the heading, before the fall; some read righteousness as covenant faithfulness in the matter at hand — David never lifted his hand against Saul (1 Samuel 24:12) — rather than a claim to sinlessness; some hear a forgiven man speaking of the life grace has made. The study does not choose; Psalm 51 stands in the same Psalter.

With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury (vv. 26-27) — the Hebrew is sharper, with the crooked thou wilt shew thyself twisted: the man who wrestles with God will find Him wrestling back. The principle is not that God changes but that He is met according to how He is approached, as a mirror answers a face. Verse 28 adds the pair the whole Bible keeps: the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down (cf. 1 Samuel 2:7-8; Luke 1:52).

From verse 29 the song turns to what God gives for the fight: thou art my lamp, O LORD — the figure of 21:17, the light of Israel, now turned round, the LORD as David's lamp — and the LORD will lighten my darkness; by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall (v. 30) — soldier's memories, the raid and the escalade, each credited to God. Then the verse the church has made a proverb: As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried — refined, as metal in fire (Psalm 12:6) — he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. The all opens the song to every reader; Proverbs 30:5 echoes the line closely.

For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God? (v. 32) — Hannah's question (1 Samuel 2:2) and Moses' (Deuteronomy 32:31), asked again. Verse 33, God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect, picks up his way is perfect from verse 31 and gives it to the singer: God's perfect way is made David's. The study notes the humility of the war-verses that follow: he maketh my feet like hinds' feet (v. 34), he teacheth my hands to war (v. 35) — a man who could run the hills and bend a bow says he did not teach himself either. Habakkuk 3:19 will borrow the hinds' feet for a harder day.

Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great. The second half is one of the most loved lines in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word is usually humility or meekness — thy humility or thy condescension, God's stooping — and some take it as thy answering; Psalm 18:35 has a slightly different form; the KJV's gentleness catches the sense most have found: that David was made great not by force but by God bending low. The study hedges the word and keeps the thought, which the rest of the book supports: a shepherd boy, the youngest, fetched from the sheep (1 Samuel 16:11), and made king by a God who stooped to choose him.

Readers should set the verse in its context, where it is stronger: verses 38-43 are fierce — I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them... beat them as small as the dust of the earth... stamp them as the mire of the street — the language of ancient war, which the study neither softens nor offers as a model for Christians, who are told to love their enemies. But the fierce verses are bracketed by thy gentleness hath made me great before them and the LORD liveth after them, and the song is careful to say thou hast girded me... thou hast subdued (v. 40): the victories were given, not taken. The church has read gentleness beside Philippians 2:7-8; the study offers it as a reading.

Verses 44-46 close the war-section with the kingdom of chapter 8: delivered me from the strivings of my people — Psalm 18:43 has the people, and the study notes the difference, since my people suits a king who has survived Absalom and Sheba — kept me to be head of the heathen: a people which I knew not shall serve me. Strangers shall submit themselves unto me. The Hebrew of submit is literally to lie or feign obedience, and the KJV margin notes it: the nations yield, not all of them gladly. Then the doxology: The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.

The LORD liveth — the oath-formula of the book (as the LORD liveth, 1 Samuel 14:39 and often), turned at last from a form of swearing into a shout of praise. Twice in a verse the song returns to rock, the word it began with (v. 2), so that the end answers the beginning. Readers should see that the song, which has been about what the LORD did, is now about who the LORD is: alive, when every enemy named or unnamed is dust; a rock, when every fortress has fallen. The study notes that a man near the end of a long and bloodstained reign chose these as his words of summary, and that the book places them just before his last.

Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name (v. 50). Paul quotes this verse, in its Psalm 18:49 form, in Romans 15:9 as the first of four Scriptures proving that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy: David's praise among the heathen is read as the voice of Christ in whom the nations are gathered. The study frames that as the apostle's own use of the song, which the church has followed — not a claim about what David saw, but about what the Spirit who spake by him (23:2) meant. The song that began among enemies (22:1) ends on the lips of Gentile churches.

He is the tower of salvation for his king — Psalm 18:50 reads great deliverance giveth he to his king; the Hebrew words differ by a letter, and the study notes it — and sheweth mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore. Mercy is hesed, the covenant word; his anointed... David... his seed for evermore is the vocabulary of 7:12-16, I will set up thy seed after thee... thy throne shall be established for ever. The song closes by resting on the covenant, and the next chapter will name it (23:5). The church has read his seed for evermore of the Son of David whose throne has no end (Luke 1:32-33) — framed here as the church's reading.