Psalm 18

This is a royal psalm, it celebrates the way that God has shown his love to his people by giving them this Davidic Kingdom and by preserving David through many dangers.

this text is almost identical to 2 Sam. 22, but 2 Sam 22 is David’s personal expression of gratitude to the Lord, while psalm 18 is for the people to sing, because the well-being of israel is tied to the offspring of david. When God’s people sang this, they were to give thanks to the line of David and pray that the heirs would be faithful to the Lord and would be brave military leaders, so that Israel might carry out its God-given purpose of bringing light to the Gentiles.

v 50. David summarizes the magnificence of the way the Lord has delivered him and ties God’s lovingkindness to himself as God’s anointed to the promises made about his seed, the promised king from his line.

The significance of the reference to the seed at the end of Ps 18 cannot be overstated. If we miss this we miss the entire importance of the psalm. This reference shows that the history of what God did for David in Ps 18 also looks forward to what God will do for the seed promised to David.

David speaks of God’s deliverance of him in terms of the patterns of Israel’s history. This also points forward to the one who will bring those patterns and types to fulfillment. if we put the words of Ps 18 on the lips of Jesus, the meaning only grows in depth and power. Whereas David was threatened by the powers of Death, Belial, and Sheol (18:4–5 those powers actually got their cords and snares on Jesus, who died and was buried. Whereas the earthquake that accompanied Yahweh’s intervention on David’s behalf was metaphorical earthquakes accompanied the death and resurrection of Jesus (Matt 27:54; 28:2). Whereas David spoke metaphorically of his deliverance in exodus and conquest terms (18:7–19; 30–45), those events found their fulfillment in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who took away the sin of the world. Whereas David began to complete the conquest of the land only to be hampered by his own sin (2 Sam 8–11;), every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This psalm also instructs us to be like David and hope in the lovingkindess God shows to the seed of David (v50). We too should love the Lord and look to him as our strength, place of refuge, and hope (18:1–3). Like David we must call on the Lord (18:6) and keep his word always before us (18:22 ), righteously relating to our persecutors with clean hands and righteousness(18:20, 24), keeping the ways of Yahweh as we keep ourselves from evil (18:21, 23 ). Like the Song of Moses sung after Yahweh’s victory at the Red Sea, we sing the song of David in Ps 18 in celebration of Yahweh’s victory at the cross in anticipation of his victory at the return.

James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 248–249.