Psalm 18:21

This psalm is David’s song “in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.” The same song stands again, with small differences, as 2 Samuel 22. It opens with David’s love for the LORD, his rock, fortress and deliverer (Psalm 18:1–3). David tells how he cried to God out of deep distress (18:4–6), and how the LORD came down to rescue him while the earth trembled and the heavens bowed (18:7–19).

Once he has told of that rescue, David asks why God acted for him, and verses 20–24 give his answer. Verses 25–27 state the truth about God that lies behind it. From verse 28 he praises the God who lights his way and arms him for battle, and the psalm goes on to his victories (18:29–45) and its closing praise (18:46–50).

David’s life was full of conflict, from Saul’s long pursuit to wars with the Philistines, Ammonites and Arameans, and later rebellion at home in Absalom’s revolt. The years when Saul hunted him are the background to what he says here about his righteousness. Twice he had Saul in his power, and twice he refused to lift his hand against the LORD’s anointed (1 Samuel 24, 1 Samuel 26). The charges against him were most likely treachery, rebellion and disloyalty to the king. So when David speaks of his righteousness and his clean hands, he means first his innocence of those charges and his faithfulness to God through the years he was hunted.

Verse 20 and verse 24 say nearly the same thing, and between them David gives his reasons. “Rewarded” is gâmal, a verb for dealing with a person, well or ill, and so for benefiting or repaying. Here it is good returned for good. The matching verb “recompensed” is shûwb, to turn back or return: the LORD turned back on David what fitted his conduct. Behind it stands the LORD himself, Yᵉhôvâh, the one who acts in every line of these verses.

David’s “righteousness” is tsedeq, the word for what is right and just in conduct, in judgment and in speech. In this setting it is the rightness of David’s cause and of his dealings with the men who pursued him. When David had spared Saul’s life, he left his cause with the LORD, who rewards every man’s righteousness (1 Samuel 26:23), and this psalm tells how the LORD did so.

“The cleanness of my hands” says the same thing in a picture. Bôr means cleanness or purity, from a root meaning to purify, and joined to yâd, the hand, it makes a common way of saying that a person’s deeds are free of guilt, violence and corruption. Hands are what we act with, so clean hands are innocent deeds. Psalm 24 asks who may ascend into the hill of the LORD and answers, “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:4).

Verse 24 opens with “Therefore”, drawing the conclusion from all that David has said, and it adds “in his eyesight”. ʻAyin is the eye. Men had accused David falsely, but the LORD saw his deeds and his heart as they truly were, for the LORD looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God’s verdict is the one that settles the matter.

Scripture states this same rule of God’s just dealing in many places. The one who sows righteousness has a sure reward (Proverbs 11:18), and the integrity of the upright guides them (Proverbs 11:3). The LORD tells his prophet to say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings (Isaiah 3:10). In another psalm David asks the God who judges the peoples to judge him according to his righteousness (Psalm 7:8). And Jesus says that when he comes in the glory of his Father with his angels, he will reward every man according to his works (Matthew 16:27).

In verse 25 David turns from speaking about God to speaking to him, and from his own case to a truth about God’s ways with everyone.

“For thou wilt save the afflicted people.” Yâshaʻ, “save”, has the root sense of being open, wide or free, and so means to free, succour, defend, deliver, help, preserve, rescue and give victory. The “afflicted” are ʻânîy, a word from ʻânâh, to depress or afflict. It describes people pressed down in mind or in circumstances: the lowly, needy and poor. It covers the poor in goods and also the humble who know their need and look to God for help, the poor in spirit and the meek whom Jesus blesses (Matthew 5:3–5). David had been one of them, hunted and helpless. “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18), and “The LORD lifteth up the meek” (Psalm 147:6).

“But wilt bring down high looks.” “High looks” are literally lifted or haughty eyes, the look of the proud man who trusts in his own power, wealth or wisdom and despises others. Shâphêl means to be or become low, or to bring low and humble. Hannah’s prayer sets it beside its opposite, for the LORD brings low and lifts up (1 Samuel 2:7–8), and the same God who lowers the proud raises the lowly.

Pride offends God because it claims what belongs to him. The proud man credits himself with his success and sets himself above God and others, though all power, wisdom and honour are God’s. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18), while honour comes to the humble (Proverbs 29:23). God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Jesus taught that whoever exalts himself shall be abased and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted (Matthew 23:12), and he told of the Pharisee and the publican who went up to the temple to pray, where the humble man went home justified (Luke 18:9–14). God judges by character, and outward rank counts for nothing with him.

“For thou wilt light my candle.” The KJV’s “candle” is nîyr, a lamp, the small oil lamp of an Israelite home. After sunset a house was dark without one, so a burning lamp meant life, safety and a household that went on. A lamp put out meant death, ruin or the end of a family line, as Scripture says of the lamp of the wicked (Job 18:5–6). When God lights David’s lamp, he keeps his life burning, gives him hope and guides his way.

The verb “light” is ʼôwr, which means to be or become light and also to make light. Here God makes the lamp shine, as at the beginning he said, “Let there be light.” “The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness” says it again in plainer words. Chôshek, “darkness”, is darkness of night, and in Scripture it often stands for affliction, distress, danger, confusion and the shadow of death. David knew all of these while he hid in caves from Saul. The lines are full of his own words: “my candle”, “my God”, “my darkness”. The LORD who rules heaven and earth gives his care to one man in his own trouble, and David expects that care to go on long after this one rescue.

David says the same elsewhere: “The LORD is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1). Micah, sitting in darkness, says the LORD will be a light to him (Micah 7:8). Isaiah sees the people that walked in darkness see a great light (Isaiah 9:2). And God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105), one of the ways he still lights the darkness of his people.

“For by thee I have run through a troop.” Rûwts is to run, often swiftly and with force. Gᵉdûwd is a band or troop, often of raiders, from a root meaning to crowd and also to gash. To run through such a band is to break it and pass on. “And by my God have I leaped over a wall” uses dâlag, to spring or leap, and shûwr, a wall such as a city’s. Between them the two lines take in an enemy force in the field and a defended stronghold, and David says God carried him through both.

The weight of the verse falls on “by thee” and “by my God”. David’s strength, speed and success came from the rock and fortress he praised at the start of the psalm. The LORD fights for his people (Deuteronomy 3:22), and his work is done “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). Paul says the same of his own life: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

Verse 30 gathers up all that David has said into a statement about God himself.

“As for God, his way is perfect.” “Perfect” is tâmîym, the same word as “upright” in verses 23 and 25. David was upright in the measure a man can be, and God is perfect without measure: his character, plans and dealings have no flaw, error or crookedness in them. His work is perfect (Deuteronomy 32:4), and Jesus calls his disciples to be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Where his way is hidden from us, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God (Romans 8:28).

“The word of the LORD is tried.” Tsâraph means to fuse or melt metal, to refine, and Strong’s lists among its senses refiner, goldsmith, founder, purge away and try. God’s word is like metal that has been through the refiner’s fire and come out pure. His promises and commands have been tested in David’s life and found true. Every word of God proves true (Proverbs 30:5), and the psalmist loves God’s word because it is very pure (Psalm 119:140).

“He is a buckler to all those that trust in him.” Mâgên is a shield, the smaller one a soldier carried, and it is also a title for God or a king as protector. God stands between his people and harm. David calls the LORD a shield about him (Psalm 3:3), and another psalm says, “the LORD God is a sun and shield” (Psalm 84:11). The promise reaches “all those that trust in him”, for trust is how his people take shelter behind him.

David spoke of his righteousness as a man who kept God’s ways and needed God’s forgiveness. Jesus, the Son of David, kept them perfectly. He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17) and all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), and the words “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8) are his (Hebrews 10:7). His hands were clean, and his whole life was upright before the Father.

Like David he was falsely accused, and when he suffered he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously (1 Peter 2:23). He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”, and he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So God recompensed him by raising him from the dead (Acts 2:24) and giving him the name which is above every name (Philippians 2:7–11). In him verse 27 is seen most fully: God saved the afflicted one and exalted him. Jesus brought down the high looks of the self-righteous, and at his return he will bring down every proud power (Revelation 19:11–16).

Our own standing before God rests on his righteousness. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Paul’s hope was to be found in him, with the righteousness which is of God by faith (Philippians 3:9). The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7), and by it we are saved from wrath (Romans 5:9). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), for “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). The iniquity David guarded against is taken away, and the froward are made pure, for Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). He came to call sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13), and the Spirit is shaping us into his image (Romans 8:29), so that we grow in the mercy and uprightness of verse 25.

The lamp of verse 28 shines in him too. He is the true Light, shining in the darkness (John 1:4–9). He is the light of the world (John 8:12), and he came as a light into the world so that those who believe in him should leave the darkness behind (John 12:46). God has delivered us from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13) and called us out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).

His victory is greater than David’s breaking of troops and walls. On the cross he spoiled principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15), he opened a new and living way into God’s presence (Hebrews 10:19–20), and he has overcome the world (John 16:33). And the tried word of verse 30 has become flesh in him, the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1, John 1:14). All the promises of God in him are yea and Amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).

These verses show a God who sees truly. When David was slandered, the LORD saw the cleanness of his hands, and he sees the integrity of his people still when others misjudge them. They show a God who answers each person in kind, meeting mercy with mercy and crookedness with his resistance, while his kindness calls the crooked to repent. They show a God who stands with the afflicted against the proud, as he stood with a hunted man against a king.

They also show a God who is near in the dark. He keeps the lamp of the one who trusts him burning, and he gives strength for battles too hard for us. David ends on what holds through all of it: God’s way is perfect, his word has been through the fire and proved pure, and he is a shield. His promise is wide, “to all those that trust in him”, and in the Son of David it reaches every believer.