The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"rock," Hebrew sela (סֶלַע), a crag of refuge. David cannot find one word large enough for what God is to him, so he heaps up seven. The LORD is his "rock", the immovable crag where he takes refuge. David does not merely believe there is a rock; the LORD is my rock.

"fortress," metzudati (מְצוּדָתִי), stronghold. He is also his "fortress", the stronghold walls cannot be breached. Notice the repeated "my", seven times over: this is not theology in the abstract but personal, possessive faith.

"deliverer," mefalti (מְפַלְטִי). He is his "deliverer", the one who snatches him from danger. This name speaks of rescue: God does not only stand between David and the enemy, He pulls him out of the enemy's hand.

"buckler," magen (מָגֵן), shield. He is his "strength" and "buckler", the shield that covers him. Where the rock and the fortress are places to hide in, the shield goes with a man into the open, coming between him and the blow.

"horn of my salvation," qeren-yish'i (קֶרֶן־יִשְׁעִי), the horn, symbol of strength and victory. He is the "horn of his salvation", the mighty power that wins the victory. Each name meets a different need, refuge, defense, rescue, strength, victory, safety, and all of them are found in the one God.

"high tower," misgabbi (מִשְׂגַּבִּי), a high, unreachable refuge. He is his "high tower", the height no enemy can reach. When trouble comes in many forms, God is the answer to every form; whatever kind of danger presses, He is the corresponding refuge. The believer under siege does well to do as David did: to name over, one by one, all that God is to him, until his fears are swallowed up in the greatness of his God.

Explanation

Remember when this song was sung. The heading places it at the end of David's life, "in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul"; it is nearly the same song recorded in 2 Samuel 22 as among his last words. So this heap of names is not a young man's burst of feeling but an old man's verdict, the distilled conclusion of a whole life of being rescued. After decades of deliverances, this is what David has to say about God: seven names in a single breath. And the seven fall into two kinds. Some are places to hide, "rock," "fortress," "high tower", static refuges you flee to; others are rescuers who come to you, "deliverer," "the horn of my salvation." God is both the stronghold you run into and the strong arm that runs out after you, both where you shelter and who saves you.

Gospel Focus

"The LORD is my rock... and the horn of my salvation", every one of these names is gathered up and made ours in Jesus Christ. He is the Rock: "that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4), the rock on which the wise man builds a house the floods cannot shake (Matthew 7:24-25). He is the "horn of salvation" by name, for Zacharias, filled with the Holy Ghost, said God "hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David" (Luke 1:69), pointing straight to the coming Christ. He is our fortress and high tower, "the name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10), and that name of the LORD is Jesus, in whom the LORD saves. All that David found the LORD to be, refuge, defense, rescue, strength, and victory, the believer finds in Christ, who is the LORD our God come in flesh to be our salvation. When danger presses in every form, we run to the one name that is every refuge: "in whom I will trust." To have Jesus is to have the Rock, the Fortress, and the Horn of salvation all in one.

Word Study

"sent," Hebrew yishlach (יִשְׁלַח), stretched out (His hand) from above. After the great storm-theophany, where God bows the heavens and comes down riding upon a cherub, the rescue itself is described with startling tenderness in three short strokes: "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters." Notice that the rescue is entirely God's doing, "he sent, he took, he drew"; David contributes nothing but his cry.

"took me," yiqqacheni (יִקָּחֵנִי). And God reached all the way down from heaven, took hold of him, and drew him out. And verse 19 gives the astonishing reason: "he delivered me, because he delighted in me." God did not rescue David because David was strong or useful, but because God delighted in him.

"drew me out," yamsheni (יַמְשֵׁנִי) from mashah, to draw out, the same root behind the name Moses, "drawn out." The verb mashah is the very word used when Pharaoh's daughter "drew" the infant Moses out of the Nile: David sees himself as a helpless one lifted from drowning waters by the hand of God.

"many waters," mayim rabbim (מַיִם רַבִּים), the deep, chaos, overwhelming danger. The "many waters" are the floods of trouble that had swept over David, "the sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid" (v4); he was sinking, helpless, beyond self-rescue. Grace reaches down to the drowning and lifts them out, not for their worth, but for His love.

Explanation

Look at the disproportion between the storm and its purpose. The verses just before this are one of the most violent theophanies in the Bible: God bows the heavens and comes down, rides upon a cherub, darkens the sky, thunders, and hurls lightning like arrows (vv7-15). The whole cosmos convulses. And what is all that machinery of divine power for? To reach down and pull one drowning man out of the water. "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters", three quick verbs, all God's, not one of them David's. Heaven is shaken to its foundations in order to save a single soul. That is the scale of God's care: He will move earth and sky for one person sinking beyond his own strength, and the reason, verse 19 says, is simply "because he delighted in me."

Gospel Focus

"He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters", this is the very shape of the gospel: God reaching down from heaven to rescue those sinking in waters they could never escape. We were drowning in sin and under the floods of death, unable to save ourselves, and "God sent forth his Son" (Galatians 4:4), sent from above to take hold of us and draw us out. The deepest waters were the ones Christ Himself entered for us, the floods of judgment closing over His head at the cross, "all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me" (Psalm 42:7), so that He might draw us up onto dry ground. And the reason God saves is the same reason He delivered David: not our worth but His delight and love, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us... hath quickened us together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:4-5); we are "accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Like Peter sinking in the sea, we can only cry "Lord, save me," and immediately Jesus "stretched forth his hand, and caught him" (Matthew 14:30-31). The hand that reached down for David and for Peter is the pierced hand of Christ, and it reaches still for every soul sinking in the many waters, drawing them out because He delights in mercy.

Word Study

"deliverance," Hebrew yeshu'ot (יְשׁוּעוֹת), salvations, the plural intensifying it. The great song ends by lifting its eyes beyond David himself. God gives "great deliverance" to "his king", and the plural form of the word heaps salvation upon salvation, one rescue after another over a long life of danger.

"his king," malko (מַלְכּוֹ). In the first place this is David, God's anointed king; but the closing words reach far past him: "to David, and to his seed for evermore." David's deliverances were great, but they were not for evermore; David died.

"anointed," meshicho (מְשִׁיחוֹ), his Messiah, his anointed one. God shews mercy "to his anointed", his mashiach, his Messiah. This is why the New Testament sees Christ throughout this psalm: David's song of deliverance becomes the song of great David's greater Son, the true Anointed, the Messiah, whose deliverance is not from Saul but from sin and death, and whose reign endures "for evermore."

"seed," zar'o (זַרְעוֹ). The promise of mercy to his seed "for evermore" points beyond David to the everlasting King promised in his line, the Son of David whose throne would be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

"for evermore," ad-olam (עַד־עוֹלָם). The plural "salvations" is fully answered only in Him, in whom God works the great and final deliverance for His people, an everlasting salvation for the King and all His seed.

Explanation

Watch the reach of the song from its first line to its last. It opened intimately, "I will love thee, O LORD, my strength" (v1), one man's gratitude for his own rescues; it closes dynastically and eternally, "to David, and to his seed for evermore." The private thank-you has widened into an everlasting promise. And the final words face forward, not back: a song that spent fifty verses recounting past deliverances ends on "for evermore," looking down the endless future of a royal line. That single phrase strains the song past David himself. His own deliverances, however great, ended at a grave; a mercy that runs "for evermore" to his "seed" requires an heir in his line who does not die. The last word of David's song of rescue is a promise too large for David, and it waits for a Son who could carry it.

Gospel Focus

"Great deliverance giveth he to his king... to David, and to his seed for evermore", this closing word is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Anointed King of David's line, in whom the everlasting deliverance has come. He is "Jesus Christ, the son of David" (Matthew 1:1), the seed to whom the promise pointed, and God has given Him the throne "for ever" (Luke 1:32-33). The greatest deliverance God ever wrought for His King was the resurrection, raising His Anointed from the dead and seating Him at His own right hand, and in that victory all Christ's "seed", all who are His by faith, share for evermore. Paul even takes the next-to-last verse of this psalm, "I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name" (v49), and applies it to Christ bringing the Gentiles to praise God (Romans 15:9), showing that this song of deliverance was always reaching out to the whole world through the Messiah. So Psalm 18 ends not with one man's rescue but with the everlasting salvation of the King and His people. The mercy shown "for evermore" is the mercy that flows to us in Christ, the Son of David, whose deliverance can never be undone and whose kingdom shall never end.