He reached forth from above, he took me, he drew me out of great waters
Verse 16 is God's answer to a cry for help. The answer is not advice from a distance. It is a hand reaching down to where the sufferer is sinking. Two questions shape the verse: who is the "me," and what are the waters?
The last phrase of the verse turns on a rare word, and that word ties this rescue to the name of Moses.
"He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters." In the last clause we have a word used in only one other place — the explanation of the name given to Moses, which came from it. But the reference is only a comparison, for a greater than Moses is here. "He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me." So the deliverance is the display and glory of Jehovah Himself.
One writer gathers three deliverances into one song: Christ's death and resurrection, the rescue from Egypt long before, and the rescue still to come. They hold together in Christ, who felt His people's trouble as His own.
In this Psalm we have the historical glory in which death and resurrection, and their power in Christ, are linked with the deliverance from Egypt at the beginning and the deliverance of the last days at the end. Jehovah is what links them. Yet it also shows that the bond by which He, as a man and a Jew, belonged with them was already true in sympathy then — "in all their affliction he was afflicted," verse 16. "He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters" (compare Moses, Exodus 2:10).
So what are the many waters? One writer locates them where the Lord's deepest suffering lay.
The many waters do not speak of the Lord's suffering from men, but of the dark depths of anguish suffered from God because of our sin. Once the great work of atonement was finished, God stepped in and raised His Son from among the dead. Never again will He suffer the deep waters of judgment.
If the waters are death under judgment, then the drawing out is resurrection. One writer points to a visible sample of that power at the grave itself.
Here is a magnificent celebration of the glory and almighty majesty of the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He showed it when He raised Him from the dead in answer to His cry (Eph. 1:17, 19, 20). "He sent from on high," and so on. A first taste and sample of what is described here came when the angel of Jehovah came down. The earth shook, and the guards of the grave, which until then had held the body of the now awakened Christ, trembled and became like dead men with fear (Matt. 28).
The next line admits that the enemy had the upper hand. That admission is not a flaw in the song; it is the point of it.
He had endured the agony of the "many waters" of being judged for our sins. Now God steps in and turns the sorrow into unspeakable joy. The enemy thought he had triumphed over Christ, but his short-lived triumph became a humiliating defeat.
The same words also look ahead to a people who will face waters of their own.
They also sing of their own salvation in the day of this judgment. For we know that they will be drawn out of many waters: like Noah they will be preserved in the very place of judgment — like Lot, drawn out in safety from it. (See Ps. 18:16)
Another writer names those future waters. He ties the psalm's resurrection to Israel and to a day of trouble still ahead of them.
This Psalm views the Lord's resurrection in relation to the earthly people of Messiah — the nation He died for. That ties the subject to the coming day of Jacob's trouble, out of which he is to be delivered (Jer. 30:7), and to the raging of the many nations, like angry waters, who will hem in the burdensome stone of Jehovah's anger, to their own ruin (Zech. 12:3).
Commentators differ in emphasis. Some read the verse mainly of Christ in resurrection. Others read it mainly of Israel's rescue, past and future. Most hold the two together.
- Cry. The verse is God's answer to a cry from the depths, and the answer is not a message but a hand reaching down from above.
- Waters. Not hostile men only, but the depths of judgment endured because of our sin.
- Drawn. The rare word for "drew me out" recalls the naming of Moses — but a greater than Moses is drawn out here.
- Raised. The drawing out is resurrection — God's public verdict on a finished work.
- Shared. What was true for the One becomes the song of the many — those still in the flood are told they will be drawn out of it too.
He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me; for they were mightier than I.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
They encountered me in the day of my calamity, but Jehovah was my stay.
Psalm 18 is David's song after God rescued him from every enemy. This verse marks the lowest point of the story. His attackers had the timing, the strength and the advantage on their side. Commentators read it on two levels: David's own escape, and the deeper rescue of Christ out of death. It also steadies anyone whose trouble arrives faster than their help.
The verse before says David's foes were too strong for him. This verse shows them pressing that advantage at the worst possible hour. Writers apply this to Christ. His weakness at the cross was real, and God was the one resource left to Him.
The enemy thought he had triumphed over Christ, but that short-lived triumph turned into humiliating defeat. God delivered Him from His strong enemy. On the outside that enemy was too strong for Him, for "He was crucified in weakness" (2 Cor. 13:4). "They confronted me in the day of my calamity" (v. 18). At the very time He was offering Himself to God in sacrifice, His enemies used the moment to heap abuse on Him. "But the LORD was my support." His own disciples abandoned Him, and only God was His resource.
Older translations read "they prevented me." That old word did not mean what "prevent" means now. It carries the idea of getting there first.
It means 'to go before,' to anticipate — from the Latin praevenio, 'to come before.' See Psalm 18:5 and 18:18.
The enemies moved first and met him head-on while he was already down. One careful rendering of the line keeps that sense of being forestalled, and sets the answer against it:
They anticipate me in the day of my calamity; but Jehovah is for a stay to me.
Verses 16–19 borrow the language of Israel's rescue at the Red Sea and apply it to something greater:
Christ Himself had been in these sorrows. So the Spirit of God moves from Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea to Christ passing through death, surrounded by the floods of ungodly men. God sent from above, and Christ can say, "He took me;" "He drew me out of many waters;" "He rescued me from my strong enemy;" and "the LORD was my support."
Some readers stumble at hearing Christ speak in words this helpless. One writer answers that dependence is the place He chose, and that His rising again is God's verdict on His finished work.
We now come to the experience of the deliverance. Here we find expressions of weakness. At first they might make someone doubt that this is the Lord's voice at all. But the connection assures us that it is. He takes the place of complete human dependence all through the psalm. So, having taken on the burden of sin and laid down His life, He committed Himself in peace into the Father's hand, to receive back from Him the life He laid down… So resurrection is His justification from God, the seal placed on His completed work. It is therefore the justification of all whom He stands for — of all who through grace believe in Him.
No human help remained, so the rescue could point to only one source. It shows who the Rescuer is.
"He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me." So the deliverance is the display and glory of the LORD Himself. "They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support."
This experience is not locked in the past. One writer sees it repeated in everyone who trusts God, and in the faithful few who live through the tribulation still to come.
All this shows His own experience as the author and finisher of the faith. At the same time it is also the experience of His trusting people, and the deliverance of that remnant living during the tribulation period.
That turns the verse into a working principle. What overpowers you is meant to drive you somewhere:
Circumstances that are too strong for us should have only one effect on us: they should make us realise the presence of God. In Psalm 18 we see how God answers the distress of His people. He rises, and everything crumbles in His presence.
- Confronted — In older versions "prevented" means to go before, to get there first. The enemies struck on the very day disaster had picked.
- Overpowered — The psalm admits the weakness instead of hiding it. The enemies were too strong, and Christ was "crucified in weakness," left alone by His friends.
- Sustained — Every human support was gone. God alone held Him up, so the rescue could only display the glory of the Rescuer.
- Raised — Christ took the place of full dependence and trusted His life to the Father. His resurrection is God's seal on that work, and the justification of all who believe.
- Shared — The same path belongs to His people. What is too strong for us should drive us into the presence of God, where everything crumbles before Him.
And he brought me forth into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
David has just described deep waters and enemies too strong for him; now he stands in open ground. God rescued him for one stated reason — delight in him — and who can truly say that of himself?
The words of this song run past anything true of David himself. One writer sets verse 19 beside the lines that follow and points out the mismatch:
The reason for David's deliverance is that God takes pleasure in His anointed according to all the perfection of his character. David's character did not match these verses — not even before his fall, and far less after it: "He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me"… David is celebrating the perfection of Someone other than himself. Christ alone could give His Father a reason for loving Him and for saving Him — but His salvation has become His people's salvation.
Another writer reaches the same conclusion from the whole section:
Verses 8-20 describe the intervention. Nothing in David's life can be made to fit this. But these are prophetic words, so it is easy to trace here the resurrection of Christ, who was brought out into a broad place (verse 20). "He rescued Me, because He delighted in Me" — these words are true of Christ alone.
(The verse numbering differs because the song appears twice — as Psalm 18 and as 2 Samuel 22.)
The picture is of someone released from a narrow, pressing space into open country. Read of Christ, the confinement lasted as long as His work, and what came after it showed the Father's mind about Him:
He was "straitened" (or confined) until His great work was finished. But in resurrection He holds the place of Head of a new creation, a realm of infinite blessing that all His own share. Everything about Him — His character, His words, His work — drew the fullest approval of the Father. The Father's raising of Christ from among the dead is the clear proof of this.
Notice the order in the verse. The rescue is not a reward for struggling free. God grants it because of what He finds in the one He rescues. That delight does not stop with Him. It reaches the people whose sorrows He shared:
God delights in Him and answers Him according to His uprightness. He has entered into the sorrows of the suffering remnant of Israel, and God delivers them together with Him. In a word, Christ is the centre of the deliverances of Israel — the cause of their rescue from Egypt, the cause of their full and final redemption in the last days, and then their own personal Deliverer.
If deliverance rests on God's delight, a reader will ask whether God delights in him. The answer points away from his own record and back to Christ's perfection:
Believers too are delivered, not because God delights in them personally, but because of His delight in His Son, who represents them in His pure grace. God has rewarded Him in resurrection because of the perfection of His character and His work. Only this perfection could qualify Him to be the one sacrifice for our sins. We cannot say what He says in verse 20: "The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He rewarded me."
The same writer traces the large place forward in two directions:
The enemy seeks to bring him into bondage, but God gives him wonderful liberty. For Israel the large place will be blessing in the millennium. But for the Church of God the large place is that of heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
One writer, commenting on a psalm with the same spirit, states the rule behind rescues like this:
When the blessed God makes a way of escape for sinners or captives, in His love He will carry them into more than liberty.
- Delight — The verse names the cause of rescue, and it is not the sufferer's effort but God's pleasure in him.
- Perfection — David's own record cannot carry the claim. He sings the worth of Someone greater, and that One's salvation became His people's salvation.
- Enlargement — A broad place is the opposite of being hemmed in. For Christ, the confinement ended when His work ended, and resurrection opened the ground.
- Representation — Believers share the rescue. It rests not on God's delight in them, but on His delight in the Son who stands for them.
- More than liberty — God does not just open the door. In His love He carries His people into more than freedom.