I pursued mine enemies, and overtook them; and I turned not again till they were consumed.
The words of this verse are a warrior's report: the chase went all the way, and the enemy was finished. Commentators read it on two levels. David looks back on real battles. Through him the Spirit of God looks forward to a victory David never lived to see.
The psalm's heading sets the song on the day the Lord rescued David from all his enemies. One writer describes him as a servant who allowed himself no rest while the work was unfinished.
He is still, and only that, the servant, doing what pleases the Lord alone, and seeking only His glory. He gives himself no rest. He does not pause until the enemies of the Lord and of His people submit. He pursued and destroyed them, and did not turn back until he had consumed them.
Yet the song does not stay inside David's lifetime. One writer finds in it a picture of Someone greater than David.
The song takes us beyond David and his experience. It points to his sufferings and his rescues. But these only picture Another: David's life and experience foreshadow His sufferings and His victory. So this great psalm of deliverance also tells, as prophecy, the story of David's greater Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
From this verse the psalm turns to open battle. One writer points to the tense of the verbs.
So from verse 37 to 44 we see Him actually carrying out judgment for God. This is prophecy. It uses the past tense as though the judgment had already happened. Can there therefore be the least doubt that it will take place just as God foretells it? … Of course, this contemplates the latter part of the Great Tribulation.
The Speaker of this verse never claims the power as His own.
So we see His enemies now flat on the ground before Him. He pursues and overtakes them; they fall and do not rise. Again it is God who arms Him with the strength He shows, and throws the stubborn foe under His feet.
Another writer hears in Him a dependent man carrying out God's will.
He gives God the honour for arming Him with strength for the battle and for subduing under Him all who rose against Him. For it is as Son of Man that He speaks, fully dependent upon His God and accomplishing God's will.
The chase ends in destruction, and that troubles many readers. One writer sets the verses that follow against the present hour. He quotes an older translation: where it says "the necks of my enemies", the ESV reads, "You made my enemies turn their backs to me."
"You have given Me the necks of My enemies, that I might destroy those who hate Me." Is it the necks, or the hearts, of His enemies that Christ is now seeking? Is it to save them, or to destroy them, that is His present object? — "They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the Lord, but He did not answer them." The word now is, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
These lines call for the destruction of enemies. They are not words a Christian prays, and one writer explains why by pointing to where each people's rest lies.
This is why the Psalms contain these appeals to judgment, these demands for it. They have often made Christians stumble when unbelievers press them. They are not the expression of Christian feelings. We leave the world and go to heaven. In no sense do we have to demand the destruction of our enemies to pass into glory. But Israel cannot have their rest on earth until the wicked are destroyed.
One thing does carry across: the refusal to quit. Another writer points to three men who fought on because David was their model.
Where did their perseverance come from? On their own they would certainly have weakened. But all three were "with David" and under his eyes during the fight. He inspired them with courage and patience in their efforts. They took as their model David, who could say: … "I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed."
- Occasion — the song belongs to the day the Lord rescued David from all his enemies. He was a servant-king who gave himself no rest until the Lord's enemies gave in.
- Reach — the words outgrow David. Commentators read them as prophecy of David's greater Son, Jesus Christ.
- Certainty — the psalm reports a future victory in the past tense. God speaks of it as done, so there is no doubt it will happen.
- Source — the Conqueror claims no strength of His own. He credits God with arming Him for the battle, and speaks as the dependent Son of Man.
- Timing — today Christ seeks hearts, not necks, and everyone who calls on Him is saved. The pursuit in this verse belongs to a day still ahead. That is why it is not a Christian's prayer, but a model of perseverance.
I crushed them, and they were not able to rise they fell under my feet.
Here the singer speaks as a victor. His enemies are down and cannot rise. Two questions follow: who is really speaking, and when does this scene take place?
The verbs here are past tense. Yet the battle they describe is still ahead.
So, from verse 37 to 44 we see Him judging for God. This is prophecy. The past tense is used as though the judgment had already happened. Can there be the least doubt, then, that it will take place just as God foretells it? "I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed" (v. 37). Of course, this contemplates the latter part of the Great Tribulation. "I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet" (v. 38). So the Lord Jesus wins the victory in full. Yet He credits God with arming Him with strength for the battle (v. 39).
The blow in this verse pierces. Yet God is the one who gives the arm its strength.
His bow will remain firm; His strength will be full forever. When the Son of Man comes to judge the nations, the bow of bronze that will strike down sinners will be in His hand. There again, it is His God who will gird Him with strength, who will teach His hands to war (Ps. 18:32, 34). In this dependence He will pierce His enemies so that they cannot rise (Ps. 18:38).
The warrior of this psalm keeps the meekness He showed in His life of grace.
So we return to see Him as the warrior-King. His hands are trained for war. The shield of God's salvation covers Him, and nothing can pierce it. God's strong right hand holds Him up. And yet He is as meek a Conqueror as in His life of grace long ago, for He says, "Your gentleness also has made Me great."
The crushing of these enemies is not the end of the story. It clears the ground for blessing.
This passage presents the bringing in of the day of the Lord by the second coming of Messiah. That day will indeed begin in a fearful way. But its dark dawn of judgment will open, for the remnant of His mercy, into the clear shining of the Sun of righteousness. That comes once the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning have done their appointed work of purification.
Baines sets this scene against the way God treats His enemies now.
Is it the necks, or the hearts, of His enemies that Christ is now seeking? Is it to save them, or to destroy them, that is His present object? "They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the LORD, but He did not answer them." The word now is, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
So can a believer pray these words as his own? Kelly lists this passage among the psalms that cannot be prayed that way without twisting God's word.
Yet it is reasonable to suppose that no believer has ever used them this way, in private or in public, without meeting difficulties he cannot answer. To escape them, he is always at risk of "accommodating" and perverting God's word. Compare Psalm 18:37-42. So earthly judicial righteousness is always the atmosphere here. It is not the heavenly grace by which the Christian is now called to feel and pray, worship and walk.
That does not make the psalm wrong. It makes it a psalm for another day.
- Voice. David sings, but the words go past him. From verse 37 the speaker is judging for God, and the past tense marks prophecy that is certain, not history.
- Strength. He pierces His enemies so that they cannot rise, yet He credits God with arming Him for the battle. He conquers in dependence, as meek a Conqueror as in His life of grace.
- Timing. The scene belongs to the day of the Lord, when Messiah comes again. Its dark dawn of judgment opens into blessing for the remnant of His mercy.
- Contrast. Then He seeks the necks of His enemies. Now He seeks their hearts, and the word to them is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
- Use. Christians misread the verse when they pray it as their own. Its air is earthly judicial righteousness; the believer now walks and worships in grace.
And thou girdedst me with strength to battle; thou didst subdue under me those that rose up against me.
Psalm 18 is David's song of praise after God rescued him from every enemy. At verse 39 the singer looks back at his victories and hands the credit away. God supplied the strength for the fight. Commentators read the line on two levels at once: the real battles of a real king, and the far larger conquest of the King who comes after him.
One writer ties the song to the campaigns recorded in Chronicles, and adds that its words reach further than anything David saw:
In 1 Chronicles 18, 19 and 20 David, already delivered from all internal conflict in Israel, triumphs over the nations and spreads the glory of Israel and of his reign on every side. These are the events which occasioned Psalm 18, although it has a more extended meaning (compare Ps. 18:36-45).
The verse has two verbs, and God is the subject of both. Why is a victory still to come written in the past tense?
From verse 37 to 44 we see Him actually judging for God. It is prophecy, with the past tense used as though the judgment had already happened. The Lord Jesus accomplishes the victory fully, yet He credits God with having armed Him with strength for the battle (v. 39) and with subduing under Him all who oppressed Him.
Power and dependence meet in the same person:
Notice this: though God clothed Him with strength, we see Christ as the dependent man, and on earth, whether suffering or victorious.
Why does the kingdom arrive by battle and not by preaching? One writer traces it to the order of two reigns, David's and Solomon's:
The way this comes about is not, as one might think, by the preaching of the gospel of peace. It must be the "effect of righteousness," and the phase of the kingdom like David's must come before the phase like Solomon's. So we return to see Him as the warrior-King. His hands are trained for war. The shield of God's salvation covers Him so that nothing can pierce it, and God's strong right hand holds Him up.
Subduing is not the end of the story. The psalm moves from conquest to nations coming in:
The psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, looks forward to the day when this supremacy will be shown. Then the Lord Jesus, David's Son and David's Lord, will have taken His great power. He will reign over all, with all His enemies made the footstool of His feet: "… You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; you have made me the Head of the nations; a people I did not know serves me. At the hearing of the ear they obey me; strangers come cringing to me" (Psalm 18:39-44).
One writer presses the contrast with the present by asking two questions:
"You have given me the necks of my enemies, that I might destroy those who hate me." Is it the necks, or the hearts, of His enemies that Christ is now seeking? Is it to save them, or to destroy them, that is His present object? "They cried, but there was none to save them, even to the Lord, but He did not answer them." The word now is, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How contrary all this is to the grace in which He is now acting, and to the spirit He asks of His people, who are to pray for their persecutors and to love their enemies!
There is still something for the believer in the picture of girding:
Girding is the application of truth to the soul — the close dealing of the word with the will, with the movements of the heart. This is arming for conflict in a very practical and effective way. But it must be done in the presence of God before we meet the enemy… It braces up the affections, the whole inner man, for Christ and for the things of Christ. When the heart clings to the Lord as the garment clings to the waist under the tight belt, the enemy cannot reach the gates of the soul.
- Girded. God fastens on the strength for the fight, so the victory is won in His power, not the fighter's own.
- Dependent. The winner is the dependent man — victorious and leaning on God in the same breath.
- Ordered. Righteousness comes before peace: the warrior-King's work comes before the peaceful reign.
- Widening. The subduing of enemies opens into rule over nations, with strangers submitting to Him.
- Timed. Today He seeks hearts, not necks — this psalm's judgment belongs to a coming day, not to how believers treat opponents now.
And mine enemies didst thou make to turn their backs unto me, and those that hated me I destroyed.
David's song of triumph reaches its high point here, with the enemies who once hunted him beaten and handed over. But the words are harsh, and they raise a question: do such words belong on Christian lips, or do they point past David to a day still ahead?
The writers here quote an older wording: "You have given me the necks of my enemies." The ESV renders the same line as enemies turning their backs. Either way, the king does not seize them. God hands them over. Commentators read the stiff neck as a picture of broken rebellion, and they tie the passage to the coming triumph of Christ, not to David alone.
The Lord Jesus wins the victory in full, yet He gives God the credit for arming Him with strength for the battle (v. 39), and for putting under Him all who oppressed Him. God had given the Lord Jesus necks that had stiffened themselves in stubborn rebellion, and the Lord destroyed such enemies (v. 40). "They cried out" but to whom? Men who never pray may pray when terrible trouble comes. They may even cry to the Lord they have always hated. But their cry is not repentance. How could they expect the One they hate to answer them? (v. 41).
Writing on the parallel song in 2 Samuel, the same commentator names the character in which the victor speaks.
He speaks as Son of Man, fully dependent on His God and carrying out God's will.
The verse reads as though the fighting is already over. One writer says the tense is prophetic.
From verse 37 to 44 He is seen actually judging for God. It is prophetic: the past tense is used as though the judgment were already done.
Another writer names the moment this belongs to.
What is presented here is the bringing in of the day of the Lord, by the second coming of the Messiah. That day will begin in a terrible way. But for the remnant He shows mercy to, its dark dawn of judgment will open into the clear shining of the Sun of righteousness. That comes when the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning have finished their appointed work of cleansing.
Why read a war psalm as Christ's at all? One writer answers that first, then turns the verse into questions about today.
The triumphs and glories Psalm 18 records are, in their full extent, those of David's offspring, the promised Messiah. Paul quotes verse 49 as referring to Christ (Rom. 15:9). How, then, does the psalm describe the start of His glorious reign? "You have given Me the necks of My enemies, that I might destroy those who hate Me." Is it the necks, or the hearts, of His enemies that Christ is now seeking? Is it to save them, or to destroy them, that He is after now? "They cried, but there was no one to save them, even to the Lord, but He did not answer them." The word now is, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
That last line reads in the ESV, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
The psalm does not end with destruction. One writer follows it on to the place the victor takes afterwards.
He comes out of the trial to be acknowledged as King of Israel and Head of the nations. "Strangers come cringing to [Him]" (v. 45). God avenges Him and brings the peoples under Him (v. 47). He lifts Him up above those who rose up against Him.
So may Christians pray this way today? One writer draws a clear line between Israel's day and ours.
We would never say that the Psalms are wrong. This is what marked out the saints in Israel long ago, and it will mark them again when the former rule returns in greater glory in the day of the Lord... But God has called us out meanwhile from Jews and Gentiles, and we make up the one body of Christ. Our privilege and our duty are to show His grace. He suffered for us, leaving us an example so that we should follow His steps.
The same writer shows the damage done when readers treat Israel's enemies as the church's.
Suppose Judah and Israel, Zion and Jerusalem, point to the church. Then men can logically conclude that the righteous destruction of the enemies, the wicked, and so on, justifies the unchristian and unholy work of the inquisition, and the punishment of people for wrong belief, even to death.
- Given — The king does not seize the necks. God hands them over, and the victor credits God with arming Him for the battle.
- Broken — The neck stands for stubborn rebellion. What God destroys is a hardened refusal to bow.
- Delayed — The past tense is prophetic. The scene belongs to the day of the Lord, whose dark opening of judgment gives way to clear light for those He spares.
- Different — Christ is not seeking necks today, but hearts. The word now is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The cry in verse 41 comes too late.
- Beyond — Judgment is not the destination. Beaten enemies open the way for Christ as King of Israel and Head of the nations, with the peoples under Him.
They cried, and there was none to save; -- unto Jehovah, and he answered them not.
The cry in this verse belongs to the enemies, not to the psalmist. Desperate men call out, and even call on the LORD, and nothing comes back — so when does God stop answering, and why?
This psalm looks back on the day David was finally clear of Saul and every other enemy. But his own history is too small a frame for the words he sings.
We have now reached David's final deliverance. All his enemies, Saul among them, have disappeared. David was a prophet. His prophetic songs grow out of his own experiences, but they would not have been prophetic if Christ were not their object. In his experiences David reflects Christ, and that is an immense privilege. But it is only a faint light, a small copy of the perfect Model.
So how far ahead does the psalm look?
His own history and salvation are not all that the psalm celebrates. It really speaks of One greater than he. It looks on to the millennium (verses 44, 45), and to the King's triumph shown in full — but only after His resurrection has taken place (Psalm 16:10)... And verses 43-45 were clearly not exhausted in the history of David.
The verse speaks in the past tense about something still to come. One writer explains that, then asks who these people are calling to.
From verse 37 to verse 44 the Lord is seen actually judging for God. It is prophetic: the past tense is used as though the judgment had already happened. Can there be the least doubt, then, that it will take place just as God foretells it? ... "They cried out" — but to whom? Men who never pray may pray when terrible trouble comes. They may even call on the LORD, whom they have always hated. But their cry is not one of repentance, and how could they expect the enemy they hate to answer them? (v. 41).
The silence is not absence. God is present in the scene — on the other side of it.
The terrified armies of wickedness send up a cry to heaven, but there is no one to answer. The only One who could save them is now urging on His messengers of wrath to destroy them (Proverbs 1:25-28; 29:1).
One writer is careful to mark off which judgment this is.
How complete and how withering the judgment of the ungodly will be on that day, when God rises up to shake the earth terribly. This is not the Great White Throne judgment. It is the earlier judgment of the nations, before the millennium... The judgment of the nations spoken of here is not a judgment of people one by one, as the Great White Throne is. It is a judgment of nations as nations, though people in those nations will certainly share in the horror of the judgment.
One writer sets this verse against the message going out today.
Is it the necks, or the hearts, of His enemies that Christ is now seeking? Is His present object to save them, or to destroy them? — "They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the LORD, but He did not answer them." — The word now is, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
One writer warns what it costs to leave it too late.
What crushing conviction will then take hold of the soul that finds itself too late! It will be willing, but too late; wishing, but too late; wanting, but too late; weeping, but too late; praying, but too late; pleading, but too late. Oh, how dreadful!
Can a Christian pray words like these?
One may fairly suppose that no believer has ever used them this way, in private and in public, without coming face to face with difficulties he cannot answer. To escape them he is always in danger of the evil of "accommodating" and twisting God's word. Compare... Psalm 18:37-42... So the air of these psalms is always earthly judicial righteousness, not the heavenly grace by which the Christian is now called to feel, to pray, to worship and to walk.
- Occasion — the psalm starts with David's rescue from Saul and all his enemies. But its words reach past David to Christ, whom David only faintly reflects.
- Cry — the enemies do call, and they even call on the LORD. But this is terror speaking, not repentance, so the God they have always hated does not answer.
- Silence — heaven is not deaf. The only One who could save them is sending the judgment that is falling on them.
- Timing — this points to a coming judgment of the nations, before the millennium. It is not the Great White Throne, which judges people one by one.
- Today — the word going out now is the reverse of this verse: "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." So call while the answer is still there, and do not leave it too late.
And I did beat them small as dust before the wind; I did cast them out as the mire of the streets.
David sang this psalm after God rescued him from his enemies. It reaches its peak here: the foes who once towered over him are ground to powder and thrown out like street mud. Commentators read the line on two levels. There are David's own battles, and there is a far larger day of reckoning still ahead. They also ask how a reader today should handle such words.
The psalm grew out of a real campaign. David had settled his conflicts at home and then turned outward.
In 1 Chronicles 18, 19 and 20 David, already delivered from all internal conflict in Israel, triumphs over the nations, and spreads the glory of Israel and of his reign on every side. These are the events that gave rise to Psalm 18, although its meaning reaches further (compare Ps. 18:36-45).
The two pictures are not decoration. Dust is what a human being is made of, and street mud is what gets thrown out.
But they are too late. God's patience with their folly comes to an end and the judgment upon them is swift and complete: they are beaten as fine as the dust of the earth. They return to the dust from which they came, reduced to total humiliation.
The line just before this one records a cry for help. That cry was real, but it was not repentance.
"They cried out" — but to whom? Men who never pray may pray when terrible trouble comes. They may even cry "to the Lord" whom they have always hated. But their cry is not one of repentance. How could they expect their hated enemy to answer them? (v. 41).
Not every judgment in the Bible is the same event. One writer separates this one from the last judgment of all people.
How complete, how withering will be the judgment of the ungodly in that day when God rises to shake the earth terribly! This is not the Great White Throne judgment. It is the earlier judgment of the nations, before the millennium… The judgment of the nations spoken of here is not the judgment of people one by one, as the Great White Throne is. It is the judgment of nations as such, though people in those nations will certainly share in the horror of that judgment.
The same writer explains why the psalm speaks of the crushing as already done.
From verse 37 to 44 the Lord Jesus is seen actually judging for God. It is prophetic: the past tense is used as though the judgment had already happened. Can there be the least doubt that it will take place just as God foretells it?… This contemplates the latter part of the Great Tribulation.
The verse is not the end of the psalm. What follows the destruction is rule, and nations streaming into obedience.
So we learn, as we do from all the prophetic writings, that the Lord will deliver His people through unsparing judgments. After He has poured out His wrath on their oppressors, He will set up His throne. Then all kings will fall down before Him, and all nations will serve Him.
So what is Christ doing at this moment? One writer sets the psalm's language beside the answer.
Is it the necks, or the hearts, of His enemies that Christ is now seeking? Is it to save them, or to destroy them, that is His present object? — "They cried, but there was none to save them, even to the Lord, but He did not answer them." — The word now is, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
So the Psalms are not wrong. But they belong to a calling that is not ours.
Far be it from me to say that the Psalms are not right. This is what marked out the saints in Israel of old. It will mark them again in their midst when the former dominion comes still more gloriously in the day of the Lord… But we are called out meanwhile from Jews and Gentiles, and we make up the one body of Christ. We have the privilege and the duty of showing the grace of Him who suffered for us, who left us an example that we should follow His steps… He is rejected by the world and exalted at God's right hand, and He sends the gospel to His foes, all through the time of our calling.
- Occasion. David's victories over the surrounding nations gave rise to the psalm. But its meaning runs well past David.
- Cry. This verse follows a cry for help. That cry was terror, not repentance — men calling on a God they had always hated.
- Crushing. Dust and street mud picture total humiliation. The enemies return to the dust they came from, and God throws them out.
- Timing. This is the judgment of the nations before the millennium, not the last judgment of people one by one. The past tense marks it as certain.
- Crown. The crushing is not the end. Wrath on the oppressors clears the ground for a throne. Meanwhile the word going out to His enemies is still an offer of salvation.
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; thou hast made me the head of the nations a people I knew not doth serve me.
David's song of deliverance ends with a scene far larger than his own battles. Strife at home is over, foreign peoples fall into line, and a people he never knew comes into his service. Commentators read it on two levels: what happened to David, and what will happen to David's greater Son.
The wording tracks real events in David's reign. First the revolt at home ended. Then victory came abroad.
In the third part of the Psalm (verses 31-51) David celebrates what God had done for him. God answered him. He delivered him "from strife with the people" (which corresponds to 2 Samuel 20 in David's history), and He made him "head of the nations", whom he had conquered (v. 43). The Ammonites, the Philistines, the Syrians and Edom all had to bow beneath his yoke. But how all this speaks to us of One greater than David! He comes out of the trial to be acknowledged as King of Israel and Head of the nations.
The middle line of the verse pushes readers past the history. That place was never David's.
He becomes the head of the nations. The words "you made me the head of the nations" cannot apply to David and his experience. It is David's Son and David's Lord who will head the nations of the earth.
One writer takes the verse clause by clause. He finds three steps: rejection undone by resurrection, then Lordship over all, then Israel brought back.
The forty-third verse applies exclusively to Messiah Himself. It recites, first, His deliverance from the opposition of sinners. That was the striving of the people who were called by His name, yet had sold themselves to do the evil of rejecting Him. They struck the Judge of Israel on the cheek. His resurrection was the accomplishment of this. Secondly, it declares His exaltation as Head of the nations and Lord of all. The present testimony of the gospel announces Him in this way (Rom. 10:12). The message of His grace now addresses the creatures of His power (Col. 1:16, 23). But thirdly, the last clause of this verse seems to point to the returning obedience of Israel. He has long disowned them, and He still hides His face from the house of Jacob (Isa. 8:17). But they will then find salvation by calling on His name.
Commentators differ here. The reading above hears Israel coming back. Others hear the nations coming in. They point to this line as an early promise that God would bless the Gentiles while He disowned Israel.
The same living oracles are no less explicit that divine mercy would visit and bless the Gentiles during His disowning of Israel. (See Deut. 32:21; Ps. 18:43, 49; Isa. 8:16-17; Isa. 9:1; Isa. 49:6; Isa. 65:1; Hosea 1:10.)
On the second reading, the order matters. The nations do not serve first and then God acts; God acts for His people, and the nations follow.
It prefigures the conversion of the Gentiles. That conversion follows Jehovah's intervention to rescue His people and to judge their enemies… So we learn, as from all the prophetic writings, that the Lord will deliver His people through unsparing judgments. After He has poured out His wrath on their oppressors, He will set up His throne. Then all kings will fall down before Him, and all nations will serve Him.
Paul quotes this psalm of Christ. Yet the psalm wins the nations by judgment, and that is not how the gospel works now.
The Psalmist wrote this as a hymn of praise for the deliverances God granted him. Yet the triumphs and glories it records belong, in their full extent, to David's Seed, the promised Messiah. Paul quotes verse 49 — "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name" — and applies it directly to Christ (Rom. 15:9). How, then, does it describe the opening of His glorious reign? "You have given me the necks of my enemies, that I might destroy those who hate me." Is Christ now seeking the necks of His enemies, or their hearts? Is His present aim to save them, or to destroy them? … The word now is, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
- Rescue first. The verse begins where David's story did. God ended the strife among his own people — a picture of the rejected Messiah raised out of death.
- Then rule. "Head of the nations" was never David's place. Commentators read it of David's Son, exalted as Lord of all.
- Then reach. A people never known comes into His service. Some read this as Israel restored after long disowning. Others read it as the nations blessed while God sets Israel aside.
- Order matters. God first delivers His people and judges their oppressors. Then He sets up His throne, and the nations bow.
- Not yet this way. Paul applies the psalm to Christ. But today He seeks hearts, not necks: everyone who calls on the Lord's name will be saved.
At the hearing of the ear, they obey me strangers come cringing unto me.
Psalm 18 is a long war-song, and it ends in surrender. Nations who have never met the king bow the moment his name reaches them — so who is this king, and how real is that obedience?
Commentators read the psalm as David's own thanksgiving that outgrows David. One writer points to the New Testament's own use of the closing verses as the proof.
Psalm 18 makes known God's goodness "to His anointed, to David and to his seed for ever more." It was written as a hymn of praise for the rescues God gave to the Psalmist himself. Yet the triumphs and glories it records belong, in their full extent, to David's Seed, the promised Messiah. And Paul quotes verse 49 — the thanks given to Jehovah among the Gentiles, and the praise sung to His name — as directly referring to Christ. (Rom. 15:9.)
The title in the verse before points the same way. David never held such a place.
"You have made me the head of the nations" cannot apply to David and his own experience. It is David's Son and David's Lord who will head the nations of the earth. Verse 44 describes the coming kingdom.
Verse 43 sets the people apart from the nations, and that distinction carries into verse 44. Read in order, the groups move outward from Israel to the world.
Three groups appear here. First the people: He is delivered from their strivings. Then the nations: He is made their head. Then a people not known before, with whom He had never been in relationship as He was with Israel; they will serve Him. Submission will be immediate, because His glory and power are so plain by then. And even where there is no sincerity, or at least no proof of it, they will at once serve, bowing down to Him. This is the beginning of what belongs to the thousand-year reign.
The words "as soon as they heard of me" carry the weight. A report reaches them, and they bow.
Older translations carried a margin note here reading "yield feigned obedience," and much of the commentary turns on it. One writer describes the people it fits.
Those who yield feigned obedience are people who have no heart for Messiah and are afraid to do anything else; and they do this as nations.
If that is right, the verse explains something that happens a thousand years later. Submission that was never inward finally shows what it always was.
The marginal reading is suggestive: "they will yield feigned obedience to Me." That tells us the obedience of many during the kingdom reign of our Lord will not be whole-hearted. Hence the revolt at the end of the thousand years (Rev. 20).
Not every nation is play-acting. Commentators find a range of responses at the end.
All this shows us that the nations will be of quite different kinds at the time of the end. Some will be broken with a rod of iron and forced to submit. Others will put on an appearance of submission, as it is said: "Strangers come cringing to me" [that is, they render forced or feigned obedience]. And others still — a great multitude that no man will be able to number (Rev. 7:9-10) — will submit to Christ's yoke, accepting His victory as their deliverance.
Commentators differ on how much weight the "feigned obedience" reading can bear. One writer argues that readers have pressed it too far and spoiled their picture of Christ's reign.
There is an expression in the Psalms with a margin reading that, I believe, has been badly misread, so as to run down the whole character of the millennial reign of Christ… "They shall submit themselves," and "as soon as they hear of me," would have carried no false sense. The false sense seems to come entirely from the alternative put in the margin. As Delitzsch says, the word is "often used of the enforced submission of the conquered." "Come cringing" is Driver's and J.N.D.'s rendering of it. It describes the effect of the Lord's coming in warrior judgment.
The same writer sets this scene against the present hour.
How perfectly this agrees with what is told elsewhere about the sudden setting up of Christ's worldwide rule by the judgment and desolation of His enemies! But how contrary it is to the grace in which He is now acting, and to the spirit He requires of His people, who are to pray for their persecutors and to love their enemies!
- Victory — The psalm's closing triumphs belong in full to David's Seed. Paul quotes verse 49 of Christ.
- Headship — Head of the nations is a place David never held. Verse 44 describes the coming kingdom.
- Report — They bow the moment they hear, because His glory and power are plain by then. A people He never knew becomes His people.
- Cringing — The word means the forced submission of the defeated. Some bow with no heart for Messiah, afraid to do anything else.
- Aftermath — Half-hearted obedience explains the revolt at the end of the thousand years. Yet a countless multitude will accept His victory as their deliverance — and none of this is the grace in which Christ acts today.