Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 8 February 2015
43 You deliver me from
the accusations of [my] people.
You position me at the head of nations –
[even of ] an ethnic-group I did not know – they serve me.
44 As soon as the sound
[reaches their] ear, sons of the foreigner are heedful to me;
they are obsequious toward me.
45 Sons of the foreigner wilt, and they become jumpy from their borders.
46 Life is Yahweh, so let my landmark-Rock be blessed, and let the God of my salvation be exalted!
47 This God is the One who deals out retributions for me and decrees peoples to be under me,
48 delivering me from my enemies.
Yes, You exalt me apart from the one who rises up [against] me.
You cause me to escape from a man of violence.
49 Therefore I respond with the nations to Yahweh and make music to Your name.
50 He causes to increase the salvations of His king and makes loving-kindness for His anointed one – to David and to his seed until forever.
· I spent the last three sermons with a backward look at why we are saved. We can look back into the past and say, “I was saved because God did what it took to save me. I participated in that salvation by calling for Him to save me, by walking in His righteousness, and by fighting against evil.”
· Now, around verse 42, I see David’s perspective shifting forward to the future. There is the recognition that David was saved for a good reason. God saved him because God had something He wanted David to do for the rest of his life. Some of those things are highlighted in this Psalm:
1. David was saved by God in order to rule as king of Israel.
2. David was also saved by God in order to write the book of Psalms and sing praise to God among the nations.
3. And David was saved by God in order to trust in the Messiah for the rest of eternity.
o Let’s look at these three reasons David was saved and see if they apply to us too:
· In answer to the prayer in chapter 17 v.13 to “deliver my soul from the wicked,” God showed Himself to be a “deliverer.” David already stated at the beginning of Psalm 18 in v.2.
· Who was this “people” that was “accusing/attacking/contending with” him and with whom there was such “strife”? I think this was the Jews.
o The parallel Psalm in 2 Samuel 22:44, clearly adds the word “my,” as in “my people,” which for David (and for Jesus) was the Jews. For you it might be family members or co-workers.
o The most frequent meaning of the word “strife/contention” in the Pentateuch is the meaning of a legal accusation which is tried in court.
o The word occurs at three points in the Biblical history of David
1. When Saul sent the army to kill David for treason, and David appealed to God to judge the case because he was innocent of Saul’s accusations (1 Sam. 24:15).
2. When Nabal accused David of being a worthless rebel and then Nabal died of a heart attack. David then praised God for deciding justice in favor of David’s innocence (1 Sam. 25:39).
3. And finally, when Absalom tried to take the throne from David, he did it by corrupting the court system that David presided over (2 Sam. 15:2ff).
· And just as God delivered David in these cases of internecine strife, God also delivered David’s greater son, Jesus from the accusations of the Jews about a thousand years later by raising Jesus from the dead after the Jews had killed him for claiming to be the Son of God. And He will deliver you when people unjustly accuse you and try to get you in trouble with the authorities.
· But that deliverance is not the end in itself. For David and for Jesus, the deliverance was only the first step in God’s plan of placing them into leadership, a leadership not only of the Jewish people, but ultimately of all the peoples of the world.
o Verse 43 speaks of headship over “goyim/heathen/nations,” at least one of which was previously-unknown.
o Verse 44 speaks of prompt obedience that gets to the level of being obsequious in their displays of cringing submission to the king.
o Verse 45 has some rare Hebrew words, so it’s hard to pin down the meaning exactly, but the sense of these foreigners losing confidence in what they trusted before, growing nervous, and making the jump to allegiance to God’s king seems to come through.
o This is exactly what we read in the history section of the Old Testament: 2 Samuel 8 “1. Now after this it came about that David defeated the Philistines and subdued (יכניע) them; and David took control of the chief city from the hand of the Philistines. 2 He defeated Moab, and measured them with the line, making them lie down on the ground... And the Moabites became servants to David, bringing tribute. 3 Then David defeated Hadadezer, the son of Rehob king of Zobah, as he went to restore his rule at the River (and they “served” him – 2 Sam. 10:19)... 5 When the Arameans of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David killed 22,000 Arameans. 6 Then David put garrisons among the Arameans of Damascus, and the Arameans became servants to David, bringing tribute...” (NASB)
o The subjugation of the foreigners wasn’t necessarily mean. I don’t know if David did this or not, but it was the practice of some ancient kings to take the sons of the noblemen of conquered countries and raise them in the palace of the conqueror, just as happened to Daniel in Babylon. That way the next generation would learn the culture and values of the conqueror and become trusted partners in the government and solidify the conqueror’s hold on the annexed nation.
o God Himself does this, as was prophecied in Isaiah 56:6-7 “And the sons of the foreigner, those joined upon Jehovah to minister to Him and to love the name of Jehovah, to belong to Him as servants... 7. I will cause them to go to my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer.”
o God also prophesied of the Messiah in Micah 7:17 that “...[Nations] will shake (רגז) out of their fortresses/borders (ממסגרתיהם)to Yahweh our God. They will be in dread (פּחד) and fear of Him.” (NAW)
o We see Jesus’ fulfillment of these prophecies in Revelation 7 “9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God... 15 ...they serve (λατρεύσουσιν) Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.” (NASB, cf. Col. 3:24)
· Did you know that when God saved you, He also had a role in mind for you to fulfill in His kingdom? It probably wasn’t to be a literal king, but He still gives you a dominion to exercise a kingly leadership over. Rev. 1:6 says He has made us to be royalty.
o It may be in your home, exercising leadership as a big brother or sister and making your bedroom and your backyard a place of order and joy and learning.
o It may be exercising leadership as a parent and creating culture and commerce and confidence in your household.
o It may be in a business, or in a company of soldiers, or in an office of civil government,
o but ever since God gave the dominion mandate in Genesis 1 to Adam and Eve, God’s people have had a domain to exercise dominion over.
o Even if it’s nothing physically bigger than a web domain on a computer hard drive, God has saved you for a purpose to fulfill a role in His kingdom!
· David opened the Psalm in v.1 with the words, “I will love you, Lord” אֶרְחָמְךָ יְהוָה חִזְקִי - The Hebrew verb translated “love” in v.1 is different from the usual Hebrew word for “love.” The word in v.1 is racham, which includes the feelings of affection we associate with love as well as the outward demonstration of those feelings in some form of action[1], so I think a good translation is “I will show affection for you, Yahweh.” Our love for God can express a priority of relationship with Him above all other relationships accompanied by feelings of affection and actions or words which demonstrate how fondly we prioritize our good relationship with God.
· In verse 46, David says that the LORD equals life.
o I stuck my neck out a little bit to translate it “Life is Yahweh,” rather than “Yahweh lives.” The Hebrew words themselves can be accurately translated either way, as the Hebrew word here could be a noun (“life”) or a verb (“he lives”).
o I think David is stating something more profound than simply the fact that our God is alive and is not an inanimate object like so many other gods are. I think David is stating something along the lines of what Jesus said of Himself when He said, “I am the way the truth, and the life...” (John 14:6).
o He is where life is to be found. The Lord gives us both life and meaning to our life. Can you say that is true in your experience?
o “Life is Jesus.” These are words of high praise. Sincere praise is a sacrifice which God says is well-pleasing to Him (Heb. 13:15-16). He made us and saved us in order that we might praise Him.
· Another way that David praises the LORD is to equate Yahweh with a certain kind of rock which offers signal protection.
o He opens the psalm with the declaration in verse 2 that the LORD...God is this kind of rock that he trusts in,
o and then, at the chiastic center of the Psalm, David repeats this truth as a rhetorical question in v.31 “...who could be such a rock except for our God?”
o Now at the close of the psalm, he blesses God for being that rock of stability, orientation, and safety.
· The Hebrew word for “retribution/vengeance” in v.47 is a reminder of two distinct periods of David’s life where God provided salvation.
o First is the God-given mission which God had given to the people of Israel to wipe out the Canaanite nations who were so perverted in their sin that nothing could be done but wipe them out.
§ The Hebrew word for “retribution/vengeance” is found in Num. 31, at the beginning of that mission under Moses’ leadership in the campaign against Midian.
§ Then Joshua and the Judges continued that mission. Jepthah was one of the Judges who brought God’s “vengeance” against the Ammonites (Judges 11:36).
§ David himself was on the tail-end of that mission in his campaigns against Philistines and Jebusites and other peoples who were “subdued” under him.
§ The Hebrew wording is literally “God... speaks nations under me;” God’s authority is such that all He has to do is say the word and the thing is done!
o But when it came to issues of personal injustice, David did not take revenge; he left that up to God. The phrase “the God who avenges me” had a poignant history behind it. David spent years enduring King Saul’s injustices, not avenging himself but waiting on God to avenge him. The same Hebrew word for “retribution/veangance” occurs in 2 Samuel 4:8 when, after King Saul’s death, some zealous followers of David murdered one of Saul’s relatives so that he would not be able to compete with David for the throne. David had those murders killed and said, “That’s not how I operate. I will wait upon God to take revenge for me; I will not take vengeance for myself.” That took real patient faith to trust that God would arrange justice in the end. But God did.
o When we tell stories like that of when we trusted God and God came through for us, that is a powerful way to praise God and exalt Him in the eyes of other people. What stories can you tell of God’s deliverance when you trusted Him?
· v.48 pictures getting up to a high place to get away from the violent man who is out to get David.
o This raises images in my mind of David escaping from the irrational violence of Saul earlier in his life by climbing up into caves in the mountains of Judea. But men and women of God have always been pursued by the violent, and God is ever the God of our rescue,
o whether it be Moses, drawn out of the water to be saved from Pharoah’s infanticide program
o or Jesus expatriated to Egypt to get away from Herod’s slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem,
o or the missionary doctor rescued from the Taliban in Afghanistan two years ago,
o or you rescued from the grip of some sin which could have destroyed you.
o As the book of Revelation pictures it, Satan, the dragon, is out to destroy the church, pictured as the woman in Revelation 12:4 “...And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.” (NASB)
o There are real physical and spiritual men of violence which we must depend upon Jesus our Lord to deliver us from, and then we can tell others of the deliverance He gave.
· The “therefore,” which begins v.49, gives the bottom line. In light of the deliverances God has provided it is our business to praise, thank, and sing praises to Him[2] – and even compose hymns to him, which is exactly what David is doing in this Psalm.
· David’s voice shouts to us across three thousand years of history, “Will you join with me in blessing this God who saved me? Will you exalt this God? Will you lift up your voice when you sing about Him? Will you be reverent with the use of His name? Will you talk up how important He is?” Let the God of David’s salvation and my salvation be exalted!
· But this is not merely to be done in the privacy of our own quiet times or just in the comfortable context of the church, but also throughout the world “with/among the nations.”
o 1 Chronicles 16 “23 Sing to the LORD, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. 24 Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. 25 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods.... 31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns.’” (NASB)
o How do we do that? Short-terms, International Student friendships, Websites/Blogs/Facebook pages, Being reverent with the names of God in your daily life, Sharing pieces of your life story with acquaintances. You could even try your hand at writing a song or writing lyrics that someone else could put music to!
o So, just as David was saved to fulfill a leadership role in God’s kingdom and to sing God’s praises throughout the world, so we too are saved to exercise dominion in some role and to extend the praises of God in this world. But I see one more reason:
· The word for “salvation/victories/deliverance” in Hebrew is yeshu’ot, the word usually used for “salvation,” and it is plural[3], indicating more than one occasion where the king has been saved by God.
o I think this refers to the many ways in which God mercifully intervenes to help us, both in the great sense of the Messiah’s crucifixion to save us from the wrath of God against our sins, but also in all the small interventions, like when He enabled you to overcome temptations to sin, or when He healed you from a sickness, or when He provided something you needed but couldn’t get for yourself.
o I’m reminded of an Amy Grant song from the 1980’s, “God only knows the times my life was threatened just today. A reckless car ran out of gas before it ran my way. Near misses all around me – accidents unknown. What I never see with human eye is the hands that lead me home. But I know they’re all around me, all day and through the night. When the enemy is closing in, I know sometimes they fight to keep my feet from falling – I’ll never turn away!”
o The word chesed, translated “lovingkindness/mercy/steadfast love” is often found in the Bible next to the word “salvation[4]” and I think it emphasizes that this salvation is not earned; it is a gracious gift of God (Eph. 2). God does these things for us simply because He is kind and merciful and loves us.
o The picture that the opening of verse 50 seems to present is of God heaping up one saving action after another in the life of David, day by day, year by year, decade by decade, and here he is toward the end of his life saying, “What a list of salvations I could compile! I know this Psalm is long, but I could have made it much longer!”
o And this history of God’s faithfulness points to a trend we can bank on for the future:
· God will continue forever into the future to save and demonstrate His loving-kindness
o Hannah was the first in the Bible to speak of the Lord’s anointed one. She lived before there were kings in Israel and prophecied of a Messiah who would be a king (1 Samuel 2:10).
o She taught this to her son Samuel, who was the next person in the Bible to use the phrase, “his anointed” (1 Samuel 12:3-5),
o and Samuel got to see the beginning of the fulfillment of his mother’s prophecy when he anointed David as king over Israel (1 Sam. 16:6), but David was only the beginning.
o David also prophecied of the LORD’s anointed yet to come. The singular “seed” of David, as the Apostle Paul explains in Galatians 3:16, is Christ Jesus, who was anointed with the Holy Spirit – whom the oil represented all along when His predecessors were anointed (Acts 4:27; 10:38; Heb. 1:9). Jesus is the Messianic king who reigns forever. His reign is obscure now and not acknowledged by most people, but when He comes again, it will become obvious and universally-recognized.
o But the Apostles taught that that anointing does not stop at Jesus; you too are the Lord’s anointed, according to 2 Corinthians 1:21 and 1 John 2:27. If you are united to Christ by faith, you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit too! The covenantal, gracious lovingkindness of God which the anointed kings of Israel enjoyed is Christ’s now, and Christ just as freely shares it with those who love Him! (Not just for 4 years like our Presidents have but forever!)
o Thus you can be confident that no matter what happens in the future, you will be able to trust Jesus. No matter what threats you may encounter in the years to come, you can count on God to deliver you and add to that long list of His saving interventions in the lives of those He loves.
·
You have been saved in order to continue trusting in His
future salvations.
You have been saved to sing the praises of Christ Jesus throughout the world.
And you have been saved to fulfill a role in the kingdom of God.
May God grant us faithfulness to fulfill these callings “which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10, NASB).
The following are my annotations on additions, subtractions, and changes from the Masoretic text in the Septuagint and the standard English translations, along with other translation notes and cross-references:
|
PSALM 18 |
NAW |
KJV |
NKJV |
ESV |
NASB |
NIV |
LXX (17) |
Brenton |
|
מד תְּפַלְּטֵנִי מֵרִיבֵי עָם[5] תְּשִׂימֵנִי לְרֹאשׁ גּוֹיִם עַם לֹא יָדַעְתִּי יַעַבְדוּנִי. |
43 You deliver me from the accusations of [my] people. You position me at the head of nations – [even of[6]] an ethic-group I did not know – they serve me. |
43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. |
43 You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; You have made me the head of the nations; A people I have not known shall serve me. |
43 You delivered me from strifex [with] the people; you made me the head of the nations; people [whom] I had not known served me. |
43 You have delivered me from the contentions of the people; You have placed me as head of the nations; A people [whom] I have not known serve me. |
43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the
people; you have made me the head of nations; people I did not know |
43 ῥύσῃ με ἐξ ἀντιλογιῶν λαοῦ, καταστήσεις με εἰς κεφαλὴν ἐθνῶν· λαός, [ὃν] οὐκ ἔγνων, ἐδούλευσ |
43 Deliver me from the gain sayings of the people: thou shalt make me head of the Gentiles: a people whom I knew not served me, |
|
מה לְשֵׁמַע אֹזֶן יִשָּׁמְעוּ[7] לִי בְּנֵי נֵכָר יְכַחֲשׁוּ[8] לִי. |
44 As soon as the sound [reaches their] ear, sons of the foreigner are heedful to me, they are obsequious toward me. |
44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me. |
44 As soon as they hear of me they obey me; The foreigners submit to me. |
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me; foreigners came cringing to me. |
44 As soon as they hear, they obey me; Foreigners submit to me. |
44 As soon as they hear [me], they obey me; foreigners cringe before me. |
44 εἰς ἀκοὴν ὠτίου ὑπήκουσέν μοι· υἱοὶ ἀλλότριοι ἐψεύσαντό μοι, |
44 at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me: the strange children lied to me. |
|
PSALM 18 |
NAW |
KJV |
NKJV |
ESV |
NASB |
NIV |
LXX (17) |
Brenton |
|
מו בְּנֵי נֵכָר יִבֹּלוּ וְיַחְרְגוּ[9] מִמִּסְגְּרוֹתֵיהֶם. |
45 Sons of the foreigner wilt, and they become jumpy from their borders[10]. |
45 The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places. |
45 The foreigners fade away, And come frightened from their hideouts. |
45 Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses. |
45 Foreigners fade away, And come trembling out of their fortresses. |
45 X They |
45 υἱοὶ ἀλλότριοι ἐπαλαιώθησαν καὶ |
45 The strange children waxed old,
and |
|
מז חַי יְהוָה וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי וְיָרוּם אֱלוֹהֵי[11] יִשְׁעִי. |
46 Life is Yahweh, so let my landmark-Rock be blessed and let the God of my salvation be exalted. |
46 The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. |
46 The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted. |
46 The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation-- |
46 The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock; And exalted be the God of my salvation, |
46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior! |
46 ζῇ κύριος, καὶ εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεός μου, καὶ ὑψωθήτω ὁ θεὸς τῆς σωτηρίας μου, |
46 The Lord lives; and blessed be my God; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. |
|
מח הָאֵל הַנּוֹתֵן נְקָמוֹת לִי וַיַּדְבֵּר[12] עַמִּים תַּחְתָּי. |
47 This God[13] is the One who deals out retributions for me, and decrees peoples to be under me, |
47 It is God that X avengeth me, and subdueth the peopleX under me. |
47 It is God who X avenges me, And subdues the peoples under me; |
47 the God who gave me vengeanceX and subdued peoples under me, |
47 The God who executes vengeanceX for me, And subdues peoples under me. |
47 He is the God who X avenges me, who subdues nations under me, |
47 ὁ θεὸς ὁ διδοὺς ἐκδικήσεις ἐμοὶ καὶ ὑποτάξας λαοὺς ὑπ᾿ ἐμέ, |
47 It is God that avenges me, and has subdued the nations under me; |
|
מט מְפַלְּטִי[14] מֵאֹיְבָי אַף מִן קָמַי תְּרוֹמְמֵנִי מֵאִישׁ חָמָס תַּצִּילֵנִי. |
48 delivering me from my enemies. Yes, You exalt me apart from the one who rises up [against] me. You cause me to escape[15] from a man of violence. |
48 He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. |
48 He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man. |
48 who delivered me from my enemies; yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me; you rescued me from the man of violence. |
48 He delivers me from my enemies; Surely You lift me above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent man. |
48 who |
48 ὁ ῥύστης μου ἐξ ἐχθρῶν μου |
48 my deliverer from |
|
נ עַל כֵּן אוֹדְךָ בַגּוֹיִם יְהוָה וּלְשִׁמְךָ אֲזַמֵּרָה. |
49 Therefore I respond with[17] the nations to Yahweh and make music to Your name. |
49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. |
49 Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name. |
49 For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing to your name. |
49 Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O LORD, And I will sing praises to Your name. |
49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name. |
49 διὰ τοῦτο ἐξομολογήσομαί σοι ἐν ἔθνεσιν, κύριε, καὶ τῷ ὀνόματί σου ψαλῶ, |
49 Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name. |
|
מגדל [מַגְדִּיל[18]] יְשׁוּעוֹת מַלְכּוֹ וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לִמְשִׁיחוֹ לְדָוִד וּלְזַרְעוֹ עַד עוֹלָם. |
50 He causes to increase the salvations of His king and makes loving-kindness for His anointed one – to David and to his seed until forever. |
50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore. |
50 Great deliverance He gives to His king, And shows mercy to His anointed, To David and his descendants forevermore. |
50 Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever. |
50 He gives great deliverance to His king, And shows lovingkindness to His anointed, To David and his descendants forever. |
50 He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. |
50 μεγαλύνων τὰς σωτηρίας τοῦ βασιλέως αὐτοῦ καὶ ποιῶν ἔλεος τῷ χριστῷ αὐτοῦ, τῷ Δαυιδ καὶ τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ ἕως αἰῶνος. |
50 [God] magnifies the deliverances of his king; and deals mercifully with David his anointed, and his seed, for ever. |
[1] It is usually translated “have compassion on” when this verb is used to describe God relating to humans, but humans can reflect this divine character quality back to God or to other people. It’s interesting that the Septuagint translated it with the Greek root agape.
[2] cf. the same words in the conclusion of Psalm 7:17 “I will respond to Yahweh according to His righteousness, and I will hymn the name of Yahweh the Most High.”
[3] The other instances of this word in the plural in the O.T. outside this Psalm are Psalm 28:8; 42:5; 44:4; 74:12; 116:13
[4] e.g. Psalms 5:7; 6:4; 13:5; 17:7
[5] 2 Sam 22:44 specifies “my people” i.e. internal political rivals, and substitutes a shamar verb (“kept”) as a synonym for the sim verb (“placed”) in the following word.
[6] The Hebrew grammar is unusual here. The word for “people/ethnic group” is singular (עַם /laoV) and comes in an emphatic position before the verb, yet the final verb is plural (“they serve”). I have attempted to solve that difficulty by interpreting the emphatic position as a parenthetical addition to the object of the previous construct, applying “head of” to both the goyim and to the am, so that both the foreign nations and the home people serve this king.
[7] The Niphal (Passive) spelling is confusing, but without the vowel pointings (added in the 900’s AD), the Qal (Active) would look exactly the same. It appears that the LXX interpreted this as a Qal long before the pointings were added, and the English versions also interpreted this as Qal despite the Masoretic pointings, so I’ll follow suit.
[8] 2 Sam. 22:45 renders this verb in Hitpael (reflexive action) instead of a straight Piel and switches the order of the verse, but this doesn’t essentially change meaning.
[9] Hapex legomenon, the only other occurrence of any word sharing that root in the Old Testament is the chargal, an edible locust mentioned in Lev. 11:22.
[10] Of the 17 occurrences of this word, English versions concur in 14 of those occasions that it should be translated “rim/border.” This psalm and Micah 7:17 are the exception, but was an exception necessary? Why not picture foreigners voluntarily changing allegiance to the King rather than being chased down and forced to surrender?
[11] 2 Sam. 22:47 inserts “rock of” (צור) here
[12] 2 Sam 22:48 substitutes the verb ומוריד which is more properly “to subdue.” The dbr verb here in Ps. 18 more properly means “to speak words,” and is a different word than the Hebrew word in v39 which some English versions translate “subdue.” Of the over 1,100 times that the verb davar appears in the O.T., English versions only translate it “subdue” in two places, namely here and in Psalm 47:3.
[13] Compare to v.30 “this God; his ways have integrity” and 32 “this God really equps me with resources and gives integrity to my way”
[14] 2 Sam 22:49 reads “bringing me out” (ומוציאי) instead of “delivering me” and also it pluralizes the word for violence, neither of which makes a big difference.
[15] cf. v.17
[16] The Hebrew word for “anger” is spelled with the same two consonants as the Hebrew word for “moreover” so this confusion is understandable. 2 Sam 22:49, however omits this word altogether.
[17] This Hebrew preposition does not specify whether “with the nations” or “among the nations” is intended. David’s role was not very apostolic, although he did spend some time living with Philistines and fighting other neighboring peoples. Solomon had much more of the role of praising God among the nations. In this verse, if David had meant to exclude the meaning “with” he could have used the word btvk instead to more clearly indicate “among,” but since he didn’t and since David was aware of God’s plan to bless all nations that they might all bless His name, I decided to use the word “with” instead of “among.”
[18] The qere (marginal notes in the Masoretic Hebrew text) here suggests adding a yod to conform with the spelling of this Psalm’s counterpart in 2 Sam 22:51 (the only place in the O.T. where this spelling occurs apart from the qere notes), shifting the meaning from the noun “tower” to the participle “making great.” This consonantal spelling of the keteb is found in Psalm 61:3 “For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy” (the only other place in the O.T. where that spelling occurs). Since the LXX and all the standard English versions go with the qere, I will too.