Return to the The Psalms of David

Main Idea: In Psalm 18 David shared his life’s testimony in song. We can learn from David’s testimony that a good testimony includes two very simple thoughts.

B. Love is a heartfelt response to God’s grace which shows up in action that pleases

C. He shares his response: “Now I’m giving God honor with my lips and my life”

Last Sunday evening in our service at Scioto Hills God gripped me and those present in a powerful way through the instrument of a personal testimony. A testimony is a story, a true story in which a person shares what God has done in his or her life, with the desire to see God use that story to encourage others to praise Him. That’s what happened last Sunday. God grabbed our hearts and turned them upward by means of a testimony.

That’s one of the reasons I value and encourage you to value Christian biographies, stories of how God worked in and through the lives of His people in the past to bring honor to Himself. If you have an MP3 player, I urge you to download and listen to the biographies John Piper has presented yearly at his pastor’s conference (www.desiringgody.org /resource library/biographies link). Your soul will be stirred as you hear what God accomplished through individuals like Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, Adoniram Judson, George Muller, Andrew Fuller, John Newton, and many more.

This morning I want to share with you someone else’s testimony. This particular testimony is quite unique. For starters, when the person first gave it, he sang it. What’s more, he sang it nearly 3,000 years ago but due to its timeless qualities, it will edify our hearts in the 21^st century. And the reason this testimony is so inspiring is because this testimony was inspired. God the Holy Spirit directed this man to record his experience with God and incorporated it into His holy Scriptures.

The person is David and the testimony is recorded in Psalm 18. To begin, I’d like to make some general observations about this testimony.

First, it’s a long testimony. I timed it last week—it took me five minutes and thirty seconds just to read Psalm 18. With fifty verses, it’s the fourth longest psalm.

It’s an important testimony. The testimony you find in Psalm 18 is repeated almost verbatim in 2 Samuel 22, fifty verses worth of repetition. That’s significant. If God says something to us once in His Word, it deserves our utmost attention. But if He includes it twice, how much more so! It’s possible that David shared this testimony on more than one occasion, hence its duplication in Scripture.

It’s a personal testimony. It’s about what God did in David’s life. As we’ll see, David fills it with personal pronouns: I, my, and me…referring to himself, and…You…You…You…referring to God.

It’s a God-glorifying testimony. You don’t come away from Psalm 18 thinking, “What a great guy David was!” but rather, “What a great God David served!” And may that be the effect our testimonies, indeed our lives have on others. May they think great thoughts about our God as a result of hearing and seeing us!

This summer we’ve been examining the psalms David wrote that include the historical setting in the heading. There are fourteen such psalms, and we’re taking them in chronological order. This morning we come to number ten, Psalm 18. Note the superscription…

For the director of music – David wrote this song but he put it in the hands of his music director so he could teach it to the rest of God’s people. The psalms are “take home theology,” as our church songs should be.

Of David the servant of the LORD – Though a king, David refers to himself as a servant. Though Israel ’s leader, he sees himself as one under authority. And the title also means he is entitled to resources beyond his own, His Master’s resources.

He sang to the LORD the words of this song – David sang this song to the Lord [KJV says unto the Lord]. His objective wasn’t to entertain. It wasn’t to get applause from people. He wrote and sang the song to and for the Lord. The by-product was the edification of God’s people. That’s a good reminder not only for those who ministry in music in the church, but for those who minister in any ministry in the church. It’s to the Lord. And notice when David sang this song…

When the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul – Note that David did not consider Saul his enemy, even though Saul at least twice fired a spear at him and for years hunted him down like a criminal to kill him. Time after time God delivered David from Saul’s hateful hand. And the Lord did the same with David’s enemies.

Don’t minimize the plural enemies. God delivered David from death’s door over and over again as enemies tried to get their hands around David’s neck. I checked out 1 & 2 Samuel to make a list of David’s enemies, and was surprised at its length. The people who opposed and often threatened David’s life in 1 Samuel included: Goliath (ch 17), the Philistines (ch 18), Doeg the Edomite (chs 21-22), the townspeople of Keilah (ch 23), the Ziphites (ch 23), Nabal (ch 25), the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites (ch 27), the and the Amalekites again (ch 30). In 2 Samuel the list includes: Abner and Saul’s household (chs 2-3), the Jebusites and the Philistines (ch 5), the Philistines again, as well as the Moabites, the king of Zobah, the Arameans, and the Edomites (ch 8), the Ammonites and Arameans (ch 10), his own son Absalom who tried to kill him (chs 15-18), Sheba a Benjamite (ch 20), and the Philistines again (ch 21).

So you think you’ve got problem-people in your life?! Count them. At least seven men and ten people-groups/nations opposed and often tried to kill David. When he says he had enemies, he means it! And when he says the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, that’s saying something! Humanly speaking, David should have died long before he wrote this song. But God delivered him and that’s why he wrote it![1]

The psalm-introduction ends with the words, He said. What follows is what David said, what David sang to the One who rescued him from close call after close call.

I saw Pikes Peak last summer. I walked outside of my brother’s house in Colorado Springs and looked to the southwest and there it was, towering into the blue sky. Later that same week, we drove to the base of that mountain, got on a train and made our way up to the top, 14,110 feet above sea level. Our reason for making the trip to the top was simple. We just had to see what our eyes had seen!

That’s what I want to do this morning with Psalm 18. I want you to see it so that you will want to see it again. Because of its length there’s no way we can take a close up look in one sermon. That’s okay. My aim, to use the analogy, is to take you outside of my brother’s house and show you this glorious mountain called Psalm 18. I believe that once you see it you’ll want to see it again, and again, and again.

In Psalm 18 David shares his life’s testimony in song. Let’s listen to David as he communicates two very simple, yet heartfelt thoughts.

Verse 1 “I love you, O LORD.”[2] What a way to begin a song! David uses God’s covenant name, Yahweh, and tells him that he loves Him. He begins to tell us why in the verses that follow…

Verses 1-3 “I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”

The praise just cascades from David’s lips in rapid fire fashion. My rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my shield, my horn, my stronghold. That’s what Yahweh is to me, and more! You get the sense that David just can’t say enough about the One he loves.

Sometimes we complicate things too much. The Bible makes it clear that the essence of true religion is loving the Lord with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut. 6:5). Jesus called this the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:38). We don’t enter a relationship with God by loving Him (or doing anything else, for salvation is by grace, not our works). Yet once saved, the appropriate response is to love Him. “We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).”

Yet David here uses an uncommon word for love.[3] Rawkham communicates intimacy, closeness, and tenderness. By definition it means “to love deeply, to have mercy, to have tender affection.”[4]

A. Love is not heartless duty. Sometimes I think we overreact to the world’s concept of love. Love is feeling, says the world. And we react, “No, love isn’t feeling. It’s action. It’s doing what’s right even if you don’t feel like it.” To which God’s Word would say, “Yes, do what’s right even if you don’t feel like it, but then find out why you don’t feel like it!”

Would you marry a person who said, “Well, I don’t feel a thing for you, but I promise I’ll always do right towards you.”? I doubt it. Why do we think that God would be pleased with heartless duty? Let’s learn from David. Here’s a definition of love that grows out of Psalm 18.

B. Love is a heartfelt response to God’s grace which shows up in action that pleases Him.

What David did for God was heartfelt. And what David did was in response to what God had graciously done for him. And what David felt about God showed up in tangible, God-pleasing action in his life. Here are four examples mentioned in the psalm.

1. He called on the Lord (6). “In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help.” David showed God he loved him by talking to Him, by praying.

2. He learned and obeyed God’s law (22). “All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees.” If you really love God you’ll want to find out what pleases Him. That means you must spend time in His Word learning and then applying what He says. That’s what David did, and his actions proved his love for God.

3. He kept himself from sin (21). “For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God.” When a man says he loves his wife but then fails to turn away from improper relationships with other women, his actions are proving that his words are a lie. If I love my spouse, I will show it by turning away from that which would displease my spouse. So too, if I truly love God then I must make daily decisions to turn away from things that displease Him, from sin—from little white lies, from suggestive humor, from unforgiving attitudes, from worldly entertainment, and so on.

4. He sang to the Lord (49). “I will sing praises to your name,” says David to the Lord. Why do we sing in church? Here’s why. It’s any way to express our love for the Lord. And I hope you sing to the Lord more than just on Sundays. He who has done so much for us deserves our unending praise!

Bernard of Clairvaux expressed it so well in his twelfth century hymn, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” Here’s what he told the Lord…

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

It’s a terrible thing when a child of God outlives his love for Jesus. Better to die in the prime of life than to coast home with a cold heart. You say, “I want a heart like David’s. Why did he love God so much?” Thankfully, he tells us. That’s the second very simple thought he expressed in this mountain of a hymn. First, he tells the Lord he loves him, and then in the rest of the hymn…

Here’s where I’m going to do my best to restrain myself from getting in the train and taking you up the mountain! Time prohibits that. Instead we’ll have to settle for a distance, big-picture look at “Mount Psalm 18.”

What David shares in the rest of the psalm illustrates for us three thoughts that are in the heart of a person who truly loves God. This is his testimony. He’s finishing the sentence for us, “I love the Lord because…” And here’s David’s answer…

Let’s get out the binoculars and (still from a distance) take a closer look at this mountain. Here’s David’s first thought.

A. He shares the reason: “I was in trouble” (4-6). What kind of trouble, David? He tells us in verses 4-6: “The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.”

You say, “When did anybody ever tie a cord around David’s neck?” They didn’t, as far as we know. This is poetry. David is telling the Lord and us how he felt. And he says he felt like death itself had wrapped its noose around his neck and there was no way out. The fact is, as we mentioned earlier…

1. David faced death many times (4-5). What David says here in poetry, he told his friend Jonathan once in prose, in a statement in 1 Samuel 20:3, “There is only a step between me and death.”

Dale Ralph Davis reminds us, “His distress when far beyond facing gall bladder surgery or replacing a defunct automatic transmission. Death daily dogged his tracks. He was most wanted man on Saul’s hit list. One might escape once or twice, but what are the ordinary chances of salvaging your skin when the king stays on a concerted, relentless campaign to make Sheol your new address?”[5]

2. David asked God for help (6). In fact, in verse 6 he says he cried to his God for help, recalling situations that were so bad that he felt he was sure to die, and all he could do was cry and ask God for help.

B. He shares the results: “God helped me” (7-45). Which raises the question, “How did God help you, David?” According to David, He did so in three ways.

1. God fought for David (7-24). Before reading the section let me tell you what you’re about to hear. In telling us how God fought for him he uses language reminiscent of how God intervened for Israel at the Red Sea and Mount Sinai . God showed up like an earthquake (7), a fire-breathing dragon (8), a great storm (9-13), and a fighting warrior (14).[6] That’s what God did for me too, David says. Now let’s read David’s testimony:

Verses 7-19 “The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.[7] He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”

Did you catch the repeated use of the pronoun “He”? He parted the heavens. He shots his arrows. He reached down and took hold of me. He rescued me from my enemy. He did it! says David. God helped me by fighting for me!

Granted, David could have told us the facts in a lot less words. But his intent isn’t merely to tell us about the Lord. He chooses and uses the kind of language that enables us to see the Lord in His magnificent splendor.

Someone once approached the famous eighteenth century preacher George Whitefield in Philadelphia and asked if he might print his sermons. Whitefield replied, “Well, I have no inherent objection, if you like, but you will never be able to put on the printed page the lightning and the thunder.”[8]

That raises this question. Why did God fight for David? David himself expressed two answers to that question. First…

a. He did so because of grace (19). Did you catch the final words of verse 19? “He rescued me because he delighted in me.” God is no man’s debtor. He doesn’t owe anyone anything. The only exception I know of this is that He is obligated by His own just nature to repay sin with death (Rom. 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death”). God’s salvation isn’t an obligation. To use the language of Romans 6:23, it’s a gift of God available through Jesus Christ. If God saves a sinner, it’s always by His unmerited, undeserved favor. “For by grace are you saved through faith,” says Ephesians 2:8.

Why did God save David’s life over and over again? “Because He delighted in me,” says David. David was a teenage boy when he first learned this. God had told the prophet Samuel that He had chosen one of Jesse’s sons to be Israel ’s next king, so Samuel went to anoint that son. When he saw Jesse’s oldest, he thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here (1 Sam. 16:6).” But Yahweh responded, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him (7).” Then Jesse brought his next oldest son to Samuel, who responded, “Yahweh has not chosen this one either (8).” Samuel gave the same response to his third son, “Nor has Yahweh chosen this one (9).” Then came sons four, five, six, and seven, and Samuel responded, “Yahweh has not chosen these (10).” Finally, David, who had been out in the field watching tending the sheep at the time, was brought to Samuel, and Yahweh told Samuel, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.” “And from that day on,” says 1 Samuel 16:13, “the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.”

David never got over the wonder of God’s sovereign, electing love. Because He delighted in me He rescued me.

In his commentary on verse 19, the prince of nineteenth century preachers, Charles Spurgeon, had this to say, “Rest assured, if we go deep enough sovereign grace is the truth which lies at the bottom of every well of mercy. Deep sea fisheries in the ocean of divine bounty always bring the pearls of electing, discriminating love to light. Why Jehovah should delight in us is an answerless question, and a mystery which angels cannot solve; but that he does delight in his beloved is certain, and is the fruitful root of favours as numerous as they are precious.”[9]

Why did God fight for David? Because of grace, says David. But in the verses that follow David offers another reason for God’s help, one that sounds almost contradictory to the first. David says in verses 20-24:

“The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God. All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.” Why did God help David? Here’s reason number two…

b. He did so because of David’s righteousness (20, 24). Dale Ralph Davis asks the question you may be thinking, “How can David who had Uriah’s blood on his hands and Uriah’s wife in his bed even dream of saying anything like [this]?” Does David believe in works-righteousness and sinless perfection? No.

Ralph Davis answers his own question by commenting on the word translated ‘righteousness’ in verse 24: “The Hebrew tamim does not connote sinlessness but wholeness, completeness, integrity. David does not claim perfection in life’s particulars but wholeheartedness in life’s commitment.”[10]

David knows he’s a sinner, and he knows that God knows. He knows that salvation is by grace, not works. But he’s not talking about his salvation here. He’s talking about why God rescued him from Saul and all his other enemies. Reason number one—it was because of grace. And the second reason flowed out of the first. Because of God’s grace in his life, David lived a righteous—a committed, wholehearted, God-focused—life.

I love my daughters and nothing could ever change that. They are mine because God graciously enabled their mother and me to gave them life. As a dad, I give to meet their needs because that’s what a loving dad does. Last week someone came to me and said, “I just want you to know that your daughter is doing an excellent job…” and then proceeded to describe something my daughter had done, something right.

Now answer this. Do our children’s righteous actions affect us as parents? Sure they do. Just like their unrighteous actions do. We love to help them when they do right. Does that mean their righteous actions earn our love? No. The fact of our love goes with being a good parent. The way we express our love is linked to their actions—we reward righteousness and discipline unrighteousness.

Hear David again in verse 24, “The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness.” Can you say that? It’s not the perfection of your life that’s the issue. It’s the direction. Does the normal pattern of your life point to God, or is He merely an afterthought, an add on, a Sunday special?[11]

David could speak of his righteousness, but in a relative sense. Yet as we’ll see at the end of the psalm, Psalm 18 is messianic. It points ahead to the Messiah. Messiah Jesus fulfilled this psalm (and all Old Testament Scripture). He exhibited righteousness in the ultimate sense. Jesus never sinned. Jesus always did what was right. And when we believe in Jesus and accept Him as our Savior, God credits Jesus’ righteousness to our account (that’s called justification; see 2 Cor. 5:21).

We could put it this way. God gives us righteousness by His grace, and then rewards us for it. He helped David because of His grace and because of the result of that grace which was righteousness in David’s life.

Now let’s step back again and look at the mountain. I was in trouble, says David, and God helped me. How did God help David? First of all, God fought for David. Next…

“To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty. You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn. I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet. You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes. They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the LORD, but he did not answer. I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind; I poured them out like mud in the streets.”

In the previous section I pointed out the third person pronouns, He…He…He… That’s how God helped David. He fought for David. But don’t get the idea that means David was passive. Notice the first person pronouns in this section: I pursued my enemies (37)…I crushed them (38)…I destroyed my foes (40)…I beat them as fine as dust (42). God fought for David, yes, and one of the ways He did so was by enabling David to fight!

At the end of verse 35 we find what may be the most staggering statement in the whole psalm. David says to God, “You stoop down to make me great.”[12] I said I would try to stay away from the mountain, but this astounding sentence demands a closer look! David communicates two truths here that ought to take our breath away. He says that…

a. God stooped down. That’s what any parent does when his hurting child cries out, “Help me!” He or she stoops down to intervene. That’s what God did for me, says David. God lowered Himself, says David. God humbled Himself!

This verse sums up the message of the Bible. God stooped! When David was in trouble, He stooped to help him. But that’s merely a foreshadowing of what happened 2,000 years ago. In Bethlehem’s manger, God’s Son, in obedience to His Father’s will and seeing the predicament of helpless sinners, stooped down, way down, and became a man. And He lived as a man, a righteous man, for thirty-three years. And then He stooped down even further. “He humbled himself and became obedient to death,” says Philippians 2:8, “even death on a cross.”

And why? Why would God stoop down so far? Hear David’s answer: “You stoop down to make me great.” If truth #1 was shocking, how about truth #2?

b. God makes undeserving people great. Spurgeon wrote, “It is God’s making himself little which is the cause of our being made great. We are so little that if God should manifest his greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under his feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies and bow to see what angels do, looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great.”[13]

How great? you ask. How great does God make undeserving people? He makes them His children, says John 1:12. He makes them joint-heirs with Christ, says Romans 8:17.

“How can I become God’s child?” you ask. Believe in the One who stooped down, for He’s no longer down. He conquered the grave and is seated high on His heavenly throne. All authority is His, and He’s willing to save the lowliest sinner who cries out to Him! Call on Him, and David’s testimony will be yours: “He stooped down to make me great!” David actually sings about how God exalted him in verses 43-45:

“You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations; people I did not know are subject to me. As soon as they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cringe before me. They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.” Yes…

3. God exalted David (43-45). And as amazing as it is, it’s true. When David took over as king, Israel was a tiny nation, just getting its feet on the ground, surrounded by at least six frontiers to defend.[14] Humanly speaking,

Israel

should never have survived. But Israel didn’t exist humanly speaking, but because of God!

C. He shares his response: “Now I’m giving God honor with my lips and my life” (46-50). Hear David as he finishes his song in verses 46-50: “The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior! He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from violent men you rescued me. Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name. He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”

After the English victory at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), Henry V of England ordered the singing of Psalm 115. Henry prostrated himself on the ground and caused the whole army to do the same, while the words pealed forth, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give glory.”[15]

That’s the proper response when you’re in trouble and God helps you. Give Him the honor. That’s what David did…

The apostle Paul actually saw connections to the Messiah here and quoted verse 49 in Romans 15:9, to show that Christ came for the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Much in this psalm looks beyond David and “agrees better with Christ,” as Calvin put it.[16] Lane explains, “This anticipates Christ’s overthrow of the powers of evil on the cross ( Co. 2:15) and his ultimate triumph at the final battle (1 Cor. 15:25; Rev. 19:11-16; 20:7-10).”[17] Yes, when you look closely at this mountain, you can see Christ!

1. Have you come to grips with what the Lord has done for you? David could say, I was in trouble. The Lord helped me. Now I’m giving Him honor with my lips and life. If you are a Christian, God has done so much for you, hasn’t He? He delivered you from your enemies: sin, self, Satan, death, eternal destruction, to name a few. If you’re not a Christian, He will deliver you from these enemies if you will repent and receive His Son.

2. Do you love the Lord? Take another look at that mountain. Why did David say all these things about God? It’s not because he had to, but because he wanted to. He loved the Lord! Do you?

I wonder sometimes if the reason we struggle to come to church, or spend time daily in God’s Word, or share about the Lord with our unsaved neighbors, isn’t linked to a very fundamental problem. We don’t love Him as we ought. You didn’t have to force David to praise the Lord. Because David loved the Lord, he couldn’t contain his lips!

However…you can’t share your testimony if you don’t have one, and you don’t have a testimony if one of two things is true: one, if you don’t know the Lord; and two, if you know the Lord but your life doesn’t back up your lips, if what you say is inconsistent with what you do. But if you have a testimony, then this question is for you…

3. Are you sharing your testimony? Here’s a good place to start. You’ve just seen the mountain. Get alone with God this afternoon, see it again, and do what David did!

**Note: This is an unedited manuscript of a message preached at Wheelersburg Baptist Church . It is provided to prompt your continued reflection on the practical truths of the Word of God.

[1] Kidner suggests that David wrote this victory song early in his reign as king and before his blunder with Bathsheba; D. Kidner, p. 91.

[2] David’s testimony in 2 Samuel 22 doesn’t include this verse.

[3] “It usually expresses the compassionate love of the stronger for the weaker.” Kidner, p. 91.

[4] Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon; It’s often translated ‘to have compassion,’ such as towards orphans.

[5] Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Samuel, p. 235.

[6] Eric Lane , p. 92-93.

[7] Commenting on verse 8 Charles Spurgeon remarks, “Nothing makes God so angry as an injury done to his children.” Spurgeon, p. 239.

[8] Dale Ralph Davis, p. 237.

[9] Spurgeon, p. 241.

[10] Dale Ralph Davis, p. 239.

[11] Davis said it well, “Such folks have no ongoing commitment to Yahweh, only a temporary need for him. They want no covenant relation with Yahweh; they only crave his prostituting himself for their immediate crisis. They do not seek God but a bomb shelter.” Dale Ralph Davis, p. 240.

[12] The Hebrew suggests, “Your gentleness made (or will make) me great.” Kidner, p. 95.

[13] Spurgeon, p. 246.

[14] Lane, p. 95.

[15] W. G. Blaikie, as told by Dale Ralph Davis, p. 242.

[16] Calvin quoted in Kidner, p. 90.

[17] Lane, p. 95.