The Song of the Servant's Love

Psalm 18 is special for a few reasons. Obviously, it is one of the longest psalms in the whole book, and it also has one of the longest titles. This psalm and Psalm 36 are the only ones to call David “the servant of the Lord,” and in fact there are only three people in the Bible who receive that specific title: Moses, Joshua, and David, three of Israel’s key leaders in different phases of their existence. There doesn’t seem to be a specific situation in David’s mind other than a general gratitude to God for saving him from his enemies, especially his rival Saul. David was repeatedly chased and pursued throughout almost his entire reign, and this song might have been from a later time when David is looking back upon his long life and long history of conflict to give thanks to the God who always protected him. Another interesting feature of Psalm 18 is that it is almost identical to David’s song in 2 Samuel 22. There are slight variations between them, most of them minor, and it’s likely that Psalm 18 was adapted from that song for the whole people to sing, since the one in 2 Samuel seems to be intended to summarize David’s military victories with the strength of the Lord behind him. Whatever the context, Psalm 18 is a powerful invitation for us to step into the shoes of Israel’s greatest king. What changes a song of thanksgiving when it’s composed by a king? Does it give it a “royal flavor”? The first line is certainly not formal or regal but is deeply expressive: “I love you, O LORD, my strength.” “Love” here isn’t the usual Hebrew word: it’s racham, which is sometimes translated as “deep compassion” or “mercy.” It’s connected to the word for womb and for motherly love, and in the Old Testament, it most often describes God’s actions that are motivated by his emotions for his people. David is talking to God like a child to his parent. It’s one of the most intimate first lines of any psalm. He then strings together a series of nine images, each with the word “my” in front of it: my strength, my rock (or crag in a cliff), my fortress, my deliverer, my rock (a different Hebrew word), my refuge, my shield, my horn of salvation, and my stronghold. Most of these words are from the time of David’s life when he was forced to hide in a cave from Saul’s armies, so this rapid-fire testimony is like reliving his escapes and victories to show God’s protection over him when he was at his lowest. There’s another subtle connection here to the past, in the use of the word “rock.” It echoes the famous Song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32, when Moses — another servant of the Lord — sang over the people of Israel right before his death and declared that there is none like the Lord who is Israel’s rock. Like Moses, David is looking back over his life, and he wants to communicate one thing to God: I love you like I am your child, because there is no refuge or safe place other than a life lived in service to you.

The scene suddenly shifts. David calls upon the LORD, because “cords of death” and “torrents of destruction” are threatening to pull him down like a net that snares its prey or seaweed that entangles and drags someone down. It’s a vivid way to describe the terrifying power of death that sometimes seems inescapable. Before he’s pulled under the waves, David prays for God to help him, and as soon as the prayer reaches God’s ears, everything changes. Verse 7: “Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.” The small scale of the initial intimacy between David and his God turns into an epic, cataclysmic event. God appears with smoke in his nose and fire in his mouth, like a dragon of mythology who rides on a chariot throne of stormclouds with rain and hail. Cherubim appear, as they often do in parts of the Bible that emphasize God’s holiness. God speaks with thunderous power to rebuke and scatter David’s enemies. It’s almost cinematic in the way we can picture it in our minds, and it seems intentional to move back and forth between images of fire and water because these are taken from other parts of the Bible as symbols of divine wrath and judgment. In particular, David evokes the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (where God destroyed the wicked with volcanic devastation), the Exodus (where God delivered his people through the waters that he then used to decimate Pharoah), and the mountain of Sinai, where God in his terrifying glory spoke to Moses. The result, of course, is rescue: David says, “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.” To match his ferocity, God shows his tenderness toward his servant David. The psalm tells us this story as if it were a single event, but if we remember that the psalm’s title alluded to many situations of danger in David’s past, it’s likely that David is summarizing what it felt like to experience God’s rescue. He frames his story by using the language of God’s miraculous power at work in the experiences of the people of Israel. It leads us to ask: why all this divine intervention for just one person? We get an answer at the end of this section, verse 19: “He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.” The actions of God come from the heart of God, and his heart is filled with delight and love for his people. This is the dramatic shift from David’s small prayer of love to the titanic scale of God’s rescue as an act of love. When we need help, his mercies overflow and he does far more than all we could ask or think. When we are trapped and drowning, he brings us to a broad place, to wide, open fields with a fresh breeze and grace that exceeds our expectations. David started by saying, “I love you, O LORD,” and the LORD responds with thunderclouds and lightning that says, “I love you too.”

The scene shifts again, as though experiencing God’s power has led David to ponder God’s character as well as his own character. Verse 20: “The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.” He goes on to describe how he has kept God’s rules and statutes, the language in Deuteronomy for God’s law. At a first reading, this might seem to contradict what he has just said about God rescuing him due to his delight in his people. In fact, David could come off as absurdly self-righteous. We might ask, why does God save us? Is it because of God’s merciful grace or because of our good deeds? A few things to keep in mind: first, remember that Psalm 18 comes from 2 Samuel, which is very explicit about David’s sins, so David can’t mean that he is utterly holy and perfect like the LORD (and in fact, he says a few verses later that God’s way is perfect and blameless). Rather, like Psalm 17, David is saying that on the whole, he has been faithful to the covenant with God. And this leads us to the second important fact to keep in mind: God’s covenant begins with grace and love, which then leads to obedience. The Torah itself is founded on God’s grace and forgiveness of sins, and David begins the psalm not by saying, “I am blameless” but rather, “I love the LORD.” Out of that personal love, he lives a life of faith. In fact, God’s perfection — his flawless wisdom and love and mercy — are what produce the same qualities in his servants (even though we are imperfect mirrors). And then, God responds to our behaviors treating us accordingly. “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.” Justice is giving people exactly what they deserve, so the God who knows the human heart gives to the wicked what they want — to be enemies of him and to be far from him — and he gives his steadfast love more and more to those who have already been changed by his steadfast love. By our own behavior, we can’t earn God’s favor, but God responds to our behavior by rewarding his servants in kind, which should motivate us to serve the Lord more fervently. In other words, God takes care of his people, and our obedience is a response to his grace. David summarizes all of this in verse 30, which is the heartbeat of this psalm: “This God — his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.”

In the final part of Psalm 18, David asks a rhetorical question, “For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?” In the last 18 verses, he goes on to answer his own question by saying, “Of course there is no god besides Yahweh!” We read before how this is the God who rescues from the flood, and now we’ll read how this is the God who empowers David in victory over his enemies. David sings, “For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me.” He describes battles against his foes not in the cosmic language of God’s judgment but in the human terms of a king who fights to defend his people. His arms are strong, his feet are quick, and he is victorious because of who fights through him. The poetry of these lines is light and swift, capturing the excitement of a battle that turns in David’s favor as he outwits his enemies time and time again. Again, David isn’t referencing a single event; he’s looking back over his many military campaigns, the hard work that he had to do to unite the tribes of Israel and keep them united, even while forces outside and inside the nation opposed them. It’s important to understand that these are not battles of greedy empire-building but are the experiences of God’s chosen people who were called to bless the world and be a light to the nations by showing them the greatness of the Lord who alone is worthy of praise. The conclusion of these battles are the heads of foreign nations submitting to God’s anointed king and, by extension, submitting to the authority of God. Finally, this long psalm ends in an explosion of praise: “The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation.” And the last line: “Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.” There’s a strong emphasis on royalty and a celebration for God showing his love to his people by giving them the Davidic line of kings, but the monarchy of Israel is just another demonstration that the LORD lives, that the God of salvation is always at work and will always be at work on behalf of his people. The Lord lives! It’s because the LORD lives that David can express his love, it’s because the LORD lives that he can cry out in distress, it’s because the LORD lives that salvation comes through the fireworks of heaven, and it’s because the LORD lives that we can learn how to do what is right and blameless in imitation of him. The implication is that the living LORD can do for you and me what he did for David. His love is steadfast and forever, and by his grace, we can love him and be called his servants.