“God… my Shield.”
Superscription: Historical, See notes on Psalm 3 For the director of music. Of David, the servant of the Lord.. David sang this song when
the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
This psalm is found in the historical account of the deliverance from Saul in 2 Samuel 22 with very few changes.
1 – 3 are an introduction of praise.
4-6 David is in distress but the Lord hears him.
7-15 The Lord comes to the aid of his servant as a heavenly warrior, and defeats his enemies.
16 -19 is God’s condescension to save his servant David.
20 – 24 are David’s confession on righteousness and innocence and the Lord’s reward to him for it.
25 – 29 are God’s response to men. “To the faithful you show yourself faithful” and “to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.” etc.
26 really stood out to me, “To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.” What a picture of God!
30 – 36 we read of the way of the Lord, and by the Lord’s blessing David the King has thrived.
Another outstanding verse is 32, “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” Again, we have reference to being made perfect before God.
37 – 42 David has crushed all his foes with the help of the Lord.
46 – 50 are the concluding doxology.
This psalm is full of encouragement and praise to the All Mighty.
With this 18th Psalm, we conclude the opening collection of psalms. There is not a real hard-and-fast rule to this grouping, but there does seem to be a subtle shift in the “feel” of the following psalms. Take a closer look and see if you can pick up on that.