(Heb.: 18:29-31) The confirmation of what has been asserted is continued by David's application of it to himself. Hitzig translates the futures in Psalm 18:29. as imperfects; but the sequence of the tenses, which would bring this rendering with it, is in this instance interrupted, as it has been even in Psalm 18:28, by כּי. The lamp, נר (contracted from nawer), is an image of life, which as it were burns on and on, including the idea of prosperity and high rank; in the form ניר (from niwr, nijr) it is the usual figurative word for the continuance of the house of David, 1 Kings 11:36, and frequently. David's life and dominion, as the covenant king, is the lamp which God's favour has lighted for the well-being of Israel, and His power will not allow this lamp (2 Samuel 21:17) to be quenched. The darkness which breaks in upon David and his house is always lighted up again by Jahve. For His strength is mighty in the weak; in, with, and by Him he can do all things. The fut. ארץ may be all the more surely derived from רצץ ( equals ארץ), inasmuch as this verb has the changeable u in the future also in Isaiah 42:4; Ecclesiastes 12:6. The text of 2 Samuel 22, however, certainly seems to put "rushing upon" in the stead of "breaking down." With Psalm 18:31 the first half of the hymn closes epiphonematically. האל is a nom. absol., like hatsuwr, Deuteronomy 32:4. This old Mosaic utterance is re-echoed here, as in 2 Samuel 7:22, in the mouth of David. The article of האל points to God as being manifest in past history. His way is faultless and blameless. His word is צרוּפה, not slaggy ore, but purified solid gold, Psalm 12:7. Whoever retreats into Him, the God of the promise, is shielded from every danger. Proverbs 30:5 is borrowed from this passage.

Psalm 18:36 Parallel Commentaries

enlarged

Psalm 4:1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: you have enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

Job 18:7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

Job 36:16 Even so would he have removed you out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no narrow place...

Luke 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

Luke 24:46-48 And said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day...

feet [Heb.] ankles

2 Samuel 22:37 You have enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip.

Proverbs 4:12 When you go, your steps shall not be straitened; and when you run, you shall not stumble.