He Delighted in Me
1 For the Chief Musician. By David the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, I love you, Yahweh, my strength. 2 Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. 3 I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 5 The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me. 6 In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears. 7 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, because he was angry. 8 Smoke went out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. 9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. 10 He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 12 At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire. 13 Yahweh also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice: hailstones and coals of fire. 14 He sent out his arrows, and scattered them. He routed them with great lightning bolts. 15 Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. 16 He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. 18 They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support. 19 He brought me out also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 20 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me. 21 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all his ordinances were before me. I didn’t put away his statutes from me. 23 I was also blameless with him. I kept myself from my iniquity. 24 Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
God comes down through an earthquake and a thunderstorm to pull one man out of deep water.
For the Chief Musician. By David the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, I love you, Yahweh, my strength.
The longest psalm of the first book, and it appears almost word for word in the historical record as David's song near the end of his life 2 Samuel 22. It is a career being summed up.
I love you, Yahweh, my strength. The opening verb is a rare one, an intimate word not usually directed at God, and it stands before the pile of titles that follows: my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower Psalms 18:2. Eight images, seven of them defensive, and they are the vocabulary of a man who spent years in caves and strongholds. He is not reaching for metaphors. He is describing the terrain he survived in and saying who was actually doing it.
4 The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 5 The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.
Hunting language, and the hunter is death itself.
In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
What follows is one of the most extravagant passages in the Psalter. The earth shakes, smoke goes out of God's nostrils, he bows the heavens and comes down, he rides on a cherub and flies, darkness is under his feet, hailstones and coals of fire fall, and the foundations of the world are laid bare Psalms 18:7–15. It is the language of Sinai, and it is being used about the rescue of a single fugitive.
Nothing in David's history records an earthquake at the relevant moment. The psalm is not reporting weather; it is reporting scale. What actually happened was that a man escaped, and the poetry insists that the escape involved the same God who came down on the mountain, and cost him no less.
He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.
After fifteen verses of cosmic upheaval, three short clauses, and they are the point of all of it. The verb for drawing out of water is the verb behind the name Moses Exodus 2:10.
He brought me out also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
The reason given is not that David deserved it or that God had plans for him. He delighted in him. It is the only explanation the psalm offers, and everything in the first half has been arranged to make it land.
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