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Psalm 18:46-48a, 50   The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!  Exalted be God my Saviour!  He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies. … … He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing love to his anointed, to David and to his descendants forever.

Like many of David’s psalms, Psalm 18 needs to be understood from our perspective in terms of its fulfilment in Jesus, God’s ideal Anointed [Messiah] King to whom all the OT Scriptures ultimately point.

In the first portion he praises the LORD as his all-powerful Defender and Rescuer, which is who Jesus is for us.  Then in verses 20-24 he makes very confronting claims like “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 am not guilty of 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.”  Now, we know from the historical record in 1&2 Samuel that David could hardly make such claims, and his contrition and humble confession in Psalm 51 demonstrates clearly that he was well aware of this in his own life.  So, as we know only too well from the Gospel, here in Psalm 18 by “my righteousness”, “the cleanness of my hands”, and “I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin”, he can only be anticipating prophetically the ‘righteousness’ and ‘blamelessness’ that can be his before God because it is imputed to him through Christ’s perfect obedience.

“Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free; for God, the Just, is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.” (Charitie Lees de Chenez).

So there is a sense in which David is writing the words of Psalm 18 as if being sung by the True Anointed King, whom he was anticipating.  Jesus is David’s ‘Descendant par excellence’, and the victories the LORD had already given, and was still giving, to David, were all foreshadowing the ultimate victory Jesus, the Christ, won for David and us through the cross and the empty tomb.  As the Apostle Paul said: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death”, and “But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15 25-26, 57)

– Bruce Christian