Psalms 18:29 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, David looks back with gratitude at the great things God had done for him. God had not only rescued him, but had also given him victory and success, and made him triumph over those who had expected to triumph over him. When we begin by praising God for one mercy, we should be led to notice the many more blessings that have surrounded us throughout our lives. David saw God’s hand in every step of his rise, and he teaches us to do the same when we review how we have come into prosperity.

1. God gave David all his skill and understanding in military matters, even though he had not been trained for that work or naturally aimed at it. David’s mind leaned more toward music, poetry, and a quiet life. “He trains my hands for battle” (Psalm 18:34).

2. God gave him bodily strength for the hard work and strain of war. “God armed me with strength” (Psalm 18:32, Psalm 18:39), to such a degree that he could even break a bow of bronze, or strong metal, (Psalm 18:34). What God plans a person to do, he will also fit that person to do.

3. God also gave David great speed. This was not so he could run from enemies, but so he could rush toward them (Psalm 18:33). “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer” (Psalm 18:36). “You have widened my steps under me,” and yet, unlike people who take long steps and are prone to stumble, “my feet did not slip.” He was so swift that he could chase his enemies and catch them (Psalm 18:37).

4. God made David bold and daring in his actions, and gave him courage equal to his strength. If a troop stood in his way, he did not shrink back. If a wall blocked him, he jumped over it (Psalm 18:29). If there were ramparts and defenses, he quickly climbed them, and with God’s help set his feet on the enemy’s high places (Psalm 18:33).

5. God protected him and kept him safe in the middle of great danger. Many times he risked his life, yet God preserved him in a wonderful way. “You have given me the shield of your salvation” (Psalm 18:35), and that shield surrounded him on every side. By it he was delivered from those who fought against him and sought his death (Psalm 18:43), especially from “the violent man” (Psalm 18:48), meaning Saul, who more than once threw a spear at him.

6. God prospered David in what he planned to do. God made his way complete and successful (Psalm 18:32), and it was God’s right hand that held him up (Psalm 18:35). David did not rise by luck or by his own skill alone.

7. God gave him victory over his enemies, the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and all who fought against Israel. These are the enemies he especially has in mind, though he also includes the house of Saul, which opposed his coming to the throne, and the supporters of Absalom and Sheba, who wanted to remove him. David spends much time on God’s kindness in defeating his enemies. He does not credit his own sword or bow, or the bravery of his mighty men, but the favor of God. “I pursued them” (Psalm 18:37), “I struck them down” (Psalm 18:38), because “you have armed me with strength” (Psalm 18:39). Without that, he could not have done it. All the praise goes to God: “You have subdued them under me” (Psalm 18:39). “You have given me their necks” (Psalm 18:40), not only so he could trample on them, as in (Joshua 10:24), but so he could destroy them. Even those who hated David, whom God loved, and who were enemies of God’s people, cried out to the Lord in their distress, but it was useless. How could they expect help from the One they were fighting against? When God turned away from them, as he does from all who act against his people, no other help could save them: “There was none to save them” (Psalm 18:41). Those whom God leaves are easily defeated. “Then I beat them as fine as dust” (Psalm 18:42). But God avenges those whose cause is right (Psalm 18:47), and those he favors will be lifted up above those who rise against them (Psalm 18:48).

8. God raised David to the throne. He not only rescued him and kept him alive, but also honored him and made him great (Psalm 18:35). “Your gentleness has made me great,” or, as some explain it, your discipline and instruction. The good lessons David learned in suffering prepared him for the dignity and power that were meant for him, and being brought low helped greatly in his being raised high. God made him not only a great conqueror, but also a great ruler: “You have made me the head of the nations” (Psalm 18:43). All the neighboring nations paid tribute to him. See (2 Samuel 8:6, 2 Samuel 8:11). In all this, David was a picture of Christ, whom the Father brought safely through his conflict with the powers of darkness, made victorious over them, and gave to be head over all things for his church, which is his body.

David then turns upward in humble and reverent worship of God’s glory and goodness. When God had made him great through his providence, he tried to magnify God through his praise, to bless him and lift him up (Psalm 18:46). He gives honor to God in several ways.

1. As the living God: “The Lord lives” (Psalm 18:46). We receive our lives from him at the beginning, and we depend on him for their continued support. He has life in himself, so he is rightly called the living God. The gods of the nations were dead gods. The best human friends are dying friends. But God lives forever, and he will not fail those who trust in him. Because he lives, they shall live also, for he is their life.

2. As a perfect God: God is not only perfect in himself, but “his way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30). He is known by the name Jehovah (Exodus 6:3), the God who carries through and completes what he begins in providence as well as in creation (Genesis 2:1). If God made David’s way perfect (Psalm 18:32), then God’s own way is far more perfect. There is no flaw in God’s works, and nothing wrong can truly be found in what he does (Ecclesiastes 3:14). What he begins, he is able to finish, no matter what difficulties stand in the way.

3. As a faithful God: “The word of the Lord is tried.” David means, “I have tested it, and it has never failed me.” All the saints of every age have tested it, and it has never failed anyone who trusted it. It is tried like silver is tried, purified from all mixture and impurity that would lower the value of human words. In God’s dealings with David, he noticed how God fulfilled his promises. That made the providence sweeter, and it also honored the promise itself.

4. As the protector and defender of his people. David had found God to be that for himself: “He is the God of my salvation” (Psalm 18:46), by whose power and grace I am saved and hope to be saved. But he is not only that for me. “He is a shield to all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 18:30). He protects them all. He is both able and ready to do so.

5. As one beyond comparison in all these things (Psalm 18:31). There is a God, and who is God except the Lord? That God is a rock, a place of support and shelter for those who worship him faithfully. And who is a rock except our God? In saying this, David not only gives glory to God, but also strengthens his own trust in him.

The note here makes two points. First, anyone who claims to be a god is a fraud, because there is no God except the Lord. All the others are false copies (Isaiah 44:8; Jeremiah 10:10). Second, anyone who claims to be the source of our joy and security is also mistaken, because there is no rock except our God, and nothing else we can trust to make us truly happy.

David then looks ahead in faith, sure that God will continue to do him good. He expects his enemies to be fully brought down, with those still left becoming his footstool. He expects his rule to spread far, so that even people he never knew will serve him (Psalm 18:43). He also expects his victories, and therefore his gains, to come easily, so that when people hear of him, they will obey at once (Psalm 18:44). His enemies will finally see that resisting him is useless, and even those hiding in strong places will lose courage after seeing David’s wisdom, bravery, and success.

In this way, the Son of David, Jesus Christ, though he does not yet have all things under his feet, knows that he will reign until every opposing rule, authority, and power is completely destroyed. David also looks ahead to the lasting line of his family through the Messiah, the promised anointed King, who would come from his own family line (Psalm 18:50). God shows mercy to his anointed one, to David himself as the Lord’s anointed in this picture, and to his seed forever.

Scripture says “seed” in the singular, not “seeds” in the plural, and Paul uses that language to point to Christ (Galatians 3:16). Christ alone will reign forever, and his rule and peace will never end. Christ is called David in Hosea 3:5, and God has called him his king (Psalm 2:6). God has given, and will keep giving, great deliverance to him, and to his church and people, who are here called his seed, forever.

When we sing these verses, we should give God the glory for all the victories of Christ and his church so far, and for every deliverance and advance of the gospel kingdom. We should also encourage ourselves and one another with the sure hope that the church, now still in its time of struggle, will soon be triumphant forever.