Psalm 18:18

They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Prevented.—Better, fell upon me unawares. See this use of the verb, generally however used in a good sense, in Psalm 18:5.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:1-19 The first words, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. God's manifestation of his presence is very fully described, ver. 7-15. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time. Can we meditate on ver. 18, without directing one thought to Gethsemane and Calvary? Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christ's deepest calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Father's love were withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, Heb 5:7. God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They prevented me - They anticipated me, or went before me. See the note at Psalm 18:5. The idea here is that his enemies came before him, or intercepted his way. They were in his path, ready to destroy him.

In the day of my calamity - In the day to which I now look back as the time of my special trial.

But the Lord was my stay - My support, or prop. That is, the Lord upheld me, and kept me from falling.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. prevented—(Ps 18:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They were too cunning for me, and had almost surprised me; but they could not prevent thee.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They prevented me in the day of my calamity,.... Referring to the times of his distress in the garden and upon the cross; the time of his sufferings and death, which was a dark and cloudy day, as the word (x) used suggests, both in a literal and in a spiritual sense; and when the day and hour was come, fixed and determined by the will of God, then his enemies, though not before, met him, laid hold on him, were too mighty for him, condemned, crucified, and insulted him;

but the Lord was my stay; or staff, on whom he leaned, relied, and depended, believing he would help him; and by whom he was supported and upheld, Isaiah 42:1. The Targum is,

"the Word of the Lord was my stay.''

(x) "in the day of my cloudy calamity", Ainsworth; "nomen" "proprie signifient vaporem vel nubem, ut Genesis 7.6. hinc per metaphoram transfertur ad obscuras ac terrificas calamitatum nebulas, Prov. i. 26.", Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. They prevented me] They came upon me (R.V.), or, encountered me. Prevent is used in a sense which illustrates the transition from its original meaning to go before to its modern meaning to hinder. Cp. Milton’s Paradise Lost, vi. 129:

Half way he met

His daring foe, at this prevention more

Incens’d.

See Mr Aldis Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

my stay] My staff (Psalm 23:4) and support. Cp. Isaiah 10:20.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - They prevented me in the day of my calamity (comp. 1 Samuel 23:13-15; 1 Samuel 24:1-3; 1 Samuel 26:1-4, etc.). But the Lord was my Stay. God frustrated all the designs of David's foes, and prevented him from falling into their hands. Psalm 18:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 18:17-20) Then Jahve stretches out His hand from above into the deep chasm and draws up the sinking one. The verb שׁלח occurs also in prose (2 Samuel 6:6) without יד (Psalm 57:4, cf. on the other hand the borrowed passage, Psalm 144:7) in the signification to reach (after anything). The verb משׁה, however, is only found in one other instance, viz., Exodus 2:10, as the root (transferred from the Egyptian into the Hebrew) of the name of Moses, and even Luther saw in it an historical allusion, "He hath made a Moses of me," He hath drawn me out of great (many) waters, which had well nigh swallowed me up, as He did Moses out of the waters of the Nile, in which he would have perished. This figurative language is followed, in Psalm 18:18, by its interpretation, just as in Psalm 144:7 the "great waters" are explained by מיּד בּני נכר, which, however, is not suitable here, or at least is too limited.

With Psalm 18:17 the hymn has reached the climax of epic description, from which it now descends in a tone that becomes more and more lyrical. In the combination איבי עז, עז is not an adverbial accusative, but an adjective, like רוּחך טובה Psalm 143:10, and ὁ ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός (Hebrerbrief S. 353). כּי introduces the reason for the interposition of the divine omnipotence, viz., the superior strength of the foe and the weakness of the oppressed one. On the day of his איד, i.e., (vid., on Psalm 31:12) his load or calamity, when he was altogether a homeless and almost defenceless fugitive, they came upon him (קדּם Psalm 17:13), cutting off all possible means of delivering himself, but Jahve became the fugitive's staff (Psalm 23:4) upon which he leaned and kept himself erect. By the hand of God, out of straits and difficulties he reached a broad place, out of the dungeon of oppression to freedom, for Jahve had delighted in him, he was His chosen and beloved one. חפץ has the accent on the penult here, and Metheg as a sign of the lengthening (העמדה) beside the ē, that it may not be read ĕ.

(Note: In like manner Metheg is placed beside the ee of the final closed syllable that has lost the tone in חפץ Psalm 22:9, ותּחולל Psalm 90:2, vid., Isaiah S. 594 note.)

The following strophe tells the reason of his pleasing God and of His not allowing him to perish. This כּי חפץ בּי (for He delighted in me) now becomes the primary thought of the song.