Psalm 18:39

For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:32, and the following verses, are the gifts of God to the spiritual warrior, whereby he is prepared for the contest, after the example of his victorious Leader. Learn that we must seek release being made through Christ, shall be rejected. In David the type, we behold out of trouble through Christ. The prayer put up, without reconciliation Jesus our Redeemer, conflicting with enemies, compassed with sorrows and with floods of ungodly men, enduring not only the pains of death, but the wrath of God for us; yet calling upon the Father with strong cries and tears; rescued from the grave; proceeding to reconcile, or to put under his feet all other enemies, till death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed. We should love the Lord, our Strength, and our Salvation; we should call on him in every trouble, and praise him for every deliverance; we should aim to walk with him in all righteousness and true holiness, keeping from sin. If we belong to him, he conquers and reigns for us, and we shall conquer and reign through him, and partake of the mercy of our anointed King, which is promised to all his seed for evermore. Amen.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle - See the note at Psalm 18:32. Compare Job 12:18; Proverbs 31:17.

Thou hast subdued under me - Margin, as in Hebrew, caused to bow. That is, God had caused them to submit to him; he had enabled him to overcome them; still acknowledging that all this was from God, and that the praise was due to Him, and not to the power of his own arm.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

39. that rose up against me—literally, "insurgents" (Ps 3:1; 44:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He repeats what he had said Psalm 18:32, lest he should seem to arrogate to himself his great achievements and victories mentioned Psalm 18:37,38, and that he might give God the whole praise and glory of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thou hast girded me with strength unto battle,.... See Psalm 18:32; that natural strength, courage and valour, which David had, were from the Lord; and so is the Spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind, which believers have; and likewise that strength which Christ, as man, had and used in his combat with the powers of darkness; see Psalm 80:17;

thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me; as the psalmist ascribes his strength, so he attributes his success to the Lord; who likewise subdues the sins of his people, and all other enemies of theirs, and who also makes the enemies of his Son his footstool, Psalm 110:1.

Geneva Study Bible

For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

39. Cp. Psalm 18:32 a.

those that rose up against me] Enemies in general (Exodus 15:7; Deuteronomy 33:11), not necessarily rebellious subjects, though the word is specially applicable to them (Psalm 3:1).

39–42. Thus God gave him victory over all his enemies.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 39. - For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle. Having boasted of his own actions during the space of two verses (vers. 37, 38), David falls back upon his habitual acknowledgments, that all which he has done has been done wholly through the strength of the Divine arm, which has upheld him, sustained him, and given him the victory. Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me; rather, thou hast bowed down mine adversaries under me (Hengstenberg, Kay, Cheyne). Psalm 18:39

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 18:38-41) Thus in God's strength, with the armour of God, and by God's assistance in fight, he smote, cast down, and utterly destroyed all his foes in foreign and in civil wars. According to the Hebrew syntax the whole of this passage is a retrospect. The imperfect signification of the futures in Psalm 18:38, Psalm 18:39 is made clear from the aorist which appears in Psalm 18:40, and from the perfects and futures in what follows it. The strophe begins with an echo of Exodus 15:9 (cf. supra Psalm 7:6). The poet calls his opponents קמי, as in Psalm 18:49, Psalm 44:6; Psalm 74:23, cf. קימנוּ Job 22:20, inasmuch as קוּם by itself has the sense of rising up in hostility and consequently one can say קמי instead of עלי קמים (קומים 2 Kings 16:7).

(Note: In the language of the Beduins kôm is war, feud, and kômānı̂ (denominative from kōm) my enemy (hostis); kōm also has the signification of a collective of kōmānı̂, and one can equally well say: entum waijânâ kôm, you and we are enemies, and: bênâtnâ kôm, there is war between us.)

The frequent use of this phrase (e.g., Psalm 36:13, Lamentations 1:14) shows that קום in Psalm 18:39 does not mean "to stand (resist)," but "to rise (again)." The phrase נתן ערף, however, which in other passages has those fleeing as its subject (2 Chronicles 29:6), is here differently applied: Thou gavest, or madest me mine enemies a back, i.e., those who turn back, as in Exodus 23:27. From Psalm 21:13 (תּשׁיתמו שׁכם, Symm. τάξεις αὐτοὺς ἀποστρόφους) it becomes clear that ערף is not an accusative of the member beside the accusative of the person (as e.g., in Deuteronomy 33:11), but an accusative of the factitive object according to Ges. 139, 2.