Quote:
Originally Posted by countmeworthy
Life in Christ is a journey and a learning process. ... BUT...most people past the age of 35 (?) get comfortable and set in their ways. It takes the Holy Spirit of God to shake them up...to wake us all up.
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Sister Carol,
It is good to get older. It took Moses 80 years to wake up and hear God's voice. But one day, there it was.
A few concluding words on Psalm 18. First, it was a reprint of the poem in chapter 22 of the historical narrative of 2 Samuel. It seems that many scholars don't think that David actually wrote all of the psalms ascribed to him; many psalms simply say, "of David", which could mean "about David" or "regarding David" or "in the manner of David". One commentary I read basically mocked the idea that David could have written Psalm 57 while hiding in a cave, for example. They say that the various introductory inscriptions arguably could have been inserted years or even centuries later.
But it's pretty hard to say that David didn't write Psalm 18, and that he didn't sing the words to God as the heading states. In fact, given that it is the representative sample in the historical book 2 Samuel, it could be held up as a template for David's poetic writing. Remember Peter's quote in Acts 2, that David was saying, in effect, "You will not let me rot here in the grave" and that this was fulfilled in his heir the Christ.
My point is that Psalm 18 presents a theme which is ubiquitous in David's poems, of an oppressed righteous man, crushed under persecution, threat and mortal danger, yet whom God will not abandon. Again, David is merely the type, and Jesus the fulfillment. What David seems to miss is that this suffering servant of God will not only be redeemed because of his clean hands (Psa 18:19,20), but His righteous suffering will redeem all of Israel, even all of humanity.
BUT... it is actually implied (to me) in the accompanying narrative of battle: the champion of Israel, David the son of Jesse, goes forth and slays the seemingly undefeatable giant of Gath, and all of the army of the Philistines runs away in fear and shock. David was such a warrior that an entire army would fall back before him: "Who wants to fight David? Not me! You fight him!" So through one man's heroics a people was saved.
Likewise, John 11 says,
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
Lastly, Psalm 18 contains another theme I've noticed, that of burial in water. Why David was fascinated with drowning I don't know, but he used the motifs often. "I was at the bottom of the sea; seaweed wrapped around my head" (Jonah 2:5). David may have been fascinated with the Jonah prayer (I assume Jonah preceded the Psalms?).
I haven't done a systematic survey of the Psalms but I notice that drowning under a flood (cf Noah?) is a common theme; notable because David was neither sailor nor fisherman. Here the theme emerges in verses 4 and 16: "torrents of destruction" and "he drew me out of deep waters". And notice how Psalm 18:15 "The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare" compares to Jonah 2:6 as well: "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever". It is as if David was "buried" under enemies, yet his prayer still rose to God.
As mentioned earlier, I'd just begun considering this psalm; I claim no experience nor expertise. Merely a few remarks made in passing.