Psalm 18:48

He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man.

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

He delivereth me from mine enemies - From all my foes.

Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me - So that I triumph over them. Instead of being subdued by them, and trampled under their feet, I am exalted, and they are humbled.

Thou hast delivered me from the violent man - Margin, as in Hebrew, man of violence; the man characterized by injustice and wrong; the man who endeavored to overcome and subdue me by force and arms. There is probably a special allusion here by the psalmist to Saul as his great enemy, but perhaps he had also in his eye others of the same kind, and the meaning may be that he had been delivered from all of that class of people.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

48. liftest me up—to safety and honors.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Above those that rise up against me; above their malice and power.

From the violent man; from Saul, whom for honour’s sake he forbears to mention.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He delivereth me from mine enemies,.... From Saul and his men, from Ishbosheth and Abner, from Absalom, and the conspirators with him; so all believers are delivered out of the hands of their enemies by Christ, as that they can serve the Lord without fear; and so Christ himself is delivered from all his enemies, being raised from the dead, and set at the right hand of God, where he must reign till all enemies are put under his feet;

yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me; David was lifted up from a low and mean estate, and placed on the throne of Israel, above all those that rose up against him, and sought to destroy him; and the saints are set upon their high places in Christ, where they are out of the reach of their enemies to do them any harm; and Christ, he is highly exalted at the right hand of God, above all principality and power, might and dominion, and every name that is named in this world;

thou hast delivered me from the violent man; either from Saul, from whom David was delivered; or from Satan the enemy, the son of wickedness, who shall no more exact upon and afflict the Messiah, Psalm 89:21. The Chaldee paraphrase says, from Gog; as the saints will be delivered from antichrist, the man of sin, and son of perdition, who will be destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth.

Geneva Study Bible

He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the {l} violent man.

(l) That is, Saul who out of malice persecuted him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

48. My deliverer from mine enemies;

Yea, thou didst set me on high from them that rose up against me,

From the man of violence didst thou rescue me.

My deliverer, as in Psalm 18:2. 2 Sam. has “that bringeth me forth.” The man of violence might mean men of violence in general, but it is more natural to regard it as a reference to Saul. Cp. Psalm 140:1; Psalm 140:4; Psalm 140:11.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 48. - He delivereth me from mine enemies. The "deliverance" was especially from domestic foes (see vers. 17, 19). His foreign foes seem never to have brought David into much peril. Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me. The "lifting up" was above enemies of both kinds (see ver. 43). Thou hast delivered me from the violent man (comp. ver. 17). There is no reason to doubt that in both places Saul is intended. He was at once David's "enemy," and a "man of violence." Were the question open otherwise, it would be closed by the statement in the title. Psalm 18:48

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 18:47-49) The hymn now draws towards the end with praise and thanksgiving for the multitude of God's mighty deeds, which have just been displayed. Like the (צוּרי) בּרוּך which is always doxological, חי ה (vivus Jahve) is meant as a predicate clause, but is read with the accent of an exclamation just as in the formula of an oath, which is the same expression; and in the present instance it has a doxological meaning. Accordingly וירוּם also signifies "exalted be," in which sense it is written וירם (וירם equals וירם) in the other text. There are three doxological utterances drawn from the events which have just been celebrated in song. That which follows, from האל onwards, describes Jahve once more as the living, blessed (εὐλογητόν), and exalted One, which He has shown Himself to be. From ויּדבּר we see that הנּותן is to be resolved as an imperfect. The proofs of vengeance, נקמות, are called God's gift, insofar as He has rendered it possible to him to punish the attacks upon his own dignity and the dignity of his people, or to witness the punishment of such insults (e.g., in the case of Nabal); for divine vengeance is a securing by punishment (vindicatio) of the inviolability of the right. It is questionable whether הדבּיר (synonym רדד, Psalm 144:2) here and in Psalm 47:4 means "to bring to reason" as an intensive of דּבר, to drive (Ges.); the more natural meaning is "to turn the back" according to the Arabic adbara (Hitzig), cf. dabar, dabre, flight, retreat; debira to be wounded behind; medbûr, wounded in the back. The idea from which הדביר gains the meaning "to subdue" is that of flight, in which hostile nations, overtaken from behind, sank down under him (Psalm 45:6); but the idea that is fully worked out in Psalm 129:3, Isaiah 51:23, is by no means remote. With מפלטי the assertion takes the form of an address. מן רומם does not differ from Psalm 9:14 : Thou liftest me up away from mine enemies, so that I hover above them and triumph over them. The climactic אף, of which poetry is fond, here unites two thoughts of a like import to give intensity of expression to the one idea. The participle is followed by futures: his manifold experience is concentrated in one general ideal expression.