1 Unto the end. A Psalm of David.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 David has consecrated this hymn of triumph on the occasion of his victory over his enemies and opponents to the Author of all victories.
Arnobius the Younger · AD 460 Let us ask the Lord and say, "Who is he who loves you?" He will respond to us through his Gospel and say, "He who hears my words and does them, this is the one who loves me."
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 In the preceding Psalm the Psalmist prayed to be delivered from his enemies; here, having been delivered, he gives thanks. And first he gives thanks for the benefit of deliverance. Second, he breaks forth into praise of the deliverer, at "the heavens declare the glory of God." The title: "Unto the end, for the servant of the Lord, David.
2 The heavens describe the glory of God, and the firmament announces the work of his hands.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 Christ is the rock. When David built his own house on the rock, he was like the wise man. … In such a way, he is made superior to all his enemies. He becomes faithful, not by hope or by training but by the help of God, established in all types of defenses and in the horn of salvation.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "O Lord, My stay, and My refuge, and My deliverer" [Psalm 18:2]. O Lord, who hast stayed Me, because I sought refuge with You: and I sought refuge, because You have delivered Me. "My God is My helper; and I will hope in Him." My God, who hast first afforded me the help of Your call, that I might be able to hope in You.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "My God." Here he sets forth the affection of hope. And there is a difference between hope and love, because love is a unitive power -- for we love something insofar as we consider it our own; and therefore he says that God is his strength: Is. 12: "The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he has become my salvation." Hope implies defense from without; and God does both.
3 Day proclaims the word to day, and night to night imparts knowledge.
Nicetas of Remesiana · AD 414 Praise issuing from a pure conscience delights the Lord, and so the same psalmist exhorts us, "Praise ye the Lord because a psalm is good; to our God be joyful and comely praise." With this in mind, aware of how pleasing to God is this ministry, the psalmist again declares, "Seven times a day I have given praise to you." To this he adds a further promise: "And my tongue shall m…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "With praise will I call upon the Lord, and I shall be safe from Mine enemies" [Psalm 18:3]. Seeking not My own but the Lord's glory, I will call upon Him, and there shall be no means whereby the errors of ungodliness can hurt Me.
Arnobius the Younger · AD 460 He is my refuge, he is my liberator; as I praise and call on him I will be safe from my enemies. Let me say this in the present so that I may not doubt it in the future.
4 There are no speeches or conversations, where their voices are not being heard.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "The pains of death," that is, of the flesh, have "compassed Me about. And the overflowings of ungodliness have troubled Me" [Psalm 18:4]. Ungodly troubles stirred up for a time, like torrents of rain which will soon subside, have come on to trouble Me.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "They surrounded me." Here the necessity of deliverance is set forth. And first he shows the magnitude of deliverance. Second, the prayer he pours forth to God in tribulation.
5 Their sound has gone forth through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "The pains of hell compassed Me about" [Psalm 18:5]. Among those that compassed Me about to destroy Me, were pains of envy, which work death, and lead on to the hell of sin. "The snares of death prevented Me." They prevented Me, so that they wished to hurt Me first, which shall afterwards be recompensed unto them.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "The sorrows." Here he pursues the second progression; and therefore he says, "the sorrows of hell," that is, sorrows similar to those of hell: Gen. 37: "I shall go down mourning into hell." Or the sorrows that are conceived from fear of hell. And these surround one when they are unavoidable. And these sorrows come because "the snares of death have anticipated me." What death?
6 He has placed his tabernacle in the sun, and he is like a bridegroom coming out of his bedroom. He has exulted like a giant running along the way;
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 Stirred by the onrush of injustices and surrounded by the rest of the evils which are recounted above, when he realizes that he is beset by danger, he flees to the gate of his deliverance.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And in Mine oppression I called upon the Lord, and cried unto My God. And He heard My voice from His holy temple" (ver. 6). He heard from My heart, wherein He dwelleth, My voice. "And My cry in His sight entered into His ears;" and My cry, which I utter, not in the ears of men, but inwardly before Him Himself, "entered into His ears."
Arnobius the Younger · AD 460 While the groans of death, the injustices, griefs, and snares, surround me, I called out to him in faith. He heard my voice from his holy temple, and my cry reached his ears.
7 his departure is from the summit of heaven. And his course reaches all the way to its summit. Neither is there anyone who can hide himself from his heat.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 When the Son of God journeyed on the earth in the time of his incarnation, whoever worshiped the natural elements of this earth were shaken and trembled, and everywhere his reputation became familiar to the ears of Greeks and barbarians; and truly those things he called the foundations of the mountains have trembled and quaked.… The mountains were all the lofty thoughts that we…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And the earth was moved and trembled" [Psalm 18:7]. When the Son of Man was thus glorified, sinners were moved and trembled. "And the foundations of the mountains were troubled." And the hopes of the proud, which were in this life, were troubled.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "It was moved." Above the Psalmist treated the affection conceived from the benefits of deliverance; here he treats the power of the deliverer. The power of an agent is shown from the agent's effect; and the things said here can pertain to a twofold effect of God: namely to the one shown in corporeal things, and to the effect of redemption.
8 The law of the Lord is immaculate, converting souls. The testimony of the Lord is faithful, providing wisdom to little ones.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "There went up smoke in His wrath" [Psalm 18:8]. The tearful supplication of penitents went up, when they came to know God's threatenings against the ungodly. "And fire burns from His face." And the ardour of love after repentance burns by the knowledge of Him.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "There ascended." Here, expounding corporally, the effect from above is set forth. Now the effect of the earth from above is when the earth is burned by celestial fire in some part of itself; and regarding this he does two things. First he touches on the matter itself. Second, the kindling of the fire and the burning.
9 The justice of the Lord is right, rejoicing hearts. The precepts of the Lord are brilliant, enlightening the eyes.
Jerome · AD 420 Because we are little and lowly and unable to lift ourselves up to him, the Lord stoops down to us and in his compassionate kindness deigns to hear us. In fact, because we are people and cannot become gods, God became man and inclined himself, as it is written: "He inclined the heavens and came down."
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And He bowed the heaven, and came down" [Psalm 18:9]. And He humbled the just One, that He might descend to men's infirmity. "And darkness under His feet." And the ungodly, who savour of things earthly, in the darkness of their own malice, knew not Him: for the earth under His feet is as it were His footstool.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "He inclined." Here he treats of the winds. Note that the matter of wind is a dry vapor or exhalation that is heated but not so refined that it can ascend to the highest place, nor so heated; hence it is impeded by the cold, thickened, and repelled downward. And this, repelled, moves the air.
10 The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for all generations. The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves:
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 Secretly and with mysterious reckoning he represents his incarnation through [images of] darkness and thick clouds. At last he returns to the same place from whence he had set forth: and he ascends into the heavens with the cherubim and flies, although he had not descended with those cherubim, without the cherubim he himself bowed the heavens and descended.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And He mounted above the cherubim, and did fly" [Psalm 18:10]. And He was exalted above the fullness of knowledge, that no man should come to Him but by love: for "love is the fulfilling of the law." [Romans 13:10] And full soon He showed to His lovers that He is incomprehensible, lest they should suppose that He is comprehended by corporeal imaginations.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "And he flew." Here he treats of the changes of the air according to corporeal effects; and there is a threefold change: namely in winds, in clouds, and in thunder; and he treats of each. Regarding the first he proposes three things. First, the efficient cause of all these changes. Second, the matter. Third, the manner.
11 desirable beyond gold and many precious stones, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 The reasons of the divine dispensation and providence are most obscure. For "God made darkness his hiding place." Those desiring audaciously and rashly to examine this darkness and appropriating for themselves one thing from another have fallen headlong into the dense "darkness" of errors.
Jerome · AD 420 This verse suggests the ineffable dispensation of God and our inability to comprehend his wisdom. As with these eyes of ours we cannot look into an unfathomable depth, neither are we able to contemplate the majesty or the wisdom of God.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And has made darkness His hiding place" [Psalm 18:11]. And has settled the obscurity of the Sacraments, and the hidden hope in the heart of believers, where He may lie hidden, and not abandon them.
12 For, indeed, your servant keeps them, and in keeping them, there are many rewards.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 He came down and then ascended with the cherubim after he thundered in the heaven.… Against the Egyptian sorcerers the Lord who flies on the cherubim sends forth hailstones and coals of fire. I think, also, that those vengeful acts against skillful wicked powers are called hailstones and coals of fire.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "In respect of the brightness in His sight" [Psalm 18:12]: in comparison with the brightness, which is in the sight of His manifestation. "His clouds have passed over." The preachers of His word are not now bounded by the confines of Judæa, but have passed over to the Gentiles.
13 Who can understand transgression? From my hidden faults, cleanse me, O Lord,
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And the Lord has thundered from heaven" [Psalm 18:13]. And in confidence of the Gospel the Lord has sounded forth from the heart of the just One. "And the Highest gave His voice;" that we might entertain it, and in the depth of human things, might hear things heavenly.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Here he treats of the third change. And first, of thunder. Second, of lightning, at "he sent his arrows." It should be known that the Psalmist speaks here according to this likeness: that whatever happens in the sky is attributed to God. Hence he takes the sound heard in the sky as though it were the voice of God. Now there is a twofold sound in the sky.
14 and from those of others, spare your servant. If they will have no dominion over me, then I will be immaculate, and I will be cleansed from the greatest transgression.
Evagrius Ponticus · AD 399 When we compare spiritual things with spiritual things, we flash forth lightnings, indicating the knowledge advancing from them.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And He sent out His arrows, and scattered them" [Psalm 18:14]. And He sent out Evangelists traversing straight paths on the wings of strength, not in their own power, but His by whom they were sent.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "Lightnings." Here he describes the movement of lightnings and compares them to an arrow on account of the vehemence of the wind by which they are moved. "And he scattered them," namely the sinners, who are sometimes moved by them; for according to the diversity of winds there is a diversity of lightning's motion.
15 And the eloquence of my mouth will be so as to please, along with the meditation of my heart, in your sight, forever, O Lord, my helper and my redeemer.
Diodorus of Tarsus · AD 390 He presents him as a general come to the aid of his own man, mentioning as arrows all the missiles indiscriminately—hail, coals, things that are naturally used as missiles.… In fear of the one appearing and the missiles and lightning flashes, the earth bared itself in all directions so as even to reveal its hidden secrets, springs, and anything else hidden in its depths.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And the fountains of water were seen. And the fountains of water springing up into everlasting life," which were made in the preachers, were seen. "And the foundations of the round world were revealed." And the Prophets, who were not understood, and upon whom was to be built the world of believers in the Lord, were revealed.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 "And the fountains appeared." Here he treats of the generation of waters, which emanate from certain sources called springs, from which all generation of waters comes. Now these are generated in two ways.