Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 118:13
Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
13. Thou didst thrust sore at me ] The community as an individual addresses its enemies as an individual. Israel and the foe are as it were two warriors matched in single combat. Cp. Mic 7:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall – literally, Thrusting thou hast thrust at me. This is the Hebrew mode of expressing intensity, repetition, or emphasis. The meaning is, that they had made a deadly thrust at him; that they had repeated the blows; that they had come with a fierce determination to crush and destroy him. The psalmist, as it were, sees the enemy again before him, and addresses him as if he were present. Everything is vivid to the mind; the whole scene appears again to pass before him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 118:13-14
Thou hast thrust sore at me, that I might fall: but the Lord helped me.
Christian experience
Christian experience is the richest product of grace, and it ought to be laid at the feet of the Well-beloved from whom it comes, and to whom it belongs. What God hath done for one of His people is an indication of what He will do for others of His chosen. The Lords providences are promises, and His benedictions are predictions. To be silent concerning the lovingkindness of the Lord is a robbery of the worst kind; it is taking from our God the glory due unto His holy name.
I. Tribulation and patience. Thou hast thrust sore at me, etc. Truth most always strive against error, and holiness must battle against sin. It is an uphill journey to glory, and that man had need be a hardy mountaineer who resolves to ascend into the hill of the Lord, and to dwell in His holy place. He who is born for the crown is bound for the cross. A thousand snares are laid in your path; and only be who made you a Christian can cover your head, and carry you safely through the bombardment which awaits you.
II. Patience and experience The Lord helped me–
1. To believe.
2. To pray.
3. To stand.
4. To fight.
III. Experience and a hope that maketh not ashamed.
1. Our God has become our strength. He is the Lord all-sufficient when we are most insufficient. With Him for our strength, we cannot faint, or fail; but, on the contrary, we shall renew our force, and rise continually to something higher and better than before.
2. Our God has also become our song. It may mean, The Lord is my strength while I am waging the war, and my song when I have won the victory. This is an excellent sense, but another seems to me more clearly in the words, The Lord is my strength and song; both are in the present, we sing while we fight. Your great Lord and mine, when He went to His last tremendous conflict, where the powers of darkness marshalled all their strength against Him, and He strove until He sweat as it were great drops of blood,–how did He go? Here is the answer, After supper, they sang a hymn.Let us claim the victory, anticipate it, and shout it, while yet we are contending. On our beds let us sing Gods high praises, and magnify Him in the midst of the fires. Set your whole lives to music. Make your entire career a psalm. But what shall we sing about? Well, The Lord is my song. Sing the Father and His love eternal. Sing the Son of God, whose delights were with the sons of men before He came here to dwell. Tell how He took our flesh to take away our guilt. Tell how He died, and rose again, and led captivity captive, and ascended up on high. Make that your song, but do not forget to sing the Holy Spirits love. Magnify the Holy Ghost, the Illuminator, Comforter, Guide, abiding Advocate, and Paraclete. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me] In pushing thou hast pushed me that I might fall.
But the Lord helped me.] Though he possessed skill, courage, and strength, yet these could not have prevailed had not God been his helper; and to him he gives the glory of the victory.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou, O mine enemy, and the head of all mine enemies. Possibly he understandeth Saul, whom for honours sake he forbears to name; or some other chief commander of his enemies. Or the singular word is here put collectively for all his enemies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13-16. The enemy is triumphantlyaddressed as if present.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou hast thrust sore at me, that I might fall,…. Or “pushing, thou hast pushed me a, that I might fall”: an apostrophe to some particular enemy, as Saul was to David; who thrust sore at him to take away his life, by casting a javelin at him; speaking to his servants to kill him; sending messengers to watch his house and slay him, and by, pursuing him from place to place. And such an one was Judas to Christ, who lifted up his heel against him, and betrayed him into the hands of his enemies; or the devil in him, and by him; and who thrust sore at Christ by others; by Herod in his infancy, who sought to take away his life; and by the Scribes and Pharisees, who attempted it in different ways, and at last got him nailed to the cross; as well as Satan thrust sore at him, by his temptations in the wilderness, and when in his agonies in the garden, and when on the cross: and so the same enemy thrusts sore at the members of Christ, to cause them to fall from him, and the steadfastness of their faith in him to fail; that they may fall into temptation, and by it into sin, and that finally and totally, and into hell itself, could he obtain it;
but the Lord helped me; helped David, so that he perished not by the hand of Saul, he sometimes feared he should; helped Christ, as man and Mediator, in the day of salvation, and raised him from the dead, and gave him glory: and he helps his people against all their enemies; holds them with his right hand; helps them to fight against them; maintains his own work of grace in them, and keeps them from a total and final falling away, by his power unto salvation. The Targum is,
“the Word of the Lord helped me.”
a “impellendo impulisti me”, Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Michaelis; “trudendo trusisti me”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Thou hast sorely thrust at me. He either now changes the person, or directs his discourse to Saul, his principal enemy. In the person of one, he sets at defiance all his enemies together. In saying that he had been thrust at, he admits that he did not withstand the onset by his own bravery, as those who are powerful enough to encounter opposition, sustain the assaults of their enemies without flinching. The power of God is more illustriously displayed in raising him up even from ruin itself.
In the subsequent verse he draws the conclusion that God is his strength and song. By the former adjunct he candidly acknowledges his weakness, and ascribes his safety exclusively to God. And having admitted that his strength was in God alone, because he was sustained by his power, immediately he adds, that God is his praise or his song, which must be understood passively. “In myself there was no ground for boasting, to God belongs entirely all the praise of my safety.” The last clause of the verse, in which he says that God was his salvation, refers to the same subject.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
13. Thrust sore Literally, Thrusting thou hast thrust, etc., an intensive form of speech. Thou hast done thy worst at violence and malice. The third person is changed for the second, and he addresses his enemies.
But the Lord helped me The psalmist does not describe the manner of divine interference, because psalms written for the whole Church, and for all times, and all forms of suffering and deliverance, should not be embarrassed with local details. It is enough to know that Jehovah alone could help him, and that he delivered him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 118:13. Thou hast thrust sore at me. This apostrophe is strong; and probably directed to some particular person in the battle, who had put David into great danger.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 118:13 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
Ver. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me ] Thou, O Saul, or thou, Ishbibenob, 2Sa 21:16 , or thou, O Satan, setting such a work.
But the Lord helped me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Thou. Does this refer to the “man” of Psa 118:6?
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 118:13-17
Psa 118:13-17
“Thou didst thrust sore at me that I might fall;
But Jehovah helped me.
Jehovah is my strength and song;
And he is become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation is the tents of the righteous.
The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly.
The right hand of Jehovah is exalted:
The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly.
I shall not die, but live,
And declare the works of Jehovah.”
“Thou didst thrust sore at me” (Psa 118:13). The “thou” here is a reference to the enemies that encompassed David.
“Rejoicing in the tents of the righteous” (Psa 118:15). These were the faithful followers of the Lord who had supported David in his long and bitter contest with the wicked Saul.
“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of Jehovah” (Psa 118:17). King Saul had devoted all the resources of the kingdom to accomplish the death of David; and for a long while the issue was in doubt; but victory at the time of this psalm had been won. Saul was dead and David was on the throne.
“Some of these verses refer to a symbolical humiliation of the king, as McCaw stated it, and this is the viewpoint of a number of commentators, but there is no evidence that there was anything “symbolical” about the death threats against David. There was nothing symbolical about that javelin that Saul cast at David with the intention of thrusting him through. It is our conviction that most of the commentators are simply wrong about this psalm. All that imagination about the liturgical procession of the singers is simply not in the picture at all.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 118:13. Thou refers to the enemy who had been persecuting David. The wicked intention of the foe had been cut short by the Lord. Psa 118:14. Strength and song is a fine combination. Because David was strengthened by the Lord, he would praise Him in song. The importance of that strength was indicated by the fact that it brought salvation to David.
Psa 118:15. Tabernacles is used in the sense of assemblies or groups. Such groups who are righteous only have the right to rejoice in salvation. Paul taught a like principle in Php 3:1. Right hand of the Lord means that whatever is done by the hand of the Lord is right.
Psa 118:16. Right hand is explained in the preceding verse.
Psa 118:17. David’s enemies would wish him to die. Their expectations were to be disappointed, for David was assured of continuing in life, and of being permitted to declare the works of God to the generations to come.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Psa 18:17, Psa 18:18, Psa 56:1-3, 1Sa 20:3, 1Sa 25:29, 2Sa 17:1-3, Mic 7:8, Mat 4:1-11, Heb 2:14
Reciprocal: Gen 49:23 – General 2Ch 18:31 – the Lord Psa 28:7 – heart Psa 54:4 – General Psa 94:17 – Unless Psa 124:6 – who hath not Psa 129:2 – yet they have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 118:13-14. Thou hast thrust sore at me, &c. O mine enemy. The singular number may possibly be here put collectively for all his enemies; or, this apostrophe, which is strong, might be directed to some particular person in the battle, who had put David into great danger. The Lord is my strength and song The author of my strength, and therefore the just object of my praise; and is become my salvation The author of my protection and safety, and the source of my peace and comfort. Observe, reader, if God be our strength, he ought to be our song; if he work all our works in us, he ought to have all praise and glory from us. God is sometimes the strength of his people when he is not their song; they have spiritual supports when they want spiritual delights; but if he be both to us, we have indeed abundant reason to triumph in him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
118:13 {e} Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
(e) He notes Saul his chief enemy.