Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 18:28
For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
28. For thou dost light my lamp,
Jehovah my God maketh my darkness bright.
The burning lamp is a natural metaphor for the continuance of life and prosperity, derived, it is said, from the Oriental practice of keeping a light constantly burning in the tent or house, which symbolised the maintenance of the life and prosperity of the family. Cp. Job 18:6; Pro 13:9. The second line of the verse indicates that the figure here refers to the preservation of David’s own life, rather than to the permanence of his dynasty, as in Psa 132:17; 1Ki 11:36; 1Ki 15:4.
The text of 2 Sam. has “For thou art my lamp, O Lord.” Cp. Psa 27:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
28 30. These general principles of God’s dealing with men are confirmed by David’s own experience.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For thou wilt light my candle – Margin, lamp. The word lamp best expresses the idea. In the Scriptures light is an image of prosperity, success, happiness, holiness, as darkness is the image of the opposite. See the notes at Job 29:2-3; compare also Job 18:6; Job 21:17; Pro 20:27; Pro 24:20; Psa 119:105; Psa 132:17; Isa 62:1. The meaning here is, that the psalmist felt assured that God would give him prosperity, as if his lamp were kept constantly burning in his dwelling.
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness – Will shed light on my path, which would otherwise be dark: will impart light to my understanding; will put peace and joy in my heart; will crown me with his favor. Compare the note at Psa 4:6.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 18:28
Thou wilt light my candle.
Lighted candles
In the East the poorest people burnt a lamp all through the night time, for they dreaded a dark house as a terrible calamity. When they had light they were happy, and in some degree prosperous. David says that God will light his home lamp for him, and will thus make his home happy for him. In Pro 20:27 we find this sentence, The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord. The question is, are we lighted candles? Away in the north there is a lighthouse that has no light at all in it; but yet it shines, because a light that burns upon the shore is reflected into the lantern far out at sea. All very well for the lantern, but it will not do for us; we must have the light within ourselves. But we cannot light ourselves. Jesus must light up our souls by giving us His Spirit, and when He does this then we can give light to others and get more light from Him. If He does this for us we must continue burning. Jesus desires this, and also that we should burn properly. George Whitfield said he hoped he should die blazing, and not go off as a snuff. And remember that our lighted candle may light another candle, and yet have as much light as it had before. God uses one soul to help and bless another soul. In the diary of Thomas Carlyle there was a sketch of a candle that burned as it wasted. Underneath Carlyle had written, May I be wasted, so I be of use. (J. J. Ellis.)
Lighting our candles at heavens torch
That which makes a candle what it is is its adaptation to receive light, and by burning itself to transmit that light. God is the great Light of this universe, and we know not of how many universes besides. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. That is the one great central fact which keeps mankind from despair,–the assurance that at its heart the universe is not dark but bright; it is bright with wisdom, bright with power, and bright with love. It is mans supreme glory that he has this kinship with God. However dark his nature may have become through sin, it is of such a kind that it can be lighted from heavens torch. There has never yet been discovered any man or any tribe of men who did not have this power or capacity to receive Divine illumination. Now, there is one thing to which I specially desire to call your attention, and that is that the candle, in order to receive the light from the match or the taper or the torch, must yield itself to the light. There is no way to shine except by burning ourselves. Though we were created as the candles of the Lord, we have the power to refuse to give our hearts up to be lighted by heavens fire Indeed, we may, if we are foolish and wicked enough to do it, lend our hearts to be lighted by the devils fire, and give forth a baleful flame that will make the darkness deeper not only for ourselves, but for everyone who is influenced by us. God will not forcibly take our candle and light it at the heavenly fire. We must yield it to His hands through our own decision. (L. A. Banks, D. D.)
The Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light.—
Light out of darkness
Davids deliverance from his enemies was the work of no human strength or skill, but of the unseen Master whom David served, and therefore he is so buoyant and hopeful as he looks forward to the future. The future had troubles in store for David,–troubles in his family, troubles with his subjects, and, worst of all, troubles that would come of his own misconduct. But be the future what it may, David can rest upon the moral certainty that he will still enjoy that illuminating and strengthening presence of which he has had experience in the past. This confidence in a light that will not fail in the dark hours of life is eminently Christian. There are three dark shadows which fall across every human life–the shadow of sin, the shadow of pain, and the shadow of death.
I. The shadow of sin. Sin is the transgression in will or in fact of the eternal moral law. Sin itself is the contradiction of God, it is the repudiation of God, the perverse activity of the created will. Sin is not always an act: often it is a state; it is an attitude of the will, it is an atmosphere of mind and disposition; it pervades thought, it insinuates itself into the springs of resolve, it presides over life where there is no conscious or deliberate intention of welcoming it, it changes its form again and again. But throughout it is one in root and principle, the resistance of the created will to the will of God: and this resistance means darkness, not in the sky above our heads, but far worse–darkness in the moral nature, darkness in the moral intelligence, darkness at the centre of the soul. This darkness was felt in the degree possible to them by the heathen. It explains the vein of sadness which runs through the highest heathen literature. For us Christians the sin is blacker, and the shame is greater in proportion to our higher knowledge of God and His will. In order to escape from this dark shadow, men have tried to persuade themselves that sin is not what we know it to be, and the conscience which reveals it to us is only prejudice, or a bundle of prejudices accumulated through centuries of human life. But the shadow of sin cannot be conjured away; it lies thick and dark upon human life. Upon us, sitting as we are in the darkness of the region of the shadow of death, there shines the sun of Gods pardoning love, and He, our Lord and God, in very deed makes our darkness to be light.
II. The shadow of pain. We know pain, not in itself, but by its presence, by its effects. The problem of pain is a distressing, almost overwhelming one. It is pain which dogs our steps from the cradle to the grave. It is not limited to mans bodily constitution; the mind is capable of sharper pain than any that can be caused by a diseased or wounded body. How to deal with pain; how to alleviate it; how to do away with it–these have been questions which men have discussed for thousands of years. Pain, on the whole, remains inaccessible to human treatment, and especially does it resist attempts to ignore its bitterness. Pain in the world of men is the consequence of wrong-doing, but our Lord did no guile, and yet He was a sufferer. Man suffers more than the animals, the higher races of men suffer more than the lower. As the Man of Sorrows, our Lord showed that pain is not to be measured by the reasons for it which we can trace in nature; it has more and larger purposes, which we can only guess at, but as associated with resignation, love, sanctity, pain is most assuredly the harbinger of peace and joy. On the Cross its triumph was unique; it availed to take away the sin of the world.
III. The shadow of death. The thought that death must come at last casts over thousands of lives a deep gloom. No real comfort is to be had by reflecting that the laws of nature are irresistible. The darkness of the grave is not less lightened by our Lord and Saviour than is the darkness of sin or the darkness of pain. He has entered the sphere of death, and with Christians death is no longer dark. That our Lord makes these three dark shadows to be light is the experience in all ages of thousands of Christians. (Canon Liddon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. For thou wilt light my candle] Thou wilt restore me to prosperity, and give me a happy issue out of all my afflictions. By the lamp of David the Messiah may be meant: thou wilt not suffer my family to become extinct, nor the kingdom which thou hast promised me utterly to fail.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Or, thou dost light, or hast lighted, my candle, i.e. given me safety, and comfort, and prosperity, and glory, and posterity also; all which are oft signified by a candle or a light, as Est 8:16; Job 21:17; 29:3; Psa 97:11; 132:17, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. To give one light isto make prosperous (Job 18:5;Job 18:6; Job 21:17).
thouis emphatic, as ifto say, I can fully confide in Thee for help.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For thou wilt light my candle,…. Or lamp d: in
2Sa 22:29, it is, “Thou [art] my lamp, O Lord”; which may either design outward prosperity, and the flourishing condition of David’s kingdom; or internal spiritual light, and an increase of it, by giving fresh supplies of the oil of grace, to cause the lamp to burn more clearly; or rather the prosperous estate of Christ’s kingdom; and may be the same with the lamp ordained for the Messiah, Ps 132:17;
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness; or “cause light to shine in my darkness” e; that is, bring me out of darkness into light; either out of adversity to prosperity, or from walking in darkness to the enjoyment of the light of his countenance; and is true of Christ, not only of the prosperity of his kingdom and interest, but of him personally; who though, when on the cross, was in darkness of soul, being forsaken by his God; yet, when raised from the dead, he was received up to heaven, and set down at the right hand of God, and was made full of joy with his countenance, Ac 2:28.
d “lucernam meam”, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c. e So Gussetius, Comment. Ebr. p. 495.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 18:29-31) The confirmation of what has been asserted is continued by David’s application of it to himself. Hitzig translates the futures in Psa 18:29. as imperfects; but the sequence of the tenses, which would bring this rendering with it, is in this instance interrupted, as it has been even in Psa 18:28, by . The lamp, (contracted from nawer), is an image of life, which as it were burns on and on, including the idea of prosperity and high rank; in the form (from niwr, nijr) it is the usual figurative word for the continuance of the house of David, 1Ki 11:36, and frequently. David’s life and dominion, as the covenant king, is the lamp which God’s favour has lighted for the well-being of Israel, and His power will not allow this lamp (2Sa 21:17) to be quenched. The darkness which breaks in upon David and his house is always lighted up again by Jahve. For His strength is mighty in the weak; in, with, and by Him he can do all things. The fut. may be all the more surely derived from (= ), inasmuch as this verb has the changeable u in the future also in Isa 42:4; Ecc 12:6. The text of 2 Sam 22, however, certainly seems to put “rushing upon” in the stead of “breaking down.” With Psa 18:31 the first half of the hymn closes epiphonematically. is a nom. absol., like hatsuwr, Deu 32:4. This old Mosaic utterance is re-echoed here, as in 2Sa 7:22, in the mouth of David. The article of points to God as being manifest in past history. His way is faultless and blameless. His word is , not slaggy ore, but purified solid gold, Psa 12:7. Whoever retreats into Him, the God of the promise, is shielded from every danger. Pro 30:5 is borrowed from this passage.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
28. For thou shalt light my lamp. In the song in Samuel, the form of the expression is somewhat more precise; for there it is said not that God lights our lamp, but that he himself is our lamp. The meaning, however, comes to the same thing, namely, that it was by the grace of God that David, who had been plunged in darkness, returned to the light. David does not simply give thanks to God for having lighted up a lamp before him, but also for having converted his darkness into light. He, therefore, acknowledges that he had been reduced to such extremity of distress, that he was like a man whose condition was forlorn and hopeless; for he compares the confused and perplexed state of his affairs to darkness. This, indeed, by the transference of material things to things spiritual, may be applied to the spiritual illumination of the understanding; but, at the same time, we must attend to the subject of which David treats, that we may not depart from the true and proper meaning. Now, as he acknowledges that he had been restored to prosperity by the favor of God, which was to him, as it were, a life-giving light, let us, after his example, regard it as certain that we will never have the comfort of seeing our adversities brought to an end, unless God disperse the darkness which envelops us, and restore to us the light of joy. Let it not, however, be distressing to us to walk through darkness, provided God is pleased to perform to us the office of a lamp. In the following verse, David ascribes his victories to God, declaring that, under his conduct, he had broken through the wedges or phalanxes of his enemies, and had taken by storm their fortified cities. (425) Thus we see that, although he was a valiant warrior, and skilled in arms, he arrogates nothing to himself. As to the tenses of the verbs, we would inform our readers once for all, that in this psalm David uses the past and the future tenses indifferently, not only because he comprehends different histories, but also because he presents to himself the things of which he speaks as if they were still taking place before his eyes, and, at the same time, describes a continued course of the grace of God towards him.
(425) The last clause, By my God have I leaped over a wall, is rendered by the Chaldee, “I will subdue fortified towers.” Hammond renders it, “By my God I have taken a fort.” In support of this view, he observes that the word שור, shur, from שור, shor, to look, signifies both a wall, from which to observe the approach of the enemy, and a watch-tower and fort; that if we take שור, shur, as meaning a wall, the verb דלג, dalag, will be rightly rendered to leap over; but if שור, shur, means a fort, then the verb will mean to seize on it suddenly, and will therefore be best translated to take it.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(28) For thou wilt.Better, Thou makest bright my lamp. In Samuel, It is thou Jehovah who art my lamp. This obvious metaphor is common in Hebrew, as in all literature. Light is an emblem of prosperity, happiness, or life itself. (Comp. Job. 18:6; Job. 21:17; Pro. 13:9, &c). It happens to be used very frequently of David and his family (1Ki. 11:36; 1Ki. 15:4; 2Ki. 8:19). Comp. Psa. 132:17.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. Light my candle Or, lamp; a figure denoting joyfulness, prosperity.
Job 29:3. On the contrary, “the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.” Pro 13:9; Job 21:17
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Indeed It Is Through God That We Will Triumph ( Psa 18:28-29 ).
‘For you will light my lamp,
YHWH my God will lighten my darkness.
For by you I run on a troop,
And by my God do I leap over a wall.
Here is the Godward side. David is confident that it is God Who will deliver him. Note that his reliance is all on God. It is He Who will light his lamp, showing him the way in the darkness and giving him guidance as to how he should walk, and illumination as he seeks God. What seemed at the time dark around him would be illuminated by God. ‘God is light’ said John (1Jn 1:5), ‘and in Him is no darkness at all’. And David had found it true in experience. It was because God had shone within him, and would continue to shine within him, that he had hope. What he was, was because God had shone within him. Note the change from ‘you’ to ‘YHWH my God’. As he speaks man to God he is suddenly filled with awe to think Who it is he is speaking to. It is not just anyone, but YHWH, Who will lighten his darkness.
There may be here the thought of the lamp in the Tabernacle which was lit daily in the evening (Exo 30:8) to represent God as a light to His people. As each day began the lamp was lit, the lamp that illuminated Israel. God’s illumination was continually with them, repeatedly renewed, and he shone out for them. So was David confident that He would light his lamp daily too.
‘For by you I run on a troop, and by my God do I leap over a wall.’ The twofold thought here is of success in warfare. He had not chosen warfare but it had been forced on him. And he knew that his success had been of YHWH. To run on a troop is to chase, attack and defeat them, as he did the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30), to leap over a wall describes his taking of cities like the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. The walls were no hindrance to him. He, as it were, simply leapt over them. And it was because YHWH was with him. He gave all the glory for his success to God.
And it will ever be thus. The singers were confident, as they entered into David’s experience, and we too may be sure, that whatever foe we face, whatever obstacle lies before us in the spiritual realm we also can ‘run on’ them or ‘leap over’ them by the power and sustenance of God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 18:28. Thou wilt light my candle i.e. Advance me to honour, and increase my prosperity; and make me continually joyful by thy favour. Nothing more usual among the Oriental writers than the representing any person or family by a lamp enlightening the whole house. See 1Ki 11:36; 1Ki 15:4. Job 18:5-6.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Ver. 28. For thou wilt light my candle ] Or, Thou hast lighted my candle, that is, thou hast bettered my condition, which seemed to be put out in obscurity. The wicked man’s is, Job 18:6 ; Job 21:17 Pro 13:9 .
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
candle = lamp. Used to-day, in the East, more for comfort than light.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thou wilt: Psa 112:4, Job 18:6, Job 29:3
candle: or, lamp, Psa 132:17, 2Sa 22:29, 1Ki 11:36, Pro 20:27, Isa 62:1
my God: Isa 42:16, Mat 4:16, Luk 1:79, 1Pe 2:9
Reciprocal: 1Ki 15:4 – lamp Est 8:16 – had light Psa 7:1 – O Psa 13:3 – lighten Psa 27:1 – light Psa 34:5 – and were Psa 97:11 – Light Psa 118:27 – showed Psa 119:105 – lamp Joh 8:12 – shall not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
The Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light.
Psa 18:28 (Prayer Book Version)
There are three dark shadows which fall across every human life.
I. There is, first of all, the shadow of sin.It falls dark and thick upon the life of human beings. Sin is the transgression in will or in fact of the eternal moral law, of that law which, unlike the law of nature, could not be other than what it is, unless God could be other than what He is, of that law which is not an arbitrary enactment of His will, but the outflow of the expression of His very being. Sin thus is the contradiction of God, the resistance of the created will to the will of the Creator. And this resistance means darkness, not in the sky above our heads, but, far worse, darkness in the moral nature, darkness in the moral intelligence, darkness at the centre of the soul.
II. The shadow of pain.As the races and generations pass, whatever else may distinguish them from each other, whatever else they may have in common, they pass each and all, sooner or later, under the weird shadow of pain. How to deal with pain, how to alleviate it, how to do away with itthese have been questions which men have discussed for thousands of years; and anodynes there are, such as they are, for pains of body and pains of mind, anodynes of very varying moral worth, but of which this much must be said, that they do but at most curtail the fringe of the great realm of pain.
III. The shadow of death.The thought that death must come at last casts over thousands of lives a deep gloom. There is the uncertainty of the time and manner of its approach; there is the unimaginable experience of what in itself it will be; there is the dread of what may or may not follow it.
Sin, pain, deaththese are the three shadows that fall across the life of men in this day of preparation for the great future; and that our Lord makes these dark shadows to be light is the experience in all ages of thousands of Christians. Only a robust faith in the unseen, only the faith of our Lord and God, can relieve the human heart when face to face with these solemn and irremovable conditions of our human life. So long as they last, the religion of the Crucified will last too.
Canon Liddon.
Illustrations
(1) This is one of the most sublime and beautiful of Davids psalms. It was probably written after his great wars were over, and tells the story of his great distress and the manner in which Jehovah interposed for his relief, from which, in Psa 18:20, he proceeds to lay down the general principles of the Divine government.
(2) The Psalms have epic and even dramatic fragments as well as lyrical. The eighteenth psalm has something of the epic; the nineteenth is very nobly lyrical. The eighteenth is the revelation of God in history; the nineteenth in nature and the law.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 18:28-31. Thou wilt light, or, thou dost light, or, hast lighted, my candle That is, given me safety, and comfort, and glory, and posterity also: all which particulars are often signified by a candle, or a light. Thou wilt or dost advance me to honour, increase my prosperity, and make me continually joyful by thy favour. Nothing was more usual among the oriental writers than representing any person, or family, by a lamp enlightening the whole house, 1Ki 11:36; 1Ki 15:4, and Job 18:5-6. For by thee I have run through a troop Broken through the armed troops of mine enemies. And by my God have I leaped over a wall I have scaled the walls of their strongest cities and castles, and so taken them. David, soon after his settlement on the throne, drove the Jebusite garrison out of Jerusalem, and reduced the city to his obedience, making it the future capital of his kingdom. And it is not improbable but he may refer to these actions, or to his two victories over the Philistines, mentioned 2Sa 5:17, &c. Davids habitual piety should be here remarked, as he ascribes all his successes to the assistance of God; and in the next two verses celebrates the unerring rectitude of his providence: As for God, his way is perfect In every thing just and kind: the truth of his promises; the word of the Lord is tried Free from deceit, as gold refined by fire, and certainly to be performed: and that powerful protection he affords to good men; he is a buckler A sure defence, to all those who trust in him. To this he could bear witness from his own experience; and therefore he breaks out in that just acknowledgment, Psa 18:31, Who is God, save Jehovah? Or, who is a rock Who can give absolute security from all dangers, save our God? He then goes on to enumerate the particular favours which God had bestowed upon himself, and the various perils he had been in, under which he had experienced the divine protection. Chandler.