Psalms 18:50

Great deliverance giveth he to his king - To David, as king. The word in the original, which is rendered “deliverance,” means properly salvations, and is here in the plural number. It refers not to one act of divine interposition, but to the many acts (referred to in the psalm) in which God had interposed to save him from danger and from death. The phrase “to his king” refers to the fact that God had appointed him to reign, and to administer the government for him. He did not reign on his own account, but he reigned for God, and with a view to do his will.

And showeth mercy to his anointed - To him who had been set apart to the kingly office by a solemn act of anointing. Compare 1 Samuel 16:13; 2Sa 2:4-7; 2 Samuel 5:3, 2Sa 5:17; 2 Samuel 12:7; compare 2Ki 9:3, 2 Kings 9:6,2 Kings 9:12. It is in allusion to this custom that the Messiah is called the Anointed, or the Christ. See the note at Matthew 1:1.

To David, and to his seed - To his descendants, or posterity. There is an undoubted reference here to the promises made to David in regard to his successors on the throne. See 2 Samuel 7:12, 2 Samuel 7:25, and Psalms 89:19.

Forevermore - This expresses the confident expectation of David that the government would remain in his family to the latest times. This expectation was founded on such promises as that in 2 Samuel 7:12 : “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom; he shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” Also 2 Samuel 7:16 : “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee; thy throne shall be established forever.” See also Psalms 89:36 : “His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me.” The perpetuity of this kingdom is found, in fact, in the reign of the Messiah, a descendant of David, in whose eternal reign these promises will receive an ample fulfillment. See Isaiah 9:7. Compare Luke 1:32. The temporal reign passed wholly away in the process of time from the descendants of David; the spiritual reign is perpetual in the Messiah. How far David understood this it is not important to inquire, and it would be impossible to determine. It is sufficient for the proper understanding of the place to remember

(a) that there will have been a strict fulfillment of the promise, according to the full import of the language, in the Messiah, the Son of David; and

(b) that, however this may have been understood by David who recorded the promise, the real author of the promise was the Holy Spirit, and that the real meaning of the promise, as thus recorded, was that it should be fulfilled as it has been.

In this, as in all other cases, the inquiry to be made in interpreting the language is not how the sacred penman understood it, but what was meant by the real author, the Spirit of God - and whether the prediction, according to that meaning, has been fulfilled. When a man employs an amanuensis, the inquiry in regard to what is written is not how the amanuensis understood it, but how he who dictated what was written intended it should be understood. Applying this principle, the prediction here and elsewhere, in regard to the perpetuity of the reign of David and his posterity, has been, and is, fulfilled in the most ample manner. “Great David’s greater Son” shall reign forever and ever.