Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 18:4

"The cords of death compassed me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid." — Psalms 18:4 (ASV)

The sorrows of death compassed me—Surrounded me. That is, he was in imminent danger of death, or in the midst of such pangs and sorrows as are commonly supposed to attend death. He probably refers to some period in his past life—perhaps during the persecutions of Saul—when he was so beset with troubles and difficulties that it seemed to him that he must die.

The word rendered “sorrows”—חבל chebel—means, according to Gesenius, “a cord, a rope,” and hence, “a snare, gin, noose.” The idea here is, according to Gesenius, that he was taken as if in the snares of death, or in the bands of death (Psalms 116:3).

Our translators, however, and it seems to me more correctly, regarded the word as derived from the same noun differently pointed—הבל chēbel—meaning “writhings, pangs, pains,” as in Isaiah 66:7; Jeremiah 13:21; Jeremiah 22:23; Hosea 13:13; and Job 39:3. So the Aramaic Paraphrase states, “Pangs as of a woman in childbirth came around me.” So the Vulgate, “dolores.” So the Septuagint, ὠδῖνες ōdines.

The corresponding phrase in 2 Samuel 22:5 is: The waves of death. The word used there—משׁבר mishbâr—properly means waves that break upon the shore—“breakers” (Psalms 88:7; Jonah 2:3).

Why the change was made in the psalm, it is not possible to determine. Either word denotes a condition of great danger and alarm, as if death was inevitable.

And the floods of ungodly men—Margin, as in Hebrew, “Belial.” The word “Belial” properly means “without use or profit,” and then worthless, abandoned, wicked. It is applied to wicked men as being “worthless” to society and to all the proper ends of life. Although the term here undoubtedly refers to “wicked” men, it also refers to them as being worthless or abandoned—low, common, useless to mankind.

The word rendered “floods”—נחל nachal—means in the singular, properly, a stream, brook, or rivulet, and then, a torrent, as formed by rain and snow-water in the mountains (Job 6:15).

The word used here refers to such men as if they were poured forth in streams and torrents—in such multitudes that the psalmist was likely to be overwhelmed by them, as one would be by floods of water. Made me afraid. This made me apprehensive of losing my life. To what particular period of his life he refers here, it is now impossible to determine.