John Calvin Commentary Psalms 18:16

"He sent from on high, he took me; He drew me out of many waters." — Psalms 18:16 (ASV)

He sent down from above. Here the main point of the sublime and magnificent narrative we have just reviewed is briefly shown: namely, to teach us that David finally emerged from the profound abyss of his troubles, not by his own skill, nor by the aid of men, but was drawn out of them by the hand of God.

When God defends and preserves us wonderfully and by extraordinary means, he is said in Scripture language to send down help from above; and this sending is set in opposition to human and earthly aids, on which we usually place a mistaken and undue confidence. I do not disapprove of the opinion of those who consider this as referring to the angels, but I understand it in a more general sense. For by whatever means we are preserved, it is God who, having his creatures ready at his command to do his will, appoints them to take charge of us and equips or prepares them for helping us.

But, although every kind of aid comes from heaven, David, with good reason, affirms that God had stretched out his hand from on high to deliver him. In speaking this way, he meant to highlight the preeminence of the astonishing benefit referred to, setting it above others of a more common kind. Besides, there is in this expression a tacit comparison between the unusual exercise of God’s power celebrated here and the common and ordinary means by which he helps his people.

When he says that God drew him out of great waters, it is a metaphorical form of expression. By comparing the cruelty of his enemies to impetuous torrents, by which he might have been swallowed up a hundred times, he expresses more clearly the greatness of the danger. It is as if he had said, “Contrary to human expectation, I have escaped and been delivered from a deep abyss in which I was ready to be overwhelmed.”

In the following verse, he expresses the matter plainly and without a figure of speech, declaring that he had been delivered from a strong enemy, who mortally hated and persecuted him. To further exalt and magnify the power of God, he directs our attention to this circumstance: that no human strength or power had been able to prevent God from saving him, even when he was reduced to the greatest extremity of distress.

At the end of the verse, there is the Hebrew particle כי, ki, which generally indicates the cause of what is stated. Almost all interpreters agree in explaining the verse as follows: “God has helped me from above, because my enemies were so numerous and so strong that no relief was to be expected by the mere aid of men.”

From this, we deduce a very profitable doctrine. Namely, the most opportune time for God to help his people is when they are unable to withstand the assaults of their enemies. This is especially true when, broken and afflicted, they sink under their enemies’ violence, much like a wretched man in a shipwreck who, having lost all hope of swimming to shore, sinks rapidly to the bottom of the deep.

The particle יכ, ki, however, might also be explained by the adversative particle although, in this way: “Although David’s enemies were superior to him in number and power, he nevertheless was saved.”