to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.
David came to the throne through almost insurmountable trials, and foreign enemies harassed him even into old age. Rather than boast of his own victories, he exalts God as the true author of them, showing that his reign prefigures Christ's kingdom, one that will triumph over all resistance by the Father's incomprehensible power.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 18:1-50
"With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward." The sinner's frowardness is sinful and rebellious, and the only sense in which the term can be applied to the Most Holy God is that of judicial opposition and sternness, in which the Judge of all the earth will act at cross-purposes with the offender, and let him...
When God visibly took David's part, He both cleared his innocence before men and confirmed the testimony of his own conscience. A wicked departure from God is one done willfully and without recovery; but those who stumble yet repent and press forward have not truly forsaken Him.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 18:20-28