The intensity of this poem stimulates me … absolutely amazing the strength of the words and poetic rhythm of it. I think one of the main reasons I enjoyed this poem is because it is very easy to follow and understand unlike some of them. 18:4 is an example of this, “Praise I called the Lord and from my enemies I was rescued… Easy to follow and straight forward. This line defines the entire psalm and its basic meaning.
The psalm goes into great detail of the journey the Lord takes to save David. The Lord is described as such a powerful warrior figure in this psalm that it is almost frightening the absolute control he possesses. I feel like anyone who is a strong believer in the psalms and the Lord probably just loves this psalm because it explains the all mighty supremacy of their Lord. The line (18:18) “He saved me from my daunting enemy and from my foes who were stronger than I.” I think this probably speaks strong because all people at times worry about their stronger foes, whether it is mentally or physically, and this seems to say they that the Lord is here to help overcome such unavoidable challenges. From then the psalm goes on to describe how wonderful the Lord is for helping in times of need and how accepting he is.
My favorite part begins at line 34 when the descriptions of different body parts come into the scene. A couple of snippets are “make my legs like a gazelle’s and stands me on the heights, trains my hands for combat, makes my arms bend a bow of bronze….you lengthened my strides beneath me and my feet did not trip.” What beautiful language is used to describe such relatively simple body parts; drawing out parts of the body that the Lord taught to be stronger and poss greater powers is wonderfully phrased.
The line that shocked me the first time I read it was “The God who grants vengeance to me and crushes peoples beneath me (18:48).” This jumped out at me because it was so direct in its actions; talking about revenge and crushing people below you sounds kind of harsh, to me at least. This is the only part where I really found the image of God as an aid in battle as scary and unsympathetic.
I think that borrowing of the elements of God from other religious traditions is a great combination to show the strength and overall blending between separate traditions …. I don’t see it as problematic, but then again... I have little to no background to say.
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