Psalm 18:43a You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; b) you have made me the head of nations; people I did not know are subject to me. 44a As soon as they hear me, they obey me; b) foreigners cringe before me. 45 They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.
Psalm 18 is about Jesus Christ. It is a heart-cry of resurrection joy after the anguish of the crucifixion and burial. Verses 21 to 24 describe the flawless perfection of Christ as a man on earth.
Verse 43b describes the rule of Christ as King after His ascension.
Psalm 18:43a You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; b) you have made me the head of nations; people I did not know are subject to me.
Isaiah 55:5 speaks of Christ in the same way.
Isaiah 55:5 "Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor."
Psalm 43b is a description of how the previously unsaved Gentile nations will turn to Christ and be subject to Him. Verse 44a continues the description of how the Gentile nations will obey the Lord Christ.
Psalm 18:44a As soon as they hear me, they obey me;
In the standard translations, verses 44b-45 run us into difficulty:
Psalm 18:44b-45 foreigners cringe before me. 45 They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.
What is the difficulty? Simply this. The obedience of the "foreign" Gentile nations and their incorporation into Christ's kingdom has always been a subject of great joy biblically (cf Isaiah 55:5 and others). Therefore, Psalm 18:43b-44a, which clearly speaks of these Gentile nations is also a subject of great joy. Those Gentile nations have received God's greatest blessing in Christ.
But the language of 44b through 45 is not joyful, but rather fearful. It speaks of defeat and abject fear and sadness of heart. How can both parts of these verses be speaking of the same group of people?
I propose that they are not speaking of one group, but two. This occurs very frequently throughout the prophets and the Psalms. Isaiah constantly flips back and forth between the blessed of the Lord and the soon-to-be condemned.
So who are the two groups of people? The first group, verses 43b-44a, are the newly saved Gentile nations. The Septuagint version casts great light on who the second group, verses 44b-45, might be. I propose that the second group are the disobedient Israelites, those who rejected Christ in His day and afterward.
The Septuagint (Brenton's version published by Zondervan in 1970) translates this portion of scripture as follows:
Psalm 17(18):43-45 Deliver me from the gainsayings of the people: thou shalt make me head of the Gentiles: a people whom I knew not served me, 44 at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me: the strange children lied to me. 45 The strange children waxed old, and fell away from their paths through lameness.
Here in the Septuagint translation there are very clearly two distinct groups of people spoken of. Although it is my understanding that scholars discount the value of the Septuagint in exegesis, it is the translation that our Lord and the apostles used. Where this translation sheds light, I cannot help but see by that light.
Who are the "strange children" spoken of in verses 44 and 45? The word "children" is the same word for "sons" that Paul uses in Romans 8:14 and elsewhere. "Strange" is the same word that Jesus uses of strangers in John 10:5. Although strangers is commonly used of foreigners, the lexical definitions also give "belonging to another" and "enemy" as possible definitions.
In speaking of the non-believing Pharisees and scribes, Jesus said this:
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Children of the devil, though Israelites by both birth and religion, could certainly be called "strange children".
Continuing with our examination of the Septuagint translation of Psalm 18: 44, we find that the "strange children lied to me."
The word "lied" is the same as that used in Psalm 78, where God is speaking against the unfaithful and disloyal Israelites in the wilderness.
Psalm 78:35 They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. 36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; 37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
Lip service to the Lord as a cover-up for a non-believing heart has been one of God's great griefs towards His chosen people throughout both the Old and the New Testaments. One of Jesus' most often used phrases to the Pharisees was "Hypocrites!"
Continuing in the Septuagint version of Psalm 18:45, we find--
Psalm 18:45 The strange children waxed old, and fell away from their paths through lameness.
The UBS definition of the phrase "waxed old" is "make or declare old or obsolete; pass. become old or obsolete, wear out". Isn't this exactly what happened to the Old Covenant when the New Covenant replaced it?
In Hebrews 8:13, the word "obsolete" is the phrase "waxed old" in Psalm 18:45, Septuagint.
Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Verse 45 of Psalm 18 continues to say that the "strange children" who "waxed old" "fell away from their paths through lameness."
These strange children left the path of salvation due to the lameness of their walk. Isn't that a very graphic description of Paul's heart cry for his people in Romans 9? And when the writer to the Hebrews quoted God in Hebrews 3:10?
Hebrews 3:10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' [Psalm 95:10]
His remedy is found later in chapter 12:13.
Hebrews 12:13 "Make level paths for your feet," {13 Prov. 4:26} so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
This is very similar language to that found in the Septuagint version of Psalm 18:45.
Practical Application
Why should I care if there are two different groups of people in Psalm 18:43-45? I should care for two reasons.
1) I should care because if in fact there are two groups mentioned in these verses, the same two groups we find in actual history as the Old Testament gave way and played out into the New, then I can rejoice before God that an ancient prophecy proved true.
2) I should care because these are the same two groups mentioned throughout scripture: the believers and the non-believers. And among the professed believers there are also two groups mentioned throughout scripture: those who believe in their hearts and therefore obey in their actions, and those who give lip service only without heart belief and without obedience.
The only group of the above who will spend an eternity with God and Christ in heaven are those who both confess with their lips and believe in their hearts. The evidence of heart belief is outward, behavioral obedience.
I want to make sure that I am being honest with myself before God, so that in truth my conscience will not condemn me on that Great Day of final judgment. I still have time now to repent and be healed before the God of mercy if in fact I find myself to be a hypocrite. Later will be too late.
The Bible is very clear that God is not fooled. Yet the Bible is also clear that He receives all who come to Him with a truly repentant heart.
Therefore, I can take a passage such as Psalm 18:43-45 prayerfully to my heart and ask God to search me and try me and show me if there be any wicked way in me. Today, if I hear His voice, I want a soft heart able to respond to Him.
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