Understanding Psalm 118:18’s Divine Chastening

Psalm 118:18 NKJV

The Lord has chastened me severely,
But He has not given me over to death.

My Thoughts

The word chastened according to Strongs Definition:

יָסַר yâçar, yaw-sar’; a primitive root; to chastise, literally (with blows) or figuratively (with words); hence, to instruct:—bind, chasten, chastise, correct, instruct, punish, reform, reprove, sore, teach.

This is one of those verses that is hard to read, but to understand Abba’s love for us, it is important to realize that Psalm 118:18 emphasizes that while the Lord chastens His children severely, He does not abandon them to death. This idea of chastening, derived from both the Hebrew term and commentary, suggests a corrective and instructive purpose behind afflictions, meant for the person’s growth and humility. The commentaries below interpret this as divine discipline reserved for those He loves, affirming that God’s corrections are necessary for spiritual perseverance, not destruction, ensuring believers remain under His protective care……Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“The LORD hath chastened me sore.” This is faith’s version of the former passage, “Thou hast thrust sore at me,” for the attacks of the enemy are chastisements from the hand of God. The devil tormented Job for his own purposes, but in reality, the sorrows of the patriarch were chastisements from the Lord. “Chastening, Jah hath chastened me,” says our poet, as much as to say that the Lord had smitten him very severely, and made him sorrowfully to know the full weight of his rod. The Lord frequently appears to save his heaviest blows for his best-beloved ones; if any one affliction be more painful than another, it falls to the lot of those whom he most distinguishes in his service. The gardener prunes his best roses with most care. Chastisement is sent to keep successful saints humble, to make them tender towards others, and to enable them to bear the high honors which their heavenly Friend puts upon them.

“But he hath not given me over unto death.” This verse, like the thirteenth, concludes with a blessed “but,” which constitutes a saving clause. The Psalmist felt as if he had been beaten within an inch of his life, but yet death did not actually ensue. There is always a merciful limit to the scourging of the sons of God. Forty stripes save one were all that an Israelite might receive, and the Lord will never allow that one, that killing stroke, to fall upon his children. They are “chastened, but not killed;” their pains are for their instruction, not for their destruction. By these things the ungodly die, but gracious Hezekiah could say, “By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit.” No, blessed be the name of God, he may chastise us, but he will not condemn us; we must feel the smarting rod, but we shall not feel the killing sword. He does not give us over unto death at any time, and we may be quite sure that he has not done so while he condescends to chasten us, for if he intended our final rejection, he would not take the pains to place us under his fatherly discipline. It may seem hard to be under the afflicting rod, but it would be a far more dreadful thing if the Lord were to say, “He is given unto idols, let him alone.” Even from our griefs we may distill consolation, and gather sweet flowers from the garden in which the Lord has planted salutary rue and wormwood. It is a cheering fact that if we endure chastening, God dealeth with us as with sons, and we may well be satisfied with the common lot of his beloved family.

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Enduring Word

The LORD has chastened me severely: The singer understood that God had a training and corrective purpose in allowing the present crisis, but God would not allow it to destroy him. Rather, the crisis would be of benefit.

These words had great meaning for Jesus before the cross, where He would endure the Father’s purposeful suffering, yet not be given…over to death. (Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

The Lord hath chastened me sore – Hebrew, “The Lord has chastened – has chastened me.” See the notes at Psalms 118:13. The psalmist had been greatly afflicted, and he now looked upon his affliction in the light of a fatherly chastisement or correction. It had been a severe trial, and he was not insensible to its severity, though he regarded it as designed for his own good.

But he hath not given we over unto death – He interposed when I was in danger; he rescued me when I was on the verge of the grave. This is the close of the psalmist’s statement in regard to the divine dealings with him. He had passed through great danger; he had been sorely afflicted, but he had been rescued and spared, and he came now to express his thanks to God for his recovery. In the following verse, he addresses those who had the care of the sanctuary and asks that he might be permitted to enter and offer his thanks to God.

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John Gill

The Lord hath chastened me sore,…. Or, “in chastening hath chastened me”. David was exercised with many afflictions; and though these were sore ones to the flesh, yet they were only the chastening of a Father, and were all in love and for his good; as are all the afflictions of God’s people; for whom he loves, he chastens. Indeed, the chastisement of the Messiah was a proper punishment for sin, and so a sore one indeed; he being the surety of his people, on whom “the chastisement [of] their peace was laid”; that is, the punishment of their sin, Isaiah 53:5;

but he hath not given me over unto death; as yet, or to the power of it, so as to continue under it. This is to be understood in the sense as before.

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Matthew Henry

By the afflictions which God laid upon him (v. 18): The Lord has chastened me sore. Men thrust at him for his destruction; God chastened him for his instruction. They thrust at him with the malice of enemies; God chastened him with the love and tenderness of a Father. Perhaps he refers to the same trouble which God, the author of it, designed for his profit, that by it he might partake of his holiness (Heb. 12:10, 11); howbeit, men, who were the instruments of it, meant not so, neither did their heart think so, but it was in their heart to cut off and destroy, Isa. 10:7. What men intend for the greatest mischief God intends for the greatest good, and it is easy to say whose counsel shall stand. God will sanctify the trouble to his people, as it is his chastening, and secure the good he designs; and he will guard them against the trouble, as it is the enemies’ thrusting, and secure them from the evil they design, and then we need not fear.

This account which David gives of his troubles, is very applicable to our Lord Jesus. Many there were that hated him, hated him without a cause. They compassed him about; Jews and Romans surrounded him. They thrust sorely at him; the devil did so when he tempted him; his persecutors did so when they reviled him; nay, the Lord himself chastened him sorely, bruised him, and put him to grief, that by his stripes we might be healed.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

What God seems to be and what God is.

We are constantly oppressed with the mystery of God’s permissions. He permits afflictions to visit us, and oftentimes to take very trying forms. We can say, “He hath chastened me sore.” But it is a great relief to find that our experience is but the experience of the saints of all ages. It is the old and age-long trouble of all who will live godly in this sinful world. God must put them into discipline, and the forms it takes must, of necessity, sometimes seem strange. Divine dealings would not always do their appointed work if we thoroughly understood them. There is no call to trust when we have perfect sight. “What I do thou knowest not now.” In the olden days, and still, there appear, to the godly man, most oppressive differences between what God seems, and what God is. We are distressed while we do, but look at what God seems, and we gain rest when we look at what God is.

I. WHAT GOD SEEMS. Illustrate from the mists of mountain-lands. “Clouds and darkness are round about him” (Psalms 97:2).

1. See what God seems in nature. Take single things, and we may easily get wrong impressions. Look at nature as a whole, and it becomes clear that all things are working together towards issues that are right and good.

2. See what God seems in human lives. Take single incidents—an untimely death; a sweeping pestilence; a crushed enterprise; a wasting sickness; and it seems as if there were nothing but “cloud and darkness,” the mystery of a strange and unreasoning sovereignty round God and his ways. But look at life as a whole, and it soon comes into view that this thing is working in with that, and all are working together for good, through the controlling of him who is love and who loves. Only if we would see things clearly, and apprehend them aright, we must keep two things in mind.

(1) That God’s good is not circumstance; it is character, which finds expression in varying circumstances.

(2) For some of us, God’s idea may be our vicarious suffering for the sake of others. And of this, the Lord Jesus affords the sublime example. Affliction is often an insoluble mystery (as was Job’s affliction), until it is seen to be Divine agency for working good to others. And God graciously honors some to suffer as his agents.

3. See what God seems in Divine revelations. Here again, single things are often most perplexing, because their form and shaping are, in the first instance, precisely fitted to times and seasons, and we find it so difficult to separate the form from the thing, the kernel from the husk. Single things can only be “parts of God’s ways.” But to us, in these latter days, the revelations of all the ages have been given, duly set in order and relation. We ought to be able to fit so many things of Divine revelation together, as to fully convince ourselves that all do fit.

II. WHAT GOD IS. This we find out through personal experiences. “He hath not given me over unto death,” though he seems to be a “sore chastener.” Experiences correct appearances. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee.” “We walk by faith”—soul-vision, which reveals what is, “not by sight”—bodily vision, which only reveals what seems. To some, the clouds about Sinai were God; just as to some travelers, the mists hanging about the mountain are the mountain. We want to know what God is. “This is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God.” And it is infinite satisfaction to discover that he is righteousness. And righteousness involves and includes love, as certainly as it does holiness and wisdom. When we find for ourselves what God is, we can describe him thus: “The Being who is always right;” or, as a psalmist expresses it, “Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne.” He is right in himself, “just,” and right in his doings, ever doing justice, and justice is not justice unless mercy is at the heart of it. When this is well fixed into our very mind and soul, then we get above and beyond all the evil influence of the things that seem; we begin to get a vision of the things that are. Right may still seem stern, but we know it must be kind. Right may still seem strange, but we know it must be wise. We cannot stop with this—”He hath chastened me sore.” We must go on; we must say what else—what is the full fact, what is! And then we have to say, “But he hath not given me over unto death.”—R.T.

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Cross-References

2 Corinthians 6:9 (KJV )

⁹As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;

1 Corinthians 11:32 (KJV )

³²But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Psalm 66:12 (KJV )

¹² Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads;

We went through fire and through water:

But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

Proverbs 3:11 (KJV )

¹¹ My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord;

Neither be weary of his correction:

Jeremiah 31:18 (KJV )

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus;

Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,

As a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke:

Turn thou me, and I shall be turned;

For thou art the Lord my God.

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 118:18

18 The Lord hathe chastened me sore, but he hathe not delivered me to death.

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Closing Thoughts

My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, Proverbs 7:1-4 NKJV

Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass. Job 14:5 NKJV

For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the Lord.’ ” Jeremiah 39:18 NKJV