As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
Parallel translations
- WEB As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me. The foreigners shall submit themselves to me.
- BSB When they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cower before me.
- NKJV As soon as they hear of me they obey me; The foreigners submit to me.
- NASB As soon as they hear, they obey me; Foreigners pretend to obey me.
- NLT As soon as they hear of me, they submit; foreign nations cringe before me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Foreigners submit to David at the mere report of him. His God-given authority commands obedience even from distant peoples.
Overview
The swift, almost reluctant submission of foreigners shows the reach of David's God-granted dominion. This is the language of an empire established by the Lord. It prefigures the gospel's advance, as nations who had not sought the Messiah come to obey him at the hearing of the word (cf. Isa 55:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 81:15The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
- Ps 66:3Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
- 2 Sam 22:44–46Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, thou hast kept me to be head of the heathen: a people which I knew not shall serve me.
- Deut 33:29Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
- Ps 68:30Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people that delight in war.
- Rom 10:16–17But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
- 2 Sam 1:13And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.
- Isa 62:8The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:
- Ezek 44:7In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 18:44 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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