Psalms 18:16

He sent from above. All the manifestations of divine intervention came from God.

He drew me out. The Hebrew verb here employed is used of the rescue of Moses and is probably the root of Moses’ name (see on Ex. 2:10). Possibly David thus likened his experience in being delivered from his enemies to that of Moses’ rescue by the hand of Pharaoh’s daughter. He is pulled like a drowning man from the waters.

Many waters. Here the poet probably reverts to the image of v. 4, where he portrayed himself as terrorized by “the floods of ungodly men.” Waters are often used as the symbol of danger (see Ps. 32:6).