There are 5 participants/characters in Psalm 18
| YHWH
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| YHWH's right hand
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| YHWH's help
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| YHWH's name
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| "My strength" (v. 2)
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| “My cleft” (v. 3)
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| “My fortress” (v. 3)
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| “My rescuer” (v. 3)
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| “My God” (v. 3)
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| “My rock” (v. 3)
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| “My shield” (v. 3)
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| “Horn of my deliverance” (v. 3)
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| “My fortified tower” (v. 3)
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| “My refuge” (v. 3)
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| “My deliverer” (v. 3)
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| “The most high” (v. 14)
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| "The one who arms me with strength” (v. 33)
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| "Rescuer" (v. 42)
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| "The one who makes the deliverance of his king spectacular" (v. 51)
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| "The one who performs acts of loyalty for his anointed one" (v. 51)
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| God's way
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| God's rules (v. 23)
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| God's decrees (v. 23)
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| The sayings of YHWH (v. 31)
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| YHWH's anger
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| Smoke (v. 9)
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| Fire (v. 9)
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| Coals (v. 9)
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| Hail (v. 13)
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| God's rebuke (v. 16)
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| The blast of the wind of his anger (v. 16)
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| David
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| "YHWH's servant" (v. 1)
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| "[God's] King" (v. 51)
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| "[God's] Anointed" (v. 51)
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| Cry (for help)
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| "My sword" (v. 7)
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| David's seed
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| A faithful person
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| A blameless person (v. 26)
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| One who purifies himself (v. 27)
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| A humble people (v. 28)
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| Those who take refuge in him (v. 31)
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| Enemies
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| “those who hate me” (v. 18)
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| "those who rise up against me" (v. 40)
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| The violent man
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| Saul
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| Forces of Death
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| Death's breaker waves (v. 5)
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| Torrents of No Return (v. 6)
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| Cords of the World of the Dead (v. 6)
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| Death's traps (v. 6)
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| Waters (v. 17)
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| Sinful people
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| A twisted person (v. 27)
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| Eyes that look down on others (v. 27)
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| A people I do not know
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| "Nations" (vv. 44, 50)
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| “Foreigners” (vv. 45, 46)
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| The Earth
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| The mountains' foundations
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| The ocean floor
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- A faithful person: This and the related generic referring expressions appear in vv. 26–31. They function to illustrate the principle on the basis of which God acts on behalf of the Psalmist: “acts beget consequences” (see Hubbard 1982), that is, God shows himself to an individual in a way commensurate with their actions. That the Psalmist counts himself among these “faithful persons” is suggested by both participants “taking refuge” (חסה) in YHWH (see vv. 3, 31) and the suffix in v. 32.
- YHWH's anger and its related participants (vv. 9–13, 16) all serve as manifestations of God's anger (see Hupfeld 1885, 288). They function together with the earth and Death's waters and other terrestrial participants to mark the turning points in the plot. The earth reacting to God's anger is an instance of “theophany”, that is, the manifestation of God. In essence, in this section of the psalm God “shows up” and thus effects a change in the Psalmist's situation. Similarly, God uses his “rebuke” to defeat death's waters in v. 16. We are told that the rebuke is the wind of God's “anger” in v. 16, and so we have grouped it with the other theophany elements.