Transcription
**Psalm 18:1-24**
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me.
The cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress, I called upon the Lord;
to my God, I cried for help.
From his temple, he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked
because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode upon a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering,
his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water.
Out of the brightness before him,
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
He sent from on high; he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
So the Lord has rewarded me
according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
This is the word of the Lord.
And Father, we ask that you would penetrate our hearts with your word today, in Jesus' name.
The prologue to this Psalm in the ESV says:
"The psalm of David, the servant of the Lord,
who addressed the words of this song to the Lord
on the day when the Lord delivered him
from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul."
This is David's poetic description of God's deliverance.
He says, "I love you, O Lord, my strength."
And we love you, God; you are our strength.
We declare with David today, with the psalmist, that we love you.
You have loved us first, and we love you in return.
Our Lord, you are our strength.
We are fragile, weak, dependent creatures,
and you have manifested your strength over and over and over again
in your creative agency,
in your ability to sustain us and hold us together,
in your power to forgive sin and deliver us
from the things that entangle us.
You are our rock and our fortress and our deliverer.
You are the rock in whom we take refuge.
God, thank you that you are unmoved;
you are the fixed point of the universe,
that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
You are the shield, the horn of our salvation;
you are our stronghold.
Thank you, God, that you are a shield about us,
that you extinguish the fiery darts of the enemy
as we exercise faith in you.
When everything else around us is shifting sands,
we have a firm place to stand;
we can count on you.
You are trustworthy, and you are our stronghold.
We call upon you; you are worthy to be praised,
and we are saved from our enemies.
We do not look to our own strength;
we do not put our trust in chariots and horses;
we put our trust in the Lord to deliver us
from those things that come against us.
The ultimate enemy of sin,
you have put sin under your feet;
you defeated sin ultimately on the cross.
Death itself was overcome through your resurrection.
Foreign enemies of sin and death,
you have power over,
and you promise to deliver us completely.
You save us from demonic oppression.
The ministry of Jesus, exercising power over demons,
you deliver us from the bondage
and from the prisons of our own hearts and minds.
The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me.
The cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
This pictorial description of the struggles that David encountered
probably both internally and externally,
with the pressure that he felt from Saul's pursuit of him.
And we can relate in various ways—
this feeling of being trapped, of being oppressed,
of being pressed down, of waking up
and not looking forward to anything—
depression and anxiety, or pressures from outside
with relationships and jobs and finances.
We can feel like we are entangled, ensnared,
that the cords of death have encompassed us.
And in my distress, I called upon the Lord;
to my God, I cried for help.
May we follow that same pattern.
May we, when we feel that pressure,
when we feel that oppression,
call out to God for help.
Because from your temple, you hear our voice;
our cry reaches to your ears.
Thank you, God, that you are a God who hears,
and not only that you hear, but that you respond.
It says, "Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked
because he was angry."
Angry at our enemies, not angry with us,
but angry at the things that come against us,
like a father with compassion for his children,
expressing anger at his children's foes.
You hear our cry, and you respond with passion, with emotion,
so much so that the earth reels and rocks.
The foundations of the mountains tremble;
smoke went up from his nostrils,
devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
Then this picture of you bowing the heavens,
stretching the heavens out and stepping through into earth,
coming down, thick darkness under your feet.
A prophetic portrayal of the coming of Jesus,
ultimately the one who would bow the heavens,
come down, step into the mess of this earth,
riding upon a cherub, flying,
coming swiftly on the wings of the wind.
You made darkness your covering,
your canopy around you, thick clouds dark with water.
It's a picture of the coming of a spring thunderstorm,
the power, the way that it changes the lighting
and creates anticipation, the expectation.
And then out of the brightness before him,
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
The Lord thundering in the heavens,
the Most High uttering his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
These storms, one of the most massive displays of power
at David's time, this is the metaphor he uses
to describe the way God answers his prayers—
this display of passion and power.
And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
The channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
The cry of anger scattering his foes,
powerful enough to peel back the oceans themselves
and expose the rocks beneath.
This is the image that David has in his mind
of the emotive way that God responds
to the cry and the pain of his heart.
He sent from on high; he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
This strong arm reaching down and pulling him up
out of his despair, holding him up
out of his prisons.
He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
We recognize our own weakness and our own dependency.
We cannot free ourselves from our addictions;
we cannot free ourselves from our patterns,
our mental habits.
We cannot free ourselves from those external enemies.
Yes, we play our part; yes, we show up;
yes, we read your word and we pray and we worship,
but we are ultimately dependent upon you,
Holy Spirit, to deliver us,
to draw us up out of those waters.
Our enemies are too strong for us,
so we look to you; we put our trust in you.
They, our enemies, confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
Foreign power and terror and fury of God
routing our enemies,
but the tenderness, the delight of God
carefully pulling us up out of the water,
setting us in a broad place.
Relish that portrait today, Father,
of your delight in us.
And I ask for a spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Christ,
that we would know and be secure in your love
and in your delight,
that you don't just love us as a choice, though you do,
but you also delight in us emotionally;
you like us.
We bring delight to your heart.
And David goes on:
"The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me."
We might recoil at this thought,
knowing David's actions and his heart posture
at other times in his life.
And yet, I love the freedom that David had in prayer here
before the Lord to reflect on the fact that he,
as best as he knew, was responding to God's leadership,
compared probably in his mind to Saul,
who had rejected God's authority and rejected God's leadership.
David was not taking matters into his own hands
but was trusting that God would deliver him,
trusting that God would mete out justice.
And may we take the same posture,
as best we know, following you,
following your precepts,
following the leadership of your Spirit,
trusting that according to your judgments,
you will mete out justice.
And we know that your justice isn't ultimately fair;
you bear the brunt, you bear the weight,
you carry the shame of our iniquity.
But because of the cross,
because of the resurrection,
David prophetically again seeing into the future,
knowing ultimately you impute your righteousness,
your cleanness to us because of the work of your Son.
He says, "I've kept the ways of the Lord;
I have not wickedly departed from my God.
All his rules were before me;
his statutes I did not put away from me."
This sounds like Psalm chapter 1.
Father, may we day and night meditate on your word;
may we love your precepts, love your commands,
like the psalmist in Psalm 119.
Ultimately, Jesus, you are the word become flesh;
may we love you deeply from the heart again today.
"I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt."
So the Lord has rewarded me
according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
And I love that addition, those last three words:
"In his sight."
David knows that in his own sight he doesn't measure up,
but God pardons our sin,
removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west,
and we can look up to him;
we can meet his gaze
because he has cleansed us;
he has made us pure as white as snow.
Father, thank you.
Thank you for this beautiful portrait,
this wonderful revelation that you hear our cry.
We turn to you today for our salvation;
we turn to you today to pluck us up
out of the miry clay,
out of the mess of our lives.
We thank you that you do so with passion
and with great power,
that you are able to deliver us.
And we are thankful that you have imputed your righteousness to us,
the cleanness of your own hands you have given to us.
Now may we respond in kind;
may we purify our hearts, our lives,
and align with the person of Jesus Christ
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.