1/5/2012 9:09:28 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: David’s Victory Psalm
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 18:1-50
Message of the verses: Psalm 18 is a fairly long psalm with fifty verses in it and so I will not put the psalm at the beginning of this SD as I have been doing, but will insert it into the different reference points from the outline.
The psalm can also be seen in 2Samuel chapter twenty-two. This psalm was written after David had been named king over all of Israel. After the death of Saul David was named king over Judah and Benjamin and then seven years later he was named king over all of Israel and it was at that time of his life that he wrote Psalm 18. This psalm is a worship and witness psalm in that David worships the Lord in parts of it and also wittiness about the goodness of the Lord in other parts.
Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of his introduction to this psalm these words: “The focus of the psalm is on the Lord and what He graciously did for His servant, but it also tells us what He can do for us today if we will trust and obey.”
God Delivers When We Call on Him (vv. 1-18): “1 ¶ «For the choir director. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,» "I love You, O LORD, my strength." 2 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. 3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death encompassed me, And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. 5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears. 7 Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry. 8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it. 9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down With thick darkness under His feet. 10 He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 12 From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire. 13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. 14 He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them. 15 Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare At Your rebuke, O LORD, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. 16 He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my stay.”
David begins this psalm with love in verse one, then faith in verse two, and hope in verse three. Paul wrote in 1Cor. 13, which is the “love chapter” these words, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” The love that is described in this Hebrew word that is translated love in verse one means to love deeply, to have compassion. Dr. Wiersbe points out that this word is related to the Hebrew word for “womb” (Jer. 21:7) and this word describes the kind of love a mother has for her baby (Isa. 49:15), a father has for his children (Psalm 103:13) and the Lord has for His chosen people Israel (Psalm 102:13; Hos. 1:7; Deut. 13:17). It is a deep and fervent love, the kind of love all of us should have for the Lord (Ps. 31:23): “O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer.”
As we look at the remaining verses in this section we see seven metaphors and all of them are from a man who loved the great outdoors, and that is where David had lived most of his life up to that point. He was a shepherd, and he was a soldier and then he ran from Saul and lived in caves, so it is understandable that David would use these kind of metaphors. “Rock” is used for the Lord on many occasions in the Scriptures and is seen in verses 2 and 31. This word speaks of the strength of the Lord and stability, and also a place of refuge. Next we see “fortress” and this pictures God as a stronghold much like the city of Jerusalem. “Shield” speaks of the protection of God and David was Israel’s shield, but the Lord was David’s shield. “Horn” refers to strength and it also has Messianic connotations (Luke 1:69). When we look at all of these words that describe God we come to the conclusion that God is worthy of our prayers.
In verses 4-6 we see David’s distress and this comes after writing of his devotion to the Lord. We see a picture of a man who was trapped, hemmed in on all sides, and David uses other words to describe how he was in great trouble. Perhaps we can say that the Lord had David right where he wanted him, as it was at this point that David cried out for help from the Lord. These kind of situations that we can be in will cause us to go one way or the other way, we can do as David did and call on the Lord or we can do like those that Jesus spoke about in the parable of the seeds and in that parable we see only one kind of seed that produced fruit and the rest produced nothing, for those described as that kind of seed did not call upon the Lord when trouble came.
David is describing how God, who had been longsuffering to Saul, now takes action against him and in the end Saul will be killed and David will be king. Saul was the king that the people wanted while David was the king that God wanted Israel to have. David was in exile for ten years, but now he was the king over Israel as God had promised him when he was just a youth.
God Rewards When We Obey (vv. 19-27): “19 He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. 20 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all His ordinances were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me. 23 I was also blameless with Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. 24 Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes. 25 With the kind You show Yourself kind; With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; 26 With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute. 27 For You save an afflicted people, But haughty eyes You abase.” (Humiliate)
Dr. Wiersbe writes that “God enlarged David’s trials and used them to enlarge David!” God called David a man after God’s own heart and God said that when David was a young man. This does not mean that David was perfect, as we discussed that in the last SD, but we saw that David was blameless and we see that again in this psalm. When you look at the life of Saul and the sins that he committed and compare them with the sins that David committed we see that David’s sins were in fact worse sins than Saul’s. David knew much more about the Lord than Saul did and I have said earlier that Saul was man’s choice and so he acted like it when he sinned, while David was God’s man and David acted like that when he sinned, for David knew God much better than Saul did and that was the difference.
We see in verse nineteen that the Lord had set David on a broad place, where he had been in a tight place full of trouble before. David then speaks of his righteousness and how he had kept the Law of God even in difficult situations.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The way we relate to the Lord determines how the Lord relates to us (vv. 25-27). David was merciful to Saul, and God was merciful to David (Matt. 5:9). David was loyal (blameless), and God was faithful to him and kept His promises to bless him David wasn’t sinless, but he was blameless in his motives. The ‘pure in heart’ (Matt. 5:8) and those hearts are wholly dedicated to God.” As mentioned above Saul was just the opposite, for he was man’s choice to be king.
God Equips When We Submit to Him (vv. 28-45): “28 For You light my lamp; The LORD my God illumines my darkness. 29 For by You I can run upon a troop; And by my God I can leap over a wall. 30 As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the LORD is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. 31 For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God, 32 The God who girds me with strength And makes my way blameless? 33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me upon my high places. 34 He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, And Your right hand upholds me; And Your gentleness makes me great. 36 You enlarge my steps under me, And my feet have not slipped. 37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them, And I did not turn back until they were consumed. 38 I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise; They fell under my feet. 39 For You have girded me with strength for battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 40 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, And I destroyed those who hated me. 41 They cried for help, but there was none to save, Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them. 42 Then I beat them fine as the dust before the wind; I emptied them out as the mire of the streets. 43 You have delivered me from the contentions of the people; You have placed me as head of the nations; A people whom I have not known serve me. 44 As soon as they hear, they obey me; Foreigners submit to me. 45 Foreigners fade away, And come trembling out of their fortresses.
What was God doing in those years that David was in exile, running from Saul? God was disciplining His people for they were going ahead of God in asking for a king. God spoke about Israel having a king in the Law and gave laws on how a king was to rule. You can look at the things that Solomon did when he was king and if he would have done the opposite of what he did then he would have been keeping the laws God set up for his kings.
As mentioned above God was also being longsuffering in the life of Saul, but Saul did not take advantage of God’s longsuffering for him as on the day before his death Saul actually contacted a witch to find out what was going to happen to him. That is how far he sunk.
God was also preparing David to be king and this took ten years to prepare him, and yet it took thirteen years to prepare Joseph, and forty years to prepare Moses and Joshua for the rolls that God had planned for them.
We see the image of a lamp in verse 28 and this speaks of the grace that God gave to David to keep him alive while in exile all of those years. It also speaks of David’s family for through his family the Lord Jesus Christ would come through who is the Light as He spoke of in John’s Gospel.
We also see that God protected him and enable him to fight the battles of the Lord by giving him strength and the ability to be a great warrior for the Lord’s battles. David did not fight other nations just to gain land for Israel, but he fought against those nations that fought against Israel and the result was gaining territory for Israel. David speaks about his ability to do this in this section (verses 29, 32-34, 37-45). In verse thirty-two we see David describing his feet to be like hinds’ feet. There is a book entitled “Hinds’ feet in High Places.” I remember the title because the author spoke of the animals (mostly sheep that live in the mountains) having the ability to put their back feet in the exact same places as their front feet have stepped. This gives these animals the ability to climb in very difficult places in safety. David is saying that God had given him the ability, through His grace) to move in difficult places.
David was not only a warrior, but he also learned to be gentle, and this surely is a characteristic of God that He had given to David, and that is another reason that David was a man after God’s own heart. Dr. Wiersbe writes “God condescended to look down and call David (1Sam. 16), bend down and mold David (v-35), and reach down and save David (v-16); and then He lifted him up to the throne (vv.39-45). This reminds us of what Jesus, the Son of David, did when He ‘stepped down’ to come to earth as a servant and die for our sins (Phil. 2:1-11; see John 8:1-11 and 13:1-11). Because David was submitted to the Lord, God could trust Him with the authority and glory of the throne. Only those who are under authority should exercise authority.”
God is Glorified When We Worship Him (vv. 46-50): “46 The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock; And exalted be the God of my salvation, 47 The God who executes vengeance for me, And subdues peoples under me. 48 He delivers me from my enemies; Surely You lift me above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent man. 49 Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O LORD, And I will sing praises to Your name. 50 He gives great deliverance to His king, And shows lovingkindness to His anointed, To David and his descendants forever.”
46 The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. (AV)
This section is similar to what John the Baptist said in John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.” David is praising the Lord for the good things that He has done through David and how God has lifted David up to the throne of Israel, but David knows it was all of the Lord and therefore David breaks out in praise to the Lord. We see that Paul quoted verse 49 in Romans 15:9 and Paul use it there to apply it to the Jews praising God among the Gentiles and then in verses 10-11 Paul writes that the Jews and the Gentiles will rejoice together which was a result of Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles. Then we see in verse twelve these words: “Again Isaiah says, "THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE.’”
David ends this psalm by exalting the Lord for His covenant to him and to his descendents (v-50). David seems to always in his psalms with praise to the Lord no matter what circumstance in his life he is writing about.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: David praised the Lord for making him king over Israel even though he had to go through ten years of difficulties. This encourages me to continue to praise the Lord in all circumstances, knowing that He is in control of my life and even when things get tough God still has a plan and is working out that plan for my life to bring glory to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to trust the Lord each and every day of my life to guide me on the path He wants me on. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
2. Continue to learn contentment in the Lord.
3. Romans 12:1-2.
4. Psalm 139:23-24.
5. Ephesians 6:10-18.
1/5/2012 11:12:56 AM
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