SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/5/2012 9:09:28 AM
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 2 Samuel
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 word 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 of 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 kinds 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 another 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 who is the Light as He spoke of in
John’s Gospel.
We
also see that God protected him and enabled 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 (1 Sam.
16), bend down and mold David (v-35), and reached down and saved 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 uses 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 end 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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