Remember And Be Thankful (Psalm 18)
As a general rule people who are thankful look back at their lives and see all the good things that God has done for them. Bitter people generally look back and think they’ve been ripped off somehow. And greedy people never look back, they just want more and are not all that thankful for what they already have.
In this Psalm, David has finally been given victory and peace after many battles and hardships. This psalm is written sometime after he became king and the kingdom was united and before the affair with Bathsheba. And at this moment in time he stopped, looked back over the course of his life and was overwhelmed with thankfulness and praise because of all that the Lord had done for him.
I know that this psalm is long and that there is a lot to think about in the text, but the format of it makes it fairly easy to teach and apply to our lives. We see in this text that we are to trust the Lord and rejoice in all He has done for us. We trust Him and rejoice in what He has done for us.
God Is My Refuge (Psalm 18:1-3)
David here bursts for with an expression of love for the Lord, “I love you, O LORD, my strength” (Psalm 18:1 ESV). And that expression of love came out of him because as he looked back at all the Lord had done for him, he saw that God had been his strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn of his salvation, and stronghold (Psalm 18:1-2).
This is an outburst of overwhelmed and exuberant praise for the Lord, but why does it happen?
David is recalling the many things that God has done for him. He looks back at his life and he recalls the great faithfulness of God that has been with him for a long time. When he looked back, he saw the faithfulness of the Lord, who had been with him every time he needed him and called out to him. He trusts the Lord.
This is where our praise, gratitude, worship, and thankfulness begin. We begin with a trust in the Lord that sees Him as faithful.
When I am thankful for everything that I have been given, dinner becomes a chance for gratitude and praise.
When I am thankful for the place God has put me, my family, friends, and church family become and opportunity for gratitude.
Our lives should be the doxology.
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.”
If we live this way, our lives will never be the same again.
God Has Delivered Me (Psalm 18:4-19)
During the course of David’s life, he found himself in a number of different dire situations. A quick look at his life makes this obvious, especially early on. And, if you consider when this was written, this completely makes sense. Remember, this was written sometime after the ordeal with Saul and the uniting of the Kingdom. David has gone through severe trial after trial and a whole lot of near-death experiences to come this far. And so he cries out,
“The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.”
Psalm 18:4-5 ESV
David is incredibly grateful here because God listened when he prayed. In those times of deep distress, he cried out to God for help and God came to his aid.
David then began to use poetic language to describe God’s mighty victories over his enemies. In this poetic undertaking, David used images from the story of God’s people to describe the miraculous things that God did for him. The images of the quaking of the Earth and the thundering of the voice should take us to Mt. Sinai, where God’s voice thundered and the Earth shook. The channels of the sea being seen should take us back to the Red Sea crossing and all the miracles that took place there.
So, what is David doing when he takes us back to these events in an effort to describe what God did for him?
David is simply using events from the past that help to illustrate the glorious victories that God had performed in his life. This poetic language depicts the mighty and miraculous way that God rescued David over and over again.
I can look back at many events in my life and praise God for even being here.
I was in a car accident in High School that baffled the police. Some friends and I were goofing off while driving and the driver lost control of the car. The car barrel rolled multiple times in a field. We were in a Mustang and would likely have died if the car had landed on its top. The officer said it flipped three times…at least. Both side mirrors were knocked out and one single spot was spidered out on the windshield where the car barely touched the ground. All four tires were popped out and we were all okay.
And who knows how many other situations I have lived through.
Look back and think through the close calls. Think through the ways that God has delivered you or your family through the years. And fall on your knees in gratitude and thankfulness.
Look back and think through your salvation and see that God has delivered you from sin and death. God the Son came to Earth and lived a perfect life and died on the cross for His people. Jesus accomplished salvation for us. And so, we have been saved from God’s wrath and justice.
God’s Ways Are Perfect (Psalm 18:20-30)
It feels as if David has changed topics all of a sudden, but in a most wonderful way he is simply expanding the discussion to the perfect ways of God.
“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 God.”
(Psalm 18:20-21 ESV)
David has stopped to consider the perfection of God’s ways and the tremendous blessing of walking in them. David was faithful to walk in God’s Ways, and thus he found that blessing. God rewarded David for being faithful to him (Psalm 18:20-26).
But amazingly, David also sees that God gave him the righteousness and the reward. God gave to him humility, wisdom, and strength then reward him for having it.
“For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
For it is you who light my lamp;
the LORD my God lightens my darkness
For by you I can run against a troop,
And by my God I can leap over a wall.”
(Psalm 18:27-29 ESV)
And David then sees plainly that living in God’s ways is perfect. He lived according to God’s ways and was supported by God in living in His ways. Now he looks around and sees the beauty of having done so.
And you should do the same.
Because I come from a family that does not have a lineage of faithfulness to God, I can look around and see the good that comes to those who are.
It becomes evident rather quickly that God’s ways are perfect.
Look at what sin does to people. Look at the devastation that comes when a person lives in accordance with the ways of the world. Look at what following the ways of the world in a sin racked and cursed place will get you.
Now, consider that God brought you to Himself and made you His own through what Christ has done. Consider that God gave you His Word and the desire to live in accordance with that Word. And consider the tremendous blessing it has been in your life to be here and to know that.
It’s definitely cause for rejoicing.
Teach your children day after day the great blessing of living in accordance with God’s Word. Teach them God’s Word. Teach them the great blessing of living in a home that has God’s Word and parents who love God’s Word. Exhibit that gratefulness before their eyes. And teach them what it means to live according to that word and the great blessings that are found therein.
God Has Given Me The Victory (Psalm 18:31-45)
God is David’s rock. He is the firm foundation upon which David stands. God is who David trusts and all of the victories that he had in this life, David credits to God.
David understood something that we need to understand today. God equipped David for the victories. It is God who equipped David with the strength he needed and made his way blameless (Psalm 18:32). And Psalm 18:32-42 is a description of how God equipped him.
This means that, even though a lot of the victories do not seem miraculous, they were God-given. They were God-given in the sense that David would not have won these victories without the work of God in his life. God equipped David with everything he needed to beat his enemies “fine as dust before the wind” (Psalm 18:42 ESV).
We can hopefully look around in this life and see the tremendous things that God has done for us. As we’ve trusted the Lord, He has given us victory after victory.
God equips us for the victories we win. He equips us to lead our families, to teach our children the faith, to love and care for others, to spread the gospel to our friends and neighbors.
And it is my hope that this church, Victory Baptist Church, can look back at its past and see what God has done. It is my hope that we can look back and see the good things that God has done for this church long before I got here. And I also hope that a few years from now we will be able to look back at tremendous blessing after tremendous blessing and see that God has equipped us for victory and given us glorious victory in the crushing of the serpent as the gospel goes forth.
God Is My Refuge (Psalm 18:46-49)
This is almost a repeat of the beginning of this psalm. It is a nice way to close this longer psalm. It is God who gave David salvation, vengeance, rescue, and exalted him. And David is overwhelmed with praise and thankfulness for all that the Lord has done. In this he is encouraged and emboldened to trust in the promise that God would be with him and his offspring forever.
Speaking of his offspring, there is something peculiar about this text.
Christ Is Savior And Lord Of All (Psalm 18:49)
Paul discussed this text in the Book of Romans. It is used to prove that Jesus Christ, the offspring of David would cause the nations, both Jew and Gentile to come to faith in Christ.
“For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”” (Romans 15:8-9 ESV)
The praise that David pledges to give to the nations, the salvation that would be brought, and the offspring of David that would last forever finds its fulfillment in Christ. For there is coming a day when knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And all who are with us in the New Heavens and Earth, a people from every tribe, nation, and tongue, will understand the great blessings of being with the Lord. And we will all join in grateful praise to the one who brought us there through His perfect life, death, and resurrection.
R. Dwain Minor