Psalm 18 - God Our Refuge & Deliverer

Well, good morning, church.

Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 18.

I realized halfway, uh preparing for Psalm 18, halfway through it, I realized, I was like, wow, I have Psalm 18 tattooed on my chest.

I forgot about it.

And so my hope this morning is uh that we wouldn't get uh Psalm 18 tattooed on our flesh, but that we would have it written on our hearts.

And so Psalm 18 is all about God's mighty deliverance.

And so the context and the background of this psalm is given to us in the introduction, which says, To the choir master, a 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.

So obviously, this psalm was authored by King David.

Many believe it was written during the events of his early life after Saul had persecuted him.

And David finally was made king.

So if you guys remember, David was constantly fleeing from Saul.

He had to hide in caves, his life was always at risk.

People were slandering him, chasing after him.

He was forced to live in foreign nations.

But now a great deliverance has occurred.

Saul is finally defeated, he's judged by God, and David is no longer running, he's no longer hiding or watching his back, his oppressors are gone, and the crown to be the king of Israel is now his, and he is free, he's rescued, he's delivered and vindicated by God.

And so David, as a response, he composes this psalm.

And this psalm, by the way, is essentially the same psalm that David sings at the end of his life.

This psalm kind of became for David a monument that he could look back on, a testimony of remembrance that he composed clear back in his youth, that he sings again at the end of his life in 2 Samuel chapter 22.

2 Samuel 22 · chapter mention

So this psalm really, it's a testimony, it's a song, it's an answer to prayer from Psalm 17, and it's a recounting of the Lord's deliverance in his life.

And it is packed full of deep theology concerning God.

And it is my hope this morning that we here at Proclamation Church would be as exuberant as David was as we recount the Lord's great deliverance in our own life.

Because the reality is this David didn't write this psalm merely for himself.

This isn't just his testimony, it's ours as well.

Sure, we don't have some guy named Saul chasing us around Mount Vernon trying to kill us, right?

But the Lord has been our refuge.

He's been faithful to deliver us from our enemy, and he has brought for us victory, redemption, and security through his blessed son, Jesus Christ.

So David, after spending all this time running from his enemies, hiding in caves, being mocked and mistreated, God delivers him and grants him kingship, gives him freedom, and so David says, as a response, look at verses one through three.

David says, I love you.

I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress, 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.

So David starts with adoration.

He expresses his love towards God because God has been for him a source of strength.

Listen to the words here: a rock, a fortress, a deliverer, a shield, a horn of salvation, a stronghold.

All of these traits suggest that the God of Israel is strong.

He is a God who can be trusted, a God who looks after his people, a God who has infinite power and sovereignty.

So it's one thing to believe that God is these things on paper, theologically, mentally, intellectually, but it's an entirely different thing to actually experience these traits in real life.

You may read that God is a savior, but it's another thing to say, God has saved me.

We can read about how God delivered Israel in the Old Testament, but it's another thing to say that God has delivered me personally in real life.

And because David experienced this great deliverance, he can't help but to praise the Lord in verse 3.

David calls on the name of the Lord, he gives God the praise that he deserves because God did exactly what he promised David.

He gave him deliverance from his enemies.

Friends, if you have experienced the Lord's salvation, if you've experienced that, if you've been delivered from death and destruction, if the Lord has torn down strongholds for you, approach the Lord with adoration, praise, and worship.

That is what David teaches us here.

We can love the Lord because he first loved us.

If we have any sense at all of what the Lord has rescued us from, any understanding whatsoever of the immense power of God that was exercised to save you and I, we should approach him like David and be able to say with a glad heart, I love you, Lord.

So after adoring the Lord, David next is going to recount the condition that he was in.

He's going to express how bad his problem actually was, the pit that he came out of.

And so think about it, deliverance, it really wouldn't be that special if God helped David with uh, let's say, a difficult math problem, right?

Like it's one thing if you save me from getting stuck in traffic, but it's an entirely different thing if you save me from a bottomless, tormenting pit with no end.

So what exactly did God deliver David out of?

David explains this in verses four through six.

He says, 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.

And so the cords of death represent this terrifying feeling of being completely trapped and overwhelmed and helpless.

The torrents of destruction, it's a metaphor, it's a phrase used to describe violent, uncontrollable chaos.

The cords of Sheol and the phrase the snares of death represent a feeling of inescapable doom, grave peril.

So this is the condition that David found himself in, which causes him in his distress to call upon the name of the Lord, to ask the Lord for help.

He doesn't trust in himself or in the arm of his flesh.

He looks up to heaven and he says, Lord, help me.

David chose to believe that God was the only one who could deliver him because his situation was so impossible.

And we can read this description and you know read throughout 1 Samuel and say, Wow, you know, David experienced some really hard stuff.

But here's the reality, church, so do we.

Before Christ, think about before Christ, the law of God, it condemned you.

And you were in every sense enslaved by your enemy, that is the devil.

And the only way we are going to experience true victory, lasting deliverance, is by crying out to the one who can deliver us from the clutch of Satan.

And sure, can you know, contextually, if we're looking at this passage, people aren't trying to chase us and kill us, but demons are.

Our physical life, maybe it's not at risk, but our spiritual life is.

You know, I wasn't running around hiding in caves, but I was hiding behind closed doors, tormented, being accused by the lies of the serpent.

The form of our enemies might be different than David's, right?

But it is the same source.

It is evil.

Our enemy is evil.

Our enemy is sin within me, and it's demons around me.

So David finds himself in this terrifying, impossible situation, and he goes to God for help.

And what is the result?

God hears, and he powerfully responds.

Look at the end of verse 6, into verse 15.

Listen to this, church.

From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Remember, pause real quick.

Remember, this is what Rick talked about last week that God hears the prayers of his people.

Picking back up, then the earth reeled and it was 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 and the heavens came down, thick darkness was under his feet.

He rode on a cherubim, 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 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.

So the first thing to note here is that God hears.

God hears the prayers of his people.

We do not put mail in the mailbox hoping that it might get delivered to God, and God's in heaven, and he's super busy in his office, and our petition is somewhere stacked up on his desk.

We serve an all-knowing, all-powerful God who accomplishes his will through the prayers of his people.

God hears.

And so God responds first to David's request with anger and judgment.

Not towards David, but towards those who are attacking him.

So what does this teach us?

It teaches us that God loves David so much.

God loves David so much that it angers God that he is being oppressed.

There is a cosmic upheaval, a storm of judgment on David's behalf.

You know, I don't get mad often, and I'd like to think that I control my anger pretty well, but something that will fire me up, and I mean fire me up quick, is if you try to harm one of my children.

This is how God feels when the least of any of his children are being oppressed.

Listen to the description: smoke from his nostrils, devouring fire from his mouth, darkness under his feet, a divine chariot, hailstones and coals of fire, thunder from heaven, flashes of lightning.

This is all imagery to express God's displeasure when one, just one of his redeemed saints are being oppressed.

And no human enemy or obstacle can withstand God's majesty and power when he acts on behalf of one of his children.

And you might object and be like, well, Jimmy, this is unique.

You know, this is King David, right?

Contextually, like look at the context.

It's King David, right?

God surely doesn't feel this way about me.

I beg to differ.

In Exodus chapter 3, verses 7 and 8, it says that the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.

Exodus 3:7

I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I'm aware of their sufferings, and God brings judgment to the Egyptians.

Psalm 9 9, the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, he's a stronghold in times of trouble.

This isn't some unique promise for a special guy named David.

This is true for every saint, all of time, whom God has adopted into his eternal family.

God cares about you so much that heaven, heaven is stirred up.

There's an uproar in God's dwelling place over injustice happening towards you.

That is how much God cares about you.

So after God deals with David's enemies with anger, he then cares for David in love.

He delivers him.

Look at verses 16 through 19.

He sent from on high.

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.

This description of God's deliverance, it's so beautiful.

It's so beautiful.

God sent from on high.

He led him beside still waters.

So this church is what the Lord has done for us through Jesus Christ.

God sent Jesus Christ from on high from glory.

He sent him into this broken, sinful world to keep the law that you could never keep, to pay a price for sin that you could never pay, and to defeat an enemy that we were all powerless over.

And to what purpose?

To bring us eternal security, to bring us everlasting life and deliverance.

We have been saved mightily by God.

We've been set free from the penalty of sin.

Thank you, Jesus.

We've been, we're actively being saved from the power of sin, and one day we will be fully delivered from the presence of sin.

As 1 John 3:8 says, the Son of God was revealed.

1 John 3:8

Why?

To destroy the works of the devil.

Colossians 2 talks about this, verses 13 and 14.

Listen to this.

Jesus has what?

Taken it away, nailing it to the cross, having disarmed the powers and the authorities, and he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

We may not always have physical deliverance like David did in this example.

That's not always a guarantee.

But in the new covenant, we have a deliverance through the revelation of Jesus Christ that promise promises us something that's far greater than earthly security.

In the new covenant, we have a deliverance from the greatest enemy of our souls, and that is the devil.

Freedom from his sway, deliverance from the power of sin in our lives, no longer fearing death, but looking forward to eternal glory with Christ dwelling with him forever.

God has done this for David, yes, but he's done it for us.

And why did he do it?

What was God's motivation for doing it?

Because, look at the end of verse 19, God delighted in me.

David says.

Church, if you have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ, you are God's child and he delights in you.

And David kind of expounds on this in verses 20 through 27.

He says, 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 my guilt.

So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

With the merciful you show yourself merciful.

With the blameless man you show yourself blameless.

With the purified, you show yourself pure, and with the crooked you make yourself seem torturous.

For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.

Now, church, we need to be careful here, because a lot of people who are works-based salvation people, legalists, which is heresy, they will point to this passage in particular and they will say, See, told you, bam, God helps those who help themselves.

Right?

We are saved by our obedience.

But I think they are completely missing the point here.

First and foremost, David is not saying here that he was justified or made righteous before God due to his own works, lest he be contradicting the entire Bible.

That kind of interpretation here would not hold up against the rest of Scripture.

Secondly, David is already made righteous by God.

That's clear from the earlier Psalms that he wrote.

He's already declared legally righteous before God.

David here is simply describing the benefits and the rewards of actively trusting God.

David is already a saved child of God.

That's not what's in question here.

God has already imputed righteousness to him based on his faith in the future Messiah, not by work.

And now David, in his saved state, is simply saying, God is rewarding me for following him.

This goes hand in hand with Hebrews 11, verse 6, which says, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

So David, in this trial that he's facing, he didn't chase after idols.

He didn't get all stressed out and go use some drugs.

You know, he didn't seek revenge and kill Saul and take matters into his own hands.

He didn't curse God and blame him because of his circumstances.

No, because of his redeemed state, he chose to do things God's way.

Not perfectly, but he chose to do things God's way.

He chose to keep his hands clean.

He chose to do what the Lord wanted, and therefore the Lord rewarded him.

Friends, when we are joyfully obedient, when we suffer well, when we turn to the Lord in times of trouble, there are great rewards involved.

And this isn't some kind of prosperity gospel garbage.

It's not what I'm talking about.

I don't think the Lord's gonna make you a billionaire because of your obedience.

God is not in the business of giving our flesh what our flesh wants.

He's in the business of giving us what we truly need.

There are great rewards involved in heaven and sometimes here on earth when we submit ourselves to do things the Lord's way.

So David, in essence, is saying, I could have given up, I could have cursed God in my troubles, I could have taken matters into my own hands, but instead I did what the Lord told me to do.

I remained faithful and pure.

I didn't turn to false gods for help.

I suffered well, and as a result, God has blessed me.

The Lord rewards obedience and he punishes wickedness.

That is what verses 25 to 27 is all about.

Those who are faithful and blameless and pure, they will experience God's loyalty, his integrity, his goodness.

And the opposite is true.

Those who are devious, corrupt, and wicked, they will encounter God's justice.

God will seem torturous to them.

God rewards righteousness and he punishes deceit and wrongdoing.

And there's no getting around this reality.

Next, David recounts how the Lord gave him victory.

So we know that David's been delivered, but how?

How did the Lord give him victory?

David goes into great detail, actually, very specifically, on how the Lord granted him power in victory over his enemies.

And so he says in verses 28 through 45 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.

This God, his way, is perfect.

The word of the Lord proves true.

He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

For who is God but the Lord?

And who is a rock except our God?

The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless, he made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.

He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great.

You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.

I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed.

I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise.

They fell under my feet, for you equipped me with the strength for battle.

You made those who rise against me sink under me.

You made my enemies turn their backs on me, and those who hated me I destroyed.

They cried for help, but there was none to save.

They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.

I beat them fine as dust before the wind.

I cast them out like a mire in the streets.

You delivered me from strife with the people, you made me the head of the nations, people whom I had not known served me.

As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.

Foreigners came cringing to me.

Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses.

So David starts out here talking about how the Lord has helped him.

And number one is God guided him, for the Lord lights his lamp, lightens his darkness.

God brought clarity to David, spiritual guidance and direction.

Then he kind of describes how God gave him ability, granted him ability.

He says, For by you, Lord, I could run against a troop, I could leap over a wall.

That is describing God-given ability, power from above to subdue his enemies.

Then David, he kind of pauses in verses 30 and 31 to talk about how true and perfect God is.

As David kind of recounts all that the Lord has given him, David stops kind of mid-salm, mid-song, and says, The Lord, God, he's so perfect.

Who is like him?

It's as if God, uh David just kind of pauses for a moment, reflecting on how God enables us and gives us ability.

And David can't help but to look up for a moment and say, God, you're so perfect.

Your ways are perfect.

And then he picks back up in verse 32 on how God has given him strength and how God has made him blameless.

David is recognizing in these verses how God grants us both saving grace and enabling grace.

Saving grace is unmerited favor through Christ that washes us and makes us totally clean and blameless before the eyes of God.

And enabling grace is unmerited power of ability that God gives us to overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil.

And David goes on talking about how God made him quick like a deer, how God set him on high places, how he trained him for battle, how he gave him protection and support, how God was gentle with him, making his hands ready for war, not causing him to stumble, and so on.

God gave David so much grace and ability that his enemies began to run from him.

David was running from his enemies, but when God came and intervened, the enemies are now running from David.

Foreigners that once had the upper hand on David are now cringing, crawling before him.

What a description.

What a reversal of fate.

David's enemies who once chased him into caves and said, look at how weak and pathetic David is.

He's hiding in caves.

They're now crawling before David's feet.

How is it, even in modern day, how is it that a you know a homeless, pathetic drug addict, prostitute, fill in the blank, can now have a life victorious in Christ?

It's because God saved them by his grace, he brought them into his family, he clothed them with power and gave them the strength to overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil.

So think about what David is suggesting here.

David, in essence, is saying, God, you are the one who provided every single ability, every single tool, every single sense of confidence to defeat my enemy.

And that is why I could go and defeat my enemies.

It's because you empowered me, God.

You sustained me, you granted me ability from on high.

And so every victory that you have ever had, ever, in your Christian life, was because God helped you achieve it.

No one, and I mean no one, can pat themselves on the back and say, look at what I did in my own strength.

As you look back just at your spiritual history, the highs and the lows, the the demons defeated, uh, the strongholds that have been torn down, the idols in your life that have been shattered, the sludge that you got out of.

Think about the horrible tragedies that you've experienced in life.

Where did your power come from to get back up, to endure, and to persevere?

It was the Lord's power.

Apart from Christ, you can do nothing.

That's John 15, verse 5.

John 15:5

Yes, we obey the Lord, yes, we yield to him, yes, we follow him, but the victory that we have experienced in the Christian life, it's all of God.

This is Philippians chapter 2, is it not?

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

That's our part, to work out what God's worked in, right?

But then Paul says, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

In other words, God is the one who gives us the desire and the ability to do his will.

As we walk in victory, as we grow in obedience, as we conquer demons, endure hardships, God is the one who's fueling us, giving us the spiritual energy through the power of the Holy Spirit to stand strong and accomplish his goodwill.

So if any in all victory that we have, it belongs to the Lord, he gets the credit.

And that is exactly how David ends this psalm in verses 46 through 50.

So after recounting and remembering the great deliverance of the Lord, after recognizing that God gave him the ability to overcome his enemies, to leap over walls, to subdue his foes, how could he possibly end this psalm except raising hands to the Lord in praise, in which he says, The Lord lives.

And blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation, the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me, who rescued me from my enemies.

Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me, you delivered me from the man of violence.

For this I will praise you, Lord.

Among the nations, and sing to your name, great salvation he brings to his king and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.

Can you hear it, church?

Can you hear the tone in the conclusion of this psalm?

David's awestruck, overflowing heart that's so satisfied with how God has treated him.

He blesses the Lord for being his rock.

He exalts the God of his salvation, he praises the Lord who defeated his enemies.

He sings to the covenant-keeping God, to the God who will one day fulfill the promise that he made to David, that the king, the Messiah, would come through his lineage.

This right here is one of the greatest reasons on why God has redeemed us.

That we would be so happy and satisfied and appreciative of God's power to save, that we would exalt his holy name.

Listen, yes, we are saved so that we don't go to hell.

Yes, we are saved so that we can walk in the good works that God prepared before the foundation of the earth.

But one aspect of salvation that I think we often forget is that we are saved to praise the Lord.

We're saved to praise him, to enjoy him, right?

1 Peter 2 9, listen to this verse.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.

Why?

So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who have who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

God did not write your name in the Lamb's Book of Life and wash you clean with the blood of Christ, and adopt you into his family, so that you could complain all day about what you don't have.

The God of the universe, he did not reveal the good news of Jesus Christ to you, and defeat your greatest enemy, and bring you out of the greatest bondage known to mankind, which is sin, so that you could be apathetic towards him.

What a shame that is.

It was delivering sinners, people who loved sin from the wrath of God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Through Christ, we have been delivered from the dominion of darkness, that's Colossians 1.

We've been delivered from condemnation, that's Romans chapter 8, from the fear of death, that's Hebrews chapter 2, and one day we will be delivered totally from the entire presence of sin.

Romans 8 · chapter mention Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

That's Revelation 21.

That means that even if cancer wins for a season, it doesn't win forever.

Even if persecution takes your life, it cannot take your Savior.

Even if your prayers aren't answered the way that you hoped, God has not abandoned you.

That's Hebrews 13, verse 5.

Hebrews 13:5

And he is working all things for your good and for his glory.

So, church, let us join David this morning as we look at Psalm 18 in remembering the power of God in our deliverance.

Look back at your life, think of all the trouble that the Lord has brought you out of.

And as a response, let us look to Him this morning, like David did, and simply say, Lord, I love you.

I love you, Lord.

Let's pray.