Psalm 18 "I Love You, LORD"

Why do you love God?

(Read title)

This is emphatically David's story.

God loved David so much that when David was in trouble,

God rent the heavens,

smoke came from his nostrils, fire from his mouth

(God as the heavenly dragon who brought fear and terror against his foes!)

When David was in trouble

God moved heaven and earth-laying bare the foundations of the world-

in order to deliver his chosen servant.

Why do you love God?

Because he has first loved you.

And he has loved you powerfuly.

God's love is not some warm fuzzy feeling.

God's love is demonstrated in action.

God has loved you by moving heaven and earth to save you.

This is why you can warm fuzzies for God!

But as Psalm 18 points out, those warm fuzzies come in the context of battle and war.

Let's look at David's story:

1-3 I love you, because you are my refuge.

I call upon the LORD and he saves me.

This serves as the introductory survey of the Psalm.

Everything else flows from this.

God is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer.

Let me tell you about how he delivered me!

4-6 the cords of death encompassed me,

the torrents of destructed assailed me;

the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

I was in trouble!

David faced death many times-

whether facing Goliath or having Saul throw a spear at him,

or being pursued through the wilderness by Saul,

or fighting against the Philistines-

David says that he was entangled in the cords of Sheol-the bonds of death.

If I had died, then God's covenant faithfulness would have been worthless.

But in my distress I called upon the LORD;

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

The earthly temple was not yet built,

but then again, the reference here is not an earthly location at all.

Israel understood quite well that God dwelt in his heavenly temple,

of which the earthly tabernacle/temple were shadows and pictures.

But God heard David from his heavenly temple.

Notice what happens when God hears the cry of his anointed:

7-15 God's response (earth, heavens, and seas)

the earth reeled and rocked

the foundations of the mountains quaked because he was angry

smoke went up from his nostrils/fire from his mouth

the heavens bowed

he flew swiftly on the wings of the wind

darkness and cloud covered him,

and hailstones and coals of fire poured down upon the earth

the channels of the sea were seen,

the foundations of the world were laid bare

All this, because his anointed was in trouble.

How much does God love David?

God will move heaven and earth to rescue his anointed king!

16-19 And He rescued me!

Because he delighted in me.

And why did God delight in David?

20-24 because I am blameless

David insists that he is righteous before God.

I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God

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.

David is not claiming to be sinless.

He is rather claiming that he is blameless and righteous!

How can David be blameless and righteous before God?

Remember what we have seen from Paul.

Justification is not saying that a person is actually innocent, but legally innocent.

Before the judgment seat of God, David is innocent.

He is legally righteous, because his sins are covered through the sacrifices.

But David is saying something more than this.

When David says I am righteous,

he is also saying that he has devoted himself to living righteously.

It is not enough to say, "hey, my sins are forgiven, so I can do whatever I want!"

David is saying, not only am I legally righteous before God,

but I strive to be righteous in my conduct.

And God has blessed David and rewarded him according to his righteousness.

And this is because

25-30 God is a righteous and merciful judge

God saves the humble, but the haughty eyes you bring down.

Those who flee to the LORD and trust in him will be delivered.

31-42 God is the one who has done this

He is the one who equipped me with strength.

He is the one who made my way blameless.

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

Have you ever tried to bend a bow of bronze?

David is claiming divine strength here!

Verses 35-42 then speaks of what David did with this divine strength.

By the grace and gentleness of God, he pursued his enemies and utterly destroyed them!

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

verse 41 may call for special comment:

"They cried for help, but there was none to save;

they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them."

Plainly, David does not think that their cry to Yahweh was sincere.

They did not cry to God out of humility or faith.

They cried out to God because they were afraid of death.

And God did not answer them.

The controlling phrase is from verse 26

"With the purified you show yourself pure;

and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous"

(literally, you make yourself crooked)

In the end,

43-45 the nations yielded to me

foreigners came cringing to me-the nations fell down before David.

So David concludes:

46-50 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 delivered me from my enemies;

Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me;

you rescued me from the man of violence.

For this I will praise you, O 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.

This is David's story.

It was also sung for a thousand years as Israel's story-

especially during the period of the monarchy

when the Son of David reigned on the throne.

And therefore it is also the story of Jesus.

He is the righteous one whom God strengthened to do battle against his foes.

He is the one who has triumphed over his and our enemies.

He is the one who has been exalted over his foes,

and now praises the name of the LORD among the nations.

And so therefore it is our story as well.

As we've seen from Paul in Galatians,

we cannot tell our story without Jesus at the center.

He is our life.

He is our righteousness.

Therefore we sing Psalm 18 as those who have been declared righteous in him.

And he has strengthened us for spiritual warfare.

Our warfare may differ in its outward manifestation from David:

we are not engaged in hand-to-hand combat with flesh and blood.

But we are engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

We fight against principalities and powers.

We do battle with the powers of sin, death and the devil.

And not just in our own "private" personal lives.

When you deal with that annoying, angry person at work,

you are engaged in spiritual warfare.

Your character, your conduct, your relationships with your neighbors

are a part of the way in which the kingdom of God advances.

Why do you love the LORD?

1. Because he is your refuge and your strength.

2. Because he has heard your cries, and has saved you from your enemies.

3. Because he has moved the heavens and the earth and the seas in order to redeem you.

4. Because he has raised you from the dead.

5. Because he saves the humble, but casts down the proud.

6. Because he gives you strength to triumph over your foes.

7. Because sin is powerless before you.

8. Because he is faithful to his promises to David and his offspring forever.