Psalm 18:3-6 - February 17, 2009

Ps. 18:3 “I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 5 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. " NIV

Even in the midst of a trial so fierce that his very life was threatened David’s eyes are fixed on the Lord. In his pain David sees the “cords of death” entangling him. He feels the torrents of destruction so intensely that it is overwhelming to him. And yet David’s focus is on “the Lord, who is worthy of praise!” This is a victorious heart. In the midst of our troubles, too often we fix our gaze upon the troubles themselves. The larger we allow the image of our troubles to become in our minds, the more overwhelming they become in our emotions. David is able to conquer the voice of his distressful circumstances by anchoring his thoughts on the majesty of God. In the following verses David exalts the majesty and power of the Lord who delivers us from all of our troubles.
It is important to see the nature of David’s praise. David is not in denial of his circumstances. He uses such strong language to express the feelings that he is wrestling with: “entangled by cords of death”, “overwhelmed by cords of destruction”, “the cords of the grave coiled around him”, “the snares of death encompassing!” David clearly makes a choice during this challenging season in his life. He chooses to focus on the Lord who is greater than all of his feelings. It would have been easy for David to become consumed with the fact that the very man that he had served faithfully was now chasing him, seeking to destroy his life. David was just like us as a man who fought for a right thought life. In Psalm 13:2 he says to the Lord, “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?” It is a battle for him just like it is for each one of us and yet David determines to maintain his focus, his confidence in God and his confession of faith rather than to be consumed with his problems. David displays such an awesome heart of faith here. I called to the Lord and “from his temple he heard my voice.” David has an incredible understanding of the access he has to the presence of God. Even though the veil had not yet been torn David lived in a place of open access and boldness before God. He is the model of He. 4:16, to come “boldly before the throne of grace.” When the kingdom is later established under his rule he opens the way for a new expression of intimacy before the Lord as he constructs a new setting for worship as he creates the new worship structure with the Ark of the Covenant now accessible and the teams of worshippers night and day bringing an offering of praise! It was this season of trial that drove David to a deeper place of intimacy with God and he discovered the intimate presence of God that is available to all those who will lean on him as the source of their life and it was this revelation that inspired him to establish a new model of worship that would change the nature of man’s relationship to God forever. What a forerunner and image of the intimacy made available to us through the finished work that Christ would later complete through his death on the cross.