Ps 18:1 "For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
“He said: I love you, O LORD, my strength. 2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." NIV
This psalm is powerful in its impartation of life to us in a special way because we have the context in which it is written. David had been pursued by his enemies and harassed by a jealous king! He had been running for his life and in the midst of that desperate time David called upon the Lord. He looked to God as his strength and God delivered him. This passage is a declaration of what God has done; a praise for his deliverance from this dark time in David’s life. This next set of devotionals will be a journey through this psalm of deliverance and praise.
David is celebrating the goodness of God for protecting him in the mist of trouble. “I love you Lord, my strength!” What a powerful praise! The simple statements of our heart anchor us. When we praise the Lord it is not the eloquence of our words but the confession of our hearts that manifest true praise! This confession of David’s heart is both a celebration of David’s passion and confidence, and a bold statement of faith to anchor his own convictions. It was David’s habit to war against the voice of his own soul, against the power of discouraging thoughts by his declarations of praise and his confession of the Lord’s goodness and provision. In Ps. 42 David is speaking to his own soul declaring, “Why so downcast Oh, my soul? Put your hope in God!”.
“Lord you are my fortress and my deliverer, my rock in whom I take refuge!” David continues, rejoicing in what God has been to him in the past, and reminding himself of who God will be to him in the future. David knew the hiding place that he had in the Lord. He knew God as his source of safety and the place of refuge that he could run to in times of trouble. “You are my Fortress!” This is faith talking! “You are my deliverer!” David placed his trust in the Lord, not the help of man. In the midst of trouble his eyes were fixed on God. David did not hide in the things that God would do for him. He knew that his hiding place was in God himself! What a revelation of the truth that Paul later declared more clearly in Col 3:3 “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” David’s confidence was in his relationship with God, not in some act that God would perform for him. This is why his foundational statement is one of love for the Lord. He is not looking to God to provide strength. Instead, David is declaring that the Lord himself is David’s strength! This worshipper of God understood that strength flowed out of his intimacy with God. This was again a precursor of what Paul would later pray over the church in Eph 3:16-17 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Strength for life flows out of encountering the Spirit of God in our inner most being as we grow in our relationship to him!
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