Psalm 18. The name of the message
is Seven Reasons to Love Christ. Now, there's a lot more reasons
than seven. Actually, if you were to attempt
to pen down all the reasons, I don't think you could ever
finish. I don't think you could ever finish. But I want to look
in these three verses, we'll see seven reasons. Actually,
in one verse we'll see seven reasons to love Christ. Seven
reasons to love Christ. The psalm, in the header in the
psalm, it says this, to the chief musician, a psalm of David, the
servant of the Lord who spake unto the Lord the words of this
psalm in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of
all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. So David penned
this after the Lord had delivered him from the hand of his enemies
and from the hand of Saul. And he said this, and we'll look
at the first three verses. I will love thee, O Lord, my
strength. I will love thee, O Lord, my
strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust,
my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from mine enemies."
So the believer in Christ we see in the first verse, the believer
in Christ loves Christ. He loves God. He loves Him. There's no doubt. If a person
doesn't love Christ or love God, he's not a believer. You know,
you get folks out there that say, well, I believe in God,
and I'm a Christian. But they have no love for the
Savior, and they have no love for the King, for God the Father.
They have no love at all for God. But God's people, they love
the Lord. They love the Lord, and they
love him dearly. Here in our first verse of this
text, the psalmist, after being delivered from the hands of his
enemies, proclaims these wonderful words. And we're only gonna look
at these first three verses, but I'd encourage you to read
the whole psalm in your time at home. To read the whole psalm,
it's a beautiful psalm, because it proclaims the sovereignty
of God in all things. And it shows how David was delivered
by the hand of the Lord. by God, who's an absolute sovereign. Brother Jay texted me the other
day and asked me a question, and when I wrote you back, I
said, well, I tell people I believe in the absolute sovereignty of
God. That usually settles things pretty fast. Because when I mean
absolute, I mean absolute. He is in full control. There
is not one thing that happens outside his will. Now, he's not
the creator of evil, not at all. He just has to lead men, and
they'll just run headlong into destruction and do whatever they
please. But there's nothing that happens outside his permissible
will. Nothing. Nothing. He's God. He's supreme.
He's a king. He's an absolute sovereign. And
we bow before him, and we praise him. We love that. And here David sings, and remember,
this is a song. David sings, I will love thee,
O Lord, my strength. I will love thee, O Lord, my
strength. The love here spoken of, as I
was looking into this, the love here spoken of is a hearty love
in the Hebrew. It's a hearty love. It's a clinging
affection, just as a child clings to their mother. And it's the
same kind of love that a mother has for a child. It's an endearing
and hearty love that comes deep from within. It's an intimate
love. It's an intimate love of the
deepest kind. And think of this, this is what
our great God deserves, doesn't He? He's worthy of this, isn't
He? He's worthy of our deepest affection. He is, because He's our God.
And we'll see, as Paul said in the New Testament, He's our all
in all. We'll see that as we go through these seven reasons
to love Christ. John Trapp says this on the text. The Hebrew says, I will love
thee dearly and entirely from the very very heart root from
the bottom of my bowels, with like intention of affection,
and bowels bent to stomach, it's a very heartfelt love. A very heartfelt affection. It's
not put on. It springs from a redeemed heart. It springs from someone born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. It's a tender-hearted love. And think of this, the triune
God, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, each have a claim upon
the believer's love. They do. They do. Because they alone are worthy
of our love. God alone is worthy of our love. He's worthy. And as I said, this
love springs from a redeemed heart. Now, Lord in our text
is translated, again, what we looked at before when we did
the study on the great I am, is the self-existent one. It's
the self-existent one. He needs no one, nothing, no
one adds anything to him. He's the self-existent one. He's
God. He's Jehovah. And we've seen
that many times in our studies through the Old Testament. He's
the great I am. And Christ himself proclaimed
to be him, remember? In John chapter 8. He said before
Abraham was, I am. I am. So here, David's saying
to Christ, I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord
is my strength. This is the believer's cry. We're weak. We're weak, but He's
strong. He's our strength. Our glorious
God, our glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the strength
of my life. And I know every believer says
the same thing. He's the strength of our lives. He's the strength. And the psalmist here confesses,
Christ is my strength. He's being strong in the sense
of being powerful. And He's powerful in salvation,
isn't He? He's taken sin sick sinners and
redeemed us. Purchased us. Made us clean. What a great God. What power
our God has. What power. And God is the strength
of our life, isn't He? He's our hope. We looked at that
in Colossians. How do we walk in this life? The same way we
receive. By faith. By faith in who? Christ. Christ. He's the strength of
our life. He's all our hope. He's all our
hope. We have everything in Him. Nowhere
else, not in ourselves at all, but all in Him. He's all our
righteousness. He's all our sanctification.
He alone is our redemption. We can't save ourselves, but
He can redeem His people and He does. And He did, from our
sins. So He's all, He alone is our
strength. And when is he our strength also? He's our strength in trials and
tribulations. In sickness and in health, right? He's our strength. Always. Constantly. There's not
a time when he isn't our strength. Except when we're leaning on
our own self sometimes, and then we just fall right in our face.
No way. I know, I've done it many times. But oh, he's our
strength, isn't he? He's our king. He's our king. God is the strength of our life.
So let's preface this by saying, again, the list is endless why
the believer should love Christ. These are just seven reasons,
but the list is endless. The list is endless. So David
here names seven reasons for loving Christ. Look at verse
two. The Lord is my rock. My rock. Here's number one. The first reason to love Christ
is because He's our rock. He's our rock. The Hebrew word
here translated rock refers to a cleft in a cliff. A cleft in
a cliff in which one may hide from his enemies. And a lot of
the commentators were saying David hid in these places from
Saul and his men. They hid in different places,
different caves, different places, different high points. So this speaks of how Jehovah
hides us from the enemy. Hides us from our enemies. And
it also speaks of security. Security. Dwelling among the
crags and mountains of Judah, again David had escaped the hatred
of Saul. And here he compares our God
to such a place of concealment and security. There it is. He's our rock. He's our hiding
place. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
32. Believers are often hidden in their God from strife of tongues
from other people, from our enemies, or from the fury of a storm of
tribulation and trials. He hides us. He hides us. The clefts of the rock of ages
are safe abodes in what security the believer has in Christ. What
a rock we have in Christ. Because the believer, this is
why we sing, rock of ages, cleft of me. Look at Isaiah 32, 2. And a man, being Christ, shall
be as a hiding place from the wind. Christ is a hiding place
from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water
in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Christ is our rock. He's our
rock. We'll look at this later on,
but He is the hiding place for us from God's wrath and justice. He is extinguished, and let us
remember this. Propitiation means to extinguish.
Let us remember this. I mentioned this on Wednesday,
and as I was studying for it, it brought such joy to my heart.
In Christ, the wrath and justice of God is extinguished against
us. Extinguished. Satisfied. My, oh my, what peace
the believer has. Now we're still sinners, aren't
we? But my, oh my, that should make us leap for joy. Oh my. So the second reason to love
Christ, look in our text again, it says, the Lord is my rock
and my fortress. The Hebrew word here for fortress
is translated as stronghold. The English definition for fortress
is this, a military stronghold a strongly fortified town fit
for a large garrison, a heavily protected and impenetrable building."
That's what Christ is. Oh, is this not a reason for
us to love our King? He has us so sealed up, just
like those who were in the ark were saved from the wrath that
was falling on others all around them. They were safe in the ark.
That's where we are in Christ. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's my fortress. My fortress. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
believer's fortress. And now all in the fortress are
kept safe. And all God's elect are kept
safe in Christ. 1 Peter 1.5, if you want to write
it down, says this, who are kept by the power of God. The believer's
kept by the power of God. How? How is the believer kept
by the power of God? They're in Christ. They're in
the fortress. Oh, my. My, oh, my, oh, my. What a great God. Who are kept
by the power of God through faith, right? The believer will continue
to have faith. We know that from Colossians.
They are studying Colossians 2. Those who are in Christ continue
in the faith. Those who aren't, they continue
for a while and they just fall away. They just fall away. Who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. And let us remember that
it's because we're in Him that we're safe. We're not safe anywhere
else. All those who were in the ark
were saved, weren't they, from the wrath and justice of God.
But all outside perished. It's such a picture, beloved.
It's such a picture of we who are in Christ. And remember,
when they went in the ark, it was the Lord who shut the door.
It wasn't them. Oh my, what a picture again.
That ark is such a picture of Christ. So again in our text,
let's look at the third reason to love Christ. It says, the
Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our rescuer and our Savior. Not only does our great
God and King protect us when we're in times of trouble, but
He delivers His people during times of trouble. He delivers
us during times. He protects us and He delivers
us during times of trouble. During the believer's hour of
peril, the Lord is their deliverer. Now, David, during the time he
was being hunted down, basically. But the Lord not only protected
him through that, but He also delivered him from it. And that's
what God does. That's what Christ does for us.
What has He delivered us from? all our trials, all our tribulations. I'll tell you, beloved, you can
look back. And I sat and pondered a few times. And you start to
think about the things you went through and you think, how did
I make it through that? Because God delivered you. Not
only did he deliver you through the trial, but he delivered you
out of it. And see, this gives us strength
for future things that happen. It gives us strength. We have
the strength to go on, no matter what comes. And sometimes it's
really hard. But God will continue to deliver
us. But also, what else has he delivered us from? What else? He came to save us, what? From
our sins. Well, there. He delivered us
from our sins. He delivered us from how many
of our sins? Brother Jay, how many of your
sins did he deliver you from? Amen. All of them. All of them. Isn't it marvelous? All of them. It's wonderful. We've been delivered
from our sins. Now, we still have the presence
of sin, right? But the power is gone. It doesn't
have the power over us it once had. But we have the presence.
The penalty is gone. The penalty for all our sins
is gone. We've been delivered from it. Oh, my. What a great God. What a great God. And, as I said
earlier, we've been delivered from the wrath of God, the justice
of God, the law, The law of God had a claim on every one of us.
We've been delivered in Christ. Oh, it's marvelous. What a great
salvation. What a great... This is why we
proclaim. This is why we don't... fiddle
around with other needless things. We preach Christ. This is why
we must preach Christ. What a great deliverance God
has done for His people. And then, He's going to deliver
us one day from this body of sin. And we're going to see Him face
to face. And we have some dear brethren and sisters that are
already there. But one day, He'll deliver us
from this body of sin, and we'll see our Savior, we'll see our
Redeemer face to face. And not fill your heart with
love. Oh my. Now look further down in the
Psalms. Further down in this Psalm here, look at verse 6. In my distress, I called upon
the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of His
temple. And my cry came before him, even into his ears. So he heard. He heard. Look at
verse 46-48. None but God can deliver his
people. None but God can deliver his people. Think of this. When
almost captured, the Lord's people are rescued from the hand of
the mighty. By who? By one mightier than
them. Right? When we're going through
things and people are persecuting us or whatever, And some of them
may be mighty people. And we get delivered by one who's
mightier than all of them. Satan had us captive by our sin,
didn't he? We're delivered by one who's
mightier than us. He's crushed at the cross. His power is being
crushed. Our God, Royal Supreme, He always
has. But, oh my. Translated from the kingdom of
darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. Look it though
here. 46 to 48. The Lord liveth and blessed be
my rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God
that avengeth me and subdueth the people under me. He delivereth
me from mine enemies. So he delivered him from his
enemies and through the trials and the tribulations that he
went through. Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up
against me. Thou hast delivered me from the
violent man. Do you notice David couldn't deliver himself? Amen. The Lord delivers His people. He delivers His people. Let's
look at the next reason to love Christ. The Lord is my rock and
my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust. So the next reason to love Christ
is He is my strength. in whom I will trust." Now, the
word strength here is not the same Hebrew word that's used
in verse 1. It's not. The word in verse 1
means powerful or strong. This one means rock. Once again, He's our rock. He's
our rock. This denotes Christ being our
hiding place, just like we saw in Isaiah. He's our hiding place
in our strength. A place to flee for refuge. That's
sure. A place to flee for refuge. That's sure and that's safe.
Sure and safe. He's sure and safe. He's sure
and safe for sinners, isn't He? Oh my. So look again in our text
here. Christ is our rock. We're looking
at verse 31-36 of the psalm we're in. Christ is our rock, the one whom
we may trust for defense. The one who also, John brought
a sermon out last year about, we march under his banner. So
he's our defense and we also march forward under his banner,
under our captain, under our general, under our king, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's our strength. Look at verse
31 to 36. And this was a reality for David
we see here. 31, for who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God?
Now remember that word strength is translated rock. It is God
that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect. Do
you notice how it's God doing it all? It's God doing it all. He maketh my feet like hinds
feet and setteth me upon high places. See, He protects us. He's our strength. He's our rock.
He teaches my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken
by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield
of thy salvation, and thy right hand that holdeth me up. Thy
gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under
me, that my feet did not slip. Because if He didn't do that,
we'd slip a thousand times a day. Oh, but He keeps us. Remember?
Kept by the power of God. Remember 1 Peter? He keeps us,
beloved. The God of the heathens may be
rocks only in the sense that they're hewn out of stone, in
which no one should trust, but the God of the saints, the God
of His elect. Oh, He's a rock in whom we trust. In whom we trust. Deuteronomy
says this, for their rock is not as our rock. Speaking of
the heathen idols. Even our enemies themselves being
judges. Arach is king. He's king. Christ is the only
one we trust for the salvation of our eternal souls. Isaiah
says this, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind
is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in
the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. It's only in Him. And it's everlasting
strength. It never stops. He never stops. Because why? Because He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. Christ is the strong and mighty
one who's able to save. He's a covenant savior, a redeemer
in the surety of His people, whom the Father hath given Him
in eternity. Let's look at our next point.
It says, the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my
God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler. The word buckler
is shield. And it's a small shield, not
denoting that our God is a small God, because he's not, but he's
talking about light infantry would go into battle. Heavy infantry
would go into battle with large shields that would pretty much
cover their whole body. You see that with some of the
Romans, the legionaries, they had the large shields. But light
infantry would go in with small shields, quick, quick jabs, quick. They wore a lot less armor, they
were faster, they were quicker. But this is what the Hebrews
used too, a small buckler, a small shield. Look at verse 30 of our
psalm we're in here. As for God, His way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all that trust
in Him. So He's a shield. He's a shield
to all that trust in Him. What a reason for us to love
our King. He's our shield. And as I said earlier, He shielded
us from the wrath and justice of God. That is what we deserve. But He shielded His people from
that. What a great God. What a great
King. He's our shield. He shielded
us. And on Calvary's cross, He died
before that wrath and justice for His people. Look at verse
35 of Psalm 18. Thou hast also given me the shield
of thy salvation, right? We have a shield of salvation.
And thy right hand hath holden me up. Now there's the key right
there. The right hand denotes power, remember? That's Christ.
That's Christ. And thy gentleness hath made
me great. None who have Christ as their
shield shall ever suffer. Now let us have this burn into
our hearts. None who have Christ as their
shield will ever suffer condemnation. Why? Because our shield bore
it all. He bore it all. He bore it all. None who have Christ as their
shield will ever be defeated. Right? Because what does verse 35 say? And thy right hand hath holden
me up. The everlasting hand. Christ. See why we must preach Christ?
You see why? The only hope for this old sinner Let's look at verse 2 and we'll
see the sixth reason. The Lord is my rock and my fortress,
and my deliverer, and my God, and my strength, and whom I will
trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation. So the sixth
reason to love Christ is He's the horn of my salvation. The
horn of my salvation. Now the horn to the animal is
a means of defense. And it's also an instrument of
power. It's defensive and it's an instrument of power. The strength
lies in the horn. Hence, the word here used as
elsewhere is to represent that to which we owe our protection
and defense in danger. God is David's strength. He's David's defense. He's David's
power. It's all God. It's all Him. And this is why David cries out,
this is why he cries out, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. Christ saves us with eternal
and immutable power, beloved. And His salvation is just as
eternal and immutable as He is. Remember that. His salvation is just as eternal
and immutable as He is. Kept by the power of who? God. God. We are saved by the power
of God, right? And we are kept by the power
of God. And what does God's people say?
Praise His mighty name. Doesn't it fill your heart with
love and joy? He keeps His people. And He is all these things to
us that we've looked at. And like I say, the list is endless. The reasons why we are to love
Christ and love God. Samuel says this, 2 Samuel 22,
verses 2 and 3, and he said, The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer. The God of my rock, in Him will
I trust. He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation. my high tower and my refuge,
my Savior, Thou savest me from violence. So it wasn't only David
who sang this. It's God's people who sang this.
So let's look at our last point here. The Lord is my rock and
my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I
will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high
tower. He's my high tower. Oh, what a reason to love Christ.
The Hebrew word here is defined as a high place. Refuge. I love that word. I must confess.
I love the word refuge. Refuge. One of these days I'm
going to preach on them cities of refuge. Oh my, what a picture. He's my refuge. So the Hebrew
word here though is defined high place, refuge, secure height,
retreat. A stronghold. And the Hebrew
word here is translated defense seven times, the same Hebrew
word for high tower is translated seven times defense in the Old
Testament, refuge five times, and tower three times. So Christ
is the believer's high tower. And this is what David... Remember,
David's being delivered from the hand of Saul, who's been
hunting him down like an animal. Right? And he's being delivered
now. His heart is full of love and
gratitude and praise to our great God. To our great
God. Is it not so with the believer
in Christ? So Christ is a believer's high
tower. He's our refuge and defense in what comfort and peace the
sinner finds in Jesus Christ our Lord. What a refuge. What a refuge we have in Christ. What a refuge. We can't find
refuge anywhere else, can we? We can't find refuge in ourselves.
We can't find refuge in other people. We can't even find refuge
in the church, denomination-wise, or our refuge is in Christ. The
church, always remember this, church, too, the church is not
the building, it's the people. The church is an ekklesia, it's
called in the Greek, a called-out assembly. That's what the church
is. This is just a building, and
it's a beautiful building we have, and I praise God we have it.
But the church is you. The ekklesia is the people. called
out assembly, were called out of the world by God. It's incredible. It's absolutely incredible. And
he is our refuge. He's the refuge of the ecclesia.
He's the refuge of the called out assembly. And what a refuge we have in
Christ. We have a refuge from the law
and wrath and justice of God. And the sinner flees to Christ.
And he's found a refuge like no other. Turn, if you would,
to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. We're almost
done. Hebrews chapter 6. I knew this
was going to be a little longer. So, thank you for your patience.
Hebrews 6, verse 17 to 20. wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we have a strong consolation
who have fled for a refuge, a high tower, remember, in the Hebrew,
to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have
as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. Oh, salvation
in Christ is sure and steadfast, in which entereth into that within
the veil. Whether the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus made an high priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Now let's close with this. Look
at verse 3 in our psalm. Look at verse 3 in our psalm
and we'll close with this. As a result of this love that
David has, look at this, the psalmist concludes with this,
I will call upon the Lord, and then he cites two worthy reasons
for doing so. who is worthy to be praised.
He is the only one worthy of our praise. I will call upon
the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved
from mine enemies." He's the only one who's worthy and will
be saved from our enemies. What a great God we have in Christ.
Praise His mighty name. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank You for this time that we've had. And we pray that you'd
be with the rest of the day and the messages today, that you'd
be honored and gloried and that the Holy Spirit would point us
to Christ and that we might grow in the grace and knowledge and
truth of Christ, not to boast in anything of us, because we
have nothing to boast in, but, oh Lord, to magnify you, to love
thee more, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.