Psalm, excuse me, 18th Psalm. I didn't hardly know what to
call this, a seven great descriptions of the Lord, or seven reasons
from Psalm 18 to love the Lord, or what, but look at the superscription
at the beginning of this Psalm. Look at the superscription of
it. David says to the chief musician, a psalm of David. Now, this is
what he says about himself, the servant of the Lord. Now, this
is the king of Israel, the man after God's own heart, and he
calls himself the servant of the Lord, and still the king.
He'd rather be known to be the servant of the Lord than to be
identified as the king. And then look who he says who
spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that
the Lord delivered him the hand from all of his enemies. You
see, this song was written to God. He spake to the Lord. He sung this song to the Lord.
This was all for God. He sang this song for God and
to God so that God would receive all the praise. And then he refers,
he said, delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and
from the hand of Saul. And then he began his psalm. Let me say this about this psalm.
This is the fourth longest psalm in the Psalms, so it will take
a while to get through it. But he refers to God delivering
him from all of his enemies. And he had a lot of enemies in
the course of his life. Of course, Saul was his worst
And you go through 1 Samuel and you'll see how, as you read through
there, Saul was so jealous of David that he sought to kill
him, tried to kill him two or three times. David had to flee
to the wilderness and lived in the wilderness forever, and yet
God protected him by his providence. And David had, oh, I don't know
how many opportunities to kill Saul, and he didn't do it. And
then Saul ended up, you know how Saul ended up dying? He fell
on his own sword and killed himself. He asked one of his men to thrust
him through and kill him. They wouldn't do it. He fell
on his own sword, committed suicide. And so David, God said, David's
delivered me from all, God's delivered me from all, the hand
of all of his enemies and from the hand of Solomon. And as God's
anointed king, he gave him victory over all of the enemies of Israel. When Solomon came to power 40
years, peace and prosperity in Israel, because David defeated
all of the Lord's enemies. The Moabites, the Gentilites,
the Edomites, the Philistines, God, that's why He called him
a bloody man. God wouldn't let Him build Him
a house. And finally, finally God delivered David from Assalam,
his own son. Assalam thought to take David's
throne away from him, his own father. And he got him a group
around and he went in and he was going to try to take the
throne from his father and David had to flee from Jerusalem because
of Absalom. But God destroyed Absalom. The
very thing that he boasted in and trusted in and gloried in
was his height and his hair. He was riding a mule trying to
get away and his hair caught in a tree. And they caught him
and thrust him through. You cannot touch not mine anointing,
do my prophets no harm. And God destroyed Absalom, and
yet David, it broke his heart. Absalom, Absalom, my son. Oh,
Absalom, my son. It broke his heart. Now, all
of us, all of us have had trials and troubles, heartaches and
afflictions, and when we went to God, and when we go to God,
we always find Him to be our rock. And David says this, he
says, when he got through making his subscription, he said, of
all of his images from the hand of Saul, he said, I will love
thee, O Lord, my strength. And he said, the Lord is my rock.
How many times have we went to God and he's been steadfast,
just like a rock, immovable like a rock, solemn like a rock, seen
his might and enjoyed his power. He said, I will love the Lord.
I will love the Lord. Now David sings in the first
three verses, he sings praise to God for his great deliverance.
And then in verses four through 19 that I read tonight, he uses
great pictures, great symbols, images to describe God's power
and might and how he discomforts his enemies and saves his people
from it. Using great language of pictures
and symbols and imagery about God and how he does things. And
then David in verse 20, it's all going down through there,
he speaks of Christ and the reason that God justly delivered him.
And so David here starts out singing great praise to God.
And then he sings of his love for the Lord. I will love thee,
O Lord, my strength. I will love thee. I will love
thee, O Lord. Spurgeon says this word for love
here, it expresses the deepest love that they are. The deepest
love that a person can have, the strongest love that a person
can have is intensely forcible. You're going to force that love.
That love is so mighty and so intense and so deep that it forces
itself to come out. It manifests itself in a very
forcible, strong way. And David said, I will love thee.
I love thee deeply. My love for you is forced out
of my heart, forced out in words, forced out in action. Now, David
was king. He could have had anything his
heart desired, but he desired God. He desired to love God. He desired the presence of God.
He desired to commune with God. That's what he said in verse
3. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. Now, you
keep this and look over at Psalm 73, just a moment. Psalm 73. I'll show you what I'm talking
about. Where David, he could have had
anything. But here he is, he desires God. He desires God in all the greatest
desire a person can have. Psalm 73 and verse 25 is the
Lord God Himself. You know, David said here in
Psalm 73, 25, Whom am I in heaven but Thee? He had a little boy and he's
gone to be with the Lord. Remember when he said he's going
to be with the Lord? And he can't come to me, but
I can go to him. He had a son in glory. He had
no doubt his mother and father was probably already in glory.
But you know what he said? I only have one person in heaven
that I'm interested in seeing. Only one person, one place, one
person that I'm interested in visiting and seeing and enjoying
when I get to heaven. Who am I in heaven but me? Is
that what we desire? That's what Paul said, I desire
to depart and be with mama, daddy, brother, sister, husband, wife.
I desire to depart and be with Christ. That's far better. That's far better. And then he says, there's none
upon earth that I desire beside thee. You see, beloved, this
is the heart of true religion. This is the heart of biblical
religion. It's to love God. God said Himself, He says, Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all
your soul, and with all your strength. And that's why Paul
says the love of Christ, that's what constrains us. The love
that Christ puts in us, the love that Christ gave us for Himself,
it's the love of Christ that constrains us. And our faith,
it works by love. It don't work for reward. It
don't work because of fear. It don't work because of punishment.
It works and does what it does because we love. Faith works
by love. And you remember when this man
came to the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord, he says, What's the
greatest commandment in all the law? What are they? And our Lord
says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbors thyself. On these two laws hang all the
commandments. And that's why Paul said, that though I speak
with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I become
a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Though I can understand
all mysteries and move mountains, and if I have not love, nothing. Give my body to be burned
at the stake, profits me nothing. And this is the heart of true
religion, love. If love is not the motive for
us doing what we do, it's love that binds us together as brothers
and sisters. It's love that binds us together
as husbands and wives. It's love that binds us to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And love of God, what bound us
to Him and Him to us, is the love of Christ. And that's why
David said, I love the Lord. I will love thee, O Lord. I just can't help but tell it.
And then David comes down here and he gives seven descriptions,
seven descriptions that he praises God over for being his deliverer. He calls him his strength, calls
him the rock, calls him the fortress, the deliverer, the buckler, the
horn of my salvation, and my high town. That's our God. That's our God. And no wonder they said, I love
Thee, Lord, because You're everything. What I need You are. What I like,
You've got. And oh, the first. The first,
he says, I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock. My rock. Do you know how many
times in the Scriptures God is described as a rock and mentioned
of as a rock? They said, look down in verse
31, look what David said. For who is God, save the Lord,
or who is a rock, save our God. Look down at verse 46. The Lord
liveth and blesseth. Be my rock. Huh? Oh, let me show you something. I know it's been a long time
since I preached from this, but in Deuteronomy 32. Long, long
time since I preached from this, and I tell you what, you talk
about a message. Here's a message right here,
talking about the Lord is my rock. Look what he said here in Deuteronomy
32 and verse 3. I will publish the name of the
Lord, ascribe thee greatness unto our God. He is the rock. That's the title. He is the rock. His works are perfect. Rocks
don't work. God does. He is the Rock, and His works
are perfect, for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth
without iniquity, just and right is He. Let me tell you a few
things about a rock. A rock has great, great strength. Great strength. A great rock
has great strength. You know, especially in the Middle
Eastern countries, it would get hot in the desert, get real hot
out in those countries, and they'd find a great big rock out there.
And they could sit down in the shade of that rock, and get up
against that rock, and that rock would shade them, that rock would
protect them, that rock would shield them from the heat, shield
them from the sun, and that's the way our Lord Jesus Christ
did. Great strength. And that's what he said in Isaiah
32. Look at this great rock right here. I know I'm having you look
at this. I could quote it to you, but you need to look at
it. The rock is a great shelter for his people. Great shelter
for his people. Oh, lead me to that rock that
is higher than I. God said, I've got a cleft here
in this rock that's beside me. So all the way through the scriptures,
there's a cleft in this rock. I'll put you in that. Rock of
ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee." Look what he
said here now. We're talking about a rock as
our shelter. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall reign in judgment. And a man
shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the
tempest, and as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow
of a gray rock in a weary land. I tell you what, I've sat down
against rocks and under rocks, been out in the woods and stuff
and sat out under them and get up under them where it's real,
real cool. And you've done that, I'm sure of it. And so, you see,
that's the thing about it. A rock, first of all, is a great
shelter. And as our rock, God is our refuge. You know, when
David fled to the mountains to get away from Saul, the rock,
he'd go and hide in the rocks. And he'd hide among those rocks,
and those rocks would shelter him from his enemies. He could
hide in those rocks, and the enemies couldn't find him. Then
he could get on a real high rock, and he'd look down on all of
his enemies. And that's the way we are in Christ. We're hidden
in Christ. And in Christ, we can look down and see all of
our enemies, and there ain't one of them that can get where
we are and find us. So, I'll tell you, that's the
way God is our refuge, is our rock. Take something else without
a rock. A rock is a foundation. All the
way through the Scriptures, Christ has talked about Christ as our
foundation. And a rock is a foundation that
shows its firmness. It's solid. You can't move it. That's why David said, He hath
picked me up also out of a horrible pit, and established my going,
and set my feet on a rock. On a rock. And, O beloved our
Lord, Christ is our foundation. God said, Behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. And I tell you, Paul says there's
no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which
is Christ Jesus our Lord. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. All other ground is sinking sand. And that's where we're going
to stand. That's where we're going to stand. I tell you, we're
founded on Christ. You know, our Lord told about
the two men that were going to build houses. One fellow got
his house built, and he found him a good place on a beach.
You know, said, I'm going to build me a house on this beach here.
Man, I'll tell you what, I'll enjoy the beach. I'll enjoy the
ocean. I'll build me a nice house here. And boy, I'm going to live
a good life. Another fellow, he got on him,
and he dug down and he found him some rock. And he dug down
to the rock. You know what our Lord said?
If man can build his house on the sand, he is a fool. Storm
came, he's gone. Same storm came, that one built
on the rock, still standing. Still standing. And our beloved,
those who are built on Christ, they'll be standing when the
world's on fire. Ain't no if, ands or buts about
it. You know, to stand on Christ, To stand on the rock, to stand
on the Lord Jesus Christ, to stand on His firmness, to stand
on His He-cannot-be-moved, to stand on Him who has all strength,
to stand on Him who's firm. You know, we may totter around
on the rock, but the rock don't move. And I've told you about
when old Bunyan, and you know, we sung that song tonight in
Immanuel's Land. They got that out of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
That's the only person I've ever heard mention Immanuel's Land,
was Bunyan. But anyway, old Bunyan, you know,
they started to cross the river. Faithful and Christian and hopeful,
and Miss Muchafraid and Mr. halt, and they all started to
cross there. And they all went, everybody
that was weaker than Christian, they all went around. Of course,
there were just no problems. But the one who was Christian
himself, the one who was telling the story, the one who fled the
city of destruction, when he got out there, he couldn't find
no footing. He said, I'm going to go down, I'm going to go down.
And then all of a sudden, he felt his foot on a rock. Oh,
wait a minute. There's a rock under here. And
he walked the rest of the way on that rock, all the way over
into Emmanuel's land, crossing the river. And I'll tell you,
beloved, let me tell you the last thing about a rock I'll
tell you. Paul said, Christ is that rock that followed us in
the wilderness. This rock. There was a rock that
was smitten. And out of it came the water
of life. Out of it came everything. Christ was smitten. And because
of Him, now our souls are refreshed. We come and we drink of that
cool water that Christ gives us, like He told the woman at
the well, if you knew the gift of God, thou would have asked
of Him, and He would have given thee living water. Living water. And Christ is our
smitten for us. That water, the water of life
itself. He'll come to us. Bless His holy
name. And let me tell you something
else. Let's see. I've got to get one
mixed up here. Now look what else he says. Not
only is the Lord my rock, but he says, my fortress. My fortress. The Lord is my rock. My fortress.
Everybody knows what a fortress is. It's a place, you know, they've
got big walls around. They've got soldiers around them.
They've got a protected place to go. And this is a place when
you've got enemies after you, when you're pursued, when you
need a place to get in from the enemies and from people pursuing
you, you say, if I can get in that fort, if I can just get
in that fortress, I'll be okay. Nobody can get me. And I'm telling
you something, beloved, Paul said, the Lord is my fortress. I don't have to try to get in.
He is my fortress. He said, walk around Zion and
look at her bulwark, look at her wall, see if you can find
a spot where you can get in. And that's why our Lord Jesus
Christ said, I give unto them eternal life, and they ain't
going to perish. Nobody's going to get them. And who shall separate
us from the love of God in Christ? God is our fortress. You say,
who's going to protect me? God's going to do it. That's
what Satan said to Job. He said, you've got a hedge around
him. Well, Job had a hedge. We've got a fortress. And it ain't like them ones they
showed the westerns, you know, made out of posts. It's got big points on them.
It's not like that. No, when God's our fortress,
you know, it's got God himself around it. God is power. God is might. God is holiness.
God is righteousness. God is strength. God is power.
God is might. All in God He is. That's what
surrounds us. So there ain't nothing going
to come in and get us. Then look what else he says about it. He
says, Lord, my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My deliverer. Now this word deliverer here
means One who rescues. God is the one who rescues us. He rescues us. That's why David
said, He saved me from all my enemies. He delivered me from
all my enemies. He rescued from all my... Saul
wanted to kill me. God rescued him. Absalom wanted
to kill him. God rescued him. Malachi, Philistines
wanted to kill him. God rescued him. Sam wanted to destroy him. God
rescued him. And oh, every time he turned
around, God rescued him. And God is Lord Jesus Christ,
is our Redeemer, rescued us. And He rescued us from, you know
what He rescued us from more than anything else? Sin and its
awful, awful bondage. Sin and its awful, awful bondage. Sin held us captive. We was in
bondage to it. And Christ come and He broke
sin's power, sin's strength, sin's ability to reign over us.
He broke His power and He destroyed His strength and He come and
rescued us from sin-bonded. And then He rescued us from the
strongman arm. Oh, listen, that strongman arm
had us. He had us deceived. He had us trusting ourselves.
He thought, man, you're in good shape. And then Christ come and
spoiled all He could and defeated that strongman and let us go.
And I'll tell you something, beloved. He continues to rescue
us. He continues to save us. Look
with Psalm 40 with me just a moment. How many times have you said,
Lord, save me? That's all you could say. Lord, save me. Lord,
have mercy on me. Lord, save me from this feeling. Save me from this fear. Save
me from this anxiety. And look what he said here in
Psalm 40 in verse 13. And this is something that only believers
can pray. David said here, said, Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me. If it pleases you, if it's according
to your will, deliver me, rescue me. And, O Lord, make haste to
help me. Hurry up. Would you hurry up? Look in Psalm 109, in verse 26.
Let me show you this. Psalm 109, verse 36. 109, verse
26. Excuse me. There ain't 36 verses
in it. 26. Help me, O Lord. My God, O save me, deliver me,
rescue me according to how good man I've been, how faithful I've
been, how dependable I've been. Help me, O Lord, my God, O save
me according to Thy mercy, Thy mercy. And then let's look back
over in our text. Let me show you another one here.
My rock, my fortress. And then look what he says. My
deliverer. And then he says, my strength. God, my strength. God, my strength. I know this. If we have any spiritual
strength, it's His. It comes from Him. People say,
well, everybody's got their strengths. Maybe in the natural world. Maybe
naturally speaking. But when it comes to spiritually
speaking, we have absolutely none. You know what our Lord
Jesus Christ said? Paul said, My strength is made,
His strength, excuse me, His strength is made perfect in what?
My weakness. My weakness. You know, I'll tell
you something. Our greatest strength is to realize
that we have none at all, and that Christ is our strength.
You know how long we would last if Christ didn't hold us up?
How long we'd last if Christ didn't strengthen us? I mean,
He's our strength when we're not even conscious of His presence.
Any time, day or night, He's our strength. He's our strength. That's why Paul said, be strong.
Be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. That's why
our Lord Jesus Christ said, without me, you can do what? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. You know, you remember
Samson. Strong man. He's a Nazarite.
God told him what to do. Well, Delilah decided, you know,
all of his enemies wanted to know where his strength lay.
He laid his hand in Delilah's lap one time too many. And he
got up. When they come, Phil's time comes
swarming down, he got up and said he's going to throw them
all off. And he got up and his strength was gone. Didn't have
none at all. They put out both of his eyes
and chained him up. That's what happens to a man
who forgets God's strength. He loses his sight, and in the
end it will take him captive. So, oh, the greatest strength
you and I'll ever have is to realize we have none. And don't
put your head in Delilah's lap. Don't do it. Don't put your head
in the world's lap. And then look what he said else.
He said, My strength? And he said, I'm going to trust
Him. That's the only strength I can trust. I certainly can't
trust my own. Huh? Can't trust my own. And then look what he says. My
buckler. My buckler. You know what a buckler
is? Shield. Here, we're in the fire. Put that shield up. Huh? And oh, David, I mean, the psalmist
said, you know, it's the shield of faith. Oh, God's our buckler. God's our shield. Well, I'm telling
you, we go through the Scriptures, and anything we need in any situation
we are, God is there to us. And the only time you need a
shield is if you're in battle. And when you're in a battle,
you need a shield to keep those darts, to keep those enemy's
bullets, to keep those fire darts of the wicked, to keep the arrows
of Satan from hitting you. And God said, I'll be your buckler.
David said, He's my buckler. Oh, and as Satan gets out his
sword, God raises up the buckler. We don't even feel his head. God's our buckler. And our shield's
for protection in the battle. And our battles are won by Christ.
He's our shield. And that's why we sing that old
hymn, Oh, cover my defenseless head. Hide me under the shadow
of thy wings. My head's defenseless. Cover
it, Lord. Be my buckler. And then look
what else he says about him. He says, My buckler and the horn
of my salvation. Horn has a couple of different
meanings in the Scriptures when he talks about the horn of salvation.
Horn means strength. You see a bull with horns and
strength. You see a goat with horns, it
means strength. And big rams with their horns,
strength. And it also means That God strengthens
you and makes your horn to be exalted, that means He's blessing
you with strength and causing your house to grow. Look with
me over here in 1 Samuel 2 and I'll show you what I'm talking
about. 1 Samuel 2. Well, I tell you what, 1 Samuel
2 is about Hannah. Look what happens in 1 Samuel
2.1. And Hannah prayed and said, My
heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My strength is exalted in the
Lord. My horn didn't amount to nothing
until exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my
enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation." So the horn means
the person himself. God said, He told David, God
said about David, He said, I'll cause thine horn to grow and
set a man upon your throne forever and ever. And also, beloved,
horns in the scriptures, was the place you know of, that brazen
altar that had four horns on the corner, four horns on that
altar. And when that priest went in
there, he took blood and put it on every one of those horns.
And there were men, and especially one place is Joab, I believe,
and he run in and he grabbed ahold of the horns of the altar.
He said, If I can get ahold of the horns of that altar, they
won't kill me. They won't come in here to kill me. And beloved,
if you go through the Old Testament, it says sometimes, lay hold of
the horns. And that's what he means, the
horns where the blood has been applied. Christ is our horn to
whom we can hold to. Christ who is our strength. Christ
who has that horn, that great horn of salvation. And that's
what David said, he's the horn of my salvation. Have any of
y'all ever seen the Jews take those great big ram's horns and
blow them? Have you ever seen them do that on TV or anything?
Got them great big ram's horns, and you know, that's what they
blew when they called Israel to worship. They'd take that
old big ram's horn and blow that thing. Well, Christ is our horn, and
boy, when He makes that special sound, we hear that joyful sound. And I tell you, we come where
that four horns was, where the blood was applied, we come to
Christ Himself. And Christ our horn is exalted,
and us in Him. And it's the blood that atoned.
And God helped us to always, always look to Him and hold to
Him. Look what else He said about it. And my high tower. My high tower. You know, in every
castle in lots of cities, they have these high towers. Around
here, fire towers are high. You know why they have them high
towers? So they can look out for the fire. But in castles, they
always had these high towers, and they'd have people sitting
up there watching. They could look out. And they had a watchman
up there looking, watching. Had a way to look around when
you had that high tower. And, beloved, and then a high
tower is a strong tower. Look in Psalm 61.3 with me just
a moment. Psalm 61.3. And I tell you, this is one thing
that what David said here. For thou hast been a shelter
for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. Proverbs 18.10, we've
quoted this so many times. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower and the righteous run into it and are safe. Huh? In Christ, we rise above our
enemies. In Christ, we're safe in our
high time. And that's why I say, in God,
in Christ is all of our sufficiency. And that's why David said, you
know, he said in verse 3, he said, I'll call upon the Lord.
I love the Lord. Oh, I love Him. Because He's
my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust, my buckle, the horn of my salvation, my high
tie, and I'm going to call on Him who is worthy to be praised. And so shall I be saved from
mine enemies. Now, I want to read two verses
of scriptures, and I'm done. Philippians chapter four. Philippians
four. Ain't you thankful that God's
the way He is? One way you can know if you know
Him, and I've been examining myself in this light quite a
bit, is that when you want Him for who He is, want Him just
as He is, you love God, you take Him as He is, would not change
nothing about it. You rejoice in Him and love Him
as He is. As He is. And then look what
He said here in Philippians 4 and verse 6. Be careful for nothing. Don't be full of care for nothing.
Don't be worried about things. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving, Let your requests be made known
unto God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen. Well, the Lord bless you. Jesus Christ is made to be All
I need, all I need, He alone is all my plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness and fire,
holiness forevermore. My redemption, full and sure,
He is all I need. And he is. See, Sunday morning,
God willing,