Open your Bible, if you would,
to Psalm 18. Psalm 18, a wonderful psalm. This psalm is written by our
dear brother David. It was written shortly after
he'd been delivered from the hand of his enemies and from
the hand of Saul. And he penned these words, these
wonderful words in Psalm 18. He'd been delivered, again, from
the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He wrote these
words. Now, we won't be looking at the
whole psalm tonight. We'll just be looking at the
first three verses. I want to talk about how God
alone is worthy of our praise. Now, men and women in religion,
they love the praise of man. And they love to brag about the
things that they do. and they desire the praise of
man, and they desire to boast in the various things that they
do, but we who have been born again and are the blood-washed
saints of God, we know that there's only one who's worthy of any
glory. There's only one who's worthy
of any praise, and that's our great God, Jehovah God, the Father,
Son, and the Holy Spirit. They alone are the ones who are
worthy of our praise. The Lord Jesus is worthy of the
praise of his people because he has delivered us, beloved,
from all our sins, washed us clean in his precious, precious
blood. So let's read the first three
verses. These are the verses we'll be looking at here. Scripture
says, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. Now again, David's
writing this. He's been delivered from his
enemies. He's been delivered from the hand of Saul. And look
at the praise that he has for our great and glorious God. And
he's not saying, oh, I delivered myself, is he? No, no, no, no,
no. He's giving the glory to the
one who receives all the glory, honor, and praise of his people.
He says, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. Look at that. We're
so weak, beloved. We have no strength in ourselves.
And look at who's our strength, though. Jehovah. That's Jehovah
there. Oh, Lord. Yahweh, our great God
and King. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust.
Oh, my. My buckler and the horn of my
salvation in my high tower. I will call upon the Lord. And
that's what God's people do, don't we? We call upon the Lord. We never used to call upon the
Lord before we were saved, but now, now we call upon the Lord. Look at this. Who is worthy to
be praised? He alone is worthy to be praised.
There's no one else worthy to be praised. We preachers don't
want to be praised, because we just give all the praise and
glory to the one who saved us. And every born-again, blood-washed
believer don't want anybody praising them, because there's nothing
we did to save ourselves. My, he alone is worthy to be
praised. So I shall be saved from mine
enemies. And I look at that and I think,
who's the worst enemy we have? Ourselves. God delivered us from
ourselves, beloved. And he's also delivered us from
all the enemies around us. Oh my, what a great God. And we see here that the believer
in Christ, the believer in God, loves Christ. Why? Because of all the things
he's done for us. And David's going to give us
a list of these things. He's going to tell us why he
loves the Lord, why the Lord's his strength. Oh my. In this first verse of the text,
the psalmist being delivered again from the hands of his enemies,
he proclaims these wonderful words. Again, we're only gonna
look at the first three verses here. I'd encourage you to read
the whole psalm, though, at home. I'd encourage you to read it.
It'll be a blessing to you. You know why? Because it proclaims
the sovereignty of God. This is a wonderful psalm to
go to when we're going through trials and tribulations. Wonderful
psalm to go to for comfort and strength, which is only given
to us through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit
of God. Now notice the hearty affection here that comes through
this verse. David's just not saying, well,
I love you. He's saying, I love thee, Lord. I love you, and he's
singing it. He's not just speaking it, he's
singing it. I can imagine hearing him sing
this. Oh my. You know how I know how he's
singing this? Because every born of God and
blood washed saint of God sings this way, don't they? I love
thee, oh Jehovah, oh Yahweh, oh my strength. My strength,
the Lord's my strength, is he yours? My, so we see this, this
hearty affection and it's a clinging affection because remember he's
been delivered from his enemies he didn't deliver himself he'd
been delivered so this is the clinging love this is a love
where he's just he just clinging to the Lord beloved I love you
I love you Lord you're my strength you're my strength John Trapp
says this on this text, I will love thee dearly and entirely
from the very heart root, from the bottom of my bowels, with
like intention of affection, as a tender-hearted mother doth
her dearest babe. Oh, my, we see Sister Jill with
the boys just holding them. We all remember when we had little
ones, we'd hold them, and you just hold them in such love and
affection. Oh, my. My, just caring for them. And
they find comfort in the arms of mom and dad, don't they? The
little ones. Or grandpa and grandma, too.
Oh my, some wonderful pictures of Rowan and Annabelle and Gavin. And there they are sitting on
the couch with grandpa all tucked up. Oh my, wonderful. Wonderful. Just see the love beaming from
them all. Oh, my. So who alone is worthy of our
praise? Well, only the one who loves
us like this, with an everlasting love. He alone is worthy of our
praise. My, oh, my. The triune God, the
Father, Son, and the Spirit, you know, they each have a claim
upon our love. Father chose us in Christ before
the world was. Christ redeemed us at Calvary's
cross. And the Holy Spirit regenerates
us. We're born again by his almighty power, given faith to believe
and repentance before God. And so, the Father, Son, and
the Spirit are long worthy of our praise. All three of them,
my oh my, each have a claim upon our love. And that love, remember
the fruit of the Spirit? Love, peace, joy. This is a love
that we never had before. This is not a natural love. This
is a love that's put in us by God, the Holy Spirit, given to
us, and he has it grow in us. Oh my, this love in our text
is love for, oh Lord, which in the Hebrew is the self-existent
one, Jehovah. My, my, this is who David's speaking
of. This verse proclaims the truth
that all God's people know. Look at this, what's that truth?
Oh Lord, my strength. Have you experienced that as
I've experienced it? Have you experienced the weakness
of our flesh and the weakness and infirmities of us, ourselves
and our sinfulness, so that we can say the Lord is my strength? He's my strength. Scripture says
in John 15, 5, that without Him we can do nothing. Nothing. The Lord's our strength. He's
my strength. Our glorious God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the strength of our life. And look at this. The psalmist confesses that Jehovah
is my strength. He's my strength. Look at this.
I will love thee, O Lord. I'll love you. My strength! My strength. He alone is our hope. He alone
is our life. He alone is our righteousness.
He alone is our sanctification. He alone is our redemption. And
He alone gives us strength and grace to the various trials and
tribulations of this life that every one of us goes through.
Oh, He's the one who keeps us. Oh, my. Through the suffering
of the body or through suffering of mind, God is the believer's
strength. He's our rest. And this list could be endless,
but look at what verse two brings forth. Here are reasons for us
to love Christ. Reasons to love Christ. Look
at this. We're going to look at eight
reasons here. Look at verse two. The Lord is my rock. So that's
Jehovah. Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress,
my deliverer, my God, my strength. Look at that. Strength is brought
up again. We're so weak, beloved. Oh, we're
so weak. And whom I will trust. Look at
that. Now, I remember there was a time
when I didn't trust the Lord. There was a time when I didn't
know the Lord. There's a time when I chased after God's my
own imagination. But praise be to God, the one
true living God was pleased to reveal himself to me and regenerate
me by his almighty power, set Christ before me through the
preaching of his word, and he gave me faith to believe. I was
born again by his almighty power, because I had no strength to
save myself, did you? I had no strength to save myself,
but praise be to God, God saved my soul. He's my strength in
whom I will trust now now with the believing heart. I trust
him when I never trust him before Oh, what a mighty God says my
buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower Look at this
the first reason that we To love Christ is he's our rock. He's our rock Now the Hebrew
word here translated rock refers to a cleft in a cliff a A cleft
in a cleft, in which one may hide from his enemy. Now you
see some cliffs sometimes, and they have a cleft in there, and
if somebody goes into that cleft, you can't see them from the ground.
That's what this is speaking of, being hidden. Being hidden. It's also translated this, listen
to this, as a stronghold of Jehovah, and speaks of security. My, what
security the believer has in Christ. People always talk about
eternal security. There's only eternal security
in God, in Christ. That's all. And if you have it,
oh my, it's eternal security. If a man says they can lose their
salvation after they profess Christ, they don't have the Christ
of the Bible. They're not born again by the
almighty power of God, because those who God saves, He keeps.
Those who God saves are secure. Now we may doubt, yep. We may get anxious, yep. We may
say, how can I even do this and be a Christian, yep. But let
me tell you this. Praise be to God, our salvation's
not dependent upon what we do, but our salvation's dependent
upon the fact that our salvation is D-O-N-E. It's done, and it's
finished by Christ and by Christ alone. So our religion's not
due, no. There's nothing we can do to
save ourselves. We got no strength. God's our strength. But our salvation
is done, finished. by the perfect, sin-atoning work
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, in the shedding of his
precious blood, to redeem the eternal souls of his people.
And we say, hallelujah, what a savior. Oh my. And dwell among the crags and
mountains of Judea. David had escaped the hatred
of Saul. He'd hidden in some of these
clefts, in some of these caves. And he's escaped the hatred of
Saul. And here he compares our God
to such a place of concealment, where he's safe, where his enemies
can't see him. He's absolutely safe. And believers,
beloved, we're hidden in Christ. We're hidden in Christ. You know,
think of this, too. Think of how God hides us from
the strife and the tongues of our enemies. People say stuff
about us we don't even know. And God's protecting us from
that, isn't he? And the little bit we do here sometimes, it
can hurt, can't it? Oh yeah, especially if a brother
rises up against you. That can really hurt then. But
God, how much does God protect us from that? Oh my, I don't
think we're gonna know this side of heaven. I think we're gonna
learn, but I, oh my, how much does he, how much does he, does
he keep us from the strife of the tongues of our enemies? My,
oh my. So what a security, let's look
at this. What a security the believer has. No wonder Augustus'
top lady penned the words, rock of ages cleft for me. Oh, let
me hide myself in thee. We're hidden, Christ. My. And this same word is translated
rock in Isaiah when speaking of Christ. I'll read this. Isaiah
32, 2 says, and the man shall be a hiding place from the wind. In covert from
the tempest is rivers of water and a dry place in the shadow
of a great rock in a weary land. Same Hebrew word there for rock. Oh my. We're hidden in Christ. We're hidden in Christ, beloved.
Now let's look at our text again in verse 2. The Lord is my rock
and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and
my high tower. Look at this. It says he's his
fortress. He's our fortress. See this word fortress in the
The Hebrew word is translated stronghold. Stronghold. The English definition for fortress
is this, a mighty stronghold, a military stronghold, especially
a strongly fortified town fit for a large garrison, a heavily
protected and impenetrable building. Christ is impenetrable. Our enemies
cannot get through him, beloved. We are safe. We're safe in the
fortress that is Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, the believer is hedged all in, all around
by Christ. Not just hedged in, but with
walls that no enemy can come over. He's a bulwark. He's a high tower. He's a stronghold,
beloved. Scripture says this, who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time. First Peter 1.5 says that about
God's people. We're kept. Where are we kept?
We're kept in the stronghold, beloved. We're kept in Christ.
We're kept in the fortress. Oh my. Now let's read verse 2
again. 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.
Now here we see the Lord's our deliverer. Oh, praise God. Praise
God. I need be rescued. That's what
deliverer means there. Rescued. The Lord's our rescuer,
isn't he? He's our savior. And not only
does our great God and King protect us when we're in times of trouble,
but oh, he delivers us during times of trouble too, doesn't
he? He keeps our enemies at bay, beloved. He keeps our enemies
from destroying us. Our sins, now think of this.
During the believer's hour of peril, the Lord is our deliverer. Now some may ask, well, what's
he delivered us from? Well, number one, our sins. Our sins were against us. Scripture
says Christ came into this world to save his people from their
sins. Our sins was against us, beloved.
And then he saved us from the wrath of God. And he saves us
from our trials and our tribulations which we face. in the days where
we pilgrimage on this earth, and one day, oh, but one day,
he's gonna deliver us from all our sin. He's gonna deliver us
from this body of death, and we're gonna be translated. Oh,
we're gonna see him face to face. Oh, we're gonna be caught up
into heaven, either at the hour of our death or when he returns,
if we're alive. Ah, but one day we will, every
one of us, every believer will see him face to face and all
the blessedness to see our Savior and our Redeemer face to face.
Oh, and when almost captured, the Lord's people are rescued
from the hand of the mighty by him who is mightier than them
all. You know that? Oh, our enemies
are mighty, aren't they? But we're delivered by He who
is mightier, He who is Jehovah, God our salvation, our deliverer. Look at further down in this
psalm, look at verse 6. In my distress I called upon
the Lord and cried unto my God, Elohim, my strength. He heard
my voice out of His trample, and my cry came before Him, even
unto His ears. Then look at verse 46. The Lord
liveth, And blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation
be exalted. Verse 47, it is God that avenges
me and subdueth the people under me. Verse 48, he delivereth me
from mine enemies. Yea, thou liftest me up above. And when we're up above, no enemies
can get us when we're in the high tower, beloved. And that
high tower is Christ. Look at that. Oh, thou liftest
me up above those that rise up against me. and has delivered
me from the violent man. Christ is our deliverer. Praise
God he delivered us from our sins. Praise God he delivered
us from the justice of God. Praise God he delivered us from
the wrath of God. Praise God he delivers us in
our trials and tribulations. And praise God one day he'll
deliver us from this sinful body of flesh. And we'll be with him
forever in glory. Let's read verse two again and
we'll see our fourth reason to love our Lord, our God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord is my rock and my fortress,
my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler
and the horn of my salvation. Look at that, he's my God now.
He's my God. He wasn't my God, and to me He
wasn't my God, but He's always been my God, and I just didn't
know it. I was dead in trespasses and sins. I had no clue who the
one true God of the Bible was. I didn't even know who He was.
And that's the state of every one of us who come into this
world, dead in trespasses and sins. I didn't have any idea
who He was. But now, praise God, by the grace
of God, He's my God. Is it yours? Oh, I pray God will
show you grace. And I pray he'll reveal Christ
to you in your desperate need for him. Oh my. Look at this. The Lord is my
strength in whom I will trust. Look at that. He's my strength. Again, strength is brought forth
again, showing us our weakness. But this word strength is not
the same Hebrew word as used in verse 1. No, the word strength
in verse one means powerful or strong. In verse two here, the
word means rock. He's my rock. My oh my. He is my deliverer. This denotes, again, Christ being
our hiding place and our strength. Place to flee to. Right? He's the refuge of our souls,
isn't he? We don't have any refuge outside of Christ. Oh my. And this denotes, too, that the
believer is safe and secure in Christ. If you're resting in
Christ and trusting in Christ, He's all we need. He's our strength. He's our salvation. My, oh, my. We march forward under His banner,
don't we? He's a commanding general, and
we march forward under His banner. Now, this is a reality for David.
Look at verses 31 to 36 of the same psalm, Psalm 18. The nice thing about this psalm
is you don't have to leave it a whole lot. There's so much
in it. Psalm 18, verses 31 to 36. For who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God?
There's no other security other than our great God. And there's
no other God but the Lord, but Jehovah. It is God that girdeth
me with strength. Look at that. We don't gird ourselves
with strength. We're weak. We can't do nothing.
But God girds us with strength, doesn't he? And maketh my way
perfect. That's in Christ. He maketh my feet like hind's
feet, and seeth me upon high places. See, if he didn't make
our feet sure, we'd slip and fall and be all over the place,
wouldn't we? Oh my. We're just sinners. We're just
sinners saved by grace and we'll sin till the day we get home
to glory but praise be to God one day we'll be perfect. One
day we won't sin anymore. Look at this. He teaches my hands
to war so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms. Thou hast
given me the shield of thy salvation. Who's the shield of our salvation?
Well that's the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's the shield of
our salvation. And thy right hand hath held
me up. Who's at the right hand of God
right now? The Lord Jesus Christ. We're upheld by God's right hand.
That's Jesus Christ, our King. Oh my. And thy gentleness hath made
me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps unto me, that my feet
did not slip. He takes care of his people from
the cradle to the grave and then takes us to heaven to be with
them forever. My oh my. The gods of the heathens, they're
just rocks and wood and stone. They're hewing out of stone in
which no one should trust. But the God of the saints, he's
a rock in whom I'll trust. Deuteronomy says, for their rock
is not our rock. even our enemies themselves being
judges as Deuteronomy 32, 31. The rock of religion is not the
rock of the Bible because he can't do nothing unless you allow
him to do it. But the rock of the Bible, Jehovah,
he proclaims salvations of the Lord from beginning to end and
everything in between. Oh my, let us praise his mighty
name. Isaiah 26 verses 3 and 4 says
this, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
Thee, because he trusts in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Now next time we go
through some stuff, let us just keep our eyes fixed on Christ.
Let us grab a hold of this promise here. In Isaiah 26 verse 3, Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee,
because he trusts in Thee. Just trust the Lord. Now, whatever
comes, we just trust the Lord, don't we? And we learn to do
that too, don't we? We learn as the days go by and
the years go by, we learn to trust more and more in Christ.
More and more. Oh my. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26, verses three
and four. Christ is a strong and mighty
one, beloved. He's the only one who's able to save. And he's
the savior, redeemer, surety of his people. Let's read verse two again. The
Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength,
and whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation,
and my high tower. There's another reason to love
Christ. Well, he's my buckler. That means shield in the Hebrew.
He's my shield. Oh, my. And this buckler here
was a small, round shield carried by light infantry. The light
infantry of those days carried this small, you might have seen
it in some guys fighting the Romans. The Romans had the large
shields. And some people come at them with these small shields
made out of different skins and things and made out of wood. That's a buckler. How is the
Lord our shield? Well, Christ shielded us, we
who believe, on him from the wrath and justice of God when
he died in our room and place. The wrath due us fell upon our
King, and he shielded us from that. He shielded us from that,
beloved. He took it all. so that not a
drop of God's wrath would fall upon his people. And he died
in the room and place of his people on Calvary's cross. Oh,
look at verse 35 again of Psalm 18. Thou hast also given me the
shield of thy salvation. Oh, give him faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thy right hand hath holden
me up, that's Christ. And thy gentleness hath made
me great. Oh my. None who have Christ for the
shield will ever suffer condemnation, beloved. They'll never suffer
judgment because all our sins were judged at Calvary's cross
when Christ bore all our sins. Praise His mighty name. Look
what it says here too now. Let's look at verse 2 again.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength,
in whom I will trust. my buckler, and the horn of my
salvation, my high tower. Notice here, the horn of my salvation. The horn is to animals the means
of their defense. It's an instrument of their power,
as strength lies in the horns of the animals who have them.
But when they fight, they use their antlers or their horns
Hence, the word is used here as elsewhere to represent that
to which we owe our protection and defense in danger. Who's
our protection and who's our defense in danger? Jehovah, our
great God, the Lord Jesus Christ. My, oh my, this is wonderful.
Listen to this. listen to this in Psalm 22 verses
2 and 3, and he said the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer,
the God of my rock, in him will I trust, he's my shield, and
the horn of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my savior,
thou savest me from violence. 2 Samuel chapter 22 verses 2
and 3. Who's David's strength? God is
David's strength. God is David's strength. God
is David's power. God is David's defense. God is
David's salvation. And Christ saves with eternal
and immutable power. He is all power. And his salvation
is just as eternal and immutable as he is. So let we who are redeemed of
the Lord rejoice. We're saved by the power of God
and we're kept by the power of God. And what do we say? Praise
his mighty name for his mercy and his goodness and his grace
shown to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now let's read Psalm 18
to again, the Lord is my rock. Now notice this, is my, my, God's
been, God's been, he's showing David grace, isn't he? Just like
he's showing us. David can confidently claim the
Lord is my rock. He's, he's, He'd been saved by
the grace and mercy of God. The Lord is my rock, my fortress,
my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler,
and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. Now notice here,
notice here, beloved, this is wonderful. Another reason for
us to love Christ is because the Lord's our high tower, says,
is my high tower. Can you say that? Can you say
with David these things, the Lord is my rock, my fortress,
my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler,
and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." Well, the
believer says, only by the grace of God can I say that. Right? Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
Now, the Hebrew word here for high tower is defined as a high
place, a refuge. It's a high tower that people
would have to ascend to get to. I read several books on the Roman
soldiers when they went into the land of the Gauls. And they
had specific trouble with the towers that were raised. They
could walk right through pretty much the other ones. They could
break through the other ones. They were geniuses with their
engineers. When they came to those high
towers, when they were setting the rocks, they had to stop and
think about things a little while before they went forward. And
it's costly, it's usually costly to invade a high tower. The Hebrew
word, now think of this too, this Hebrew word for this is
a high tower, refuge, secure height, a retreat. And number
one, stronghold. But the Hebrew word here is translated
defense seven times in the Old Testament, refuge five times,
and tower three times. Well what does that speak of?
Well, it speaks of our security in Christ again, doesn't it?
Oh my, Christ is a believer's high tower. He's our refuge. He's our defense. What comfort
we have. What peace the sinner finds in
Christ Jesus our Lord. What a refuge we have in Christ.
From the law of God, from the wrath of God, from the justice
of God. And the sinner, the sinner who flees to Christ, they have
found a refuge like no other. They have found a refuge like
no other. This is a refuge that is impenetrable. This is a refuge that our enemies
will never break through. And our refuge is God. Our refuge
is Jehovah. Oh, that's who we trust in. listen
to this in Hebrews chapter 6 verses 17 to 20 where in God willing
more abundantly shown to the heirs a promise the immutability
of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable
things two immutable things in which it was impossible for God
to lie we might have strong consolation now that word consolation in
the Greek is comfort strong comfort who's our comfort Only Christ. He's called the God of all comfort
in Corinthians. Strong consolation who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Beloved God's
people, we've fled for refuge. Refuge from our sins. Right? Refuge from the wrath of God.
Refuge from the judgment of God. And who's our hope? For our hope
is the one who is the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that hope is set before us, the scripture says
here. Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast. It can't be broken, beloved.
it's sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within
the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
made a high priest after the order of Mount Kisadek." And
look what the psalmist concludes with here in verse 3. Oh my, we'll just look at the
first part. And then we'll look at the latter part. Look at this. I will call upon the Lord, There
was a time when each one of us didn't call upon the Lord. But
by the power of God's regenerating power, the Holy Spirit of God,
we're born again. And now this conclusion to these
three verses, oh my, I will call upon the Lord. Now we call upon
the Lord. Rebels who wouldn't call upon the Lord at all. Rebels
who shook our fists at God. Rebels either in our hearts or
by our words. Now we call upon the Lord. Praise
his mighty name. And now we're going to see he
cites two worthy reasons that God is to be praised. Look at
this. Because number one, he alone is worthy. Number one,
there's no one else worthy of our praise. I started it off
at the beginning of the message. There's no one worthy of our
praise except for God. Look at this. He tells us right
here, verse 3. I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy. I'm not worthy to receive any praise from man.
I'm just a sinner saved by the grace of God. I don't want the
praise of man. As a matter of fact, that's what
believers are commanded to stay away from is the praise of man.
We don't want, we want God to get all the glory. Any giftings
I have to preach, God gets all the glory. Any giftings you have,
God gets all the glory, doesn't he? He gets all the honor and
praise, and we serve him because we love him. Mine. So the first worthy reason for
calling upon the Lord is he's worthy to be praised. And then
look at this, what's the next one? So shall I be saved from
my enemies. Now if you at home read verses
14 to 19, you will see this in the text, how God delivered David
from the hands of his enemies. My oh my. Look at verse 3 again. I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Again, no one else is worthy to be praised, but our great
God, Jehovah. And the psalmist here, look at
this, he mixes prayer with praise. He says, I will call upon the
Lord, right? That's our prayer. And now he
mixes it with praise. Who is worthy to be praised.
Praise his mighty name. When you speak to him, praise
his mighty name for the things he's done for you. Oh my. And
notice the happiness that the psalmist has. He's been delivered. Saul wants to kill him. And God's
delivered him. God's delivered him. And the
psalmist here resolves to invoke the Lord in joyful song, believing
that in all future conflicts that God would deal with his
enemies as he has in the past. It is good for us to pray to
our great God because he alone is the one who should be called
on and he alone is the one who should be praised. What's the
result? So shall I be saved from my enemies.
All by the Lord's almighty power, right? Saved from our enemies
by the almighty power of God, time and time and time again. And David had such faith given
to him by God, same faith we have, right? That he could fight
singing and win the battle with a song still upon his lips. This
is true of every believer. Our victories in Christ, it's
not anything we do. Our victories in Christ. And
we receive fresh mercy every morning. Do you know that? His
mercies are new to us every morning. Every morning. My oh my. So he alone is worthy of our
praise. My. What a wonderful thing. What
a wonderful blessing to receive new mercies every morning. My. And let us Let us put in our
heart, let us keep in our heart that we're unworthy of these
mercies, but yet they're new every morning. Oh, we are so
blessed as God's people, and let us enjoy this mercy that
God's shown to us. Let us relish it, let us meditate
upon it, and think how glorious it is, and how wonderful it is
that unworthy sinners have received mercy. Mercy that's needed too, isn't
it? Mercy that's needed. So truly then, only the Lord
is worthy of our praise. Only our great God is worthy
of our praise. My oh my. And we can go forward. We can go forward having confidence
that God's going to deliver us just like he has in our past. Right? Oh my, it's wonderful. Because we've experienced those
experiences of divine love and divine deliverance. No fearing
or doubting with Christ on our side, we hope to die shouting,
the Lord will provide. Amen and amen. Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for Your mercy and grace. Oh, we will call upon
Thee, O Lord, You who are our rock, our shelter, our defense,
our buckler, our shield, our high tower, our strength. Oh, we're so weak. We're so weak,
Father. But Thou art our strength. Oh,
Lord Jesus, we praise Thy mighty name for saving our souls. We
praise Thee for Thy great deliverance, delivering us from all our sins,
delivering us from the wrath of God, delivering us from the
justice of God, and delivering us from ourselves. We long, Lord,
to be in thy presence. We look forward to that day when
you call us home, and we will see thee face to face. Thank
you, Lord, for saving our souls. In Jesus' name, amen.