Psalm 18. Psalm 18, let's begin with prayer. Lord, how thankful we are that
we can Come into your presence and open your word. But Lord,
it's all in vain unless you're pleased by your spirit to bless
your word to our hearts. We pray that we might be enabled
to see something of the glory and the sufficiency of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we pray that we might be
found in him. Accept our thanksgiving for the
freeness of your grace. Accept our thanksgiving for the
greatness of your salvation. We thank you for the forgiveness
of sins. Lord, we pray that you'd give us grace to truly love and
adore your person more than we ever have. And love one another
as you gave his commandment. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
his name we pray, amen. This is one of the longer psalms,
50 verses, and I'm going to try to look at this whole psalm in
30 minutes. But this is a psalm that in some
ways I have not felt like I could identify with a lot. For instance,
the use of the word, I will, I will love thee, O Lord. I want
to, and I do, but just anything that begins with an I will, generally,
it's sketchy. He says, I will, in whom I will
trust, verse, just his use of the word I will, and then look
in verse Six, in my distress, I called upon the Lord, and he
cried unto my God, and he heard my voice out of his temple. My
cry came before him, even unto his ears. Then the earth shook
and trembled. Have you ever felt like you prayed
and the earth shook and trembled? That's not something I've exactly
felt. Maybe it's unbelief on my part,
but I've not exactly felt like the earth trembled when I prayed,
that I had the ear of the Lord that much. And then in verse
20, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according
to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I've
kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from
my God. For all his judgments are before me, and I did not
put away his statutes from me. I was also upright before him,
and I have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the
Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according
to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. Now, I understand
that only as Christ's righteousness, but I've never been able to pray
with regard to anything I've done. Lord, reward me according
to the cleanness of my hands. I'm okay here. No, I haven't. Look down in verse 37. He says, I pursued mine enemies
and overtaken them, neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
I've wounded them so that they were not able to rise. They are
fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with
strength unto the battle, thou hast subdued under me those that
rose up against me. Thou hast given me the necks
of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. They
cried, but there was none to save them, even unto the Lord.
But he answered them not. Then did I beat them small as
the dust before the wind. I did cast them out as the dirt
in the streets." Now that's the way he's speaking. And that can
seem harsh, can't it? So what is this prayer all about? Well look at the last verse,
great deliverance giveth he to his king and showeth mercy to
his anointed, to David and to his seed forevermore. So this is Christ praying, this
is Christ speaking, and this is David, the seed, me and you,
the seed, speaking in this psalm. This is repeated, this was toward
the end of David's life, it's repeated in 2 Samuel 22, it's
quoted there as well, right before you give the last words of David,
and that gives us some idea of the importance of this psalm.
It's actually repeated twice. And it was to be used for singing
to the chief musician. That's inspired, and this was
to be used for public singing in the church. Now, verse one, I will love thee, O Lord, my
strength. Now I can hear Christ saying
that so powerfully, can't you? Oh, he could say it. And do you
know what? In Christ, I say it too. But
this is Christ speaking. As a matter of fact, you go on
when he talks about, thou hast made me the head of the heathen.
You know, everybody, as soon as they hear me, they're gonna
submit to me. It's so obviously the Lord Jesus Christ speaking,
and I love the way he says this. Oh, his love to his father. How wonderful to think about.
Oh, Lord, my strength. In verse two, he gives 10 things
the Lord is to him, and he's this to us too. The Lord is my
rock. unmovable. The Lord is my fortress,
my place of protection, my deliverer, my savior, my God, my strength
in whom I will trust, my buckler or shield, the horn, the power
of my salvation, my high tower. Now he calls the Lord all those
things and he's all those things to me. He's my rock. He's my
immovable rock. He's my high tower. He's my fortress. He's my shield. This is who the
Lord is to every single one of his people. He says in verse
three, I will call upon the Lord. Now, the only one who can use
language like this is the Lord himself. He's the one who said,
father, I will. that they whom you've given me
be with me." He could say that to the Father as equal with the
Father, as the Father's fellow, as the Son of God. Now when I
say, Father, I will, don't speak that way to the Lord.
If you will, That's our way of praying, Lord,
if you will. But the Lord says, I will call upon the name of
the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved
from mine enemies. Now I think verses four and five
are speaking of the cross. The sorrows of death compassed
me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows
of hell compassed me about, the snares of death prevented me.
Now I have no doubt that he's speaking from the cross when
he is using those words. In my distress, he says in verse
six, and what distress it was, I can't even begin to imagine
to enter in to having any idea of what the Lord was going through
when he was made sin, when he was forsaken by his father, when
he was cut off. He said, in my distress, I called
upon the Lord. I cried unto my God and he heard
my voice out of his temple. And my cry came before him, even
unto his ears. Then, now this is the way the
Lord responds to his son's prayer. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills
were moved and were shaken because he was wroth went up a smoke
out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals
were kindled by it." Now, this is one of the mysteries that
we can think about and we can't possibly understand. The Lord
The father cut off the son, he forsook him, and the whole time,
oh, how the father loved his son, and how he responded to
his cry. Somebody says, tell me how both
of those things are so. I'm not even going to try, but
I know they are. I mean this is so mysterious
how the Lord responds. On one end He forsook him. He got none of His Father's presence,
none of His smile, nothing but His awful frown, and yet how
the Lord responded to the cries of His Son. And this is actually
talked about in Hebrews chapter 5 when He cried to the Lord with
strong cryings and tears, and was heard, the Scripture says,
in that He feared. Now let's go on reading. He bowed
the heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet. I don't have any doubt that's
talking about the darkness that covered the earth at that time
when the Lord was hanging on the cross. The darkness covered
his feet. And he rode upon a cherub and
did fly, yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made
darkness his secret place. His pavilion round about him
were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. The brightness
that was before him, his thick clouds passed, hailstones and
coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the
heavens, and the highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals
of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and
scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and disconfitted them.
Then the channels of the water were seen, and the foundations
of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the
blast of the breast of thy nostrils. He sent from above. He took me,
He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong
enemy and from them which hated me, for they were too strong
for me. They permitted me in the day
of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay." Now this is Him
speaking from the cross and the Lord responding in such glorious
language. The earth shaking, the foundations
of the world being moved, the waters moved. Now look in verse
19. He brought me forth. He raised
me from the dead. He brought me forth also into
a large place, a place of complete largeness and freedom. He delivered
me because he delighted in me. Oh, the delight the Father has
to the Son. The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands
hath he recompensed me, for I have kept the ways of the Lord, and
have not wickedly departed from my God, for all his judgments
were before me, and I did not put away his statutes for me.
I was also upright before him, and I have kept myself from mine
iniquity. You know, what in the world does
that mean if that's the Lord speaking? Well, my iniquity became
His iniquity, but He never sinned. That's the only way I can understand
that. I've kept myself from my iniquity. My iniquity became
His. He was guilty of it. He was guilty of it, but He never
sinned. He kept Himself from my iniquity. Therefore hath the Lord reconvinced
me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of
my hands in His eyesight. Now what language that is, what
language? The Lord Jesus could say this
literally, couldn't he? Me and you can say it literally,
too. You see, his righteousness is my personal righteousness
before God. And that is how we come into
God's presence, in his righteousness, in his name. His righteousness,
just as truly, just as literally, my sin became his sin." That's
the most mysterious, most thing, my sin became his sin. And just as truly as my sin became
his sin, his righteousness becomes my very righteousness before
God. And so when we come in Christ's
name, we're actually pleading his righteousness as our righteousness
because his death was our sin payment. So yes, this is how
real justification is. I'm not treated just as if I
never sinned. If the judge treats the criminal
just as if he never sinned, he's an unjust judge, isn't he? He's
wrong. The believer is not treated just
as if he never sinned. In Christ, I never sinned. In
him is no sin. And so this prayer, as much as
you're thinking, ah, can I say, yeah, yeah, because this is Christ's
prayer on behalf of his people. Let's go on reading. And this
is so important, verse 25. With the merciful, thou wilt
show thyself merciful. With an upright man, thou wilt
show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show
thyself pure. And with the froward, thou shalt
show thyself froward. Froward, however you pronounce
it, I can't remember. I knew, I used to know, I can't
remember now. Thought I should have dusted up on that, but. How do you pronounce it, anybody
know? Froward or Froward? Froward, okay, sorry. But the
point is, of these verses, God will meet you on the ground you
come to him. Now that's always true. With the merciful, God's gonna
show himself merciful. And if I'm not merciful, I've
known nothing of the mercy of God. I want to be a merciful
person, don't you? Do you know there's never been
anyone who has ever come to God for mercy that he turned down?
He'll meet you on the ground, you come. You come for mercy,
he'll show you mercy every time. You come on the footing of your
works, God will oblige you. If that's the way you want to
come, God will oblige you. He will meet you on the ground
you come. He'll meet me on the ground I
come. With the pure in heart, every
believer comes. pure in heart, a new heart that
He's given. He's going to treat you accordingly.
You come perversely, He'll treat you. You know, there's nothing
as perverse and froward as trying to come to God on the footing
of my filthy works and thinking God should accept me for that.
Well, if I come that way, He'll meet me there. Now, the Lord
will meet me. He'll meet you right now on the
ground we come to Him. Verse 27, for thou wilt save
the afflicted, the poor people. You know, the only people God
saves are poor people. Poor people, people who do not
have anything to commend them to God. Not a thing. That's the person he saves. but will bring down high looks. Oh, how God hates pride. And
the Lord says, for thou wilt light my candle. The Lord my
God will enlighten my darkness. Now, I think this speaks of his
faith from the darkness of Calvary. He never quit believing God,
even in his utter darkness. As soon as something happens
to us, we quit believing God. He's left me. I deserved it. We'll go straight to merit. This is what I deserve. Well,
sure it is. Nobody's going to debate that. But the point is
salvation is by grace. And he never forsakes his people. And the Lord in the dark, when
you and I wouldn't have trusted, oh, he said, though he slay me. And that's exactly what was going
on. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Verse 29, for by thee I've run
through a troop. By my God have I leaped over
a wall. Now this is talking about the
achievements of Christ. It's also talking about David. I mean,
David with his bare hands slew a bear. He slew a lion. We can't
even imagine that, but he was supernaturally enabled. But this
is Christ doing this for us. When he leaped over that wall,
I leaped over that wall. When he defeated that troop,
I defeated that troop. As for God, His way, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is perfect. Could truer words ever been said? The Lord said, I am the way,
and His way is perfect. It brings us into the very presence
of God. The word of the Lord is tried,
proven. He is a buckler, He's a shield
to all those that put trust in Him. For who is God? Save the Lord. Or who is a rock? Save our God. No one. You know
what? One of the things that's so glorious
about the Lord is there's nobody like Him. There's nobody you
can compare Him to. Any comparison you make with
Him, with some created whatever, is wrong. It's just wrong. He said, who is liking to me? You know one of the things I
love to think of the Lord, he's got no law over his head. He
has no standard he has to meet except his own person. He doesn't
like me, he's not like me and you at all. He answers to nobody but Himself. And His way is perfect, He's
holy, He's just, He's righteous, He's so glorious. No one can
be compared to Him. What, to think that He's revealed
Himself to me? To think that, that's so amazing. It is God, verse 31, that girdeth
me with strength and maketh my way perfect. This is true of
the Lord Jesus Christ, obviously. I think of when the Lord was
in Gethsemane's garden. Once again, oh, you know, who
understands what was going on then? But his perfect humanity
was so overcome. that an angel was sent to strengthen
him by the Father. His humanity couldn't even, the
Lord strengthened him. And listen, any strength you
have, that breath you just took, that was God's air. He gave you
the grace to breathe it. Everything about us is him strengthening
us. He maketh my way perfect. He
maketh my feet like hind's feet and setteth me upon my high places. And I think of the Lord, Setting
his son on his own right hand and we're there right now with
him Seated together with him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus
He teacheth my hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken
by mine arms now That's never happened with me. I might have
tried to Didn't work, but it did with him. There's nothing
that can keep him from doing his will. The bow of steel that
would hold us back, he breaks with his arms. Thou also has
given me the shield of thy salvation. Thy right hand hath hold me up.
Thy gentleness, thy meekness hath made me great. As glorious as God is, he's humble. As excellent as the Lord Jesus
Christ is, he's meek and lowly in heart. Now, me and you just
can't really understand that. We believe it. But if we had
his power, you know how power corrupts? I hate to think of
what would happen if I had a whole lot more power than I do. Well,
he has all power, but it doesn't corrupt him. He's meek God. And he said, thy meekness, thy
humbleness, hath made me great. And how great is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And because he's great, the scripture
says, thou will give him a portion with the great. His people are
great in him. Now this is how much he is our
salvation. If he's great, then you're great
in God's sight. Somebody says, that's just, it's
true. If I'm in Christ, God, That's
who I am. Let's go on reading. Thou hast
enlarged my steps under me that my feet did not slip. The only way my feet won't slip
is him enlarging my steps under me. He did that with the Lord. He does that with all of his
people. I pursued mine enemies, and I've
overtaken them. Neither did I turn again till
they were consumed. Now, who are his enemies? The
sins of his people. Those are his enemies. And you
know what he did? He consumed them. He made them
not to be. This is not just talking about,
you know, the Lord. A mouse is not an enemy to an
elephant. I mean, another mouse can do.
No man is an enemy to the Lord in the sense that he, you know,
But I'll tell you who he considers his deadly enemies are the sins
of his people. He died for them and he consumed
them. He caused them not to be. Look
what verse 38 says, I've wounded them that they were not able
to rise. You know, your sins are not going to be able to be
raised back up. They're gone. They're gone. They can't, they're
not going to come up later and haunt you. They're gone. One
unit, the ones you haven't committed yet, they're gone. That's how
complete this salvation is. They're not going to be able
to rise up and get you. They're not going to be able to bite you in the
back. They're, they're gone. For thou has, I've wounded them
that they were not able to rise. They are fallen under my feet
for thou has girded me with strength unto the battle. Thou has subdued
under me, those that rose up against me. Thou hast given me
the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate
me. Now, you know why a man goes
to hell? Because he hates the Lord Jesus Christ. And if any
man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul said, let him be
anathema, maranatha. Let him be damned upon the return
of the Lord. Now, was Paul being harsh there?
No. The absolute glory and excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ is such
that a man ought to go to hell that doesn't love his glorious
person. And he says, the next of my enemies
that I might destroy them that hate me. They cried, but there
was none to save them, even unto the Lord. But he answered them
not. Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind.
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. And that's talking
about our sins. His enemies, yes. But one of our problems
is we can't see things totally from God's perspective. Because
if we did, we would see the utter justice of this statement. I'll
cast them out as dirt in the streets. We think, well, that's
harsh, isn't it? Not the Lord does it. It's not. And this is
speaking more than his physical enemies. His enemies are our
sins, and this is how he dealt with our sins. Now, look how
clearly this is the Lord speaking, verse 43. Thou hast delivered
me from the strivings of the people. Thou hast made me the
head of the heathen. A people whom I have not known
shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they
shall obey me. That's talking about irresistible
grace, isn't it? The strangers shall submit themselves
unto me. The strangers shall fade away
and be afraid out of their close places. The Lord liveth. I love that statement. You know,
I remember I've heard people say, well, Jesus is alive and
doing well. No, he's not. He liveth. He is life. The Lord liveth and blessed be
my rock. Let the God of my salvation be
exalted. And you know, that's the desire
of every believer. If you love him, you want him to be exalted,
don't you? You want him to be glorified. That's your desire.
That's what's the son's desire. That's the desire of every believer.
It is God that avengeth me and subdueth the people under me.
He delivereth me from mine enemies. Yea, thou liftest me up above
those that rise up against me. Thou hast delivered me from the
violent man, from Satan. Therefore will I give thanks
unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen and sing praises unto
thy name. Great deliverance. Now this was
great deliverance wasn't it? I mean the earth shaking, the
foundations of the earth being moved, him casting out his, great
deliverance. Giveth he to his king and showeth
mercy to his anointed, to David and to his seed. Now that's who
his anointed is, to David and his seed. Do you know if you're
a believer, you're included in that right now, present tense.
David and his seed, and I love the way this verse ends, forevermore. You know what that means? That means eternally. That means
you have mercy that never had a beginning and will never have
an end, from everlasting to everlasting. That is the blessing to David
and to his seed. Amen.