Psalm 18
Aaron Leatherdale - Rapper
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Website & personal blog: aaronleatherdale.org
Aaron grew up in Prince George, BC, Canada and moved to IHOP in May 2007. His passion and desire is to serve the Lord through prayer and fasting and to preach the love of Christ to the nations of the earth.
The book of Psalms is a timeless book that has brought hope and encouragement to believers for hundreds of years. What I love about the Psalms is the honesty and transparency of the writers. They say exactly what they feel.
King David is one of the primary writers of the Psalms. His writings are filled with emotional highs and lows. In one Psalm, he lauds the majesty of God and the surety of His promises to men and, in the next, he complains to God and curses men. The Psalms are a collection of songs that everyone, from all walks of life and from all times in history, can relate to.
Lately, I have been meditating on Psalm 18. This Psalm details real events that took place in David’s life. (It is also recorded in 2 Samuel 22). David wrote this Psalm after the Lord delivered him from Saul. Saul had been hunting for David for years with a large army and David narrowly escaped his grasp on more than one occasion. Even though the Lord had instructed David not to leave Israel, David fled to a foreign nation to hide from Saul. Finally, after about 18 months, he returned to Israel. He then wrote this Psalm.
The Psalm can be divided into 5 parts:
- Part 1 – David exalts the character of God (Verses 1-3)
- Part 2 – David cries out to God for help (Verses 4-6)
- Part 3 – God hears and answers David (Verses 7-18)
- Part 4 – David’s righteousness before God (Verses 19-27)
- Part 5 – David rejoices in the deliverance and promises of God (Verses 28-50)
Part 4 of this Psalm gives us a glimpse into the remarkable revelation that David had concerning the mercy and the delight of God.
David had great confidence that the Lord would deliver him. Even though David made many mistakes he boldly stated. “The Lord delivered me because He delighted in me”. Though David was far from perfect, he knew that He was highly favored by God. I have prayed through this portion of scripture countless times. In verse 24, he says, “The Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight”. David knew that his righteousness before God was based on God’s mercy, not David’s own works.
David had a heart that was after God. Even though he had periods of compromise and stumbled in various ways, David lived in the revelation that God would deliver Him and that God delighted in him. He knew that he was in right standing with God. David was always quick to repent when confronted with his sin and always turned wholeheartedly to the Lord.
This Psalm is an encouragement to us that the Lord is always for us and ready to deliver us and rescue us from life’s perils. When the “floods of ungodliness” terrify you and the “sorrows of the grave” confront you, you can have full confidence that the Lord is waiting to answer your cries.
© 2010 Aaron Leatherdale
Comments
The righteous rise when they fall
Jenn,
Glad you like the post. It makes me think of Proverbs 24:16. It talks about the righteous man falling but rising again. It doesn't say the righteous never falls, it says when he falls he gets back up. God washes away the failures and forgets about them - all we need to do is get back up and keep running into God.
work+work+wishful thinking doesn't = success
"David knew that his righteousness before God was based on God’s mercy, not David’s own works."
Great line Aaron. This is a primary truth I struggle with in my own heart, even after 12 years of living my life for Him. There's something in us, perhaps guilt that comes from messing up over and over and over again, that makes us want to measure our lives by an impossible standard, like a 5 year old trying to make a half-court shot. And so we become driven to demonstrate our worth. We want to prove that we're worthy of a good and perfect God. We strive and we put in maximum effort to show our goodness our rightness. Maybe it works for a while, maybe it doesn't but in a moment we are shattered by our own depravity, by our own weakness and we run with our tail between our legs, banishing ourselves to the back of the pack, the fringe until such time as we make up for our failure.
But it's all a lie.
Work+work+wishful thinking does not =success. That's why these words leapt off the page to me. To examine and accept God's mercy, His infinite lovingkindness, is to find such amazing love and forgiveness that we are actually set free from the grudging life of penance and completely restored to sonship and right standing with the Father.
Oh that we would all look into the mercy of God instead of the measure of our own deeds to determine our value. Give us grace Father to enter into this righteousness and mercy You have so freely given.
Great post Aaron!
Great post Aaron!
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