Giving Thanks for God's Deliverance of the Messiah: Learning to Pray Psalm 18 (Part 3)

This is the final post on Psalm 18. Read Part one (18:1-6) and Part two (18:7-19).
Let us hear the rest of the psalmist's prayer:

²⁰ The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
    according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
    I am not guilty of turning from my God.
²² All his laws are before me;
    I have not turned away from his decrees.
²³ I have been blameless before him
    and have kept myself from sin.
²⁴ The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
    according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

²⁵ To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
    to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
²⁶ to the pure you show yourself pure,
    but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
²⁷ You save the humble
    but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
²⁸ You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
    my God turns my darkness into light.
²⁹ With your help I can advance against a troop;
    with my God I can scale a wall.

³⁰ As for God, his way is perfect:
    The Lord’s word is flawless;
    he shields all who take refuge in him.
³¹ For who is God besides the Lord?
    And who is the Rock except our God?
³² It is God who arms me with strength
    and keeps my way secure.
³³ He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
    he causes me to stand on the heights.
³⁴ He trains my hands for battle;
    my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁵ You make your saving help my shield,
    and your right hand sustains me;
    your help has made me great.
³⁶ You provide a broad path for my feet,
    so that my ankles do not give way.

³⁷ I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
    I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
³⁸ I crushed them so that they could not rise;
    they fell beneath my feet.
³⁹ You armed me with strength for battle;
    you humbled my adversaries before me.
⁴⁰ You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
    and I destroyed my foes.
⁴¹ They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
    to the Lord, but he did not answer.
⁴² I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
    I trampled them like mud in the streets.
⁴³ You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
    you have made me the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
⁴⁴     foreigners cower before me;
    as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
⁴⁵ They all lose heart;
    they come trembling from their strongholds.

⁴⁶ The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
    Exalted be God my Savior!
⁴⁷ He is the God who avenges me,
    who subdues nations under me,
⁴⁸     who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
    from a violent man you rescued me.
⁴⁹ Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
    I will sing the praises of your name.

⁵⁰ He gives his king great victories;
    he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
    to David and to his descendants forever.

In verses 25–45 the psalmist returns to his report of the victory that God won on his behalf. There is a mix of praise for the LORD and narrative about the salvation of the psalmist. Unlike verses 7–19, the language of vv. 25–45 focuses on the psalmist’s experience rather than on the creational imagery that the psalmist had used to cast God’s actions into cosmic focus.
 
How does the psalmist describe his experience of salvation? 

First, in vv. 25–27 he recognizes that God does indeed save those who are faithful and \ depend fully on God to make it through the world. Those who are deviant or arrogant will not be able to stand at the end of the day.
 
Second, God is the source of the psalmist’s strength (vv. 28–32). God empowers the psalmist with the strength and energy to complete the mission of God. This is important. God will deliver us, but as we struggle through the challenges, God will sustain us. As Paul will write centuries later to the Corinthians about God’s empowerment in times of weakness, “My grace is sufficient” (2 Cor 12:9).
 
Third, the messiah is able to win an extraordinary victory because of the power and loyalty of the LORD (vv. 33–45). As you read these lines, they are militaristic and contain violent images. It is vital to recognize that it is the LORD who wins the victory. The king is merely the agent through whom God acts. These words do not justify violent acts by us or by any person of faith. They assume that the LORD’s messiah is under heavy assault from the enemies of God. In the ancient world, Israel was a tiny and insignificant nation from a military perspective. If it was successful in war, it was only because of God’s protection and not because of their own power or the superiority of their weapons and tactics. Most importantly, it is vital to remember that this psalm finds its most poignant fulfillment in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. In Jesus, God won his salvation securing victory by refusing to counter human power with any power other than love. Jesus conquered the grave because God raised his dead body from the grave to demonstrate true power and victory.
 
Psalm 18 reaches its climax in vv. 46–50 with a final flurry of praise. Again the language is extravagant and audacious. Review the opening three verses and observe the similarities of the praise at the beginning and end of the psalm. The messiah models the mission of God. He praises God for his powerful acts of salvation. He is grateful for the deliverance that he’s experienced. V. 49 also keeps God’s mission to bless the nations in view. Yes, God has rescued his messiah from the hand of enemies, but this deliverance shifts to be a word of witness to the world including those who had acted against the king. The LORD is for God’s people, but this is so that God’s people can serve as his hands, feet, and mouthpieces for the world that does not yet know and sing God’s praises.

How do verses 25–50 teach us praise God?
 
What is the connection between salvation and mission?
 
Who in your life needs to hear your testimony of what God has done in your life?

Giving Thanks for God's Deliverance of the Messiah: Learning to Pray Ps 18 (Part two)

 Yesterday, we examined Psalm 18:1-6. Now we move to the middle portion of the psalm. In verses 7–19, the psalmist uses creational and mythic imagery to describe the victory of God. This part of the psalm helps us to understand the victory that God manifested for the messiah was a cosmic and world shaping action. It was not merely about rescue of the messiah. God actions secured the very creation and future for the messiah and for the people of God.
 
This section of the psalm is difficult to understand because it uses language that belongs to the ancient world and its belief system. When the ancients talked about creation, their focus was not on the beginnings of the universe (this is a modern conversation) but on how the gods fought for supremacy and secured the earth against the forces that threated the destruction of the world. In this part of the psalm, the psalmist, God’s messiah, is giving thanks to the LORD for saving him. The LORD has the power to save because the LORD is the Creator of the cosmos. 


⁷ The earth trembled and quaked,
    and the foundations of the mountains shook;
    they trembled because he was angry.
⁸ Smoke rose from his nostrils;
    consuming fire came from his mouth,
    burning coals blazed out of it.
⁹ He parted the heavens and came down;
    dark clouds were under his feet.
¹⁰ He mounted the cherubim and flew;
    he soared on the wings of the wind.
¹¹ He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
    the dark rain clouds of the sky.
¹² Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
    with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
¹³ The Lord thundered from heaven;
    the voice of the Most High resounded.
¹⁴ He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
    with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
¹⁵ The valleys of the sea were exposed
    and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, Lord,
    at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶ He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
    he drew me out of deep waters.
¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
    from my foes, who were too strong for me.
¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
    but the Lord was my support.
¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me.

 (NIV)

Verse 7 picks some of the most awe-inspiring parts of nature: the earth itself and the foundations of the highest mountains. We feel puny in comparision to these. Yet they trembled, quaked, and shook before the LORD due to God’s anger at the injustice experienced by God’s messiah.
 
The LORD’s anger in verses 7–14 is described in terms of a raging story. This is the language of creation. God’s messiah is trapped by the waters of chaos and death (vv. 4–5). The LORD roars out of heaven in the form of a thunderstorm. All creation quakes as God approaches with lightning, thunder, and hail. The LORD is so powerful that he uses the most fearsome parts of Creation as a tool to bring about the deliverance of the King.
 
As we saw in vv. 4–5, the waters of chaos and death had pulled the king under. He was trapped and helpless. The future looked bleak. God’s mission seemed lost. But the LORD of Creation cannot be defeated by any power no matter how insurrmountable it may be to mere humans. This psalm reminds us that there is nothing in our lives beyond the capacity of God to redeem. Vv. 15–19 detail the LORD’s salvation of the messiah. Just as God delivered God’s people from Egypt by splitting the Red Sea and guiding God’s people to safefy, the LORD exposed the foundations of the world and the depths of the waters of death and chaos (vv. 15–16 cf. Exod 15:8). The LORD rescued the Messiah and restored him to abundance.
 
After telling the story of God’s dramatic and cosmic deliverance, the Messiah declares his life of faithfulness as a model to be followed. The Messiah practiced justice and obedience to the LORD. He was faithful to act rightly in all of his relationships (this is the meaning of “righteousness”). Jesus fulfilled this role perfectly as long-awaited Messaih. Through his faithfulness, God accomplished his victory over injustice, sin, and death. But there is more here. Stay tuned.

How does Psalm 18 help us understand the power of the LORD to save?

How does Psalm 18 connect the Messiah’s righteousness with the salvation of the LORD?

What challenges in your life seem overwhelming? How do the words of Ps 18 bring you comfort?

Giving Thanks for God's Deliverance of the Messiah: Learning to Pray Ps 18 (Part 1)

Psalm 18 is the third longest psalm after Pss 78 and 119. Psalm 18 focuses on the victory that God gives to Israel’s king. Like Psalm 2, it is a royal psalm. This means that it was originally written as a psalm for use in the celebration of David or one of his descendants. Royal psalms offer a tangible this worldly focus for the security that God’s people desire as they seek to walk faithfully through the world. From our previous reading of Ps 2 and Ps 146, we know that the book of Psalms makes two related moves regarding human kingship.

First, the book of Psalms was organized for worship after Israel’s exile to Babylon and return to the land. Historically, this meant that Israel did not have its own king. Post-exile, the Persians, Greeks, and Romans ruled over God’s people from 538 BC onwards. The only exception was the brief period following the Maccabean revolt (142 BC–63 BC) where God’s people enjoyed self–rule. Thus, when Israel prayed and sang the royal psalms, they were asking the LORD to restore the Davidic king. These psalms served as longings for the coming of God’s messiah who would renew God’s kingdom and guide God’s people in faithfulness.

Second, the psalms offered a critique of human leadership. We saw in our reading of Psalm 146 that it warned against trusting in any human leader. The LORD was the true king.

As Christians, these two elements—a longing for the messiah and distrust of human leaders— found a powerful resolution in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is the long–awaited son of David, and he is also God. Thus, as followers of Jesus, we read Israel’s royal psalms as prayers and praises to God for the victory over sin, injustice, oppression, and evil that he offers to all who trust and follow Jesus.

In verses 1–19, the king gives thanks to the LORD for leading him to victory. We’ll focus on vv. 1–6 for today’s lesson.

¹ I love you, Lord, my strength.

² The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
    my shield^[b] and the horn^[c] of my salvation, my stronghold.

³ I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
    and I have been saved from my enemies.
⁴ The cords of death entangled me;
    the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
⁵ The cords of the grave coiled around me;
    the snares of death confronted me.

⁶ In my distress I called to the Lord;
    I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
    my cry came before him, into his ears.

Verses 1–3 praise the LORD with rich and dynamic language. These lines have inspired countless hymns and contemporary praise songs that God’s people use to this day. The previous two psalms (Pss 16–17) focused on God as a refuge. These verses give us words to describe what this means. The LORD is a rock, a fortress, a shield, a deliverer, and the horn of salvation. The LORD is worthy to be praised because the psalmist has experienced the power of God’s salvation. This is not a lament; this is the testimony of answered prayer. The LORD is a refuge because he is the God who saves.

Vv. 4–6 describe the psalmist’s previous condition as truly desperate. He was trapped in death. The waters of the underworld ensnarred him. When we think of this psalm as ultimately a praise for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we can read vv. 1–6 as a declaration of the victory that the LORD rendered through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus died on the cross, but God vindicated him by raising him triumphantly from the grave. This is the true ground for our security.

How do the opening six verses teach us to give thanks and praise to the LORD?

What are some areas in your life for which you can give thanks to God today?

How does this psalm help us to praise God for the death and resurrection of Jesus?