Psalms 18
The Bible says in Psalms 18:1, I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. It should
be that when something good happens in your life the result is that you
recognize Gods involvement. That is what David did. This Psalm is a psalm
written after the LORD delivered David from the hand of Saul. The Bible says
that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Few people will
recognize God in their life in response to the bad that happens to them or
respond by saying that they will love God. But the truth is that also few will
do the same for the good.
Undoubtedly it took a lot of effort, a lot of
will, on the part of David to survive all the dangers he had to face while the
king of the country in which he lived sought his life. But in the end when
David was delivered from his enemies he did not praise himself for his strength
of will but he said, I will love thee, O LORD, my
strength.
God gave man a will. The will of man is strong.
The man of will is so strong that often men find their eternal destinies to be
the fires of hell even though God is not willing that any should perish but
that all should come to repentance. The lesson learned is this in Psalms 18:1;
the purpose of the human will is to love Jesus. Good or bad, failure or
success, victory or defeat, life or death, your response should be I will love
thee, Jesus. To will implies to give an effort, the uttermost effort of your
being. You will know what you love by what you put forth your effort into.
David said I will love thee, O LORD. And Jesus
said, If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Man is a sinner. You are going to fail. We have
all failed to keep Gods commandments. There is none righteous, no not one.
Its who sins the least that loves God the most. But it is who is giving the
most effort of will. Often it is those that sin the most that love God the
most. God is love. We love Him because He first loved us. The question is what
will you do? Will you repent of your sins and turn to Jesus? Will you serve
Him? Will you love Him? Will you keep his commandments? Will you repent when
you fail? After all God will forgive you. God will guide you. God will be your
strength. God is not willing that any should perish. We love him because he
first loved us. I will love thee, O LORD, my
strength.
Sometimes the willingness of a man is dependent
upon how much that person knows about another. And that is why to be willing
you must know who God is. The very next verse in Psalms 18 gives us great
detail about who God is, and it gives for us a great many reasons that we
should be willing and be able to say to Jesus, I
will love thee. The more that you know about Jesus and what He has done
and what He will do for you, the easier it will be for you to love Him.
Psalms 18:2 says, 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. Here in
verse 2, eight things are listed. First it says, The LORD is my rock. Of
course we know that these verses are referring to Jesus Christ because the word
LORD is the Word Jehovah. Jehovah means the eternally existent one or the I am
that I am. Jesus said, ..,Before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58)
In the Bible rock
is used a great many times as a symbolism for the LORD Jesus Christ. Rock is a
durable substance. It lasts. It endures both time and weather. Buildings are
built upon it. In fact the entire earth is covered by a layer of rock
scientists call the crust. Without it human life could not exist on this
planet. It is no wonder rock is used as a symbolism for Jesus. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, Upon this rock I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
First Corinthians 10:1-4, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that
all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were
all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same
spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of
that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. There
is an old Hymn which goes, On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Christ is the rock. Do not forget this. Do not underestimate the importance of
this truth. If your intention in this life is to say, I
will love thee, O LORD, my strength, then you must remember that Jesus
is the rock.
Psalms 18, verse 2 goes on to say that The LORD is
my fortress. This is another comparison
that is found quite a few times in the Bible especially in the book of Psalms.
If you are very familiar with the Bible you are probably familiar with these
words, The LORD is my fortress.
When we hear the word fortress we think of a
stronghold, a castle. This is partly the idea, but there is much more to the
meaning than simply a place of safety. The word that is translated here fortress is used elsewhere in the bible to mean
snare, net, and hunted. Job 19:6, Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed
me with his net. A fortress is not just a place of safety but it is a
place once you are inside you cannot escape from. When you turn to Jesus for
salvation from your sins instead of being in the captivity of sin you are
brought into the captivity of salvation.
Jesus said in John 10: 27-29, My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal
life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to
pluck them out of my Fathers hand.
One could almost say that God is casting forth his
nets like a snare to capture the souls of men. Of course the devil is doing the
same. The one snare leads to eternal damnation and but the snare of God to
eternal life. When we think of the words
snare and net,
we thus think negatively. And rightly so for this is how it is often used. The
lusts of the world and of the flesh are snares. Sin is a snare. This is after
all what addiction really is: men snared by their own sinful selves and the
snares of the devil. Lust and snare and addiction are simply the opposite of
how it should be. Jesus should be our snare and our addiction. And the more
that you come to know who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and what Jesus is
doing for you, the more He will have such irresistible sway in your life that you
will say just as Job said, Know now that God hath
overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. The Lord is a
fortress; I will love thee, O Jesus my strength.
Next verse 2 says that the LORD is my deliverer.
This word is elsewhere used in the Bible and translated to escape, and to be
carried away safe. It means to bring out of a dangerous situation and into one
of safety. Jesus is in the business of delivering people and there is no one
better at it than Him. There are many dangers to face in life both physically
and spiritually. Jesus can deliver you out of them all. Sometimes people are
not rescued from their circumstances because they do not look to the one who
can deliver them. I am poor and needy,
but Jesus is my deliverer.
You can be certain that Jesus is more than able to
deliver you from your enemies. Psalms 18:48 says, He
delivereth me form mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou
hast delivered me from the violent man. When the Israelites, who were
but slaves fleeing the country of their slavedom,
found themselves trapped between the red sea and all the mighty armies of
Egypt, a circumstance which from a human standpoint there was no way of escape,
God delivered them. He parted the waters and they escaped to safety because
Jesus is the deliverer.
Your greatest enemies, however, are not other men
but are the forces of darkness and the temptations of sin. Jesus is more than
able to deliver you, to provide a way of escape from these. First Corinthians
10:13, says, There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to ma: but god is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to
escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Consider Joseph who in the house of Potter was
temped. Potters wife was most assuredly a beautiful woman and cast her eyes
upon him, and said, Come lay with me. Joseph found a way of escape, He fled.
The most assured way to escape and to be delivered from any man or any
circumstance is to do the will of God. With God all things are possible. When
you find yourself in a situation in which you are in need of rescue you can be
certain there is one who is willing to rescue you: Jesus, because Jesus is the
Deliverer.
Of course, the greatest deliverance that man needs
is deliverance from the judgment of sin.
Now here is a circumstance from which there is no escape for man. God is
holy, man is a sinner, there must be judgment, and there must be justice. God is the great Deliverer. He sent His only
begotten son Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of the world. Without Jesus
there can be no escape from death, or judgment or the eternal fires of hell.
Consider one last verse in which this word
deliverer is used. Job 21:10, Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their
cow calveth, and casteth
not her calf. It is used in reference to the giving of birth. There is
deliverance from sin, suffering, and all that this mortal life contains. This
deliverance is found when a man is born again. That is why Jesus said, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the
The next truth that we learn in Psalms 18:2 is, The LORD is my God.
The name LORD is the word Jehovah. Jehovah means
the eternally existent one, the I am that I am.
Jehovah is Jesus Christ. Jesus is God. It is impossible to say in all sincerity
that you love God unless you love Jesus. You cannot love the Father unless you
love the Son. The Bible clearly teaches both in the Old Testament and in the
New Testament that Jesus Christ is God.
Consider the phrase, My God. It is a very
commonly used phrase. You have probably heard it many times in your life. Sadly
most people use it the wrong way. Too often it is used simply as an expression
of a curse word. There are no curse words which are more vile
than to use the name of God in vain. It is one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus
20:7), Thou shalt not
take the name of the LORD thy God in vain. Yet people often say, my god. Without giving any thought to what it really means.
What does the word god mean? This word carries
with it the idea of strength and power. That is why when it is used in the
Bible you find it used in reference to God the Almighty, God the everlasting,
God the ruler of heaven and earth, God the all-seeing and all knowing, and
Jehovah my God. God is all powerful. There is only one being that is all
powerful and that is God.
Who is your God? Your god is who or what you look
to for safety, strength, love, joy. Your god is who you submit your will
unto. Your god is who or whatever you
let have power over you. Why choose any god other than the all Almighty Jesus
Christ who died for your sins, the ruler of heaven and earth, the Alpha and the
Omega, the great I am? The Lord is my God, I will love thee, O LORD my strength. If only
more people would look to the truth then they would not waste their lives and
their wills resisting God. It is futile, God is Almighty.
In Psalms 18:2 we are also told that the LORD is
my strength. Keep in mind that the LORD here is speaking of Jesus. This brings
us back again to Psalms 18 verse 1. I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. Man is
weak. God is strong. The philosophies of the world say, look
inside yourself to find that inner strength. And what they say is partly true.
Man can accomplish a lot if he is determined.
But the will of man of itself
is not enough to overcome sin and temptation and to
endure the sufferings of this life by faith. One must look to Jesus for
strength. It is human nature to favor the strong over the weak. That is why men
tend to admire those who win first place in a competition: be it war, or sport.
Just remember the one who is stronger than any other is Jesus. Jesus overcomes
all. Jesus conquers all. If you want to learn the true meaning of strength, you
can only learn it by trusting in Jesus and leaning on Him for strength. I am weak, but He is strong.
Sometimes the troubles of life or even a mans own
failures have a way of breaking his will. To truly make use of the full
potential and strength of the human will you must turn to Jesus. Turn to Jesus
and you will find strength. I will love thee O
LORD my strength.
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Copyright; 2011 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved