Psalm 18

To the Precentor: by the Servant of the Lord.

By David, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord

 on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies,

 and from the hand of Saul. Then he said:

⁰¹          I love you, O Lord, my strength.

 

⁰²             The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my strength, in whom I trust,

my shield,  horn of salvation, and my stronghold.   

⁰³                   I call upon the Lord,

 [Who is worthy] of praise,

                        so shall I be saved from my enemies.

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David’s Resolve

For the Lord’s Day:  the 21^st of March 2004

Subscription:  In this lengthy inscription, the longest in the Psalter by the way – the only thing new is the title “by the Servant of the Lord.”   Delitzsch comments that David “also in other instances, in prayer calls himself ‘the servant of Jahve’, as every Israelite might do; but David, who is the first after Moses and Joshua to bear this designation or by-name, could do so in an especial sense.  For he, with whom the kingship of promise began, marks an epoch in his service of the work of God no less than did Moses … and Joshua.”

 

Spurgeon tells us that “the title deserves attention.  David, although at this time a king, calls himself ‘the servant of Jehovah,’ but makes no mention of his royalty; hence we gather that he counted it a higher honour to be the Lord’s servant than to be Judah’s king.”

 

We might also in this description of the subscription note that there is another, perhaps earlier form of the psalm in 2 Samuel 22, which is basically the same poem, perhaps only improved by David to its present form over the years.  However many times David sang this beautiful but “longest of all the hymnic Psalms,” it bears the test of time.  I cannot but fail to add a note that many of our richest and favorite English hymns were originally longer – and unlike the practice here in America, our British cousins tend to sing the whole of their hymns and worry not about their length.  In fact, one writer noted that the modernists did shave the most orthodox verses from many hymns in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries – so that thereby the Church militant might be weakened and so that the “better informed liberals” might redirect the church towards insignificance.

 

We should certainly note that it is not in the singing of long hymns that the Church is preserved (given the sorry state of affairs in England), but in the greater love to the Lord which is carefully lauded in this precious hymnic psalm.

 

Introduction:  There is a certain intensity in the first verse, “I love you, O Lord, my strength”, which is missing from the version recorded by Samuel.  And that intensity is found in the word we translate today as “love.”  This is not the normal Hebrew word for a “tender sympathizing love,” according to Delitzsch, but a love “of ardent, heartfelt love and attachment” - a special tenderness of feeling or sentiment. 

 

Spurgeon notes here a love of the deepest kind.  “Here is a fixed resolution to abide in the nearest and most intimate union with the Most High.”  Calvin goes even futher:  “It is to be observed, that love to God is here laid down as constituting the principal part of true godliness; for there is no better way of serving God than to love him.”

 

Does David here realize a relationship first expressed towards His greater Son by the women in attendance after the crucifixion and their loving intentions on the great and grandest dawning of the resurrection morn?  It is so sad, that in our day, the love of another has been so polluted by the Media and perverts – that the general body of men in particular, are afraid to demonstrate their heartfelt affection and respect for one another.  In the movie Gettysburg, there was the touching relationship between Colonel Chamberlain’s first sergeant and himself.  In the prequel to that film, there was also the same sense of love towards fellow man demonstrated by Stonewall for his paid servant and cook.  That same love was also returned in full without any doubts as to its focus.  General Lee also carried on a fascinating affectionate correspondence with many young and attractive debutants throughout his life, with no hint of scandal except in the reading of those letters by today’s corrupt and corroded researchers.

 

“I love you, O Lord, my strength”  Calvin writes glowingly: “No doubt, the service which we owe [the Lord] is better expressed by the word ‘reverence,’ that thus his majesty may prominently stand forth to our view in its infinite greatness.  But as he requires nothing so expressly as to possess all the affections of our heart, and to have them going out towards him, so there is no sacrifice which he values more than when we are bound fast to him by the chain of a free and spontaneous love.”

 

Development:  The honest intensity of David’s love is celebrated in verse two in a threefold strophic manifestation of descriptive nouns and verbs.  Calvin notes that the passage in Samuel, while fuller still expresses the same poetic meaning.

 

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my strength, in whom I trust,

my shield,  horn of salvation, and my stronghold.”

 

The word for Lord here is the divine appellation, translated variously as “Jahve”, “Yahweh” and “Jehovah”.  Ironically, as our modern churches and translations have become more familiar in the dropping of the polite names by which the Almighty may be addressed – in a certain sense, that familiarity has distanced us from the reality of His being:  too be addressed only in awesome and holy terms.  You see, the ancient practice of pronouncing the Divine Name with a substitute nomenclature so as not to be too familiar, has fallen on hard times.  The ancient Jews who dared not Name the Name above all names revealed, did so out of respect.  When the King James Version was originally translated, the misunderstanding of the divine noun, mis-pointed on purpose by the Hebrews - brought us to the ordinary use of the word “Jehovah.”  So accidentally – we rehearsed the ancient practice of Israel in this same respect.  When I was in Seminary, the word “Yahweh” was being popularized so as to speak the Divine Name correctly.  A lot of us were left in a quandary, not willing to use the personal appellation being advocated, but not returning to the time honored tradition either.  And so, in most of our modern translations, the common word for “Lord” is used alongside the specific Name of Him (Lord) in the same form and spelling, but with capital letters throughout in the texts.

 

However we point the original Hebrew and understand the Divine Name, He is still One and the same!  To this personal God, who has revealed Himself to the elect of all the earth – David prayerfully turns in the grand descriptive poetry before us.

 

In the first colon, David describes His divine deliverer in the strongest of military terms.  Spurgoen notes:  “Dwelling among the crags and mountain fastnesses of Judea, David had escaped the malice of Saul, and here he compares his god to such a place of concealment and security.”

 

Military men in all ages have always sought to protect themselves from greater and hostile numbers through temporary entrenchments or solid fortresses raised up for the very purpose of defending geographic points they cannot afford to loose in time of war.  And so whether the rocks be undressed and temporary, or piled up on purpose – still they serve the final and ultimate service.  “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer,” we read from David’s heart.  And just because He is who He is (excuse the pun) the Great “I am” suffices in His sovereign strength alone to serve and protect the people whom He has called His own.  Therefore, just as a fortification may serve its purpose – so too may the Lord God of all the earth also seek our good and keep us safe.

 

The second colon here reads: “my God, my strength, in whom I trust.”  Spurgeon observes that while “the word rock occurs twice … the first time it is a rock for concealment, but here a rock for firmness and immutability.”  One who may be trusted to the uttermost.  “Faith must be exercised, or the preciousness of God is not truly known; and God must be the object of faith, or faith is mere presumption.”

 

Faith like love is verbs and mental exercises that must always and ever have a proper focus.  And so, even as we have realized in verse one that God is a suitable object for love, so here the trusting heart of faith must be just as acceptably focused upon the Lord, whose solid rock of existence serves as a foundational strength for the faith once given to us.

 

The third colon is just as expressive: ”my shield, horn of salvation, and my stronghold.”  The shield is a well known military tool used even today by riot police where it is expected that an unruly crowd is unarmed.  In the ancient Nordic mythology, there is a story about a Viking, whose shield was shattered in the midst of battle, and so to protect himself – the warrior grabbed a fallen limb from a nearby oak tree.  According to the legend, he was thereby known ever after with the nickname:  “Oakenshield.”  This arcane literary story is only well known because the Nordic scholar J.R.R. Tolkien projected the incident into his own literary work as a name for the dwarfish Thorn Oakenshield, also known as the fictional: “King Under the Mountain.”  And so David credits the Lord with every ounce of his military bearing, trusting not to any artifacts of war, but in the grace and mercy of the Lord God alone.

 

The “horn of salvation”is described by Delitzsch as “an ancient figure of victorious and defiant powere …, here applied to Jahve Himself:  ‘horn of salvation’ is that which interposes on the side of my feebleness, conquers, and saves me.”  Again, Calvin tells us that 2 Samuel 22: 3 is fuller in contextual meaning.  There it reads: “My fortress, my savior, thou shalt preserve me from violence.”

 

The “stronghold” of course would be the deserted area of Palestine where David hid again and again from the hunting parties of Saul.  And in time enough warriors rallied to his cause so that the fugitive was able to turn the mountain fastness to his advantage.  What had once been his weakness, there hiding in the rocks – became instead his strength and base for increasing recognition in the nation of Israel.  In this short recitation of past blessings, Delitzsch notes that David: “recognizes only marvelous phenomena of which Jahve Himself was to him the final cause.”

 

Here David only rehearses the wisdom of every saint who has seen the hand of the Lord day by day over a long life of many years.  What I mean is, it is ever so much easier to see what the Lord has done for us in the past, rather than for us to look forward and see the future.  But yet, once we are all the more willing to thank the Lord for past blessings, so may we be strengthened to anticipate the Lord’s careful guarding of our future, both in this life and the next.

 

Application:  And so, we come to the last verse of this blessed introduction, and in verse three we may find the grand theme for the entirety of this lengthy psalm:  “I call upon the Lord, [Who is worthy] of praise, so shall I be saved from my enemies.”  Calvin writes these words of hope:  “David having said in the second verse, that he trusted in God, now subjoins this as an evidence of his trust; for every one who confides in God will earnestly beseech his aid in the time of need.  He therefore declares, that he will be saved, and prove victorious over all his enemies, because he will have recourse to God for help.”

 

We are also carefully admonished by old John to consider the words of Paul in Philippians 4: 6 where we read:  “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.” Here is the soul of David in peace and in battle, here is the spiritual foundation for confidence in eternal security – all neatly wrapped up in the regular practice of believing prayer.  David will call upon the Lord alone, the only power in the universe worthy of praise and in His recognition of our spiritual estate – there is comfort, grace, peace, mercy and every good gift given to the elect by our Lord and King: even Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father.  May we like David learn all the better, to count everything in, to and for His cause and so thereby may we win the hearts of those who seek Him reflected in our battles and in our prayers.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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