Psalms 18:1-19

Psalms 18:1. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

«I do love thee, and I will love thee yet more and more. I bind myself to thee for the future as well as the present.»

Psalms 18:2. 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, and my high tower.

Note how David delights to heap up poetic imagery to describe his God.

They who glory in the Lord would fain speak worthily of him; and because there is no one object in nature that can fully set him forth, they mention many, as David does here. Like him, if we would convey even a faint idea of what God is to us, we must think of all things that are strong, and worthy of our confidence, and putting them all together, we must say that our God, our strength, in whom we trust, is all this, and much more,

Psalms 18:3. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

Prayer brings salvation. Prayer must, however, be mingled with praise, for prayer and praise make up the breath of the Christian life. Have I not often reminded you that we breathe in the air of heaven by prayer, and then breathe it out again in grateful praise?

Psalms 18:4. 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.

«They were before me, behind me, all around my path whichever way I turned.»

Psalms 18:6. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

What a difference there is between this living God of David, our living God, and that impersonal nonentity which, nowadays, is regarded by many as God. The god of the pantheist, what is he? A nobody and a nothing; but our God made the heavens; and our God heareth the prayer of all who truly cry unto him.

Psalms 18:7. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

The cry of one of his oppressed children stirred him to anger. Nothing moves the heart of God like an injury done to his people. You remember how the prophet Zechariah wrote to the captive Jews in Babylon, «Thus saith the Lord of hosts, He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.»

Psalms 18:8. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

In this wonderful poetic description, Jehovah is represented as descending from his throne at the cry of one of his children in distress.

Psalms 18:10. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

So swift is prayer to reach the ear of God, and so swift is God to come and answer his people's prayers.

Psalms 18:11. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

Like an Oriental king, who travels beneath his royal canopy, the Lord is pictured as coming to earth with the bursting clouds and opening heavens as the pavilion of the Deity.

Psalms 18:12. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

These are some of the weapons with which he assails the adversaries of his people. With this dread artillery, he smote Pharaoh of old, when he rained wrath upon the land of Egypt, and fire mingled with the hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground.

Psalms 18:13. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

God himself came forth on his people's behalf, and fought for them from heaven. As we read that «the stars in their courses fought against Sisera,» so did God make the very tempests in the skies to be like an invincible legion, sweeping before it the enemies of his anointed servant.

Psalms 18:15. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath 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 prevented me in the day of my calamity:

They went before him, they blocked his way.

Psalms 18:18. But the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Oh, how sweetly this record continues! Never was there a poem more lofty in its diction. Even Milton can not equal the language of this Psalm. This inspired writing rises superior to all human compositions, even if regarded only from the poetic point of view. But what must have been the psalmist's experience when he was delivered after this wonderful fashion? And if God has delivered you and me in a quieter and gentler way, yet he has quite as surely delivered us; and blessed be his name from this time forth, and even for evermore!