The LORD lives!
Blessed be my rock!
May the God of
my salvation be exalted!
Psalm 18:46
Part one of our analysis of Psalm 18 deals with attack. Part two deals with rescue. Part three – if we want all of the exclamation points in verse 46 – is response, our proper response to God generosity.
In verses 18 and 19, it’s easy see our first two themes, attack and rescue. David says …
18 They attacked me at a moment when I was weakest,
but the LORD ... 19 led me to a place of safety ...
What is David’s response to God’s generosity? Celebration!
46 The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock!
May the God of my salvation be exalted!
You may know that as a popular American hymn of celebration. I do too! When God rescues, we ought to respond with praise and worship. (And we’d better pray we’re not like the nine of the ten lepers who forgot to come back and give thanks – see Luke 17.)
Blessing and exultation are the main themes in verse 46, but those aren’t most important realization. The greatest truth of Psalm 18 is that “the LORD lives!”
Many of us believe in God in theory. David believed in him in fact. Now, some will say “faith implies uncertainty or else it would be called fact not faith.” There is obviously some truth to that. But for David, he kept seeing God’s hand, God’s action, God’s power, and God’s grace. It wasn’t theory. It was reality.
The world scoffs at that kind of conviction. Why? Usually because they haven’t seen that evidence. That’s where faith begins. Even when we’re not sure we’ve seen God’s hand clearly, we are convicted. As it says in Hebrews 11:1, “faith is … the conviction of things not seen” (NRSV).
I pray that this is where all faith starts. But then I pray that …
- as we grow in trust, we start looking for his presence …
- and as we look daily for his presence, we’re going to begin seeing his hand more clearly …
- and when we see his presence more actively, we’ll enter more fully into today’s third activity – a response with exclamation points!
In verse 46, that response is celebration!
In verse 1, that response is love! David says …
1 I love you, LORD; you are my strength ...
2 my rock, my fortress ... my savior ...
my shield ... my salvation ... my stronghold ...
Why does David love God? Because he’s grown to love him in a fact, and in spite of life’s circumstances, David knows God as his rock, fortress, and salvation.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who likes a life with
exclamation points!!!!!!!!
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