Well, I invite you to turn tonight to Psalm 18, Psalm 18, I'll read reading tonight all the way down through, we can, considering sort of an overview of the psalm, I'm going to focus really on the first half of the psalm, and so I will read up to verse, we might as we'll just read it. Let's just read it. Okay? That was a short prayer, wasn't it, tonight? Okay. Psalm 18. To the choir master, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said, I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock and whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me. The torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of Sheol entangled me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord. To my God, I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears then the earth reeled and rocked the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth glowing coals flamed forth from him he bowed the heavens and came down thick darkness was under his feet he rode on a cherub and flew he came swiftly on the wings of the wind he made darkness his covering his canopy around him thick clouds dark with water out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds the lord also thundered in the heavens and the most high uttered his voice hailstones and coals of fire and he sent out his arrows and scattered them he flashed forth lightnings and routed them then the channels of the sea were seen and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke oh lord at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. You sent from on high. He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my supporter. He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he rewarded me. For I've kept the ways of the Lord, and I've not wickedly departed from my God. For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. With the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man you show yourself blameless with the purified you show yourself pure and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous for you save a humble people but the haughty eyes you bring down for it is you who light my lamp the lord my god lightens my darkness for by you i can run against a troop by my god i can leap over a wall this god his way is perfect the word of the Lord proves true he is a shield for all who take refuge in him for who is God but the Lord and who is a rock except our God the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless he made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights he trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze he has given me the shield of yourself you have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle. You made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed. They cried for help, but there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as dust before the wind. I cast them out like the mire of the streets. You delivered me from strife with the people. You made me the head of the nations. People whom I had not known served me. As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. Foreigners came cringing to me. foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses the lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted be the god of my salvation the god who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me who rescued me from my enemies yes you exalted me above those who rose against me you delivered me from the man of violence for this i will praise you oh lord among the nations and sing your name great salvation he brings to his king and shows steadfast love to his anointed to david and his offspring forever may the lord bless the hearing of his word tonight we're focusing on the first part of this psalm and i may come back to it because there's so much in this psalm next sunday night but i want to focus on the first part of this wonderful psalm i have for some time thought that psalm 18 is a very special psalm it's one of those psalms that's good to uh to sit and simply reflect upon there's so much there to think about and so much to help us and so much to encourage us and i thought this would be a good follow-up from this morning's message and to have us see the whole picture and i thought psalm 18 since i've been reflecting on it lately would be a hopefully a blessing to you and that's what's special about it it gives us insight into loving the lord loving the lord and what moves our love for the lord which is really his of course love for us and you know that's the great commandment that is given that we should love the lord our god with all of our heart soul mind and strength we often talk in this life about all of our failures and we talk especially a lot from the pulpit about the failures but one of the things we have to be reminded of constantly, as our Heidelberg says, is that we do make a beginning in this new obedience. And this psalm, I think, captures something beautiful about the beginning and what it is like to love the Lord. That's what I wanted to think about with you tonight. There's obviously a variety of themes running through this psalm, especially this kingly aspect of the psalm. But I really want to focus and think about that a little bit. Love, love. Love for the Lord. What drives that? What makes us love the Lord? Love is not merely conjured up by an emotional experience. Not merely that. We considered some of that this morning. But it's a love that is really understood and appreciated and motivated when we see what God has been like to us. When we appreciate how He has been to us. We appreciate what He has done for us. We can't just say love the Lord without understanding who the Lord is and what he has done for us. And this psalm captures that so beautifully. It's truly remarkable. You see, you saw that as we read the psalm. For who is God but the Lord? Helping us understand him and helping us understand what he's done for us. It's really remarkable that it is his love for us in the gospel that is shown over and over in this life, that at times that we don't even see his help and his deliverance, but that when, after even dark periods of providence, we're able to stand back and look back over periods, when we can look back over that, what we see is, even though we saw none of in the moment what we see is his delivering hand the promise of the covenant of grace i am with you i will not leave you i will not forsake you so my goal tonight is to have us think just a little bit tonight i'm not preaching 50 verses so you can be happy about that but to have us think just for a moment about the Lord's ways to us and that when we see them as we should see them it naturally inspires love. David learned this about the Lord. What we constantly find throughout the Psalms are deep cries. That's why the Psalms are so wonderful. They help us to understand life. They help us to understand the emotions that we experience because of the difficulties of life the sorrows of life the hardships of life and and constantly throughout the psalms we have deep cries to the lord that that the psalmist crying out to god because of hardship and difficulty and sorrow and we've always struggled does god hear us does god answer us we have the the prayers recorded but what are the answers what are the answers and i think the psalm really helps us with that i guess this is what motivated this psalm for david because it really captures the summary of all of his despairing moments in life psalm 18 is wonderful because it's describing the deliverance of david the deliverance of the king but he desires for his people to know that as he delivered the king there are implications for the deliverance of his people so you'll notice this is written here to the chief musician psalm was designated to be used in worship services this is what was obviously a very important psalm for worship services and you'll notice here it's the longest i believe superscription that we have that's that little caption before um that tells us what the psalm is about and it's duplicated the entire psalm in second samuel 22 so it's interesting that we have at least a large portion of this we have this duplicated it meant a lot to the king this psalm was very special in the history of israel's worship why why did the holy spirit inspire this twice in other words and put it in different books why did he want god's people to sing it why did he want us to meditate on it and think about it you notice that it's the psalm of the lord who spoke to the lord the words of this song on the day that the lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of saul that's quite a statement all the enemies of the lord he was delivered every last one of them well when was the day that god did that psalm is recorded in second samuel 22 at the end of his life i think that's an important clue and then you have david with some of his last words and the psalm begins by describing how precious the Lord is to David because of what his life testifies. The Lord has been, David says, and I'll come back to this thought, absolutely wonderful to me. The Lord has been absolutely wonderful to me. I don't believe you can appreciate verses 1 and 2 until you understand what gripped David. So I'm going to come back to 1 and 2 in a little bit, in a few moments. The psalm captures something special. It's as if David turned around and looked back over the course of his life and he's looking over everything that had happened to him. Now, what if you could do that for a minute? What if some of you are elderly here and you could look back over the course of your life with a clear view to the past and you could see all the difficulties that have happened to you along the way, All the hardships, all the pains, all the losses, all the griefs, all the difficulties if they could be categorized and you could see them clearly, what would you see? Well, this is exactly what David's thinking about. This is exactly on David's mind. He has drafted and under the inspiration of the Spirit, he's given these words as he is thinking about the long course of life. You remember what Saul did to him. There were times when he was in the desert. He had been completely assaulted by the king. In the rocks, remember, twice he had spears hurled at him to kill him. One day Saul tried to pin him to a wall. Saul's military, he commanded his military, his whole military to kill David. He was hunted like an animal in life. We went through some of that, but we like to look at the moments where he was on top. We like the David and Goliath moments. There was a lot of this in his life. How many wars did he fight? He was hunted like an animal in the wilderness. And that was at the beginning of life for him. How many times in wars, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Edomites, and then the horror of his own son, Absalom. That's a lot to take. And then his sin with Bathsheba. And then the death of his young infant son. You see it all. he's not just describing one event as an old man standing back from a life of affliction, a life of sorrow, a life of pain at times, and he sits down and he describes the whole thing. In my distress, look at it verse 4, in my distress I called, verse 6, in my distress I called upon the lord to my god i cried for help and he heard his voice heard i and he says there he heard my voice from his temple not a singular event he's thinking about he's thinking about the whole story about the whole story superscription says of saul but it makes clear every enemy every difficulty every enemy he faced and verse 4 captures what that is what that looked like verse 4 is really fascinating it's beautiful poetry notice it in our translation the cords of death encompassed me the torrents of destruction assailed me the cords of sheol entangled me the snares of death confronted me now this is why sometimes i think you haven't related to the psalms as much as you should because you said what is that that just sounds like foreign language and we've assumed enemies to be spears coming at us i was reading the old geneva and i don't know why i sometimes i like to do that look at some of the older translations and i was struck by how clear it was much clearer than our esv listen to it listen to those verses again the sorrows of death and you can compare it with what's in front of you the sorrows of death compassed me the floods of wickedness made me afraid the sorrows of the grave have compassed me about the snares of death overtook me even more interesting is the 1566 great bible it's actually commissioned by henry the eighth to all the churches in in um in that time that was to go in every pew and they bolted that thing down to the pew but listen to the 1560 well it's actually 1539 great bible um the one it was first put out and i think its last revision or last um printing was 1566 this is this is it the sorrows of death compassed me and the overflowings of ungodliness made me afraid the pains of hell came about me the snares of death overtook me i think that gives us a little more clarity there david looks back over his life and he's kind of capturing, summarizing the big problems of his life, the big hardships of his life. And what he experienced about life was, he says, I was constantly the whole way subject to death. And I was subject to the grave. There were so many times it could have been over for me. There were so many times it could have been over. And he says something I think we can relate to kind of strongly. The overflow of wickedness. The floods of wickedness. He says, I lived life under constant fear of this. I was afraid of this. It's interesting to consider the times we live and we have always had before us. I don't think you realize how much you carry it around is the fear of death. We worry about this. And we worry about when it's going to come. And we even worry about hell. Yes, even the righteous worry about hell. And then we live in a world filled with lawlessness and evil. It's scary to think of what could happen, isn't it? I mean, this is why we're glued to the news. think of the evils of our day think of the death in our day think of the millions of babies aborted think of the lawless governments think of society that seems to grow worse and worse as we see it whether we admit it or not these are fears that constantly plague us does god deliver and then you deal with your constant sin and you deal with rebellion can i have any assurance beyond my impending death all around us are discouragements all around us are letdowns all around us are and then of course surprising things happen difficult things happen that you never expected what shooting will we see this week what death think of a pastor's daughter and we sink into depression and fear and we have no ability and strength to deal with any of this we have none here's the beauty of the psalm and then real oppression i might add people who really do oppress people who really do harm david is standing back from it as something that's true of life verse six again from the geneva but in my trouble did i call upon the lord and i cried unto my god he heard my voice out of his temple and my cry did come up before him even to his ears that's a verse to memorize it's a beautiful verse every single time he got down on his knees every single time he was full of fear and he got down on his knees and he cried out to the lord did you hear it i heard you david he heard from his temple have you thought about that you know when john described the prayers of the saints in revelation he describes them as coming up to god into the throne room as bowls of incense that are received and then fire came back down on the earth remember revelation 8 dear children i hear i i hear i see and i want you to know that i answer when david says the evils that came upon me and the the wickedness in the earth that overwhelmed me that caused me great fear and the death and hell that surrounded me and all the evil that happened and the real attacks from Saul and everything that I could span over the course of life and understand and see, I called and here's the truth of the matter. All of it he heard and all of it he answered. You see the encouragement the psalm is to pray. It really is a big encouragement to prayer. And it's encouragement that God answers. This is a goofy country music song. This is not in my notes, which just came to my head. I shouldn't do it. Goofy country music song says, you know, sometimes one of God's greatest gifts is unanswered prayers. Well, I guess if they're selfish. But he answers the cries of his people. and that's the imagery that you have in psalm 18 what happens is god answers and if you ever wondered how does god answer how does god answer our prayers if you could look back over life and see how did god answer our prayers to our young people when you cry out to the lord and you're struggling with with with all the pressures of life and the difficulties of life how does god answer your prayers you don't hear any response do you here's what the psalm says it's awesome says david i i gotta tell you about it i gotta tell you about it he said my prayer went up to his ears and all of a sudden the earth shook it rocked and all the mountains trembled and quaked and he was furious in anger out of his holy habitation smoke verse 8 went out of his nostrils a consuming fire out of his mouth coals were kindled again the geneva he bowed the heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet he rode upon cherub and did fly this is the imagery of this and came of flying upon the wings of the wind he made darkness his secret place and his pavilion round about him even darkness of waters and clouds of the air at the brightness of his presence his clouds passed hailstones and coals of fire the lord also thundered in the heaven and the highest gave his voice hailstones and coals of fire then he sent out his arrows and scattered them and he increased lightnings and destroyed them and the channels of waters were seen and the foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuke at thy rebuking oh lord at the blasting of the breath of thy nostrils he has sent down from above and taken me and he's drawn me out of many waters those turbulent waters he's delivered me from the strong enemy and from them which hate me for he's saying they all were too strong for me There's a few times you should use the word awesome. You know, it's thrown around so carefully in life. This is probably one of them. That is awesome. What we have described is a storm theophany. And David is taking all the language of all the deliverances of God's people all throughout history and putting it together here for you. This is the single story. God's people have experienced all throughout history. When Israel was drawn out of the Nile, he drew me out of many waters. He drew Moses out. When splitting the sea and passing through the land and the fire theophany, that's exactly what's happening. He applies the whole thing to him. And the Lord wants us to see this is the deliverance he gives us. You've heard of the parting of the Red Sea and how he applies that to Moses. David said, you should have seen this. It's awesome. Now, here's the thing I'm showing you tonight. None of you see that in the moment. None of you see that in the moment. I find it moving because what he wants to tell you tonight is every single cry that goes up from the earth of his people comes to the god of heaven and earth in his throne room and this psalm functions as a promise to you he is going to deliver you and throughout life look back he has delivered you you're here today you're hearing the gospel he brings us through the waters does that mean life will will be easy no david had to suffer many difficulties many hardships many sufferings many losses what he's saying to us is the most encouraging of all things god draws us out and will save us god will deliver us god has delivered us god will not forsake his promise this holy god of justice when you're in christ is your defense everything that terrifies us that happens in this world he will he will address he will take down he will rescue it'll happen in the right time that's the promise of the song it has to happen it's always happens for his people and it will happen for you the point of this is to encourage us that God is with us he will not let us fall and God wants you dependent upon him in prayer God wants you to cry out to him in prayer and the rest of the psalm describes this life of deliverance you enlighten my darkness the word of God is proven did you see that in verse 28 his word is proven it's proven true it'll prove true for you too you are my rock I hide myself in the cleft and then of course later in the psalm he gives another announcement i will call upon the lord and i will be safe from my enemies verse 50 great deliverance he gives to his king and shows mercy to his anointed, to David and his descendants forevermore. David was given deliverance to make way for the greatest deliverance from David's greater son. That's what this psalm turns to. You'll notice here David has in mind another deliverance. The deliverance of all deliverances. The deliverance that we celebrate to this day. the deliverance that we look back on and see it happen what is he talking about well it's in verse 49 therefore i will praise you lord among the nations i will sing the praises of your name you know that's found in the new testament paul cites it in romans 15 tells us that david was looking to the most glorious of all deliverance in what this psalm is celebrating that god did answer us in his love in the cross of his son you can read the psalm with that in mind the cords of death encompassed me the torrents of destruction assailed me the cords of sheol entangled me the snares of death confronted me the earth shook the lord came and he raised his son and his name verse 49 is glorified among the gentiles to this day that's you great is the deliverance he gives to his king his righteousness shines and we are hid in him now i come back to my question to close this tonight what inspires the love of the lord what is the most special kind of verse here of the psalm that i think is the shocking verse of the psalm well if you understand and appreciate how wonderful the lord has been to you and you can appreciate all that he's done and if you can have any glimpse in life yet maybe you can as a young person but if you can have any glimpse in life yet looking back over the course of your life and seeing what he's done i can tell you this every single one of us can look back and see the deliverance. You can see the cross. You can see that He shook the earth and came down. You can see that darkness came over the land. You can see what He did to deliver us from our sins. How does the psalm begin? How does the psalm begin? I love you, Lord. My strength. that is a beautiful thing to say, isn't it? The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation and my stronghold. He has promised that no matter what happens, He surrounds you with a shield that He has delivered you and He will deliver you. And over the long course of life, that's what you see. And what does that inspire in us? A beginning to taste what you were commanded to do and created to do from the beginning. To love your God. I love you, Lord. Do you love the Lord tonight? Can't you say it? I love Him. I love Him. I love Him for what He's done for me. I love Him because He's proven His word true. i love him because he's delivered me in christ i love him because he's upheld me to where i am today i love him for everything who he is and what he's done how could i not love a god who's loved me like that that's what david's describing no matter how we're tried and afflicted no matter how much sorrow and loss and evil we see under the sun here you are today hearing his proven word here you sit hearing his proven word and ultimately because you have christ you're covered in him i don't know what ways you're burdened right now maybe it's death maybe it's fear of death and the grave maybe it's somebody actually oppressing you maybe it's the wickedness of this present evil age that's overwhelming you know this when you cry to the lord he hears from his temple and he answers you speedily wasn't that what jesus was saying when he encouraged and all the injustice of this life a little widow who was taken advantage of and she kept coming back to the king and the king would not do any justice for her and remember remember and then finally because she just kept praying that wicked king said ah i'm sick of her i'll give her justice just to get her off my back. And Jesus says, no, that's not how the king is with you. You should pray to the Lord and not lose heart. For what's the promise of Jesus' mouth? I will avenge my elect speedily. Your cries reach his ears. He too will take you out and draw you out of many waters. And so may you respond the way David did tonight with this this week. For God who has treated me like this could be this good to me and not give me what my sins deserve and constantly protect me and constantly shield me and then give me his best and his son. I love you, Lord. I love you. May we go out and love the Lord our God and begin to taste that great privilege that we have to know him and to be blessed by him and to enjoy that love in Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word to us tonight and thank you for encouraging us from a wonderful psalm. Pray that you would bless us and that you would give us to look over the course of our lives and see how you've delivered us. That you'd give us a clear view to your intervening mercies and that we would see that your deliverance is just like what is described. You come down and defend Your sheep. You come down and defend Your flock and You did through the work of Your beloved Son. And You have drawn us out of many waters and we are those who sing Your praise among the Gentiles of the great work of the King. Thank You, O Lord, for delivering us and thank You for encouraging us with these wonderful words tonight. And may we go out this week and remember the love that we've received may we respond by saying what david said we love you oh lord my strength you are a rock our fortress our deliverer our god the one in whom we take refuge our shield and the horn of our salvation our stronghold so we will call upon the lord who is worthy to be saved who will indeed save us from all of our enemies in jesus name we pray amen