The Song of the Saved – Part 1
Psalms 18 (1-3)
November 11, 2018
Tonight we come upon the 18th Psalm,
And you are already aware that it is a bit of a lengthy Psalm,
And so it will likely take us more than one week to cover it.
(But because it will be about 3 weeks before we return here,
You get to study it on your own)
We also recognize that it is a Psalm which indicates its context.
The subtitle says, “For the choir director. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,”
And we do need to take note of this,
For a definite key to interpretation of this Psalm is found here.
Let’s take then some parameters.
1) “For the choir director”
• While it is most certainly a song that David wrote for the LORD,
• And while it was born out of David’s personal walk with the LORD,
• It is ultimately intended to be a song for the church.
David wrote it, but God inspired it,
And He did so with the intent that
The church would declare it for ages to come.
More than merely a personal reflection,
This is an inspired hymn of truth that the church must learn and sing.
2) “A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD”
This comes to us in almost New Testament fashion
As we are accustomed to reading in the epistles how Paul or Peter or James identified themselves as “bond-servants” of Christ.
David here is identified in the same manner.
• He doesn’t refer to himself as the King or the Shepherd or even the Musician.
• David is nothing here but a servant.
He is in subjection to the LORD.
That tells us then HOW we are to sing this song.
• We sing it with the heart of a servant,
• We sing it with the heart of one who is in submission to the LORD.
• It is not sung for show
• It is not sung in pride
• It is not sung in hypocrisy
This song is the song of a grateful and devoted servant.
3) “who spoke to the LORD”
This answers the question as to who this song is for.
It is sung “to the LORD”
• It is NOT for primarily intended for men, though we all learn it.
• It is NOT sung that we may garner applause
• IT IS SUNG FOR THE LORD’S ENJOYMENT.
It is sung to Him as a song of praise from a humble servant.
4) “the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.”
This tells us WHEN we sing it.
It is a song which reminisces of salvation.
David’s life had many enemies.
• He warred beasts
• He warred giants
• He warred kings
• He warred kingdoms
• He warred usurpers
• He warred marauders
David fought many battles,
And this song was sung from the peace which was obtained
By the LORD at the end of all those battles.
This song is sung at the occasion of salvation.
SO WHEN DO WE SING IT?
Ultimately a song best sung from the glories of heaven when our salvation is totally complete.
BUT CERTAINLY WE SING IT IN EVERY PHASE OF SALVATION.
You understand the phases of salvation.
We begin with JUSTIFICATION,
• Which occurs the moment in which you call upon the Lord and you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and you are justified before God.
Certainly we sing this song on that day
Because we have been saved from our sin.
Next comes SANCTIFICATION
• Best referred to as “the process of you becoming what you are.”
• It is where you begin to kill off the old man and to walk in the new man.
• It is the process of you becoming more and more practically righteous in your living.
And though this life is filled with battles
Against the flesh and temptation and sin,
Each time the Lord gives us victory in one of those areas
We sing this song again.
And finally comes GLORIFICATION
• Which occurs when the flesh is utterly gone either by death or rapture.
• The body of sin is completely done away with,
• The flesh no longer has a pull
• And you live in perfect holiness and righteousness.
While this song is sung by the saved of earth,
It is ultimately a song which is sung by the glorified of heaven.
They sing it in gratitude, we sing it in faith.
That’s the song of Psalms 18,
• How it’s sung,
• Who it’s sung to,
• When it’s sung
• Even why it’s sung.
It is a song that recounts the deliverance of God.
It is the song David sang when he was fully delivered
And the song he taught the church to sing for the same reasons.
So it is “The Song of the Saved”
But as we said, it is somewhat lengthy.
It is 50 verses long and this makes covering it a bit of a challenge.
My main struggle with this Psalm this week
Was in determining how to present it to you in a way
Where you understand the point and what your expected response is.
So, we’re going to take a unique look at this Palm.
(not the way we customarily do it)
But I think this will help you grasp it better by the time we are done with it.
Obviously here we are dealing with a song,
And so we are going to study it as such.
Now in doing that, I want you to think for a moment about the very basic and simple elements that are contained in a song. (at least lyrically speaking)
If a song comes on the radio there is PORTION OF THAT SONG
That is meant to be emphasized and grasped over every other element.
That portion of the song is THE CHORUS
The chorus of any song is its heartbeat.
• The chorus is the main point that the song writer is seeking to emphasize.
• It is the portion you sing over and over.
• It is purposely the most memorable, the clearest, and the most concise.
• It often comes with the catchiest portion of music and is often the easiest part to sing.
This is what the writer wants you to get and learn
If you get and learn nothing else.
It is the main message.
For example, take the song “Here I am to Worship” (a fairly common praise song.)
The chorus of that song is the main point.
“Here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down, Here I am to say that You’re my God. You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.”
That’s the main message that the song-writer wants you to grab.
It’s the main point he gives over and over and over.
He wants you to get that
• God is worthy of worship
• That He should be worshiped
• Because He is lovely and worthy and wonderful.
That’s the point.
It is the heartbeat, it is the Chorus.
And then with a song we also deal with THE VERSES
What is the purpose of the verses?
• The verses are there to articulate the facts which emphasize the chorus.
• The verses tell us why the chorus is true.
• The verses give depth to the chorus.
• The verses motivate you to sing the chorus.
Take the same song we just looked at. that God is worthy of worship.
The verses drive you to that conclusion.
“Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness, opened my eyes made me see. Beauty that made this heart adore you, hope of a life spent with you.”
“SO HERE I AM TO WORSHIP…”
“King of all day, O so highly exalted, glorious in Heaven above. Humble You came to the earth You created, all for love’s sake, became poor.”
“SO HERE I AM TO WORSHIP…”
Those verses articulate why God is lovely and worthy and wonderful.
He stepped out of heaven and came to this earth
And opened my eyes and became poor that I might be saved.
So absolutely I can agree with the chorus that He is worthy of worship.
That’s what the verses do.
They help you understand the chorus, and motivate you to sing it.
And then we are also commonly introduced to another aspect in our songs. I usually hear it referred to as “THE BRIDGE”
The Bridge can serve various purposes.
• It can add a point, or correct a possible misconception.
But mostly it is used as a summation of all the apparent truths.
• It is highly motivational in nature.
• It is the strongest appeal of the song to get you to sing that chorus.
• It enhances everything (and at times crescendos)
• It is for reflection
And the idea being that
If those verses have not yet motivated you to sing,
Then this bridge will push you over the top.
In the song we are looking at we hear:
“And I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross. No I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.”
“SO, HERE I AM TO WORSHIP, HERE I AM TO BOW DOWN…”
Now I tell you that because I want you to approach Psalm 18 as a song.
• I want you to grasp that there is a CHORUS which is the heartbeat.
• I want you to grasp that there are VERSES which explain the chorus.
• I want you to grasp that there is a BRIDGE which enhances everything and drives you to sing that chorus.
And now, let me quickly lay out this Psalm for you
So that you can see where this all fits
And then we’ll come back and start working through it.
THE CHORUS (1-3)
• This is the heartbeat of the Psalm
• This is the main point
• This is what you get if you get nothing else
THE VERSES (4-45)
• Verse 1 – “David’s Deliverance which God Executed” (4-19)
• Verse 2 – “David’s Devotion which God Empowered” (20-29)
• Verse 3 – “David’s Dominion which God Established” (30-45)
And you could imagine that the chorus could be sung
After each one of those verses.
THE BRIDGE (46-50)
• Where David sums the point and gives his most passionate plea for us all to sing that chorus to God.
SO THAT IS HOW THIS SONG LAYS OUT.
Perhaps that will help us work through it with a better understanding.
With all that being said,
Tonight we want to cover that main point of the Psalm.
Tonight we want to cover THE CHORUS
So that would be the first point:
#1 THE CHORUS
Psalms 18:1-3
As we said, this is the heart of the Psalm.
• This is the main thrust of what David wants to express to the LORD
• This is the main point that David wants to instill to the church as he calls for the choir director to lead this song.
• Everything in this Psalm points to our understanding of these 3 lines.
• Everything in this Psalm points to our singing of these 3 lines.
• Everything in this Psalm points to our doing what David is doing here.
This is the heart
And for better understanding,
We can break down what David is doing here into 3 statements or actions.
1) I LOVE YOU, O LORD, MY STRENGTH (1)
Now that point we just take verbatim
Because it is incredibly clear and concise.
But we do need to look a little closer at it.
2 words here we want to define are “love” and “strength”
What is interesting is that neither of those words are common words.
Well actually the word for “love” is a common word
It’s just that this is the only time it’s every actually translated “love”
Thy typical word for love is AHEB, but that is NOT the word David uses.
(That would be like the “love the LORD your God with all your heart” word.)
The word here is RACHAM
And most of the time it is translated “compassion” or “mercy”
Psalms 103:13 “Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.”
What we are dealing with here in verse 1
Has more to do with the concept of “CHERISHING” or extremely valuing.
John MacArthur commented like this: That the word David uses is “intended to express very strong devotion. Like when Peter reminds the Lord that he loves Him in John 21:15-17”
(MacArthur Study Bible Notes)
Whereas we all understand that the word love is first an action,
Here David chooses a word that denotes more of the EMOTION.
• David isn’t just loving God in a covenantal commitment sense.
• David actually cherishes God
• David actually values God
• David is devoted to God
The other word we see is “strength”
It is the word CHEZEQ and this is the only time it is ever used in the Bible.
My Hebrew Lexicon tells me that
It refers to strength in the sense of receiving help.
Those are two words you need to understand,
But the MOST IMPORTANT WORD in the verse is the word “my”.
• God is not just a help
• God is not just a strength
• God is “my strength”
There is a personal nature in which David reflects.
He cherishes God for helping him.
Now put that together and we understand
Why David cherishes and values God so much,
And it is because God is his help.
• It is God who comes to David’s aid
• It is God who never fails him
• It is God who can always be counted on
This is the day in which David has achieved victory over all of his enemies
And the first thing David does is GIVE CREDIT
TO THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT of those victories.
• In every battle…
• In every conflict…
• In every situation…
There was one thing that David cherished more than anything.
THAT WAS GOD.
And just those words are a good encouragement to us.
To look back over the battles in our lives
And to be able to recognize that God alone
Was the essential piece, our essential help, our essential strength.
THERE IS CERTAINLY A TEMPTATION AMONG MEN
To examine their lives and the battles they have fought
And to assume that their victory was secured
By some great ability of their own.
• It’s because I’m so smart…
• It’s because I’m so fast…
• It’s because I’m so strong…
• It’s because I’m such a good speaker…
On the day when David’s battles were done,
He didn’t cherish any of those things as the essential piece of his victory.
He didn’t say, “I love you slingshot! I could never have done it without you!”
He didn’t say, “I love you strong arm!” or “I love you brilliant mind!”
For even in that famous battle,
David knew where the help was coming from, and it wasn’t his sling.
1 Samuel 17:45-47 “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. “This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”
David knew what the essential piece of the battle was.
And it was God that David cherished.
• What do you cherish?
• What do you lean on?
• What do you boast in?
Jeremiah 9:23-24 “Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.”
• When you go to work, what is it that allows you to be successful?
• When you parent your children, what is it that allows you to succeed?
• When you minister to the lost, why is it that you are effective?
DAVID HAD NO DOUBT
What the most important tool in his belt was, it was God.
• God was his help
• God was his strength
• And David now cherished God more than any other
You can see that
“I love You, O LORD, my strength.”
2) I PRAISE YOU, O LORD, MY STRONGHOLD (2)
(2) “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, my stronghold.”
Now first of all, YOU DON’T SEE
The element of praise expressly mentioned in verse 2,
That actually comes in verse 3
When David says that the LORD “is worthy to be praised”
But what you have occurring here is
David putting on a display
Of all the reasons God should be praised.
He goes on a synonym rush trying to encapsulate all that God is to him.
And David actually assigns 8 distinctions to God.
• “my rock”
• “my fortress”
• “my deliverer”
• “my God”
• “my rock, in whom I take refuge”
• “my shield”
• “the horn of my salvation”
• “my stronghold”
All of those terms have military implications.
All of them have to do with deliverance in battle.
“my rock” CELA in the Hebrew and it speaks of “a crag, or a cliff, or a rock”
Judges 15:8 “He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.”
This then speaks of God as the place where David is secure.
A place where he can go and hide.
“my fortress” This is a word that speaks of a mountain fortress or castle or stronghold.
When David fled from Saul we read:
1 Samuel 22:3-4 “And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.” Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.”
That is the same word translated “fortress” here.
David saw God in that same sense, as a place of security for him.
“my deliverer” is a word that speaks of escape.
Psalms 17:13 “Arise, O LORD, confront him, bring him low; Deliver my soul from the wicked with Your sword,”
We understand the concept from passages like:
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
That is how David saw the LORD
As one who could provide for him the way of escape.
“my God” it is the word EL here. And certainly it refers to God but even more so in the sense of the “mighty one” or “strength” or “power”.
It is not just the One David worships,
But the One who actually performs as a God on David’s behalf.
“my rock, in whom I take refuge”
It is a different word for “rock” than used earlier, but they are synonyms.
It still speaks of a cave or cliff or a giant rock, and David says here that this rock is a place of “refuge”
That is a word that means “to trust”
He is a trustworthy rock
He is a trustworthy hiding place
“my shield” – it’s a word that means just that.
God is One who shields and protects David from all the fiery darts of the enemy.
“the horn of my salvation” – this is the reference really to the only offensive weapon in the list.
“the horn” is like that of an ox, which the ox uses for defense.
David says that God is his “horn”
God is the weapon that delivers and saves him.
“my stronghold” – this is a word that means “high place” or “a place of refuge”
Now clearly you see here that the focus
Isn’t so much on the diversity of those phrases,
But rather their similarity.
David is rattling off every word he knows to describe exactly who God is
And for David God has been (if we could sum it up) a stronghold.
God has been his main defense.
God has been his main shield or protection or cave or deliverance
And in that we certainly understand why David would want to praise God.
• HE CHERISHED GOD BECAUSE God was always his personal help
• HE PRAISED GOD BECAUSE God was always his source of safety
and protection
HERE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SECURITY.
Someday when this life is over and you set foot in heaven,
Will you pat yourself on the back for having been so steadfast to keep from falling?
Of course not!
• We know who has protected us
• We know who has shielded us
• We know who has kept us
John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
John 6:39-40 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,”
We praise God for our security.
We praise God as our stronghold.
That is what David is doing.
• He didn’t win because of his own strength
• He didn’t survive because of his own endurance
ALL OF THAT WAS GOD.
I Love You, O LORD, My Strength
I Praise You, O LORD, My Stronghold
3) I TRUST YOU, O LORD, MY SALVATION (3)
“I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.”
Do you see the certainty and the conviction here?
• He doesn’t call on God because he knows God can save.
• He doesn’t call on God because he knows God has saved others.
He knows that when he calls on God that God saves him.
“I am saved from my enemies”
There is certainty and conviction in that statement.
Romans 10:9-13 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
When I call on God, He saves me.
And of course then you understand that when we talk about calling
We are talking about faith or trust.
In short, David trusted God.
He praised Him for all that He had done in the past,
But THAT TRUST HAD NOT EXPIRED.
I know the Psalm says that David sang this “in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul”
And that’s true, so far as David knew it.
But how was David to know if another enemy might spring up tomorrow?
HE DIDN’T.
But he did know that even if another enemy would arise,
He knew who he was going to call on.
It was the absence of worry and the presence of faith.
• God had never failed to help him
• God had never failed to defend him
• And David would never fail to call on God
These are the truths bound up in passages like:
1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
Philippians 4:4-6 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
That is what David is talking about here.
So put those together and you hear
What David wants to express to God now that all of his battles are over.
I Love You, O LORD, my Strength
I Praise You, O LORD, my Stronghold
I Trust You, O LORD, my Salvation
So on the day when David is fully delivered
This is the song that David sings to the LORD
And this is the song that David appoints for the choir director to teach to the congregation.
Namely that we should:
• Cherish God who will personally help us
• Praise God who alone is our victory in battle
• Trust God who is a sure salvation when we call on Him
NOW THAT’S THE CHORUS
That’s the heart
That’s what we sing over and over and over
The rest of this song is to drive you to see why David sings it,
And to convince you to sing it as well.
