In The Word
Read: Psalm 18:1-30
The Lord Praised for Giving Deliverance.
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,
18 “I love You, O Lord, my strength.”
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.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encompassed me,
And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me.
5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried to my God for help;
He heard my voice out of His temple,
And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
And the foundations of the mountains were trembling
And were shaken, because He was angry.
8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils,
And fire from His mouth devoured;
Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With thick darkness under His feet.
10 He rode upon a cherub and flew;
And He sped upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him,
Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
12 From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out His arrows, and scattered them,
And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them.
15 Then the channels of water appeared,
And the foundations of the world were laid bare
At Your rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the Lord was my stay.
19 He brought me forth also into a broad place;
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
20 The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all His ordinances were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
23 I was also blameless with Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.
25 With the kind You show Yourself kind;
With the blameless You show Yourself blameless;
26 With the pure You show Yourself pure,
And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.
27 For You save an afflicted people,
But haughty eyes You abase.
28 For You light my lamp;
The Lord my God illumines my darkness.
29 For by You I can run upon a troop;
And by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 As for God, His way is blameless;
The word of the Lord is tried;
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
In this passage, we see the power of our God defending His faithful ones who love Him with the entirety of their lives. We serve a God who will fight for us and come to our aid. This starts with God being our very source of life. We must wait on His deliverance.
So many times we will take up our own defense and fight a fight that ultimately belongs to God. Whether it is the pressures of life or false accusations, we must know that God is our vindicator. He will make things right. We often need to be reminded that there is only one lawgiver and judge who can make things right: our Holy Father (James 4:12). All too often we like to take matters into our own hands and end up making things worse, causing more of an issue than if we were to patiently wait on Him. Waiting on Him to move in your situation is a testing of your faith. It can produce perseverance so that you can become mature and complete not lacking anything (James 1:2-4). Jesus also tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). We must trust in Him. Whatever the situation you may be walking through today, know that the battle is God’s. You must put it in His hands. He is your rock, your fortress, and your refuge.