Praise To David's Rock - [Psalm 18]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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June 29, 2008

00:00: Turn with me if you will to Psalm number 18 as we start going through the psalms this summer you're going to hear several sermons on the psalms and Psalm 18 is a particular song of Thanksgiving that comes from David many of the psalms are written by David and This is an interesting one
00:25: First of all it is a song of Thanksgiving as I said it is a song of Thanksgiving from the king and Up to this point in the
00:33: Psalter. It's the longest psalm. It's 50 verses long and so David Identifies himself he it's number one thing about it.
00:43: It's got the longest introduction these little introductions that are up here at the top They're part of it, and it says to the choir master a psalm of David He identifies himself the servant of the
00:55: Lord Who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him?
01:00: From the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul he said and here he goes
01:06: It's got this long preamble to it and it's going to detail so that it's a summary statement
01:14: And it's going to detail David says what he's going to talk about and what he's going to talk about is
01:20: God's deliverance Now this is significant this is significant because This the text of Psalm 18 appears elsewhere in the
01:31: Bible You may realize that this song if it looks familiar if it sounds familiar
01:37: Well, it should be because if you go to 2nd Samuel you will find virtually word -for -word
01:42: The same Psalm 2nd Samuel 22 in fact you will find the preamble what's just been here is the preamble you will find that as verse 1 in Samuel and so We can look at this that tells us something about this this psalm.
01:59: This is a This is an encapsulation of David's life David's an old man when he writes this
02:08: He's not too far from the from the end of his days and he knows that and He can look back at his life and say
02:16: You know God has always provided Everything I could possibly need
02:25: He has always been there. He has always Provided exactly what
02:30: I needed when I needed it I have been in all of these situations and he's going to think of some of them
02:36: I've been in all of these situations where? humanly speaking I Wasn't going to get out of this.
02:43: My enemies were too much for me there was a lot more of them than there was of us and We were trapped and and basically it was all over except that the
02:57: Jehovah God fought on my side and He has always been my rock.
03:03: And so David's going to talk about that because notice some of the things he talks about Deliverance from what
03:11: David? Well, there's this little matter. I had a little dispute with King Saul if you remember that he chased me all over the all over the wilderness of Israel and There were years and years of fighting
03:25: Israel's enemies the Philistines and one group and another that that David was involved in and also
03:32: David Had to withstand perhaps the worst assault of all from his own children his own son
03:40: Absalom tried to depose him and to take his place as king and As any of you who have experienced it.
03:49: No, it is much harder to take That kind of betrayal from your friends than it is from people who are openly your enemies, isn't it and this is also a messianic prophecy and As I studied the various commentators that I was looking at preparing for this sermon
04:10: They pointed that out and some commentators Maybe go a little bit overboard and find this huge amounts of messianic prophecy here and that perhaps stretch it a little bit
04:22: But certainly there are messianic things to this psalm This isn't just about David when it's talking about David's son and David's King and David's line
04:33: It's not only talking about Solomon and and David's sons.
04:38: He's talking about the ultimate Son of David because Jesus Christ is described as the
04:44: Son of David and someday Jesus Christ indeed will rule on David's throne physically literally
04:51: Will rule on David's throne and so there are messianic things in the Apostle Paul in fact sites verse he quotes verse 49
04:58: Out of this psalm when he's emphasizing that see Jesus is the
05:03: Savior of the Gentiles as well Not just the Savior of the Jews and So there are six sections to this
05:12: First there is this pure praise to God verses 1 to 3 Then it Dave is going to tell the story of his deliverance told primarily from God's perspective and those of voice verses of 4 through 19 and Then there's a little section on why
05:28: God delivered David why David why did God deliver David was it something David did?
05:34: Was David a better man than all of those who were around him? What is that and he addresses that in verses 20 to 24 and then there are some important life principles that he's going to lay
05:45: Down in verse 25 to 29 and then he's going to go over the whole thing again He's going to tell you the story of David's deliverance, but this time from David's perspective
05:55: The verses 30 to 45 and finally he's going to start out He's going to wind up exactly in the same place where he starts out praise to David's rock praise to the rock and So looking at Turn with me to the text
06:11: Psalm 18 and I will be preaching tonight from the English Standard Version And the section 1 is praise to God.
06:21: He starts off. I love you. Oh Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my
06:28: God my rock in whom I take refuge my shield and the horn of my salvation my stronghold
06:35: I Call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies
06:43: And so notice this first even before he starts off even before verse 1 he has identified himself as the servant of the
06:50: Lord Now that's interesting because again David's an old man here and He has been covered with glory humanly speaking.
06:59: He is the king of Israel He has taken Israel from being a basically a bunch of little tribes sort of gathered around, you know
07:07: And now he's made a nation out of them humanly speaking. Of course, we know God made them a nation, but but David is his instrument on earth
07:16: David is a great warrior. He's he is a great warrior He's a great musician he's a great poet on and on and on the things that David has that humanly speaking he could be proud of and Yet what is important to David?
07:31: That he's the servant of the Lord That's what he goes to. He's the servant of the
07:36: Lord and indeed He is the servant of the Lord and of course all of us all of us who named the name of Christ are the servants
07:44: Of the Lord, but David certain individuals Certain individuals are given the privilege of Influencing events and people around them in an and forwarding
07:58: God's program in special ways and David's one of those because David David has been privileged to use his scepter and his sword and his pin all of these things to advance
08:11: God's interests in Israel David is the servant of the Lord and that's the most important thing that David can say about himself
08:21: What do you do David? I'm the I'm the servant of the Lord Not I'm King. I'm Commanding general or any of those other things.
08:30: I'm the servant of the Lord and This comes out in his writings, doesn't it? I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of God than anything else
08:40: I could think of and So he starts his hymn of praise by praising
08:47: God by praising God I love you. Oh Lord my strength. He starts off with a statement of his love for God and That's directly in line with the commandment that that Jesus told the rich young ruler
09:00: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength Because a love for God is the root of all acceptable worship.
09:09: It's the root of all acceptable obedience And David loves God first and foremost
09:16: Why he says right here. He is worthy to be praised I'm not praising him first because of all of the things he's done for me.
09:27: Yes, I praise him for that But I praise him first and foremost because he is worthy of praise
09:36: God is entitled to praise God is entitled to worship
09:44: We say things like we love him because he first loved us and that's certainly a powerful motivation
09:49: But underlying all of that is that God is the sovereign king of the universe.
09:54: He made us As another psalmist says he's made us and not we ourselves
10:04: He created us and as the Creator That gives him authority over us that gives him right over us and He is entitled to our worship and God will have worship from all of his creation either voluntarily from Christians or Involuntarily, but he's going to have it
10:29: They're all going to bow the knee one way or another and so David says he's worthy to be praised
10:34: I call on my lord. He's worthy to be praised He is entitled to our love and David triumphs in God and in his relationship to him
10:46: Now the Lord Jehovah is David's God. He's his rock. He's his fortress This is very big to David he calls
10:55: God his rock twice in verse 2 again in verse 31 again and fourth and verse 46 and Again in several other
11:03: Psalms as you read through You know this idea that the Lord is the rock is
11:09: Very important to David and he's not talking about some little stone that you pick up out of the riverbed He's talking about this massive thing that would be out in the desert because Remember where David's living he's living in a desert and what does a rock do a rock gives protection a rock gives shade and In this in the daytime if you're crossing the desert a rock the great rock
11:40: Might be the difference between life and death Because it gives this shade it gives this he's well aware of the importance of the shadow and shade from a huge rock it's like with Isaiah you go to Isaiah chapter 32 and in Isaiah speaks of the
11:58: Lord as the shadow of a mighty rock in In a dry and thirsty land and that's what
12:03: David's kind of got in his mind here He knows all about this and what else is a rock a rock is a place of refuge a rock is a place
12:12: You can run to a Rock is the place where you can hide and that David certainly knows all about that he spent a good deal of time hiding in the rocks didn't he as Saul chased him and I suspect
12:27: David probably knew those rocks like the back of his hand By the time that period of his life was done.
12:33: He knew every nook and cranny Where they all were and now he's thinking back to that You know and and God is like that.
12:41: My God is like that My God is the place where I go for security. My God is the place where I go for shelter
12:48: My God is the place where I go to hide from the storm Imagine this little storm that blew by this afternoon
12:56: Imagine that going on for days at a time. You'd want to be in the rocks, wouldn't you? and What else is a rock a?
13:05: rock is a foundation a Rock is the foundation you go to New York City and You got out to Manhattan and you look at these great skyscrapers that are standing there
13:19: Remarkable buildings and Why are they standing there? Why don't they fall down?
13:26: Well, they don't because their foundations go down to bedrock their foundations go way down below ground level that you see and and stand on the rock and We are told throughout the scripture that we are to stand on the rock that Jesus is our rock the wise man
13:46: Bills on the rock you need a firm foundation if you don't have a foundation. It doesn't matter what you build above that It doesn't matter how fancy the building is it's not going to stand of it unless there's a firm foundation underneath it and Again, the rock is the foundation.
14:06: The rock is the foundation and David calls on his rock David calls on his rock regularly.
14:13: David has been a man of prayer all his entire life His pattern has been as he states in verse 3.
14:21: I call upon the Lord Who is worthy to be praised and I'm saved for my enemies
14:27: I call on the Lord and he answers my prayer I call on the
14:34: Lord and he meets my need and So he goes into section 2.
14:40: He's the story of his deliverance told primarily from God's perspective
14:46: David recounts all the perils that he had as he said the cords of death Encompassed me the torrents of destruction assailed me the cords of Sheol entangled me the snares of death
14:58: Confronted me David's life was in danger repeatedly throughout his life
15:04: In my distress I called upon the Lord To my God I cried for help and from his temple.
15:11: He heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears. I Cried and I don't have a
15:19: God that can't hear I don't have a God that is off doing something else
15:26: You remember Elijah when he's taunting the promise that the prophets of Baal well, maybe maybe he's asleep
15:33: Yeah, a little louder or maybe he's he's off doing something else, you know get his attention
15:39: David saying my God's not like that when I call on my God my God hears
15:46: David was a praying man and he served a prayer hearing God And so what does he do?
15:54: He gives a description of God's repeated? intervention in his life
16:03: David's life has been pretty much one crisis after another Even from the time he was a young man.
16:08: He was sent out to to guard the sheep, right and He faces wild animals there's a lion a
16:16: Mountain lion of some sort that appears there's a bear that appears and It's just David It's just David out there.
16:25: There's nobody else to call on and so he's got to deal with the situation and This is what
16:33: David alludes to when he's talking to Saul if you remember he's gonna go out and face Goliath and he says, you know
16:40: I I dealt with these things because God was with me and I'll deal with this giant
16:47: Because and what does he refer to to to Goliath as you know?
16:53: Israel's enemy God's enemy Not mine. This is
16:58: God's enemy. He's he's insulted my God so I'm gonna go out and face him and So and then he deals with King Saul and King Saul's after him and then the
17:10: Philistines and and on and on it goes in his own son Absalom and and other intrigues within his own court all of those things and In every case his response is always the same.
17:21: He calls upon God for help He calls upon God for help and every time God responds
17:28: God responds and so David compares his own situation. He gives some examples here he turns to God's intervention on Israel's behalf and He's recalling to mind here it was starting in verse 7 he's calling to mind here
17:45: The events that are recorded from the Exodus Said the earth reeled and rocked the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry
17:55: Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth glowing coals flamed forth from him
18:02: He bowed the heavens and came down and thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew
18:08: 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
18:18: Brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds The Lord also thundered in the heavens and the
18:25: Most High uttered his voice Hailstones and coals of fire and he sent out his arrows and scattered them
18:32: 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
18:41: Oh Lord in the blast of the breath of your nostrils. He's describing the events before Mount Sinai If you remember that when the
18:51: Israelites got to Sinai Now they've already seen the Red Sea parted They already saw that the waters heaped up and you know instant dry land appears not mud but dry land they've seen the
19:04: Lord at work on their behalf and The Egyptian army is now gone because God has taken care of the
19:11: Egyptian army and they get to Sinai you remember that and All of these dark clouds and it's the earth's quaking and all of these things are happening
19:20: Thunders and lightnings and all of this and what are the Israelites do? they say
19:26: Hmm Moses you go up there and talk to God and we'll stay here and we'll pray for you
19:35: You know go up there Moses. And so that's what Moses does he approaches the mountain and the
19:41: Lord God Jehovah chooses to reveal himself in in a physical way and David's calling that to mind with with his with his psalm here because David compares his own situation with God's intervention at Sinai and He's saying this is what
20:05: God has done in Israel's history in the past all of these things these manifestations that he showed of the earth shaking and In fact his description almost sounds like a volcano erupting except Mount Sinai isn't a volcano
20:21: But it's a lot of the same kinds of stuff and he's describing all of that and he's saying
20:31: What God has done for me is no less marvelous and miraculous
20:38: Than what God did for Israel at Sinai What God has done for me is equally awesome and wonderful as What God has done for Israel in the past?
20:53: Maybe without the actual physical manifestations, but that doesn't matter what he's done for me in My life is just every bit as wonderful as what's happened here because notice this
21:08: God has been fighting for Israel throughout their history When you read
21:14: Joshua Joshua is one account after another of God Intervening on the parts of the Israelites as they attacked armies that were much larger and stronger than they were you go to you go to Joshua chapter 10 look at verse 11 and You see signs of God's miraculous intervention.
21:34: I Mean this is where it's recorded that the Sun moved back and the Sun stood still and and great hailstones came down upon the
21:41: Canaanites And God killed more people on that day with his hailstones than the Israelites killed with their swords and David considers his own case
21:53: To be every bit as glorious as that Because notice these things and and by the way, just as a as a side
22:02: Comment shouldn't we also enter? regard God's intervention in our lives as at least this marvelous, you know because the
22:13: God of Moses and Joshua was David's God and The God of Moses and Joshua and David is our
22:20: God and he deals in our lives Just as wonderfully as he dealt with these men sometimes we
22:32: We fail I I'm afraid to acknowledge God's hand in our lives as we see
22:38: We say oh that was that was Lucky, you know and yet we know better than to say that It wasn't lucky
22:49: That you know if if this car had come off the ramp, you know five seconds sooner it would have smacked into us instead of passing just in front of our bumper and Yet do we think that that's
23:02: God's hand? That's God's hand in our lives. Do we emphasize to our children that?
23:11: God is really there You know, I I love
23:16: Francis Schaeffer anyway, and and I and one of his One of his comments that that I really like is the
23:22: God who is there You know the God who's really there. He's really up there and he's really paying attention to us and You know, this is not something that we just made up There really is
23:37: Jehovah God and he really is Involved in an intimate way in our lives
23:44: But note this that the greater the danger the greater the need the greater the mercy the more earnest our plea the more direct will be the answer and the greater will be our obligation to acknowledge
23:59: God as its source and to give thanks What's one of the criticisms that Paul uses against the world in general?
24:09: They don't give thanks They're not thankful Now what's the significance of that when we give thanks we are
24:20: Acknowledging our dependence upon whoever it is that we're thanking Even if if you if you give me a gift and I say thank you for this
24:30: I am acknowledging that you are the source of that gift. It's not me or If you assist me in some way and I say thank you for that I'm acknowledging that you are the source of that assistance and That without that assistance
24:47: I would have been lacking something and so when we are on our knees before God or or Talking to God and we thank him
24:56: We are acknowledging that He is the source of These things in our lives, whatever it is and that if it if it were not for his care over us
25:08: We would be in dire straits Because he has provided something that we lacked
25:14: He has met a need we had a need and he has met that need and so we we must give him glory
25:21: We must be thankful to him. That is our obligation and David remembers that his enemies were pouring in on him and he acknowledges look at verse 17
25:33: Or Started verse 16. He sent me from on he sent from on high He took me and drew me out of many waters
25:41: That means deep water. There are folks in the Midwest right now that are very familiar with this verse
25:47: They may not realize it, but they are He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me for they were too mighty for me
25:57: He's acknowledging right there that I was faced with an enemy I could not deal with Left to Left to myself.
26:07: I was toast says David Actually, he probably didn't use the term toast But you know you get you get the feeling of what he's saying, you know,
26:16: I I could not deal with this situation This was a situation that was beyond what was my in my capabilities to deal with I had if God hadn't helped me
26:26: I was done for But as he says the Lord rescued and supported David and he does the same thing for us
26:34: He he not only does he send aid does he rescue us, but he sustains us
26:41: Because he doesn't immediately pull us out of difficulties. Does he at least not every time sometimes he leaves us in those difficulties
26:49: Sometimes he leaves us under whatever it is the burden that that we are bearing because we need that for our
26:59: Refinement we need that for our training. We need that for our sanctification, but he supports in the trial
27:08: What is you know, I'm not going to remove the trial right now But what I'm going to do is
27:14: I'm going to give you the grace to deal with that Paul You need this thorn in the flesh, whatever it is.
27:21: You need that For part of your life, and so I'm going to leave that there, but I'm going to give you the grace to deal with it
27:30: I'm going to provide the sufficient grace for you to deal with that situation Whatever it is and God works with us the same way, but the greater the difficulties the more wonderful the deliverance is
27:42: The more wonderful the deliverance is and the more wonderful the deliverance the greater the appearance of God in it and David again extols
27:53: God's attributes his mighty power. He says the earth shakes When the earth shakes, you know that something big is going on Yeah, if you've ever been in an earthquake even a small one
28:06: It's an extremely unsettling feeling because all of a sudden what you've been relying on all your life as a reference is moving, you know and So when when
28:19: God shakes the earth That is a display of his power. That's very very difficult to miss and God is also a god of wrath against his people's enemies our two sons
28:36: Those of you who've seen them, you'll know that one the older one is this big massive guy
28:42: He's just big that's that's all there is to it And his younger brother is quite slight and slender and all of the rest of that and as they were growing up The from the time they were very very small the younger the the older one had just assumed that it was his job
28:57: To take care of his younger brother and all through school. This is the way it was, you know and Our older son is perhaps the most laid -back person you'd ever want to meet in your life unless You mess with his brother you mess with his brother.
29:12: You got a serious problem on your hands and This is the kind of thing, you know,
29:17: God is like that towards his people God is like that towards his people. He loves his people.
29:24: He protects his people. He looks out for his people and If you start messing with God's people, you've got a serious serious problem and God will extract
29:37: God will extract the remedy for his people believe me and He displays his anger all the smoke and the fire and the coals and all that sort of things
29:47: That's a display of anger And nothing can oppose him.
29:53: He flies. He says he said he flies to his people's aid He rides on a cherub and float and flew and consider, you know when when
30:06: David wrote this Airplanes didn't exist, right? And so to say that something flies that you're saying a whole lot about the power of this individual that can do that and That he will come to your aid like that and nothing can oppose him
30:24: He comes to his people's aid and he condescends to come to David's aid and Notice also that he comes to David's aid
30:35: David says God has come to my aid God didn't send an angel He doesn't send angels he comes himself
30:46: To my aid and even though God hides himself.
30:51: He makes darkness is covering But he still makes a light to shine to his people his glory might be invisible and hidden and his counsels might be
31:01: Unsearchable, but his secret designs are kind towards his people We can count on that when we think you know,
31:10: God, what are you doing in my life? Why me Lord that kind of issue?
31:17: Keep in mind that God is kind towards us That whatever
31:23: God is good towards us God is good towards us We cannot really even grasp
31:31: How kind he is towards us. This was read earlier tonight as a father pities his children.
31:40: I Never really understood what that means until I had children of my own and then you begin to understand
31:45: What the psalmist is talking about when he says that but God is Concerned with us
31:52: He is not letting us go our own way He is vitally concerned with every aspect of our lives and this is one of the great differences
32:04: You have probably heard the nonsense Particularly in this day and age you hear the nonsense.
32:10: Well, here's you know Christianity over here and Islam over here, but it's the same God Well, here's the newsflash.
32:18: It isn't the same God and And one of the big differences is the
32:25: God of Islam is completely transcendent He's up there He's up there, but there is no
32:33: No concept of an imminent God. There is no concept of a personal
32:38: God There is no concept of a God that is concerned with his children as individuals the
32:45: Christian God is Also transcendent true he's over everything
32:51: But he is also imminent. He is also close by he is interested in us as individuals and because he is an infinite
33:02: God and Because he is an omnipresent God and because he is an omniscient
33:08: God he can devote 100 % of his Interest 100 % of his attention to each one of his children all the time
33:21: If you were growing if you grew up in a big family, you know Mom has to divide her children her attention between the kids right
33:27: God doesn't have to do that God puts 100 % of his attention on every one of his children all the time
33:35: He is and again another Francis Schaeffer another Francis Schaeffer Coining he is the infinite personal
33:45: God He's infinite because to be a suitable reference point for the rest of our lives.
33:51: He must be infinite He must be out there, but he's also personal and he deals with us
33:57: And that's what that's what David's talking about the infinite personal God, but I need to move on We get to the reasons for David's deliverance.
34:08: Why is David? Why is David been delivered? David's deliverance is a token of God's favor
34:16: He has been delivered David says because God delighted in him not because of any merit on David's part
34:24: But because God delighted in him because of God's grace and mercy Verse 20.
34:30: He says the Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands
34:37: He rewarded me for I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my
34:42: God For all his rules were before me and his statutes. I did not put away from me
34:48: I was blameless before him and kept myself from my guilt
34:53: So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness According to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
35:03: What an interesting and astounding Statement say wait a minute
35:10: David Clean hands Righteous before God What about this little thing with Bathsheba you remember her
35:24: Don't forget he's writing this at the end of his life He's writing this at the end of his life.
35:29: The incident with Bathsheba has already occurred. What about Uriah? You remember him, you know the husband of Bathsheba that you had bumped off because you wanted
35:40: Bathsheba What about that? What about your sin of? numbering the people
35:47: And on and on and on all of these things that are recorded, you know, that's one marvelous thing about the
35:53: Bible it records It records Everything warts and all lays it all out there
36:00: How can you say that according to your righteousness How is this possible?
36:09: Well, David does not use New Testament terms here and We can debate over how much he really understood because revelation has been progressive as we start off from Adam and Eve and then start moving forward our revelation has been progressive, but David clearly understands the principles of imputed righteousness and justification
36:37: He probably wouldn't call it that But don't forget he's been going to the temple.
36:43: He's been doing the sacrifices and He understands what those sacrifices are foreshadowing
36:51: Because all of the all of the sacrifices that God has given to the Israelites This is what you do you have the sin sacrifice
37:00: Excuse me You you have you have all of these other Sacrifices that you're supposed to do and all good
37:05: Jewish men are going to do this and David was certainly a good Jewish man He's got it.
37:12: He Understands what that's being foreshadowed that Yes I'm taking this lamb now and I'm going to take it to the temple and the priest is going to slay that lamb and we're going to sacrifice it and we're going to sprinkle the blood and Right now all that blood is doing is covering my sin.
37:32: That's what atonement actually means We get the idea that today atonement sort of means make up for But that's not what it means in the
37:42: Old Testament atonement means to cover My sins are being covered but someday there's going to be a sacrifice that takes away sin
37:57: Someday God is going to send someone he has promised a Messiah and This Messiah is going to come and he's going to make an atonement of a different kind Up to now once a year the priest goes in with great fear and trembling goes in to the holy of holies and sprinkles blood on the mercy seat
38:18: So that the sins of the people of Israel will be covered for another year You know and he goes in and he's got this
38:26: Rope tied to his ankle so that if he's suddenly struck dead in there they can they can pull him out without having to go in after him and But someday
38:39: Someday sins are going to be taken away Someday sins are not going to be just covered it's going to be taken away and In a way that David probably doesn't understand fully
38:55: But he grasps That the righteousness of God himself he has been made
39:01: Righteous. He even says that He even says that you have made it over in verse 32 he says the
39:08: God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless and David is talking about his pattern of life
39:18: Not the incidents that have made it up, but what has been David's pattern of life
39:24: He has kept to his duty firmly. He says He says I kept to my duty and I have not willfully departed from God.
39:34: He has sinned greatly Yes He is sinned but his great sins have always been followed by great repentance and remorse and begging for God's forgiveness
39:47: If you want to see what his attitude was after Bathsheba after the incident with Nathanael thou art the man
39:55: Go to Psalm 51 and I believe pastor Mike is back going to speak going to preach on Psalm 51
40:00: If you want to see a Psalm where someone is begging God for forgiveness. It's Psalm 51 and What does
40:09: David say there? He's not saying I've sinned against Bathsheba. Although he certainly had
40:15: He's not saying I sinned against Uriah. Although he certainly did He's saying I sinned against you
40:21: To God I have sinned against God that's the important thing that there is a almighty
40:29: Creator God and I have offended him mightily and David deals with his sin he
40:38: He knew along with John Newton that I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great
40:44: Savior there was salvation in the
40:49: Lord and David has not forgotten or forsaken God's ways.
40:54: He says I haven't departed from God I haven't departed from God and stumbling is not departure a
41:05: Stumble is not a departure. The issue is not whether or not we stumble we are going to stumble that's inevitable
41:13: The issue is when we stumble do we get up? Do we get up and continue our walk with God?
41:22: Do we get up do we confess our sins? The Sunday school lesson this morning fits right into this even though there was no collusion between myself and Scott Goddard But it fits well
41:37: Repentance Do we get up? Do we genuinely seek repentance?
41:44: Do we genuinely seek forgiveness? Do we genuinely repent and do we continue our walk with God?
41:51: What is the pattern of our life and? David can say with the pattern of his life.
41:57: Is that he has followed the Lord He has sought the Lord all the time.
42:02: He has been God's friend for his entire life And so then he goes into a few principles for life
42:14: These are rules for God's government and judgment if you will and this also comfort for the humble verse 25
42:22: With the merciful you show yourself merciful With the blameless man you show yourself blameless
42:28: With the purified you so yourself pure with the crooked you make yourself seem torturous
42:36: For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you cast you bring down For it is you who light my lamp
42:44: The Lord my God lightens my darkness for by you I can run against the troop and by my
42:50: God I can leap over a wall So speaking broadly and this is again broad principles here now
42:59: But God deals with men as they deal with him God deals with men's that they deal with him if we show mercy we find mercy
43:09: If we are ourselves faithful God is also faith. We receive faithfulness
43:17: Now I would hasten also to say here this does not imply there is no quid pro quo with God And so often don't we sort of look at it that way, you know,
43:27: I did one for you God now you owe me one We look at it kind of like that.
43:33: No, that's not the way it works But again speaking you find this all through the Proverbs as well
43:40: There's not a quid pro quo. There's not a tit -for -tat relationship Because as we've said before God is not a cosmic bellhop that comes to our aid whenever we ding the bell
43:51: You know, that's not the way it works God is not a cosmic genie that we and the Bible is not some cosmic lamp that we rub
43:58: You know and and God pops out and solves whatever problem that we happen to have He demands
44:05: Holy living from us if we are going to follow him What did Jesus say you want to be my disciple take up the cross follow me
44:16: God is not a fire escape. He demands that we follow him
44:23: It the issue is not we don't we don't make Jesus Lord Jesus is
44:29: Lord, but we acknowledge him as our Lord and We we set out as David set out to follow
44:39: God Knowing that we would be imperfect certainly, but nonetheless we also know what the bar is
44:48: Jesus laid that one out be perfect is your father in heaven is perfect when you get to perfection
44:58: Let us know the elders would like to know about that. But what's the thing
45:08: God demands holy living from us if we would come to him But the principle the basic principle is that living a moral life is better than living an immoral one
45:20: Living a moral life is better across the board than living an immoral one The righteous have a firm foundation.
45:27: We're back to the rock again The righteous have a firm foundation the unrighteous do not
45:33: No matter how it might seem in the short term The unrighteous are on slippery ground the famous sermon centers in the hands of an angry
45:48: God Do you know what the text was for that? Their foot their foot will slide in due time that was his text and That's it's the same thing here, you know, don't worry about people the seeming prosperity of the right of the unrighteous
46:06: They're really on a very slippery slope and they have no ultimate foundation.
46:12: We do The righteous David has a foundation he's standing on the rock and the rock isn't going to move
46:23: So what does he say? He said if we serve God with it with it with a good conscience with a pure conscience
46:28: We find that God's words are pure words. We find that we love the scripture.
46:33: We want to spend time in the scripture We will be conscious of God speaking to us personally from his word
46:41: This is an amazing thing as you start to read the Bible You know if you read if you read anything in the
46:48: Bible before you were saved it was Kind of boring in some places, wasn't it?
46:55: and yet After you're saved you sit down and you begin to read the Bible and all of a sudden the words are jumping off the page and I know that every one of you has had the experience you read some chapter that you have read a hundred times before and all of a sudden
47:12: Hey, there's something new here I Never saw that before It's always been there
47:19: But the Word of God what is alive and powerful. It's alive and God speaks to us out of his word and you love the
47:30: Word of God Conversely if we were if we resist God he will resist us
47:35: But God comes to the aid of the humble He saves the afflicted
47:42: He saves the afflicted he brings down the proud look or the high look it says and He revives and he comforts the sorrowing
47:51: David says he lights my candle What does that mean? What what would that mean well
48:01: You light my lamp. He says verse 28 It is you who light my lamp the
48:08: Lord my God lightens my darkness He Can restore us he restores us to inner peace
48:16: He guides us What does light do light allows us to work?
48:23: Light allows us to walk He gives us opportunities to serve He becomes our light on our path.
48:34: So David moves on he tells the story again of God's deliverance
48:40: But this time it's from David's perspective and he looks back over the great things that that God has done for him and his his deliverance and his victories and all of his advancement and And his military skills.
48:56: It said you taught my hands to war. That's an interesting phrase He uses that in other
49:01: Psalms as well Said whatever military skill I had remember there was no military
49:08: Academy in those days He said whatever military skills I have you taught me
49:13: Lord You taught me the how to fight You equipped me with strength
49:20: You gave me the strength that I could bend the bow He says he trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow a bow of bronze
49:29: You've given me a shield of your salvation What's a shield do?
49:35: A shield is just as important to a soldier as the as his offensive weapon as the sword is because you use the shield
49:42: With the left arm and the sword with the right arm And of course under the Romans the Romans Refined this to a fare -thee -well where the guys would stand one next to the other lock shields together
49:54: You know and then jab out between the little gaps between them and they were they were the super weapon of their time they were invincible and He says
50:04: God's given me my shield He's going back over this ground.
50:10: He's going back over this ground and Charles Spurgeon put it this way second thoughts on God's mercy are often the best
50:18: When we sit and we reflect on what God has done for us Many times in times of crisis frankly we don't have time do we to reflect on what
50:28: God is doing? So it's it's good if we go back After things have sort of settled the dust is down a little bit
50:36: We can then go back and begin to reflect on what God has done and identify You know where God's hand has been seen in our lives
50:46: But God has always provided for David's needs The principle is that God is always the source of what we need always and David uses some physical examples.
50:59: He uses his feet. He said He's he's he's taking care of my feet.
51:05: Well, God has set David on the heights He says verse 33 in the place of security in The place of security the high ground
51:13: That's the first thing they teach you when you start taking military training is always take the high ground
51:19: You want to be on the high ground and David says God put me on the high ground That's that's the first principle of a strong defense get on the high ground and his hands and his arms
51:31: God has prepared David for battle and For us whatever
51:37: God designs for us he will equip us to do God will not send us to do something that he has not equipped us for He is equipping you even now young people for what he plans for you for this life
51:55: And you probably aren't even aware of it, but it's happening it's happening he gives him a shield and that sounds like Ephesians 6 doesn't it and God himself is
52:08: David's support and the result is total victory in verses 37 to 45
52:14: David outlines the victories that God has provided and The bottom line verse 45 the bottom line is that foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses total surrender
52:30: God has been with me total surrender and So then he he ends up praise to the rock praise to the rock
52:40: He started he's ending up in the same place. He started out praise to the rock praise to the rock of his salvation
52:50: David honors his God It's a living God David does not bow down to some lifeless idol
52:59: David does not bow down to some piece of wood or some piece of metal something that somebody is shaped
53:04: David's God is a living God Who can come to his aid?
53:13: David's God is a God who finishes what he starts There are no flaws in his work
53:19: God does not have a plan B. God doesn't need a plan B God is always on plan a
53:27: Everything is laying out and is evolving and taking place Exactly developing exactly as God laid it out from eternity past Nothing is surprising him
53:41: Nothing takes him by surprise. He doesn't have to get the committee together to figure out what we're going to do because You know, what are we going to do?
53:50: It's all chasing David. What are we going to do about that? It's all laid out and God will finish what he begins and we can we can count on that ourselves what
54:01: God has started in our lives He will finish what God has started in our lives that surrounds us.
54:08: He will finish What he started in the universe he will finish David's God is a faithful God David has put his faith in God as a young man and God has not failed
54:23: David even once David has certainly failed God, but God has never failed
54:31: David not one time David's God is a God who protects and defends his people
54:39: David's God is the only God who is a rock except our God he says and This God will provide salvation and be praised
54:52: Among the heathen it says in the King James Version here. It says For this
54:58: I will praise you O Lord among the nations and sing to your name if you go it's that this is one place where I like the
55:05: King James a little better because it says you will be praised among the heathen and Paul cites this go to Romans 15 9.
55:12: He quotes this verse as Proof that the Messiah is also going to be the light of the
55:18: Gentiles and That salvation will be provided for all of God's creation.
55:25: Not just the Jewish people alone He also says David's enemies will be subdued verse verse 47 and finally
55:36: David's line is going to be David's line is going to be continued verse 50 great salvation.
55:42: He brings to his King he shows steadfast love to his anointed to David and his offspring forever and Here David has a view beyond his immediate
55:55: Biological offspring. He's not just thinking of Solomon.
56:03: He's thinking he knows that somewhere Again we could we could debate and we can talk about how detailed his knowledge was
56:13: But certainly he knew that a Messiah was going to come at some point
56:19: Because promises had been made to David and what did the angel
56:28: Gabriel say to Mary? When he came and announced Jesus birth
56:34: He will be great He will be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God will give unto him the throne of his father
56:42: David there he was and So the dominant theme to close the dominant theme of Psalm 18 is that God is our rock
56:54: God is our rock. He is the shelter beside which we can be protected and prosper
57:00: He's the fortress where we can run and be safe He's the foundation where we can plant our shaking feet and stand firm in the face of whatever
57:10: Adversity and trial may come our way He is our security and refuge
57:16: He is a very present help in trouble. He's not far off.
57:22: He's present He's close by he is the rock of ages He's the rock of ages he inspired
57:29: Augustus top lady To write that immortal hymn rock of ages cleft for me.
57:35: I read and I had never read this story before but It the story goes that top lady actually took refuge in a rock in a great rock out of a great storm that he was caught in and On the ground lying on the ground in this apparently there was a little cleft in the rock or something
57:58: He found a playing card That had been dropped by someone and he wrote down at least the first verse of rock of ages on that playing card
58:09: That playing card still exists It's in a museum somewhere and it still exists but like top lady we can rest secure in him
58:20: He's the rock of ages, I think we should probably close by singing that let's pray our
58:30: Heavenly Father Truly we praise you and we thank you that you are a rock you were
58:36: David's rock and you are our rock We can come to you in time of trouble.
58:42: We can flee to the rock that is higher than I we can receive protection Safety security and a firm foundation and Lord we can do nothing but praise and thank you for that and we ask this in Jesus name