1I love you, LORD(f), my strength. 2The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. 3I call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; And I am saved from my enemies. 4The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 5The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came on me. 6In my distress I called on the LORD, And cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, My cry before him came into his ears. 7Then the eretz shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, Because he was angry. 8Smoke went out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. 9He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. 10He rode on a Keruv, and flew. Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind. 11He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion around him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 12At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, Hailstones and coals of fire. 13The LORD also thundered in the sky, The Elyon uttered his voice: Hailstones and coals of fire. 14He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; Yes, great lightning bolts, and routed them. 15Then the channels of waters appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, LORD(f), At the blast of the breath of your nostrils. 16He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. 17He delivered me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. 18They came on me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my support. 19He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. Psalms 18:1: 1-19 The first words, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. Gods manifestation of his presence is very fully described, ver. 7-15|. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time. Can we meditate on ver. 18, without directing one thought to Gethsemane and Calvary? Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christs deepest calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Fathers love were withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, Heb 5:7|. God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:59:38 +0000