Walk Of Life – Day 23, July 2022 – Thoughts From The Book Of Psalms

Psalms 18 – Praising God From A Place Of Great Victory

This psalm is one of the few longest psalms sung by David thanking God for protecting him from all his enemies and for his faithfulness in keeping his promise of making him King over Israel. Even in his old age David looked back with gratitude in his heart and worshipped God with this psalm. (2 Samuel 22).

• David starts this psalm by praising God for being his rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn of salvation and his stronghold. May it be a ferocious beast or a sword (pangs of death) or the wicked schemes of the ungodly, David would cry like a child to the Lord who would then respond from the throne of heaven.
• David poetic expression of God’s deliverance gives a picture of a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, a hurricane or a great storm. Keeping in mind how God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, we can say that there is a possibility that David could have experienced God’s miraculous deliverance in his time. And he wants you to know that God never forgets us and He acts on your behalf when the sin of the ungodly has come to its full measure.
• God can only act on your behalf when you do what is right and treat others with the same kindness you expect from God. The parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21-35) gives us a gist of how God would treat us.
•  God is just and there is no flaw in his word. Through his mighty power He armed David with physical strength, skills and swiftness needed in battle to subdue all his enemies.
• Contrary to the common belief that greatness come from royal birth, wealth, victories and influences, David claimed that his greatness came from God’s gentleness. God showed his gentleness to David by giving him a good friend like Jonathan, by giving him bread from the tabernacle, by protecting him from his enemies and also by bringing good even from his mistakes like making Solomon, his second son from Beersheba to become the wisest king of Israel and letting the threshing floor of Araunah be the site of God’s temple. God’s gentleness also allowed David to show it to others by displaying self-control when he spared Saul’s life twice and showed mercy to Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth by giving him his inheritance.

All these kindnesses shown towards David made him a great king of Israel. Like David God has been showing you so much kindness in seen and unseen ways. Just think of a time, when you were impatient and would have talked inappropriately to a fellow brother or a family member, but the Holy Spirit would not allow it to protect your testimony. Or a time when you lacked some of your needs, but God provided it through a friend or a brother. Or even a time when your car might have broken down in an isolated place and out of the blue you found some help. God has been preventing you from doing many errors because he loves you and wants you to experience greatness by using you to do good works in his kingdom. Therefore, like David let us take time to look back and praise God by saying, “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!” Psalm 18:46