Psalm 18

Psalm 18

come on in, Let’s start here. What’s your what’s your self narrative? Getting out of bed this morning, the alarm clock, you’re like here we go again, or you’re like here we go again. I mean, what’s your self narrative? Are you just constantly thinking like fearful thoughts? Are you like scared? The sky is falling self narrative? Are you uneasy, shaken, nervous about what’s gonna happen if uncertainty about your past or the future? Is that yourself narrative? You’re you’re, what you’re telling yourself is your day or your week been filled with anxious thoughts, dreadful thoughts about our society and our culture, what’s happening in our country and what’s happening in your career and your future. The Tory the stories. We tell ourselves how we talk to ourselves about ourselves, define our life, there’s a there’s a your self narrative really has a trajectory to what is happening and what will happen in your life, you’re like, wait a second, I thought this was a bible church, it is going somewhere. So hang with me. And so your self talk this conversation that’s happening in your mind every single day has consequences. You can think of yourself as the hero of the story you’re writing, you can think of yourself as the victim of the story, you’re writing, you think of yourself as a healer in the story, healing your friends and your family, but when you understand this self narrative that is occurring in between your ears, you can start changing it and when you unlock the self narrative, it unlocks not only your past unlocks your future potential as a follower of christ today is the last sermon series of our summer of psalms where we’ve been kind of looking at these different psalms about emotions and thoughts and feelings and how to process life the good parts of life and the bad parts of life, but today’s psalm psalm 18. This covers this, this whole book of psalms and a great summary, an amazing topic addressing the emotions and feelings and the thought life we have as christians. So let’s pray, we’re about to embark on of quoting God is a very heavy thing and I don’t want to do it wrong. So let’s pray, let’s pray God, I thank you for today, thank you for the word of God and saw maintain I said just give us wisdom as we learn to navigate this narrative in our heads, supposed to give us wisdom to think rightly of ourselves and of you and of others. I said just give us an understanding of psalm 18, help us to really understand what David is writing about Lord as it just really lead us in our time today. We need you to make this time worthwhile unlock our minds and unlock the mind of David and the mind of one of the authors of the bible and how to think correctly about life that we’re living. Give us wisdom and help in jesus name, we pray Amen. Okay, so solemn 18 is on page 2 58 in your house bible, grab that, pull it out and you can take that home if you don’t own a bible, it’s one of the longer psalms. It’s not a short one. There’s four long psalms in the bible psalm 18 1, 18 being the longest. It’d take me six minutes to read this psalm if I went straight through it. Um, it’s, it’s a chunk, it’s 50 verses and there’s four lines in each verse. It’s a lot. But I believe the word of God is powerful and alive and we need to make sure we look at the word of God as we go through the bible. And so this song is written by David. Uh, and he really does model self talk in an incredible way for us. That’s incredibly valuable to our lives. David is described as a man after God’s own heart, who was one of the most influential kings in Israel’s history. He was a warrior who was an artistic poet, singing man and he also knew how to kill people. You get what I’m saying. He was a leader and he had family problems. He had all kinds of things. He processed in his whole life and psalm 18 is like a microcosm of beginning to end of a young David to an old David, looking over all of his life experience, which is an amazing rich life experience. He was in no church boy that said in said inside all day, he was, he has an impressive life and his self narrative about how he thought about himself, other people and God is incredibly instructive to us as people. This self narrative, the self talk is incredibly powerful. Once you understand what’s happening and you need to know some things about David to understand and appreciate what he’s writing. It’s not just in a vacuum, like a hallmark card, there’s, there’s a lot of depth behind this passage. You need to know that David was called and given a vision by the prophet at a very young age and he’d be the leader of Israel, he was anointed and he said he would be appointed some day to be the king of Israel. But at that time there was Saul, a bad king in Israel who was in a monarchy at this time, meaning Saul’s son Jonathan and other sons of Saul would be the heir to the throne. David’s off in the fields, watching sheep and Saul as the king of Israel. Saul is a tall, dark, handsome head taller than everyone else. Leader man. And they described David as a Rudy boy. A red complexion haired faced boy out in the field, watching sheep. Saul was God’s man that the nation of Israel picked. Uh Saul was the nation of Israel’s man that they picked. David was God’s man and David was described as a man after God’s own heart and instead of a direct path from 8, 15, 16 year old boy in the sheep watching sheep to the throne of Israel? He had a 15 year hiatus through the wilderness. Through the highs and lows of living a life on the run. He has no family connection to the song at the beginning of the story and he got a battlefield promotion after killing Goliath. Do we know what I’m talking about? David killed Goliath? Yes, Okay, David killed Goliath. You can youtube that later. There’s some live footage. It’s great. Um, uh, anyway, so David killed Goliath who was mocking in the nation of Israel. And David came along and he killed him. An amazing story, which we’re not talking about today. And then David gets promoted to be in the courts of Saul. And Saul is manic depressive, you know, a mentally unstable man in his rage and his bipolar rage, he physically verbally and emotionally attacks a young teenage boy, David for years and they ended up, David fleeing for his life after multiple assassination attempts from the hand of Saul. And then Saul’s people think of all that trauma. But to understand this, you need to know the pain and the heartache of David didn’t start after he got famous for killing Goliath. It started back when he was a kid and his family, the prophet of God came to his father and said, Bring me your sons. And David said, all right, here are my sons? And he said, what are these? Aren’t? Where’s your other? And the other sons like, oh, there’s that one. They call them the worthless one who’s out watching the sheep. You take your lowest ranking slave and we say, we don’t want you around the family. You go out there in the wilderness and watch sheep and keep our livestock healthy and safe. And if anything bad happens, you’re in charge and you’re responsible and you like, would hire a slave or your most lowest ranking servant to do that. He took his son and called him a worthless one. He didn’t bring him to see the man of God, the Prophet when he was picking the new king. It’s like a family photo and he’s not even on the edge of the photo like this. He’s like off shot, not even invited to the family photo, you get kind of the pain of his childhood paying his first employer Saul. But you got to know like what made David tick, What was his thought life like? What was his self narrative like? Because he experienced a great deal of human experiences here in life. So, he’s on the run running for his life. He learns gritty leadership. He learns how God can use them in powerful ways in the private life and the public life. And then those that year came when he’s finally finally had to fulfill the vision of God about being a king of Israel after 15 years from 15 to 37 year old man, he’s living as a fugitive, it wasn’t just his wealth and prosperity and peace, his entire existence. It was none of that. The blessing of God. It wasn’t that it was pain and heartache. It’s like the floor of David’s life fell out and he just kept falling. David lost so much in those 15 years, not just that he lose time, he lost safety, he lost his youth, he lost his family, he lost his career, he lost his rights, he lost his comfort, he lost his connection with the people of God. And at times there at the end of this time of the wilderness, he lost his connection with God. His life got bad. He was at rock bottom and it seemed like God was just digging deeper and deeper and deeper into his circumstances. But there’s a resiliency, there’s a temperament to David that is amazing. He has mental habits of how he viewed himself others and God that a wise man, a wise woman will perk up and pay attention to, because life’s gonna hit you church and we need to be model how to think and respond biblically through the word of God because think we don’t want to just be that dumb churches just white knuckles and changes their actions without changing our values, our beliefs and our and our understanding of why we do what we do. We need to look at why we do what we do. It’s a lame theology is to change what we do. We understand our motivation, our habits, our belief that that impact everything we do. If you change someone’s mind, you change their entire life. This is a big opportunity. Perk up christians, this matters. It’s all maintained. We see he wasn’t better. He wasn’t the hero of the story. He wasn’t the helper of the story. He wasn’t the healer of everything we see. David pins an incredible insight into the psalm of unlocking the mind of some self narrative. That is incredibly helpful and healthy scholars think David wrote this as a young man. He rediscovered this song as an older king after he’s lived much of life, which we’ll get into. I think as you read this song, think David’s whole life is flashing before his eyes and he’s thinking, remembering and recalling things that happened. As he pins this song. What do we see? What should we feel as we go to this arm? You should see a deep gratitude in God and a delight in the life of trusting in God. And I want to ask you a question to hold me accountable as one of your pastors. If David were here and Elon musk made a time machine and got him here and he’s sitting next to you in your translating on your phone what I’m saying and he’s reading along in hebrew, what I’m saying in english, would he agree with me, that’s your duty as a good reader of God’s word to think if I’m off or not understand that. So you have a job here as we go through this. All right. I’ve prayed I’ve introduced this now. We’re gonna jump in psalm 18 and we’re gonna look at the subheading that usually we skip it helps give some context. It says the Lord is my Rock, my fortress to the choir master a psalm of David. The servant of the Lord who addresses the words of his servant of the of his this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and for the hand a song saul. So David composed a song after that 15 year season of on the run running for his life was over. And this is a glorious moment in his life, A highlight mountain top peak of his life. And he writes this song we pick up in verse one, it says this, I love you. O Lord, my strength. I love you. Oh Lord, my strength. The very first thing he writes is I love you. O Lord! My strength. We’re looking at his self narrative. And what makes David a tick. What makes him a winner. It’s he views God as a love relationship with God as his strength of his life. The word he used here because you study this morning. I just want to tell everyone else who didn’t study it. The word he used here to describe that love is a verb is to love with all the tender feelings of nature for my innermost bowels. The deepest part of me of who I am as a person. What makes me tick is I have a love you, Lord, I love you Lord. When was the last time you told the Lord that you loved him? Think about that when the last time you were praying to God and like, you know God, I love you. This is in days, weeks, months. I I remember my mother as a raising me and my siblings, she would pray and she’d have things she would say and things she would pray and she would always say like, I just wanna tell you Lord that I love you and I kind of thought that was strange. But now as I’m growing older and have kids of my own, I’m like, I get that there’s a softening to your heart when you’re like, I love you Lord, I love you Lord. You’re my strength. It’s incredibly healthy posture of your heart. David declared that he loved the Lord. But he also decided to love the Lord. David has ups and downs. If you’ve studied David’s life, he’s got all kinds of emotional stuff. He’s worked through all kinds of terrible things that have happened to him in his life. But in the ups and downs of his life, the heartbeat of his life is I love you. Lord Love. It consists of motive and reason. Why should. David love God? We see in verse two, David love God because God has been so good to him verse to the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. My God, my rock in whom I take refuge. My shield. The horn of my salvation. My stronghold. Iraq gives you shade in the wilderness, shelter, protection, rest and safety. Iraq was key for survival. You can see your enemies coming. You can hide from the desert sun on the back side. You can get away from animals and sleep at night of peace. Horn means strength. At the end of his 15 years of living life on the run. This end of this trial, David was defined as a man and he was defined as a king and a leader. In what we see. We see, David with nine names in those first two verses for God honoring names for God. David knew God intimately in the trials and intimately in the Dark Desert seasons of his life and he had a deep walk of God so much that he used his name. nine different ways. I have my wife anne and I call her anne. Sometimes they call her an sometimes I call her what do all couples call each other boo babe. Hey babe, Hey babe, hey babe, remember when you were a young couple dating for the first time you guys found test out pet names for each other nicknames for each other. Remember that you have that to look forward to guys. You have that to look forward to. My wife used to call me Bedhead, razzle dazzle Supreme. That was a funny nickname and it didn’t stick. And so that’s great. Hopefully can revive that one. Okay, but there’s, she loved me so much. She would give me names and different names. God was David loved God so much that he gave him nine different names, nine names. He’s not just God. God, he used different names of affection, of friendship, of relationship. We’re trying to study the thought life what made David tick and his self narrative hit a deep walk of God, a deep love for God so deep that he loved God so much. Not just use the same plane name every day. He used different names as he loved and worshiped God. Look at me at verse three, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. I’m calling the Lord who is worthy to praise and I’m saved from my enemies. So Israel at this time, he wrote this psalm is on the verge of a civil war. The nation’s incredibly fragile. They can’t afford to fight each other because the nations around them will attack and take them over enemies is an active term meaning the people in the in one side of the king of Israel embraced him. The nethers, half of the nation of Israel did not embrace his kingship because it’s a monarch. So that this was social media online at this day and age when he was writing this, there would have been hashtag trending, go find Saul’s son and keep the old monarch of Saul going would be trending on social media at this time on twitter. There was people that did not like him so much that half the nation of Israel was holding out and not calling him king at this time. He had active enemies, not just Goliath, he’s dead. Not just Saul, he’s dead. He has active political, influential leaders and enemies in the nation of Israel and David was saved, Spurgeon says not only was David saved, he was saved singing. We see that throughout David’s writing, but this also talks about his prayer. What kind of prayer person are you like? Prayer person? What kind of prayer person are you? We’re talking about prayer and thought life and your self narrative and what you’re passionate about. Are you a handout christian? I’m here for a handout. God, I need a parking pass. I got pulled over, you know, Oh, don’t let that TPS report go through. Well, Lord help, get that. Get me a promotion at work. I mean, what kind of prayer culture do you have in your thoughts about God, See that slot machine you’re pulling all the time. David doesn’t just ask God for help, which is appropriate and what we should do. But he goes deeper than that. He’s got nine names for God. He goes deeper than that. He’s proactively praising God for help for future enemies, help for future challenges. His prayer goes from just give me something to praising God. There’s a depth of that. I don’t know if you’ve been a prayer meeting and someone’s just, it’s like a sick list prayer meeting which is appropriate to pray for each other, but it’s like pray for so and so and pray for so and so and pray for so and so who are sick and that’s not wrong. But if that’s the depth, that’s it. There should be like breadth and depth and color and imagery and there should be like amazing parts of prayer about the future and the past about concerns and thoughts in your life and your heart, Your prayer, life should be more than just can I have something today? God, it should be deeper than that. You should be worshiping and praising God, You should be confessing sin to God, you should be adoring God, you should be asking from God, but also like acknowledging and praising his name. Our prayer. Life needs to be deep. Like David’s walk with God was deep part of his self talk was a deep talk with God. Look at verses four through six, we’re gonna look at and this is where most people live in our city, Most people live in this room, verses four through six, life is hard, emotions can run high. And David is a very emotional emotive man and he writes a very vivid picture of the pain he’s experiencing. David probably would be experiencing anxiety, depression and torment from pain from the past of people. And the bible is filled with examples of how to process mental pain and emotional pain. Look at, look at me and verses four through six and the cords of death encompassed me and the torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of entangled me in the snares of death confronted me and in my distress, I called upon the Lord to my God, I cried for help and from his temple, he heard my voice and from and my cry to him reached his ears. The temple wasn’t built yet. David’s son built this temple later. But the temple he’s talking about is the temple in heaven. In those days as a king, you had to physically leave your army into battle. You, you couldn’t sit in a big desk and have general send a drone strike to kill your enemies with razor blades. You had to physically lead your army into battle. What kind of warrior king was David who was the man who led from the front. David was a special forces elite warrior. He knew what it meant to take someone’s life. He knew how to kill people. He was familiar with death. He made a career of killing the enemies of the nation of Israel, he was able to live off the land. If you dropped David in Mongolia, he would compete really well in the alone wilderness survival show. He was incredibly tough, incredibly tough. When I read about David and his Mighty Man, I read those passages to my kids at an early age, I named to my kids middle names after some of the mighty men. It was basically a, it was basically like you brother and just a bunch of dangerous big scary warriors who made a career of hurting the enemy of God. Do you understand that was his game face? You have to lead some battle tough men in some brutal situations. If you want to read some amazing stories of the people of God, in nature of Israel fighting the enemies of God read about David’s Mighty men. It is amazing, awesome passages. If you have, it just makes you wanna run through a wall. It’s it’s amazing. But think about this, he’s very tough, but he also has a very tender heart towards God. His self talk is tough but tender. He knows when to flip the switch and go from one extreme to the other. David practices radical candor with God about what he’s really feeling and radical candor with the people that he’s leading. He’s incredibly authentic. His self narrative, he doesn’t play that game. When you get into distress like David, we have to pray. We’ve got to be raw and authentic with our emotions like verses four through six shows you can’t pretend to pray to God about what you’re feeling. God knows what you’re feeling. He created you, he knows everything that’s happening in you. From a baby in your mother’s womb. He saw life again and he’s gonna watch you till you die. He knows the emotions that are happening in your heart better than you do. You have to take those emotions to God for your self talk. We have to talk that out to God. And then David rolls right into an incredibly vivid picture. An amazing, vivid picture. It feels like. Here comes God, look at look at these next passages. Close your eyes this time. You can close your eyes, close your eyes. Everyone I want you to picture in your mind as I read this to then the earth reeled and rocked and the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth, glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew. He came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made. Darkness is covering his canopy around him, thick, thick clouds, dark with water out of the brightness before him, hail stones and coals of fire broke through his clouds. Amen like. What is that about? David is crazy, descriptive and exact his attention to detail is amazing and he shows that God is angry. He’s angry about what is happening and he reveals God’s wrath. And David shows an incredible details that leave us wondering what is David writing about this entire song is very uh, christ centric. It’s very, you can, you should be able to see christ this entire passage and at the end of our time, I will go back and show you. I was at a conference of an author and a pastor. I respect his ministry. He said when you’re preaching through the bible, if you don’t see a way to christ make a way to christ uh, there’s a scarlet thread that goes throughout the entire bible. That’s the purpose of the whole bible is a cross of christ. And there’s a beginning and you look forward to christ in the old testament. You look back to christ the new testament and we need to see christ in this passage. There’s a parallel here between David’s life and writing in the prophecy of christ and his, what he did in his his work. This whole song is incredibly Messianic and it still applied to David, but also applies to christ, you know, who was both tender and tough, who is both familiar with death and destruction? Who’ve been the natural worlds that we just read about with authority over the supernatural and the natural, where the wind and the waves obey him, sickness had to flee his presence and dead people rose around him, jesus. I’m giving you science school questions here, jesus say jesus four through six. We’re talking about jesus people. Um verse 13 No, I’m wrong in what I reference. I just said verse 13 though, is where we’re at verse 13. It says this. The Lord also thundered in the heavens and the most high uttered his voice hail stones and coals of fire. He sent out his arrows and scattered them. He flashed with forth lightning and routed them. Then the channels of the C. Word scene and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. What does David not say? He does not say God was mad. He goes way deeper than that. There’s so much passion and drama and much imagery and vivid pageantry in this passage. And we see a personal intervention of God to help his servant. God is right on time all the time. And he comes through to help his servant. So what is happening, David is looking back and he remembers and recalls God’s deliverance over those 15 years on the run in the wilderness. He know we know that God has gone, we know that David had gone to hell and back to live out what God has called him to do for his life, and God delivered him every step of the way. There’s a phrase that the foundation of the world laid bare. That’s terminology that emphasizes the judgment of God on the earth in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the trial, hard to see when things are hard to see. The hand of God. David saw the hand of God felt the breath of God, saw the fingerprints of God in his life. Usually we see the hand of God the fingerprints of God on our trial. Life after we’re through the trial. But when we’re in the pain of the trial of those 15 years in the wilderness, we don’t see God. It’s because we’re not worshiping God and going to God as our friend, when we get through the hard times in life. When we look back and think, Oh, God took care of me in my 20’s. Got good care of me. In my high school years, God took care of me and I saw his hand protecting and leading and guiding me up till here. But when we’re in the trial, we Miss God because we aren’t found worshiping in our pain, Christians. David experienced more pain than probably any of us in this room And he models for us how to manage that pain. Verse 16 he sent him from on high he took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy from those who hated me from those who were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity? But the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because he delights in me. Only God gave the victory to David. Is not a David self made victory. This is key church. We need to listen up in verse 19 and Jesus Christ God delights in us. The glory of the gospel is not just that God puts up with you, christian, but he is passionate about you. He delights in you. God is in the people saving business. The life transformation business, and he delights to deliver you christian verse 20 the Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands. He rewarded me for I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. He’s talking about those painful seasons of his life for all his rules were before me and his statues. I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him and I kept myself from my guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands in his sight. During that 15 year time of testing David was challenged to respond in unrighteous ways. He’s opportunity to kill his enemy saul, who was hunting him multiple times. His opportunity to raise his hand against God and rebel against God and live a compromise life and quit on the call of God on his life. What is David not saying? David is not saying he was a sinless perfect person. He is saying because he devoted himself to the Lord and a life obedience to God’s word. It resulted in a godly life. This was not a claim of David being a sinless perfect person. And first Samuel 29 and 30, before he got raised up to this position to becoming the King of Israel after Saul died in battle, David was in a season of back sliding and spiritual decline. In first Samuel 29, 30. This is even before we know what happened with Bathsheba, when he committed adultery with another man’s wife, had a baby with her, she became pregnant and instead of confessing his sin, he killed her husband. That happens later in his life when he’s King of Israel, David was a man who could be questioned and corrected and a leader that you cannot question and correct, does questionable things. But, you know, one greater than David who did live love and lead the perfect life whose hands were blameless and guilt free and sinless, were perfectly righteous person with clean hands. The son of David. The messiah king. This whole passage echoes christ. It echoes the resurrection and echoes glorification. This song has two places. Scholars think one where he wrote it in his early thirties. Another time. He wrote it at the end of his life. And this is true of David’s life. Looking forward into opportunity and looking back on a whole career of being a king in Israel. An old David would have re found and rediscovered and reread this and agreed with this. And a young David wrote this incredibly dark chapters of David’s life that are coming and David knew who he was and he found who he was and he found his righteousness in the work of God, his friend, his savior. David wasn’t the hero of the story. David was God was the hero of David’s story, but David was not the king of the kingdom. It was God’s the king of his heart and king of this kingdom. David was not the hero. God was this talks about sin. How does David think about his self talk about sin in verse 23 some translations that says, my sin, your bible might say different wording of that. My sin phrase. But David knew what his Tennessee’s and sin were. Certain sins were more tempting to David than they were to other people around him. Like there’s a $300 million casino showing up in Lincoln, supposedly the next couple of months or years or whatever. I’m not gonna be tempted to go and gamble there. You know, I gambled once in college at a slot machine and lose like 10 bucks or five bucks or six bucks. I was like, that’s stupid. I’ve never been back again. I’m not tempted to gamble. Others here might be tempted to gamble. You know, I’m saying there’s sin that applies to you and said that doesn’t isn’t your temptation. But we all have my sin specific kind of sin that we struggle with. We’ve got another specific kind of things that trigger that response of going to that my sin. It’s a big win, A big loss. I’m wasting time where I have stressed out by things. I’m frustrated or insecure. We all run to a proneness to run to a certain kind of sin and that is our specialized sin patterns. We have the bible says every one of us has turned to our own way. We all have a tendency to sin Salam 51 After he, after he After he has a baby with another man’s wife and kills her husband and is approached by the prophet of God. We see in Psalm 51, David Genuinely changing and repenting from his sin. That focus, that’s a focus on David sin. My sin. That’s how we focus about myself. But what about other people sin towards me. What about other wrong things? Men and women do to attack and hurt me emotionally, psychologically, mentally, physically. What about people’s sin to me? One thing that’s the problems in here. About the problems out there to how do you think about other people’s sins and this matters and this really kept David self talk out of the victim mentality. Look at verse 25 it talks about with the merciful. You show yourself merciful with the blameless. You show yourself blameless with the purified you show yourself pure and with the crooked you make yourself seem torturous Tortures means an astute or shrewd in hebrew. That means to twist verse 27 for you save a humble people. But the hottie eyes you bring down. There’s basically a principle here. David’s unpacking for us that we like to treat ourselves. One way or another people a different way. We want to give forgiveness from my sin. But you better get called out. The boss is gonna let me get off the hook. But you better get written up. I get a pass, You get a penalty. I get two scoops of ice cream. You get one scoop of ice cream. Remember your childhood know your childhood was amazing. But the idea here is what you sow. You reap Matthew 7-4 with the judgment you judge. You will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. There’s a warning here. We tend to measure differently. One stick for measuring myself and a different yardstick for measuring you generous of me stingy. A few. David is about to step in from like lions and tigers and bears and kings and warriors and people trying to physically kill him to more of a mental game of pain and leadership has this this leader of this clan, this business leader, this influential leader. This this interesting priest, this other national king. He’s about to go to like the pain of being a soldier to paying of being a king. And this is like blue collar life and death. This is white collar life and death. It’s a different cerebral kind of pain and there’s a way to deal with people, humble people, Hottie people, crooked people, Shrewd people, Pure people UNP your people blameless people, corrupt people. Merciful people. There’s a way to work with other people’s pain when they come after you and David models for us how to be not naive and taking advantage of but be generous with those people. Verse 28 4. It is you who light my lamp, the Lord, my God lightens my darkness. Light and darkness was a real thing at that day and age. I mean when the lights went out, it was dark. When the sun went down the lights went out, it was over. It wasn’t like we can plug it back in light and dark was the thing you had to work in the light. When night came, you had to be ready for the night verse 29 4 by you. I can run against a troop and if my God, I can leap over a wall, the Lord enabled encourage and energize David to step into this new chapter of his life. So not just as David going on. Captain America and the enemies of God, but David stepping into this political kingdom world. I mean, think he’s out in the desert with, you know, out in the field of sheep and then he’s running for his life with a group of misfit men who learned how to fight and kill people together and their hired mercenaries for a while. And then now he’s stepping into the palace of Israel with the establishment and all these different people that have been around for generations. That is a different skill set. He needs to learn a different self thought self talk. He’s engaging and just like God enabled encourage and energize him here. He’s gonna help him here. But notice in the last passage, David self talk is always rooted in the greatness of God. Verse 29. Always rooted in the greatness of God. But with you, I can with my God, I will. It’s rooted in the greatness of God. He’s not the hero of the story. He’s not the victim of the story. God is the hero of the story and there’s a trap as things go. Well, my head says, the grow as people are head grows like, yeah, I’m good. The newspapers write my comments about this is right. I’m the man as David’s head didn’t grow. You’ll see as you read this passage as things went well, David’s head seemed to shrink the exact opposite and he praised God and was grateful for God even more verse 30 this God his way is perfect. The Word The Lord proves true. He’s a shield to all who take refuge in him. David praises God when he looks back on his life, he praises God for his present strength to live the day. And he’s praising God for his future proven help of the future day that you should underline verse verse 30 it talks about the word of The Lord proves true. Pull out your pens people and underline that line in that passage, the word of the Lord proves true. Can we get an Amen as a church? Okay, what about over here? Amen The word of the Lord proves true in your teenage years. Going through high school. Does the Word Lord prove true? Amen. What about your twenties? The colleges, the word Lord prove true. What about your thirties? The Word of the Lord prove true. What about 30 and beyond that the Word of the Lord prove true. Amen. Amen. That is God is true and he comes through all the time, christians and our hope is in God. Not that I proved true or my scheming proved true or icon my way there. I manipulated my way. There is the Word The Lord proved true. Time and time again. Season and season again. God came through verse 31. For who is God, but the Lord and who is a rock except our God. The God who equipped me with strength, made my way blameless. These verses are talking about the gentleness of God’s salvation for us. Verse 33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer and sent me securely on the heights. He trained my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. So David self talk these things that he’s thinking about in the highlight high stakes situation of his life when he walked into a room and community for the first time and he’s like, I gotta buy a bible for the first time and someone’s gonna tell me what, not by a weird bible. But I had a normal bible When you walk into situations, God needs to give you strength and skill and security for that high stakes situation Christian because we trust in him, not in ourselves. We trust in God coming through, not in us. Coming through verse 35 for you have given me the shield of your salvation and your right hand supports me and your sinfulness made me great. Your right hand supports me. I’m sorry guys left handed people that was yesterday, right hand, this is today in the whole world. Sorry if I was the bible in your right hand at that time. Was used. Your right hand is used for your strong hand is used for skillful labor. The special forces. David was great, but the gentleness of God made him greater men and women. We need to have a big view of God in a small view of self and that when I get to that high stakes situation, God got me there. God’s gonna keep me there, and God’s gonna grow me there As I lean into God and lift him up and lift myself down 1st 36. You gave a wide place for my feet under me. My feet did not slip this self. Talk about white places. David gives credit to God when times are peaceful and easy and things are going well in my career and my marriage and my home. I don’t quietly go like this. That’s stupid. That’s not how David thought. I think I gotta go like this and give God credit and praise. I’m conditioning and training myself to think and give God praise and the good times and the bad times. Verse 37 I pursued my enemies and over overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet for equipped me with strength for the battle. And you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me, I destroyed. They cried for help. But there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, and he did not answer them. I beat them fine like dust before the wind. I can cast them out like the mire of the streets just again, knows how quickly as quick as possible. David talks himself down and got up In verses 43 through 50. We see David’s the coming kingdom of the Messiah is the big thing you delivered me from the strife of the people. You made me the head of the nation’s people who I do not even know, come and serve me. As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. Foreigners came cringing to me. Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses. David immediately became the king of the southern tribes of the northern tribes. Later slowly came to him and declared their loyalty to him. That’s a humbling experience when God raises up the enemies and bits them under you. But what was David’s self talk when things went well as things went right for David instead of his head growing his head shrunk, christian verse 46 The Lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted, be the God of my salvation. Anyone does that sound like a song we sang. The Lord lives, blessed be just my church there in a roar that I was a part of growing up. Yes, yes. Alright, if you’re younger than me, you don’t know what I’m talking about. But if you’re my age on up, You might have sang this song growing up as a but think about verse two and verse 46 he brings up this idea of my Rock verse 42. The Lord is My Rock verse 46 blessed be my rock. There’s this appreciation to God is the salvation of his life. The stability, life, the anchor in his life is God. And that’s the God he loves verse 47 to the Lord who gave me vengeance and subdue people under me. He rescued me from my enemies. Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me. You delivered me from the man of violence that solves personal shout out. But his self talk, his perspective on promotions. David’s getting a massive promotion right now from a guy running in the desert to the king of Israel wilderness to the king and the kingdom. His perspective as promotion is, he didn’t manipulate his way there. He didn’t con his way there. He didn’t kill Saul to get there. He didn’t play the political game. He didn’t woo people. He didn’t give a bunch of money to get that position. He trust that God would raise him up and raise him down. He was only existing on the decision of God to keep him in that position. It’s kind of like the perspective you brought God brought me into this world into this role and he can take me out of this world. He held the role that God gave him an open hand. He didn’t grasp onto it. He held it open handedly Verse 49 for this, I will praise you o lord among the nations and sing to your name. So this big idea in psalms is are usually planted at the beginning and the end of the chapter. The main themes of the psalm, there’s a few main themes, but the beginning of the end of the chapter tends to be the main sound bite. You need to hold onto to grasp psalm 18 verse one is I love you O Lord my strength. And then verse 50 is great salvation. He brings to his king and show steadfast love was anointed to David and his offspring forever. As we conclude, David is cracking the code of how to think about life and process the good times and the bad times, the times of stress and the times of prosperity and in many ways what God did in and threw David and his kingdom was a prophecy of what he would do with a greater one than David, greater works in and through the messiah, jesus, the descendant of David. Think about these passages in these phrases and how they apply to christ. So I just went through this from David’s perspective, which is how it works. But this also could easily and does apply to christ. I can see jesus saying, I love you Lord, the Lord is my rock, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation my stronghold! I called the Lord who is worthy to praise. And I was saved from my enemies. The ropes of death were wrapped around me. The torrents of destruction terrified me. The ropes of shell entangled me and snares of death confronted me. I called the Lord in my distress and I cried to my God for help and his temper. And from his temple he heard my voice and my cry to him, reached his ears that could be easily about jesus death. That can easily make you think about jesus and christ and his death. Verses seven through 18. This talks about jesus resurrection. The earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled. That happened at the resurrection. They shook because he burned with anger. Smoke rose from his nostrils and consuming fire from his mouth. Coals were set ablaze by it. He bend the heavens, and came down total darkness beneath his feet he wrote on a chair of him and flew soaring on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his hiding place in strong storm clouds canopy around him from the radiance of his presence. His cloud swept onward with hails and blazing coals. The Lord thunder, and from Heaven the most high made his voice heard. He shot his arrows and scattered them. He hurled lightning bolts and routed them. The depth of the sea were visible and the foundation of the world were exposed at the rebuke Lord, at your rebuke Lord! At the blast of the breath of your nostrils he reached down from on high and took hold of me. He pulled me out of the deep water and rescue me from my enemies by powerful enemies of those who hated me. They confronted me on the day of calamity and by the Lord was my support. That’s the resurrection of jesus. He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. This is the exaltation of jesus. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. He repaid me according to the cleanliness of my hands. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, have not turned from my God to witness. Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me. We know that throughout the gospels he perfectly obeyed everything that was required of him and have not dis disregarded his statues. I was blameless towards him and kept myself from my iniquity. So Lord repaid me according to my righteousness according to the cleanliness of my hands and his site with the faithful. You prove yourself faithful, with the blameless, repeat yourself blameless with this pure. You prove yourself pure and with the crooked. You prove yourself shrewd for you. Rescue and oppressed people. But you humble those with hottie eyes. The exaltation of Christ. There’s 28. We’re looking at the victory of Christ the Lord Lord. Your you light my lamp. My God illuminates my darkness, and with my God I can attack a barricade and with my God I can leap over a while. God his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is pure and he is a shield to all who take refuge in him. For who is God? Besides the Lord who is a rock. Only our God God. He close me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He sets me securely on the heights. He trains my hands for war, and my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation. Your right hand upholds me and your humility exalts me. You make a spacious place beneath me for my feet, and my ankles did not give way. I pursued my enemies and overtook them. I did not turn back until they were wiped out. I crushed them, and they they cannot get up. They fall beneath my feet. You have clothed me of strength for battle. You subdue my adversaries beneath me. You have made my enemy’s retreat before them. I annihilate those who hate me. They cry for help, but there is no one to save them. They cry to the Lord, but he does not answer them. I pulverize them like dust before the wind I trampled them like mud in the streets. The victory of christ and this last seven verses suggest the kingdom of christ you have freed me from the from the feuds among the people. You have anointed me as the head of nations. The people I had not known served me. Foreigners submit to me cringing as soon as they hear they obey me. Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their from their fortifications. The Lord lives blessed be my rock and exalted be the god of our salvation god. He grants me vengeance. He subdues the people under me. He frees me from my enemies. You exalt me above my adversaries. You rescue me from violent men. Therefore I will give thanks to you among all the nations. Lord, I will sing praise about your name. He gives great victories to his king and he shows loyalty to his anointed to David and his descendants forever. It could be both true for David’s life and for a foreshadow prophecy about jesus and his life one greater than David. Kane and he lived and he conquered and he lived a perfect life. So what does this apply to you? What do you need to do with this? We share in both christ suffering we share in his resurrection, we share in his exaltation we share in his victory and we share in his kingdom as christ followers. Now obviously it’s a lighter version of what christ did but we share in the good times and the bad times with christ but what do you need to do? We have a self narrative christian and it might be great. Maybe your parents were like really biblically wired in and they were really worried about you having biblical theology and biblical worldview and a correct biblical view of yourself and others and pain and prosperity and good times and bad times in the correct biblical view of God, that might have been your default setting as a kid, that’s probably not your default setting of most of you. There’s some kids in this room, we’re working hard as parents trying to do that, but our parents tried and they did a great job but we need to be rewiring our mind and our self talk to be biblical because I’m not gonna die and go and spend attorney with this culture, I’m not gonna die and spend eternity with social media, I’m gonna die and spend eternity with christ in his kingdom and I need to think biblically now I am training and conditioning my mind how to respond now for where I am today, someday it’s gonna be harder, it’s gonna be darker, It could be better because we don’t know what the future holds, but we know what God calls us to walk and think today and David lays out so much good stuff if you’re not a christian. If you’re not a follower of christ. You understand what we’re talking about. You need to rustle with jesus, you need to rustle is God true is God real. Can I trust with my life? You need to receive forgiveness. You need to confess your sinner, receive the forgiveness of God and let him change and transform and train and equip your life like David was you got to yield your heart and your knee and your life to christ. You cannot earn God’s salvation. You cannot be perfect. I can prove it to you in the lobby. If you want men and women, if you don’t know, christ, you need to know christ, You need to become a follower of christ. And if you are a christian, you do subscribe to Christianity. We have to let your mind be renewed by the word of God. We cannot let social media, our phones, our culture, our job, our upbringing be the trajectory. We live on the rest of our lives. That is stupid. We’re not stupid. We’re smart. That’s what our teachers told us in kindergarten were smart men and women become smarter emotionally and biblically at how you think. David models it for us an amazing way in Psalm 18, the Lord lives blessed be my rock and Exalted as the God of our salvation. I love you Lord. It starts and stops in so many different parts of soul mating. Rewire your thought processes on life and the self narrative. You have Amen. Let’s Pray God, thank you for today. Thank you for Solemn 18 I pray that the word of God would just instruct and convict lives today. We need you to help us to really wrestle with the passage and make it, make it land in our hearts and help us to walk away. If obedience has a posture of our heart and jesus name, we pray. Amen.

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Psalm 33