Title Psalm 18 (June 13, 2010)
Contents
Title: Lord my strength
Text: (Psalm 18:1~50)
Hymns: 93. Jesus is my strength
Date: June 13, 2010 (Sunday) 5 am
Venue: Jeonju Yebut Church Small Worship Room
Unlike other psalms, Psalm 18 has a long headline. “The song of David, the servant of the Lord, sung by the conductor. When the Lord delivered David from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, David sang this song to the Lord. He sang like this.”
You can get a glimpse of the background of this song here. Here's a closer look at it:
God decided to forsake Saul, the first king of Israel, when he disobeyed God's word. And he chose David to be king in his place, and he anointed Samuel the prophet. Five years later, Saul begins to understand this fact. So he decides to kill David in order to keep the throne. He persistently pursues to kill David for 10 years until he is killed in the battle with the Philistines.
So, as a fugitive, David leads a truly endless wandering life. After many years passed and Saul died, he ascended to the throne. I couldn't help but give thanks in words to God for protecting and guiding me. Today's text is a poem written at this time to give thanks and praise to God.
How could David not give up and persevere and win even in a desperate situation?
1. Because of love. (Verse 1)
This text is also a verse that has been a subject of much controversy among scholars who study the Bible. This is because there is no other place in the Old Testament where one directly confessed that he loved God. In fact, the word to love God only appears in the Shema part of Deut. 6:5. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Here too, it is a command, not a confession of love. So, scholars have modified the Hebrew word “racham”, which is translated “to love,” to a similar “rwum” (rwum), which translates as “I exalt the Lord.”
This controversy confirms a very special aspect of David's faith. David lived by professing his love for God that no one had yet been able to do. This confession of love gave David the strength to break through the despair of his heart.
In today's text, the word 'raham', which means to love, becomes the word 'rechem' if it is made into a noun. This word is sometimes translated as “womb” or “mother” of the mother. So this concept of love refers to the love that can be seen in the relationship between mother and baby connected by the umbilical cord.
David is now deeply feeling that God really loves him. He is deeply feeling the fact that a mother loves her child more than her own life. And, being touched by that love, he confesses that he also loves God.
2. Because of conviction (verse 2).
David compares Jehovah God to a rock, a fortress, a deliverer, a rock of refuge, a shield, a horn of salvation, and a stronghold. Each of these is related to his specific experiences of escaping the crisis when he was chased away by Saul.
Let's take one example. (2) God is called the Rock. The rock here is “Selah” in Hebrew. It means 'the high cliff of the cliff'. (2 Samuel 24) tells us that David had escaped Saul and had taken refuge in a cave on a cliff. That is, it is a confession that God prepared a special rock for him, and he was able to save his life because of that rock.
David was a man whom no one knew at the time. Especially for Saul, he was an annoying existence that made him want to kill him. However, he realized how special he was to God. This belief became the strength that sustained him in the midst of his desperate despair.
3. Because of prayer (verse 6).
David knew well that God was hearing his prayers. He could feel that God was listening and listening to his cry.
In fact (verses 4-5), we are in a situation where we have no choice but to groan in despair. “The cords of death have entangled me; the floods of iniquity have terrified me; the cords of Hades have wrapped around me, and the snare of death has come upon me.” At this point, it is enough to give up everything because you are locked in the prison of the heart of despair.
However, this confession in (verse 6) is what frees him from the prison of despair. “My cry has reached the ears of the Lord.”
The man of prayer, George Muller, taught this about prayer:
“It is not enough to start praying. It is not enough to pray rightly, nor to keep praying for some time. You must keep praying until you receive an answer. More importantly, we believe that God will hear and answer our prayers.”
The prayer of faith gives us great strength. It gives you the courage to break down the despair of your heart.
Even today, Satan is building a prison of despair in our hearts. We must break this down. To do that, you must have spiritual strength.
Confess your love to the Lord. Have confidence that I am special to the Lord. And pray with the faith that God hears my prayers. A new energy will spring up in our hearts. I believe that the peace and power of heaven will come.
<Prayer>
(1) Thinking about the grace of the Word
(2) For today's worship service
(3) For church school children's club, middle and high school
(4) For this country and people