Psalm 18

Part 1: Verses 1-18

There’s 50 verses in this Psalm, so we’re going to look at it in 4 parts

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:



18 I love you, O Lord, my strength.

2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn a of my salvation, my stronghold.

3I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death entangled
me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

5 The cords of the grave b coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

7The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

8 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.

9 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

10 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

11He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him — the dark rain clouds of the sky.

12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

13 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. c

14 He shot his arrows and scattered [the enemies], great bolts of lightning and routed them.

15 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.

17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.

18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.

The Protection of the Lord (vv 1-3)

David heaps metaphor upon metaphor to describe the glorious power of our Lord. David said the Lord was his rock, fortress, deliver, refuge, shield, horn of salvation, and stronghold. Clearly, David had a very certain understanding of God: protection. The prologue gives us a very good idea why “He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” (1 Samuel 21-26)

The Lord is a fortress that is better than any fortress built by human hands. He is far more capable of protecting us than anything we can come up with.

The Understanding of the Lord (vv 4-5)

David is calling out to God because he is surrounded on all sides by what would be his death. He felt like his destruction was just about to overtake him!

The Deliverance by the Lord (vv 6-18)



Let’s read this together…

He will answer when we call!