David Conquers

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David Conquers

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PSALM 18

Transcript

Opening your Bibles, and I think maybe an appropriate place for you to open would be to the Book of Psalms, because I’m going to rapidly review David’s life and perhaps give you something if you haven’t noticed.

I’ve been sharing with you the passage in 1 Samuel that correlates with the psalms that come out of David’s life. And if you’re of the clan or tribe of Bible markers or note takers, this will be the last time I’ll actually go through this list of the eight psalms that were written out of very graphic incidences in David’s life. And if you’ve never marked in 1 Samuel, it’s really a challenge in my Bible in 1 Samuel, as I’m reading along by the time I get to 1 Samuel chapter 19, I know that when I get to the 11th verse of 1 Samuel 19, that Psalm 59 was written then. And it’s a very great assistance to our understanding of the Word of God if we can locate where those majestic psalms fit, as they expose a very vital facet of the life of David.

David is our focus and the reason he’s such a special focus, and I think that you’ll agree as we look at his life in a broad perspective. And the reason that it’s such a vital focus is because he was a man that is so much like all of us. He loved God, and yet he falls so often false prey to temptation, false prey to discouragement, falls prey to sin, and yet we find him constantly being encouraged. We find him constantly pursuing righteousness with his wife. We find him conquering the flesh and sin and the tempter. And we find him most of all being involved in that, which not only is what God desires from us now, but what we’re going to be involved in for all eternity, and that’s worshiping God. It’s one of the only things that the scripture Says that God is constantly longing for from us. He seeketh us to worship Him. And why we like David so much is he’s just like us and he blows it a lot. And yet, he offers acceptable worship, and as Tosser said, if the gold doth rust, what will the iron do? And so, because we are made of iron and we rust, so often God accepts worship from us if we come energized by His Spirit confessing our sins in approaching Him.

In fact, David’s life in the psalms, half of which he wrote, mirror nearly every aspect of the ups and downs of our lives. In quick succession, let me cover what we have seen for the last five weeks before we got to the psalms. In 1 Samuel 17, we saw David standing alone for God. Israel was standing behind him, cowering all of the armies and the king and all of his princes were behind this little shepherd boy, a teenager, as he faces God’s enemies, Goliath and company and all their armies. And the reason that God gave him great victory was he had a singular unchanging concern for God’s honor. And if you look at momentous times throughout biblical history, you find that those who were concerned, most of all for God’s honor, God stood with them. Whether it was the three Hebrew children, whether it was Daniel, whether it was Esther, whether it was David and Goliath, God stood with those who were concerned for the honor of His name.

But secondly, and whichever way you want to do it, if you want to mark 1 Samuel, then in 1 Samuel 19:11-18, we find the 59th psalm and the background for it. So, if you want to insert in 1 Samuel 19:11-18 and put a little arrow and put Psalm 59, that’s a way to do it or if you want to follow along in the psalms and put a little arrow and say, this passage is 1 Samuel 19:11-18. But in those two parallel passages, one, a historical narrative, the other, the worship experience that explodes from that narrative, we see David depending on God. You remember what was happening? The assassins were coming sent from his father-in-law to kill him in bed. Under the covers he lays as they come to get him, and yet his wife helps him escape.

But why do we find David as he extols this dependence on God in Psalm 59? Why do we find him exalted in such a way as that 59th psalm portrays him? We learned from that majestic psalm that David had an unshakable trust in God’s protection. He did not fear, though everyone was against him, though everything seemingly was collapsing around him. He had this unshakable trust that God was protecting him. And maybe that’s the stuff of which those who accomplish great things of God must be made of an unshakable trust. Psalm 59, when we get to Psalm 56, which is the next psalm, historically speaking, we find the setting for that in 1 Samuel 21, 1 Samuel 21:10-12. And in this psalm, we see David confident.

In fact, I’ll read to you the reason why he was confident from Psalm 56. If you want to look at that verse, it’s the key and the touchstone of this psalm, as we saw a few weeks ago, as David confidently stands, do you remember that the Philistines had seized him in Gath? He was a prisoner as it were of war. He was with the enemy warriors. They were totally outnumbering him. He was at their mercy, and yet. In the ninth verse of the 56th psalm, which is portrayed in the narrative of Chapter 21 of 1 Samuel David is confident because he had the distinct impression that God was on his side.

I like the way he puts it in Psalm 56:9, then my enemies will turn back in the days when I call. Why David? Why are you so confident, David? Why, when you are encircled with your enemies, are you so confident the end of verse 9, this, I know that God is for me. I like that. Isn’t that a thrilling thing to think about, to have the distinct impression that you are on God’s side and God is on your side? Remember that any one of us, plus God makes a majority in any situation that. We can call upon him and we can see him perform great and mighty things that we don’t know could even be accomplished.

And we see in David’s life in this third beautiful portrait from the psalms, we see a very confident man, not confident in himself, but confident as he testifies in Psalm 56:9, that he had this distinct impression that God was on his side and we see God deliver him. And we see him in the last verse delivered from death, his feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living, Psalm 56:13. I believe that we can mirror the same thing in our lives, that we can walk with confidence to know that we can conquer even in difficult times because we can walk before God in the light of the living because he is for us. This I know, God is for me. Do you know that God is for you?

The fourth of the psalms we looked at is Psalm 34. Psalm 34 is set again in with the backdrop of 1 Samuel 21:13-15. It’s fascinating to see that as David is driven out of the presence of Achish and departed as he does that, we see David when he recovers from that situation of great fear. Yet an awareness that God is seeing him through it. We see David in Psalm 34, magnifying God magnifying God. Do you remember that? The writer of Chronicles tells us that God’s eyes are looking to and fro in the Earth, and he’s still doing that, by the way, looking for those, whose hearts are completely toward him, that he might show himself strong through that person. In a world where most people on this planet are seeking to minimize God, he’s looking for a few that will magnify Him in every situation, make great the name of the Lord.

And why did David magnify God? Well, we see in Psalm 34 that he had an unwavering awareness that God was watching him? Do you remember that? All the way through the psalm? He said the Lord, verse 5 is looking. He heard me. He saves me. He encamps around me. Verse 15 of Psalm 34, the eyes of the Lord are toward me, His ears are open, His face is toward me. We went over this a few weeks ago, and David had this unwavering awareness that God was watching and therefore because God is watching, because God had His eye on him. David said, I want to magnify you in my life, and he did.

Next, we come to Psalm 142 in the setting for this marvelous psalm, which is the beginning of David’s cave times. As David, the caveman, reveals to us the Lord, in Psalm 142, we see David in 1 Samuel 22 verses 1 and 2, entering into his cave experience, fighting, fleeing in refuge for his very life. Again, from his father-in-law, King Saul. And we see David in Psalm 142 verse after verse calling on God.

Now, if you see him doing something, the natural thing for us to do is say, why? Why are you calling on the Lord David? Psalm 142 tells us, David called on God because he had this amazing hope that God was listening and hearing. He knew that God heard him when he spoke. That’s why in Psalm 142, he said, I cry aloud. I make supplication. I pour out my complaint. I declare my trouble. I cry. I say, Lord, hear me. And what’s amazing is God was listening and God heard and that old story that has been off retold about the person that got to Heaven. And when they got up there, they said, what is this magnificent room filled with all those gifts already gift wrapped? And the angel shown them around, said, those are all the answers to prayer for things you never asked for and God never gave you. And though it’s a very trite story, which is cute, but perhaps not so much portrayed, I do know that there is a lot that God wishes to do to glorify His name if we’ll but call on Him because prayer doesn’t change God. It changes us into conformity with His will, and He wants us to realize He’s listening and hearing, and He wants us to call upon Him.

Turn back to Psalm 63, and in Psalm 63, if you’re noting this in your Bible, the parallel passage is 1 Samuel 23 verses 13 and 14. As it tells us in that historical narrative that David goes into the deserts of Judah, and as he gets into the deserts of Judah or the wilderness, he’s in a barren, very inhospitable land, and he starts looking out at the fauna and flora, the animals and the plants that are growing there, and he starts realizing what a desolate place it is. And in Psalm 63, we see David seeking God. Why is David seeking God? He shows us in his 63rd psalm that he has found abundant satisfaction as God refreshes him. Notice the interplay back and forth in the 63rd psalm verse 1, I shall seek Thee. My soul thirst. My flesh yearns. And because of that, he says, I have beheld thee.

I see thee your loving kindness. Verse 3 is better than life, my lift. Praise thee, I will bless thee. Verse 4, I’ll lift up my hands to Thy name. Verse 5, my soul is satisfied. My mouth offers praises with joyful lips. Why again? Verse 8, my soul clings for Thee. Thy right hand upholds me. We find the beautiful back and forth portrait of a heart, totally seeking God and of a God totally meeting the needs of that heart. The Lord says, you’ll seek Me and find Me when you seek for me with all your heart. And when we seek for Him with all of our heart, we find abundant, refreshment and satisfaction. The Lord said we should never thirst. He said in Jeremiah that His righteousness would be like the waves of the sea. His peace would be like the river.

And every time we find dryness and a lack of peace in our life, it’s not that God’s grace is not flowing toward us, it’s that we have moved out of the way of that flow and our sins and iniquities have separated us. So, in Psalm 63, we find David seeking God. And the reason why David had learned to seek God was he had found abundant satisfaction as God continually refreshed him. And once you’re aware of that refreshment, there’s nothing else that really draws us in this world for when we seek Him, we find Him, and we seek for Him with all of our heart.

Now turn back to Psalm 54, which is the 7th psalm that we’ve looked at, and in Psalm 54 we find David again with the backdrop of 1 Samuel 23:19-25. Psalm 54. Again, David finding refuge. You remember the Ziphites are ratting on him. They told Saul where he was hiding. These desert people, these Bedouin people found out where David was hiding and they told on him. And in the 54th psalm we find David giving and seeking and finding refuge in God. And why is that? Look at Psalm 54:3 because he really distills down the reason why he found refuge in God. And if you are in need of refuge, and if it seems like the arrows are coming at you in your life, for whatever reason, I trust that you can mirror Psalm 54:3. The last line of that third verse, he says, they have not set God before them. So, David, why are you finding refuge in God? Just turn that phrase around because I have set God before me.

And we find the secret of David’s life, of finding refuge in God was the fact that he was constantly setting God before himself. He always put God first. He always put God before him. He always let God meet those challenges in his life. It’s just another way to say that He was depending on God. You see the first verse of Psalm 54, he said, save me, vindicate me. Verse 2, hear my cry. And when the Lord did that, and when he set God before him, verse 6 says, willingly I will sacrifice to Thee and I will give thanks to Thy name. You see a man that had found refuge in God in Psalm 54.

Just three psalms over again in review, Psalm 57, and as you turn to Psalm 57, you find David back again in the cave. He ran from the Ziphites from wherever he was hiding, and he gets over now in 1 Samuel 24:16-22 in the cave with all 400 of those malcontents. And we see David in the midst of this very dark hour as he’s still running for his life. 1 Samuel 24 tells us verses 16 to 22, how difficult this time was.

But in the 57th psalm, we find David rising above discouragement. There’s a two-edged sword Satan uses against us. Once you get above the level, perhaps, of constant physical and fleshly temptations, the next arena that Satan works on, if he can’t get you down in the lust of the flesh, he’ll get you in a new area.

and it’s a two-edged sword. Satan has of doubt and discouragement, doubt, and discouragement. Doubting. We wouldn’t even want to tell anybody, but some people even doubt if they’re a Christian. Other people are just discouraged. God can’t do anything with them. Or they doubt if God really has saved them or they doubt if they’ll ever be anything or if they’ll ever accomplish anything and that’s his two-edged sword. And Psalm 57 is a marvelous, inspired portrait of how David rises above discouragement. How does he do that? We learned in Psalm 142 several weeks ago that in the midst of cave times. It’s a great opportunity to discover marvelous truth about God, and the 57th psalm is a tremendous portrait in 11 verses of David applying his great discoveries about God. It’s not enough to take good notes. It’s not enough to read good books. We have to not merely hear but be doers of the Word, not merely hearers.

And we find David applying his great discoveries about God all the way through this psalm, and you remember them? He applied the fact that he had discovered God was gracious, that God accomplished his deliverance, that God was the one who established him, that made him praise the Lord, that made him thankful, that opened his life to be used in others, and that lifted him beyond the realm of the cave. That last verse of Psalm 57, be exalted above the heavens and let Thy glory be above all the Earth. So, we find David applying the great discoveries he’d made about God.

How do we grow our Christian lives as we discover great things about God? We apply them. If you discover that God is a refuge, then take Him as a refuge when things are tough. If you discover that God is a source of refreshment, then take Him as a source of refreshment when things start looking dry.

Finally, turn back to Psalm 18. Psalm 18 is a marvelous psalm. It’s one of those few psalms that’s repeated twice in the Bible. It’s repeated at the end of David’s life as his testimony in 2 Samuel 22, but the setting which he probably experience the things that are written about in Psalm 18 is in 2 Samuel 5:17-25 because we find in 2 Samuel 5:17-25 the same thing that’s written. And if you happen to have a Bible that includes the first verse of the Hebrew Bible, you’ll find that there’s a little paragraph before verse 1 of Psalm 18 in the Hebrew text in the Hebrew canon. This italicized thing, that’s just before Psalm 18 that says, for the choir director of Psalm of David if your Bible has it that is the first verse in the Hebrew text.

And verse 2 would be the first verse of our English text. But the last part of that little superscription says the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, and then come Psalm 18, and this 18th psalm is David triumphing over all his enemies. It’s a fitting way for us to conclude our little look at his life, because in the 18th psalm, he pulls together everything that has happened and gone on in his life in all those other psalms. Psalm 56, 57, Psalm 142, all the way through Psalm 34, he’s pulling together what’s going on in his life and he puts it all down in one beautiful, just graphic portrait of seeing life from God’s perspective. And I want to just share that with you. There are some very basic elements if you look at the paragraphs of Psalm 18 that we can hold onto, and I hope that so much hasn’t flown by you, that you don’t grab this.

So, if you’re in neutral, get back in gear for just a moment. I’m going to share this with you and then we’ll be done, Psalm 18, seeing life from God’s perspective. As David looks back through all of his wandering days, through all of his early manhood days, through all of his cave times, through all of his flights from his father-in-law through the great battles he fought and finally conquered. He pulls everything together in one beautiful panoramic view of life as he saw it to be proper from God’s perspective.

Let me just give you the paragraphs, verses 1 through 3 of Psalm 18. The first stanza or the first line is actually what the whole first three verses are about. And David says, I love Thee, oh Lord. And what we see here is David saying that how he had come to a place of triumphing over his enemies was because he had come to the place where God was his greatest attraction. I love you, Lord. You notice he doesn’t say, I love my kingdom, my crown, all my kids. He puts the highest priority and the greatest attraction of his life as being the Lord. It’s a good thing to learn, isn’t it? It’s not anything wrong with loving the Lord first and a lot of other things.

Second, what’s really bad is when we love everything equally the same, and I think that our children should know, and I think that our wives and husbands should know, and our family should know that we love the Lord more than anything else. Not the Lord’s work, not the Lord’s service, not the Lord’s people, but we love the Lord and he’s the greatest attraction, and that’s what carried David through his life. You notice what he said in verse 2, 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 and my stronghold. What a confidence in his great attraction to the Lord.

But then he makes a confession in verses 4 through 6. Again, show the maturity that he has come to through all this difficulty because in verses 4 through 6, he uses beautiful Hebrew parallelism to show the desperate condition that he saw himself in. And it’s like our Lord said a few hundred years later in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. The beggars, the ones that really see themselves as God sees them. God says, if we can’t see that we’re lost, we can’t be saved. And David saw the desperate condition. Look at verse 4, the cords of death encompassed me, the torrance of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of shield surrounded me, and the snares of death confronted me. He’s talking about the desperate condition.

And then look at the fourfold answer to that he gives in verse 6, in my distress, I cried to the Lord and cried to God for help. He heard my voice, for my cry, for help came before him. He acknowledged his desperate condition and he did not try to save himself, but he looked to the Lord. Isn’t that what salvation is all about? And the people that never will come into the kingdom of God are the people that will never accept the fact that they’re lost because if you’ve never been lost or never acknowledge you’re lost, you can never acknowledge you need a savior. And you’ll just try and do it yourself, and that’s the religion of Satan, that he has enmeshed our world in doing it their way.

But then we see that after David realizes his desperate condition, then in verse 7, he starts looking up. And when you look at life from God’s perspective, this is what you see starting in verse 7, down through verse 15. If I was to put it in modern high schoolies language, I would say this, God is awesome. That’s a common word these days. Awesome. And you know what? God is awesome. He shakes the Earth. He moves the foundation of the mountains. He devours the Earth with fire. He bows down the mountains. He rides upon the cherubs of the thunder Cloud. God is awesome. And because God is so awesome from verse 16, all the way down through verse 24. David finds God rescuing him. You see how he puts the themes of all these psalms together? God is his great attraction. He’s in desperate condition. God is so powerful. He is awesome, and he rescues David.

And then look at verse 25, because from 25 down through 29 in this 18th psalm, David says that God is just, and he gives what we really desire. And I hope you realize in your Christian life that God is not deceived. He is going to give us what we really want. As James put it, the brother of our Lord God is no respecter of persons. David, put it this way in verse 25, with the kind you will show yourself kind with the blameless, you’ll show yourself blameless with the pure. You’ll show yourself pure. But with the crooked, You’ll show Yourself astute. For Thou does save and afflicted people, but a haughty eye thou will abase. And God said, if you’ll come to me, as the 15th psalm said, and speak the truth in your heart, I will meet the need. I will be just; I will be pure. I will be kind toward you, but if you won’t, I’ll crush you. He says.

And so, then David goes on to reiterate what he’s already told us in other psalms from Psalm 18, verse 30, down through verse 36. He says that God has revealed Himself and for us, that’s through His Word. And sometime just savor verse 30 down through verse 36. As David again makes more great discoveries about God in these six verses. And then from verse 37 down through verse 45, he talks about how God has conquered all of his enemies.

And then I close with this verse 46 down to 50. When you get through life and when you get through life, acknowledging that God is the greatest attraction. When you see that we’re in desperate condition and God is so awesome that He rescues us because He is so just, He gives us what we really want. When we start seeing what He reveals about Himself in His Word and we see Him conquering our enemies, the greatest enemy, of course, is our own flesh. When we see Him conquering us, then what verse 46 to 50 says will take place. God will be praised.

Let me just distill this down and close in prayer for you all. Just eight things to be real specific. Some of you like specific, so I’ll be specific. We looked at the whole life of David from his boyhood through his kingship and ate successive psalms, and this is what we learned be concerned for God’s honor. And this week, let’s try that, why don’t we try to be concerned for God’s honor? If someone flippantly uses the name of the Lord in vain in front of you, why don’t you stand up like you would if they cursed your wife or your son or your daughter or yourself and say, God will not hold them guiltless. It takes His name in vain.

I remember Jack van Impe was on an elevator one day. He told a group of us about it once, and there’s this big, oversized guy with a cigar in his mouth and he said that. And he swore and stuck the cigar back in his mouth, and Van Impe turned around and in his in Imitable way, he said, God will not hold you guiltless. That takes His name in vain. The guy almost swallowed his cigar. No one does that anymore. Let’s be concerned for God’s honor and be willing to stand alone. Let’s trust God’s protection this week. Let’s not fear.

Thirdly, let’s realize that God’s on our side. And we’re very valuable and a lot of people struggle with self-worth. And the ultimate answer to self-worth is if we’re worth so much that Christ died for us, we’re worth an awful lot. We’re worth everything and realize that God’s on our side. Remember that God’s watching. And if you’re having difficulty, if you’re struggling, as I know some of you are with those desires of the flesh that you try and get to and do when nobody is watching, remember that one person is always watching. And we must fear God. And then as David learned in Psalm 57, expect God to hear. And if we expect God to hear let’s pray.

And then the sixth psalm we looked at tonight, be satisfied with God’s refreshment, Psalm 63. And if you haven’t made it your daily quest to seek God personally, intimately, and an extended period of time, then let’s do it. Let’s seek Him this week and seek Him with all of our hearts so that he can refresh us. And then let’s set God first, as David said. Do you remember in that one psalm, I set the Lord always before me? Let’s seek Him before ourselves. Let’s deny ourselves this week. And then why don’t we just start applying those great truths that we discover from God’s Word and live them this week? And what’s that? Oh, that’s just basically seeing life like God does. Standing alone, not fearing, realizing we’re valuable, fearing him, praying to him, seeking him, denying ourselves, and living what we know is true. And if we do those things, then we’ll be those people that are most amazingly on this Earth, those who are magnifying God with our lives.

Let’s just bow for word of prayer. Father, I thank You tonight that Your eyes are still ranging to and fro through this Earth. You want to show yourself strong in us as we magnify You. I pray Your Spirit would have movement free in our hearts to adjust us, to convict us, to cause us to abound to Your honor and glory.

Notes

David – our focus these past weeks! Why? Because he’s so much like all of us…

Loves God – Falls… Sins… Discouraged… Encouraged… Righteous… Conquers… Worships God…

In fact, David and Psalms (1/2 he wrote) mirror nearly all our lives the ups and downs!

Let’s do a quick review:

1. 1 Sam. 17 – He stands alone for God (Israel covering behind him) facing God’s enemies (Goliath + co.). Why? UNCHANGING CONCERN FOR GOD’S HONOR! Now Psalms mirror David’s life.

2. 1 Sam. 19:11-18 > Psalm 59 We see David depending on God (when assassins come/Saul). Why? UNSHAKEABLE TRUST IN GOD’S PROTECTION

3. 1 Sam. 21:10-12 > Psalm 56 We see David confident (Ps. 56:9)! Why! “THIS I KNOW THAT GOD IS FOR ME” DISTINCT IMPRESSION GOD IS ON HIS SIDE!

4. 1 Sam. 21:13-15 > Ps. 34 We see David magnifying God. Why? UNWAVERING AWARENESS GOD WAS WATCHING

5. 1 Sam. 22:1-2 > Ps. 142 We see Daavid calling on God. Why? UNFAILING HOPE GOD WAS LISTENING AND HEARING

6. 1 Sam. 23:133-14 > Ps. 63 We see David seeking God. Why? ABUNDANT SATISFACTION GOD REFRESHED HIM

7. 1 Sam. 23:19-25 > Ps. 54 We see David finding refuge in God. Why? CONSTANTLY SETTING GOD BEFORE HIMSELF V. 30

8. 1 Sam. 24:16-22 > Ps. 57 We see David rising above discouragement. Why? APPLYING HIS GREAT DISCOVERIES ABOUT GOD Learned Ps. 142

9. 2 Sam. 5:17-25 – 2 Sam. 22 > Ps. 18 We find David triumphing over all enemies! Why?
SEEING LIFE FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE

And what might that be?

v.1-3 God is greatest attraction v. 4-6 We are in desperate condition v. 7-15 God is awesome v. 16-24 It is God who rescues v. 25-29 God is just v. 30-36 God reveals Himself v. 37-45 God conquers enemies v. 46-50 God is to be praised

Let’s do something this week: 1) Be concerned for God’s honor – stand alone 2) Trust God’s protection – don’t fear 3) Realize God is on your side – you are valuable 4) Remember God’s watching – fear God 5) Expect God to hear – pray 6) Be satisfied in God’s refreshment – seek Him 7) Set God first – deny self 8) Apply God’s great truth – live it

What’s that? Seeing life through God’s eyes!