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Psalms:18

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. ( kjv@2Samuel:22:1-51 )

(page last updated: November 13th 2019)

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Today's Text:

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Today's Audio Commentary: "The LORD Liveth"

Psalm:18 Reading (⇓)

Part 1 → "The LORD Liveth" - Introduction (⇓)

Part 2 → "The LORD Rewarded Me" (⇓)

Part 3 → "I Have Kept" (⇓)

Part 4 → "For Thou hast Girded Me with Strength Unto the Battle" (⇓)

Part 5 → "The LORD Liveth" - Conclusions (⇓)

Psalm:18 "The LORD Liveth" (commentary as one file) (⇓)

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Today's Commentary Outline: "The LORD Liveth"

1. "The LORD Liveth": 18:2
   
• How do we know that the LORD (Jehovah) liveth? (Perhaps we should consider David's example)
  
• Words of a song spoken by David to the LORD "in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies"
  
• There is no doubt that David had felt these things about HIS God throughout his long ordeal. (feeling/trusting is different from seeing/knowing/having experienced)
  
• There is no doubt that there were days that David wondered if he would ever see this. (faith is the evidence of things unseen)
  
• But, when the day finally comes it's got to be a whole different feeling. It's a day of unimaginable rejoicing and remembrance and deep introspection as described in this psalm 18. (If your day has yet to come, I hope that today you can at least share in David's day until your day comes)
  


• How do we know that the LORD (Jehovah) liveth? (Maybe in this we have something in common with David?)
  
• Perhaps (like David) it is because by standing firm for HIS cause we have had to face many of HIS enemies.
  
• Perhaps (like David) it is because many a time we have had to depend on HIM when there was no one else to depend on, no other way to get ourselves out, we were severally outnumbered, we were out maneuvered/flanked.
  
• Perhaps (like David) we have come to know because early on we were called out, given promises, given signs, given uncommon interest and courage and fortitude.
  
• Perhaps (like David) it is because of our calling/promise we have been exiled, shot at, chased, slept in caves and on rocks, spent many a night alone at a campfire sorting through all the "how comes" and "why nots"
  
• Perhaps (like David) it is because of all those time we prayed thinking God was too far away amongst the stars to be listening.
  
• And then there are those moments and days when we suddenly realize by what miraculous thing that has happened that HE has been listening and out in front of us all along.
  
• How do we know? Well through it all it comes to a point one glorious day when the answer becomes "how on earth did we ever not know"?
  


• We live in a day and age where we aren't anywhere near as sure whether Jehovah liveth.
  
• Granted none of us are the anointed king over a fledgling Israel that has been brought by God into a "Promised Land". None of us are the "Seed of Jesse" through whom the Messiah promised to Abraham was to come.
  
• We do not have those pesky Philistines and Amorites and Egyptians and such anymore coming at us from every direction. We don't have the four sons born to the giant in Gath seeking to avenge his blood.
  
• No, in many respects we have remain soft and boy like, tending to our families smaller flocks, an occasional bear or lion, nothing that we can't handle ourselves with a pocket knife or rounded stones and a sling shot.
  
• And do we wonder why it is we don't know this Jehovah to the extent that David came to know him? Well I think that the answer is obvious: we don't put ourselves into any situations where we could get to know HIM to such an extent.
  


• I would like to explain today a problem that I can see in the Church today with pre-tribulation rapture (where the Church is raptured before the prophecies of the Great Tribulation are fulfilled) (not that it may not happen but, the effect it has upon us)
  
• It takes away many of our biggest enemies. Our enemies become signs of impending rapture not signs that we better get to fighting. The bigger the enemy the sooner the rapture can be expected. We miss out on getting to know Jehovah in the way that David and many others did because we have locked ourselves into a mode of waiting eagerly still next to the ticket counter on stand bye for the first flight out.
  
• Again, I don't want to debate eschatology here with you, pre-tribulation rapture might very well be true (I would certainly welcome it if it were to come, I have to have myself prepared and ready at any time). I am just saying that I think that it has had a dangerous sedative effect on this generation.
  
• What if the rapture were not to come for another 425 years? Where will our descendants be if we do not continue to advance the battle forward?
  
• Where will those generations be if our generation cannot say for certain that "Jehovah liveth" because we never did put the statement to the embattled living test.
  


• Certainly we do have our enemies surrounding us today. (strong enemies)
  
• Some enemies we have had around for a long long time; they just keep coming back.
  
• I believe that there are some enemies just around the bend that we have never faced before. (enemies so scary, it is no wonder we'd rather pray for the rapture to hurry up and come)
  
• I would like to talk about some of these upcoming enemies here today in a psalm 18 context and we'll shortly get to that.
  
• The object today is not to scare ourselves back into our tiny fox holes and hide, it is by David's example to us here to dig deep, dig wide, to find again the calling and the courage, to soon thereafter step out of our fox holes into the unknown and start experiencing the presence and power of God as we valiantly face each of these enemies.
  


• So we will look to Psalm 18 to help us do that!
  






2. "The LORD rewarded me": :20 ("the LORD recompensed" :24)
   
• 50 verses 18:. No shortage of material/Too much unless we classify/summarize into an outline:
  
• What the LORD means to David (kjv@Psalms:18:1-3 kjv@Psalms:18:29 kjv@Psalms:18:31-38 kjv@Psalms:18:42-45 kjv@Psalms:18:47-48)
  
• Sorrows of death and his enemies (kjv@Psalms:18:4-6)
  
• Poetic language of kjv@Psalms:18:7-15 (victory so complete it's as if.... )
  
• What the LORD effectually did for David (kjv@Psalms:18:16-20 kjv@Psalms:18:39-42)
  
• What David did during that time to seek recompense (kjv@Psalms:18:21-24)
  
• The LORDS' character (kjv@Psalms:18:25-27 kjv@Psalms:18:30)
  
• David's praise (kjv@Psalms:18:46 kjv@Psalms:18:49-50)
  


• Two parts of this outline that I would like to consider first:
  
• Sorrows of death and his enemies :4-6
  
• What David did during that time :21-24
  
• They seem to play off each other.
  


• "the floods of ungodly men made me afraid" 18:4
  
• Our original theme = "The LORD Liveth":* 18:2 applies fully to this. (it is because we believe "The LORD Liveth" and conduct ourselves as such that we have these ungodly enemies). For the sake of our own families and neighborhoods and communities and God's good name we will not allow the ungodly to easily have their ungodly ways ruling roughshod over all of us. Yet we are the ones that have been made out to be trouble makers, the dangerous ones, the disruptive and social misfits). (They say that they don't mind what we personally believe as long as we sit on our hands to not do anything against them and keep ourselves silent but, all the time they are working behind our backs to undermine any resemblance of virtuous faith).
  
• It is obvious throughout this psalm that David is in the fight. (he hasn't held back, avoided it, run the other way, hasn't sat on his hands or been silent about anything concerning both God and godliness (as evidenced by these many psalms))
  
• Because of this "floods of ungodly men" are come up against him. (legitimate sorrows both of death :4/hell :5 and fear :4 and snares :5 compass and prevent him)
  
• Standing for the LORD that "liveth" often times means standing against ungodly men. (floods) (I wish that it didn't have to mean this but, that is a problem with the ungodly not the saint)
  
• We are not looking for a fight, the fight always seems to find us however.
  


• What is important to see is what David keeps himself to during all of this. "For I have" 18:21
  
• :21 "kept the ways of the LORD (Jehovah)"
  
• :21 "have not wickedly departed from my God (el-o-heem)"
  
• :22 "all his judgments were before me"
  
• :22 "I did not put away his statutes from me"
  
• :23 "I was also upright before him"
  
• :23 "I kept myself from mine iniquity"
  
• (I will explain each of these "things to be doing during all this" topics in more detail shortly)
  
• Importance = As a result :24 "Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me (turned back (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)) according to my righteousness (right/just cause), according to the cleanness (purity) of my hands (open (indicating power/direction)) in his eyesight"
  
• The picture here is that David did not have to put himself to do and suffer all of this had he not believed in the cause of the battle. In other word David was willing to do this and suffer this in obedience to God (as was the case with many other saints). It never did come easy as easy as they would have liked. It required God's constant strength every step along the way. (it's how they came to know all the more that the "LORD liveth")
  
• And it is not the idea that because he did all this on his own that God owed doing something back to David, it is the idea that God took David to a place that he otherwise would not have been able to go (perhaps levels that he would not have been able to reach (it's how they came to know even more that the "LORD liveth")
  
• David is not bragging, he is helping us to understand the things that we need to be doing all this time in our generations fight as we are anticipating God doing this for us as well.
  


• How long did David keep doing this until he saw his glorious 2Samuel:22 day?
  
• It is a much older David that we are to consider.
  
• kjv@2Samuel:21:15 David is now old enough to have waxed faint in the furry of battle, easy prey for a son of the giant Ishbibenob 21:16, Abishai the son of Zeruiah had to protect David and finish off this avenging foe coming at David.
  
• kjv@2Samuel:21:17 "Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel".
  
• Three valiant men other than David had to finish off the remaining Philistine giants for him in his place kjv@2Samuel:21:18-22
  
• So when you ask when did this glorious day of unimaginable rejoicing and remembrance and deep introspection happen for David? Now you know. About the time that he was too old and too tired, not much of his former self anymore.
  
• And having had this glorious day did not mean that David's struggles were all over, it meant that his lead role in the battle was about to change. There would still be many difficulties ahead.
  


• I don't want to give the impression that doing these things will earn any of us eternal salvation.
  
• I do not find any scriptural evidence of "salvation by works" anywhere else in scripture. In fact I find only evidence for the opposite (grace/mercy - salvation despite what we have worked for or rightly deserve).
  
• The real value of doing these things is when it comes to the battle. This is a spiritual battle with spiritual weapons and one does not think of going out into this battle without first being equipped and in correct alignment.
  
• * If you shy from the battle these things won't be as important to you. If you brave the battle then... perhaps the Apostle Paul put it best:
  

kjv@Ephesians:6:13 @ Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

kjv@Ephesians:6:14 @ Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

kjv@Ephesians:6:15 @ And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

kjv@Ephesians:6:16 @ Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

kjv@Ephesians:6:17 @ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

kjv@Ephesians:6:18 @ Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

• Perhaps the best way to think of these things David is doing is that when it comes to my personal relationship with God it is important for me to work at getting and keeping my life square with God (for me to have a righteousness so to speak of my own with God) but, it is not my righteousness in the end that is going to carry the day nor win the battle, nor get me into HIS heavenly kingdom, it will be HIS mighty and gracious righteousness alone. My effort is strictly to be true to HIM and to glorify HIM in whatever smaller obedient ways that I can.
  
• I think that we get a clear sense of this all through 18: and all of scripture itself.
  
• Being in the thick of the battle is one of these smaller ways. And the only way to truly be in the thick of the battle is to have kept yourself at these very same things.
  







3. "I Have Kept": :21
   
• Let's dig deeper into David's list 18:21-23 what he has done to keep himself in the battle while being compassed about with these sorrows (find reason for and application of)
  
• :21 "kept the ways of the LORD (Jehovah)"
  
• :21 "have not wickedly departed from my God (el-o-heem)"
  
• :22 "all his judgments were before me"
  
• :22 "I did not put away his statutes from me"
  
• :23 "I was also upright before him"
  
• :23 "I kept myself from mine iniquity"
  


• :21 "kept (hedged/guarded) the ways (trodden road/course of life) of the LORD (Jehovah)"
  
• note: that it is not "us" being guarded here it is "the ways". (too often when we get attacked we change over to defending ourselves, the enemy knows this and uses this tendency to their advantage)
  
• note: that it is not us on the offensive but, us on the defensive. ("The ways" are the offensive front, our task is to defend them)
  
• What are "the ways" needing to be guarded? (you know it was easy BackToThePsalms010 to develop a profile on "the wicked" and their ways, not so with the saint. The Pharisees etc.. attempted to produce a list of ways and enforce it and it ended up turning them against Christ. Before any list can be collected the person of Christ must be placed front and center (I am the Way) (the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom/knowledge/instruction)).
  
• How do we go about guarding "the ways"? (we go about guarding "the ways" first by guarding our relationship to Christ, second by seeking His will, third obeying what He is telling us).
  


• :21 "have not wickedly departed (do or declare wrong, disturb/violate) from my God (el-o-heem)"
  
• note: BackToThePsalms017 we considered how easy it is and how capable we are of turning a just cause inside out, still right in our own eye but wrong in God's. (right in our eye has been a continual problem. Part of the problem has been us thinking that we know the instruction/direction without ever actually seeking for it. Part of the problem is that we are very uncomfortable being stretched beyond our self imposed limits (which God often does), part of our problem is wanting also to make it right in other people's eye as well).
  
• note: there is also the issue that once we start heading down the wrong road our natural defense mechanisms want to keep justifying the course that we are on.
  
• note: the wicked (ungodly) have already departed from God. Any effort to appease them likely is our own departure from God as well.
  


• :22 "all his judgments (favorable/unfavorable verdicts) were before me"
  
• note: even verdicts that are seen in life experiences (David having to wait Saul out etc..) (favorable/unfavorable then versus unfavorable/favorable now)
  
• It is often hard for us to see where God is exactly in our previous experiences. We might think that HE is mad/judgmental or steering us a different direction when in fact HE is being patient waiting for us to apply the instruction recently given to the present obstacle to fight our way through it. Scripture is replete with correct analysis based on many life experiences, God's verdicts not only are the instructions and directions going forward but also the play by play analysis afterward. (scripture is very much needed)
  


• :22 "I did not put away (turn off) his statutes (appointed customs/manner/ordinance) from me"
  
• note: BackToThePsalms001 "walk not in the counsel... path... seat... meditate... he shall be like..." = similar point of how not to "turn off...from me"
  
• There are so many ways for us to "turn off" God's influence upon us. Again you'll remember that the Pharisees worked hard at the appointed customs and manners and ordinances in an effort not to "turn off" HIS influence. When viewed in their proper relationship to the person of Christ these statutes teach us about the wonderful work of our Christ, they draw us all the more closer in the acknowledgement of who HE is and why HE is so much needed, they become examples of HIM for us to try to emulate.
  
• To turn off the influence of Christ is to turn off the influences of these many revelatory statutes.
  


• :23 "I was also upright (entire/complete/without blemish) before him"
  
• example (entire): dipping your toe in the bath water = taking a bath (not entire, not complete)
  
• example (complete): serving two masters (God + Mamon) (not complete, likely not serving one or the other)
  
• example (without blemish): who of us actually is? we can say that we are but, that in no way makes us so (our perception/insistence does not make it so)
  
• note: David was not always "(entire/complete/without blemish) before him" but, once he was confronted with this he made the necessary adjustments to get back into uprightness with GOD.
  


• :23 "I kept (hedged/guarded) myself from mine iniquity (perversity/fault/mischief)"
  
• note: he is not saying that there is no iniquity to be found in him, he is well aware that he has to guard himself from it.
  
• note: It isn't the idea that we construct a six foot privacy fence to hide all of our trash and junk behind so that other people can't see it. The idea is of a fortified parameter made of barbs/thorns that our renegade personal iniquities would rather not try to slip through or over for fear of the bloody consequences.
  
• Our problem often is not that we aren't sorry for our iniquities and wanting to turn away from them, it is that we fail to hedge our best most godly selves from our iniquities. The idea is for there to be a formidable separation/distinction or barrier. Our iniquities are one thing, they hunger (and God knows that HE is going to deal with all of that) yet at the same time the young newly regenerate soul is green and tender and sweet for the grazing (our iniquities love upon feed that and ravage it) (God has to build the new part of that soul at the same time). It is easy and often that we fail to see that separation and we blame ourselves, we tear our selves back down, we scratch at our wounds until they get infected, we stymie the work that God is doing within us on both fronts, else we just give up thinking that our iniquities will always get the best of us. I believe that we make the mistake thinking that this hedge/guarding self means for strong self determination (many an addict for instance has tried that), when actually I am beginning to think that it means for self willingness to allow God to do all that needs yet to be done and to not get in HIS way (let HIM and HIS influence precept by precept become like a hedge).
  
• There are points in Davids life that we here on the sidelines could say "David, you should have hedged yourself better". What we read later in his story however is that his iniquities never had the final say, they never did him in nor got the better of him. He is shown to be very human (doubts/fears/iniquities and all). He is also shown upon discovery of these deflating things about himself to be a man that then dropped to his knees and got himself right again with God. Once back in the right David would go straight back into the battle.
  


• If we were to view all of these separate things David has listed as one whole, we would see that that they are all important to each other (irreducible), they support and play off each other to make the sum total much more than the individual parts:
  
• :21 "kept the ways of the LORD (Jehovah)"
  
• :21 "have not wickedly departed from my God (el-o-heem)"
  
• :22 "all his judgments were before me"
  
• :22 "I did not put away his statutes from me"
  
• :23 "I was also upright before him"
  
• :23 "I kept myself from mine iniquity"
  
• And this is what David kept himself to during all of this time of battling and sorrows.
  
• This is what we need to get better at keeping as well, for the battle has been handed down generation to generation, it is no longer Davids' battle, it has become ours and soon will become our children's in like fashion.
  







4. "For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle": 18:39
   
• We've come to the point in our outline where I would like to start focusing in on the battle ahead of us. To acclimate ourselves to this subject I would first like to explore what the LORD effectually did for David (kjv@Psalms:18:16-20 kjv@Psalms:18:39-42):
  
• 16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew (pulled) me out of many waters (water/juice - by euphemism urine/semen/wasting, flood/spring).
  
• 17 He delivered (snatched) me from my strong (harsh/fierce) enemy (hating adversary), and from them which hated (hate personally) me: for they were too strong (alert - on foot or in courage) for me.
  
• 18 They prevented (project/precede/anticipate) me in the day of my calamity (bending down/oppression): but the LORD was my stay (support/sustenance).
  
• 19 He brought me forth also into a large place (enlargement/open space); he delivered (pull off; (by implication to deliver, equip for fight; present strengthen; arm)) me, because he delighted (incline) in me.
  
• 20 The LORD rewarded (treat well) me according to my righteousness (right/just cause); according to the cleanness (purity) of my hands (open - power/direction) hath he recompensed (turned back) me.
  
• note: What the LORD from above is seen doing here is pulling the saint out of the many waters, snatching him from the clutches of a harsh/fierce hating adversary and those that personally hate him, sustaining him in the midst of oppression, bringing him into an open space, arming and strengthening him, treating him well and turning him back from the course the enemy had ultimately intended for him.
  
• Note: It is not stated how long the saint had to endure this before God's aid, how much of this caused by the saints' immaturity/denial/lackadaisical response/underestimation/misunderstanding/shell shock/friendly fire.
  
• Note: the idea that when God did pull him out, he pulled him out to an clearing where he could better survey the battle and then arm to better fight the fight. Not once is it said that God safely slips the saint out the backdoor so that he gets to avoid the battle all together.
  


• Let's continue:
  
• 39 @ For thou hast girded (belt/bind) me with strength (force/army/valor/bands of soldiers) unto the battle (fight/engagement/war): thou hast subdued (bend knee/prostrated) under me those that rose up against me.
  
• 40 @ Thou hast also given me the necks (nape or back of the neck (as declining)) of mine enemies; that I might destroy (extirpate - to destroy completely/wipe out.) them that hate me.
  
• 43 @ Thou hast delivered (slip out/calve) me from the strivings (contest (personal or legal)) of the people (congregated unit/tribe); and thou hast made me the head (captain) of the heathen (masses/foreign nations): a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
  
• Note: Now we are looking at more of the end result (after the saint is brought through the experience of kjv@Psalms:18:16-20). There is an end to this and there is a victory for us in the end but, it is entirely God's victory (nothing is said about the saint having won this on his own only his willing participation). As a result, we see God subduing the enemy under the saint and putting him in authority over them.
  
• Note: that this is the warrior king of Israel describing this in physical warlike terms of 1000 BC that he and his nation would understand. Now that may be what it is intended to mean (?), I believe that there is also a more relevant spiritual meaning found in Christ for our generation to this as well.
  
• Caution: there will be some that will skip the deep spiritual responsibility inherent in this teaching. They will take the battle into their own hands and go straight to the violence. I certainly do not believe that Jesus advocated for violence and vigilante style combat, so neither will I. This only goes to show the importance of getting this right, keeping it in the right perspective, keeping ourselves to the kjv@Psalms:18:21-23 list of things David had done to strengthen himself during these struggles, and to depend on God for the victory not our own tactic and resource.
  


• There are three things in these two sections of verses that the enemy is seen doing that the saint is requiring the LORD's help to overcome. The language of these descriptions may be suggesting a further look:
  
• 1. Strength/Alertness :17 could be suggesting that they are attempting to be overwhelmingly alert physically and or courageously (more than the saint can match)
  
• 2. Preventing/Preceding/Anticipating :18 - could suggest the concerted effort to be out ahead of the saint and his potential moves so as to be very oppressive to him.
  
• 3. Striving/Contesting :43 might suggest that they would purposely engage us to constrain/occupy us physically and or legally. (note this is explained in the language as being done by congregated groups)
  
• It can be said that the heart of the enemy and their tactics have not changed since the time of David and will not change any time foreseeable. What can be foreseen ahead that will be changing (as we speak) is the technology that they will be using against the saint to get this all done. (which will bring me now to my previously stated growing concern)
  


• While I do try to keep up with present technology and the future technologies currently being developed, there are those of you who follow all of this with a keener eye than do I.
  
• I think that those of you who do keep up with it would share my concern that it is all happening too quick and that the controls to keep it safe and non-oppressive are but superficial at best and non-existent at the bell curve average. The lines of ethics and morality and legality are being obliterated with increasing frequency.
  
• What our enemies already are able to do with technology presently as far strength/alertness preceding/anticipating striving/contesting is one thing saints in the past did not have to face. What they will be able to do shortly with their hatred for us as far as their efforts towards strength/alertness preceding/anticipating striving/contesting to us and our future generations will be unimaginable.
  
• Christian... are you prepared for this?
  


• Here's are a few of the things that concern me going into this:
  
• In the past we always had the public square. People went there for their business. People went their for their consumables. People went their for their news, neighborly social engagement, entertainment, political conversations. With all of the recent technology we have been given the perception of it being one big world wide public square, what it actually is one mass movement towards compartmentalization into multiple venues of group isolationism. No one holds the public square any more not even the media
  
• In the past we had the colleges and universities (we practically invented them). Even after they were taken over by secular humanists we still were afforded debate and intellectual inquiry. Today's university sees us as neanderthal, bigoted/racist, patriarchal, homophobic, intolerant, offensive, despicable. In the past this would have all been well and fine however, it is at these universities where these technologies are being thought of and developed. It is their scientific and social ethics and morality that we are having to trust. The pure academic sciences are verbally indicating that they no longer believe even secular ethics to be of any concern to them.
  
• In the past amongst our Christian denominations there may have been difference in doctrine but, never this post modern questioning of the sanctity of the very scriptures we had based our doctrines upon. So if you think that the Church today is going to respond to this next battle the way it once would have you better think it over again.
  
• In the past children were educated without the stickiness of federal government and a good many of them were churched (at least partially, at least with some experience of it). That is not so anymore and I don't see much way quick enough to get any of that back.
  
• So again Christian... are you prepared for this?
  


• I had commented earlier about my concerns about pretribulation rapture. (not the possible eventuality but the fleeing mindset)
  
• Given the options of either fight or flight the tendency for most of us is to choose flight. The opposition knows that tendency and in their many schemes is counting it. God knows that tendency also and is counting on their tendency to count on our tendency as well.
  
• To the opposition, the Christian appears to be an easy target, as far as they are concerned there is no God to step in and save us.
  
• Perhaps your faith currently is of the size that it doubts God's ability to see us through this upcoming battle as well. Perhaps you are making your preparations to fly of to safety when the conflict finally does come.
  
• I am sorry to have to tell you that the conflict is already here. Part of the reason that it is going to get so much harder is because we haven't thought to raise up the bugle yet or that no one has been alert enough to be listening for it. In a sense we have already been in flight and now it's time to turn back around, get over the shell shock, and get back into our ranks.
  
• The reason that this all may seem so scary to all of us is that we are still in the mind of what we ourselves could do to either avoid all of this or what we ourselves could put up against such an enemy. You see it is still all about us!
  
• Well let me then remind you 18:39 "For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle"
  
• Christian... are you ready to be strengthened for this?
  







5. "The LORD Liveth" - Conclusions:
   
• Perhaps the biggest question we need to face up to today is:
  
• OK we are certain as Christians that the "LORD liveth" (no question for us as to that)
  
• How much does HE liveth? or how big does HE liveth? (big enough to get us through all of this?)
  
• Another way of asking this is how real is the LORD to us? how concerned is HE for us? how much is HE willing to do?
  
• Perhaps even more honest than that, how real are we willing to be for HIM? how much are we willing to do or suffer?
  


• These types of probing big questions should draw our curiosity back to this psalm and the remaining classifications in the outline we have yet to discover:
  
• What did the LORD mean to David? (kjv@Psalms:18:1-3 kjv@Psalms:18:29 kjv@Psalms:18:31-38 kjv@Psalms:18:42-45 kjv@Psalms:18:47-48)
  
• What about the LORDS' character did David find most sustaining? (kjv@Psalms:18:25-27 kjv@Psalms:18:30)
  
• How did David's eventual praise come out as? (kjv@Psalms:18:46 kjv@Psalms:18:49-50)
  
• Let's explore 18: and ask these very questions!
  


• What did the LORD mean to David? (kjv@Psalms:18:1-3 kjv@Psalms:18:29 kjv@Psalms:18:31-38 kjv@Psalms:18:42-45 kjv@Psalms:18:47-48) (I won't have time today to go through all these descriptions)
  
• There are eight things noted in 18:2 (rock, fortress, deliverer, God, strength, buckler, horn of salvation, high tower)
  

kjv@Psalms:18:2 @ The LORD is my rock, and my fortress (castle, strong place), and my deliverer (slip out/cause to escape/calve/carry away safe); my God (el ale - almighty), my strength (cliff/refuge), in whom I will trust (flee for protection); my buckler (shield - that is small one), and the horn of my salvation (cornet of liberty), and my high tower (inaccessible lofty cliff).


• 18:1 shows the LORD as David's strength (help/aid) and as a result David loves the LORD :1 calls upon the LORD :3 considers the LORD worthy of his praises :3
  
• Is the LORD these many things to you? (The LORD is these things to David even in the heat of battle)
  


• What about the LORDS' character did David find most sustaining? (kjv@Psalms:18:25-27 kjv@Psalms:18:30)
  
• How God fair and consistent HE shews/presents HIMSELF:
  

kjv@Psalms:18:25 @ With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;

kjv@Psalms:18:26 @ With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.

kjv@Psalms:18:27 @ For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.

• How perfect, tried and proven, how trust-able HE is:
  

kjv@Psalms:18:30 @ As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.

• Do you find these things about the LORD's character sustaining to you? (even as the sorrows of death and floods of ungodly men pursue you from all directions?)
  


• How did David's eventual praise come out as? (kjv@Psalms:18:46 kjv@Psalms:18:49-50)
  

kjv@Psalms:18:46 @ The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

• blessed = to kneel in utter adoration; exalted = be actively high (rise/raise)
  

kjv@Psalms:18:49 @ Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.

kjv@Psalms:18:50 @ Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

• thanks = extend hands in reverence; praise = touch strings/be musical (to thy name, among the heathen)
  


• There can be no doubt that for the psalmist, having been through all that he had gone through, having come up against a great many enemies that had compassed him about, strong and deadly enemies preventing him, sorrows all along the way, for him to be brought finally to a point one day to realize that at least for him that "the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies" that he could with all certainty say "the LORD liveth".
  
• Oh he had a good idea all along the way the "LORD liveth" else he would not have put himself to all of this. But, because he did put himself to all of this, now he knows with every joyous certainty.
  
• How would we ever know that the "LORD liveth" to this degree of certainty? If you haven't figured it out already perhaps you should re-read Psalm:18 all over again.
  




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