Psalm 18:1-3 God, My Strength

Psalm 18 is a wonderful piece of poetry. So much so that it actually appears twice in our Bible. You can compare 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18, and you will find remarkable similarities. It is likely that David sang this song on multiple occasions, with slight variations on the lyrics. While the song in 2 Samuel 22 is also a good one, we are going to be spending the next week looking specifically at Psalm 18.

Each day, we will look at a portion of this Psalm which gives a particular name of God: “my Strength,” “my Savior,” “my Rescuer,” “my Righteous Judge,” “my Provider,” “the Head of nations,” “my Deliverer,” and much, much more. We will use these seven titles for God as an outline while we make our way through this Psalm.

Today, we will look at God, My Strength in verses 1-3. Please read those now.

David begins this Psalm as we often begin our prayers: “I love you, O Lord.” I can’t count how many times I open my time of personal prayer with this statement. Sometimes it’s all that I can say. Sometimes I don’t have the words to express my heart’s desire, so I simply tell God, “I love you.”

Those of you who are married understand this lack of words to express our emotions. When I think about my wife, I want to sound eloquent and express the deepest desire of my heart’s longing to simply be in her presence. I want to tell her how important she is to me, how highly I regard her, how much I respect her, cherish her, and want to be around her. Yet, in the moment, I am often at a loss for words. All that comes out is the simple expression, “I love you.”

Hopefully your spouse understands all that you mean when you tell them you love them. God certainly does. God knows our hearts. He knows how deeply we desire to be with Him (or not). Many people make eloquent prayers with lofty sounding theological words, but don't genuinely wish to be in the presence of God. Others don’t know what to say, but they know how they feel toward the One who loved them so much that He died for them. Like David, we simply say, “I love you, O Lord.”

But David is a poet, so He cannot stop with just those simple words. He proceeds to use nearly a dozen different adjectives to describe God in just a couple of verses. Many of those adjectives relate to the security that David finds in God. He calls God ‘my rock’ (twice!), ‘my fortress,’ ‘my deliverer,’ ‘my shield,’ my ‘horn,’ and ‘my stronghold.’ He wants to ‘take refuge’ in God, give him praise and thank God for saving him from his enemies.

When you consider the life that David lived, its no wonder that he finds his security in God alone. David was a military man who’s king hated him for no reason. He often found himself hiding among the craggy mountains of Judea in order to escape Saul’s malice. Those rocks were his home; those mountains brought security. He took refuge behind the shield of the cliffs. Yet, all along, David knows that God was really the one protecting him.

David could have laid down in the fields, and he would have been just as secure as if he were in the mountains, because God was his stronghold. God was the one who kept him safe. Because of God, David could say, “I am saved from my enemies.” No wonder David loved God! He loved God for all that He was, but also for all that He did! God saved him from his enemies!

We may ask ourselves, “how can God save me from my enemies?” That’s what we’ll look at tomorrow as we see God, My Savior in verses 4-15.

But for now, rest easy knowing that, just as He was for David, God is your strength. God is your stronghold, your fortress, your rock. Rest in God and you shall not be moved. He will deliver, He will shield, He will save. You don’t even have to do anything to earn it! Simply trust Him. Lean on Him and, using the words of David, call Him “God, My Strength.”