I Call Upon the Lord

Psalm 18 starts with a statement of David’s love for God, but the second thing we see is David’s description of God’s deliverance. This is found in verses 3-19 and what David does is amazing. His love for God grew out of his experience with God, but it also grew through his knowledge of God found within the Word of God. I’ll explain that in a moment, but look at what David says in verse 3, “I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”

Then he describes the difficulties of his life in 4 and 5, “The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.” David was a warrior and he knew what it was to be on the edge of death, but for the second time, in verse 6, he speaks of what happens when he called upon God, “In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears.”

In verses 7-19 David goes full throttle with the poetic, but he does it based on God’s revelation of Himself as it is found in the Word of God. What we find here are instances from the Word applied to David’s life. For example, look at verses 7-11,

“Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because He was angry. Smoke went up from His nostrils, and devouring fire from His mouth; glowing coals flamed from Him. He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; He came swiftly om the wings of the wind. He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him, think clouds dark with water.”

That’s a poetic description of God coming to Mt Sinai.

David is looking back to the way God delivered His people and applying it to his own life—the God who did that—is the same God who David described in verse 2 and the same God who moves in your life. He will continue this line of thinking, but lets close today with a call to commit to time in the Word of God. Get to know the God of the Bible and love for Him will increase. The more I know my wife the more I love her. The same is true of God.