Psalm 18 – Our Enemy is No Match for Our Strong God
By Bunni Pounds
*This blog is part of our weekly, virtual Bible Study through the book of Psalms. For information on how to participate, please visit this page.
“The pangs of death surrounded me,
And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him,
even to His ears.” (verses 4-6)
This is our first lengthy Psalm where we won’t be able to go through it verse by verse, but we can pick out parts that we can really dig deep into. This Psalm was written to God Himself – to the “Chief Musician”. David calls himself the “servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song.” He sang the words of this song to God after he had SEEN the deliverance from all his enemies, and he was about to be enthroned as King of Israel.
David was so honest here in his expressions of his fears during the last season of his life.
Have you ever felt like David before, where you saw the “floods of ungodliness” and it made you afraid?
I have... I have actually felt that many, many times in the last six months. The burden for what is going on in our nation and our culture overwhelms me at times.
Recently I went to an event where Trayce Bradford, our Vice President, was one of the panelists discussing her work on the subject of Human Trafficking.
The statistics are devastating as we examine the plight of young girls and boys who are being led away into a lifestyle of sex trafficking even in our neighborhoods here in Texas.
It was one of those times where every fiber in my body wanted these horrible, wicked people to be judged by God and for Jesus to come back and make all things right.
When we feel those burdens – the answer is found in the second part of those verses – our correct response - crying out to the Lord. The promise is that our cries are coming before Him for justice and His ears are hearing them. What an incredible truth – that God cares about the burdens that we are carrying for our world, and He feels it too. He hears our cries.
“He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me,
For they were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the Lord was my support.
He also brought me out into a broad place;
He delivered me because He delighted in me.” (verses 16-19)
In these verses – David acknowledged the truth. He did not run away from it. He called his enemy “strong”, but he also acknowledged that God was stronger. If we put our heads in the sand and do not acknowledge the wickedness and ungodliness going on in our world – we will not see the power of God to deliver.
My husband Tim was a drug addict for seven years from age 17 to 24. He did speed and cocaine and lived the lifestyle of a person controlled by substances with no regard to how he hurt others.
At age 24 – he had an encounter with God that totally shifted his life. He was delivered instantly from drugs and ended up in a church within a week that discipled him and helped him grow in the Lord.
Within 6 months of that encounter, when I met him when I was 17 – you would never have known that he had led that destructive lifestyle. He was a child of God and a productive member of society. Within 3 years – he was launching his own business that later almost did a million dollars in one year.
That is the power of God. God can take a “strong enemy” like drugs and set someone free and put them in a “broad place”.
Our family has consistently been reaching out to people and helping people get delivered from habitual sin that is destroying their lives. We have walked with people coming off alcohol, pornography, lesbianism and homosexuality, fornication, and other destructive lifestyles and watched them get free from sin and find new identity and LIFE in a relationship with Jesus. God is so powerful!
If we will acknowledge that our enemies of sin are strong, but God is stronger and able to deliver, we can see ourselves set free and other people we minister to delivered.
I love this verse – “He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.” (verse 19)
This shows me the motivation of God in His deliverance of His children.
He wants us. He delights in us.
He wants us to not be stuck in a pit of destruction, but to be free in a broad place.
When I think of a “broad place” - I picture a large field with flowers, huge oak trees with large branches - with birds, deer, little rabbits, all dancing around with nothing hindering them. It sounds like a beautiful place.
The point I want to drive in here is – our deliverance is for a purpose - not just for us to hold it to ourselves. God wants to put us in a “broad place” where we can bring deliverance to others. The broad place has a purpose – influence, destiny, and life-giving fruitfulness.
“For who is God, except the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on high places,
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You have also given me the shield of salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great.
You enlarged my path under me,
So my feet did not slip.” (verses 31-36)
The gentleness of God has made us great. If there is anything good found in us – it is because His mercy, gentleness, and love has transformed us into His image to “set us on high places.”
It is easy to walk with an attitude of humility and gratefulness – if we understand what we have been saved from and how His gentleness has redeemed us and enlarged our paths.
Remember this conversation of Jesus to the woman washing his feet with her tears and her hair…
“Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Luke 7:47
“His right hand has held me up…” – The picture here is that God’s authority and power holds us up. We would fall down and make a mess of things completely if He weren’t holding us together. That truth should make us more dependent on Him every day.
How do we survive without walking with Jesus daily?
How do we move in our own self-reliance without asking Him for help?
He is the One who makes our feet like deer’s feet where we can walk in treacherous areas – places where we could never have survived or flourished without His deliverance and leadership in our lives.
God is our ROCK! He is our strong foundation.
“The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
Let the God of my salvation be exalted.” (verse 46)
As we look at our “strong enemy” around us – in our nation, our culture, our kid’s schools, our cities – we must realize that:
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” I John 4:4
We underestimate the power of our ROCK and how great His salvation is to deliver us and to deliver those around us.
We are the culture changers.
We are the deliverers as we walk with Him dependent on His leadership and strength.
Let us move forward today in VICTORY knowing that “The Lord lives!”
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