The Discipline of Salvation

Psalms 18:1-50

Jim Davis

The beauty of the Psalms is that we are given a perspective of the lives of the faithful from various vantage points as they struggle to live for God. We see them when they are down and out and when they are singing songs of victory. Psalms 17 reveals the psalmist down and out. Psalms 18 is a song of praise about God’s answer to the psalmist cry for help. In Psalms 17 the psalmist cries:

Psalms 17:1-2
Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea;
listen to my cry.
Give ear to my prayer — 
it does not rise from deceitful lips. 
2 May my vindication come from you;
may your eyes see what is right. NIV

Psalms 17 is a cry for help as the psalmist places his faith in God. Psalms 18 opens with praise for God’s deliverance.

Psalms 18:1-6
I love you, O LORD, my strength. 

2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 
3 I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies. 

4 The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me. 
6 In my distress I called to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears. NIV

I realize the writing of Psalms 18 may actually be a lifetime apart from when Psalms 17 was written. Yet, the arrangement of the psalms reveals to us the outcome of our faithful struggles. Truthfully, it may make more sense that the authorship of these psalms are years apart. From my personal experience it usually takes a decade or so for me to figure out what God was doing and is doing in my life. It is then that true praise rises from the depths of our souls as we realize what God has been doing for us. 

The beauty of the Bible is that we get a concise snapshot of the lives of the faithful from beginning to end. It allows us to identify with how their faith is brought to maturity over a lifetime of struggles. 

Jehovah-Jireh was a name given to God by Abraham as he came down the mountain after his ordeal of being asked by God to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Jehovah-Jireh means “God will provide.” God had just provided a substitute sacrifice for Isaac. It was approximately 40 years after God called Abraham out of Ur. It seems that it took this long for Abraham’s faith to mature into making this proclamation of praise. He had struggled 25 years to understand God’s promise of a son. He had made all the missteps of seeking the promised son on his terms. Finally when he was blessed with the promised son he was ask to offer him as a sacrifice. 

God spent 40 years (+ or minus) preparing Abraham for this big step. It was a crucial turning point in his life. It was the place where Abraham declared his ultimate trust in God.

Genesis 22:9-14
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied. 

12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." 

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." NIV

On that mountain is where God revealed himself in an undeniable way to Abraham and Isaac. This probably led Abraham to reflect upon his long journey from Ur to this mountain. After waiting twenty five years for the promised son, then after the boy becomes of age he is asked to sacrifice him.  Now on this mountain he understands that God had been providing for him every step of the way. It was from that mountain that the word of the Lord spread through the entire world as a result of the faith of Abraham. On that mountain is where Jerusalem is located. It was on that same mountain that God would offer his Son for the sins of the world. As we look to all that has transpired throughout the ages on that mountain we also learn that the Lord Will Provide. How could God do less than he asks of Abraham?

A Song of Deliverance

Psalms 18 is a song about God’s salvation. It may have taken a lifetime of reflection and meditation to truly understand God’s deliverance, but this only adds to the depth of the psalmist’s praise. 

As the psalmist reflects on his life he realizes how the cords of death and destruction engulf him. Now he realizes God responds to his cry for help. I have difficulty with these next verses. The psalmist has no trouble proclaiming his righteousness.

Psalms 18:20-24
20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
I have not done evil by turning from my God. 
22 All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees. 
23 I have been blameless before him 
and have kept myself from sin. 
24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. NIV.

A passage such as this makes me wonder how the writer makes such a bold claim about his righteousness. It almost seems as though he had no difficulty walking in God’s ways. 
Yet, the psalmist had no problem proclaiming his sinfulness. 

Psalms 38:17-20
7 For I am about to fall,
and my pain is ever with me. 
18 I confess my iniquity;
I am troubled by my sin. 
19 Many are those who are my vigorous enemies;
those who hate me without reason are numerous. 
20 Those who repay my good with evil 
slander me when I pursue what is good. NIV

God’s righteousness is real for those struggling with personal sin. God’s righteousness is not about never doing wrong. Righteousness is about to whom we turn when we know we have failed. We would all like to go through life without the burden of mistakes, but this is not salvation. Salvation is about trusting God to salvage our lives when we fail or as we fail. Abraham made bad decisions while waiting twenty five years for a son. He chose to have a son on his own terms. It didn’t seem to faze God. God simply stepped in and salvaged the mess he was making of his life. God kept his promise and gave Abraham Isaac. 

It was David’s willingness to confess his iniquity that made him righteous. A person confessing sin as they struggle to stay on the path of righteousness is righteous. The trouble with so much of our failures is that we refuse to look inward. We refuse to accept our failures. Refusing to own our failures is probably our biggest failure. 

More of our lives are caught up in sin than we can imagine. It is amazing how as you get older you begin to see things in your past that were not right. You were completely ignorant and dumb of those things then. Yet, God was always there supporting you despite your ignorance. The beauty of this today is that I know Christ’s righteousness covers all my sin as I struggle to follow him. It is why I must come to God through Jesus Christ (1 John 1:5-2:1-2). I can approach God’s throne with boldness in difficult times although I am troubled over my iniquity (Hebrews 4:16).

Many psalms attributed to David may have not been written by David. It is believed many were written and given to David in recognition of what God was doing for God’s people. It was a way of reminding David of God’s salvation that was sure to come to the faithful. His trusted mentors may have given him many of these psalms as they sought to encourage David. These psalms became David’s prized psalms as he experienced God’s salvation. Therefore, we refer to them as psalms of David.

Psalms 18:7-15
7 The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry. 
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it. 
9 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet. 
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind. 
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him — 
the dark rain clouds of the sky. 
12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning. 
13 The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.   
14 He shot his arrows and scattered [the enemies],
great bolts of lightning and routed them. 
15 The valleys of the sea were exposed 
and the foundations of the earth laid bare 
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils. NIV

If you are familiar with the stories of the Old Testament, you begin to see why the psalmist uses such language. It is the kind of salvation Israel has experience since the crossing of the Red Sea. It is the same salvation we can experience today through Jesus Christ. Imagine such a God tending to you personally. This is how the psalmist sees it all in the midst of his deliverance. It is no wonder that God is referred to as the God of our salvation.

Psalms 18:16-19
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters. 
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me. 
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support. 
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. NIV

True praise results when we stop and mediate upon what God has been doing in us, through us and all around us to salvage our lives. 

When the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea on dry land they sang as the waters of the Red Sea receded.

Exodus 15:2
2 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation .
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will exalt him. NIV

Their praise wasn’t an abstract idea about God—it rose from their experience of God. The psalmist makes it personal as he extols the faithfulness of God. 

Psalms 18:20-29
20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
I have not done evil by turning from my God. 
22 All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees. 
23 I have been blameless before him 
and have kept myself from sin. 
24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. 

25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 
26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. 
27 You save the humble 
but bring low those whose eyes are haughty. 
28 You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light. 
29 With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall. NIV

In a world where we live from one fleeting thought to another it seems as though we need something more solid to build our lives upon. The fact that our thoughts are so fleeting is an indicator that deep down we want something more substantial to shore up our lives. It is indicative that we are really in search of something significant. Yet, it almost appears as though we are running from the very thing for which we are searching. Yet, we are not running away. We are simply on a never ending quest to make sense of life. Sadly we end up simply chasing our fleeting thoughts. 

David is reminded that only God can lead this fleeting world to safety.

Psalms 18:30-36
30 As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield 
for all who take refuge in him. 
31 For who is God besides the LORD?
And who is the Rock except our God? 
32 It is God who arms me with strength 
and makes my way perfect. 
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he enables me to stand on the heights. 
34 He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 
35 You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great. 
36 You broaden the path beneath me,
so that my ankles do not turn. NIV

David’s praise of God rises from a heart that has experienced God’s deliverance in so many ways. Despite his sins God delivers. Many of the enemies he made were because of his own sin. Yet, his enemies were never justified in taking vengeance out on David. God exalted himself as David’s savior as he delivered David from his enemies. 

Psalms 18:46-50
46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior! 
47 He is the God who avenges me,
who subdues nations under me, 
48 who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
from violent men you rescued me. 
49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD;
I will sing praises to your name. 
50 He gives his king great victories;
he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever. NIV

God was faithful to David in good times and bad. He was there to discipline David in his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. David’s discipline would make most of us question God’s presence in our lives. David discipline was David’s proof of God’s presence. David always responded with a desire for God to cleanse him of his iniquity. We don’t find David begging God to remove the discipline—he responds crying:

Psalms 32:3-5
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away 
through my groaning all day long. 
4 For day and night 
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped 
as in the heat of summer. 
Selah  

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you 
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess 
my transgressions to the LORD" — 
and you forgave 
the guilt of my sin. 
Selah  

6 Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you 
while you may be found;
surely when the mighty waters rise,
they will not reach him. 
7 You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble 
and surround me with songs of deliverance. NIV

We may interpret deliverance as freedom from troubles. Deliverance involves God’s discipline through our troubles. Salvation is about God allowing our troubles to discipline us while he salvages us from our troubles. God’s discipline is not always pleasant, but if we respond correctly to God’s discipline we will be able to sing God’s praises.

Psalms 118:17-21
17 I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the LORD has done. 
18 The LORD has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death. 

19 Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. 
20 This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter. 
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation. NIV

Isaiah proclaims God as the God of his salvation as God was judging his people for their sin. He was able to sing God’s praise in the difficult times. 

Isaiah 12:2-3
Surely God is my salvation ;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation ." 
3 With joy you will draw water 
from the wells of salvation . NIV

Conclusion:

Hebrew writer finds a message for us in all of this. 

Hebrews 12:4-13
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: 

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, 
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, 
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."   

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. NIV

This is the life God offers to all those who come to him through Jesus Christ. 

Matthew 11:28-30
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." NIV