He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me.
Psalm 18:19 NLT
This is the second psalm to save my life. As a youth I memorised Psalm 19 and particularly verses 13-14 were a prayer like a mantra for me. I repeated those verses over and over to God but we will come to that tomorrow.
Psalm 18 felt like a bolt out of heaven a few years later while sitting in a class at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I must admit I was in class in body, tired and struggling to concentrate and feeling rather low and then God’s voice (probably not audibly) descended on me with a saving grace of four simple words: “He delights in me” v.19. It was as if God was saying it for me/to me.
I had long felt acutely a sinner even before my conversion some years before. But I thought I could never in my heart measure up to the demands of God. So until that day, I never knew His delight in me. But that day those words came to my soul and I heard God say, “I delight in you.” I knew my greatest enemy was my own sin and I was stuck and soiled by the filth of pride, lust, greed, and deceit. But God delighted in me. Strangely it was still years later that the context of those words once again showed me the power of His delight.
Sinner coming to God, let me assure you God can and does delight in His chosen children. Are you coming to Him? Do you long for His delight? Then you can know His delight. I promise you. The very fact that you desire it and that you are coming is proof enough that you are His. Even if you feel as if you are covered in the filth of sin. He delights in you. Just as He delights in David and even more so, His Son Jesus.
--and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased and delighted!” (Matthew 3:17 Amplified Bible)--
MAIN POINT: God passionately responds to the cries of the child in whom He delights.
Who is this passionate God that responds so powerfully?
He is a God who is lovable v.1
He is a God who gives strength
He is a God who is a protective place v.2 (rock, fortress, Saviour, shield, power, safe place)
He is a God who hears v.3
He is a God who is worthy of praise
He is a God who saves.
(Don’t stop here. Keep looking and listing the character of God revealed in this great Psalm.)
Let me interrupt these theological observations and bring your attention to something else in this Psalm. David had enemies and had desperately hard times. The same goes for all of God’s anointed ones, David, Jesus and you. Don’t fool yourself into thinking victory comes without struggle and conflict. Don’t view opposition as evidence of non-delight. Trials, troubles, and desperation are part of this whole picture of delight, love and salvation. You can name it and claim it but you can’t have it without walking the path of the King. David is desperate, Jesus was sorrowful, you will have enemies and it will get you very down.
God’s deep emotional response in this Psalm is a measured and an appropriate show of being engaged in love as a Father who delights in His children.
All the observations in the first three verses about God are true. They were true when David was an unknown shepherd. And they are still true about God when He killed Goliath. But the certainty of these facts about God remain true even during the somewhere between 10 and 20 years while David was being hunted by Saul.
PLEASE LOOK AND LISTEN: the life of faith is knowing who God is and what He can do, when He does the great miracles and when you are waiting to see that He has done that only He can do to save you.
Wait no more for the God of fire and raining burning coals vv.6-20; God answers in a big way.
Watch out for when He answers.
God makes the earth quake when He saves. (Matthew 28:2-7)
God is angry that you are suffering v.7 He might allow it, maybe even cause it but it brings Him no pleasure, it makes God angry and His enemies won’t like to see Him when he is angry.
When it comes to saving you, you have to see the means God uses are surprising. v.11, 12, 25, 26
God makes His child/His anointed one/His son to be like Him.
(Rather than prooftext and cross reference these points, I invite you to find them in the Psalm yourself. You won’t be disappointed. I don’t tell you the half of it.)
When God delights in you He will make you become like himself.
You will become righteous, because He is righteous.
You will become victorious because He is victorious.
You will become strong because He is strong.
You will become confident and skilled in battle against evil because that is what/who He is.
But you are not God, you are not the King and you are not Jesus.
27 You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud.
Call to God and be patient.
Be humble.
God is God.
The battle belongs to the Lord.
You are in no position to dictate to God the arrangements of your rescue.
YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT'S BEST!!!!
God does. Trust Him and say as Jesus said, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Luke 22:42
Psalm 18:50 You give great victories to your king
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