Reflections on Psalm 18 —

Nowhere else like Psalm 18 do we see God’s true feelings when His people are in danger. When the wicked wrongfully abuse His people, God will respond with great fury, rescuing His beloved in due time. 

Salvation is a very necessary and important concept for Christians to grasp as they struggle through fierce spiritual warfare. 

We are in a Fight

Every day, demonic spirits, worldly influences, and our fleshly nature plot and scheme to tempt, lure, destroy the soul. These are spiritual enemies–they attack God’s people in a spiritual sense at their most vulnerable spot–the soul. 

Satan is the chief adversary of the believer. His goal is not just to maim, embarrass or harass; his goal is to destroy. Like a roaring lion, he aims to tear them limb from limb (1 Peter 5:8). He schemes and plots his assaults. His malice is palatable; his hatred real. He studies them, watches their movements, reactions. He knows their weaknesses. He waits in the shadows. At the opportune time, he strikes. Igniting the oil-soaked shaft, he takes careful aim and fires the arrow, straight for the heart.

Enemies fight unconventionally. They fight the soul, which is a very different thing than fighting people or armies. They fight by tormenting the soul. Whenever our soul is weary, anxious, despairing, afraid, lonely, discontent, overwhelmed, guilt-ridden, lost, or one of many other concerns, it is a spiritual attack. 

Souls of believers are also constantly tempted to sin. The flesh demands its way, Satan makes it seem OK, and so Christians fall into moral morass time and time again. We try screen guards and accountability groups for a time. These help to a degree and for a time, but our enemies always know when we’re at our weakest. They are very persuasive–”you  deserve this,” “everyone is treating you badly, have a little bit of enjoyment”, and so on. Weary believers can feel so powerless. This is spiritual warfare, and Christians everywhere are vulnerable.  They need salvation and refuge.

Spiritual warfare is happening all around, yet most Christians don’t even know they are in a battle. 

You don’t have to look far to notice that souls are embattled everywhere. People look fine on the outside, but soul-health is at an all-time low, even in the Christian community. What other time in history has it been acceptable to bring a “comfort” dog to church?  The medical industry is making huge profits from weary souls trying to find help. Recent statistics indicate that 70 percent of Christian males struggle with pornography, and 40 percent of the females. Fleshly lusts “wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). The soul of the Christian is in big trouble. Salvation and refuge are in high demand. 

Calling On God

 “I call upon the Lord…and am saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:3)

Perhaps one of the most vivid and stirring psalms speaking of spiritual warfare is Psalm 18.  We might think that a psalm teaching about spiritual warfare is filled with practical steps, helpful tactics, defensive maneuvers, and so on, all teaching us how to win the fight. But Psalm 18 says more about God than tactics. That should tell us something. When we fight our spiritual enemies, our first maneuver should look like a white flag of surrender–surrendering not to the enemy but to God. The enemies are too strong, our flesh too weak, the situation too desperate. We must call on God for help. As David says, “I call upon the Lord…and I am saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:3), and, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God for help…” (Psalm 18:6). Often, the best prayer we can pray is “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15) as we cry out for help in total desperation.

God’s Love for the Afflicted

 “He bowed the heavens also, and came down with thick darkness under His feet” (Psalm 18:9)

In the psalms, we learn that neediness is a good posture for believers before God. To own one’s weakness is a very good thing in God’s eyes. God’s eye is ever-watchful of His “anointed” ones (Psalm 18:50, 20:6), and is fiercely protective of this group: “He does not forget the cry of the afflicted” (Psalm 9:2), and, “the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever” (Psalm 9:18). Here we see the Glory of God so pronounced in the psalms–He is Most High God, yet He condescends to man (Psalm 18:35). The word here is anava (He) which is gentleness, humility or meekness. What a beautiful picture of the Almighty God putting off His universal agenda to come down into man’s mess and help His needy ones. It is the picture of God that makes us say, “What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:4).

Often believers are not this way. The flesh of man is prone to self-reliance, arrogance. It naturally detests the idea of being weak and helpless; it would rather consider itself tough, disciplined, and decent. It would rather be filled up with the world’s goods than be found needy and wanting. This is not a good look for Christians. It is short-sighted, for the things of this world are limited in power (Psalm 96:5, 115:4) and uncertain in longevity (1 Timothy 6:17). Thankfully, God’s love for the anointed does not allow them to careen to their own destruction. He does not let His people remain stagnant, self-absorbed. So He tests them, puts them into situations that expose their weaknesses, that reveal their utter dependence on Him. This is why there will always be enemies of God’s people. As in Judges 2:21-23, God leaves enemies around to do His work of refinement. They will afflict, oppress, terrify. It will seem as though they have the upper hand, that God is not listening.

But when enemies have had their time, when they have accomplished the work God wanted them to do, the situation changes. If they have become arrogant, cocky, thinking their greatness, cunning, ability gave them such great power over others, they will soon learn that God’s patience will run out. His anger accumulates. He is patient, waiting for men to recognize their puniness and acknowledge His greatness. But if they do not relent, if they persist in being bullies, antagonizing God’s afflicted, watch out. His wrath is like a brewing thunderstorm, ready to pour out fire and hail upon the arrogant tormentors of His people. God will “come down” (Psalm 18:9). He intervenes. He helps those in need and fights those who afflict the needy.

Nowhere else like Psalm 18 do we see God’s true feelings about His people in danger. When the wicked wrongfully abuse His people, God will respond with great fury, rescuing His beloved in due time. When He does, it is like an atom bomb compared to our pea-shooter. When He moves, God unleashes a fury of strength against which nothing can stand. Consider Psalm 18:7-15. God comes with earthquakes, smoke, fire, thick clouds, with lightning speed, commanding hailstones, and arrows to strike the enemies, scattering and routing them before Him. Rivers are laid bare at His rebuke. When God fights for us, it is a massive blow. We will find those feelings of despair are no longer there. The temptations have disappeared. Our soul is in a quiet place, the rescue complete. 

When we read this description, we should be impressed with the amount of weight God throws at the enemy. We should want this powerful ally involved in our fight. This is how we fight spiritual warfare. We call on God when temptations are too much to handle. 

Saved Because of Righteousness

 “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me” (Psalm 18:20,24)

Why does God answer?  “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me” (Psalm 18:20,24). This little phrase appears in similar form twice in verses 20 and 24. It partitions off a “scriptural sandwich”–the stuff in the middle proves the statement. David says he is righteous and clean. He points to his adherence to God’s ways, ordinances, statutes. He kept himself from sin. That is his reason God rescued him. 

One might conclude that this proves man must do good things before God helps him. There is a degree of integrity that is needed. It is not enough to say you believe in God and yet not live like it. If David was planning to spend a night with a harlot after God rescued him, things might have turned out a little differently here. But I don’t think that is the point. David’s righteousness is really not his. David knew “there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3). He knew the good spirit he possessed and the good things he did are really his own doing, but generated from the living and abiding presence of God working in him. 

God not only gives strength to the one suffering under affliction, He also makes our way blameless (Psalm 18:32). It is by His work David is righteous. It is by His work David fears God’s word and desires to carry it out. This is what Paul discovered. Paul wanted not the righteousness of his own derived from the Law, but a righteousness that came by trust in something outside himself–he wanted the righteousness of God that comes by faith (Philippians 3:9). The one who sees himself afflicted and helpless and unable to do anything good, and who thereby calls on the living God, he is the one who finds God’s infinite spirit will occupy him unto righteousness. This is the underscoring theme of Jesus’ landmark Sermon on the Mount–the poor in spirit have the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3), and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness–because they know they don’t have it and cannot attain it–are satisfied (Matthew 5:6). 

Someone once said, “God helps those who help themselves.”  Whoever said that didn’t know what they were talking about. I would say, God helps those who are so aware of their inability to help themselves that they ask for help from God. God loves these kinds of requests: “You save an afflicted people, but haughty eyes You abase” (Psalm 18:27). He provides the needy ones with everything they need, including righteousness that pleases Him, and the salvation from enemies.

Spiritual Weapons

 “He trains my hands for battle” (Psalm 18:34)

God comes to our rescue in our time of need, our darkest hour. But He also trains us to be more prepared for spiritual warfare. He trains hands to fight, arms to bend a bow (Psalm 18:34) and gives us a shield of salvation (Psalm 18:30,35). He upholds us and helps us run with great strides (Psalm 18:29,33,36). We can imagine Paul thinking of this as he wrote Ephesians 6:10-17. We rely on the weapons God gives us. We fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons. The weapons of our warfare ought not to be merely “according to the flesh” but rather those that are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” These are God’s weapons, atomic bombs capable of “destroying speculations and lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God” and able to “take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4-5).  We ask Him to “keep [us] back from presumptuous sins…” so they do not “rule over us” (Psalm 19:13). We ask Him to “put to death the deeds of the body” as Paul says (Romans 8:13). 

David testified that it is God who “girded him for battle.”  He was fully equipped in the power of the Spirit to take down his enemies (Psalm 18:39). Then and only then do we experience the great thrill of dominance over our enemies. David’s experience was total domination of his foes. He pursued them, overtook them, consumed them, shattered them–they fell at his feet. His work was really just the mop-up of the destruction God caused with His mighty blow. Look at all the times David accredited God as the One who really brought the victory. In Psalm 18:39,40,43,47, and 48, he says that God… 

• “subdued those who rose up against me”
• “made my enemies turn their backs to me”
• “delivered him from the contentions of the people“
• “executes vengeance for me and subdues peoples under me”
• “delivers me from my enemies”
• “lifts me above those who rise against me”
• “rescues me from the violent man” 

Conclusion

Like David, we need God and His spiritual strength to help us in our fight. With God’s provisions fully at our disposal and His mighty presence supplying us what we need, we experience exhilarating liberty from sin and peace like we’ve never experienced before. This is the salvation of the believer. It is the motivation to give thanks to God among all people, and to sing praise to His name (Psalm 18:49). 

The next time you sing a hymn, recall to mind a time when God thoroughly delivered you from some nagging sin, some dark time of despair, some very needy moment when you thought all hope was lost.  Let the Spirit use that memory to stir your song of praise.