“I love You, O LORD, my strength”
[Psalms 18:1-19]
Why are we discouraged? Why are we frustrated and despairing? Often times in our lives we lose our strength. At that time, there is danger of give ourselves up in despair. There may be a urge to put down things and give up everything. When I thought about why this may happen, I thought of three words: "reality", "mind" and "emotion". In other words, it is important how we react to these realities that we want to deny when difficulties and adversity come to our life journey.
The first reaction is "mind".
When unexpected difficulty thing or adversity comes true, we can ask four questions from our thoughts. The first question is "Why?" I think it is our instinct or habit to ask questions such as 'Why did this happen to me?' and 'Why me?' In the end, the question of why is to show that we are denying the reality that we face. And this denial ultimately makes us to manifest our dissatisfaction, complaints and our victim mentality. Besides the question "Why?", the second question we frequently ask is "How?" Although we try to find a solution to the question by asking "How did this happen to me?", but in the end, it is more difficult to find answers than to find answers in our lives. Then the third question that we Christians often throw is "What?" As we throw the question "What is God's will?" we try to find God's will in our difficult circumstances. But we cannot deny the reality that there are much more unknown answers to God’s will than we know. How can we know all the will of God? That’s why the fourth question that we must ask is “Who?” We must ask “Who is our God?” In doing so, we can accept our reality in faith by believing and acknowledging God's sovereignty. This thought reaction allows us to express healthy emotions. Not only are our feelings aren’t inflexible, but we can also express our consistent feelings with our consistent thoughts.
The psalmist David described his reality in verses 4-5: “The cords of death encompassed me, And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.” David recalled his past in his heart in which God saved him from all his enemies and King Saul and confessed sincerely from his heart as follow: “I love You, O LORD, my strength” (v. 1). Here, the word "love" used by David is “raham” in Hebrew. A pastor has interpreted this word as follow: ‘It is God’s mercy and love that has been poured out on us and it is God’s painful love of looking at us with pain in His heart that dissolves everything’ (Internet). This love is deeply rooted in man’s heart and is a love that is literally melted (Park Yun - sun). The reason why David confessed this love is because God was David’s strength. In other words, because David experienced the power and love of God that saved him in every crisis, David confessed, "I love You, O Lord" (v. 1). In the memory of experiencing this past salvation, David accepted reality in faith and praise God (v. 3).
Why did God save David from all his enemies and from Saul? We can think of two reason based on Psalms chapter 18.
The first reason is because God is God, His divinity.
Look at Psalms 18:2 – “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Since God is the God of salvation in the nature of God, God saved David (Park). The character image of God is expressed in several words Psalms 18:2 – “my rock” (meaning lands surrounded by steep rocks), “my fortress" (meaning a high hill or mountain top), “my deliverer” (Savior when faced with an emergency), “My God”, “my rock, in whom I take refuge” (referring to the hill of a mountain), "my shield" (blocking the arrow of the enemy), "the horn of my salvation "(analogous to the power of victory) and “my stronghold” (a steep and sheltered haven on the top of a mountain). In a word, God saved David because God was David’s protector. Therefore, as David prayed to god, he proclaimed that God was the Savior who protected David.
The second reason is that God is the God who answers our prayers.
Look at Psalms 18:6 – “In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.” God is the Lord who hears our prayers. Especially when we cry out in extreme dangerous situations (vv. 4-5: “death,” “the torrents,” “Sheol”), God hears our prayer that is offered in urgency of the tribulation.
How, then, did God save David? We cannot help but be surprised when we see Psalms 18:7-15. This is because the way of salvation described in verses 7-15 is the majesty of God. See how David expressed God’s salvation: “the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling” (v.7), “Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured” (v. 8), “came down With thick darkness under His feet” (v. 9), “He rode upon a cherub and flew” (v. 10), “He made darkness His hiding place” (v. 11), “From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire” (v. 12), “The LORD also thundered in the heavens” (v. 13), “And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them” (v. 14), “Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare At Your rebuke” (v. 15). All of these expressions indicate that when God came to save David, He came to earth in a majestic and vibrant manner (Park Yun-sun). The majesty of God which shakes the heavens, the God who came to save David in his majesty, ‘This is strange. The majesty that God has revealed is so great, that the object of salvation is an individual that seems to be utterly pointless. Had God shaken the heaven and earth to save this one person?’ (Park Yun-sun). It is doubtful whether the prayer of such an individual is great. We cannot help but be surprised that the prayer of one person brings about the great work of salvation while the heavens are shaking.
Here I thought of four things about a person's prayer:
First, prayer opens the door in heaven.
In Psalm 18:16, David said, "He drew me out of many waters." This means David prayed when the gates of the north, south, east, and west of all the cities were shut down because of disasters and tribulations, the door that man couldn’t stop was opened, and that door was the door in heaven. And there the work of God’s salvation occurs. Unlike the Israelites during the Exodus time who complained and grumbled in front of Red Sea when they were hemmed, Moses looked at the heaven and prayed to God. And God heard his prayer and open the door in heaven and give them the gracious blessing of salvation. Our prayers open the door of heaven.
Second, prayer is strong.
It is a prayer that makes us to experience God’s salvation by Almighty God who is stronger than “my strong enemy” (v. 17). Powerful enemies stronger than David, but prayer will experience the power of the salvation of the Almighty God.
Third, prayer depends on God.
David confessed that “the Lord was my support” (v. 18). Although “the day of disaster” (v. 18) came to David, when he prayed, the day of disaster was changed to the day of God’s salvation.
Fourth, prayer helps us to realize how much God delights in us.
Look at Psalms 18:19 – “… he rescued me because he delighted in me.” Not only David experienced God’s salvation through prayer but also he experienced God’s guidance. What is more surprising, however, is that he realized how much God delighted in him. Therefore, the praise that we can sing from our hearts is ‘I want to be the Lord's joy’.
No matter what difficult situation we face, we should think about ‘The Lord is my strength’ and accept the reality by faith. And we should cry out to God who is our protector and Savior because He will manifest His great saving power as He will come in great majesty. Then we will praise God because we will realize how much God is delighting in us.
With gratitude for the love of God and the grace of salvation,
James Kim
(As I praise the Lord in desiring to be the Lord’s joy)