Today’s Sermon: Psalm 18: “The Lord Praised For Giving Deliverance” by Pastor Jim Bomkamp

Previous outline of Psalm 17: 1. King David was pleading to the Lord for help from his oppressor. 2. King David asked the Lord to keep him as the apple of His eye. 3. An incredible statement was made by King David about the assurance he had about bodily resurrection of God’s people.

Background for Psalm 18: 1. Almost exactly copied in 2Sa 22:1–51. 2. No other chapter of the Bible contains more interesting and provocative metaphors and themes than this Psalm. 3. According to Spurgeon, King David wrote this Psalm when he was 67 years old. 4. Throughout this Psalm King David noted that it was the Lord who had helped and enabled him to do the things that he did, he took none of the credit.

Psalm 18:1: He begins by addressing the Lord as his strength and telling Him he loves Him

Psalm 18:2: 1. The Lord is his ‘rock’. 2. The Lord is his ‘fortress’. 3. The Lord is his ‘deliverer’. 4. The Lord is his rock ‘in whom I take refuge’. 5. The Lord is his ‘shield’. 6. The Lord is the “horn of his salvation”. 7. The Lord is his ‘stronghold’.

Psalm 18:3: when he calls upon the Lord, he is saved from his enemies

Psalms 18:4-6: 1. The ‘cords of death encompassed’ him. 2. The ‘torrents of ungodliness terrified’ him. 3. The ‘cords of Sheol surrounded’ him. 4. The ‘snares of death confronted’ him. 5. ‘In distress’ he called upon the Lord. 6. ‘He cried’ to his God for help.

Psalms 18:7-15: 1. ‘The earth shook and quaked’. 2. ‘The foundations of the mountains were trembling and were shaken because He was angry’. 3. ‘Smoke when up out of His nostrils’.

Psalms 18:7-15, cont.: 4. ‘Fire from His mouth devoured’ and ‘coals were kindled by it’. 5. ‘He bowed the heavens…and came down’. 6. When He came down He had ‘thick darkness under His feet’. 7. ‘He rode upon a cherub and flew’. 8. ‘He sped upon the wings of the wind’. 9. ‘He made darkness His hiding place’ and ‘His canopy around Him’, ‘darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies’. 10. ‘From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire’.

Psalms 18:7-15, cont.: 11. ‘The Lord…thundered in the heavens’. 12. ‘The Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire’. 13. ‘He sent out His arrows and scattered’ David’s enemies and with ‘lightening flashes in abundance…routed them’. 14. ‘Channels of water appeared’ and ‘the foundations of the world were laid bare at’ the Lord’s ‘rebuke’, at ‘the blast of the breath of’ His ‘nostrils’.

Psalms 18:16-18: King David writes about how the Lord rescued him

Psalms 18:19-24: He believes that the Lord has answered him and rescued him because he has lived a righteous life

Psalms 18:25-26: 1. To the kind He shows Himself to be kind. 2. To the blameless He shows Himself to be blameless. 3. To the pure He shows Himself to be pure. 4. To the crooked He shows Himself to be astute.

Psalms 18:27: He saves an afflicted people

Psalms 18:28: The Lord lights his lamp and illumines his darkness

Psalms 18:29: By the Lord’s enabling he can run upon a troop and leap over a wall

Psalms 18:30: God’s way is blameless, and the word of the Lord is tried

Psalms 18:31-34: Who is God but the Lord, and who is a rock except our God, and, the Lord girds me with strength

Psalms 18:35-36: The Lord has given him His shield, and His right hand upholds him

Psalms 18:37-42: The Lord delivered his enemies to his hand until he completely consumed and shattered them

Psalms 18:43-45: The Lord delivered him from the contentions of the people and placed him as head of the nations

Psalms 18:46-50: The Lord lives and his rock is blessed; exalted is the God of his salvation

CONCLUSIONS: 1. Trust in the faithfulness of the Lord. 2. Recognize the might and power God has to fulfill all He has promised to you.