“I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my saviour; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.”
Psalm 18:1-2 NLT
The preamble to this Psalm records that David wrote it “on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul”. But David didn’t just write it, he sang it. David was an extraordinarily gifted man, able to govern wisely, a giant killer, a musician, song writer and singer, and all because he was favoured by the Lord. If David was asked about all his gifts, I’m sure he would have pointed to Heaven and say it was all because of His Lord. In these first two verses of Psalm 18, look at the words David used in his song of praise and thanks. He wrote that the Lord was his “strength“, his “rock”, his “fortress”, his “Saviour”, his “shield”, and he finishes with the Lord being “the power that saves [him], and [his] place of safety”.What an accolade! David would have been the sort of person who you wanted to have around in church, encouraging people in their faith.
There was a time when David lived for a time in a cave, an account which we can read in 1 Samuel 22, but the first two verses read, “So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men“. There was something about David that drew people to him, and even his oldest brother, Eliab, who was recorded as saying to David, “But when David’s oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking to the men, he was angry. “What are you doing around here anyway?” he demanded. “What about those few sheep you’re supposed to be taking care of? I know about your pride and deceit. You just want to see the battle!”” (1 Samuel 17:28). There were some interesting family dynamics in David’s life!
But David was quick to credit the Lord with all His blessings so freely poured out on him. God was there for David through some difficult times and David was quick with his thankful responses to his Lord and God. Note though, that God didn’t take away the circumstances that David encountered in his life, but He did keep David safe within them. It is the same with all His people. We live in a sinful and wicked world, but that is how it is for human beings. Because of sin this world is a hostile place for God’s people, but as Jesus said to His disciples, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Think of all those people who have fallen away from the faith because they mistakenly thought God would save them from all their troubles. Instead of saving them from their troubles, God will save them within them. David knew that and we know from previous Psalms that he was always ranting about the wicked people, his enemies, who continually caused him grief, but in this Psalm David is singing his heart out with a song of praise and thankfulness.
What about us pilgrims? What problems are we facing into at the moment? Financial issues? Worries about our families? Anxieties about the state of the world, with the wars and famines? When Jesus said that he had “overcome the world” He proclaimed that He was bigger than anything we will find in this life. And in faith we can start to thank God for being for us all the things He was to David, who lived in a much more dangerous time than we do. So today, can I hear a chorus of praise and thanks to God, a song penetrating the dark fogs of 21st Century Planet Earth? Of course I can. We all can. Because we are the choir, practising for the time when we will indeed spend eternity praising the One who saved this sad, bad world.
Dear God. You have the world in which we live snuggled in the palm of Your hand, and in spite of all its sin and wickedness. Thank You for the assurance that You are standing with us through every circumstance. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 