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Chapter Six

PSALM 18

One More Messianic Message

THE CRY THAT CONNECTED

A PSALM OF DEVELOPMENT

THE CALL, THE CONSEQUENCE AND THE CONCLUSION

From Cry to Consequence

In this startling narrative, we move here from the cry of the beleaguered saint to the Messiah and the results.

In procedure, we find in this Psalm first the

	penetrating cry (18:1-6), next
	the elemental divine surge to the very heart of creation, in a response in power and deliverance (7-15), then to
	the testamental speech in relief and rejoicing (16-42, looking towards the Messiah),
	the fundamental realities associated with this unveiling of divine passion and response, centred in the Messiah (43-48), and the
	proclamatory pulse to reach all peoples (49-50), and the review of the promise to David concerning the Messiah, then still to come (II Samuel 7:16-17, Psalm 110).

In more detail now, we consider the situation, the series and the spiritual intensity.

1) Introduction and its Cry 18:1-6.

The love of David for the Lord is like the sunshine on Alpine heights in mid- Summer. He is more than bliss however, being foundational to David's whole life, his rock that does not move, a fortress for him when assailed. Here is the God who gives him place, support, power and even meaning. He is indeed his very salvation, the classic consideration which replaces man buffeted by a seemingly impersonal world with a different role, that of an associate by grace, with the very Maker of it all - AND of himself!

In this case, death stalked, yes confronted and was ready fatally to assault David, and with it. There was that harsh ungodliness which could gloat or glory in its depraved ways and deadly weapons, just as now in ISIS, Al Qaeda and various visionaries devoid of basis other than their own fluctuating minds, and of God except in their constructions, as architects of their own god, which never replaces attested reality (cf. SMR^*1).

2) The Startling Scene of the Grand, Divine Response, 18:7-15.

There is an elemental rush made by the Lord in His response, moving to the heart of the creation as salvation is achieved. Nothing is too hard, and goodness disperses what would rob glory.

It is as if all creation is laid bare in the scope of the Lord's answer, for nothing is sacred before Him, nor can anything delay or defuse His action. If the sorrows of hell draw near to His redeemed servant (v. 5), then with devouring fire the Lord acts, the universe a mere item, like furniture in a house. Thus, in this mode, as He scattered the foe, the very channels of an exposed sea are seen. Nothing of material kind, even organised in its creation, would stand before this divine action: all would fly before His anger and His response to such a cry as He has heard (verses 1-6).

It is apparent thus from the first, that there is in the case of David, a ready escalation from the king to His Lord, His descendant on the human side, the Saviour, the Messiah. THERE is the ultimate and consistently affirmed answer whether to David or to another, and His role as man comes through one of David's descendants, while His love made the promise to come in the first place, and fulfils it in the second.

3) The Extradition and its Ground 18:16-24

The crisis comes, as it often does to man in current history, the world befouled with foxes and littered with wolves in heart: "He sent down from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters." Here the supernatural ? above nature! but of course, for the heavens declare His glory and the earth His praise; and this is not the situation for an absent supervisor but for the living Creator. For Him, the universe is a place surrounding His love; and in it, in His own personal provision, He grants a palace of royal peace for the soul (Psalm 45:10-14, John 15:7).

Ready for protection are His everlasting arms as He provides that security of that unrelinquishing Rock of salvation for the heart of His people. As for Him in whom the effective action centres (18:31-32).

"WHO is God except the LORD, and who is a Rock, except our God!"

There is none even to compare, no competition!

What it takes to make this vastly significant response practical, He does; for He is the God who ACTS for those who wait for Him and remember Him in His ways (Isaiah 64:5). The eventual, effective action as Psalm 40 with Micah 5:1-3 indicate, is through sending His everlasting word as the only begotten Son. It is not the best for the purpose, merely, but the only sacrificially sent, sinless, infinite and supreme Being in the Trinity (Isaiah 48:15ff.). In that passage, this tour of duty is traced clearly and in significant detail, reminding one of Psalm 40, 16, 22, and 2, in their detailed outlining with indelible graphics, of the Messianic triumph, then to come and now laid in foundation.

As in Isaiah 48:16, it is He who is not only at work IN but over the universe which He created and set for this issue (Isaiah 49:2, 51:16, Colossians 1:15ff.), who comes, His Spirit accompanying, His Father despatching. After HIS payment for sin (Isaiah 52-53, Micah 5:1-3), nothing can even begin to impede the resurrection of that self-same body. It is then that the ULTIMATE CALL is made and the ULTIMATE divine response disdains all impediment, for it is one which encapsulates and surpasses any baulking that might be made by any, since it is the ground for pardon and peace for any. Love leaves nothing undone!

Meanwhile, those in expectation of triumph relishing the confrontation even with the Lord as He answers the cry (Psalm 18:18-19), these are famished with their folly. Their menaced prey are delivered, as in the battles about David, select national King for his own time and contributing, through one descendant, the human form for the Messiah in times to come (18:50). Thus the deliverance of David is a prelude to the absolute one, that of the Messiah, the resurrection of that body, itself first prepared for Christ (Psalm 40).

This is precisely as in Psalm 22:21, where "You have answered Me!", comes before the announcement of the triumph over death, to the brethren, and Psalm 16, where the flesh would be prevented from rotting by the simple method of raising it back to life. It was all planned, and what is true in principle, then becomes evident in fact, showing the extent of the Lord's interest, concern, determination (as in Psalm 22:21-31).

4) The Rapport and Reinforcement in the Relationship (18:25-36),

and the Hands-on Help of God

God knows how to deal with deviates, reprobates, recidivists, hypocrites, self-deceived engines of confusion, as also with smoking flax - a different field, and a bruised reed. .As to the former, He can outwit the devious, see through the delinquent; but for the purified, with the purity of His communication is the simple sincerity of the relationship which rewards faith. With the pure, He shows Himself pure, with the devious shrewd, or discerning!

In fact, David has found in Him a power for battle, for vigour and action, as an apprentice taught; and He attests that there is no other Rock. Here the steadfast, ultimately stable, undentable, reliable and sure Rock is relished in his experience; and both his power and his inheritance (cf. Eph. 1:11,19) avail for the Christian, whom faith animates and reliance activates. "He teaches ..., " even the Lord, and David learns. With him, it is as with Daniel's consecrated service, where the outcomes are vast, whether in prophecy or its fulfilment.

God knows how to deal with deviates, reprobates, recidivists, hypocrites, self-deceived engines of confusion, as also with smoking flax - a different field, and a bruised reed.

As to the former class, He can outwit the devious, see through the delinquent, and reward the purified, with the purity of His communication and the simple sincerity of the relationship. With the pure, He will show Himself pure, with the devious shrewd, or discerning!

"He teaches ..., " (Psalm 18:34), even the Lord, and David learns. With him, it is as with Daniel's consecrated service, where the outcomes are vast, whether in prophecy or its fulfilment.fact, David has found in Him a power for battle, for vigour and action, as an apprentice taught; and He attests that there is no other Rock. Here the steadfast, ultimately stable, undentable, reliable and sure Rock is relished in his experience; and both his power and his inheritance (cf. Ephesians 1:11,19) avail for the Christian, whom faith animates and reliance activates. "He teaches ..., " even the Lord, and David learns. With him, it is as with Daniel's consecrated service, where the outcomes are vast, whether in prophecy or its fulfilment.

The apt and avid student is normally a delight to teach, and the results tend to speak for themselves. When God is the teacher and a willing heart the recipient, great is the thrust! Unlike the super-tough, the Lord is gentle with His servants, and "enlarged my path under me," so that this gentleness has made him great, and he does not slip!

Yet even here, there is no greatness in former shepherd lad, David, in himself, but only first as an endowed king, and much more as he himself attests, as the progenitor after the flesh, of the human sphere and format of the Messiah. Thus, from II Samuel 7, we see the Lord's promise of the Eternal Messiah (cf. Isaiah 11, Psalm 110), whom David in the latter, even calls LORD! First resting in Solomon, the promise there does not then show the Saviour but His prelude. Afterwards, there is an eternal Kingdom for the seed from David; and what is his response after hearing this (II Samuel 7:16-17)? Here does history show it. First hear God through Nathan, and then David to the Lord.

"And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you:
your throne shall be established for ever.
According to all these words, and according to all this vision,
so did Nathan speak unto David."

This parallels Genesis 22:15-19, with 3:15.

The royal response of David (II Samuel 7:18-22), it is one of stunned amazement in accepting grace (italics and red added). It is an example for all: EVERYONE saved by the Lord may well show a stunned amazement, at such an outcome of grace!

."Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house, that You have brought me till now? And this was yet a small thing in Your sight, O Lord GOD; but You have spoken also of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD? And what can David say more to You? for You, Lord GOD, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore You art great... O LORD God: for there is none like You, neither is there any God beside You."

What beauty there is when given grace meets the grandeur of the Majesty who in His Messiah gives! But how man has defiled himself.

5) The Empowerment of Divine Potency - 18:37-42.

From the earlier part of this Psalm, we have been moving through the turbulent answering power of God to the cry of faith is heard, and we moved towards the most direct reference to the Messiah.

This Psalm, now turns more and more explicitly towards that same Messiah as the major focus, revealed through faith to faith. NO enemy, of whatever talent and pride can stand before the King, and precisely as in Psalm 2, their help is vain for they are enemies of God and His word and salvation (cf. Psalm 2:4-12), and why is this ? It is because the confrontational contestants have no rock, but mere pitiful pebbles, seen through a magnifying glass, that also distorts! (Psalm 96). Evacuating the God of creation and salvation from their thoughts, they are founded on demeaning dreams, and when judgment comes, have no defence.

6) The Messiah as the vision moves with total clarity,

exhibits focus in heaven, function on earth - 18:43-45,

Now comes the Messiah like a comet into immediate, sovereignly depicted focus. The situation to come opens up like the heavens. As soon as people hear of Him, we learn, many will be willing volunteers (as in Psalm 110) to His side, to perceive, receive and find their God. But why is there this prodigious willingness by so many thousands to come so suddenly ? It is in a word, because authenticity allied to infinity and loving mercy speaks! that is He who speaks with His own voice, and in His speech, the God of creation and salvation is exposed with definitive precision (cf. Hebrews 1, John 1:1-14, 8:58).

Why is there this transforming willingness to receive Him, which appears heightened in the day of His power ?

To answer that more vividly, let us take an image. Man is like a blocked valley into which should pour torrents of truth, though much of it all damned up in the interests of damnation, through petulant, impatient or indolent disregard, or active and actual warfare against God. Without it, as a result, man becomes parched in soul and spiritually inert or wildly aflame in heart, a shadow, large or small, distinct or vague, but without spiritual substance, though in some it becomes smouldering as if in advance, or even a reckless flame.

Sometimes a few small-seeming movements destabilise the blockage, so that the water is released with a cleansing power to thrust impurity aside, a restorative action to assuage, clarify and remedy that is scarcely conceivable, except for one thing. And what is that ? It is that the folly of the blockage was so extensive and decisive, that its removal, though it may have seemed small in kind, was vast in significance..

It transformed the situation in the presence of the Creator of man, himself the creator of sin. Vast was the requirement in cost to remove both barrier and its penalty, this being the bearing of the burden of sin on behalf of all, effective for those receiving the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23). Offered to all, it is paid for many (Matthew 26:28, Isaiah 53:10-11), the recipients of this world either boggling at redemption, or else receiving it. Small wonder there was in the ultimate, such a vast thrust as saw this Psalm opening, in the divine response to the cry, essentialised in Christ the Saviour, as He committed His Spirit into His Father's hands (Luke 23:46).

Christ having paid as substitutionary, sacrificial Saviour, death the price of sin, nothing could obviate, resist His resurrection, for He was carried off by His own two feet from the so public and notable tomb in an action stunning the guards, who offered no resistance, because they could not. That is the ultimate reason they were not prosecuted. Earthquake, stone, perception at the time, body departure, neat grave cloths not bespeaking haste, made an ensemble the authorities could not sell; so they paid the money to be quiet.

Christ however had made another payment, that of His life, and this was not to be hidden, but to be openly proclaimed Psalm 18:49). This triumph over death, this phenomenon that even priestly cunning could not disguise, struck at the blockage, acting to dislodge it dynamically in many.

Let us pursue the image. The valley once dry, is then flooded, the water now abundant both for washing and drinking.

The dynamism in potential available, then acts and vast changes occur, including the regeneration of the whole valley, or vale, which was the blocked heart of man (cf. Titus 2, and 3:4ff.).

The people then do not have to make the sacrifice, for it is made for them, and needing to take it, like waters gushing past, still excluded from their hearts, they need merely to receive it, with the foundations on which its flow is based (I Corinthians 3:11, Galatians 6:14).

Thus He comes, King of the Kingdom of heaven of which He spoke, not trashing hearts but receiving those who receive Him (John 1:1-14), and His rule is over all nations, they having shown their putridity and passion, lust and devious departure from what is just to the uttermost, bloodthirsty point.

This being so, the people may indeed receive Him willingly; for it is HIS work and it is done (John 19:30), defined by death, ratified by the resurrection. Based on the thrust it foretold in the Messiah (Isaiah 52-3), its practical demonstration provided the foundation for all to follow (I Cor. 3:11).

7) Sharing in the Spoils of the Messiah
and both baring and bearing His Word to the World - 18:46 -50.

Thus the Lord lives (not a nostrum, notion or idea) and subdues both the enemy of enemies and his affiliates; He is exalted over all the earth as in Psalms 66-69, 72, 96-98 and delivers His people, answering the call against the thrall gained by wicked captors, both sin and Satan. The almost incredible translation in the NKJV (perhaps almost possible linguistically), but scarcely in concept, and without the historical and or Messianic matrix, is out of step with the whole proposition of salvation from Genesis 3:15, to Micah 5, Isaiah 7 and on). It speaks of "David and his descendants" rather than the AV "his seed". But this lapse in NKJV translation has at least one advantage. It forces one to face who that effectual seed ultimately is, in countless prophecies, intimations and predictions, explicit and implicit!

If the translation of the NKJV is conceivable, yet it is not the actual text, for that is singular, not plural, in what is written. You may wish to see it in your mind; but the movement to the plural in translation is certainly an intrusion. Such may be useful for discussion, but not for translation, since it prejudges the point, and does not give the text. Galatians 3:15-18 makes the point expressly and very vigorously, from nearer the start of the matter with Abraham.

The singular seed, as the text offers in number grammatically, is part of the most intensive singularity there is: that of God who ONCE in the flesh died for sin, and ONCE rose and ONCE came to do so, and ONCE thus started the stream which would swell with volunteers, rejoicing as they submitted to Him, whose return to judge this world is as singular as His coming to present it with His salvation. It is He who is the ONLY Lord, Creator, and for that matter, the only ONE ever presented in a demonstrable divine, work (Acts 4:11-12), the only and necessary Saviour, with incomparable verifications throughout the ages, and to the end, as even at this day. His every prediction comes into history, as He did, and will in Person (Acts 3:19-21)

Very simply, Psalm 18 is one more Messianic Psalm, added to such as Psalm 2, 16, 22,35, 40, 55, 72, 109, 110 and so on. There is quite simply no one else in the Bible appointed from the time of David, and indeed long before that from Genesis 3:15, to be the divine saviour as "the head of the nations" to whom they are to submit, here, as in Psalm 2 and 110, and to whom a great rushing quantity of willing converts will come.

It is well to be one of them (John 1:12).

NOTE

See, RELIGION, RELIGIOSITY AND REALITY IN CHRIST

On Islam, see also the following.

More Marvels ... Ch.     4, esp. *4,

SMR   pp. 50ff., 62ff., 829ff. , 1080

Dancers, Prancers, Lancers and Answers Ch. 3, *1A misconceptions about the Cross, variable and mutually conflicting, on the part of the Koran

Lord of Life Ch. 3 (and force), 1081ff. (and faith), Outrageous Outages ... Ch. 5;

Pilgrims and Strangers ...    8 (Islam, attestation as false prophecy, news and prohibitions proposed, Sept. 2012);

His Wounds Opened Eternity Ch.    4;    3

Stepping Out for Christ Ch.    9,

Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch.    8 (in perspective), see also *1,

See Divine Agenda Chs.    6
with 3 (an overview of religious truancies, including Marx, Darwin and Koran)
and Highway to Hell - (Koran citations in both, with ideational parallels in perspective, in the latter two; and in the former, futile depravities in endless ideologies such as Sudan has shown so significantly, Islam ablaze without glory),
cf. Overflight in Christ Ch. 1 (and the Koran's musings);

1493 (esp. Britain and sharia);
News 138, Beauty for Ashes Chs.    4,   7

BARBLISS   5, Acme ... Ch. 9 , Great Execrations ... Ch.    3, SMR p. 1O88D - three major religions in some ways in concert, astray.

News 138, Beauty for Ashes Chs.    4,   7, SMR pp. 1074ff., esp. 1079, 1081ff..
(These latter show this religion, with the other three major conspiracies towards the ultimate - why conspiracies ? It is because men conspire, or breathe plans together for a control, rule or oversight not ordained by God: these are breaths of man, and the breath that matters is that of God, in and by which all scripture is inspired by Him (II Timothy 3:16, Isaiah 8:20), in the Book of the Lord (Isaiah 34:16), the Bible, and sustained and implemented by Him (Matthew 26:54ff.). Other ideas for rule are always unruly, since they always tend to use power for what neither reason nor truth compels.).

News 97, 98.

Possess Your Possessions Vol. 1, Ch. 8, app.;
Vol. 11, 4,   11, 5 (national character of Islam).