Hello, you're listening to Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church. Stephen Pollack is the pastor of Free Presbyterian Church of Malvern, Pennsylvania. The church is located at the junction of 401 and Mallon Road. Thank you for joining us today as Dr. Pollack opens the Word of God and lets the Bible speak. Turning tonight to Psalm 18, I encourage you to read it in preparation. We're not going to read all 50 verses. Perhaps for those who will listen in the future, I encourage you perhaps to take time to come alongside to read this psalm carefully and considerately. It's a full of wonderful truths, promises, precepts, and all of these things are very much in this portion of God's holy word. We're going to read, again, the first six verses, and then we'll jump down to the end of the psalm. Of course, the title is here. It is the chief musician, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day. The Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower. I will call Upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from mine enemies. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about, the snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him. even into his ears. And then on down to the verse number 47, and the verse 47, you have the word of the Lord again. It is God that avengeth me and subdueth the people under me. He delivereth me from mine enemies. Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me. Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praise unto thy name. great deliverance giveth he to his king, and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed forevermore." Amen. This is God's holy word. And one of the things that people often reflect upon, they find the Psalms to be particularly helpful and applicable And so you review the Bible, you say, well, I always get so much out of reading the Psalms. And we say, well, why is that the case? Well, certainly we see ourselves often in David's struggles. We know the burdens, the challenge of life, and we can readily put ourselves into David or the other authors into their shoes. We also want to take the promises and the privileges. The Psalms are full of these privileges that belong to the children of God. But at the same time, we often think and remind ourselves that David was unique. He was a king, and we're not. He was a receiver of a very unique covenant, and we're not, not in the same way. He had promises that were very personal to him and to his family, promises that belonged to the Sir David, not so much to ourselves, at least not directly. And yet the Psalms, it's a songbook for the saints. And as a songbook for the saints, it is therefore applicable and intended to be edifying. It is a means whereby we teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So if these songs are edifying and are applicable, the question often must be asked is, well, how are they? In what sense do they come to us with this applicability? Well, I think Psalm 18 is a good example of how this principle works out. When you consider it carefully and study it carefully, you see, well, what are the steps to take to lead us to the conclusions that this is indeed a word from the Lord to ourselves? You take the very last verse, verse 50, it says, Great deliverance giveth he to his king. And show of mercy to his anointed, and to David, and to his seed forevermore. And you look at that verse and you'll see that there are certainly three, if you like, three groups or three individuals who are included in this promise. Great deliverance giveth he to his king. and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David." So there's promises to David in a very personal sense. He himself enjoyed this deliverance. And yet you'll know from your Bibles the reference to the king and to his anointed and to David and to his seed points our eyes towards Christ Jesus, the one who is the ultimate son of David. And yet in that, there's also this sense of a future further seed to a seed forevermore. And so you see, well, there's things here true for all the saints. And so when I look at this psalm, under those three kind of ideas, the psalm is true historically for David. It is true typically or prophetically for Christ. And it is true spiritually for all believers. And if you walk through those steps, you begin to see, you have the strength, the promises brought directly to your own soul. So first of all, the psalm is true historically in David's own life. Well, then, you know the story. David is anointed. The people wanted a king. They chose Saul. And again, Saul, again, proven to be let down in so many ways. And Samuel is sent to anoint the son of Jesse, the one in the field, called in. And David is anointed. He serves in Saul's court. He defeats Goliath. And Saul becomes increasingly carnally minded. Increasingly angry. Increasingly jealous. Those fruits of the flesh, if you like, that they demonstrate themselves in Saul's life. And he gets to the point where he seeks the death of David. And so verses 4 and 5 for David are literally true. And he says, the sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. Of course, not just Saul, but others were seeking the life of this king. He goes to war, and there was no shortage of a Philistine who wouldn't desire the death of this brave warrior. And so David is very much personally involved in this psalm. In fact, the title is given to us. It is the time when David, he knew the Lord delivering him from the hand of all his enemies and from Saul. Deliverance. David's personal experience. You can read the account in 1 and 2 Samuel. You can read those stories of David and you can see, well, how does this come to pass in his life? Well, We certainly note his difficulty. I'm going to give you six D's here, if you like, to summarize David's testimony in this psalm. As he reflects upon God's mercy, he thinks of his difficulty. He has his enemies, and they're surrounding him. He feels compassed about with death itself. He knows these people want to ruin his life, and his life is on the line, as it were. That is his difficulty. Which leads, of course, to his distress. Mention verse number six, He admits this. Again, we often see it in the scriptures that fear and faith are incompatible. And yet it's possible for a child of God to know fear, but to handle that fear in faith. And it is as they deal with their fear in faith that they have their problems resolved, at least in their hearts. Fear is replaced by peace as they apply faith to the principles that they're facing in their lives. And so his distress is written in this text. His dependence, though, is also acknowledged. You see, the language where this person, though he's marked by fear, is absolutely dependent upon the Lord. Verse 2, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust. These are in terms of military, the buckler, the shield, the horn of his salvation, his high tower, the place of safety. His safety is found in his distress, in his difficulties. He finds safety in the Lord. Verse 18, he refers to the Lord as his stay. His rest. The stay is the support in time of trouble, like a staff. He finds his safety, his support, his strength in God. And so God is the place of safety. He's the one who supports him. He depends upon the Lord. Hence, we understand that we see him saying, in my distress, I called upon the Lord. He also speaks fourthly of his defense. Verses 20 through 24 is yet another example of David pleading his own integrity. Again, he sees that God is just. He's kept the ways of the Lord and not wickedly departed from my God. This is not a claim of sinless perfection, but it is a recognition of God's justice, and he's done nothing to reserve the attacks of the enemies or indeed the attacks of Saul. He's blameless in that sense, in an evangelical sense, not sinless. but blameless." Again, words that are used even regarding the leadership of the church and the New Testament being evolved for reproach, blameless in that sense, not perfect. But genuinely, he blamed us, and he found himself in that category, and argues in that way, arguing for his uprightness. So verse number 24, But of course, very much written across the entire psalm is his deliverance. Note verse 2, he refers to God, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. Verse number 17, he delivered me from my strong enemy. Verse number 19, he brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighteth in me. Verse 43, thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people. Verse number 48, he delivereth me from mine enemies. Verse 50, great deliverance giveth he to his king. God stepped in. And he gives testimony to what God has done in his life. It's the title again. He comes, he gives this song unto the Lord when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. Which leads finally to his declaration. Verse number 47, it is God that avengeth me. Verse number 48, he delivereth me. It's a recognition of God's action, not his own strength. Again, he makes the point in verse number 17 that his enemies are too strong for him. And it left to himself, he had no hope. And ultimately, That's always the case for us. Not just David, but for all of us. If we're left to our own devices, we have no strength in ourselves. The psalmist, in his declaration, he says, in verse number 49, The declaration that he brings, giving glory to God in his deliverance, And so you look at that, and that's a very fast overview of 50 verses, and there's much more that could be said. And so what do you learn from this? Well, you learn much about the ways of the Lord. You learn about God's faithfulness and God's justice. You learn about the life of faith. calling upon the Lord in his distress, and you learn from that. You say, well, I need to be more like David. I need to call upon the Lord in my distress. I'm challenged by this. I'm encouraged by this. I should respond properly to the depth of the stress that may come in my life. Again, we forget these things. We encounter great difficulties and we forget the basics. How do you respond to times of difficulty in your life? You've got to do and behave the way the believer does. You call upon the Lord in your times of distress. So you learn these things partly through the example of a man of God. And so the psalm is true in a literal sense in the life of David, but it's also true prophetically. in Christ. I had three words that I could use to describe this. It's true prophetically. There's a sense in which this is prophetic of Christ Jesus. It's also a sense which is true typically. David is a type of Christ, points to Christ. It's also true covenantally. You see that also in this particular portion. Christ is the ultimate son of David. Again, I'm not gonna turn your attention to it now, but over in 2 Samuel, well, let's do, turn to 2 Samuel 22. I wasn't going to. Let's turn across there. 2 Samuel 22. And you'll see that 2 Samuel 22 is really a full recounting of the Psalm 18. It's recorded at the end of David's life. Again, we have from Psalm 18 that this may have been written earlier when David knew deliverance from Saul. So it may not have been after all the troubles that follow after Bathsheba and Abbaslam and all of that, but it's here as a testimony of David's enjoyment of God's deliverance. And so 2 Samuel 22 has this entire recounting of the psalm. But you will note when you look at chapter 23 then, David's thoughts, the last words of David, and again, the organization of this is important in 2 Samuel. He notes in verse number 5, Again, he's recognizing at the end of his life, Though he's made some tremendous errors, God is still his rock, and he's resting upon the promise to his seed. And so you have that idea, verse number 51 of 2 Samuel 22. He is the tar of salvation. for his king and show mercy to his anointed and unto David and to his seed forevermore. And so it's undoubtedly the case that the writer of 2 Samuel is tying Psalm 18 with the covenant promises to David. And so, and that's as we are absolutely to look towards the final glorious son of David, if you're like Christ Jesus himself, who sits upon the throne of David even now. He fulfills this psalm. You think of his sorrows. You think, the Lord, the sword of death, compass me, verse 4 of verse 7. The floods of ungodly men, they made me afraid. Again, we're not seeing fear in the Lord in that sense. We're seeing this typically. And so the Lord takes us, but in Gethsemane, he approaches, and his soul is greatly troubled as he confronts the reality of taking the cup of divine wrath. He's delivered as he prays in the garden. Hebrews 5 makes that clear. He cries strong, tears strong, crying unto his God, the sorrows of Christ. In fact, it's also the case that in Acts 2, in Peter's sermon, it refers to God having loosed the pains of death. Christ could not be holden by the pains of death, but his sorrows are here. You certainly see his sinlessness here. Again, I mentioned verse 20 and following in terms of David's righteousness. And if these verse are true for David, if David can rest upon God to act justly, as one who is not entirely sinless, then how much more is it true of Christ? In fact, He is entirely sinless. And so verse 25, Again, that is so true regarding Christ. The Father had to act justly towards the Son. sinless Son, death could not hold him." We saw that in Psalm 16. Of course, then you see Christ's success here also. Verse number seven. Then the earth shook and trembled. It made me think about the great earthquake described in Matthew 28. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. It was an earthquake described when God steps in. David cries in his distress. The Lord hears his prayers. And then the earth shook. Again, he's speaking metaphorically. He's speaking about God acting. That's the language of the poet and the prophet. But for Christ, it was true literally. The earth shook and the stone is rolled back from the door as the angel sits upon it. And so Christ sees the victory. God sent from above, verse number 16. He took me, he drew me out of many waters, verse number 19. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me." And so Christ, though death encompassed him, he knows the success and the victory. And as he dies, what does he do? He shows Again, principalities and powers, he triumphs over them. In his death, he destroys him. That is the power of death, that is the devil. He wins the victory. And so verse number 39, It's describing the triumph of the Messiah, the ultimate Son of David. Christ has indeed triumphed. He's known the victory. Verse 43, Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people. Thou hast made me the head of the heathen, a people whom I have not yet known shall serve me. This ultimately is only true in Christ Jesus. Even for David, though he had heathen people serving under him, this is not true for David in any way. The sense is true for Christ. Christ is the one who rules and reigns over the heathen. Gentiles are under his rule. And so Christ is seen here in this psalm. In his sorrows, in his sinlessness, and in his success, we see this psalm ultimately being fulfilled covenantally, prophetically, typically in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, in his victory. He is the anointed king over the heathen, which leads thirdly to the thought that this psalm is also true spiritually for all saints. And here's where you've got to work to to get the application. You're not David. You're not Christ. You're not David in having a promise given to your house and to your seed. You're not Christ who is the ultimate son of David. It's worth noting that in the new covenant, The saints are never given a promise of physical deliverance from their enemies. It's never a promise given. In fact, the Lord says, the disciples, fear not them which kill the body. There's a recognition that they may indeed suffer from those who may actually kill the body. It's also the case that ultimately all the saints die, save Enoch and Elijah. And so the bands of death compassing us We cannot take this and say that we will never die or never again even experience the loss of our lives at the hands of ungodly men. But this psalm does provide great comfort and encouragement. And the truth is, this psalm is ours, not because we are David or not because we are Christ, but because we are in union with Christ. He is our representative and he secures our victories. That union that Paul highlights so clearly in Romans chapter six, for if we've been planted together in the likeness of death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. And so in our union with Christ, these promises and realities become ours. And we claim them as ours because Christ has already secured these things in his perfect righteousness. He is the one who was upright. He is the one who has not departed from his God. He is the one who's kept the ways of the Lord. And he secured these things. Therefore, our souls are safe from all our enemies. Can I refer to Matthew 10 that we're not afraid of the one who can kill the body? But did you hear the second part? But are not able to kill the soul. That's a wonderful encouragement. I don't think I think of that enough. There is no enemy in this world. Indeed, there is no enemy in this entire universe who can destroy the soul of the child of God. Nothing can sever us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You think the language of John chapter 10, that Christ gives his sheep eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. We're safe. The Lord is our rock and our fortress and our deliverer. He is our strength. He is our buckler. He is the horn of our salvation. He is our high tower. That is what the Lord is to us. We live our lives so often thinking about this world. This world is often not the way we'd like to be in our lives. And we forget that no matter what this world brings, our souls are safe from all of our enemies. Cannot be destroyed. Cannot be taken out of God's love. But it's also true in this Psalm that our bodies will be delivered from death. The sorrows of death compassed me, verse number four. And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sores of hell compassed me about. The snares of death, preventer, came before me. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Because Christ was released from the bands of death, therefore all who are in Christ will also share that. As that portion in 1 Corinthians 15 says, Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Our bodies will be delivered from death. And so we can say, verse number 50, great deliverance will he give to David's seed forevermore. We need not fear death. I think it's remarkable to think about this again. Our oldest church member passed away yesterday. And for our brother, it's not the end, though now. a season in the bands of death. Death cannot hold him. He will rise again as one in union with Christ Jesus. And so, this psalm does have so much to teach us, yes, about the life of faith. Yes, it shows us what to do in our distresses. But we may turn to God in our distresses, and yet things may not get any better. We may suffer the loss of all of our property. We may suffer the loss of our very lives. So what this psalm points us to is our safety in Christ. The safety of our soul, the security of our bodies, and the certainty of our future resurrection. That is our hope and our prospect. And therefore we set our affections on things above, not on things beneath. We seek first the kingdom of God, and we have these right approaches. And so in life to stress as we call upon the Lord, and we leave all things in His hands. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of Let the Bible Speak from Malvern Free Presbyterian Church. If you'd like more information about the gospel or the church, please call 610-993-3170 or email malvernfpc at yahoo.com. We extend an invitation to all to join us as we worship the Lord each week. You will be made very welcome. The church is situated at 80 Mallon Road, Malvern, Pennsylvania, at the junction of 401 and Mallon Road. We meet for worship on the Lord's Day at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. A Bible study and prayer meeting is also held on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. We preach Christ Crucified.