This is a psalm to live upon and a psalm to live in. This is a psalm that in special ways, it corrects our perception as much as it does our expectations. This is a portion of God's word that should be precious to us. It's true that every part of God's word is as gold tried in the fire. The dust of this book is gold. But there are some portions of the Word of God that God himself singles out as having in it some special luster of his glory. You see that explicitly in texts like Song of Solomon. It is the song of songs. Psalm 45, it is a goodly theme, says the psalmist that he insists upon. The Lord God, even in Ephesians 3, says that there's something in that epistle that was unique, a special glimpse of the glory of God is seen there. But there are other ways in which the scriptures, as it were, isolate a text of itself. Psalm 18 is one of those texts. This is the third largest Psalm in the Psalter, behind Psalm 119 and Psalm 79. But I would submit to you that that's not why we should see this as being somewhat unique. This is a Psalm that is twice recorded for us in the scriptures. Recorded for us here, of course, in the Psalter and also recorded for us in 2 Samuel. In 2 Samuel, it is the closing words of great David's life. In the Psalter, it is a song of divine praise that belongs to the church's manual for worship for the running centuries. And just to go back to David for a moment, the superscription itself and the testimony we received from it in 2 Samuel indicate that David lived in these things. David lived in the truths that you and I contemplate in the psalm. Folks, certainly that means that this is a psalm that you and I should take special note of. David himself would say, as it were, he never graduated. beyond these truths. These are truths to live in and to die in. Truths to live in and to live upon. As we look at the 18th Psalm, we'll notice that there are some very basic divisions to it. The Psalm begins and it closes with the theme of praise. Verses one to three and 46 to 50 resound with the praise of God. The psalm is bookended by these declarations of worship. The psalmist, as it were, begins and he ends on the same note. But then as you look at the beginning of the body, starting there at the fourth verse, you notice that the principle theme of Psalm 18 is given to us as that of rescue. The 18th Psalm is principally a psalm of deliverance in which the psalmist recounts how God himself has worked salvation, has pulled him from his enemies, has secured him. In verses four to 15, you see that description, it's so vivid, so tangible, in which God stirs as it were to act on behalf of David. But in verses 16 to 30, You and I see that the psalmist as it were steps aside from those very lively and vibrant descriptions. And he comes to answer a basic question. What is the reason for God's activity here? Why has God so moved on behalf of David? And then in verses 31 to 45, we see that the psalmist moves even from that theme to really a focus on how God himself has strengthened David. How David not only was delivered, but how David eventually became an instrument under divine grace to accomplish the means, or to accomplish rather the ends that God had placed him upon the throne. Now, if we hold all of those sections together, for the prevailing theme, the motif that the psalmist insists upon in every section, is that God's mercies to his people, they are powerful tokens of his love. God's mercies to his people are powerful tokens of his love. And very briefly this evening, I want us to see that theme as we work our way through the entirety of the psalm. Friend, you and I, I believe ought to live very much in this psalm. And so our focus this evening has to of course be a considerable elevation and in a very summary fashion. But I trust that this evening as we take up God's word, the Lord by his grace may indeed lead us to see things even as we ought to. As the psalmist here under divine inspiration would instruct us to. So take first of all how the psalmist demonstrates this theme in the first section. Verses four and following. The psalmist begins there by explaining that in these circumstances it was the sorrows of death and of hell that he encountered. What's striking about that friend is he recognized at the very onset the psalmist does not say fears. You and I should not see sorrows and fears as synonyms in this text. Sorrows are a step beyond fear. The sorrows of death are beyond the fears of death in this sense. The psalmist has, as it were, looked at his circumstances and has concluded that there is no expectation of life. He's not fearful. Fearful would indicate something of perhaps hope. This is beyond fear. It is, as it were, a certain expectation of death and as it were, a mourning for oneself. And David says here that he found himself in such a condition. And we see that in David's life, don't we? In 1 Samuel we're told that David said in his heart that one day he would perish by the hand of Saul. Note what he says there. He doesn't say that he is afraid of Saul. He said in his heart and his inmost being that he was certain he was to die at the hands of his tyrannical king and father-in-law. The sorrows of death and of hell. But then the psalmist quickly tells us that God heard out of his holy temple. God heard his voice. And the reference to the temple, friend, could be, of course, a quite frequent reference to heaven. We would see that elsewhere in the Psalter, or it could be, friend, a reference to that place in which one would find the mercy seat, where God hears from a throne of grace. Both references point to the same theological reality. And here the psalmist says that from that place God has heard him. A friend what follows is staggering. Starting there at verse seven, the psalmist begins to describe the response of the Lord. And it's earth breaking. He says that the foundations of the earth are laid bare and they tremble. You see that in verse 7 as well as in verse 15. Then as you come down to verse 8 and also verse 12, you see that smoke and coals of fire are deployed by God as so many weapons against His and the psalmist's enemies. In verses 9 and 13, you find here that the heavens are bowed and God thunders in the heavens. And so the idea is that this is a cosmic shaking moment. And in verse 10 we're told that the Lord God, as he rends the heaven and comes down, he rode upon a cherub. And all of these descriptions, friend, are descriptions in which you see, as it were, something of a dialectic, a focus, where he's looking at God as he makes use of the irrational creatures as well as the rational creatures. as he makes use of things low and things high, as he makes use of things that are earthly and things that are heavenly, all to respond to the psalmist's cry. The psalmist describes here for us something that is cosmic shaking. God has stood up and God has now come down. And all of the elements are now deployed by God for the safekeeping and for the securing of his person, of David. When did this happen? The superscription says, well, the superscription says in part that this was when David was delivered from Saul. So go back in your mind to the life of David for a moment. In our Bibles, we read that God, well, that God had chosen David through the prophet Samuel, he announced that. that election. And then we find that God delivers David from the hand of Saul. He uses Michael, David's wife. He uses David's own flight from the land of promise to secure him from Saul. David forges alliances with foreign kings. to safeguard himself and his mother and his father. And at one point, David even feigns madness to remain in the land of Philistia and so to stay away from the hand of Saul. None of that looks like the cosmos being rendered. But then the superscription also says that this is describing a time whenever God delivers David from all of his enemies. But as we look at the scriptures, we remember that the way in which David was delivered from those enemies was because God made David a man of war. He made him one who would shed blood, 1st Chronicles 28. Again, friend, you and I don't read of God coming down in this way. In fact, the only encounter we have in the scriptures of David's experience with an angel is with the angel of death as God was visiting the land for David's sin. So the question before us this evening is, are these descriptions mere hyperbole? Is this simply hyperbole? Beloved, the answer to that is emphatically no. What David is doing is he is showing us that God is the first cause of all of the mercies he's received. God is the first cause of all of David's deliverances. And what you see here is David recognizes that very directly. Yes, God has delivered him through secondary causes, but David knows assuredly that God himself intervened. His mercies and his deliverances were from the hand of God. And so you see here, David doesn't, he doesn't like the fishermen and Habakkuk sacrifice to his net or to his sword. He doesn't credit his victories to those secondary causes. He credits deliverance directly to God alone. And friend, in these descriptions you see that David knows that all of the cosmos were deployed by God. to safeguard his person. Friend, just think of how the Scriptures elucidate that fact for us. Even the highest created beings, the angelic hosts, this is how they're described. They are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. That sounds an awful lot like Psalm 18. And then we go even further. The whole earth is used in Psalm 18 to be something of an instrument for David's deliverance. God uses all of those elements to be, as it were, so many weapons against David's enemies. Well, friend, the Scriptures make this very clear that God even uses, as it were, the compass, the very directions on the map. to safeguard his people. I will say to the north, says God, give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the end of the earth. North, south, east and west, or as it were, so many ministers to his people. God will say to the church in Isaiah 43 that he gave men for them, Egypt and Serbia, all of these nations given for them. as so many instruments for their safekeeping and for their good. What you and I see here is a man who sees from every mercy that he has ever received from the hand of God as being unmistakably originating with the Lord. And that he could credit no secondary cause as being the primary cause of his deliverance. The psalmist here, friend, he sees every deliverance that he's ever known. Every mercy he's ever encountered. He says, I see God there. And I see God making use of all of the cosmos to be so many instruments for my good. Christian, this is where you and I ought to be. This is how you and I ought to make use of providence. The believer knows no common mercy. Every mercy that you and I have, friend, it comes from an instrument that is wielded by a God who intends the good of his elect. All of the cosmos are subordinated to their safekeeping by the will and by the power of God. That's how the psalmist sees every mercy he's known. Everything as it were, simply serving that end. We come then to the next section where we see David saying thus, in verses 16 to 19, he uses so many descriptors. He says that God took him, he drew him, he delivered him, he brought him. And the point of emphasis is the me. David is emphasizing that God did all of this. He rent, as it were, the heavens. He shook the earth. He made all of these things serve his good for himself. All of these things were for his good. And there's something very intimate about these descriptors. He's saying God took him. God drew him like a man might draw another one from a well, from a cave. God did that for the psalmist. And that prompts a very important question. Why? Why? In 19, the very last line he tells us, because as the psalmist, he delighted in me. In verses 20 to 24, the psalmist then goes on to describe why he particularly was delighted in. And in summary, you have it repeated twice, that line that God rewarded him according to his righteousness that occurs both in verse 20 and in 24. But then in verses 25 to 30, the end of that section, You find the psalmist moves from that which is particular to himself to that which is a general truth and belongs to all of those, all of those who are merciful, all of those, as he describes, at length, who are pure, who are upright. In short, as you come to the verse 30, all of those that trust in him. And friend, all of those lines teach us this, that God favors the godly, and David knows himself to be of that number. That's why. Why do all of the creatures serve the great end of securing David? Because, says David, God has ordered all things to work together for the good of his people. That's why. And what David says here pointedly is that these mercies then are tokens of God's complacent love. Complacent again in colloquial use certainly doesn't denote anything positive, but in this case, it means one who delights in the thing itself, who rests in the loveliness of that which is before them. God's love of benevolence is free. He loves the unlovely with that love, but with the love of complacency, God loves something that is itself lovely. And in Psalm 18, you find something that is worthy of love. What he describes here as uprightness, cleanness of hands, purity. And the psalmist says that all of this in Psalm 18 These are all tokens of that complacent love, his delight in the godly. Verses 20 and 24, as we said already, repeat that phrase that God rewarded the psalmist according to the cleanness of his hands. This is an obvious reference to godliness, but you and I have to step back for a moment and ask the question, what kind of godliness are we referring to here? Is this a godliness that is perfect in the sense that it's meritorious? Has the psalmist earned something with God here? Has he earned, as it were, divine delight? Verse 21, the psalmist says that he has not wickedly departed from the Lord or departed from his God. Friend, as you look at Psalm 119, even the psalm that we sang this evening, that ninth part, the psalmist himself says that he went astray. And in fact, at the end of that psalm, you remember that the psalmist again reiterates that fact and he says, seek me because I have gone astray. In other words, the psalmist is saying that he himself, through common infirmities, was walking away, as it were, from the Lord. even common infirmities in the believers is a kind of departing from God. And we know that David didn't only have those kind of common infirmities, the marks of children so to speak, but he had notorious sins as well in his life. And those were certainly departures from the living God. So what do we make of this statement? When he says that he has not departed wickedly from the Lord, well I want you to notice that that word wickedly, that adjective is ultimately a qualifier. He is qualifying the sense in which he has not departed from God. What he means then is this idea that he has not played the apostate. He has not wickedly, high-handedly turned away from God as the apostle described those who did apostatize. who ultimately fell away. For instance, what you find both in 1st and 2nd Timothy chapters 1, chapter 1 of both epistles. He describes those who went away. Hebrews 6 describes those who depart, who fall away from the Lord. And David is saying pointedly that his departures from God were not of that stripe. And friend, that qualifier is so important because you recognize that the psalmist then is not describing a kind of sinless perfection. He's describing exactly what you and I saw in the 17th Psalm. He was not sinlessly perfect, but he was certainly sincere. There was a sincere work of grace, a sincere root of godliness in the psalmist. And for that, says the psalmist, God delighted in him and so manifested these tokens of his favor to him. I want you to notice something, friend, that as you come to the end of this section, You notice that the psalmist concludes by saying that God does all of this work for the psalmist and for all of those who trust in the Lord. I want you to notice something, friend. This is so instructive and it shouldn't be overlooked. The psalmist makes, friend, that last description just as exclusive as the descriptions that he made before that God rewarded him for his uprightness, for his cleanness and for his purity. Let me try to put that in different words for a moment. What you see here is the psalmist says that all of those who are described as those who trust in the Lord must of necessity also be those who are described as being clean and vice versa. There's no opportunity in this text for God to deliver one who is upright but lacks faith, or one who has faith but is not upright. The psalmist sees that that faith, friend, that he possesses, is a faith that flows from a heart of sincerity, a genuine root of godliness. He sees, friend, that this faith that he possesses is a faith that manifests the fruits of righteousness and he also sees that that righteousness can never, indeed would never exist apart from saving faith. The mutual exclusivity of this section is so important. because it drives us back to the reality that the psalmist is one who has lodged himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, and for that cause he has been made Godly. It is through the instrument of saving faith that he indeed is one who is clean, who is pure. That brings us thirdly and finally, as we close this evening, to that final section. Verse 32, the psalmist says that God girds him with strength. You see that in both verse 32 and 39. In verses 33 and 34, he says, God maketh my feet like hinds feet. He teacheth my hands to war. Verse 35, he says, thy gentleness hath made me great. And in all of these texts, what you see here is that all that you have in David is given to him. Isn't that wonderful? He's saying that everything that he has, even a skilled warrior such as David, he says it's God who taught his hands to war. It's God's gentleness that has in fact made him great. God is the one who has given these things. David possesses nothing. Nothing. No skill. No grace, no gift, but from the hand of God. And then in verse 40, he says that God has given the necks of his enemies to him. And so as God has strengthened the psalmist, he says, now God has secured his victory. Friend, that's quite, quite staggering when you consider earlier in the psalm, the psalmist says that these enemies were too strong for him, but now they're under his feet. Beloved, what you and I see then is that the psalmist emphasizes that the deliverance that he has has come in no small part from the fact that God has strengthened him to indeed conquer his enemies. Beloved, this is a motif that belongs not only to David, it belongs to every one of God's people. God strengthens Christians in order to make them conquerors. David is not only rescued, he is made a conqueror over his enemy. So friend, that's why we read the 8th Romans. Romans 8, friend, I think it's so often misunderstood, so lightly quoted. When there the apostle says that the believers made more than conquerors over all of those enemies. Again, friend, it might be helpful if you look back at how the apostle names those enemies. He's saying that they were made subject to the believer. And that the believer was not only pulled from them. Friend, he doesn't say that. He doesn't just say they were rescued or delivered. He says they were made conquerors over these things. And what were those enemies? Friend, read the list for yourself. Those are the enemies that are put under the feet of every single person united to the Lord Jesus Christ. They were once too strong for every believer, but now they're under every Christian, even the least of God's people. They are certainly under their feet. And all of this says the apostle is through Jesus Christ. being united to Christ, David's greater son. And that is how we are strengthened and indeed made conquerors. There's a powerful illustration, one that I've shared recently with a number of you. It's from Isaiah 41, where God turns to the church and he says, worm, Jacob, I'll make you thresh mountains. Friend, those heavy mountains, massive boulders would crush a worm. But through God's strength, being united to the Lord Jesus Christ, now worm Jacob threshes the mountains like wheat. A believer strengthened through union with Jesus Christ. As we close, friend, do you see reality? This way. Do you see that the living God, the one who holds all things together by the word of his power, indeed makes every creature subservient to your good in the Lord Jesus Christ. Friend, there is not a maverick molecule in the universe. There is not one atom that is misplaced. Everything is ordered, says the Word of God, for the good and the safekeeping of the church, which ultimately redounds to the glory of our triune God. Friend, do you see that really? The psalmist does. Let me press that just a bit further. Friend, what mercies have you known even today? Have you seen them as powerful tokens of God's mercy and favor? Or to put it very bluntly, are you sacrificing to your net? Are you crediting second causes without seeing the first cause of every blessing? This Psalm urges us to see differently. But for our comfort, friend, I want you to notice something here in the Psalm that we could have insisted on before. But it comes to us from verse 49. In verse 49, we're told, excuse me, we're told there, that the Psalmist will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen and sing praises unto thy name. That's a very important text Because of course, these are the very lines that the apostle Paul will lift and will insert into Romans 15. But when the apostle does that, he says that the person speaking there is the Lord Jesus Christ. The pronoun belongs to Jesus. Now this is true, truly a Psalm of David. But it would be wrong of us not to see this also as David writing as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the scriptures themselves teach us thus. But what do we make of that? And what application does that hold for the people of God? Seeing that this is a Psalm that may be sung by God's people, but a Psalm that chiefly is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. John Brown of Haddington, a minister throughout the majority of the 18th century wrote thus about Psalm 18. Seeing that this is a Psalm about the believer and then ultimately fulfilled in Christ, he says thus, how close and marvelous is the connection between Christ and his people. that the same relations of God, the same words and works of God and exercises toward God will apply both to Jesus and to his people. Happy indeed are they who, interested in Jesus' righteousness, have their corruption subdued by his grace and are by his spirit enabled to conquer every spiritual foe. Haddington says, friend, you and I should see in this psalm the blessed benefits that accrue to those who are united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this psalm is fulfilled in Jesus, and friend, as Haddington so wonderfully put it, they have the same relations to God, words, works of God, and exercises toward God, in such a way that these words might apply to both. Different senses, yes, but words that truly belong to both. Encouragements that we might derive from this psalm, friend are many, I'll insist only on two this evening. You and I should see here that the way in which ordinarily God's people know these special tokens of his favor And ordinarily that comes through walking that path of obedience. I think perhaps in our antinomian age, where folks don't want to talk about blessing and obedience, having some relationship ordinarily, that this psalm is especially instructive for us. It's true, says the apostle, that there is a way to walk that is well-pleasing to the Lord. Jesus says to his disciples, He says, if you would have me rejoice in you, then keep my sayings. Friend, there is a way to walk that is pleasing to God, and a way that isn't. And friend, ordinarily God's people know these special favors and tokens of the Lord as they seek in earnest to walk conscientiously before Him. In a way that God says is well pleasing in His sight. You see this in Psalm 18. Friend, I know it's true that some of the most godly in the world, some of the most godly men and women to have ever walked the face of the earth have also been made pictures of affliction. I also know that most of those also have received some of the greatest tokens of the Lord's love as well. And I would challenge any one friend from the Word of God to show me, or somebody who walks carelessly as a believer, can on sound principle, walk confidently with the Lord. No friend, this psalm should encourage us in godliness. If we wish to see these things manifest more, and friend remember that the path of obedience is indeed still the path of blessing. The second thing I'd remind you friend is that this is a song that does show us that God's benevolent love is free and it's immutable. Just as his complacent love, it will increase ever with conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our persons, as it were, are always loved and immutably so by the free will and grace of God. But our practices, our walk, friend, those will be well pleasing to the Lord to the degree that they conform to the Lord Jesus. The final exhortation that I'd wish to leave you with this evening. And it's simply an exhortation to take the psalm as David did. In 2 Samuel, you and I are left with a very vivid picture. Here was that great warrior, the one who slayed his 10,000. He lays upon a bed and Abishag must keep him warm. Here is one who is promised a home, a house that would always stand. And yet how many of his sons are buried outside? And how deep was the rent in his home? How recently had David felt betrayal and pain? And now as he enters his twilight years, His final days. He sings this psalm. And friend, I want you to remember that this is a psalm of praise. And it's a psalm of praise precisely because this is how David saw his life. Friend, you and I require this kind of faith. to live and to die with praise. Unless you and I see the hand of God in our mercies as David sees, our praise will always be light. This is a psalm to live in and to live upon. A psalm that corrects our perception as much as it does our expectations. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, may it be that this psalm indeed, that it indeed takes us to him who has made us conquerors over all our enemies and for his praise. Amen.