David was a ruddy teenager on a Grubhub delivery. Too young to be on the battleground, his dad tasked him with the job of carrying bread and grain to his older brothers enlisted in the army in a monumental standoff with the notorious Goliath. David’s brothers, along with all of their comrades, were terrified. When David looked at the 9-foot-tall behemoth, he saw an even bigger God: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
After navigating the disdain of his brothers and the red tape of Saul’s attempt to put David in his own armor, he took a sling and a few stones and approached Goliath. Goliath saw David’s stones and mocked; David saw Goliath’s sword and remembered: “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied….For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.” You could summarize David’s statements with this one declaration: my enemy meet my God. Little did David know that his one battle would be the predecessor of many. The Saul who offered David his armor would soon hunt David down.
Psalm 18 was written with that reality in mind.
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who addressed the words of this song to the LORD on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:1-3, ESV)
Saul pursued David because he was jealous, furiously jealous. David did nothing to provoke Saul’s jealousy, nothing to cause Saul to muster his troops and come after him. In Psalm 18 it is as if David feels the need to introduce his enemies to his God. Some of you need to do the same. Now I am convinced that, for most of us, our enemies aren’t real people with skin on. Most of us fight enemies within and the enemy of our soul (Satan) without.
Let me go on record by saying that Satan is furiously jealous of you. If you belong to Christ, Satan thought he had won the battle…til Jesus came out of the grave. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that Satan knows the future. He does not!
For three days he celebrated while the angels wept. But when Jesus came out of the tomb, he winced, he wiggled, he writhed in ego-devastating pain.
And he is insanely jealous of you and will do whatever it takes to take you down, or to make you down and out. Introduce him to your God. Here David uses nine words to describe his God. Let me paraphrase:
My weakness, meet my Strength. My instability, meet my Rock. My vulnerability, meet my Fortress. My addiction, meet my Deliverer. My flesh, meet my God. My insecurity, meet my Refuge. My doubts, meet my Shield. My lostness, meet my Salvation. My strongholds with a little “s”, meet my Stronghold with a big “S.”
My “I can’t” meet my “I will.” I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
The battle is the Lord’s. Your battle belongs to your God.
Enough for Today 