Psalms 18:1

We know from the book of Samuel that this psalm celebrates David's rescues from Saul and from all his enemies. But the language of the psalm clearly does not stop at anything that happened in David's life... The Spirit of God takes up the event that has real personal interest for the man He uses as prophet. He uses it only as the occasion to bring out the larger and wider scene, and Christ alone can be the centre of it.

The key-note is, "I will love You, O Jehovah my strength" (v. 1), an expression not found in 2 Sam. 22... Here God's government is set up in blessing, in and for the King, so that His love for Jehovah may find an echo in the hearts of His people.

The psalm teaches us to call on the Lord in distress, whatever brings it and however it comes. So we come to know not only the deliverance, but the Lord Himself — His sympathy, His kindness, His interest in us. I love Jehovah, he says. Or rather, the heart turns to Jehovah Himself and says, "I will love You, O Jehovah, my strength." Then the heart thinks of all He is for us... Note also, there are holy affections drawn out by the dealings of the Lord... not only praise, because He has redeemed us forever, but a daily working of sympathy and tender thoughts of compassion.

Here is the Source and the Basis of all blessing, and the heart that depends on Him cannot help crying out, "I love You, O Lord, my strength" (v. 1)... God is His "Rock," the solid foundation of all blessing. He is His "fortress," His unfailing protection from every evil. He is His deliverer, who saves Him from every enemy around Him. "My strength" is the Source of the power that rested on Him without a break. "My shield" is His personal defence from every attack of the enemy. "The horn of my salvation" speaks of power that saves from harm and danger. And "my stronghold" is one more picture of His perfect protection. All of these show the greatness and power of God on behalf of the Lord Jesus. In a small measure David could say them of himself, and believers may too.

The first word means "a cleft in a rock, then a cleft rock." The second means "a great and hard mass of rock." So the first puts a safe, comfortable hiding place first. The second puts forward firm ground that no enemy can reach. For the Christian, the cleft Rock is a picture full of tender, wonderful meaning: the firm, unbreakable, eternal Rock, yet split open as a refuge for the soul that runs to it for escape. This double thought runs through all these titles, and by them the psalmist shows the good reason he has for fervent love toward his God.

Here we hear the voice of Jesus declaring the praises of Jehovah, the God of His salvation. As the descendant of David, He had now become able to receive in His own blessed Person the mercy promised in the covenant.

It is true that we love to think about God's love toward us. We are "beloved ones," loved by the Father and the Son, and that goes beyond anything a person can understand or imagine. But the Bible speaks, in the Old Testament as well as the New, of our love to God and to the Lord Jesus. David put it in black and white one day when he made that wonderful declaration of love: "I love You, O Jehovah, my strength."