Psalm 18

We are told that the worshipers of the Lord need to live by faith. This faith, which is itself a gift of God, needs every supporting help that the Lord is pleased to give His people. When the church receives a good report of God's help for a man in need, faith takes in that Word, tests it according to the established body of Scripture, and remembers God. Even better than news of some deliverance is the experience of deliverance itself. The church gladly receives the help of her living Lord. The worshiper will remember that gift and sing of the faithfulness of God.

It is the duty of the Lord's servant to make good use of every gift from heaven. Has God given aid to a man who called upon His Name in distress? That man should remember the Lord, love Him, and ascribe to the Lord the strength that He alone possesses. He should consider again the certain Word from heaven in light of this gift of divine help. God is his rock. God is his stronghold. These things are true whether he gets help from God today or not. But the experience of a timely rescue reminds a weary soul of what is forever true, and the Spirit of God enlivens truth in the heart in the present moment of salvation.

The man needs to be aware of his need if he is to receive a saving experience with appropriate gratitude. Was he facing a minor trouble, or was he hopelessly entangled in the cords of the grave itself? God makes a man feel danger. Was the present difficulty a trickle of inconvenience or a torrent of destruction? There is no good news for a man who remains forever insensible to his need for help.

As an appropriate awareness of dire necessity is awakened within a man's heart, what does he do? He calls out to God in heaven. As he later reflects upon the events that have transpired, he testifies with confidence that God heard his voice.

How can he be so sure? Revelation takes the probable and turns it into that which is certain. The man who faces an overwhelming enemy on a field of battle, if when he cries out to God the earth shakes and lightening and torrential waters fall down upon his adversaries, the supposition that God heard his prayer feels very probable. It only becomes certain when divine revelation is received in his ear. The Word of God takes a promising experience and transforms it into a rock of revelation.

An observer of the fighting could say that the earth moved, and that a sudden storm changed the balance of power on the battlefield. Only the voice of God could tell a man the sure message that the Lord above together with His heavenly host came in the storm and the flood. This was not just a distant act of providence. He did it all, and He did it in response to the cry of His servant.

The Lord in heaven rules over the earth. In His great arsenal are all the weapons of nature and all the movements of all of His creatures. It is only through His Word that a man can confidently interpret the formidable use of power that was so timely and necessary. What does it all mean? The man of God is able to testify with confidence, “He rescued me, because he delighted in me.”

Where did that delight come from? Every worshiper of God should be able to acknowledge the power and love of God. But who can go on to say, “The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness?” Who can say without any qualification, “I have kept the ways of the Lord?”

We have to find some way of understanding why the Lord would delight in a man who has sinned against Him. David was great worshiper of God, yet this man sinned against the Lord. Nonetheless, David has been counted as righteous in the Lord's sight because of his more righteous descendant, Jesus Christ. Only Jesus could say that an exhaustive and honest accounting of his heart and life would yield this conclusion: “I have not wickedly departed from my God. All his rules were before me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness.” Every other man who truly knows that the Lord delights in him received that good Word based on the Source of his righteousness, the Son of God who died for him. He has been made humble in the honest recognition of his sin. Now he rightly confesses that God saves the humble who take refuge in His holy Son.

But does God really delight in the man who worships Him? Will God use His power to save Him? This delight of God in His church is not a convenient fiction for those who have religious inclinations. An experience of salvation may be impossible for a man to interpret with true certainty. But when God speaks to the church in His Word about what He has done for us in Christ, then we really do know that He loves us, and that He has moved heaven earth in order to glorify His Name in the rescue of His people.

This enlivens our faith and sets us in motion. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. God is with us, and we are with Him. This is not just our assessment of our experience. It is His Word, and Scripture cannot be broken.

The Father has made Jesus the Head of the nations. We are His subjects, and sons of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The grave had its claws in our flesh, but Jesus took the wrath of God for us. Now our King lives in heaven. He is the God of our salvation, and He will deliver us from every enemy. Let us worship Him forever in the assembly of His people. He rescued us because He delighted in us. God will never stop loving Jesus. He will always delight in those who are united to Christ.