#DailyDevotion The LORD Is My, My, My, My, My, My, My, My
Psalm 18 I love You, O LORD, my Strength. 2The LORD is my Rock, my Fortress, my Rescuer, my God, my Rock where I find shelter, my Shield, my Horn of salvation, my Mountain Refuge.
So David writes this psalm as he is delivered from all his enemies including Saul, who wanted to kill him. A number of the previous psalms were written while David was dealing with Saul who wanted him dead. All that is over now. David did not have to lift a finger. The LORD whom he trusted, whom he prayed to in the previous psalms has heard and answered David’s prayer. Similarly Jesus would pray this prayer also. I’m sure it was on his lips as he was resurrected from the dead through the glory of the Father. We are invited to join them in this prayer and to make it ours as we too will be totally delivered on the Last Day.
David calls the LORD eight names here as his present possession. The word “my” in Hebrew is a suffix like “’s” in English. Nevertheless it isn’t any less striking in pronunciation as we read this out loud my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. Let us claim these names, these attributions of the LORD for his people for ourselves.
Yet the first words are, “I love You, O LORD.” David proclaims his love for the LORD. I don’t know how often we say this. We may need to say it a bit more. You do love the LORD don’t you? The word translated love here is racham. It is to love deeply or have compassion. We don’t have compassion or show mercy to the LORD-He does to us. But perhaps our racham to the LORD is in response to His racham to us. The old English worship or German Gottesdienst has that kind of double connotation. God serves/worships us first and we respond with serving/worshiping Him. John in his epistles says, “We love Him because He loved us first.” I don’t know if we express our love to God as much as we probably should. Maybe in the morning and in the evening, just look up and say, “I love you LORD.”
Why does David love the LORD? The names he puts my to explain it very well. The LORD is his strength, his Rock (Cliff), his Fortress, his Rescuer, his God, his Rock (a big solid Rock like the one in Australia), his Shield, his Horn of salvation and his Mountain Refuge. The LORD had been all these things to David when Saul was pursuing him. Indeed, David often hid in physical places like these, but David did not trust in the physical things themselves but the LORD who created them. The LORD was these things for David in his day and time of trouble.
It is our LORD Jesus Christ who gives us strength when we need it. Jesus is our Rock who is our foundation. Jesus is our fortress in whom we find protection from the evil one. Jesus our rescuer from sin, death and the power of the devil. He is our shield who puts out all the fiery arrows of the devil. Jesus is the horn of our salvation as he sacrificed himself for our sins. Jesus is our mountain refuge, our high ground we can turn to in the day of trouble. You will not be disappointed if you put your faith and trust in him. David trusted in the LORD Jesus and He delivered him. Our final deliverance is in His hands. When it serves his purposes and our salvation Jesus even does and is these things for us in this life. But we must realize, He often calls us to suffer with him in this age. Even David suffered much as he awaited the LORD to deliver him from the hands of Saul. We place ourselves in loving care trusting He knows what is best for us.
Heavenly Father, we love you for you in your son Jesus Christ are all these things for us as he was for your servant David. Open our lips that we may call upon you and trust you to be these things for us, today and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.