It was another of those wonderful moments in life when you simply can’t believe the revelation the Holy Spirit has just given you. You stand there in awe and want to shout your new found knowledge to the world. Surely no one else in the history of the church has ever seen this … this is a book … this is a best seller … this is a worldwide ministry! As I pondered the truth I had just received I was amazed … People Are Selfish And They Don’t Share!
One of my favorite tight wads is Jonah. He had to be one of the stingiest people in the Old Testament. God asked him to share and he said no! You are mine … all mine … I won’t share you … especially with THEM! In some respects we can be the same way with what God has given us. We have the best news in the whole world and yet we grab it and hold on to it like little kids with a toy in the sandbox.
Think you know where this is going … right? Wrong!
What I want to share with you is something the Lord brought home in my study time this morning. God’s manifold and marvelous blessings really are All Mine and All Yours … All Everyone Who Will Receive. The very nature of His blessings are such that they are available to everyone while at the same time they are very personal. Perhaps the following may encourage us to share with the other folks in our sandbox.
If you have read any of my other writings you know that I love the Psalms and especially those that come from David’s heart. Well, what prompted this short note is Psalm 18, which David wrote after being delivered from his enemies and the hand of Saul (2Sam 22:1). Let’s just take a couple of minutes and see what we can see for ourselves in the words of David (a man after God’s own heart).
Ps 18:1 I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
David opens this Psalm by calling upon Jehovah Chezeq (Jehovah My Strength). Chezeq comes from the Hebrew root Chaszaq, which brings with it a wealth to ponder: to strengthen; to cure; to aid; to cleave; to encourage; to make hard; to become mighty; to prevail; to withstand or to fortify. David has used this expression in other Psalms such as Ps 27:1 … the Lord is the strength of my life …
We also know that Nehemiah (Neh 8:10) tells us that the joy of The Lord is our strength. In that instance His strength (ma owz) refers to a fortress, stronghold or a rock. Perhaps that is what David is referring to here … I will love the Lord, who is my rock, my Joy.
The word love (racham) brings with it all of the tender feelings of nature (compassion, mercy and pity). According to Jamieson it means to love from the inmost bowels. So here David opens with an expression of the greatest commandment … Love the Lord your God with all your heart (Dt 11:13). Remember that Jesus Himself reiterated this in Matt 22:37-38. In the next few verses David expounds on just a few of the ways in which God has shown His love to him throughout their relationship … David has been there and observed God’s actions:
Ps 18:2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
We could write a whole book on the blessings contained in this one verse! Let’s begin by remembering to whom David is referring … Jehovah … I AM, or as the amplified translates it … I Am who I Am and what I Am, and I will be what I will be. That pretty well covers all of eternity doesn’t it … past – present – future. This is the God to which David attaches all these powerful adjectives, the ones he hung onto as he fled from Saul:
My Rock … A lofty or craggy rock – a shelter that is hard for the enemy to get to (Dt 32:4; 1Sam 2:2; Ps 94:22)
My Fortress … A castle or stronghold – a place of safety (Ps 91:2; Job 39:28; Na 1:7)
My Deliverer …To calve (give birth) or carry away or cause to escape in times of difficulty (Isa 46:4; Jer 1:8; 2Cor 1:10)
My God … The Almighty – my strong God (Gen 14:22; Gen 28:3; Josh 22:22)
My Strength … A strong rock – immutable (unchanging) faithfulness (Ps 73:6; Ps 144:1; Isa 26:4)
My Buckler … A small shield or protector that covered the head and the heart – the soul and the spirit (2Sam 22:31; Ps 35:2; Pro 2:7)
The Horn of my salvation … The power of my deliverance or safety – a powerful and efficient salvation (1Sam 2:1; 2Sam 2:23; Luke 1:69)
My High Tower … A cliff, high fort or refuge – a place to see danger before it arrives (2Sam 22:3; Ps 9:9; Pro 18:10)
And I am certain the fact that David personalized the God of these attributes did not slip past you. This is the God that David says he will trust. Before we move ahead let’s look at just what he said here. To trust in this sense (chacah) refers to making someone a refuge or one to flee to for protection. You mean someone to run to when the going gets tough? Yes, most assuredly. What an awesome God and David says … He’s mine, All Mine!
In verse 1 David has shown his love for Jehovah, in verse 2 he has enumerated some of the many benefits of loving Jehovah and now in verse 3 he calls upon Jehovah for his salvation:
Ps 18:3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
David, like Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:21), in full realization of what God means to him, calls upon Him for deliverance. It’s interesting that the word for call upon (qara) comes from and is very similar in meaning to its root that presents the idea of accosting a person when met. That is a very personal action and when coupled with cry unto or proclaim we get the picture that David isn’t approaching God meekly … he must know who he’s talking about.
Isn’t it wonderful to know that we not only have the same God as David but we can have an even better relationship? While David lived under the Old Covenant that looked forward to the coming Messiah, we live under the New Covenant in the Messiah, Jesus. This is the Lord that
David says is worthy to be praised. And he doesn’t just mean praised! He means to be clamorously foolish, to rave, to celebrate and to boast about. It brings a picture to mind of David dancing with all his might (2Sam 6:14) when he brought theArk back. How many times have we celebrated our God that way? This is the God that David says will save him from his enemies. This is his personal God, the God with whom he has spent time and the God he knows. Is He that personal to you? Is He the Jesus who said?
John 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Is He the Jesus that Paul called upon time and time again?
Acts 16:18 … But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
How often in the midst of the trial I forget just whom it is that I serve: The God who acts on behalf of His people; The God who never fails to show Himself strong on behalf of those who love and serve Him; The God who loves with an everlasting love; The God who died so that He might be MY GOD. The God that I can call upon as David has done here in verse 3 to save me from my enemies. Let’s look at just a couple of the results in verses 19 & 20:
Ps 18:19-20 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. 20. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
God acted strongly on David’s behalf and rewarded him. But note on what grounds … his righteousness. God rewarded David because he delighted in me (to be mindful of; to be attentive to; to protect; to have pleasure in). As far as David was concerned with his fellow man (Saul), he had acted righteously and his hands were clean before God. He did not deserve to be treated badly and God rewarded him by delivering him. While it may sound like a very bold statement on David’s part we should remember where he was coming from. It is best summed up in Deut 28, which sets forth the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience.
Deut 28:1-2 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
What assurance David had! Why? Look at his words in verses 21-23:
Ps 18:21-24 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22. or all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. 23. was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. 24. Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
Therefore he says in verse 24 that he was righteous and his hands were clean. Can we take that position before God? Well, how much more the assurance that we have in Jesus! It is through Him that we have had righteousness imputed or credited to our account. It is by His blood that our hands have been cleansed. It is because of Him that God acts on our behalf. And just think … He Is Mine, All Mine!
He has delivered me from God’s wrath …
1Thess 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
He has rescued me from the enemy who rules this age …
1John 5:18-19 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. KJV
He has set me in the broad place of His Peace …
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Why?
John 13:1 1Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
So how much more important is it for us, like David, to proclaim the truth among the heathen?
Ps 18:49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.
As we watch current events unfold around the world and especially in Israel, we should constantly remind ourselves just how close we are to that moment in time when we shall see Him face to face. At that moment in time it won’t make one bit of difference what we THINK, it will only matter WHAT WE HAVE DONE with what He has given us. The righteousness we have been given was given to someone else before us … someone who shared it with us. Is it any less important that we should pass it on? It’s all about the blood of Jesus, but remember what Paul wrote in Revelation:
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
How will they know unless someone tells them? Someone who puts that message above his or her own life. Someone who has died to self. How would the message have gotten to Ethiopia if Philip hadn’t listened to the Holy Spirit and headed out toward the desert to meet with the Queen’s chief eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)? How awful we will feel if on That Day the Lord reminds us of our “eunuch in the desert” and we failed because we had a sandbox mentality?
Yes, Jesus is my personal Lord. He is All Mine but I can’t forget that He is All Everyone Who Hears And Receives! Like Jonah, I can’t run off to Tarshish when God asks me to go to Nineveh just because I don’t want to share. I need to be giving thanks among the heathen and singing praises to His name for all that He is to me and all that He has done. Our singing releases joy! Karl Barth remarked appropriately … theology is only true when it can be sung. Singing makes it a glad theology. Our worshiping lets the unbeliever know that God is in our midst … and they will never know if they don’t hear.
I need to share in my sandbox!