We can turn back to our reading in the book of Psalms, Psalm 18.
We're going to look at the beginning of this, Psalm 1-3.
Psalm 18, verse 1-3.
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
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.
As I said this morning, we were thinking about coming away from a communion weekend,
and this morning we were reflecting on that sense of the Lord being worthy of all our thanksgiving.
In 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15, it's thanks be to God for that indescribable gift.
There's just no way that we can almost think of a word to describe the gift that God has given us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So he is worthy of all thanksgiving.
And this evening we're going to think about the Lord and how worthy he is to be praised.
And that's what we read there in verse 3.
I called upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised.
There's this sense of going on in worship of God.
And you note at the beginning of the psalm, if you have a Bible,
the ESV Bible in particular, it has a few words mentioning the context of the psalm before you come into verse 1.
So it says there to the choir master, it's a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord,
who addressed the words of the song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies
and from the hand of Saul, he said, and then it goes into his song from verse 1,
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
So the context is there given to us of a day when David was delivered from all of his enemies.
And you can read about that in 2 Samuel 22, where you have this song mentioned as well.
And David has known victory over his enemies,
a victory that maybe at one stage seemed impossible for him,
as he saw his enemies all around him.
And yet God has given him this glorious victory as he was running from Saul,
as he was running from his enemies.
He was in constant danger of death.
But now he has been delivered from that.
And he has this praise being offered up to God.
And as we see there in verse 3, he is worthy to be praised,
the God who has given him this victory.
So this is David's song of victory.
But in many ways we could say it is our song of victory as well,
because God has given us this song for us to sing.
And we can sing these words ourselves,
and we can sing them maybe with the same meaning behind them as what David had.
When we know the Lord, when we love the Lord,
we recognize just how he is our strength,
how he is all of these things to us,
and how he has given us victory in this world as well.
Because when God saves us, he gives us victory over our enemies.
And we think of the greatest enemies that we have in this world as a people,
the enemy of sin, the enemy of death,
the enemy of a lost eternity.
We have all of these enemies.
And yet as we look to the Lord Jesus and the victory that he has won for us,
we realize what he has saved us from,
and that we are saved by his grace.
And so we, therefore, can sing this song ourselves with that sense of victory
and see that worthy to be praised is God.
Worthy to be praised is the Lord.
We read in the New Testament, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16,
that all Scripture is breathed out by God.
So God has given us his word through various writers,
as you see throughout the Bible.
And so here we have David writing this song.
As we read in Timothy, we're seeing that he is inspired,
he is moved by the Lord to write these words.
And you can almost think, well, is this not then God praising himself?
It's not this God giving words, boasting words to David to write about him.
But God is not that way.
God isn't like some leaders we might see in the world
who want all the praise for themselves.
So they write their own way of praising and their qualities
and all that they have done,
speaking about it all the time in that sense of,
look at me and what I have done.
God inspired David.
He was moved by the Spirit to write these words.
But David inspired his writing from his own experience.
He is writing these words, having known God with him.
God is the one who has brought him through and given him this victory.
And so now he can see God as his Savior.
And now he can express his thankfulness
that he has brought him through all of this.
And with thankfulness, he sees, as is often David's case,
he expresses it in song.
In song, David writes these words.
And so verse 1 to 3, as we look at this psalm this evening,
they show us David beginning his praise to God
by expressing his love of God and what God has done for him.
Then he proceeds to describe how much the Lord means to him
by using different expressions there,
especially in verse 2, of who God is for him.
And as someone wrote, you could say he sees this as the Lord,
the source of his strength, stability, safety, and salvation.
All of these things come across in the way that David describes the Lord in verse 2.
And then in verse 3, we see that God has proved himself reliable,
that he can be depended upon, and so he is worthy to be praised.
Worthy to be praised.
We have that same kind of song ourselves.
This evening we're going to sing this psalm at the end of our service.
Will we be singing these words with that sense of,
this is my song too, this is the same song as David had as my song,
that I can say, I love the Lord.
He is my strength.
He is my rock.
He is my deliverer.
He is my refuge, my shield.
All of these things.
Can we sing that?
Are we worshiping the Lord as we should,
as he is worthy to be praised?
One person said this,
one of the great tragedies of the human spirit
is to become a prisoner of ingratitude.
For ingratitude shuts the human spirit up
and the world lightened only by the self,
which is no light at all.
A spirit of, a prisoner of ingratitude.
We're not thankful for what we have.
And so the opposite is true of that.
Gratitude then gives us light.
And not light of self,
but light as we see revealed by God through his word.
And so we want to be a people who worship God as we should,
that he is worthy to be praised in all things.
And how then can we worship God?
Well, that's what we see with David here.
We see him worshiping, first of all, in verse 1,
by delighting in God.
He is delighting in God.
He makes two declarations here in verse 1.
He starts by first declaring his love for the Lord.
I love you, O Lord.
And then the second declaration is that absolute dependence upon the Lord as my strength.
So from the outset of this psalm, he's indicating that as he lives his life here,
these two great themes are what the manner in which he is living his life.
They are constantly before him.
And he's telling us this, that he finds his great delight in God.
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
Isn't it an amazing thing to be able to say,
I love you, the Lord.
I love you, my Lord.
Psalm 116, which we sang together, has the expression of that in the psalm as well.
I love the Lord because my voice and prayers heeded here.
And you see it recurring again and again.
But what kind of love is it?
And are you able to say with David tonight,
I love you, O Lord.
Well, when you look at the kind of love it is,
it's a love that is full of worship towards God.
As we read in Matthew 28, in verse 9,
when Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, met his disciples,
what did they do with him?
It says in verse 9,
And behold, Jesus met them and said,
Greetings.
And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.
They came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.
There was this sense of just being in the presence of the risen Savior,
that they could do nothing else but worship him,
fall at his feet and worship him.
It's the same as you see with Mary Magdalene.
We read of it in Matthew.
It doesn't go into the same details as it does in the Gospel of John.
But when she encountered Jesus in the garden,
John 20, verse 17,
Jesus said to her, he called her by name,
Mary.
She didn't realize who it was that was in front of him at first.
She turned and said to him in Aramaic,
Rabboni, which means teacher.
And there was a sense of worship with her because Jesus goes on to say,
Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
So she has obviously taken hold of Jesus.
She is clinging on to him,
just like the disciples took hold of his feet and worshipped him.
There is that sense of when we love the Lord,
we are giving our worship to him by just coming before him,
clinging on to him,
depending on him.
We recognize that if we love him,
we only do so because he first loved us.
And when our eyes are open to see this,
what else can we do but just come
and throw ourselves at his feet
and just plead,
I love you,
O Lord.
Because there is nowhere else to go.
There is no one else who can give us
that relationship that satisfies,
that gives us hope,
that gives us an eternity
to look forward to.
When we consider all the things
that the Lord has done for us
and his love towards us,
our hearts should be filled
with that sense of worship.
Saying, I love you,
O Lord.
Do you,
this evening,
have that love for the Lord?
Where your worship is just one,
where you see,
you can do nothing
but throw yourself at his feet,
cling to him,
because there's nowhere else to go.
As the disciple of old said,
to whom else shall we go?
For you alone are the words
of eternal life.
There's nowhere else to go.
And the second declaration
seen there in verse one is,
I love you,
O Lord,
my strength.
My strength.
We're going on to see this
in a moment in verse two as well,
but nine times
in these first two verses,
David uses that personal word,
my.
My strength,
he says here in verse one.
My is often a word
that children learn
at a very young age
when they're able
to express themselves
by telling others
what belongs to them.
My toy,
my food,
my room,
my house.
They learn these words
so quickly.
My,
what belongs to me.
And this is almost like
just the childlike nature
that we have
where we're looking at
what we think belongs
to us.
But here David has
that childlike faith
when he's expressing it
in this way.
The Lord is my strength.
My strength.
He's delighting in God.
And we're going to just see
this in a moment
as we think of
depending on God
in verse two,
the way we see
him expressing it
using this word,
my.
But just as before
we go into verse two,
ask yourself this again.
Is God my strength?
Can I say,
can you say tonight
that he is my strength?
In other words,
how are we living our lives?
How are we going forward
in this life?
Are we living it
depending on him
as he is my strength
because I love him?
Or does he mean nothing?
That we just go forward
in our own strength?
So the first aspect
of this worship
that we see with David
is delighting in God.
And we as a people
are to be those
who delight in God ourselves.
Then we come into verse two
and we see this dependence
on God.
Just read through this verse.
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.
My, my, my.
He's repeating it constantly
and using different words
to describe this relationship
that he has with God
and this dependence on God.
And when you pray with God,
what kind of language
do you use?
Do you use these kinds of words
as you come to him?
This is a song,
it's a psalm,
but it can also be a prayer.
Very often you can say that
about the psalms,
you can use them as a prayer.
And it's a good thing for us
to use God's word
as we come to prayer,
to read God's word
before we pray
and even to pray God's word
as we do pray with God.
And so is this the kind of language
that you use
as you come to God in prayer?
Do you say,
I love you, O Lord,
my strength,
my rock,
my fortress,
my deliverer,
my God,
my refuge,
my shield,
my horn,
my stronghold.
Do you use all of that language
with God?
Because it's a great way
to come to him
because it reminds us
of just how dependent
we are on him.
And just to go through
some of these words
in verse 2
and just think,
well,
how can they apply to us
and our dependence on him?
He uses the word,
my rock,
twice.
The Lord is my rock.
He uses it in the third line
there as well,
my God,
my rock in whom I take refuge.
And the word rock there
just has behind it
a security.
It's to do with
an immovable rock,
something that is solid,
something that is secure
so that when everything else
in the world
is being thrown around,
tossed around,
when everything is in chaos,
God remains the same
and that he is stable.
He is the place of security.
So David here
is reminding himself
and reminding us
that when it appears
that the world
is spinning out of control,
that as a believer
we can stand above it all
and stand on the Lord,
that he is my rock.
It reminds us of
another couple of psalms,
Psalm 40,
that we sing so often
when we set our feet
upon a rock,
when we have that security
as we come to trust
in the Lord Jesus,
that he is the rock
of our salvation.
We have it in Psalm 46
as well,
when God is a refuge
and a strength.
Verse 5 says,
God is in the midst of us.
She shall not be moved.
God will help her
when morning dawns.
You have that security
when the Lord
is my rock.
Someone put it like this,
when we stand on him,
we see our trials
through his eyes.
And even though
the difficulties of life
might break our hearts,
they still cause our hearts
to bow in worship.
So that no matter
what we are going through,
David here is writing
in a time of victory,
but as we know so well,
David had times
of despair as well,
but yet he was able
to still say,
the Lord is my rock.
That is the hope
that we can have ourselves.
That as we love the Lord
and see that he is my strength,
he is my rock,
the one who is immovable.
Then he goes on
to speak about God
as his deliverer
and his shield.
God is my fortress
and my deliverer
and then later on
he says my shield.
And so deliverer
and shield
we could almost take together
and again see
how they apply to us.
When trouble comes
into our lives,
when David has experienced
this trouble,
the Lord has been
a shield to him
and he has been
a deliverer to him.
And so David
is able to see
in the sense of deliverer,
he is able to see
what he has been
brought through.
He saw his enemies
fall around him.
He saw a victory won.
He was able to see
the evidence of this.
God is my deliverer.
But God as my shield
reminds us too
that there are things
that we do not see
that the Lord
keeps from us.
That as he is
our shield,
he protects us
even at times
when we are unaware
of it.
I'm sure we are not
always aware
of the way
God has been with us
day by day
in our lives.
Maybe eternity
will reveal it for us,
what he has kept us from.
But you know,
you could think
of just situations
where
but for the grace
of God
something different
might have happened.
That God has been
a shield to us,
protecting us
in a circumstance,
taking us through things
even as we didn't
see them.
And David is aware
of that,
that God has been
his shield
and also
his deliverer.
So there is
a dependence
on God.
He is the one
who rescues.
He is the one
who delivers
from danger.
And isn't that
a great assurance
to us?
That as we put
our trust in him
he gives us
that promise
as well.
Through faith
he delivers us
from the consequences
of sin.
We don't realize
just now
just what he is
shielding us from.
But we put our
trust in him
to protect us
as our redeemer
and our deliverer.
And then he goes
on to say
my strength
and the horn
of my salvation.
The horn
of my salvation.
The horn
as it mentioned
here was something
in David's day
that was a particular
symbol of
strength
and conquest.
The horn
could be used
to make a noise,
a cry,
a shout
of victory.
But it was also
used in a way
where the horn
was a reminder
of the abundance
of God's goodness.
Because at harvest time
especially
the horn
would be filled
to overflowing
with the produce
of the harvest.
And it would be
a symbol
of an overflowing
abundance
of God's goodness.
And so it has
these two sides
to it
and he is
the horn
of my salvation.
In other words
we have this sense
of rejoicing
in God.
That God
gives us
an abundance
as we were
thinking about
this morning.
Abounding
in grace
for example.
That God
gives us
that
in a way
that we are
able to rejoice
in him.
He is my strength.
He is
the horn
of my salvation.
He gives us
all of these
things.
And so we too
can see
that the Lord
blesses us
with an abundance
of good things.
Then he goes on
to say
God is
my fortress
and my
stronghold.
A high tower
is what this
refers to.
It's a place
of security
a place
of safety
for God's
people.
The stronghold
the high tower
was a place
where a city
would be
defended from
so that those
in the stronghold
would be looking
out over the
enemies and
able to defend
the city
from there.
It's a reminder
to us that
God sees
all things.
That he is
over us
in all things.
That there's
nothing out
of his view,
out of his
vision.
That God
sees every
situation
that we are
going through
and that he
is able
to protect
us from
his stronghold.
When the
battle rages
we can go
to him.
He is the
one who is
able to
keep us,
to protect
us,
to help
us.
And so as
David says
all of these
things here
in verse 2,
when he's
using that
word my,
he is reminding
us just of
the greatness
of God.
Who he is
in all of
these ways.
My rock,
my fortress,
my deliverer,
my God,
my rock,
my shield,
my horn,
my stronghold.
They are
all ways
of expressing
that dependence
on God.
But they are
all ways
that we
can express
our dependence
on God
as well.
Because when
we know God
and we come
to trust
in the Lord
Jesus,
he is all
of these
things to
us.
A deliverer,
a rock,
a shield,
salvation,
a stronghold.
Every aspect
of this
can be our
song
through faith
in the Lord
Jesus Christ
as well.
So then
the final
thing we
see here
is as we
go into
verse 3,
worship
leads us
to a
devotion
to God.
I call
upon the
Lord
who is
worthy
to be
praised
and I
am saved
from my
enemies.
So David
here is
making
a pledge.
He is
devoting
himself
to God.
I call
upon the
Lord
who is
worthy
to be
praised.
God
is a
God
to
worship.
And when
you think
of David
and all
the situations
that he
has been
through
here,
you would
say that
David would
surely be
able to
say that
there was
a time
when he
thought the
outcome
would be
different,
when he
thought the
enemies would
capture him,
when he
would be
killed,
when Saul
would have
him killed.
But God
has taken
him through
and God
has proved
to him
that he
can be
dependent
on.
So David
knew that
if God
could help
him in
these past
days,
he could
help him
in his
future days
as well.
So that's
what he is
making clear
here in
verse 3,
I call
upon the
Lord who
is worthy
to be
praised and
I am
saved from
my enemies.
This is an
ongoing
salvation,
that he
has this
trust in
God.
He is
worshipping
God.
And the
word
worship
itself,
what's
behind
that?
Well,
the word
worship
is with
this word
worthy,
worthship,
the one
who is
worthy
to be
praised.
And so
he is
showing
himself to
be on
God's
side,
that he
will
trust in
the Lord
in all
his days.
So David
knew the
Lord was
worthy to
be praised
because of
the way
he had
brought him
through.
And in
your life
and my
life,
I'm sure
there's
been times
as we
looked ahead,
as we
looked forward
in our
lives,
where all
we could
see was
defeat.
all we
could see
was there
wasn't a
way ahead
for us.
Everything
seemed to
weigh heavy
upon us.
All we
could see
was our
unworthiness,
our sin,
and no way
forward for
ourselves.
That is what
David was
seeing here
at times in
his own
life.
But yet he
was brought
through and
so can we.
that as
we trust
in the
Lord,
as we
look to
him,
that there
is that
assurance
that he
is able
to bring
us through.
And what
a lesson
there is
in that
for us.
That as
David learned
to trust
in God,
so can
we.
That as
David was
protected,
so will
he protect
us.
As David
was provided
for,
so he
will provide
for us.
As he
helped
David,
so he
will help
us.
As he
refreshed
David,
so he
will
refresh
us.
He can
do all
of these
things
because he
is God
who is
able.
And he
is the
one who
is worthy
to be
praised.
Jim
Parker,
in one
of his
books,
he said
this about
worship.
This then
is worship
in its
largest sense.
And he
goes on to
describe it
in this
way.
Petition
as well
as praise.
Preaching
as well
as prayer.
Hearing
as well
as speaking.
Actions
as well
as words.
Obeying
as well
as offering.
Loving
people
as well
as loving
God.
So he
has all
these
aspects
of worship
that we
are to
have
ourselves.
But he
goes on
to say
this,
however,
the primary
acts of
worship
are those
which focus
on God
directly.
and we
must not
imagine
that work
for God
in the
world
is a
substitute
for direct
fellowship
with him
in praise
and prayer
and devotion.
So there
are important
things for us
to be doing
in this
world.
But there
is nothing
more important,
there is no
substitute,
as Jim
Packer
says here,
than direct
fellowship
with him
in praise
and prayer
and devotion.
And that
is what
David
is showing
here.
In everything
that he
did for
the Lord,
he sees
it is all
about worship.
There is no
substitute,
as David
is saying
here,
for this
fellowship,
this praise,
prayer,
and devotion
that this
psalm
shows to
us.
Is that
our worship
today?
Is that
the way
we are
living
our lives
today?
With that
praise,
prayer,
and devotion
to God,
the one
who is
worthy
to be
praised.
A little
boy had
been to
church,
and at
the end
of the
day,
at night,
as he
knelt
beside his
bedside,
to pray
to God.
This
was his
prayer.
Dear
God,
we had
a good
time in
church
today.
But I
wish you
had been
there.
Coming
to church
is not
about having
a good
time with
each other.
It's not
about coming
to see
the person
sitting beside
you or to
catch up
with others
around you.
It's about
recognizing
that God
is here
and that
we meet
with him,
the one
who is
worthy
of all
our
praise.
We are
so thankful
to God
for all
that he
does for
us.
He is
worthy
of our
thanksgiving.
And this
evening we
think of
the fact
that he
is worthy
of worship,
worthy
to be
praised.
So may
our hearts
praise him
tonight.
Praise him
with that
sense of
thanksgiving,
praise him
and recognizing
our delight
in him,
our dependence
on him
and our
ongoing
devotion
to him.
May we
be a
people
who have
that praise
and prayer
and devotion
with him
in that
relationship
where we
can come
and say
I love
you my
Lord,
my strength.
Let us
pray.
Lord,
our
gracious
God,
we do
thank you
for your
word again
that reminds
us of our
ongoing
dependence
of you.
And we
thank you
that you
are worthy
to be
praised.
And help
us,
Lord,
to come
and acknowledge
you in that
way,
that you
are one
we are
to worship
and you
alone,
so that
from the
outset of
our time
and as we
go from
here this
evening
into all
the week
ahead,
that whatever
we do
for you,
that we
recognize
that there
is no
substitute
for that
fellowship
with you
in praise
and prayer
and devotion.
Teach us
to pray,
teach us
to walk
with you,
teach us
to love
you and
to love
one another,
even as
your word
commands.
We ask it
all with the
forgiveness
of our
sins.
In Jesus'
name.
Amen.
We'll
conclude
then by
singing
in this
psalm,
Psalm 18,
these three
verses we've
been looking
for,
page 218
of the
psalm book,
the
Scottish
Psalter
version.
Psalm 18,
verse 1
to verse 3,
The will I
love,
O Lord,
my strength,
my fortress
is the
Lord,
my rock,
and he
that doth
to me
deliverance
afford.
Verse 1
to 3,
the tune
is spot,
we stand
to sing
to God's
praise.
Amen.
The will
I love,
O Lord,
my strength,
my fortress
is the
Lord,
my rock,
and he
acteth
to me
deliverance
afford.
My God,
my strength,
through my
will trust.
Abaklar
unto thee
heart
of thy
salvation
and my
night
of
redeemed.
Upon the Lord who worthy is, all praises will I cry.
And then shall I preserve thee, save from my enemy.
After the benediction, I'll go to the door to my right. We'll close with the benediction.
Now may grace, mercy and peace from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon and abide with you all now and forevermore. Amen.
Amen.