Psalm 18

Thanksgiving (individual) / Royal (earthly king)

God is My Rock, Fortress, Deliverer, Refuge, Shield, Horn, Stronghold

                1 “I love You, O LORD, my strength.”

                2 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.

·         “Let us learn to apply to our own use those titles which are here ascribed to God, and to apply them as an antidote against all the perplexities and distresses, which may assail us.” (Calvin)

·         To what great straits even good men are often brought. The sorrows of death and of hell, the floods of ungodly men and the snares of death surround and beset them. In this way they are disciplined and made courageous. Good soldiers are not made in parlors. [“the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot” – Thomas Paine]

·         “[N]o man ever offended his own conscience, but first or last it was revenged upon him for it.”

·         Even prayer will not save a bad cause.

·         “We may learn from this Psalm, that the best of men, that such even as are after God’s own heart, may be greatly overwhelmed with the sorrows, afflictions and persecutions of life. Such was David’s condition; but he sought and found relief at a throne of grace; and so will every one who honors God in this exercise.” (Morison)