Psalm 18
Our Unshakeable Rock
What songs will you have played at your funeral? That might sound a morbid question to ask, but it’s one many of us will have considered in more or less detail. How do we make the decision on what should be sung at that service?
This song from David is almost word for word the song we find from the end of his days in 2 Samuel 22. As he looked back across the vista of his life, he saw that it was God who was the ever present reality that provided security and salvation.
In a life of tumult and turbulence, God was the ever present. Three times he calls God his Rock (2, 31, 46; see also Deuteronomy 32.4), the one certainty on whom he could call and know would hear.
This is a much longer Psalm than any others we have considered so far. I will make fewer comments than usual because I’d love for you to read it all and make it your own prayer and song.
For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love you, LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.3 I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I have been saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.6 In my distress I called to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
7 The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
9 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him –
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13 The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
15 The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, LORD,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
The King declares his deep love as he remembers the abiding faithfulness of the LORD in his life. He proclaims that God alone is, will be and always was his safe harbour in the storm.
He recalls his own impassioned and anguished cries to God. And he remembers the thunderous responses which reigned down from heaven above.
All the earth trembled at his presence. All the enemies of the King flee at his word.
Yet while God’s strong arm scatters the evil one, it also rescues us. In our helplessness, he is our ever present and ever certain aid. He pulls us from the mire and mud and places us on the unshakeable rock.
20 The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
I am not guilty of turning from my God.
22 All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
23 I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
27 You save the humble
but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
28 You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
29 With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall.30 As for God, his way is perfect:
the LORD’s word is flawless;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the LORD?
And who is the Rock except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he causes me to stand on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You make your saving help my shield,
and your right hand sustains me;
your help has made me great.
36 You provide a broad path for my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way.37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
38 I crushed them so that they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.
39 You armed me with strength for battle;
you humbled my adversaries before me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed my foes.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them –
to the LORD, but he did not answer.
42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
I trampled them like mud in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
you have made me the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
44 foreigners cower before me;
as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
45 They all lose heart;
they come trembling from their strongholds.
As God’s King looks back over his life, he could easily have attributed his many victories to his own power, wisdom and riches.
Yet he knows that his triumphs come solely and wholly from the LORD God. He is sure that apart from God, he would have achieved nothing and would have been swarmed by his enemies.
His foes feared him because he acted in the power and promises of God.
And that same strength is available to all of us in Christ, who invites us to be strong in the strength of the Lord (Ephesians 6.10-12).
We know that any breakthrough we’ve had with sin, any victory over the deceiver is solely and wholly because we stand in Christ. Apart from him we can do nothing (John 15.5). But in him, we stand and will stand victorious!
46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Saviour!
47 He is the God who avenges me,
who subdues nations under me,
48 who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
from a violent man you rescued me.
49 Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.50 He gives his king great victories;
he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
to David and to his descendants for ever.
Our God lives. The grave’s power was nullified (1 Corinthians 15.54-57). The devil influence was neutered (Hebrews 2.14).
Jesus is risen. And he is reigning. And he will return. For he is alive now and forevermore. And his love for us is certain and unfailing.
We then can look to all that Jesus has done for us. Even in his defeat at the cross, he was victorious over death and the devil. Our enemy was overcome. And we praise and exalt and glorify God for all he has done for us in Christ.
And so maybe this might be the song you have at your funeral, as you invite others remember the eternal and sovereign goodness of God in Christ in your own life.
Glory be to God the Father, our unshakeable rock whose ways are perfect.
Glory be to God the Son, the risen and living King.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who empowers us with the strength of Christ.
Ever three and ever One.