WEDNESDAY 27th
Psalm 18
NIV (v30) – ‘As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.’
ESV (v30) – ‘This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.’
The introduction to this Psalm in the ESV that I use says ‘TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, WHO ADDRESSED THE WORDS OF THIS SONG TO THE LORD ON THE DAY WHEN THE LORD RESCUED HIM FROM THE HANDS OF ALL HIS ENEMIES, AND FROM THE HAND OF SAUL. HE SAID;’ and this psalm is what he said. It contains so many verses which I would like to turn to and investigate further, but it would take too many devotions up, for example (turn to the verses) verses 1-2 he exalts the LORD, verses 3-6 he calls out the LORD, verses 7-15 he records the response or the way in which the LORD came to his rescue, and these verses in themselves should be enough to make a man or woman think ‘I am not going to mess with God!’ Then in verses 16-19 he describes his rescue, verses 20-47 his testimony concluding in verses 48-50 with a note of praise again, for he knew that the one who deserved all the honour and glory was the one who had rescued him.
It is back in 1 Samuel 16 we find that David becomes the one who is chosen from among the sons of Jesse to become the King, the one who would replace Saul, and at that time he was just a shepherd boy, tending his fathers sheep, but God had a plan for this shepherd boy to become the one who would shepherd the sheep of Israel, God’s chosen people. (Psalm 100:3) But from the moment of his anointing back there in the farmyard, it seemed that God must have made a mistake, he was faced with trouble, strife, opposition, and continually having to call out to the one who had called him for help. We have already seen in the Psalms so far how he knew despondency and depression, rejection, and hatred, even from within his family. How come when he was the LORD’s anointed? Well I guess we can draw from this that bad things still happen to good people, God’s people. Just because we have become the children of God through our being reconciled to him by his Son, it doesn’t mean that the road is going to be easy, problems will arise, difficulties will arise, troubles may beset us, sickness, loss, unemployment, etc. But amid it all God is still our refuge and strength and a very present help in the time of trouble. And In this Psalm David seems as if he had had enough, and out of his desperation he cried out and the LORD hears him and comes in a magnificent way to help him and to deliver him, and we come to the verse that I highlighted as our text, ‘This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.’ It reminds us that when we don’t understand, God does, when we don’t know the way forward, God knows, when we seem helpless and lost, God comes through as our helper and way-maker, when we feel all seems a tangled mess, God is able to straighten it all out, when we cannot understand, he knows exactly what is going on and what he is doing. Where it says here in this verse ‘the word of the LORD proves true’ it is firstly linked to his word which we now have has the written word, our Scripture, but it also refers to any word that God has spoken into an individual’s life or circumstance, and as God spoke his word through Samuel in that moment way back in the farmyard, because it was God speaking it was true and it would come to pass, what David needed to do was to trust even when the going got tough, knowing with an assurance in his heart that when he couldn’t see a way out, God already had the way out lined up, ready to act in exactly the right moment of time. For this verse not only reminds us that God’s word is true it also reminds us that his way is perfect. God can never be wrong! God can never be too early or too late, God can never make a mistake, God can never fail.
Whatever your circumstances are today, hold on, I am reminded of a song, ‘Never failed me yet, never failed me yet, Jesus love never failed me yet, this one thing I know as I onward go, Jesus love never failed me yet.’