Psalm 18:1-19 ~ 20250810 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

2025 08/10 Psalm 18:1-19; God Comes Down; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250810_psalm-18_1-19.mp3


We’ve been working through some of the Psalms for the summer, deepening our prayer life as we look at these God inspired prayers as examples of how to pray, putting words and theology to our experiences, learning how to navigate complex emotions and real life struggles as we walk life in relationship with our Creator, our Rescuer, our King, our Friend.

Psalm 18 is a longer Psalm, the third longest Psalm in the Psalter, so rather than attempt to tackle it all at once, we are going to break it into more bite-sized chunks and take it a bit at a time.

Psalm 18 divides into three main sections; verses 1-19 record David’s prayer to YHWH and describe in graphic imagery God coming down to rescue. Verses 20-30 describe the righteous character of the one who takes refuge in the Lord, and the perfect character of God who consistently responds to us who hide ourselves in him. Verses 31-50 celebrate YHWH’s faithfulness to his Anointed, whom he equips and establishes to rule the nations.

Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22

The pre-script says this:

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 delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:

Psalm 18 is almost identical to 2 Samuel 22, probably adapted from that to be sung by the congregation.

2 Samuel 22:1 And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.

Like the song of Moses (Ex.15) and the song of Deborah (Judg.5), this is a song that celebrates God’s deliverance of his people, triumphing over their enemies. 2 Samuel 22 comes toward the end of David’s life, after the rebellions of Absalom and of Sheba were put down, after the four remaining descendants of the giants of Gath were killed.

I Love You O LORD

The first line of Psalm 22 is added to the song in 2 Samuel;

Psalm 18:1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.

This word for ‘love’ is interesting in this context; it is a tender compassionate term, usually used in the context of God’s mercy toward us, or of a father’s (Ps.103:13) or nursing mother’s (Is.49:15) tender heart toward a child. David is expressing his tender affection for YHWH.

YHWH is his strength. David was an accomplished warrior, but he is quick to acknowledge that any strength he has comes from his God. David piles up the metaphors to describe his greatest love. David was accustomed to hiding from Saul in the rocky strongholds in the rugged Judean wilderness. He likens the Lord to a portable defensive weapon, a shield. He likens him to the horns of an animal that are used to show its power and dominion over others. This is similar to the lover in Song of Solomon, who mixes metaphors to affectionately describe the attributes of his beloved.

Psalm 18:1 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.

Singing Praise to the One Who is Worthy

Verse 3 encapsulates this entire Psalm:

Psalm 18:3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies.

I have a need. I am in desperate circumstances. So I call upon YHWH. YHWH God is worthy of worship, worthy to be praised. His character, his qualities, his attributes are praiseworthy. What other times to you gather with other people and sing? That’s rather unusual. We might sing our national anthem at the beginning of a public event as a way to honor our country and our rich heritage. People sing when they gather around a common interest, a favorite artist, a pub, a coffee shop, or a sports team. Songs are written to memorialize great people, heroes. YHWH God is infinitely more worthy of our praise than any earthly thing. That is a primary reason we gather every week; to sing praise to the one who is ultimately praiseworthy.

I call upon the praiseworthy One, and I am saved from my enemies. YHWH God is the ultimate hero, the supreme deliverer. He is the rescuer of all who recognize their need and call out to him.

My Need

That is what verses 4-6 do; describe my desperate situation and cry out for rescue.

Psalm 18:4 The cords of death encompassed me;

the torrents of destruction assailed me;

5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon the LORD;

to my God I cried for help.

Do you see it? Do you see your situation as that dire? Death, destruction and hell have you encompassed, assailed, entangled. You’re stuck with no way out. Their snares, cords and torrents are dragging you down to ultimate and eternal ruin. That’s me. That’s you. That’s all of us without Jesus. You might be trapped by addictions, by pornography, by endless meaningless scrolling. You might be addicted to substances, addicted to pleasures, addicted to praise, addicted to pain. You might be caught in the web of self focus; whether you think you are better that most or worse than everyone, you are preoccupied with you. The majority of humanity are under an anesthetizing poison that numbs them to the fact that they are encompassed and entangled in cords that are dragging them to hell, and they are so comatose that they can’t even see the danger they are in. If that’s you, cry out to God on high to wake you up to see your sin for what it is and where it is taking you, and in distress call out to the only one who is able to set you free!

God’s Furious Response

We see God’s response at the end of verse 6;

Psalm 18:6 ...From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears.

When we become aware of our situation, our need, and cry out to YHWH God for rescue, he hears. You are not too far gone. He is not too far away. Your cry will reach his ears.

This next section is straight up awesome in the fullest sense of the word. This is how YHWH God responds when a sinner sees his need and calls on the LORD for deliverance.

Psalm 18

7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;

the foundations also of the mountains trembled

and quaked, because he was angry.

8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,

and devouring fire from his mouth;

glowing coals flamed forth from him.

9 He bowed the heavens and came down;

thick darkness was under his feet.

10 He rode on a cherub and flew;

he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,

thick clouds dark with water.

12 Out of the brightness before him

hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

If you don’t have a category for the anger of God, you don’t have a biblical understanding for who God is. God is love, and God is holy, holy, holy. God is patient and slow to anger, but he is “a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day” (Ps.7:11). We are inclined to pick out the comfortable bits of his character and ignore or deny the aspects that we may not resonate with. But it is only when we take all of what God says about himself and allow him to define himself to us that we begin to see that he is truly and fully ‘worthy to be praised.’

It is helpful to remember that God’s anger is not directed toward those who are taking refuge in him. His anger is directed toward those who set themselves against him, and against those who are hiding in him. Verse 19 reminds us of the fact that ‘he delighted in me’. As the one God so loves, he is angered by those who seek to do harm to us his beloved people.

Snorting Mad

This imagery of angry smoking nostrils we see in an unexpected place. When Jesus was at the grave of his friend Lazarus,

John 11:33 When Jesus saw her [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

This word translated ‘deeply moved’ has as its root the word for snorting in anger, like a war horse ready to charge. We could translate it as ‘his spirit was snorting with anger and greatly agitated’. What stirred up the spirit of Lord Jesus so that his nostrils flared? He was observing the pain and sorrow that the wages of sin brings. Jesus didn’t come merely to teach truths and encourage us to be better; he came to kill the final enemy and undo death.

John 11:38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” ...

It is our sin, and the painful consequences of our sin that stir the Lord to anger. And when we cry out to him, he bows the heavens to come down.

Cherubim; Guardians of Holiness

The cherub is a wild creature; Ezekiel chapter 1 describes the cherubim (that’s plural) as living creatures with four wings, calves’ feet, and four faces; the face of a human, a lion, an ox, and and eagle, and they looked like molten bronze, with whirling wheels, and they served as something like a living chariot throne for God.

Cherubim serve as guardians of God’s holiness. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden because of their rebellion, cherubim were placed with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen.3:24). The heavy curtain that barred even the priests from the presence of God in the inner sanctuary of the temple was embroidered with cherubim, and there were gold cherubim formed into the mercy seat above the ark of the covenant. They are reminders of how serious the holiness of God is, and how devastating the effects of our sin, which separates us from God.

The thick darkness and cloud that conceals God’s glory is gracious, protecting us from the catastrophic consequences of seeing his glory directly;

Exodus 33:18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” ...20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

Isaiah said

Isaiah 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; ...for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Sovereign Rescue

Verses 13-19 display this awesome God of vengeance coming to the rescue of the one who cries out to him for help.

Psalm 18

13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens,

and the Most High uttered his voice,

hailstones and coals of fire.

14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;

he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.

15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,

and the foundations of the world were laid bare

at your rebuke, O LORD,

at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16 He sent from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of many waters.

17 He rescued me from my strong enemy

and from those who hated me,

for they were too mighty for me.

18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

but the LORD was my support.

19 He brought me out into a broad place;

he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

God Came Down

David says (v.3) ‘I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. This was David’s experience when he was delivered from all his enemies, but as the Lord’s anointed, he spoke beyond himself of the greater David, YHWH’s Anointed, the coming Messiah. God bowed the heavens and came down, not in response to the cry of the righteous, but when there were none righteous, no not one. He came down not in flaming fury inflicting vengeance (as he will come again one day; 1Thess.1:7-10), but he

Philippians 2:7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

God came down, not to pour out his wrath, but to take that wrath in my place, to feel the full fury of the wrath of the Father against my sin, in my place, bearing what I deserve, so that I could experience his favor.

John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 ​Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Jesus is the beloved Son in whom the Father delights. And when I see my sin and cry out to him for rescue, I am hid in Jesus, and I am included in the one in whom he delights. YHWH God delights in me!

Psalm 18:1 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.

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2025.08.10 Sermon Notes

Psalm 18:1-19; God Comes Down

1-19 prayer for rescue;

God comes down

20-30 the righteous one who takes refuge in God

God’s perfect character toward those who take refuge

in him

31-40 God’s faithfulness to his anointed

whom he equips and establishes to rule

A song celebrating the Lord’s deliverance

Exodus 15; Judges 5; 2 Samuel 22


Psalm 18:3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies.

My need

Psalm 18:4-6
God hears

Psalm 18:6

God’s furious response

Psalm 18:7-12; Psalm 7:11

our sin and its consequences stir the Lord to anger

John 11:33, 38-39

-cherubim, guardians of holiness

Ezekiel 1, Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25-26
-dark clouds graciously conceal

Exodus 33:18-20; Isaiah 6:5

God came down to rescue

Philippians 2:7-8; John 3:17-18; 1 Thessalonians 1:7-10

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org