Wednesday, January 18, 2012

150 Days of Psalms - Psalm 18



If you are looking for the perfect metaphor to describe God and His actions in helping and fighting for the righteous ones who follow Him, Psalm 18 is the perfect place to look.

This Psalm is full of beautiful imagery. As you read this you probably recognized many of the verses as lyrics to songs or often quoted verses.

Rather than quote some of the favorites, I want to look at this awesome description of God that we often overlook. We like to think of the loving side of God because we have been shown that love through Jesus Christ. But in the middle of this Psalm David paints a fantastic picture of God dealing with His enemies.

Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the mountains trembled;
they shook because He burned with anger.
Smoke rose from His nostrils,
and consuming fire [came] from His mouth;
coals were set ablaze by it.
He parted the heavens and came down,
a dark cloud beneath His feet.
 He rode on a cherub and flew,
soaring on the wings of the wind.
 He made darkness His hiding place,
dark storm clouds His canopy around Him.
From the radiance of His presence,
His clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals.
 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High projected His voice.
 He shot His arrows and scattered them;
He hurled lightning bolts and routed them.
The depths of the sea became visible,
the foundations of the world were exposed,
at Your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

Yet even as He displays such great power, in tenderness "He reached down from heaven and took hold of me; He pulled me out of deep waters."

Awesome!

Here is one of my all time favorite songs that has a lot of the lyrics based on this Psalm (or others that say the same thing.)


1 comment:

Phyllis Hobson said...

Today was a little rushed, and I woke up not feeling 100%, so it was nice to see the familiar words in verses 3 and 46, one of the choruses that I remember singing.

I loved the images and visions that you (Lyndel) put in your description from the middle verses. It gives a wonderful meaning to the part of Psalm 18:3 about the Lord "who is worthy to be praised."