God Working In a Few People for All of Us Every Day
I love you, O Lord , my strength.
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.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
Psalms 18:1–6 ESV Read it all
This one really is so good that you should just stop now and go read the whole thing. I’ll be here if you come back.
David sang and prayed this song when he was on the run from Saul and won. The thing that is great about this song is that it mixes the different ways that God saved David individually and the ways that God saved Israel as a nation. By mixing those together, David appropriates to himself all fo the salvation that God has to offer.
When we identify as a people, we give God the glory that is due to Him for all of the salvation that He has worked. Sure, today might have been a mediocre day, no big answers to prayer, no great revelations from my prayer and Bible reading, but God is still working. God is busy somewhere with somebody, and even if I don’t see it, I can be confident and thankful for it.
Whenever David calls God a rock and a fortress, picture the rocky wilderness where he was living when he was hiding from Saul. In the En Gedi area, there are fissures and cracks 100ft high and 4–100ft wide that men could fall into. There are a seemingly infinite number of dead ends and caves. If you were to put your hand down and say “this is a fortress,” you would be touching a network of 10 miles of salt and sand labyrinth to keep you safe.
When the Lord saved Israel, He was saving all of us. When the Lord was there for David, He was there working salvation for all of us. Whatever the Lord does today for His Church, He is doing for His whole Church.
He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. (Psalm 18:19)
Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever. (Psalm 18:50)
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