THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

XVIII. Psalm 18: Glorifying God For His Rescues

B. Gaining God's Consistent Help

(Psalm 18:4-31)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

We need to know how to gain God's help consistently due to continual or repeat problems we face:

(1) The whole world continually faces influential, troublesome leaders: "Much of the world was shocked that Russian President Vladimir Putin actually went through with his threat to invade Ukraine – but . . . (i)n 1996, Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa" and called "on Muslims to wage 'jihad against the enemies of God, your enemies the Israelis and Americans.' We ignored his warnings, and he launched the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 . . . '(I)n the 1920s, a failed Austrian painter published a book in which he explained his intention to build an Aryan super-state in Germany and take revenge on Europe and eradicate the Jews. The world ignored (Adolf) Hitler's words and paid a terrible price' . . . Now we need to pay attention to what" China's leader "Xi says," for he "has laid out his intentions to reunify Taiwan with the Chinese motherland just as clearly as Putin laid out his intention to reunify Ukraine with Mother Russia." (Marc Thiessen, "Dictators mean what they say," Republican-American, March 17, 2022, p. 8A)

Yet, to handle such men, we now have a "feckless" President Biden: "Robert M. Gates, secretary of Defense in the Obama and George W. Bush administrations" once said "that Mr. Biden 'has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national-security issue over the past four decades.'" ("Not a record to be proud of," Ibid.)

(2) We face ongoing problems with "woke" ideology: (a) Jay Bergman, a professor of history at CCSU who also serves on the board of the National Association of Scholars, in an op-ed, wrote: "Last month . . . Central Connecticut State University established a new policy designating faculty, administrators and nearly all other employees as 'mandated reporters' . . . required to report . . . any information they come across pertaining to 'gender-based discrimination." (Jay Bergman, "Soviet style intrudes on CCSU," Ibid., March 16, 2022, p. 8A) He added, " . . . (A)s a historian of the Soviet Union and international communism, I find CCSU's policy of mandatory reportage . . . reminiscent . . . of the requirement of Soviet citizens, when millions were starving to death in the 1930s, that they unmask peasants hoarding grain by reporting them to the NKVD (the acronym of the political police) . . ." (Ibid.) Mr. Bergman expressed concern that this policy will leave CCSU "enforcing a stifling orthodoxy its faculty are too intimidated and fearful to challenge," undermining the "very reason universities exist." (Ibid.)

(b) The editorial, "Differences, not hatred" (Ibid., March 23, 2022, p. 8A) reported how around "120 Yale Law students" recently targeted "Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom" at a Federalist Society event for her defense of the right of "a Colorado baker" who declined to "bake a cake for a same-sex couple's wedding celebration" based on religious convictions. The "point of the session . . . was to show that individuals with strongly held beliefs can express themselves and debate respectfully." (Ibid.)

Upset over the actions of these law students, "(a) prominent federal appeals-court judge, Laurence Silberman, sent an email to other federal judges stating: 'All federal judges . . . presumably committed to free speech – should carefully consider whether any such student so identified should be disqualified for potential clerkships.'" (Ibid.)

(c) Nevertheless, when asked last week at a congressional hearing what a woman is, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson said she couldn't do so because she was not a biologist! Her fear of far left "woke" ideology inhibited her from stating the obvious! (Houston Keene, "Republicans baffled that Ketanji Brown Jackson can't say what a woman is: 'It is a simple question,'" March 23, 2022; foxnews.com)

(3) We face ongoing fiscal problems with Congress: It "has discovered that federal taxes are obsolete because the government can create money to infinity – as long as the Federal Reserve is ready to monetize government bonds, and as long as nobody cares about the devaluation of the currency that results when the increase in the money supply outruns not just national production of goods and services but, since the dollar is the reserve currency for the world, international production as well." (Chris Powell, "Pork ours in amid inflation," Ibid., March 15, 2022, p. 8A)

Need: So, we ask, "How can we CONSISTENTLY gain God's help?!"

I. Recalling God's rescues from his many foes, David voiced deep appreciation to the Lord, Psalm 18:4-19:

A. He testified how God had miraculously rescued him from certain death, Psalm 18:4-5; B. K. C., O. T., p. 806.

B. David expressed how God's help had come like a great storm to destroy his enemies, Psalm 18:6-19; Ibid.

II. God's reason for so delivering David over the years is explained in Psalm 18:20-31 (as follows):

A. David asserted that God had delivered him over time because of his righteousness, Psalm 18:20-21.

B. However, as noted in Psalm 18:22-31, David's uprightness was based on his obeying Deuteronomy 17:18-20:

1. David testified that his righteousness had resulted from his practice of keeping God's judgments "before" (KJV) or "in front of, conspicuous [to]" (neged, Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 988; B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 617) himself, Psalm 18:22-23. This action refers to the practice God had directed for Israel's king in Deuteronomy 17:18-19a that he make his own copy of Scripture and keep it with him that he might read from it every day of his life. This practice would make the king revere God, obey Scripture, and restrain him from being arrogant with his subjects so that God would bless him, Deut. 17:19b-20.

2. Since David had heeded Deuteronomy 17:18-20, his lifestyle had become consistently upright to where even God had noted its consistency of righteousness "in His [God's] eyesight" (v. 24 KJV), or "in front of, conspicuous [to]" God, the Hebrew neged expressing this concept again, Psalm 18:24; Ibid., Kittel.

3. Since God Himself is perfectly righteous in His dealings with all men, be they upright or sinful, God's own consistent character required that he consistently help a consistently upright David, Psalm 18:25-27.

4. Accordingly, God marvelously delivered David from all his enemies throughout his life, Psalm 18:28-31.

Lesson: God had greatly and consistently delivered David from all of his foes in a marvelous lifelong series of deliverances because David had lived a consistently upright life as a result of keeping God's Word in front of himself, conspicuously so, by daily exposing his heart and mind to the reading of Scripture!

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) Then, to acquire God's consistent help in life, may we keep saturating our hearts and minds with God's written Word, what will affect our attitudes and actions to obey the Lord and to rely on His Holy Spirit for the power to keep doing so for blessing.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

(1) God's Word has directives for us on dealing with each of the issues of need mentioned in our introduction:

(a) On troubling leaders like Vladimir Putin, Osama bin Laden, Adolph Hitler, Xi and even President Biden, (i) Proverbs 21:1 claims God controls the hearts of leaders make much like a farmer controls where irrigation water goes in a garden. We need to rest in God's sovereign oversight of world leaders! (ii) Also, Scripture refers to the God of the Bible as the Lord of "Hosts," or seba'ot, Lord of "armies" as a God of war Who at times will use even wicked, invasive armies to punish or to perfect His plan. (Ibid., B. D. B., p. 839; cf. Amos 6:8 ESV) We must realize that God is very involved in using or allowing military events to occur to fulfill His purposes! (iii) We also know from Bible prophecy in Revelation 3:21 with 7:17 and Daniel 9:26c that in our era, God is allowing a "Mini-Great Tribulation" to occur to get Christians and the world to repent, so we should not be surprised about facing such a time! Our task is to focus on God's calling for us until the rapture, 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17. God then gives us personal peace.

(b) On CCSU's move to make hired staff into Soviet-styled informers on "gender-based discrimination," the Yale Law School students' intolerance of religious rights with beliefs that do not condone LGBTQ orientations and a Supreme Court nominee's fear of defining a woman due to "woke" ideology, (i) Psalm 27:1-3 directs us not to fear though an army be gathered against us and Isaiah 26:3 has God promising to keep him who trusts in the Lord in perfect peace. Also, (ii) since 2 Timothy 3:13-17 directs that we overcome growing deception and errant thinking by relying on Biblical truth for all matters of faith and practice, we read from Leviticus 18:1-23 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 that LGBTQ orientations are sin! (iii) In addition, we hold to the Genesis 1:27 with 2:20b-24 definition of a woman as being an adult female human! Last (iv), Romans 12:18 tells us to seek to get along with the lost world around us.

(c) On Congress's increasing the money supply, creating inflation for us and the world, (a) God promises to meet our material needs regardless what men do to us, so we must be content with what God provides and trust Him to meet our needs, Hebrews 13:5-6. (b) Also, (i) Eric Henderson, president of the annuity business segment at Nationwide Financial, claims, "'Historically, being invested in equities is really the only good way to stay ahead of inflation . . . Equities can be volatile but for the long run that has been a winning formula in the past.'" (Carmen Reinicke, "Investing in the stock market is more important than ever amid rising inflation," March 22, 2022; cnbc.com) In addition, (ii) Ecclesiastes 11:4 NIV on investing says, "Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap," so there is a risk of suffering great loss in being too cautious in investing! God would thus urge us to invest in stocks with diversification long-term especially for handling inflation!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life. May we consistently expose our minds and hearts to Scripture for God's consistent help.