“46 The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior! 47 He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, 48 who saves me from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from violent men you rescued me. 49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O Lord; I will sing praises to your name. 50 He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.” (Psalm 18:46-50 NIV).
Early in this Psalm David feared that he was a goner (vv. 4-6). He prayed and God responded. Now, in these closing verses we find a grateful David rejoicing before the Lord.
We don’t know the exact time this particular Psalm was written. The written introduction may link this Psalm early in David’s life, after his 12 or so years of fleeing from Saul. However the introductory comments read “when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.”
This Psalm is also recorded in 2 Samuel 22. In that setting it seems to come near the end of David’s career as king. Certainly from verses 47 & 50 it would appear that he is speaking as the king and not simply the one who was to become king.
I point this out to remind you that this great ending of praise comes after great personal losses. If (as I believe this Psalm comes at the end of David’s earthly life) remember that the victories to which he refers are numerous indeed. Some of those victories came at the expense of great personal loss. Absalom, one of David’s own sons, was one of those violent men from whom the hand of God rescued him. Think of the conflict. Absalom had usurped the throne, David fled to avoid a confrontation with his son, and David’s eventual deliverance in this instance came at the death of his own son–a tragedy that is never easy for a parent no matter how rebellious the son may become!
Bottom line: David’s praise includes deliverance not only from external conflicts but for deliverance from great internal (family) conflicts as well. Even in his great personal losses (and they were many) David declares, “He shows unfailing kindness to (me.)” I find that interesting. If this Psalm is at the end of David’s life, he has wonderfully chosen to focus on the victories not on the battles which led to those victories; he has chosen to focus on the blessings God had given him not the bane of the wounds.
What are you focusing on today? Is there some past hurt you refuse to let heal? Like a curious child you keep picking at the scab, making sure that wound will not recover until you decide to let it. I find people all the time who blame their present dispositions on their past treatment. No question our past impacts our present, the only real question is how we choose to let the past impact our present. Will we dwell in the valley of bitterness or will we, with David, climb the mountain of gratitude? Your choice, but let me warn you, when all is said and done, you alone will be responsible for how your respond. Each person will give an account of him or herself to God (Romans 14:12). Modern psychological thought may let you get away with, “I did what I did because my parents did what they did,” and you may be comfortable rationalizing ill behavior because as a child you suffered ill-behavior, but in the end, where it really counts, you will be held responsible for you and the blame game won’t deter the Righteous Judge.
If anyone had an excuse to dwell in misery it was David. He chose not to. Instead of focusing on the negatives, his focus was on the positives; instead of complaining about the many battles, he praised God for the many victories. What about you?
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