Overview
Psalm 18 is striking for how personal it is. David does not say the Lord is a rock, he says my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my strength, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my high tower. Each word carries its own weight, and taken together they describe a relationship rather than a doctrine. The teaching works through them one at a time, asking what it would mean to know the Father that personally rather than only knowing about Him.
Transcript
David’s Personal Names for God
Let’s take our Bibles and let’s go to Psalm 18 That’s where a predominant we will be a few weeks ago. My wonderful wife Was sharing the word and she read something out of Psalm and then I don’t know if you guys remember what she said She said you ought to go back and read it and so I did I read it through But then I had a very difficult time getting out of the first three verses So I guess that’s where the father wanted me to share with you tonight So tonight we’re going to look at to know the father personally To know the father personally and it’s been said that the universe That we live in was created to support the earth and That the earth was made to support man and that man was made To have fellowship with God God Almighty wants to know wants us to know him intimately and personally And if you look at the seven church epistles that’s written to us to the church All seven of the epistles open to remind the believer over and over and over it opens with that God is our father God is our father You know, I was thinking it’s it’s one thing to Have heard of a person There’s a whole another thing to actually know them And unfortunately in our daytime and our many Christian believers have heard of God or they’ve been acquainted with God But I’m not sure they really know God on an intimate and personal level and God wants that for us in fact God will reveal As much of himself as one is able to believe God will he will reveal as much of himself to you as you’re able to believe So God wants to just keep pouring it on and pouring it on and so here in psalm 18 is where we’ll be And this psalm according to some theologians was written by david after God delivered him From the hands of saw so that’s the background of this.
So watch this. We’ll start here verse one psalm 18 verse one David says I will love thee. Oh lord my what strength and this word lord here is the word johova God in covenant relationship or contractual relationship with that which he has created And I just thought it was interesting to see johova and then david refers to johova as my strength You can only get this strength or this strength can only be ascertained as a result of david’s intimate fellowship with God That’s why david was able to declare that God was in fact his strength Because david had a intimate relationship with God.
Isn’t that fantastic? Just to think about that. So I will love thee. Oh lord. Oh johova my strength And in verses one and two you’ll see tonight you can debate whether it’s seven or eight I came up with eight and I’ll tell you why but You’ll see eight facets of God in the first two verses of psalm 18 That david names God by various names. So that means david was very well adept and New God on an intimate basis because he could describe God in these multiple different facets He knew God and in fact, here’s another great thing.
You’ll see as we go through here the word my My God my
The Lord Is My Rock
rock the word my is used Nine times in these firsts. I believe in these first two verses My something personal something intimate God and david knew each other Isn’t it a section where God declares david was a man after my own heart? He knew God. He knew God Now would it now if you think about david being a man after God’s own heart and what david knows What’s available to you and I to know About God you think God may have revealed more of himself now Then he did when david was alive You think there’s still more that God can reveal of himself to us if we’re humble and we’re meek And we go after this word sure enough.
We most certainly can and so let’s look at this Some of these facets of God and I’ll show you how I came up with the number eight here because he’s going to list some things But he lists his strength twice Okay, so you’ll see this as we begin to go through it and what does the number eight represent spiritually? New beginning regeneration It’s also described to be super abundant. That’s the number and it also means to be new and fresh So watch what david says verse two The lord and that word lord again is jojoba.
The lord is my what rock and I looked up this word rock it is it is literal and figurative It was referred to as a clef or a cliff in a rock where a person could go into The cliff or the cleft in the rock and hide themselves. So this rock here meant that God was david’s stronghold God was david’s place of security in his place of refuge, but he describes jojoba as my rock Isn’t that fantastic And then he says Next thing in verse two my what
My Fortress and My Strength
fortress And this word fortress is could be described In this culture when they would look at a massive mountain or even a castle They would describe it as a fortress.
So once again, here’s another way of describing God Here’s one in the Hebrew you’re like around fortress. It meant something that could not be penetrated That’s how god david is describing god here. God is my fortress And actually you guys I I skipped I was about to say you let me skip it, but the word strength I went went right over that strength dealt with the category of When you had a sense of help or you needed help God david described god as his strength That was where david went to when david needed help when david needed to be sustained He looked to god.
Isn’t that fantastic? We’re supposed to look to god first Um, I think it was besie who declared like if you have a problem with another believer The first place you should go is not necessarily to the believer, but to god And work things out with god because sometimes I’ve done that and it got all cleared up I didn’t even really have to talk to the believer because the person who was really off was me And god showed me I was wrong So there was a really no need to go talk to that person But here’s here’s david describing god johova as his rock Then he says he’s my fortress and then he says and he is my what?
My Deliverer
Deliverer Right on the heels of of god delivering david. I don’t know which situation because you know if you read back God delivered david from saw multiple times. I just don’t know which one this is but in this situation He describes him as my deliverer and this word delivering the hebra means to cause to escape Watch this one to slip away Isn’t that fantastic because once again You read the battle or the conflict between david and saw and many times That’s exactly what god did for david he allowed david to slip away to slip out of the grasp Of saw who was out to kill him.
So keep your ribbon here And let me show you how this relates to our day and time. Look at first corinthians chapter 10 First corinthians chapter 10 God still makes a way for us in this daytime and hour to escape first corinthians chapter 10 and in verse 13 There have no temptation taking you But such as is common to who man But god is faithful Who will not suffer or who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able But will with the temptation See, that’s the great mind picture with the temptation The moment the temptation comes up You should be looking for something else that goes along with it.
And what is that? But will with the temptation Also make a way to what escape that you may be able to bear god will make a way for us to escape He will make a way for us to slip out of the grasp the trap The connivings of the adversary. That’s what god will do and he will do it all the time because he describes himself here in verse 13 Ask faithful That’s what god does. He’s faithful. Let’s go back here to psalm 18 Look at the knowledge that’s available Jehovah is my rock.
Jehovah is my fortress. Jehovah is my deliverer And then he goes to a different name here in verse 2 Then he says my god and that word god in the hebrew is l el and that deals with god being Omnipotent and almighty Look at the vast knowledge and understanding that david had of god and his intimacy with god that he could call god My god My el and then he goes again here verse 2 my strength That’s the second time that appears and whom I will what trust my strength and whom I will trust Who was david strength jehovah el God was his strength.
He wasn’t relying and depending upon his own strength But you can read the record of david when he did rely and depend on his own strength. What happened to him? He often got in trouble. He often fell flat Well, guess what hint hint wink wink That’s what will happen to us if we begin to depend and rely on our own strength We can know god intimately and personally just like david did Next characteristic or a facet of god. He describes god as my what buckler And this word buckler here means to be a shield a defense or a protector God was his defense his shield his buckler his protector I’m just amazed that all these things david knew this isn’t just a god passing time and just coming up with these words off the top of his head He knew each and every one of these aspects of god And that just made his relationship with god that much more sweet that much more intimate however, though For many believers unfortunately or for many people god and his word Is nothing more than a footnote On their self-absorbed lives They don’t take the time to reach out and to study the word and to begin to know god intimately and personally god is Rather than them walking with god, they they treat god as if god is just along for the ride And that’s not how we’re supposed to live god is our buckler.
Now watch this next one here in verse two And the
The Horn of My Salvation
horn of my what? Salvation if you look up the word horn and work it through the horn often in old testament represented strength and power He’s saying god is the strength and power of his salvation the strength and power Of his wholeness keep your ribbon here and let’s look at uh first samuel We’ll see a couple of these first samuel Chapter two first samuel chapter two And i love this section because this is in the section around hannah And wanting to have a child and she praised the god, but look what she how she describes god here First samuel chapter two we’ll see in verse one and hannah prayed and said My heart rejoices in the lord My horn is exalted where in the lord My mouth is enlarged over my enemies because i rejoiced in thy salvation She declared that her horn her strength And her power were exalted in the lord Okay, skip down to verse 10.
Here’s another one The adversaries of the lord shall be broken into pieces This is all a part of hannah’s prayer the adversaries of the lord will be broken into pieces Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them the lord shall judge the ends of the earth And he shall give strength unto his king And exalt the horn of his anointed Exalt the strength and power of the one who’s anointed are we anointed? Of course, we are why because it’s god in christ and us We’re anointed so god will exalt that within us.
I just think that’s fantastic Back to psalm 18 psalm 18 and verse two Describes god as the horn of my salvation and then I just love this last one and my what high tower God is his god was his high tower. You look up high tower in the hebrew it deals with uh A place of refuge It meant something that was secure based on his height Uh, I saw one definition says that it was inaccessible. It was not an accessible place It was also a place of retreat David describes god as his high tower Ever seen kids in the kitchen sometime and they’re trying to get something out of cabinet And they’re jumping and they can’t quite get it Because it’s out of their reach.
Well god will place us in an
Set On High, Out of Reach
exalted position Out of the reach of the adversary. Let’s look at something here. Keep your ripping here. Look at ephesians chapter two Ephesians chapter two David said god was his high tower. You and I have something today available to us that’s even higher than david’s high tower Ephesians chapter two look at verse six And have raised us up together And made us sit together where in heavenly places in christ jesus David had a high tower. You and I are raised set. We’re seated right now spiritually in the heavenlies with christ jesus You can’t get too much higher than that That’s where we’re at.
We can’t get too much higher than that. So let’s close back here in psalm 18 Look at the intimate understanding that david knew of god And i’m just touching on these things. I’m sure all every one of these characteristics or facets of god could be a complete teaching series Jehovah my rock my fortress my deliverer my god my strength and whom I will trust my buckler And the horn of my salvation and my high tower And then he closes with we’re not closes, but i’ma close here verse three I will call upon the lord.
That’s jehovah who is worthy to be praised I guess he is if he’s your rocky or fortress and delivering and so on So shall I be saved from my who enemies? That’s what his knowledge and understanding and you should as robin encouraged us before go back and read the rest of this song It is just absolutely fantastic But I just wanted to share with you tonight that we can know god As intimately and personally as david did and even more because god has revealed more of himself to us In this day in this time and in this hour and I was thinking today at work like We have no idea what’s coming We’re looking forward to it, but we really don’t the word says I has not seen Ear has not heard or however is described what god has planned for those who love him And in fact, that’s why you got to have a new body Because I think if god tried to reveal everything to us now we would just implode Right, but we’ll have a new spiritual body with great dynamic Abilities and understandings and god can then probably show every ounce of himself that he always wanted and desired To show to us kids So let’s get busy continuing to read the word continuing to walk in fellowship with god and continue to deepen Our spiritual understanding in our personal relationship where I have your father
Key Takeaways
- Psalm 18 is written in the possessive throughout: my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, not merely a rock or a fortress.
- Each name David uses carries a distinct sense rather than being a poetic repetition.
- Deliverance in the psalm follows immediately on God being described as a deliverer.
- David was not relying on his own strength, which is what makes the possessives meaningful.
- Being set on high describes a position out of reach of the adversary rather than a feeling.
Frequently Asked Questions
What names does David use for God in Psalm 18?
My rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my strength, my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Every one of them is possessive rather than general.
Why does the word my matter so much in this psalm?
Because it marks the difference between knowing about God and knowing Him personally. David is not describing a rock, he is describing his rock.
What does it mean to be set on high?
It describes being placed in an exalted position out of the reach of the adversary, which is a position rather than a feeling.
Scripture References
Psalm 18
This text was prepared from the teaching audio and notes. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
