Expecting God’s Deliverance

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Expecting God’s Deliverance
Keywords: “faith”
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Passage: Psalm 18:1-3*

A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,

1. I love Thee, O Lord, my strength."

2. 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.

3. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.

Questions

1. Notice the sentence above the first verse in the passage for today. According to this inscription, when did David write this Psalm?

 

2. Notice, too, the various ways in which David refers to the Lord? What do these images convey about David’s reliance on God?

 

Practical help

The last ten years of Saul’s life were murder on David. I wonder if we frequently see the life of David through rose-colored glasses. Raised a shepherd boy. Became skilled at the sling and killed a lion and a bear. Trusted in God and then killed Goliath. Became King over all Israel and collected a bunch of mighty men about him.

That telling of the story excludes a significant part of David’s life, a formative part. For the ten years following his victory over Goliath, David was a fugitive from King Saul. Saul tried to kill him in his palace while David was playing the harp to soothe the King’s troubled spirit. Then, Saul pursued him though the Judean hills for a decade, insanely jealous of David’s popularity, hating him for being the anointed of the Lord.

What the verses in Psalm 18 tell us is that when David finally experienced deliverance, he had been trusting in the Lord throughout the whole, awful ordeal. When David calls God "my strength." "my rock" "my fortress" "my deliverer" "my shield" "the horn of my salvation" and "my stronghold" we get a clear picture of his resolute faith in God.

And God proved Himself faithful! David was delivered. So, too, will every porn struggler be delivered if he (or she) continues to call out to the Lord and to trust in God. EXXit readers (and writers) can all learn from David’s honest example. Deliverance doesn’t necessarily come instantly. But for those who learn to cry out to God, it does come.

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."