Forever and Ever, Amen

Devotional Thoughts from Psalm 18:1–4

Psalm 18:1–4

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto 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 will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

2 The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;

My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:

So shall I be saved from mine enemies.

4 The sorrows of death compassed me,

And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

The well-known theologian Randy Travis said,

“I’m gonna love you, forever and ever, forever and ever amen”.

Ok, Randy ain’t a theologian, and he wasn’t talking to the Lord, but wasn’t David saying something similar in the opening line of this psalm?

Psalm 18:1 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

I want to draw your attention to a couple of things about our reading today that I love.

1. The Lengthy Title

The title of this one is almost a Psalm in itself.

“To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto 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,”

Wow, that is a whopper of a title isn’t it?

Notice this is written to the Lord when David was delivered from his enemies, but then he adds, “and from the hand of Saul.” It is as though Saul wasn’t an enemy.

David would not lump Saul into the category of his enemies. Saul had tried to kill David. He had made David a wanted man and a refugee from his homeland, forcing him to hide in caves for fear of his life.

Saul had taken David’s wife and married her off to another.

Ole Saul certainly seems to have made himself the enemy of David, but David refused to make himself the enemy of Saul.

What’s the point?

I suppose just because someone hates you, then you don’t have to return the favor. It is possible to remain a friend to the unfriendly and love the unloving.

2. The Love Testimony

Psalm 18:1 “I will love you...”

David didn’t say that to his girlfriend or his wife, but he spoke those words to the Lord.

Do you tell your Savior that you love him?

I think he would love to hear that from you.

I try to tell him often. Sometimes I even sing to the Lord when I know it’s just us.

He doesn’t judge me for my lack of rhythm or laugh when I get off-key.

What do I sing?

For example, I like to change this old hymn and sing it like this to my Jesus,

“oh how I love you, Jesus, oh how I love you, Jesus, oh how I love you, Jesus, because you first loved me”

It wouldn’t sound like much to you, but I think my Lord loves it.

He loves me, and the Bible teaches that the sweet Holy Spirit helps our prayers.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

I believe that because of his bias, love, and after the Holy Spirit’s auto-tune, my singing sounds like Elvis to my loving Lord.

David sang “I will love you” to God. I try also. Will you try it too?

Can we commit to singing this together to our Lord?