Psalm 18 | Who is God to You?

God is never changing. He is who He is. The theological word for this is “immutability.” We can trust Him to be the same “yesterday, today, and forever.”

His constancy gives us our only real stability in life. Every man or woman we know has varying moments of inconsistency. They let us down at times by not being true to what we thought they were. But not God.

MY GOD

David discovered this early in his life. As he was being chased by Saul in the wilderness, often despairing of his life, the one constant in his life—the One He could always trust—was God.

Psalm 18

1 I love You, 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.

In eight profound descriptors, David professes His faith in God. These were no mere phrases. Not a nice worship song sung to a catchy phrase by a casually interested worshiper. This was David’s expression of who God was and what He had experienced in times of intense suffering. God had proven true. Such profound, personal expressions are only truly shaped on the anvil of pain.

David KNEW these things of God, and now of his experience became an eruption of praise. God was to David not merely someone else’s God, but “MY God.” Notice the personal pronoun in each description.

My STRENGTH: God had literally become the power to fight his enemies and to persevere when he was overwhelmed by human weakness.
My ROCK (or “crag”): When Saul was chasing him like a dog, David ran multiple times into the Judean caves. God hid him there. The cave was just a physical experience of the Divine reality of God’s protection.
My FORTRESS: Like a high walled city of protection, no one could pierce the defenses of God around His servant. Regardless of the wiles of the enemy, David knew that in God he was safe.
My DELIVERER: When he despaired of life itself and felt he was doomed, God delivered him time and time again.
My SHIELD: The shield for the soldier was his only defense against the sword of the enemy. God had literally become David’s shield.
My ROCK, in whom I take refuge: When he could not face the enemy anymore, God became David’s hiding place. He knew that he could always run to God and be safe.
The HORN of my salvation: The altar that God had designed for the Israelites in the refuge cities had four pointed corners. If someone ran to the “horns of the altar” and grabbed one of these horns in faith, God had commanded that they were to be protected. David grabbed onto the Father and found God Himself as the horn of salvation.
My STRONGHOLD: David knew that no one could penetrate the defenses of God. God became His impregnable stronghold.

Is it any wonder that David’s first breath in this Psalm, is “I love You, O Lord!” This expression of overwhelming affection, unashamedly shouting for all of human history to hear, was evidence of what God had become in experience to him.

And God was the One on whom David would now call for the rest of his life. God had proved His faithfulness. Prayerful dependence would become the habit of his life. “I call upon the Lord … and I am saved from my enemies” was his constant practice and sure results.

WHO IS GOD TO YOU?

God is forever the same, but what do you know of Him? Have you discovered Him? Experienced Him? Don't resent the suffering God allows in your life, for this pushes you to discover Him. But as the pressure has risen, have you relied on your own human abilities alone, or have you run in helplessness to the Rock? Only then will God become real to you. Only there will you discover the bottomless depth of God’s power, the abounding height of His love, the width of His wisdom, the breadth of His character.

And only after you have seen Him for the God that He is will you cry with conviction, “I love You, O Lord, my strength!”

Father, thank You for never changing. For being the same every moment of the day. Thank You for Your unceasing invitation to run to You and once running, Your ever-broadening revelation of Your perfect character and power. Help me to run nowhere else—in the slightest problem of the common day to the darkest hours of my life. Give me the daily, hourly reality of Your presence. May my love song to You erupt from an ever-deepening well as I shout to the world that you are MY GOD!