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[Wednesday Evening Bible Study Lecture Series, Dr. TJ Betts (SBTS), Ninth & O Baptist Church, Louisville, KY, 9/25/2024: Psalm 18]

  • hallsmanilow
  • Jan 10
  • 3 min read


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1. Scripture (50 verses) 





2. Question: How should knowing God as our constant defender / protector affect our daily outlook on life? 


Possible answers: be confident, be comforted; be fearless; be brave, be courageous (in sharing the Good News for example), be mindful of how to represent Christ; worship God; give thanks!, be self-assured since no need to constantly defend oneself, etc.


3. The Skinny on Psalm 18


1) King David's longest written psalm with 50 verses; actually, the longest chapters in the Bible happen to be the five collection of the songs / psalms (and that is essentially what we do eternally once in heaven)


2) very touching (?) introduction to the body with "...in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul:"


3) Divided into five sections (will mostly focus on the middle section)


4) section #1, vv. 1-3: 


V. 2: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength...I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."; apart from Christ, we are dead in our sins--both physically (?) & spiritually. But in Christ we are resurrected & made alive b/c He conquered the death and sin


5) We should be more vociferous about what God has done for us saving us from eternal punishment--hell.


6) Think about God's attributes; what He can do for us; what He's done for us; who He is & what He is doing for us and what He will do; do I / we recognize and praise Him (enough) as who He is as Christian? 


7) Section #2: vv. 4-19: takeaways are

(1) the Lord is worthy of our praises;

(2) the Lord is our salvation. 


8) David had an army of 400 men, but Saul, his sworn enemy and the reigning monarch had 1,000s of men to come after David's head


9) V. 4 ("The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me;") v.  5 ("the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me."): poetic language which shows how precarious David's situation was and how miraculously God saved and preserved him and his life from the hands of his enemies; David cried out to the Lord for help, and God intervened & saved him during the sustained manhunt by the assassins.


10. Cf. Hebrews 11:32-35




11) Hebrews 11 has been called the Faith Chapter; glorious unrelenting faithful people of God and their actions written demonstrating their faith even unto death. Martyrs in some cases such as Stephen. God is glorified at the end; that is the essence of real faith. Likewise JC suffered unto death; how could we have not been committed?


12) V. 16 ("He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters"): David was in over his head; he felt as though he was drowning--hopeless. He surely would have perished if not for the intervention of the Prividence.



Let's take a look at our own salvation; we CANNOT save ourselves. Our righteousness is as filthy as rags. Which are our enemies? Sin, death, the devil, the world which is under the rule of Satan. They are all our enemies. The difference btwn the life and death is Jesus Christ our Lord.


13) V. 19 ("He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me."): the Lord delighted in David / us!! What / who do we delight in in our life--spouse, children, parents, friends, sports, games, etc.?


14) V. 20 ("The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me."): what it means to love Jesus => (Jesus makes it very CLEAR) John 14:



Cf. John 14:15;


15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.



Cf. John 14:21:


21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.



15) What is David's hope?



The Lord is faithful to those who are faithful: God will not typically show faithfulness to those unfaithful to Him (not a matter of salvation in many a case). Repentance utterly important!


The Lord gave a victory to David as a reward; our ultimate victory is in Christ. As a disciple, we should love Him & one another. The world is lacking in this kind of love  these days. Final commandments.


Cf. 2 Timothy 3:1-3



The Lord is worthy of our praises. 

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