Sermon Tone Analysis

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

This evening’s message is a continuation through our series on the book of psalms.

We’re currently in Psalm 18 and we’re actually in part 2 of 3 of Psalm 18, so there’s some things that I would like to say to remind you of where we are in the text and I also want to encourage you to come back next week to hear the remaining text as well.

So, starting with some reminders of our previous time in Psalm 18 before we dig into our passage for this evening:

Psalm 18:1-19 was our passage from last week, which opens the psalm by telling us of the precise details of why the psalm was written.

The superscription tells us that David wrote this psalm after God rescued him from the hands of his enemies, include Saul.

This informs us that there was a particular reason for this psalm to be written and it’s simple—it’s a psalm of great praise to the LORD, of thanksgiving, and of celebration.

The first nineteen verses of Psalm 18 focuses on David praising God for God’s character and his help as well as David praising God for defending him and rescuing him.

David focuses his attention on the fact that he had prayed for the LORD to save him and the LORD actually did save him—and because God saved him, he’s able to praise the LORD for who God is and for his help.

In the latter half of the text from last week, we see David describing God’s saving of him in what would be very terrifying descriptions for people who were David’s enemies and really God’s enemies.

The application for last week was fairly simple—that when life is filled with hardship, run to Jesus for help.

And after you run to Jesus for help, praise Jesus for all that he has done (even if he hasn’t answered your prayer yet).

Vss.

20-30 continues in the mindset of praising the LORD for all that he has done, in particular, God’s ability to save David.

Let’s read together Psalm 18:20-30 and we’ll dig into Scripture this evening.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) concerns David and His Righteousness (20-24), we’re going to take a closer look at what David says about himself in these verses and we’re going to combat the false assumption that David is being self-righteous—he’s not self-righteous at all.

(2) Vss.

25-30 then shifts our focuses our attention to God and his Work, as David thinks on God’s characteristics and praises God for who he is.

As we study through David’s words, it should cause us to reflect on how God deals with us because of his character—and if we’re Christians this evening, it should cause us to well up within us praise and worship for the LORD.

Prayer for Illumination

David and his Righteousness (20-24)

David starts this section of Psalm 18 by reflecting on his righteousness.

This isn’t the first time that he has done this in the psalms.

Remember with me that in Psalm 17, which is also a psalm of David, he expresses a prayer to the LORD and he explains that the reason why God should listen to or hear his prayer is because his cause is just and that he is righteous in heart.

Now, when we read what David says in Psalm 18:20-24, it may seem as if he’s being self-righteous—that he’s puffing himself up, but remember that when we worked through Psalm 17, the reason for David making those statements about him being just and righteous in heart wasn’t to puff himself up.

He was making those statements for the purpose of checking his own heart and considering whether he was right to ask for God to do something.

It wasn’t to puff up himself and it wasn’t to be self-righteous, David knows that his righteousness is only through God alone.

Keep that in mind, because while it seems David is being self-righteous in Psalm 18:20-24, remember that David is knowledgeable enough to realize that he has no righteousness within himself.

After all, David is the same psalmist who claims in Psalm 53, that “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’

They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good . . .

They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

So, why does David make statements like this?

That God dealt with him according to his righteousness?

That God dealt with him according to the cleanness of his hands; because he has followed God and not acted wickedly?

Because David’s praising God for what God has done for his people.

So, why is he talking about righteousness and cleanness in this manner?

Because only those that are God’s people are genuinely righteous and clean.

As David starts this section of the psalm, he’s pointing to the fact that he is a genuine believer in God and it is his belief in God that has made him judicially righteous.

And because he’s been made righteous by God, he can then live in such a way that he is clean—he can “[keep] the ways of the LORD.”

Or in other words, David’s statements in these five verses are praises for God making him righteous, allowing him to live righteously, and then interceding on his behalf because of his righteousness.

Allen Ross, “They simply affirm that because God deals with people as he see their heart to be towards him, the people of God may explain divine intervention through prayer as divine reward for righteousness.”

(A Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 1)

We can see it like this, that David is essentially saying, “look at what God has done for me because I believe.”

God cared for him because of his belief in God.

So, when David makes statements like, “The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.

For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God,” he isn’t puffing himself up, he’s recognizing that the only reason God helped him was because he genuinely believes.

With that in mind, let me just give a brief digression, in David’s instance, God protected him and saved him as a genuine believe, but that doesn’t mean that God will always rescue people out of dangerous positions based solely on their belief in him.

God never promises us to live lives in which we face no trouble or difficulty.

He never promises that we will be able to get out of great trouble if we have enough faith or believe; and that’s definitely not what’s happening here in Psalm 18.

What’s happening in Psalm 18 is this, David is reflecting on God’s rescue of him from his enemies; and he realizes that the only reason that God would’ve rescued him is if he believed.

Or we can say it like James does, “all good gifts come from above.”

That’s what David is doing as he reflects here in vss.

20-24.

God dealt with him graciously and he rewarded him because he believed and sought to live in such a way that he would be clean.

David says, “all [God’s] rules were before [him], and [God’s] statutes I did not put away from me.”

He knew God’s law and he knew the right way to live according to Scripture

And he followed those rules and statutes because he loved God.

Vss.

23-24 continue in this line of thinking with David saying, “I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt.

So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.”

And I can’t stress enough, again, that David isn’t saying these things to puff himself up—he’s saying them as a reflection of praise to the LORD for what God has done for him.

He considers what God has done for him in protecting him and rescuing him a reward for his belief—again, like James says, “all good gifts come from above.”

Allen Ross, “After describing his deliverance by the Lord, David explained it in terms of his faith in the Lord his God.

By faith David kept his integrity [or righteousness] before God.

This deliverance was because God was rewarding David for the cleanness of his hands [or his life].

David attested that he had not turned from God, that he walked in God’s ways, obeyed His laws and decrees, and kept himself from sin.

God honored His obedient servant with tremendous victories.”

(BKC)

In a way, we could say that David’s thinking about his own righteousness through vss.

20-24 is really more of a reflection and praise for God in that God made him righteous.

It is God who justified him, it is God who enabled him to live with clean hands; it is God who empowered him to live in the ways of the LORD.

It is God who made him blameless through genuine belief from David in God.

God is the hero of the story here, not David.

David happens to be the recipient of mercy, grace, and righteousness from God.

David realizes this and praises the LORD, not that he was able to legalistically live a righteous life, but because God made him righteous because of his faith.

And as a reward for his belief, God saved him or rescued him from his enemies (including Saul).

David is not self-righteous in these statements concerning his own righteousness—he knows that he is not righteous apart from God.

In reality, David is taking these five verses to reflect on the truth that God’s saving of him from Saul and his enemies was very much a gift from God—something that wasn’t necessarily promised, but something given to David because of his genuine belief in God.

This belief or faith that David has in God is a result of his understanding of who God is, which he reflects on in vss.

25-30.

Let’s re-read those six verses.

God and His Work (25-30)

David speaks of God first by reflecting on some of God’s characteristics.

These characteristics are spread over vss.

25-27 and they describe God in five different ways:

In vs. 25, David gives two attributes or characteristics of God—David says “with the merciful [God shows himself] merciful; with the blameless man [God shows himself] blameless.”

The first concept that God is merciful is actually translated better in other translations—the NASB and NLT translation translates this as “with the faithful You show Yourself faithful.”

With that in mind, the sentence actually makes a little more sense because it isn’t talking about mercy, it’s talking about faithfulness in light of God’s steadfast love.

To those who are faithful to God, God shows himself to be faithful to them.

The second concept that God is blameless references God’s holiness.

That he is without fault, without error, and without sin.

In Vs. 26, David gives two more attributes of God.

He says, “With the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself you make yourself seem tortuous.”