Context No. 2381 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 18:17-32: in context

17He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. 18They came on me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support. 19He brought me out also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 20The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me. 21For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22For all his ordinances were before me. I didn’t put away his statutes from me. 23I was also blameless with him. I kept myself from my iniquity. 24Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. 25With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect. 26With the pure, you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. 27For you will save the afflicted people, but the arrogant eyes you will bring down. 28For you will light my lamp, LORD. My God will light up my darkness. 29For by you, I advance through a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall. 30As for God, his way is perfect. The LORD’s word is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. 31For who is God, except the LORD? Who is a rock, besides our God, 32the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?

David sings of a rescue from enemies stronger than he was, and he keeps circling one surprising reason for it. He was in the day of his calamity, hemmed in, and God brought him out into a large place. Why? The psalm answers: he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Later it adds that God lights his lamp, is a shield to all who take refuge, and arms him with strength.

There is a stretch here where David also points to his own clean hands and kept ways, and that can read as merit earning rescue. But the deeper reason comes earlier: he delighted in me. The deliverance is grounded first in God's affection, not in David's performance. God did not weigh the odds and calculate a rescue; he acted out of delight in the one he was saving. The enemy was real, but the deeper reality was a God who wanted David out of the trap.

Do I picture God rescuing me grudgingly, or can I believe he acts because he actually delights in me?

Sources

Psalm 18:19: He brought me out also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18:28: For you will light my lamp, LORD. My God will light up my darkness.
Psalm 18:30: As for God, his way is perfect. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.