Psalm 18 is one of my favorite psalms. I have recently noticed that David sang this song at least twice: once when he was delivered from the hand of Saul, and once again later, when he was delivered from the hand of all his enemies. 2 Sam 22 is the parallel passage. One small difference that touched my heart was the inclusion of verse 1 in Psalm 18, which does not appear in 2 Sam 22: “I love you, O Lord, my strength”. With no explanation given, we are left to conjecture why David’s heart overflowed with this expression of love. All the answers point to the growing intimacy that David experiences with his Good Shepherd, as his life unfolds.
My point here, though, goes to the passage in the middle of the psalm that I have always found troubling. Does David have a short memory, is he that oblivious to his own failure; or what is going on? How can he truthfully say: “ I was blameless before Him and I kept myself from guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me for my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands.”? Seriously, David..what about Bathsheba and Uriah? The census? If God’s favor toward us is related to our performance, I for one am in a heap of trouble. Very puzzling. You know how you read and read a verse and then one day you really read it? Verses 31 & 32 jumped out at me this week: “Who is God, but the Lord. And who is a rock except our God? The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless”. David had such a grasp on the gospel. Hundreds of years beforehand, he foresaw that One stood ready to remove his transgressions as far as the east is from the west. He knew Him as One who does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103) He ‘got’ that God made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
No explanations are given. We are left to conjecture how David understood the mystery of our sin being covered by the Perfect Sacrifice. We are left to treasure the same revelation – it is God who equips us with strength, because He has made our way blameless.
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