May you experience this Psalm.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; God, my rock, in him will I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and My saviour, thou savest me from violence. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from mine enemies. II Samuel 22:2–4.
These are not empty words; they are appropriations from God that you can make. God will be a rock and a fortress to you if you believe Him to be.
All provisions of God do not work automatically. It is when you appropriate them that they work. If you see the Lord as your shepherd, you can believe and He will give you guidance. If you don’t see Him as your shepherd, you’ll not have the guidance.
Now we’ll read of the experience that David had been through. For the waves of death compassed me; The floods of ungodliness made me afraid: The cords of Sheol (hell) were round about me; The snares of death came upon me. In my distress I called upon the Lord; Yea, I called unto my God: And he heard my voice out of his temple, And my cry came into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled, The foundations of heaven quaked And were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; And thick darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; Yea, he was seen upon the wings of the wind. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, Gatherings of waters, thick clouds of the skies. Verses 5–12. This is a beautiful, poetic description of God coming to the rescue.
Then, the very practical description of it in verses 17–20: He sent from on high he took me; can you picture something like a mama cat reaching down and grabbing her kitten by the nape of the neck? He drew me out of many waters; He delivered me from my strong enemy, from them that hated me; for they were too mighty for me. Verses 17, 18. “Just too much for me.” Have you felt that God has done that for you? He has picked you up from enemies that were too mighty for you? He has lifted you up out of many waters?
They came upon me in the day of my calamity; isn’t it true that when you are low physically, mentally, spiritually, in bad circumstances, without money, and a little bit sick, that’s when the devil comes against you? He never tries to hit you when you’re on top, he waits until you’re down. That’s why I’m glad he’s to be put in the abyss, aren’t you? We don’t need that in God’s world.
They came upon me in the day of my calamity; But the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because he delighted in me, Verses 19–20.
This is important—He delivered me because He delighted in me, He put me in a large place. That is what I like. Sometimes we feel we’re tied up in a knot, everything is pressing in—like a medieval torture chamber where the ceiling with big barbs on it comes down an inch at a time. Sometimes you feel life is doing that to you, that all the walls are closing in to squash you, everything will be so hurtful.
The Lord promises what He will do. He will lift you up out of the many waters, away from the hand of the enemy that’s too mighty for you, from the thing that’s too big to fight. He will pick you up and set you in a large place, with room to expand.
One of the keys of God’s dealings with David in this Psalm is in verse 25. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight. David then explains how God deals with us.
With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; With the perfect man thou wilt show thyself perfect; With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; And with the perverse thou wilt show thyself froward. And the afflicted people thou wilt save; But thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down. Verses 26–28.
You will receive from God’s hand according to what is in your spirit. If you’re arrogant and belligerent, God will be froward with you.
If you’re merciful, God will be merciful. If you’re perfect in your spirit before the Lord, He will be perfect in His dealings with you. When God measures you, He uses your own crooked little yardstick on you—the same little ruler with which you’ve been measuring everyone else.
“Oh, look at this sister: she has all these faults.” You’re using a crooked yardstick on her. Then the Lord comes and says, “You’ve been judging her with your little crooked yardstick, now I will use that same yardstick and judge you. That’s the way God deals with us.
If you stand praying, and you don’t have a forgiving spirit, do you know what will happen? But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:15. Do you like that? That’s where you’re stuck, because He is God. He wrote the book, and you will follow His rules. If you serve God and live in His world, you will play the game by His rules. He owns the bat and ball, and if you play, you play His game all the way. So, when He begins to tell you how He will treat you according to your spirit, it’s the truth!
David’s spirit was right before God, so the Lord set him in a large place, and this is what David says of God and what He has done for him. For thou art my lamp, O Lord; And the Lord will lighten my darkness. For by thee I run upon a troop; By my God do I leap over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: The word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield unto all them that take refuge in him. For who is God, save the Lord? And who is a rock, save our God? God is my strong fortress; And he guideth the perfect in his way. He maketh his feet like hind’s feet, like a surefooted deer leaping from rock to rock, And setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war, So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass. Verses 29–35.
The ancients could temper brass and make bows of it like we temper steel. A million dollars is waiting for anyone who can find the process by which they tempered brass. Some of the museums have razors so tempered out of brass that they have retained a cutting edge after being several thousand years in the tombs. Brass has no flexibility; we are not able to temper it. But in David’s time, they could make flexible, tempered bows out of it. David said he could bend one of those bows of brass: So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass. Verse 35.
Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation; And thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; And my feet have not slipped. Verses 36–37.
David shows the process of going through one thing after another—he went through the assaults, he went through the rough opposition of the enemy, an enemy that was too mighty for him, but the Lord lifted him up out of the many waters, put him in a large place and began to deal with him the same way that his spirit was dealing. Because David’s spirit was right, he became an overcomer and a conqueror in every way. That’s exactly what God is trying to do for each one of us, to show us His mercy, to show us His grace.
Verse 38: I have pursued mine enemies and destroyed them. Some of the blood thirsty Psalms are not understood until you come into this walk with God and you realize that His mercy and judgment in the end time is also going to result in another manifestation of judgment that is to come upon the whole earth.
Some of the things that David saw, you may think do not belong in the Christian age at all. But they do belong in the Kingdom. The slain of the Lord will be multitudes (Jeremiah 25:23), for judgment will return to the earth once again in this day. In II Samuel 22:38–49, David speaks of God bringing and visiting judgment once again to the house of God.
The Lord bless this Psalm to our hearts and make our feet as the hind’s feet (like a deer’s feet whose back tracks always track in their front tracks), so we can leap from one place to another, surefooted and never failing, with everything tracking just right, where the conscious and the subconscious are in absolute agreement, and we go on to possess the great things that God has for us.