Psalm 18:37-50
The
interplay of our will and God’s will, our actions and God’s actions often
puzzles us in our lives. How do my actions interface with the sovereignty of
God? If He is really in charge of every detail, do my choices really matter? Am
I just a robot in His diorama?
David
has been in the fight of his life. He didn’t know if he was going to survive
from one moment to the next. He had fantastic trust in the LORD, but he was
still in physical danger. The self-protection instincts which were created by
the LORD were bumping up against his trust in the LORD for protection. His
biology seemed at war with his faith. His brain kept putting his body in
fight-flight mode, even while he would be praying and trusting.
We
hear this ping pong of David and the LORD in the next few verses of this psalm.
We hear David say what he did, and then almost without skipping a beat he talks
about what the LORD did. Back and forth, weaving a story of redemption and salvation.
The LORD works with our will when our will is lined up with His. He uses our
actions as part of His plan when we yield our actions to His direction. When we
do what He wants, we are doing the work of the Creator of the Universe.
The
first two verses tell of David’s pursuit and defeat of an enemy. He crushed
them. He destroyed them to the point that they couldn’t rise. And then David
writes that it was the LORD who provided the strength that was needed in those
moments to sustain the battle. It was the LORD who worked on the hearts of the
enemy which caused them to lose the will to fight. They became afraid of David,
even though he was often greatly outnumbered by his enemies. And David
recognized and acknowledged the LORD’s hand. It wasn’t David, it was the LORD
who did these things.
David
had prayed and the LORD had heard his prayers. The LORD made them flee and
David was able to destroy them. Do you hear the interconnectedness of the LORD’s
work and David’s? And even David’s work would not happen if the LORD wasn’t
giving him the strength. Another way to say this is that it was all the LORD’s
work.
As
a result of this way of doing battle, the LORD working on the enemy and in and
through David, the local nations became fearful of David as a king. There was
something more to this than just a man who knew battle strategies. It was more
than the strength and resolve of his forces. Something they couldn’t explain
would happen in battles and David would end up victorious. And it scared them!
For
David there was a clear explanation that drove him to worship. His God was
alive. His God was active in the affairs of humanity. He showed up for His
team.
Do
you see the connections in your life? Do you give the LORD space to work as
David did? Do you give Him credit, or do you seek the limelight?