An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Psalm 18;16-29, “God’s Deliverance,” scheduled for Sunday, July 13, 2025. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO

???DISCUSSION QUESTION??? 

Can anyone share a time when God brought you through something extremely difficult, and you celebrated when He did?

(In 2015, I had been out of ministry for two years with an illness, but the Lord had raised me back up, and called me back to serve as a full-time pastor again. We celebrated because it was like we were “coming out of the wilderness” again in a sense, and I was very thankful to God for it. He’d delivered us out of that two-year time of trial.)

You/your group can share similar times like that, then say something like: In today’s lesson, King David celebrates how God brought him through a difficult time, in this 18th Psalm.

CONTEXT

We’re continuing our study of Psalms this week by looking at the 18th Psalm. It’s one of the longest Psalms, the 4th-longest (behind 78, 89, &119).   One of the best ways of discovering the context of a Psalm is by looking at the introductory notes that are attached to the beginning of many of them. Remember the notes at the beginning of these Psalms ARE a part of the Hebrew text; they aren’t just modern notes that have been added. These notes give us some very good context on the scenario from which this Psalm was written. Not all of the Psalms have them, but Psalm 18 does. It says:

“For the choir director. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, [a]who spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,”

— We see there it is first of all: “For the choir director” — the Hebrew worship leaders, to lead the people in worship. As is true of all the Psalms, these are the words of a worship song, to be sung by the people of God. Remember the word “Psalm” in Hebrew (mizmor) means a song played with instrumental music.

— It is also “A Psalm of David.” King David wrote this Psalm, as he did many, but not all, of the Psalms. (Remember we saw last week that the spoke “in the Spirit,” so the Holy Spirit inspired these Psalms.)

— And he wrote it out of a particular historical situation. Whenever these Psalms specify the historical context, it helps us greatly to understand where the author is coming from particularly as he writes. So here we see that Psalm 18 was written by David “in the day the the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” So in this Psalm, David is looking back on how God saved him from a number of adversaries — and particularly King Saul, who had persecuted David for some time. 

Notably, Psalm 18 is quoted virtually verbatim in II Samuel 22, near the end of David’s life. Like here, it says that it was after the LORD had delivered him from all his enemies, and especially Saul. So the context of its writing appears to be at the end of David’s life, as he was looking back at how God had saved him from all his enemies.

That context reminds me of the third verse of that great hymn, Amazing Grace, which says: “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come.” Similarly, the Lord had brought David through all these “dangers, toils, and snares” involving Saul and others, so he wrote this Psalm of praise, celebrating the many deliverances God has given him.

This week’s focus passage actually begins in :16, of Psalm 18, so we need to look at the first verses of the Psalm to get the context of our passage for today:

— :1-3 are like an opening “song of praise,” beginning in verse 1: “I love You O LORD, my strength.” Then in :2 he calls Him: “Rock, fortress, deliverer, God, Rock …” — all these names — and in :3 he gives the principle: “I call upon the LORD who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” 

— Then with :4 he “switches gears” and it’s like: “Now listen to my story; here’s what happened!”  In :4-5 he shares the problem, “the cords of death encompassed me,” and so on — in other words, his life was threatened. But then in :6 he says I called upon the LORD … He heard my voice.” (:8-15 give a very poetic description of how God arose to save him)

This brings us to :16, and our focus passage for today.

OUTLINE

I. God’s Deliverance (:16-19)

II. God’s Reason (:20-24)

III. God’s Ways (:25-29)

TEXT: Psalm 18:16-29

I. God’s Deliverance (:16-19)

:16 “He sent from on high, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.

17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the LORD was my stay.

19 He brought me forth also into a broad place;
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.”

All four of these verses basically describe the same thing in slightly different ways: the deliverance that God gave David in the difficult situation(s) he had been in. 

— The “waters” of :16 picture someone who is drowning, or being carried away by a flood, and thus could possibly refer to any difficult situation.

— But if you notice, several of these specifically mention PEOPLE who were persecuting/opposing him:

:17a “from my strong ENEMY”

:17b “from THOSE WHO HATED me”

:18 “THEY confronted me”

So most of the difficulty he is referring to is the opposition and persecution of people who were his enemies, like the historical note indicates, specifically including his persecution by Saul.

Saul was his “strong enemy” — he was the king; he commanded the army, and he had the ability to persecuted and kill David, which we see in the Book of I Samuel that he repeatedly attempted to do. Some of the historical situations David could have been referring to may include:

(You might consider getting your class members involved by reading these following sets of verses. They emphasize the repeated nature of David’s troubles, and of God’s repeated deliverances of him:)

— After David killed Goliath, I Samuel 18 tells how Saul became jealous of David, and :11 says he hurled his spear at him — but it says David escaped from him TWICE that way! (We see in 19:10 he did this again) but God delivered him!

— Then I Samuel 18:25 says Saul asked David to kill 100 Philistines, hoping he would die in the battle.

— In I Samuel 19:11 Saul sent messengers to kill David at his house, but he escaped when his wife Michal hid him. David escaped another attempt like this in :20.

— In I Samuel 23 Saul and his army pursued David in the wilderness of Maon but in :27 God sent word of a raid by the Philistines and Saul had to leave, so David was again delivered.

— Then in I Samuel 24 Saul goes after David again in the rocks of wilderness of Engedi, but when David passed up on an opportunity to kill Saul, Saul quit the pursuit and went home.

These are just some of the multiple examples of Saul’s persecution of David, and of God’s repeated deliverance of him, in unlikely situations and against all “odds.” David had truly experienced God’s deliverance!

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

Can anyone share a time when your life was literally threatened, like David’s was in these situations? 

(Perhaps it was health, accident, or threats or attacks or persecution by others?

ILLUSTRATION:

My sister Erin has an amazing testimony of how she was in a plane that was hijacked in China in 1990, and it crash landed at the airport, hit another plane, flipped over, and burst into flames. Almost of the passengers and crew were killed — only 8 survived, including her. She has an amazing testimony of how God led her out of that plane and delivered her in that situation.)

You/your group can you share how God delivered you in your situations — He obviously did since you are here! Psalm 18 should be special to you; your testimony is like David’s testimony: “He drew me out of many waters; He delivered me from my strong enemy.”

And of course there is a GOSPEL APPLICATION for ALL of us here, isn’t there? Whether or not we have one of those “dramatic escape from death” testimonies like my sister, ALL of us as Christians have a testimony of deliverance from sin by the Lord:

— we too were in “many waters” — our sins had put us in trouble over our heads! “I was sinking deep in sin …”

— we too had a “strong enemy” who was trying to “steal, kill, and destroy” us: the devil! 

— But we too were “delivered” by God, as :17 says, when Jesus came to save us, by dying on the cross, paying for our sins. When we repented of our sins and trusted Him as our Lord & Savior, He personally delivered US from death and hell.

+x Colossians 1:13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”

— And like David, God has brought US too into “a large place” — an abundant life now, and eternal life in His presence and glory forever. “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places, indeed my heritage is beautiful to me.” (Psalm 16:6) 

ILLUSTRATION:

In John Ker’s book, The Psalms in History and Biography, he shares how in the 1500-1700s, the established French Catholic church persecuted the French Huguenots (Hyoo-guh-natz; what we would call Protestants today) for their Biblical faith. Thousands of Huguenots were killed. At one point, 4 brothers were brought up the the platform to be beheaded. As they went, they were singing this 18th Psalm. Some might say, But God did not deliver them?! But He did — he saved them out of this life of sin, and the punishment we all deserve, to a glorious eternity with Him forever. 

ALL of us as Christians can claim this deliverance by the Lord in salvation. God has delivered us from the devil, from the enemy who was too strong for us! But you might challenge your members: make sure this really IS your experience and testimony, because you know for sure that Jesus is your Lord & Savior!

II.  God’s Reason (For Deliverance) (:20-24)

:20 “The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 

21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all His ordinances were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.

23 I was also blameless with Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.

24 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.”

If you don’t study these verses carefully, you may come out of Psalm 18 with the wrong idea: as if David (and we) somehow “deserve” the deliverances that God gives us. And it certainly looks that way right off, right? 

NOTICE HOW MANY TIMES HE MENTIONS HIS INNOCENCE in these verses!:

As an EXERCISE for your class, you might either post these verses, or have your group look at their Bibles and call out how many different ways he expresses his innocence.

(These verses are example of the “synonymous parallelism” we’ve mentioned before, which is poetic to the Hebrews. But still look how many times his innocence mentioned: TEN TIMES (twice in each of these 5 verses.) It really seems to be emphasizing David’s innocence. How do we teach/apply this?

To me there are two answers to this:

A. This is referring to DAVID’S INNOCENCE FROM FALSE ACCUSATION.

This is where the CONTEXT the Bible gives us for Psalm 18 really helps. David has been delivered in Psalm 18 from Saul. Remember, Saul had falsely accused David of being treacherous to him, and plotting his death and overthrow. David never did such a thing. In fact, TWICE while Saul was hunting him, David had the opportunity to kill Saul, and he did not take it! (I’m not sure how many people would have passed up that opportunity!) But David did not. He was innocent of Saul’s claim of treachery.

So David’s not saying here, “God rescued me because I am perfectly blameless in every sphere of life.” Rather he’s saying, “I am innocent of this thing in which I have been falsely accused”! There is a big difference! 

Otherwise, if God’s salvation and help were only given to those whose life was totally blameless, who could ever justly claim God’s deliverance?

— +x Proverbs 20:9 “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin”?” No one, right, because we have ALL sinned, as Romans 3:23 and many other passages make extremely clear.

— +x Psalm 130:3, “If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD who could stand?” This is so true: If God only helped people with perfect lives, who would He ever help? “There is none righteous, not even one”! 

You might take the class through the 5 verses of :20-24, and ask, “Could anyone here claim these verses as your own:

Can anyone here say like :20: “The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness”?
Can anyone here say: “According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me”?

Can anyone here say like :21 “For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God.”

And so on through all these verses? 

The answer is, we CAN’T! NONE of us could claim that.

So make sure you clarify this point: Psalm 18 is NOT teaching that God only helps us if we have perfect lives. David himself could not claim these verses regarding the totality of his life — we know he had his faults. And none of us can claim them for our whole lives either.  If God only helped those whose hands were totally clean, NONE of us would ever experience help! So applying it to the historical context, of the false charges by Saul, is one possibility.

B. These verses are pointing us to THE ULTIMATE DAVID: JESUS CHRIST.

This is another “angle” on this teaching. Last time, in Psalm 132, saw that Christ was the “Ultimate David” and this may be what this passage is ultimately referring to. No, David did not have “clean hands” — and neither do we. But there is ONE who did:

He who “was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15). 

There is ONE who had clean hands. There is ONE who had a pure heart. There is ONE who can answer “Yes” to all these things in 20-24

— JESUS can say “The LORD has rewarded Me according to My righteousness.”

— JESUS can say, “According to the cleanness of My hands He has recompensed Me.”

— JESUS can say, “I have kept the ways of the LORD.”

— JESUS can say, “I have not wickedly departed from My God.”

And so throughout all of these 5 verses/10 applications. JESUS has perfectly kept God ways; that is why HE is our ultimate, and only source of salvation. If our salvation and deliverance depended upon OUR goodness, we’d be in a lot of trouble, wouldn’t we? NONE of us deserve it!  But we can call to God in JESUS’ name, and He will save us, not for our own sake, or our own righteousness, but because of HIS. 

As John Calvin wrote, much in this Psalm “agrees better with Christ” than with David! And I believe that is exactly so. Psalm 18 points us to the Ultimate David, the Messianic Son of David, Jesus Christ.

So these verses not only defend David against false accusations brought by Saul and others, they also point us all to Jesus, the Perfect, Ultimate David, and our only hope and righteousness, when we put our faith and trust in Him!

Here’s a good application here for all your class members:

You might ask them: ??? Have you ever felt unworthy to ask God to help you in a certain situation, because you ‘hadn’t been good enough’? We all probably have! We’d like God to help us, but we know we’ve been sinful in one way or another and don’t “deserve it.” But this reminds us that our prayers are not heard by God because WE are so righteous, but because JESUS is! So encourage them to go ahead and seek God for that request — just make sure you making it through Christ. (And that is truly what it means to pray “in Jesus’ name” — it’s based on HIM, not YOU!)

III. God’s Ways  (:25-29)

25 With the kind You show Yourself kind;
With the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

26 With the pure You show Yourself pure,
And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.

27 For You save an afflicted people,
But haughty eyes You abase.

28 For You light my lamp;
The LORD my God illumines my darkness.

29 For by You I can run upon a troop;
And by my God I can leap over a wall.”

In this next section, David writes about the ways of the Lord as He deals with His people. We see that unfold over these next verses:

— In :25-26, he basically says that God responds to us appropriately: If we’re kind, He’ll be kind, etc., but if we are “crooked,” He will be “astute” (NASB) We may need a little help here:

— the word “crooked” is the Hebrew “iqqesh,” which means “twisted, perverted, crooked.” It’s used in Deuteronomy 32:5, where it says that Israel was “a crooked and perverse generation.”

— So with those kinds of people, David says, God will be “astute.” This is the Hebrew word “pathal,” which literally means “to twist.” But we know there is nothing “twisted” morally in the Lord. He is absolutely pure and good, like Proverbs 8:8 says of His wisdom, “there is nothing crooked or perverted in them.” But the word can also mean “to wrestle,” like it does in Genesis 30:8, where Rachel talks about wrestling with her sister Leah. 

So I think the best meaning here is something like: with those who are crooked or perverted, God “twist” them — He will “wrestle” with them in response to their wickedness. (This reminds me of how James 4:6 and I Peter 5:5 (quoting Prov. 3:34) says “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” 

And this is basically what the next verse says, right? 

:27 “For You save an afflicted people, but haughty eyes You abase.” If we are afflicted and humble, and turn to the Lord, God will deliver us, like He does David here in Psalm 18. But if we respond with haughtiness and pride, He will humble us. 

Then he closes this section in :28-29 by declaring how God gives him help and strength in his trials:

“28 “For You light my lamp; the LORD my God illumines my darkness.

29 For by You I can run upon a troop; And by my God I can leap over a wall.”

He emphasizes here how God HELPS him:

— :28 in his “darkness,” God illumines — gives light!

— :29 when troops and walls are before him, opposing him, he says “By You I can run upon a troop; and by my God I can leap over a wall.” 

In other words, God helps me overcome my enemies, and every obstacle in my life. To me this is like an Old Testament version of “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”!

BUT NOTICE who this help is for: NOTICE the personal relationship here, which is so vital in our dealings with God:

— He uses the name “LORD,” which we know when we see that word “LORD” in all caps, it means that in the Hebrew text this is not the typical word for “lord,” “Adonai,” but rather it is YHWH/“Yahweh,” the personal name of God that He gave Moses when he asked Him what His name was. So it is not just “any” God David is talking about, but THIS God, YHWH God, the God of the Bible, the God and Father of Jesus, who has given us His name.

— AND notice importantly, that David also calls Yahweh, “MY GOD” — and He does it TWICE in these two verses: “YHWH MY GOD illumines my darkness … and by MY GOD I can leap over a wall.” 

So it’s all about the personal relationship with God, to David. God delivers him because he belongs to Him; he has this personal relationship with Him.

WE need to make sure this is true for us as well. Emphasize this to your class Sunday: you must make sure that you have a personal relationship with God — and as we know now, Yahweh God has revealed Himself ultimately now through Jesus (who called Himself “I AM” — YHWH GOD!). We must humble ourselves like David talks about in this passage, and admit that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards for us, and trust Jesus’ death on the cross to forgive our sins and commit our lives back to Him as our Lord & our God. When we do that, then we establish our own personal relationship with God, and He will deliver us from sin, and also walk with us through every crisis of our life, just like He did with David here in Psalm 18.

The application of Psalm 18 is that we today can experience God as our own Rock, and Deliverer, just like David did. Many of God’s people can testify to that.

ILLUSTRATION: 

“December 13, 1996 – I will never forget being alone when I received an important phone call. A biopsy showed I had cancer. WOW! I opened my Bible for the Lord to speak to me. I turned to these words (Psalm 18:32-33): “For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.” Truly, He is the Lord. Truly, He arms us with strength. Truly, He makes our way secure, blameless, perfect, complete.”  (Karen King YouTube video comment, 5/27/25) 

Karen wrote those words just a couple of weeks ago — almost 30 years after the shocking news of that biopsy! She is still serving the Lord alongside her husband in an amazing ministry to Chinese students at the University of Oklahoma, where they have seen a number saved and discipled. Truly God has been Karen’s “Rock,” and has delivered her, just like Psalm 18 says. 

And God can and will be OUR Rock, too. He has especially given us deliverance in the single most important area of our lives: our salvation, when He forgave our sins, and saved us forever through Jesus! But this same God will also give us help, strength, and deliverance in every area of our lives, as we walk with Him, and make Him our Lord, our Rock, our strength, and our greatest love, just like David models for us here in Psalm 18.

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