Psalm 18:3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Can one person be many people all at the same time? Maybe not all at the same time, but yes, one persona can be a variety of people in the sense that they have different roles. Through my life I have been a son, a student, a husband, and a father. So, I am one person, but I have many different roles.
David was a man who had been a son, a shepherd, a servant to the king, then a king himself. Also, before he became king, he was a man who was hunted like a wild animal by a jealous Saul. So, David had many different positions in his life, yet the God he served and trusted and to whom he prayed was one God all the time. He was a consistent God. Now this God likewise plays many roles, but He is a God Who is unchanging.
In Psalm 18 David is basically praising God after his enemies had been defeated. He had been delivered from the hand of Saul. The psalm begins by saying, “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.” In verse 3 he says, “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.”
What you find in the verses that follow is David remembering Who God is and what that means in regards to who David was. Prayer connects all that I am to all that God is. In verses 1 and 2 you find a connection between the personal and the public. In verses 1-2 David says that God is my strength, my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. He mentions all the things that God was, not just generically, but all the things that God was to him personally.
In the last verse of this psalm David says, “Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.” So, David personally claimed God because God was his God, and in the last verse we are reminded that a lot of this work was done in the context that David publically was a king. He was anointed to be king and his son who followed him would be king.
So, this psalm was a connection between the personal and the public. You see a connection between verse 6 where David says, “I called,” and later in the same verse where it says, “he heard.” It is a connection between David calling and God answering.
There’s a connection between the God that David took as his own and the David that God owned. Again in verses 1-2 David says, “This is my God, my strength, my buckler, my salvation, my high tower.” In the last verse of the psalm David emphasizes that God will gives deliverance to “his king.” So, David claimed God and God owned David.
There is a connection here between who David trusted and what David did. In verse 6 David says, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice.” What a wonderful point! Then, in verses 25 and following David mentions the many enemies over whom he had had victory. David was a warrior. Who gave victory, God or David? The answer is that David did a lot of fighting. He had to. He was a king who lived in a treacherous time. But, ultimately he realizes that all of his victories came from the hand of God. Prayer connects that. Prayer connects the “I called” to “he heard.” I claim God and He owns me. Prayer connects my personal life and my public life. I trust God and I take action.
There is a connection between what David gave and what David was given. In verse 20 David said, “The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness.” David is not claiming sinless perfection. He was no more sinless than we are. David is talking about the fact that he had a heart for God and that is what he gave. What was he given? In verses 25 and following David basically says, “With the merciful, God shows Himself merciful; with the upright, God shows Himself upright; and with the pure, God shows Himself pure. With the crooked and froward, God will give back the same. This will save afflicted people, and will bring down pride.” When I give God humility, God gives deliverance. When I give God pride, God puts that back in my face.
Prayer is a vital thing to a lively life. It is so crucial. It connects the personal and the public, our trust and our action, what we give and what we are given, who we call and what He hears, the God we claim and the God Who owns us. In short, prayer connects all that you are to all that God is.