Mensa Otabil - God's Deliverance
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We are looking at Psalm 18. David talks about his relationship with God and why he believes God is such an awesome person for him. From verses 13 and 14, we read, «The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice: hailstones and coals of fire.» He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe; lightnings in abundance, He vanquished them. There’s a lot of dramatic language here, and we are not taking it literally because they are figures of speech that David uses to describe God’s deliverance. As we encounter the way God delivered David, we can apply it to ourselves; we can trust God in the same way and see Him do wonderful things for us.
David talks about two things. One, he says the Lord thundered from heaven. What did he mean by the Lord thundered from heaven? Well, he explained: he said He uttered His voice. In other words, God spoke, but His voice was like thunder from heaven; it was like hailstones and coals of fire. So basically, what David is saying is that when I cried to the Lord, He came to my aid swiftly, and He spoke. Probably God said, «Leave him alone» or «Set him free,» or something to that effect. So when God spoke and decreed His word, His word was like thunder because God delivers by His word. When you read the Bible, you see that most things that God does, He does by speaking them.
So David is saying God thundered from heaven; He spoke from heaven, and when He spoke, it was like coals of fire; it was like hailstones. This means all of nature responded to the word of God, and God was now acting on my behalf, deploying everything in nature to come to my aid and rescue me. Then he says not only did God thunder from heaven, but He sent His arrows. Well, God doesn’t physically use arrows, so he says God spoke; God delivered His word, and His arrows were like lightning, and they came and scattered the enemy. So that’s basically what David is saying: God came to my aid; it was a supernatural act. It was thunderous; it was miraculous. All of a sudden, the enemy that had gathered around me started scattering-they ran in all directions-and that’s how he was delivered from this attack that came on him. It wasn’t of his own making, but God scattered the enemy.
I can imagine David in a battle where he has probably been surrounded; he’s in a rocky place, there’s no way of retreat, and there’s no place to run to. Suddenly, death seems real, as if he’s going to be killed. Then, all of a sudden, the enemy is gone; they stop pursuing him; they’ve run in different directions, and he’s wondering what happened. David says they heard the thunder of God, and he says they felt the arrow of God, and God scattered them. He is telling us how he perceives that God drove the enemy away. We can always see that in our own story; many times, we’ll be surrounded, and we can’t tell how we’re going to come out. Then the attack that seems so real and inescapable fizzles, and the problem is gone. It’s just gone, and you wonder where it went. God thundered from heaven; God sent His arrows, and God scattered the enemy.
May the Lord God whom we worship do the same for you. May He thunder from heaven and may He scatter every enemy that has come against you, in Jesus' name. Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, You are my deliverer. Arise on my behalf and scatter the works of the enemy, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.»