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VICTORY PSALM OF
THANKSGIVING
Sunday, November
22, 2020, the Year of Our Lord
2 Samuel 22: 1-51;
Psalm 18: 1-50)
Pastor Carolyn
Sissom
This song looks onward and backward, to victories God has
already given to His people, and to victories yet to come. The Psalm is prophetic and looks beyond the
sufferings and triumphs of David to David’s greater Son and Lord, Jesus Christ,
as well as Christ’s church.
I am declaring and releasing the blessing of this Psalm
over this assembly, our families, our nation, our President, and the remnant
universal.
Psalm 18: 50b (T.P.T.)…The favor will be forever
seen upon your loving servant, David, and to all my true seed, every heir of
this promise!
Psalm 18:50 (K.J.V.): He gives great
deliverance to his king; and shows mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his
seed for evermore.
2 Samuel 22:51: (K.J.V.) He is the tower of salvation for his king:
and shows mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.
Psalm 18:1: A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song
on the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
And he said:
I will love You, O LORD, my strength.
David is here called the servant of the Lord, as Moses was. David declares his love to His Lord. Let us use the word, “love” more when we
worship and when we interact with friends and family.
This Psalm is a perfect pattern of praise, thanksgiving, and
a great revelation of the method, might, and mercy of God as he revealed
himself to David:
Psa. 18:2: The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for extra
ordinary destinies” (C.S. Lewis).
The song if placed in narrative in 2 Samuel at the end of
David’s life. Although commentaries do
not know the date for certain when David wrote the song.
We are coming to the end of year 2020. It will be a year for the history books! We had Nancy Pelosi’s fake impeachment, following
the now infamous fake Mueller-Russia investigation. Immediately thereafter, came the pandemic,
protests, riots, cities burning, policemen forced to stand down, political
upheaval, 30 named storms, and then a contested election due to fraud. A spirit of fear and troubling uncertainty was
released as a dark cloud of oppression over our nation. Some struggle with isolation, others with
health, loss of work, and many families are at the brink with stress and fear.
But “we the church” have these great promises that no
matter what we go through our God will deliver us into a better place. The favor will be forever
seen upon all your true seed, every heir of this promise!
“There are far better days ahead than any we leave behind”
(C. S. Lewis).
The king’s battle with his enemies is seen as a struggle
with the powers of death and chaos. They
are like an overwhelming sea. They are
compared to hunters lying in wait with nets and traps.
Psa.
18:6:( K.J.V.) In my
distress I called upon the LORD…
David was hemmed in by trouble. Deliverance means to be set at liberty and unrestricted. Deliverance calls for thanksgiving.
In verse 4, the floods of
ungodly men translate to floods of Belial. Again, we see the Lord show His might and Power
in a storm in rebuke of the storm god, Belial.
He did this for Elijah when fire fell from heaven on the altar of
Baal.
The Lord God went to war for David using the weapons of
his warfare in a mighty storm. Verses 7-15 picture the divine intervention of
God in terms of a storm theophany (visitation and manifestation of God). David had many divine visitations of the Lord
and open visions.
Psa. 18: 9-15: T.P.T.: I cried out to you in my distress, the
delivering God, and from your temple-throne you heard my troubled cry. My sobs came right into your heart and you
turned your face to rescue me…You stretched heaven’s curtain open and came to my
defense. Swiftly you rode to earth as
the stormy sky was lowered. You rode a
chariot of thunderclouds amidst thick darkness, a cherub, your steed, as you
swooped down soaring on the wings of spirit-wind. Wrapped and hidden in the thick-cloud darkness,
your thunder-tabernacle surrounded you.
You hid yourself in mystery-darkness; the dense rain clouds were your garments. Suddenly the brilliance of your presence
broke through with lightning bolts and with a mighty storm from heaven---like a
tempest dropping coals of fire. The Lord
thundered, the great God above every god spoke with his thunder-voice from the
skies. What fearsome hailstones and flashes
of fire were before him! He released his
lightning-arrows, and routed my foes.
See how they ran and scattered in fear! Then with your mighty roar, you laid bare the
foundations of the earth, uncovering the secret source of the sea. The hidden depths of land and sea were exposed
by the hurricane-blast of your hot-breath.
In King James, verse 18 read: He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark
waters and thick clouds of the skies.
I make note of that because I was
taken by the spirit to the pavilion of darkness in a vision the LORD gave me
many years ago.
I have no hesitancy to believe that
David had this vision of the glory of God in a mighty storm. “David was found a
praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God” (Matthew
Henry).
O’ Lord God, we ask you to move again for our nation to
save us. You have delivered us in the
past. Please forgive our nation and our
sins and deliver us again. We cry out to you for the forever blessing given to the
remnant in this Psalm.
Verses 16-19 tell of the resulting deliverance of this
visitation of the LORD:
“He then reached down from heaven, all the way from
the sky to the sea. He reached down into
my darkness to rescue me! He took me out
of my calamity and chaos and drew me to himself, taking me from the depths of
my despair. Even though I was helpless
in the hands of my hateful strong enemy, you were good to deliver me. When I was at my weakest, my enemies attacked,
but the Lord held on to me. His love
broke open the way and he brought me into a beautiful broad place. He rescued me---because his delight is in me!”
How many Christians really believe that God’s delight is
in you? I prayed and asked the Lord that
every person attending today, those who will read this message, and those who
will hear it on the internet, that He would release to you an absolute knowing
that His delight is in you. Do I really
believe that God delights in me not for my merit, but for his own grace, love
and goodwill?
Have I apprehended and laid hold of: The favor that will be forever
seen upon all your true seed, every heir of this promise!
“God will not only deliver his people out of their
troubles in due time, but he will sustain us and bear us up under troubles in
the meantime” (Matthew Henry).
These verses are prophecy applying to Jesus Christ: The sorrow of death surrounded him. In his distress he prayed for himself and for
us. God made the earth to shake and tremble,
and the rocks to cleave. God brought him
out in his resurrection into a large place, because he delighted in him.
“The sorrows of hell and the snares of death are part of
the dealings that come upon a son of God” (Heb. 12: 5-11 – Kelly Varner).
Verses 20-30. David sees his deliverance as an act of
vindication: evidence that Yahweh always deals righteously and faithfully with
those who trust and obey Him. David praises
the faithfulness of God in keeping his covenant promises.
Only Jesus Christ fulfilled the next verses, but because
He did fulfill the righteousness of God on earth as it is in heaven, you and I
can walk in the victory.
Psalm 18: 20-29: The
LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands
He has recompensed me. For I have kept
the ways of the LORD,
And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before
me. I did not put away His statutes from
me.
I was
also blameless before Him. I kept myself
from my iniquity.
Therefore.
the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
With
the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; with the pure You will
show Yourself pure; with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. For You will save the humble people but will
bring down haughty looks.
For
You will light my lamp; the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, by
my God I can leap over a wall.
Friday,
I prayed at prayer net: “We the church carry the battle to the gates of the
enemy. We declare the walls of the
kingdom of darkness in this election process will collapse like a pack of
cards.”
In
verses 26-27, there are four kinds of hearts:
1.
Merciful
2.
Blameless
3.
Pure
4.
Devious
18:30:
(T.P.T.) What a God you are! Your path
for me has been perfect! All your
promises have proven true. What a secure
shelter for all those who turn to hide themselves in you. You are the wrap-around God giving grace to
me.
Church
this thanksgiving and during the Christmas season, wrap yourself in the grace
of God and allow Him to delight in you.
I pray God wrap this nation in the grace of God. The news media has much to say about Donald
J. Trump’s path to victory. Well, it is
the same path for Biden. God’s path is
perfect and we claim God’s path for this nation. God’s path is perfect.
The second part of the Psalm consists of a celebration of
the triumphant career of an anointed king who has the backing of Yahweh. It is the victory of Jesus Christ and His
anointed. I will declare it over Donald
J. Trump, over this nation, over this assembly, over our families, and over the
remnant universal.
18: 31-45: For who is God, except
the LORD? Who is a rock, except our God?
It is
God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and
sets me on my high places. He teaches my
hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your
salvation; Your right hand has held me up.
Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me, so my
feet did not slip. I have pursued my
enemies and overtaken them;
Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed. I have wounded them, so that they could not
rise. They have fallen under my feet. For
You have armed me with strength for the battle.
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. You have also given me the necks of my
enemies, so that I destroyed those who hated me. They cried out, but there was
none to save; Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them. Then I beat them as fine as the dust before
the wind; I cast them out like dirt in the streets. You have delivered me from the strivings of
the people. You have made me the head of
the nations. A people I have not known
shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me,
they obey me. The foreigners submit to me.
The foreigners fade away, and come frightened from their hideouts.
We have been set in the heavenlies
by Christ Jesus. We are to flow from the
throne of God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God’s way is perfect. Our hands can war in
praise breaking through the stubbornest resistance.
Verses 46-50 breaks forth in high
Praises and declares a blessing over the House of David, his seed, Jesus
Christ, and the Church of Jesus Christ forever more:
The almighty is alive and conquers
all! Praise is lifted high to the
unshakable God! Towering over all, my
Savior-God is worthy to be praised! Look
how he pays back harm to all who harm me, subduing all the people who come
against me. He rescues me from my
enemies; he lifts me up high and keeps me out of reach, far from the grasp of
my violent foe. This is why I thank God
with high praises! I will sing my song
to the Highest God, so all among the nations will hear me. You have appointed me king and rescued me
time and time again with your magnificent miracles. You have been merciful and kind to me, your
anointed one. The
favor will be forever seen upon your loving servant, David, and to all my true
seed, every heir of this promise! (T.P.T.)
Church receive this blessing as you
minister to your family this thanksgiving.
Release this blessing over your family, friends and our nation.
Pastor Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
www.eastgateministries.com
Scripture from N.K.J.V.; K.J.V.; and
T.P.T.
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