VICTORY PSALM OF THANKSGIVING
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.
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
Scripture from N.K.J.V.; K.J.V.; and T.P.T.