Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Trinity, 2020

Trinity VII

God is my Deliverer

This is no permanent safety for us this side of Heaven. In fact, we have enemies. Christians who live in some other parts of the world face literal enemies - those who seek to take their lives simply because they are Christians. Here we have all kinds of threats and dangers - illness, accident, or being the victim of a crime. There are also the many enemies within - pride, self-will, and the areas of our lives not completely surrendered to God. 

In Scripture, God is seen as delivering us from our enemies, and this is the theme of the Psalm appointed for today’s Morning Prayer. If you like, you can turn again to Psalm 18 on page 359 of the Prayer Book. 

As we look at this Psalm together, we should first clear up a possible source of confusion. 

You are already familiar with the Daily Offices Lectionary, which is located at the beginning of the Prayer Book. It provides a schedule for daily Scripture reading, which always includes at least one Psalm. According to this schedule, we prayed the first 20 verses of Psalm 18 for Morning Prayer. But you’ll notice the words “Evening Prayer” printed right above this Psalm. The Prayer Book also provides a plan for the entire Psalter to be read in 30 days. At the very top of this page you see “Day 3.” Psalm 18, therefore, is one of the Psalms to be read for Evening Prayer on Day 3 of this 30-day cycle. The Prayer Book is one of the greatest aids to devotion in the English language. You can consider reading the Psalter in 30 days according to this plan during the seasons of Advent or Lent, but you don’t need to wait until then.

Seventy-three of the Psalms are attributed to David. His authorship of this Psalm is beyond doubt, since the text is identical to 2 Samuel chapter 22 which begins, “And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies.”

The first 20 verses of Psalm 18 can be divided into 3 sections. Verses 1 - 7: The occasions of God’s deliverance. Verses 8 - 17: The power of God’s deliverance. And verses 18 -20: The reason for His deliverance.

First, in verses 1-7, we see the occasions of God’s deliverance - what He delivers us from. Verse 3: “I will call upon the Lord, which is worthy to be praised; so shall I be safe from mine enemies.” David had many enemies: Goliath and the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Syrians, and even his own son, Absalom. He fought battles that could have been lost. These enemies threatened his very life. Verses 4 and 5: “The sorrows of death compassed me; the snares of death overtook me.” David is pursued by death itself.  

Christians are sometimes accused of being naïve. We’re out of touch with the real world.  We see things through rose-colored glasses. This isn’t true, of course. The most well-known Christian prayer of all time contains the word’s “Deliver us from evil.” We live in a fallen world.  We don’t need to be pursued by enemies on a battlefield to know this world is not what it was supposed to be. In the Litany beginning on page 54 of the Prayer Book we recount nearly 40 life events or circumstances. There are enemies without – earthquake, fire, and flood. There is murder and sudden death. There are spiritual enemies of false doctrine and heresy. There are enemies within – hypocrisy and uncharitableness. And in response to all of these and more we pray, “Good Lord, deliver us.”  

Verses 6 and 7 serve as a bridge to the next section. “In my trouble I called upon the Lord.” “I complained (that is, I “cried”) unto my God.” When his enemies threaten, David prays. In less than thirty years, David had succeeded in transforming a small kingdom in the central highlands of Judea into a major empire stretching from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River. He was a courageous and skilled military leader. But even he recognized that he could not rely on his own strength or advantages: “The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.”  David prayed for deliverance, and we do, too. In the Collect for the Third Sunday after Trinity, we pray that God would defend and comfort us in all our dangers and adversities.  

Section 2 begins at verse 8: The power of God’s deliverance. You’ll notice that the editor has done us a favor by adding a space, indicating the beginning of a new unit of thought. This section describes God’s response to prayer. To fully appreciate the impact of this passage, we should mention the major literary feature of the Psalms - they are poems. They contain all the elements of good poetry - metaphor, personification, and rich imagery. A statement of mere prose, “God delivered me from my enemies” will not suffice. Instead, poetry is needed to convey the power and goodness of God’s deliverance. We see that the very world changes with God’s impending rescue of David. Verse 8: The earth trembles and the hills quake. Verse 14: The Lord thunders out of Heaven and a consuming fire comes out of His mouth. Hailstones and coals of fire scatter David’s enemies. In answer to a prayer for deliverance, God comes flying upon the wings of the wind. No army on earth, and not even death, can withstand God’s delivering power. 

There is much that can threaten and overpower us. We’re not in as much control as we think we are. In today’s Collect, though, we prayed to the Lord of all power and might who is the author and giver of all good things.  God’s power in delivering us is almighty, and His goodness to us all encompassing.   

The third and final section is verses 18-20: The reason or the cause for God’s deliverance. 

David prayed and was saved from enemies too powerful for him. He is now brought in to a place of liberty - that is, a place of freedom and safety. Why did God do this? David could have argued that God delivered him because he was a better king than Saul, or that that the survival of the kingdom depended on the defeat of his enemies, but that is not what we find. The second part of verse 20: “He brought me forth, even because he had a favour unto me.” We call this grace. But this is not grace as a theological concept. Notice how personal God’s favor is for David.  Verse 17: “He sent down from on high to fetch me, and took me out of many waters.” Verse 18: “He delivered me from my strongest enemy.”  

If we are spared any of the hardships, sufferings, and disappointments that others’ must endure, it is solely due to God’s grace. Israel’s greatest king knew this. In spite of all his abilities, he was delivered because God “had a favour unto me.” God, rich in mercy, always delivers us through His grace, out of the great love with which he has loved us.    

But what do we do when He doesn’t deliver us?  Some mistakes can’t be undone. Some setbacks we never recover from. Chronic conditions have no cure. And what about the deaths and disruptions of this year? 

A woman living in Moab had lost her husband and both sons. Because of a famine, she decided to return to her homeland in Judea. She had formed a close relationship with one of her daughters-in-law, who decided to move with her. Upon her return, her friends joyfully welcomed her by name. “Don’t call me that anymore – instead call me Mara,” which means “bitter.” She had lost everything. She had not been delivered. Her daughter-in-law, Ruth, however, met and married a man name Boaz. Fourteen hundred years later, these words were recorded as part of a genealogy - “Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.”  Ruth is included in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah. And God “hath raised up a might salvation for us, in the house of his servant David.” 

Naomi wasn’t delivered. She would never get her family back. But were it not for the loving relationship between the two women, Ruth, a Gentile living in Moab, would have had no reason to move to Bethlehem. Naomi’s bitterness and loss were the occasion of her return to Judea. Ruth followed her, and from that God brought about a greater deliverance than either of them could have imaged. Naomi’s daughter-in-law became an ancestor of the Messiah. Do you think she would have traded that for anything? 

We should pray the Psalms, and the 18th Psalm is a great Psalm of Deliverance. When we pray it, and the many other Psalms like it, we face up to the presence of our enemies and adversities, those within and without. We are called to seek God for help. We are reminded that God’s deliverance is always effective because He is all-powerful. And He delivers because He is merciful and gracious. He is a mighty fortress. 

All things work together for good for those who love Him. God always delivers us - if not in this life then certainly in the next. But even here, when deliverance does not come and He says, “Not yet, my child” it may be because He is withholding the personal deliverance we seek so that we can be His instruments in a greater deliverance for someone else.