Psalm 18
May 4, 2025 Father in heaven, thank you for King David’s trust in you and the trustworthiness
You showed him. Thank you for the victory you gave him and, through him, the victory you
gave to your people Israel. Thank you for defeating your enemies and giving peace to
your people through your king—a king of integrity, trust, and praise.
We see in this psalm a foreshadowing of great David’s greater Son, your ultimate
anointed King, the Messiah, Jesus. Thank you for his integrity, his faithfulness to his
mission, his battling the devil and sin and the world and death. Thank you for the
victory you gave him—a dramatic victory, a decisive victory, a victory for which our
praises continue to rise to you to this day.
Yet it was not a victory from death, as with David. It was a victory after death. It was a
victory through death. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for humbling yourself and becoming
obedient to death, even death on a cross. Your death atoned for our sins, your death
removed the devil’s ultimate power, your death upended the world’s way of thinking and
living, and your resurrection sealed and proved and vindicated your multi-faceted
victory, overturning death itself. Thank you for being faithful to the very end, trusting
your Father to raise you from the dead. What a victory you gave us!
May our praise of you be ever fresh and vigorous. May our trust in you be congruent
with the victory you’ve won. Even today and in the week to come may we follow in
David’s footsteps and embrace you as our strength and rock and fortress and deliverer
and refuge and shield and horn and stronghold. O Lord, in light of you who are and the
victory you’ve won for us, should we not be courageous instead of fearful? At peace
instead of anxious? Content instead of whiny? Hope-filled instead of despairing?
Generous instead of stingy? Sharing this blessing with others instead of hording it? We
so often live inconsistently with your victory and your trustworthiness. Forgive these
sins of ours and keep working transformatively in our lives—even through the good
news of this psalm.
Father, the integrity of David the king and King Jesus, the Son of David, stands in
contrast to the evil of many earthly kings and rulers down through the ages. We are
learning in the book of Daniel on Sunday mornings about evil rulers who pose a serious
threat to those who trust in you and live by your Word.
We pray this morning for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world who are
presently living under oppressive rulers who make them suffer for their faith in Jesus.
Give encouragement; sustain and renew faith; provide for basic needs; comfort broken
hearts; heal broken bodies; may these brothers and sisters be faithful and fruitful to the
end. Thank you for their love for you and their loyalty to you above earthly powers.
We think about the future, Lord, and the world in which the younger generation is
growing up. We wonder if and how Phoebe and Winston and Brooks and the other
nursery children and the Explorers and the pre-teens and teens in the Edge ministry
may face serious and consequential hostility from rulers wielding worldly power. Father,
prepare them for the future. Help us in preparing them for the future. Prepare us for the
future. Use the book of Daniel in this and other ways to confront our thinking, adjust our
living, deepen our trusting, and fortify our enduring.
As for the present, in keeping with what you’ve told us in Scripture, we pray for the
current authorities you’ve placed over us. Our president and his cabinet and advisors;
our congressional representatives; our judicial leaders from the Supreme Court on
down; our governor and state legislature; our local mayors and councils—all these
leaders we lift up to you in prayer today. Grant your wisdom and perspective. Lead in
good decisions. Provide for justice and mercy. Help the vulnerable. May your will be
done. May your church announce good news about a greater King ever more widely,
attractively, and fruitfully.
We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, and all God’s people said, “Amen!”