Even though he had already been anointed by the prophet Samuel as the new king of Israel, David lived on the run, his life constantly in danger from Saul and his men. Even so, David refused to harm Saul. Instead, he patiently and prayerfully waited for God to deliver him from death and raise him to the promised throne. If you were king David, how would you pray when you learned of Saul’s death? The men who used to seek your life would do so no longer. You would now know God's blessing, his delight, and his victory. How would you process your sudden salvation?
Psalm 18 is a lengthy prayer of David when the Lord finally gave him victory over King Saul and all his other enemies (we will return to Psalm 17 next week). In it, David credits his salvation to the God who delights to purify, uphold, and show mercy to the humble, even as he opposes the crooked and prideful – a simple enough biblical truth. Yet between David’s references to the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan, and the use of this Psalm by both the prophet Jonah and the Apostle Paul, this psalm reverberates throughout the Scriptures as a radical and misunderstood manifesto of the principles and extent of salvation: God saves and purifies the humble, no matter how far from his grace they seem. What wonderful news for any of us who can admit we desperately need a God who rescues!