When David wrote Psalm 18, he captured in poetic form many of his life experiences. As he thought about the past, he recalled the many ways and times that God had reached down to rescue him, to save him. He gave credit to the LORD for his victories and for his success. He knew that it was his God who had given him strength when he needed it. He acknowledged that it was JEHOVAH who had listened and heard his cry for help. When he was overwhelmed, he knew that THE ONE who controlled the heavens and the earth would reach down and take hold of him, protecting and surrounding him with His arms and lifting him up with His right hand – verse 35.
What David did not know is that The Anointed One, who would be his descendent (verse 50), would sing the song which he wrote with even more intensity, as He faced his enemies and eventually was crucified. No doubt David knew that the Messiah would come someday and save His people, but little did he realize that it would not be as a political king who would immediately set up a secure kingdom for the nation of Israel. Rather God would send His Son, the Christ, to live among mankind and then to become the final and complete sacrifice for sin so that all who believe in Him could be forgiven and be restored in their relationship to a holy and righteous God, allowing them to be with Him for all eternity.
What David knew from a more limited perspective, we now know more fully. Someone has artfully said that the truth about Jesus in the Old Testament is like a rosebud, complete in all of its potential beauty. In the Gospels, that very bud opens up to be a flower which can be seen more clearly. Then finally in the Epistles there is a fully developed, completely fragrant, majestically colored rose. Today we have through the New Testament the full picture of the salvation that Jesus came to bring. And some day, we will live in the presence of our loving and merciful Savior for all eternity.
