Sermon Tone Analysis

Do I love the Lord this Much?

We all too often want to rely on our own strength over the Lord’s.

We want to do it on our own.

We want to take care of ourselves.

We want the ability to do it alone.

Yet, we see here that David loves the Lord because He is his strength.

This word love “is associated with a mother’s care for her children.

David thus expresses his commitment to the Lord, who is his source of strength, comfort, and sustenance.

The phrase “I love you” communicates the intimacy of his relationship with the Lord based on experience.”

(Willem A. VanGemeren, “Psalms,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms (Revised Edition), ed.

Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 5 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 202.)

So I ask again do I love God this much?

Do you love God this much?

Let me put it to you like this.

I almost drowned one time.

I was at Possum Kingdom and had been there all day.

Me and a few other people were swimming around and having a big time.

I was out of the boat one time near the end of the day without a life jacket on, I am not a good swimmer.

Well, the water got the better of me and I was not doing well.

One of my companions came out to help but all I was doing was pulling her under.

So, I pushed her away because I thought if I am going to die I do not need to take another with me.

Then my hero appeared.

It was another lady who I was there with.

She came out with a life jacket and wrapped it around me where I could cling to it and rest.

She saved my life and I am forever grateful to her for doing so.

In fact you can say that I love her for this because she was my strength.

Now, my strength did nothing for me.

I was floundering and about to go under.

I was not doing well.

My strength came in the form of another giving me what I needed to make it.

If I had depended on my strength alone, then I would have died back in 2011.

Since I allowed another to be my strength, I am here now.

See if I had loved my strength and not hers it would have been disastrous.

She saved me and because of this I know that anothers strength is what I need regularly.

This is why David had this deep love for God.

He knew His strength is what will save and keep him.

He knew nothing he does or could do is enough.

He knows it is God alone who is strength.

And because of this David loves God with a love that compares to a mother’s love for a child.

This is a deep and profound love.

So again I ask “Do I love God like that?

Do you love God like that?”

If we still struggle with this I pray that this Psalm will help to draw us all into a deeper love for our God Who Is Our Strength.

My Strength Or His Strength (Ps.

18:2-6)

We see in Ps. 18:2-6

David says that God is his strength by the number of times he says “my” in verse 2.

He says the Lord is “my–rock, fortress, deliverer, God, rock in whom he takes refuge, shield, horn of his salvation, and stronghold.”

Everything is placed on God.

David takes no claim that any of these are his doings.

He gives it all to God.

He emphasizes this by saying that he cried out to God and praises God alone.

All the bad and wicked things that happened to him he gives his rescue from them all to God.

What’s more, he says God hears and answers.

This is much like my near drowning incident.

The people with me heard my distress and they immediately jumped into action.

That is what David says God does for those who are His and rely on His strength over their own.

God can and will deliver us.

He will shield and keep us.

He is the one who saves us from evil and harm especially through His promise of Life in Him which has been made more prominent through Jesus Christ.

God is strong and powerful beyond anything and everything we can ever imagine.

No matter if we are entangled in death, destruction, devastation, bankruptcy, divorce, abuse, fear, confusion over our identity, negligence, and just plain ole fear; God is our strength and power if we will just call to Him for it.

He hears.

He loves us.

David had this deep love for God because he knew that god is the one who is his strength.

He depended on Him fully just as I depended on that life jacket to save me.

It did save me just as God saved David time and time again.

He will do this for you because He is able to d this and so much more.

He can because...

His Power is Above All (vv.

7-19)

The volcano that destroyed Pompeii was terribly powerful.

It is said to have “violently spewed forth a deadly cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Powerful isn’t it.

Tornadoes are powerful and destructive.

Many have caused terrifying destruction.

The national weather service says that tornadoes kill an average of 60 people a year.

That is a decent number by a natural disastor.

Earthquakes are devastating.

They destroy property and kill many people.

Hail is destructive and damages much property and crops yearly.

Yet, none of these compare to the power of Almighty God.

He created the structures that these devastations come from.

They are beneath Him.

They are subject to Him if He feels they need moved or used somewhere.

Much like the devastation of the Global flood that Noah and His family were spared from.

Like the fire and destruction poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah.

God is powerful above all things in this world.

He is the creator of all things.

We read in these verses that Ps. 18:7-19

Ps 18:7-19 “7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.

8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.

9 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet.

10 He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water.

12 Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.

14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.

15 Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16 He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.

17 He rescued me …”

This is power and strength like nothing we have ever seen.