Series: Psalms
Title: Our Perfection
Text: Psalm 18: 1-3
Date: April 17, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Our text tonight is Psalm
18: 1-3. By way of introduction, we need to understand three things.
FIRST, LET’S UNDERSTAND WHO IS SPEAKING IN THIS PSALM?—Psalm 18:
1: «To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD,
The Holy Spirit moved king
David to write this song. Much of what is said here applies to David. But this
is a prophetical Psalm, meaning, the Holy Spirit gave David the words that
Christ Jesus would speak. Several verses are quoted in NT as spoken by Christ.
Indeed, David was a servant
of the LORD—God made David to serve
as a king over political Israel. But Christ Jesus is THE Preeminent, Faithful
servant of the LORD God. Christ is King over his
spiritual Israel. Christ is David’s king. Peter said,
Acts
2:34: For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The
LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35: Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
The Son of God took flesh
and and became both the Son of God and the Son of Man, to serve God,
representing the elect given him by God the Father in eternity: to fulfill the
covenant Christ made with God in eternity; To magnify the law and make it
honorable for God and for God’s elect. He completed the work by finishing the
transgression, by making an end of sins, by making reconciliation for iniquity,
by bringing in everlasting righteousness, by sealing up—fulfilling—the vision
and prophecy—the old testament scriptures.
Christ and him crucified—his
successful redemption of his people—is the sum and substance of all the Old
Testament visions and prophecies. Just as he is the sum and substance of this
18th Psalm.
John 5: 39:
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are
they which testify of me.
Luke
24:27: And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in
all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
John
1:45: Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom
Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph.
Time and again we read,
Christ did this “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken in the prophets,” “that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,” “that the scriptures
might be fulfilled.”. Christ fulfilled the vision and the prophecy.
And Christ anointed the most
Holy—Christ is himself the anointed Holy One; He has entered heaven,
and anointed the most holy—the holy of holies—for his people by his presence
there for us; and by his Spirit abiding in us, every believer is holy,
sanctified by his Spirit, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness.
So first, we see that Christ Jesus, the
Son of God, the Son of Man, the Son of David, the preeminent servant of God, the
only Mediator between God and men, is the one singing this song.
SECONDLY,
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND TO WHOM THESE WORDS ARE SPOKEN—Psalm
18: 1:…who spake unto the LORD…
When you see capital LORD it means our
triune God: Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son and Jehovah the Holy Spirit. Christ is God the
Son. But Christ is speaking here as the Mediator, serving Jehovah, representing
his people. Christ is in a sense speaking of himself here, because he is
the second person in the Godhead and the fullness of the Godhead bodily and all
these things are true of Christ for the believer. So these words are
spoken by Christ unto the LORD.
THREE,
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND
THE OCCASION THESE WORDS WERE SPOKEN—Psalm 18: 1:…who spake unto the LORD the words of this song
in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies,
and from the hand of Saul:
David indeed had reason to sing to the
LORD because God delivered David from Saul, and from the greater part of his
enemies. But remember, David is speaking prophetically of Christ. None but the
Lord Jesus can sing of victory over ALL his enemies. Christ
overcame the world, bruised Satan’s head, spoiled
principalities and powers, put away sin for his people and the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death; none but Christ conquered even that
enemy. Christ conquered ALL enemies.
So have we got these three
things? The words of this song are spoken by Christ Jesus. He is speaking unto
the LORD—Jehovah God. The occasion is in
the day Christ cried it is finished and God delivered him, victorious over all
his enemies.
Proposition: In this song of
Christ toward Jehovah we see that Christ is the believer’s perfection of love,
reverence and faith.
I.
FIRST, WE SEE CHRIST JESUS IS THE PERFECTION OF LOVE—THE VERY RIGHTEOUSNESS OF
HIS PEOPLE—THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW FOR HIS PEOPLE—Christ says to
Jehovah--Psalm 18: I will love thee, O
LORD, my strength.
Perfect
Heart of Love
This is the perfect heart of Christ
toward God as the Head and Representative of his people—“I will love thee, O
LORD, my strength.” God the Son came down and took
flesh like unto his fallen, sinful, depraved brethren. As the Head
and Representative of his people, Christ stood as the one Man serving
God the Father; the last Adam to whom God looks, the Surety of his people. Christ
Jesus represented each elect child that the Father gave to him before the
foundation of the world. Everything Christ did his
people did in him.
Fulfillment
of the Law
What does that have to do with Christ
saying, “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength?” The whole law of God is summed
up this way: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as
thyself.” (Lu 10: 27) There can be no mixture of sin only perfect love with all
your heart, soul, strength and mind; and the same toward your neighbor. Not one
sinner has ever done this. When God brought you into some painful trial, did
you love God perfectly? When your neighbor’s child died, did you wish it could
have been your child instead?
But Christ Jesus established the whole law—loving
God and his people perfectly. This was his holy heart. He said, “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.” With
perfect love to Jehovah God, on behalf of his people, Christ faithfully served
God in holiness of heart and righteousness of deed, from the cradle to the
cross. Especially when—loving God
and his brethren as himself—meant going to the cross and being made sin for us,
that God might pour out justice on him in our place.
John 14: 30: Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the
prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31: But that the world may
know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I
do. Arise, let us go hence.
Therefore, Christ is the perfection of
love—the fulfillment of the law in righteousness—the holiness and righteousness
of every sinner—in whom Christ abides in Spirit through faith. We, who are born of his Spirit, do love God
our Father and Christ Jesus his Son. “We
love him, because he first loved us.” (1 Jn 4: 19) But Christ loved God and his
brethren as you and I never can! It is in
and by Christ, that God reckons us to have loved God and our brethren in
perfect, holy and righteous love, because Christ said, “I will love thee, O
LORD, my strength.”
II.
SECONDLY, WE SEE HOW CHRIST IS THE PERFECTION OF REVERENCE TOWARD GOD FOR EVERY
BELIEVER—Christ
said, Psalm 18: 2: The LORD is my rock,
and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength,…my buckler, and the
horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
The duty of every man is not only to
keep God’s commandments, as we just saw Christ did for his people by his
perfect love, but to do so in perfect reverence for God—to fear God, to glorify
God as God, perfectly.
Ecclesiastes
12:13: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Perfect
Reverence for God
"The fear of God" is reverence
for God. It is true internal religion, true internal godliness in power. It includes
all the graces given by the Holy Spirit and the exercise of those graces. It
includes: reverence of God, love to God, faith in God, hope of eternal life
from God, humility of soul, patience, and submission to his will and in all of
this it includes giving God all the glory due to him. That is what Christ our
Surety did his entire life, by his work at Calvary and what he is doing here
looking back on his days on this earth. He reverenced God, glorifying God in
perfection. God said of Christ,
Isaiah 42:1: Behold
my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put
my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
Application: Here, Christ
brings forth judgment to you and I who believe. Here
is Christ, the GodMan Mediator, standing between God and his people, between
God and us who believe. On one hand, Christ is turned toward God, representing
us, reverencing and glorifying God perfectly for us. On the other hand, Christ
is turned toward us, teaching us to fear and reverence him for he is God our
Savior and all these things to us.
As the Representative of his people, as
the servant of the LORD, Christ Jesus reverenced and glorified God as very God
and he did so in perfection for his people—he said of Jehovah—Psalm 18: 2: The
LORD is my rock and my fortress…
Deuteronomy 32:
3: Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. 4: He is the Rock, [here is what that means] his work is perfect: for all
his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is
he.
God is the Rock—the solid,
immovable, immutable foundation—so he sent forth his Son to glorify his name. God’s work is perfect, so he sent forth Christ Jesus to
work the works of God in this earth in perfection for his people who were dead
in sins. God’s ways are judgment, so in
judgment, God sent forth the Just One, Christ Jesus, to declare God just and
the Justifier of his people. God is a God of truth and without iniquity, just
and right is he—so God sent forth Christ the Truth, to manifest and establish
the Truth—that is, the Righteousness of God. And
by the faith of Christ, by his finishing the work on the cross, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace
have kissed each other.” (Ps 85: 10) That means Christ bore justice in
place of his people declaring God just and right and true. And God is merciful,
the justifier, and peace of his people because Christ is God who justified his
people from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of
Moses.
God Our Rock in Christ our Rock
When God would show Moses
his glory he put Moses in the clift of the rock (Ex 33: 22) God put all his people in Christ the Rock before
the foundation of the world. In time, God puts all his people in the Rock in
our experience of his grace when he regenerates us and makes us to see the
glory of God our Rock in the face of Christ our Rock (2 Co 4:6) That is when we
begin to sing, “Rock
of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.”
Application: Please get this: everything—except our
triune LORD Jehovah in Christ Jesus—is sinking sand. The wisdom, will and works
of our fleshly man is slippery, gumbo, mud!
Illustration: Sinking Dad’s truck—the foundation under
the tires.
The triune Jehovah, God our Rock, dwells
in Christ our Rock bodily therefore Jehovah Jesus is God our Rock. Through
faith in Christ, we stand on justified ground—that is solid ground! How firm a
foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord!
III.
THIRDLY, WE SEE CHRIST IS THE PERFECTION OF FAITH FOR EVERY BELIEVER—Christ said of
Jehovah Psalm 18: 2: God is my
deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust;…the horn of my salvation,…
In order for you to see that
this is Christ speaking, notice he says, “in
whom I will trust.” Turn to Hebrews 2. We are told this is Christ speaking.
Verse 49 is also quoted in Rom 15 as Christ speaking.
Hebrews 2: 10:
For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. 11: For both he that sanctifieth and they who are
sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them
brethren, 12: Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of
the church will I sing praise unto thee. [that is quoted from Ps 22: 22. The
next verse is from our text, Ps 18: 2] 13: And again, I will put my trust in
him.
God the Son made himself one with his
brethren by becoming a Man. The GodMan is the one Man to whom God looks instead
of to his people. As he served God, in
perfect faith, Christ said, “God is MY
Deliverer.”
Isaiah 50: 6: I
gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I
hid not my face from shame and spitting. 7: For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore
shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I
know that I shall not be ashamed. 8: He is near that justifieth me; who will
contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come
near to me. 9: Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn
me?
Now from Faith to faith, from Christ the
Faithful to you who believe, Christ is the strength of our faith saying almost
the same words as he said by Isaiah,
Romans
8: 33: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God
that justifieth. 34: Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that
died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us.
In perfect faith our Representative,
glorified God for us, saying, God is “my
God.” After his resurrection,…
John 20:17:
Jesus said,…go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your
Father; and to my God, and your God.
In perfect faith our Representative, glorified
God for us, saying, God is “MY
strength.” As God the Son, Christ is himself all
Strength! But as the one Man serving God for his people, God made Christ strong
for himself, to accomplish God’s work for God’s glory:
Psalm
80: 17: Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man
whom thou madest strong for thyself.
God made an eternal covenant
promise to Christ, and representing his people, Christ faithfully, perfectly,
believed God—Psalm 18: 2:…in whom I will trust;…the horn of my salvation,…3: I will
call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine
enemies.
And when Christ had
completed the work of declaring God’s righteousness, of justifying his people,
of purging us of our sins, God did just that, he raised Christ victorious over
all his enemies.
Isaiah
49: 8: Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day
of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a
covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the
desolate heritages; 9: That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them
that are in darkness, Shew yourselves.
IV. NOW, LET ME TRY TO SUM UP WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU WHO BELIEVE.
Christ Jesus is the love of
the law—our Righteousness, the Perfection of Reverence, and the Author and
Finisher of every believer’s faith.
Brethren, you and I have been given a
new heart: of love in righteousness, of fear and of faith. Yet, our love, reverence
and faith is not even close to perfect. Do
not look to the love or reverence or faith that has been given to you. Look
only to Christ!
Christ made himself one with us: his
perfect love for God is our perfect love for God; Christ is our Righteousness;
his perfect fear and reverence of God is our perfect fear and reverence of God;
his perfect faith in God is the perfection of our faith in God; Christ’s
Faithfulness is the reason our little, mustard seed faith is enough to save.
Be sure you get this. Carry it home with you. Think upon it and rejoice with
praise and thanksgiving. When Christ called God, “My God” When he said, “I go
to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” he is telling us that All
that is Christ’s is ours in Him! His Father is our Father; his God our God;
his obedience is perfection of our obedience; his righteous love is the
perfection of our righteousness and love; his reverence is perfection of our
reverence; his faith is the perfection of our faith. Just as his death is our
death; his eternal life is our eternal life; his reward is our reward; his
inheritance is our inheritance; his glory is our glory and his safety is our
safety.
We are one with him as he is one
with the Father! So
you who believe, can read this Psalm again, putting your name in David’s place.
And you can be assured that in and by our perfect Representative, we have
loved, reverenced and believed God in perfection. Christ our God is all these
things to us.
Psalm 18: 1 To
the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who spake unto
the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the
hand of ALL his enemies,…And he said,» I will love thee, O LORD, MY strength.
2: The LORD is MY rock, and MY fortress, and MY deliverer; MY God, MY strength,
in whom I will trust; MY buckler, and the horn of MY salvation, and MY high
tower. 3: I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be
saved from mine enemies.
Amen!