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God's Personal Intervention in the Lives of His People Essay

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The Old Testament is full of examples of God or Yahweh having personal relationships with his people. There are countless instances that he visibly or audibly provides proof that he is in control and works in the lives of those who follow after him. David, who was know as a man after God’s own heart, found himself being constantly pursued by King Saul but always rescued by God from certain death. In Psalm 18, David praises the Lord in what has now become canonized in the Bible and is known as a Psalm of Praise. The psalm opens with the powerful sentence: “I love you, O Lord, my strength,” which immediately demonstrates David‘s devotion to the Lord along with the recognition that he provides something that David does not have: strength (New …show more content…

As Michael Travers points out in Encountering God in the Psalms, “As a psalm of praise and worship, the Hymn glorifies God for who he is and what he has done” (49). David makes it clear who God is in his life: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock in whom I take refuge” (Ps. 18.2) and what he has done: “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters” (Ps. 18.16). This psalm ends by glorifying God and expounding once again on what he has done for not only David but also his decedents: “He gives his king great victories…” (Ps. 18.50). The reader knows that these victories will continue because the psalm demonstrates the never ending power of God throughout along with the promise of training those who are found righteous to fight for the Lord. In keeping with Leland Ryken’s Words of Delight’s structure of how a song of praise should be set up, I will break the Psalm into three parts. Verses 1-3 present the formal call to praise; verses 4-45 list the various acts of God that are worthy of being praise; and verses 46-50 end with a resolution that not only will the Lord continue to provide for his people but also that the people will continue to bring him praise. David is praising God for a specific act in this psalm therefore making it a declarative praise (245-246). He is recalling a time that God came through for him in a battle and trained him to

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