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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
So we continue praying through the Psalms. We come to Psalm 18. David writes starting in verse one. I love you, Lord. You are my strength.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me. The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The cords of the grave coiled around me. The snares of death confronted me. What a great detail. Verse six. In my distress, I called to the Lord.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I cried to my God for help. And from his temple, he heard my voice. My cry came before him into his ears. Down into verse 15, the valleys of the seas were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare. At your rebuke at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of your nostrils, he reached down from on high and took hold of me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He drew me out of the deep waters. What a picture David offers us. Down in verse 25, to the faithful, you show yourself faithful. To the pure, you're you show yourself pure. But to the devious, you show yourself shrewd.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You save the humble, but bring low those who eyes whose eyes are haughty. You, Lord, keep my lamp burning. My God turns my darkness into light. You have made my feet like the feet of a deer. That's in verse 33.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You trained my hands for battle, verse 35. You make your saving help for my shield, verse 36. You provide a broad path for my feet. What a picture we have. David goes on and on in Psalm 18 today.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And in fact, there's 50 verses of what David is recounting in the ways that God has saved him. Now many believe Psalm 50 is I'm sorry, Psalm 18 is 50 verses long because, David is recounting the ways that God has finally delivered him from the hands of Saul. And so maybe like you, you've kind of gone through a long season in which someone has pursued you or you've just been in a difficult storm And David is finally able to breathe. And as he breathes, he recounts the ways that God has shown himself faithful, the way that God's ears has has heard his cry for help and he stoops down to save him. I love this picture we get there.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In verse 15, it says the valleys of the sea were exposed, the foundations of the earth laid bare. In other words, this is, an ancient way for David to describe, like, he was on the very the the the last part of earth, like, the very brinks and the depth of earth right before death, and God scooped him out and delivered him. Maybe some of you today as you as you approach your day, as you approach your life, you feel that same thing. You feel this sensation that God has pulled you out. Maybe you feel like you are on the brink of death.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Maybe you feel like you're at the very edge right now and what an opportunity you have to be reminded through this psalm that God will scoop you out. He will deliver you with his strong hand and we have the confidence there in verse 28 that he keeps our lamp burning and he turns my darkness into light. And so I just wanna give space for us to name the ways that maybe we are feeling as though we are walking through darkness today. Maybe you are sensing a kind of, just darkness and a kind of confusion and what hope you have today knowing that with the help of Yahweh and in Jesus, he turns our darkness into light. Lord, we hear you inviting us in to maybe name the ways that we need to face that darkness, and all the ways that you actually can restore us, the ways that you can bring us out.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so would you give our hearts hope today knowing that whatever we have to walk through and even as dark as it might get, you can turn all of it to light. We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen. Grace and peace.