The Lord's Delight: The Logic of Our Deliverance Text: Psalm 18:16-19
Introduction: A Song from the Depths
Psalm 18 is a warrior's song, a king's testimony. It is David's triumphant look back over a life of conflict, peril, and extraordinary deliverance. The superscription tells us he sang this on the day the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. This is not the song of a man who had an easy time of it. This is the song of a man who was hunted, betrayed, surrounded, and who was, by all human calculation, a dead man walking for years. He was a man well acquainted with deep waters and strong enemies.
We live in a therapeutic age that has tried to domesticate God. Our modern sensibilities prefer a God who is a celestial guidance counselor, a divine affirmation machine. We want a God who is safe, manageable, and, above all, nice. But the God of Psalm 18 is none of those things. He is a warrior God. He is a God who shakes the mountains, who rides on a cherub, who shoots arrows of lightning, and who wades into the chaos of His people's troubles to rescue them with overwhelming force. This is not a tame lion.
And this is good news for us, because we do not have tame problems. We have strong enemies. We have deep waters. We face days of disaster. A nice, manageable god is no help at all when the floodwaters are rising and the enemy is at the gate. You need a deliverer. You need a king who fights. This psalm, and these verses in particular, give us the anatomy of a divine rescue. It shows us God's sovereign initiative, His overwhelming power, and, most surprisingly, His personal motivation. And in this, we see not just the story of David, but the story of every believer, and ultimately, the story of the great Son of David, Jesus Christ.
The Text
He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, But Yahweh was my support. He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
(Psalm 18:16-19)
The Divine Initiative (v. 16)
We begin with the first action of the rescue. Notice where it starts.
"He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters." (Psalm 18:16)
The first thing to see is that salvation begins with God. It is His initiative entirely. "He sent from on high." David was not treading water and flagging God down for a rescue. He was drowning. The "many waters" here are a classic biblical metaphor for overwhelming chaos, distress, and the threat of death. Think of Jonah in the deep, or the flood in the days of Noah. These are not manageable puddles; this is the abyss. David is saying that his troubles were so profound, so overwhelming, that no human strategy could save him. He was sunk.
And from that impossible situation, God reached down. "He sent... He took... He drew." This is the language of unilateral, sovereign grace. This is the foundation of all true theology of salvation. We do not climb up to God; He reaches down to us. We do not contribute to our rescue; we are the objects of it. Our natural state is not one of spiritual neutrality, where we are just waiting to make a decision. Our natural state is to be at the bottom of the sea, dead in our trespasses and sins. And from that state, God sends from on high. He takes hold. He draws us out.
This is a picture of regeneration. God does not throw us a rope and hope we have the strength to grab on. He reaches down into the waters of our sin and death, takes hold of us by His Spirit, and pulls us out into new life. Every testimony of every Christian throughout all of history is a variation on this theme: "I was lost, I was drowning, and He drew me out." Our salvation does not begin with our choice, but with His. He sent from on high.
The Overwhelming Enemy (v. 17-18a)
Next, David describes the nature of the opposition he faced. It was not trivial.
"He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster..." (Psalm 18:17-18a)
David is not engaging in false humility here. He was a proven warrior, a giant-slayer, a man of courage and cunning. But he freely admits that his enemies, Saul and his armies, and the spiritual forces behind them, were "too mighty" for him. This is a crucial confession. True faith is not a denial of reality. True faith looks at the overwhelming strength of the enemy, acknowledges it, and then looks to the even greater strength of God.
We have strong enemies. We have the world, the flesh, and the devil. And they are, in ourselves, too mighty for us. The world system is vast and its pressures are immense. Our own sinful flesh is a relentless, treacherous foe within. And the devil is an ancient, cunning, and powerful enemy who hates us. To underestimate the strength of our opposition is the height of folly. It leads to pride, presumption, and a fall.
Notice also the timing of their attack: "They confronted me in the day of my disaster." The enemy is an opportunist. He strikes when we are down, when we are weak, when we are afflicted. He loves to kick a man who has already stumbled. When your business fails, when your health gives way, when a relationship breaks, that is when the whispers of accusation and despair will be the loudest. That is the day of disaster, and that is when the enemy makes his move. David is being brutally honest about his own vulnerability. He was at the end of his rope.
The Divine Support (v. 18b-19a)
In the face of this overwhelming and opportunistic enemy, David identifies his only hope.
"But Yahweh was my support. He brought me forth also into a broad place..." (Psalm 18:18b-19a)
The "but" here is one of the great turning points of Scripture. The enemy was too mighty. The disaster had come. The situation was hopeless. "But Yahweh." This is the great intrusion of God into human impossibility. Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, became his support, his stay, his staff to lean on. When all other supports fail, when your own strength is gone, when your friends forsake you, the Lord remains.
And the result of this support is not just survival. It is liberation. "He brought me forth also into a broad place." A broad place is the opposite of the distress, the tight corners, and the claustrophobic pressure of his trials. It is a place of freedom, security, and abundance. He was cornered, trapped, and hemmed in. God did not just help him hold his ground; He broke the siege and led him out into wide-open country. This is what God does. He doesn't just save us from hell; He brings us into the glorious freedom of the children of God. He doesn't just rescue us from the pit; He sets our feet on a rock, in a broad place, and establishes our steps.
The Divine Motivation (v. 19b)
The psalm could have ended there, and it would have been a magnificent testimony to the power of God. But David gives us one final, stunning revelation. He tells us why God did all this.
"He rescued me, because He delighted in me." (Psalm 18:19b)
This is one of the most breathtaking statements in all the psalms. God did not rescue David because David was so righteous, or so clever, or so deserving. God did not rescue him because of some abstract principle of justice. God rescued him because He liked him. He delighted in him.
This is the heart of the gospel. We tend to think that God saves us out of a sense of grim duty. We think He looks at us, sinners that we are, sighs, and says, "Well, I suppose I have to." But this is a slander against His character. The Bible teaches that God's love for His people is a love of delight, of pleasure, of joy. Zephaniah tells us that God will rejoice over us with singing (Zeph. 3:17). We are His treasured possession, His beloved children.
Of course, this delight is not based on our own intrinsic loveliness. In ourselves, we are not delightful. We are rebellious and stained with sin. But in Christ, we are delightful to the Father. When the Father looks at you, Christian, He sees you clothed in the perfect righteousness of His Son, the one in whom He is "well pleased." God's delight in Jesus overflows to cover you. He doesn't just tolerate you; He delights in you. And this is the ultimate motivation for His every act of deliverance in your life. He rescues you from your strong enemy, He pulls you out of the deep waters, He brings you into a broad place, all because His heart is inclined toward you in love. He does it for His own good pleasure, and you are His good pleasure.
Conclusion: The Greater David's Delight
David's song is our song, but it is supremely the song of the Lord Jesus Christ. He too was surrounded by many waters, the waters of judgment for our sin. He faced the strongest enemy, death and Satan, in the day of His disaster at the cross. His enemies were too mighty for Him in His humanity. They confronted Him, and for a time, it appeared they had won.
But Yahweh was His support. God sent from on high and took Him. He drew Him out of the waters of death in the resurrection. He delivered Him from the strong enemy and brought Him forth into the broadest place of all, the right hand of the Majesty on High, giving Him all authority in heaven and on earth.
And why? Because the Father delighted in Him. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And because we are united to this beloved Son by faith, that same divine delight is the bedrock of our security. Your deliverance from sin, your perseverance through trials, and your final salvation are not dependent on the strength of your grip on God. They are dependent on His unwavering, joyful, delighted grip on you.
Therefore, when you are in the deep waters, when you face a strong enemy, when you are confronted in the day of your disaster, remember this. Your God is a warrior. He is your support. And He will bring you out into a broad place, not because you have earned it, but because, in His Son, He delights in you.