Читать книгу Reflections on the Psalms - Steven Croft - Страница 29

I love you, O Lord my strength.The Lord is my crag, my fortress and my deliverer…

‘… my rock … my shield, the horn of my salvation’ (v.2)

If you chose nine names for God today, what would they be?

Psalm 18 begins with a short direct song of devotion to God who is given nine deeply personal descriptions (my crag, my fortress, my shield …).

These two verses are the prelude to the longest psalm of testimony and thanksgiving in the Psalter. Psalm 18 is closely linked to the life of David the King, not only by the heading and the final verse, but also by its setting in 2 Samuel 22, at the end of the stories of David.

This prelude gives way to four graphic verses that describe the danger faced by the psalmist and his cry for help. But these prepare the way for the even more graphic, powerful description of the Lord coming to the rescue of his chosen anointed. Here is earthquake, wind and fire in abundance – in the words of Robert Grant’s hymn ‘O worship the King’: ‘His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, And dark is his path on the wings of the storm’.

God is in heaven and the psalmist on earth. Yet prayer is a powerful bridge between the two. The Lord hears the psalmist’s cry of help. He parts the heavens and comes down. The first act of salvation is the Lord’s appearing.

If you chose nine names for God today, based on your life story, what would they be?

Reflection by Steven Croft

Refrain:

The Lord my God shall make my darkness to be bright.

Prayer:

From your royal throne, O God,

you sent your living Word

to pierce the gloom of oppression;

so, in our souls’ night,

come with your saving help

and penetrate our darkness with the rays of your glory

in Jesus Christ our Lord.