David Exposes His Heart in Prayer – Psalms 17-20

Joy: You’re listening to Season 2 of the Lifting Her Voice podcast.  This is Episode #167 and today we’ll read Psalms 17-20  together.   David exposes his heart in prayer to the Lord.  Maybe we can learn something too.  

Welcome

Welcome to the Lifting Her Voice podcast, Season 2!  I’m your host, Joy Miller, and I invite you to grab your Bible and join me – from the beginning – simply reading God’s word together.  We built some spiritual muscles in 2020 with just the New Testament.  But this year we’re going all out, cover-to-cover, Old Testament and New.  So, whether with your first cup in the morning, your commute to work, or as the last thing on your mind before sleep, God’s Word will equip you for every good work.  I’m really glad you’re here!

Psalm 17

A Prayer for Protection

A prayer of David.

Lord, hear a just cause;

pay attention to my cry;

listen to my prayer —

from lips free of deceit.

Let my vindication come from you,

for you see what is right.

You have tested my heart;

you have examined me at night.

You have tried me and found nothing evil;

I have determined that my mouth will not sin.

Concerning what people do:

by the words from your lips

I have avoided the ways of the violent.

My steps are on your paths;

my feet have not slipped.

I call on you, God,

because you will answer me;

listen closely to me; hear what I say.

Display the wonders of your faithful love,

Savior of all who seek refuge

from those who rebel against your right hand.

Protect me as the pupil of your eye;

hide me in the shadow of your wings

from the wicked who treat me violently,

my deadly enemies who surround me.

They are uncaring;

their mouths speak arrogantly.

They advance against me; now they surround me.

They are determined

to throw me to the ground.

They are like a lion eager to tear,

like a young lion lurking in ambush.

Rise up, Lord!

Confront him; bring him down.

With your sword, save me from the wicked.

With your hand, Lord, save me from men,

from men of the world

whose portion is in this life:

You fill their bellies with what you have in store;

their sons are satisfied,

and they leave their surplus to their children.

But I will see your face in righteousness;

when I awake, I will be satisfied with your presence.

Psalm 18

Praise for Deliverance

For the choir director. Of the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the power of Saul. He said:

I love you, Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock,

my fortress, and my deliverer,

my God, my rock where I seek refuge,

my shield and the horn of my salvation,

my stronghold.

I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,

and I was saved from my enemies.

The ropes of death were wrapped around me;

the torrents of destruction terrified me.

The ropes of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

I called to the Lord in my distress,

and I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears.

Then the earth shook and quaked;

the foundations of the mountains trembled;

they shook because he burned with anger.

The Most High Made His Voice Heard

Smoke rose from his nostrils,

and consuming fire came from his mouth;

coals were set ablaze by it.

He bent the heavens and came down,

total darkness beneath his feet.

He rode on a cherub and flew,

soaring on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his hiding place,

dark storm clouds his canopy around him.

From the radiance of his presence,

his clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals.

The Lord thundered from heaven;

the Most High made his voice heard.

He shot his arrows and scattered them;

he hurled lightning bolts and routed them.

The depths of the sea became visible,

the foundations of the world were exposed,

at your rebuke, Lord,

at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

He reached down from on high

and took hold of me;

he pulled me out of deep water.

He rescued me from my powerful enemy

and from those who hated me,

for they were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

but the Lord was my support.

He brought me out to a spacious place;

he rescued me because he delighted in me.

The Lord rewarded me

according to my righteousness;

he repaid me

according to the cleanness of my hands.

For I have kept the ways of the Lord

and have not turned from my God to wickedness.

Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me

and have not disregarded his statutes.

I was blameless toward him

and kept myself from my iniquity.

So the Lord repaid me

according to my righteousness,

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

A Shield of Salvation

With the faithful

you prove yourself faithful,

with the blameless

you prove yourself blameless,

with the pure

you prove yourself pure,

but with the crooked

you prove yourself shrewd.

For you rescue an oppressed people,

but you humble those with haughty eyes.

Lord, you light my lamp;

my God illuminates my darkness.

With you I can attack a barricade,

and with my God I can leap over a wall.

God — his way is perfect;

the word of the Lord is pure.

He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.

For who is God besides the Lord?

And who is a rock? Only our God.

God — he clothes me with strength

and makes my way perfect.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer

and sets me securely on the heights.

He trains my hands for war;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You have given me the shield of your salvation;

your right hand upholds me,

and your humility exalts me.

You make a spacious place beneath me for my steps,

and my ankles do not give way.

I pursue my enemies and overtake them;

I do not turn back until they are wiped out.

I crush them, and they cannot get up;

they fall beneath my feet.

You have clothed me with strength for battle;

you subdue my adversaries beneath me.

You have made my enemies retreat before me;

I annihilate those who hate me.

They cry for help, but there is no one to save them —

they cry to the Lord, but he does not answer them.

I pulverize them like dust before the wind;

I trample them like mud in the streets.

Loyalty to His Anointed Forever

You have freed me from the feuds among the people;

you have appointed me the head of nations;

a people I had not known serve me.

Foreigners submit to me cringing;

as soon as they hear they obey me.

Foreigners lose heart

and come trembling from their fortifications.

The Lord lives — blessed be my rock!

The God of my salvation is exalted.

God — he grants me vengeance

and subdues peoples under me.

He frees me from my enemies.

You exalt me above my adversaries;

you rescue me from violent men.

Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord;

I will sing praises about your name.

He gives great victories to his king;

he shows loyalty to his anointed,

to David and his descendants forever.

Psalm 19

The Witness of Creation and Scripture

For the choir director. A psalm of David.

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour out speech;

night after night they communicate knowledge.

There is no speech; there are no words;

their voice is not heard.

Their message has gone out to the whole earth,

and their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun.

It is like a bridegroom coming from his home;

it rejoices like an athlete running a course.

It rises from one end of the heavens

and circles to their other end;

nothing is hidden from its heat.

The instruction of the Lord is perfect,

renewing one’s life;

the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy,

making the inexperienced wise.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

making the heart glad;

the command of the Lord is radiant,

making the eyes light up.

The fear of the Lord is pure,

enduring forever;

the ordinances of the Lord are reliable

and altogether righteous.

They are more desirable than gold —

than an abundance of pure gold;

and sweeter than honey

dripping from a honeycomb.

In addition, your servant is warned by them,

and in keeping them there is an abundant reward.

Who perceives his unintentional sins?

Cleanse me from my hidden faults.

Moreover, keep your servant from willful sins;

do not let them rule me.

Then I will be blameless

and cleansed from blatant rebellion.

May the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable to you,

Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

Psalm 20

Deliverance in Battle

For the choir director. A psalm of David.

May the Lord answer you in a day of trouble;

may the name of Jacob’s God protect you.

May he send you help from the sanctuary

and sustain you from Zion.

May he remember all your offerings

and accept your burnt offering.

Selah

May he give you what your heart desires

and fulfill your whole purpose.

Let us shout for joy at your victory

and lift the banner in the name of our God.

May the Lord fulfill all your requests.

Now I know that the Lord gives victory to his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with mighty victories from his right hand.

Some take pride in chariots, and others in horses,

but we take pride in the name of the Lord our God.

They collapse and fall,

but we rise and stand firm.

Lord, give victory to the king!

May he answer us on the day that we call.

Close

Psalm 19…let this be my prayer always.  The praise and awe written for our God is perfect.  I only wish that I had written it.  We can rest in that we can call on the Lord to keep us from sin that trips us up.  I challenge you to read or re-read the 7th chapter of Romans.  I’ve told you before that I was 19 when I read it for the first time in the TLB translation.  It was the moment I fell in love with the word of God.  I found comfort there.  I decided at that moment that if Paul struggled with the tension between spirit and flesh, maybe there was hope for me.  I have come to believe – just like David – that His statutes, His rules, are not burdensome.  They are for my good, to protect me, to grow me.  In them is liberty and rest.  

For such a long time, I avoided the Psalms.  And I have to confess, that it was mostly in rebellion to how everyone talked about them.  All ooey gooey.  Well…then I actually started reading them every year, sometimes twice.  And what do you know?  I discovered a cornucopia of comfort and empowerment and courage and wisdom.  Maybe there’s a difference between ooey gooey and submission to raw emotion before the Lord.  Tell me if you agree at Lifting Her Voice.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

See You Tomorrow!

Thank you for joining me here today.  I pray that by spending time in His Word every day, you will by changed.  Visit me at Lifting Her Voice.com with your comments and questions.  And don’t forget to visit the Blog page while you’re there.  If you like the podcast, it would be great if you’d give it a five-star review and share it with everyone you know.  Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  See you tomorrow!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible(r), Copyright (c) 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible(r) and CSB(r) are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.