I love you, O LORD, my strength.
WEEK 24
UPHOLDING THE GOSPEL
PSALM 18:1-11
I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death encompassed me, And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.
Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens also, and came down With thick darkness under His feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of skies.
WE LOVE YOU, O Lord, our strength. You are all glorious, all powerful, all knowing,
all wise, all gracious, and all sufficient. You are the Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last, the beginning and the end.1
All glory, honor, and power belong to You,
and You alone are worthy to be praised; because You created all things, and because of Your will and for Your sake
they were created.2
All knowledge belongs to You. All wisdom originates with you. No one ever gave You direction or counsel;
no one ever instructed You in the way of understanding. Humanity is like a drop from a bucket and a speck of dust on the scales. All the nations are nothing before You—
less than nothing. Meaningless. No one and nothing compares to You.3
Yet You hold our eternal souls securely in Your loving hand.4
Because You are greater
than all the enemies of righteousness combined, no one can ever snatch us away
from that place of tender care and safe-keeping.5
You are infinitely able to guard
what we have committed to Your custody.6
We did nothing to earn the salvation You graciously provided for us. And nothing we could ever do will forfeit that salvation,
because we ourselves are graciously kept by Your power
through faith unto salvation, which is ready to be revealed in the last time.7
You gird us with strength and make our way blameless.8
You, the only wise God our Savior,
are the One who keeps us from falling. You will one day present us faultless
before the presence of Your glory with exceeding joy. All glory and majesty, dominion and power
therefore belong to You alone, both now and forever.9
These truths powerfully remind us what helpless debtors we are
to Your lovingkindness and rich grace. Guard our hearts from idols;10
give us the will and the energy to flee from all forms of idolatry.11
We know that some do desert the grace of Christ
"for a different gospel."12
They were never true believers in the first place. They were false disciples who went out from us—
though they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out, so that it would be shown
that they all are not of us.13
This is not unique to our age. All through the centuries, legions of false disciples
have devised numerous counterfeit gospels— damnable distortions of the truth, carefully devised by the powers of darkness, and clever enough, if possible, to deceive even the elect.14
We know that all who propagate such perversions are cursed.
Equip us to defend the true faith in the face of every false doctrine.
We celebrate Your goodness, Lord,
and we praise You for Your grace toward us, confessing that we are completely unworthy of such favor. We are overwhelmed when we contemplate our iniquities and failures,
knowing we fall far short
of that righteousness with which we have been covered:
the righteousness of Christ credited to our account.15
That is why we come before You now:
to worship You, to proclaim Your truth, to sing Your praises, to be confronted by Your Word, and to be conformed to the image of Christ,
in whose name we pray. Amen.
1. Revelation 22:13 2. Revelation 4:11 3. Isaiah 40:13-18 4. Titus 3:4-7 5. John 10:29 6. 2 Timothy 1:12 7. 1 Peter 1:5 8. Psalm 18:32 9. Jude 24-25 10. 1 John 5:21 11. 1 Corinthians 10:14 12. Galatians 1:6-10 13. 1 John 2:19 14. Matthew 24:24 15. Romans 3:21-26; 4:3-5,22-24