I am more uncomfortable with Psalm 18 than pretty much anything I have read in a long time. The first third of it is great- 19 verses on the majesty and power of the LORD. The middle section has a two-fold refrain, “The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands.” I am not able to say this, and I doubt anyone can. I have not “kept the ways of the LORD,” I have not been “blameless with Him.” Can I ask for the same deliverence as the David? What’s more, when could David pray this prayer truthfully? Could David have said “I did not put away His statues from before me”? Does that include thou shall not commit murder or adultery or covet thy neighbor’s wife or bear false witness? Even if he or I could pray these things, could I in good conscience follow them with the kind of wholesale rejoicing in the crushing of my enemies found in v37-45? No. Unless…
V49-50 give a different twist to the whole Psalm. There we find a King Who gives thanks and praises to the LORD “among the nations.” His deliverance comes from being “lifted above those who rise up against Me.” He is a King Who receives “great deliverance.” He is referred to as Mashiach and “the Seed of David” (v50). Yeshua H’Mashiach could say what I cannot, “The LORD has rewarded my according to My righteousness, according to the cleanness of My hands.” He was lifted above those who rose against Him by means of a Cross. From there He went only into the hands of those who cared for His broken body. But when it seemed that human wickedness, death, and Satan had defeated Him, God raised Him from the dead giving Him victory over the final enemy, death itself. He has received the title of Mashiach, and the promise of the Seed of David, that there is One Who would occupy the throne of David forever. From there He reigns until the Day when the LORD would put all things “in subjection under His feet.” The final defeat of sin, death, and Satan will raise the ultimate praise of the LORD among the nations. In Him we can say our hands our clean and our hearts are righteous. Because the LORD “saves and afflicted people,” because the Anointed One suffered so that we might have life we can say what seemed like boasting, like madness. Only now, having been given such love, we can see it is crazy as it is true, “He rescued me because He delighted in me.”