REASONS WHY DAVID LOVES THE LORD 

Psalm 18:1-2

(February 8, 2026, Sunday)

     We will learn in these two verses why David loves the Lord. Although there are many other reasons in the scriptures but in these two verses, David tells us why he loves the Lord. David says in verse 1 “I will love thee.” David says he is determined to love the Lord. David is promising to the Lord, “I am determined to love You.” It is a good expression in our minds and in our hearts to express our determination to love the Lord.

     That expression to determine to love God is timely with David situation as David said in Psalm 18:4 “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.” David is describing that he was being hunted and hounded by his enemies wanting to kill him. So, David has a traumatic experience as people are trying to kill him and chasing him through the wilderness, around the mountains, and David just a few steps ahead of his enemies. If we allow that kind of situation, it will dominate our life, and fear controls us. That fearful situation can control our thoughts, our words, our deeds, our motives, our emotions, and become a master if we allow it.

     David refuses to allow the fear, the grief, the struggles to dominate and controls his thinking and his emotion. Instead, David says “I will love Thee, O Lord” (verse 1). David determined to make sure that his love for God dominates his thinking and emotions. Like David, it is good for us to determine in our mind and heart to say to God “I will love Thee, O Lord,” when we are under pressure and struggles in life, trials and persecution, earthly conditions, when life pulling us in different direction. Like David our love for God should be eternal, never end, and should never cease. David begins this Psalm with his resolution, “I will love Thee, O Lord,” and then David lists several reasons why.

     After David already been through with the experience and God has already given David the victory, when he is writing this poem, this psalm. In other words, David is looking back and sharing with us what God taught him and using that experience to describe to us the reasons that he loves the Lord despite of what he just went through.

     The list of reasons why David loves the Lord is basically because of who God, what kind of God that He is to David during those difficult times.

 

Reasons why David loves the Lord:

I – GOD IS DAVID’S STENGTH – v.1    

Psalm 18:1-2 “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.^”  

     In the beginning of this Psalm, David declared the love and devotion to the Lord, acknowledging God as the source of strength. It expresses a deep and personal relationship with God, recognizing His power and ability to provide strength and support in times of need. This also emphasizing the dependence on God’s power to overcome challenges and obstacles as David recognized God as the ultimate source of strength.

     In this context, David’s declaration of love and reliance on God’s strength becomes more poignant. David’s declaration reflects his acknowledgement of God’s working power in his life and also reflects his gratitude for God’s support and deliverance he has received from God. This verse serves as powerful evidence to the faith that all believers are encouraged to have in God, even in the midst of adversities and challenges in life.

     The love for the Lord symbolically represents the intimate and personal connection that believers have with God, while the Lord’s strength symbolizes the divine empowerment is available to all who trust in God.

     When Saul chased David and his enemies hounded and hunted him for long periods of time, David by his experience on which the only way, he learned important lesson not that God gives him strength but God is his strength.

     David probably knew clearly from the other Scriptures that was available in those days that God was the source of all his strength. Although David intellectually learned the truth from the Scriptures that God is his strength but David took the struggles and make that struggles a reality so that he could testify by that personal experience that God is his strength. Thus, experiential learning is far superior than book or bible learning. Of course, Christians need to learn truths in the Bible, and through head knowledge we can know many facts in the bible, but it is through personal experience those facts can become a reality in our daily lives.

     David doesn’t just learn book knowledge, academic facts, theological facts who God is, all of these are good and necessary. However, for David he learned whole new level of truth, and that is the truth we learn though life. David says he learned by experience that the Lord is his strength.

     It is very important in our Christian lives to know God’s Word and God used His Word and His bible teachers to teach us. There are times when we are left to our own human wisdom to know which end is up and which way to go without the truth of God. But God is drilling His truth deeper in our minds and hearts through personal experience in life to help us to grow spiritually because many of us still remain in the process of growing up and God desires for our spiritual maturity.

 

     God teaches us experientially and we are learning the hard way through experiences in life. To experience who God is to me, who God is in my own life, we need to experience times of trouble, and we are need to be under pressure.

     David learned not just book knowledge, academic facts, theological facts who God is, all of these are good and necessary. But David learned on a whole new level of truth, and this is the truth that really sticks to us, this is the truth we learn through life and David says he learned experientially that the Lord is his strength.

     There are several words for strength in the Bible, but this particular word for strength used here is the kind of strength that enables us to do something. It is God who gives us the ability to accomplish or to do something. This is very important lesson for all of us to repeatedly relearn over and over again.

     Notice the verb as Moses said Exodus 13:3 ““And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place:…” 

When the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, God gave them the ability, that strength to be redeemed, to be rescued, to be delivered. That was all that God is doing. Did you notice that God’s strength became their strength. God’s strength became the Israelites ability to get out of Egypt and to experience freedom.

     After God led the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and after the Lord delivered the people through the miracle at the Red Sea, Moses and the people of Israel praised God their deliverer, in song (Exodus 15:1 “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.”). That song included the words of recognition that “the Lord is my strength and my song” (Exodus 15:2 “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God,”). Israel had longed for freedom for more than four hundred years, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, but did not have the strength to deliver themselves. At God’s perfect time, the Lord brought Israel in their deliverance, and in this moment of thanksgiving, the people acknowledged that He was their strength.

     Then later, after God led the people of Israel through the wilderness for forty years (because of their unbelief and stubbornness God judged them), Moses reminded the people of Israel that God had graciously sustained them with manna from heaven while they were in wilderness, so that they can have something to eat. God faithfully provided that like bread for them, in such a way that they would recognize that God was their strength and sustenance, that they may know that all their substance and wealth were not of their own capability (Deuteronomy 8:17 “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.”). God is good and God wants Israel to humbly recognize that God was their strength, so they should not trust their own ability and strength.  

     Now back in our passage, the psalmist David recognizes God as “my strength” (verse 1). David call God his strength and his shield (Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”). David expresses the lyrics in a song that he will sing of God’s strength and praises God who is his strength (Psalm 59:16-17 “But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. ¹⁷ Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.”). We see in all of these passages the close relationship between God being our strength and being worthy of praise in song. In Moses and in song of Israel, they sing with the words “the Lord is my strength and my song.” Israel would have no song to sing if not for God’s strength powerfully displayed on behalf of Israel. The truth the Israelites would not have even been alive to sing a song. What a privilege and blessing to sing a song recognizing God is our strength.

     Sometimes we can allow ourselves to learn the sufficiency of God’s grace through the difficulties of life.  

     There are times as we experience struggles in life, we get angry and bitter at God. David doesn’t want us being readers of this psalm, to allow pressures and difficulties of daily life to get us angry and bitter against the Lord. Do we know that the experiences we want to avoid is the lesson necessary for us to learn.

     Instead of getting angry and bitter towards God, David determined to say “I love you Lord.” Because God is his strength, and God teach him experientially. David learned that God is his strength in a deeper way than ever before and he wants us also to learn what he had learned about God.

     We can learn from actual experience more than from those facts that we heard.

     Through many times hearing lot of truth from the pulpit but it is when you experience the reality of daily life that truth really becomes yours. Not because somebody share with you about a truth in life but you will know that God is your strength through life personal experience.  It is easy to say “I love you Lord” all the time when heavy pressures and troubles in life don’t yet comes in your way. The statement “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength” is the expression of a man who learned from personal experience who God is, that God is his strength.

     There are times in our own lives we fail to see how great and beneficial are God’s works in our lives, and we either credit ourselves for our successes or we simply don’t acknowledge Him. How sad that we might think for even a moment that our strength is our own, when everything we have is from Him.

 

II – GOD IS DAVID’S STABILITY OR SECURITY (ROCK) – v.2a                   

Psalm 18:2a “The Lord is my rock, “

     David says, “The Lord is my rock”. Now, this is a metaphor used a lot in the Bible, Old and New Testaments, that God is like a rock. God is not literally a rock, but God is like a rock. It's a metaphor speaking about God as a rock was used 20 times in the Book of Psalms. It was used here in this chapter two times. Unmistakably, the metaphor refers to God as a rock. This metaphor can have 10,000 different shades of meanings and different applications, but it means that David learned experientially that God was his stability, security, that enables David, resting on that unchangeable and unmovable solid rock. And Moses said unto the people, Exodus 13:3 “Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place:…” 

     And through many of David's severe trials or terrible experience with his enemies, whether it was Goliath or Saul or Absalom or the Philistines, when circumstances otherwise would have caused him to be very unstable and insecure, David learned by his personal experience that God gave him stability and security.

     When we are in a severe and terrible circumstances of our lives, our human emotions take over and saying “I cannot handle it, I will give up, I quit,” we feel unstable and insecure. There is no other way to learn that God is my rock. But, David during difficult times learned that God was his stability and he learned it in a way that it couldn’t be learned in any other way. May this verse that David says “The Lord is my rock” become our expression in the worst moments of our Christian life.

     There are times when we got sick and so down, this rock became so important for us. We wish we could explain to others how God use down moments in my life but people have to learn by experience that God is a rock. No one could put into words that God is a rock. David learned the hard way by being chased around mountains and hiding in caves, and he was in danger, and David did not know the result of it all, but one important thing he learned and that is God was his rock. Emotions often did not tell us the truth. The truth is that when we are led by the Lord and His will, we become stable, safe and secure, because God is rock. The truth never changes God is our rock whether we sense it or not. God wants us to experience that He is our rock.

                                         

III – GOD IS DAVID’S STRONGHOLD (FORTRESS) – v.2b                  

Psalm 18:2b “and my fortress,”

     The word here fortress means a stronghold which means a place of defense, a defensive position. In David’s writing in the book of Psalms, the term “fortress” is often the English translation of a Hebrew word “mibtsar” (Strong concordance) which means fenced, stronghold, a place of refuge. David used this term fortress not a man-made wall but as a rock wall in the wilderness when David was running away and this rock walls stood as a barrier between him and his enemies, this serves as a protection from enemies.

     This refuge is a place when soldiers was out of the way in the wilderness and had a defensive wall where they could hide themselves with their weapons, so it was called a stronghold. David learned that God is his stronghold, a natural rock that offers him and his men safety.

     Notice, II Samuel 22:4 “And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.” Although, nobody of David’s enemies could get David, because David specifically hiding in that rock walls, natural fortress as a stronghold, but actually that rock walls, or that mountain area or trees provides protection as a barrier between David and his enemies. And David realized and acknowledged through that personal experience that it is God who is his fortress, his stronghold that protected him at this place, for his safety. That is why David glorifies God and expresses his acknowledgment that God is his real fortress. David knew that behind all of this God is working mightily. Prophet Zechariah in his prophetic vision for Jerusalem where God declares in Zechariah 2:5 “For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about,” as a symbolic metaphor for divine protection and an active, guarding presence. 

     David was safely, securely protected because the Lord was his true and mighty fortress.

 

IV – GOD IS DAVID’S DELIVERER – v.2c  

Psalm 18:2 “and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust;”

     Although the word deliverer means one who rescues but in this verse the essence of the word is according to David’s experience that he is saying God is my escape route. So, deliverer emphasizes here is the way to escape. This refers to David’s preservation in straits and difficulties. When his enemy was about to surround and taken him, David learned that God made a way for his escape route and made a way out as his enemies got in; so that, while they got in at one side of his strong hold, David got out of the other, and so escaped with his life. These escapes were so narrow and so unlikely that he plainly saw the hand of the Lord was in them. David personally experienced when his enemies chased him through the wilderness, David would take the escape route, and David gave God the glory for God is his deliverer. David learned not in a book but learned and found a route to get away from his enemies through God his deliverer. God proves He is our deliverer that provides a way to escape in times when we needed it most.

     Not only God is David’s deliverer, He is also our deliverer. Even when time of deliverance is at critical moment, God provides a way for us to escape.  

     David said “my God, my strength” - Hebrew, 'my strong rock' “tsuwriy”, expressing immovable firmness: implying the immutable faithfulness of God.  

     Notice David said “my God”. David deliverer is His God. The word for God is “El” means the mighty One. Therefore, God is a mighty God and David said “my God is a mighty God.” Who hast been to me a God; that is, in whom I have found all that is implied in the idea of “God” - a Protector, Helper, Friend, Father, Saviour. The notion or idea of a “God” is different from all other ideas, and David had found, as the Christian now does, all that is implied in that idea, in Yahweh, the living God.

     That is a wonderful thought to consider that my God is mighty, in fact my God is almighty. David learned that his God almighty has infinite power to take care of him so he had no reason to fear.  Although in human perspective, he had lot of things to fear about but since his God is the God almighty, so David says “my strength.”     

     God as a deliverer and a source of strength emphasizes His role in rescuing His people from danger and providing them the inner strength needed to overcome adversity. By proclaiming that the Lord is one’s deliverer and strength, the psalmist acknowledges God’s ability to intervene and bring about deliverance and empowerment.

     This “my God, my strength” is distinct from “my strength” (verse 1) “chizqiy” and “my rock” (verse 2), implying height and inaccessibility. The natural state of Palestine, abounding in rocks, which David often betook himself to when fleeing from Saul.

     The difference between these two words “deliverer” (verse 2) and “strength” (verse 1) is that the word “deliverer” means a rock. The rock has a distinction from the word “strength” (verse1) seems to be the size of the rock.

     David says, “My rock” although the Hebrew word is different from that which is used in the former part of the verse. Both words denote that God was a refuge or protection, as a rock to one in danger though the exact difference between the words may not be obvious.

     One of the terms used for as a name of God is the term “rock.” God is called the rock or the strength of Israel.

II Samuel 23:3 “The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God”,

     Then notice David say in our text in verse 2, Psalm 18:2 “in whom I will trust”. Because of who God is to David, he can trust God, same with us because of who God is to us, we can also trust God. That is, I have found Him to be such a refuge that I could trust in Him, and in view of the past I will confide in Him always.

     The Lord serves as a source of strength and shelter for those who put their trust in Him. This imagery reflects the idea that God is unchanging and reliable, providing a safe haven for His followers in the midst of life’s storms and challenges.

     David determined to trust and love that kind of God, because God has proved Himself to be to David in the past, the He is his strength, his solid rock, his fortress, his deliverer.

 

V – GOD IS DAVID’S SHIELD (BUCKLER) – v.2d

Psalm 18:2 “my buckler”

     A buckler is a type of shield used in ancient warfare to deflect blows and protect the warrior. A buckler was a small round shield that soldiers put on their arms, designed to deflect blows in close-quarters combat. A buckler is not the big door-like shield that soldiers carried before them. Buckler was a used more for hand-to-hand combat. This symbolizes how God shields His people from harm and defends them from the attacks of the enemy. When Scripture calls God our buckler, it means God provides total defense—protecting us from unseen threats and "stabs in the back".

      This emphasizes the protective nature of God. The word “buckler” used here is the same which occurs in Psalms 3:3, where it is translated “shield.” Psalms 3:3 “But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.”

     David is saying, “God is my shield”, my defender” who covers my head and my heart, so that I am neither slain nor wounded by the darts of my adversaries.” During enemy’s attack who had a dagger, sword swinging at you, you could not lift up that big door like shield, you just take this little buckler and hold it up and prevent the blow from splitting your head open or from hitting your heart. When the blow is coming at you, you speedily put your arm up and your life has been preserved. A buckler was the soldiers last line of defense.

     After David had been in many hand-to-hand combats using that buckler and have no time to think during the fight, but when the fight was over, David said “God is my buckler”. So, God put up the arm of David with that shield to prevent the enemy’s sword from killing him. Therefore, God is David last line of defense, last minute protection.

     God acts as our last-minute buckler by stepping in right when circumstances tell us that we should be defeated, when our human strength runs out, when we should be trampled over by these enemies more powerful that we are. We thank God that He shields us from sudden dangers, unexpected trials, and spiritual attacks. By allowing our situations to reach the very edge of human impossibility, God positions us to experience His power, timing, and miraculous grace, for He is our last line of defense, our shield.

     

VI – GOD IS DAVID’S HORN OF SALVATION – v.2e

Psalm 18:1-2 “and the horn of my salvation,”

     And here David says the Lord also the horn of his salvation.

     The phrase "the horn of my salvation" also holds significant symbolism. In biblical times, the horn was a symbol or metaphor of animal’s strength and power, often associated with animals such as oxen and rams. Their strength lies in the horn. The horn is to animals the means of their defense for safety from its foes who oppose or injure them. The allusion seems to be not to a means of attack, like the horn of an animal, but to a mountain peak, David says “my peak of safety.”  

     And figuratively it's used of the strength of very often of a ruler or of a nation. The horn is frequently used by the sacred writers, and by the Arabians, to denote riches, strength, dignity, and power.

     Hence, the word is used here, as elsewhere, to represent that to which we owe our protection and defense in danger; and the idea here is, that God was to the psalmist what the horn is to animals, the means of his defense.

Psalm 22:21 “Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.”

Psalm 75:4 “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:”

Psalm 75:10 “All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.”

Psalm 92:10 “But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.”

Psalm 132:17 “There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.”

Psalm 148:14 “He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord.”

 

     And here we see that God was David's horn of salvation. The salvation that God gave him, the physical salvation from his enemies like Goliath and Saul and others. God was that strength, that horn that provided salvation.

     By referring to God as "the horn of my salvation," the psalmist is acknowledging God's unmatched power and ability to save. This serves as a reminder that God is the ultimate source of deliverance and victory in the face of adversity.

     David is saying the Lord is the horn of my salvation who pushes, scatters, and destroys my enemies, and saves me from the destruction which my enemies intend; so, Christ, the mighty and able Savior, is called (Luke 1:69 “And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;”). The horn is the emblem at once of strength and of dignity. A “horn of salvation” is a source of excellency and might, whence “salvation” or deliverance comes to those who trust in it.

 

VII – GOD IS DAVID’S HIGH TOWER – v.2f

Psalm 18:2f “and my high tower.”

     Finally, the verse concludes by David describing God as "my high tower," a metaphor for a place of safety and refuge. Just as a high tower provides a vantage point and a place of protection, God is depicted as a secure and elevated position from which His people can seek safety and find peace.  

     The term “high tower” is defined as a stronghold, although it is very similar to that meaning of a stronghold, but there is a difference in it as well. It is like a fortress, but it is a rock that is elevated. Other rocks were those rocks on the side of a mountain that serve to shield David as a fortress, a barrier. But the expression “my high tower” it is a rock on the top of a cliff. When you climbed a mountain, there a lot of rocks on the top, that elevated rock, that is what term means, that high tower.

     When David said “my high tower;” not only a place of defense, but one from which I can discern the country round about, and always be able to discover danger before it approaches me. “My high tower” such is the name of the Lord, whither the righteous run and are safe (Proverbs 18:10) and where they are above and out of the reach of every enemy (Isaiah 33:16 “He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks:”). It is added in II Samuel 22:3 “and my refuge, my Saviour, thou savest me from violence”.  David wants to teach us that as we grow closer to the Lord and trusting Him daily as our high tower, we get much better perspective of life down here on this earth, because our struggles on this earth is very different from our perspective of eternity when are experiencing battle down here in this earth.

     As we have been raised into heavenly places, Paul said that we are to dwell, abide in Christ above, Ephesians 2:6 “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” As long as we walk with the Lord from that heavenly perspective, and we are trusting Him, that would give  us a totally different perspective as experience personally difficulties, sorrows, griefs and struggles here on this earth.

     We are still living in this ground level, but we have here a view that is very limited perspective and things look much more fearful as we see the enemy. Contrary, we will see far beyond our limited narrow view, when we look above and look at life from eternity’s perspective, it is like looking at life down here in this earth through a scope. In other words, we see more realities and true in this earth from heaven’s eternity perspective which we don’t think of those realities from the earth that God is our rock, our strength, our fortress, our way to escape, our horn of salvation, our high tower.

     Paul prayed for that new heavenly perspective for the Ephesians. Ephesians 1:18-19 “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,”

     For David the Lord is a high tower to one who is in danger. We can compare that in Proverbs 18:10 “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” The word strong tower is rendered “refuge”, a high place in Psalm 9:9 “The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.”

     In high tower:

We are safe as we are on lofty places, and in such positions as not to be easily accessible. Nobody can pluck us from the Lord’s hands (John 10:28-29 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.”).

We are overcomers in Christ (I John 5:4-5 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. ⁵ Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”)

We are more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”).

     In terms of context, Psalm 18 is attributed to King David, who composed it as a hymn of thanksgiving to the Lord for delivering him from the hands of his enemies, particularly King Saul. That is the heavenly perspective that David wanted his readers to see. David's personal experiences and encounters with danger and opposition are reflected in the powerful imagery and language used throughout the psalm. Therefore, the verse can be seen as a personal declaration of David's unwavering trust in God's protection and deliverance in the face of adversity. It is important not just hear these facts being taught academically, but when they become but when we experience it through the struggles of life, God is our rock.

 

Go back to Homepage