40b I destroyed those who hated me. 41 They cried out, but there was none to save; even to the Lord, but He did not answer them. 42 Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind; I cast them out like dirt in the streets. 43 You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; You have made me the head of the nations; A people I have not known shall serve me. 44 As soon as they hear of me they obey me; the foreigners submit to me. 45 The foreigners fade away, and come frightened from their hideouts. —Psalm 18:40b-45
David isn’t saying in these verses that his enemies “cried out in repentance to the Lord, but He did not hear them.” They weren’t asking God to save them from their sinful ways; they were asking Him to save them from the sword of David! Does God hear everyone’s prayers? Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Speaking even more harshly, Proverbs 29:1 states, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” It seems that one can reach a point of no return because their heart becomes so hardened that repentance and salvation is impossible (Ex 5-14).
David, as a young man, was loyal to the Lord from early on. He was willing to face the giant Goliath, saying, “You come to me with [weapons], but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel . . . that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Sam 17).
Likewise, He slays giants in our lives so that the world may know there’s a God who is powerful and mighty to save. He heals hearts and minds that psychology can’t help so that people can know there’s a God in heaven. He delivers addicts and drunks, whom the world’s programs can’t help, so that we all may know there’s a God in heaven who saves and sets free.
When you, with the help of God, pull down strongholds that have held you in bondage, glory is given to Him in the eyes of the world, and there’s no enemy that can’t be conquered. You can control your tongue; you can change that bad attitude; you can be free from that addiction—because God is with you, and He gets all the glory for it. Don’t worry because you feel powerless! You have the God of all power beside you, and He is mighty to save! It’s not too late. God can take the most messed-up life and make it magnificent. “Old things pass away, all things are become new.”
Excerpt from “Beside Still Waters” now available on Amazon.
