Psalms 18:2, commentary and pictures

The Lord is personally rock, fortress, deliverer, strength, shield, and high tower, full of mercy, love, and compassion and worthy to be praised, so that calling upon Him brings salvation from enemies. He is a strong, dependable refuge and helper in whom to trust implicitly with every weakness and burden, whose strength makes the believer strong and who will not fail or abandon His followers to their enemies. Trusting Him through communion, prayer, and open confession brings further strength, courage, hope, and praise, and daily renewal of His grace carries believers step by step in character and holiness toward heaven. When facing danger, temptation, spiritual peril, or provocation feeling helpless and surrounded, safety and strength come from fleeing to Him as shield, stronghold, and deliverer rather than from human power or retaliation. Christ is the Rock of Ages on whom the guilty, tempest-tossed soul rests by faith, finding pardon, light, joy, settled peace, and a remedy for every disease of the soul.

Rock, Fortress, Deliverer

The Lord is personally rock and fortress and deliverer, God and strength, buckler and horn of salvation and high tower in whom to trust. He is full of mercy and love and compassion, worthy to be praised and loved as strength. Calling upon Him brings salvation from enemies.

The tower and rock and fortress, with shield and buckler, declare Jesus a strong and dependable refuge and helper. A person may trust Him with every weakness and burden, and may trust Him implicitly. His strength makes the believer strong and brings divine power. He will not fail His followers.

He is dependable protection and the source of strength — rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, salvation, helper, tower, and secure refuge. Trusting Him gives strength through communion with Him, and those who turn to Him do so in prayer and trust. Openly confessing confidence in Him brings further strength and leads to praise.

The rock is Christ, the source of strength and the shelter where a person can hide without fear. When John looked at the rocks of Patmos they reminded him that he could hide in Christ's protection. Youth who work for Christ are to lead souls into safe paths and plant their feet on this Rock of Ages.

The God who made the mountains and holds them in place is the believer's defense and strong tower. In Him is help and a sure source of strength to do His will at all times.

The buckler means Jesus Christ is the eternal guardian of justice. His hand is always spread as a buckler over even the humblest of His followers for protection. He is present in every transaction where their rights are concerned, so He can never be excluded from it. No one can harm them without smiting His hand.

The Lord lives and reigns as helper, rock, fortress, strength, and deliverer through Jesus Christ. He is a sure defense and protection, a sure refuge to trust in. His strength and deliverance and aid give courage and hope to those who trust Him. That hope includes hope of approaching deliverance.

Strength Through Trust

The Lord is His people's Rock, their sure protection and source of strength, and they can be secure and confident in Him because He will not abandon them to their enemies or to the enemy but will carry them through every difficult passage and circumstance. He is a stronghold and deliverer, and this gives reason to trust Him at all times and to have courage and good courage. That trust is for a spiritually minded life, for doing work for eternity, for being an example, and for prospering.

In illness and pain He is strength and deliverer and fortress to be trusted, the only hope and the one who can restore health and on whose strong arm reliance can be placed. Life can be hidden in Jesus Christ, for God is true, merciful, and compassionate, a present help to all who seek Him who will not disappoint them. If health returns, God receives the glory. Trust in God with the daily renewal of His grace enables believers to grow step by step in character and holiness on the way to heaven, and He is a sure help when trouble comes. Those who make Him their trust as helper and fortress, who cry daily for the living God, keep the heart stayed upon Him continually, wait and watch and pray for Him to teach and lead and guide, and walk in humility of mind and in His love and fear while laboring for souls as those who must give an account, will never be left destitute of His Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the Rock of Ages on whom the tempest-tossed, sin-stricken soul plants its feet by laying its hand confidingly in His hand. Trusting the assurance of the Saviour's love brings relief from guilt, sheds a flood of light, transports the soul as if to heaven, banishes all fear of death, and fills the heart with sacred joy and praise to Jesus. It even makes the believer willing to covet prison and the fagot to honor the Redeemer's name. The Lord God is a Rock in the midst of the ocean of life to the guilty sinner whose future is dark and gloomy. When the character of a good and compassionate Saviour who Himself atones for transgressions and saves from suffering the penalty of sin is vividly impressed on the mind, the sinner casts himself into His arms and trusts His mercy and sees that the Bible brings to view just such a needed Saviour as a revelation from God.

Then Jesus becomes a friend, the chiefest among ten thousand, the mind becomes settled and satisfied, and the Scriptures which before were dark and contradictory become delight, a lamp to the feet and a light to the path. The Bible becomes the chief study searched with great delight, its half never told before, its beauty and glory wondered at, revealing everything the heart can desire and a remedy for every disease of the soul. All taste for other reading is lost in applying the heart to get wisdom from God.

Shelter in Trial and Service

When danger closes in and the believer feels helpless and surrounded, Christ is relied upon as shield and buckler and strong tower, as secure defense and protector and deliverer. Luther in that place relied on Christ as his shield and strong tower when facing danger, and safety and strength come from God rather than from human power or strength or wisdom. God is the eternal Rock to whom people must be riveted, because mighty surges of temptation will break upon all, and unless riveted to Him a person will be borne away to become the helpless prey of the enemy. Staying joined to the Rock is duty and safety and happiness and usefulness and salvation. Securing it requires the greatest diligence to secure the grace of Christ, to be closely connected with God so as to discern spiritual things, to search the Scriptures diligently and pray earnestly for divine help to resist temptation, and to yield to be sanctified by obedience to the truth, where God is pledged to supply power and grace and the transforming power of Christ's grace molds the life into purity like Christ's purity and perfect conformity to God's will.

In spiritual danger people must flee to God as Stronghold and only safety rather than yield to the tempter's deceptive theories. Christ is a shield and salvation against falsehood and evil counsel and discouragement, protecting His people so that their enemies' evil plans do not succeed. When provocation threatens peace the believer can run to God as shield and fortress and be safe, rather than retaliate. Retaliating instead harms the believer's own peace and confidence in God and grieves the Holy Spirit. Jesus is a welcome light in darkness and a place of safety when Satan's temptations have overcome a person and hope and strength seem gone.

Those who stand unshrinkingly in the forefront of the battle and feel Satan's special warfare against them flee to God as Stronghold and Mighty One. Feeling their need of special strength from God, they labor in His strength and lean more securely upon Him in faith in the conflict of Christian service, turning to this Stronghold and claiming the promises of God's Word for strength for the duties at hand. The victories they gain do not exalt self but lead to deep and fervent gratitude to God and to joy in the tribulation experienced while pressed by the enemy, deepening dependence on God, gaining an experience and forming a character that does honor to God's cause. Those who would teach His Word and labor effectively for the salvation of souls must flee to God as the stronghold of truth through Bible study and prayer to obtain wisdom and knowledge and divine power and an unction from on high, not resting until they receive it. Coming to Him with a humble, contrite heart, believing and receiving His promises and using the means He has placed within reach brings power without stint and the divine blessing, while neglect of this study and prayer and wisdom and spiritual advancement is sin and carelessness that may turn the balance for a soul toward perdition.

Christ is the refuge and high tower in the great day of the Lord, and standing safely with Him requires putting away envy and strife for supremacy and placing oneself wholly on the Lord's side. A conference president should rely on Him as Counselor and Stronghold, trusting Him to guard and guide the work. The Lord lives and reigns as strength and deliverer, giving courage and cheer for trusting Him and for speaking cheerful, encouraging words to uphold and strengthen someone who is sick and recovering toward health.