When I was a young person I was driving through our small town with my mother. A guy behind us was drink and would accelerate fast and right before he smashed into us, he would slam on the brakes. He did this several times.
My. Mother. Snapped.
Mama Bear came out and I still remember the moment to this day. We were in a green little Toyota Corolla and she stopped, yanked hard on the emergency brake, got out and chased that man down (in his car, driving, drunk) and she won. He backed off in fear and that was the end of that. Although we were distraught to learn he later was elected to our local school board.
Psalm 18 is a similar picture. David is being hunted, literally. It isn’t a game or a nice movie. His life is on the line and he doesn’t know the outcome. He doesn’t have an army behind him but rather a ragtag group of misfits. His changes are a hair above nothing.
But in poetic fashion, David talks about God roaring down from heaven to rescue his son.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the mountains trembled;
they shook because He burned with anger.
8 Smoke rose from His nostrils,
and consuming fire came from His mouth;
coals were set ablaze by it.
9 He parted the heavens and came down,
a dark cloud beneath His feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew,
soaring on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His hiding place,
dark storm clouds His canopy around Him.
12 From the radiance of His presence,
His clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High projected His voice.
This isn’t literal, but rather a poetic picture of the God of the earth coming to the rescue. And when David was rescued, it was with God’s Almighty power.
Not only did God rescue him, but he put his enemies to pursuit. Then he established David in such a way that not only did his people fear and honor him, but the peoples of the nations around them also honored him with great fear and trembling.
It’s interesting reading this as many a king would take glory in his own victory, his own cleverness to escape the day of death and danger, his own smartness. Not David. He knew that he was as good as dead, but for God. And God Almighty was the one he gave credit and honor to and Him alone.
This is what makes for great leaders.
