3/17/24:
Psalm 18 Devotional:
Psalm 18:20-28

20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.

23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.

24 Therefore the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

25 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;

26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.

27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt cast down proud looks.

28 Surely thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.

Previously we have seen in this Psalm David’s love for God and the natural response towards His indulging lovingkindness, even vocal praise and adoration of His name, with such titles and names of honor befitting His majesty and glory. We saw also the magnificent compassion and patience of God, even displaying His covenant faithfulness in such wondrous fashion, the more to confirm our faith and love to Him. For when He delivered His people out of Egypt, in infinite wisdom He performed it by miracles so that reading this account in the word, our trust would not be in our own ability, but the power and mercy of God. And so, this is the primary instruction we receive in all of these historical accounts, even that God hath saved us by His own arm, and therefore we learn both that He alone deserves the praise, honor and glory in opposition to human pride and self sufficiency and that He warrants it from us who are wont to forget His many mercies to us. This principle then rebukes those who are outside the fold of God, who have a profession of religion, but holding to the corrupt doctrine of merit and free will show themselves unacquainted with God, and it also rebukes us who are slow of heart to give God the praise due to His name in our daily devotions. Therefore these are left as a testimony to us that we would not remain like blocks of wood, but that in reading this Psalm and others like it, our hearts would be enflamed in praise and ardent worship.
Secondly, we see that the Psalmist is careful to defend the name of God against the adversaries on the other hand also, lest they imagine that God in saving a people freely by His grace, allows and permits them to live according to the flesh, in sensual indulgence, luxury and the pampering of the sinful appetites. David in true Christian harmony proceeds to exclaim that God rewarded him according to the cleanness of his hands, and even boldly protests that he kept the ways of the Lord. This is not to say that he merited favor at God’s hand, as if God owes his servants anything, for the sake of his accomplishments, which he already confessed were given freely. But the rather to stir us up unto godliness and uprightness of conduct, David sets forth the holy doctrine of peace and stability of mind under hardship on account of our justification and protection. For though the godly will not always be rich in gold, yet evermore rich in peace, even amidst adversity, persecution and false accusation. Therefore when the enemies of God accuse us on all sides of any kind of mischief, we may have an answer for them, that God has rewarded us according to the cleanness of our hands. And this is important to note because that all our works are done before Him, and He is a much more terrifying judge, rendering judgment to all wicked doers. David then says this not for his enemies sake, but his own and the church, so that they (as well as he) might be encouraged unto godliness and perfection of life. Let us then take encouragement from this word and be faithful in our own calling, that God would be glorified and we would have an answer to the enemy who reproaches us. Thus David ends the strain of praise with, “thou wilt save the afflicted people, but wilt cast down high looks” showing that if at any moment we lift up our hearts in pride, it is right for God to cast us down, but if we are humbled by His Spirit and made willing to call upon Him in the day of trouble, He will certainly save us, and look upon our groanings with fatherly affection. And therefore will He save, when we call upon Him in sincerity.

Calvin,
Jehovah rewarded me. David might seem at first sight to contradict himself; for, while a little before he declared that all the blessings which he possessed were to be traced to the good pleasure of God, he now boasts that God rendered to him a just recompense. But if we remember for what purpose he connects these commendations of his own integrity with the good pleasure of God, it will be easy to reconcile these apparently conflicting statements. He has before declared that God was the sole author and originator of the hope of coming to the kingdom which he entertained, and that he had not been elevated to it by the suffrages of men, nor had he rushed forward to it through the mere impulse of his own mind, but accepted it because such was the will of God. Now he adds, in the second place, that he had yielded faithful obedience to God, and had never turned aside from his will. Both these things were necessary; first, that God should previously show his favor freely towards David, in choosing him to be king; and next, that David, on the other hand, should, with an obedient spirit, and a pure conscience, receive the kingdom which God thus freely gave him; and farther, that whatever the wicked might attempt, with the view of overthrowing or shaking his faith, he should nevertheless continue to adhere to the direct course of his calling. Thus, then, we see that these two statements, so far from disagreeing with each other, admirably harmonise. David here represents God as if the president of a combat, under whose authority and conduct he had been brought forth to engage in the combats. Now that depended upon election, in other words, upon this, that God having embraced him with his favor, had created him king. He adds in the verses which immediately follow, that he had faithfully performed the duties of the charge and office committed to him even to the uttermost. It is not, therefore, wonderful if God maintained and protected David, and even showed, by manifest miracles, that he was the defender of his own champion, whom he had, of his own free choice, admitted to the combat, and who he saw had performed his duty with all fidelity. We ought not, however, to think that David, for the sake of obtaining praise among men, has here purposely indulged in the language of vain boasting; we ought rather to view the Holy Spirit as intending by the mouth of David to teach us the profitable doctrine, that the aid of God will never fail us, provided we follow our calling, keep ourselves within the limits which it prescribes, and undertake nothing without the command or warrant of God. At the same time, let this truth be deeply fixed in our minds, that we can only begin an upright course of life when God of his good pleasure adopts us into his family, and in effectually calling, anticipates us by his grace, without which neither we nor any creature would give him an opportunity of bestowing this blessing upon us.

There, however, still remains one question. If God rendered to David a just recompense, it may be said, does it not seem, when he shows himself liberal towards his people, that he is so in proportion as each of them has deserved? I answer, When the Scripture uses the word reward or recompense, it is not to show that God owes us any thing, and it is therefore a groundless and false conclusion to infer from this that there is any merit or worth in works. God, as a just judge, rewards every man according to his works, but he does it in such a manner, as to show that all men are indebted to him, while he himself is under obligation to no one. The reason is not only that which St Augustine has assigned, namely, that God finds no righteousness in us to recompense, except what he himself has freely given us, but also because, forgiving the blemishes and imperfections which cleave to our works, he imputes to us for righteousness that which he might justly reject. If, therefore, none of our works please God, unless the sin which mingles with them is pardoned, it follows, that the recompense which he bestows on account of them proceeds not from our merit, but from his free and undeserved grace. We ought, however, to attend to the special reason why David here speaks of God rewarding him according to his righteousness. He does not presumptuously thrust himself into the presence of God, trusting to or depending upon his own obedience to the law as the ground of his justification; but knowing that God approved the affection of his heart, and wishing to defend and acquit himself from the false and wicked calumnies of his enemies, he makes God himself the judge of his cause. We know how unjustly and shamefully he had been loaded with false accusations, and yet these calumnies did not so much bear against the honor and name of David as against the welfare and estate of the whole Church in common. It was indeed mere private spite which stirred up Saul, and drove him into fury against David, and it was to please the king that all other men were so rancorous against an innocent individual, and broke forth so outrageously against him; but Satan, there is no doubt, had a prime agency in exciting these formidable assaults upon the kingdom of David, and by them he endeavored to accomplish his ruin, because in the person of this one man God had placed, and, as it were, shut up the hope of the salvation of the whole people. This is the reason why David labors so carefully and so earnestly to show and to maintain the righteousness of his cause. When he presents and defends himself before the judgment-seat of God against his enemies, the question is not concerning the whole course of his life, but only respecting one certain cause, or a particular point. We ought, therefore, to attend to the precise subject of his discourse, and what he here debates. The state of the matter is this: His adversaries charged him with many crimes; first, of rebellion and treason, accusing him of having revolted from the king his father-in-law; in the second place, of plunder and robbery, as if, like a robber, he had taken possession of the kingdom; thirdly, of sedition, as if he had thrown the kingdom into confusion when it enjoyed tranquillity; and, lastly, of cruelty and many flagitious actions, as if he had been the cause of murders, and had prosecuted his conspiracy by many dangerous means and unlawful artifices. David, in opposition to these accusations, with the view of maintaining his innocence before God, protests and affirms that he had acted uprightly and sincerely in this matter, inasmuch as he attempted nothing without the command or warrant of God; and whatever hostile attempts his enemies made against him, he nevertheless always kept himself within the bounds prescribed by the Divine Law. It would be absurd to draw from this the inference that God is merciful to men according as he judges them to be worthy of his favor. Here the object in view is only to show the goodness of a particular cause, and to maintain it in opposition to wicked calumniators; and not to bring into examination the whole life of a man, that he may obtain favor, and be pronounced righteous before God. In short, David concludes from the effect and the issue, that his cause was approved of by God, not that one victory is always and necessarily the sign of a good cause, but because God, by evident tokens of his assistance, showed that he was on the side of David.

Therefore as each of us have before us innumerous evidences of God’s compassion and goodness towards us, let us not hesitate to come before Him in purity of faith and good works, knowing that He is pleased with those who walk before Him in truth. 

Lesson 11. The substance of the doctrine of Christ. Part 1. Creation and the Fall. Would parents but begin betimes, and labour to affect the hearts of their children with the great matters of everlasting life, and to acquaint them with the substance of the doctrine of Christ…
Intro.
We draw arguments from antiquity because,
1. God called these excellent and notable ministers for our benefit and we are obligated to hear from them because of their relation to God.
2. We aim to show that we are in full agreement with Reformed orthodoxy.
3. The Reformed Puritans are the standard for preaching and teaching and we learn to be more perfect by looking at the standard.

1. Our creation for obedience.
(Vincent.)
2. The separation from God by the fall.
(Flavel)
3. The perfection required by the law. (Watson)
4. Our obligation according to the covenant of works. (Vincent)

Conclusion.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/HYT3XrwOH6s