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\u201cI love you, O Lord, my strength\u201d (Psalm 18:1).

This opening phrase of Psalm 18 may suggest to us that this will be a nice, gentle psalm. It is anything but. It is filled with bold colours, powerful metaphors, haunting images, and violent movements.

John Calvin wrote that the creation is the "theatre of God's glory." It may have been this psalm which inspired that phrase. David, having spent his life shepherding sheep, hiding in caves, and defeating enemy armies knows a thing or two about this creation. That intimate knowledge fashions his prayer.

Let's take a brief look.

In the first movement God is rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, stronghold. But wait a moment. These images of mountain strongholds are all preceded with a pronoun. David says, "The Lord is my..."\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 I uspect that we ought to follow David's example more often. Find the strongest elements of God's creation to describe what God is to you.

In the second movement, David uses creation metaphors to describe how he almost dies: cords of death, torrents of destruction, cords of the grave. Have you ever dared to uses such images to describe the state of affairs in your life?

The third movement of this psalm imagines the creation coming apart before God's approach: trembles, quakes, shakes, smokes, parts. Here God does not come in light, but in the darkness of judgement. It's an edge of your seat horror show.

Then, suddenly, the imagery shifts. This horrifying God reaches down, shepherd like, and picks up his trembling lamb from the cliff of disaster. As enemies surround him, cutting off his life, God pauses, picks him out of the fray and sets him in a safe place.

Why? This is who God is. He has an eye for those who seek Him. When the psalmist declares his own righteousness, he is not suggesting that he is perfect, having ever sinned. No. It's another way of saying, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God" (Ps. 42:1). God comes to those who seek Him.

Now God becomes the teacher: God is the master and the psalmist, the apprentice.\xa0 Notice all that God does for and teaches this psalmist. All this training is so that he can go out and deal with his enemies. David is not rescued in order to be spared the struggle. Rather, God uses David to deal with those who oppose Him. Remember, God's enemies are David's enemies.

David is amazed at how thoroughly God has carried him through the storm and how thoroughly God has raised him over his enemies. Thus, he praises God.

We too can pray this prayer. Read Ephesians 2:6-7 and Psalm 42 in light of those verses.