43 You have delivered me from the contentions of the people;
You have placed me as head of the nations;
A people whom I have not known serve me.
44 As soon as they hear, they obey me;
Foreigners [u]submit to me.
45 Foreigners fade away,
And come trembling out of their [v]fortresses.46 The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock;
And exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 The God who executes vengeance for me,
And subdues peoples under me.
48 He delivers me from my enemies;
Surely You lift me above those who rise up against me;
You rescue me from the violent man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Lord,
And I will sing praises to Your name.
50 He gives great [w]deliverance to His king,
And shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
To David and his [x]descendants forever.
In the last section of this psalm, we see David giving thanks for the blessings of God in his life. Through it all, David gives God the glory. God is the rock and salvation that David depends upon, and there is no credit earned by David here. In each verse, the focus is on God’s works, not David’s. “The Lord lives… God who executes vengeance… He delivers me… You rescue me… He gives great deliverance… and shows lovingkindness…”
We would do well then, to learn from David, to give thanks to God and sing His praises. We read earlier, “the fool has said… there is no god”, and likewise, only the fool takes credit for God’s work. Because that’s really fundamental here. When we rebel against God, it’s because we want to be in control, and we want the power and the fame. But it doesn’t belong to us, none of it.
For all our striving, we are not in control of anything beyond our own choice, whether to follow God’s plan or not. In the end, it all points back to God, and to deny that is the biggest mistake of all time. Because God does indeed live, He executes his own will, which is ultimately that He wants to deliver us, and rescue us, and show us lovingkindness.
His will isn’t to demolish us, or to strike us down in our sin. If He wanted that, He could have just sent another flood and wiped us all out. God could have given up on the human race and just been done with it all. But He didn’t, because God wants us to know him, to know him for who he really is. However, we can’t know him truly until we give up that illusionary sense of control, give Him glory and thanks, and choose to follow Him.