Psalm 18
And the Names of God

Psalm 18

a Psalm of David

In this Psalm,

David is giving a testimony

and a praise

to the Mighty Power

and the Wondrous Deliverance

of the Lord God of heaven and earth.

In the video below

the Psalm is read

and the words are seen.

Many names of God

are given in Psalm 18.

~

In Psalm 18 verse 2

the Lord  - clearly -  gives us several of his names.

---

You could say that the power of God

is revealed in God's names.

The Names of God

Many theologians, preachers, and teachers have studied the names of God that are revealed in the Bible.

Here are some of God's Hebrew names from the Old Testament:

Adonai - which means Lord or Master

Jehovah Shalom - The God of Peace

Jehovah Rapha - The God who Heals

Jehovah Nissi - God is our Banner

Jehovah Rohi - God is our Shepherd

El Elyon - The Most High God

El Olam - The Everlasting God

Here are some names we have gleaned from descriptions of Jesus in the New Testament.

Jesus is called:

The Lamb of God

The Good Shepherd

The Light

The Vine

The Bread of Life

Note that the Hebrew word "Bethlehem" means

House of Bread.

So Jesus - the bread of life - was born in the house of bread.

I think God did that intentionally.

As I was reading Psalm 18 one day, I began to notice lots of names of God in its verses. Some were more obvious than others.

The Names of God in Psalm 18

Psalm 18:1-50

Finding the names of God

Here are some names that I found

Verse 1

O Lord, my Strength

Verse 2

My Rock, My Fortress, My Buckler, The Horn of my Salvation, My High Tower

Note: I didn't use all of the names of God for verse 2, because I am using some of them in later verses.

The word "horn" represents power. The word "buckler" gives us the idea of a type of shield of protection.

Verse 3

The Lord who is worthy to be praised

Verse 4

The Lord over Death

Verse 5

The Lord who defeats my enemies

Verse 6

The Lord who Hears

Verse 7

The Lord who shakes the earth

Verse 8

The Lord of Fire

Verse 9

The Almighty One

Verse 10

The Lord of the Wind

Verse 11

The Invisible God

Verse 12

The God over Hail and Fire

Verse 13

The God of the Heavens

Verse 14

The God of the earth

Verse 15

The God of Creation

Verse 16

The God who brings me through

Verse 17

The Mighty God

Verse 18

My Support

Verse 19

My Deliverer

Verse 20

My Rewarder

Verse 21

The God of Righteousness

Verse 22

The Eternal Judge

View 23

The God of Truth

Verse 24

My Pure Example

Verse 25

The Merciful God

Verse 26

My Pure Savior

Verse 27

My Salvation

Verse 28

My Light

Verse 29

The God of Miracles

Verse 30

The Perfect One

Verse 31

The Rock of Ages

Verse 32

My Supplier

Verse 33

The Lord who steadies me

Verse 34

My Teacher

Verse 35

My Shield and My Upholder

Verse 36

The God who Enlarges and Widens my Steps

Verse 37

My Victory

Verse 38

The One who trains me for Battle  

Verse 39

The God who strengthens me during Battle

Verse 40

The God of all Authority

Verse 41

The God who opposes Evil

Verse 42

The God who gives me power over my enemies

Verse 43

The God who makes me the Head and not the Tail

Verse 44

The God who Raises up his people as Leaders

Verse 45

The Lord who will make every knee to bow

Verse 46

The Exalted God

Verse 47

The Subduer

Verse 48

The Lord Most High

Verse 49

Ha Shem - Hebrew name for God meaning  "THE NAME"

Verse 50

The Sovereign Lord

Notes:

Verse 43:

We are to be the head and not the tail. This is found in Deuteronomy 28:13.

Verse 49: 

In the language of Hebrew, there are three ways to express "the highest" of something. One of them is to say "THE."
For example the Hebrew expression "The Name" would be translated into English as "The Highest Name." 

So the fullness of the translation of "Ha Shem" into English would be "The Highest Name."

Note:

This page is copyrighted.

If you use this in church, etc., please give copyright credit.

Copyright © 2014 Beth McLendon of Inspirational Prayers.com

Who are our Enemies?

Note that when we read verses about

our "enemies"

in the book of Psalms,

I remind you that we are to basically see our enemies

as those of the demonic kingdom.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12 KJV

---

Below is a beautiful video

that highlights many of the names of God.

Thy Gentleness

In Psalm 18:35 and in 2 Samuel 22:36b,

David tells us that he has discovered that gentleness is

very important in life.

"Thy Gentleness hath made me great."

That is one of my favorite verses.

I have thought a lot about that verse, and I have studied gentleness.

Gentleness and tenderness are essentially the same.

The Bible talks a lot about hardheartedness and about gentleness/tenderness.

Gentleness is one of the fruit of the spirit. (Galatians 5:22)

So if we are allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us, we will be growing in gentleness.

I want to encourage you to view our two pages on Gentleness/Tenderness

The Secret

A Weekly Devotion on Marriage

** If you look at 2 Samuel chapter 22 and Psalm 18, you can see they are basically the same.

Speaking of Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel chapter 22:

It is interesting that these words of David inspired by the Holy Spirit are so important that God put them in the Bible twice.

The Lord Runs to Help Me

Psalms 18 verses 9-15 portray our God

as one who runs to help us when we need him.

Reading these verses make me feel good, because I see how much God cares about me.

I enjoy reading those verses in The Living Bible.

Here are verses 6-16 in the Living Bible:

In my distress I screamed to the Lord for his help.

And he heard me from heaven, my cry reached his ears.

Then the earth rocked and reeled, and
mountains shook and trembled.

How they quaked! For he was angry.

Fierce flames leaped from his mouth, setting fire to the earth; smoke blew from his nostrils.

He bent the heavens down and came to my defense;
thick darkness was beneath his feet.
Mounted on the cherubim,
he sped swiftly to my aid
with wings of wind.

He enshrouded himself with darkness,
veiling his approach with dense clouds
dark as murky waters.

Suddenly the brilliance of his presence broke through
the clouds with lightning and a mighty storm of hail.

The Lord thundered in the heavens;
the God above all gods has spoken -
oh, the hailstones; oh, the fire!

He flashed his fearful arrows of lightning and
routed all my enemies.

See how they run!

Then at your command, O Lord,
the sea receded from the shore.

At the blast of your breath the depths were laid bare.

He reached down from heaven and took me and
drew me out of my great trials.

He rescued me from deep waters.

50 Verses

Many people who study the Bible associate the number 50 with deliverance or freedom from a burden. 

They have noted that God told Israel that every 50th year was a Jubilee year of blessing to the people. At that time, all debts were erased.  (Leviticus 25)

I enjoy thinking that perhaps this psalm has 50 verses because 50 sometimes represents deliverance, and Psalm 18 talks about how God delivers us.

Just a thought.

To read a psalm that is obviously intentionally amazing in its verses,
see our Psalm 119 page.

A Game for Children

I made up a game for children

that became a real hit!

~

It is  called

"The Names of Jesus"

and it is like Bingo.

So get the kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews

together and

Let's play!

The "Bingo" cards:

I made several homemade boards that looked like Bingo cards except that each one only had nine spaces. There were three spaces per line and three lines. I used red construction paper 8 1/2 x 11 cut in half. I used a ruler and a black magic marker to create the spaces.

I made more cards than children so each child had a choice of cards.

The call-out cards:

Then I took small white square pieces of paper and wrote a name of Jesus on each one.  I did about 20 names. I  mix them up and during the game I choose one at a time and call out the name of Jesus written on that card.

(Scroll down the page if you want my suggestions for names to use for the cards.)

The "Bingo" cards:

On each red "Bingo" card, I used a black marker to write a name of Jesus in each space. (Only use names of Jesus that are already on the Call-Out cards.)

Each "Bingo" card was unique, yet sometimes more than one card had a specific name of Jesus. Note that you want to make the cards somewhat unique, because you want to make sure that the children don't all "Bingo" at the same time.

How the game is played:

Each child picks a "Bingo" card before the game starts.

The game starts by having the adult take a white card from the "call-out" pile and call out the first name of Jesus.

For example: I would pick a card. It had the name "The Lion of Judah" on it. So I called out that name. Then each child would look to see if he or she had that name on his or her card.

If a child did have that name, then that child puts a penny over that name of Jesus.

For younger children who do not read well, allow them to hold the card in their hand in order to search for a match.

This is a great activity to help children in reading.

How you win:

When a child has all nine names of Jesus covered, that child wins!

Prizes

I had really great prizes to create terrific enthusiasm.

I had children begging to play.

~

AND the children learned the names of Jesus.

And at a later time, we would discuss the names!

~

When you want to give your kids

a sugary treat,

consider playing the game!

Note that if one day, one of the children never wins a game, I had a "Great Attitude" consolation prize ready.

Also:

I urge you not to continually day-after-day give a child with a Bad Attitude a "Great Attitude" prize.  That will make most of the children not want to play anymore,  because that is unfair. And it will teach the child with the bad attitude that he doesn't have to change to be rewarded. God tells us in his Word that good behavior is rewarded.

A Friendly Reminder:

Children do not naturally understand that Jesus IS God.

For help with explaining this concept, scroll down to the section called
"Helping Children understand that Jesus IS God."

Here are some names of Jesus

you might want to use for the game:

The Lamb of God

The Lion of Judah - Click here to see a page on the Lion of Judah

The Door

The Vine

The Good Shepherd

The Way    (the way to heaven - no one gets to heaven but by Him)

The Light of the World    (or just "The Light")

The Bread of Life

The King of Kings

The Lord of Lords

I am

The Savior

Lord of All

Immanuel (which means "God with us")

Prince of Peace

Lord

Adonai (which means "Lord")

Son of God

Christ  (means "Anointed One" in Greek)

Messiah   (means "Anointed One" in Hebrew)

Mighty God

Jesus of Nazareth

Alpha and Omega   (The meaning is below)

Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet.  This name of Jesus gives us the idea of "The First and the Last." We find this name of Jesus in Revelation 22:13. I encourage you to read that verse to the children.

Helping Children understand that Jesus IS God

Children do not naturally understand that

Jesus IS God.

It helps children, if we explain to them that when people say the word "God" they are usually referring to Father God. Yet, Jesus is as much God as Father God.

It is hard for children and adults to understand the Trinity.

I explain to children that Jesus is called the "Son of God" because he is generally in the role of a son - doing what the Father asks. But The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are each co-equal, co-eternal, and co-powerful and each of them is fully God.

When Jesus came to earth, he was 100% fully God and 100% fully man.

Jesus did have to lay down some of his divinity in order to come to earth. For example, on earth he was in an earthly body and therefore, he could not be everywhere at once. 

Before Jesus came to earth as a baby, he was everywhere at once.

God is omnipresent which means "he is everywhere at once."

So God the Father is omnipresent.

Jesus is omnipresent.

The Holy Spirit is omnipresent.

God is one, yet he is three persons or personalities. There is nothing else in the world like God.

The Trinity works together as ONE, and they are actually ONE.

So we can tell children that The Trinity is a mystery that we do not totally understand.

You also might like to visit Psalm 121

For all our Bible Studies click: Bible Devotions

This page is copyrighted

as are all our pages

Copyright © 2014 Beth McLendon of Inspirational Prayers.com

Psalm 18 and the names of God

The names of God in the Psalms

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