“I love You, O Lord, my strength.”
– Psalm 18:1
What a great, simple verse Psalm 18:1 is. What was that? Seven words? “I love You, O Lord, my strength.” Memorize that verse today. “I love You. O Lord, my strength. I love You. O Lord, my strength. I love You.”
The Sovereign King of Kings who upholds the universe and rules forever is our strength.
This is the prayer that just … we want to resound from our lips and our hearts. This is the greatest commandment. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.”
So to cry out, “I love You, O Lord,” and if you look in your Bible, that’s L with the small caps o-r-d, which, whenever you see that in your Bible, you know that’s the Hebrew word “Yahweh,” the Lord, the name that He has revealed Himself as all over Scripture, as the covenant-keeping, faithful, loving God who saves His people, delivers His people.
“I love You, O covenant-keeping God, faithful God who loves and cares for and saves Your people. I love You, O Lord, my strength.”
Ah, the rest of this chapter just gives a picture of the strength of God. He is called a rock and a fortress and a deliverer and a refuge and a shield and the horn of salvation. The psalmist is crying out for help, and the earth reels and rocks, and the foundations of the mountains tremble and quake. It’s just this powerful picture.
You get down to verse 29, and the psalmist, who’s David in this instance, says, “For by You I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.” The whole imagery is just … You can’t stop God, and He is our strength.
This Verse Reminds Us That God Is Our Strength
Think about it. God, He’s all-powerful. He’s omnipotent. He’s sovereign ruler, the one who reigns over everything. His power is unimaginable, inconceivable for us, and this God is our strength.
“I love You, O Lord, my strength.” Let’s pray that in our lives. God, we love You. O, covenant-keeping, faithful, merciful, loving God, we love You. We worship You. Glorify You. We adore You. We exalt You. Enjoy You. We bow before You. We thank You. Fear You. We stand in awe of You. We love You, O Lord, our strength.
Psalm 18:1 Prays That God Shows His Strength To All
God, we are weak. God, I think about the struggles in my life right now. I think about things I’m wrestling through that I’m not sure what to do about. I think about how tired I feel. O God, You are my strength. I love You. O Lord, my strength.
God, I pray that You would show Your strength to all kinds of people who are listening to this right now or walking through all kinds of things, that today You would be their strength, that You would cause their hearts to cry out, “I love you, O Lord, my strength,” and that would be their prayer all day long, as it has been mine, all day long, reading this verse.
I love You, O Lord, my strength. Again. I love You. O Lord, my strength. We pray that. Simply and powerfully, we pray that. We love You, O Lord, our strength.
We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
