Psalm 18:28–29 (NIV). ²⁸ You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;  my God turns my darkness into light.  ²⁹ With your help I can advance against a troop;  with my God I can scale a wall. David was running away from King Saul who was trying to kill him. Facing so many discouragements and despair of being constantly pursue his life by how king whom he respect and gives allegiance, and having done no wrong n=but only fought valiantly for Israel, he went into escape and crying to God for deliverance. Reading Psalms you can feel the heartbeat of David and he really cried out to the Lord, and not only that, the key, is he recognizes the greatness and faithfulness and love of Yahweh, his God and ours today. He was never shaken from his faith in God even in the most ardent despair and disappointment in life. You see the verses before this call:

Psalm 18:1–3 (ESV)

¹    I love you, O Lord, my strength.

²    The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

³    I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies.

He loves the Lord his strength, he calls the Lord as his rock, his fortress, and his delivered , his shield, his horn of salvation and stronghold. He called upon the Lord who is WORTHY to be praised. My question to you is: Is the Lord worthy to be praised when you are discouraged, disappointed, an going through a time of despair? God never changes. Our circumstances changes. His fixed confidence and trust in the Lord no matter what circumstances or turbulence surround him is surreal, uplifting, inspiring, and penetratingly powerful. Seriously nothing is going to be able to take David down no matter how much vengeance hatred the enemies spewed out at him, because his gaze is constantly fixed on the Lord who is worthy of all his praise and worship. That’s what we want to be, like David in this sense. I sensed a time of discouragements sometime, and I was seeking the Lord and praying. You know that when we go thru hard times, trying time, we either despair and drop off or run towards the Lord. By running to the Lord our Rock, refuge, shield, our love, we are purged of the weaknesses and human flaws in our lives, and our preaching, ministry has just got better. We become better husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, daughters, sons, etc., thru the process. Tim Keller shared about going thru hardship in lives simply make them a better person, and better preacher in fact. God does a deeper work in our lives, when we hit a wall, and we turn to him for help. That creates a special chemistry between us and the Lord. Look at Psalms:

Psalm 18:4–7 (ESV)

⁴    The cords of death encompassed me;

the torrents of destruction assailed me;

⁵    the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

⁶    In my distress I called upon the Lord;

to my God I cried for help.

       From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears.

⁷    Then the earth reeled and rocked;

the foundations also of the mountains trembled

and quaked, because he was angry

You see how much David was going thru? Snares of death confronted him! In his distress he called upon the Lord, and God heard his voice from his temple, and then God responded. Earth reeled and rocked and foundations trembled and quaked, he was angry. Those words with God I can scale a wall” spoke to me. My obstacles and challenges in life are like a wall to me, that I cannot cross. But with God, I can scale a wall. Hallelujah! I can cross it. My gaze is upon the Lord, and nothing else.