I was reading a commentary on Psalm 18 this morning and the commentator stated that King David’s words in this verse prefigured the Great Redeemer. In his comments, he explained how it is that Christ is an Ark of salvation far better that Noah’s Ark which foreshadowed Him.
THE GREAT SALVATION
(Psa_18:16.)
There can be little doubt but that David in this place is idealising some of his own experiences; but that eye is very dim which cannot perceive in the Psalmist’s language something far beyond a description of his own immediate temporal danger and rescue. We have not exhausted the meaning of this magnificent hymn until we have seen in it a foreshadowing of the world’s redemption in Jesus Christ.
Behold:
I. A great danger. What is that danger? A world of Sinners on the brink of hell. The Psalmist pictures himself surrounded by death and hell, and altogether helpless in their grasp. It is a picture of the world, considered apart from the truth and mercy of God in Jesus Christ. The race had fallen under the power of sin, and the whole earth was filled with wickedness and wretchedness. Man could not help himself, could not deliver himself from the tyranny of the devil. And each individual sinner feels that his sins have brought him to the brink of the pit. Floods of ungodliness are sweeping him onward to the ocean of wrath. We are perishing sinners.
Behold:
II. A Divine deliverer. “He sent from above.” Down in a gulf of dark despair we wretched sinners lay, when God’s eye pitied us, and His right arm brought salvation. There was no help in us. Man has no resource within himself to cope with the great tide of sin and wrath. No help around us. Society cannot save us. No man can redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him. There was no human helper, no angelic helper, and so God Himself becomes our helper. Guilty man was like a broken ship in a storm, no haven in view, no friendly sail bearing down to his relief, no lighthouse star to cheer, no life-boat on the wave, when God marked his signals of distress, and out of the opened heaven sent him a Saviour, even Christ the Lord.
“He sent from above.” He sent His Word. The oracles of God. He sent His Son. May we not say, “He came from above”! He sent His Spirit. God has come down to the scene of woe, and invites us to make Him our deliverer.
Mark , 1. the strength of this Saviour. “He took me.” This expresses the strength of His grasp. His right hand doeth valiantly. If our soul is in His hand, who shall tear us out of it? Mark , 2. the tenderness of this Saviour. “He drew me.” As humane men bend over one who has been rescued from the river, and apply warmth to the chilly limbs, and chafe the livid hands, and pour cordials into the lips, and keep on hour after hour with their tender ministries, until the closed eyes open, and the pallid cheek is tinged with crimson, and the silent lips break into the music of speech; so Christ bends lovingly over sinners plucked from black depths, and by his longsuffering and tenderness arouses and perfects in them a Divine and immortal life.
Behold:
III. A complete redemption. “He drew me out of many waters.” He gives us redemption from sin, sorrow, fear, death, hell. Christ is an ark to save the world, and to save us all from many sorrows. Noah’s ark floats on the waters, but its door was shut. A thousand eager eyes of drowning men might behold it, a thousand cries might be addressed to it, but it gave no response. For a while, men, women, children might cling to it, only, however, to be washed into the awful gulf. But Christ is an ark, the door of which is wide open, and every sinking despairing soul may enter in and be saved. And as the ark brought Noah in safety to the new earth; so Christ shall bring His people in safety “into a large place.” He shall land them in heaven.
The above comments, on Psalm 18:16, are from The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary, free with E-sword.
Featured Image is from a post on what the movie got wrong about Noah’s Ark: https://www.holyblasphemy.net/7-more-shocking-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-biblical-noahs-ark-story-that-the-movie-totally-got-wrong/