SEEK Week 5 – Psalm 18:35

SEEK 2026 – Week 5: The Big Give

Psalm 18:35

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great.

• I want to talk this morning about:
• “Held, Helped, and Made Great by God”

INTRO

• If your life
• Had ONE single verse
• That summarized God’s faithfulness to you
• One sentence
• That captured His mercy, His patience, His protection, His provision
• What would it be?

David gives us his life-verse in Psalm 18:35.

• And he doesn’t write it as a teenager with a slingshot.
• He writes it as an older man
• A man who has lived long enough to see:
• Battles fought — (1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 8:1–14)
• Enemies chase him — (1 Samuel 18:10–29; 1 Samuel 19–23)
• Caves become refuge — (1 Samuel 22:1; 1 Samuel 24:3)
• Deep betrayal — by Saul (1 Samuel 18–26) and by his own son Absalom (2 Samuel 15–17)
• Sins committed — like Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11)
• Conviction and confession — (2 Samuel 12:1–13; Psalm 51)
• Tears cried — (Psalm 6:6; Psalm 56:8)
• Failures redeemed — (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21–22)
• Promises kept — God’s covenant in (2 Samuel 7)
• Mercies multiplied — all throughout his life
• Deliverances too many to count — (Psalm 18 superscription: “the day the LORD delivered him from all his enemies and from the hand of Saul”)
• This is a man who has lived enough life to know:

“I did not make it here on my own.”

• And so, David writes:

Psalm 18:35

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great.

With this one verse David says:

• God gave me every gift.
• God held me through every valley.
• God lifted me to places I could never reach by myself.

And church — this is the PERFECT heart posture for Week 5 of SEEK 2026: The Big Give.

Because today is NOT:

• another ask
• another challenge
• another fundraising moment
• Today is the response
• To what God has already spoken into our hearts
• For the last four weeks we have been SEEKING God together:

“Lord, what do You want us to do?”
“How do You want our family to participate?”
“What step of faith are You calling us to take?”

• We have prayed.
• We have talked.
• We have sought God’s direction.

So hear me clearly:

**This is not another ask —

• Today is the moment of obedience.
• Today is the moment of testimony.
  Today we bring forward what God told us to give
• This is not pressure
• This is praise.
• Not guilt
• But gratitude.
• And Psalm 18:35 becomes the foundation of our worship today.
• Let’s walk through it together
• This one verse is divided into three movements:

1. God gives salvation
2. God holds us up
3. God’s gentleness makes us great

All three reveal what God has done for EVERY believer

Psalm 18:35

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation…

• David begins:

“You have also GIVEN…”

• Everything in our life begins with God giving.
• This is the foundation of Christian generosity:
• God always gives first.

David does NOT say:

• I earned the shield
• I built the shield
• I forged the shield
• I supplied the shield

He says:
“YOU have GIVEN.”

• Before David fought a single battle…
• God gave.
• Before David faced a single giant…
• God gave.
• Before David stood on a throne…
• God gave.
• He gave salvation — and with salvation He gave protection.

“The shield of Your salvation”

• This shield is the big one
• The full-body shield
• The covering,
• The protection,
• The divine barrier between us and destruction.

Think about your own life:

• The accident that never happened
• The temptation that didn’t overtake you
• The relationship that didn’t ruin you
• The depression that didn’t swallow you
• The sin that didn’t enslave you
• The breakup that didn’t define you
• The sickness that didn’t destroy you
• The mistake that didn’t collapse you
• Before you or I ever gave anything…
• God gave everything.

Psalm 18:35 is ultimately pointing us forward to the GOSPEL:

• John 3:16 — For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
• Romans 5:8 — ⁸ But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
• Ephesians 6:16 — In every situation, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
• Jesus is the ultimate “shield of salvation.”
• God did not give David metal
• God gave David mercy.
• God did not give David armor
• God gave David the Anointed One.
• God gave His Son first.
• God gave grace first.
• God gave forgiveness first.
• God gave salvation first.
• And Because GOD gave first
• WE give in response.
• Because HE shielded us
• WE trust Him.
• Because HE saved us
• WE obey Him.

Psalm 18:35

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation…
Your right hand has held me up,

• The second movement of the verse is deeply personal.

“Your right hand has held me up.”

• The “right hand” is:
• strength
• authority
• power
• victory
• divine intervention
• God didn’t only save David — He sustained him.
• There were seasons David could not stand on his own feet:
• The pressures of leadership
• The weight of his own sin
• The grief of losing a child (2 Samuel 12:15–23)
• Years of running and hiding
• Betrayal by friends and by family
• And yet David lived to write:

“Your right hand has held me up.”

• Church…
• This verse became more than another for me
• It became my LIFE.
• When our daughter passed…(11 years ago this passed Wednesday)
• When my heart broke in a way I didn’t know was possible…
• When the grief was so deep I didn’t know how to breathe…
• When I could not get myself off the floor spiritually or emotionally…
• God spoke to me

“I’m holding you.”

• In that season, I didn’t have strength.
• I didn’t have clarity.
• I didn’t have emotional stability.
• I didn’t have a lot of faith.
• I often felt like I had nothing.
• But God held me.
• For years, I carried that phrase:

“I’m holding you.”

• But I didn’t have a Scripture to pair with it
• It was just the testimony I carried through grief.
• But when I came to Psalm 18:35 in this SEEK series…
• There it was:

“Your right hand has held me up.”

• What God whispered to me in my darkest moment,
• He had already written 1000’s of years ago in His Word.
• And I realized:
• I had been LIVING PROOF of this verse long before I STUDIED it.
• Here is the powerful truth
• You didn’t hold yourself together when life crushed you.
  God held you.
• You didn’t survive the storm.
  God held you.
• You didn’t overcome the valley.
  God held you.
• You and I are here today
• With breath in your lungs,
• Faith in our heart,
• And hope in our spirit because:

God’s right hand has held you up.

Psalm 18:35

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation…
Your right hand has held me up…
Your gentleness has made me great.

This final phrase is stunning.

“Your gentleness has made me great.”

The Hebrew word anawah means:

• humility
• meekness
• gentleness
• condescension — “stooping down low”

David is saying:

“God — the reason I am lifted is because YOU lowered Yourself.”

• This is God’s character.
• He does not elevate us by demanding greatness.
• He elevates us by giving grace.
• But here’s the incredible part:
• David saw the humility of God
• But David could not see
• How humble God would one day become.

The God who:

• sits enthroned above the heavens
• commands angels
• speaks galaxies into existence
• holds the universe in the span of His hand

…chose to become…

…an infant.

• Not a warrior.
• Not a king.
• Not a giant like Goliath.
• Not a military leader.

A baby.

A baby who had to be:

• held
• carried
• fed
• changed
• rocked to sleep
• protected
• taught to walk
• The Almighty became breakable.
• The Eternal became dependent.
• The Infinite squeezed Himself into infant flesh.
• This is the gentleness that makes us great.
• And then He stooped EVEN LOWER:
• a carpenter
• a servant
• a foot-washer
• a man acquainted with grief
• a friend of sinners
• and finally…
• a crucified Savior

Philippians 2:5-8

⁵ Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
⁷ Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,
⁸ he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.

• Why?
• To lift us.
• To free us from sin.
• To make us a son or daughter of God.
• To give us the greatness of grace and eternal life.
• So when David writes:

“Your gentleness has made me great,”

• we see the full picture in Jesus:

“Your humility has made me saved.”
“Your gentleness has made me free.”
“Your condescension has made me a child of God.”

So WHAT should THIS VERSE PRODUCES IN US

Psalm 18:35 produces three heart responses:

1. HUMILITY — “I didn’t get here by myself.”

• Everything you are
• Is grace.
• Everything you survived…
• Is God’s sustaining hand.
• Everything you have…
• is His generosity.

2. GRATITUDE — “God has been better to me than I deserve.”

• This is why we give today:
• Not from pressure
• But from PRAISE.
• Not from guilt
• But from GRATITUDE.
• Not from calculation
• But from CELEBRATION.

3. TRUST — “The God who held me THEN will hold me NOW.”

• You are NOT giving from what YOU can produce.
• You are giving from the overflow of what HE has provided.
• If God held you through grief, storms, battles, and burdens —
• you can trust Him as you obey Him today.

For the last five weeks:

• you’ve prayed
• you’ve sought
• you’ve talked
• you’ve discerned
• you’ve listened for His voice
• So today is NOT the day of the ask
• Today is the day of the answer.
• Today is not the day of the challenge
• Today is the day of completion.
• Today is not about pressure
• Today is about worship.
• We’re not deciding today
• We’re obeying today.
• We’re not thinking today
• We’re trusting today.
• We are simply bringing what God has already placed in our hearts.
• Our gift today is your testimony of Psalm 18:35:

“God gave me salvation.
God held me up.
God lifted me by His gentleness.
So today I give in response.”

• Before we move into our moment of giving
• We are going to have a time of prayer
• Similar to last week
• We are going to take what we are hearing today from God
• And turn it into prayer
• (Get in groups- Prayer Prompts)

SLIDE 1 — Guided Prayer Prompt 1

“You have given me the shield of Your salvation.”

Worship + Gratitude

• Thank God for salvation
• Thank Him for protection and every gift
• Name specific ways He has given to you

Pray together for gratitude to rise.

SLIDE 2 — Guided Prayer Prompt 2

“Your right hand has held me up.”

Strength + Testimony

• Pray for God to sustain the weak
• Pray for His strength over your group
• Pray that He upholds every step of faith

Pray together for God’s sustaining hand.

SLIDE 3 — Guided Prayer Prompt 3

“Your gentleness has made me great.”

Gospel + Mission

• Thank Jesus for His humility
• Praise Him for coming low to lift you high
• Pray that your generosity lifts others to Him

Pray together for God to use our giving for His mission.

Closing Prayer

“Church, what we just prayed is Psalm 18:35 lived out.
Now let’s respond from that same place of gratitude, trust, and worship.”

Response Moment (Envelops)

• “Church…
• Today we do not come to GIVE
• We come to RESPOND.
• We come to worship.
• We come to bring forward
• What God has already spoken into our hearts these last five weeks.
• As the band leads,
• I want to invite you to bring your SEEK 2026 gift or commitment forward.
• Walk in testimony.
• Walk in gratitude.
• Walk in worship.
• Walk because GOD gave.
• Walk because GOD held you up.
• Walk because GOD lifted you by His gentleness.

Let’s respond in faith.”