Chapter 22. We read the whole chapter earlier and I want to seek to open up the passage, but our focus will be on the first few verses of the chapter this morning. We read in verse 1 of this chapter, And David spoke the words of this song to the Lord in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, Jehovah 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 and my refuge, my savior, thou dost save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. Now let's again pray and ask that God might give us help as we come to look into his holy word as we think about the holy scriptures and we think of all the things that God could have told us. of all the questions and all the things that we would like to know and yet God in His wisdom has given us the life of David and other things that we may understand Him, His will and what we ought to do. And so let us pray that God would help us that we may profit from what He has given us for that very purpose. Let us pray together. Father, we come now and ask that by Your Spirit You would direct our thoughts that you would direct our hearts, that we may be receptive of your truth, that we may understand it. Pray that you would help me as I preach your word and seek to apply it, that you would give truth and that you would give the aid of the Holy Spirit, and as all of us hear this word, that it may have its proper effect upon us, that we would not merely come as spectators, as those who are merely curious, but that we may come, O Lord, to the Holy Word, and that we may see that which we ought to see, that we may understand what we ought to understand, and that we may do what we ought to do. We pray for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ, Amen. Now in our studies in the life of King David, we noted that chapter 21, and especially the latter part, which has as its subject, David destroying the four giants of Gath of the Philistines, serves as a fitting preface to chapter 22. And I have entitled, for our purposes, chapter 22 as David's Song of Salvation or David's Song of Deliverance. And it has 51 verses in it, and we won't be able to cover that this morning. But as a broad outline, I don't know if this is the outline we'll follow all the way through, but as a broad outline, you have an introduction in verse 1. And it's one of those introductions that really does, in a way, introduce. Some people give introductions and at the end of it you don't know any more about what they were going to talk about than they did when they started. But this actually does introduce what's going to come next. So we'll look at the introduction and then there is what I'm calling David's confession in verses 2 to 4 or his profession. In some ways he sets there the theme. He talks about the fact of God having delivered him or saved him. And so this is the theme of his song. This is what he's going to be speaking about. And so he confesses then that God is the one who has done these things for him. And then there follows in verses 5 really through maybe verse 46 a graphic or a poetic description of David's being delivered of how God bows the heavens and comes down and so David in poetic form pictures for us what God had done for him in delivering him and then there is a conclusion or praise and a thanksgiving at the end verses 47 to 51 so roughly that is how this chapter is broken down. For our purposes this morning, I want to look at the first two of these, the introduction found in verse 1 and then David's confession in verses 2 to 4. With regard to the introduction of this song of salvation, we read, Now in that introduction, we are given, first of all, the author. Who is it that wrote this song? We are told clearly, plainly, that it is David. And, of course, that's not surprising. When we get to chapter 23 and verse 1, we will find or read, Now these are the last words of David, David the son of Jesse declares, and the man who was raised up on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel. And so David is referred to as the sweet psalmist of Israel, that he is the one who penned many of the psalms and songs that are found there. This one who is the anointed of God, who was the king under God and who served him over his people. So David as an inspired writer then pens this for us and you note that it says, and David spoke the words. Now obviously he wrote the words as well, but the emphasis here is on the fact that David spoke these words, that he uttered them, that he didn't merely write these that others may sing them, but he himself presented this before the Lord that he sang unto the Lord that he uttered with his own voice and gives voice to these words and while they are indeed words that we will find meaningful for us yet David himself praised God with these words. The second thing we find in the introduction is the genre or the type of writing that we have and that is that he wrote the words of this So the words are in the form of a Hebrew song. And these words are included in the hymn book of Israel. We find it almost verbatim in Psalm 18. Let me ask you to turn there for just a moment. And I know some of you are saying, OK, get on with it. Tell me what I'm supposed to do. We'll get to that, OK? But you see, it's no good for a preacher to tell you what to do if he doesn't lay the foundation to build upon as to what the Word of God says. then you only have my opinion and that's worthless. What you need is a judgment built upon the word of God that carries your conscience so that you do those things before God according to his word. In Psalm 18 you notice the superscription. For the choir director, a psalm of David, the servant of Jehovah who spoke to Jehovah the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. So again we have the same superscription here that we have as the introduction in verse 1 in 2 Samuel 22 that it is a song that was written in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul and that he spoke to the Lord the words of this song. So we have almost verbatim this hymn carried over into the Psalms that David perhaps penned and gave to the choir director and spoke these words before the congregation of the Lord's people. We read in Psalm 40 in the call to worship about him speaking these things in the congregation of God's people. Did you catch that when Bill was reading it? How that David before the gathered people of God declared these things and so perhaps the same here that David spoke these things to the Lord before the congregation of God's people and that it is given then into the hymn book of Israel that they might be sung by God's people in every generation afterwards. It's in our own hymn book as well. We have as well in this introduction the recipient of this song that David spoke the words of this song to the Lord. Now you notice that the word Lord is in all caps so that it indicates that it's the word Jehovah or Yahweh and the reason for the two different pronunciations is that in the Hebrew they wouldn't put the vowel points in because they were afraid to speak the name of God lest they do something, use it wrongly and it was a misunderstanding about using God's name in vain. But anyway, the valve points got dropped out, so we don't know exactly what the pronunciation was, but most think, or at least most that I have read think that it's Jehovah. And so it is Jehovah that he speaks to and that name is important because it's the name that God reveals to Moses when Moses said who shall I say has sent me when Pharaoh and the others asked me and he said you shall tell them and the Israelites you shall tell them that Yahweh or Jehovah has sent you and he speaks with regard to the fact that I am that I am has sent me so that it refers to God being self-existent and it also refers to the fact of God being the covenant keeping God when he speaks to Moses he says tell them that it is I am that I am the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob. In other words, your forefathers who believed in me and whom I made the covenant promises to about the land of Israel foretold that you would sojourn as slaves down in Egypt and that you ultimately would be brought out. The God who did all those things and said those things revealed and made covenant and promises to your forefathers. This is the God who is sending you Moses and this is the God to whom David now looks and speaks then of this God, who is the true and living God, the self-existent God, who is the covenant-keeping God, who swears to His people, who binds His promises with an oath, and who does exactly what He says. It is then to the Lord, it is to Jehovah that David sings, to the God of the covenant, who has done all that He promised and all that He said. Again we're not told where he does the speaking but it is probable given the fact that we find it in the Psalms that it was before the great congregation in the worship of God and before the people of God as he gives this inspired psalm to the choir director as recorded in Psalm 18. And then we're told in the introduction the occasion of his speaking this before the Lord and of writing it in the day that Jehovah delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And so the occasion is when David has relief from all of his enemies. And we have seen, have we not, in the Davidic wars, how that he defeated those to the north and to the south, to the west, and the Philistines to the east, and how that David made all of the countries around subservient, paying tribute, how he gathered their gold and prepared it for the building of the temple of God, how that he crushed the enemies around him, and even those within the tribe of Israel itself, King Saul, who had sought David's life, who had brought out his mighty men against David, and had hunted David in the wilderness areas, etc., and who had made David's life a misery, so that David had to forsake all of his loved ones at one point, had to flee for his life, and even sojourned in a foreign country, so that David here, when he has rest from all of his enemies, pins this and sings this to the Lord and gives it as a memorial to the people of God, of God's great deliverance. Now, that being so, let me say that we, like David, ought to recognize when God has done good things for us. David is not unmindful of what God has done. He does not neglect the giving of thanks. But how often are you and I guilty of the sin of forgetfulness, the sin of unthankfulness, when the Lord is continually working on our behalf? When every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, When the clothes we have on our back, the air that we breathe, the beat of our heart, that all of these things come forth from God, whenever God gives us the energy and the ability to work and to do, to have our bread and to eat it, when God has done such good things for us, how can we be unthankful and ungrateful and fail to recognize God's goodness to us? The Apostle tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5.18 in everything, give thanks. That God expects us to be a thankful people. That we are not to be forgetful of His goodness, of His kindness, of His works on our behalf. But that we are to see God's goodness and we are to give Him thanks. That we are to remember it even as David does and he gives God the credit that is due His name for what He has done for him. And of course that's especially true when it comes to the issue of salvation. David here records this in light of the fact that God had saved him from those who wanted to kill him, to destroy him. That as the Lord's anointed, the head of the theocracy, that God had delivered him from all of his enemies and David then is truly thankful and he makes a memorial of it in this hymn that God be praised for this great salvation. How much more true is it then when we think of what Jesus Christ, the true, the final Anointed One, has done for our weary souls? How that He has given us rest in Christ from all of our enemies. He has delivered us from sin. He has delivered us from Satan and from the grave. It's true that even as Christians there is remaining sin. But if we're true Christians, He has broke the power of reigning sin. That we're no longer slaves to our lusts and our desires. But He has broken that, that we might live unto Him. He has set us free. And Jesus Himself said, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. And He has set us free from our sin, from its penalty, and the guilt of it, and from the power of it, and one day from the very presence of it, when we're in that place where no evil thing enters in. And from the tyranny of Satan himself, whom we read that all men are under his power, that he is the prince of the power of the air. and that men apart from Christ are doing His bidding. They may do it ignorantly. They may do it without realizing what they're doing. But in Satan seeking to rebel and to turn all against God, inasmuch as men go their own way, they're going the way Satan would have them go. And they're in rebellion against God. But Jesus Christ has delivered us from the dominion of Satan and of evil and translated us into the kingdom of His own dear Son. He has taken the sting out of death and the victory out of the grave since we have been made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Thus when the apostle writes in Romans chapter 8, it is based on just such realities. When He says, what shall we say to these things if God is for us? Who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died. Yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." You see, We, brethren, ought to be a thankful people because in Jesus Christ we have the victory. All our enemies are defeated. That we are overwhelmingly conquerors in Christ Jesus and not death nor life, not enemies, not height nor depth, nor any other created thing is going to be able to take that away from us. Blessed be the name of our God. And thus you and I can sing Psalm 18 with the same experiential knowledge, with the same joy, with the same thanksgiving that David did. Did David know what it was to be delivered? He said, well, I've never had a sword fight with anybody. Probably never will. I'm not going to be king and I'm not going to have nations rise up against me. But brethren, we have our own enemies. And we know what it is to be a part of the people of God and to be oppressed. And we indeed have that same experiential knowledge of deliverance from the enemies of our soul so that we can sing that psalm with the same knowledge that David did and with the same thankfulness. And David, of course, through his song has become a helper and an aid to the people of God. In singing of that psalm, in the reading of it, there is the comfort and the encouragement of seeing that God is a rock and a refuge, that He is His people's fortress. And you and I may do the same. Consider Ephesians chapter 5 for just a moment. Verse 15 of Ephesians 5, Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Now what is the will of the Lord? Well, here's part of it. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled or controlled by the Spirit. speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. So we are not to be foolish because we live in evil times. We are to know what the will of the Lord is That means we're to be controlled by the Spirit of God, not doing our own thing and following our own lust. And part of that is of speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. So that just as David could pen this, speak it to the Lord and help the people of God throughout every generation, you and I, brethren, by singing Psalm 18 to one another as we gather for worship and unite our voices together, we can speak to one another. We can preach by song to one another by the singing of the Psalms and of hymns and of spiritual songs, making melody in our heart to the Lord if we sing with our hearts in it. and it's because we have affection for the Lord. Then we speak to one another even as we speak to God and we must do so in a context of thankfulness always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father. Now is David then not an example of doing just that? Is He not an example of one who is giving thanks? Is He not an example of one who is speaking to other people in Psalms? Then you and I, brethren, can comfort and help one another as we gather for our worship, as we join together with each part contributing, as we give the Amen at the end and put our verbal signature to it. In all of these things, we are speaking to one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another. And one of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 100, in which we read, Shout joyfully to Jehovah all the earth, Serve Jehovah with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that Jehovah Himself is God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. Bless His name for the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting in His faithfulness to all generations. So brethren, when we come together, let us come with thankful hearts to praise God, to offer up the sacrifice of our lips and the sacrifice of our hearts to God that we may not only profit ourselves, but that we may be helpers of one another's joy also. Well, that brings me then to the confession in this song of salvation, verses 2 to 4. And really what he confesses is his relationship to the Lord. Now, in Psalm 18, we have this added. The first verse of Psalm 18 says, If you go back up to the superscription you'll see, and he said, that's in the superscription. Verse 1 then says, I love thee, O Jehovah, my strength. That's not found in chapter 22. And it may be that that is the title that when David penned this, that he added a title to it, and perhaps, I love thee, O Lord, my strength should be in the superscription, and he said, or however it's broken down, that that may indeed be the title. What is David talking about? He's talking about his love for God and of God being his strength. In any event, the first thing he confesses in Psalm 18 is his love for Jehovah. So that David unashamedly, plainly and we believe passionately confesses his love for Jehovah God. That he has a loving affection for the Lord. Now let me ask you. Have you told the Lord that you love him lately? If you read the Psalms, you see it frequently. Can you make that confession? Not that you admire Jesus, but that you love Him. Of course, the Bible has a great deal to say about that. For instance, consider Mark Chapter 12. Well, let's begin in Matthew, Matthew Chapter 10. Let me begin reading in verse 34. Do not think, this is Jesus speaking, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Now that's odd because when the angels announce His coming, they announce peace, right? But Jesus said, don't be confused. While I came to make men peace with God, It's not going to go well between them and everybody else. It's going to cause trouble, a sword. Verse 35, For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it. Jesus says, don't be confused. If you come to me, it's not going to be all tranquility and peace. It's going to be warfare. And it will happen within the relationships that are closest to you. It will divide households. regrettably, sorrowfully, but the darkness hates the light. And Jesus says that we must love Him preeminently. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He is saying I have to have first place. I must be your supreme love. that everything else must come behind and after and below me. I demand first place in your affections, in your heart, in your love. That is the place I will occupy. Notice Mark chapter 12, verse 28. And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing and recognized that he had answered them well and asked him, that is, Jesus, what commandment is the foremost of all? Jesus answered, the foremost is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord. That is, there is only one God. So when the Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus became God and He is something of a lesser God, When the Mormons say that, they're going directly against what the Bible teaches. Indeed, the very first and fundamental commandment is this. There is by definition only and can only be one God. And you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart. and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. This is the foundation upon which all other obedience to God is built, that we must love Him with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, with all of our strength. Consider John chapter 14. Verse 21, Jesus again speaking, And he who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will disclose myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, what then has happened that you are going to disclose yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus then said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me." How do I know if I love the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, do I believe His word and heed it? Do I bow the knee and own Him for all that He says that He is as both Lord and Savior? In principle, have I bowed the knee to all that Jesus is? And am I desirous to know what He says and to do what He says? If you don't care what your master says, He's not your master. If you don't care what your Lord says, He's not your Lord. Whatever He is, no matter how much you may admire Him or appreciate it, He is not your Lord. He is not your Savior. You do not really love Him. Unless you're prepared to seek His will and attempt to do it by His grace. Consider 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 22. If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be cursed. How important is it to love the Lord Jesus Christ? It's absolutely essential. It's vital. Without loving Him and a love manifested by bowing the knee to Him and submitting to Him and doing what He says, then we stand accursed and under the curse of God. We're still under that curse given in the Garden of Eden and it cannot be broken apart from our coming to Jesus Christ. Of course brethren I expect better things of you as the writer of Hebrews says. I expect of you it is true what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 6, And this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him. You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. That, brethren, is what I think is true of the most of you, that you do love Him and trust Him with a joy that is inexpressible, that is beyond words, that is full of glory. and that you are indeed going to obtain the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls, because even though you have not seen him yet, you love him. That is David's confession here that he loves the Lord. I hope that that is your confession as well. The second thing he confesses in Psalm 18 verse 1 is that Jehovah is his strength. David recognized the source of his strength, of his power as king. He confesses that it is Jehovah who gives him the strength to do what needs to be done. You'll remember when Samuel anoints David in 1 Samuel 16, we read that the Spirit came upon him from that day forward, and it came upon him mightily while the Spirit was taken away from Saul, so that God gives David peculiar help as the anointed of the Lord, as the king, and he goes out and slays Goliath while all Israel is trembling in their tents. that David realizes that that was not simply him doing those things. It was the Lord who was his strength. And do you know, my friend, that whether you're in Christ or not, you're a debtor to God and dependent upon God for every bit of strength, for every bit of energy that you have. Psalm 62, 11 says that power belongs to God. He is the one who possesses it and He is the one who energizes every other thing. That everything and everyone is dependent upon God. Don't you think then that you ought to submit yourself to Him? To do what He says? Maybe you've considered coming to Jesus Christ When you've looked to yourself, all you can see is weakness and helplessness. When it comes to the sin that you have and the desires that you have that you find that you're unable to do, you can't do the parting with it in coming to Christ, I've got wonderful news for you. that if you see yourself a mass of weakness, without the strength to do these things, that is precisely how you must see yourself before God will save you. Salvation comes only to those who see no good in themselves, no help in themselves, no hope in themselves, so that they come to cast themselves upon Jesus Christ as their only hope. That's the only way you can get saved, my friend. So good news. If in yourself you can't see your way clear, that's all right. That's good. That's the only kind of people God saves. Jesus said that he didn't come to save the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. And if you truly and wholly cast yourself upon Jesus Christ for deliverance, He will deliver you. If you seek Him with all of your heart, He will be found of you. That's His own promise. And I even have more good news. When a sinner truly repents and entrusts himself to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, The Lord Jesus becomes his source of strength just as he was to David. Paul could write in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Now Paul didn't mean that he could lift Mount Everest or Mount Sinai. He didn't mean that he could do feats of great strength. He meant I can do anything that God calls upon me to do. I can do it by Him who strengthens me. Paul, how do you keep persevering when they keep beating you and whipping you, when they put you in jail, when they threaten your life, whenever you have so many obstacles against you? How do you do it? Here's his answer. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Paul, you've left everything and you say in your own words that you know what it is to be in want, to be needy, to be hungry and poor. How do you do it? I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Paul says, I know how to be full and content as well. How do you manage that? How do you, in the flush of things, keep your thoughts upon Christ? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He is able to do it by the strength that Christ provides. That, my friend, is how you live the Christian life. There is no Christian who lives it in their own strength. There is no Christian who can do it by their own willpower. It is by the strength which Christ provides. Here, my friends, is the working and the wonder of God's salvation, that it is all of grace. And when we do, just as David did, we have to say, it really was the Lord doing it. Thus Paul writes to the Philippians and says, it is God working in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure. How do we do His good pleasure? How do we obey Him? How do we love and manifest that love by obeying His will? How do you do that? Because God works in His people both to will... You see, I talk to people all the time who really believe that if they want to do, if they really wanted, they could serve God. But you see, that's the problem. That want to is so hard to come by. Because it takes a change of nature that only God can give. Only He can regenerate the heart. How do you get the will? It comes from God. You say, I can do anything I want to do. Yeah, but you can't want to do just anything. Because you love sin by nature. And the only way you can be delivered from it is by the power of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can cause us both to will and to do His good pleasure. And thus God resists the proud, men who think that they, in and of themselves, can please God. Men who think that in and of themselves they can do something to earn even a breath of air, much less heaven. What have you ever done, my friend, other than what God created, sent, and gave? What have you ever done that earned you anything with God? It is all of His grace. And thus David confesses that the Lord is his strength. And for us, brothers and sisters in Christ, how is it that we shall overcome when the whole world seems to be against Christ and against His Church? How will we persevere and how will we overcome? Because the Lord will provide. He is our strength. David confesses also that Jehovah is His Savior. Notice verse 2 and following of 2 Samuel 22. He said, 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 and my refuge, my Savior, Thou dost save me from violence. The word rock there in verse 2 is a word which means cliff or crag. So the idea of that and the fortress are the same idea, that which is inassailable, which provides protection, which your enemies can't get to you. The word deliverer is the idea of to escape, the one who causes me to escape. In verse 3, the word rock there literally is not God my rock, but God of my rock. The idea may be that David is thinking that he is the one who supplies my protection. But God is his shield, his salvation, his stronghold, his refuge, his Savior. David multiplies terms to show us what God is to him. His relationship to God is one in which God is his defender, his protector, the one who's caring for him and keeping him and preserving him. And while David's enemies sought his life, God was preserving it. And as we've studied David's life, we've seen how that he was chased throughout the wilderness, that there was only a half step between him and death many times, and that he had to live in literal caves, the cave of the Dulum, you may remember. And he was often hiding in the cliffs. And they even say of him, when they're thinking about killing him, that David by this time has hidden himself away. That when he takes this imagery then, that God is my cliff, that God is my cave and cavern and refuge and fortress. David knew what that was literally by way of living in caves and hiding but behind all of that He sees God as the one who protected him. God used any number of means. He used rocks and cliffs and caves to protect David. He used spies and counsel and swords and shields that were literal. But behind all of it, David says it's really God who's my protector. He is the one who is sovereignly ordering these things so that my life is preserved so that David declares that God is his savior. He professes and owns that the Lord is his Savior so that he has this relationship of love, of strength, of salvation, of answered prayer. Notice verse 4. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. He's in a relationship where he can call upon God and God answers him. It's a wonderful thing to know that you're in such a relationship with God. To know that the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God is attentive to your needs and your prayers is a marvelous and an awesome thing. And thus we sing, what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer. And that raises the question, does it not then, how is your prayer life? Paul says again to the Philippians in 4.6, Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. In everything. Don't be anxious. Don't worry about it. Pray about it. If the Lord, brethren, is our strength, our Savior, and if He answers prayer, the prayers of His people, the prayers of those in Jesus Christ, then it's folly for us to proceed without seeking Him, to go about our daily business without asking His blessing and His help. We are told that we have not because we ask not, and we ask and do not receive because we ask wrongly to consume it upon our own desires. Jesus encourages us to pray John chapter 14 verse 13 Jesus says and whatever you ask in my name that will I do that my father may be glorified that the father may be glorified in the son if you ask me anything in my name I will do it if you love me you will keep my Now, if I were to do a survey and to ask you, have you ever prayed anything and God didn't do it? If you were honest, you'd have to say, well, yeah. See, here's where a great mistake is made. Jesus said, if you ask anything in my name, that doesn't mean at the end of your prayer you tack on in the name of Jesus. It means my desire is to glorify Jesus Christ and do His will. That is why I'm praying this prayer. And if it's not according to your will, I don't expect you to answer it because all I want is to glorify the name of Jesus Christ. That's what it means. That's what it means to pray in Jesus' name. It doesn't mean to tack it on somewhere. It means I'm concerned about the name of Jesus, His glory, His name, His honor. That's what I'm consumed with. That's what I pray about. And I'm praying this because I believe it would be good for Jesus Christ, that I believe it would be in keeping with His will and of honoring His name. John chapter 15 and verse 16. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should remain, and that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you. I chose you, called you to Myself, made you My disciples, I saved you, I did it to this end that you might bear fruit, that you might show that you are a good tree, a tree that's been made good, by the power of Jesus Christ and that you may have the supplies of strength that you need to bear that fruit by asking the Father in my name. Again, not tacking His name on the end of what we want, but of seeking to bear fruit for Him and praying for the glory of His name, chapter 16 and verse 24. Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be made full. So does that mean I shouldn't pray that I'll get a raise at work? Well, I'm sure you can pray that if you can say, and I think it would be in keeping with your will, I believe that I could glorify your name, that I could do more good. If you can pray it to the glory of Jesus, yes. But then you always have to acknowledge that you might be wrong. Even our Lord Jesus says, Father, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. Finally, in chapter 22 of 2 Samuel, we have the fact that this relationship being one of adoration. Notice, I call upon Jehovah who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. It's as though he can't complete his statement about answered prayer without interjecting his adoration for Jehovah. I call upon his name who is worthy to be praised. And brethren, the Lord is worthy to be praised for His being, for who is like our Lord, for His attributes. When it comes to greatness and power and might and majesty and riches and glory and knowledge and grace and mercy and kindness and justice and holiness and love, when we think of His works of creation, of how He sustains the whole universe and by Him all things hold together and consist, how that He is the great justice of the peace and the one who judges righteously, that He is the one who saves and is the Savior. And for all of His relationships to His people, that relationship of love, John in 1 John 4, 19 says, we love because He first loved us. So when David says that he loves the Lord, it's because Jehovah first loved David and chose David and brought David to himself. That it is a relationship in which he supplies strength for his people, that he gives life itself, that he grants to his people eternal life. And Paul says that there is a power working within the people of God, the same power that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, that life-giving power of God. And that He is the Savior who delivers, who is a rock and a refuge and a fortress to His people. One of the old hymns speaks of hiding ourselves in the cleft of the rock. Jesus Christ is that one in whom we can hide and in which the enemies cannot touch us. And it is a relationship in which he is attentive to his people's needs so that when they call upon him, he hears them. May God help us, brethren, to love him, to seek his strength, to seek his salvation, and to seek his ear in prayer. May God help us to do these things. Let us pray. Lord, our God, we ask that you, as we think of David's relationship, that we may, in light of that, examine our own. We pray for any who are apart from Christ, sitting here, that the day may be the day of salvation. That they may be made clean and whole. That they may know what it is to enter into a relationship of love with you, of obedience, the relationship in which you are their Lord and Savior, and that they may know all the blessings and privileges of the people of God. And for those who are in Christ, we pray that these words of David may be our great encouragement to know that you are indeed our strength, that you are our Savior, that you hear our prayers. We pray that you would help us to this end. In Jesus' name, amen.