Turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 22 for the reading of God's Word. We're going to read through to verse 31. This is a psalm of David that's also found in the book of Psalms. It's Psalm 18 in the Psalter. Hear the word of our God. And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 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, you save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. For the waves of death encompassed me. The torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of shale entangled me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord. To my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked and foundations of the earth trembled and quaked because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew. He was seen on the wings of the wind. He made darkness around him his canopy, thick clouds a gathering of water. Out of the brightness before him, coals of fire flamed forth. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning enrouted them. Then the channels of the sea were seen. The foundations of the world were laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from him on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because He delighted in me. The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, He rewarded me. For I have kept the way of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His rules were before me, and from His statutes I did not turn aside. I was blameless before Him, and I kept myself from guilt. And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. With the merciful you show yourself merciful, and with the blameless man you show yourself blameless. With the purified you deal purely, and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him." This is the Word of the Lord. This psalm penned by King David is an amazing testimony of God's grace and goodness. It's a beautiful demonstration of the power of God at work in the life of a sinner like David. Here David reflects upon his success as king over Israel. This is a jubilant kingdom song. David's reign has been profoundly and wonderfully successful. We read in verse, turn back to chapter 21, just the chapter before. In this chapter we see David at war, especially in the last few verses from chapter 15 on. And he brings peace into the land through his defeat of the enemies. Then the opening lines of chapter 22, David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. David had restored peace to the nation, to the kingdom of Israel. He had brought stability to the land. He is seen here as victorious, as a conquering king. Now what's remarkable about this psalm, it's almost jarring when you read it, and we'll come to some of the reasons why a little later, but what's remarkable is that he achieved this success in spite of his weakness. His fear, you remember when he initially runs from Saul and he lies on a few occasions about his purposes. The doubts that he had throughout his journey of life. The severe, serious moral failure. The poor decision making which we come to in the last chapter of 2 Samuel. It's remarkable That God achieves the purposes for His kingdom using broken vessels to accomplish it. That is amazing. This is a similar story to the one told about the growth of the church in the book of Acts. Just read that at some point in time. Just read from chapter 1 to the end of Acts, and you will be confronted with a community of people who are weak. You remember how they doubted during their prayer meeting when Peter, they were praying for Peter to be released from prison, and Peter is released from prison, and they doubt. Wait a second. This can't be true. Our prayers can't be answered. A people who are weak. A people who are sinful. We see a lot of the failures of the early church. They are at times lacking faith. They are embroiled in this racial controversy that really dominates a lot of the early Christian letters and the apostolic letters. The division between Jews and Gentiles. How do we worship together? We despise each other. We look down upon each other. We call each other dogs. And yet God God grows the church. They were facing constant opposition on the right and on the left. In the midst of the darkness, God shines the light of His grace. In the midst of human weakness, frailty, demonic opposition, God shows Himself to be strong. That's what we're seeing in this psalm. David is a type of Christ. Remember, David is a king over Israel, and he points to the true and final king who is a descendant from his family line. Now, this chapter isn't meant to memorialize David's accomplishments. It's not meant to prop him up as some great and mighty man. It's a psalm of praise. Look at the opening lines. It is all directed to, not David's glory, but the glory of the God of David's. It's a psalm of praise to God who remains steady, faithful, and strong in the midst of David's weakness and sin. Look at verse 29, and this is the basis for the title. The title is Light in the Darkness. Verse 29, David says, For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. We're going to see the gospel boldly proclaimed in the midst of this psalm, and maybe in ways that startle and surprise us. I know for me, when I started studying this at the beginning of the week, I thought, how How does this make sense? You see, it's written in the context of chapter after chapter of David's failure, Bathsheba, and the sin with Bathsheba, and how it led to dysfunction in his family. And then David says, the Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. Don't you find that to be a little awkward? For I've kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God." What is David thinking when he writes this? How can he say that? Oh, he can say that. And we're going to find out why as we look at the psalm. So God's light shines in the midst of David's darkness, in the midst of our darkness. That is how God reigns and rules in a fallen, rebellious world. The first thing I want to point out is this, God is my rock. That is a steady theme throughout this chapter in this psalm. He starts off with it in verses 1 or 2 and 3. We find it picked up again in verse 32 and then in the final few verses, verse 47, it's mentioned twice. And before we begin, I want to tell you a little bit about the structure of the psalm. I think it helps in how we interpret the psalm. It begins and ends with praise to God, verses 2 to 4, and then at the end, verses 47 to 51. Bookend and really set the context for David's words in this psalm. Look at verse 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 and my refuge, my Savior. You save me from violent men. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. Verse 47, the Lord lives, blessed be my rock and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation. He's overflowing with praise. Those are the bookends, the beginning and the end of the psalm. Then as you move to the second section, which begins in verse five through to verse 20, it corresponds with the second to last section. verses 32 to 43. And in both of these sections they describe the danger David was in and then the great deliverance that God provides. And then as we move to the center of the psalm, sections 3 and 4, which are in verses 21 to 25 and 26 to 31, they tell why God acts in the way that He does on David's behalf. So that's the structure of the psalm. David The heartbeat, the focus, the purpose, the intent of David's words are to exalt God in his own heart and in the heart of his readers, those of the church. From the outset, David clearly directs his praise, confidence, and thanksgiving to God and to God alone. And this separates him from other worldly human leaders. Think about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar has also built this great and expansive kingdom, and being puffed up in pride, he boastfully declares in, I think it's Daniel chapter 3 or 4, these words, Nebuchadnezzar says, is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? Do any of you look at maybe your business success, your family success, your financial success, and feel the tension between these two ways of approaching it? Do you recognize God? Or do you boast in human arrogance and pride thinking that you are the one who has built this through your hard work and your great gifts and wisdom? He uses a lot of military language, and rightfully so. He was a military commander. He attributes a number of things, a number of attributes to God. God is my rock, my fortress, my refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my savior from violence, and my enemies. God provides stability for David's reign and rule over the Israelites. He is the solid foundation for David's life in a world full of chaos and deceit and hatred and uncertainty. God proved secure. We live in some times of a lot of uncertainty, a lot of chaos, a lot of deceit, a lot of violence. Does David's word still hold true? Is God your rock, your fortress, the one who saves you? Certainly God has not changed. David reflects upon his achievements, and he had many, but he recognizes and gives credit to the source of his strength and his success when he reflects back on his conquest of Goliath. Do you know how unlikely and amazing that was? There is, from a human standpoint, David should not have won that battle. But David, if you go back and remember the story, we preached a sermon in this series on that. David's full confidence wasn't in the sword like Goliath. It was in God. It was in his God that God would give him victory. And he was ultimately confident in that. His defeats of the Philistine army at various times throughout his history. His escape from Saul and Absalom. He gives full credit to God for all of these things. He describes his life as total and utter dependence on God, His grace, and His intervention in his life at all times. Look at verses five to seven. He speaks of his troubles. For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me, the cords of shale entangled me, the snares of death confronted me. Wave after wave after wave of difficult circumstances. What does he do in response to that? Verse seven, in my distress, I called upon the Lord, to my God I called from His temple. He heard my voice, and my cry came to His ears. He sought the Lord in prayer. And then in verses 17 and 18, he's again speaking from a place of weakness. He sent me on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. How did he overcome? How did he overcome Goliath and Saul and Absalom and the Philistines when they were against him? Well, beginning in verse 34, he starts to describe his military accomplishments. And I want you to look at how he describes them, and how different it was from the boast of Nebuchadnezzar. Look at my strength, Nebuchadnezzar boasts. Look at my wisdom. Look at what a great man I am. Do you remember what happened to Nebuchadnezzar after all that boasting? God did something to him that brought him very low. He made this great king eat grass in a field like a cow. And he came out of that sounding a whole lot more like David in Psalm, in 2 Samuel 22 than he went in. So if that is true, so here's the beautiful thing. God's sovereignty, God's rule over creation doesn't just extend to the king of his people, Israel. It also extends to the king of Babylon. So that means it must extend to all human rulers. God is working out his plans and purposes. And we've got to put our confidence in that. But look at what he says about his accomplishments. He speaks of these gifts that he received. Verse 34. He made my feet like the feet of the deer, and he set me secure on the heights." So when David rushed out into battle, ran out into battle against Goliath with his swift feet to avoid the spear of Goliath and the sword of Goliath, why does David think he was able to do that? Because he had trained really hard at warfare? That's not what he says. He says, you made these things possible for me. Look at verse 35. He trains my hands for war. Does that mean that David didn't spend a whole lot of time training and practicing and refining his arts for warfare? No. But he gives credit to the source, the ultimate source of his success. Look at verse 40. For you equipped me with strength for the battle. You made those who rise against me sink under me. David has been trained. to observe His life through the lens of faith, seeing God at work in all things. That's a state of Christian maturity. That's how we want to be able to process and think about our lives. How do we see God at work in it all? And here's a good judge for you. Do you spend more time complaining or praising? If it's complaining, you're not seeing God working in your life. If it's praising, praise be to God, you are. He's a man trained to view life through the lens of faith. Do we have that same humble disposition? Does your success lead to humility or praise to God? And I want you to think about some things. David fully gives credit to God. A lot of the things that give you an opportunity for success are really out of your control. A number one factor for success in America is the family structure that you're brought up in. Do you know that? Being part of a loving, nurturing family sets people up for a lot of success in life. Now, how much control did you have over the family you were born into? this much. You have nothing to do with it. It's an act of God. Your education opportunities. We take these things for granted, but being Americans gives us a lot of education opportunities that certain people in other parts of the world just never have. What control did you have over what nation you were born into? This much, zero. God did that for you. The freedoms that we have, there is so much for us if we just take a step back as we follow through David and just reflect and give glory and praise to God. So David sets us in a wise direction of how we need to look at our lives. And the second point I want to bring out is this God-glorifying boasting. Beginning in verse 20 really, but mainly 21 to 31, David says some things that are jarring, that I found really difficult in studying this psalm. First of all, verse 20. Now, let me put the perspective, let me put you in his place, in his shoes for a minute. You have been richly blessed by God, clearly. He's allowed you to win all of these battles and do all of these magnificent things. He's placed you as the head of his people. And in response to God, you committed adultery, covered it up with murder, and your family just kind of fell apart after that point. Psychologically, what place are you going to be at when you're writing this psalm at the end of your life? What's the tendency? Man, I really had a lot of blessings and I screwed it up. I failed. I would feel a lot of guilt and just this sense of failure. But look at what David says in verse 21. He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. So all this stuff has happened to David, but he still sees his relationship with God in this light. God delights in me. Do you feel that way about how God views you? Do you say, when you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror and you say, God delights in me. If not, why? I'm guessing you haven't done as much horrendous and heinous sins as David, at least I haven't heard about it yet. Maybe, who knows? This is a godly man showing us a picture of how godly men act. God delights in me, he says. Look at verses 21 and following. me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in His sight." Has David forgotten about his failures? Doesn't this strike you as odd? Why would David say this? How can he claim God's protection as a reward for his righteousness? We need, when we're interpreting the Bible, we always need to remember the context in which we're reading something. We live in a world where Media bias is not uncommon. And it's not uncommon for if the media doesn't like a political figure, what do they do? They'll take one statement out of a long speech. out of its context, and they will make it look like that political figure has said something horrendous that the viewers are going to just completely be on board with. Well, couldn't you do that with David here? Let's take 2 Samuel 22 and the the Philistine Daily Journal. They published this article. Look at how boastful David is. Look at what he says. The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. What a fool is David. What kind of a man is this? That's to take it completely out of context. You see, the whole psalm is David boasting in his God. That's the same here. When he talks about his righteousness, he's actually boasting in God. That's what the context forces us to acknowledge. David is not boasting in himself. He's not acting arrogantly. In fact, these statements fit into his goal, which is to glorify God and God's goodness toward him. David is painfully aware of his moral failures. It's etched into his memory by humiliating life experiences. He can't get away from it. But those things don't identify how he relates to God. I could look back at my life and I could tell you about a lot of humiliating experiences. And if I dwelt upon them, if I based my relationship with God on them, I would never walk into this pulpit. But I am called to base my relationship with Christ on the gospel promises. And that's what David's doing here. That's why he can say these things that seem so outlandish. David had the finger pointed straight at him when Nathan the prophet said, you are the unjust wicked man. He knew that. Psalm 51 verse 5, what does David write in this psalm? He says, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. He understands original sin, it's very clear to him. But David here is demonstrating great faith. It's the same type of faith that enabled him to confidently go to war against Goliath. How could he confidently say these things that he's saying? Here he's going on a different battlefield. He's taking on all of the assaults of the devil. He's defeating and rejecting the taunts and accusations of the deceiver who seeks to speak into David's life lies about his relationship with God. David, you shouldn't pray to God. Don't you know what a wicked man you are? David, you should not approach God. You shouldn't write any more Psalms. I mean, come on. Didn't that privilege get eliminated when you did those stupid things with Bathsheba? David, God can't love you. Turn with me to Zechariah chapter three. I want you to hear these words. Zechariah 3, beginning in verse 1. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. So what's Satan like to do? He likes to drag up, to draw up every foolish thing that we do and accuse us before God. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, O Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? And isn't that what David's talking about? I am a brand plucked from the fire. I was face to face with shale, with death. I cried out to God and he delivered me. What does it mean if God delivers us? We've been plucked as a brand from the fire. Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. That represents his sin. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him. And to him, he said, behold, I have taken away your iniquity from you. I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head. We acknowledge our personal sin, but we can never say that that is what we are identified by. If we do that, then we do discredit to the saving power of God in our lives. When I look to God in worship, when we gather to God in worship, what are we to think? Yes, we deserve His wrath and curse, but that's not what He's given. What is our reality? We have been purified. We have been cleansed of all guilt and all shame. We have been clothed in the righteous garments of Christ. We stand righteous before God in worship. If that's not true, don't worship because He doesn't accept you any other way. You can't worship God. You can't be in His presence. We are. David grasped this by faith. David is glorifying God for the grace and mercy of his regeneration. He is acknowledging God's good work of taking away his stony heart and creating in him a new heart, which he cried out for in Psalm 51, verse 10. Remember? Creating me a clean heart, because from birth I was born in sin. I need something new. Creating me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 119, verses 33 and 34, David says, Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Our good works are accepted and rewarded because they are presented through Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ. David is boasting in the simple promises of the gospel. Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 16, section 6, which is on the subject of good works. Listen to what our confession says. Because believers are accepted through Christ. How are we accepted? not on our own, but through Christ. Because believers are accepted through Christ, their good works are also accepted in Him. They are accepted not because believers are in this life unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. Surely that's true of David, right? He's not unblameable. That's not why they're accepted. But because He, looking upon them in His Son, is pleased, our confession says, to accept and reward that which is sincere, even though accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections. I remember when my boys start mowing the grass for me. They mow the grass, and their tendency was not to overlap the mower a little bit. So they would just go line by line, and guess what that leaves? These little strips of grass in the yard. But I accepted their work. I loved it because I wasn't doing it anymore. And I would just have to go back and correct it and hit those little spots that they missed. And I think that's what our confession and what this section of 2 Samuel is telling us. Yeah, our works are not spotless, they're not unblameable. But when they are sincerely done, they are purified and cleansed, and then they are brought to the Father by Christ. And He really does accept them. He really does. And He delights in them. And He rewards us. based on those things. Now, it's not the reward of justification, that's by faith alone. That's not what the Confession or the Scriptures are talking about. David knew that his blessing came, his blessing of justification, came through God's grace. Ephesians 2 verse 10, a familiar passage, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now if you don't have good works, then you're saying God has failed in your salvation. That's what you're saying. God hasn't failed. Chad Van Dixhorn, one of the leading scholars and historians on the Westminster Confession of Faith, commenting on this chapter 16.6, says this, the point is that in spite of the many dark blotches on all of our best works, our motives are not always good. God looks upon them in His Son God can and actually does work in us that which is pleasing in His sight. It's wonderful. Do you see how this psalm is a powerful testimony of the gospel goodness of our God? Think of some things that David did. Think of his treatment of Saul. He refused to lay a finger on that man out of respect for who? God. Was that not a righteous, good work that David had done? Think of his religious reforms, restoring the ark, preparing for the temple to be built during the time of Solomon. Think of his faith in defeating Goliath, how he stood up when the whole nation was weak. He stood up and said, hey, wait a minute, don't we still believe in God, the God of Israel? I'll go fight this guy because God is powerful. He created the world. He delivered us from the Egyptians. It's no thing for him to defeat this giant. I'll go in faith. His godly desires. He writes things like this in the Psalms. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your way. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. And I hope this is an encouragement to you. Because yeah, we can all look back at our lives and see the unmixed motives that go into our acts. Failure as parents, failure as church members, failure as church leaders, failure as pastors, failure as people in our communities. We can see that. But can you also see God working righteous good works in your life? Can you glorify Him for that? Can you boast in the Gospel of God? David does. And we need to, understanding that that's not proclaiming ourselves, that's promoting God. That's the whole goal of this psalm when we read it in context. Only if we strip it radically out of its context could we think it's pointing us in any other direction. And I hope that that encourages you to live a life seeking to do the things that bring honor and praise to your God.