God's Word. 2 Samuel 22. 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 Sheol 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. The foundations of the heavens 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. 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 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 ways 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 his righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. With the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless. With the purified, you deal purely. But with the crooked, you make yourself seem tortuous. You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the horty to bring them down. For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. For by you I run against a troop, and by my God I 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. For who is God but the Lord, and who is a rock except our God? This God is my strong refuge, and has made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer, and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You gave me, you have given me the shield of your salvation and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me and my feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and destroyed them and did not turn back until they were consumed. I consumed them. I thrust them through so that they did not rise. They fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle. You made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me. Those who hated me, I destroyed them. They looked, but there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as the dust of the earth. I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets. You delivered me from strife. You delivered me from strife with my people. You kept me as the head of the nations. People whom I had not known served me. foreigners came cringing to me as soon as they heard of me they obeyed me foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses the lord lives blessed be my rock and exalted be my god the rock of my salvation the god who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me who brought me out from my enemies. You exalted me above those who rose against me. You delivered me from the men of violence. For this, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations and sing praises to you to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever. And now Romans chapter 5, Romans 5, 942 in the church Bible. These words, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through Jesus Christ, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. This is the word of the Lord. Turn back now, please, with me to 2 Samuel 22. 2 Samuel 22. As you turn there, let's pray together. Our gracious Lord, we thank you that your word is living and it is active. We pray that you would cause your mighty word to flourish among us, that, Lord, you would make your word do its work. that it were grace in us, that it would enrich us in the knowledge of you, that it would confirm and assure us of our standing in you, that it would work in us so that we would not lack any spiritual gift as we await the revealing of our Savior, our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, fill up our hands by your word day by day as we wait on him. So, Lord, may your word do its work among us. Bless it to our hearts as we meditate upon this glorious portion that leads us straight to Jesus Christ, your anointed servant and our glorious Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen. Is there ever a sense of desperation in your life? Or are you always strong? Are you always in command, in control? Part of me wants to be strong. in control and in command. You know, I like Clint Eastwood, right? You know, Clint Eastwood, the spaghetti westerns, he comes riding into town, right? What is it, Fistful of Dollars or, you know, Good, Bad and the Ugly, and he comes in, he's kind of the epitome, right? Never agitated, always in control of the situation, never says anything out of turn. In fact, he hardly ever says anything at all. But wouldn't it be great just to kind of ride in above all the storms, tranquil, calmly looking down on everything? Sounds great. But it really isn't great. Because God We'd almost say, right, God is always putting us in. God is regularly putting us into situations that make us feel completely out of our depth. To feel desperate. I mean, really, really desperate. So, and he does that, doesn't he? He does that all the time because he doesn't want us to keep putting our trust in ourselves or into stuff. He wants us to be looking away from ourselves and to be looking to Him. Because He's the rock, He's the refuge, He's the deliverer. And if we ride through life without Him, without these difficulties, we are inclined to put our trust in ourselves and not in Him. I have a real sense, this chapter that we just read together, David's song, this is David's testimony. He's learned afresh that God is someone who is worth having. That God's goodness and God's power are great. And that in difficult and hard times, when you feel desperate, The Lord is my is my deliverer. I'm not my deliverer. But he is, emphatically not, because you know, at the times when David trusted to himself or looked to himself, looked away from the Lord, were the times when disaster was following fast on its heels. Now, before we get into the text itself, just a couple of introductory, a couple of other introductory things. Remember last week, we talked about Israel's problem. We saw two events. Remember the last four chapters, they're structured like concentric circles. There's the outer part, the A that are repeated. These two events, chapter 21 and chapter 24. One event happens after Saul's actions and the other event happens after David's deeds. And because of their deeds, the wrath of God goes out. The righteous indignation of God goes out against against Israel. God's just judgment falls. He will not let the guilty go unpunished. And in these cases, because it's leaders that are doing it, many are impacted because of their sin. And it's easy to come away from that sermon and say, okay, what's Israel's problem? In our generation, right, ever since the World Wars especially, but perhaps there's never been a time when this hasn't been the problem. But the immediate answer is God's the problem. After the Second World War there was a famous play in Germany. And the sense was, right, that we put God in the dock. But the verdict's already been given. We don't have to bother putting him in the dock because the verdict has come out. God is guilty. He's the problem. But the problem isn't God. The problem wasn't God in chapter 21. And it wasn't the problem. God wasn't the problem in chapter 24 either. You know, our generation says that God cannot be good and powerful and the kinds of things that happen in the world happen. But here, the problem isn't God. Part of God's goodness is that wrath that goes forth. We'll see that this evening as we look at this passage together. Part of his goodness is his anger. And in fact, it's part of the good news of the gospel that God is holy and just and that his anger goes forth. Again, we'll see that as we look at this passage this morning. The problem isn't God. The problem is us. You see, our plight is that God is just and righteous. He will not acquit the guilty. But our hope isn't let's go away from him. Our hope is found in him. As I say as we come to look at this passage, a couple of other things. Notice the last verse of 2 Samuel 51. Because it tips us off about a very important thing. Notice the last verse, verse 51. This is a kingly psalm in other words. So the steadfast love of the Lord was received by David, King David. There's a sense in which this psalm is only about David, uniquely about David, because David holds a unique office in redemptive history, as well as in Israel. But there's another level at which we can read it. And that is, these words are written for our benefit too. David asks us the question, for who is God but the Lord and who is a rock except our God? This God is my strong refugee. He made my way blameless. And then he asks us, you know, the encouragement to the righteous. But here's the thing, the last thing is this, the offspring. This psalm is ultimately, this song is ultimately about David's great son. It's completed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, we'll see that as we go along in this psalm. Now, last introductory thing. David is ending Samuel in this way for a very important reason. He's telling you, you need to read my life in the light of this song. If all you look at my life and see is my military exploits, you see my military smarts, you see the success that the Lord gave me. If you see all that, you've missed the point of the whole book of 2 Samuel. Because it's the Lord who gave me the victories. Because it's the Lord who gave me the success. It's the Lord who's been my helper. Without Him, I could do nothing. All right, let's look together at 2 Samuel chapter 22. The first thing David says is my God is worth having. He's not the problem. He's my hope. My God is worth having. You see what he says in verses two through four. He's been listening to Hannah. Hannah said, way back at the beginning of the book of Samuel, Hannah said, there's none holy like the Lord. There's none besides you. There's no rock like our God. And what Hannah already knew, David has found out too. So what does David do? He uses a barrage of picture words. And they're describing one simple truth. His God makes and keeps me safe. That's what he's saying with all these picture words, you know, rock and fortress and shield, stronghold, refuge and so on. My God keeps me safe. He makes me safe. So he says, he's a rock, he shelters me from danger. He's a fortress, he's secure and strong. He's a shield, he protects me from spear and arrow. He's a stronghold, right? High above danger and high above threats. He's a refuge, he's my safe place. And all that you see fills out one word, savior. God is savior. And this is how it spells out. But you notice all of it, he doesn't just say a bunch of words. He says, my rock, my fortress. You see, it's like that Luther says, Christianity, it's a religion of pronouns. And I say exactly, pronoun-centric. There you go, I've come up with a new word. Pronoun-centric, that's exactly what it is. Right here, he comes and he says, this is my God, my rock. You know, unashamedly he does it. So this is my experience. I called upon the Lord and I am saved from my enemies. This is my experience. That's what he's saying. This is my walk. As I lived out my life, he showed his love for me and saved me. Paul does the same thing. You remember in Galatians, Galatians 2 and verse 20, a marvelous verse of God's word. He says, the apostle says, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We sing that marvelous song, mine, mine, mine. Nothing wrong with singing that song, that that Savior gave himself for you, claiming him as your own, just like David does. Now, you and I, we've been reading David's life. We've been spending many a week and many a month and we can understand what he means, right? We've seen all the violent enemies. We've seen the unbelievable pressure that he was under in significant times in his life. We've seen Goliath and Absalom. We've seen all those things and the Lord saved him out of all of them. The point is this, have you looked back Have you considered, have you looked through your life like we've been able to do with David? And have you seen with eyes of faith the Lord's hand in your experiences, delivering you? I mean, sometimes when you didn't even call out for him, he came running and helped you. The Lord has kept you and the Lord has made you safe. Have you seen that? And have you brought your thanksgiving to him? Have you looked back and seen that he heard your prayers and he delivered you from out of your troubles? The second thing that he says, David says to us, my God is worth having. Secondly, he says, my God powerfully saves. Now, what unfolds now, this verse five and following, almost all the way to verse 46, David is using poetic language. dramatic language, and he's using it to describe the many, many occasions in his life when his life was threatened, when his life was on a knife edge. It could have gone either way. What did he do in those experiences? Well, he tells us, look at verse 5. He says, In my distress I called upon the Lord, to my God I called, from his temple he heard my voice. For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction they assailed me, the cords of Sheol they entangled me, the snares of death confronted me. You see, he's describing the extremities that he felt. It felt like a wave. You know what it's like when you're down at Sand Beach, especially when my kids are there, you see them and a wave comes along and it knocks them off their feet. That's how David felt in his life. He felt like he was being engulfed. He felt like he was going to be carried away. He felt trapped, entangled. And at that time, in death's grip, David knows fear, do you see? David knows stress, and he knows the impact of chaos like that. You and I surely have had occasions like that when life isn't like Clint Eastwood, but is very different from that. And in that situation, David cries out to the Lord. Now, why does he cry out to the Lord? But because the Lord is greater, far greater than the threats that surrounded him, even the threat of death and destruction. So he cries out to the Lord because in his arms and in his care, I rest. Now you understand that this has application into the New Testament. Because our Lord Jesus Christ, he faced the waves and the torrents of death engulfing him. And those waves triumphed over him because he experienced death. But yet he was raised from death. Death seemed to conquer him. But he called out to the Lord. And the Lord delivered him from death and he was risen. And so our Lord Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. I overcome death. So you see, when you and I were in these circumstances, you and I face death. We we call out to the Lord who has defeated it. That he would be in the valley of the shadow with us. The third thing that David says here is that God is my help. God is worth having. God is powerful, powerful to save. God is my help. David cries for help and he receives help, right? Capital H help, God himself. And what is the help that David receives? Again, this is sort of vivid, dramatic, poetic language that he's putting it in. And he's getting across to us the truth that God in heaven heard little David. That's it. We just sang a hymn together about God hearing prayer. But have you ever thought of the astonishing thing that is? That you and I, we bow our heads, our little lives. We address the one who holds everything in the palm of his hand. And he says he's hanging on every word that proceeds from our lips. And David is astonished by that. that the God in heaven hears him, not only hears him, but responds. The language is then that God not only hears but comes down. He not only hears in heaven, but comes down into real time and space to deliver David. Not in a physical form, other than wind and earthquake and so on, but as David is in this experience of life, God delivers him. Now the language that he's using here, do you see this in verse 8? He says, then the earth reeled and rocked, the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked because he was angry. The words, it's like, it was like he's saying that when God came to rescue me, it was like the days when God came to Israel on Sinai. Notice what he says, he goes on to say, I stopped the reading. The foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked because he was angry. And why was God angry? Was God angry with David for asking him for help? No. God is angry because David is in the distressful situation he's in. He's angry because of the enemies that have put David in distress. And so God in anger now comes down to put to rout David's enemies. You see the point? What this is saying is that anger is a good emotion. We tend to think of anger as a bad emotion. You should never be angry. But listen, we need anger. Because anger makes us get up and do something about a situation. Most of our time, we say, I'm just not going to get involved. But you see injustice, right? You see slavery and you say, I'm angry because of that, right? Righteous indignation. And it makes you get up like Wilberforce and act against it to take action. And you see this, what he's saying, that reflects something in God himself. I mean, God sees his people. It's part of his goodness. When God sees his people in distress, when we pray for the persecuted church, when we pray to God, when God sees violence and hatred and death and destruction and cancer and war, and he sees his people, especially his people, dragged into the vortex of those things, and especially when he sees his anointed one, God says, I get up and I act. I don't just sit in heaven and listen. I come down and I act on behalf of my people. And he comes like a warrior. You see that again, the poetic language he uses, he takes lightning and it's like an arrow that God, the spears sends forth. He sends terrifying thunder. Again, David is borrowing from Moses and the Exodus as well. When God answered me and when he delivered me, it was like back then when he set the waters apart, when he routed the enemies of God's people, the Egyptians, when he did all those things. But it was more so because God rescued me from many waters. So here's the point. God's servant is in danger. God is angry. God is angry with our enemies, and he comes to act against them for us. Enemies that are too great for us, but not too great for him. And we see this, John 11. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you know those words that most of the English translations have difficulty translating. They're usually, Jesus coming to the tomb, deeply troubled, is the best that they come to. But the words, right? Deeply troubled. It's actually the expression of a bull. bellowing with rage, right? How dare you come in my field? Right? There is a bull bellowing with rage and Jesus stood before the tomb, it says, not deeply troubled, no, bellowing with rage. Why? Because he's facing death, he's confronting death, he's confronting what he's come to deal with. And as he sees it, He comes, Calvin says, he comes as our dread champion on the lists to do battle for his people. Have you understood the cross in that light? That when Jesus was on the cross, he wasn't a helpless victim just hanging there. No, he was destroying the works of the wicked one, bringing to end the works of the devil. all the enemies of God's people, thwarting them, death and sin, the wages of sin. David continues, not only these things, but God, he says, is my righteousness. Now notice these words, these are perhaps the most difficult of all the words in this. Look what he says about why God treated me like this, why God intervened in the way he did. He says, David says, the Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he rewarded me, for I've kept the ways 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. We worked our way through the whole book of Samuel. And at face value, you read those words and you say, man, that is outrageous. Maybe, at a stretch, we could say before 2 Samuel 11, David was approaching this, but after 2 Samuel 11, he can, you know, dealt according to my righteousness, cleanness of hands. I don't think it's true that everything David did was perfect before 2 Samuel 11. I think in general, he was a man after God's own heart. He was, you could say, blameless, not sinless, but blameless. But after 2 Samuel 11, right, we've seen it, David's life and Israel's life has been chaos. And it's been chaos, why? Well, because of David's sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. Everything that unfolded, Absalom and all the things that unfolded after that sin were because of it. So, how do we understand? Here's the question, isn't it? How is it possible for an adulterer and a murderer to speak as David speaks in the verses I just read? So how do we think about that? Now first of all, remember, before 2 Samuel 11, David's life was blameless. There's a genuine goodness about David. He's a man after God's own heart. And even after he was confronted in his sin, David is still a man after God's own heart, right? He's a picture of repenting faith and forgiving love. acting out of, right, the forgiven much, loving much. But secondly, I don't think that we should explain this away by saying, right, I love Matthew Henry, but I think Matthew Henry doesn't say it right when he says this, though he in weakness departed from God's way, he didn't wickedly depart from God's way. And that's how Matthew Henry explains the use of righteousness here, that it was relative. I think there's a better way to look at it. And there are two keys to it. Now remember that when David sinned and when David was confronted, Nathan said to him this. Nathan said, the Lord has put away your sin. 2 Samuel 12, 13. The Lord says to David, the Lord, I have put your sin away. Now, we may remember his sin and we want to pin it on him. But God says, I don't, I put it away. And the Lord doesn't remember it. And listen, sometimes people find it difficult when they've had a marked failure in their past life. In the church, it's difficult often for them to get beyond it. So he's pinned there. But David says, remember his words, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, purge me and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And the point here is that he's made clean. And he prays what he prays here because he believes that God has cleansed him. The second point is this. God forgave David because God was committed to David before, ever before David was committed to God. So God shows hesed, he shows steadfast commitment to David when he forgives him his sins. So you ask the question, why doesn't David's evil actions undermine his right to describe his life without reference to his failure? It's not because he's self-righteous. It's not because he's blind or deluded. It's because he knows that the Lord has put away his sins. See, in other words, David sees himself like God sees him. You ask yourself, how can God do that? Well, it's not by the blood of bulls and goats. He can only do that by three countings. Three countings, you remember the three countings that God counts your sins to your savior, not to you. He doesn't hold them against you. He gives them to Jesus so that your sins are his sins. And then, right, he is judged in your place. He is condemned in your place. And then God doesn't count your sins against you anymore, but rather he counts the righteousness of God himself, Jesus Christ, to your account, to your credit. Now God sees you like he saw David. The question for us is, do we see ourselves as God sees us? So that we can say in prayer, Lord, help me, I've lived in righteousness before you, I've lived blamelessly. So vindicate your servant, like Job asked God for, right? Vindicate your servant, help your servant, rescue your servant, I'm yours. It's not inappropriate to pray. I saw David prayed. God is worth having, David says. God, in the beginning in Psalm, in Hannah's song, she ends her song in this way, the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces against them. He will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed. So David ends the book of Samuel by saying that God has fulfilled his promise. He's strengthened his king. That when the king was weak, the Lord rescued him. And not only did he rescue him, he gave him power to give him victories. Not only to be rescued, but also to have many victories. But here's where we end. Where ultimately is Israel's hope? Where ultimately is Israel's hope? Remember the last words? Let me remind you. It says, great salvation he brings to his king, that's David, of course. And he shows hesed, he shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David, but every king that follows in David's line, they're the Lord's anointed, they're the Lord's Messiah. to David and to his offspring forever. Where's Israel's hope? Israel's hope is in David's offspring, in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the coming of our glorious Lord and Savior, in the way to know David's God, this God worth having, he says, for us to know him. is to come to him through our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, to own him as our King. May God's word go forth and abound in our lives. Let's pray together.