Scripture: 2 Samuel 22:1-51
Sermon Series: 2 Samuel: When God is Your King! – Sermon 22
Do you love Soul Music? What’s your favorite soul song?
Known as the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin (picture), tops every list of the most loved soul artists. She captivated the stage from childhood when she sang gospel at her father’s church in Detroit. She sold 75 million records, making her one of the best-selling R&B female artists of all time.
One of her most popular hits was “I Say a Little Prayer.” The song is a heartfelt expression of love and devotion. The lyrics were intended by writer, Hal David (picture), to convey a woman’s concern for her man who’s serving in the Vietnam War. It captures the universal desire for protection. .
2 Samuel 22 is Soul Music. It’s straight from David’s soul. It’s not a little prayer. It’s big praise for David’s awesome God. It’s the longest psalm that we know is from the pen of David. It’s virtually repeated in Psalm 18. The theme is simple. You may have it in your pocket. It’s “In God I trust.” David mentions God 19 times in his song.
As a senior citizen in Israel, David wanted to leave a testimony to the praiseworthiness, dependability and righteousness of God. It’s so like David at the conclusion of his military career, to cast a grateful eye over what had taken place and acknowledge God’s continued goodness to him.
It parallels Hannah’s song of praise in 1 Samuel 2:1-11. These two songs “bookend” the story of 1 and 2 Samuel. How significant that two books of bloodshed and burdens are bracketed by praise! The hero in both songs and books is God. David’s focus is not on the delivered but on the Deliverer.
David is facing a major change. He’s gone from giant killer to aging out and nearly being killed by a giant. If Abishai hadn’t intervened, he would have been. How do you handle change? How do you respond when you hear, “You can’t do that anymore; you’re not as young as you once were”? Life is passing David by. Failure became more frequent. Fatigue more extreme. Fear is more threatening. David’s response to it all is preserved in 2 Samuel 22.
You might expect bitterness, resistance or despair. David frames his thoughts in this song. It’s not a dirge in a minor key. It’s a sweet melody of praise as an old man reminisces about his life and his fellowship with God.
Becoming a person of praise may not be at the top of your priority list, but it ought to be! As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Or as John Piper (picture) rephrases it, “to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.” A vital way that we glorify God is through praise. We all need to become people of praise.
One of the main reasons God called David a man after God’s own heart was that David was a man of praise. So, let’s take a journey into David’s heart as he reveals his soul with pen and ink. If you’re taking notes…
1.God is the object of my praise because He’s my protector, vss 2-3
To appreciate what David has been through, we need to recall his background. David was in his late teens when he’s anointed as king but was 30 before he actually became king over the southern part of Israel and 37 before the whole nation was united under his rule. During those years, God was shaping His man through adversity, putting David in situation after situation where he despaired of life itself and had to learn to trust in God alone.
For over a decade, the mercurial King Saul pursued David over the Judean wilderness, so that David said, “There is hardly a step between me and death” (1 Samuel 20:3). He lived in caves and moved constantly to avoid Saul’s relentless pursuits. He could never relax; he always had to be on the alert. We talk about stress; how would you like to know every day and every night that an enemy with an army at his disposal was trying to kill you!?!
David uses nine metaphors in verses 2-3 to depict the Lord as his protector. Calling God a rock is a Hebrew nickname for God. A rock reminds us of strength and stability. It’s dependable and unchanging. The Bible’s imagery of rock involves three themes that all find expression in David’s song.
A rock was a place of shelter. The great rocks in the Israeli desert were a place to hide from the scorching sun. Often in the shade of huge rock a small oasis would thrive. It was a place for a man on a journey to rest. God was David’s rock. It was the place of shelter where his strength could be restored.
A rock was a refuge. It was a place where a fugitive could be protected from his enemies. David had been pursued by King Saul and his own son, Absalom. From high in the rock, David could look down on his foes who were unable to reach him. But it was God who kept him safe. Charles Spurgeon (picture) wrote, “Believers are often hidden in their God from the strife of tongues.”
A rock was a sure foundation. The Bible speaks of a rock as a place where a believer can safely stand. David sang of this in Psalm 40:2, “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” When David seemed to be slipping into deadly danger, God was the rock that enabled him to stand firm.
Who is the rock in your life? Everyone runs to something or someone when life gets difficult. Where we turn reveals a lot about who or what we trust.
Fortress pictures God as a stronghold. We could say that God is my Fort Knox. The Hebrew word for “fortress” refers to a mountain stronghold.
We read about David and his growing number of supporters living with him in the “stronghold” (1 Samuel 22:4). The Hebrew sounds much like the place we know today as Masada (picture), which is a flat piece of land on top of a tall mountain. Masada is about 30 miles southeast of Jerusalem. It’s famous for the Jewish revolt against Rome that resulted in the suicide of 960 rebels who were stationed there. A “fortress” protects one from the enemy.
A “shield” protects one from enemy arrows and missiles. Horn refers to strength, like animals who use horns to declare their supremacy over others.
Do you see what David’s doing? He exhausts his vocabulary. He strains at trying to describe God. There’s so much more to Him than we realize. The more we see the more we’re impressed – awed, overwhelmed.
Did you notice the pronoun used? It’s “my, my, my, my, my.” My rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my salvation, my stronghold. Can you say that? Is God your deliverer, your protector, the object of your worship?
Joan Marie Arbogast (picture) tells a wonderful story of a time when she was flying with her young daughter. Her daughter was terribly anxious the first time she flew in a plane. “What if the plane falls down?” she asked as they boarded. “What’s that sound?” she questioned as the engines revved.
During take-off she squeezed Joan’s hand till her knuckles turned white. But once they were above the clouds, she released her grip and announced, “It’s okay now. I’m not afraid. We’re above the clouds…and next to heaven.” Her perspective had changed, and she felt secure. A believer is always safe because God is our Father and we’re next to heaven.
2. God is the object of my praise because He listens to me and rescues me, vss. 4-20
Do you believe in ghosts? While I don’t believe in ghosts, I have been “ghosted.” It’s one of the more painful, destructive experiences of life. Ghosting is something that can happen to anyone.
What is ghosting? You may not know the term, but you may have experienced it. Ghosting is when someone abruptly ends a friendship with limited or no explanation and proceeds to quickly disappear from your life.
Sometimes we wonder when we’re going through difficulties, if we’re being ghosted. Too often we feel like no one is listening. Often, we’ll turn to music as a solace to express our pain and loneliness. Pink Floyd (picture) has a song, “Comfortably Numb.” You may know it. It begins with: “Hello? Hello? Hello? Is there anybody [out] there? Just nod if you can hear me.”
Do you find yourself sometimes crying out, “Hello? Hello? Hello? Anybody out there?” Yes! God is and He’s the One David cries out to.
Can you relate to verse 7? “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.” God hears, responds and comes. David wants us to picture the God of creation, the God of the Exodus, this supernatural God who listens and acts on our behalf.
We have more shock and awe as the God of the universe shows up to rescue David in his time of need. This is more impressive than Thanos getting all the infinity stones in the Marvel movie. God is so powerful that one blast of breath from His nostrils pushes back the waters of the earth, leaving the channels of the sea bone dry. One puff of God’s breath is enough to push away the sea and leave the Mariana Trench exposed and dry as a desert.
Hearing this should remind us of a time in the Old Testament when God showed up in response to the cries of His people to save them. In the book of Exodus when the Israelites came out of Egypt, they came to the Red Sea. The sea was on one side with the army of Egypt bearing down on the other side. Moses prayed for rescue. God showed up. A thick cloud kept the Egyptians away from the Israelites that night as God blew and turned the sea into dry ground, so His people could walk to the other side in safety.
The same mighty God who saved Moses and the nation of Israel when they prayed for rescue is the God who showed up to save David when he prayed for rescue. What we have here is what’s called a theophany – a divine appearance of God. There are several of them in the Old Testament. And in verses 6-16, God is the sky-splitting, world-shaking, enemy-bashing God.
David has a number of Old Testament allusions in this song. Here’s another one. David writes, “He drew me out of many waters” (2 Samuel 22:17). Those Hebrew words are unique. They’re only found in one other place in the Old Testament, Exodus 2:10. It’s where Pharaoh’s daughter drew Moses out of the water to safety. The name Moses means to be drawn out of the waters. As a baby Moses faced certain death as he swirled around the rushing Nile River in the currents as he floated in a reed basket. God providentially floated him in front of Pharaoh’s daughter, who heard his cry, drew him out of the water, adopted him, and saved his life.
In the same way, David’s life hung in the balance. Like baby Moses, his life was spinning out of control in the waters. As God saved Moses, God saved David in his time of need. Literally, God “Moses–ed” David.
David goes on to describe God’s deliverance through a thunderstorm. This could be a poetic description of God’s power in rescuing His people. It could refer to an actual battle, not recorded in Scripture, where David was about to be defeated by a powerful enemy. In response to his prayer, God sent a thunderstorm that sent the enemy into confusion and gave David the victory.
But David didn’t say, “Wow, I sure was lucky! A thunderstorm hit at just the right moment, and I defeated my enemy!” No, David knew God’s way of delivering His people. Usually, God uses natural means. Sometimes though He violates the laws of nature and uses miracles. David though was very clear that it was God who rescued him, not his own strength or cleverness.
We tend to think of David as a man who saw God do remarkable things and he did. But notice that there is not a single record of a miracle in the entire life of David. Not one. William Blaikie (picture) observed that God never did a miracle for David. God did miracles during the lives of Moses and Joshua before David and for Elijah and Elisha after David. As God rescued David, but never miraculously, God will hear and rescue us. From the ground, it looked very ordinary; but David knew better, and so should we.
3. God is the object of my praise because He blesses me because I’m obedient, vss. 21-28
Is this Santa Clause (picture) theology? Is this “you better be good…” Verses 21-24: “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.”
Uh, Bathsheba, Uriah? Can you be “good” and go to heaven? Is that what David is saying? Sadly, it’s what many who call themselves Christians believe. But David knew he was a sinner. He wrote, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). So, what’s he saying here? God rewards obedience
David hadn’t committed apostasy or turned his back on God’s commands as Saul had done. Understand that blamelessness isn’t sinless, but wholeness. It speaks of integrity. David still is the man after God’s own heart. He’s not guilty of religious pride but is expressing faithful loyalty to God and His covenant. Matthew Henry (picture) observes, “Though he had sometimes weakly departed from his duty, he had never wickedly departed from God.”
God blesses our obedience and rewards us for our faithfulness. It does matter how we respond to trials. We cannot use life’s adversities as an excuse to get mad or walk away from God.
David was merciful to Saul and God was merciful to him. He wasn’t sinless, but blameless with God. He restates Hannah’s song’s theme that God controls human destiny. God humbles the proud but raises up the humble.
B. B. Warfield (picture) professor at Princeton Seminary back in the days when people at Princeton believed the Bible wrote: “There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot … be accepted at all. This is not true of us only “when we believe.” It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relationship to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in … behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.” David looked forward to Christ’s cross. We look back to it, but we need the cross every day. The David story is a gospel story and so is ours.
4. God is the object of my praise because He strengthens me, vss. 29-43
David was a warrior and understood the importance of both strength and defensive protection. God gave David the strength to endure and be victorious over those who opposed him.
David put his trust in the Lord. His trust was deep-seated. And David’s trust was rewarded, as God helped him through all the challenges he faced.
Our world is in turmoil. Disease, conflict, and unrest abound. The enemies we face are generally not attacking us with swords and spears, although the attacks may cause physical, emotional, or economic damage and we may feel helpless in the face of the onslaught. But David’s words are true for each of us. For those who trust in the Lord, He’ll provide the strength to overcome. God will protect us from our enemies, the Evil One and his followers.
It’s not a guarantee that we won’t suffer in this world. But if we trust in Him, we can rest assured that whatever happens, as He did for David, He will protect us and give us the strength to endure.
C.S. Lewis (picture) has written a great book, The Screwtape Letters. If you’ve never read it, I’d encourage you to. It’s a fictional account based on the spiritual truth of the New Testament. Screwtape is a demon who has been assigned to a man. Screwtape writes letters to his immediate supervisor, a demon named Wormwood. In these letters, you learn something about how demons are trying to tempt us, make us miserable and cause us to be ineffective as Christians. Although it’s fiction, it is based on this truth. Satan has a mobilized demonized army that continually attacks us.
David says he has a strength beyond anything else the world knows about. God is his strength and power! As a Christian, you’re not Superman, but you must understand that a Superman lives in you! His name is the Holy Spirit!
As God did for David, He gives us the power to persevere, even when we feel like giving up. It’s the strength to keep going when you’d rather quit. Sometimes it’s just enough strength to get up in the morning, to put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes it’s just enough strength to get up after you’ve fallen again.
God’s power sometimes comes to us in small doses, but it’s always enough power to help you make it through. Do you need that power today? Are you feeling weak, and helpless—wondering how you’ll keep going? Take courage. If you lift your hands to the Lord, He’ll strengthen you.
Some days you’ll feel like you can leap over a wall—other days you won’t feel like kicking so high. Where will the strength come from when you have no strength left? David says it comes from the Lord.
5. God is the object of my praise because He makes my life a testimony, vss. 44-50
The other nations didn’t want a king on the throne of Israel, especially a brilliant strategist, brave warrior, and beloved leader, like David. However, God not only established him on the throne, but He promised David a dynasty that would never end. The Lord promised David a throne and He kept His promise. He also helped David unite his own people and deal with those still loyal to Saul. Foreigners refers to gentile nations. The Lord’s victories frightened these peoples and drove them into hiding places. Eventually, they’d come out of their weak fortresses and submit to David.
David shouts of praise were a bold witness to the subjected peoples that they’re dead idols can’t save or protect them. Only the God of Israel is the true living God. David’s victories prove God is with him. David was always careful not to exalt himself, but to exalt the Lord. He closes his song with high, holy praise for God. He exalted the Lord and the Lord exalted him. If we magnify our own name or our own deeds, we will sin; but if the Lord magnifies us, we can bring glory to His name.
Conclusion
Do you have soul music? What’s your song? At our house, I often hear Jane in the next room as she hums. Jane has soul music. What about you? Our sword challenge this week is Psalm 40:3: “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” That’s David’s life. It’s to be my life and your life. Notice others don’t hear our soul song – they see it and it turns them to the Savior, to trust Him. As one of the Christian church’s early pastors, Irenaeus (picture) said that “the glory of God is a fully alive human being.” David fits that description. How about you?
David’s life had been blessed and graced by God since the day God called him from following the sheep. God had saved him, strengthened him and secured him. David had so much to praise the Lord for and so do we! This is a fitting song designed to thank God for His wonderful blessings. It’s a song we should all be singing. If we’re saved by God’s grace, we enjoy the same blessings and benefits that were enjoyed by David. We have more than enough reason to praise God today and forever.
Maybe you’re here and you’re not trusting God. He’s really not your Savior. My friend, you can come to Jesus today and He will save you and begin to demonstrate His power and blessing in your life.
If you’re in a difficult situation and need the Lord’s intervention, you can call on Him by faith and begin to see Him work in your need today. Maybe you’d just like to bow before Him in humble praise, worship and adoration for all that He has done, is doing, and will do in your life.
It didn’t matter what happened to David. He had soul music because his trust wasn’t in this world – it was in God.
One of my favorite authors is Gordon MacDonald (picture). Recently, I stumbled on this story that he shared about his own life. MacDonald writes:
“In the fall of 1956, I began my final year at the Stony Brook School, then a boys’ college preparatory school in New York. Among the required courses that last year was Senior Bible, taught by the school’s headmaster, Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein, a man who required us to memorize 300 verses of Scripture over the course of that year. If he met a student on the pathway from the classroom to the dining hall, he might say, “Gordon, give me John 13:34 please.” He expected us to recite the verse from memory without faltering.
One of the passages he tasked us to memorize was Psalm 46. For days we memorized, recited, memorized, recited until Psalm 46 was part of us. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble period. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea….” In the spring of 1957, Senior Bible ended. We put our index cards away, graduated from Stony Brook, and went off to college. Occasionally, I returned to Psalm 46. As a pastor, I preached on it a few times.
Now 56 years have passed. A few days ago my doctor called me. “Gordon, I have some difficult news for you. There’s a tumor in the back of your head in the lining of the brain. It is not malignant, but it will have to come out.”
I have spent my whole life helping other people face doctor-call moments like these. Now it was my turn and the very first thing that began to surge through my mind was: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble period. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed….” Gordon MacDonald has soul music, do you?
No matter what David encountered, he praised God for his deliverance. Are you able to say with David and Gordon MacDonald, “God is my refuge”?
Christianity is a religion in which we get to have a personal relationship with our God, our Heavenly Father. A religious person may say that God is a strength, a shield, a savior, a security, and a safety, but it is only the child of God who can sing the song of deliverance, the soul song of: “God is my strength, my shield, my savior, my security, and my safety.”