David’s Song Of Praise

David’s song of praise

Reading:

• 2 Samuel chapter 22 verses 1-51.

• 2 Samuel chapter 23 verses 1-7.

• At least seventy-three of the psalms are assigned to David,

• But his last one is found here in 2 Samuel chapters 22-23.

• The phrase in chapter 23 verse 1: “These are the last words of David:”

• Do not mean they are the very last words that David ever spoke.

• Rather they mean the ‘last words’ that God inspired him to write.

Ill:

• When we use that word "inspired” or “inspiration";

• Do not think of it the same way the world thinks of it;

• e.g. when it says; "Shakespeare was certainly an inspired writer."

• What we mean by biblical inspiration:

• Is that the Holy Spirit ‘guided’ and ‘breathed upon’ the Bible’s writers;

• Each wrote using their own personalities and styles;

• But were guided along by the Spirit of God.

• ill: It’s the idea of wind filling a sailing ship and moving it in a certain direction;

• So God moved, guided, lead his people to write his words.

• ill: In the Old Testament again and again; nearly 4,000 times we read:

• “The word of the Lord came to me” or “Thus says the Lord”.

• Each wrote using their own personalities and styles

• Quote: ‘Truth through personality’;

• But were guided along by the Spirit of God.

• Quote: Dr J.I. Packer:

• “Men no more gave us the Bible than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the law of gravity”.

• So the phrase in verse 1: “These are the last words of David:”

• Do not mean they are the very last words that David spoke.

• Rather they mean the ‘last words’ that God inspired him to write.

Background:

• As we pick up the story David has lived a full life;

• In every area of his life he has experienced both the heights and the depths.

• Bland, ordinary, dull are not words you associate with David!

• Quote: John Lennon:

• “Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans.”

• Not for David – he had experienced life in all its varied colours.

• Quote: Erma Bombeck

• “Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.”

• David had learnt to seize the moment & to make the most of each opportunity.

As we enter these final chapters David has entered what we might call his twilight years.

• David often had to trust God in impossible circumstances,

• And again at the end of his life he would once again need God’s help in his life!

Note: Three major events in David’s life provided preparation for this song:

• Often songs come out of personal experience.

• ill: Love songs or the genre called the blues are a classic example of that

• ill: Our hymns & choruses are borne out of personal circumstances.

Ill:

Martin Rinckart lived in Eilenberg, Germany.

• He had arrived there just as the Thirty Years’ War began in 1618,

• Perhaps the most devastating war in history.

• Germany’s population was decimated,

• Falling from 16 million to 6 million.

• Because Eilenberg was walled,

• Refugees from the entire country came there seeking safety.

• Unfortunately many brought disease into the crowded city.

• When the plague of 1637 ravaged the town,

• Rinckart was the only minister left in town.

• During that year alone,

• He conducted funerals for five thousand residents, including his wife.

• During this dreadful thirty-year scourge,

• Rinckart wrote a hymn of thanksgiving: "Now Thank We All Our God."

• In the hymn he praises God for the "wondrous things" he has done;

• And talks of joyful hearts and blessed peace.

• Most of us find it hard to be thankful in the midst of short-term woes,

• But Martin Rinckart praised the Lord throughout a thirty-year ordeal.

• He had learnt to depend on God in difficult situations & circumstances.

“Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done, in whom his world rejoices;

Who, from our mother’s arms, hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.”

Three major events in David’s life provided preparation for this song

(a).

• David suffered the anguish and grief of the premature death of his son,

• A sad and tragic tale of a son who led a conspiracy against his own father.

• Absalom failed and was unfortunately killed in the process.

• The death of Absalom broke David’s heart.

Quote: 2 Samuel chapter 18 verse 33:

“The king was overcome with emotion. He went up to the room over the gateway and burst into tears. And as he went, he cried, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son.”