David the paradox
2 Samuel 22
The good the bad and the ugly
David – a great hero of the faith
Passionate worship – Psalms
Goliath
Heroic deeds
2 Samuel 22 – placed at the end of the story – written early in the story
speaks of a Passionate relationship with God.
You might feel uncomfortable with the military imagery – David was a warrior
By this point in the story, verses 21-25 are no longer true
Bathsheba
Uriah
Amnon & Tamar
Absalom
Taking the roll of fighting men
Right at the end of his life, he tells Salomon to break his vow & make sure Shimie & Joab do not die of old age. Now they both show them selves up as traitors for Solomon, so his father’s wishes are justified. But it also shows that David doesn’t go to his grave without some bitterness.
David ends up looking more like Tony Soprano than Mother Theresa
David, this mixture of great goodness and great evil, (with some plan old ambivalence thrown in) is called “A man after Gods heart.” He is called this in 1 Samuel 13 when God takes the kingdom from Saul, and then in the New Testament, Paul refers to David as a man after God’s own heart in a sermon at Antioch. Acts 13:22
Although David has to deal with some of the consequences of his actions later in life, God never takes his promise away that David’s dynasty will last forever. It is a foreshadowing of the coming King whose reign will never end. Neither does God remove His Spirit from David. And David’s name is always held in honor in scripture and tradition.
What is up with that? God rejects Saul because he doesn’t do exactly as told, and he steps outside of his kingly role into a priestly role. David’s sin trumps Saul’s all over the place! How come David gets to be the man after God’s own heart?
The simple answer is that David “got” God’s grace.
He got it in that he received his grace
He got it in that he understood it.
Psalm 40
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
and put their trust in him.
Blessed are those
who make the LORD their trust,
who do not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods. [b]
Many, LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done,
the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
they would be too many to declare.
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—
but my ears you have opened —
burnt offerings and sin offerings] you did not require.
Then I said, "Here I am, I have come—
with the scroll written for me.
I desire to do your will, my God;
your law is within my heart."
I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips, LORD,
as you know.
I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.
I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness
from the great assembly.
Do not withhold your mercy from me, LORD;
may your love and faithfulness always protect me.
For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.
Be pleased to save me, LORD;
come quickly, LORD, to help me.
May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
be appalled at their own shame.
But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who long for your saving help always say,
"The LORD is great!"
But as for me, I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
you are my God, do not delay.
This psalm, written obviously later in David’s life, doesn’t rely a bit in his own ability to be good –gone is the talk of God treating him well because of his own righteousness - he relies completely on the grace of God to take away the sins that have piled up so high that he can’t see.
David gets God’s grace, because when he sins, he comes around, sees the evil that he has done, and he repents.
You might look at David’s life and say, sure Mike, David “gets” God’s grace and that’s good and fine, but he doesn’t deserve it!”
The Shepherd boy David – maybe he deserves God’s grace, but the “Tony Soprano” David: No way.
That’s the point isn’t it? – if you deserve it, it isn’t God’s grace!
The definition of grace is that it is undeserved blessing.
The recklessness of God’s grace
God is neither shy nor cheap in his giving of forgiveness
Praise My Soul the King of Heaven
Verse 3
Father like, he tends and spares us;
Well our feeble frame he knows,
In his hands he gently bears us,
Rescues us from all our foes.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Widely (wildly) yet his mercy flows!
Ephesians 1:7-8 In (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.
In the story that we have called the prodigal son, some writers have said that it should be called the prodigal father since the word prodigal mean generous to a fault. The Son comes home having wasted at least half of the family fortune and the father runs to greet him on the road – the son can’t even get his apology out because the father has already forgiven him. The older son is shocked and appalled at his father’s reckless giving of grace – How will he ever learn if you don’t punish him, make him suffer for his crime! He doesn’t deserve your forgiveness, he doesn’t deserve your love. Ah, that is why it is called grace!
Do you deserve God’s grace?
Of course you don’t!
You might think that there are others who deserve it less, even if none of us deserve it at all. – Ed Silvoso – “You might miss the plane by ten minutes, I might miss it by an hour, but we are both standing on the tarmac instead of being on the plane.
Are you worthy of God’s grace?
Worthy = WORTH-y
You are worth dying for
You are worthy because God has said you are.
Deserve is about what we have done, worth is about who we are
Receiving God’s grace
1John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
David – Psalm 32:1-5
Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed are those
whose sin the LORD does not count against them
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer. [b]
Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD."
And you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
So if God gives his grace freely, should we all just live like rock-stars?
In Romans 5-6 Paul is explaining how God’s grace can’t run out – he always has an ample supply. If there is more sin, there is more Grace! Paul thinks that we might do the math and figure that if we sin more, there would be more grace, Right? Paul says: No way! Sin is like a slave master, like an abusive spouse, once you are free from them, why would you go back?
If we go back to David – he describes sinning as sinking in the muck and the mire in Psalm 40 – God has taken you and put your feet on solid ground, why would you jump back in the quicksand pit?
How long to sing this song? – p.xi in Bono’s into to the Psalms
“ ‘Psalm 40’ is interesting in that it suggests a time in which grace will replace karma, and love replace the very strict laws of Moses (i.e. fulfil them). I love that thought. David, who committed some of the most selfish as well as selfless acts was depending on it. That the scriptures are brim full of hustlers, murderers, cowards, adulterers and mercenaries used to shock me; now it is a source of great comfort.
‘40’ became the closing song at U2 shows and on hundreds of occasions, literally hundreds of thousands of people of every size and shape t-shirt have shouted back the refrain, pinched from ‘Psalm 6’: “How long’ (to sing this song)”. I had thought of it as a nagging question—pulling at the hem of an invisible deity whose presence we glimpse only when we act in love. How long ... hunger? How long ... hatred? How long until creation grows up and the chaos of its precocious, hell-bent adolescence has been discarded? I thought it odd that the vocalizing of such questions could bring such comfort; to me too.”
- Bono’s introduction to the Psalms found in Selections from the book of Psalms by Grove Press, 1999.
God is generous to a fault with his grace, but we should never take it for granted.
David’s life is a mixture of good and evil, serving and rebelling, but all the way through, it is a story of God’s lavish grace.
