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.”
(b).
• The second blow that caused David anguish and sorrow;
• Was a three-year famine that struck the land.
• Don’t rush over that – three long years!
• We moan about a few weeks of snow – for the nation it was three years of desperation.
• ill: Three long years of watching everything you have slowly waste away;
• i.e. Your crops. i.e. Your animal livestock.
(c).
• Israel was back at war with their age-old enemy, the Philistines.
• They had enjoyed a long period of peace;
• But now the old enemy was back!
Quote 2 Samuel chapter 21 verse 15:
“Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted”
• Don’t miss those last three words in the N.I.V.:
• “…He became exhausted”
• After all he’d been through, who wouldn’t feel exhausted?
• He’s only human. And a person can take only so much.
• i.e. The loss of a son,
• i.e. The suffering brought on by famine,
• i.e. The misery of battle-it all wears on him until he begins to crack.
So David did what he had done on so many occasions before – he calls out to God.
• He declares his feelings in a song,
• The song covers no less than 51 verses in 2 Samuel 22.
• But notice as you read this song;
• The tone is not what one might expect, given his circumstances.
• You might expects this song to start; “Well I woke up this morning”;
• But David is not singing the blues, this song is not a dark, sombre dirge,
• Like Martin Rinckart in the midst of his sufferings;
• He wrote a psalm of praise.
Note:
• This is a song of testimony;
• Listen to his testimony in verses 17-19:
“He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
20 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
Did you get the emphasis in these verses?
• “He rescued me”.
• “the Lord was my support”.
• “He brought me”.
• “He rescued me”.
• “He delighted in me”
• Through all his trials and difficulties;
• He is able to declare it was the Lord who delivered him!
Not:
• His mighty men, his army that he lists in chapter 23 verses 9-39;
• Obviously it was through them that God worked.
• But David did not say victory was from them;
• He acknowledged the source of his victory;
• And that source was God Almighty!
• ill: the spring not the well is the source of the water.
Let’s Scan The Song:
• David sums up his life in four themes,
• Four expressions that weave their way through this psalm of praise.
Theme I: When times are tough, God is our only security (vs 2-3).
“He said:
“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my saviour”—
• Each of these poetic expressions carries a unique and powerful meaning;
• In which David describes the Lord as someone secure.
• “Rock”.
• “Fortress”
• “Deliverer”
• “Refuge”
• “Shield”
• “Stronghold”
• “Refuge”
• “Saviour”
To paraphrase David is saying:
"Times are tough.
I’ve lost my son.
I’m losing my nation.
My army is in disarray.
My land and my people must once again face warfare as the Philistines come upon us.
And yet there is one thing that continues to be solid, reliable and unchanging – the Lord"
Ill:
The story is told of a bulldog and a poodle who were arguing one day.
• The bulldog was making fun of the poodle,
• Calling him a weak little runt who couldn’t do anything.
• The bulldog said, “I challenge you to a contest.
• Let’s see who can open the back door of their house the fastest and get inside.”
• The bulldog was thinking he would turn the doorknob with his powerful jaws,
• While the poodle was too small to even reach the knob of his back door.
• But to the bulldog’s surprise the poodle said,
• “I can get inside my house faster than you can. I accept the challenge.”
• So with the poodle watching, the bulldog ran to the back door of his house;
• He jumped up to the doorknob.
• He got his teeth and paws around it and tried to turn it,
• But he couldn’t get enough grip on the knob to do it, so he finally quit in exhaustion.
• Now it was the poodle’s turn.
• He just did what he’d been doing every day for the last several years.
• He went up to the door and scratched a couple of times, then waited patiently.
• Within a few seconds, his master not only opened the door,
• But also picked him up in his arms,
• Patted him on the head affectionately and carried him inside.
The difference was in the relationship.
• Some of us are bulldog Christians.
• It’s all grunting, growling and trying in our own strength to get the job done;
• When we need to be poodle Christians;
• Not wimps or weedy, or unmanly or unwomanly;
• But rather those who rely on the Lord to open doors (to bring victory!)
David had learnt the secret of relying on the Lord:
• An example of that is in verse 7:
• Listen to David’s prayer.
““In my distress I called to the LORD;
I called out to my God.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.”
• As with the bulldog and the poodle;
• The difference was in the relationship – “My God”.
• To him, God was no distant Deity,
• Preoccupied with other galaxies or concerned with the changing of the seasons.
• His God heard his little (some might say insignificant) voice!
Note: Watch God’s involvement in the movement of David’s psalm (verses 13-16).
• He is responding to those cries.
• He’s answering the call for help in this three year time of drought and the famine.
• In magnificent poetry David describes how God sent rain!
Out of the brightness of his presence
bolts of lightning blazed forth.
14 The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
15 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
16 The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at the rebuke of the LORD,
at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
Now that is good for the nation but what about David and his needs (vs 17-19):
17 “He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
• David clearly testifies that “The Lord was his support.”
• In tough times He is our only security, our rescuer, our support.
• The key is in the relationship.
• David knew his God.
• Question: Do we?
Theme 2: When our days are dark, the Lord is our only light (22: 21-31).
Verse 29:
You, LORD, are my lamp;
the LORD turns my darkness into light.
Ill:
• In 1835 a man visited a doctor in Florence, Italy.
• He was filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep.
• He couldn’t eat, and he avoided his friends.
• The doctor examined him and found that he was in prime physical condition:
• So the doctor suggested that his patient needed to relax, and to have a good time,
• He then told him about a circus that was in town.
• And he told him of its star performer, a clown named Grimaldi.
• Who night after night he had the people rolling in the aisles.
• "You must go and see him," the doctor advised.
• "Grimaldi is the world’s funniest clown. He’ll make you laugh and cure your sadness.
• " "No," replied the despairing man,
• "He can’t help me…you see, I am Grimaldi!"
Quote: The old expression:
"Life by the yard is hard, but life by the inch is a cinch.”
That’s what David is saying in this psalm.
"You are my lamp, Lord,
and You give me just enough inches to let me see the next step,
and that’s all.
You give me a little light, but that’s enough.
You are the One who illumines my darkness”.
And look at what he says in verse 30.
With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall.
In other words:
"I can see my way, Lord. I can get over the hurdles,
because You are the lamp that gives me that direction."
ill:
• The German comedian Karl Vallentin:
• Would walking on to a stage where everything was dark;
• Except for a small area under a street lamp,
• And he would begin to look for something on the ground.
• Just then a policeman would come along;
• And he would asked him what he was looking for,
• Vallentin would then reply that he was trying to find a key,
• So the two of them searched together.
• Unable to find it, the policeman asked, "Are you sure you lost it here?"
• "Oh, no," said Vallentin as he pointed to a corner, "It was over there”,
• The policeman said; “Then why are we looking here?”
• Vallentin replied; “Because here is where the light is!"
Karl Vallentin may not appear to be very funny to us today:
• But the point he made was a good one;
• You can grope around in the dark or you can look to the light!
• King David would say: "I can see my way, Lord. I can get over the hurdles,
• Because You are the lamp that gives me that direction."
Third Theme: When our walk is weak, the Lord is our only strength (32-49)
• In these verses David is certainly not describing himself as strong.
• He was exhausted from the battle,
• Notice, when he can’t; he says; “God you can!”
Verses 33-
It is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure.
34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he causes me to stand on the heights.
35 He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36 You make your saving help my shield;
your help has made me great.
You provide a broad path for my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way”.
• David is saying:
• “When I am weak, that’s when I am strong!”
Ill:
• Hudson Taylor was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China;
• In the 1800’s.
• An incredible man and if you haven’t yet read his biography;
• Make sure you put it on you Christmas wish list.
Quote: Ruth Tucker summarises the theme of his life:
“ No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematised plan of evangelising a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor”.
• Taylor spent 51 years in China.
• The society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country;
• The society is still going today under the name ‘OMF International’.
• Those missionaries began 125 schools,
• And directly resulted in 18,000 Christian conversions.
• As well as the establishment of more than 300 stations of work;
• With more than 500 local helpers in all eighteen provinces.
On one occasion:
• He was complimented once by a friend on the impact of the mission,
• Hudson answered,
“It seemed to me that God looked over the whole world to find a man who was weak enough to do His work, and when He at last found me, He said, ‘He is weak enough—he’ll do.’ All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.”
• Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission,
• Knew the secret of strength through weakness.
• In verse 36 David says: “Your help has made me great”.
• That’s David’s secret and boast, it is David’s song of triumph.
• When times are tough, the Lord is our only security.
• When days are dark, the Lord is our only light.
• When our walk is weak, the Lord is our only strength.
Theme 4: When our future is foggy or fuzzy, the Lord is our only hope (vs 50-51).
Ill:
One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof.
• The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son,
• “Jump! I’ll catch you.”
• He knew the boy had to jump to save his life.
• All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness.
• As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof.
• His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.”
• But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.”
• The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.”
David knew God was always there even if he couldn’t see him through the fog:
• Despite all that David has been through,
• David is not bitter or resentful.
Ill:
• Problems, difficulties, hardships can often leave us “bitter” or “better”.
• The difference is the letter “I”.
• Some Grumble – Some Gripe – Some Groan – Some Grieve – Some Growl;
• And SOME GROW.
• David was one who grew though his problems.
• He grew closer to God, and he grew up, matured in his faith.
That’s why he can finish this last Psalm of praise with these words:
Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.
51 “He gives his king great victories;
he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.”
David’s testimony – his advice – his experience is this:
• When times are tough, the Lord is our only security.
• When days are dark, the Lord is our only light.
• When our walk is weak, the Lord is our only strength.
• When our future is foggy or fuzzy, the Lord is our only hope.
