2 Samuel 22:29-37 (KJV)
"Hinds' Feet for High Places"
June 18, 2023
This song of David is a word for word quote of Psalm 18. The Prophet Samuel records this as David’s last song written as King. He is a father that has just faced a rebellion where Adonijah one of his older sons tries to usurp his rule in Israel and steal the throne while he was weak and resting. His wife Bathsheba comes to his bedroom to warn him and finds him in the arms of a beautiful younger woman named Abishag. The Bible is clear that he could not do as an old man what he used to do as a young man. We are told that in his old age his servants could not keep him warm so they thought that the body heat of a beautiful young woman would surely warm the king. Shame on them as they must have asked themselves, “Does the King yet live? Is there warmth for his bones? Surely a blanket is not enough? Let us find him a beautiful virgin?” The Queen dismisses the girl, warns the King, and David calls for the anointing of Solomon, her son, to be King of Israel and Judah as God had promised. David has lived a life of infamy! He begins as a Shepherd boy, continues as a giant slayer, and ends as an old King! He struggled as a husband, father, warrior, and king, and yet in the history of a people, God calls only him, “A man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22). David, now at the end of a legacy, leaves for us a song of praise. When he looks over his life, he considers that “I was once young and now I am old, but I never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25). He begins to worship in his weakened state and remembers that in days of his trouble, when the mountains seemed too hard to climb, when the giants too great to slay, He was changed! God gave him Hinds’ Feet for High Places!
It's a metaphor. A hind is a female deer that can place her back feet exactly where her front feet stepped, making it the one of the most sure-footed of all mountain animals. There is a Christian allegorical novel written in 1955 called “Hinds' Feet on High Places” and it’s about 300 pages, and the Audiobook is over 6 hours but it’s well worth it. An allegory is a type of story that uses characters, settings, and events to represent moral life lessons. This novel is about a young woman named Much-Afraid, and her journey away from her family of Fearings. She is led into the High Places of the Shepherd, guided by her two companions Sorrow & Suffering. Much-Afraid had two physical disabilities that hindered her from walking and speaking clearly. She wants nothing more than to be healed by love and to be given “hinds’ feet” in order to climb the mountains during her journeys up to the High Places, far above the troubles and strife found in the Valley of Humiliation. She learns to embrace Sorrow & Suffering, who never leave her side, and comes to a deep maturity during her travels, continuously learning how to submit to the will of the Shepherd as He heals her with love giving her Hinds’ Feet for High Places. The Shepherd changes her name to Grace & Glory and transforms her companions from Sorrow & Suffering to Joy & Peace. She then heads back to the Valley of Humiliation to draw others to the High Places within the Kingdom of Love.
A Perfect Power (by You I have run… by my God I have leaped)
David’s life had been one of warfare and conflict. But, through all the battles and the problems, God had sustained him and strengthened him by His Perfect Power. David sings about the Powerful God Who strengthens him in the darkest hour. There have been some dark days in David’s life but through it all he has found that, “The Lord will lighten my darkness” he says in Psalm 119, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” He sings a song of praise that the Lord will turn our darkness into light. David finds all the power that he needs to make it through life with God. He sings:
• With You, I have run through a troop of soldiers!
• With You, my God, I have broken through barricades and leaped over walls!
In Psalm 27 he says, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.” When you choose to live your life with God you can be confident in His perfect power over the enemy. Because “with God all things are possible.”
A Perfect Plan (His way is perfect and He makes my way perfect)
David sings that the Word of the Lord is tried and true! When everything else in the world is being tossed and twisted, God forever remains the same. David calls the Lord a "buckler". This simply means a shield. When trouble comes into your life and mine, sometimes the Lord will allow those things to come and He will give grace. However, there are times when the Lord steps between His children and their trials and acts as a shield to stand between His child and the storm that is coming. Only in Heaven will we fully comprehend the times when God in His providence has stepped between us and something awful that was coming our way! We may not always know what He is doing but, Isaiah 55 says “His thoughts are not my thoughts”; but we can always trust Him to have a perfect plan. We may not understand His plan, but we must trust that the plan is perfect because, “His ways are higher than my ways.” And when we, like David, begin to question Who is God? And the old folks answer, “He is a Rock in a weary land!” You will remember this song where David asked, “Is anyone else a Rock, except our God?” Strength and Power only come from God, and it’s not just that God’s way is perfect, David says He makes my way perfect! AND HOW DOES GOD DO THIS? He CHANGES our Feet and TRAINS our Hands! He makes my feet like hinds' feet: and He teaches my hands to fight! When we are unable to stand, He enables us. When we can’t fight on, He strengthens us. We have to get to a point in our relationship with God that we stop asking Him to move the mountains, but instead pray like David, “Lord I need Hinds feet for High Places!”
A Perfect Path (You have enlarged my steps under me)
When God enlarges our steps, we will achieve things we never thought possible or didn’t plan to accomplish in life. When we surrender all to God, He will place us in the perfect position to take the right steps and manifest our plans. God will enlarge our steps, so we won’t slip. David has already taught us that God will change our feet to handle the tough climb, but now he says that God has also given us a wide path where we step so that we won’t slip! The Apostle Jude wrote, “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.” How does He keep us from falling? David says it’s because He has also given us the Shield of His Salvation: I had no power to shield myself from the power of sin, but by God’s gentle love we have the Shield of His Salvation!
