2 Samuel 22:8-30

2 Samuel 22, reading verses 1 to 20, our focus will be on verses 8 to 30 tonight. And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song, in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, the God of my rock. In him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation. My high tower, my refuge, my savior, thou hast saved me from violence. I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death come past me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid, the sorrows of hell come past me about, the snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God, and he did hear my voice. out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the heaven moved and shook because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon upon him. a cherub and did fly and was seen upon the wings of the wind and he made darkness the darkness, the darkness, pavilions round about him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. The Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice. He sent out arrows and scattering them, lightning and discomforted them. And the channels of the sea appear, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of his nostrils. He sent from above it he took me. He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me, for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity. But the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth all. also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. God blessed to us his sacred and holy word. This evening, the great ones of this world have often demanded homage. We might say superficial praise from others, canned homage. The grand homage. The 1930s Stalin was looked upon as a great man of the Soviet Union. Once during a meeting of all the provinces of Russia, the heads of the provinces, the heads of the provinces, the name of Stalin was mentioned. Well, this had to provoke a standing ovation. So everybody had to stand up and clap. It was sort of mandatory. The problem, they said, the tricky part of this was not to sit down first, because that was looked on as a side. sign of disloyalty. You know, weren’t loyal enough. And so the to get on with the meeting, someone eventually had to sit down. Well, no one dared to be the first one to sit down. That would look bad on the loyalty meter. So at last, there was one old man who couldn’t stand any longer, and he finally plopped down in his seat. Naturally, his name was noted, and he was arrested the next day. Joe, the butcher, could demand praise from people by threatening them. Now, our God doesn’t need to coerce praise like this, to force people to praise his name. Freely and joyfully, praise is given by his people, as this Psalm certainly attest, and many of the others. As we have seen, this Psalm of David, is praising God for deliverance from all his enemies. And we said, according to Scripture, that this is a prophetic Psalm that looks beyond David to the great son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It speaks of his sufferings, as we looked at in a previous study in verses 1 to 7, his deliverance, which we’re going to be looking at tonight, and of course, his kingdom, which Lord willing will look at in the future. Now, when you sing this Psalm of praise to God, and we, it’s in Psalm 18 with some slight alteration, but in Psalm 18, you must understand that your deliverance from trouble is based solely upon the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when we sing about deliverance and we give God praise for it, it is true the person of Christ that our deliverance comes. So your praise should naturally flow from a renewed heart, which is thankful for God’s wonderful provision of Christ, the head and savior of the church. Now, you find here the deliverance of Christ by God in verses 8 to 20. God rescues with a mighty hand, we see in verses 8 through 16. The glory of the Lord is manifested here in his deliverance. These expressions, some of them are borrowed very similar to what we read about when God came down on Mount Sinai to give the law. And it speaks of the presence of God, God appearing, if you would, and intervening in this situation. Whenever God fights on behalf of his people, many times these lofty expressions are used of him. Sometimes extraordinary events are associated with God doing battle on behalf of his people. Remember, in Samuel’s Day, at an unusual time, it thundered and scared the Philistines. God was intervening on behalf of the Israelites. In Joshua’s Day, God sent the hailstones down in great number, slaughtering the enemy. In Deborah’s Day, the stars in their courses were moved, the Bible indicates to us, in some unique fashion. We could talk about Moses’ Day, and we can think about the plagues and like the locusts that came upon the land and so forth. Well, here you see God’s hand in three specific things. Earthquakes, verses 8 and 9. Darkness, verses 10 to 12, and Great Storms, verses 13 to 16. In all these things, we see God’s wisdom and power and goodness and faithfulness and justice and holiness and sovereign dominion over. all his creatures, all events, all human counsel, he is in control of all things. God’s glory is revealed in his miraculous interventions on behalf of his people. Who can fail to remember the supernatural phenomena that was associated with Christ’s death on the cross? Think about that a minute, and his resurrection. He called upon the Lord in his deep distress, as we read in Hebrews 5-7, and there is an unmistakable answer from the Lord. What do we read about from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness being over all the land, darkness, noon till three? Behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from top to the bottom of the scripture, says the earth did quake and the rocks rent. It was an earthquake and the, of course, the grays were open and so forth. God at times intervenes in a most singular manner on behalf of his people. You remember when Paul and Silas were in the jail at Philippi, and they pray, and they’re singing psalms. and God causes an earthquake to come, shakes the foundation, opens all the doors, the shackles slow off, and that was God intervening in a special manner at that occasion. Down through history, God’s providence has intervened in special ways to deliver his people from their enemies, whether it be storms or fires or floods or fog or whatever the case may be, God often does something of this nature. These events are not to be attributed to nature as if it was just Mother Nature making up these decisions. They are a revelation on the power of God that work on behalf of His people. So the glory of God manifested in his deliverance is seen here. The displeasure of God manifested toward his enemies is seen here as well. The extraordinary events show. that God’s anger is aroused. Who knows the power and the terror of God’s wrath? You get a glimpse of it here, the darkness, the earthquakes, the storms, are to be seen as conveying God’s wrath here. The smoke out of his nostrils, the fire out of his mouth, verse 9. Coals being kindled by it, as if he’s breathing fire like Leviathan. arrows here, instruments of death for his enemies being shot by God. God’s indignation is meant to describe here the power and vengeance of the Lord. He searches forth his hand to reach down and spare his servant the Lord Jesus Christ and of course his people as well. Perhaps you’ve heard the parable about the bowman and the lion. Very skillful bowman went to the mountains one day in search of game. All the beasts of the forest fled at his approach except for the lion, who thought he could perhaps stand up against this man. So the bowman immediately let fly one of his arrows out of his quiver. And the bowman said to the lion, I send you my messenger, that from him you may learn what I myself shall be when I assail you. Well, the lion being wounded rushed away in great fear. A fox exhorted the lion to be of good courage, stand his ground. Don’t be so fearful and run away so quickly. The lion said, you counsel men in vain. For if he sends such a fearful messenger, how shall I face the attack of the man himself? In a similar way, the lightning and the thunder and the earthquake and all these things here, the hurricane or whatever the case may be, it strikes terror in the men, are God’s arrows. They’re just as messengers. Can you imagine how it would be if you had to stand before God himself? Who was able to stand before the Lord? Remember in the New Testament, Jesus told the parable of the husbandmen. There was a certain man who built a large vineyard, and he hedged it, he made a wine press for it, he built a tower so he could oversee it. And at one point, the vineyard owner went to a far country. It was some business to take care of. And he lent out, rented it out, if you would, his vineyard to some husbandmen, some farmers to take care of it for him. And of course, when harvest time came, he thought that he would gain something from the harvest. He might get some of the ripen fruit. And so he set various messengers to these husbandmen to get the fruit. Of course, they mistreated them, beat them, and harmed them in one fashion or another, stoned them, killed some, but badly mistreated. Finally, the vineyard owner says, I’ll send my son. Surely they’ll reverence my son if I send him. However, the husbandman decided to kill the son, because he is the heir of the vineyard, and then they could get the vineyard for themselves, so they kill the son. The owner, being infuriated, Jesus said, by these wicked men, came back, determined to destroy them all. This portrays, of course, Jesus indicates to us the Jews, the leadership of the Jews in particular. The mistreatment of God’s son, in God’s wrath being unleashed against that generation, that nation, 66 to 70 AD in particular. But God is provoked when his servants or his son are mistreated by their enemies, and he often has a quick response. As verse 11 indicates he rode on a cherub and did fly. and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. Speed is emphasized. How quickly the Lord here responds. So God rescues with a mighty hand. Notice that God delivers his servant from the most treacherous situations in verses 17 to 20. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Four figures are used here to describe the afflictions endured by our Lord. He speaks about many waters. Like if you were out in some deep, overwhelming situation in a stormy ocean. He speaks in verse 18 of my strong enemy, a powerful foe that he faces. The day of calamity in verse 19, where disaster strikes him. The place of confinement in verse 20, it’s implied by being brought forth, as if he is imprisoned or entrapped in some fashion. These figures are meant to convey a broad range of troubles that our Lord certainly endured. You feel overwhelmed, assailed by those too powerful to resist, facing disaster, trapped by circumstances beyond your control. These are the kinds of things that we see here. In the case of Christ, we know he’s attacked on every side. We know that he faced potent enemies. and the Jewish leadership and also the Roman government. He adored the most vicious and cruel death imaginable on the cross. Plus, there is no escape to be found in a cup of death must be drunk by Christ. It’s from such straits that Christ and his people are rescued by the Lord, as this text of Scripture indicates to us. Take the worst case of imaginable, and still you find God is able to deliver his people. why we read in scripture, you could be thrown in the lion’s den, to be devired by the lions, and yet God shuts their mouths, as in the case of Daniel. You could be trapped inside a city by the enemies as Paul was at Damascus, and yet God delivered him as he was let down over the side of the wall in a basket to escape. You could be imprisoned and chained to guards as your execution awaits like Peter was, and yet somehow we find God sending his angel and delivering Peter and take him out of that circumstance, even though he’s chained the guards, even though all the doors are locked. God opens them all. And off goes Peter. You could be encircled and pinned against the Red Sea with a powerful army of Pharaoh bearing down on you, and yet God delivered his people. You could be thrown in a deep pit. stuck in the mud, facing certain starvation because of the king’s order like Jeremiah, thinking all is lost, and yet, God delivers him from that situation. And on and on, we could go. We could talk about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedigo, and the fiery furnace, and so forth. In each case, God delivered his people all, in a sense, miraculously, in these cases. In the day of trouble, the reformer, Martin Luther found confidence in God. He noticed how the heavens stand completely unsupported, except by God’s word alone. There’s no pillars holding up the heavens and so forth. And he concluded that God could enable him to stand amidst all his foes, even if he’s all alone. At one point, Luther was warned that Duke George himself would oppose him using all the resources at his disposal. And Luther said this, if it rained Duke George’s, I would not care so long as I have God with me. That’s, I think, the way we ought to have God. If God’s on our side, who can be really against us? And we see that in this case. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. God provides welcomed relief for his servant. God’s deliverance is pictured as here rescue, as if someone is drawn out of many water. Like someone was drowning in a lifeguard goes into the water and pulls them out. God pulls out Christ here out of this situation. He pulls out his people. It’s sort of a Moses like deliverance. Remember, Moses was called drawn out because he was in the arc of the bullrushes in the Red Sea. up. Support. upheld his servant. When the powers of earth and hell were aligned against him. Freedom. He set him loose from confinement, from the bars of death and the grave. They could not hold our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. By these enemies, the Messiah was oppressed and overwhelmed for a time, but at length he overcame them all because God delivered it. The strong enemy was obligated to give way to a stronger than he who ended up plundering all his goods, as the New Testament tells us. God manifests his particular favor to him. Verse 20 because he delighted in me. He delighted in me. He delivered me because of that. Look with me at Isaiah 42-1, if you would, this evening. Here we have a statement about Christ. Behold my servant whom I upheld, I, excuse me, behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I will put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. God delights in Christ his servant. He is chosen, favored, of the Lord. This passage, of course, is Matthew 12, indicates to us, speaks clearly of Christ. This is the inspired interpretation in Matthew 12, verses 15 to 21. It’s Christ that’s being spoken of here. The son of God took upon himself a human nature. That human nature was chosen by God the Father. Now, one of the writers, and I think it was Thomas Goodman, he said it was like a baby coming out of the womb. The He said, comes out first, normally, and then the rest of the body. Christ is the first of the elect, and we are chosen in him, and then the rest of his body comes out afterwards. And I thought that was an interesting way to put it. But the Lord Jesus Christ, as man and mediator was God’s first and chief elect, Psalm 89, says, one chosen out of the people. And it was the will of God to elect and predestinate Christ. here. And take the light in the human nature here of Christ and the Messiah. so that this delight speaks here of God’s covenant love toward Christ. He treats Christ, and all is elect as special objects of his love and devotion. Now, God doesn’t always always provide physical deliverance for his people. after all, we know that Christ did die on the cross, and many Christians have died as martyrs down through the years. In Christ’s case, there was a deliverance in the resurrection and the ascension to the right hand of God, so there was actually a physical deliverance eventually, but he did die. Sometimes you desperately need a deliverance. You may pray for it, and you may must might suffer and be a martyr for the cause of Christ. But there is a spiritual deliverance as well as a physical deliverance. And there is a way in which death is a deliverance for the people of God. We’re now taken out of this world of suffering and out of the sin and the curse and under all the things that we’re facing in this life. And so there is a deliverance even in that. Sometimes, as Paul found out, God says I’ll give you more grace that you can bear this circumstance. Our problem when it comes to God is we like to dictate to him what kind of deliverance he’s going to give us. And he doesn’t always give us a physical deliverance. But in many times throughout history, God has reached down, not only in the case of Christ, but in the case of many of his people, and delivered them. So you find the deliverance of Christ by God. Here. God rescues with a mighty hand. God delivers his servant from the most treacherous situation. Secondly, you find the reason for the deliverance of Christ by God in verses 21 to 25. Let me direct your attention back to that passage in 2 Samuel 22. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands at he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God for all his judgment. were before me. And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also upright before him and kept myself from iniquity. Therefore, the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness and according to the cleanness, my cleanness in his sight. Christ here is perfectly righteous. And we talked about this previously, but Christ is the only person who ever lived a totally sinless life. Which of you convinces me of sin, he could say, to those of his generation. These verses focus here on the nature of the person of Christ. They say the same thing, but they say it in a positive way and then a negative way. Obviously, this isn’t the man that wrote Psalm 51. David speaks prophetically here, beyond himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. For he hath made Him. to be sin for us who knew no sin as 2 Corinthians 521 says. Jesus had laid on him the iniquity of us all. It was a transferred guilt and sin that was laid on Christ, not his own personal sin. And this is the Lamb of God, who like the Passover Lamb, has to be carefully inspected, that there be no flaw in it, no blemish to be the perfect sacrifice for his people. And here we find there is no flaw in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is Christ’s personal obedience to God’s law, which enables him to provide for his people a perfect righteousness. He shall be called the Lord our righteousness, as Jeremiah 236 indicates to us. Pastor Dale Davis once related that when he was in his early years in seminary, he happened to overhear a conversation between a student and a professor in the hallway of the college or the seminary he was attending. The student wanted to make up a test which he had missed because he was absent that day. And the question, of course, came up. Why were you absent? Well, I wasn’t in class. Why not? Well, I don’t usually go to class. Why not? Well, he didn’t think it was important. Dale Davis said, I was flabbergasted that the young man, the student, would actually tell the professor that I didn’t think your class was important, so I didn’t show up for it. He could understand, he said, if the teacher was boring or incompetent, but he said this professor was neither. The professor’s initial words was, were these. This makes me angry. Davis thought it would be best to leave at this moment, he said. Yes, the teacher had a right to be angry. It was an important matter, was it not? The student had the gall to tell him that in his estimation what the professor did wasn’t important, and then he still wanted a favor from the teacher to make up the desk. Friends, Christ’s personal righteousness is not an unimportant matter that we can just fluff off and say it’s not essential. It is essential. It is absolutely essential. We cannot have a perfect sacrifice. for sin if Christ was not perfect. Nor can we have any righteousness imputed to us if he doesn’t have a perfect account with regard to the law of God. So without Christ’s sinlessness, you have no righteousness to him be imputed and you have no sacrifice for sin. So yes, it is very important, and we can’t treat this as non-essential. Christ is perfectly righteous. Christ is perfectly righteous. Christ deserved deliverance. He is in a very important. entitled to all the blessings of his heavenly father. He earned them. The father was well pleased with the son. For he was satisfied with the divine demands of the Lord’s, he satisfied the divine demands of the Lord’s justice and holiness. The scripture says that the Lord came to do the Father’s will, and he carried it out perfectly while he was on this earth, as the sin bearer of His Spirit. people. And because Jesus was without sin, it was impossible for death to keep a hold on him. God raised him up from the death. God exalted him to the right hand. And he faithfully carried out God’s purposes and therefore was rewarded for it. Christ not only married his personal deliverance, but he also married the deliverance for his people. In other words, all the blessings that we are talking about, kind of deliverance we have is because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. This is the basis of our salvation that Christ earned it, and all the credit belongs to our Savior, Jesus Christ. So you find the reason for deliverance of Christ by God. Thirdly, you find how the deliverance of Christ affects his people. Let’s look at verses 26 to 30 now. With the merciful, thou will chill thyself merciful, with the unethical. upright, thou will show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure. With the froward, thou will show thyself unsavery. And the afflicted people, thou wilt save. But thine eyes are upon the haughty, thou mayest bring them down. Thou art my lamp, O Lord, and the Lord will lighten my darkness. Because of Christ, the justice and the mercy of the Lord. or on our side. Are they not? Those who put their trust in the Lord. There’s an endless flow of goodness from God to His people. It’s like that river flowing from the temple in Ezekiel. It just keeps getting deeper and fuller. Earlier, the psalmist spoke about God. Now the psalmist is speaking directly to God. There’s like a specific, addressed to the Lord. God is perfectly just in all his ways. He rewards according to your works. He is fully aware of all the good and the evil that is done by any person. He recompenses in like kind and he saves without sacrificing his justice. God guides his people being a lamp and a light to them and a help. The Lord is my light and self. The Lord is my light and self. Whom shall I fear? Psalm 271. God saves his people, verse 28. God disables or dispels any darkness surrounding his people, verse 29. And God empowers his people to overcome all. Verse 30. For Lavidhi, I can run through a troop. By my God, I have leaped over a wall. The Messiah has not only obtained blessings for himself, but he has obtained. blessings for his people. You enjoy divine favor because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the scripture says that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And it’s interesting when we study the scriptures how that pride and humility are always contrasted. Christ humbled himself and he is exalted. We’re told to humble our sense. We’re told to humble our and God will exalt us in due time. But those who exalt themselves, the Bible says, shall be humbled and brought low. On what does the blessing of every man depend but on this issue of this contest between these two principles in the heart? Blessed are the poor and spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed of those that mourn. For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek. For they shall inherit the earth. Well, Joseph Stalin could only coerce praise, force people to praise. But our Lord here receives it freely and joyfully from his people. And rightly so. When you sing this Psalm, you must understand that your deliverance is based solely upon the deliverance of the Lord Jesus Christ, our head. You find here the deliverance of Christ as the sinless mediator of His people, and how that deliverance affects you. Well, let us close with a word of prayer.