2 Sam. 22: “David’s Song Of Praise”
By
1. INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked at chapters 20 and 21.
1.1.1. In chapter 20, another
rebellion to take over the kingdom broke out as a man named
1.1.2. In chapter 21, there was a
flashback to the early part of the reign of David when the nation of
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at chapter 22 which is a song
of praise written by David.
1.2.1. David recalls the great ways
in which the Lord had worked in his life.
1.2.2. David did not believe that
he had made himself great or that because of his great skill as a warrior,
general, or a leader that he achieved great victories or done great works. Rather, we see in this chapter that David had
a child-like trust in the Lord and awe of the greatness and sufficiency of the
Lord on behalf of His people.
1.2.3. The Lord gifted David as a
poet and a musician and this chapter is not only insightful from a spiritual
perspective, it is also a beautiful peace of literature and prose.
2. VS 22:1 - “1 And David spoke the
words of this song to the Lord in
the day that the Lord delivered him
from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” - David spoke the words of this song of praise
to the Lord
2.1.
Notice in this verse that it says that David spoke these words ‘in
the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of ALL of his enemies.’ This tells us that contrary to what some
Bible teachers have taught in time past that this song was composed at the
latter part of David’s life and after he had seen the Lord do incredible things
on his behalf over a lifetime of service.
This is an important point to realize.
2.2.
J. Vernon McGee has written the following about this chapter, “Second
Samuel 22 is a great psalm, one which David composed as he looked back over his
life. Also, when we come to Psalm 23,
you will find that I take the position that it was not written by a little
immature boy. Psalm 23 was not written
by a college student who didn’t really know what life was all about. Neither was it written by a middle-aged man
who had ambition to get to the top in business or politics. It was not written by someone who wanted to
become famous. Psalm 23 was written by
an old king who looked back upon his life and could trace the hand of God
moving in it. David was a man who had
tasted everything. There was nothing
that the world afforded that David had not tasted , my friend. David’s conclusion was that the most
wonderful thing of all was, “The Lord is my shepherd.””
2.3.
It happens in every Christian’s life that the longer he walks with the
Lord and sees Him work in his life that the more he tends to expect the Lord to
come through in his present difficulties and answer his present requests. Time walking with the Lord then builds up the
“hope” that we have in Christ, that is, the confident expectation that the Lord
will always fulfill all of His promises He has made to us.
2.4.
This chapter is also almost word for word identical to Psalm 18. The minor discrepancies between the two might
be credited to a few different things:
2.4.1. Copyists errors.
2.4.1.1. I consider this explanation
least likely of all of them.
2.4.2. David rewrote or recopied
the song over time and thus it evolved as David utilized the song.
2.4.3. Psalm 18 was edited when it
was included into the Psalms of David.
2.4.4. This chapter is an edited
version of David’s psalm 18 that was created when it was included into this
chapter.
2.5.
As David is looking back over his life he is remembering how the Lord
delivered him from his enemies, ALL of his enemies. The Lord delivered David from :
2.5.1. Saul who was constantly
hunting him down to kill him.
2.5.2. His own son Absalom and his
insurrection to take the kingdom away from his father.
2.5.3. The revolt of
2.5.4. The man Shemai who cursed
him and threw rocks and dirt at him when David was fleeing
2.5.5. The counsel of wicked
Ahithophel who sided with Absalom in his rebellion.
2.5.6. Amasa, the general who
served under Absalom during his rebellion.
2.5.7. Joab, David’s renegade and
ruthless general.
2.5.8. Goliath, the Philistines,
the Amalekites, the Canaanites, and all of the peoples living within the land
originally given as an inheritance to Abraham, those whom David conquered.
2.6.
Even though David went through severe times of chastisement at the hand
of the Lord, the Lord still in the end delivered David from every one of his
enemies. For this David couldn’t
restrain his praise of the Lord, as he probably also still shook his head every
now and then in a bit of unbelief as he pondered all of the ways in which God
had delivered him time after time.
2.7.
This chapter is a psalm of “praise” and J. Carl Laney has defined
“praise” as, “to confess Him publicly or give public acknowledgement
concerning God’s character or His activity.”
2.7.1. In Heb. 13:5 we are all
commanded to offer up a continual “sacrifice of praise” to the Lord.
2.8.
In this chapter the emphasis for David is praise of the Lord not so
much for who He was as for what the He
had done on David’s behalf.
3. VS 22:2-3 - “2 He said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my
deliverer;”
- David’s praises the Lord for being his
rock, fortress, and deliverer
3.1.
The metaphor of a ‘rock’ speaks of a place of ultimate security
where one may rest.
3.1.1. When in the midst of a war
there is often no place to be found where one is secure enough to rest. However, though we Christians are in a
spiritual war here upon earth it is still the case that the Lord provides
opportunity and reason for us to rest in security knowing the great God who has
our very life in the palm of His hand.
He is our ‘rock.’
3.2.
The metaphor of a ‘fortress’ speaks of a place where a person
can be safe from attack by an enemy. As
was seen clearly in the third of the Lord of the Rings movies, a ‘fortress’
is a place that is very hard to penetrate by would-be attackers.
3.2.1. Our enemy, the Devil, must
go through Jesus our shepherd in order to attack us sheep. Jesus is our “great shepherd,” and as such He
is an impenetrable fortress for us His sheep.
3.2.2. When Jesus died upon the
cross, the scriptures are clear that Jesus conquered Satan and his dominion and
power over mankind.
3.2.2.1. For instance, Col. 2:13-15
tells us, “13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our
transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt
consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it
out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had
disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed
over them through Him.”
3.3.
The Lord was David’s ‘deliverer’ for He had delivered him from
all of his enemies round about.
4. VS 22:3 - “3 My God, my rock, in
whom I take refuge, My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and
my refuge; My savior, You save me from violence.” - David’s praises the Lord for being his rock
of refuge, his shield, the horn of his salvation, his stronghold, his refuge,
and his savior
4.1.
When fighting in battle in David’s day a ‘shield’ would be used
defensively to deflect a spear or arrow.
David knew that the Lord Himself deflected the spears and arrows of his
enemies.
4.2.
In David’s day people would use the ‘horns’ of dead animals for
weapons of offense and also to defend themselves. David knew that the Lord Himself protected
him as with the ‘horns’ of an animal.
4.3.
David called the Lord his ‘stronghold’ (from the Hebrew word
“misgawb”) or as the KJV translates it ‘high tower.’ If a man had a ‘high tower’ on his
property he could look down over his land and spot a stray animal, and hire a
watchman to be a look out in case of an enemy attack, or to spot an approaching
fire some distance away. David knew that
the Lord from His high vantage point overlooked his life with all omniscience
and because the Lord was able to do this He could save David from all harm.
4.4.
David knew that the Lord had hidden him away in a place of safety, and
thus God was his ‘refuge.’
4.5.
David knew that it was not by his own strength, might, or intelligence
that he had lived through all of the circumstances and difficulties of his
life, for Yahweh was His ‘savior.’
5. VS 22:4-7 - “4 “I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, And I
am saved from my enemies. 5 “For the waves of death encompassed me;
The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me; 6 The cords of Sheol
surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 7 “In my distress
I called upon the Lord, Yes, I
cried to my God; And from His temple He heard my voice, And my cry for help came
into His ears.” - It was when David called upon
the Lord that the Lord heard his prayer and saved him
5.1.
In verse 4, David says that he would ‘call’ upon the Lord who
would answer him, however this word which is “kawraw” in the Hebrew means to “to
call out with a loud voice as if to shriek.” David’s trials and difficulties were not of a
trivial nature and thus in the midst of them David did not refrain from crying
out loudly and sharply to the Lord for help and to be delivered.
5.2.
David called upon the Lord in dire circumstances and when in great ‘distress’
: when ‘death encompassed’ him
all about, when ‘the torrents of destruction overwhelmed’ him, when ‘Sheol
surrounded’ him, and when ‘the snares of death confronted’ him.
5.3.
Since the Lord dwelt in the tabernacle above the mercy seat in the Holy
of Holies, David writes that the Lord heard his prayer ‘from His temple.’
5.4.
To be heard by the Lord is equivalent to the Lord answering David’s
prayer.
6. VS 22:8-16 - “8 “Then the earth
shook and quaked, The foundations of heaven were trembling And were shaken,
because He was angry. 9 “Smoke went up out of His nostrils, Fire
from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it. 10 “He bowed the
heavens also, and came down With thick darkness under His feet. 11 “And
He rode on a cherub and flew; And He appeared on the wings of the wind. 12
“And He made darkness canopies around Him, A mass of waters, thick clouds
of the sky. 13 “From the brightness before Him Coals of fire were
kindled. 14 “The Lord
thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice. 15 “And
He sent out arrows, and scattered them, Lightning, and routed them. 16 “Then
the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare
By the rebuke of the Lord, At the
blast of the breath of His nostrils.” - David
describes in very graphic terms how the Lord responded to his prayers when he
had called upon the Lord
6.1.
The might and power of God revealed in these words of David are
designed to strike a bit of terror and dread in peoples’ hearts in regard to
the Lord. When you think about it, the
God who created all that exists must be infinitely awesome, mighty, powerful,
and wise.
6.2.
The Lord’s shaking of the earth here brings to mind the day when Moses
and the people stood before
7. VS 22:17-20 - “17 “He sent from on
high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. 18 “He delivered me
from my strong enemy, From those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.
19 “They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the Lord was my support. 20 “He
also brought me forth into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted
in me.”
- David describes his deliverance by the
Lord
7.1.
David knew that many times in his life that he had been in dire
circumstances, or what he calls ‘many waters.’ He did not try to deny at all the seriousness
of his difficulties. However, he knew
that in the midst of all of these that the Lord had delivered him from his ‘strong
enemy’ who ‘hated’ him.
7.2.
Again, David did not for a minute think that it was his own strength,
intelligence, or ingenuity that had brought about his deliverance from his
enemies, for he declares here that his enemies ‘were too strong for me.’ David’s deliverance was “all God.”
7.3.
These enemies of David’s even took every advantage of the ‘calamity’
of his circumstances. Yet, the Lord
still had brought about David’s deliverance each and every time.
8. VS 22:21-25 - “21 “The Lord has rewarded me according to my
righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 22
“For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not acted wickedly against my God. 23 “For all His
ordinances were before me, And as for His statutes, I did not
depart from them. 24 “I was also blameless toward Him, And I kept
myself from my iniquity. 25 “Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to my cleanness before His eyes.” -
David describes how that the Lord’s deliverances came about because of
the fact that David lived a righteous life before the Lord
8.1.
Some have wrongly criticized David here for pride in thinking that he
was somehow worthy of the great deliverances of the Lord in his life. However, this was not the motivation behind
David’s words. David is merely speaking
of the fact that the Lord delivers those who are truly His people and seeking
to honor, glorify, and obey Him with their life. David is not speaking of the means by which
someone comes to have salvation from the Lord, and saying that it was by his
own righteousness that he had come to be saved.
8.2.
Refusing to acknowledge honestly that you have been trying to live in a
way that is pleasing to the Lord is actually a false humility.
8.3.
The apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:22, “We know that whatever we ask
from Him we receive because we keep His commandments and do those things that
are pleasing in His sight.”
8.4.
All of David’s persecutions came about unjustly and undeservedly. The Lord allowed David to be chastised
through his sufferings and trials, however those who persecuted him were in
every case totally in the wrong. David
had done nothing to them to warrant their actions against him.
8.5.
We also must not forget that David serves as a type of Christ in this
chapter. Jesus also suffered
undeservedly all that He went through in going to the cross for mankind so that
He could pay the debt for our sins which we owed and would never be able to
pay.
9. VS 22:26-27 - “26 “With the kind You
show Yourself kind, With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; 27 With
the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the perverted You show Yourself
astute.”
- The Lord reveals Himself to people in
ways descriptive of themselves
9.1.
As was mentioned, Psalm 18 is almost identical to this chapter 22 of 2
Samuel, and Psalm 18:25-26 is rendered in the NASB as, “25 With
the kind You show Yourself kind; With the blameless You show Yourself
blameless; 26 With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the
crooked You show Yourself astute.”
9.1.1. These verses make us wonder
why it might be that God would reveal Himself in each of these ways. We can understand how that God might reveal
Himself as ‘kind’ with those who are ‘kind.’ We can also understand how that God might
reveal Himself as ‘blameless’ to those who are ‘blameless.’ However, if we look closely at this verse it
actually says in the Hebrew that to the ‘crooked’ that the Lord reveals
Himself as ‘crooked.’ How, or
better, “why” would the Lord reveal Himself as being ‘crooked’ to anyone? I heard a sermon a few months ago in a church
I visited where the pastor preached on these verses and what he revealed is
that the reason why this verse says what it does is that “what we believe
God to be is what we will end up experiencing Him to be.” If we believe that God is ‘kind’ then we will
experience the kindness of God. If we
believe that God is ‘blameless’ in all of His ways then we will
experience God to be blameless. And if
we have a wrong understanding of God and if we happen to believe that God is
say ‘crooked’ or “twisted” then that becomes how we will experience Him to
be. Whatever we believe about our God
becomes the limitation of our experience of Him. Therefore it must be of utmost importance
that you and I believe and expect God to be and to act in such a way as the
scriptures reveal Him to be?
9.1.1.1. What do you believe God to
be like?
9.1.1.1.1.
Do you believe the Lord to be “harsh” and “demanding?” Well, if so then that will be how you will
perceive and thus experience Him to be.
9.1.1.1.2.
Do you believe the Lord to be “kind” and full of
“lovingkindness?” Well, in this case I
guarantee you that you will experience the “lovingkindness” of God.
9.1.1.1.3.
Do you believe the Lord to be “distant,”
“uninterested,” or “preoccupied” with more important things than that which
concerns you and your life, interests, and needs? If this is the case then you will thus not
experience God as One who loves you deeply and is personally interested in you.
9.1.1.1.4.
Etc., etc.
9.1.1.2. As a warning, it is not just
with young believers but also those of us who have been Christians for awhile
can sometimes begin to view God in terms other than what the Bible reveals Him
to be. Sadly though, when we do this we
then become limited in our experience of Him.
9.1.1.3. Does your understanding and
belief about God match what the scriptures reveal Him to be?
10.
VS 22:28-29 - “28
“And You save an afflicted people; But Your eyes are on the haughty whom
You abase. 29 “For You are my lamp, O Lord; And the Lord
illumines my darkness.” - David tells us that the Lord
saves ‘an afflicted people’ but also has His eyes upon the ‘haughty’ whom He
‘abases’
10.1.
The needy and ‘afflicted’ the Lord reaches out to and brings
salvation to if they are willing to let Him take up the throne and rule over
their life, placing their faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for their sins in
order to be forgiven.
10.2.
However, the Lord’s eyes are also upon those who are ‘haughty’ and filled
with pride, and He looks to bring them down to reality and thus ‘abase’
them.
11.
VS 22:30 - “30 “For
by You I can run upon a troop; By my God I can leap over a wall.” - David writes about how the Lord sometimes
gives him supernatural abilities
11.1.
David is most likely not talking here about the miraculous ways that
the Lord helped him to hide from Saul and Absalom when they were searching for
him, but rather those times when the Lord gave him incredible supernatural
abilities in combat when fighting against his enemies.
11.1.1.
The Lord can also give us NT believers a mighty anointing and
empowering for the service that we do for the Lord, and for this we ought to
ask. After all, seeing as how we are all
such weak and vulnerable creatures we need as much of God’s enabling and
spiritual gifting of us as He is willing to give us if we are to be used
greatly by the Lord.
12.
VS 22:31-33 - “31
“As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tested; He is a shield to all
who take refuge in Him. 32 “For who is God, besides the Lord? And who is a rock, besides our
God? 33 “God is my strong fortress; And He sets the blameless in His
way.”
- David writes about the fact that the
Lord is blameless in all that He does
12.1.
With all of the trials and difficulties that David had experienced, all
of which were part of the Lord’s chastening of him, he could have begun to
doubt the Lord’s motives and love for him.
Likewise, David could have blamed the Lord for all of his difficulties. However, we see here that instead David
realized and maintained that God was ‘blameless’ in all that He had
done.
12.2.
David realized that he deserved every bit of the Lord’s chastening of
him because of the sins which he had committed regarding Bathsheba and her
husband, Uriah.
12.3.
David tells us further that the Lord has shown Himself to be ‘blameless’
and righteous in all of His deeds, and that He is a God who comes through with
everything that He has promised, for ‘the Lord is tested.’ David knew he could go to the bank on each
and every one of God’s promises.
12.4.
Not only did David realize that the Lord had worked in incredible and
great ways in all his life and situations, David realized also that the Lord
was faithful in the same way ‘to all who take refuge in Him.’
12.5.
For all of His people who are ‘blameless’ (as was David) and ‘take
refuge in Him,’ the Lord shows Himself to be a ‘strong fortress’ to
give them protection from their enemies.
13.
VS 22:34-35 - “34
“He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me on my high places.
35 “He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of
bronze.”
- David writes about how the Lord trains
him for battle
13.1.
When we lived in
13.2.
David also realized that the Lord had “trained” his hands so that he
could be successful in battle, and strong arms so that he could bend his bronze
bow and shoot arrows and kill his enemies when he fought with them.
14.
VS 22:36-37 - “36
“You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, And Your help makes
me great. 37 “You enlarge my steps under me, And my feet have not
slipped.”
- David writes of how the Lord has
enlarged him
14.1.
David had once been a mere shepherd boy, the youngest and least
significant of his family and tribe, yet the Lord saw that he was a man after
His own heart and as a result the Lord began to exalt David in
14.2.
David recognized also though that he was totally unworthy of all of the
great ways that the Lord had exalted him among men.
14.3.
David is an example to each of us as Christians because we must also
recognize that we are totally unworthy of all of the great things that the Lord
has done in our lives.
15.
VS 22:38-43 - “38
“I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, And I did not turn back until
they were consumed. 39 “And I have devoured them and shattered them,
so that they did not rise; And they fell under my feet. 40 “For You
have girded me with strength for battle; You have subdued under me those who
rose up against me. 41 “You have also made my enemies turn their backs
to me, And I destroyed those who hated me. 42 “They looked, but
there was none to save; Even to the Lord,
but He did not answer them. 43 “Then I pulverized them as the dust
of the earth; I crushed and stamped them as the mire of the streets.” - David writes about how the Lord enabled him
to pursue and destroy his enemies
15.1.
Even though David suffered great persecution at the hands of his many
enemies (Saul, Absalom, Ahithophel, Sheba, the Philistines, the Amalekites,
etc.), persecutions which were from the loving hand of the Lord as chastening
in David’s life, none-the-less in the end David also obtained victories over “every
one” of his enemies.
16.
VS 22:44-46 - “44
“You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people; You have
kept me as head of the nations; A people whom I have not known serve me. 45
“Foreigners pretend obedience to me; As soon as they hear, they obey me. 46
“Foreigners lose heart, And come trembling out of their fortresses.” - David writes of how the Lord delivered him
from the ‘contentions’ of his people
16.1.
Throughout their history the Jewish people were a contentious
people. David had to contend with them
and their fickleness on many occasions, including:
16.1.1.
All of the tribes of
16.1.2.
The 10 tribes of
16.2.
David was amazed that even foreigners (non-Jews) pretended to serve and
obey him.
17.
VS 22:47-51 - “47
“The Lord lives, and blessed
be my rock; And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation, 48 The God
who executes vengeance for me, And brings down peoples under me, 49 Who
also brings me out from my enemies; You even lift me above those who rise up
against me; You rescue me from the violent man. 50 “Therefore I will
give thanks to You, O Lord, among
the nations, And I will sing praises to Your name. 51 “He is
a tower of deliverance to His king, And shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
To David and his descendants forever.”” - Because
the Lord lives and has delivered him in such great ways, David vows to give
thanks and to praise the Lord in public view
17.1.
When we as God’s people learn to praise and thank Him in every
situation we find ourselves in, then our faith is strengthened and we are able
to experience the love and joy of the Lord regardless of our
circumstances.
17.2.
David shows us that circumstances never should dictate to the child of
God whether or not he praises and thanks the Lord, nor whether or not he is
walking victorious over those circumstances.
We children of God must never be mere victims of our circumstances but
rather we can and thus should have victory in Christ in the midst of and in
spite of our circumstances.
17.3.
The Lord has made us, His children in Christ, more than conquerors in
everything through Him who loved us, and this is our inheritance as children of
God.
18.
CONCLUSIONS:
18.1.
As we consider the words of this chapter, David’s song of praise to the
Lord, which he wrote at the end of his life, we ought to ask ourselves several
questions to see if we have applied in our own lives the things that the Lord
had taught David :
18.1.1.
Do you recognize the Lord’s hand as being behind all of the
circumstances in your life?
18.1.2.
Do you see the Lord as ‘blameless’ in His love and motives
regarding all of the things that you have gone through in your life?
18.1.3.
How do you view the Lord? Does
your view of the Lord correspond to the view of the Lord that the scriptures
present to us?
18.1.3.1. Remember, how you view the
Lord will determine how you will experience Him…
18.1.4.
Are you willing to acknowledge the Lord by praising and exalting Him even
before those who are your enemies and who do not fear the Lord?