David, “Same song, different place.”
2 Samuel 22:1-51
Vs. 1-4 Nine truths about God
Vs. 5-46 Delivered from three obstacles
Vs. 47-51 Praise God
Intro
How significant is it that at the very end of David’s life we find a psalm proclaiming God’s goodness? No matter how painful life had been to him or how riddled with personal failure in his life, he was still able to look back and thank God for His faithfulness. David’s life song was not one that echoed defeat and failure but rather victory, which had been granted him because of God’s grace and goodness. The key word in this psalm is “deliver,” as it is used six times, and it literally means to snatch away from danger. For more than ten years David was pursued by Saul, and he draws upon his experiences of deliverance by calling God his “rock and fortress,” words that convey God’s strength and stability. No matter how many times his life was in danger, God was faithful.
David will start out with nine truths about God (verses 1-4) and then apply those nine truths to three progressive obstacles or seasons he had faced during his life (verses 5-46); then in the final five verses (47-51) he will sum up those truths about God and his response.
Nine truths about God
Vs. 1 The introduction of this song tells us that David spoke these words to the Lord on “the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” With some minor variations, the words are the same words he wrote in Psalm 18 and composed when he first took the throne in 2 Samuel 8:14. What this tells us is that David originally wrote this psalm almost 40 years earlier and yet it is placed out of its chronological place, or is it? As the words of this psalm are right before what we are told are the final words of David (23:1), they appear to be the anthem sung summarizing his life’s experience with God.
Is that not a blessing that 40 years have passed and yet David could sing the truths of God’s faithfulness with the same sincerity of adoration as when he first wrote the words? You see, life’s experiences do not disprove the truths of God’s character; no, they rather prove it. This gives a reason to why in Acts 13:22 we are told that “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” It appears that this psalm is a rewrite, a reflective psalm where David takes stock of the truths he wrote about his early encounters with God, and 40 years later he says nothing had changed his mind. You see the greatest evidence of God is still a transformed life that continues to trust God despite every adversity, and in this no atheist can find an argument against His existence. The history of our life’s will is always best viewed under the microscope of God’s gracious hand throughout it all.
Vs. 2-4 David speaks of nine characteristics of God that had been consistent throughout his 40 years in verses 2-3, then based upon that the only logical response in time of trouble in verse 4. Why is this so significant in light of the fact that David wrote these 40 years earlier? Well, it suggests that nothing had transpired in those 40 years that had changed his mind of those essential characteristics; in fact, he has added one “my Savior,” which can only be sung through the experiences of the last 40 years. I’m not the least surprised that these characteristics are true of God, but when examined next to David’s failed life over those same forty years, we come to the conclusion that not even David’s failure to live a life committed to the God to whom these characteristics belonged affected the reality of them being exhibited towards him. Consider his personal failure with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, and yet God was still willing to be David’s “rock, fortress, deliverer, strength, shield, horn of salvation, stronghold, refuge, and Savior.” What am I getting at? Well, namely, “cause and effect” are natural occurrences in the material world in which we live, and yet David’s “cause” did not change God’s “effect” towards him as God was still willing to be those 9 things towards him. Hey saints, these words speak of the reality that the worship song of our salvation sung by faith will become a song we sing by experience the longer we walk with our Lord.
Now what is the common denominator of those nine characteristics? Well, they are all elements by way of which a person would seek deliverance when in battle! It has been well said many times that the Christian life is not a playground; no, it’s a battlefield. But to whom do we go when we need deliverance from the storms of life? Why, our Rock. How about when there is an army of things coming after us? Well, that would be our Fortress. What happens when life has taken us captive? Our Deliverer will come to free us. And when we are weakened by circumstances, then He will be our Strength. And when we need protection from the enemy’s flaming arrows, He will be our Shield. And when we need a place to rest from the constant barrage, He will be our Stronghold and Refuge. All of which makes Him alone our Savior!
So what will David do with these 9 truths? “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.” (verse 4) There is a powerful truth here in this statement of David, and it lies in what just proceeded his words as David first reminded himself of who God is, recalling the countless times He had demonstrated that He was David’s “rock, fortress, deliverer, strength, shield, horn of salvation, stronghold, refuge, and Savior.” This nine-fold statement is not mere empty words of praise, nor are they listed as a theory of some hopeful list of intellectual truths; rather, they come from David’s personal experience with God. Hey saints, why not start with what you know to be true about God and use that to interpret your present circumstances instead of taking your present circumstances and using that to interpret who God is?
Delivered from three obstacles
Based upon these verses, life is made up of three obstacles to which the Lord is our only deliverer. These verses also seem to follow a progression in David’s life throughout the three seasons of his recorded life.
- Vs. 5-20 A flood: The first part of his life was made up of over 10 years (1 Sam. 16–30), as David spent those years knowing he was to be God’s choice for king but having to hide from Saul, who sought to kill him.
- Vs. 21-30 A tight spot: The second part of his life starts in 1 Sam. 31 and continues through 2 Sam. 10, where he is king of a nation that faces opposition from within and from without.
- Vs. 31-46 A slippery slope: The final stage of his life is from 2 Sam. 11-21, where his personal choices have caused him to slip and fall, which affects every part of his life.
Now, what I find interesting is that these are not unique to David, as sometimes “waves of death and floods of ungodliness” surround us and make us afraid (verse 5). Sometimes, even though we have “kept the ways of the Lord” (verse 22), we find ourselves in a tight spot where the Lord will need to “enlighten our darkness” (verse 29). And there will be times when our own foolishness has placed us upon a slippery slope and we have chosen to disregard God’s “perfect way and proven word” (verse 31), and it is then that we will need His “gentleness to make us great” again (verse 36).
When life comes at us like a flood:
Vs. 5-20 David describes the Lord in these verses as the one who delivered him from a great storm that caused a flood in his life. He found himself surrounded on every side physically, spiritually, emotionally, and socially on the brink of ruin when he cried out to God. Satan would have us think that we can’t call upon the Lord when the storms of life come flooding in, but it was “When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid” (verse 5) that “In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried out to my God” (verse 7). Not only does God hear us when we cry out in times of distress, but according to verses 8–20, He takes action.
Hey now, listen up. Is the “world shaking you up”? Well, David’s testimony is that God will shake the world up to meet our needs. He pictures the Lord rising up from His throne over every situation as “darkness is under His feet” (verse 10), and the Lord is ready to consume whatever is in his way to get to us. David pulls back the heavens and sees the Lord coming with speed and glory to meet his need (verse 11). God is never late, always on time. And when He spoke in verse 14, all His creation responded to the need of His child.
So what do these poetic words reveal? Well, David pictures God as so loving that He will bend His whole creation to meet the needs of His children. Then in verses 17 and 18, David says the Lord “took me, drew me out of many waters, and delivered me from my strong enemy.” “Oh, I was drowning, man, in a strong currant going under, but the Lord reached down and pulled me out!” Then in verse 19, David says that the Lord sustained him for a season, then He brought him “out to a broad place.” Have you ever felt that life is holding you under and you are on a narrow ledge with no room to move and what you are facing is “too strong for you” (verse 18)? Well, the Lord will sustain you and hold you in place until He can take you out and place you in a broad place.
Oh, but why did He do this? Why did He come to your aid, you ask? Well, “He delivered me because He delighted in me.” Don’t pass by this too quickly because no one knows you like He does, and yet He still delights in you. God has made a choice in spite of what you have done and the mess you are to delight in you. You are not His job, His obligation; He does not look at His watch, toss back His head, and give a sigh and say, “I owe, I owe, so it’s off to save Dale, I go!” No, you are His delight, and He comes to you not with a wagging finger but with open arms to deliver you! We are His sons and daughters, and he loves us. He literally “bends” towards us. Oh to God, you and I would begin to see ourselves as those that our heavenly Father delights in; perhaps then we wouldn’t get ourselves in a situation over our heads.
When life finds us in a tight spot:
Vs. 21-25 The next verse declares a Father’s heart towards a child who has maintained a relationship with Him. But when David first proclaimed these words, he hadn’t yet become an adulterer and murderer, so how could he proclaim his purity now? Well, in Psalm 51, he confessed his sin, and God has washed away his iniquity, and now he rests on how God saw him in God’s gentleness and goodness, not his own. This speaks to me not to beat myself up over my failures once I have repented. We cannot add to the blows already laid on the back of our Lord on our behalf. There is a need to move beyond self-condemnation. God is not disappointed in you, and if you are in yourself, then you need to repent of your pride that considered you better than you were to start with.
My point? Well, just because we have blown it and separated ourselves from experiencing the benefits of the love of God doesn’t mean that it needs to be a permanent condition; you can sing the song of your faithfulness to His love if you turn back. In 2 Sam 12:13, Nathan revealed the results of David’s repentance, saying that the Lord had put away his sin, so now his hands were clean because of what the Lord had done to cleanse them, which is greater than what David had done to dirty them. Romans 5:20 declares this truth by saying, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” “I may have fallen in the muck,” David says, “but I didn’t make it my home!” (verses 22-24). How did he keep himself from his iniquity, verse 24? Well, we are told in verse 25 that David’s cleanliness was according to God’s eyes, not David’s; in other words, this was by faith, not by way of works. It was based upon what Jude wrote of in verse 24: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” David’s keeping was by way of remaining under the spout where the love comes out.
Vs. 26-30 The reason for this action of the Lord towards David is simple: “With the merciful, You will show Yourself merciful.” David had demonstrated the fruits of repentance in his changed life, being a man of mercy, integrity, and fairness, so the Lord gave to him what he had given to others. Ah, but to the man who is twisted, then God will allow him to become twisted.
Hey saints, the eyes of God are not on the haughty but rather on the humble, as he gives grace to the humble but resists the proud (verse 28). When the Lord came to David’s need, it was to “enlighten his darkness.” You see, God doesn’t first remove us from our circumstances; instead, He does something better by shedding His light upon them, the result of which God enabled David to “run against a troop and leap over a wall.” Now saints mark this passage as God doesn’t always remove us from the battle; sometimes He enables us to do what ordinarily we wouldn’t be able to do, and that is run against a troop and leap over a fortress wall. It seems as David is saying that God will allow us to go through situations to further develop us and make us more effective for His work. David’s life went from a flood of opposition to a time where he got himself into some tight spots, to which the Lord enabled him to “run against a troop and leap over walls” (verse 29). In Jeremiah 33:3, the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Now the context of this verse reveals that Jeremiah was in trouble, and he had just spent the night in prayer, so the Lord invites us to seek in times of desperation.
When life finds us on a slippery slope
Vs. 31-46 After times in his life spent in a flood and then a season spent in a tight spot, David faced a self-imposed time when his life was on a slippery slope, when the consequences of forsaking “God’s perfect way” and “proven Word” left him with enemies from without and from within, and here David proclaims that the Lord “made his feet like the feet of deer and set him on my high places” (verse 34).
Hey saints, there will always be seasons in our lives when:
- Life comes in like a flood, and what we are facing has left over our heads under the waters of life.
- We have gotten ourselves into a tight spot.
- Times when, because of our own foolish choices, we are on a slippery slope and can’t get our footing.
In these verses, David describes how his deliverance was accomplished:
- “His way is perfect.”
- “His word is proven.”
Because this is true: “He is a shield to all who trust Him.” Now looking at David’s life after his sin and repentance, God worked through those situations, putting down those that would come against the kingdom (verses 38–43) and the wisdom to deal with those within the kingdom (verses 44–46).
The Lord worked in David’s life by:
- Vs. 29 By being his “Lamp, O LORD; The LORD shall enlighten my darkness.”
- Vs. 35 By strengthening him “So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
- Vs. 37 By placing him in a broad way “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip.”
- Vs. 44 By keeping him “as the head of the nations.”
With God at the steering wheel of our lives, our “strength, power, and ways are perfect” (verse 33). Consider David’s illustration of a deer in verse 34, as there are these mountain goats that can even climb in trees; their footing is so good they have perfect balance as they skip around from difficult place to difficult place. Man, is that not true, as the Lord in our lives brings balance and footing when before we would have slipped? Why, we can even bend a bow of bronze (verse 35) as the impossible becomes possible with the Lord in our lives? But we are not just designed for battles; no, His “gentleness has made me great,” verse 36. God had made David more than a conqueror in verses 38-43.
But the enabling of God did not stop at keeping the enemy at bay; it also enabled him to keep his head when all around him was losing theirs. All of this was because David saw the throne as belonging to the Lord and not to himself. Hey saints, you have heard it said that we only have one life; it’s true, but that one life belongs to the Lord, and it is in realizing this that things in our lives are “armed with strength for the battle” and will realize victory as our lives will be subdued (verse 40).
Praise God
Vs. 47-51 The conclusion of the psalm is that “The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock!” David’s thought is, “This is the Lord’s victory. He has won it for me. The glory goes to Him.” David’s faith was not one that merely “hung on,” no, it “sung out” loud and to all, including the gentiles. Is it any wonder that David proclaims the truth in verse 47, “The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock! Let God be exalted, The Rock of my salvation!” We will all like David, see how it was the Lord who:
- “Took him out of many waters”: When he was in a flood
- Caused him to “run against a troop and leap over walls”: When he was in a tight spot
- And “made his feet like the feet of deer, and set him on my high places”—when he was on a slippery slope.
Is it any wonder that David closes the book on his life by saying, “I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name?” (verse 50)