2nd SAMUEL – LECTURE 6
2 SAMUEL – LESSON 6
“The Legacy of a Song”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
If you could write or sing one song to the Lord, and leave it for all the successive generations so that it would be passed down to grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, to the generations that follow, and it was a song to the Lord, of what would you write? What would you sing? What would you tell them about God? What would you tell them about His work in your life? Today we’re going to look at a song, a song written by the sweet psalmist of Israel, a song written by David, a song that we believe was written near the end of his life. A song, the final song, for all posterity, for you and me to read, and to know our God, and to know that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
When you open the book of 1 Samuel, if you are going to open it according to the way that the Jews had put it together originally, it would be 1 and 2 Samuel linked together. Those two books were one originally, but because they were so long they divided them into 1 and 2 Samuel. You look at the way they divided them, and you think, “Why didn’t you just move over a chapter or so when you divided them?” But when you look at them, and you take them as a whole, you see that this account of Samuel, this recording that you and I have of these two marvelous books that are really one, have bookends on them. 1 Samuel opens up with Hannah’s prayer. Now, because it is so lyrical, it is often referred to as Hannah’s Song. So it opens with Hannah’s prayer, or Hannah’s song, and it closes with David’s song. I would like for us to look at these bookends.
Go back to Hannah’s song (or Hannah’s prayer, as it is called), and look at it for just a few minutes. Go to 1 Samuel 2. Hannah’s prays this after she conceives a child. Remember, she is barren, and she is desperate. Remember, she is mocked and made fun of, and Elkanah’s other wife is really her enemy. But God has heard Hannah’s prayer, and God has given her a son, a son by the name of Samuel, which she in turn will turn around and give back to God. He will be raised in the temple, and he will be raised by the priest, Eli. As Hannah is so full of joy, then she prays this prayer, and I want us to look at it. 1 Samuel 2:1 says, “Then Hannah prayed and said, ‘My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord.” [Now you want to mark that word “horn,” because “horn” is a metaphor for strength. When you get to the book of Daniel, you see this beast with all these horns, and you see different beast with different horns. It is a symbol of strength. But the first time that it is used as a metaphor for strength is in this passage. Up until this time it has just been an ordinary horn, a horn from an animal, by which you would anoint someone; but here, right here in this book, it is a symbol of strength. So she says,] “My horn (my strength) is exalted in the Lord; my mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.” [Not, “I am rejoicing in my salvation,” but in this she is looking at the strength that God has given her. She is looking at the victory that God has given her over her enemies. She is looking at the Lord’s salvation, at His deliverance.
(2) “’There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.’” [Now, if you have not marked this passage, I would suggest that you might simply want to simply draw a rock over that word, because you are going to see a parallel between Hanna’s prayer or song and David’s.] She says, “Nor is there any rock like our God. (3) Boast no more so very proudly, do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and with Him actions are weighed.’” [Do you realize these things about God? Do you realize that if you have strength, if you have power to do what you have got to do, that it comes from heaven? If you are saved from your enemies it is because God has saved you? Do you realize that God is a God of knowledge? Do you realize that by Him your actions are weighed?]
You know, at the end of your life, when you stop and you look back, and you say, “Okay, this is my song to God. This is what I would sing to God. This is what I would put down, and I would put it as a memory for the generations to come, so that they might learn what I have learned. And the question is, what have you learned about God? What are you learning about God? Life is not just random circumstances that are happening to you. Life is not just, all of a sudden, conflicts that come out of no where. There is a God in heaven; He sits on His throne, and His sovereignty rules over all. He knows what’s going on in your life. He is allowing, or filtering, or sifting everything that comes into your life through His fingers of love. We know from 1 John 4 that God is love. We know that He first loved us, not that we first loved him. We know that the sovereign ruler of all the universe that sits on the throne, that the very essence of His being is love, and everything that comes into our lives is filtered through His fingers of love. The enemies, the circumstances of life, and so when you stop, and you look and you reflect back wherever you are, (you may be in your teens, twenties, thirties, … eighties, nineties or, like one of our students, you may be 103). You look back, and who is God, and what have you learned about Him?
Hannah is still in a childbearing age, and this is what she is saying about her God. (4) “The bows of the mighty are shattered, but the feeble gird on strength.” [So He is the horn, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my strength is exalted in the Lord, and here it again it says, “the feeble gird on strength.” Does that give you courage? Does that give you hope? Does it let you know that, no matter how feeble you are in your emotions, or how feeble you are physically, or how feeble you are just anatomically, or even spiritually, you can gird on strength from God, that He is your strength?] (5) “‘Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry cease to hunger. Even the barren gives birth to seven,’” [She hasn’t given birth to seven yet, but she has given birth.] “‘But she who has many children languishes. (6) The Lord kills and makes alive;’” [Do you realize that?]
I just had a friend named Sissy Brackett. At the beginning, when I moved to Chattanooga, and came back off the mission field, and was giving my testimony, Sissy heard about it. She has this beautiful, beautiful home, and her husband is a doctor. The other day I got this phone call, and the phone call is that they had stopped at a four-way stop. They pulled out, and they were hit by a tractor-trailer. “Pray, pray! Sissy is in the emergency room. Bill was killed.” So I get on the phone, finally, when she is finally out of intensive care, and I pick up on the phone, and I hear her. She is not hearing me exactly, because my secretary has connected me, and I hear her laughing, and I think, “God, thank you, thank you. My friend is able to laugh. She knows the sovereignty of God. She knows that God kills, and God makes alive. She knows that God brings down to sheol. God brings down to the grave. She knows that. She knows that God had numbered Bill’s days when as yet there was not one of them.” In the awesome, precious sovereignty of God, just as they are coming to this stop sign and getting ready to take off, he turns and his last words to her were, “You look so pretty today. Your eyes are so blue and sparkly.” When that tractor trailer hit, Bill turned that car defensively, so that he would take the blow, and not Sissy.
What are you going to leave your children, and the next generation, as a heritage? (7) “The Lord makes poor and rich,” [Do you know that?] “He brings low, He also exalts. (8) He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor;” [He takes us just from nothing, and He puts us where He wants to put us. I will never forget the day we were having a leadership meeting, and the phone rang. Jack got it, and we were in this intense meeting up at the house, and Jack saying, “The White House is calling?” He looks at me, and says, “The White House is calling.” I say, “Oh, come on, give me that phone.” It was the White House! They asked me to come (now it was through a friend). It’s not that George W. Bush said, “I would love to have Kay Arthur here.” It’s not that, but I got an invitation. I got to sit with twenty-four other people in the Roosevelt Room. (They have either Teddy’s or Franklin’s picture up, depending whether it is a Republican or Democrat that is in office.) But to be able to sit there! “He lifts you up out of the ashes.” He puts you where He wants you to be put.]
(8) “To make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He (God) set the world on them. (9) He keeps the feet of His godly ones, He keeps us on the right path, and when we stray He brings us back.” [“When we stumble,” the Bible says, “He holds our hand,” so we don’t go completely down. Do we see something like that in David’s life? Yes; now watch.] “But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness; for not by might shall a man prevail. (10) Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered; against them He will thunder in the heavens, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth; and he will give strength to His king.”
In Samuel, when the book opens, they don’t have kings. They have judges. Eventually they ask for a king, because they want to be like others, but now, when the book closes, who was king? Who was reigning? It is David. So here she is, prophetically in a way, praying, and as she prays she is praying for the one that will close this book.] (10) “For the king will know the strength of the Lord, and He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed.” [David was the anointed of the Lord. Or does it go beyond that to another king? Does it go beyond that to another anointed One? Well, we’ll see. So you see Samuel opens up with a prayer of a woman, Hannah, who is triumphant in faith. She goes to God, she asks God for a child, and she is triumph in faith, and this is what you see. The Lord kills, the Lord makes alive, the Lord gives the barren seven kids, and the one with many children languishes. You see that. It closes with a song of a man, David, triumphant over those who would destroy him. So it opens up with triumph in faith, triumph over those who would destroy him.
Now, as you look at Hannah’s prayer, I want you to see the importance of the word “strength.” You are going to see it later too. Go to Psalm 89. I want us to look at v. 17 and v. 24; because I want you to see that strength belongs to the Lord. Psalm 89:17, “For You are the glory of their strength,” [“Glory” means the correct estimate, the true opinion of. So you are the correct estimate, the glory, the true opinion of their strength.] “And by Your favor our horn in exalted.” [Do you see “horn” and “strength” there in the same verse?] (24) “And My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, and in My name (God’s) name his horn will be exalted.” [So here you see again that in His horn, in My name (God’s name) his horn will be exalted.]
You see, in Hannah’s prayer, in (1 Samuel 2:2) “Nor is there any rock like our God.” [Now Hannah is going to use that; David is going to use that. We will look at David and his use of that a little bit later.] I want us to go to some Scriptures and see what they are saying, because I don’t know if we realize how much God is referred to as our “rock.” He is a rock that can’t be moved. He’s a rock that does not shift. He is a rock that is there, cleft for us. Go to Deuteronomy 32:4. Now this is Moses song. When they sing or pray, you see in this lyrical prayer of Hannah, they are constantly coming back to who God is—He is our rock. Deut.31:30 says, “Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were complete.” [Now when is Moses doing this? He’s doing it at the end of his life. Hannah doesn’t do it at the end of her life; Hannah does it when she is triumphant in faith.]
Do you know what I would suggest for you? I would suggest that you write a song to God after a prayer is answered, after a victory is won, after an enemy is quelled. That’s when I would suggest that you write it, that you write it now, and then, as you come to the end of your days, that you would write another one. This is what Moses says in v. 4. “The Rock!” [You see, one of the names of God is “Rock.” (4) “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” [“Wait a minute Moses, when are you writing this?” Moses is writing this song after God has told him, “You cannot go into the promised land. You are 120 years old, and every bit of your life has brought you to this time and to this purpose, but because you did not honor Me, because you did not glorify Me, because you struck the rock a second time, you will not go in.” But yet, what does he say at the end of his days? Is he full of bitterness? Is he full of anger? Is he calling and shouting against God, “You didn’t do it. I tried so hard. It was all those Jews. They murmured and murmured, and I finally had it so much that I lost it”? No. What does he say? “The Rock!” His way is perfect.” Because God is God, and because God is holy (as we saw), and holiness cannot deviate from holiness. It always remains holy. So he says, “For all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice.”
Look at v.15. “But Jeshuran (talking about Israel) grew fat and kicked –You are grown fat, thick, and sleek--” [Boy, you want to talk about Christendom in America? It’s a good description of us.] “Then he forsook God who made him, and scorned the Rock of his salvation.” Look at v. 18. “You neglected the Rock who begot you,” [In other words, you were hewn from the Rock. Stop and think about that. What is the church? The church is stones, stones built upon the Rock, to a spiritual house, according to 1 Peter 2:4-5. So the imaginary is awesome.] “And forgot the God who gave you birth.” Look at v. 30. “How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up? (31) Indeed their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves judge this.” [Their god isn’t like our God. But the only way that the enemy could have any power over us is because our Rock sold us. If the Rock sold us into the hands of the enemy, it is because we forgot the Rock, and because we need chastening, so that we’ll come back and hide in the cleft of the Rock. In what (I believe) is the cleft of the Rock, is when the Rock was smitten in Exodus, when they needed water. When that rock was smitten (I believe) it was cleft, so to speak, for us in Christ Jesus. This is what we see in this awesome passage. We see in Exodus 17:6 when they want water, and in Numbers 20:8, that when they want water, then He says in Exodus 17, “Go and smite the rock.” He smites the rock, and when he smites the rock, the water comes out. In Numbers 20, when they are out of water again, God says to Moses, “Go and speak to the rock,” but Moses, irritated, as I showed you, instead of speaking to the rock, smites the rock, and because of that, because he does not honor God, he cannot go into the Promised Land. He cannot see it, because he smote the rock.
Go to Isaiah 26:1, because as you look at this, it is so absolutely awesome. (1) “In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah; ‘We have a strong city; He set up walls and ramparts for security. (2) Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter, the one that remains faithful. (3) The steadfast of mind You (God) will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. (4) Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.’” [So the Rock that Hannah speaks of, the Rock that Moses sings about, the Rock that we are going to see that David talks about, the Rock Judah sings about, is an everlasting Rock.] Look at Isaiah 44:6-8. God is speaking, and He says, (6) “‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. (7) Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it;’” [What is Moses doing? What is Hannah doing? What is David doing? They are proclaiming it; they are declaring it. What will you do? What song will you sing?] “Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation, and let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. (8) Do not tremble and do not be afraid; have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses, or is there any God besides Me?” [Is there any God besides Him? No!] “Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.” [There is no other rock like our Rock.]
Well, we could go to Habakkuk 1:12, when the enemy is going to come, and the enemy (the Babylonians) are going to take the kingdom captive. He turns to God, in the knowledge of all of this, and he says, “Are You not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? We will not die.” [Israel will remain a nation.] “You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge; and You, O Rock, have established them to correct.”
[If He judges and corrects you, it is with the anticipation of you being everything that you should be. Well, when you look at Hannah’s prayer, I just want you to remember that it ends with the confidence that God will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed.]
What is David’s song? It all fits together beautifully. It is just two chapters away from the end of 2 Samuel. I thought, “Lord, I really need to focus in on this.” 2 Samuel 22:1, “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.” [So I don’t think it goes back to the days of Saul. I think he is saying, “Listen, I am writing this because God has delivered me from Saul and from all my enemies.” When does he write this? He is writing it at a time when he has come through the fire. Think with me. Go back in 2 Samuel, and think with me. He’s writing it after he has sinned greatly against his God, and Uriah, and Bathsheba. And he has caused the enemies of the God to blaspheme. He is writing it after he lost the son that was carried by Bathsheba. He is writing it after his daughter, Tamar, is violated by her half-brother, Amnon, the next in line to reign. He is writing it after Absalom has killed Amnon. He is writing it after Absalom has tried to steal his kingdom. He is writing it after Absalom has been killed. He is writing it after he has cried, “Oh Absalom, Absalom my son, Absalom!”
That was the cry I cried for my son, and I knew the agony of it all. What kind of song would I have written then? I would write the same kind of song then that I have written now, about God and about His faithfulness, and about His being a Rock. He is writing it after he has felt the threat of a divided kingdom, and Sheba then turns part of Israel against David, and the kingdom starts to split until Joab steps in and takes care of Sheba. He is writing it after he has experienced famine in the land for three years, because the Gibeonites had been put to death. David was unaware of that, and an awesome covenant-keeping, sovereign administrator of the covenant is requiring that that be dealt with, because He is holy. He is writing it after he has gone to war with the Philistines. As he sees the other four stones of the five, so to speak, that he had in his little pouch as a shepherd boy, as he sees the other four relatives of the giant come down. He is writing it when he is old, and where he is weary, and when he can’t really be trusted on the battle field. They bring him home, and they say, “Oh no, oh no, we don’t won’t the lamp of Israel to go out.” This is when he is writing this song. So what does he say?
Well, in v. 2, (and this is the way I would put it). In 2 Samuel 2-20 (this is my own division), he is writing this song about a God who supports His people. He’s weary, he’s old, and he’s near the end of his days. His last written words are recorded for us in Chapter 23, but he is talking about a God who supports His people. This is what he says. Watch how he opens; see the parallels. (2) “And he said, ‘The Lord is my rock and my fortress (that’s a military term) and my deliverer; (2) My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield’” [When you go to war, what do you need? You need a shield. When you go to Ephesians 6:16, what are you to take? You are to take the shield of faith by which you are able to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy.] “My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; My savior, You save me from violence. (4) I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.’”
Now “enemies” is going to be a key word. We see it mentioned first in 2 Samuel 22:1, because this is the song that he sang on the day that the Lord delivered him from all his enemies. So you want to watch, as you go through this song, every reference to “enemies.” God, when He delivered him from his enemies, God brought salvation. So “salvation” is another key word. You see these words in Hannah’s song. You see, if you walk through this with me, you are going to see that this is a song (as I told you) of deliverance from his enemies, a song of salvation from his enemies. How does this happen? Well, it happens because God is God. It happens because of David recognizing who God is, and calling on Him. What do you do in the day of trouble? Where do you run? Who is your fortress? Who is your rock? Who is your shield? Who is your refuge? See, He’s there, but you have got to run to Him.
So watch what he says. (4) “I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” [This is what you want the future generations to know—that God is there, that his ear is not deaf, that is arm is not short that it cannot rescue, but you have to call.] (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.” [Wait a minute; do things like that happen to His children? Of course, we are allowed to suffer. In the New Testament it says, in 2Timothy 3:12, that “all those that will live godly in Christ Jesus are going to suffer persecution.” Philippians 1:29 says, “It is given unto us not only to believe, but also to suffer for His name sake.” Philippians 2:15 says, “We live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,” and they are enemies of God. They are sons of disobedience. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Are we going to have enemies? Of course, we are going to have enemies, if we are on the right team, and on the front line we are going to know it.]
In 2 Samuel 22:7, he says, (7) “In my distress I called upon the Lord.” [Yes (and it is technically “I called to my God,”] “I cried to my God; and from His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for help came into His ears.” [Right now I am reading and studying about the church history and the reformation, and it is absolutely awesome. I love history, and I love it because I see God’s faithfulness down through the ages. I see people that are burned at the stake. I think it was when bloody Mary was in power that she put 280 Protestant clergymen to death. But they went, and many of them sang at that stake. Many of them made proclamations; many of them thanked God for the awesome privilege of being able to die for Him, to bear in their body, as Paul did, the brand marks of Jesus Christ. So he is not talking about a song that always takes you out of the fire, that always allows you to escape. No, but I can tell you this; that in the fire or out of the fire, at the stake or walking free, as Martin Luther walked free, but his predecessors, those that came before him, were burned at the stake. Either way He is there, and He hears our cry. In the fire He delivers. In the fire His grace is sufficient.
(8) “Then the earth shook and quaked, the foundations of heaven were trembling and were shaken, because He was angry.” [“Angry” there means “it burned for Him.” And what do you see, if you think about the Scriptures (and I can’t tell you all of them), but our God is a consuming fire.] (9) “Smoke went up out of His nostrils, and 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.” [What is this voice? Hebrews 11:3 says that God spoke and brought the world into existence. So here he is crying to God, and God is moving in all of His power and all of His might and all of His glory. He is speaking, and He thunders from heaven.] (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” [Can’t you just see the waves coming up, and you looking down into the depths, and you see the foundation of the earth. Catch the picture it is awesome.] (17 “He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. (18) He delivered me from my strong enemy, (there is that word) from those (enemies) who hated me, for they (enemies) were too strong for me. (19) They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.” [This is the deliverance because of who God is.] (20) “He also brought me forth into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.”
Then you come to the next portion. In Verse 21, all the way through verse 28, you see that the Lord rewards the righteous. Now watch what David says about himself, because he knows God. This is his song for all the generations. (21 “The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.” [Psalm 51:1-4 talks about this cleanness that God gives us.] (22) “For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not acted wickedly against my God.” [But you say, “Oh my goodness, after this what do you find?” You find him numbering the people. What do you find before? Yes, he sins; yes, he fails. But he knows what to do when he sins. He knows what to do when he fails, and that’s what makes the difference, because he knows. And God knows our frame, and He knows that we are dust. Now it’s not an excuse. You can’t use it as an excuse; but it is a refuge, it is a shelter, it is a rock, because when we come to Him, and honor Him as He is, then He honors us.]
(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.” [Literally, “in His sight.” “According to my cleanness in His sight.”] (26) “With the kind You show Yourself kind,” [Was he kind to Shimei? Yes, he was kind to Shimei when Shimei cursed him. Then when Shimei came back, and he said, “Please don’t hold that against me,” was he kind to him? Yes.] “With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; [This is a mini-sermon on the Mount, condensed in two verses.] (27) “With the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the perverted You show Yourself astute (or torturous). (28) And you save an afflicted people; but Your eyes are on the haughty whom You abase.” [In 2 Samuel 24, was he abased by God? Yes. Was he haughty? Yes, because he insisted on numbering the people.]
In Verse 29, all the way through verse 43, you see him saying, “You are; therefore I am. You are; therefore I am.” Watch what he does. (29) “For You are my lamp, O Lord; and the Lord illumines my darkness. (30) For by You I can run upon a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall.” [At one of our boot camps one year we had a huge wall. It was truly an army wall that you had to go up and over, and you were in teams. The idea was to get the team to help the team. This girl came to me and said, “I am petrified. I cannot go over that wall, and I am going to bring the team down.” I took her to this verse, and I said, “Now look, by my God I can leap over a wall.” And I want you to say that all the way up that wall. She came back to me jubilant. I did it! I did it by my God! I leaped; I crawled over the wall.]
(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. (34) He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me on my high places.” [“You are; therefore I am able.”] (35) “He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. (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. (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 (enemies) who rose up against me. (41) You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, and I destroyed those (enemies) who hated me. (42) They (those enemies) looked, but there was none to save; even to the Lord, but He did not answer them (those enemies). (43) Then I pulverized them (the enemies) as the dust of the earth; I crushed and stamped them as the mire of the streets.” [“You are God, and therefore, I am able.” That is what you and I need to remember. In any given circumstance, in any given situation of life, you just need to remember; “You are; therefore I am able,” and therefore you can take off.]
2 Samuel 22:44-51, you see that it is the Lord who delivers. We need to remember that. (44) “You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people;” [Do you remember when He did that, when the kingdom turned toward Absalom, when Sheba turned the kingdom? God delivered him from the contentions of my people.] “You have kept me as head of the nations;” [He kept David on the throne.] “a people whom I have not known serve me.” [When you look at all of David’s mighty men, when you look at those thirty mighty men, when you look at those three, I just bask in studying those and thinking about those men, and how wonderful it is to be in a team like that that is moving forward, a team that loves you. And all of these are not Israelites; some of them are foreigners, and they love him. They go and get water from Bethlehem, risking their lives, because David said he would love a drink from Bethlehem, a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem. Then when they get there, he says, “I can’t drink it,” and he pours it out on the ground. “I can’t drink it because it meant your blood. You risked your life for me.”] (46) “Foreigners lose heart, and come trembling out of their fortresses. (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 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,” [You and I have this song about God, and about His deliverance from the enemies, and who He is, and therefore we are able to do these things. You and I have it, because David sat down and wrote this song. He wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but you might think about leaving a song, prayer for your family.] “And I will sing praises to Your name. (51) He is a tower of deliverance to His king,” [Do you see the parallel with the end of Hanna’s prayer?] “And shows lovingkindness to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever.” [It is a song of deliverance from his enemies. It’s a song of salvation. It is a song extolling the Rock.]
Go to Psalm 61, a psalm of David. Let’s look at this extolling of the Rock. (1) “Hear my cry, O God; give heed to my prayer. (2) From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;” [David was weary, yet he writes this song.] “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. (3) For You have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength against the enemy. (4) Let me dwell in Your tent forever; let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.” [Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.]
Go to Matthew 7:24. Jesus is delivering that awesome Sermon on the Mount. He brings it to a close. Not only are His disciples there, but now a multitude is gathered. They are sitting there in rap attention, and they are absolutely astounded. He looks at this mixed multitude, and He says, (24) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house on the rock.” [“Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” What are you building your house on?] (25) “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.” [At the end of David’s life, after all he’s been through, he is still standing, because his life has been built on the rock.] (26) “Everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them,” [It is not enough, beloved, for you to study this course; it is not enough. You’ve got to act on it. You’ve got to live it. You have to take these precepts, and know and internalize them, and live in the light of them. They are precepts for life.) “will be like a man who builds on the sand. (27) The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.” [Now here is Jesus, the master teacher, on the Mount of the Beatitudes, and there are rocks up there. (There are rocks all over Israel.) He is talking about a man building his house on the rock, when who is He? What is He?]
Go to Matthew 16:16. Simon Peter has just turned to him, and said to Him, “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” He has identified Him. (17) “And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this (this insight) to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (18) And I also say to you that you are Peter (a little stone), and upon this rock (this great big rock) I will build My church;” [What rock? The rock of who He is, the rock that cannot be moved, the rock that you are to run to; the Rock of your salvation.] “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hell will not prevail (overcome it).” [The gates of Hell will not prevail against it.]
Go to Matthew 27:59. I want to show you something. It is just a picture, but I just absolutely love the picture. (59) “And Joseph took the body (the body of Jesus) and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, (60) and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock.” [The one that was taken out of the cleft of the rock, so to speak, was put in the rock, and He came out of that rock three days later, the resurrection and the life. “And he that believes in Him will never perish but he will have everlasting life.”]
I want to close with 1 Corinthians 10. It is talking about the children of Israel. He is using them as an example, an example of faith. (1) “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; (2) and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; (3) and all ate the same spiritual food (manna); (4) and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.” [He is our Rock. He is our Rock, and, beloved, that is where we are to run, and we are to hide. And when we do, and we call upon the Rock, and we find refuge in the Rock, then you and I too will sing songs of deliverance.]
What an awesome legacy David and others have left us in their songs. I pray, beloved, that you someday, someway, would sit down and leave a legacy for your family. Leave them a prayer. Leave them a song about God, about His faithfulness, about His strength, about His deliverance, about His salvation. You know, when you come to the end of the book of Revelation (and I want you to go there), and remember in Hanna’s song that I said that I think that it goes beyond the King David. Listen to what Revelation 22:16 says. Jesus says, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” [I love it. “I am the root and the descendant of David.” What is He saying? He is saying, “I am Alpha, and I am Omega. I was there before David. I am the root of David, and I am the descendant of David, and I am the bright morning star.” This is our Savior. This is the spiritual rock from which you and I drink, and Jesus said, when he was ascended to heaven, that then He would send the spirit, and out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water. This He spoke concerning the Spirit, the Spirit that we get from the Rock.]
Let’s pray. Father, thank You. Thank You just for the absolute joy of spending hours in Your word, and being awed with who You are, and being amazed at the way You take truths and You weave them all the way through the Old and New Testament. This progressive revelation leads us to the root and descendant of David, the bright and morning star, the spiritual rock, Your son, our Savior. We thank You, Father, that in Him we find strength, and in Him we find salvation, and in Him we find deliverance. Oh, Father, thank You. Now may we live in the light of it, and may we sing His praises to all generations. In Your name we pray. Amen.
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