Trinity 9
2
Sam 22:26-34
7/29/18
“And David spoke to the LORD the
words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all
his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.”
That’s how Second Samuel introduces the chapter in which our text is
found. David is giving thanks to Yahweh
and praising him because he has rescued David from all those who had sought to
overcome him.
There had been a long list of people
whom you would include in that category.
Some were people you would expect – like the Philistines. Others were people you would not necessarily
expect – people who unjustly tried to kill or harm David.
First on that list is the name
mentioned last – Saul. Saul was the
first king of Israel. However he proved
to be unfaithful to Yahweh and so God told the prophet Samuel that he had
rejected Saul as king. He had Samuel
anoint David as the future king. Yet
Saul continued to reign as king, and in fact David was taken into Saul’s
service. We are told that Saul loved
David greatly. In fact, Saul told David’s father Jesse, “Let David remain in my
service, for he has found favor in my sight.”
David was Saul’s armor bearer, and also played the lyre for Saul to calm
him when he was agitated. David and
Saul’s son Jonathan became best friends.
David was a faithful servant of King
Saul. He killed the Philistine warrior
Goliath in single combat. After this we are told, “And
David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him
over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also
in the sight of Saul's servants.” David
was successful because God was with him and blessed him. He was successful in serving Saul, until
finally Saul thought that he was too successful. Jealous of David and threatened by his
success, Saul finally tried to kill David.
David had to flee for his life and
live on the run. Driven by jealousy and paranoia, Saul pursued David. On two different occasions, David had the
opportunity to kill Saul. And yet he refused to do so, in spite of the
encouragement from the men who now followed him. He told them, “Yahweh
forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, Yahweh's anointed, to put out my
hand against him, seeing he is Yahweh's anointed.”
When Saul realized that David had
spared him he said, “You
are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid
you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that
you did not kill me when the LORD put me into your hands. For if a man finds
his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the LORD reward you with good
for what you have done to me this day. And now, behold, I know that you shall
surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your
hand.”
Saul and
his sons were killed by the Philistines in battle, and so David became
king. He fought many battles in subduing
Israel’s enemies. But his greatest challenge did not come from foreigners. Instead it came from his own house – his own
son. Absalom agitated and conspired
against his father. Finally he set in
motion a coup. David had to flee from Jerusalem, and Absalom set himself up as
king. Only by God’s intervention as
Absalom rejected good tactical advice and acted instead on a bad plan was David
rescued.
David had
ample reason to praise God. He begins
this song by saying, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, 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. I call upon
the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”
David the goes
on to talk about his own behavior. Just
before our text David declares, “The LORD dealt with me according to my
righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I
have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God. For
all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. I was
blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. And the LORD has rewarded me according to my
righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.”
David says
that he has walked righteously in God’s ways, and so in our text he praises God
by saying, “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless
man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you deal purely, and with
the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.”
Now as we
consider David’s words, it should raise a few questions for us. I only need to say two names and you will probably
understand what I mean: Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. David saw Bathsheba bathing. She was hot and he wanted her. He was the king so he made it happen. He had sex with another man’s wife, and
Bathsheba became pregnant. When David’s
attempts to cover up his action failed, he had Uriah killed and took Bathsheba
as his own wife.
David was
certainly not blameless all the time! He
did depart wickedly from God’s ways. So how can he speak this way in the
song? For starters we need to listen
again to how the song is introduced: “And David spoke to the LORD the words of
this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his
enemies, and from the hand of Saul.”
David has in view his behavior in relation Saul and his enemies. He had been blameless and done what was right
in relation to Saul and Absalom. The
same could be said about the Philistines and all the enemies of God’s people.
The
Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, are entirely comfortable speaking about
how a person has been righteous in relation to others. It shows us that there
is a time to speak in general terms about our behavior as being God pleasing.
We know what is right and wrong, and there are indeed many times we do what is
right. For this we thank God, because he
leads us by his Spirit. We don’t need to paralyze ourselves by navel gazing; by
always trying to find some remnant of sin that affects our every action. As a baptized Christian – as someone who is
in Christ – God doesn’t see you that way. Instead he sees the good things you do as
being good – as being pleasing to him.
That is not
to say that David always spoke in this general way. David is the one who wrote Psalm 51 in
response to his sin involving Bathsheba. There he said, “Wash me thoroughly from my
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin
is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil
in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your
judgment.”
There are
definitely times when God’s law confronts the sin we have done. It shows us our sin. It shows that we are sinners. David says in our text, “You
save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.” We come before God in the humility of
repentance, because his law brings us down when we are haughty. It shows us what we really are apart from
Jesus Christ. It leads us to take refuge
in God’s forgiveness.
David knew this. He wrote in Psalm 32, “For when I kept silent, my bones
wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I
acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, I will
confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my
sin.’”
We are able
to say the same thing. The reason we can is indicated by the last verse of
David’s song. There David says, “Great
salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to
David and his offspring forever.”
David’s offspring was Jesus the Christ – Jesus the Anointed One. He was anointed, not with olive oil, but with
the Spirit of God at his baptism.
Because of God’s steadfast love for you, God treated Jesus as if he was
crooked and haughty. Jesus died on the
cross for your sin, so that God can now in Christ view you as blameless and
pure.
God the Father gave this role to
Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son. But as
David said, he showed steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his
offspring forever. David wrote in Pslam 16, “For you will not abandon my soul to
Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.”
On the day of Pentecost Peter declared, “Brothers, I may say to you with
confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his
tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his
throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was
not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised
up, and of that we all are witnesses.”
In Jesus
Christ, God has forgiven your sins and defeated death. He has given you the living hope of the risen
Lord. It is because of Jesus that we can
say with David in our text, “For you are my lamp, O LORD, and my God lightens
my darkness.” Jesus has overcome the
darkness of sin and death. We always have hope because we know that our life
leads toward the light of resurrection on the Last Day.
It is
because of Jesus that we can say with David in our text, “This God--his way is
perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who
take refuge in him.” We know that God’s
Word proves true because he has already spoken the great “Yes!” to all of his
promises in Jesus Christ. He is a shield
for all those who take refuge in him, because in Christ we have the certainty
of God’s continuing love and care.
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