Good morning,
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. I got up for awhile early this morning. I heard the birds singing and praising the Lord around 4:30 AM. "Early in the morning our songs shall rise to thee." The Lord blessed us with a joyful gathering Wednesday Evening. It is a great blessing to see each others faces reflecting the grace and mercy of the Savior. In 2 Samuel 22, we find that David sang a song to God. Many Bible Scholars believe that 1 and 2 Samuel are not arranged in a strictly chronological fashion. The books tend to be arranged more in terms of theological themes. So it’s not surprising that this song of David, which occurs near the end of the accounts of his life as recorded in these two books, is more or less a summary of David’s life and what he’s learned about God during that journey.
This song is also found, with only a few minor changes in the wording, in Psalm 18. Both the inscription of Psalm 18 and the introduction in 2 Samuel 22 seem to indicate that this song was first sung or written by David when God delivered him from the hand of Saul. A lot of commentators have looked at this passage and view it primarily as a prophecy of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
David’s song begins, and it also ends, with God. The gospel message always begins with an awareness of whom God is – His nature, His attributes, His purposes and His ways. David used a lot of different pictures here to describe God and each one tells us something about the nature of God.
• Rock
• Fortress
• Deliverer
• Shield
• Horn of my salvation
• Stronghold
• Refuge
• Savior
As I read this list, it becomes quite apparent that David was so wrapped up in God that he saw God in everything around him. He looked at a fortress and he saw the protection God provided from his enemies. He thought about a horn, which was a symbol of strength and conquest, and David recognized that it was God who provided every victory in his life. David looked at the strongholds around Jerusalem and they reminded him of God’s supply and that God is where we find rest and refreshment. And then there was perhaps David’s favorite picture of God – a rock. In a sense a rock is the farthest thing from God – in our eyes at least it is probably one of the lowest things in the created order. But David could even look at a rock and think about the fact that God was the solid foundation for his life.
The gospel always begins with God. Until we see God as the perfect, holy, powerful God that He is, we can't even begin to understand why we need a Savior. Jesus Christ our Lord is the perfect standard by which everything else is judged.
Once David saw God as He really is, he looked at his own life and he recognized just how far he fell short of the standard God set. David, although he was a man after God’s own heart was far from perfect – and so are we.
When David saw God as he really was and he realized his own spiritual death, he didn't try to rescue himself; He cried out to God. David realized what the Bible clearly teaches. That is, we are incapable of rescuing ourselves. We all like to think that we're pretty self-sufficient and that we can take care of ourselves. We tend to apply that same attitude to our relationship with God. In this section of His song, David described in quite vivid terms the process of God coming down from heaven to rescue him. "…he rescued me because he delighted in me". "He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me".
2 Samuel 22:17, 18 (NIV)
God didn't do that for David only. In Jesus Christ, that’s exactly what He has done for everyone of us.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axqXMuW8x1U
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