7/8/2020 Wednesday Devotional
David’s Praise for God’s Salvation
2 Samuel 22:1-51
Brother Charles Hodge once said “We need songs on the cross, prayers from the cross, sermons on the cross, lives out of the cross. The songs can attend sermons. Or perhaps better still, preach a sermon using various songs and the messages they bring. This will enrich the song service and bring people’s hearts back to the cross.” That is so true, I need to work on that and that is what we need to see in our text (2 Sam 22:1-51) today for our Wednesday devotional.
Background:
Up to this point the books of Samuel have been fully occupied with David as a soldier and a king; but in passing it has been noticed that he was also a musician (1 Sam 16:18) and a poet (2 Sam 1:17-27).As the story of David nears its completion, the historian gives us a sample of his psalmody. The long poem in this chapter is also found in Ps 18.This poem is a psalm of thanksgiving to God, its language is very pictorial, so it could be applied to a whole variety of situations in which God’s help was recognized and acknowledged.
Lessons to Learn:
- David began by praising the Lord for who He is—a rock, a fortress, and a deliverer
(v. 20)—images that certainly came out of David’s years in the wilderness when he and his men hid in caves and natural fortresses. “God is my rock” (v. 3) can be translated, “My rock-like God.”
- “Deliver” is a key word in this song (vv. 1, 2, 18, 20, 44, 49), and it carries with it the meanings of “drawing out of danger, snatching, taking away, allowing to escape.”
- The image of the rock gives way to the image of the flood (vv. 4–7), and this leads to the vivid picture of the storm (vv. 8–20. While he was exiled in the wilderness, David certainly saw many rainstorms (see Ps. 29), (Ps. 126:4). No matter what the season, David was constantly fighting the strong currents of Saul’s opposition.
- David was a man of prayer who depended on the Lord for wisdom, strength, and deliverance, and the Lord never failed him.
- For at least ten years, David had been in “tight” places, but now the Lord had brought him out “into a spacious place” (v20) God could give him a larger place because David had been enlarged in his own life through his experiences of trial and testing.
- The Lord’s is faithful (v 26–28). The Lord never violates His own attributes. God deals with people according to their attitudes and their actions.
- The Lord enabled David. (2 Sam. 22:29–43) In this stanza of his song, David looked back and recalled how the Lord helped him during those difficult years of exile.
- The gracious condescension of the Lord is a theme that is too often neglected by God’s people. As with David, God the Father condescends to work in our lives to fit us for the work of His choosing (and see Isa. 57:15), and God the Son certainly humbled Himself for us when He came to earth as a servant and a sacrifice for sin (Phil. 2:5–11).
- The Lord established David. (2 Sam. 22:44–51) God not only established him on the throne, but also promised him a dynasty that would never end. The Lord promised David a throne, and He kept His promise.
Explore and Study:
- How do you handle the storms in your present life?
- What do you do when you’re drowning in a flood of opposition (7)
- Why did God wait all those years before delivering David and putting him on the throne?
(Try Galt 4:4)
- What was it that thrilled the heart of David? (Count the number of times God is mentioned).