2 Samuel Chapter 22:1-51

So David says all these things and he says, you know what, God? Because you did all these things, because you are who you are, I praise you and I worship you and I thank you. We should always be thankful. God never tells us to understand everything, but He says in everything give thanks. And sometimes we want to thank God for what we want Him to do. God, if you'll do this, I'll give you all the thanks. I'll give you all the prayers.

For a moment, just stop and consider, friend, what God has already done for you and for me and be thankful. So, welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee, Senior Pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, Pastor David's teaching through 2 Samuel chapter 22, and we have as our guest in the studio, one of David Magee's associate pastors. Welcome, DA.

Hey, Bob. We want to take just a minute to pray for some cities in our listening audience. In California, we have Bellevue, Sonora, Blythe, Borrego Springs, Berne, Byron, and Caliente. God, we thank you for these cities, and we pray that many will tune in today. We pray if there are some who are sick and going through some battles that you would please heal them, Father. God, we pray that many would put their trust in you today for their eternal salvation. We pray that these cities would get excited about following you, and we pray for these churches and pastors that they would fill up, Lord, that they would apply your Word in their hearts and that many others would be impacted in these cities through that teaching. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, brother, and I know that many of our listeners are praying along with you for our listeners throughout the country. As we're going through the teaching in 2 Samuel chapter 22, they call this David's Song of Deliverance, and David brings out a lot of good things, and there's a lot of prophecy, a lot of truths in this chapter. What are some of the takeaways we're going to have from today's teaching? Pastor Dave is going to remind us today to always be thankful.

We can have Thanksgiving every day of the year when we think about the good things that God is doing in us. We were promised eternity with Him if we put our trust in Jesus. Good thoughts, DA, and let's continue listening as David McGee continues sharing verse by verse through 2 Samuel chapter 22. So, we're getting towards the end of 2 Samuel, if you'll turn with me there now. This chapter is a psalm that was probably written more chronologically towards the middle of 2 Samuel. Now, we discussed this last week because the chapter 21 was also kind of out of a time sequence, a sort of an appendix, if you will, to 2 Samuel, and we are looking at this chapter 22, and it as well is out of sequence with the rest of where it fits into the book. Basically, what we're looking at tonight, you can also find in Psalm 18.

It's almost word for word the same chapter. So, we have here in the book of 2 Samuel a psalm that's kind of a deposit for us to go through. Now, let's understand that David wrote at least, I think 73 had to peak. 73 of the 150 psalms David wrote, and he's given, there's a little thing at the top says Psalm of David.

He probably wrote more of that, more of them, and some of them are noted. So, let's jump in here. Verse 20, chapter 22 verse one, then David spoke to the Lord, the words of this psalm on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my strength and whom I will trust. My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior.

You save me from violence. Verse four, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies.

We sing that song. Verse five, when the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me and the snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God. And he heard my voice from his temple and my cry entered his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled and the foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken because he was angry and smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth and coals were kindled by it. He bowed down the heavens also and came down with darkness under his feet.

He wrote upon a cherub and flew and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness canopies around him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. And from the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled. The Lord thundered from heaven and the most high uttered his voice and he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning bolts and he vanquished them. Then the channels of the sea were seen and the foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke of the Lord at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from above. He took me, he drew me out of many waters.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me for they were too strong for me. I believe what David is sharing here to me, it sounds like when God was meeting with Moses at Mount Sinai, there's certain aspects of you read it and you go, well, maybe this is about creation. Could be, we don't know exactly, but I believe it's more speaking more about when God was communicating with Moses and with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. If you remember the people said, Hey, we want God to speak to us and God spoke to us. And then they said, Moses, let God speak to you.

We don't want God to speak directly to us anymore because they were so freaked out at the power in his voice. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He also brought me out of into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. Verse 21, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me for I have kept the ways of the Lord and I have not wickedly departed from my God for all his judgments were before me.

As for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before him and I kept myself from iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eyes.

And now, you know, well, I believe this was written earlier in David's life because he wasn't able to say this later on. Verse 26, with the merciful, you shall show yourself merciful. And with the blameless man, you will show yourself blameless. With the pure, you will show yourself pure. And with the devious, you will show yourself shrewd.

Verse 28, you will save the humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty that you may bring them down. See, so important to understand this is he's using a device, a technique of contrast. He does this with those.

He does this with them. Do you understand that we get to choose God's disposition towards us? That part of a consequence of our free will, our decisions that we make towards God, alter our perception of God and who he really is to us.

Here's what I mean by that. If you think God is judgmental and harsh and overbearing and unfair and unforgiving, guess how he's going to appear to you. You can read the same Bible that I'm reading, and that will be your impression.

And guess what? Because that's your decision and your perspective of God, at the end of this short thing we call life and you've rejected Jesus and you go before him, part of that will be fulfilling. You will see the judgment of God. You will see his harshness.

Why? Because you rejected his son, but you have the free will to say, God, I throw myself on your mercy. I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins. And at the end of this short thing called life, guess what's going to, your perception then is God is forgiving. God is merciful. God is loving. God is kind.

And what's going to happen at the end of this life? You're going to go before God and you're going to find that God is merciful. God is loving. God is kind.

God is forgiving. This helps, it helps answer some philosophical questions of how two people can look at the same God and see two different things. It's like looking at a coin. If one person is looking at one side of the coin, they'll go, well, you know, coin is all about having a guy's head on there.

It's about a portrait. That's what coins are all about. But if somebody else is looking at the other side, they'll say, no, no coins are all about having buildings and sayings and stuff on same coin, two different sides.

Now that's a real simple analogy with a two sided coin. Think of the many facets of God and that none of us can see all the way around God, viewing him from where we are. It's just, we're trying to understand an infinite being with a finite mind.

It has, it has its challenges. So, and kind of looking back over these last few verses when David is talking about his righteousness, the enemy comes, the enemy of our faith, the devil's very real thing. He comes and he says, oh, you're such a loser. God doesn't love you.

You're, you're just a teething dog, man. You shouldn't even be going to church. Put down your hands. Don't be worshiping.

Just not that. Now to your enemy, you can say, no, no, no, no, no. I'm the righteousness of God, buddy. I've been forgiven of all my sins. And you know, I love the saying when the devil begins to remind you of your past, remind him of his future. But now you're standing before God and before God, you say, God, I am a miserable sinner. I do not deserve the grace and the mercy and the love that you're willing to extend towards me.

I'm so thankful that you are two sides of the same coin again, verse 29 for you are my lamp. Oh Lord, the Lord show enlighten my darkness for by you, I can run against the truth for by my God, I can leap over a wall with God. All things are possible with God. All things are possible. So again, we see David given glory to God in this and saying with God, all things are possible with God. Nothing is impossible. You understand that you're going through something in your life. It doesn't seem like you can get over it.

Remember those words. It's interesting to contrast the new Testament. Jesus told us, he said, without me, you can do nothing. You can do nothing of lasting spiritual significance without God, but through God, you can do everything.

Nothing is impossible. Leaves us kind of dependent upon him. Verse 31 as for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven. He has a shield to all who trust in him.

It's a great verse. The word of the Lord is proven every couple of years. People come up with these new techniques of what to do and how to do it, especially in terms of counseling.

Well, you need to do this and you need to do that. And every few years you had Freud saying everything was rooted in sex and weirdness. And then a few years later, it's all about this. A few years later, it's all about that. A few years later, all about self-esteem issues.

And none of those techniques or theories are really proven, but the word of God is proven. It's been around for a long time. It's rescued a lot of people. It's given a lot of people hope. It's changed a lot of lives. So remember that next time you're tempted to go get the next best seller that's going to tell you how to fix your life.

Remember that when you're tempted to go get the new self-help book, that's going to change everything. Maybe it will probably it won't, but this book, this book is proven. This book has not only altered the lives of people.

This book has altered the history of mankind. There's no other book like it. There's no other book that can be compared to the Bible. The Quran can't be compared to the Bible. The Pearl of great price, a Mormon book can't be compared to the Bible. The Bible has been proven. It's been tried. It's stood the test of time. Verse 32, for who is God except the Lord and who is a rock except our God.

There's the rock reference again. And remember who is God except God. Nobody is God except God. Remember that who is opposite of God?

Nobody. God has no opposite. Satan is not the opposite of God. Satan is a fallen angel. He's the opposite of Michael or Gabriel. Who is like unto thee, O Lord.

There's none like unto thee. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more in just a moment. But first, if you haven't been to our website at crossthebridge.com yet, what are you waiting for? Go to crossthebridge.com to learn more about how listeners like you are helping get the life-changing truth of God's word to more people through the radio, internet, and mobile technologies. At crossthebridge.com, you can also check out our broadcast schedule, listen to more teaching from Pastor David, and sign up for Pastor David's free daily devotional. And there's more there too.

So visit crossthebridge.com today. Now here's Pastor David as he continues sharing verse by verse. Verse 33, God is my strength and power and he makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer and he sets me on high places. Do you understand if, if as the deer was speaking kind of mountain deer, as the deer is going up the mountain, if the mountain was perfectly smooth, it had nothing to climb on.

I like the Warren Risby. He really good Bible teacher wrote a book and he said, bumps are the things you climb on. What a great title. I would encourage you.

You can go back later tonight or some other time. I would encourage you to go back and read, uh, Psalm 18 because you're going to see, especially if you've got Bible software, you can pull them up parallel and you can look at, it's almost verbatim verse 35. He teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. One thing you see in this chapter, you see in the life of David, when David was in a time of peace, God was looking after him. When David was in time of war, God was looking after him. When David was in a time of blessing, God was looking after him. When David was in time of utter moral failure, God was looking after him. There is no time in David's life where you don't see the care of God for him. Sometimes that care was correction, but it was always there. Do you understand there is no point in your life that you can look back and say, God was not caring for me at that point.

Friends, we live in a fallen world. Sometimes bad things happen, but don't ever think at that point in time, the bad thing was going on, that God was not aware and God didn't care about you. God was right there. And somehow he's able to take these bad things that happened in our lives and he's able to turn them around and it creates an ability in us to minister to others who have gone through the same thing. The life lesson here, God's care is constant. I have never been unloved. We probably don't say that enough to each other.

We probably don't tell each other God loves us enough. God loves you. You are so loved. Verse 35 again, he teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend the bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great. You've helped me to make war. Your gentleness has made me great.

I mean, these are like polar opposites statements. And you look at the life of David, David was an incredible warrior. And yet the Bible records many times when he wept and his gentleness, somehow he was able to maintain this gentleness all his life. And you know, a gentle warrior, that's what the body of Christ needs more of in it, gentle warriors. Because a lot of times you get people who are warriors who aren't very gentle and you get people who are gentle, who aren't warriors at all. And anytime you take that polar opposite, it's not a good thing, but gentle warriors is a good thing.

May God give us the balance. Verse 37, you enlarge my path under me. So my feet did not slip. I've pursued my enemies and destroyed them. Neither did I turn back again until they were destroyed. And I have destroyed them and wounded them so that they could not rise. They have fallen under my feet. If you have armed me with strength for the battle, you have subdued me under, under me, those who have rose against me, you have given me the next of my enemies so that I destroyed those who hated me. They looked, but there was none to save even to the Lord, but he did not answer them. Then I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth.

And I tried them like dirt in the streets and I spread them out. It's definitely showing the warrior side of David in it. He's a gentle warrior.

He's a warrior. Now a lot of times we look at this, we look at these parts of the Bible and go, Oh, well, that's, that's not good. That's the God of the Old Testament. That's how God was in the Old Testament.

Now let's remember something. David was an instrument of God's judgment upon the people that were around him. Now let's understand God had waited at least hundreds and hundreds of years, and I'm sure appealed to these people to be drawn to him, to forsake their, their, you know, human sacrifices and all these other things and to come to him.

But they kept rejecting him and they got to the point where God said, okay, that's it. That's a scary thing to realize that there is a place like that. There's a place where if people continue on without God, not listening to God, that God says you crossed it. We don't know where that is.

You will never know where that is in somebody's life. There will be people that you think aren't even close to it. They've already passed it.

There'll be people that you think already passed it. They aren't even close to them. We can't see like God sees, but David was God's instrument of judgment on these people. And if you think Christianity is just this, you hear people say it all the time. Well, Jesus was a pacifist.

He totally abhorred violence and didn't think anybody should ever do anything like that. And let's all just stand in a circle and sing Kumbaya kind of thing. And they haven't read the Bible because when I read the Bible, I see Jesus getting mad. I see Jesus turning tables over.

I see Jesus making a whip to drive out the money changers. I see even in this fellowship battles going on all the time, all the time, like, like some of you just would not imagine. I mean, it's a daily thing. There's some battle going on over here. Oh, this is going on.

That's a problem. And this person's it's a constant battle. That's what I'm called to. That's what you were called to. We are called to this battle.

And if you're going through Christianity thinking, Oh, you're in a dangerous place. God didn't call you to the playground, brother. He called you to the battleground. And if you sit off to the side, what's going to be happening is you're going to be a spectator and watch brothers and sisters be wounded and think you have nothing to do with it. And you have no bearing on the battle. We're called to a battle.

And so as we read about these things, these things are supposed to understand that God is with us as we battle on his behalf. Verse 44, you have also delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me as the head of the nations. The people I have not known shall serve me. The foreigners submit to me. As soon as they hear, they obey me.

The foreigners fade away and come frightened from their hideouts. Now this sounds a little weird until you realize that David's given God the glory for what's going on in his life. David isn't just saying, Oh, all these people are just serving me and all that.

No, no. He's saying this is what God is doing in my life. He's given thanks to God in the midst of this. He's saying these things and you know, you see it well as early as Genesis four, Lamech is given this praise to God for victory. You see it in Exodus with Miriam.

You see different people in the Bible giving God the glory for delivering them and giving them the victory. Verse 47, the Lord lives. Blessed be my rock. Let God be exalted, the rock of my salvation. So here we see the third reference to the rock, unmoving. What else is a rock? It's dependable.

It's dependable. You know what a rock is. You know that a rock is strong. It's, have you ever seen a big rock?

Like maybe I've been up the hanging rock. Have you ever seen a big rock and try to fight against it? Try to smack it around a little bit. Doesn't work.

Yeah. Fighting against God doesn't work either. Every one of us is going to try it at some point in our life to fight against God, but it's as effective as fighting against the rock.

It just, it just doesn't go well. And the harder you smack the rock, guess what? The more injured you become. It's interesting as I was sitting there thinking about this rock, because hanging rock, you go, um, there's this little trail that you walk out.

They tell you it's like two miles, but it's more like 400. And so you, you know, you go up there and, and you know, when you finally get up there and you're like, you don't think of a rock as comfortable rocks can be very comfortable. You get through that. You get through the top of hanging rocks, like, ah, it's a very comfortable place to rest. But you know, it's interesting as you go up there, you know what you see little places of shelter where there was a snowstorm or something going on where you could find warmth and comfort. And it's just got, it got me thinking about the rock. Why, where did David hide out when he was hiding from Saul?

Case. God, you're my rock. You're the place I run to when I have problems when the whole world is against me and the world seems like a cold, harsh place. God, I run to you cause you're my rock. You're unmoving. You're my shelter.

You're my fortress. See, we can get that. Then we understand that God is somebody that we run to instead of running from, and I understand I'm a runner. I've ran from God, but do you understand going all the way back to the garden? That's been the problem. Adam tried to hide from God and we look at, I go silly out and trying to hide from God, little fig leaf thing.

That's just crazy. And then we go and do the same thing. We try to hide from God. Well, God don't see me here.

Well, I know I'll do my dirty deeds at night. That way God won't see me when God sees everything. That's why I think it's so important for us to develop this run into God.

And I think that's one of the things that made such a distinctive difference in David. Verse 48, it is God who avenges me and subdues the people under me. He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me.

You've delivered me from the violent man. Verse 50, therefore I will give thanks to you O Lord among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name. Therefore J. Vernon McGee said, whenever you see a therefore in the Bible, you have to ask what it's there for.

David says all these things. And then he says, therefore God, you've done all these things. God, you've blessed me. You've been with me. You've never deserted me.

You've delivered me. Therefore I'll give thanks to you. Paul quotes this verse in Romans chapter 15, verse nine. And it's interesting the context Paul gives it there. He's talking about loving one another and serving one another because of what God has done for us.

We should be loving and serving one another. And David is wrapping it up and saying, you know what? I'm going to praise you. Look at verse 51. He is the tower of salvation to his King and shows mercy to his anointed, to David and his descendants forevermore. So David says all these things and he says, you know what God, because you did all these things because you are who you are. I praise you and I worship you and I thank you.

Final life lesson. We should always be thankful. We should always be thankful. God never tells us to understand everything, but he says in everything give thanks. And sometimes we want to thank God for what we want him to do. God, if you'll do this, I'll give you all the things.

I'll give you all the praise for a moment. Just stop and consider friend, what God has already done for you and for me and be thankful. As you read this chapter, you see something that God had a plan for David the whole time. And somehow him being a little shepherd boy and him slaying Goliath and him being a musician, a court musician for Saul, all led up to him being a King. God had a plan. It's obvious when you read this chapter, when we've looked at the life of David, it's obvious when you look at the life of Joseph, God had a plan and it's really easy to sit back and go, yeah, God had a plan for their life, but God has a plan for your life. And I'm sure when David was hiding out in these caves, he didn't understand what the plan was or maybe even thought was the plan is taking a bad turn, but God was leading them the whole time. God knew what was coming next. He was preparing him for what was coming next. And when he got to that place, he knew he needed to be prepared for what was next and prepared him like that. And David says, God, you brought me into this broad place. That's a little weird for us, but you brought me into this open field. If you can imagine an open field, like in the mountains, an open field, he walks out spiritually to speak into this beautiful place.

He's been in this closed in area. It seems like everything's closing in, but he says, you know what, God, you brought me to this special place. Friend, God wants to bring you to that special place. He wants to show you what he showed David. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27117 and share how God is working in your life. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day, you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. That sounds good, Pastor DA.

And again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from Davis Home Church, The Bridge in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com.

Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. And thank you for listening. We hope you'll join us again next time as we continue studying verse by verse through Second Samuel.