David's Song of Praise
- Dave Rodriguez
- Feb 21, 2010
- Series: Legacy - Chapter VIII - 2 Samuel
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What can you say about God?
I don’t mean what do you know about God? You know a lot of stuff about him...stuff you learned along the way in kids programs, sermons and books.
I’m not asking what do you know about God but what can you say about him? What can you say about God in relationship to your personal experience?
What is, at this moment, today, true about God to you?
For instance can you say with honesty and conviction:
The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior
Some of you can. Many of you cannot. You know it in your head but right here, right now, in the middle of this thing you are going through...those words don’t come easy.
You’d like to be able to say – Absolutely, on this day God is my deliverer. But your circumstances frankly don’t indicate that anyone is coming to your rescue.
You’d be thrilled to blurt out God is my fortress! But right now you don’t feel very protected.
For those of you unable to honestly articulate praise – relax - Now is not the time to feel guilty about your inability to praise God spontaneously.
For the next few moments let us do that for you. We will rehearse the goodness, love and mercy of God and we will reflect on his justice, power and action.
We will speak God into your life. We will remind you of your savior. .
And when we are done, it is my hope that you’ll be able to walk out of here with new confidence that God is your rock, your fortress and your deliverer.
And even in the middle of your pain you will be able to say Hallelujah – Praise God.
We begin our rehearsal of the greatness of God by examining what some think is the oldest poem ever recorded. It’s a 3000 yr old song.
- virtual duplication of Psalm 18 written by King David back in the day when as a young man he was being threatened by Saul.
Which raises a question ...Why is it inserted here at this point in David’s life.
Here is this exuberant song of praise stuck right in the middle of some of the worst days of David’s life. Why would the author feel it necessary to jar our senses with something so upbeat and joyful when the tone of the story is dark and muddied?
Oh...maybe that’s the point.
Maybe the author of 2 Samuel wanted us to see that when David himself faced pain and the mess of life he pulled out a song like this to remind himself who God was.
Maybe this is here to say when all seems lost - now is the time to rehearse the story of God – to review his character ...to remind ourselves what kind of God we serve.
Maybe the author of 2 Samuel knew that when David was at his lowest he taught himself to say Hallelujah and it changed everything.
I hope it does that for you today.
He said:
"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior--
from violent men you save me.
I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
The song kicks off with some very strong words.
They all imply defense – warfare – safety
My rock My fortress My deliverer My God My shield and horn My stronghold My refuge My savior
And note that they are all intensely personal – “my” not “the” not even “our God...” etc.
Now think about that. Is that how you refer to God? He is “my” God.
Feels a little weird and no doubt would raise some eyebrows if you did. But isn’t that what we truly long for...that God is “MY” God?
David goes on to tell a personal story in poetic form about why he is so confident to call God “mine”
The Story of his life...
"The waves of death swirled about me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me. I was dying...
The circumstance from which he wrote this song was indeed a moment when his physical life was threatened but we all know that death takes on many forms:
- physical of course – IL this week I visited St. Vs hospice and am always taken back by that place. Such peace but such finality. As I walked past the rooms I looked in at each person....
- Relational – marriages, friendships, family relationship of all kinds die
- Peace of mind dies – anxiety and depression feels like death
- Dreams die – hopes, plans, goals....
Most of us understand this circumstance David found himself in. But here is what he did in the middle of it:
In my distress I called to the Lord;
I called out to my God.
I think David did that a lot. This is why such a mammoth sinner gets the weighty distinction of being a “man after God’s own heart” ...a man who wants what God wants. It was his saving Grace. So many of his psalms sound like this...his faith was not just in his head...it was his practice.
- Is it yours? When you are in deep weeds is your first call to God or is it to your mom...your dad...your friend...your counselor?
- If you are thinking I don’t know what to say – start with “HELP!” ...and maybe when you cry out to God it won’t even have any words it will sound like this.
David called out to God...And when he called out to God what happened?
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.
God heard...or at least David believed that God heard his cry. Do you?
This is one of the big questions that as Philip Yancey suggests...
3 Questions no one asks out loud:
- Is God unfair?
- Is God hidden?
- Is God silent?
They are all ways of asking does God hear? Does God care? Does God pay attention? What do you think?
Last week I was fascinated to see that 10s of 1000s of Haitians acted on the belief that God hears as they gathered to call out to him.
The scriptural evidence is strong: God hears:
Psalm 34:15
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
Psalm 102:17
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute;
he will not despise their plea.
1 John 5:14
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
God hears. Maybe that’s all you need to hang on to today.
David continues the story telling us how God reacted after he heard...
"The earth trembled and quaked,
the foundations of the heavens shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
This is fascinating to me – when God saw David’s distress he got mad. He became indignant.
- Lit – he was angry = “it burned for him”
He cared – he felt. This is an important part of the story – do you believe that your God cares enough about you to have feelings about your situation?
We’ve covered this before but there are all kinds of ways that people perceive God....from highly disengaged to highly deterministic.
David paints a picture of a God who was paying attention...saw what was happening and got worked up about it.
God gets worked up about your distress.
God is angry about your abuse, he is angry about your pain and the injustice of your life and this world
And he doesn’t just get in a huff. He acts.
He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his canopy around him--
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence
bolts of lightning blazed forth.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
He shot arrows and scattered the enemies,
bolts of lightning and routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
God didn’t just hear...he felt...and he didn’t just emote he acted...
- He responded ....God did something ...God engaged – but how does he do that?
Of course all this thunder and lightening imagery is just metaphor. It is a poem. But what God actually did do in rescuing David from Saul’s grasp certainly felt like God thundering from, heaven.
God shook things up....changed the course of things
God does that you know. Sometimes he does the remarkable. The unexplainable. The miraculous –
“what, the cancer is gone”
“wait, you’re not going to leave me”
But it seems to me that God does the bulk of his best saving work through another means....his people – those who bear his image.
God acts primarily through his ambassadors
The skilled doctor, the call at the right time from a friend, the love of a father and mother, the experienced wisdom of a mentor. ...don’t ever fail to see the action of God through others.
And don’t forget who is Plan A is God’s plan to redeem this world – the church!
So David’s story is that he faced a crisis...he called out to God...God got angry....and God intervened
But that is not all God did for David....
"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.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
I love the emotions wrapped up in these words...
The image is of God’s hand gently wrapping around Him’ lifting him up and setting him down in a beautiful place where he speaks gently to him.
God doesn’t just save with a strong hand – he reassures us with a tender song
The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17
So what have we rehearsed about God through this one of the oldest songs ever recorded?
We worship a God who hears
We worship a God who gets angry on our behalf
We worship a God who “comes down”
We worship a God who “takes hold” of us
We worship a God who delights in us
This is your God!
When these truths sink in... even though you know that the tragedy, the distress probably won’t disappear... these words give you courage don’t they?
This story gives us the confidence to say...
"To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
You save the humble,
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.
You are my lamp, O Lord;
the Lord turns my darkness into light.
With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall.
Even in the middle of my pain I can say Hallelujah!
