Sermon: From Death to Life

If you'd take a copy of God's word this morning, we'll turn open to the book of 2 Samuel. This morning 2 Samuel, chapter 22. We're just looking at verses one through 20 this morning. 2 Samuel chapter 22,

verses one through 20.

And let's go ahead and pray for the Lord's blessing upon the read and the preached word this morning before we read it.

Our Father, we are thankful that you are a God of truth. That you have not left us in ignorance. You have not left us shrouded in darkness. You have not left this world cold. But you have shown the light of your word, your truth, and the life that it gives into this world. We pray that even as we sit here over these next minutes, and stand here, that we would find that your word is illuminating our minds and warming our hearts.

And like those disciples on the Emmaus road, we would find that there is a flame that is burning within us. And that when we leave this place, we would say that we know that we have met with the risen Christ. May we pray all this in the strong name of Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen. 2 Samuel chapter 22, verses one through 20. This is the holy, inerrant, sufficient word of God. "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. He said: '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. For the waves of death encompassed me; the torrents of

destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.

He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen on the wings of the wind. He made darkness around him his canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water. Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flamed forth. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning, and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, the

foundations of the world were laid bare, at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.'"

Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let me orient us a little bit to where we are at as a church. We have been walking our way through 2 Samuel, which details the life and the reign of King David. And we are now at the end of his life. And David, at the end of his life, he's going to example before us what actually matters to him. When a man reaches the end of his life, you learn what really mattered to him. And David doesn't give us a speech. He gives us a songVerse

one: "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 wrote this song to God. It's recorded as well in Psalm 18, almost verbatim. There are a few different things in that text from this text, but almost the exact same song.

I'm going to give us three points of the song this morning, of the first half of the song. The God David knew, the trouble David knew, and the salvation David knew. First, the God David knew. David doesn't restrain himself. Indeed, he doesn't want to. Notice what he calls God in these opening verses. Verse two: rock, fortress, deliver. Verse three: rock, shield, horn of salvation, stronghold, refuge, savior. As one commentator said, it's a torrent

of metaphors. And this torrent of metaphors is proclaiming to the world what David has found God to be. They're concrete images. Rock, shield, fortress, stronghold.

Each image answers a different enemy or fear. Rock for stability, fortress for protection, shield for attack, refuge for security, savior from destruction. David can't pile up enough imagery to encapsulate who he found God to be. His searching words remind me of David in Psalm 29, where he does something very similar. He calls out to the angels above. He cries out to them. He says, "Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings.

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name." And why is it that he calls out, he's yelling out at those angelic beings that are on high? He's saying, "My praise is insufficient to give him glory, that glory that is due this God. Join your voices with me. Let's offer him a cacophony of praise. Let's do a crescendo together." That's how this song begins, with a crescendo of metaphors.

See the greatness of this God, David is singing.

But you'll notice David doesn't say this in the abstract. These aren't distant metaphors for David. This isn't exaggeration, but experience. He's recalling real-life deliverances. Notice the language. It's personal. He says, verse two, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer." Verse three: "My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior, you saved me." It's

personal. There's a world of difference there between knowing that there's a God and knowing him as my God. A world of difference of knowing that he's a stronghold, a fortress, a deliverer, a savior, and he's mine. My fortress, my deliverer, my stronghold, my savior. A world of difference.

You've seen it. We've all seen it, where you're out in public and there is a small child, and you watch that small child and they see an adult next to them and they think it is their dad, and so they grab ahold of that adult's hand and then they look up. There's a world of difference of knowing that's a dad and that's my dad. World of difference.

David knows God, not simply knows about God. He knows God to be my shield, my deliverer, my savior.

Now, why does a man need a God like this? Because he knew a life like this. Let me remind you, second, of the trouble David knew. Our passage began with the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. Those of you who have been at URC over these last weeks and months, you have seen this. David appeared on the scene as a small, ruddy boy who did battle with Goliath. And from that moment, Saul is seeking after him, the

first king of Israel, to put him to death. But it doesn't end there. He's in battle against the Philistines. He's at battle against all of the surrounding nations. His nephew fights against him. His number one counselor betrays him. His son Absalom rebels against him. And on we could go seemingly ad infinitum.As Matthew Henry said, David was a man after God's heart, but not after men's heart. Many were those who hated him and sought his ruin.

It's trouble upon trouble upon trouble. And just like the God he knows, so these enemies he knows are not metaphorical. He says in verse four that he was saved from, quote, "my enemies." He had so many personal enemies that it felt as if he says, verse five, that, "The waves of death have encompassed me. The torrents of destruction have assailed me." He felt as though his life was being pulled down to the grave, to Sheol. He says, "Death," he says,

"confronted me." Verse six. He describes himself in verse seven as, "In my distress." Again, notice the personal in verses four through six. My enemies encompass me, assailed me, entangled me, death confronted me. David knows trouble, but not simply trouble. He doesn't know just about it, he knows it. He's living it.

And that's why he so needed this God to be my rock, my refuge, my shield, my stronghold, my savior. Which leads to our final point,

the salvation that David knew of this God. David tells us, verse seven, "I called upon the Lord. To my God I called." He cried out in prayer and the Lord intervened.

Stop to think about this. David gets to the end of his life and it's quite an accomplished personal life in many ways, and he's the one who is the second king of Israel. He is a man after God's own heart. He is one that has united the 12 nations together. He has made Israel conqueror of the land. He has brought true peace to the land. Before there was a Pax Romana, there was a Pax David. But in the end, he doesn't celebrate his accomplishments.

He celebrates God. Why? Because David knows not only God, not only his troubles, but this God who is a God to him in his troubles and is his salvation.

The language is striking in verses eight through 16. God's response to David's crying out to him, it's presented not as a literal description but as a kind of theological poetry. David shows us what it felt like when God intervened. Verse eight speaks of earth reeling and rocking, the heavens trembling. We're told why in verse eight. Why is the earth shaking? Why is heaven trembling? Why is this happening? And he tells us, because God is angry.

And why is God angry?

He's angry at the injustice done to David, who is counted among the covenant people of God. He's angry. Verses nine through 12 include smoke and fire and darkness. Verse 14, God thunders. Verse 15, he sends out lightning and arrows. Verse 16, he separates the sea. He's angry and he acts.

People will often ask, they say, "Well, if God is sovereign and God is good, why is it that there is so much trouble in the world? It sure doesn't seem like he cares."

And David, in poetic fashion, is making it clear.

God moves heaven and earth for his people.

The language is meant to remind you of Mount Sinai and the division of the Red Sea when they went across on dry ground. And David is seeing that this holy, majestic, sovereign God of heaven and earth, he does not sit unmoved by his people's afflictions. He acts, he delivers, he saves.

Pilraf Davis, commenting upon this passage, said this. He said, "Now David could have studied brevity here. Instead of the 69 Hebrew words or the 141 English words in verses eight through 16, he could have simply written, 'Yahweh intervened on my behalf.'" Five words. Why didn't he? Davis says this, "Because such a statement would be factually true, but it would not be impressively true. David doesn't merely want to tell you a fact

about Yahweh. He wants you to see Yahweh in all his saving fury. He doesn't intend merely to inform you about what God has done. He wants you to see the God who did it in all his phosphorescent splendor." To see this God, to know this GodThat's his drive here. Why? Because when you've experienced this God as my God, you want Him to receive all glory, and you want everyone else to see this God, and know this God, and experience this God, to

know Him, to love Him, to delight in Him, to trust Him, because there's nothing better.

David's testifying to us.

He's saying, "Listen, don't you understand? I'm living proof that one who places their hope in this God is always ultimately delivered, always ultimately secured, always ultimately saved."

So let me ask you a few questions related to the text this morning. First, do you know trouble?

Not just about trouble. Do you know trouble?

I've said this to you before, but I think the first thing you learn when you become a pastor is that everyone is suffering. Everyone. Now, there are different degrees in this room of suffering, but everyone is suffering personally. Suffering. We all have troubles.

You can list them. Maybe it's my unemployment, my loneliness, my financial debt, my grief, my mockers in the classroom, at work, at home, my unfaithful spouse, my conflict, my arthritis, my cancer. But these aren't all the troubles that we share. There's even more significant, isn't there? There's my adversary, there's my sin, there's my death.

So let me ask you again, do you know trouble?

If you answer anything but a categorical yes, you're either denying reality or you're not being honest.

So here's the second question.

Do you know God?

Not simply that there is a God,

but do you know God?

I remember when I first came to saving faith in college, I was an atheist, roomed with an atheist, and then I came to saving faith, and my atheist roommate was a fair atheist. He was willing to study the Bible with me. So we started studying the Bible together.

And it didn't seem to matter what passage we were in, he constantly wanted to go back to Mark 5 in one day that we'd studied that together. He'd say, "This is good, but can we go back to Mark 5 again and think about that again together?" We go to Mark 5 all the time. In Mark 5, Jesus appears there before that city, and that demoniac has been running back and forth in the graveyard, and he is filled, this man is filled with so many demons that when they

appear before Jesus, and Jesus asks the demoniac, "Who are you?" They say, "We are legion. We're many. We're legion."

And this is what Mark says in Mark Chapter 5. He says that when they saw Jesus, that this man came running, and he fell down before Him, and crying out with a loud voice, the demon said this, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" My atheist friend wanted to keep going back to that passage, and he would say over and over, he would say, "Jason, they knew who He was."

I'd say, "Yes. They knew He was Son of the Most High God."

James will say this in his book. He will say that the demons believe and they shudder.

They know about God.

Sadly, my atheist roommate knew about God. He knew about Jesus. But he did not know Him.

Do you know God?

Do you know Him as David knew Him, as so many in this room know Him? Do you know Him in love and trust and faith?

Do you know Him?So let me ask you the final question that flows from this. Do you know the salvation of this God?

I love verse 20.

Verse 20: "He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me because he delighted in me." He brought me. It's His work. He brought me. It's personal. He brought me.

Can you say that? He brought me into a broad place. This is not a confined place. This is not where everything is encroaching in and seeking to stamp out life. No, he's brought me into a broad place, an abundant place, a fulfilling place, a place of peace and goodness and truth. As Jesus said, "I came to set you free," free indeed, a broad place. "He rescued me," David says. He sings. Why, David? Why did he rescue you?

Oh, a great line, verse 20, "Because he delighted in me." God delighted in me.

You say, "Well, that's well and good for David.

Hey, I'm pretty confident God is not delighted in me, more like He has forgotten about me."

I want you to think with me about another day when indeed the earth quaked. It was not metaphorical.

It was not just painting pictures, but where the earth truly quaked,

and darkness spread out over the entire land. It was not poetry. There was true darkness over all the land. Why? Because the God of heaven and earth was moving. And why was there darkness? And why was the earth shaking? Because He was angry.

His anger was demonstrated on that day in colors that it never will in all of the universe's history, before, now, or in the future. It was on grand display that day. He was angry.

And He poured out that anger

upon that one that was held that day on that cross at Calvary.

The Son of the Most High, Jesus the Christ, hung on that tree with nails in His hands and in His feet, and that crown of thorns on His head, and that placard over His head that mocked Him, saying, "King of the Jews." And there, the Son of God received the wrath of His Father, His anger, and the earth trembled.

And He cried out,

but He wasn't answered like David in verse seven. His cry was met with silence.

Not saved, but forsaken. Why?

Because it was God's will to accomplish salvation for His people through the person of a son living and dying an atoning death for them upon the cross.

And the Son willingly subjected Himself to it.

You say, "Why?"

Because He delighted in us.

"For God so loved the world

that He sent His only Son."

And that empty tomb which we celebrate today,

it declares before all the world that this rescue plan is secured. It's complete. It's done.

It was not because of David's worthiness, but because of God's gracious covenant love.

Your trouble is not forgotten by God.

It's not forgotten.

He came in the person of His Son to set you free from it, not simply just for a little relief, not just to give your life a little bit of margin, but to set you free from your troubles everlastingly. And that empty tomb proclaims in a better picture than all the words that David could pile up that our God has the victoryHe's won. It's done. As John Newton, the famous pastor and hymn writer of "Amazing Grace" said, he said,

"Because He lives, His people live also, supported in life, comforted in death, and raised to glory at last." Victory.

But if He has the victory, why still your troubles in this world?

Peter answers that question. He says, "The Lord is being patient about bringing all things to an end, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance." He's patient.

He allows these earthly troubles to continue so that you are given an opportunity today to repent, to trust in Him, to be set free from these troubles for all of eternity.

He offers it to you today.

What a wonderful refrain to

say over and over from this song, "He delights in me."

If you're in Christ today, you can say that today, and you can say it for all of eternity. He delights in me.

If He's your God, then you're secure, now and forever. That is the great truth of Resurrection Sunday. Let's pray together.

Our Father, we are thankful for so great a salvation,

that you sent your Son into this world, that, oh Son, you were willing to bear the wrath of the Father for sinners such as us. May it be true of every single soul in this room, that we know you and can say, "You are my God, my fortress, my deliverer, my stronghold, my savior," and that we can have the refrain going over and over in our heads and our hearts for all of eternity because He delights in me.

You receive our praise and our thanksgiving, for truly there is no God like you. We pray all of this in the strong name of Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.