Sermon: Great Salvation

This morning, our passage comes from 2 Samuel, chapter 22, as we continue our way through that book. And this morning we are looking at verses 21 through 51. If you want to use a pew Bible, you can turn right there, page 274 in the pew Bible, 274.

It's a longer reading this morning. Let me remind you as you're turning, when Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, "Read the word and preach the word." Our confession rightfully says that it's both the reading and the preaching of the word that is a means of grace to us. That grace is actually extended to us, not just in the preaching of it, but in the reading of it. So, with a long passage like this, this is what happens.

You and I have stray thoughts. They enter in and we get distracted. So as I've told you before, the bird's going to fly through, let it fly through, just don't let it nest. That word comes in, push it out. Back to the word, okay? Try and focus as much as you can upon the reading of the word. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for the gift of your word. We are thankful for the light that it shines in the midst of darkness,

and pray that you would minister to our souls as we each have need this morning, for your glory and your praise. In Christ's name, amen. 2 Samuel chapter 22, verses 21 through 51. This is the holy, inerrant, sufficient word of God. "The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you deal purely, with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. You

save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? This God is my strong refuge and has made my way

blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights to train my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip; I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed. I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise; they

fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them. They looked, but there were none to save; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as the dust of the earth; I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets. You delivered me

from strife with my people; you kept me as the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me. Foreigners came cringing into me; as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses. The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation, the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me, who brought me out from my enemies; you exalted me above

those who rose against me; you delivered me from men of violence. For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever." Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

We looked last week at the first half of this song of David's, and what I want to do this morning is look at the second half of this song of David, and do it under three divisions. The first is verses 21 through 30, and that's David's direction. And then verses 31 through 46, David's confidence. And then finally, verses 47 through 51, which is David's descendants. So David's direction, David's confidence, andDavid's descendant.

If you have been at URC over these last number of months, you may hear the opening verses of our passage this morning, and it may seem like this is crazy. This is crazy talk. He says, verse 21, "The Lord dealt with me according to the cleanness of my hands." Verse 22, "For I've kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God." Verse 23, "His rules were before me. His statutes I did not turn aside." And then the whopper in verse

24, "I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt." If you're like me, you say, "Huh? We've been spending months going through all the outcroppings and all the fruit of your sins, David." And you maybe would be like me, and you'd turn back to the beginning of chapter 22 and make sure that you remember who wrote this song. Oh, it is David. This David. This David that committed sin with Bathsheba, and this David

that put Uriah to death. This David says this. Has he lost his mind? Or is he just in old age, suffering from dementia, and he's forgotten? No.

This David has not gone insane. He hasn't lost clarity. He has every right to make this claim that he makes in this text. At first glance, it seems as though David is understanding that he is justified by works, that somehow he is right with God in and of himself. And of course, that would make no sense in light of all of the teaching of the scriptures, let alone the fact that the rest of this song, what David does is he looks to the Lord in

praise and thanksgiving for being his salvation. So it's not that. David is not justifying himself, so that's good. But what right does he have to say this then? How can he say, "My way has been blameless. I've kept his statutes. I've kept his rules"? What David is speaking about the overall of his life, his life's overall direction. I want you to think about this with me. If you think about Luke 1, and Luke writes there in Luke 1, as he is

writing about Zacchaeus and Elizabeth, the two parents that will bring into the world John the Baptist. He says of these two parents, he says, "They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord." Were Zechariah and Elizabeth perfect? No. How do you know that, Jason? Because of the rest of chapter one. Elizabeth's cousin, Mary, has to be a virgin, give birth to the Savior who would come into the world, and if there

was any that were perfect, then there's no need for a perfect Savior to come into the world.

Paul, who discipled Luke, who wrote that passage, will write, "There is none who is righteous, no, not even one." So did Luke forget it when he wrote this? No. He's saying the same thing about Zechariah and Elizabeth that David says about himself here. He's not speaking about how he was accepted by God, but how God dealt with him as a covenant servant. So let me explain that to you through three lenses this morning. Desire, devotion, and direction.

Desire, devotion, and direction. David's life was one of deep desire. Desire to honor the Lord. Did he do it perfectly? Absolutely not, but it was his desire. He confesses in Psalm 51 after he commits that awful sin with Bathsheba, and then killing her husband, he says to the Lord, he says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God." It's not just what he says earlier in the psalm, that he doesn't want his iniquity to be held against him.

He wants to be cleansed from unrighteousness. No, that's not enough for him. "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Why? Why not enough just to be cleansed from unrighteousness? Because his deep desire is to honor the Lord with his life. Jesus said in Matthew, he said there that, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth evil." David

is saying, in essence, "Lord, create in me a clean heart, O Lord, so that what comes forth from my heart, what courses through my body and manifests itself in my actions and my words and my thoughts is that which is good and acceptable to you. Create in me." He desires to do the Lord's will.

He wants to honor Him. That's his deep desire.But second, David's devotion. He loves God. He doesn't simply have that desire to honor the Lord because it is simply duty. It is duty, but it's more than that. What drives him is true devotion, true love for God. I told you last week that this song is repeated in Psalm 18. It's recorded there as well, just with a few little changes. And Psalm 18 begins this way: "I love you, O Lord."

That's his heart. He says in Psalm 42, famously, "As the deer pants for flowing streams, so my heart pants for you."

He will go so far as to say in Psalm 73, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." Deep desire to honor God, driven by devotion to God, so that the overall direction of David's life is Godward. It's aimed at God.

At times, he had to be called to repentance, as we all do, because even though we may have a clean heart, a renewed heart, a heart of stone turned into a heart of flesh, there is still the ongoing battle with sin. But when David is confronted, he repents in faith.

That's Godward. Do you remember when Nathan comes to him after the sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, and now time has passed, months have passed, and Nathan comes to him, and he tells him that parable of the rich man and stealing the one sheep of the poor man, and David is absolutely incensed. And Nathan calls him to repentance by just pointing at him and saying, "Thou art the man."

And David's response is not defense. It's not argument. When he's called to repentance, confronted with his sin, his response is repentance and faith.

I think often we make the mistake of thinking the great Christians are those that seldom need to ask for forgiveness, seldom need to confess their sins, and so we play the game. We're going to be slow to do so to one another, whether that's your spouse, or a friend, or an elder, or your children.

No. That's not the Godward life.

The Godward life is a life lived in continual repentance. The greatest Christians in this world are those who are quick to confess, and quick to repent, and quick to ask for forgiveness. David's one of the greatest repenters there is. In part, that's why he's a man after God's own heart.

David had some great moral failures, but that overall direction of his life was Godward. That's why he can say in verse 24, "I was blameless before him." Integrity before God. Commitment to Him in the whole of life, when his life as a whole was considered.

It's his life's direction. So here's a question. Is that your life's direction?

Overall, Godward.

I've always appreciated the illustration that David Pawson once gave of our sanctification. That's what we're speaking of. He said it is like a man that has a yo-yo going up a flight of stairs.

The yo-yo, it goes up and down, but over time, the yo-yo, as the man ascends, is ascending. It's going up. There's real dips. There's real sins, real failures, but the trajectory is always upward. Bathsheba was a dip. Uriah was a plummet. But that was not the direction. The direction was Godward.

As soon as he is confronted, as soon as there is conviction of that sin, he confesses, he repents.

It's also true that David knows a righteousness, of course, that is not his own. He speaks of having a clean and a clear conscience. And he only has that because he turned to God and the promise of the Messiah, the Christ to come. He repented. He asked for forgiveness, and he found the Lord gave him a clean heart. Why? Because of the gift of the Messiah to come in whom he trusted. The overall direction of his life was Godward. Not

perfectionBut one of repentance and faith and trust in the Messiah to come.

David could have just as easily have said as the Apostle Paul will later say, "For me to live is Christ. To die is gain."

What's the desire? What's the devotion? What's the direction of your life?

Overall, your great longing, what is it? What's your great love?

What's your ultimate orientation?

Truly, what is it?

Is your conscience clear before God?

None of us are what we shall be. None of us are what we want to be. But can you say, "For me to live is Christ, walking in faith, repentance." David could have easily said, "Give me Christ, and I have everything, and give me all things without Christ and I have nothing." He could say that.

If David's life is directed towards God, what does that produce? Well, it produces confidence.

That's our second shorter point, David's confidence. But what I want you to notice is his confidence, though despite those opening verses where you think, ah, his confidence is in himself. No. Not as you continue on. That's not what he's saying. His confidence is not in self, his confidence is in God. He believes that this God blesses the humble, and walking in his way leads to blessedness. He knew this. He knew that directing his life towards God

meant blessedness. And the opposite is true for those who don't. He says, verse 27, "With the crooked, you make yourself seem tortuous." As one commentator said, God must be at cross purposes with the wicked. Rick Phillips said this, he said the Hebrew word that is translated as tortuous may be taken as shrewd or cunning. In other words, the ungodly will never outwit God or outflank his purposes. That's right. David is saying in verse 28, you,

meaning God, you save a humble people, but your eyes are on a haughty to bring them down. God acts for his people. The humble who submitted to his covenant love, placed their faith in his Son, in repentance and faith. But that isn't to say he's in some way neutral towards the wicked or to the ungodly. No, he's active towards them, too. That's what David says. He brings them down. He crushes them.

David simply echoes what the entire scriptures thunder, that the ungodly never win. They may seem to win for a moment, but never in the end. No matter how much it appears that they have the upper hand, that they got away with that wickedness, that there was no accountability for that sin, that there were no repercussions in their lives, and yet my life has been greatly affected by it. Despite their desire for the world, their devotion to self,

their direction towards temporal things, it seems like there's no repercussions, and that's just not true. The wicked never win. He brings them to ruin. They fall.

It's an interesting reality that the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, as he said, the kingdom that will dominate this earth and heaven, and every enemy will be banished away from, he said that it's the meek that shall inherit the earth.

The meek.

You say, well, it doesn't look that way.

It sure seems like the haughty, the proud, the ones that are aggressive, that are self-promoting, that are willing to cut people down to size,

that self-assert.

They seem to be the ones who inherit the earth.

It's only seem.

As John Stott said, the meek are gentle, humble, and submissive to God's will. It is they, not the arrogant, who ultimately inherit the earth. Before God and men is what the God above the earth, those who are in humility before God and men, that is what the God above the earth, the God who formed the earth, the God who rewards on the earth blesses. The humbleAnd David has confidence in this God of gods that He blesses the humble.

You see the refrain throughout David's song. He's won the victories, but his praise is not of self, but to his God. He makes it very clear, for it's God who, verse 34, made his feet like the feet of a deer. Verse 35, allowed him to bend a bow of bronze. Verse 36, given him a shield. Verse 37, made his feet not slip. Verse 40, "You equip me with strength." Verse 41, "Made my enemies turn their backs." Verse 44, "You delivered me." And so he erupts in

verse 47, "The Lord lives. Blessed be my rock and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation." David's confidence is in God,

and that this God blesses the humble.

Now, I want you to think with me about this, because you got to step back. You got to say, if you took any snapshot almost throughout the entire course of David's life, you would be led to a different conclusion.

So let's just think back. Chapter two, Ish-bosheth in Saul's house, war against David. Chapter three and four, there's treachery and murder. Chapter six, Michal, David's wife, ridicules him. Chapter 12, he loses his child conceived with Bathsheba. Chapter 13, Amnon, his son, rapes his daughter Tamar. Absalom, his son, kills his brother Amnon. Chapter 15, Absalom, his son, leads a rebellion and launches Israel into civil war, and David is forced to flee Jerusalem.

Chapter 16, he's cursed by Shimei. Chapter 17, Ahithophel, his friend and chief counselor, betrays him. Chapter 18, Absalom, his son, is killed. Chapter 19, Judah and Israel, he's finally united them. They erupt in conflict. Chapter 20, Sheba, son of Bichri, rebels. Chapter 21, a three-year famine descends upon the land he has united. At any one of these points, if you had just stopped and taken a snapshot, you'd say,

"God's not with David. David's forgotten. David's maybe even forsaken."

But that's not how David sees it.

He sees it in the overall. He says, even in those moments, he merged out of them. Even in the midst of them, the Lord was with him. Why is it that he could do that battle? Because the Lord strengthened him.

There's a dear brother here today that we were talking, been through just the wringer over the last two weeks. He texted me last night late and said, "I'm just going to try and get to church tomorrow." Saw him this morning. Said, "Brother, this is a win. That's a win." How is he even here this morning? Lord's with him.

With him in the midst. And David finds not only is He with him in the midst, but every single one of these, as he's been delivered, he recognizes the hand that delivered him was not his own.

It was this king, this God, the savior of men. When we're in the midst of trials in this world, we tend to think all is lost.

The meek, the humble, the servant of God, that is a fool. It's the haughty that seem to get the leg up.

No, as David confesses at the end of his life, verse 31, this God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. His promises are true. His word is a lamp unto your feet. It gives right guidance about the way to walk in the world. Our God is God, and God blesses His people. David was never abandoned, never forsaken. Verse 44, "You delivered me from strife with my people."

Verse 49, "You brought me out from my enemies. You exalted me above those who rose against me. You delivered me from men of violence." And so it is true for every single child of God. He is our confidence,

which leads David to doxology at the end of the song. And every child of God is to be led there because every child of God is to have such confidence. You say, "Well, how do you know that?"

Well, because of our final point, David's descendant. Verse 50. Verse 50 is really interesting. It's in Psalm 18, but then it appears againIn Romans 15, verse nine, Paul quotes it. And when Paul quotes in Romans 15:9 this verse, he puts those words in the mouth of Jesus. It's He that is singing this song before God the Father. "Therefore, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations," or among the Gentiles, "and sing praises to your name."

He is ultimately the greater David, who was truly directed to God and confident in God. "I came not to do my own will," he said, "but the will of him who sent me." That's what He professed. Not my will, He said, but thy will be done. True desire, true devotion, true direction to God, and confident in God. He prayed in John 17, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give

eternal life to all whom you have given to him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." He cries out in his dying breath upon the cross that "It is finished," and "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Complete confidence. In his greatest moment of weakness, of humility, of meekness, truly the meekest man that ever walked the face of the earth, he who humbled himself even to the point

of death, death on a cross. In that moment, he's confident

in God, who blesses the humble. As Paul will say, he was made perfect in weakness. David can sing this song, but Jesus can thunder it.

David could say, "I am blameless," but only imperfectly. Christ can say it absolutely in and of his own person.

And it's only in Christ that David can even say it.

And so Christ can say for all of eternity, can sing for all of eternity, verse 51, "Great salvation he brings to his king. And shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever." And here's what's fascinating. Offspring is in the singular.

Paul picks that up in Galatians 3, where he points that out about seed, offspring, singular.

In one, there's a composite. In one, the many are blessed. A collective singular, great salvation shown steadfast love, covenant faithfulness forever. How? In me.

Through me. The descendant of David, the offspring of David. Singular.

The King says you have life eternal,

secured by the one who was truly blameless in direction and perfection.

It's in Him that's our confidence. It's in Him that's our hope. It's in Him that's our faith. It's in Him that is our peace. It was in Him that David found all of those things.

What a great salvation and a great Savior from a great God. Let's pray. Our Father, we are thankful

for so great a salvation and so great a Savior because we are in need.

I confess that even if we are in Christ this morning,

that our desire and our devotion and our direction is not as fervent as we desire to be in Christ. We continue to need a Savior.

We're thankful that we have such a great Savior.

Pray that every single soul in this room would know this great salvation and such a great Savior from you, such a great God. I pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.