Sermon: In the Lord’s Hands

I take a copy of God's word this morning, we will turn open to second Samuel

and this morning, second Samuel chapter five, we're looking at verses 17 through 25 As we continue our way through that book, if you wanna grab a pew Bible, you can do that. Turn to page 2 5 8 in the pew Bible 2 5 8 in the Pew Bible this morning, two Samuel chapter five and we're looking at verses 17 through 25.

Let's go ahead and pray before we open God's word together this morning.

Our Father, we are thankful that you are a giver of good gifts. And even as we sit and stand here this morning, we do confess and thank you that one of the greatest gifts you've given to us is your word. We're thankful that it is a word outside of our sinful selves, that it is a word that is everlasting, a word that is true, a word that is authoritative, a word that is fixed and eternal. And we pray this morning that you would give us ears to hear

that you would give us hearts to receive

and we pray that you would receive the praise and the glory and we would receive the good from it. And we pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Two Samuels chapter five verses 17 through 25. This is the holy aner sufficient word of God. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel and all the Philistines went up the search for David, but David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.

Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley of em and David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, go up. Pry will certainly give the Philistines into your hand. And David came to Beal Perine and David defeated them there and he said, the Lord is broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood. Therefore the name of that place is called Baal Perine.

And the Philistines left their idols there and David and his men carried them away and the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the valley of em. And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, you shall not go up, go around to the rear and come against them opposite the BSO trees. And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the BSO trees and rouse yourself for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.

And David did as the Lord commanded him and struck down the Philistines from giba to geezer, the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Historically, much of the church and much of the church today uh, celebrates on this Sunday before Easter Sunday, what has been called Palm Sunday. And it celebrates that day that Jesus on a donkey's back wrote into the city of Jerusalem. And as he did so, he was fulfilling a prophecy that Zechariah had prophesied hundreds of years before in Zechariah nine, that the king would come into Jerusalem and he would be a king that conquered all of his foes.

And so the symbolism of him riding into Jerusalem on this donkey is that he is victor and that he is bringing peace and O to enjoy victory like that and to be under the peace of such a king. Uh, this morning I want to return to that imagery and uh, the poem Sunday, this king that conquers and provides peace and it is good to be in the hands of this king that conquers and provides peace. And what I want to do is come back to

that having looked at David who recognized this king and understood it was good to be in his hands and the peace that comes as a result. The scene is this. David has United Israel underneath his kingship and he is over all of Israel in the land, but there are still in the land these Philistines who have been the perpetual enemies of the nation of Israel. And because David now has united all of Israel, the Philistines are very unhappy about this.

And so they come out against David there in Reim. We're told in verse 17 that they did so in search for David. What does that mean? Well, they are in search of him to kill him. They want to end this reign of a king who has united the nation under him. So we have two scenes. The first is the Philistines have gathered there in the valley of em. It's a fertile plane that is just southwest of the city of Jerusalem. It sits close to the border between Judah and Benjamin

and there they have gathered their army and David goes to the Lord, he inquires of the Lord. We are told, should I go up to fight the Philistines? And the Lord tells him, this time you are to go up. And so David listens to the Lord and he conquers. The second scene is similar in many ways. You had the Philistines come out again and they have come out again to the same place, the valley of em. And there they have spread out same valley, same threat.

And again David, we are told inquires of the Lord but this time the Lord does not tell him to go up. He tells him to go around and to attack them in the rear. And David obeys and he conquers as a summarized in verse 24, the Lord had gone out before David to strike down the army of the Philistines. Now I preached the parallel passage of this just a few months ago in an evening service when we did, did the installation of Pastor Ben Faulkner here at URC

and that was from one Chronicles chapter 14. And there in one Chronicles chapter 14, what I did was take us back to one Chronicles chapter 10. And the reason I took the US back there is because it is crucial for understanding both one Chronicles 14 and also for understanding this chapter here. Second Samuel chapter five. In that first Chronicles chapter 10, we are given the story of the death of soul and what the author is trying to do both in Chronicles

and in second Samuel, is that he is giving us a picture and he wants us to understand this very one thing that we have a new king. And this new king is drastically different from the old king. So the first king is given an epitaph in one Chronicles chapter 10. And the epitaph is this. After he has died, soul died for his breach of faith and the statement is then defined and we have quote, he broke faith with the Lord.

How in that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also consulted a medium seeking guidance. And then to underscore this, the author says it again, he did not seek guidance from the Lord. We then have a causal statement right after that in one Chronicles chapter 10. And the causal statement is this, immediately after therefore causal, therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.

So here's the line of thinking. Here's what you have to wrap your mind around soul breached faith with the Lord. How? By not seeking guidance of the Lord. What was the result? Death and the kingdom was handed over to David. Now here's the question. Why?

Why was this such a brief of faith that Saul has put to death and the kingdom is handed over to David? And the answer is 'cause God is king and those who would be of any service in his kingdom must first recognize this he's king

and this David does. That's the emphasis of this text. David inquires of the Lord. He sought the Lord's guidance, thereby he kept the faith, he looked to the king above. David knew he was in the Lord's hands. That's the emphasis. Now, how is this evidence was especially evidenced in this. He prayed for kingdom people and we want to see the kingdom go forward.

You look at this passage and you think, okay, I want to see the kingdom go forward. Ah, it's going forward. And that's especially highlighted by David conquering these Philistines. And what the author is trying to paint for you and I is that that's not the most evident way that the kingdom has gone forward in this text. It's not that the Philistines have been conquered, it's that David has been conquered.

That here is a king that sits in Israel that recognizes the true king, the everlasting king. And he does that by inquiring of the Lord.

I want to think about prayer together this morning because that is one of the principle ways, if not the principle way that you and I show that we recognize the king. Notice that praying is the work of the kingdom. Praying is the work of the kingdom. David could have gone up and fought. Surely the soldiers who had been gathered together were raring to go. Surely his generals were pressing for him to go out and to. But David first sought the Lord for him.

Prayer was not simply preparatory to the work that was before him. It was the great work of the kingdom. And why is prayer the work of the kingdom? Well, I want to give you four reasons this morning that prayer is the work of the kingdom. First, it recognizes that God is sovereign king. It recognizes that God is sovereign king. That is what this account is pressing home. It's screams at the top of its lungs. God is sovereign.

David understands this. He recognizes this. He reigns, but he recognizes that he's not sovereign. That we're not sovereign. He knows that he has no power apart from God. He leads an army and yet he knows that it has no might apart from God. So he seeks the Lord. But it's not just that we're not sovereign, neither are our circumstances. And it's not only not only our circumstances, but neither are our enemies. But we could say there is nothing that is truly sovereign.

Not politics, not economics, not philosophies, not ideas. But God alone is sovereign. He is king of kings and he is Lord of lords.

And it almost seems unnecessarily silly to say it, but here's the problem is that we often think differently and we act differently.

David least here, didn't He inquires of the Lord.

What he saw is the most important work before him was seeking the Lord that was first. And there's so much to learn here.

Prayer recognizes and seeks the one who alone is sovereign. It gives God glory

maybe beyond anything. In everything else

it gives God glory

and that's why it is the work of the kingdom. Second prayer is the work of the kingdom because God chooses to work in us by it. God chooses to work in us by it. It's truly in prayer more than anywhere else that God conforms our wills to his. We often think of prayer as if the principle part of prayer is that you and I are trying to get God to see our perspective and to conform what he is doing to what we desire and what we will note, the principle part of prayer is

that God is conforming us to his will. And notice that's what David is seeking in the text he's seeking the Lord's will. He wants to know if I go up, will you give them into my hand? In essence, what's your will? Oh Lord and David is conformed to the Lord's will. Prayer is the work because it recognizes God as sovereign. It gives him glory. It's the work because God works in us by it. And third prayer is the work because God chooses to accomplish his purposes through it.

He uses our prayers. He said, but but isn't he sovereign? He doesn't need our prayers. Yes, he's sovereign. Yes, in one sense you're right. He doesn't need our prayers and and yet his sovereignty is not something that's lost on David. We've already recognized that David knows that God is sovereign. In fact, we've seen this throughout the book so far. It was way back when he was that ruddy little boy that he is anointed the next king of Israel.

It's promised. And David has to through long suffering, impatience, endure all of these years and all of this waiting and all of this looking to God. He's just looking to God who has made this promise, who he believes is good, who he knows is sovereign and king of kings. And so he can just wait patiently because he knows, he knows God is sovereign. And yet that sovereignty, knowing that sovereignty of God doesn't lead him to neglect prayer,

it'd rather it leads him to run to prayer.

It motivates prayer because we know that he must act for anything and everything to happen from the salvation of our children. To me getting that job, to me being able to stay up late tonight and cram for that test tomorrow to that friend of mine being blessed. But it's even more than that because he's sovereign has commanded us to pray. We know our prayers in some way by his divine decree are the very means that he uses

to accomplish his purposes.

David's victory over these Philistines is tied up with David's prayer about the Philistines.

He uses it. God decreed their defeat and God used David's prayer to secure it. God works through prayer.

I've often thought about myself, rebuked myself as I listened to our conversations. I've often thought about it. I think as I've said to you before, I've said, you know, if you and I knew what we accomplish on our knees in prayer, I don't think we'd ever get off our knees.

It's the mightiest power in the world.

That same spirit that raised Christ from the grave, that same power is that work within you and I and bringing forth those prayers as Paul says in Romans eight, same power. And I think if you and I, if we, if we had any semblance of the power of prayer and the way that God affects and brings the completion, his work in this world through our prayerfulness, you and i, if we took all of that grumbling and all of that complaining and all of that anxiety

and all of those complaints that we utter to one another and we do under our breath, if we turned all of that into prayer, I just don't you wonder what it would look like in this world. Oh, why isn't the kingdom pressing more forward there? Why is it that it seems like there's a setback there? Why is it that I don't see fruitfulness here? Why is it oh Lord, that there is conflict here? If that was all just turned into prayer, I wonder,

you never know what the Lord's doing through prayers. What's being accomplished. James says it this way, he says, the prayers of a righteous man availeth much

vaeth and Ivy says powerful and effective are the prayers of a righteous man, new American. They accomplish much ESV great power they have as it is working.

I wondered, I don't know. I wonder when you, when we get to heaven, will there be some kind of like jigsaw puzzle or map or something where you can look and you can say, ah, it, it was those people praying or that person praying is the reason that my child finally found a friend

that I, that person was praying and so I was saved from that car accident or those people praying. And that's what led to, to my salvation. God used that. I wonder if there'll be a map like that of yours and my prayers where we can say, oh, Lord used that prayer, that prayer and that prayer.

God works through prayer.

Fourth prayer is the work because it's the most real kingdom thing you can do in this world. It's the most real kingdom thing you can do in this world. This world is passing away, but God's kingdom isn't

A, an author I was recently reading said it this way, for all the discontinuities that exist between life in this world and life in the next prayer is one unmistakable continuity. In prayer, the saint taps into an ultimate and transcendent mode of existence. He is communing with the triune God for whom he was made.

David did not breach faith with the Lord because he communed with God. It's not a mistake that David is called a man after God's own heart and soul is not that David is a man of prayer and soul is not as, that quote is just pointing out your telio, your end, what you were created for. What you are to end in your very purpose is communion with God.

David understood this and the author of Second Samuel, what he wants you to understand before he goes into anything else in the reign of King David, he wants you to understand that David is a good king, principally and foremost because he is one who communed with God.

The results are great. Verse 25, David did as the Lord commanded him and struck them of Philistines, from giba to geezer. Kingdom servants are kingdom prayers.

So I want to be very practical today.

How do you learn to pray if kingdom servants are kingdom prayers? How do you learn to pray? Well, first you start praying to learn to pray. Prayer doesn't simply happen. The man who says, I want to meet a good Christian girls so that I can get married but never leaves his house, is not actually seeking to find a good Christian girl. The student who says, I want better grades, but never studies doesn't actually want better grades.

You want to learn to pray. You have to begin to pray. Prayer doesn't simply happen, you have to do it. Well. How? Jason? That's a good question. You may feel like you're the only person in the room that doesn't know how to pray.

I, uh, years ago wrote a book on family worship. And family worship is just simply reading the Bible, praying, daring to sing for a few minutes each day with those that are in your house.

Because I wrote that book just over the years, been asked a number of times to speak on the topic at a conference or a church or a Presbyterian. Probably done it about 50 times. And almost without fail at a break in the conference or at the end of the conference, it's usually a husband or a father will come up and they'll say, pastor, I'm convinced we need to start doing family worship. Here's my problem. And they'll say it

sheepishly, I don't know how to pray.

You know, I usually tell them, as I say, you're not alone.

Did you know that the disciples had the same question for Jesus? Luke 11. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. As John taught his disciples, it isn't odd not to know how to pray. John's disciples didn't know Jesus's disciples walking with him. Didn't know. Many husbands and fathers that I've run across over the years don't know, not alone.

And the questions asked of Jesus, it's instructive, at least to me, that he doesn't embarrass them. He doesn't ridicule them. He doesn't say, oh, what's wrong with you? You've been watching me do it for two and a half years.

No, the good Shepherd gently instructs them. He says, when you pray, say, and then he teaches him the Lord's prayer. Our Father who art in heaven,

you start, you can start by praying the Lord's Prayer and not as some kind of incantation where you're just repeating the words mindlessly, but rather where you are praying the words of Christ. This motto prayer and you're praying them and you are trying to mean every clause as you pray it. And you're trying to have your heart gripped by every clause as you pray it and you're growing in your understanding of what you're praying, even as you pray

or you start with the Psalm, you pray it to God. Psalm 62 begins this way for God alone. Oh my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock of my salvation, my fortress, I shall not be greatly shaken. And so you just take that and you just put it in your own words, oh God, for you alone, my soul waits in silence. Instead of saying from him, change it to from you. From you comes my salvation.

You alone are my rock and my salvation, my fortress eyes shall not be greatly shaken. That's a good prayer. And then you, as you're praying that, and as you grow in prayer, you'll begin to add things. You begin to add some of the health requests that are coming across the prayer chain here at URC or you begin to pray for some of your family members or you begin to pray that great prayer in Ephesians three, that Paul prays for the church there for your own soul

that you would grow in the height and depth and length and breath of the love of Christ. And here's my promise to you.

If you just begin praying, the more you pray, the more you will learn to pray. It doesn't mean it becomes easy, it's never easy.

But the more you pray, the more you learn to pray.

But you have to start second, continue in prayer. Continue in prayer. Prayerfulness builds upon prayerfulness. Notice that David in our text, he has victory after praying the first time, but he doesn't assume it the second time he goes to the Lord and he acquires again in that second scene verses 22 through 25. We read there verse 23. And when David inquired of the Lord, this is the second time. And this time instead of the Lord saying go up,

he tells him, you shall not go up. Go around the rear. David didn't presume and a good thing he didn't presume he continued seeking the Lord in prayer. Prayerfulness builds upon prayerfulness.

David. I mean Paul will say it this way. He says, pray without ceasing. And what does he mean by that? Does that mean that you and I are never to get off of our knees? No, we look awfully silly walking around the block or driving our car on our knees. You can't do it. But what he means is, is that you are to be in a spirit of prayer. It's to be your way of being. That you're in constant dialogue with God. He's your best friend that you're going through your day,

day, and night, constantly conversing with him, constantly, continually communing with him, talking with him, seeking to abide in him all day long.

You know, I, I know my wife, I know Leah. I know her better than all of you in this room. Know her. I know things about her that you will never know and you can't get out of me.

I can watch her in a room across the room and see her face and know what's going on in her mind.

We can sit in conversation and be talking. And there are times that I can finish her sentences. I know her and I want to know more of her.

I love her. I want to commune with her. And that takes conversation.

There are a few things that grieve me more in this world in my own life than when I go through a few hours or it's a morning or it's an evening, God forbid, sometimes it's an entire day where I come to the realization I have not thought about God, let alone spoken to him how?

And it grieves me because I just want to live more and more in communion with him.

And that necessitates prayer.

Communion and union are different. You have union with God as Christians. You are always in union with God and the person of Christ that does not diminish it also cannot increase. Union is fixed. Christ bought you. You are his. You are in the palm of his hand. None can snatch you out of his hand. You cannot in advance. You cannot diminish in union, but you can in communion

are enjoying of him or conversing with him or living with him before our eyes and upon our hearts and guiding our minds can increase even as it can diminish. And you see this in David's life.

There are moments in his life when you're reading through the Samuels or Chronicles or you're reading through the Psalms and you see that he, he is on this diminishment track, for example, in a Psalm where he is wandered from the Lord and and he says that it, it feels like his, his bones are wasting away and he is under pressure all day. You can see it diminish he's a sinner. But what's also evident is that the vast majority of times

he seems to be seeking communion, increasing communion with God. He'll say one thing, have I asked the Lord and that will I seek after? But I may dwell in the house of the Lord to inquire in his holy temple and to gaze upon his beauty. One thing, just want that sweet communion with God

wants it ever increasing

desire to get as close as possible here to what we have been promised there. That's a kingdom mindset. That's a way of living.

And so theologian 11th and 12th centuries, uh, wrote a wonderful little book. And in that book, uh, he has what is one of my favorite prayers in all of church history. This is his prayer. I pray, oh God, that I may know you and love you so that I may rejoice in you. And if I cannot do so fully in this life, may I progress gradually until it comes to fullness. Let the knowledge of you grow in me here and there in heaven.

Be made complete. Let your love grow in me here and there be made complete so that here my joy may be great and hope and there be complete in reality.

Finally return to prayer. If you've left it, turn to prayer. If you've left it, you seek him.

Some of you have neglected prayer because you have neglected the God to whom you know you must pray.

Something's grabbed a hold of you. There's some sin, some idol that oh, it's become your treasure. It's become your delight instead of God. It's received your affection, it's received your time, it's received your communion instead of God.

And you can feel it if you're a Christian. You feel it what David felt. Your bones are wasting away. You feel the pressure, you feel the weight upon your soul and you think, ah, but it's too much. It's too much to get over that hurdle and to get back. No, David felt that way. And you know what? He did what you must do.

It's not some maze you have to go through. It's not some checklist. You have to wander your way through. You simply turn and run to the Lord. That's it. And how do you do that in prayer?

You simply cry out to him. King Jesus, forgive me, I believe. Help me in my unbelief. That's it. It's just a cry of prayer. And his grace is more than sufficient. This king who reins and rules, reins and rules over all of your sin and all of the guilt of your sin, this king who reigns and rules brings peace.

That's what he does.

To return back to where we started this morning, this is what is celebrated as he is ushered into Jerusalem, is that here is the king coming into his royal city and he is on the back of this donkey. Why? Because he's going to defeat all of his and your my enemies. And it is a prophecy that he brings with him. Peace. Paul will say, Christ himself is our peace.

It's the prince of peace, the king of kings and the Lord of lords who slays all of yours and my enemies. We simply humble ourselves under him as servants of this king.

David understood this. He understood you want to be conquered by this king.

You said the greatest enemy. This is what second Samuel is doing here. The greatest enemy is not those Philistines.

It's not them. The greatest enemies within. And now we have a king in Jerusalem, itse who submitted himself to the great king of kings. He's been conquered by him. And now watch what happens.

The greatest enemy that you and I face is within.

And king Jesus says to you, come to me. All you. Who are we in heavy laden? Come to me and I'll give you rest. That's his promise. 'cause he has all sovereign authority and in his hands are safety and peace.

When you are in the hands of this king, they are the best of hands because they are strong hands, they're victorious hands, they are gracious hands. They are everlasting hands. There's no better place to be.

Is that where you find yourself today

and growing in that communion with him?

If so, your people of prayer, you run to 'em over and over again. How can you not? Let's pray together.

Our Lord and our God, we are thankful

you are a God who sent your very son into this world to live and to die for sinners, to conquer all of his enemies and ours. That all things might be laid before him in humbleness. He who is worthy of all praise and all glory and all adoration, all of our love, all of our delight, who ushers in peace forevermore. He who triumphs over sin, who triumphs over our enemies in this world, who triumphs over our adversary, who triumphs over that last enemy death itself.

What a glorious king. And oh how we want more and more of this king. Granted, we pray. We pray it in His strong name, Jesus. Amen.