2 Samuel 22

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0:00 This morning I want to look at that the Old Testament reading from second annuals you're following along from second annual the Old Testament reading. I mentioned last week that I'll really like back and Genesis for fun stories to do. But, Phanel is an easy one to forget how cool his life is. And he has a few books

0:30 because Phanel was like at this critical place in the history of Israel where we're switching from judges to kings where we're moving through and Israel wants to meet these leaders. God from the beginning steps up leaders so that you would have someone who helps us look for what faithfulness looks like. Someone who could communicate to God and understand the promises of God. But they want to change and Phanel tries to convince them not to get a king.

1:00 Right? You said listen you guys don't want a king and the Israelites keep saying everybody else has a king. We'd love to have a king. It demonstrates how powerful and strong you are. The nations look good. So we please have a king. Stegler says you don't want a king. They find it and they get a king. They get a king's call. He's good for like a minute and then not. Right? In the session in the story here we have it right towards the end of David's life which is the second king in the history of Israel. So Saul and then David. So David had a unique route to the throne.

1:37 And when he gets to this part in stuck in Samuel and towards the end of David's life and he's looking back at his life and this is called the song of David. The whole chapter 22 is really actually pretty beautiful and David you know we think David wrote most of our songs. We're pretty sure he could play the liar maybe a heart. So he was an interesting dude really built up in the Old Testament.

2:09 We just talked about that for a while. But the thing about the song of David is I didn't realize until I was reading through this section. I'll talk about this song of Miriam that we think is the oldest piece of Hebrew in the text where the Israelites sang the horse and rider thrown into the sea. But it's then it's laid next to this song of David often. Where the song of David passed off with his phrase. It's not an ugly for today but it says the Lord lives and blessed be my rock

2:42 and God the left blessed be my rock and exalted be my God the rock in my salvation the God gave me the Lord lives and blessed be my love and exalted be my God the rock in my salvation. Well one of the things that's really beautiful and there's a song about that too that my grandma taught me which I would change you at another time. But the thing I'm thinking about here that we'll get into a little bit is when you read the story of scripture you see God consistently

3:19 trying to help us understand who he is by by slowly evolving his name and putting place markers in the story so we can identify who the God is right for us now it might be the God of Christ in the church and before that it might have been the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob one of the weeks we worship it's the God who called Abraham Isaac and Jacob look at the promises and actions committed to them but in here in David's song get the one that's before the God

3:51 of Abraham Isaac Jacob the identity of the God of creation and life and David says blessed be my rock and exalted be my God because the Lord lives and blessed be my God. He recognizes David does that the God of creation and life is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of Christ in the church so that when I in Africa Peter stands up he says David was buried here but he was not abandoned to

4:22 the day because all of that is God's creation and life and this people out of death and sins and into life forever and what I'll look at today is this Psalm this text that they did give us just before this in the Psalm of David I want to do that little taste just that maybe this week you'll read the whole chapter on your own and meditate on it some but the text they give us is Psalm 2nd Daniel sorry 2nd Daniel talking to verse 26 through 34

4:55 26 David is singing the song back to God at the end of his life and so he's he's announcing characteristics of God with the first with the merciful he says you sow yourself most of all with the blameless you sow yourself with the purify you deal with the crooked you make yourself

5:27 toward you save the humble but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down now this seems pretty straightforward with the with the merciful you show yourself merciful with the blameless you sell yourself blameless but like and it is on one says very straightforward he says hey if you are a merciful person God shows you mercy if you are a blameless person God will have no

5:58 blame towards you without them but of course at the time of David apparently that was noteworthy enough to call mention to in the song at the end of his life and you might say if God honestly works that way then that would stand out because who else works that way you know the phrase I gotta move this this is but I'm feeling like it's in my side the phrase that comes to mind the

6:30 night sky always finishes last like if we if we think about the way the world operates are the humbles of one to our lifted up thinking about this no man it's the one nobody gets to any position no matter how humble they appear on the surface without significant ambition to get there we don't end up running large companies unless we really want it we don't end up plastered across headlines

7:02 unless we really want it we don't end up very wealthy unless we really want it we don't end up with significant acclaim unless we really want it the world often does not reward the humble but the air and business mercy is often met not with mercy return of mercy but with like taking if you get someone's mercy often it's like thinking and now just keep taking from the people it's easy to take

7:32 advantage of when you sell mercy so it's significant here first that he says the way God operates is all together just and the right is helpful for me because I know no matter what recognition or credit or praise I get or do not get from the world God gives you a procreate recognition mercy

8:05 so that's a state your course with the merciful you show yourself merciful with the blameless you show your soul blameless with the purified you deal purely and with the crooked you make yourself in tortures so frustrating when you have crooked people are able to like everything works for them when they cut corners treat unfair me I'm just bleeding he says with God it's not that yeah and then he says you save the humble but your eyes are on the hobby to bring

8:41 down verse twenty-nine for you are my land a lord and my God lightened my darkness or by you I can run against the truth a whole group of people I can take on and by my God I can leap over a wall just got his way it's perfect the word of Lord for you are a lamp over and my God

9:17 lightened my darkness or by you I can run against the truth and by my God I can leap over a wall this God his way is perfect the word of Lord proves true he's a field for all those who say gratitude and think about life of David you know he famously took on the lion but also like he established the capital

9:47 of Israel in Jerusalem he defeated a walled city by crawling through a covert and sneaking into the city and then defeating the troops from within cyber wall he discovered and revered again the Ark of the Covenant carrying the manifest presence of God and walked it into the temple this up your heads oh mighty gate with the ear glory they come in again he established and built the temple well began the temple process was done built it but he recognized that

10:20 the God of creation and life was the centerpiece for the people of God that they would have anything it would be because of him and he walked into it says he walked into dark places and knew places where he did not see how to go or what could happen and knew that God would be his right you could imagine taking on a descendant of the giant right the the Nepalians descended down into Aranek descended down into Goliath he's thinking right at a nine feet tall that is a big dude walking into taking on Goliath not knowing how it's going

10:56 but going God goes before me as the light taking on thousands nobody else in the state I was trying to think about what that might feel like and I did think about walking in here the first time not because when I walk in here the first time I thought oh God will prepare this building for us but when I walk in here the first time there in the in the ground out there before even God was there were at least four sobs and two unrecognizable calls when I got a year there were two more sobs a camper a boat and unnamed big hunks of metal from

11:30 cars up this is then the family junk yard right for at least a generation nobody is a family kind of left it alone it was dilapidated is a time word to the place before with these things it was made so that water could run through it strategically which has been a problem over the last five years to get out of fault but when I came in here the first time I came in here with my friend Dana and I didn't know Dana a lot more and when I was looking for spaces

12:03 I brought Dana with me on all of them because I knew I could be an idealist and and few things from what they might be not what they were and Dana also has strong vision but I knew the both of us saw it that it might have been possible so I always brought the break they don't look at several with me when we walked in here together the first thing was we both saw it and thought this could be very cool there's not a space like this you know in the right so when I walked in I saw this and I want you to think about I realized I saw it not as like

12:36 what could I get done but immediately I thought if I did it my friend Kevin here he could manage his space and he's perfect in the building he's always nesting and building little things he's a great champion built three different businesses he was in our core group that started the church and if I get a project he'll come around a lot more right and so I thought I'd love and when I walked in I thought I had Dana with me and I knew that that if you saw it then you

13:07 both thought and then the doctor I had a thought my friend Kevin I loved you with my friend Kevin and then I thought of the forest and the and the old and I knew we had crew that would come with us and do the work and I and when I walked in people said you're crazy to think you could turn it into something and I remember thinking we're crazy to think I could turn it into something but we can turn it into something and I think that's a metaphor an analogy of what it might feel like to be dated to walk to the war line against the folks here and see

13:43 everybody else though your crazy is kind of take that dude on a day to day I'm crazy to take it on but if God wants to do it it might just look I think that's what he's saying here when he says when he says you are my lamp oh Lord and my God lightens my darkness for by you I can run against the truth and by my

14:17 God I can leap over a wall that's got his way into the world of the Lord is a shield for others to take refuge in him a little bit of challenge for us then in drawing that line through to our life because of course David it might have been clear which challenges to take on that God would want to come with him because they literally have holy work the reputation and credit of the God of creation and life we got a brand and I think it's safe to whether or not

14:52 is real wins the battle in the giant silo team Goliath is mocking and calling out saying your God is no better than the building they said I'll go and God doesn't want to defend himself I'll doubt doing it but my bunches got one for the time himself in this situation it's a challenge that he would it's clear to take on the God and I thought this building was a challenge for me those here to take on with our first but what challenges have been cleared to take on the God and after the first thing I thought about was when we found out

15:26 we're having our feet their child but when God gave us another kid it was like a whole new smoke who has the gas for that or the horse coward but for the grace of God I can remember thinking if God gives us his kids we'll go in with God I wonder if you have clear moments where you know the only way this works

16:02 is if God goes with me I wonder if you have memories that come to mind sometimes I think just the place we are in the world is very easy for those

16:32 moments to be few and far very easy for those moments to be few and far to clean because we have homes we have dollars but for God there's no way it'll be done so I think like this is worth of thinking about and the next thing I thought about I thought oh

17:06 we're raising the third kid that's an example the only way that works is with God I know I don't have the horse power or the jazz right but if God goes with me here we go but those are trying to chew and far between so then I went back to the story of David and you think about David right Saul is the king he's wealthy he's got all the proof all the all the military David Samuel the famous prophet

17:44 comes to Jesse David's dad says God sent me the next king of one of your kids right and one of your boys and we go through all the boys and it's none of them and I got one of them but I haven't it's not any that you still need and David was small and strong and the youngest and they were sure it could not be so sure it was not David they didn't even bring them out and they said you've got to have

18:15 somebody else I can look at and young strong baby Jay that they brought forward and enrolled it in in that moment right now if you're David that's kind of interesting right and probably a little terrifying you're the youngest the scrawny and Saul is significant you could just ignore him and take care of the sheep and when I started to think about David's life I thought really that's true for him over and over again I mean would he take on the liars he's not

18:49 supposed to remember the story like he is dad that he sends him with some food to go visit his brother on the front line David's not even in the army and when he gets there everybody's chilling and he's trying to figure out why everybody's just kind of hanging back and it's the thing the life is taunting and they're great and the reasonable move is to go wow I hope you guys figure that out drop

19:20 off the food and go back to bed I'm saying the reasonable move is to go okay good luck guys and and David puts himself into a situation where but for the grace of God but for the glory of God it does not work and I realize over and over again this is true in the life of

19:55 David he chooses challenge he puts himself in position aligned with the real intent plan of God that but for God filling up the whole thing called the public why why would you do it I was thinking about when I thought about why would you do it I thought about

20:28 another story years ago we downtown Street oh we used to do this by rally where we would meet on by actually we do on Sunday morning so the church would go to we would not be on church we get a bunch of bikes and you have a coffee shop and college part and we would ride down here more having me with our bikes on our bike and then we would have talked to the neighborhood centers along the way and kids in the neighborhood would be waiting there on

21:01 their bikes and they join us and finish with 90 100 people riding bikes down Parramore Avenue and you'd have a block party and yellow body part we did that for like two maybe three years it's kind of trying to get people into the neighborhood better when they're diverse and it kind of lost team after a couple years I think kids are like why am I writing by to the point that people that don't live in the neighborhood this is kind of not exciting and I was sitting there trying to figure out how do I get people to celebrate this neighborhood and I was like what if he what if we could get people from outside the

21:33 neighborhood to make floats with kids from the neighborhood we just cut down how to parade this celebrating the street and the neighborhood and finish with the block party and the reason I tell the story is because I have this vivid memory of the first time we were doing that where the the vivid memory is I'm riding my bike down Parramore Avenue there's a fire truck in front of me and then six floats that kids have made on trainers and he's going up on

22:07 poles and he's gotten tight there to come and bring and we're parading down Parramore Avenue going under the 408 bridge and it's like I can't believe the whole there's people standing on the side of the road you put the city commissioner on the on the bike to lead the parade by Grand Marshal she told me then you've never had a parade down here before it was like one of the high points of the last decade of my life right and it took months of hard work when we decided to do a parade I had no idea how to I didn't know how to cut

22:38 down the street I didn't know how we would make clothes I didn't know who we would get to partner with us I didn't know how much it would cost her how much money we find I didn't know when we would do it or a job to question this would be really cool it would be a way that we could get people to collaborate and accomplish the mission of celebrating the neighborhood I didn't have to do it but if I didn't do it we could have been fine no one would have known but because I did it I thought that moment

23:13 I've said before I think like that word glory is only something for what it actually and truly is and I think I think the reason David defeated the wild by the conqueror to the world brought in the art of the covenant I mean every motivation is mixed he probably had some sincere ambition but also I

23:47 imagine David had moments like on more avenues where he was able to glimpse the glory God is the provider God is the protector and owner of all things God does love you with extravagant providence alone God is for you and against your

24:19 enemy I think the reason David continued to put himself in challenging places places where God doesn't show up the whole thing falls apart is because you realize and learn from experience when God does fill up you experience him for a moment in all his glory and sometimes that's the only way when we celebrate the beauty of our children and see what they bring and add to our life what they

24:52 offer and are in the world not all the time but in moments we see the glory of God for me I've been paying I'm working on a new project right now that's like crazy and there's no reason that I should do it other than just like it lines up with the justice of God and the creativity of God and I may look a fool trying to pull together people must know powerful than me to get something done

25:24 but I'll do it in the hopes that maybe I'll get a grip of the glory God another moment like a parade out there more than had never happened before that celebrated a place that often celebrated the whole time and has been ignored and just invested for too long you see you can go to the front line a lot

25:56 glimpse the sorts of things that God might be up to and then go home there's no sin if David leave the front line and goes back home to dad death he has committed a sin fine does not get to glimpse the glory of God this is why he finished his book where he the section that they gave us we remember

26:30 reading verse we were reading verses 26 verse 34 and he says in 31 this guy his way is perfect the word of the Lord proves true he is a shield for those who take refuge in him like a rescue that God would be your refuge you've been in a place where you need refuge and you channel God for them then

27:05 look verse 32 for who is God but the Lord this is a separate thing I thought about talking about but we don't have time but after later if you want the God of creation and life agramism and Christ in the church is distinct from all of the doubt in loss of weight and so it can be confusing confounding frustrating but like his disciples at the time of Lord to whom else you go you have the words of eternal life this is what David says for who is God but the

27:39 Lord and who is a boss of God verse 33 this God is my strong refuge and has made my way blameless he made my feet like the feet of the deer and sentence secure on the home that's where I read stuff this is my this God is my strong refuge the God is the one who gives me that he's in places where I need it and then he says he made my way

28:13 not he is my God because I am without blame the God is active and he made you into the person who is worthy to take a rest of you David wasn't just the person who can defeat the lot but as he walked forward with the God he became the

28:44 person and when he when he walks up to the line with the food he doesn't know for sure that he is but like the lesson to the kids he remembered that he had been faithful in a few things that it was his duty to defend the peace from the lions and the bears and he thought maybe it's gotten gone with me in those battles he'll go with me in this one it's got to be with me as I raised it it doesn't look me as I persist in marriage it's got to be with me as I move through college and make clear decision maybe you'll go with me on the next town what I

29:18 got to be that God will make you blameless though you have walked away from the front battle line over and over again he does not assign blend he makes to blame us and then it says that he made my seat like the feet of the deer and kept me on secure hope he makes you into the person who can walk up high mountains remember the little passage I think it's in one of Paul's whether he's very

29:52 excited it is for freedom that you have been look you and I have all the hard questions we know where our provision comes from we know where our work comes from we know that we are loved we know that our teachers all the hard questions are answered for we are the ones then who run to the battle line because why not everything else is called we might go on the challenge I'm saying that God has a conflict salvation for you in

30:25 order that you might live live where you blinched the glory of God over and over again until he takes you to it forever life is not just for existing I pray we could be people who live I mean not exactly like they did it challenges but like some of you hey Lord thank you for your provision and protection and call on our lives give us glimpses of your glory that pull us

31:03 forward into more remind us of your glory before the places you have been our provision our protection our love our creativity where you have come through and use those moments or to propel us today into the moment of your glory we ask you in Jesus name before his day