2 Samuel 22 verse 29 to the end of the chapter. This is God's holy word. For you are my lamp, O Lord. The Lord shall enlighten my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop. By my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in him. Who is God except the Lord? Who is a rock except our God? God is my strength and power and he makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer and sets me on my high places. He teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me so my feet did not slip. I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. Neither did I turn back again until they were destroyed. And I have destroyed them and wounded them so they could not rise. They have fallen under my feet. For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose against me. You have also given me the necks of my enemies, so that I destroyed those who hated me. They looked, but there was none to save, even to the Lord, but he did not answer them. And I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth. I trod them like dirt in the streets, and I spread them out. You have also delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me as the head of the nations. The people I have not known shall serve me. The foreigners submit to me. As soon as they hear, they obey me. The foreigners fade away and come frightened from their hideouts. The Lord lives. Blessed be my rock. Let God be exalted, the rock of my salvation. It is God who avenges me and subdues the peoples under me. He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me. You have delivered me from the violent man. Therefore, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name. He has the tower of salvation to his king and shows mercy to his anointed, to David and his descendants forevermore. Amen. as far as the reading of God's holy word. Ten hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they also attacked the Philippine Islands. And what happened is shortly after that there was a time of fighting on the Philippine Islands. Of course there was an American, there were some American forces there led by General Douglas MacArthur. But eventually they surrendered. 76,000 starving and sick American and Filipino defenders surrendered at Bataan on 9th of April, 1942. What happened for three years, the Japanese, the empire of Japan, ruled the Philippines. They, in many ways, suppressed them, they oppressed them, they ruled over them, they forced some of their men to join the army and to force labor. Many of the women went to brothels. Just tyranny. And this is just reality of what happened. The Japanese at that time were very wicked in what they did. And that's an example of how two kingdoms physically in war clash and how there's those who are oppressed, there's enemies, there's a need for salvation as well. And this same type of thing is going on in this city. Same type of thing. There's a clash of kingdoms. You'll recall from this morning I spoke to you about demons and Christ and the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of Christ and there's this spiritual war going on. And if you have not been yet delivered out of the kingdom of Satan, his tyranny, his oppression, then you need to be. And there's a sense in which even though you may have, you're at war with him. And Christ is your king before you. And there's this clash of kingdoms. And this passage of scripture speaks to this warfare. Not just to this warfare, but a warfare between two kingdoms. And not just two kingdoms, but specifically a king who is leading one kingdom. You recall from last week, 2 Samuel 22 is Psalm 18. In Psalm 18, there's some slight changes for the use of it in public worship. This is basically Psalm 18. We saw how last week it is, for what it means for David, and it certainly did have meaning for David and for Israel, it has its full meaning in Christ and for the church. Gordon Keddie writes regarding this psalm and other psalms, he says, Such songs are fully messianic in that they are ultimately intelligible only in reference to Christ. Christ is their true meaning. Christ has always been their true meaning. Second Samuel 22 is a song by the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw that last week in large measure because the The New Testament quotes verse 3. Hebrews 2.13 is a quote. The author of Hebrews says this is Jesus speaking. We know that from verse 21 through 25 where David writes, and he says, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. And we saw how that's really Christ. Christ is the only one that's righteous. He fulfilled the covenant of works. He has worked all righteousness. And in this section of the psalm, we transition from the Lord crying out to the Father for help, the victory, this language, this metaphorical language of the victory that God worked for the king here and his righteousness. We transition to the warfare. We transition to a kingdom and to a king specifically. Tonight I want to teach you and show you that God strengthens His king to fight the enemies of His kingdom so that all people are subdued by Him. and God is praised. That's our lesson tonight. God strengthens his king to fight the enemies of his kingdom so that all people are subdued by him and God is praised. I want to bring this lesson to you under four points and more or less go through this psalm verse by verse. There is going to be some crossover and I'll come to that. This is a psalm, it's not an essay in logical, necessarily logical form as we would understand logic. Essentially go through this psalm and and demonstrate this lesson to you. First of four points. I want you to see the strength of this kingdom. The strength of this kingdom. Verses 29 through 37. The strength of this kingdom, in some sense we could say it's the king, but it's really God Himself. God Himself is the strength of the king and therefore the strength of this kingdom. For you are my lamp, O Lord, the Lord shall enlighten my darkness. God is the one who shows the king what is right, how to live. We see how God gives him the ability to fight in verse 30. For by you I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. We can see how that would have immediate application for David, but also for Christ. In a moment I'll demonstrate that. Verse 34, he makes my feet like the feet of deer. Verse 35, he teaches my hands to make war, so my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Who's doing this? It's God. God's at work. God is his strength. God prepares him for battle. Verse 36b, your gentleness has made me great. I understand the Hebrew to mean your afflictions have made me great. trained David through difficulties. Christ, in his human nature, was made perfect through sufferings. He was prepared for battle through training, if you will. And God is trustworthy. He's trustworthy, and the image is a shield. He's a shield to his king. Verse 31, as for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven. Okay, he's trustworthy. Now, what is a shield to a soldier? It's a source of trust. You put a lot of trust into that shield. So God is a shield to all who trust in him. And because of this, he protects, God protects his anointed from his enemies. 31, we see he has a shield protecting his anointed one. Verse 36, again, you have also given me the shield of your salvation. He protects him, and God is empowering him. He is his strength, and that's stated here in verse 32. For who is God except the Lord, and who is a rock except our God? This word here in Hebrew, Elohim, it highlights the power of God. We could talk about God being holy, perhaps that is his chief characteristic, but another way of understanding is that God is powerful. Who is God? There's no other God, there's no other rock, there's no other source of strength but God. And so he says in verse 33, God is my strength and power. Verse 40. You have armed me with the strength for battle." And that's really the essence of what's going on here. The strength of the kingdom is God himself. And because of this, because of God strengthening him, this king is secure. Verse 33b, he makes my way perfect. Another way of understanding this, of course this is a psalm, it's not necessarily literal, it's very imagery oriented. The NIV translates this, he makes my way secure. Verse 34, he sets me on high places. This is a reference to military advantage. Typically in the military you want to be at a high place. and you're secure there. You're in a position of advantage. Verse 37, similar idea. You enlarge my path under me so my feet do not slip. An image of security. In all this, the psalmist, David, is ascribing to the Lord. He is his source of strength, but it also is applied to Christ. We need to remember that Christ is not just God, but he's also man. He's the God-man. In his human nature, God is his strength. Luke 2.52. Think about that in reference to this verse. Jesus increased in wisdom. And it's human nature of course. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. We can also understand this in the sense that Christ as our mediator, as the premier prophet, priest, and king, was anointed with the Holy Spirit at the baptism of John. John's baptism. And in his earthly ministry, he was filled with the Spirit. So in Luke 4, Verses 17-18, Jesus can be in the synagogue and he can read Isaiah and say, these scriptures have been fulfilled in your hearing. And of course he reads this passage, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Christ preached the gospel with power. preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and set at liberty those who are oppressed." Now as we read this psalm, as we try to understand it for ourselves, we are, as I've tried to demonstrate reading, a psalm that's fulfilled in Christ. But it has application for us by way of our union with Him. By way of our union with Him. John 15, 5, Jesus says, apart from me you can do nothing. With me, you can. I'll give you my spirit. So Psalm 28, 7, we can take these words for ourselves. The psalmist says, the Lord is my strength and my shield. We have the power of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that worked in Christ. So we read this passage tonight. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. We're at war with Satan, aren't we? We looked at that this morning and there's parallel here. And perhaps we can be discouraged and we can wonder if we're gonna have the strength to fight this fight of faith. Have you ever thought about that? Right. And who strengthens us? Who strengthens us? That's our strength. I ran the mile when I was in eighth grade. The mile is not a fun race. And I was afraid, I was always afraid that I would not maintain the pace that I needed to win. My fear wasn't so much that I would lose the race as much as I would not have the internal fortitude to just keep that pace up. My heart, my lungs were just burning. I kind of was afraid to run, really. Our strength, because it's not in us, because it comes from the Holy Spirit, we have hope. We have encouragement. When we consider our sins, Do we look to ourselves? Do we draw strength from the fact that the Holy Spirit is with us? There is no temptation that has overtaken us except that which is common to man. When we consider evangelism, when we consider warfare, actually entering into the fight offensively, where do we draw our hope? Where do we draw our courage? Our strength. Our strength is in God. Our strength is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what does this king do to actually establish his kingdom? So he's empowered by God and we in Christ are also empowered by God. How does he use this strength to establish the kingdom? That's what I want you to see secondly. The establishment of this kingdom. What does he do? He fights. That's what he does. He fights vigorously. We see that essentially verses 38 through 43. The establishment of this kingdom comes by the victorious fighting of the king. The victorious fighting of the King. Notice how relentless Christ is as our King. Verse 30, I pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I did not turn back, neither did I turn back again until they were destroyed. Doris and I were talking about the heat in Fresno. But you can hide from the heat in Fresno. You can go under some shade. It's hot here. You can go under some shade. It's not too bad. In the south, It may not be 110 degrees, but you cannot hide from the heat because of the humidity. It's relentless. Even at night, it's relentless. Christ is like that. The enemies cannot get away from Him. And He has total victory. Total victory. Verse 39, I have destroyed them and wounded them so they could not rise. They have fallen under my feet. Fully fulfilled, of course, in the second coming of Christ. But this is what Christ is doing. He's building his church. He's making all things new. He's at war. He's fighting. And verse 42 and 43, there's a picture of this victory. They looked, but there was none to save, even to the Lord, but He did not answer them." This is a reference to the Lord's enemies. There's two metaphors here. I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth, and trod them like dirt in the streets. The gospel is for sinners. The gospel is for all sinners. It's freely given. Whoever will believe, whoever will turn to Christ will be forgiven. That's the hope that we have, all sinners have, but there's going to be a time where that will not be the case. It will be when you die or it will be when Christ returns. At that point the time will be up. The Lord will not hear the cries. He will not hear the cries for mercy. No, Christ did not fight with the sword of his hand, did he? This has meaning for David. David fought. There's a sense in which he destroyed all of his enemies. This psalm begins with, when the Lord delivered him from all of his enemies. Of course, that's not completely true. There were still enemies, internal and external enemies. But in a sense, that was true. Christ doesn't fight with the sword of his hand. He fights with the sword of his mouth. And his church fights, you fight, with his word. Revelation 19, 17. Revelation is a book, or verse 15, is a book full of images. This is how the Bible describes the preaching of the gospel, the witness that you have with your unbelieving friends. through Christ. Revelation 19.15, "...out of his mouth..." This is the mouth of Christ. "...out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron." We read in Ephesians chapter 6. We read there that we are to take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is what? What is the sword of the spirit? It's the word of God. That's what we fight. We fight a spiritual war, not with the sword of our hand, but with the sword of our mouth. And we do need to realize that we do fight enemies. We do have an enemy. There's a lot of correlation tonight with this morning. It's interesting to note that Paul actually mentions a person as an enemy. We can talk about abortion. We can talk about evolution. We can talk about the pornography industry. Those are enemies, kind of abstract. We can talk about sin and the devil. But it's interesting, Paul says in 2 Timothy 4.14, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. A specific person. May the Lord repay him according to his works. We have enemies. We have enemies, and we are to fight. We are to fight them. I want to ask you tonight, are you, by the power of Christ, in this fight? Are you going in the strength of the Lord to establish this kingdom? In basketball, as well as in many other sports, you have a bench. There's no bench in the church. We're all in it. We're all in it. And when you have family worship, When you have your daily devotion, maybe kind of a defensive measure, but you're in warfare. You're fighting. You're strengthening your defenses, aren't you? These aren't just kind of notional, optional things. These are important. When you witness. When you share the gospel. I think about some of our prayer requests. You're going to war. You're establishing the kingdom when you pray. You're going to war. I didn't mention this, but I'll mention it now. After the sword of the Spirit, as mentioned, verse 18, Ephesians 6, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. This is a weapon, prayer. Are you fighting? Are you, by the power of Christ, establishing this kingdom? What is the goal of this warfare? What kind of kingdom are we building? David was building a physical kingdom, a geographical kingdom. What are we building? Thirdly, I want you to see the nature of this kingdom. We're not building cities and castles, as it were. We're not building one nation, necessarily. It's a spiritual kingdom. And the nature of this kingdom, we see in verses 44 through 46, The nature of this kingdom is the submission of all people to Christ. All people to Christ. That's the nature of this kingdom. We see this in verse 44 through 46. God delivers the king's enemies to him, both his foreign enemies and his own people. You have also delivered me from the strivings of my people. Now this is evident for David. Absalom, Saul, and it's Sheba, but it's also for Christ. Who killed Christ? The Jews. You have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have also foreign enemies as well. Verse 41 mentions this. You have also given me the necks of my enemies. And then 49, He delivers me from my enemies, those who lifted up against me violent men. And God brings them in subjection to the king. Verse 40, the second part, we have the word subdued. You have subdued under me those who rose against me. Verse 48, it is God who avenges me and subdues the people under me. brings it into subjection so that he might be king over them. Verse 44, you have kept me as the head of the nations. He's the king. At the end of this psalm, verse 51, he refers to himself as the king. He's the head of the nations. He's not just the head of the church. He is the head of the church, but he's the head of all things for the church Ephesians 1 22 and he put all things under his feet as reference to Christ and gave him that is Christ to be head over all things to the church revelation chapter 1 verse 5 first to Christ as the ruler over the kings of the earth this psalm here this which is Psalm 18 doesn't emphasize this but we know it's all nations Psalm 72, 11. Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him. And God causes them to submit to him as the king. This is what 45 and verse 46 are teaching us. The idea here, yes you have deliverance But it's ultimately submission to this King. And this is what I want you to focus on, verse 45 and verse 46. There's two types of people who submit to Christ. All people are going to submit to Christ. Paul makes it very clear in Philippians. Those things in heaven, those on earth, those under the earth, they're all going to say, Jesus is Lord. Some are going to submit by faith. The foreigners submit to me. As soon as they hear, they obey me. What a... interesting reference to what I would consider the preaching of the gospel, as soon as they hear. That's true for David. There's a sense that David could say that. As soon as they hear, foreigners, Gentiles, they submit to me, they obey me, they believe. And there's also submission in the sense of judgment. Verse 46, the foreigners fade away and come frightened from their hideouts. The image here, I believe, is one of victory. They're coming out of the hideout, surrendering. They've lost. But they're not surrendering in faith to the king. They're in the battle, and they've lost. The time is up, and they're frightened. They're at judgment. All people will submit to him. And this is an important question to ask you at this time. Where are you in your spiritual life? Have you submitted to the king? Are you in submission to him? Are you following his law? A few months ago, Dorsey and I, we kind of, I can't remember exactly what happened, but we just started running the water a lot in our house. And it took a little bit of time, but we got a notice, a warning. You violated the law of the city ordinance, water. Now it took some time. And some Christians, okay, some of those in the church, aren't obeying God's law. Nothing's really happening to them. Okay? They're not following the King. But it will. It will catch up. You'll show yourself not to be a true follower of Christ. Not because you don't live a perfect life, but because you're not fundamentally following Him. Have you submitted to Him as King? Some Christians... I'm speaking to the evening service crowd. This word really is very appropriate. Some Christians will take Christ just has a Savior and not his Lord. Christ is my Savior and he's a great teacher. He's a great teacher. He's got a lot of good things to say that shouldn't be done. Well, it's more than that. He's not just a Savior. He's a Savior and a Lord. He's a master. I went to seminary. I studied under various professors for four years. I didn't follow everything they said. They were my teachers. They were not my masters. I mean, of course I appreciated them, but they still graduated me. Even though I didn't follow them, word for word. That's not how it works with Christ. He's not just a teacher. He's our King. He's our Lord. We are to submit to Him. Submit to Him in faith. Submit to Him in love. This text doesn't refer to these things, but of course Christ is not just our King. He's our priest. He died for us. We're forgiven in Him. To submit to Him is the least that we can do, and we ought to do. He's created us, and He's bought us. We are to follow Him. And the end of this is worship. Where is this heading? What's the result of this? So fourthly, the result of this kingdom. We see this at the end of the Psalm, verse 47 through 51 mainly. The result of this kingdom is praise to God. The Lord lives. Perhaps, kiddos, you've heard of maybe the old saying is, long live the king. It's a reference to honoring him. That's more or less what's going on here. Blessed be my rock. God is the source of our blessing. Let God be exalted, the rock of my salvation. There's praise going on here. Verse 50, there's thanksgiving going on. There's praise for what he has done. And this is a verse that is picked up by Paul in Romans 15. I'll mention this. Romans 15 verse 8-9, Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. So the Gentiles are going to glorify God for His mercy. Then he quotes this psalm. But who is speaking in this psalm? Is it the Gentiles? Therefore, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name." And the idea is that Christ is leading his people by his spirit in worship. He's among the Gentiles in the assembly of the Gentiles, and he's leading them in singing. So one commentator writes, the sacrifice of praise offered up in the church As it is the work of the saints in one respect, so it is the work of Christ in another respect, because He raises by His Spirit the song in their hearts and offers up the sacrifice of thanks to the Father. And we, empowered by Christ's Spirit, we give thanks to God for His salvation. Verse 51, for His mercy that He's shown to His anointed. The word mercy here is a very common Hebrew word that really is referring to God's covenantal faithfulness. So it's not mercy in the sense that the king needs to be forgiven. It can be translated that and often is in relation to us. God's covenantal faithfulness, they are mercies. But it doesn't have to be understood in that sense. And it's to David, not just to David, here's another reference to Christ, to David and his descendants forevermore. What do you sense in your gut when you go to a restaurant and you've been served well by your waiter or your waitress? It just feels wrong to just leave and not to tip them. Tipping is just, it's just fitting. What's fitting for those who God has saved, who Christ has subdued to himself in his kingdom, rescued them from the devil, it's fitting to worship him and to praise him. One of the reasons why you should come to worship, even the evening service, is because it's fitting for us, especially on this day, this day set apart to worship him, to praise him. I'm not just in public worship, but think about the joy of the Lord. Think about how Christians should be, in some sense, the happiest people in the world. They should. Depression is a reality. Discouragement is a reality. We need to remember what the Lord has done for us and, in a sense, praise Him as we go throughout our day. We have Memorial Day, a day where we remember veterans and how There have been many who have served our country who, by their labors and their sacrifice, we have freedom. And if you're like me, after Memorial Day, you're a little bit more aware of this. And you see a veteran at Walmart or something, and whether you tap them on the back or not, you're just thankful. And we need to remember, if you're struggling tonight, to rejoice. Recount, remember what the Lord has done for you. You've been forgiven in Christ. You've been forgiven of all your sins. He's taken you into his family. You may not have had a godly mother or a godly father, but God, through Christ, is your father. You can pray to him. You can call upon him. He cares for you. He's given you his spirit to sanctify you, to guard you from the devil, from his lies. We have plenty of things to rejoice over. God strengthens his king to fight the enemies of his kingdom so that all people are subdued by him and God is praised. General Douglas MacArthur, he kept his promise and he returned to the Philippine Islands. On the 20th of October, 1944, a campaign began. The kingdom of the United States of America, if you will, came. and they invaded the Philippine Islands and by December of 1944 the Filipinos were liberated. Do you think the Filipinos were thankful? Do you think they were rejoicing? See there's been a king, there was a king that came as it were and delivered them from their enemies. How much more should you, God's people, Be thankful for your King who comes in the power of God and delivers you from your enemy and saves you. Are you thankful? Are you rejoicing in the Lord for Christ's victorious kingdom? Let's pray tonight. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight thankful for our opportunity to to hear from your word, to learn. We pray that you give us understanding of your word, that we would see Christ, where Christ is at, and remember his salvation for us. Father, we do pray that you would, by his spirit, work in us and continue to deliver us from our enemies. For we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.