22 is David's psalm of praise, giving twofold in the meaning and significance of this, David's historic experiences, the things he actually went through and experienced in his life, And also Christ Jesus our Lord held forth to us in types and shadows from the life of David. Hear now the word of almighty God inspired by his spirit profitable for us. Second Samuel 22 verses one through 25, verse one. And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my rock. In him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my savior. Thou savest me from violence. I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about. The snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried to my God, and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven were moved and shook because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub-headed fly, and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. The Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and discomfited them. And the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from above. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from them that hated me, for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eyesight." Thus far the reading of God's most holy word from 2 Samuel 22, verses 1-25. May the Lord bless us in the consideration now and in having read and heard his word. Verses one through three, David triumphs in God. As a mighty warrior returning from conquering all of his enemies, David triumphs not in himself, but in God. Verse one tells us that this song was said to the Lord in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all of his enemies. Think through David's enemies. Those that we've at least heard of by God's inspiration. Ishbosheth, the Philistines, the Ammonites, Absalom, Sheba, the four sons of Goliath or Rapha. And he says, out of the hand of Saul. Why does he mention Saul? Andrew Willett comments. Who is specially named because he was his most special adversary. Both because that persecution was of all others the most dangerous, it continued longest, yea, and Saul's posterity also afterward ceased not to oppose David. So God did not just deliver him from all of his adversaries, but also from his principal enemy, Saul. Note verse two. Now, if you have the opportunity to read Psalm 18, you will find these are almost identical. Verse 2, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. God is a strong protection, saving him from all of his troubles, protecting and defending him. Note verse 3, the God of my rock, in him will I trust. Now note in David's songs and in the Psalms generally, God inspired him to give us many different analogies. Rock, fortress, tower, savior, all these things. Why? To fill our minds to overflowing with the truth that God can be relied upon. He is worthy to be trusted. My shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my Savior, Thou savest me from violence. A shield will protect from fiery darts and swords. A horn, like an animal, as they have victory, they push and push with their horns, so God gives the victory. A high tower, a refuge, a place you run for safety from your enemies. All these and more is God to His people. I note then this doctrine. God's attributes may be expressed in various ways. And for the sake of our faith, we must learn to see the manifold attributes and glory of God Himself. We must learn to remind ourselves of the glory of God. This is how you push out temptation, by filling your mind with God's attributes, His actions. He is a rock. He is a shield. He is a high tower. He is a refuge. He brings victory through his horn. God is all these and more. Remind yourself in times of unbelief, of doubt, of suffering, of distress, of depression, of any temptation to forget the Lord. Remind yourself of who He is and say with David, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my savior, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. David then magnifies God for all the deliverances that he accomplished on his behalf, verses 4 through 20. I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. Is this not a summation of what we just talked about? I'm going to call on God, I'm going to trust in Him. Why? Why should you do that? For he is worthy to be praised. He is of such a value and nature that praise is appropriate and suitable. Unlike the heathen gods, what are they worthy of? To be burned with fire and cast aside. What about man, whose breath is in his nostrils? What is he worthy of? Well, he's of no account, God says. Take all the nations together and all of their glory and all of their power. They're like a drop in the bucket, God says. Nothing worthy to be praised. What about God? I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised. David then calls forth his dangers and enemies as waves of death. floods of Belial, sorrows of hell, snares of death, these all causing him to do what? To despair? The Lord forgot about me. The Lord abandoned me. The Lord forsook me. No! He calls again upon the Lord. Now here we see David with all of the troubles that he had as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Apostle in Acts chapter 2 verse 24 quotes this very verse, showing us that it was Jesus Christ who had the pangs of hell surrounding him, David merely as a type with some small shadow of his sufferings. And yet our Lord Jesus Christ had the whole Jewish nation, all of their leaders, the Romans themselves, and also Herod, the Ittemaon, as we'll consider, all opposing him. the Gentile and Jew alike, ready to crucify him, God having forsaken him, David's sorrows were as nothing compared to Christ's." I note then this doctrine. David did not merely have personal experiences, but also prophetic experiences. David had personal experience, and he had prophetic experience. Some would say we just need to focus on David's historic personal experience so that we can learn from that. And that is true. But not only that, some would say everything in David's life is swallowed up in prophecy of Christ. That is not true. David refers to his sins. Would our Lord Jesus Christ say that? Of course not. So there are things in David's life and even in this psalm that are of his experience and others of Christ prophetically portrayed. Let us admire God's wisdom. God inspired and providentially ruled over the life of a man so that he could prophesy through his experiences and words concerning the Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us read the scriptures with discernment, neither the ditch on the one hand, forgetting the prophecies of Christ in David's life, nor the ditch on the other hand, forgetting his real human experiences from which we may learn. Verse seven, in my distress, I called upon the Lord. Have you ever been in a tight spot? Have you ever been in straights? Have you ever been under pressure? That's what this word means. All of those and more. Pressed in. And he's going to talk about a wide place God will put him in. This place he is pressed in and distressed. And what is his response? call his friends, post it on social media, complain to everybody, whine about God. No. I will call upon the Lord, he says. I called when I was in distress, and so must we do. For God hears the prayers of his people. Verses 8 and 9, God is displayed as a mighty, wrath-filled warrior, coming for vengeance, smoke pouring forth out of his nostrils. The Westminster annotations on verse 9 say, He eludeth to a man inflamed with rage, who is said to spit fire out of his mouth, when he threateneth ruin and destruction to those at whom he is offended. God is offended. At whom? At the enemies and adversaries and persecutors of His people. He is a man spitting fire. Notice verse 10. He does not move from one place to another. This is a figure of speech to help us to understand. God is everywhere present, but the operations of his hand may be in one place at one time and another place at another in different ways. Here he comes to destroy, to devour, to push back his adversaries and crush them as a mighty warrior. God is on the move. He bowed the heavens also and came down. He was seen upon the wings of the wind. He was swift. He was invisible. He was invincible in his motions, and he is to this day. He made darkness pavilions round about him, verse 12. He concealed his judgment from his adversaries. They did not see it until it was too late. Through the brightness before Him were coals of fire kindled. Have you ever seen a ball of lightning land upon the earth, bringing destruction in all of its path as it rolls down, lightning balls, lightning bolts coming forth, putting all aflame before it? Verse 14, the Most High uttered His voice, The God of glory thundereth. Verse 15, He sent out His arrows. He shot them at His adversaries. He scattered His arrows, lightning, and He discomfited them. That is, He completely and totally, absolutely crushed them to powder, He says. That's what it means to discomfort. Not just a nice old English word. The truth of God, the mighty conquering warrior, ruling over all, crushing his enemies, all who stand against him, scattering them by his power, and they cannot overcome him. Verse 16, the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were discovered. Secrets man to this day cannot uncover. God, with the word of his mouth, uncovers them immediately. Let us rejoice that we serve an invincible God, an almighty God. Did you know that the apostle said that when the people of God are persecuted, when they seem abandoned, when they are in peril and danger of their life, when they starve to death, when they are persecuted with the magistrate's sword who cuts their head off, do you know what he says? In all these things we are what, losers? No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Though we seem to die, yet we rise to life. Though we seem poor, yet we are rich. Though we seem defeated, we are victors over all. Why? Because God cannot be defeated. God for us, who against us? Paul asks. Let us then entrust our cause to God, and know that He shall overcome at last. He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters." Verse 17. Christ in type. David delivered from wave upon wave of adversaries. Remember this? One trouble's done, what's coming next? The next trouble. That's what David's life was like. And yet our Lord Jesus Christ sunk down into the abyss under the wrath of Almighty God. What happened? God raised him from the dead. He brought him up from many waters. His adversaries, he says, were too strong for him. Verse 18, again, David's historical experience. Christ had no enemies too strong for him. He could speak a word and shove them all down to the ground. No enemy too strong for Christ, but for David, many adversaries too strong for him, and yet, They did not prevent him in the day of his calamity. Now prevention means to come before, pre is before, vent is to come in. My adversaries, they thought they could get ahead of me, get a few steps ahead and destroy me, but could they? No, they prevented me not in the day of my calamity. God was my support. God brought me forth into a large place. Remember the distress, the straits, the narrows, God brought me out of those, he says. The tight spot where my enemies had me, God saved me even from that. Why? Because he delighted in me. Now again, here we have the twofold teaching concerning prophecies and types. Why did God delight in David? Was he worthy to be delighted in? No. It was sheerly by God's grace, a free gift given to David. And yet, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, do you know what God said? This is my beloved son in whom I am what? Well-pleased. Why did God delight in Christ? Well, because he was worthy. He had intrinsic worth as God man, and he had moral worth as always doing those things that pleased God. You see, so scripture can speak of God delighting in David, both in himself by grace and in his son, Jesus Christ, by the worth and merits of Christ himself. Note then God's wisdom in the sacred scriptures. The same expression suited to the grace given to David is also suited to the worth inherent in Christ. Do you see this? How wise God is. He can speak to you of his blessed son and of his redeemed servant in the same words. And he's talking about both. Let us believe in God's Word. Let us delight in the wisdom of God the Spirit who inspired these very words we have read together. Verses 21 through 25, David shadows forth Christ's righteous reward for obedience and integrity. Verse 21, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. This is what is known as merit. What do you deserve? What are the wages that you have earned by the works that you have done? Here, David said, God paid me back. He gave me wages for what? For my righteousness. That's what he says. My submission to his standards of righteousness, his holy law, the Ten Commandments, the statutes and the judgments. I am worthy to be rewarded by God because I kept his commandments. Now, how can David say this? How in his historic experience is this true? Well, let me tell you. There is a comparative civil justification. Let's lay out before you what Saul did and what I did toward him. What's the difference between those two? Who is God going to justify in that case? The court case is open. Let's hear the evidence. How much good did Saul do for David? A little bit. Raised him up. Play the harp for me. Why? It was self-serving, right? What good did David do for Saul? Spared his life. Best generally ever had. Did all sorts of good things for him as a son-in-law. Fought against all of his enemies. Killed Goliath. Saved the day. He did so much good to him. How did he return to David for all the good that was done to Saul? Persecuted him, slandered him, told his servants to murder him, tried to seduce him to death by marrying his daughter. Are those good things? Is that returning good for good? No, of course not. So in a civil or comparative way, David is justified, Saul is condemned, you see. But here notice again the wisdom of Almighty God. David is a type of Christ who in universal obedience to all of God's commandments absolutely and perfectly was justified. Did you know Christ was justified not by faith, but by his works, by the things that he did to obey and submit to God. And we are justified by faith because he was justified by his works, by his merits, by his obedience, by his death to satisfy the just demand of the law. Christ's righteousness is a reward. It is a wage. It is a return in kind for the obedience that he rendered. Christ was declared righteous and therefore justified by God, 1 Timothy 3, 16. And this declaration concerning Christ is ours when we believe in him. Would you be perfectly, not merely comparatively righteous? Should you strive to be comparatively righteous? Of course. Should you do good to those who do evil to you? Of course. That's how you are comparatively and civilly righteous. But would you be perfectly righteous with a righteousness that God, the all-seeing, holy God, will accept? There's only one place to find that. In the Son of David. Flee to the Savior. whose wounds wipe away all of our sins. I have kept the ways of the Lord. Those things God laid down in scripture for me, I kept every last one of those. For all his judgments were before me, universal obedience. The Westminster annotations, I have set the whole law of God before me as the rule of my life and all my actions and have not wittingly and willingly dispensed with any one of his commandments, but endeavored to observe them all one as well as another. Let me ask you, did David ever dispense with God's judgments? You bet he did. In favor of his own sons, one an incestuous rapist, the other a murderer. What did he do about it? Compared to Saul, he's sparkling clean. Christ, compared to the rest of us, is actually sparkling clean. all of the judgments of God before the eyes. He did everything whatsoever his father commanded him. He became obedient even all the way to the point of the death on the cross, the perfect and spotless righteousness. And as for his statutes, verse 23, I did not depart from them. Those things written beforehand, God's ordinances, His enactments, His prescriptions, every last one, I did them. Verse 24, I have kept myself from mine iniquity, again, suited only to David. David had sin dwelling inside of him, and he had to put it off, he had to stave it off, he had to put it to death, he had to keep himself from his own depravity. The Dutch annotations say that I might not be seduced by the corruptions and wickedness that are in me to do some unrighteousness. David, the redeemed sinner, putting off the old man, putting on the new. David again, verse 25, prophetically pleads his merits, the merits of the cleanness of his hands, of his righteousness before the all-seeing eye of God, prophetically concerning our Savior. And thus far, the exposition of 2 Samuel 22, verses 1 through 25.