September 21, 2023

God delivers for His glory

2 Samuel 22

Matt Galvin
Thursday's Devo

September 21, 2023

Thursday's Devo

September 21, 2023

Big Idea

No one is immune to sin.

Key Verse | 2 Samuel 22:2-3

He said,
"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge,
my savior; you save me from violence."

2 Samuel 22

David's Song of Deliverance

And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said,

“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
    my 1 22:3 Septuagint (compare Psalm 18:2); Hebrew lacks my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
    my stronghold and my refuge,
    my savior; you save me from violence.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
    and I am saved from my enemies.

For the waves of death encompassed me,
    the torrents of destruction assailed me; 2 22:5 Or terrified me
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
    the snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called upon the LORD;
    to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
    and my cry came to his ears.

Then the earth reeled and rocked;
    the foundations of the heavens trembled
    and quaked, because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils, 3 22:9 Or in his wrath
    and devouring fire from his mouth;
    glowing coals flamed forth from him.
10  He bowed the heavens and came down;
    thick darkness was under his feet.
11  He rode on a cherub and flew;
    he was seen on the wings of the wind.
12  He made darkness around him his canopy,
    thick clouds, a gathering of water.
13  Out of the brightness before him
    coals of fire flamed forth.
14  The LORD thundered from heaven,
    and the Most High uttered his voice.
15  And he sent out arrows and scattered them;
    lightning, and routed them.
16  Then the channels of the sea were seen;
    the foundations of the world were laid bare,
at the rebuke of the LORD,
    at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

17  He sent from on high, he took me;
    he drew me out of many waters.
18  He rescued me from my strong enemy,
    from those who hated me,
    for they were too mighty for me.
19  They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
    but the LORD was my support.
20  He brought me out into a broad place;
    he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

21  The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness;
    according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
22  For I have kept the ways of the LORD
    and have not wickedly departed from my God.
23  For all his rules were before me,
    and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
24  I was blameless before him,
    and I kept myself from guilt.
25  And the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
    according to my cleanness in his sight.

26  With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
    with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
27  with the purified you deal purely,
    and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
28  You save a humble people,
    but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
29  For you are my lamp, O LORD,
    and my God lightens my darkness.
30  For by you I can run against a troop,
    and by my God I can leap over a wall.
31  This God—his way is perfect;
    the word of the LORD proves true;
    he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

32  For who is God, but the LORD?
    And who is a rock, except our God?
33  This God is my strong refuge
    and has made my 4 22:33 Or his; also verse 34 way blameless. 5 22:33 Compare Psalm 18:32; Hebrew he has blamelessly set my way free, or he has made my way spring up blamelessly
34  He made my feet like the feet of a deer
    and set me secure on the heights.
35  He trains my hands for war,
    so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36  You have given me the shield of your salvation,
    and your gentleness made me great.
37  You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
    and my feet 6 22:37 Hebrew ankles did not slip;
38  I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,
    and did not turn back until they were consumed.
39  I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise;
    they fell under my feet.
40  For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
    you made those who rise against me sink under me.
41  You made my enemies turn their backs to me, 7 22:41 Or You gave me my enemies' necks
    those who hated me, and I destroyed them.
42  They looked, but there was none to save;
    they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
43  I beat them fine as the dust of the earth;
    I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.

44  You delivered me from strife with my people; 8 22:44 Septuagint with the peoples
    you kept me as the head of the nations;
    people whom I had not known served me.
45  Foreigners came cringing to me;
    as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.
46  Foreigners lost heart
    and came trembling 9 22:46 Compare Psalm 18:45; Hebrew equipped themselves out of their fortresses.

47  The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock,
    and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation,
48  the God who gave me vengeance
    and brought down peoples under me,
49  who brought me out from my enemies;
    you exalted me above those who rose against me;
    you delivered me from men of violence.

50  For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations,
    and sing praises to your name.
51  Great salvation he brings 10 22:51 Or He is a tower of salvation to his king,
    and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
    to David and his offspring forever.”

Footnotes

[1] 22:3 Septuagint (compare Psalm 18:2); Hebrew lacks my
[2] 22:5 Or terrified me
[3] 22:9 Or in his wrath
[4] 22:33 Or his; also verse 34
[5] 22:33 Compare Psalm 18:32; Hebrew he has blamelessly set my way free, or he has made my way spring up blamelessly
[6] 22:37 Hebrew ankles
[7] 22:41 Or You gave me my enemies' necks
[8] 22:44 Septuagint with the peoples
[9] 22:46 Compare Psalm 18:45; Hebrew equipped themselves
[10] 22:51 Or He is a tower of salvation

S2:184 2 Samuel 22

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Dive Deeper | 2 Samuel 22

Do you ever think to yourself, "Wow, my life is a struggle right now!"

Have you considered the hardships David experienced? Second Samuel 21 outlines all of David's struggles, including Saul's attempts to kill him!

As we read 2 Samuel 22, we see two different themes:

  1. David's response to the Lord's deliverance
  2. God's faithfulness and character on full display

The very first thing David does after war is respond with a song to the Lord, praising Him for deliverance. (2 Samuel 22:2-3)

In July 2022, my wife Catherine and I found out we were pregnant with our third child. We rejoiced in this news, only to find out a few weeks later that our precious child had passed away due to a miscarriage. We grieved a child that we will never meet here on earth, but we rejoice that our child will live with our Heavenly Father.

Because of the miscarriage, I was frustrated with God, but the Lord sought me and cared for me in the midst of my pain. The following morning after hearing the news of our miscarriage, I went for a run. As I wandered through the trails, the Lord put in my mind a song that I held fast to, "Tis So Sweet" by Shane and Shane. These words rang true:

Jesus Jesus how I trust Him!
How I proved him O’er and O’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace, to trust Him more!

Like David in this passage, when we sing, we are reminded of the Lord's faithfulness. Despite the pains that this life can bring, we can trust God and have full assurance that He will see us through to the end. Who is our God? Our God is a God who delivers and saves us.

One day Catherine and I will meet our child Sam in heaven, and we will sing at the top of our lungs, proclaiming God's goodness and deliverance in our lives. 

My prayer is that your hearts would be strengthened and your song be bold in whatever trial or struggle you are facing.

Tis So Sweet!

This month's memory verse

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

– Matthew 5:16

Discussion Questions

1. Are you dealing with a trial now? First, stop and pray. Make your specific requests known to God. Then share it with your community group so they can also encourage you. (Hebrews 10:24)

2. How have you been reminded of the Lord's faithfulness in your life recently? Write out a list of 10 ways that the Lord has been faithful in your life. Share it with your community group!

3. What is your first response when things don't go your way? How can you "sing" to the Lord in your daily walk with Him?

4. What songs have strengthened your heart?

5. Read 2 Samuel 22 again, this time sung as a song to remind you of David's great joy in the Lord's deliverance.

Respond to Today's Passage

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HS

Hugh Stephenson

Good morning, Matt! Great devo my man. I am thankful for you and Catherine and for your faith which I know sustains you. Q1. Two unsaved children are a trial for sure. God call me to surrender, get out of the way, and live like Jesus is all I need. Because it is. Q2. I have been praying “what’s next” prayers for a few years and the LORD is very kind to patiently reveal where He wants me to go next. It gives me a great deal of peace. Q3. This is an interesting question in that most things don’t go the way I thought they would. I’m often disappointed but not discouraged. There always seems to be the next steps to take on His path. Q4. Casting Crowns “Desert Road”. Fabulous song on suffering. Hillsong “Another in the fire” based on Daniel 3. And Phil Wickham’s song, “Living Hope”.
HS

Hugh Stephenson

What’s your favorite food to eat? Same Q for activity? Same Q for person to be around? In thinking about this, consider the idea that you got to spend time each day in each of these plus any others in this category. Several months ago Amy read a book on prayer. It suggested breaking down prayers into categories or objects- For example- intercession (general), intercession (specific)- healing, vocation, provision, salvation, grief, protection etc. With that guide I divided my daily prayers into 2 main general categories several other highly specific categories. Every day, with only a very rare exception, I pray though them. Time consuming? About 10-15 minutes. Solid gold. When a prayer is answered I make a mark by it. I pray through those as “praise and gratitude” prayers. Within a few months a large percentage of the prayers have the “answered” mark. This really got my attention. Is it hard to do this every day? No. It’s become among my favorite things to do every day. Why? These prayers are the Spiritual nourishment of “bread and water”, the food I want to eat every day. Two reasons- 1- In the praying of praises I am lifted up by the Spirit as He reminds me of the amazing and powerful works of God who loves me and everyone’s else unconditionally. 2- In the praying of intercessions for friends and family I can identify with them, and be with them in their grief, trouble, distress, illness and all other trials. I pray spiritual gratitude prayers a lot. Even for the smallest things; a good parking place, a short nap, an unexpected favor, a kind word, the reminder of a small but important task. Cumulatively, these prayers are life changing. Why? It’s pretty easy to see God do big things. Z but, it’s easy to miss small things. When I focus on small AND big and everything in between, God becomes very, very big and I become very, very small. And that’s a real blessing.
HS

Hugh Stephenson

2 Samuel 22 is nearly identical to Psalm 18. Here’s the intro to Psalm 18 for the ESV SB- (ESV Study Bible Notes) Psalm 18. “This is a royal psalm, i.e., it celebrates the way that God has shown his love to his people by giving them the Davidic monarchy and by preserving David through many dangers (see the title and v. 50). The text of the psalm is almost identical to 2 Samuel 22. The two songs differ, however, in their context: Second Samuel 22 is David’s personal expression of gratitude to the Lord, while Psalm 18 is the adaptation of that song for the whole people to sing, because their well-being is now tied to the offspring of David (2 Sam. 7:4–17). When God’s people sang this, then, they were to give thanks for the Davidic line and to pray that its heirs would be faithful to the Lord and would be valiant military leaders, so that Israel might carry out its God-given purpose of bringing light to the Gentiles.” For me, the key is verse 7, “In my distress I called upon the LORD;
 to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
 and my cry came to his ears.” Compare with Psalm 40:1 “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” From the notes - “Having described his situation, David now describes the Lord’s response. Heard (Hb. shama‘) does not simply mean a passive “hearing”; it implies an attentive listening and, usually, a positive response.” “heard” is šâma- or as above, shama’. This links directly to the Shema. Please read the short piece from GQs- https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-the-Shema.html Notice verse 1 of this passage. The gratitude David expresses in this song is for real deliverance from real enemies that really wanted to kill him. That’s a big praise for a big thing. Even so, I bet a close reading of the Psalms will reveal a lot of praise for small things. —————- My friends know that I have a black Ford SUV. Most of them know the license tag is PS 401, (as in Psalm 40:1) That tag has started some great conversations. In those convos, I always get to recite Psalm 40:1 and describe my “distress” and how God “heard my cry.”
SS

Scott Self

As a Southern Baptist boy from Louisiana, “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” is a familiar and comforting hymn. Louisa Stead wrote the lyrics after experiencing a personal tragedy of her own—her husband died in a drowning accident. It’s not surprising, then, that its lyrics have brought comfort and peace to Believers like us for over 140 years. The peace that passes understanding.
GJ

Greg Jones

Great dive today. One of the things that I enjoy about scripture is while reading it at the surface level looking for a meaning under the surface, looking for those things that have always made it timeless. I suspect that for Jesus’ primary 1sr century audience they would have interpreted 2 Samuel 22 the same way we have this morning. Primarily, their view of David is he’s great and his view of God is primarily their view of God. And if another David shows up then Israel will return to the glory days David is giving thanks for and things will go and operate pretty much as they did back in the day. Example of an under the surface meaning, or looking for a reverse image of some words to get a broader meaning When David says The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. 2 Samuel 22:21 Applying those words to the whole of the David and Bathsheba incident you get a reverse meaning of what it seems David is implying. I see the NT gospel writers picking up on that. The preceding verse He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. 2 Samuel 22:20 Compare to Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ Matthew 4:5-7 Underlying all this is a big difference in David’s reign and Jesus ministry. David sins against Bathsheba, he lives but the child dies. Amnon sins against his sister he dies. Absolom rebels against his father the original plan is, one dies, the king, and many will be saved. That plan was overruled. The king lived but it cost many lives. The king wanted to spare the son. If it cost many lives to spare the the son David was ok with that. The bad news when learned of Absolom’s wasn’t that many Israelites had died, the bad news was the son had died. Then lastly there is the account of Sheba who is guilty of rebelling against the king and is pursued into the city of Abel of Beth-maacah. Joab and his men are prepared to destroy the city for the life of one man. The city saves itself by tossing the head of Sheba over the wall. The death of the unrighteous one, saves the lives of many. The reverse image of all that is: the death of the guilty for his own guilt the death of the king saving many people, the death of the son saving many people, the death of unrighteous Sheba saving the lives of many people, Is found in the life and death of Jesus. In a way, I want to tap into David’s ignorance in order to get broader view of Jesus and the Father.
SB

Sue Bohlin

Matt!! What a blessing to find you and your WONDERFUL devo on JTJ this morning! It's especially sweet to me because as I read this chapter, this song of David, I kept thinking about how this is the expression of a man who God says is after His heart. What is it about David that God loves and delights in? I think it's his trust and obedience. (He wouldn't blow it big with Bathsheba and Uriah till after this song was written.) And I was thinking about how a small child blesses his father by burying his head in his daddy's neck, wrapping his arms around him. That's what trust looks like; that's what it feels like to the father. Probably what it felt like to Yahweh. And then here you are--this picture is part of your daily life!
MS

Michael Scaman

A cool thing is David has his prayer in 2 Samuel 22 and adds an 'I love you God" like a love letter up front to make (the very long ) (compared tot he Psalms around it) Psalm 18. I also see Psalm 16 17 and 18 as pointing to Jesus 'resurection using the events of David;s life looking forward to a greater David. Psalm 18 To the chief Musician, A psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, 1 I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. (The rest is same as the prayer in 2 Samuel 22) God's passion is God;s glory and 'He leads me besides still waters for His names sake' in Psalm 22 but he also leads in persecution in Psalm 44 for His names sake (which is quoted in Romans 8 regarding at times being like sheep to slaughter). God's glory is the apex of God's purposes but salvation for us and mercy is close to the apex and we are happy beneficiaries of that. To that end God;s working includes making the greater David , Jesus, to be shepherd redeemer and king of His people. The redeemed become a crown to Him and God becomes a crown for the redeemed. Sad both ways in Isaiah. Another Psalm which is long and contains 'remember te sufferings of David" much much longer tan the other Psalms of ascent , aka road songs to the Jerusalem temple, is empasised by 3 little 3 verse stacatto like psalms aound it in the Psalms of ascent, like 3 little diamonds around a big gem, setting it off . Don't just remmember the glories of David. Remember the sufferings of David too.
JC

JOHN CIMMERMAN

2 Samuel 22 contains 12 titles for GOD; 28 actions GOD did on David’s behalf; 9 actions David took because of GOD! (You can see if my counts are accurate!) We serve a very,very powerful God whose love, goodness, wisdom and grace surrounds us. What will be your response to him today? For me I will praise, thank and worship him! I will surrender to him (Romans 12:1-2). I will stuff my pride and live in humility before Jesus and man!
AL

Amy Lowther

1. I am working to find balance of job demands, money, and God. Prayer: God you are number one and you are the Creator. You strengthen me everyday and your values shine. May I work and live as you prefer. Amen. My community supports me consulting God when I make choices. 2. A list of ten faithful acts include: 1. Listening to Christmas Music and looking at Christmas Decorations on Tik Tok (Celebrate Christ 365 days a year!), 2. Considerate construction workers taking care of the drivers passing through the newly added construction in the neighborhood, 3. School bus drivers maintaining on time arrivals and departures for the children, 4. Local high school Homecoming Celebrations, 5. Houses nicely decorated, 6. Friends helping me clean, 7. Friends helping me do laundry, 8. Reading God’s Word, 9. Driving on 635 through construction and delays, and 10. Shopping for necessities at Walmart in someone else’s neighborhood. 3. If something doesn’t go my way, I work to see it like God. You can sing to the Lord in your daily walk by listening to Him and by doing things His way. 4. “How Great is Our God” s a good song. 5. David’s respect for God is evident in his song.