Insights into David’s Reign

Transcript

GRS 2-85
10/21/2007
Insights into David’s Reign
2 Samuel 21-23
Gil Rugh

Before we look into the word tonight I wanted to make some comments about some current things. Some of you saw the article in Saturday’s paper on “change is good” and a conference coming to Lincoln. How many of you saw that? Just so I have an idea. Well, okay, a lot of not Saturday paper readers. Well, there is a conference coming to town, amazing thing is when you think of the men who are coming to a city like Lincoln, Ed Young is the pastor of a church that has 23,000 people in attendance on a Sunday morning. Most of you are aware of Robert Schuller’s, Ministry at the Crystal Cathedral and his son has assumed to that ministry and he will be coming for this conference along with others. And I just wanted to make you aware of the emphasis in this conference and hope you are alert to certain things going on and I want to say some things related to other matters going in our city.

My particular reason for drawing these things to your attention is not because I feel called to be the critic of other ministries. I’m thankful that I’m not responsible for those ministries, I have my hands full with this ministry, but one of the responsibilities that I have along with the other elders of this church is to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict, and we are responsible to warn the flock and keep you alert and since these things are coming in to our city, they are things that impact us and the people of our church. So I just want you to be aware of it. This article started out, Fellowship Church already has five brick and mortar locations with more than 23,000 worshippers on a given Sunday and this church under the leadership of Ed Young, some of you are familiar, that name may be familiar. His father is the pastor of a huge church in Houston and he was on television, he may still be, but I used to see him periodically here in the city and did a good job with teaching the word. His son started this church in Dallas, the Dallas area and it has grown to be the size that is now.

He is kicking off a sermon series with an eye toward creating another location and the church is inviting people to visit their website and talk about changes they believe are needed in their lives. The pastor says we hear people say all the time; Jesus changed my life, we want to talk about how that change actually takes place in your life, and then they invite, you know, we are in this interactive day with computers where they want you to say what changes you would like to be made in your life. His comment is; the encouraging thing is that people are being authentic and open about how they need to change. Now, it’s a concern right there that this was encouraging, people are being authentic, this keyword, the church need to become authentic. We haven’t been authentic; people haven’t been genuine in the church and here now people are being authentic and open how they need to change.

The observation of the writer of this column from the Dallas morning news; the site is light on overtly religious messages. One professor at the University of Southern California says, it is brilliant from a marketing perspective but it is also very me oriented which appeals to folks who are turned off when religion seems holier than thou. And this campaign is also urging participants to do good deeds and acts of kindness as a way to help create change. You see somewhere in this, what does this has to do with the Bible, what it has to do with the message of Jesus Christ. It is encouraging that people are being authentic and open about how they need to change; I would like to be a better father, I need to stop drinking myself into death, things that you know have a place and part of our growing to maturity, but the real issue is what does the scripture say and what is our responsibility in light of it.

They are encouraging participants to do good deeds and acts of kindness as a way to help create change. Where does the bible say that is how we are going to change lives, so one church member delivered a basket of healthy snacks to a fire station, her husband gives $5 Starbucks gift cards to workers in the toll booth on the road. I mean not bad things to do but is this helping person to change in a biblical sense? You see we are reducing Christianity to do goodism and of course we get praised from the world for this because it is nice to do nice things for people, but we know biblically that doesn’t bring about any real spiritual change in a life. What brings about change in a life, we were talking about this morning in our consideration of the gospel.

Apart from that every change is what; superficial and this church member says when people step out of themselves to do something for others it can help them become better people. When you have that outward focus, your personal life starts coming together. You will notice we have really just got here positive thinking, doing good things; it helps you become a better person. Well, what about their soul, what about their eternal destiny? I was watching Joe Austin, some of you have seen him, he has been on television quite a bit not just as program, but is being interviewed on Fox News, he has a new book. This great winsome personality and periodically he throws in; well we believe Jesus is God, he is the savior, but everything else he says is about the ten steps, how you can improve your life and anybody can have a better life if they just do this and all people can change if they all do that. Wait a minute, are we helping, is that our goal to help people become better people on their way to hell?

Where is the church here to be the pillar and support of the truth, not unusual I was reading the southern Baptist magazine and part of what they are doing is they are giving up bottles of water everywhere, oh that is nice to give bottles of water, I just see it would be a great opening to talk about the gospel like Jesus did at the well, I like to give you a bottle of water. You find it refreshing in this hot day and I wonder if you know of the one who can give you water and you will never thirst again. But just to go around giving out bottles of water, what does that do? You know Christianity is not do-goodism, Christianity is proclaiming the message of Christ. And I want to mention to you the people involved in this, Ed Young will be here from Dallas, Robert Schuller Junior will be here, Leonard Sweet, professor of evangelism at Drew Theological School will be here.

I have been recommending Roger Oakland’s book Faith Undone, I recommend it so strongly just because it is a good overall acquaintance with what is going on and interesting thing to me is how the sacred service approached to the church and the emerging church are joining together, they are merging so that Bill Hybels from Willow Creek and Rick Warren from Saddleback, are becoming promoters of the emerging church which in some ways you could say would be critical of the sacred approach, but they find themselves joining together. If you read Faith Undone, you will find Leonard Sweet quoted numerous times throughout the book representing this new theology, emerging church theology.

Let me read you just some quotes so you hear what he has to say. This Leonard Sweet a leader in the emerging church, he has also been heavily involved with recording back in the mid nineties, they did an audio series together for the benefit of the church, he was ranked in Time magazine, was it; as one of the fifty most influential Christians in America, Leonard Sweet so here is what he has to say. He was influenced by people he calls new light leaders. “I have followed these new light leaders as I’m calling them from varying distance. They are my personal role models of the true nature of the post modern apologetic, more than anyone else they have been my teachers on how to translate without compromise the gospel into the vernacular.” I don’t know what he is thinking when he talks about translating the gospel into the vernacular. “Mysticism once cast to the side lines of the Christian tradition is now situated in post modernist culture near the center.

Too many people are nothing as our empty fuse or showering glass because we give them neither an energy fire experience of Christ, know that Christ of an energy fire experience. You note the word experience is key here, we don’t give them an energy fire experience of Christ, know the Christ of an energy fire experience. We may help them apprehend reality through the rudiments of mystical speculation but not the rapture of flow experiences. Mysticism which Einstein called cosmic religiosity is metaphysics arrived at through mind body experiences. Mysticism begins in experience, it ends in theology.” You don’t have to track all of that, I don’t either, but basically you see, we want to create experience that is why they want to go back to the old Roman Catholic mystics of bygone centuries. They want to create an atmosphere of people coming and they will feel God and out of that we will develop our theology now things are turned around. It is not because of the power of the word of God that our experiences are, in fact we develop our theology out of our experience, and he quotes that great theologian Einstein.

Let me read you another statement, you know I get carried away with this, it is what he says post-moderns want a God they can feel, taste, touch, hear and smell, a full sensory immersed in the divine. Where is the word of God in this, so now we are going to create – experience is key. We have to have an experience, we have to have that feeling of God, I want a God I can see, I can touch, sounds like just what God says they aren’t allowed to have. When he addressed Israel, wasn’t it, but post-moderns want a God they can feel, taste, touch, hear, smell, so they will find in the emerging church, they will use incense, candles and dark lights because this is all what is creating an experience because you will feel God in your life.

I say; God you are feeling in your life or we just create an experience by doing something with the environment. I mean have we wings coming up, they have haunted houses, they will create an experience for you or whoever goes, I mean does that mean it is something real in the spiritual Rome, no we can do that by manipulating the environment. As soon as experience leads your theology now that becomes dominance so this constant emphasis, this is Leonard Sweet, he will be in town, he is one of the keynote speakers at the conference that will be held here, in fact he will be doing the closing session speaking on global warming, life in the universe, great theological topic.

Another quote from him, “new life environment” means to be in connection and information with other faiths, one can be a faithful disciple of Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of Yahweh, or Kali or Krishna. Now, there is not exclusivity to Jesus Christ and biblical Christianity because now we learn from others and this kind of joining together becomes a dominant theme, so if you read Oakland’s book you will get a feel for what’s going on in the conference and I’m sure it will have an impact. With that I got an invitation dated October 10th and it was in the papers, it is not a private invitation, I don’t want you to think I’m more important than I’m, But this comes with some details.

Dear friend in Christ, please consider participating in the third annual leaders prayer summon and the date here coming up in November and so on. The prayer summit is designed to draw together pastors and Christian leaders with a heart for Lincoln to pray for our city. This year we expect to hear from several civic leaders about their concerns for Lincoln and what role they believe the churches should play in addressing those issues. Now wait a minute, I go to the civic leaders of the city to find out what the church is supposed to be doing, in a city in these days. The prayer summit is a rare opportunity to set aside the important doctrines that can naturally divide us and focus on who truly binds us.

Now I mentioned this because this is not the liberal churches in town, this comes from one of the evangelical pastors and they sponsor it, the man behind this; I spent many hours over the last few years in conversations with him personally about matters till I finally said; this is going nowhere, I wouldn’t be open to have lunch any more. I’m weary of our discussion. Of course there are goals, three goals committed to prayer, praise, and personal relationships as given to us in the Bible, and in the first and second great commandments. Second goal is we are committed to biblical unity as expressed by Jesus in his prayer, John 1723; may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you set me and have loved them even as I have loved them even as you loved me.

Remember we are to set aside the important doctrines that naturally divide us, the focus on who truly binds us, Jesus. And like, I never can make any sense out of a statement like this. Set aside the important doctrines that can divide us and focus on who truly binds us, Jesus. Well, we are talking about the gospels; you can’t do that without doctrine. I shared with you; a few years ago I was invited to join a meeting of large church pastors in town, evangelical pastors but they called me ahead of time because they wanted me to understand; I will have to agree not to want to talk about doctrine, if I came to their meetings.

What do we have, let us focus on Jesus, oh, who is he? I listened to Mitt Romney who is trying to be a presidential candidate and he made a statement of how important Jesus was in his life. Are we talking about the same person, well, we won’t get too much into the doctrine because you know what that will do, that will divide us because we will not agree on who Jesus is and what did he do and how are you saved. Is baptism necessary for your salvation, I mean let us not talk about doctrine. John 17 has been fulfilled by the way as you are aware when Jesus prayed for us to be one. Ephesians 2 tells us that was accomplished with his death and resurrection in the establishing of the church. Ephesians 2 says; he has brought Jew and Gentile together into one body that is done. It is not some kind of external unity that if all the churches would get together then our unity is what would bring about evangelism and an effective mission to the world. Really, we have got to back up, wait a minute, I’m sorry to bring this up again, we have talked about doctrine.

That is a misuse of John 17; you are saying in light of John 17 and Jesus high priestly prayer, we have got to bring all the churches together with external unity. No I’m sorry Ephesians 2 says that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the result of that and the salvation of Jew and Gentile brought together in one body fulfill that, I have nothing to do with; whether we get together with 13 other churches in the city and do something, so people will see we have “unity”. All right, in case you decide to attend this summit here is all day session on one day, the session tells you who the moderators are, two pastors from the evangelical churches in town here, the guests; the city council.

What will the city council do, well we have to answer the question, what are the greatest needs in Lincoln, and they welcome the churches of Lincoln to address these needs, now I appreciate the city council. And they would fall into the guidelines of praying for them as leaders in our city as First Timothy 2 instruct us to pray for leaders and those in positions of authority but has the church looked to the city council to find out, what are the greatest needs in Lincoln and then we have the city council tell what the churches at Lincoln can do to address, we already know what the greatest need is, isn’t it.

The city needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, right, needs to hear the truth of the word of God, the next session. Guests will be the superintendent of Lincoln schools and we will hear their -- what are the greatest needs in Lincoln, address that and then welcome the churches of Lincoln to address, we go to the superintendent of schools to find out what churches needs to do in Lincoln. You see the church has lost its way, we don’t have any idea what we are here for, that is all right, we get to the next session and the chief of police will be the guest and he will answer the same query what are the greatest needs from his perspective and what can the church of Lincoln do to meet these needs.

I mean are we lost, I mean has the church just become another supposed do good and guess what, this will make everybody feel good, we want these leaders to know we care, what they think and we want them to know what they would like us to do. All of these people say I appreciate the role they play in our city and I think it is fitting that we pray for them, I don’t look to them for spiritual leadership or guidance for what the church is to do, how would they know, I don’t even know if they are believers, I’m not saying that they are not just saying; I don’t know. The church is here to find out what are the needs of this city; what can we do. I was looking at, this is a while back but there was a church in Omaha, large evangelical church and they were going to hire a new pastor and one of the things that they had said that it would be necessary as he would have to agree to continue to work with the public schools, and continue their role of being a helpful influence there.

I mean these the kind of things the church has just gone mindless and I have some other examples but they might get too personal. There is somebody coming to town, and they want to know, while this man coming to speak on healthy relationships prevailing intimate partner violence, working with teen and adult while this -- and they mentioned his name, he is a Christian pastor this subject will be discussed within the context of diverse faiths and cultures. Now don’t let your Christianity influence what you do. All right, I got that off my chest, I feel better, thank you.

Turn your Bibles to Second Samuel Chapter 21, I think it is tragic beyond expression that the church is entrusted with the word of God, and we are muddling around without the foggiest idea of what the church is to do. And we want to do things that will have people saying nice things about us because if they say nice things about us it must be; we are doing something right. How can the word be so clear and the church gets so confused. Second Samuel Chapter 21 and we are going to have a word of prayer before we look into this passage.

Let us pray. Thank you Father for your grace, we do have a marvelous treasure in these earthen vessels, the revelation you have given of yourself, what a wonder that we can turn to this book and read your very words by the ministry of your spirit, we can understand and assimilate this truth into our lives. It is life changing, it changes us in every way, it makes us completely new, all things are gone, new things have come, in Christ we are in indeed new creations and we praise you for that wonderful truth. Lord, we would desire to be the pillar and support of the truth as we continue to proclaim it, we turn to your word this evening, pray that riches of this portion, of this treasure, will be used to encourage our hearts to remind us to nourish ourselves, for we pray in Christ’s name, amen.

Chapters 21 to 24 of Second Samuel really contain a variety of materials related to the reign of David. They don’t seem to be in any particular chronological order, so you just have information here that is collected if you will that gives us insight into certain events during the time that David reigned and are associated with his reign. This session will conclude in Chapter 24, with David purchasing the site upon which his son Solomon will build the temple, Mount Moriah, so comes to a conclusion on a very important note. Chapter 21 deals with the revenge of the Gibeonites on the family of Saul. We are not going to go back but 400 years earlier when Joshua was conquering the land in Joshua Chapter 9, the gibbets; to try to spare themselves from the destruction that Israel was bringing on all the Canaanite people, remember disguised themselves, put on all clothes, got moldy bread, they came to the camp of Israelites and they said; we are people from a far off land and we hear what God is doing through you.

And we want to sign a peace treaty, a covenant with you and then Joshua asks them; how do we know for sure you are from a distant land, oh yes look and they checked their breads, it says in Joshua 9 but they didn’t inquire of the Lord. So they went ahead and signed a covenant and said sure we are not interested in destroying you if you are far off some place and not part of the land here and we will sign a covenant. After they have signed a covenant, they realized three days later that the Gibeonites lived in the land of Canon but since the covenant had been made and God requires covenants to be honored, Joshua said all right you be our servants and our slaves, they said that is fine, so they don’t kill the Gibeonites, they spare them.

Now 400 years have gone by but Saul had slaughtered many of the Gibeonites, so the Chapter begins; now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year and David sought the presence of Lord and the Lord said it is for Saul and his bloody house because he put the Gibeonites to death. We are not given any information of this when Saul did this, what happened, anything like that. We are simply told that Saul verse 2, the king, David calls the Gibeonites; but the end of verse 2 Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah. So Saul’s intention was good in the sense he was zealous for Israel and Judah and these are non Jews and I want to clean them out. And even if he had good intentions it was not the right thing to do and God still remembers the covenant that was made 400 years before by Joshua and the believers of Israel with the Gibeonites.

Time doesn’t alter God’s word and that covenant was binding as it was made by God’s people with the Gibeonites. So God has brought famine on the land three years, there has been a famine in the land, now David knows what the cause of it is. God is judging Israel for violating the covenant with the Gibeonites, so king David calls the Gibeonites and asks them; what should we do, what would you want done to rectify the situation, obviously you can’t bring back to life the Gibeonites that Saul killed, the covenant was broken, so now we need to ask you what would you have us do to right this wrong. Verse 3, David said to Gibeonites; what should I do for you, how can I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord, the Gibeonites said to him; we have no concern for gold or silver, with Saul and his house and it is not up to us to put anybody to death in Israel.

So David says; I will do whatever you ask, in other words the Gibeonites says; it is not our position to put someone to death, someone needs to die to make this right. But it is not for us to do it and you can see if the Gibeonites get involved here, now you have got a foreign people and this could create some intense animosity in Israel towards the Gibeonites; even David said, all right go out and kill certain people. Well if the Gibeonites do that, the Israelites would probably have a problem with that. So David says; you tell me what you want done, I will do it. So they said to the king; verse 5 the man who consumed us, who planned to exterminate us from remaining within any borders of Israel, let seven men from his sons be given to us, we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul.

So with David’s authority, the Gibeonites will carry out an execution but it is done now under the protection of David and David instructing. He will even select the individuals who must die, seven sons of Saul will give their life, and they are to be hung. So the King selects seven who must die, so in effect he becomes the judge here determining the sentence. All that Gibeonites could do would be; and that was to ask in response to David in giving them that right. So David spares the Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan because he had an oath with Jonathan you remember.

Verses 7 to 9; you have seven of Saul’s sons that are hung, we are told who they were, two sons Rizpah in verse 8 and five sons of Merab. Inside a grave bring great pain, think of this mother; five of her sons are going to be hung; the other will have two hung. Now the law said; a life for a life, so to make atonement here is David, there has to be the proper penalty paid. David selects these seven; we don’t have any other information other than the seven sons of Saul.

Now in Deuteronomy Chapter 24 verse 16 as well as later Ezekiel write the same thing in Chapter 18; God says the son shall not be punished for the sins of a father nor the father for the sins of the son. But here Saul is dead now seven of his sons are going to pay the price but it may be that the sons of Saul were involved in this remember that Jonathan is the son of Saul who is prominent during Saul’s reign and he is actively involved in the wars and so on of his father and ends up dying in his father’s last battle along with his father.

So it wouldn’t be unusual to say that his other sons were also involved in certain of his activities and you will note Chapter 21 verse 1, the end of the verse the Lord said; that it is for Saul and his bloody house because he put the Gibeonites to death, so it could be these sons may have had some involvement, direct involvement in that action against the Gibeonites. They are hung, the end of verse 9 tell us they are put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest. One of the mothers Rizpah whose two sons died, she took sackcloth and spread it on the rock where they are hung. Imagine what it is like, here your sons, two sons hanging here with the others and the birds come, these are flesh animals who come so she spreads the clothe out on the rock and she is there to drive away the birds and any wild animals as her sons hang out there.

Verse 11; we are told, it was told to David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul had done. He did this from the barley harvest, the beginning of the harvest, the barley harvest that took place in the end of April until the rains came. Now if this is the normal rains that would be in October as it fell a long time there, the bodies as they decayed, it could refer to the rains that came to break the famine, drought that would have brought the famine, so it may not have been just from April to October, the normal fall rains but it could have been the rains that came when God’s justice was satisfied over the breaking of the covenant.

Verses 10 to 14, David hears about this mother and doing this for her sons, so he sends in and has the bodies taken down, the bodies were allowed to hang there and they became a testimony to everyone of the wrong that Saul had done to the Gibeonites, so they just didn’t kill them and bury them, this is an ongoing reminder that David feels enough has been done. He has these bodies taken down and he also recovers from the burial they had experienced the bones of Saul and Jonathan and he gathers them together, verse 12, 13, 14, and buries them in the grave of Saul’s father Kish. So a reminder here, sort of a concluding of that Chapter in Saul’s life now he is buried with Jonathan and other of his sons during the days of David. This is not David force so we don’t know when that happened during the reign of David, we just know that it did happen.

Verses 15 to 22 tell you about some of the wars heroes in Israel, men who have distinguished themselves in special ways, Abishai in verses 15 to 17. What happened there in a war; David was out and they are doing battle with the philistines and David not as young as he used to be got weary and tired. Then verse 16, Ishbi-Benob who was among the descendants of the giant, the weight of his spear was 300 shekels of bronze. He intended to kill David but Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him and struck the philistine and killed him, then the men of David swore to him saying; you shall not go out with this to battle, so you may not extinguish the lamp of Israel. I mean everybody realizes, worst thing that can happen when the King gets killed in a battle and when you have the armies of Israel without their king that would be the greatest disaster so they say; David you are tired now but Abishai here comes as a man who spared David’s life.

Verse 18, you have another, Sibbecai the Hushathite, verse 19 you have Elhanan and he killed a giant, verse 19 and you have to note something here in verse 19; there was war with the philistines again at Gob and Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim, some of these names, we keep repeating and keep drawing your attention there, names we haven’t used yet in our church for our kids. Jaare-Oregim, the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, I thought David killed Goliath the Gittite. Well in First Chronicles Chapter 20 verse five, we are not going to turn there but it is a parallel account and it tells us that Elhanan, the son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite. So we have some words not included here, he didn’t kill Goliath, he killed the brother of Goliath whose name was Lahmi, so you get that from the parallel account in First Chronicles 20 verse 5 then you have Jonathan and that closes out the account.

So verse 22, these four were born and how they died and these particular men are honored by these record. Chapter 22 is a Psalm of David, he focuses on the faithfulness of God to David, and how he delivered David from all his afflictions. He gave him victory over all his enemies, it is a long Psalm. You will see it runs 51 verses, really 50. First verse being an introduction, it is recorded in the book of Psalms and they are in the book of Psalms, it is Psalm 18. So here we have it presented in this history book but this Psalm is the same as you have recorded as Psalm 18 in your Bibles as well. We will just highlight some of the things, we won’t read the whole Psalm since it is a long Psalm and it will take a while.

The first four verses we are told, David spoke the words of this Psalm to the Lord on the day the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies, from the hand of Saul and he said and down through verse 4, he summarizes what God has done, God is David’s strength, he is David’s savior, David took refuge in his God, the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock and whom I take refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my savior, you saved me from violence, I called upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I’m saved from my enemies and that really summarizes what the rest of the Psalm is about.

David has had deliverance from his enemies, victory over his enemies because he called on the Lord and the Lord was his deliverer, the Lord is a rock to David, and unmovable he is, the one that David turns to, my stronghold, my refuge, his protection, his safety, his deliverer, God finds this in David. Verses 5 to 20 talk about how God intervened on David’s behalf. Verses 5 and 6; he was on the verge of death, verse 7; in my distress I called upon the Lord, yes I called to my God and the Lord heard him and so the Lord intervened on David’s behalf with great wrath in verses 8 all the way down to verse 19 as David unfolds the intervention of God on his behalf.

Verse 17; he sent from on high, he took me, he drew me out of many waters, he delivered me from my strong enemies, from those who hated me for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support and so on. So, David just giving God the praise with mercy and grace. In all his trials, in all his turmoil, all the difficulties God have been his savior, his deliverer. Then verses 21 to 28, David speaks of his own integrity and we have to take this in the proper sense because it can sound like David is bragging and really because he was such a good person and such a righteous man that is why God did these things.

Look at some of the statements verse 21 Lord; the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands he has recompensed me, for I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not acted wickedly against my God, his ordinances were before me, as were his statues, I did not depart from them, I was also blameless toward him, I kept myself from inequity therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness. That emphasis, it doesn’t mean that David earned God’s favor, we are well aware that David was a sinful man but David was a child of God and he conducted himself as a child of God sure. It doesn’t mean we can’t find failures in David’s life.

We will come to a failure when we come to Chapter 24 another failure but the general pattern of David’s life is not a man who never sinned because there is not a just man upon the earth who does good and sins not; David’s son Solomon would write, but the general tenor of David’s life is of a Godly man. He couldn’t have lived his life in ongoing rebellion against God and expect God to act on his behalf and God’s children manifest the fact that they belong to the one who is holy and righteous and so on. So that is what David is unfolding here and that is why the sin of David’s life, Bathsheba Uriah stands out as what, that black spot on David’s life, it just doesn’t belong there when you look at the overall pattern and that is what David is unfolding here, the general tenor of his life.

Down verse 29 to 46; God enabled David and what he does in this section in verses 29 to 46 is a long section, is David declares he has destroyed his enemies but the reason he has destroyed his enemies is God acted on his behalf and that balance is here. David just didn’t sit back and wait for God to destroy his enemies, David went out and did battle and endured the difficulties and the conflict and he crushed his enemies but David acknowledges the credit for these victories goes to the God who enabled me, who empowered me; he is the one who brought the victory. So do like Paul # I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.

He doesn’t say Christ Jesus does all things without me, and so Paul is an important central part of what God is doing, but it is only done because of the power of God in him. David is saying the same thing down through this section.

Verse 32; who is God besides the Lord, who is the rock besides our God, God is my fortress, he sets the blameless into his way, he makes my feet like hinds, he sets me on high places, trains my hands for battle so my arms can bend a bow of bronze, you have given me the shield of your salvation, your help makes me great. You see that emphasis, what David he has become invincible in that sense but it is God who is doing it, I have strength beyond myself, I can shoot a bow of bronze because it is the Lord who strengthens me.

Verse 38; I pursued my enemies and I destroyed them, I didn’t turn my back until they were devoured and on he goes but verse 40; you have girded me with strength for battle, you have subdued under me those who rose up against me, you have made my enemies turn their backs to me. They are running from him, so you see David talks about what he did but in that context he had lose sight of that; it was really God who enabled all this to happen and that balance is there, it is not oh I’m nothing, I didn’t do anything, I really never had a part in anything, it’s just the Lord did and I didn’t do anything, that is not true, that is not the way the Lord works and just tell us; go sit in the rock and wait till I get the job done, he tells us what must be done and that we have to pour all our energy, all our strength, all our effort in the work God has given us to do and we are successful because of God’s power and strength, that enablement, sees that what he has determined we are to accomplish, gets accomplished but it is never done without him using us as instruments.

So that goes on down through as I mentioned verse 46. Verses 47 to 51 conclude by declaring God’s greatness. Reminded some of these verses because of Psalms, the Lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted be God, the rock of my salvation. He is the God who executes vengeance for me, he brings down people under me and he brings me out from my enemies, he lifts me up above those who rise up against me, you rescue me from the violent men therefore I will give thanks to you oh God among the nations, I will sing praises to your name so on. Now in all this; here is what I have accomplished and here is how I crushed, I shattered, I destroyed my enemies but it was my God who gave me the power, it was my God who caused them to flee, that beautiful balance of David and as we look to this human perspective there is David the mighty king seeming to be invincible as he defeats his enemies and yet it is the hand of God, nobody can stand against him. But God is not doing without you and that balance that I think needs to be kept in mind through scripture.

Chapter 23, you will note the first seven verses are another Psalm, the first seven verses, these are the last words of David; these are not the last words which he ever utters. We will find those last words of David earthly words in First Kings Chapter 2. But this is his last formal utterance, this is his last Psalm, so like we might say here is I’m signing my last will and testament, but that doesn’t mean it is the last thing I’m saying, this is the final but it is the last formal that has finality to it. These are the last words of David and this was obviously done towards the end of his life and this is the last of his Psalms.

The son of Jesse declares; the man who was raised on high declares the anointed of God, the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel. We often refer to David by that title the sweet Psalmist of Israel. There are 150 Psalms in our bible, 73 of them are credited to David in the titles. He may have written more of them because there are a number of Psalms that you have read are not titled, they don’t credit them to anyone, they don’t say it is the Psalm of David or Psalm of Asaph or anyone else, so he may have written more but we know definitely 73 are credited to him there, so he is indeed the sweet Psalmist of Israel.

Interestingly here David knew he was writing under the inspiration of the spirit of God. Peter writes in the New Testament Second Peter Chapter 1 verse 21; holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the spirit of God. Look what David says in verse 2, the spirit of the Lord spoke by me, his word was on my tongue, the God of Israel said; the rock of Israel spoke to me, he rules over men righteously, he rules in the fear of God, that he was aware, he wasn’t just writing poetry, wasn’t writing just Psalms, he knew that it was God directing him in the writing, God speaking through him. It was God’s word and it was the spirit of God putting the word on my tongue.

Verse 2, he believes in verbal inspiration, he says; he put the word on my tongue, let us say he put the idea in my mind and then I wrote out the expression, no he put the very word on my tongue, goes on with this beautiful Psalm, how God uses a Godly ruler to bring refreshment to his people, brings to the fore the everlasting covenant that God had established with David in verse five; truly is not my house so with God, for he has made an everlasting covenant with me. In contrast verses 6 and 7, David talks about the wicked who oppose the people of God, they are destined for destruction, they will be completely be burned with fire in their place, the Psalm ends.

Verses 8 to 39, and we don’t need to go through this but some saying it is not important but you can read through, what it unfolds is David’s mighty men, what this chapter does is mention the most significant soldiers. There was a contingent of thirty men and we often refer to them when we talk about David’s mighty men or the thirty mighty men of David and they are referred to here like down in verse 18, Abishai the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah was chief of the thirty. Verse 19, he was the most honored of the thirty, so down through this and up earlier verse 13, three of the 30 chief men were down, so his constant reference to the thirty, these who have been evidently like David’s palace guard.

This was the inner circle of the inner circle and that these thirty men would have been the men that gave their life for David as was the body guard of David if you will so they are given really the rest of the Chapter and their name, now when you get down to verse 39, you are told there is 37 in all. And really some of these have died, they are replaced for example the last one in the list Uriah the Hittite, well we know he died, so the total number is greater than the thirty but the thirty would have been maintained, so for example when Uriah the Hittite died, husband of Bathsheba, he would have been replaced, so you keep the thirty intact.

One of these 30 men died in battle, another one of them then he would be replaced, so that is how you get the numbers here. One you ought to mention, Joab is not mentioned but he would have been part of this because he is the commander of David’s armies and he gets enough attention in other places, so that is the one number, so we go through and add the names up here you need to add Joab to get to the 37 and even though he is not mentioned, he has been given enough prominence as David’s military commander that it is a given that he is included in such a group. They are key; they played an important role in David’s becoming king, in his ongoing victories.

First Chronicles Chapter 11 verse 10 refers to these men and the key role they play with David. Here it is interesting, in Chapter 22 down through Chapter 23 verse 7 with his Psalm, the two Psalms in Chapter 22 and wherein Chapter 23 were David talks about God’s power in giving him the victory, on both sides of that there is a record given of David’s mighty men back in Chapter 21 verses 15 to 21, where a record of and statements regarding some of David’s mighty men, then you have those two Psalms that talk about God as the one who gives David the victory. Then you come to the last part of Psalm 23 after that second Psalm and you have an unfolding in greater detail of key warriors around David, mind it wasn’t just David that God was working in and empowering giving victory but these men, so that they did great things and they defeated huge numbers.

I mean the first man we are not going to work through this list, but in verse 8, Josheb-Basshebeth, Chief of the Captains, he is first of the first because he killed 800 men at one time, one battle 800 men. I mean he stands out and they will go through and say; now his name was greater here is what he did but he didn’t attain too the first three who have a special role even among the thirty and so on. So you have their particular standout event that elevated to them to the four. All right, sometimes in our military history we had men because of significant accomplishment in a particular battle, they stand out, perhaps it was an air battle and they had so many kills or something and that whatever, so that is what is going on in the rest of this Chapter and God brought victory, so you put Chapters 21 through Chapter 23 together and you see David and his particular inner contingent of mighty men and then in that you have the Psalms that unfold, it was God giving great victory to David, through David individually and through the men that God raised up to be around David.

We will leave Chapter 24 as that won’t work very well but I will do it anyway and we will tie it to moving into the Kings where David purchase the altar as we begin first Kings and First Kings are really going to wrap up David’s reign and by the time we get to Chapter 2 of First Kings, David will die and Solomon will accede to the throne. So we have really come through David’s reign here, one more event that is important, the last Chapter of Second Samuel where he does purchase the site where the temple will be rebuilt and that really -- remember he has been stockpiling the materials that will be necessary, then he gets the site and everything will be ready for great event in Solomon’s life where he will construct the temple, which will be the focus of Israel’s worship.

All right, let us have a word of prayer. Thank you Lord for your grace, we are reminded in every way and in every event, you are sovereign and in control. Even in the conflicts and battles, the wars, the physical confrontation that took place, it was your hand that brought victory to your people. Lord that is a blessing and encouragement to us in our lives to be reminded that you are sovereign in every way and sometimes we are weary, where the difficulties, the trials seem so great and our confidence is in you and you indeed are our strength, you are our stronghold, you are our refuge, you are our rock, you are the one who assures us the victory that you have begun your work in us, and you will continue to bring it to perfection until Jesus Christ brings us into the glory of your presence.

Encourage our hearts even as we serve you in the days of this week, even in our weariness where we will not be discouraged, even in difficulties and trials may we not be disappointed, may we rejoice at every opportunity to have you our God do what only you can do in using us for the accomplishing of your purposes. Thank you for a good day. We look forward to a good week in Christ’s name, amen.