2 Samuel 22:1-6 “David sang to the Lord the words of this song 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, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me. “I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies. The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.” Today's episode focus' on David and his life. It talks about how God loved David and yet did not shield David from hard times and he is not going to shield you either. Trials are a necessary part of life. It's what we do in those hard times that shape who we become. David called to the Lord, what do you do? Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Am Saved! (Identity Series)
2 Samuel 22:1-6 “David sang to the Lord the words of this song 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, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge, and my savior— from violent people, you save me. “I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise and have been saved from my enemies. The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.”
I heard this verse while typing up the minutes for my prayer group yesterday. I was just going to use the first part, the part that ends with “my refuge and my savior —from violent people you save me.” That was where I was going to stop, and yet I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to include the next few verses, too. The thought came to me, “What if the Lord hasn’t saved them yet? What if they are still stuck in a rough time? They will want to hear the next few lines. They will want to see that David knew the real dangers.
I will start at the beginning. “David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” If you don’t know the story of David’s life you should read it sometime, he had a truly fascinating life. Most people know about David and Goliath, and maybe that David is the author of many of the Psalms, and that’s about it. If you only know about David and Goliath, you might think that David has a pretty great life. It seems like if he did something that amazing, he would be instantly famous. In today’s day and age, he would become an influencer and go all over the world talking about how we can all slay our giants. However, this wasn’t David’s fate.
David killed the giant and then went back home to tend to his dad’s sheep. One day, the prophet Samuel got the word from God that he needed to go and anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the next king. Samuel saw David’s older brothers and thought for sure they would be the anointed ones because they “looked like kings.” God told Samuel that He will not judge by outside appearance but by inside appearance; he will judge by what is in their hearts. David was not home when Samuel first got there to pick up a son. Once the Lord ruled out all the other sons, Samuel asked if Jesse had any other sons and they sent someone to go get David. David was now anointed with oil to be the next king.
After being anointed as the next king you would think that David’s life was not going to get really interesting. Maybe he would go to the palace and learn from the present king. You might think that he was to become king right away. Neither of these is what happened. I believe David went back to taking care of his father’s sheep. From the time that David was anointed King to when he became king was 15 years. During that time, David went to play the Lyre for the current king, Saul, got banished by Saul, hid in the desert, lived on the run, was forced out of the nation, and fought many battles. This was all in the 15 years before David became king. I didn’t intend to go into so much detail about David, and yet I think the Holy Spirit wanted to let us know that life is not linear. It is not that things in life always work out at the time that we want them to. It is not always moving forward. Sometimes you will get great news, like a job promotion is coming and yet that promotion might be three years in the future. You might pray for God to save you from your current boss, and He is, just not yet. You might take three steps forward and two steps back. This is how it was for David. He would have something amazing happen and then nothing. He would be doing great and then find himself hiding in a cave.
I feel what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us this morning is that this verse is absolutely true. The Lord is our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer; Our God is our rock, in whom we take refuge, our shield and the horn of our salvation. He is our stronghold, our refuge, and our savior. This is all true and on good days, in good times, we know this, we say this, we tell others this. What about the bad times? Do you still know this? Do we still tell others that God is our rock and our savior when we are in the middle of a really hard time? Do we tell ourselves? Is there a way to rely on the Lord in these hard times?
You might be thinking when you first hear David’s songs to the Lord, as he has many, that David is different because he was anointed. Of course, he can rely on God, or, of course, he is taken care of by God; he is anointed. I’ve got news for you my friend, so are you! You were anointed in your baptism as priest, prophet, and king. David was anointed as king, you’ve been anointed for all three. One thing I really admire about David is that he was never too proud to turn back to God. If you read about David, you can see how much he was loved by God and how much he loved God. God loved David and anointed him to be king and yet did not spare him from hardships. David did not have an easy life. He struggled a lot. Just look at how David describes the hard times in his life, “The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.”
How many of us know exactly what David is talking about here? How many of us hear that and are brought right back into a really difficult time in our past, or maybe this describes what we are going through right now? This is a pretty descriptive language, and it lets us know exactly how bad things were for David. It shows us that he did not have an easy life. God loves us just as much as he loved David and yet he is not going to spare us from trial. Trials are where we grow. Trails are when we turn to God the most. These trials are what transformed David from a shepherd boy into a king. The same is true for us, for you and me. The trials we go through transform us into the person we need to become.
There is one line in the verse that I haven’t talked about yet and I think it is the key to how David was able to persevere for so long without losing his faith in our Lord God and Savior. “I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies,” David called out to the Lord every single time. We might think because David was anointed and because he was so loved by God that, he was a really good person and didn’t really mess up too much. It was easy for David to call on the Lord because the Lord loved him and because he followed the Lord’s ways, so, of course, the Lord would help him. Yes, David did try to follow the Lord’s ways, just like we do, and yet he messed up a lot, just like we do. One of David’s biggest mess-ups that I know of is when he saw a woman bathing while he was on top of his house and had the woman brought to him. She was married, and he had his way with her anyway. Then he later found out that she was pregnant and knew that everyone would know it was not her husband’s because he was a soldier away at war, so he had her husband killed and took her as his wife. Ok, you may have done some pretty bad things, but do they compare to that?
We often think we can’t go to the Lord; we can’t call on the Lord because we have sinned and we are not worthy of His help. This is garbage, and it comes straight from the enemy. The reason God helped David so much was because David asked. I believe it is that simple. When David disobeyed the Lord when he messed up, he always repented, said sorry, and then went to the Lord to get him out of the situation he found himself in. David knew he could always go to the Lord. He knew God wouldn’t always be happy with him, that is why he repented but he trusted that he could always go to Him when needed. God is there for you, too. There is nothing you can do that would cause God to turn his back on you. There is nothing you could do that would make you less loved. There is nothing you can do that would make it so you can’t go to the Father for help. Go to the Lord; look how much trouble David got out of by simply calling to God.
One last thing I want to remind you of is that praise is so important as well. If you are feeling unworthy, if you are feeling stressed or worried, if you are feeling spiritually empty or dry, praise God through it. When we praise God, the enemy flees. He can’t stand to hear us worship God. You don’t have to know the right things to say, and you don’t even have to say anything. You can just put on Christian music and listen to the words. Let the words penetrate your heart and mind. I know you will feel increasingly better the more you praise the Lord in the tough times!
Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this episode. Lord, we love you, and we praise you. You are worthy of praise. We ask you to be our rock and our stronghold. Lord we ask you to help us turn to you, even when we don’t feel worthy, even when we don’t think we deserve your help. Lord, if we have done something to offend you, please put it on our hearts, and please help us to repent. We thank you, Lord, for always being there for David, and we thank you for always being there for us. Help us to see how you have been there for us over the years. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. My book is for sale on my website right now. If you buy from my website I will write a personal message and sign it before sending it to you. I will put a link for my website and book in the show notes. Click Here for the book and Click Here for my website in the show notes. Thank you for all your support, I really appreciate it! I look forward to meeting you hear again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Love. Love is the light within you.”