Thank you.
All of the joy and tragedy of that swan's life was compressed into that single song, which was to be sung only once, with the final breath as it left the lungs of that swan.
And any man who heard that song was ruined for life, for all other music, which was, by comparison, dull and lifeless.
But, of course, no one ever heard such a song from a swan.
The story's a myth.
And the Greeks knew that.
But what is false with swans is sometimes true of men.
And so it is with this myth.
Swans, at their dying breath, sing no songs.
But the life of a person culminates in something.
There is for us a pinnacle, a summit that one reaches at some point in life.
And when one reaches that summit and surveys all the glories, joys, and tragedies of life, past and future, the soul of a man sings.
But what he or she sings is not so clear.
So what shall be the song that you sing as you survey a life gone by?
In what song will your life culminate?
Our text for today is a Psalm of David.
It's placed in our text this evening in the 22nd chapter of 2 Samuel.
It's repeated in Psalm 18, but we're going to look at the version tonight in 2 Samuel.
You can turn there with me now if you'd like.
2 Samuel chapter 22.
Though it is difficult to identify with precision when in his life David wrote this psalm,
the author of 2 Samuel puts it toward the end of the text.
Toward the end of his life as a culminating moment of all of David's life.
You'll see right after this in 23 we say we have the last words of David.
Which is interesting and perplexing because after the last words of David,
he goes off and says some other stuff.
We'll get to that next week.
What we're dealing with now is chapter 22.
22 placed by the narrator as a culminating moment in David's life.
And my prayer for tonight is that we look together at David's psalm.
And as we do so, we would gain a vision for the shape we desire our lives to take.
And for the song we desire to sing at our lives culmination.
Our text this evening teaches us one thing.
My grand point and three sub points.
The life of God's beloved culminates in joyful praise.
We see this together in three ways tonight, I hope, from this text.
The life of God's beloved culminates in joyful praise for battles won,
for righteousness vindicated,
and for the glory of God himself.
For battles won, for righteousness vindicated,
and for the glory of God himself.
Now let's look at our text together.
It's a little too long for us to read straight through,
so I'll read sections of it and give you sort of a running commentary as we go.
Let's look first at the fact that the life of God's beloved
culminates in joyful praise for battles won.
Look with me.
2 Samuel chapter 22, verse 1 through 6.
And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song
on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies
and from the hand of Saul.
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, 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.
The cords of Sheol entangled me.
The snares of death confronted me.
This text is a song of deliverance.
Before we can have deliverance,
we need to get an appreciation for the despair that David is in.
At the writing of this song,
the narrator wants us to see David as the conquering king
whose enemies, the Philistines, Saul, Absalom,
lie defeated around his feet.
David has taken the field of battle in his life
over and over and over again,
and every time the Lord has given him the victory.
We've seen this over the last months
as we've gone through David's life chapter by chapter.
And so after he has defeated these enemies,
he's now cleared out a living place
for the people of God in Israel.
He's established a reign of peace.
That would be used by his son Solomon
to marshal all of the resources of Israel,
not this time for warfaring,
but to build the dwelling place of God.
Now it's tempting to read these stories
over the last several chapters
and get bored with them
as though the outcome of them is not in question.
We know David doesn't die in these battles.
Therefore, we can't feel the drama.
We've had spoilers without spoiler alerts.
And it takes some work for us
to go back into the actual stories
and feel how tenuous the circumstance is.
If we are tempted to get bored with these battles,
notice that is not how David experienced these battles.
David seems here more confident than not
that he is going to be destroyed by his many enemies.
If ever we are tempted to read our Bibles
as though the people within his pages are characters
and not real, living, sometimes fearful human beings like we are,
let these words of David correct our error.
David knows the fear of death rattling his very bones.
And I wonder,
if we begin to see David like this,
does he not begin to look an awful lot more like us?
I wonder if you've ever felt this fear
of death rattling your bones,
of torrents of destruction as they threaten to overwhelm you.
This fear that though God has made promises to you
as he did to David at his anointing as king,
yet nevertheless the torrents of destruction assail you.
The promises of God are distant.
The swords of your enemies are near.
And you are afraid.
But take heart.
Be not afraid.
The Lord's anointed king, you see,
has also been where you are
in the pain of the,
in the pangs of death.
In this fearful state of enemies encroaching all around him,
what is David's response?
Look here in verse seven.
In my distress,
I called upon the Lord
and to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice
and my cry came to his ears.
In my distress,
in my distress,
I called upon the Lord.
The depths of distress
drive David into the arms of his God.
When the battle for his life is most intense,
David flees to one final fortress,
not his citadel,
castle,
but God himself.
What shall be the outcome for those who do such a thing?
If you identify with David
in the fear of death overwhelming you
and the torrents of destruction coming upon you,
and you were to do like David,
and in your distress call out to your God,
what would be the outcome for you?
What happens for David here?
From his temple,
he heard my voice
and my cry came to his ears.
Remember that his earthly temple is not yet built.
The temple he refers to here is
the temple of the lofty dwelling places of God in heaven.
David's God is enthroned in heaven,
but he is not a God who is aloof from the concerns of his people.
He's not too busy managing the spiraling of galaxies light years away
to hear the whimpering voice of a small, fragile man,
one of God's servants,
lying on his belly in a cave,
as the soldiers of Saul surround him.
He's praying for deliverance.
Just last week, scientists revealed that they found a black hole,
diameter of which is 22 billion suns across.
If it were to be placed at the center of our solar system,
it would encompass all of the planets except Pluto,
which isn't a planet, unfortunately, anymore.
God keeps that there.
At every moment, he sustains it in its position in the universe.
And the God who is lofty and enthroned in his temple
hears the voice of his servants who cry to him in their distress.
Not only does he hear,
he acts.
And he acts as one who has all of the power required to sustain the universe in its place.
Read with me.
Verse 8.
David says,
My cry came before his ears.
What did he do?
The earth reeled and rocked.
The foundations of the heavens trembled
and quaked because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth.
Glowing coals flamed forth from him.
He bowed the heavens and came down.
Thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub and flew.
He was seen on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness around him his canopy.
Thick clouds, a gathering of water.
Out of the brightness before him, coals of fire flamed forth.
The Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice.
He sent out his arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them.
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.
We are tempted to read these things as hyperbole.
I would suggest that they are understatement.
The heavens shook.
He bowed the heavens and came down.
This is effortless for David's God,
who is so big and yet so intimate.
Once David's God gets involved,
then the outcome can be in no doubt.
As it was for him,
so it shall be for you.
And so as we consider together what we desire our song to be
at the end of our lives that we sing,
we ought to learn from David in the heat of battle not to flee,
not to despair.
For the battles that we fight will one day be the fodder for praise.
The temptation to run and despair that you feel now will one day at the end of your life
be the occasion for great rejoicing.
Do not lose heart.
Be not afraid.
I would suggest that one of the reasons that we come together week by week to join as the people of God
is to share our stories with each other
of the victories that we have seen God win in battles fought for us.
It's despairing to see only our small bit of the battlefield that lies in front of us,
especially when victory seems so uncertain.
Therefore, stir each other up with tales of the mighty works of God.
And therefore we will see that the life of God's beloved culminates in joyful praise for battles won.
Secondly, we see from this text,
the life of God's beloved culminates in joyful praise for righteousness vindicated.
Look with me at verse 21.
David, still praising the Lord, says,
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands, he rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God.
All of his rules were before me and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
I was blameless before him.
And I kept myself from guilt.
And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness.
According to my cleanness in his sight.
Now I suspect that this is very likely the most difficult part of our passage for us to understand.
Since we know who David was.
We know his many failings.
If he's putting on an airbrushed image of himself here, we know better.
Now one interpretation of this passage suggests that David wrote these words before his decline into sin with Bathsheba.
But that's not the way the narrator presents him to us here.
The narrator presumes we've been reading along.
And we have been.
And we know the terrible things that David has done.
Adultery and murder are among them.
And here we find somebody saying that he has kept the ways of the Lord, have not departed from them in any regard.
We are tempted to look at him and say, David, that's nonsense.
Some cynics might interpret this simply as David trying to escape blame for his fault.
But that wouldn't explain the Psalms, he writes.
Wherein he confesses his sin to God.
David is not one who runs from his sin.
Except to run from his sin to his God.
And that I think is why he can say the things he says here.
Instead, I think we ought to see here that David is convinced of two things about God and his sin.
The first, God really does put behind him the sins of his people.
He really does.
Secondly, God's grace empowers his people to live righteously.
That first point, God truly does put behind him the sins of his people.
You see, all of this that David says here occurs within the covenant that God has made with David.
God has already covenanted to elect him as his anointed one.
To forgive his many sins.
Within the covenant with God, all of these things about the blamelessness of a murderer and adulterer,
they're all true.
God really does forget David's sin.
Not like some passive-aggressive friend
who makes a show about not bringing up your error
by bringing up your error.
Not like one who continually holds it over you
and then holds their forgiveness over you as well.
That's not the way God works.
He drowns our sins in the depths of the sea.
He takes them into the pit of hell and burns them there.
They're gone.
You remember them better than he does.
Of this, David is very convinced,
though he doesn't give an argument for how it works.
We'll get to that in a bit.
So, God truly does put behind him the sins of his people.
Secondly, I think David is convinced that God's grace empowers his people to live righteously.
God's grace empowers his people to live righteously.
Look at the way he says the things that he's done.
Look at verse 30, talking about his military endeavors.
He says,
For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
By you, by my God, I can do these things.
David is aware of the fact that the motivating force behind all of his military success
is the power of God.
He is not acting at any moment in this psalm independent of the grace of God.
Look again at verse 33.
Not only are David's military exploits motivated by the grace of God,
but also his moral exploits are empowered by the grace of God.
Verse 33.
The Lord is my strong refuge.
He has made my way blameless.
He has done this.
I don't merely sit here blameless before him by my own doing.
He had some agency in this.
But if you think that these things are less than obvious in our text,
I don't blame you.
What is unclear for David about how all this stuff works
is clear for us.
We know how God can forget, really forget the sins of his people
so that we can really say that we stand blameless before him.
And we know how God's grace empowers us to do good action.
We know something about God that David didn't know.
We have better insight into this mystery than David did.
How does it work?
The one who is absent from this text thus far,
but not until the end of the chapter,
is Jesus.
For the Christian,
Jesus is the reason that we are able to stand blameless before God.
Jesus and the purchasing of our souls
that he did on a cross
and the Holy Spirit that he sent to indwell the lives of those who love him
make it possible for us to be motivated by God to good works.
Jesus does this.
Jesus makes David not a liar.
Jesus has been doing that for all of us ever since.
We'll come back to Jesus in a bit.
But we see then that those who take their refuge in the fortress of God
have good confidence that they will never be ashamed.
The life of God's beloved culminates in joyful praise
for righteousness vindicated.
Thirdly and finally,
the life of God's beloved
culminates in joyful praise
for the glory of God himself.
The glory of God himself.
Look with me at verse 47
and following.
The Lord lives.
And blessed be my rock
and exalted be my God,
the rock of my salvation.
The God who gave me vengeance
and brought down peoples under me
who brought me out from my enemies.
You exalted me above those who rose against me.
You delivered me from men of violence.
For this I will praise you, O Lord,
among the nations
and sing praises to your name.
Great salvation he brings
to his king.
And he shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his offspring forever.
The life of God's beloved culminates
in joyful praise for God himself.
Look at that first phrase in 47.
The Lord lives.
Had nothing in this chapter been written
other than that,
we would have sufficient motivation for praise.
The Lord lives.
He is who he is.
He cannot be any other than he is.
He is good.
He is love.
Therefore, who cares what the Philistines do?
Yes, it's wonderful that they are now smitten,
destroyed by David.
But the Lord lives.
And though you may not see now victory
in the battles you fight
the way David himself did not
in the middle of the battles
see victory coming for him,
the Lord lives.
And tomorrow morning you will wake up
and the Lord will live.
And therefore, you will have reason for rejoicing
tonight as you lay down
and tomorrow as you rise up.
And so long as that sun shines on you
and for trillions of years afterwards,
you will have a reason to rejoice
because the Lord lives.
But that's not all.
Verse 51.
Great salvation he brings to his king
and he shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his offspring forever.
Great salvation he brings.
How very little David knows the truth of this statement.
You see, this text, this chapter,
frames the entire text of Samuel,
first and second Samuel.
And if you look on the other side of the frame
for a parallel, what you find is this.
Hannah's song.
Hannah, the one who prayed,
begged the Lord for a child
and the Lord gave her Samuel.
And she sings
just like David does here.
All of these histories
are framed by songs.
When Hannah begged the Lord for a son
to rid her of the disgrace of her barrenness,
the Lord responded by giving her Samuel,
which set in motion this series of events
that would culminate in the anointing of David.
But it wouldn't really culminate there.
No.
Samuel, you see, is prologue to David.
But David is prologue to another one
who would come.
Hannah could little imagine
the grand story of which she was becoming a part
when she mumbled her prayers
through tears.
David could little imagine
the grandeur of what God would do
in answering his prayers.
David knows the goodness of God.
But there is so much goodness of God
that David does not know.
And who knows
what story you are in the middle of
when you pray your prayers through tears.
Like Hannah,
alone,
barren,
disgraced.
Or like David,
alone,
fleeing from Saul,
hiding in dank,
damp caves,
praying
to the Lord
who sustains the universe.
And the Lord does
greater
than they asked for.
Has he stopped
responding
to the prayers
of his people
in that way?
No.
God, you see,
is always doing
greater
than we realize.
And when David here
thanks the Lord
for the salvation,
he brings
from the Philistines,
he knows little
of the salvation
that is to come
through one
that will come
out of his own lineage.
When God
makes to David
the promise
to put one of his seed
on the throne
forever,
little does David know
that the one
who is foretold
is God himself.
When we give praise
to God,
you see,
for his gracious works,
be they for righteousness
vindicated
or for battles won,
we can be confident
that our words
express a slim fraction
of his greatness
and glory.
No matter how
magnificent your praise
is to God,
it is always
understatement.
For God
is enthroned
in glory.
Far surpassing the minds
of angels,
far surpassing the minds
of angels,
trillions and trillions
of years of study
will yield but a fraction,
an infinitely small fraction
of the glory of God.
There will always be more
to rejoice in,
to discover about the glory
of God.
That's what makes heaven
so worth looking forward to.
No harps
and naked winged
babies on clouds,
no infinite ravishment
with the glory
of God.
Great salvation
he brings
to his king,
he shows
steadfast love
to his anointed,
to David
and his
offspring,
to the one
who will come
from the line
of David
and all
who will associate
themselves
with the one
who comes
from the line
of David.
Salvation
he will bring
to them.
And this is how
David can say
he walks in righteousness.
This is how he says
he can do great things.
This is how he can say
the Lord has won
for him great battles.
In retrospect,
all of this makes
so much more sense
than it did for David.
We can see
God being gracious
to David
in a way that
David could not
see.
God was
in David's life
preparing the grounds
not only for the
building of a temple
but for the birth
of a son,
Jesus
himself.
Yes,
very shortly
God would make
his dwelling place
with man
in the temple
but most supremely
in the incarnation
of Jesus.
These things
are so great
that the beauty
of even
the swan song
is not adequate
to tell the full
glory of God.
We will never
exhaust
the praises
of God
even with
those last songs
surveying
the entirety
of our life
and the graciousness
of God
to us.
We will never
exhaust
his praise.
The heart
of God's
people
then
yearn
for more
tongues
to sing.
Yes,
indeed,
for a thousand
tongues
to sing
as we
ourselves
will sing
very shortly.
For a thousand
tongues
to sing
our great
Redeemer's
love.
That
is the
desire
for the
people
of God.
The greatest
poetry
that we
can muster,
the greatest
rationale
that we
can discover
is insufficient
to plumb
the depths
of God's
love and
mercy.
And so
we're going
to need
infinity,
eternity
to do it.
And we're
going to need
each other
that we
can bask
in the
glory of
God
directly
and reflected
in each
other.
And if you
desire to
have a life
that goes
about itself
day by day
preparing
to sing
such a
grand song
of God's
praise,
day by
day
commit
yourself
to
practicing
this,
to beholding
the glory
of God
in the
face of
Christ
revealed
in the
scripture,
in the
words of
Christ
spoken
in
scripture,
and in
the image
of God
displayed
in the
ones who
sit next
to you
and behind
you
and before
you.
Commit
yourself
to the
love of
God
and neighbor
experience
your soul
to be
ravished
by
Christ
and
prepare
yourself
to sing
a song
of praise
for
eternity
to come.
God
let's
pray
together.
We shall
sing very
soon
Lord
Christ
that we
desire
a thousand
tongues
to sing
your
great
praise
but we
know
that a
thousand
tongues
would be
insufficient
to sing
your praise
and therefore
we humbly
come to
you
and we
say
thank you
for the
grand
things you've
done for
us in
Christ.
We pray
that even
as we go
from this
place
tonight
you would
give us
greater
and clearer
glimpses
of what
you've
done
for us
and that
new
morning
by new
morning
your
mercies
would be
likewise
new
to us.
That from
this day
until the
day when
our lungs
expel
their last
breath
we would
have clearer
and clearer
pictures
of you.
And that
after one
day you
breathe back
life into
our mortal
bodies once
again
we would
have infinite
resources
for singing
to you
a song
of joyful
praise.
In the name
of Jesus
I ask
these things.
Amen.