2 SAMUEL 22 PURSUING GODS HEART PRODUCES PRAISE2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Samuel 22 Pursuing Gods Heart Produces Praise

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018.

This evening we are going to be here in 2 Samuel chapter 22, and as I shared over the past couple weeks, the closing chapters of 2 Samuel are not necessarily in chronological order, and they're not necessarily like a sequence of events, but they're just some additional details that were added into to give a complete picture of the life and the reign of King David. And

And we see that here in chapter 22, because all of chapter 22 is simply a song or a psalm that David wrote to the Lord, about the Lord, for the Lord. And you can see that in verse 1, where it says, Then David spoke to the Lord in the words of this song on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

And so we have this song that David wrote. And so as we're looking at this chapter this evening, I've titled the message, Pursuing God's Heart Produces Praise. And here as we look at David, the man after God's own heart, and

And we see, you know, the work that has happened in his life as a result of him seeking after the things of God. Here's, you know, one of the most noteworthy things that David is known for, and that is his praise, his songs, and the way that he was able to worship and the relationship that he had with God. And so we get a good example of that here in 2 Samuel chapter 22.

This psalm is pretty much identical with a couple minor changes, but to Psalm chapter 18. And so it was recorded for us in both places. And it's David looking back on the journey that he went through to become king.

And we walked through that journey on Wednesday nights. We're walking through that journey right now also, going through the Bible in three years. And so all of this is very fresh in my mind. I think it's probably fresh in your mind. And as he's thinking about, it's at the time where he is now king after some period of time. We don't know exactly when he wrote this, but if you picture what it describes there in verse 1,

He's survived the assault of Saul and survived all of that. He's finally become king. You might remember it took him a while. He became king early on over the land of Judah, but then there was seven years of turmoil and battle and issues for him to become king over all of Israel. And so this is written after that, that there's been a bit of a process.

And David is looking back at all the things that have happened, the wilderness journey, the battles that have taken place, the people who have died, the victories, the losses, all of those things. And true to David's style, as he looks back on those things, he writes a song about that. As he looks over that, he writes a song to help us kind of capture what's on his heart as he reviews those events. I like the way that G. Campbell Morgan describes this song.

He says,

And this is what we see, the method, the might, the mercy of God all throughout this psalm as we see David looking back and thinking about how God has brought him through all of these things. And so we're going to walk through this and learn some important aspects of praise and the reason why we praise God as we pursue his heart. The first point is found in verses 1 through 7, and that is God hears his people.

God hears his people. We're going to jump into verse 2. It says, Here as we get started here, David begins to just address the Lord.

He's talking to the Lord. He's talking about the Lord at the same time. He does that all throughout the psalm. Sometimes he's talking, you know, saying the Lord, and then sometimes he's saying you, Lord, and he goes back and forth all of the time. And here he is giving all of these different titles that he has for the Lord. And just take a moment and try to count up the titles found in these first couple verses. He calls the Lord his rock.

He calls the Lord his fortress, his deliverer. He calls him the God of my strength,

He calls him my shield. He calls him the horn of my salvation. He calls him my stronghold. He calls him my refuge. He calls him my savior. And you see David just packing in all of this depth and this truth about who God is right here from the beginning, right from the get-go. And so nine titles, perhaps you may add it up a different way, but that's a lot to pack into these two verses. And as David is doing that, he's not just saying,

you know, looking, he, you know, he pulled out his thesaurus, you know, just, you know, tried to fill up as much space as he could because, you know, the paper was due. He had to fill up three pages, you know, double spaced and he was having a hard time. So then he just added in a bunch of stuff. But this for him is, he's just reflecting as he looks back at how much of an impact God has made in his life.

And God has been all of these things, not just in name, not just in theory, not just in title, but literally.

David could talk about ways that he's interacted with God in each of these ways. He could talk about ways that God has worked in his life in each of these ways, with each of these titles that he is ascribing to him. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way. Each title is meaningful to David because God has fulfilled the meaning of the title in David's experience. This isn't a list of the names of God one might find in a systematic theology, but it's a list of the names of God that God has fulfilled in David's experience.

This is the knowledge of God combined with the right experience of God. David has experienced God as his fortress. And it's interesting to think about. And I would encourage you throughout this psalm to just kind of go back to verse one and remember what David is doing here. He's looking back at his journey to the throne.

Now, in the wilderness, when his life was threatened every day and he was just barely escaping, you know, it was getting closer and closer and closer every day that he was out there in the wilderness and Saul was almost catching him. At that time, you know, David might not have described God as my fortress. But looking back, he's able to say God is my fortress, right?

Even though he may not have felt that, but he has experienced the reality of that. God is my refuge. God is my, you know, my rock, my deliverer, my strength. And there might have been times where David felt like maybe God wasn't going to come through. Maybe God wasn't going to protect. Maybe that fortress wasn't, you know, the walls were going to come crumbling down. And there was

There's times throughout David's life where these probably, you know, seemed less true than they do at this point. But looking back in review, he's able to say with certainty, with confidence that

I really have experienced, even though I went through thick and thin, I went through difficult things, I really experienced that God is my fortress. And it prompts him and encourages him as he thinks about those past events. In verse 4, he says, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.

So knowing all of these things about God, having all of these experiences with God, as God is these different things in his life, David is now encouraged to call upon the Lord because he is my fortress. He is my strong tower. He is my rock. He is my foundation. He is, and he could list all of those things. Verse five, when the waves of death surrounded me,

The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me. The snares of death confronted me. Verse 7, in my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from his temple and my cry entered his ears. David says, I'm going to call upon the Lord because when the waves of death surrounded me, and notice these things that are like

that he's talking about. The waves of death surrounded and then the floods of ungodliness. He's talking about overwhelming situations.

the sorrows of Sheol, death, Hades, you know, they were pressing in on me, and the snares of death confronted me. I was face to face with all of these difficulties and challenges, but there in that spot, not from a place of security and peace and comfort and rest, but there in distress, I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his temple. And that's important. He's going to

Carry that out for a little bit further in the next few verses. But my cry entered his ears. There he is sitting up in his throne in heaven and he heard my voice. And that's the first thing I'd like us to reflect on this evening. God hears his people.

That when we're in the times of distress and the difficulty and whether or not we've experienced all of these aspects of God and the things that David is able to say about God if we're not able to say them exactly the same, but we can learn from him who God is and what God is like and then call out to him with this confidence that in our distress we call and he hears his people.

F.B. Meyer puts it this way, the voice of the sufferer may be weak and solitary, but it reaches through the gates of pearl and moves creation. And we might have that weak and that solitary voice. We might be weak from crying out, weak from calling out, weak from the distresses. We might barely be able to call out to God, but God hears as we call out to him. And then you know what God does? He

God fights for his people. The thing we sing about, the thing that Harvey shared about, the thing we'll continue to meditate on throughout this chapter. Here's the picture here. David is there in his distress. He's surrounded. He's overwhelmed. It's like, you know, certain death, certain doom. And then he calls out to the Lord and the Lord hears from heaven. And verse eight, then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken because he was angry.

And here God is standing up from his throne in heaven. He is standing up to fight and he is angry. Now, this idea of God being angry is a good aspect of God being angry because it's for you. God is angry for you, not at you.

If an angry parent, maybe like you had, storms out and says, if I have to come out here one more time, that's an angry parent who's angry at you, right? But if an angry parent gets up to defend their child against danger, that's angry for you. And that's the way that God is. As he responds to our cries, as he responds, as we call out to him,

He is angry for you. And he comes storming out of the room, not angry at you. He comes storming off the throne, not angry at you, but angry for you to deal with the situations at hand. And it reminds me of Romans 8, verse 31, where Paul says, what then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? Here's God angry. And if God is angry for you, who can stand against that? Who can stand against the God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, who is angry on your behalf and ready to fight? Look how he describes the fight that God brings in verse 9. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth.

It describes this like flurry of activity.

This storm that comes from the actions and the activities of the Lord. Smoke coming from his nostrils. Fire coming from his mouth. And so, you know, coals are kindled by it. Like there is this real effect that is taking place.

And the heavens are bowed down and darkness is descending as God descends. And he is affecting nature. He's affecting creation and everything around him. He's flying in on a cherub. This isn't, you know, he's not riding in on a donkey at this time. You know, it's going to take a little bit to get there. But he's flying in on a cherub, on the wings of the wind. He is there. He's on the move. He's at work.

fighting for this one who has called out to him. The brightness before him causes coals of fire to be kindled. His brightness, his brilliance, his presence is intense as he responds to the call. Verse 14, the Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice. He sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning bolts, and he vanquished them. The Lord thundered from heaven. Maybe it

brings to mind that recent storm we had, right? And that thundering, right? That you don't usually get that kind of storm out here, right? But if you've been back east a little bit, maybe you've experienced that. And it was like a taste of some storms I remember in Arkansas or in South Dakota, you know, it's just like boom, you know, and the walls shake. And then seeing the lightning come and I went out in the front yard and watched it like the 4th of July. We just were like

Who cares if we get wet? We're just watching the lightning strike and just, you know, seeing it. It's so cool. And here you see this. It's a picture of the Lord. The Lord thundered from heaven. And there is this massive power of the Lord as he comes to fight, as he utters his voice. He sends out his arrows, which is the bolts of lightning. And he's dealing with the enemies of his people. Verse 16 says,

Then the channels of the sea were seen. The foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. The channels of the sea were seen. The foundations of the world were uncovered. We're talking about God moving heaven and earth to fight for his people.

He is really making things happen at the rebuke of the Lord. And there is this serious battle that goes on. And it's God using his might, his power, and all that he has to accomplish victory for his people.

James Boyce describes it this way. What is most impressive, he says, is the magnificent way the psalmist describes God rising from his throne in heaven in response to his servant's cry, parting the clouds and descending to fight the king's battle accompanied by earthquakes, thunder, storms, and lightning. Here comes God in one swoop just getting off the throne and then there's earthquakes and shaking and lightning and thundering and there's all this happening. Why? Why?

Because David called out to the Lord and God hears his people. And he responds and he fights for his people. This is the reality of the God that we worship, the God that we praise, the God that we walk with. If there's people fighting against you, we have a great ally. If there is sin crouching at your door, fighting against you, we have an almighty God who is ready to

looking to fight for his people. Circumstances, fighting against you. God fights for his people, and it's an exhortation for us. It's a reminder for us to call out to the Lord. We face adversity from a multitude of different things for different reasons. Sometimes it's adversity we bring on ourselves, but that was true for David too, and we can call out to the Lord, and he fights for us.

He doesn't hold back, you know, and well, you know, you really weren't that good. So I'm just going to use one hand to fight with you, you know, or fight for you. I'm not going to give it all that I got. But no, the Lord is going to move heaven and earth to fight for us, to bring about victory, to bring about what's best for us as we call out to him and call upon him. Moving on to point number three, as we go on into verses 17 through 28, here we see that God delivers his people.

So he fights for us and then that brings deliverance. In verse 17, he sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, from those, or for they were too strong enemies.

And so here David is describing his situation when he called out to the Lord. He was surrounded. He was overwhelmed. He was flooded by these strong and powerful enemies. And David here is testifying, they were too strong for me. I couldn't get out of it. I couldn't deliver myself. I couldn't escape. I couldn't fight my way out. They were strong enemies. Too strong for me, but not too strong for the Lord. So he sat and he took me.

He drew me out of those many waters, that flood that was coming upon me. He drew me out of that and delivered me. He rescued me. Now, why did he do that? Verse 19, they confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He also brought me out into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. Over and over throughout the life of David, we come back to the grace of God.

We come back to the mercy of God. God delivered me because he delighted in me, because I'm so delightful. No, no, that's not the idea. That's not what David is saying. David is attributing this to God, not to himself. He delivered me not because I'm so delightful, but because God has chosen to be delighted in me. He's chosen to be fascinated with me. He's chosen to pay me attention. He's chosen to love me and show me grace and mercy. And so he delivered me.

This is what God does for his people. When we're surrounded, when we're oppressed, when we're flooded and we call out to the Lord, he stands up to fight and he delivers his people. Now, the next few verses are interesting and something that we might wrestle with in our minds a little bit. In verse 21, he says, the Lord 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 wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me. And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before him and I kept myself from iniquity. Therefore, the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eyes. Now, David here is saying that

He was rescued. He was delivered. He experienced these things and this work of God. And he says in verse 21, it was according to my righteousness. And this gives us some interesting things to think about. The timing of this psalm probably was before his encounter with Bathsheba and Uriah and all of that that unfolded. Hmm.

One of the reasons why that's suggested is because how could he say this if that happened afterwards? That according to my righteousness, the Lord delivered me. According to the cleanness of my hands, he's rewarded me. He's recompensed me. I've kept the ways of the Lord, David says. And well, you know, that couldn't be true. He couldn't sing that song after the situation with Bathsheba and Uriah and all of that. And yet I would stop and think, well, if it was before that,

Could he say up to that point, well, always before that, I was always righteous. I think we all know that. No, he really couldn't say that anytime in his life. He really couldn't say, I've been perfect, I've been flawless, and I've never failed, I've never had any issues. I mean, a couple Sundays ago, we looked at David's time in the land of the Philistines.

Now that for sure happened before this psalm. We know that for sure because this is now when David is king and he's already, you know, Saul's already died and he's already been on the throne. And so he spent that time in the land of the Philistines where he, for a year and a half, he didn't talk to God. He didn't walk with God. He was, you know, behaving in a way that is really despicable. And yet here he says, God delivered me because...

He's recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness. I was blameless before him and I kept myself from iniquity. How could David write these things, say these things, sing these things before the Lord? Pastor David Guzik says, David knew he was a forgiven man and the cleanness of his hands was because they were cleansed by God, not because they had never been dirtied.

And I think this is something interesting for us to consider. David here is able to write these things, which, I don't know, as I read them, I'm kind of like, wow, David, this kind of

It's kind of bold, after all that we know about you, you know, and especially here in 2 Samuel, and just the downward trend that we see of the devastation that happened in his life as a result of sin. And yet he's able to say, and I would suggest he would be able to sing still this psalm, even after the encounter with Bathsheba, and even after the encounter with Uriah and all those things that went on.

Because it's not that he was saying that he was perfect and that he had never failed, or as Guzik said, that his hands had never been dirty, but he was clean because God has cleansed him. In 2 Samuel 12, when Nathan the prophet confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah,

David says to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan says to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. And this is really important. This is really interesting to consider because the Lord has put away your sin. David believes that and behaves accordingly.

He receives that. He accepts that. I'm cleansed. And so before God, he is clean. He is blameless. Not because he's never ever once failed in his whole life, but because God has forgiven every failure that he has experienced.

Later on, David would write Psalm 32, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Listen, if the Lord doesn't impute iniquity, we're not more righteous if we impute iniquity. If the Lord doesn't impute iniquity,

then we can come to God in the cleanness and the cleansedness that he offers and that he provides as we come to him by faith and experience and accept the forgiveness that he has offered. And so this line of thinking, these thoughts that David is sharing here, we can pray, we can sing, even though we fall short, even though we fail.

We can look to God to save us because in his sight, we stand righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. That's what justified means. It's justified, never sin. And so not that we would try to convince other people that we're perfect and that we never fail, but as we're looking back at the work that God has done, as we're looking back at the battles, as we're looking at our current situations and calling out to the Lord, we're doing so from a position of cleanness.

Having been forgiven by the Lord. Verse 26 now. With the merciful, you will show yourself merciful. With a blameless man, you will show yourself blameless. With the pure, you will show yourself pure. And with the devious, you will show yourself shrewd. You will save the humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty that you may bring them down. Here is, we continue to consider this idea of God delivering his people. You can see a contrast here.

His people being merciful, God is merciful to them. And so yes, you've messed up, you failed, but I'm going to be merciful because you are merciful and you've accepted my mercy. With a blameless man, you'll be blameless. And God will deal blamelessly with those who walk with him and are cleansed by him. With the pure, you'll show yourself pure, he says. Now again, it's not that David was flawless, but he was cleansed.

His sin was put away from him. And so God will show himself pure to David because David is pure in the Lord. But in contrast, not God's people. With the devious, you will show yourself shrewd.

The one who is not merciful, the one who's not blameless, the one who's not pure, but the one who is devious, crafty, trying to outsmart the Lord, trying to, you know, maybe what you might describe as like getting all the benefits of walking with God, the blessings of God, but not actually walking with God. You know, the devious who's trying to get their own way, accomplish their own things,

God will show himself shrewd. In other words, you're not going to outsmart God. God's going to outsmart you every time. And so you're going to continually see your plans fail and your attempts will not succeed. But the humble people,

As opposed to the devious who is relying upon their resources and their intellect and their methods and their techniques. The humble people who look to the Lord and are led by the Lord and walk with the Lord, they will be saved. But the ones who are not humble, the ones who are

Fighting against God, he says, your eyes are on the haughty that you may bring them down. And we see that all throughout the scriptures, right? That God resists the proud. He uplifts the humble, but he brings down the proud, the haughty, the arrogant. God delivers his people, those who are humble, those who are

receive his mercy and are merciful as a result. Those who receive his grace and are forgiven and cleansed and righteous as a result, God delivers them. He delivers his people. Remember, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. It's not that Abraham was righteous in the sense that he never failed or never sinned or always did everything that was perfectly right, but he believed God and that was added to his account as righteousness.

righteousness. And the same is true with us. He who made, sorry, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so we are righteous in Jesus Christ and we are his people and God will deliver us as we call out to him.

Verses 29 through 37 gives us point number four, and that is God enables his people. As David continues this song and just singing and reflecting back at how God has worked in his life, God heard him and fought for him and delivered him. But also, David didn't just sit there in the lawn chair and just watch it all unfold. God enabled David to do that.

to be part of the victory and part of the work that he was doing in his life. In verse 29, he says, He says to the Lord, you're my lamp. You light up, you show me light.

Where to go? You're taking me step by step. You're enabling me to go the right way. Not only that, but by you, I can run against a troop.

David would have been great in the Lord of the Rings. I mean, he would have just shown Legolas what really it's like to fight in battle. He could run against a troop. He could fight valiantly. He was just one man. He wasn't that strong. David versus Goliath, that kind of continued as Saul was against him and these other battles that he had to fight. But with God on his side, he could face Goliath. He could face a troop. He could face great battles.

God enabled David to run against a troop and leap over a wall. Now, you know, I think of leaping over a wall as like,

I don't know if I really need God for that. I mean, I can just kind of climb. I mean, maybe I, you know, I couldn't just clear it, but I could get over it, right? But the idea here is like a city wall, right? Not just like, you know, brick wall around your house. But the idea here is this massive wall, this big obstacle, this huge hurdle. And how many times do we see hurdles, big obstacles, and we're stuck, we're overwhelmed. We can't figure out how to get over the wall. By my God, I can leap over.

over a wall. I can overcome that obstacle. I can get over that hurdle. This is the way that God works. As we call out to him, he fights for us. He delivers us, but he also enables us to be part of that deliverance and that victory by shining the light, showing us the way, and

By enabling us to fight against or run against the truth, by enabling us to leap over the obstacles, God gives us what we need. He calls us to participate and he helps us with what we need in order to participate in the work that he is doing in our lives.

It reminded me of Paul's word in Ephesians 6, verse 10, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And as we're there talking about spiritual warfare, spiritual battles, as Paul is laying out the armor of God, but here he's pointing out that the strength that we need, the enabling that we get is in the Lord. It's in the power of his might. It's God who has what we need,

to face the battles at hand, to, you know, get out of the midst of trouble that is surrounded us and flooded all around us. This is the way that we are enabled. It's by the power of the Lord, by the strength of the Lord. Continuing on here in verse 31, it says, As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

For who is God except the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? Verse 33, God is my strength and power. He makes my way perfect. David knows where he gets his strength. God is my strength. God is my power. And he makes my way perfect. Maybe just think back to this morning and the things that transpired throughout the day today.

And you get here to service on Wednesday night and you can look back and can you say, I got through the day today. And this day went the way that it went because God is my strength and power and he makes my way perfect. I think it's a good reminder for us to rely upon the enabling of the Lord and

I need the strength of God. I need to not just know that it exists and know that God fights and throws lightning bolts and shakes, but then I also need to walk in that to receive his power, to walk in the lamp, in the light that he is showing. I need to live out what he's providing for the life that he's allowed me to experience at this point. Verse 34 says,

Again, he's talking about how God enables him. And so on the mountains, he's able to jump around like a deer. He's got stability and he's not afraid of falling and he's able to navigate and move around.

He's not afraid of battle. He teaches my hands to make war. He teaches me what I need to know in the moments that I need it. He gives me the strength that I need so I can bend a bow of bronze. It's talking about how God has given him everything that he needs for the situations at hand. And we find that to be true. God gives us what we need. Where God calls us, he equips us. Where God guides, he provides. As God is working in our lives today,

he enables us to accomplish what it is that he has set before us. Verse 36, you have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me so my feet did not slip. You've given me the shield of your salvation. Now, it's not just that God is a shield, but David says, you've given me the shield.

And so again, it's this enabling. David is hiding behind the shield. He's using the shield. He is looking to salvation. He's trusting in salvation. He's not just sitting there and God's being a shield or God's using a shield, right? God has given him a shield and he's using it. And he's saying, I am saved. I am forgiven. I'm cleansed. And he is protecting himself.

With what God has given to him. And he's been enabled and equipped by the Lord to defend himself with the reality, with the truth, with the doctrine of salvation. So much so, he says, your gentleness has made me great. And I love the contrast that we get of God, right? First, you see him rising up off the throne and the earth shakes and the foundations are uncovered. And there's, you know, all of this massive movement. And David says, but it's your gentleness that

Your gentleness has made me great. You've provided this gentleness to me and this protection for me and given me everything that I need. And the way that you have treated me, you're the reason why I am who I am. You're the reason why I've been able to survive these things. You're the reason why I've had these victories and blessings in my life. Because you enlarged my path.

I was on shaky ground. It was like I was just barely walking the tripwire there. Tripwire is not the right word. The high wire, you know, and then suddenly, whom, you know, God enlarged it. So David, you couldn't fall off if you wanted to because God has enlarged his path so his foot would not slip. This is how God works in our lives. You know, it's interesting how many times we are so freaked out, right? Like,

Oh man, what if I missed, you know, the calling of God? What if I missed what God, you know, or it's like so worried of like, it's like this high wire and it's like, whoa, you know, I'm just barely hanging on. And we can call out to the Lord. He enables us and he spreads out the path. You can't fall off if you want to. You walk with the Lord and you start to go astray and he helps you out, you know, brings you back in line. He enables us.

This is what David sees as he looks back. God has done an incredible work, enabling me and bringing me this far and set me on the throne, just like he said that he would. Paul the Apostle in 1 Timothy 1, verse 12, said something similar. He says, I thank Jesus Christ, our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. And therefore, the calling that Paul had is,

He didn't feel enabled or not enabled. He didn't feel equipped. He didn't feel like he had what he needed, but God enabled him. And he wasn't worthy of God's enabling, but God counted him faithful. And so he is in the ministry because God...

enlarged the path under his feet, gave him a shield of faith and, you know, everything that he needed to be able to do the ministry that God had set before him. And God is working that way in our lives as well. He enables his people. He gives us everything that we need for the battles at hand, for the struggles that we face, for the things that we're going through. Verses 38 through 46 now give us point number five, and that is God gives his people victory.

He fights for us. He delivers us. He enables us. And here's the guarantee at the end. It's victory. That's what God is working out in our lives, in the lives of his people. He's working out victory. Verse 38, I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them.

Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed. And I have destroyed them and wounded them so that they could not rise. They have fallen under my feet. Now remember how David described the enemies earlier. They were like floods overwhelming him. These waves that were coming upon him. He was trapped. They were too strong for him. But now we find David chasing after his enemies. No longer are they surrounding him. And you know he's this helpless little creature.

you know, person in the midst of them. But now through God's fighting, through God's deliverance, through God's enabling, now David is pursuing. He's chasing down, chasing them down, tracking them down until they're all destroyed, until they've fallen under his feet. This didn't happen overnight. Again, this is David looking back on his life. I

It wasn't that, you know, he escaped from Saul one time and then he chased him down and stomped him under his feet, right? No, no, no. It was years of being chased, years of being overwhelmed. It was over the process of time. But it's amazing how time gives us this perspective and helps us to see God gives his people victory.

And it's an important thing to hold on to because as we go through the times of the wilderness and the times of, you know, distressing and those kinds of things, we call out to the Lord, recognizing that we may not see the final work of God instantly, but here's what we can know. When we call out, when we're in the wilderness, God stands up to fight. And the fight's going on, even if we can't quite recognize it yet. There's thunder and lightning, even if it's

Too distant for us to recognize. It's happening. God is working. He's working out deliverance. He's working out enabling. And enabling also doesn't just happen in a moment, in an instant. I mean, you think about the Apostle Paul. You know, God counted me faithful and put me into the ministry. He enabled me, right? But he also spent years in the wilderness being enabled by God for the ministry that was at hand. And then even throughout his years of ministry, God was...

building up some enabling in him for the other years that were to come still. I mean, it was the process of God building up and preparing David or Paul or Harvey or Kim or all of us, right? That God is working out this victory. It's like I shared on Sunday that God has given that promise that he will finish the work. And we don't always see that finished work or it doesn't seem like the work is even progressing many times in our lives. But

God gives his people victory. We call out to the Lord. This is the end, guaranteed. He is at work to bring about the victory. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says it this way. As he looked back on those years of danger and difficulty, David did not see the hardness of life. He saw the gentleness of God. Your life today may seem hard, but keep trusting and obeying. One of these days, God will give you your own victory song. And you're going to write...

2 Samuel chapter 25, the Psalm of Harvey, the Psalm of Elsa. When you write that Psalm Elsa, let's put it in the bulletin, okay, so everybody can read it. It'd be good. One of these days, God's going to give you your own victory song. Again, it doesn't always feel that way. And in the midst of the wilderness, it's hard to see that. But there will be a time where you'll, like David, be able to look back

And you're not going to notice, you're not going to remember so much the hardship and the danger, the difficulty. You're going to notice the gentleness of God. It's so hard for us to fathom. It's so hard for me to fathom. I mean, I'm just, you know, but this is true. This is truth. God gives his people victory and we can count on that. Verse 40 says,

Verse 1.

that the victory that David is describing here is a complete and total victory. Your enemy, it's not that person. There's an enemy of your soul. You're going to have victory. And that victory is going to be final and complete so that the enemy is beat as fine as the dust of the earth. The sin that crouches at our door to pounce, to trap, to

You're going to have victory and it's going to be final and complete and every last bit of it crushed. Those afflictions and difficulties and circumstances, whatever we might be considering, in our distress, we call out to the Lord and we can know.

We can rest assured whether we see it happening at the moment, whether we see it happening unfold before us, whether we recognize that it's going on, it's going on. God is working to give his people victory. He's moving heaven and earth to bring about this victory in your life. Verse 44, you have also delivered me from the strivings of my people.

David kind of looks over the past, describing all of the ways that God has worked, but he kind of moves more to the present now. The strivings of my people and all of the turmoil and conflict that happened with David to become king. There was some turmoil and conflict there.

And even if David did write this later on in his life and the things that happened with Absalom, it all fits. He could still sing this psalm at the end of his life. God has been working in David's life from those times in the wilderness to the times of rebellion to the times on the throne. And he's kept David there on the throne.

He's kept David in that role, in that position, because that's where God wanted him to be. And so David has victory. God gives his people victory. All throughout the chapter this evening, as I have been going through it, preparing for the message, but also sharing the message, that verse from Romans chapter 8, you know, if God is for us, who can be against us? And then all of the verses that follow,

Just fit right in line here with David's declarations about how God has worked in his life. Paul says in Romans chapter 8, He says,

We are more than conquerors. Whatever comes our way, whatever happens, whatever battles that we have to face and difficulties that we go through, we are more than conquerors. Nothing can separate us from God's love because God gives us victory. We're his people. And it's not based on our merits or our efforts, but it's based on his grace. Well, we're gonna finish up here with verses 47 through 51 says,

Here's point number six, let God be exalted. At the end of the day, David can't take credit for the victory, for the deliverance. David can't take credit for God fighting. David can just say, let God be exalted. Verse 47, the Lord lives. Blessed be my rock. Let God be exalted, the rock of my salvation. It is God who avenges me and subdues the peoples under me.

He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me. You have delivered me from the violent man. Therefore, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name. He is the tower of salvation to his king and shows mercy to his anointed, to David and his descendants forevermore. David concludes this psalm the only way that makes sense.

Just praising God. The Lord lives. He lives to fight for his people and deliver his people and enable his people and give his people victory. The Lord lives. Blessed be my rock. He's upheld me. He has been a sure foundation for me. Let him be exalted, the rock of my salvation. Because it's God who avenges me. And it's God who subdued the peoples. And it's God who's delivered me. And so he says, therefore, I will give thanks.

Therefore, I will thank God. I will praise God. I will sing praises to your name. This is where I got the title of the message, Pursuing God's Heart Produces Praise. Here we look at the man who God described as a man after my own heart. And we see him in the times of the wilderness and being pursued in the difficulties and afflictions, continuing to pursue God's heart. But in those times, he

That might not be that appealing. It might not be that exciting. Well, to pursue God's heart, well, you know, then you get all of this affliction and difficulty and you're just like on the brink of death. But God saves you, but you're there on the brink of death. It still hurts. But there is the process, but you have to look to the end. And you have to have this faith and this trust in God that He will see you to the end. He will accomplish His work. He will bring about victory in you.

And the end result is praise. If you will pursue God's heart, yes, there will be wilderness experiences. Yes, there will be highs and lows and valleys and valleys and all of those other things. There will be challenges. There will be afflictions. There will be battles to face. But you call out to the Lord and God will work. And at the end, you will sing praises.

Let God be exalted. You'll declare like David, the Lord lives. Blessed be my rock. Let God be exalted. And so this evening, I want to just finish with that and give us some time now as we close in worship. Kim's going to lead us in worship. And we just want to take some time to just be like David and just praise, just thank God. Maybe that is appropriate for you to kind of stop and reflect on how far God has brought you. And there's still more to come.

But God's working out the victory. He's working out the deliverance. He's working out the enabling. He's done so much of this already and he's doing so much more. And so we can praise him. We can worship him. We can enjoy these promises and this perspective on the work of God, producing God's heart. I'm sorry, pursuing God's heart produces praise. Let's worship the Lord together to close out our time.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.