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[0:00] Psalm 22, beginning in verse 1.

[0:16] And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on this day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

[0:27] ! He said, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior.

[0:44] 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.

[1:06] In my distress I called upon the Lord, to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.

[1:18] Then 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.

[1:39] He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew, and was seen on the wings of the wind.

[1:53] 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, and he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them.

[2:14] 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.

[2:28] He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from the strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

[2:41] They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place.

[2:53] He rescued me because he delighted in me. And that is the word of the Lord. And this is called praising in distress.

[3:04] And it comes from verse 7, which is kind of a thematic verse here. It says, In my distress, I called upon the Lord.

[3:15] To my God, I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. What a great promise that when we do call on the Lord, when we call out to his name in prayer, he hears.

[3:29] And that's an amazing thought, especially considering how many gods there are out there. Only one true God. Everyone else is false, which means they can't hear you.

[3:41] Only the true God can hear you. And that's an amazing thought, especially in the day when this was written. All kinds of gods that people believed. And in today's time.

[3:52] All kinds of gods that we believe out there. Okay, so let's kind of break this down and see what it's talking about here. We see that this is David speaking.

[4:04] And I've talked about last week when we talked about 21. That really the last several chapters of 2 Samuel are not really meant to be taken chronologically.

[4:14] Like the rest of 2 Samuel. You can see chapters 1 through 20 really kind of being in order, at least for the most part. And then kind of going into 1 Kings, the story kind of picks up.

[4:27] The narrative picks up. But chapters 21 through 24, it's kind of a break from that. Kind of a summary of David's life. So this psalm, this chapter is not necessarily written in this time period.

[4:45] Like right after chapter 20. And most likely it might have been written before that. You can see some evidence right there in verse 1. From the hand of Saul that the Lord delivered him.

[4:58] So it could have been written sometime before. But he became king in his earlier life. At the same time, he could be thinking back at the time that he was rescued from the hand of Saul.

[5:11] And all of the other enemies. And that would make a lot of sense. And I think it's why it's right here. In this place, you saw that David has found himself surrounded by all kinds of enemies.

[5:22] In many times of his past, you know of King Saul that wanted to kill him. At least 5 times in 1 Samuel, it's listed that Saul literally wanted to kill him.

[5:33] And of course, that's just representative of all of the times that he probably wanted to do that. And of course, he didn't really want to stop killing him.

[5:45] So that was almost really 10 years. Easily 10 years that Saul was going after David. If you can imagine that. Also, after David became king, there were a few times that people wanted to go after him.

[6:01] Not just enemy kings, although every king had to deal with that. But also, his own son. Absalom definitely went after him.

[6:12] And so much to the point that he was able to gain so much power to be able to take over Jerusalem. David had to flee Jerusalem, thankfully with quite a few men.

[6:23] But nonetheless, Absalom had a whole lot more men at his disposal. And could have easily killed him. But God intervened. And we're going to see many different things that are happening here where God intervened in David's life.

[6:41] You also notice that David has said many a times here that these elements, these places that he has found himself in, he finds himself to be helpless.

[6:53] Now David, who as a teenager, who as a young man was able to defeat a giant, you would think that he is not going to be helpless. Yet, he describes many of these things as being helpless.

[7:08] That he needed to trust in someone else. And of course, the someone ultimately is God. And so we come into the first part of this passage of scripture.

[7:21] After talking about the David spoke, after the Lord delivered him from all these enemies, from the hand of Saul. He starts describing God. He starts describing the greatness of God.

[7:33] And it is a truth. And he's rendering out in praise. He is speaking it out in praise. He is singing it out in praise. And it demands a response at this time.

[7:45] I want to add something here. Not just from me, but from Psalm 18. Verse 1, Psalm 18 says, I love you, O Lord, my strength.

[7:57] That's how they begin that psalm. And then they go from, I love you, O Lord, my strength. To, the Lord is my rock. So that is the response that David is giving right here at this point.

[8:08] He is saying just right up front, I love you, O Lord, my strength. And then he describes who the Lord is. He gives a reason why he loves the Lord.

[8:19] Why he chooses to serve him. Why he chooses to follow him. And it kind of gives you an idea of what the love is really about as well. God is his rock. He is his fortress.

[8:30] He is his deliverer. He is the one he takes refuge in. If you notice, refuge, fortress. Really, they sound alike, don't they? Well, this is a ploy.

[8:41] This is a way that he is using. Something that is very familiar in poetry, Hebrew poetry especially. But all kinds of other poetry. Repetition. He is just saying it. Maybe different ways.

[8:52] Maybe different terms. But it means the same type of thing. That the Lord is his deliverer. He is his rescue. As it says in other places in scripture here.

[9:03] He is his rock. He is his stronghold. His fortress. His refuge. Even it goes into verse 3. And it says my shield and the horn of my salvation.

[9:17] You can see shield kind of being very similar to the deliverer. The horn of his salvation. Similar to his strength. As it says in the first verse of Psalm 18.

[9:28] So the horn. What's represented right there. Of course, they used horns a lot in battle to sound. But what's being talked about. You think of the horns of a ram.

[9:40] As they are ramming into the head of another ram. Or like a football player ramming his head into that. I learned on Friday you're not supposed to do that. And so.

[9:52] But nonetheless. It's kind of what it's talking about. It symbolizes strength. And so. This is his God. This is the God that he trusts.

[10:03] Is a God that can deliver. Is a God that is strong. Is the God that is. His foundation. And that he's also his refuge as well. We just sang a few hymns about.

[10:16] The refuge of God as his rock. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock. Or trusting in Christ as our solid rock. So we're singing about these. We're understanding.

[10:27] That this is who God is. And it also characterizes. And it characterizes what he does as well. What does it say that he does in here? Verse 3.

[10:38] My Savior. You saved me from violence. That's just simple fact. Why would someone be able to save them from violence. If they were not able to do that.

[10:50] And yet God is described as who he is. His Savior. His rescue. His deliverer. He is able to save them from violence.

[11:01] And then there's also another response that David brings too. In verse 4. I call upon the Lord. Why? Well because he's worthy to be praised.

[11:11] Because he is all of these things. And he proves himself to be these things. By doing what he is. He is going to do what he is.

[11:21] He's all. And that's something that we can trust in God as well. He is consistent about this. God says he is this. He's going to do. Consistently.

[11:34] What he is. I mean he is that way. He is consistent. Always consistent. That's an amazing thought too. We trust in the Lord. We serve a Lord.

[11:45] Who is consistent. And we serve a Savior. Jesus Christ. Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. He is unchangeable.

[11:58] Okay. And worthy to be praised as well. And so. How do we respond to these things? We love the Lord. We need to call on his name as well.

[12:09] As it says not just in verse 4. But also in verse 7. As we'll get to in a minute. But he's simply calling on the Lord. And it's easy to look at that. And see what it is talking about.

[12:21] We need to be people of prayer. We need to be people who want to trust in God. That when we ask God for something. That we trust that he will be able to fulfill that need.

[12:32] According to his will. And according to his time. As well. And so. But we see. We can see throughout. How. This psalm is really kind of feeding David.

[12:44] In terms of how he trusts in the Lord. What does his love look like? With the Lord. And so. Verses 5. It continues. And it gives.

[12:56] Ideas. Reasons. For praising the Lord. Really. Verses 1 through 4. He's describing. That he's praising the Lord. He says why he's praising the Lord. Because of who he is.

[13:07] But now. He is bringing up all kinds of reasons. All kinds of places. Where the Lord has. Worked in his life. In this way. And showing us. Really throughout this entire psalm.

[13:19] Not just what we're going to cover. But even. Even the rest of it as well. And so. Reasons for praise. In this particular. Place. From verses 5 to 20.

[13:31] David's deliverance. From his enemies. If you're taking notes. That's a good one to write down. David's deliverance. From his enemies. Verses 5 through 7.

[13:41] Though death threatened. The Lord heard him. Though death threatened. The Lord heard him. And you see a cry of desperation. In this. In this passage of scripture.

[13:53] You see. Verses 5 through 6. Four different ways. Of saying. Pretty much the same thing. The waves of death. Encompassed me. The torrents of destruction.

[14:04] Assailed me. The cords of Sheol. Entangled me. And the snares of death. Confronted me. Now you think. Okay. He is. You know.

[14:15] He's just. He's just using poetry. To kind of. You know. To express his. His thoughts. And. But he's. He's not really speaking the truth. This is not necessarily something.

[14:26] That's actually happening. Well. And really. In reality. There are many times. That. He had enemies. That wanted to kill him. As well. That they wanted to give him. A new address.

[14:37] And that word. Sheol. Is the Hebrew word. For. The grave. About as close as you can get. To hell. About as close as you can get. To. Completely.

[14:47] Complete separation. From life on this earth. Basically. And that's. And that's the new address. That many people. Including King Saul. Wanted to give David. And so.

[14:58] He really was getting this. Getting in this point. And we also see places. In scripture. Where he really did. Get to that. Desperate point. As well.

[15:08] We notice. In. In first Samuel. Many places. We. We've seen. It's. I want to. Go back to chapter 18. Chapter 19. We're not going to turn back there.

[15:20] But we see. This is. Really. Chapter 17. Is where David killed Goliath. So it's really. Not long after that. And he's now. Part of Saul's family. He now sits at Saul's table.

[15:31] And. Well. One day. He doesn't show up. Because. Well. David got word. That Saul wanted to kill him. So he's hiding. And then Saul gets pretty mad. After the second day.

[15:42] Of not showing up. And. Finally. He. David gets the firm word. From Jonathan. That. He is going. To be killed. That Saul. If he has his way.

[15:53] David will die. And so David has to flee. And there is. A moment. A great. Really. Almost touching moment. When you look at it. In chapter 20.

[16:04] Verse 3. It just simply says. Something very specific. He says to Jonathan. There is a step. Between me. And death. It's just a little phrase.

[16:14] Thrown in there. Not even the entire verse. But just at the end there. He just simply says. There is a step. Between me. And death. And really. For about. Six. Seven. Eight chapters.

[16:25] That's a pretty good summary. Of what's going on. In David's life. That. At any time. He could turn around. And. Oop. There's an arrow. Right there. Through his chest. I mean. That could have happened. At any time.

[16:36] And so. He's fleeing. From Saul. Even. But even more than that. He's fleeing. From the Philistines. As well. You know. He seeks refuge. In places. That would be considered.

[16:46] Enemy territory. Here he is. He kills Goliath. Back in chapter 17. But only several chapters later. Several years later. So. He goes to Gath. Where Goliath is from. And hides from.

[16:57] From Saul. And then when the. People in Gath. Are like. We don't want you here. He acts like a mad man. Able to flee out of there. But. At the same time. You know. He's.

[17:07] He's. He's fleeing. So he's now fleeing from the Philistines. He's now fleeing from. Other places. So. So Saul's trying to get him. Philistines trying to get him.

[17:18] All kinds of places. He. He goes one place. They're trying to get him. He goes another place. He's trying to get him. That was his life. For 10 years. And so. He's got great reason.

[17:29] To be. Writing about this. Writing about how desperate. Of a situation he is. He's in. But then that's the beauty of verse 7.

[17:41] In that desperation. In that distress. He calls upon the Lord. And when he calls. He doesn't get.

[17:55] Silence. Or a busy signal. He actually gets the Lord. That's pretty cool. And to my God I called.

[18:08] And from his temple. He heard my voice. And my cry. Came to his ears. So even when David. Was away. From. The tabernacle.

[18:19] Even when David. Was away from. He wanting to seek. The presence of the Lord. Even from. Even from where he was. The Lord would come to him.

[18:30] And the Lord would hear him. And his cries. Would go to the Lord's. Ears. I'm glad Pat.

[18:42] You gave that testimony. Because I know. Many of us. Have been in situations. Whether it is cancer. Or whether it is a. A very distressing. Problem.

[18:53] With maybe a child. Or. With a friend. With a circumstance. Whatever it might be.

[19:04] That we need to understand. When we call to the Lord. He will hear us. It is a beautiful. Beautiful thing. And. And. We go back to the love. That David had for his Lord.

[19:16] We see through that desperation. What that love is really about. That it wasn't just. An emotional thing. It wasn't just. Something that. Like the Pharisees might say. They love the Lord. You know. They know.

[19:26] That they ought to love the Lord. They know. That the Lord tells them to love him. So. Okay. We will love you. But it's really. Just deep down. It isn't. It's a. From a point of desperation.

[19:37] From a point. Of understanding. That. That the Lord is. Is going to be there for you. The Lord is going to be there. To. To meet. The needs.

[19:48] According to his plan. According to his timing. And to. For you to trust in him. In that. So. Okay. So. So. So. This is what's going on. He.

[19:59] The Lord is there. The Lord hears his cry. And the Lord answers. As well. The Lord answers. And. And it's wonderful. Beauty. Wonderful. Beautiful.

[20:09] Beautiful thing. When the Lord answers us. And. We like to think. Of. The Lord answering. In. In wonderful ways. In beautiful ways. Ways that we might. Consider. Very similar.

[20:20] Let's say. To Elijah. Elijah was. Being chased by Jezebel. He's. Pretty depressed. At this point. He'd rather die.

[20:32] He just saw this great thing. The Lord did. But now he'd rather die. And the Lord comes to him. How? With a great wind. But it says.

[20:42] The Lord's not in the wind. And a great. Earthquake. But it says. The Lord wasn't in the earthquake. What was the Lord in? That still small voice. And we love to think of that.

[20:52] That the Lord is in that still small voice. And he is. He certainly was. In Elijah's day. In that still small voice. However. To limit God to that. I think we'd be mistaken.

[21:04] To do such as that. The Lord is in this as well. Starting in verse 8. The world is about to come unglued. At this point. The earth reeled and rocked.

[21:16] The foundations of the heaven trembled and quaked. Because he was angry. The Lord is in this earthquake. Smoke went up from his nostrils. Devouring fire from his mouth.

[21:29] Glowing coals. Flamed forth. From him. So. Keep going on. We see this lively intervention. We see this. I mean.

[21:40] Probably a way that we wouldn't consider. We wouldn't think this is how God would answer this kind of call. You know. But the Lord is coming in anger.

[21:51] The Lord is coming in the reality. This is. Especially for David's case. David is his servant. David is his chosen king of Israel. And now you're going to attack that chosen king.

[22:03] God had every right to be angry at that. To go after what God's will actually was. Even King Saul knew that God's will was for David to become the next king.

[22:15] And yet he would not submit. Absalom knew that David was the king. But Absalom would not submit. So God had all the reason to be angry at this.

[22:28] But we also see. Even some beauty in this as well. But we look back at. Times in David's life as well. And we're thinking. Well this is not what's going on. You know.

[22:39] There's no earthquakes. There's no. Smoke coming out of God's nostrils. Described in any of these situations. At all.

[22:50] But well. Is there or is there not? See when we see these. This passage. When we see this. This beauty of this. Poetry.

[23:00] We see something. We don't see just facts. We don't see. Like. Like the historical narrative. That. Most of first and second Samuel is. We don't just see. This.

[23:11] This. This thought. We see something. We see. The truth behind that fact. In many ways. I mean. We've been reading. Chapters 10. And. Chapter 9.

[23:22] And 8. And we see these battle sequences. And we see. David's kindness. To Mephibosheth. And. And really. A lot of. What comes out. Is just the facts. But.

[23:33] But there's more to it. Than that. And this is some of the. This is. This is some of the way. That this picture is painted. In there. Back in chapter 18. Of 1st Samuel. David eludes.

[23:44] Saul's spear. Saul throws a spear. To David. See. There may not be an earthquake. In that. But the. Lord delivered. David. From. That spear. The Lord.

[23:54] Gave David. The strength. To be able to. Overcome that spear. And to be able to. Stay away from it. In. In 1st Samuel 23. Saul shuts. Up David.

[24:05] Within an inch. Of his life. Let's go back to that passage. In verse 26. And following. You'll notice that. That. That Saul's able to get. David to a place. Where he needs to be. But. Well.

[24:15] Now there's bigger fish to fry. A messenger comes in. And hollers about. The Philistines invading them. I don't know. I guess they got to go deal with that. Well. There may be no thunder of God.

[24:25] That we heard. But there was a deliverance. In chapter 29. Of 1st Samuel. David's about to commit. Political suicide. By marching against Israel.

[24:36] With the Philistines. So what. What do we hear? Do we. Do we see those. Heavens part? Do we see those. The storm clouds coming? Do we hear that thunder? No.

[24:46] We just hear about the Philistine brass. Jabbering all over the place. About. How that. How David and his men. Shouldn't really be marching with him at all. And because of that.

[24:57] David didn't have to march with them. No. There wasn't any of that great. Parting of the heavens. Friends. But God did deliver them. You see.

[25:08] Whenever. We see passages of scripture. Whether. Whether it's something like. What we've been reading. In 2nd Samuel. In 1st Samuel. Or maybe Esther. On Wednesdays. Where God's not even mentioned at all.

[25:21] God's still at work. And sometimes it's pretty obviously at work. And when God is intervening in the lives of his people. When God is intervening in the lives of the ones.

[25:32] He's chosen to be in locations and places of power. In places of authority. This is basically the truth behind those interventions.

[25:44] That quaking. That foundations trembling. The smoke coming out of his nostrils. That would be God.

[25:56] That would be the fury. Of his delivering power. We've got to understand. When we're praying. Well.

[26:07] Whether we're praying or not actually. There is. Spiritual warfare that happens. That we wrestle not with flesh and blood. We wrestle with principalities.

[26:19] With powers. Of darkness. As it says in Ephesians chapter 6. That there is. Great warfare happening. In the heavens.

[26:32] And there is great warfare happening. Really. Something that very much affects us. Whether we realize it or not. It really does.

[26:42] and so the lord's delivering power on his people whether we see it or not it is this powerful it is as powerful as the hurricane we see in in florida it is as powerful as any earthquake that we may imagine it to be it is it is that kind of power whether we see it or we don't see it that is the reality of the lord's delivering power and then we see how the lord delivered david in verses 17 through 20 and it was a great relief it says this he sent me from he sent from on high he took me he drew me out of many waters he rescued me from my strong enemy from those who hated me for they were too mighty for me so though great in heaven the lord saves david on earth as well so he's rescuing him this deliverance here is being described as a rescue you see there in verse 17 he took david he he drew him out of this flood of this torrent that he finds himself in he drew him out of that and he rescued him from these enemies that he finds himself in the midst of even the people who hate him even it says they were too mighty for him yet the lord was able to deliver him out of that his deliverance is also described not just as rescue but as support in verse 19 they confronted me in the day of my calamity but what is this saying the lord was my support we got to understand that the lord is the rock that we can stand on he is the strong foundation foundation it is like that wise man who built his house on the rock versus that man who built his house on the sand it that just it's it makes a lot of sense to build your house on something that will stand that will be able to take the wind that will be able to take all of the troubles of the storms that may come by you want that house to stand strong and you need to stand on the solid rock of the lord in order to stand strong in this world whatever the world may throw at you whether it is cancer whether it is you're losing a job it could be your children giving you fits your children rebelling against the lord whatever it might be you've got to stand on the strong promises of the lord in order to overcome that on christ the solid rock i stand all other ground is shifting sand and then this last verse we're covering today is the deliverance is described as freedom you see this in verse 20 he brought me out into a broad place well where was david before this broad place he was in this this place where he was cramped up where it was he had no place to go basically he found himself in a place where he could not have any any power at all any freedom whatsoever to move about it was constricting to him and so this broad place is giving him a location is giving him this freedom that the lord is giving him as well so this that's what it's describing there and so he rescued me because he delighted in me as this verse is describing here

[30:44]  and so that gives you more to the point of what god is doing who god is why god does what he does his rescue is the reality that he delights in his people he delights in the people that he has chosen and so the lord has chosen david to be this king and the lord delights in him the lord chooses to love him as well and so that that also feeds into david's love for the lord it's not just a command anymore it's now an experience that he's had it is now something that he knows that the lord loves him the lord has has delivered him and it it's it's more than just the command to love him now he can do this because because it just it just becomes an outpouring of of what he's gone through and so we can move on for next week we see that the lord is the lord will save him the lord will deliver him even because he is righteous as well and and that righteousness does not come from himself that righteousness comes from god himself so the lord is saving him because of the righteousness that that that when the lord sees sees him he sees himself and and and that's and that's a beauty as well that we can see as well when we see christ we talked about that this morning with uh brother tom when when you know the lord saves us the lord atones the lord you know that that that atonement is just simply a covering that he sees what he's covered us with which would be christ which would be christ saving saving grace in his blood which forgives sin and so this is a a the beauty of of the lord's delivering power and we need to see that power in salvation today we need to see that power in in the reality that that christ has saved us he has saved us from hell he has saved us from total separation from him he has saved us from god's wrath and and and his eternal wrath that will definitely uh affect everyone who is a sinner which is everyone and so god has saved us the lord has saved us christ has saved us from the wrath of god and and we need to have those words not just in our heart and have that truth not just in our heart but needs to be in our lips as well and we need to be telling others about the great truth of god's saving power and great truth of christ and the power that he has to save us from sin from the power of sin from the penalty of that sin and so we need to we need to understand that we need to be telling others about this great truth you