Today something else different from usual!- David’s life-song in 2 Sam 22. Watchman Nee says one thing that really matters in life is our `history with God`; here’s the song David wrote (early in his reign, v1) summarizing his own up to that point. And the idea is – It can be a model for ours!
God is an artist, and our life is raw material for the song of worship we shall sing in eternity. Ephesians says we are God’s workmanship (`poiema`, masterpiece); we can see life as being, on our side, an increasingly completed act of worship, and on God’s side a masterpiece, our life turned into a lifelong song. So as we walk through David’s life-song, think about yours; maybe write your own equivalent, or even do that with a group you belong to? What follows can give you a possible plan…
First, read 2 Sam 22:1-3 (this is also Psalm 18). The song starts with God (just like any prayer should: `Our Father…`), and with what specifically David has seen of God. Our life-song is grounded above all in what you and I have grasped of God. God is infinite, and our personalities equip us to see different aspects of His nature (which is why we need each other!); what you see most clearly about God says a lot about you. What have you seen most clearly? To David here, God is a Rock, and an invisible but trustworthy Stronghold (understandable when you think of his experiences in 1 Samuel). So: What aspects of God mean most to you? What are the specific aspects of His nature, His glory, that God has shown most clearly to you personally? Write them down in worship; they are the foundation of your life-song…
Then secondly, read vv4-7: David praises God because He has saved him. For us too isn’t this the biggest event in our lives? Reread Eph 2:1-13: we were dead in our sins, without hope in the world; now we’re forgiven, now we’re loved, now we have new life, now we’re seated with Christ in heaven! `The waves of [spiritual, eternal] death swirled about me; the torrents of [spiritual, eternal] destruction overwhelmed me… In my distress I called to the Lord; from His temple He heard my voice!` (NIV as usual). Do you want to use David’s words in your life-song? Or, what others can embody the wonder of what God has shown you personally of the glory of His salvation?
Then let’s jump down to vv18-20. For there have been other acts of salvation in our lives too, our personal experiences of God’s `everyday` rescue. The tough times in our lives – they weren’t meaningless and aren’t meant to be forgotten; another key part of our life-song is the things we’ve been through with God. We were there in the deep waters; He walked us through them; and in His good time He brought us out… ‘He rescued me from my foes, who were too strong for me…`(v18): How, and in, through, and from what, has God saved me? I remember Elward Ellis, who led InterVarsity USA’s Black Campus Ministry, saying that for many African-Americans the existence of God is not a question: rather, he said, the big question posed to us is, `What did you confront that you couldn’t contend with in your own resources? In what way did God bring you out?` These are vital parts of our history with God; remembering how God brought us out, and (v20) like a shepherd he’s brought us or is bringing us `out into a spacious place`. V20: `He rescued me because He delighted in me`: maybe put that on your mirror!
So then, yes, reread vv4-7, and vv18-20. And then: What personal experiences shall I thankfully list now of God’s rescue?
Then for a very different element read vv8-17 (this is really worth doing!): what was going on in the `heavenly realms’? Here perhaps the Spirit of God speaks through David as again (remember the Mephibosheth story, or Psalm 22) a picture of Messiah; here perhaps we see the cross and resurrection where everything was at stake, our salvation, the foundation of Christ’s Bride the Church that was the goal of history, indeed the redemption of the whole cosmos; and where Satan the `strong man`, `confronting Christ in the day of His [apparent] disaster`, was doing all he could to stop the prisoners being set free. It was an incredible conflict where Jesus cried out `Why have You forsaken me?`… `The waves of death swirled about [Him], the torrents of destruction overwhelmed [Him]`… And then (v17) came `the mighty strength that raised Jesus from the dead` (Eph 1:19): `He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters…` Write it: Thankyou Lord!
But there’s more. For the battle has continued, as we too have walked the way of the cross, and (as with David) Satan has done all he can to prevent us receiving our destiny, accomplishing all God has for us… What, during my life, has been going on unseen in the `heavenly realms’? When we get to heaven we’ll see the universe of angels and demons we’ve been blindly stumbling around, forces so influential in our crises at work and in the family, in our spiritual breakthroughs (look at Daniel 10:12-13) and evangelistic breakthroughs. (C.S.Lewis pictures us saying to our guardian angel, `Ah – it was you all the time!`) Under the direction of the Spirit David draws the curtain back… Reread vv7-11,17 slowly again, recalling that you too have been in the place David describes… `In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came to His ears. The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook; they trembled because He was angry. Smoke rose from His nostrils; consuming fire came from His mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind…. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters… because, He delighted in me!` Absorb how much this colossal God loves you as an individual; and draw on these verses to write down thankfully the next part of your life-song: What may truly have been going on in the `heavenly realms and when, on my behalf, during my life?
(Let’s note too from vv12-13 how God is clothed both with darkness and (cf 1 Tim 6:16) with unapproachable brightness: neither can fully express all His unimaginably glorious being!)
And then vv21-29: Everything positive in my life is grounded on my righteousness in the sight of God. But from where did I receive that, and whom shall I now thank for it? David, we’ve noticed, is a `type`, a foreshadowing, of Christ of whom these things are immediately true. But David himself has been given Christ’s righteousness, and we have too. `God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God` (2 Cor 5:21; see also Rom 3:20-22,4:3-6). We accepted His forgiveness, He has taken our sin, we are covered in His righteousness. To quote an old worship-song, `I am covered over with the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives to me… When He looks at me He sees not what I used to be, but He sees Jesus!` This is so vital for our life-song – it’s all possible only because of God’s cleansing… Write it thankfully in!
Then the life-song moves on to specific good things God has done. Various specific events come to David’s mind (vv30,34,35,38,44,46). Yes he’s a military genius, but he wants to put very clearly on record – for his own sake too – that it’s only God, `stooping down to make me great`, who created him that way. (VV33,35,36.) What about our life-song? Let’s list as many as we can from all God’s specific acts of kindness to us – the things we’ve achieved or been blessed with at different stages of our life, the challenges we’ve been able to overcome. `The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He enables me to tread on the heights` (Hab 3:19); God’s grace alone was what made each one of them happen!
Finally, David summarizes his life-song with a vow to praise the God who has so blessed him. `The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Saviour! … You exalted me above my foes; from a violent man You rescued me. Therefore I will praise You, Lord, among the nations; I will sing the praises of Your name…` You wonder how David would have felt if he could have seen how God would see to the fulfilment of that vow: that in the faraway lands of the barbaric ancient Britons, and the lands of the ancient Russians, the ancient Nigerians, his song `praising God among the nations` would indeed be repeated full 25 centuries later… Our life-songs are open-ended, for our influence and our witness can have impact far more widely and more lastingly than (Eph 3:20) we can ever ask or imagine…
This song will never end – but for now, then, let’s make our own summary, and our vow of action: `The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! … Therefore I will praise You, Lord, among the nations; I will sing the praises of Your name…!` `
So: let’s see our lives as God’s workmanship! One day we’ll sing our life-song of worship in heaven; now we’re living out our history with God, the raw material of that developing song. But also let’s start celebrating it – maybe start writing it out; perhaps just for God and for ourselves (or, if we have children??) Let’s learn to see our whole lives as God’s ongoing masterpiece, and our own ongoing song of worship; rejoicing in what He’s done, and is doing, as He rejoices over and (v20 again) delights in us…..
