Wednesday Night Service 7PM -

Good evening. I want to welcome you all to Calvary Chapel this evening. Those of you who are joining us online, we welcome you. And those who are right here live with us, we welcome you. Would you stand with me?

That song, the blessing we were just hearing, and the words talking about all the ways He is with us, you know, in the morning, in the evening, in our comings and our goings, you know, all those things, in our weeping, our rejoicing. Amen? Whatever we're going through, God is there. We're all on different journeys, but yet the same journey, because we have the same destination, heaven, glory, spending time with the Father, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

As we gather this middle of the week, you know, Wednesday, there's been work going on, different things going on. Sometimes we can kind of... feel stressed. We can feel rushed. Isn't that the middle word of a lot of things now? I'm, Robbie, rushed to get here or there. You know what I mean? This is kind of the life we live. But as we gather this evening, may we rest in Him

as we worship and study His Word. May we give God our undivided attention. It's so easy to be distracted by things. Things happening, concerns, and so, Lord, we come to You tonight and we bring all those to You. There is nothing that You're not aware of, that You don't care about. You care about every area of our life. And so, Lord, we come to You tonight just as we are,

maybe not even wanting to worship, but may we choose to do it by faith because You're worthy of our praise. I just lift up each one tonight that You would just move in our hearts, Lord, that You would comfort hearts, that You would encourage us tonight because You are our everything. You give life. You are love. Through this darkness, You give hope. You restore every heart that is broken.

It's Your breath in our lungs. We pour out. In our... Again today. Help me fall.

Just remember, Lord.

And, Lord, You're so good to me. You're so good to me. Just think about it. He's so good to us. He's worthy of our praise.

My God is faithful.

My... I worship You. My... For the things You've done. I'll place my crown.

His name is... is tender.

In the view. For the things... And, Lord, You know each of our hearts tonight and You know how You want to speak to us. Each of us individually. Isn't it wonderful, Lord? You're so good. We can hear a message and think sometimes, man, talking straight to me. Hey, He's just given the message from the messenger. And the messenger is us. Amen? God bless you all.

That's a subtle way of saying, don't shoot the messenger. Open up in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 21. 2 Samuel, chapter 21. 2 Samuel, chapter 21. It is interesting giving out the Word of God. I've had people get mad at me after services before because they thought I was just talking directly to them. They're like, how dare you target me?

I'm like, man, I have no idea. Like, I'm just talking. So, it's the Holy Spirit. Get mad at Him. So, all right. So, as we come to chapter 21, really the last four chapters of the book of 2 Samuel are really an appendix. Kind of an addendum, if you will, to the book of 2 Samuel. Because really the history kind of ends there in chapter 20. And chapters 21 through 24

are just kind of added as some extra detail. They might not even be in the chronological order of this particular point in time. But there's some psalms that are mixed in there. There's a story that we'll cover about the Gibeonites tonight. And of course, there's gonna be one last story about David taking a census. But we won't get to that tonight. In chapter 21, we start off with an interesting story.

An interesting story about the Gibeonites. So, we pick up in verse one of chapter 21 and it says this. Now, there was a famine in the days of David for three years. Year after year, and David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, it is for Saul and his bloody house because he has put the Gibeonites to death. So, the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them.

Now, the Gibeonites were the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. The sons of Israel made a covenant with them. But Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah. Thus, David said to the Gibeonites, what should I do for you? And how can I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

So, let's stop there for one quick minute and talk for a few minutes. Just by way of background, so we kind of know a little bit about what we're talking about. If we were to go all the way back to the book of Joshua, we would find that Joshua and the children of Israel, when they came into the land, the first city that they took was the city of Jericho. And then the second city they took was the city of Ai.

Well, after they had defeated Jericho and Ai, there was a group of people known as the Gibeonites. And they said, man, we don't know what's gonna happen. It seems like God has really given the children of Israel the land. And so, the best thing that we can do is to make a peace treaty with them. But we need to make sure that they understand the need for this peace treaty.

What they did is they dressed themselves up in kind of torn up clothes and they took some moldy old bread and they came to Joshua and they said, hey, listen, we've traveled from a really long ways away and we have heard about the fame of your God and everything that you're doing. And so, please spare us. As a matter of fact, we're from so far away that this bread was fresh when we left. Well, Joshua made one mistake.

He did not seek the Lord. Because God had told them specifically, when you go into the land, don't make a covenant. Don't make a covenant of peace with any of the people because the sins of the Amorites is so great that you're gonna be my arm of judgment in the land of Israel. Well, Joshua did not consult the Lord. And so, he made a peace treaty and come to find out they were basically

next door neighbors to the city of Ai. And he found out that they were deceived. And so, because God believes in covenants, because God believes in promises, he says you have to keep your promise but they will become forced labor for you. Well, when Saul came along, he sort of had this, zeal for the Lord, but it was zeal without knowledge and he didn't use a great deal of wisdom.

And so, what he did is he ended up seeking to wipe out the Gibeonites, which is why he was referred to as a bloody house. And so, shortly after the reign of David began, and I do believe that this is somewhat shortly after the reign of David began, after Saul was gone, a famine struck the land. Now, of course, a famine comes about because there's no rain in the land and if you're an agricultural society and you can't make your own food, you can't make your own food out of chemicals, then you don't have any food to eat. And so, this famine begins in the land and you can kind of imagine how this goes, right?

Like, David's king over the land and God's brought great peace and everything's going really well and then one year, there's really not very many crops and everything's looking a little bit bleak as far as that's concerned and David goes, well, you know, weather patterns. And then the second year comes along and there's still not very good crops. There's still a drought and a famine and he goes, okay, this seems like it's pretty serious. But by the third year, he goes, okay, this is not just some cyclical thing.

We have a problem. So, he did exactly what he should do and he sought the Lord. Now, I want to point something out to you, something that I think that's really, really important and something that needs to be said in the world that we live in today. And we need to hear this loud and clear. God is in charge of the weather. Now, there's a whole lot of things going on right now.

Somebody jokingly said, well, you know, they can control the weather now. No, they can't. I'm sorry, God's in charge of these things. And we can say whatever we want to. We can come up with any conspiracy theory that we want to. But when it comes right down to it, God is God and he's going to do what he's going to do. And we need to rest in the fact that God is God

and that God is in control of the weather. And listen, sometimes that's to bless a nation. Sometimes that's to judge a nation. And I'm not sure that we're not seeing God's hand of judgment begin to be opened against America. Right now, after all, I think Billy Graham about 40 to 50 years ago said it best when he said, if God doesn't judge America, then he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.

And I think we're starting to see some of those beginnings of things now. And we want to say, well, you don't understand. There's this system now that they're using to control the weather. That's why we're seeing the hurricanes that we're seeing. That's why we're seeing the fires that we're seeing. That's why we're seeing the floods that we're seeing. That's why we're having the famines that we're having,

except in the end, we're seeing the floods that we're seeing. But according to this, and according to the book of Job, when God tested Job and he said, Job, it's time for you to gird up your loins like a man and answer some questions for me. Who tells the oceans how far they can go and no farther? Who holds all of the hail in the storehouses of the sky? Who holds the weather patterns in his hands?

These are biblical words, not Ryan's words. It's God. And we need to know that, and we need to rest in that. And we need to make sure that we keep people focused on the right thing, not the conspiracy. Amen? And so this famine starts because God is bringing judgment upon the land of Israel. This famine begins because God is judging the land of Israel for a sin that had been committed.

And so David does exactly what he's supposed to do, and when he started to see what appeared to be God's hand of judgment against the land of Israel, he sought the Lord. Because he says, this is not just a normal, natural cycle of things. This appears to be something just a little bit deeper. There appears to be a famine in the land that is brought about by God.

Lord, why have you brought this famine into the land? And listen, when we go through bad things in life, when God brings about issues within our nation, the first thing we should ask is, Lord, why is there famine in the land? When you start seeing dryness in your own life, in your own spiritual life, you need to ask, Lord, why is there dryness in my life? When there is difficulties within your family and there's no peace within your family, you need to start asking, Lord, why is there no peace in my family?

Because when you see God's hand at work, you need to start asking, Lord, why? What's going on? Is this something that you're just trying to teach me right now? Are you trying to make my roots go deeper? Are you trying to grow me spiritually? Or are there issues in my life or issues in my family or issues in our nation that need dealt with? And when we begin to see those issues in our life

or issues in our family or issues in our nation, then we need to start taking those things before the Lord. You're probably going, but Ryan, the sins of the nation aren't my sins. Well, I'd like to tell you a little bit of a story out of the book of Daniel. In the book of Daniel, we read that Daniel discerned from the writings of Jeremiah that the time of the nation of Israel's captivity in Babylon was almost up.

And so Daniel went to the Lord and he started praying. And you know what? Daniel started to pray when he began his prayer to the Lord. It says, Daniel began to confess his own sins, and listen closely, and the sins of his people to the Lord. You see, when Daniel sought the Lord, he owned the fact that the culture wasn't separate from him. The culture was him.

And he was as much a part of it as anybody else. And while he may not have taken part in all of the sins of the nation around him, he's still a part of the nation. And the best thing he can do is clear out his own heart and hopefully vicariously clear out the heart of the nation before the Lord so that God will begin to move again. I just kind of wonder, as we're watching things happen in our country, and as there is a spirit of revival at work in our country, and we can discern through the signs of the times that perhaps the Lord is coming soon, maybe it's time for us as God's people to begin praying and begin seeking the Lord and begin confessing our sins and the sins of our people.

Our sins and the sins of our nation. And who knows that God's heart, our heart won't be moved. And so that's exactly what David does. David seeks the Lord and says, God, why is this happening? And of course, God, who is always faithful, he's always faithful to show us these things. Isn't it amazing how God's always faithful to point out the areas of sins in our life?

Sometimes I hate that about God, but usually I just love that about God, right? Because he's like, that's your problem right there. He said, the reason why this is happening is because of God. It's because of Saul's bloody house. That's why this is happening. Because of the sins of Saul. Because of the sins that Saul has brought into the land. It's an interesting thing for us to pay attention to,

but I think it's good for us to be reminded that time doesn't cause God to forget sin. Like, God's not like, well, that was 25 years ago and I hardly even remember it. No, if you haven't dealt with it, then you're still gonna have to deal with it. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?

Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?

Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? There's no statute of limitations. You have to deal with it. And that's what God tells the nation. He says, this is happening because of what Saul did. And so, so David goes to the king of the Gibeonites and he says, what should I do for you? What would you like me to do to atone for this sin? And that brings us to verse four.

It says, The Gibeonites said to him, And the king said, And they hanged them in the mountain before the Lord, so that the seven of them fell together, and they were put to death in the first days of the harvest at the beginning of barley harvest. Now, a lot of people take issue with this story, rightfully so, until we take a moment to think about it. Because you go, okay, Saul commits this sin against the Gibeonites, and it reminds us that God takes covenants very seriously, even foolish covenants. Once you've made that covenant before God, it's a serious covenant that we make before the Lord, right?

Like the covenant that Joshua made with the Gibeonites was a pretty foolish covenant, because God would have never had him do that had he sought the Lord. But because he didn't seek the Lord, God said, you still have to take that promise seriously. And so God takes those kinds of things really seriously. And so Saul is the one who violated this covenant, and yet the Gibeonites come and say, listen, we don't want any money from the house of Saul, and really, we have no right to put anyone to death, because that's what they say.

And so David says, so what do you want me to do? And basically they say, if it would be okay with you, we would like to take seven of Saul's sons and hang them before the Lord. And you kind of go, why would they be put to death for the sins of Saul? After all, it says in the law that sons shall not be put to death for the sins of their father. And so since we know that God's not a God

that violates his own law, we're only led to believe one thing. These men were involved in the massacre. You know why? Because it says that they were hanged before the Lord. And the wording there indicates that God approved of what took place. So every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every indication is given to us that these men were not put to death

for the sins of their father. These men were put to death for being a part of the massacre themselves. And so they were hanged before the Lord, because we're reminded that sin has to be dealt with. And so there's an interesting ending to this story. It says, he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, verse nine, and they hanged them in the mountain before the Lord,

so that the seven of them fell together, and they were put to death in the first days of the harvest at the beginning of the barley harvest. A little time stamp on it there. And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of harvest until it rained on them from the sky. And she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

And when it was told David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the open square of Bethlehem, Beth-Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines struck down Saul. And he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from there, and they gathered them who had been hanged. And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan, his son, in the country of Benjamin, in Zillah, in the grave of Kish, his father. Thus they did all that the king commanded.

And after that, God was moved by prayer for the land. There's this interesting story about this woman who was very faithful. And isn't it amazing that in the midst of what can sometimes be horrific scenes, we see the faithful act of one individual. And can I just be honest and say that sometimes the most faithful people that we see in the Bible are the women?

Like if you think about it, who was at the feet of Jesus when he was hanging on the cross? It wasn't all of his fearless followers. It was the women, right? Who were the first ones to see Jesus when he rose from the dead? Well, it was the women. Who were the first ones to declare the message of the fact that Jesus was alive? It was the women. I just think there's something about that.

Fellas, I think there's a lesson for us to be learned here. And that's that we should look for those examples of faithfulness and see if we can't match up to the example of what some of these ladies have said for us. I think that there's a really good argument to be made for that. And so because of that, David rewards her essentially by making sure that the remains of Saul and Jonathan are buried in their proper place.

Because they had been buried in another city up to that point in time. And basically, it gives them a proper burial. And so the sin is dealt with. The sin against the Gibeonites is dealt with. And I want you to take note of one thing that happens at the very end. And it's at the end of verse 14. It says, and after that, God was moved by prayer for the land.

After that, God was moved by prayer for the land. We are reminded of a truth given to us throughout scripture. And that's that, God's arm is not short that it cannot save, but it is your sin that has separated you from God. You see, the thing as believers in Jesus Christ that holds back the blessing of God in our prayer life is oftentimes not because we don't use the right words.

It's not because we don't say it in the right way or because we're not flowery enough in our speech. The thing that holds back our prayer life is our sin. And when we deal with the sin, when we put sin to death in our lives, then God can once again answer prayer for us. And God can once again be moved by the prayers that we have. And so if you're finding that it feels like

your prayers are hitting the ceiling right now, if it feels like there's nothing happening in your prayer life right now, maybe it's a good time for you to go before the presence of the Lord and say, Lord, what's between me and you right now? Lord, what in my life have I not put to death? What in my life has been an offense to you? That I have thought time would forgive, but really it needs to be dealt with because it's created a barrier between me and you.

Because as believers in Jesus Christ, sin does not cause us to not be saved any longer. Sin cuts off our fellowship with the Lord. It cuts the line, if you will, between us and Jesus. It cuts the line between us and God. Not our salvation, but our fellowship. And the way that that fellowship is restored is through confession. Because as we confess our sin, he's faithful in Jesus.

He's faithful to just forgive and to cleanse. And then that opens back up that line of fellowship once again, and that's what God does for us. So it says that once again that line of fellowship was opened up and God was moved by prayer for the land. In other words, the famine ended. And so now we come to verse 15 and we see sort of an addendum on this or an appendix on war that David had with the Philistines.

It says now, when the Philistines were at war, again, with Israel, David went down and his servants with him. And as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary. Then Ishbi Benob, that's a great name. I would never name anybody that, who was among the descendants of the giant, the weight of whose spear was 300 shekels of bronze in weight, was girded with a new sword, and he intended to kill David. But Abishai, the son of

Zeruiah, helped him, and he struck the Philistines, and he killed him. And then the men of David swore to him, saying, you shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel. So war again with the Philistines. And we read of this giant who had such a tragic name, and he had this amazingly huge spear. It says that the head of his spear

weighed 30 shekels, which I was reading something about this today, and basically he said that's about double the weight of the Philistines. And he said, I'm going to kill you. And he said, of a college shot put. So think about how heavy of a ball of iron that is. It's twice the weight of that. So this guy was a man, right? And David's fighting against him. Not the first time that he's

fought a giant, not his first rodeo, if you will, but he's not as young as he used to be. And he's not fighting as much as he used to. But I want to point something out about David. David's getting older, according to this story, and he's not as strong of a fighter as he used to be. But David didn't go to war. He fell into the flesh. The last time that David didn't go to war, he was

supposed to be fighting a battle, he sinned worse than anything he'd ever done in his life. And it was so life-altering for him. The consequences of his sin were so life-altering that he said, never again. Never again will I fail to go to war when it's time for me to go to war. Never again will I sit out the battle. I will fight when it's time to fight. only this time he can't do it quite as well as he used to.

And so praise God for Abishai. Abishai, the guy who always wanted to cut everybody's heads off. Remember in the past couple of chapters when David was fleeing for his life and the guy was mocking him, Abishai was like, can I just cut his head off? And David's like, stop it. And when they're on the way back and the guy comes and says, I'm sorry I said bad things about you

and I'm sorry I called your mom a fat. And Abishai's like, can I cut his head off? And David's like, stop it. Well, this particular time it came in pretty handy that Abishai was like, can I cut his head off? Do it, right? Isn't it great to have friends in our lives that are always fighting for us? Isn't it great to have people that always have your back and they're always ready to fight for you?

I'm reminded of a story from the New Testament that doesn't involve fighting, but it does involve really good friends. You remember the story of the lame man who needed to be healed and his friends brought him to Jesus, only they couldn't get inside of the house. And so because they couldn't get inside of the house, they weren't gonna let a little thing like that slow him down. So what'd they do?

They went up on top of the roof and they basically like unroofed this guy's house, right? They peeled back all of the roofing material and they lowered him down into the house because this guy needed to get to Jesus. And his friends were like, if that's what you need, then we will stop at nothing to make sure that that's where you end up. Praise God for friends like that, right?

Who are you surrounding yourself with right now? Who are the people that you're around? Are they the kind of people that will fight for you? Are they the kind of people that will take you to Jesus no matter how much it costs? Or are they the kind of people who talk about you behind your back? We always have to pay attention to those people because we need the kind of people around us

that are gonna fight for us. The kind of people that'll be the good examples in our life. Well, that's what Abishai was for David. And they're like, hey, so here's the thing. I know you wanna go to war and that's a great idea, but maybe let's not do that anymore, okay? Maybe you just command us from behind the scenes. That's the best spot for you. It says in verse 18,

it says, it came about after this that there was war again with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibachai the Hushethite struck down, man, try to say that five times fast, struck down Saph who was among the descendants of the giant. And there was war with the Philistines again at Gob. And Elhanan, I don't even know how to say that, the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, not the same one that David killed, but a different one.

The shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, 24 in number. And he also had been born to the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down. These four were born to the giant,

and Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. Handful of things I'll point out to you. Not six, but that'd be amazing, wouldn't it? Six fingers, six toes. I wonder if he could run faster than everybody else and grip a little bit tighter than everybody else. That's neither here nor there. First thing I'll point out to you is this.

First thing I'll point out to you is that the giants were defeated. That's really why that record is given to us is because the last of the giants are defeated, right? And so it's kind of, it's kind of an interesting record that David and his men that he had trained had taken out the giants. But there's two other things that I really want to point out to you.

Did you notice the repetition of phrases in there? Let me just tell you again. In verse 15, it says, now when the Philistines were at war. In verse 18, it says, after this, there was war again with the Philistines. In verse 19, it says, there was war with the Philistines. In verse 20, it says, there was war at Gath. You see, that's a hermeneutical tool that shows us that that must be something important

for us to pay attention to. Because when things are repeated, it means that there's a theme that we should focus on. And I think the theme that we should focus on is this. On this side of eternity, there's always gonna be another war. On this side of eternity, there's always gonna be another giant that you have to face. All of us have bought into, and I do fear this sometimes,

all of us have bought into the idea that we can have paradise on this side of eternity. That if we will just do the right things, that everything will be perfect on this side of eternity. And the fact of the matter is, on this side of eternity, it will never be perfect. You will never have perfect health. You will never have the perfect body. You will never have the perfect everything.

There's always gonna be something that we have to face. And the quicker that we get used to that, the easier it's gonna be for us to face the battles. So there's two things I wanna point out to you about that. If there's always another battle to fight, and there's always more giants to face, number one don't be surprised when you see them. And don't be surprised when you get into the battle.

I am amazed at how I myself can sometimes be like Oh my gosh! I just finished one. Why am I in the middle of another major battle right now? Well because we're still living on this side of eternity. And on this side of eternity, nothing's ever going to be perfect. And there's always going to be one more battle that we have to fight. There's always going to be one more giant.

So stop being surprised and start anticipating battles. Start anticipating the fact that there's going to be something else. Listen, you're either in the middle of a battle or you're resting up from the last battle to prepare for the next one. You're like, Ryan, that's not very hopeful. No, but it is really real. And we just need to know that. Because if we can know that going into it,

it's a whole lot easier to find joy in the battle. Because when you're in the middle of the battle, you go, I must be doing something right. Because this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. Because the great men of God, the great people that God has always used, they've always been fighting battles. Always. So number one, don't be surprised. Number two, don't stop fighting.

Don't stop fighting. Sometimes we go, but I'm tired. And I don't know if I can do it again. You can. And you will. Because God's going to give you everything that you need. God surrounded David with the men that he needed to support him. He gave him the tools that he needed to fight. He gave him the strategy that he needed to win. And he gave him all of the strength that he would need

in order to defeat every enemy that came his way. Because did you notice how all of those battles ended? They all ended in victory. And that's exactly what God's able to do for us. You see, if I'm not surprised that another battle's on its way, and I am anticipating that God's going to give me every tool that I need, every strategy that's necessary, and the strength that I need and will always give me victory,

it's a whole lot easier to face the battles. It's a whole lot easier to go, maybe hard right now, but I know that I win. It may be hard right now, but I know that God's going to bring a victory through this. And the older I get, the easier it is to understand that. And I remember being in my early 20s and finishing one battle and starting another one and going,

I don't know if I can make it through this one. I don't know if I'm going to survive this one. And after walking with Jesus for, you know, however many years, 27 years or something, now I start going, okay. Okay, I'm starting to get used to the fact that everything's another battle. There are no easy days, right? I remember a young man that was one of my students

decided to become a Navy SEAL. And the thing that caused him to want to become a Navy SEAL was a book that he read called No Easy Day. And that's kind of what prompted him. It's what made him want to go into that. And I've thought about the title of that book a lot, and I've thought that honestly should be a title of a book for ministry, but it also should be a title of a book for discipleship.

Because, again, we think if we come to Jesus, then I'll just have world peace in my own apartment. We'll live our perfect Barbie or Ken life. And listen, you just got into a war, but it's great because God wins. And he's going to give us everything that we need to win. And there are moments where you're like, am I going to make it through this? You are, I promise.

I promise. Because I've watched it happen over and over again. And I've seen God do it in my own life over and over again. I've seen God do it in your lives over and over again. And we can trust it. So, never stop fighting, and don't be surprised that every day there's a new battle that gets to come up. And in that theme, we come into 2 Samuel 22, which is just simply a psalm of deliverance.

As a matter of fact, in the margin of your Bible, if it's not written there, if you have a little headings that may have this in there already, you might just write Psalm 18, because that's exactly what this correlates with. It's almost an exact copying of it. So, we're just going to go through this. It breaks down, in my opinion, in three different ways. And the first handful of verses just talks about confidence in God.

But it starts off in verse 1 like this. David spoke the words of this song to the Lord. And the day that 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 and my refuge.

My Savior, you save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and so I am saved from my enemies. For the waves of death encompassed me. The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me. And the snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord. Yes, I cried to my God. And from his temple, he heard my voice.

And my cry for help came unto his ears. Those first handful of verses are really just kind of David talking about the confidence that he has in the Lord. He said, That he penned this when God gave him deliverance from all of his enemies. And did you notice that extra phrase? And from Saul. Saul who had been seeking his life. Saul who had been seeking to kill him.

But if you're an underliner, you might pay attention to a few things. Did you notice the number of ways that God has described in verses 2 and 3? He's described as my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My rock. My refuge. My shield. Salvation. Stronghold. And my refuge. That's who David knew God as. That's who David knew him as. As the one who was his ultimate protector and his ultimate place of safety.

He knew that the absolute safest place for him to be was under the shadow of the Almighty. In other words, the safest place for him to be was in a right relationship with God. Because as an individual in a right relationship with God, your life is the absolute most protected it can possibly be. Because at that point in time, you're not alone. You're not alone right now.

Anything that comes into your life has already been funneled through the hands of a loving God. And that's exactly who David was. That's exactly how he viewed himself. And that's exactly how he viewed God. Is he viewed him as his greatest protector. You see, that's how you can be someone who constantly faces the battle and constantly faces the giants and still have confidence.

Because God had proven himself over and over and over again. And then notice his confidence in God caused him to continue to call upon the Lord. He said, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. In my distress, I called upon the Lord. I cried to God, and from his holy temple, he heard my voice, and my cry came unto his ears. Now, I want to point something out to you.

In just a moment, David's going to talk about how God responded. I want you to think about something. Hold on, I've got to get a drink of water here.

I want you to think about something, because sometimes we cry out to God for things, right? And we don't always get an answer immediately. And we're like, Lord, why when David cried out to you, did you respond the way that you did? But when I cry out to you, it seems like you're silent. Why, when I cry out to you, does it feel like you don't move? But when David cries out to you,

you move heaven and earth to help him. Well, I want you to think about something. You know how long it took for David to get to the point where he could say the song that David penned when God delivered him from all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul? Well, he was on the run from Saul for at least a minute. At least 10 years. You see, that casts a whole new light on it, doesn't it?

You see, tonight, you may be calling out to God. Lord, I need deliverance from this issue. Lord, I need deliverance from this thing. Father, I'm crying out to you. I'm calling out to you in my distress, but it doesn't feel like you're working on my behalf yet. Listen, God's at work. You just don't see it. God's moving. You just don't sense it just yet, because he's teaching you things

that you can only learn in the waiting. He's teaching you things that you can only learn in the seeking. He's teaching you things that you can only learn in the battle. And as you learn it in the battle, all of a sudden, you find yourself going, oh, yeah, God is my rock, and he is my fortress, and he is my refuge, and he is my salvation, and he is all of these things for me.

But it took some time to get there. It took some time to get to that point, because I called out to the Lord, and then he answered. Because notice what it says. And then the earth shook and quaked. Now he's gonna talk about God's work, and the first part of his work is his response. He says, Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of heaven were trembling

and were shaken because he was angry. Smoke went out from his nostrils, fire from his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down with thick darkness under his feet, and he rode on a cherub and flew, and he appeared on the wings of the wind. And he made darkness, canopies around him, a mass of water, thick clouds of the sky.

From the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice, and he sent out arrows, and he scattered them, lightning, and he routed them. Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of the Lord at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

What colorful language he uses to describe how God responded, right? Now, I'm gonna just assure you of something. David never actually physically saw those things take place. I don't think David saw God riding out of heaven with smoke pouring out of his nostrils, although, wow, what a fantastic picture, right? No, he just knows that that's the true spiritual warfare that took place.

I think David, in his spirituality, because God made him a man like this, understood what spiritual warfare really looked like. You don't always realize this. I don't always realize this, but what's taking place above us right now, what's taking place around us right now, is a massive spiritual battle. Before this, Jared and I, we prayed, because he said, hey, I'm kind of new getting back into this, and I said, well, I can always use more prayer, and the spiritual battle began, and we cried out to the Lord, and God responded, and the earth shook, and smoke blew out of his nostrils, and not Jared, God, and all those things began to take place, right?

And even though I didn't actually see that, I know that that's what took place, because we're told in the Psalms that the Lord, he is a warrior, and the Lord is mighty in battle, and that's how he always responds when his kids call out for him. That's the way he always responds when his kids seek his help, because listen, God is a good father, and when his kids are in danger, he comes running, and he is ready to do business. And so God responds, and God responds in a powerful way, and then notice God's deliverance. It says in verse 17, and he sent from on high, and he took me, and he drew me out of many waters, and he delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me,

and they confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. Now, me personally, I'm an underliner, and I underline that in my Bible, actually, with two different things. Two different colors of ink, because I found that to be a powerful line. The Lord was my support. The thing that held me up, the thing that kept me strong was God, and I can tell you right now,

looking back on some times in my life, I can tell you 100%, the only reason I'm still here and was able to make it through is because the Lord was my support, because I cried out to God, and while I didn't physically see all of the things that David describes, as I look back, I realize that that's exactly what God was doing. And I can tell you that he drew me out of many waters, and he set me on high, because the Lord was my support. And he also brought me forth into a broad place, verse 20, and he rescued me, because he delighted in me. The Lord has 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 had not acted wickedly against my God,

for all his ordinances, were before me. And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless toward him, and I kept myself from iniquity. Therefore, the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness before his eyes. With the kind, you show yourself kind. With the blameless, you show yourself blameless.

With the pure, you show yourself pure. And with the perverted, you show yourself astute. And you save an afflicted people. But your eyes, are on the haughty whom you abuse. Now, if we weren't reading this at the very end of David's life, it would be easy for us to be like, yeah, always kept himself righteous. But you see, we've read the whole story, right? And we're going, come on now, David.

We know the story of your life. Is that really who you are? Are you really blameless before God? And you know what I would tell you? Yes, he is. He is blameless before the Lord. But what we read about so many, the mistakes that he made, we read about so many sins that he committed. Do you remember what he did when he committed those sins? He confessed them before the Lord.

And the Lord forgave him. You see, that's how I know that David is blameless before the Lord. Not because of who he is, but because of God's work in his life. And I want to remind you of something, because I bet you find yourself in a place where you go, oh, I'm not blameless before the Lord. I'm covered in all of my sins. I would tell you then you don't really understand grace.

And it's time for you to really begin to understand what God's grace has done in your life. Because when Jesus came into your heart and he cleansed you of your sins, that's exactly what he did. And that's no longer who you are. And if you don't know that you're blameless before the Lord, then it's time for you to ask God to show you everything that he's done in your life.

Because that's what he's done for you. And so it goes on to say, for you are my lamp, oh Lord, and the Lord illumines my darkness. For by you, I can run upon a troop. By my God, I can leap over a wall. As for God, his way is blameless and the Lord is tested. He is a shield to all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord and who is a rock besides our God?

God is my strong fortress. God is, and he sets the blameless in his way. He makes my feet like hind's feet. He sets me on high places. He trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of your salvation and your help makes me great. You enlarge my steps under me and my feet have not slipped. I pursued my enemies and destroyed them

and I did not turn back until they were consumed. And I have devoured them and shattered them so that they did not rise and they fell under my feet. For you have girded me with strength for battle. You have subdued me under those who rose up against me. You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me and I destroyed those who hated me. They looked but there was none to save,

even to the Lord but he did not answer them. I pulverized them as the dust of the earth and I crushed and stamped them as the mire of the streets. You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people. You have kept me as a head of the nations, a people whom I have not known serve me. Foreigners pretend obedience to me. As soon as they hear they obey me.

Foreigners lose their heart and comes trembling out of their fortress. So David speaks of everything that God has done for him. The last handful of verses he returns to the theme that he began with. The Lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted be God, the rock of my salvation. The God who executes vengeance for me and brings down peoples under me. Who also brings me out from my enemies.

You even lift me above those who rise up against me. You rescue me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks to you, O Lord, and I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations. And I will sing praises to your name. He is a tower of deliverance to his king. And he shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. What a beautiful story of God's work in the life of a man.

What God is also able to do for us. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thanks so much for your word. And Lord, I thank you for being our rock. I thank you for being our salvation. I thank you for being the God in whom we can trust. The God in whom we can rest. And Father, I pray that as we face the battles of life now, and Lord, every day is a new one, we can know that you are the rock of our salvation.

And that we can find our rest in you. And Father, we praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.