VI. A REVIEW OF PAST SIGNAL DELIVERANCES ENCOURAGES CONFIDENCE IN RESPECT TO THE FUTURE. Reviewing the wonderful deliverances wrought for him, David says, "In him will I trust;" "I shall be saved from mine enemies." The conflict of life was not over. New dangers will arise, and other enemies will fill the ranks of the fallen. But experience of God's merciful help keeps the spirit calm, and every triumph in the past by his favour is a guarantee that he will be a very present Help in every time of need. How could David doubt the goodness and power of God after so rich an experience of his aid? If for no other reason than the confidence it inspires, an occasional deliberate review of what great things God has done for us is very desirable. Doubt and fear spring from too much attention to ourselves. Security lies in the covenant of God, and not in our own powers, and a remembrance of actual help received is a reading afresh of the many Divine ratifications of the covenant. The din and hurry of daily life are adverse to reflective habits. It is well to make positive efforts at certain stages of life to resist the hindrances to reflection, and allow to pass before the mind the varied instances in which God has rescued us from impending ruin, both temporal and spiritual.
VII. A RATIONAL BASIS FOR PRAISE IS LAID IN A CONSIDERATION OF GOD'S GREAT DELIVERANCES. It is not without solid reason that David says, "I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised." There are manifold reasons why praise should be rendered to God, but here the basis in view is that found by a consideration of the various acts of mercy he has shown. David's deliverance from Saul, from the treachery of Doeg and Ahithophel, from the sorrows and shame of the banishment from throne and city, and from the more fearful woes of backsliding, were indeed events never to be forgotten. They meant to him life, joy, honour, instead of death and disgrace. All that is valuable in life, in distinction, in personal holiness, and victory over spiritual evil, appealed to his generous nature to acknowledge in thankful form the great things which God had done. It is the wont of some agnostic writers to represent the requirement of praise to God as essentially immoral—as a low representation of God as selfishly egotistic. It might be enough to say that agnostics have no right to speak of essential morality, since on their principles there can be no such thing. But apart from that, it overlooks the real teaching of Scripture and the natural action of human hearts. Men are not condemned for not praising God, but for being lovers of sin in thought, feeling, and deed. Their condition necessarily involves a condemnation, as surely as an anarchical state involves, by its condition, its own destruction. Their not rendering acknowledgments to God for his mercies is only a symptom of the real evil, and not the actual cause of condemnation. A heart true to generous and pure instincts will always admire power blended with goodness, and be thankful for good placed within reach by that beneficent power. "Praise is comely."
VIII. THE DELIVERANCES WROUGHT FOR US BY GOD ARE ONLY PRELIMINARY BLESSINGS. All through these verses David speaks of deliverance, of being saved from certain evils, and God as a Deliverer, a Saviour. This, of course, is a negative good; it is doing something that he may not die, and not be lost. But it is only a superficial view to say that this was all that David was thinking of His present position as honoured king, ruling over a united nation, and blessed with a moral elevation superior to any other man then living, is the counterfoil to this negative aspect. There was no need to say in words what he now was. His life tells that side of the record of God's mercy and power. He refers to the deliverances as blessings preliminary to his positive elevation to honour and distinction. Being delivered from the hand of Saul, he was made king in succession; being saved from the banishment consequent on Absalom's rebellion, of course he was positively restored; being rescued from the sin of backsliding, of course he was reinstated in the Divine favour and holiness of life. This is the correct and New Testament view of the great deliverance, or salvation, wrought for us by Christ. We are delivered from the curse and guilt of sin; but that is the negative good, preliminary, necessary to the implied positive elevation to sonship and eternal holiness. He saves from condemnation, but does not leave us as merely liberated souls. He gives us therewith "power to become the sons of God." He makes us "kings and priests unto God." The positive aspect of salvation means elevation, progress, conformity of nature to the Divine will.
2 Samuel 22:5-19
God's answer to the cry of distress.
The facts are:
1. David represents death, the grave, and ungodly men, under various figures, as causing him deep distress.
2. He states that, on crying unto God out of the greatness of his distress, his voice entered even into his ears.
3. He thus indicates, in strong figurative language, the tokens of God's attention to his cry.
I. PROVIDENCE PERMITS MEN TO COME INTO GREAT EXTREMITIES. David's life was especially providential. He was from his youth the child of Providence, and yet, for no other traceable reason than his patriotism and his goodness, he was persecuted by Saul, a jealous, suspicious king, even to the degree that life was despaired of. All the forces of society and of nature seemed to go against him, and meanwhile the God of his youth and early manhood was silent and apparently far away. Our only interpretation of the facts is that God allows his servants sometimes to be brought very low. He does not give them the immunity from pain and peril which their relative goodness and fidelity would seem to warrant. Yet this is not the result of mere arbitrariness or neglect. It is part of an educational purpose, and inseparable from a government of men free in their deeds of wrong. The latent qualities of the righteous and their powers for future use can often be best developed by means of adverse events which throw them more absolutely on God than under smooth and easy conditions they ever could be. We need not be surprised if we fall into manifold trials (1 Peter 4:12).
II. THE EXTREMITIES OF LIFE DEVELOP THE FULL STRENGTH OF PRAYER. David had been accustomed, like all pious men, to pray, but now he cried unto God. There was a reserve store of prayer in him which now became developed. He realized as never before his need of God, his helplessness, apart from pure Divine interposition and aid, to accomplish the purpose for which he had been selected by Samuel. There was more faith in him than he had been aware of, and now it was brought into exercise. This was the first gain in the educational process. In the spiritual life, as in the physical and mental, our capacities become atrophied if not well used, and circumstances that draw them forth in unusual degree enrich us with a permanent legacy of increased power. There is a natural tendency to inertia, which the stress of our environment urges us to overcome. How great is the power placed in our hands by the privilege of prayer, who can tell? There are indications of its greatness in particular instances recorded in the Bible and known in modern life. It availeth much. It is the human agency by which the exercise of the Almighty Power has conditioned its own exercise. How seldom do we cry unto God as though we really wanted him and his aid!
III. THE INTERPOSITION OF GOD ON BEHALF OF HIS PEOPLE IS A REALITY IN LIFE. David contrasts in thought his position and that of his enemies. He was apparently left alone by God and man; they were prosperous, numerous, strong, and eager as rolling waves. Death was before and behind him, so that he could not move; they were free to act, and no one to put them in peril. But a change came; the cry of distress had entered into the very ear of God, and, as though there were a sudden change in the Divine relationship to human forces, rescue came. To David the interposition was as real as the previous peril and agony. It was not mere faint heartedness in Saul, not accidental diversion of his thoughts, not a simple refusal of his men to go further in pursuit of the victim of his malice; it was God who had somehow so acted on men and things as to bring about deliverance. The strong figures used by David in 2 Samuel 22:8-12 express the conviction that God had come to his help, not simply by the action of normal laws, but by the invisible contact of the eternal energy with those laws, wondrously subordinating them to a special design. The true believer still sees God in his great deliverances. The answer to prayer is a great reality. God can and does get at his suffering children. Men see not the invisible hand, but those who cry to God recognize it. The profoundest matters of life are objects of faith, and in faith, as in intention, there is a transcendent knowledge passing all demonstration and all communication.
IV. A REVIEW OF DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS BRINGS OUT TO THE EYE OF FAITH THEIR STRONG CHARACTERISTICS. David here reflects on the deliverances wrought for him in answer to earnest prayer, and their characteristics appear to him to be best represented by the bold and vigorous language in 2 Samuel 22:8-16. Among these we may notice:
1. A twofold revelation—to himself, as the God of power actually stooping to his help, and holding in his hand the most terrible and most subtle forces of nature; and to his enemies, as the great God causing his voice so to be heard in the course of things as to reveal his wrath and impress men with a sense of his greatness and majesty.
2. An assurance blended with uncertainty. The coming down and the Divine brightness brought assurance unmistakable; but the darkness and mystery of his movements indicated that his methods of working out a saving purpose were beyond human penetration.
3. Use of appropriate agencies for frustrating wicked purposes. The Divine "arrows" were so directed by unerring wisdom as to scatter those who hitherto were bent on pursuit.
4. Thoroughness in clearing away all natural obstacles to the perfecting of the deliverance. So thorough was the reserve to be that the swollen torrents and deep places were to be entirely made bare of water in order to render escape complete. We may look at our deliverances as from enemies human or fiendish, and we shall find that God does make himself known as our Friend, and causes our foes to feel his displeasure. We know that he helps, but we know not all his ways. He brings influences to bear on our foes, so that they are weakened, and what he does he does perfectly, clearing away whatever may hinder our safety. The same general truths will hold good if we look at our many deliverances from spiritual peril. He sets himself against evil, and comes to our sorrowing soul. He lets us know enough for our cheer, but does not throw full light on all his methods. He brings the mighty influences of his Word and Spirit to destroy the power of sin, and by the tremendous work of Christ clears away every obstacle to our full salvation.
GENERAL LESSONS.
1. When we come into great troubles let us take comfort that in this matter we are sharing in an experience which, in the case of some of the best of men, has developed a more earnest spirit of prayer.
2. The records of God's dealings with his saints shows that there is no distress too deep for him to reach and remedy.
3. There is no place on earth but that the voice of prayer is free to enter into God's holy temple and even to his ear.
4. Although for a season during the prosperity of those who persecute the pious it may seem as though they were exempt from displeasure, yet God is angry with them, and will in some significant way cause them to know it.
5. However desperate our case, we may rest assured that God is in possession of all the means of gaining access to our need, and of scattering whatever evils threaten us with ruin.
6. There are no powers, however deep seated and established, but that, if we trust in God, he will clear them out of the way, so that we may find a position of safety, and consequent elevation to honour and blessedness.
2 Samuel 22:20-30
God's righteousness in saving the righteous.
The facts are:
1. David states that, in delivering him from his enemies, God recognized his uprightness and purity.
2. He affirms that, as a matter of fact, he had in his conduct endeavoured to live according to the will of God.
3. He declares the general truth that, in thus rescuing him the upright, and showing disfavour to the perverse persecutor, there was exemplified the principle of the usual Divine procedure.
4. He ascribes the successes of the past, not to himself, however upright, but to God, his Light in darkness and his Strength for deeds of daring. There is, in David's references to his own righteousness and purity, an appearance of what is now called, self-righteousness. He seems to violate the primary canons of Christian propriety and to establish a doctrine of merit. But this interpretation of his words is an utter misconception of his meaning, and proceeds from an ignorance of the historical circumstances he had in mind when penning the words. It is a wrong done to personal experiences of the Old Testament to approach their interpretation with certain prepossessions based on New Testament teaching with reference to our personal unworthiness before God on account of our essential sinfulness. David was not speaking of his state absolutely before God; he was not thinking of the question as to whether he or any one else was a sinner. His sole thought was of the distinct charges brought against him by such men as Doeg the Edomite, and believed by the foolish king Saul; and he was conscious that his being hunted by Saul was a grievous wrong, a treatment he did not deserve. He was the righteous man, for he loved Saul, showed him kindness, and. paid him honour; Saul and Doeg and others in the conspiracy were the unrighteous men, uttering falsehoods, using cruelty, and cherishing malice. God came as Judge between them, and by interposition showed his delight in what his servant had been and done in this particular matter, and his displeasure with Saul for his wicked conduct. He vindicates the gracious interposition of God on the ground that it is a righteous and glorious thing on the part of God to rescue those who suffer unrighteously, and to declare, by his rescue of them, his delight in them as compared with the men who cause their sufferings (cf. 1 Samuel 21:7; 1 Samuel 22:9-13, 1 Samuel 22:18-23; 1 Samuel 24:7-15; 1 Samuel 26:10-20). The vindication and illustration of God's righteousness in saving his people may be considered as follows.
I. THERE ARE SPECIAL INSTANCES IN WHICH IT MAY BE SAID THAT GOD SAVES THE RIGHTEOUS. In ordinary speech we say that God saves sinners. That is true in the sense that all men saved, whether temporally or spiritually, are, in their relation to him, sinful, or transgressors of the Law. But in relation to others and in relation to specific obligations which he may impose on them, they may be relatively righteous, and his saving them may be because they are so. Thus:
1. Those who are righteous in life, as compared with others, are saved from calamity and suffering. Noah was a righteous man, and therefore was spared, while the Flood carried away the wicked. Lot was a righteous man in comparison with the Sodomites, and therefore was delivered by Divine pressure put upon him from the destruction which befell the rest. Some of the better Churches in Asia were not doomed to the woe that was to come on others, because God "knew their works" (Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22.). The more holy and devoted to Christ we are, and the more minutely our lives are regulated by the laws of God as written in his Word and works, and in our own mental and physical nature, the more shall we be saved from woes that come upon others who violate laws physical, moral, and spiritual.
2. Those who suffer as being unrighteous, when all the time they are not so. This was the case of David, who was persecuted most bitterly by Saul on the ground that he hated his king and sought his life, when all the time he loved his king and guarded his life. It was as a righteous man in this particular that God saved him from distress. The same was true of Joseph in prison; of the Apostles Peter and Paul; yea, of our Saviour himself. And often still does God save his people from the reproach and sorrow brought on them by being represented as being other than they really are (Matthew 5:11, Matthew 5:12; 1 Peter 4:14-17).
3. Those who conform to the gospel law of salvation. Before God all are sinners, and condemned by their own consciences as also by the broken Law. But Christ has made full atonement for sin, and now therefore God, in his sovereign grace, has laid down a new law for us to keep, based upon his acceptance of Christ's perfect work, namely, that we exercise faith in Christ as our atoning Saviour. We are not to try and keep the Decalogue as a condition of being accepted; we cannot attain to the righteousness of the moral Law. We are not to plead the value of repentance and a future life better than the past; all that is indefinite, uncertain. But we are simply to have faith in Christ as set forth in the gospel, that is all that God requires for our acceptance; that is the newly created law, the sum of all obligations in reference to obtaining justification before God. In other words, we are to attain to the "righteousness of faith," the righteousness which consists in fulfilling the obligation created by gospel grace, and then there is no condemnation: we walk then as freed sons in the glorious liberty of the children of God.
II. IN ALL THESE INSTANCES IT IS CONSONANT WITH GOD'S NATURE TO SAVE THE RIGHTEOUS. God's treatment of Noah and Lot, and of all who keep his truth in the midst of prevailing degeneracy, marks his distinction of character on the basis of goodness. It is the Divine nature to love the good and hate the evil tendencies of men. When the persecuted are delivered, there is a vindication of character and a repressing of wrong which cannot but accord with God's natural love of justice. When he graciously accepts us on the condition that we have fulfilled all that he requires under the gospel order, and in our justification recognizes the "righteousness of faith" (Romans 3:25-28; Romans 4:5, Romans 4:6, Romans 4:11, Romans 4:13), he, accepting that kind of righteousness, that fulfilment of all obligation, maintains the honour of the violated Law under which we had lived, and glorifies the sacrificial work of his beloved Son. There is therefore nothing arbitrary in the "law of faith."
III. THESE SPECIAL INSTANCES OF SALVATION ARE IN ACCORD WITH THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT. David was quite warranted in saying that when God, in the matter of the deliverance from the persecutions of Saul, recompensed him according to his righteousness (2 Samuel 22:25), he was simply acting in harmony with his general kindness to the merciful and upright, and his stern and repressive ways of providence toward the perverse (2 Samuel 22:26, 2 Samuel 22:27). The actual laws revealed in the Decalogue, in the civil institutions of Moses, in the precepts of the New Testament, in the constitution of the physical and mental worlds, all go for the good and against the wicked, whatever be the form or degree of the goodness or wickedness. It may be that, for reasons not yet made clear, the wicked triumph for a while and the righteous cry out in agony, "O Lord, how long!" but God's government is vast, intricate, and stretching far into the future, and there are forces at work by which at last the righteous shall be exalted and the wicked abased (Psalms 5:4-6, Psalms 5:11, Psalms 5:12; Psalms 37:6, Psalms 37:7, Psalms 37:23-40).
IV. THOSE WHO ARE SAVED BY GOD ON THE GROUND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS LAY NO CLAIM TO MERIT. The object of David in this passage is not to proclaim his own deeds and claim a right to God's favour, but rather to set forth the righteousness and goodness of God in saving those who conform to his will. He had kept the ways, the statutes, and the judgments of God (2 Samuel 22:23, 2 Samuel 22:24) in respect to his behaviour toward Saul,—he could honestly say that; and he considers it a matter of praise and glory to God that he manifested his love of what is just in coming to the rescue of such a one. To have allowed Saul to triumph would have been a reflection on Divine justice. In all this, therefore, there is no reference to merit in the sight of God, any more than Noah felt that he merited God's favour. It was in neither ease a question of the desert of the entire life, but of the state of the life in relation to other men. So in our personal salvation through faith, there is no claim of merit. It is all of grace. The "law of faith" is the creation of grace, and the heart to conform to it is of grace. The light in which we see spiritual things, and in which we rejoice, is not our own. The Lord is our Lamp, and he lightens our darkness (2 Samuel 22:29). If we are able to break through troops of spiritual foes, and leap over walls (2 Samuel 22:30) that hem us in, it is not because of our strength; it is only by our God, who of his free mercy supplies all our need.
2 Samuel 22:31-51
The facts are:
1. David asserts the exclusive perfection of God.
2. He states that his strength and power are from God, and that God teaches him to move and act with advantage in times of war and difficulty.
3. He refers to the help received through the graciousness of God, and the fact that thereby he was able to subdue all his enemies.
4. He alludes to the subjugation of the people to himself as the consequence of Divine help, and looks on to further triumphs over strangers.
5. He recounts the fact of his deliverance, and makes the final reference to them a flesh reason for thanksgiving.
Knowledge of God founded on experience.
From 2 Samuel 22:31 to 37 David seems to state some of the results arising out of his experience of God's dealing with him during the earlier portion of his life. He can now say with emphasis what at one time could only be said as a matter of general profession on the part of a pious Hebrew; and there is in 2 Samuel 22:31 an implied contrast with certain apprehensions entertained during those seasons of isolation and distress, when no one cared for his soul, and the course of providence seemed to be all against him. And in this respect others are like him; the more profound their personal experience in life, the more clear and sure are their conceptions of the ineffable perfections of God.
I. A KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS MORE A QUESTION OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE THAN OF SPECULATION. Among the Hebrews there were grand traditional beliefs and conceptions which placed their pure monotheism far above the theistic faiths of other nations, and David in early years inherited these, and could give beautiful expression to them. But the traditional and even reasoned views which he had acquired were not his greatest treasure. A long life of communion, service, conflict, and patient trust had caused him to see that experience was the most important element in this matter of knowledge of God. No doubt it is possible to reason up to God. The logical outcome of the principle of causation is God, and the moral nature of man is only intelligible on the hypothesis of a supreme personal Ruler. It is not true that speculative philosophy leads away from God. All its lines, when straightly pursued, converge on him. The question is one of personal relations, and it is not within the competence of a speculative inquirer to settle this great question regardless of the deep, ineradicable, and most sacred experience of which human nature is capable.
II. AS A MATTER OF FACT, EXPERIENCE GIVES A CLEARER, FULLER, AND MORE ASSURED KNOWLEDGE THAN ANY OTHER MEANS. Experience is of first importance in matters pertaining to spiritual things. We know the reality of unseen beings existing beneath the fleshly covering of the body more truly by the mysterious contact of our self with an invisible counterpart, than by any physiological or psychological arguments. There is an inexpressible knowledge in our conscious intuitions of other minds being in communion with our own, which is the more clear, sure, and satisfying, in that it is inexpressible in words. Likewise the personal experience of holy men brings them so near to the living God, so directly in contact with his Spirit, and gives them such clear and irresistible convictions of his Being and his glorious character, that to such men the light thrown on the question of the Divine existence and character by processes of reasoning seems very cold and dim. They can dispense with it for themselves. Like the Apostle John, they have tasted and handled and felt the Divine reality (1 John 1:1-3).
III. THE CLEARER AND MORE SURE KNOWLEDGE RELATES ESPECIALLY TO HIS EXCLUSIVE PERFECTIONS. After his deep and often trying experience, David could speak most confidently of God as "perfect" in all things. He alone was worthy of the name God. The points referred to are:
1. His methods.
2. His Word.
3. His care.
His methods of discipline, of guidance, of instruction, and of working out purposes seemed strange and obscure while David was in trial, but in the end he saw that all was perfect. So is it ever, The more we experience of his "ways," the more do we learn their wisdom, goodness, and justice. His "Word," considered as promise, covenant, revelation, or manifestation in Christ, requires personal experience to enable us to see how perfect it is. How hearty an "Amen" can multitudes give to this statement! His care is discovered by our experience through scenes of danger and peril to be indeed sufficient, suited to every emergency, and most gentle and considerate. As our "Buckler," "Shield," and "Rock," we know him more truly, as life advances and the heart becomes charged with unutterable experiences, to be perfect. How vain are all the negations and disputations of restless speculators to the soul rich in such experience!
IV. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD GAINED BY EXPERIENCE ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER AND FITNESS FOR HIGHEST FORM OF WORK. The holy man enriched by such knowledge is not a mere knowing creature; he becomes a man of higher character and more extended activity. His way is made perfect; his feet are those of the hind; he rises to the best positions in the spiritual sphere; his hands are fit for warfare; he becomes calm and strong in the guarantee of a perpetual shield; and distinction in the highest society and fitness for the holiest service are the outcome of God's gracious dealings. As David, after all his strange experience of God's power and gentleness, was more strong in faith, more skilful in administration, more apt at spiritual warfare, and more conformed to the Divine will; so all who follow on to know the Lord more perfectly, and enter more deeply into the secret of the Lord, rise in spiritual character, and become more fit instruments for doing the purest form of work in the world.
The gentleness of God.
This beautiful saying of David's, in verse 36, is a wonderful illustration of the tenderness of his own heart, and of the deep and thoroughly evangelical thoughts he entertained of the character of God. There is much in this song to remind us of terrible power (verses 7-18); but it was to David the power and terribleness of One who pities the poor and needy, and, out of his deep compassion, throws the shield of his almightiness over them. In one respect this display of power is an expression of gentleness; it is tender care and loving kindness for the needy in their defensive aspect. It was gentleness that took David from the sheepcote to make him King of Israel; that succoured and consoled him when exiled in lonely mountains and heathen lands; that spared his soul and healed his wounds when he fell into his dreadful sin; that upheld his broken spirit when the crushing blow of rebellion came as chastisement for sin; that gradually fashioned his character in spite of adverse influences of the age, and made him a blessing to Israel; and that so toned his life that now in old age, instead of being a proud monarch boasting of his strength, he is constrained to ascribe all the glory of his life to God. It is the gentleness of God that elevates and ennobles all his people.
I. THIS QUALITY IS MOST CHARACTERISTIC OF GOD IN HIS DEALINGS WITH US. To it—called in the New Testament, love—we owe our redemption through Christ. The revelation of "righteousness," of which the Apostle Paul speaks (Romans 1:17), is made because of the deep love of God, his tender pity for his erring children. Our Saviour, who is the express Image of his Person, was, during his earthly course, the embodiment of all that is sweet, tender, pitiful, gentle. The bruised reed, the smoking flax, knew his gentleness. Weeping widows, fallen women, outcast lepers, despised sinners, little children, a sorrowing Mary at the cross, were only a few instances in which the infinite tenderness of his nature went forth in words and deeds of blessing. The spirit of his gospel is that of tender compassion for all men. In our personal experience the same spirit is revealed. He found us bruised, defiled, without hope; and he tenderly bound up our wounds, took away our guilt, and gave us power to become his sons. In our occasional lapses, how tender, how patient, and pitiful! When adversity has come, home laid desolate, or health taken away, how gently his hand has held us up and assuaged our grief! And when by the open grave, and broken down with sorrow, his all-sufficing gentleness has come and turned our sorrow into joy. O blessed gentleness! How dear and precious is our God to our often weary and sinful hearts!
II. THE INFLUENCE OF GOD'S GENTLENESS ON US IS TO ELEVATE OUR LIFE. It made David "great." That was its object, and he, appreciating its blessedness, found that it did secure its object. A knowledge of this as the distinguishing quality in God's dealings with men, tends in itself to raise our conceptions of God, and of the order of his government. The end for which his gentleness found expression in the work of Christ is that we may be raised from our low estate, and be heirs of his own glory. When we open our hearts to his gentle Spirit, we, like the prodigal, rise from our degradation and become reinstated as beloved and honoured children. In seasons of calamity it gives us strength to endure and to wait, and a deep consciousness of its reality often throws over the character a more than earthly beauty; and when his love has done all its blessed work in us, we shall rise to a far more glorious position than that occupied by David when, as king, he reached the highest honour attainable among men (John 17:24).
III. THE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS GENTLENESS IN THE PAST IS AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO US FOR THE FUTURE. David was evidently able to look on to the future with perfect composure. The love of the past was pledge for the future. Our review of God's gracious dealings with us will cause us to sing of his loving kindness, and to fear no evil. Having given us his beloved Son, we are sure he will give us all things.
Life's warfare.
From verse 38 to verse 44 David takes a general survey of his life's conflicts, and is able to say at the close that his triumph over enemies is complete. The language is strong, and to modern ears fierce and vindictive; but we have to consider the position which he believed himself to hold under God, and which he believed to be imperilled by his adversaries. He was, and knew it well, the anointed of the Lord, set over the people as the representative of God, and for the distinct purpose of preparing the way for the realization of those vast promises of good to the world made to Abraham, and devoutly cherished by every enlightened Hebrew. Consequently, the personal element in his case largely disappeared. The attacks on him were attacks on God's government, an effort to frustrate God's purposes; and, believing those purposes to be the wisest and best, he regarded the attempt to put them aside as most wicked; indeed, as the crime of high treason against the Eternal King. That men who thus oppose the Lord's anointed, and are instrumental in committing so great a sin or doing so serious a mischief in the world, deserved the judgment which God allowed to come is obvious, or he would not have allowed it; and, admitting this, there is no obvious sin in David expressing in figurative terms his acquiescence and even satisfaction in that judgment. There is no sin in a man's spiritual vision being so high and wide that he sees justice, and is glad that justice is done. It is only when we introduce the more personal element, and judge by it alone, that David's words are felt to be improper. His life's warfare suggests ours, and that being led on by the Captain of our salvation.
I. THERE ARE STRONG AND BITTER FOES AROUND US. Cruel men under Saul's leading, Amalekites, Philistines, and rebels within the kingdom, sought the ruin of David, both personally and in his capacity as anointed king. No words can set forth adequately the number, strength, activity, and combinations of the spiritual foes that practically seek our spiritual life, and also oppose the claims and prerogatives of Christ. Every Christian life is a spiritual reproduction of David's temporal life; and in the antagonism of our own Christian experience we have a miniature view of the great conflict going on between the King in Zion and the principalities and powers of darkness and the countless forces that lie concealed in the depths of human depravity.