Through many tribulations
2 samuel 22:1-25
Main Idea: The only way we make it home is through many tribulations. There is no Plan B. Let your hearts be encouraged.
What Happened to David - the Facts
(David’s) scrapes have not been with the shadow of death but with its clammy clutches. What David says here in poetry he once said to Jonathan in prose: 'There is but a step between me and death' (1 Sam. 20:3). That statement actually summarizes David's life throughout the Saul years (1 Sam. 18-31). His distress went far beyond facing gall bladder surgery or replacing a defunct automatic transmission. Death daily dogged his tracks.
~ Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity
What Happened to David - the Results
If what happened to David in terms of the facts can be summarized in the word “tribulation,” then what happened to him in terms of results might be summarized in the word “growth.” He started out as a courageous young shepherd boy in 1 Samuel 16. He sits now as a noble king marked by at least three cardinal virtues displayed in this song.
Worship
Prayer
Endurance
Remember, God chose David to be king, not David nor anyone else. David became the king God chose him to be because God provided the “training” necessary to that end in the forms of disasters and oppositions. David didn’t quit - not because he wasn’t a quitter - but because quitting was death. In situations like that, you just keep going. AND, you also keep growing!
Why It Happened the Way It Did - the Bigger Story
The BIGGER story builds around two massive truths.
First, the LORD is the LIVING GOD and all creation is subject to Him.
David speaks of the LORD God riding the violence of the storm to his rescue as if it were a pony. The storm is still “the storm” but it is neither out of God’s control nor apart from God’s design.
The second aspect to this bigger story is that the Living God of Israel is a COVENANT-KEEPING GOD.
What David is saying is that his efforts at keeping the covenant to the best of his ability met with God’s overwhelmingly gracious keeping of the covenant in rescuing him. David is not wrong in claiming that his loyalty to the covenant played a part, but he is definitely most right in saying that his rescue - however meager his obedience - was dramatic proof of God’s gracious and super-abundant goodness as a covenant-keeping God.
Why It Happened the Way It Did - the Better Story
It turns out that “violence” and “enemies” are not our biggest problems. They cause a lot of problems, but David, by his own testimony, “beat them fine as the dust of the earth;” and “crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.” (v. 43)
But that single sinful glance at the naked woman bathing on the rooftop whooped David in ways he never recovered from!!
Our biggest problem is not with something “out there” but with something “in here.” We cannot rescue ourselves from it, but, according to the gospel, Jesus did.
Why It Happened the Way It Did - the Better Story
You’ve put your faith in Jesus. What can you expect from here?
Tribulations
Deliverance
Glory
The only way we make it home is through many tribulations. There is no Plan B. Let your hearts be encouraged.
