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[0:00] Please turn your Bibles to 2 Samuel 22. And David spoke to the Lord, the words of the song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

[0:14] He said, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior.

[0:28] You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. For the waves of death encompass me. The torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of shale entangled me. The snares of death confronted me.

[0:46] In my distress, I called upon the Lord to my God. I called from his temple. He heard my voice and my cry came to his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked because he was angry.

[1:02] Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.

[1:14] He rode on a cherub and flew. He was seen on the wings of the wind. He made darkness around him, his canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water. Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flame forth.

[1:28] The Lord thundered from heaven and the most high uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen.

[1:38] The foundations of the world were laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.

[1:50] He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because he delighted in me.

[2:04] The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God.

[2:16] For all his roles were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.

[2:31] With the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless. With the purified, you deal purely. With the crooked, you make yourself seem torturous.

[2:45] You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.

[3:00] This God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God but the Lord?

[3:11] And who is a rock except our God? This God is my strong refuge, and he has made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer, and set me secure on the heights.

[3:23] He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great. You gave me a wide place for my steps under me.

[3:35] My feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed. I consumed them. I thrust them through, so that they did not rise.

[3:46] They fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle. You made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them.

[4:00] They looked, but there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as the dust of the earth. I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.

[4:12] You delivered me from my strife with my people. You kept me as the head of the nations, people whom I had not known served me. Foreigners came cringing to me.

[4:23] As soon as they heard me, they obeyed me. Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses. The Lord lives and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation.

[4:37] The God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me, who brought me out from my enemies. You exalted me above those who rose against me. You delivered me from men of violence.

[4:48] For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.

[5:00] Think about history and people's legacy and how they are perceived in history. As I think back through some of the big names of people that we think of, Abraham Lincoln comes to mind.

[5:14] He's thought of as one who preserved the Union and ended slavery in our nation. And yet, as a man, he held some rather hypocritical views, quite frankly.

[5:26] Views that would be rather offensive to us today. He made some horrible appointments during the Civil War and almost lost it, quite frankly. He was not as great a leader as we might want to think of him, but yet he has a good legacy overall.

[5:43] So does Winston Churchill. We think of him as the man who saved Western democracy against the tyranny of the Nazis. But again, Winston Churchill was not a particularly gentle and loving man.

[5:58] He was harsh. He was said to be kind of mean in his personal interactions. He was not a great man, but we think of him quite fondly. Martin Luther King Jr., another individual that we think of with high esteem.

[6:14] He was the voice of American Civil Rights Movement back in the 1960s. I'm old enough to remember him and remember seeing news things on TV about the marches that he was involved in.

[6:28] But even someone like that, it's well known that he was not particularly faithful to his wife, multiple affairs that he had. And it's also known that he apparently plagiarized part of his doctoral thesis and he was academically corrupt.

[6:46] But he's remembered fondly. He's remembered good in spite of the evil. All of these people have good and bad in their histories.

[6:57] And they're remembered largely for the good that they did. We will all be remembered for something. And that brings us to the concept of legacy.

[7:10] We are dealing with a chapter near the very end of Samuel's account of David's life. This is the appendix portion of the book of 2 Samuel here.

[7:24] And we recognize that this passage, this psalm, was put here for a specific reason. This isn't just randomly tacked onto the end of a book so that we might know what kind of songwriter he was.

[7:43] This is here for a reason. This psalm is quite a fascinating psalm. Very lengthy psalm to read. If I remember correctly, I think it's about the third longest psalm in all of the Bible.

[7:58] This psalm is tremendously interwoven with the rest of Scripture. It's really quite interesting. This psalm is interwoven actually elsewhere in the Bible.

[8:11] If you were to turn to Psalm 18, which I believe Pastor Carmen opened the service with, Psalm 18 is the same psalm. There's some word changes, but it's actually the same psalm.

[8:23] It's been edited a little bit for the nation of Israel to use in their liturgy, in their worship. But this psalm is so important. It appears in Scripture twice.

[8:34] Not only that, this psalm is very interestingly woven together and linked to other parts of Scripture. This is very closely associated with Hannah's song, which is in 1 Samuel.

[8:47] And remember that 1 and 2 Samuel were originally one book. Hannah's song speaks of God as the rock, and so does this psalm. Hannah's song speaks of God as humbling and exalting people, and so does this psalm.

[9:00] Hannah's song sings of God's faithfulness, and so does this psalm. Hannah's song refers to God's care for His anointed one, and so does this psalm.

[9:11] They're linked together almost as bookends, the beginning and the end of Samuel's account. It's very, very significant. There's also in this psalm references or echoes parts that are reminiscent of Exodus in Exodus chapter 15.

[9:30] And of Sinai in Exodus chapter 19. And of the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. All of these things are linked together with this psalm. And the New Testament doesn't ignore it either.

[9:44] Quite frankly, it's amazing the number of times that it is echoed or referenced in some way. In Romans chapter 15 and verse 9, it is quoted directly from the Septuagint translation of the Bible.

[9:59] That is, Psalm 18 is quoted directly, which is the same psalm. Portions also are echoed in the New Testament. In Luke chapter 1 and verse 69.

[10:10] Acts chapter 2 and verse 24. And James chapter 5 and verse 4. We see this psalm interwoven throughout Scripture. And we need to know, why is this psalm here in 2 Samuel?

[10:26] Why at this point? 2 Samuel 22 is a psalm of declarating praise that is deliberately placed at the end of David's biography as a theological capstone to the entire Samuel narrative.

[10:46] It declares that David's achievements are attributed to God's grace alone. That's why it's here.

[10:58] It's here to show us that David was dependent upon God's grace. God is the reason for David's success.

[11:09] And everything good in David's life is attributed to God. Every blessing in our life is from a gracious God who has called us into His kingdom.

[11:27] I've titled this message this morning, Legacy of Praise. Legacy of Praise. So how does David praise God's gracious fulfillment in this psalm?

[11:42] Well, the sermon will be divided into four sections where we will see David sing God's praises. Section 1 will be God's grace in relationship.

[11:54] Section 2 will be God's grace in intervention. Section 3, God's grace in empowerment. And section 4 will be God's grace for His anointed. But before we dive into it more deeply, let's look to the Lord in a word of prayer.

[12:12] Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word. Father, this is a very long psalm. It's a lengthy passage of Scripture for us to go through today. We pray, Father, that Your Spirit would enlighten our minds.

[12:24] Father, that You would open our hearts to receive Your Word. Father, that You would be glorified as we look into Your Word and feed upon the message that is here. Father, we thank You and we praise You for the privilege we have to hear Your Word, to read Your Word, to understand Your Word.

[12:45] Father, we ask for Your grace and blessing now. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, if I didn't make it clear to begin with, the main point that I am trying to get across today is that every blessing in life is from our gracious God who has called us into Christ's kingdom.

[13:11] And David expresses those same ideas as he sings praises to God's grace in this psalm. So look with me, first of all, how David sings of God's grace in relationship.

[13:24] This is in verses 1-4. 2 Samuel 22, verses 1-4. I'm going to read these passages again, though we read them once already.

[13:37] I'm going to skip most of verse 1 and go to verse 2. It says, And He said, The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my Savior.

[13:58] You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. As we think of David singing these praises of God's relationship, we have to recognize, first of all, as I read and tried to emphasize, that these are praises of personal relationship.

[14:22] David has repeated, my, me, mine, I, many times in these first verses. He is clearly describing the fact that God is not some theoretical concept off there in the distance.

[14:39] God is a personal being who David knows personally. God is glorifying the one who He has a relationship with.

[14:52] But not only is there this personal relationship, notice also that it is a protective relationship. It's as if God is David's safe place.

[15:07] Notice the words that he uses in these verses. He uses the word rock and fortress and deliverer and refuge and shield and stronghold. All of these words use a descriptor of something that is a safe haven, a safe place to be, a place where you can go and know that you are secure.

[15:31] And that describes David's relationship with God. He is describing a relationship that is protective. He's also describing a relationship that is providing.

[15:46] In verse 3 there, I read the very last part of it there. He says that God is the horn of my salvation. In Scripture when it speaks of a horn or horns, it's often referring to the power and the strength that is involved in something.

[16:06] And David is attributing to God the power and the strength of his own salvation. In other words, David is not looking to himself for redemption.

[16:17] He's not looking to his own good works. He's looking to the grace of God and God's power in saving the sinner. And finally, in verse 4 in this section, he says, I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised.

[16:37] In this relationship, it is a praiseworthy relationship. It is in that sense one way. It is from David to God. He is going to praise Him.

[16:48] He's going to honor Him. He's going to glorify Him because He is worthy to be praised. Is your relationship to God theoretical?

[17:04] Or is it personal? In other words, when you think of God, is God somewhere up there in heaven kind of doing His own thing separated from you?

[17:16] Or is God someone who is personally and intimately involved in your life? Do you know how Nicodemus, in John chapter 3, went to Jesus?

[17:30] And he asked Him, he went to Jesus at night because he was afraid of the other Pharisees. What did Jesus say to him? Jesus said, you must be born again.

[17:43] That's a description of new life. Spiritual life. That's what we need with God. We need a personal relationship that is born from God Himself where He gives us new life in Christ.

[18:01] Not only is our relationship supposed to be personal, our relationship is supposed to be safe. Do you remember the story of Peter? Speaking of legacies, we often think of Peter as the guy that denied Christ, right?

[18:13] He denied Him three times in a single night. But do you remember what happened after those denials? Do you remember when he was on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus appeared on the shore?

[18:24] Do you remember what Peter did? He threw himself in the water and he swam towards Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was His safe place even after denying Him.

[18:39] He knew that Jesus was His safe place. This is a personal relationship that we're talking about. Do you view God as the provider and strength of your salvation?

[18:56] Or do you think of your relationship with God as something that you have earned? I dearly hope and pray that it's the former. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9 so well known.

[19:09] It says, For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

[19:21] We trust in Christ as our Savior and it's God's gift to us. It is a providing relationship that we have with Him. And finally, our relationship is praiseworthy.

[19:34] We praise God. We gather together on Sunday morning and we sing praises to God because He is worthy of our praise. Our lives should be marked by a very clear, a very obvious attitude of praise from a sincere heart to a personal God.

[19:59] We've seen that David sings God's praises in relationship. Let's move on in this passage of Scripture and consider how David continues to praise God in His gracious intervention.

[20:14] This is in verses 5-20. His gracious intervention. We can't read every verse of this psalm over again and look at every phrase or every clause that's in here.

[20:28] Let's read just very briefly verses 5-6. It says, For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me, the cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me.

[20:42] David in this passage of Scripture is using poetic language, of course, but he's speaking of a very treacherous time in his life where death is on the line.

[20:54] And no, I'm not just making a joke about Princess Bride. Sometimes death is on the line. And where is our intervention?

[21:05] What do we need in that time? Well, David had a situation where he is facing death. And what does he receive?

[21:17] He receives divine intervention. Again, we're going to cherry pick a couple of verses out of here. Look with me at verses 10-11. It says, He bowed the heavens and came down.

[21:28] The thick darkness was under His feet. He rode on a cherub and flew. He was seen on the wings of the wind. In other words, he is referring to God visiting Him.

[21:41] This I've made reference to Sinai and God coming down and visiting the nation of Israel. This is David's description of his personal experience in interacting with God.

[21:52] There is this visitation in a time of need. And then in verses 17-20, we read, He sent from on high.

[22:04] He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

[22:15] We see David describing God's intervention and rescue in his life. He was in a situation that he could not deal with.

[22:26] And God intervened and rescued him. We need to recognize that sometimes our greatest danger is not merely physical death, but eternal death.

[22:44] the most important thing that we can realize in our life today is that physical death is not the end. It's just a separation, our soul from our body.

[22:58] We need divine intervention because we are born dead in trespasses and sin. But Christ has come in the flesh.

[23:10] He has come to the world and visited humanity. God took on human form and has visited us and has provided the rescue that we need.

[23:23] Christ is our rescue. God has drawn us to Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a tremendous relationship with God because of His gracious intervention in our lives.

[23:43] And we should be praising God with our voices and with our actions and with our lives. The things we do and how we interact with people should reflect that marvelous work in our lives.

[23:57] God has intervened and saved us from our sin. David is proclaiming God's gracious intervention in his life.

[24:08] And we too can know that intervention by faith in Christ Jesus. Well, we very quickly have gone through this section of Scripture.

[24:20] We've seen that David sings of God's gracious relationship. We've just seen that David sings of God's gracious intervention. Look with me, please, at the third section of our sermon, David sings of God's gracious empowerment.

[24:37] This is a lengthy section of Scripture, verses 21 through verse 46. Obviously, again, we cannot read every one of these verses and look at every single part of it.

[24:49] But, you know, let's take the difficult part of this passage right up front. Verses 21 to 25 are the problem passage.

[24:59] How do we deal with this in relation to the things that we have been reading about most recently in David's life? I'm going to read these verses 21 to 25.

[25:10] Remember, this is David speaking. He says, The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanliness of my hands, He rewarded me.

[25:22] For I have kept the way of the Lord and not wickedly departed from my God. For all His rules were before me. And from His statutes I did not turn aside.

[25:34] I was blameless before Him. And I kept myself from guilt. And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanliness in His sight.

[25:48] Now, I've got to ask you, does that describe the David that we've been talking about ever since chapter 11 when he was on the roof gazing across the town at a woman who was bathing on another roof?

[26:02] That doesn't sound like that to me. It doesn't sound like his failure in dealing with Amnon or his failure in comforting and taking care of Tamar. It doesn't sound like his failure with Absalom and his failure in his rule as king.

[26:19] And yet, these words are true and right. How could that possibly be? Is he speaking of himself in his personal actions?

[26:32] No, he's not. He's speaking of imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness. He's speaking of himself as God sees him redeemed.

[26:46] As God views him purified. He is also speaking of someone who is yet to come.

[27:00] Who can be described with these words. He's speaking of the anointed one who will be coming and who will rule and reign as king in his own righteousness.

[27:15] That's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ. And the key to this whole section, this problem passage of verses 21-25, the key to this is in the next little section verses 26-28 where it speaks of God's character.

[27:31] Look with me at these verses. We're going to read them verses 26-28. It says, With the merciful you show yourself merciful. With the blameless you show yourself blameless.

[27:43] With the purified you deal purely and with the crooked you make yourself seem torturous. You save a humble person but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

[27:58] God is a saving God. Did you catch those words that he said back up there in verse 27? He says, With the purified you deal purely.

[28:12] In order for David to be purified, he's acknowledging that there's something he needed to be purified from. He's acknowledging his sin and he's accepting the gracious gift of God of imputed righteousness.

[28:30] What a wonderful benefit that is. And God's character isn't that he just overlooks sin because he does say as we read in there, he says in verse 27, With the crooked you make yourself seem torturous.

[28:49] That's a funny way of saying it quite frankly. We all know what the crooked means, right? You know, like, don't buy a car from that car dealership, they're crooked.

[29:02] Or, you know what the word means. What does it mean torturous? What is that referring to? Well, the word that is translated torturous actually could be kind of kind of translated zigzaggy.

[29:17] In other words, cunning. Have you ever seen in football where a guy's running with the football and he tries to get out of the way of the tackler, but the tackler is right there able to just grab him and throw him to the ground?

[29:33] That's what this is talking about. You can't get past God. If you think you're going to get around God and make an end run around him to the goal post and make it to heaven, you're not.

[29:45] God's going to take you down if you stay in your sin. That's what the passage is basically saying. Now, better translators than me have chosen better words than I would use.

[29:57] But I think you get the point that I'm trying to get across. God is gracious to the humble. If you come to him with your sin, he will forgive you of your sin. But if you try to come to him in what you perceive as your righteousness, he's going to take you down and it won't be a pleasant experience.

[30:17] By faith, we too stand in imputed righteousness. Paul quotes David in Romans 4 verses 6-8.

[30:27] He says, just as David also speaks of the blessings of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

[30:44] Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sins. What a blessing we have in Christ Jesus that we can stand in his purity before God.

[30:59] We have reason to praise God much the same way that David did. He goes on in verses 29-46 of this section to speak of God's empowering and enablement in verses 34-36 which I will read very quickly.

[31:18] He says, you give me the shield of your salvation and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under my feet and my feet did not slip.

[31:29] I pursued my enemies and destroyed them and did not turn back until they were consumed. David is giving God credit for the empowerment that he has to rule as king.

[31:41] And then in verses 44-46 he says that he gets national empowerment as well. He says, you delivered me from strife with my people.

[31:52] You kept me as the head of the nations. People whom I did not know served me. Foreigners came cringing to me. As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.

[32:04] Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses. God has empowered David and David is singing his praises.

[32:15] Both in his spiritual life he was empowered and in his life living in the world he was empowered. We too should sing of the great provision of God as he empowers us both spiritually and physically.

[32:33] We've seen that David sings of God's grace in relationship. We see that David sings of God's grace in intervention. We see that David sings of God's grace in empowerment.

[32:47] And finally, the fourth section that we will be looking at in this psalm is in verses 47-51 where David sings of God's grace for his anointed.

[32:57] For his anointed. Look with me at verse 47. For the Lord lives and blessed be the rock and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation.

[33:15] This echoes where we started. He's praising God for this living, personal, relationship that he has with God. He's exalting the Lord for that wonderful experience.

[33:30] The Lord lives. He's not worshipping a stone idol. He's not worshipping some physical picture.

[33:42] He's worshipping a living being who is working in his heart and in his life. And God provides victory over his enemies in verses 48 and 49.

[33:54] I'm not going to read those, but I want to focus very quickly on the last two verses, verses 50 and 51. For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.

[34:09] Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David, and his offspring forever.

[34:21] God provides blessing to his anointed, to David specifically, and to his offspring.

[34:34] David is praising God for the one who is to come, the Lord Jesus Christ who is going to come and be the king that conquers sin and puts away death.

[34:47] he is going to be the one that we praise forever and ever. Do you praise a living God?

[35:00] Do you praise Christ for every victory in your life? Do you look to the Lord and to his anointed one?

[35:13] I said earlier in this sermon that God is the reason for David's success in everything good in his life. Everything that happened that was positive was a blessing from God.

[35:24] This psalm appears at the end of his biography to demonstrate that while David was a sinner, he is still known as the sweet psalmist of Israel.

[35:38] He is still known as the man after God's own heart. Why? Because he praised God appropriately and rightly.

[35:50] Yes, David was a sinner, but he was a forgiven sinner. He was saved by grace. We too should attribute every blessing in our lives to our gracious God who has called us to his kingdom.

[36:06] We don't look to David who is a faulty earthly king. We look to David's offspring who is God in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.

[36:22] David's legacy is ultimately one of praise of the true and living God. And yet, David was a sinner, but he was saved by grace.

[36:35] This brings us to an important question that I must ask you. Have you ever taken stock of your life? What will your legacy be?

[36:48] What are people going to say about you when there is no more opportunity for you to influence their opinions? Let it be that you praise God for his grace in your life.

[37:05]  Let's pray together.