Let us turn again to God's word
in that portion of scripture that we read. First book of Kings
chapter 1 and reading again at verses 29 and 30. And the king swear and said as
the Lord liveth that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress even
as I swear unto thee by the Lord God of Israel saying assuredly
Solomon my son shall reign after me and he shall sit upon my throne
in my stead even so will I certainly do this day. The oath that King
David swore to Bathsheba concerning her son Solomon that I want to
concentrate particularly upon the way in which the oath is
introduced. The words of our text tonight
really are found in verse 29. And the king swore and said,
as the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. as the Lord liveth that hath
redeemed my soul out of all distress. David, of course, is an aged
man. David is now at the end of his
days and his reign comes to its close. The opening words of the
book, now King David was old and stricken in years and they
covered him with clothes but he got no heat. And then again
in the opening words of the second chapter, there are the days of
David drew nigh that he should die. And he had given this word
of promise and oath to Bathsheba and to her son Solomon that it
was to be Solomon who would succeed to the kingdom. And as David reminds Bathsheba
of that word and the certainty the sureness of the word because
he had sworn by the Lord God himself yet at the same time
we see David reflecting and looking back on his long life as the
Lord liveth he says that hath redeemed me or redeemed my soul
out of all distress and I want simply to consider tonight with
you something of those distresses and those deliverances that David
had in mind as he came to these, his final days. A very simple
twofold division then, David's distresses and David's deliverances. He says all distress, out of
all distress, He knew much of what it was to be distressed.
Those troubles that came upon David were many and they were
diverse. There were physical distresses,
there were spiritual distresses. He was a true child of God and
he knew something of the experience, of course, of the true believer
in God. The psalmy says that it's those
who have no changes that fear not God. Psalm 55 and verse 19. And therefore if that is the
lot of the ungodly, is it not to follow that the godly know
something very different? They have changes. And David
knew many changes, many difficulties, many distresses. There were those
historical events and of course the The books of Samuel and Kings
and Chronicles are part of the historical record that we find
here in the Word of God. And there were historical events
when he came to die. Remember how he puts his confidence
in the covenant that God had made with him. We looked some
weeks ago at those words of David in the 23rd chapter of the 2nd
book of Samuel. Although my house be not so with
God, he says, he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things unsure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although we make it not to grow. And the
context in which we see David's trust in God, it's in the light
of those things that have come into his own life into his family,
although my house be not so with God. Yet, or the strength of
that little word yet. Yet, in spite of all these dreadful
events that had befallen his family, yet he has made with
me an everlasting covenant. What of his family? What of his
sons, his daughters, his children? Well, in this very chapter, of
course, we read of one of them, Adonijah, who even as David is
an old man, seeks in some subtle way to seize hold of the kingdom. In verse 5, then, Adonijah, the
son of Haggith, exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he
prepared him chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him.
And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, why
hast thou done so? And he was a very goodly man
and his mother bare him after Absalom. He was brother to Absalom. He was brother also, of course,
to Tamar. Remember that dreadful event
that's recorded in the 13th chapter of the second book of Sam. How
Amnon, another of David's sons, Amnon who was half-brother to
Absalom and Adonijah and to Tamar. How this man lusted after his
sister, after his half-sister Tamar and he forced her he forced
her and how we read there in the solemn sad accounts of that
man who was guilty of incest how that when he had forced her
how he then turned and and hated her in verse 14 of chapter 13 when
she cries out he would not hearken unto her voice but being stronger
than she forced her and lay with her then Amnon hated her exceedingly
so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than
the love wherewith he had loved her and Amnon said unto her arise
be gone and Absalom was her brother And then subsequently there we
see how Absalom is the man who arranges for this wicked man
to be got rid of. He is really guilty, is Absalom,
of murder. He arranges the murder of his half-brother. Absalom
had commanded his servants, saying, Mark you now when Amnon's heart
is married with wine, and when I say unto you, smite Amnon and
kill him, fear not. have not I commanded you be courageous
and be valiant and the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as
Absalom had commanded then all the king's sons arose and every
man got him up upon his mule and fled they killed this wicked
man Amnon and then the consequence of that is that Absalom is banished
from the royal court in due time we see him restored but then
Absalom turns against his father in the 15th chapter there in
the second book he steals the hearts of the children of Israel
he goes and he sits in the gates he will sit as a judge when the
men and women have any dispute and there is none to make judgments on their behalf
Absalom sets himself up we're told in chapter 15 how he prepared
chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him rose up early
stood beside the way of the gate and it was so that when any man
that had a controversy came to the king for judgment then Absalom
called unto him and said of what city art thou and he would call this man aside,
see thy matters are good and right but there is no man deputed
of the king to hear them and so Absalom will sit as a judge
and he steals the hearts of the people this is what he is about
on this man did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king
for judgment so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel
he is open rebellion against his father. These are some but
some of the distresses that David evidently had in mind as the
Lord liveth that if you do my soul out of all distress. Oh
he was distressed because of what Adonijah was doing but he
remembered also the activity of Adonijah's brother Absalom
how he had been guilty of the murder of Amnon and how he had
rebelled against his father and then of course we're told how
David's great friend and David's counsellor Ahithophel was also
in that conspiracy with Absalom among the conspirators with Absalom
was this man who was such a friend such an acquaintance, more than
an acquaintance, a great counsellor with King David. And how David
had such a regard for the counsel of that man that his words were
as the oracle. He was such a wise man, was Adonijah,
and yet here he is now in league with those who have turned against
David. And David speaks of these things,
remembering Psalm 55, As David is fleeing Jerusalem because
of Absalom, because of the conspirators. So he cries out to God in the
psalm, day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof,
mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it, wickedness
is in the midst thereof, deceit and guile depart not from us
three. For it was not an enemy that
reproached me, then I could have borne it, neither was it he that
hated me that did magnify himself against me, then I would have
hid myself from him. But it was thou, mine equal,
my guide, and mine acquaintance, we took sweet counsel together,
and walked unto the house of God in company. This is Ahithophel. Let guess his upon him. let them
go down quick into hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among
them. How David utters those imprecatory
words against those who had so openly rebelled against him.
All many distresses came to David from his own family because of
the behavior of his own children and the wicked things that they
did and yet David was delivered. although my house be not so with
God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things unsure but the distresses came not only from
his own kith and kin at the time of Absalom's rebellion we also
read of that man Shimei Shimei was one of the house of King
Saul And remember as David is fleeing from Jerusalem, there
is Shimei cursing David. He curses David as he flees from
Absalom. In the second book of Samuel
there, chapter 16 and verse 5, when King David came to Bahurim,
Behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. He came forth
and cursed still as he came, and he cast stones at David,
and at all the servants of King David, and all the people, and
all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And
thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody
man, and thou man of Belial. He's speaking to David. The Lord
hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in
whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the
kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art
taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man. Shimei, wouldn't this remind
you of the way in which Saul had behaved towards David when
David was anointed When David was recognised by Samuel and
anointed to be the king in Saul's place, how we read of Saul's
rages, how Saul looked upon him, how Saul was jealous when the
maiden sang of how Saul had killed his thousands but David his ten
thousands and many times we see how Saul would have destroyed
him but for the friendship that David enjoyed with Saul's son
with Jonathan and how Jonathan of times would warn his friend
David But then Saul so often pursues him and David is fleeing
in the wilderness. David acknowledges to Jonathan
many times there is but a step, he says, but a step between me
and death. He thought it wonder he would
be destroyed at the hands of Saul. David is remembering all
these historic events, he's at the end of his life and he looks
back. Isn't this what we're prone to do as we grow older? We often
times think back. And it's good in many ways to
reflect on God's dealings with us, God's providences. It's a
wise course of action for the people of God. This is what we
see the Psalmist doing in Psalm 107. A great Psalm that deals
with the providences of God and remember how it concludes? speaks
of the wise men who so is wise and will observe these things
even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
Or to be wise and to observe these things, to observe the
things that are coming to our lives, God's dealings with us
in that historic sense, those events in our families, those
experiences sometimes in the earlier part of our lives or
the earlier part of our Christian profession. David reflects not
only on the situation in his own family but what others did
and the many troubles that he had been brought into and yet
he'd also been delivered from. And so he speaks of this God
as he gives his word to Bathsheba the King swear and said as the
Lord liver that I have redeemed my soul out of all distress but
not only those historical events those literal happenings But
were there not also spiritual experiences? And isn't David
here mindful of God's dealings with his soul? Notice what he
says. He says, my soul, my soul, aphrodite,
my soul, out of all distress, not his body, not his natural life, Is he not
speaking of his soul, the spiritual side of his life? He says in
the 119th Psalm, my soul is continually in my hands. Dear friends, when
we come to the Word of God and we read the historic parts of
Scripture, it is of course right and proper that we take account
of the literal events that are being described. but surely we
recognize that the scripture is a spiritual book and it has
been well observed that there is a difference between the bible
as history and the bible as mystery and when we Think of the Bible
as mystery. We're thinking of that aspect,
the spiritual aspect of the Word of God. Are we not told in the
New Testament concerning historic events in the 10th chapter of
1 Corinthians? For example, we have recorded
there something of God's dealings with the children of Israel in
the days of Moses and the way in which they were delivered
out of Egyptian bondage as they were brought through the Red
Sea as they are led through the wilderness wanderings and eventually
of course they're brought into the land of promise. There in
that 10th chapter in the opening verses the apostle makes some
reference to Moses and the experiences or the history of Moses but he
says this all these things happened unto them for example The margin
says types, all these things happened unto them for types
and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends
of the world are come. We upon whom the ends of the
world, what's the ends of the world? It's his gospel day. These
are the last days. This is the day of grace. And
all these things that are written in the Old Testament, they are
written for us. upon whom the ends of the world
are come we who have the privilege of hearing the gospel we're not
to neglect the Old Testament we're not to neglect the historic
part of the Old Testament Scriptures and we're to study them and we're
to seek to understand them and of course it's interesting to
know something of the actual history but we want to dig deeper
than that if these things happened unto them for time Is there not
some spiritual significance? David is not just speaking then
here of literal historic events. He is mindful of God's dealings
with his soul. And that's what we are to learn
from David's history, is it not? In one of the Psalms he says,
my soul is among lions. My soul is among lions. Then
we know that the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. Oh, the devil is that great lion,
that great adversary of sorts, and how he seeks to assault us,
how he comes, how he tempts. But there's no temptation that
takes us that he's not coming to man. God is faithful and will
not allow us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with
the temptation make a way of escape that we may be able to
bear it. But oh, you see, the devil is
so subtle, he comes, he tempts, and often times he entraps our
feet and we transgress, we fall, and then we're ashamed, we come
before God and maybe many times we've been assaulted by the great
adversary of souls and he's tempted us and he knows our weak points
and he draws us aside and we we're ashamed because we're guilty
of the same sin oftentimes over and over and then oh that wicked
foe what does he do he turns accuser he is the accuser of
the brethren he accuses them day and night before God he draws
us into sin and we would come and we would acknowledge before
God our sins and seek the pardon of our God but then our mouths
are stopped because Satan accuses us and we feel how can we be
genuine in our sorrow, in our grief, in our repentance when
we've done this so many times oh he is such a wicked fellow
and David feels you see his soul is among lions there's not just
Satan is there? there were those wicked men but
not only those foes without there was that that was in David's
own heart all David is a man after God's own heart and yet
David is brought to feel the awful reality of his sin it's
not only foes without it's not only the devil as a roaring lion
there's poor David and he feels what he is, he feels the awful
character of sin that is within him. Remember David's psalm to
bring to remembrance, Psalm 38, he says, There is no soundness
in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest
in my bones because of my sin, for mine iniquities are done
over mine head as a heavy burden that too heavy for me. My wounds
stink and are and are corrupt because of my foolishness I am
troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long
for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there
is no soundness in my flesh how these things distress David that
sense of his sinnership and so he cries out to such He cries
out to God for deliverance. And God is the one who did deliver
him time and again as the Lord liveth. Let us redeem my soul
out of all distress. Now this was not only the experience
of David. All these things happened unto
them, not just David, all of them. All the gods in the Old
Testament. All these things happened unto
them for examples. And they are written for our
admonition. Think of Job's experience. What does Job say? His troops
come together and rise up their way against me and then camp
round about my tabernacle. Oh, poor Job, he feels surrounded. And his friends, alas, they are
such poor comforters, they scarce know what to say or how to speak
to Job. look at what he says again there
in chapter 6 and verse 4 he says the arrows of the Almighty are
within the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God
do set themselves against me all God's dealt with him yesterday
God brought him to the place of conviction such an awful sense
of his sinnership God's arrows and thou those arrows stick fast
that's what David says is it not in that 38th psalm thy arrows
stick fast within me he says and again in another psalm iniquities
prevail against me thus for our transgressions thou wilt purge
them away poor David you say he knew inward troubles He knew
what it was to feel these things in the depths of his soul. He
had such a sense of who he was, the man after God's own heart.
It's not that his heart, you see, is a sinless heart. He was a fallen man. He was a
sinful man. He was a sad man. He is brought
to repentance over his many sins. His sin with Bathsheba, The way
in which that child was born and he lost that child, remember?
That he conceived in the act of adultery and then subsequently
Bathsheba does become his wife and Solomon is born. Though David
felt his sin as he confesses in Psalm 51, and he feels his
sin is against God, against thee, thee only have I sinned, he said,
and done this evil in thy sight. There's not only then the historic
events that he has in mind here, there's those experiences, those
things that he was made to feel in his own soul. I say again,
Frank, let us recognise the great beauty of what we have here in
the Old Testament Scriptures in the historic books. Think
again of a book like the book of Judges. Remember how after the death
of Moses it's Joshua who brings the people into the promised
land. And then after the book of Joshua we have the judges
who are raised up as they are seeking to take full possession
of that land of promise. Now what is Canaan a type of? Well some say it's a type of
heaven. But really it's more a type of the life of the Christians,
you know. There will be no conflict in
heaven. Heaven is that place of perfect peace. Heaven is that
rest that remaineth to the people of God. Isn't Canaan more typical
of the life of the believer? And the believer knows conflict,
just as it was in the days of Joshua. just as it was in the
days of the judges. And what do we see in the days
of the judges? Why time and again they're overrun by their enemies.
They're brought into subjection, they're brought into bondage,
and then God raises a judge, a deliverer. The book of the
judges, it's a book that records then many times, repeated times,
it records bondage and deliverer. just the sort of thing that David
is speaking of here in the text, as the Lord liveth that hath
redeemed my soul out of all distress. All whatsoever things were written
aforetime, friends, were written for our learning, that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Or do we come
to God's Word like that and desire that we might find something
to encourage us, and something to give us hope as we are engaged
in that good fight of faith as we do warfare with the world
and with Satan and with sin with ourselves even how Paul is made
to cry out the good that I would I do not the evil that I would
not that I do all wretched man that I am who shall deliver me
from the body of this death where does the deliverance come from?
It comes only from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God, says Paul,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. David knew distress, his friends. And if you're a child of God,
you'll know something of distress. Something of enmity. Something
of disappointment in the various relationships of life. Something
of disappointment with self. those awful assaults of Satan,
those sins that yet cling and cling to the old nature. Many
distresses, and yet at the same time to discover more and more
that our God is the God of deliverances. So let us turn secondly to consider
something of the deliverances. The King swear and said, as the
Lord liveth that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. He speaks of the experience of
an accomplished redemption, an accomplished deliverance that
hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. And how strange
are God's dealings. Think again of Shimei, when Shimei
is cursing David, there in that 16th chapter of the 2nd book
of Samuel, what does David say in verse 12? It may be that the Lord will
look on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite me good
for his cursing this day. It may be that the Lord will
look on my affliction. Interestingly the margin says
look on my tears is another rendering. The Hebrew is literally I. The Lord will look on my I, the
tears flowing down his face at the rebellion of his son Absalom. The Lord will look on my affliction
and that the Lord will be quite me good for Shimei's cursing,
Shimei curses, but God means it for good. God means it for
good. Remember what Joseph said to
his brethren at the end of the book of Genesis. They'd sold
him into slavery in Egypt and yet in the dealings of God, the
providence of God, the mystery of God's ways. He'd been exalted
to a place of authority. He was next to the Pharaoh. And
then at the end of the book, when Jacob dies, old Jacob has
gone and the sons are fearful now. Will Joshua, whom they know
to be a great man, will Joseph now seek revenge for Joseph seek
revenge but what does he say? Genesis 50 verse 20 ye thought
evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass
as it is this day to save much people alive ye thought evil
God meant it unto good all this is what God is able to do you
see out of cursing he brings blessing Out of distresses, he
grants deliverances. All friends, better is the end
of a thing than the beginning of a thing, says the preacher
in Ecclesiastes. Better is the end. I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, he says to Israel, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. God grants his people many deliverances. He is the God of deliverances.
Remember the language of the Apostle himself writing to the
Corinthians, he tells them there in the opening chapter of that
second epistle, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the
dead, who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver.
in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. But where do
the deliverances come from? We have the sentence of death
in ourselves, nothing in ourselves. All our deliverances come from
God. He is the great deliverer. And look at the God that he speaks
of here. He tells Bathsheba it is the God who lives. It is the
God who lives. as the Lord liveth. Who is the living God? This is
the God that David desires to know, the living God. As in the Psalms we see him hungering,
thirsting after this God. My soul thirsteth for God. Yah, he said, for the living
God. Friends, God is alive. My heart
and my flesh, he says, crieth hath for the living God. Do we really believe that God
is alive and that God is active? So often you see we are overwhelmed
by distresses, we are overwhelmed by all that we witness on every
hand. But God lives. God lives. And when we are loved, and when
we are dejected, when we are downcast, when the burden seems
to be so great, Remember, God still lives. God still lives. He is the God of the living. Not of the dead, the God of the
living. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one who lives. He lives now in the power of
an endless life. Remember the words, we often
quote them, those words in Hebrews 7, Wherefore it is able also
to save them to the uttermost, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. It's not just the fact that he
intercedes, he ever lives. The Lord Jesus Christ is now
that one who is risen from the dead, that one who is ascended
on high, who is at God's right hand, and he ever lives. And
His very presence there in heaven is a constant plea on behalf
of His people. He ever lives to make intercession.
And so we come with our poor prayers. And yet these poor prayers,
these stumbling words that we sometimes feel to utter before
God, they are taken by the Lord Jesus Christ and they prevail.
We do not seek the face of God in vain. And as God is a living God, so
in the midst of all our distresses, you see, God is the one who brings
life into our souls. What was the experience of that
good king Ezekiel? Remember his great prayer of
thanksgiving in Isaiah 38, what does he say? By these things
men live. All the distresses that came
upon him, when the armies of the Assyrians were round about
Jerusalem and all the walled cities throughout the kingdom
of Judah had fallen, only Jerusalem was left and here are the armies
of the Assyrians laying siege to the capital city. Surely all these things are against
him and yet he says by these things
men live and he wasn't just the armies of the Assyrians remember
the word that the prophet Isaiah spoke to him he was to set his
house in order he was told that he would die he was sick he was
a sick man and he's going to die and he turns his face to
the wall and he cries to God and before ever the prophet has
left the royal court God sends him back and tells him to take
this message to the king that he shall live and not die. 15 years, 15 years added to his
life. He was spared, he was raised
up again. Oh God said before they call I will answer whilst
they are yet speaking I will hear. No sooner did that man
turn his face to the wall than God heard his prayer and sent
the prophet back. By these things men live. and
in all these things is the life of my spirit, says King Ezekiel. The living, the living, he shall
praise them as I do this day. Oh God, grant friends that we
might know something of that spiritual life in our souls because
we know him who is the living God as the Lord liveth. But then also observe this, he is the faithful God, He is
the God of the Covenant. Look at the language, as the
Lord. Lord, spelt in capital letters,
as you know the significance of that. It's the Covenant name,
it's Jehovah. The God of the Covenant is the
one who lives. And hadn't this God made a Covenant
with King David? This was all David's salvation,
all David's desire, this covenant. It's spoken of there in the Psalms,
Psalm 89, verse 3. I have made a covenant
with my chosen. I have sworn unto David, my servant. And so he says this, Verse 33,
Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once
have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. Always the God of the covenant
is the Lord. And as he comes to the end of
his days, this is what David remembers, the God of the covenant.
And who is the God of the Covenant? Why? He's the God of Abraham.
He's the God of Isaac. He's the God of Jacob. Had he not made a Covenant with
all these men, these great patrons. Psalm 105, verse 8, he has remembered
his Covenant forever. The word which he commanded to
a thousand generations which covenant he made with Abraham
and his oath unto Isaac and confirmed this time unto Jacob for a law
and to Israel for an everlasting covenant. Oh friends, the God
of the Covenant. We sang of it just now in our
second hymn, do we not? That's the God of the Covenant.
The King swears and said, as the Lord liveth
that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. Again in the
Psalm, Psalm 44 verse 4, Thou art my King, O God, command deliverances
for Jacob. God commands his deliverances.
He is a living God, He is a faithful God. He is the Redeemer God. He is the Redeemer God. Look
at the language. The word that is used is not
deliverance but redemption. As the Lord liveth it hath redeemed.
Always the Redeemer. Are we not reminded of the great
work of the Lord Jesus Christ? He is that one who has come to
redeem his people. He has paid that great ransom
price that the Lord, the Holy Lord of God demands. He was made
of a woman, he was made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law, we're told. Oh, that holy Lord of God condemns. Oh, it's a ministration of condemnation,
it's a ministration of death. It's an awful thing, is it not?
To be found guilty before God's holy, righteous, just law. The
soul that sinneth it shall die, The wages of sin is death, but
Christ has come and paid all that debt that the poor sinner
owes to the law of God. He has paid the price, the ransom
price. He has suffered and bled and
died in the room and in the stead of his people. Here is the ground
of David's deliverance. The ground of the deliverance
of all the people of God. It's the work of Christ. who
is the great Redeemer. So David speaks here of redemption. Oh God grant friends that we
might be those who know David's God, David's Lord, David's greatest
son. Know that great redemption that
is in him. The King swear and said as the
Lord liveth that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. Oh God grant that we might be
those who know the blessing of that redemption and all these
deliverances for our good and for God's glory. Amen. conclude this evening by singing
hymn 778 to his widow. 778 goes straight a bit away
with dangers beset and way on the way I know father our good
guide and saviour has helped us thus far, and tis by spirit
we are what we are, for blessings like these so bounteously given,
for prospects of peace and fortress of heaven. Tis great, tis pleasant,
to sing and adore, be thankful for present, and then ask for
more, in 778.