the title of our lesson this
morning is The Lord Worthy to be Praised. David begins this
song of praise here in chapter 22, verse 1, and David spake
unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord
had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out
of the hand of Saul. Now, it's always a good time
to give thanks to our God, always. But there are special when it
would be so wrong to be ungrateful and to not stop and give thanks
to the Lord for His particular mercies, for His special blessing
and special time of deliverance. You know, we're quick to call
on the Lord when we're in trouble. When we find ourselves in trouble,
nobody has to remind us, now call on the Lord. Now we immediately,
like Peter as he began to sing, we call on the Lord to deliver
us when we're in trouble. We should be just as quick to
give thanks to the Lord for all of his countless blessings to
us. And our most heartfelt songs
of thanksgiving come from a time of special deliverance, deliverance
from sin, deliverance from trouble and trial. And this is one of
those times for David. David first sang this song when
he had been delivered from Saul, when Saul had been defeated and
all of his family had either been killed or they'd been converted
to a loving, willing subject like Mephibosheth. David first
sung this song then, but over the course of David's life, after
the Lord delivered him from many enemies and many troubles, he
sang this song again. He sang it many times over the
course of his life. David was a man after God's own
heart, but David was not a man after men's hearts. I think there's
three reasons for that. First, David had many enemies
because David is a type of Christ who has many enemies, who's hated
by this world. Second, David had many enemies
because every believer has many enemies. The world hates our
Lord and they hate those of us who love him. And third, David
had many enemies so that he could be an example to the rest of
us of how the Lord delivered David. from his enemies and give
us comfort and confidence to know the Lord can deliver us,
too, in the same manner. David said, many are the afflictions
of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Now, why was David and why is
every believer delivered from all of our afflictions and all
of our enemies? Is it because we're such great
warriors that can go out and fight when we become afflicted?
No, that's not it. Is it because we were strong
and we resisted temptation? Well, if you're honest with yourself,
you know that's not so. We're delivered from every enemy
because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the
world. That's why. And that's who David
is singing this song of praise to. Now, we'll take several weeks
to look at the whole song, but we'll look at the beginning of
it this morning. In verse two, David said, this is his song.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, the God of
my rock. In him will I trust. He is my
shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge,
my Savior. Thou savest me from violence."
Now David begins his song, he says, the Lord is my rock. Now
Christ the rock has several different meanings in scripture. And the
first one, and this is primarily what David means in this psalm,
that Christ the rock is a place of security for the believer.
Christ the rock is a place for us to hide from the wrath of
our enemies and from the storm of the wrath of God against my
sin. In Psalm 94, David said, the
Lord is my defense and my God is the rock of my refuge. He's
the place that I can hide, not just from my enemies. But from
the wrath of God against my sin, when Moses asked to see God's
glory, God said, all right, I'll show you my glory. But now you
can't look on me and live. So he put Moses in the cleft
of the rock so that he could live. And when God passed by
him, then after God passed by, he saw the hind parts of the
Lord. Moses couldn't look on him and
live. So when God passed by, Moses was safe in the rock. That's why the songwriter said,
rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee, because
Christ the rock is the place of security. Second, Christ the
rock is that smitten rock. You remember the children of
Israel, they're out there in the wilderness, had no water. And that rock that
Moses smote and then that rock that was spoken to. Now look
over 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Not only was that rock a picture
of Christ, it was greater than just a picture. In 1 Corinthians
10 verse 3, this is speaking of
all the children of Israel who were out there in the wilderness
on their way to the promised land, and they did all eat the
same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink.
For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and
that rock was Christ. Christ is the rock that gives
us that life-giving water, the water of life that's found in
Him. And third, Christ is the rock that gives shade from the
sun, from the heat of the sun in the desert. And if you look
over in Isaiah 32, that rock is Christ. He is our place to
find shelter from the heat of the sun. Isaiah 32, verse 1. Behold, a
king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment,
and a man shall be as in a hiding place from the wind, and a covert
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock. in a weary land. Boy, don't we
live in a weary land? Christ is the shade. He's the
shelter from that weary land in which we live. Now, every
person who lives puts their hope of eternity somewhere. Everybody's
building their hope of eternity somewhere. They're either building
it on Christ the solid rock or they're building it on sand,
but they're building their hope somewhere. Hannah said, in her
prayer, she said, neither is there any rock like our God. Other people think they have
a rock. Their rock's not like our rock. The Lord is the only
true rock. Christ is this great rock. Now,
he's the stone of stumbling to unbelievers. But to God's elect,
he's the chief cornerstone. That's where the whole building
is founded upon. Christ, the chief cornerstone.
And David said, he only is my rock. He only is my salvation. He's my defense. So I shall not
be greatly moved. I won't be moved because the
Lord, my rock will never be moved because I'm hiding safe in him.
He's my rock. And then David said, the Lord's
my fortress. Now, a fortress, you know what it is, it's a stronghold.
If I'm in that stronghold, the enemy can't get to me. When I
was a boy, for a time, we lived in Danville. Occasionally, I
would beg for it all the time, but occasionally we'd go up to
Fort Harris. And for a special treat, we went
to Fort Boonesboro. And I loved those forts and the
history of them. I love to imagine Daniel Boone
in those forts. And the British are coming and
the Indians are coming. Nobody can get to him because
he's safe in that fort. That's what Christ is to the
believer. He's the mighty fortress. A mighty fortress is our God. And I know over the course of
time most forts do eventually fall to the enemy. But Christ
never. He's the mighty fortress. He'll
never fail. We're secure and safe in Christ
because the Lord is my fortress. Then David says the Lord's my
deliverer. Now God's people don't just have a defensive position.
We're not just in the rock or the fortress where we're sitting
hiding from the enemy. God's people aren't hiding in
a hole in fear. Our deliverer goes out on the
attack, not just in a defensive position. Christ doesn't just
hide us from our enemy, but the deliverer goes out on the attack
and defeats all of our enemies. That's just what our Lord Jesus
Christ did. He went on the attack. God sent
him to this earth and he was here on a mission. And he did
accomplish the mission that the Father set him to do. He defeated
sin and Satan and death and hell for every sinner that God gave
him in the covenant of grace because he defeated them all
because the Lord's our deliverer. And then David says the Lord
is the God of my rock. It's not just I have a rock,
but God's my rock. God's the provider of the rock.
God's the king of the rock. God has sovereignly provided
the rock as a place of safety for his people. God's the rock. And what David is saying here
is since God is my rock. My rock is immutable. My rock
cannot change. It will never change because
God never changes. Not only does my rock have all
strength so that I'm safe hiding in that rock right now. But my
rock never changes. So he'll be a safe hiding place
for all of eternity. Because he never changes. If
you're safe in that rock now, you'll be safe in it eternally.
Because your rock will never change. And that truth gives
the believer such confidence to know I'm safe. Not because
of anything about me. But I'm safe because of who my
rock is. That my rock never changes because
he's the God of my rock. So, because I have such confidence
in Christ, in the God of my rock, David says, in Him will I trust.
Of course I trust in Him. Now, there's no other place to
trust other than the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other place
to trust. And a believer wouldn't want
to trust anywhere else. If God ever gives you eyes to
see the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll never want to trust anywhere
else. I know men by nature want to trust in our flesh, want to
trust in the things that we can do. You know, we Americans, we're
a self-sufficient people. If you ever see the Lord Jesus
Christ, that self-sufficiency is going out the window. You'll
never want to trust anywhere but the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
I know what it means for God to be my rock. All of my faith
is stayed on the Lord Jesus Christ. I have so much confidence in
Christ that all of my faith is in him. There's no backup plan. There's no plan B. Christ is
all of my salvation or I'll be damned. No in-between, no other
choice. I'm so confident in Christ, all
of my hope is in him. I'll trust in him. Then David
says the Lord's my shield. Christ is my shield. that defends
me from the arrows of my enemy or the sword of my enemy? God
told Abraham, and I quote this verse often, and I seldom quote
it correctly. God told Abram, he said, fear
not, Abram, this is why I normally quote this, I'm thy exceeding
great reward. But that's not exactly what the
Lord said. He said, fear not, Abram, I'm thy shield and thy
exceeding great reward. Abram, I'm your shield. And faith,
you know, Abraham's the father of faith. Abraham wants to put
this to use now. Faith always puts Christ, who
is the shield of faith, between us and every danger. No matter
which direction it's coming from, that shield moves to cover us
from danger, no matter where it comes from. Because Christ
is the shield of our faith. Then David says, the Lord's the
horn of my salvation. Any time you read about this
horn in scripture, it's always a symbol of power. It's like
those big horn rams, their power is in their horns. What David
is saying here is Christ is the power of my salvation. Paul said
the same thing, 1 Corinthians 1.24, unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God. and the
wisdom of God. Christ is the power that enables
God to be just and justifier. And a believer uses the power
of this horn of our salvation to power through the host of
our enemies. Just like a rhino, when that
thing wants to charge, he puts that horn down and off it goes.
And he powers through his enemies because of the power of that
horn. People that live in these areas
where rhinoceroses live, I mean, they want to kill those things
just for that horn because of the power that's in that horn
or what they think is in it at any rate. But this power, the
power of our salvation, no enemy can stand before this power.
That power of Christ, the power of this gospel, it'll either
crush and destroy every enemy or it will break the heart. and
convert one or the other. The power of this gospel, either
way, there's no resisting it. It'll either crush every opposition
or it'll break that stony heart and convert to life in Christ.
And that person will always say, Christ is the power of my salvation. Next, David says, the Lord is
my high tower. And what David's referring to
here is a citadel. Now, a citadel is a castle with
very high walls And usually it's up in a mountain somewhere where
you can't get to it. It's out of the reach of the
enemy. And no enemy can get all the way there because it's up
on a mountain. You can see them coming from
a long way and it's a very hard climb to get up to that citadel.
And it's the best defensive position because you can see the enemy
coming. It's difficult for them to get there and you can always
just pick them off one at a time because you're in this great
defensive position. From that position in the high
tower, in the citadel, you just can't blast soldiers out of there.
I mean, they're just up there, you can't get to them. You either
got to starve them out or something, because you can't get to them.
Well, that's the believer. Safe in Christ. Secure in Christ. No one can be plucked out of
his hand. He's my high tower. And the Lord
is my refuge. is the refuge from the stormy
blast. Christ is the refuge from the
heat of the sun. Christ is the refuge from the
attack of the enemy. Just like Noah was safe in that
ark. Now, the blast against our sin,
it's still coming. It's still going to come with
all of its fury from God. It's just that Christ is the
refuge for everyone that's in Him. Keep them safe by taking
that blast upon himself and keeping everyone who's in him safe. He's my refuge. And then David
says the Lord is my Savior. Now, I want to be very clear
about this. All these titles and descriptions of the Lord
that David's giving us here, they do apply to our earthly
troubles and our earthly trials, but Christ is the Savior of his
people, the Savior of sin for his people. Too many people in
our world today, and I would imagine across the whole history
of the world, too many people look to Christ to help them with
their troubles in this life. They look to God to give them
wealth and health and sunny days in this life, and they never
think about anything beyond wealth and health and sunny days in
this life. Now certainly, the Lord can give
those things. Not only, I mean, He can, He's
the one that does give those things. If we have those things,
it's because God gave them. He gives those things. Wealth
and health and sunny days, every blessing, material blessing that
we have in this life, God gave it. It goes right back to what
I said at the beginning, we ought to be thankful people. Oh, we
should be thankful. Everything we have in this life,
everything, God gave it. All those things are just temporary.
Life are just temporary. Well, in hell and sunny days,
all of them are going to give way to poverty, to dark days
of trial, and ultimately the death of this body. Because we're
sinners. All these things that people
always look to Christ to, people of flesh, they're just temporary
blessings that they're consumed with. But now David is clear. Christ. is the Savior from sin. This is the best title. He's
the Savior. He's my Savior. Not just the
Savior of the world. He's my Savior. Oh, He saved
me from my sin. He's the Savior from the wrath
of God against my sin. And that's eternal. That blessing
is eternal. He's my Savior. You know, we're
never promised to be spared from trouble and trial in this life. As a matter of fact, we're promised
the opposite, aren't we? A believer's not saved or immune
from trials and troubles of this life. Now, we know the Lord will
strengthen and support. He'll give grace for the hour
when he sends the trial, but he'll not spare us from them.
He's going to send those things to us to wean us away from this
world. If he never sent us those things
to wean us away from this world, we'd never want to leave, would
we? He sends these trials so we're ready to leave. Oh, I want
to depart from here. It's far better for me to depart
from here and be with the Lord. But every believer is promised
this. Salvation from sin. Salvation from all of our sins. We're promised safety from punishment
and safety from the condemnation of our sin for this reason. Christ our substitute, he suffered
the punishment. He suffered the condemnation
that our sins deserve, the sins of his people. Now, there's such
confidence in salvation if the Lord is my Savior. That is such
a blessing to be able to say the Lord is my Savior. If I have
to contribute any, I mean one iota of my salvation to anything
I do, I can never have any confidence. But I can have complete, utter
confidence if the Lord is my Savior. And that's why God sent
His Son into this world to be the Savior of sinners. And then David says, the Lord
saves me. He's my Savior, and He saves
me from violence. Now, this violence doesn't just
mean what we normally think of violence, a violent act or something. It means wrong. The word means
wrong or injustice. Now, we may suffer violence of
men in this life, but no believer will ever suffer wrong or injustice
in the judgment, because it would be wrong It would be unjust for
God to punish anyone for whom Christ died. Wouldn't that be
wrong? It would be unjust. And we know this, God is never
unjust. He's always just and right. Peter said in Acts 3 that the
name of Christ is the Holy One and the just. Now, if his name
is the just, you can rest assured he'll never do wrong. He'll always
do justice. And if Christ has been punished
for my sin, then I will never, ever, ever be punished for my
sin. Because that punishment for my
sin has already been poured out on Christ my substitute. Now
John Calvin said that David here shows us that the Lord equips
his people from head to toe. Everything is covered in these
two verses. Am I chased by the enemy? The
Lord's my rock. Am I chased? The Lord's my refuge
and my high tower. Am I in distress? The Lord's
my deliverer. Am I getting shot at? The Lord's
my shield. Am I weak? Am I weak? Yes, I'm weak. The Lord is the
horn of my salvation. Am I oppressed by sin? Yes, sir,
I am. But the Lord's my savior. covered
from head to toe. Everything we ever need is found
right here in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, because the Lord
is everything to me, I'll call on Him. Look here at verse 4
in our text, 2 Samuel 22. I will call on the Lord, who
is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. I will call on the Lord who is
worthy to be praised." That's the title of our lesson. Now,
I'm not worthy in the least of God's mercies, but God's worthy
of more praise than I can ever give. I'm not worthy to stoop
down and unloose His sandal, but He's worthy of all praise. all praise of all men and every
creature of all of his creation put together. He is worthy of
all praise just because of who he is. I'm not worthy that he
should come under my roof, but he's worthy of all praise because
he's made me dwell in his house forever. I'm not worthy to be
under his roof. I'm not worthy he'd be under
my roof. He's made me worthy to be under His roof. Oh, He's
worthy of all praise. I'm worthy of death, and myself,
because of who I am, I'm worthy of death. But Christ is worthy
of all praise, because He came into the world to save sinners
of whom I'm chief. He's worthy of all praise, because
He came to deliver sinners like you and me from death by dying
in our place as our substitute. He is worthy to be praised. The
host of heaven sings that Christ is worthy to receive glory and
honor and power. For thou hast created all things
and for thy pleasure they are and they were created. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. He is
worthy to be praised. And I will call upon the Lord
because he's worthy to be praised. Now call on the Lord. Don't just
sit there. Call on the Lord. You know, a
soldier's armor doesn't do him any good unless he puts it on. And we should call on the Lord
in prayer. And we should not be surprised
if the Lord does not bless if we're not praying and not calling
on his name. But by God's grace, like David
here, we will call on the Lord who's worthy to be praised. And
I pray that the Lord will give us the wisdom of this spirit,
that we won't just call on the Lord and ask him for things. Let's call on the Lord. and praise
Him. Let's call on Him and praise
Him. Because He's worthy to be praised. Isn't He worthy to be praised?
Then I'll call on Him. And I hope you will too. Alright,
the Lord bless you.