God as the Sovereign Saviour — Chuck Smith

Here is Pastor Chuck Smith. The sorrows of death had encircled me. David thought he had had it. He figured it was over. The floods of ungodly men had made me afraid. The troops of Saul had poured in.

David’s Distress and Cry for Deliverance

They had surrounded him. It looked like there was absolutely no way out. The sorrows of hell encircled me, for I was in the trap of death. They had trapped him, caught in the ambush. He could see no way out.

And in my distress, I called upon the Lord. I cried unto my God, and he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. And then he describes how God came to his assistance.

God’s Supernatural Intervention in the Earthquake

The earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was angry. There came this severe earthquake over a prolonged period of time, and with the earthquake and the fissures opening up, there were actually volcanic type of eruptions.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured, and the coals were kindled by it. And he bowed the heavens also and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And so this storm moved in, and the heavens became dark, and as the clouds, when it really starts to pour, it looks like the clouds just sort of descend, and you can't see, you know, more than a block or so, just because of the heavy downpour as the cloud just moves down and dumps its rain.

The heavens bowed, came down, darkness under his feet, and he rode upon the cherub and did fly. Cherub, one of the great angels, he did fly upon the wings of the wind, and he made darkness his secret place.

His pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. And at the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed and hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the highest gave his voice and hailstones and coals of fire.

Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them. He shot out the lightnings and disconfitted them, and then the channels of waters were seen. Over there in that land, it's a land that is prone to flash floods.

They have all of these wadis that in a few moments can become raging torrents of water. And so David said, then the channels of water were seen. The foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of thy breath of thy nostrils.

And he sent from above, he took me, and he drew me out of the many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those which hated me, for they were too strong for me. And so David's glorious deliverance by God in this supernatural way, but his recognition of God in it.

Recognizing God’s Hand in Natural Events

I think that because God often uses what we look upon as natural events that we're prone to cast off as coincidence. Many times that work of God and that help of God, like the little kid who was up on the barn roof playing, and suddenly he lost his grip and he began to slide down the barn roof, and he was tumbling and he cried out, Oh God, help me, God, save me.

And about that time, his pants got caught on a nail and he came to a ripping stop. And he turned and said, Well, never mind, God, the nail stopped me, you know. And we often are that way, you know. Well, we cry upon the Lord in our distress and our trouble.

The Lord delivers us in a sort of a natural way. We say, Well, never mind, Lord, the, you know, the rain turned him back. And, you know, and they were distracted by this or that or the other. And we failed to see the hand of the Lord and give proper credit and glory to God for his help.

David’s Righteousness and the Ways of the Lord

So my enemies were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity. But the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place. He had been hemmed up in this valley, had been trapped.

And the Lord brought him out into the wide open spaces where he could escape easily from the enemies. He delivered me because he delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me. And again, this is one of David's earlier psalms before he became king, before his fall.

And so the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord. Now in the 119th psalm, that is a psalm that is devoted to the word of the Lord, he speaks in that psalm of the ways of the Lord in several occasions.

And it is actually the ways that God has declared. So I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all of his judgments, again, a reference to the written law of God, all of his judgments were before me.

And I did not put away his statutes, the rules that God established. I did not put them from me. So the ways of the Lord, the judgments of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord. I was also upright before him.

I kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore, hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. And so, as I say, this is David's earlier experience.

He changes his tune quite dramatically after experiencing his own personal fall. David said, with the merciful, and David had been merciful to Saul. He had the opportunity to slay him. He had the motive to slay him.

He had the encouragement to slay him, but he would not touch him. He was merciful. And he said, with the merciful, you will show yourself merciful. With the upright, you will show yourself upright. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

David said that here. With the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. With the pure, you will show yourself pure. But on the other side of the coin, with the froward, you will show yourself froward.

For you will save the afflicted people, but you will bring down those with the haughty looks. For you will light my candle. The Lord my God will lighten my darkness. And I love this. For by thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall.

David’s Courage and God’s Perfect Way

David is a hero of mine. I would have liked to have lived in the time of David and been one of those guys that was around David. He was daring. And then when Saul had pursued him, David was there on the hillside, and they were hiding, and they saw Saul and the troops coming in.

They were closing in on him. And they watched these guys. It was evening, and they watched him as they all bedded down. And after they all got bedded down, David turned around and said, hey, which one of you guys would like to go down with me into the camp of Saul?

And he'd go right down to where these guys had all gone to sleep, the guys that were trying to kill him. And so here he is. For by thee, O Lord, I have run through the troops, leaping over walls. As for God, his way is perfect.

The law of the Lord is perfect. And the way equated to the ways that God has set forth in his word. The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler, going back to the first part of the psalm, to all of those who trust in him, the armament.

For who is God? Save Jehovah. Who is a rock? Save our God. It is God that girds me with strength and makes my way complete. He makes my feet like hind's feet or like deer's feet. And he sets me upon the high places or the goat's feet.

Beautiful animals with these long horns. And they go right up the sides of these cliffs. You can't believe the way they can go right up the side of a cliff. You see them standing. You wonder how in the world did they get to that perch?

And so David is saying, you make my feet like these ibexes. And you set me on my high places. You know, God is my strength, my fortress, my buckler, my shield. And then David said, and people have a little trouble with this.

I don't, but some people do. He teaches my hands to war so that the bow of steel is broken in my arms. We are in a battle and people don't seem to realize that. But our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and these spirit forces in high places.

Spiritual Warfare and the Weapons of the Christian

But if you don't realize that we are in a real spiritual battle, then you're at a disadvantage because the enemy can just come at you from all different directions. You think, oh my, what calamities befall me.

Oh my, you know this. Oh my, you know, you just, oh my, all the way through. And you don't have any defenses. You're not prepared. You need to know that the enemy is out to destroy you. You're in a strong conflict.

The flesh versus the spirit. And the enemy is seeking to draw you after the flesh, and God is seeking to draw you after the spirit. This battle, spiritual battle, rages around us. The Lord has taught my hands to war.

The weapons of our warfare, though, are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds of the enemy. And so through prayer and all God has given to us, those weapons by which we can have victory in this spiritual conflict.

The Lord as Rock, Fortress, and Deliverer

Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation. So the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my strength, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and now the shield of thy salvation.

And thy right hand holds me up. And thy gentleness hath made me great. That's quite a phrase there. Thy gentleness hath made me great. I think the real picture of strength is in not the flying arrow, but in the steady bow.

The capacity to destroy, but yet not doing it. There is real strength. Anybody can fly off and let fly. But real strength is having the capacity to destroy the enemy and not moving against him. And so the gentleness that is there.

Thy gentleness has made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me. My feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies. I've overtaken them, and neither did I turn again until they were consumed. I have wounded them that were not able to rise, that they are fallen under my feet.

For you have girded me with your strength into battle. You have subdued under me those that rose up against me. You have also given me the necks of mine enemies that I might destroy them that hate me.

They cried, and there was none to save them, even unto Jehovah, but he did not answer them. Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. For you have delivered me from the strivings of the people.

You have made me the head of the heathen. A people who I have not known shall serve me. And so David speaks about the victories that God gave to him over the enemies of the Lord. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.

The strangers shall submit themselves unto me. The strangers shall fade away and be afraid out of their close places. For the Lord liveth. Now all through this psalm he has used the rock as a symbol of the Lord and of the Lord's strength.

The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock. And let the God of my salvation be exalted. Again going back into Deuteronomy chapter 32, this song of Moses of which David had alluded earlier in the apple of the eye and all.

In that psalm of Moses verse 4, he is the rock. His work is perfect. For all of his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is he. And then in verse 15, Jezreel had forsaken God which had made him.

He lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. And then in verse 18, of the rock that begat thee, thou art not mindful. You have forgotten God who formed thee. In Daniel, as he was interpreting the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, who saw in his dream prophetically the kingdoms that would govern over the world.

Ending with a federation of 10 kings that would be rising out of the former Roman Empire. And it says during the days of these kings, the 10 toes of this vision, as he was watching it, this image that represented world governing empires, as he was watching the image, there came a rock not cut with hands and it struck the image in its feet so that the whole image crumbled and the rock began to grow into a mountain that covered the whole earth.

And in the interpreting of this dream, during the days of those 10 kings shall the Lord of heaven come and establish a kingdom that shall never end. God's kingdom filling the earth. And so that symbol of the rock, it's carried through in the scripture.

Their rock is not as our rock, talking about the defense or the strength of the heathen. They're trusting in things that will not hold them up. So the Lord liveth blessed be my rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

Thanksgiving for God’s Victory and the Promise of David’s Seed

It is God that avenges me. He has subdued the people under me. He has delivered me from my enemies. Yes, he lifted me up above those that rise up against me and he's delivered me from the violent man.

Therefore, will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen and sing praises unto thy name. My response to God, he delivered me, he set me free, he gave the enemies into my hands. And as a result, I will give thanks to the Lord and I will sing praises unto his name.

Great deliverance giveth he to the king, his king, and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David and to his seed forevermore. Here is David's, though he is not yet anointed king, Saul is still pursuing him.

Samuel has already visited him and anointed him as the king. Saul's still on the throne, but David is the anointed king. And he recognizes that, he knows that. And so great deliverance has God given to his king.

He had rejected Saul from being king. David was now God's king. And he shows mercy to his anointed, unto David and to David's seed forevermore. Seed singular, for that seed that David is referring to, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Even as with Abraham, through his seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Seed singular, as of one, not seeds plural, as of many, for that seed is Christ. And to his seed, David's seed forevermore, the mercies of God.

Creation’s Universal Witness to God

The firmament, the earth around us, shows his handiwork or the work of his fingers. Now, day after day, they are speaking to us. Night after night, they are revealing knowledge. And there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

The voice of nature is a universal language, so that you can go to any place on the earth, any cultural group of people, and there is that belief, naturally, in a supernatural being. As he tells about God speaking, he said, their line has gone out through all the earth.

Their words to the end of the world, universally, God has spoken to man, and there is that universal belief in the existence of God because of nature. In them, he has set a tent for the sun, which is a bridegroom who is coming out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run the race.

Every day, the sun makes its race through the sky.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse venture through the Bible in our next lesson, as we continue with the revelation of the Lord. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message, or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one, you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives, and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details.

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That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. Now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing comments.

God bless you, and may the Lord guide you in His plan for your life. And may you learn, as David, to just commit your ways unto the Lord, knowing that the Lord will take care of things as you just submit your life, its facets, unto Him.

And may God just continue to use you as His instrument in bringing His love to a needy world.

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