A Word in Season: What God is to Me (2 Samuel 22:2)

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In 2 Samuel and chapter 22 we read that David spoke to the Lord the words of a certain song on the day when the

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Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,

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The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my strength in whom

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I will trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my saviour, you save me from violence.

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I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.

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David knows that God is his God. It's inescapable in the words of that song that he sings.

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The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, the God of my strength in whom

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I will trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my saviour, and when

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I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.

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Now it's one thing to speak like that, but David is testifying that that is indeed what

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God was to him, and we should both speak that way and live that way.

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David does not say, I have delivered myself. David does not think even of the means by which

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God has delivered him. There were people who came to him, there were opportunities that he had and that he seized, there was wisdom that he showed and courage that he displayed, but David knows what lies behind everything that has happened to him and the way in which he has been delivered.

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It is my God, my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer who has done these things.

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And this is the kind of language that is and should be properly transferred to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God in the hearts, in the expectations of God's people.

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We do not deliver ourselves. We cannot deliver ourselves.

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No one else can deliver us, and tragically too often our first resorts are to our own strength and our own wisdom in order to get ourselves out of any kind of trouble.

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But whether in things spiritual or temporal, it is God in Christ who is our deliverer.

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And so we need to make sure that we use this kind of language, not just as the mere expression of our lips, but as the true testimony of heart and of life.

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My rock, this strong, hard place, my fortress, a stronghold in time of trouble, my deliverer, the one who brings me out of all my distresses.

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Is this then what God is to us? Is this our

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Christ and our Saviour? If it is, then it is to him that we ought to go.

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It is how God delights to make himself known to us. It is the revelation of his heart and his hand in all his mercy and his might towards his beloved people.

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Why are we so slow to make the most of what God in himself has provided for us?

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It is the delight of God to be the deliverer of his people, the delight of God to show himself our rock and our fortress.

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And he has undertaken that he will never cease to be this to us.

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He is eternally all that he is. He always was, is and ever will be all of this to all of his people.

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It is the determination of covenant faithfulness that the Lord, the

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God of his people, who has called us to himself, who will never leave us or forsake us, that that God will be our

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God in all these ways. And so it's good for us to dwell upon these descriptions and to appropriate them to ourselves, to consider what it means to be able to say that this

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Lord, this covenant -keeping God of grace and strength, is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, the

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God of my strength in whom I will trust, my shield, the horn or strength of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my saviour who saves us from violence.

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And calling upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, we shall be delivered from all his and our enemies.