2 Samuel 22 - Singing about God's victories

2 Samuel chapter 22.

2 Samuel 22 · chapter mention

I'm going to read the whole chapter for us this morning.

David sang to the Lord the words of this song

when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies

and from the hand of Saul.

He said,

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.

My God is my rock in whom I take refuge.

My shield and the horn of my salvation.

He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior.

From violent people you save me.

I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise

and have been saved from my enemies.

The waves of death swirled about me.

The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

The cords of the grave coiled around me.

The snares of death confronted me.

In my distress, I call to the Lord.

I called out to my God.

From his temple he heard my voice.

My cry came to his ears.

The earth trembled and quaked.

The foundations of the heavens shook.

They trembled because he was angry.

Smoke rose from his nostrils.

Consuming fire came from his mouth.

Burning coals blazed out of it.

He parted the heavens and came down.

Dark clouds were under his feet.

He mounted the cherubim and flew.

He soared on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his canopy around him.

The dark rain clouds of the sky.

Out of the brightness of his presence, bolts of lightning blazed forth.

The Lord thundered from heaven.

The voice of the Most High resounded.

He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy.

With great bolts of lightning he routed them.

The valleys of the sea were exposed.

And the foundations of the earth laid bare.

At the rebuke of the Lord.

At the blast of breath from his nostrils.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me.

He drew me out of deep waters.

He rescued me from my powerful enemy.

From my foes who were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my disaster.

But the Lord was my support.

He brought me out into a spacious place.

He rescued me because he delighted in me.

The Lord has dealt with 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.

I am not guilty of turning from my God.

All his laws are before me.

I have not turned away from his decrees.

I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.

The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness.

According to the cleanness.

To my cleanness in his sight.

To the faithful you show yourself faithful.

To the blameless you show yourself blameless.

To the pure you show yourself pure.

But to the devious you show yourself shrewd.

You save the humble but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.

You Lord are my lamp.

The Lord turns my darkness into light.

With your help I can advance against a troop.

With my God I can scale a wall.

As for God his way is perfect.

The Lord's word is flawless.

He shields all who take refuge in him.

For who is a God besides the Lord?

And who is the rock except our God?

It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer.

He causes me to stand on the heights.

He trains my hands for battle.

My arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You make your saving help my shield.

Your help has made me great.

You provided a broad path for my feet.

So that my ankles do not give way.

I pursued my enemies and crushed them.

I did not turn back till they were destroyed.

I crushed them completely and they could not rise.

They fell beneath my feet.

You armed me with strength for battle.

You humbled my adversaries before me.

You made my enemies turn their backs in flight.

And I destroyed my foes.

They cried for help but there was no one to save them.

To the Lord but he did not answer.

I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth.

I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.

You have delivered me from the attacks of the peoples.

You have preserved me as the head of nations.

People I did not know now serve me.

Foreigners cower before me.

As soon as they hear of me they obey me.

They lose all heart.

They come trembling from their strongholds.

The Lord lives.

Praise be to my rock.

Exalted be my God.

The rock my saviour.

He is the God who avenges me.

Who puts the nations under me.

Who sets me free from my enemies.

You exalted me from my foes.

From a violent man you rescued me.

Therefore I will praise you Lord among the nations.

I will sing the praises of your name.

He gives his king great victories.

He shows unfailing kindness to his anointed.

To David and his descendants forever.

Well this is God's word.

Let's pray as we come and look at it together.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father our longing desire is that we might hear you speak from your words to us this morning.

We pray that your Holy Spirit who inspired these words might now be at work in me as I speak.

All of us as we listen.

That we may encounter you and hear you speak.

That you might change and transform us.

That you might comfort us and strengthen us.

That you might rebuke, encourage, equip us to live lives to your praise and glory.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Well if you've been with us for the last few months you'll know that we are coming towards the end of our series in 2 Samuel.

And we noticed last time which was a couple of weeks ago now.

That we're in essentially what is the conclusion of the book.

So the material towards the end of 2 Samuel is not organized necessarily chronologically.

But thematically as the writer draws everything to a conclusion.

And at the heart of his conclusion is a song of David and David's final words.

So if you've looked at much of the Bible before, it doesn't matter if you haven't.

But if you have, you might know that David is a famous songwriter.

He is probably the Bible's most famous songwriter.

He wrote a lot of the Psalms.

You might know that he played the harp for Saul.

You might remember that he danced in front of the ark.

He is a musical kind of guy.

And you know, don't you, that the best way to enjoy a song is what?

Sing it, right?

Yeah, so that's how you enjoy songs.

You sing along.

You sing along to a song.

And the best way to ruin a song is to explain it.

Yeah?

And so it's like a joke.

The best way to ruin a joke is to explain it.

And so I'm conscious this morning that really I want us to be able to echo David's words and sing along.

So whilst trying not to ruin the vibe this morning, I do want us to look at the content of what David sings here so that we can join in with him as he sings.

Or maybe even dance along with him, if that's appropriate later, maybe.

Anyway, I want you to see that basically there are three parts to his song.

The song has a beginning, a middle, and an end, right?

Like all good songs and essays, a beginning, a middle, and an end.

And the beginning is all about David's personal victories.

And the end is all about the victories of his army over the nations.

And the middle is all about him and why God saved him.

And that's where I want us to start, in the middle, in verses 21 to 37.

And I want us to look at it under this title, What is Blamelessness?

What is Blamelessness?

Now, like I said, to this point, David has been singing about the great victories that God has won for him.

So if you look down at the passage, you'll see verse 20 that he has been brought into a spacious place.

He has been rescued because the Lord delighted in him.

And these middle verses, David explains why God has continued to rescue him over and over again, why he delights in him.

And he says in verse 21 that God has dealt with him according to his righteousness.

That the great victories are a reward, he says, for the cleanness of his hands.

If you look down at verse 22, you'll notice that he says he has kept the ways of the Lord.

That he has not been guilty of turning from God.

In verse 23, he says his laws were before him.

So much so that in verse 24, he says, sort of summarizing,

I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.

Now, I don't want to assume that you've been paying attention in our series in the book of 2 Samuel.

But if you have been, you should be wondering, oh my goodness, David, have you slightly lost touch with reality here?

Do you actually know what you have been doing for the last 21 chapters?

Do you know what's been going on?

Perhaps he's just gone a little bit senile towards the end of his life.

Because you know, if you know the story, don't you?

You know that David murdered a guy.

A guy called Uriah the Hittite.

And he murdered Uriah the Hittite because he got Uriah the Hittite's wife pregnant, Bathsheba.

Now, those kind of things are a big deal.

He then basically failed over and over to discipline his wayward children who ended up causing havoc.

Siblings ended up raping one another, murdering one another.

They even staged a coup against his rule.

So when you come to this song, you know, you come to this song that Dave's written at the end of his life,

you perhaps expect him to be singing about disappointments.

Oh Lord, you know, my life has not been quite what I hoped it would have been.

My family's not quite worked out as I would have hoped that they would have worked out.

I've made lots of mistakes.

But in fact, as you look at the song, you find that actually instead he's singing of his blamelessness.

His blamelessness.

Now, you might be thinking, oh, I know this, Steve, right?

I know what you're going to say.

I've encountered this before.

This, Steve, this is that doctrine that you were talking about a few weeks ago from David.

You were talking about justification by faith, weren't you?

I know this.

That's what David's talking about, isn't it?

This truth that the Bible teaches through and through, that basically through faith in Jesus Christ,

sinners like us, like David, people who have sinned against God and gone their own way can be justified,

declared not guilty because sinless Jesus stands in our place at the cross.

The Bible says that for the Christian, their sin has been, it uses kind of, the term is imputed.

It's like passed on to, counted as.

So our sin is passed on, imputed to Jesus.

And Jesus' righteousness, his goodness, his rightness has been imputed, passed on to us.

So that the Christian can say, in the eyes of God, I'm covered in Jesus' rightness.

Whiteness.

So I'm perfect.

I've never, it looks like I've never done anything wrong.

Now that's true, right?

Justification by faith is probably the most important doctrine in the scriptures.

But I'm not sure that's what David means here.

And I don't think that's what he means because that's not what he says.

Instead, what seems to be going on is that David actually looks back at his life,

at his time as king, and sees that in an important sense, he has been blameless.

And that's because blameless in the Bible doesn't always mean sinlessly perfect.

Blameless in the Bible often means wholehearted, as in trusting completely in the Lord.

Solomon, who comes after David, Solomon is David's son who comes after him.

And we're told about him in 1 Kings 11, verse 6, that Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

1 Kings 11:6

He did not follow the Lord completely as David, his father, had done.

The sense here is that Solomon was not quite like David because David wholly followed, completely followed the Lord.

Blamelessness of David was not mirrored by Solomon.

To give you more examples, the Old Testament character Job, if you know him, was called blameless by God,

as God talks to Satan about him in the opening chapters of the book.

And it doesn't mean, look at what Job has become because I justified him, but rather, no, look at Job.

He is a man who wholeheartedly follows me.

He's devoted to me.

Job later on calls himself blameless.

Again, not meaning sinless because he's repenting of his sin in the same narrative.

Daniel calls himself blameless.

Says it's why the Lord rescued him from the lions, even though again and again we see him praying and praying prayers of repentance.

The Psalms sing of blamelessness like this.

The book of Proverbs instructs us to be blameless like this.

Not because the book of Proverbs expects us to be sinlessly perfect,

but because it wants us to and expects us to wholeheartedly trust in the Lord.

It's the same in the New Testament when in Philippians 2 verses 14 to 15,

Philippians 2:14–15

Paul tells the people to stop grumbling so that they may become what?

Blameless and innocent children of God.

Not because stopping grumbling is the same as putting your faith in Jesus and being declared righteous by him,

but because grumbling is a common sin of God's people which betrays a lack of wholehearted trust in God,

who is in charge of all the things you grumble about.

Don't be like that.

Be blameless.

It's the same idea in 1 Timothy chapter 3,

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

when the leaders of the church are told to be above reproach or blameless.

Not simply meaning that the leaders in the church are to be Christians,

that's kind of an obvious statement, isn't it?

But rather they are to be wholehearted in their following of Jesus.

Dale Ralph Davis, who's written a commentary on these verses, says this,

when David speaks of his righteousness and purity,

he does not point to sinless perfection, but life direction.

He's not sporting a pharisaical pride over errorless obedience,

but expressing a faithful loyalty via consistent obedience.

All of this is important for it is such faithful, wholehearted, though afflicted servants that the Lord delights to rescue,

and who can then revel in the power and safety that the Lord has provided.

David here, he's looking back across his life and he says,

Do you know, I've always, I've always wanted to walk with the Lord.

I've always been walking towards him.

I've always been following the Lord.

I might not have done it perfectly, but I've done it wholeheartedly.

It's what I've always wanted.

Let me try and illustrate what's going on, just to give you a bit of time to think and ponder on this some more.

I want you to imagine that you're walking to Buckingham Palace.

You probably wouldn't walk.

You'd probably catch the bus, I know.

But anyway, imagine if you were walking.

It's not actually that far to walk.

But if you were walking to Buckingham Palace, you've got an appointment with a king, perhaps.

You're determined.

You've got to get to the palace.

You've got to meet with a king.

He wants to see you.

But as you start off down Carlton Vale, you get down there and you get a little bit distracted by Paddington Rec.

So you go and, you know, you throw a ball in Paddington Rec for a bit.

And then you end up walking a little bit through Maida Vale, past Little Venice and Paddington Station.

It's probably not the quickest way.

And then you notice that there's, you know, McDonald's in Paddington.

And so you get diverted there for a moment.

And then you carry on down the Edgway Road to Marble Arch.

And then at High Park Corny, take a left instead of a right.

You end up at Harrods instead of Buckingham Palace.

But then you cut around the back and you end up eventually at Buckingham Palace.

And as you look back from the doors of Buckingham Palace, what you say is, I've always wanted to arrive here.

I have been determinedly walking here all morning.

I've made some mistakes along the way.

But as I look back, my determination was always to walk towards the palace.

Not towards Heathrow Airport, but always towards Buckingham Palace.

Now, in a sense, and it doesn't quite work all the way through, but that's what's going on here.

David's godliness is not so much that he's achieved a level and says, right, I've got the badge of honour now.

No, what it is, is that he has been walking in this direction in his life.

I have been walking towards the Lord, says David.

Not in my own strength.

Not blazing a trail of my own, but humbly trusting in God.

Verse 28.

And so the whole song is about how God has been his strength to get him to glory.

God has made David wholehearted.

He has given him a wholehearted heart that unswervingly wants to follow the Lord.

Even if his way has been marked by failure and weakness.

And so David sings.

Always wanted to be with the Lord.

I've always wanted to follow him.

And God has enabled me.

And God has won great victories.

Now, let me suggest, just before we go any further in the song, it's worth us just thinking about that some more.

That at the conclusion of everything that's happened, David's singing out the book.

This is his central piece of advice to you, to me.

You know, this is the theme of his song, if you like, as he sings at the end of the book.

He says, listen, this is what I want you to know about life.

The thing that you will sing about at the end of your life, if you've done it, is to walk wholeheartedly with the Lord.

That's what life is for.

That's what it's about.

That's it.

Lean into what God is doing in you as a Christian by his spirit.

He's given you a new heart that loves him and longs to walk with him.

Now, go that way.

Wholeheartedly go that way.

So let me ask you this morning, let me ask myself, does this describe us?

Is this how we're living?

You know, does the use of my time, does the way that I spend my money, do the dreams of my heart, the aspirations of my ambitions,

are they marked by this wholehearted desire to follow the Lord?

Or is the truth is that I've slightly lost my way?

I'm wandering aimlessly.

I think, though, it's a mistake, isn't it, if we see this just as a challenge?

Because I think there's a consolation in this, too, isn't there?

You see, there are some of us in this room who have been Christians for a really, really long time.

Some of you, and I'm not going to look in any particular direction, because I know you'll be offended at me saying this,

but some of you, I'm just going to look to a blank page of the balcony,

some of you are in the final laps, aren't you, of the Christian life?

And maybe for you, as you look back, what sticks most clearly in your mind are the Uriah and Bathsheba moments of your life.

Not your wholeheartedness.

Perhaps you see the disappointments where you've missed the point,

where you've been waylaid along the way,

where you took the wrong turn at High Park Corner.

Maybe, as you look back, you see wasted years in pointless pursuits.

Well, let me say this morning, if you're a Christian,

if you believe and trust in the Lord Jesus,

and you long to live for him,

and you're in the final laps of that race,

you can sing David's song.

Because the fact that you're here,

and you want to live for him,

and you want to live for his glory,

is a sign of this wholehearted work that God has done in you.

You can sing that your godliness was not a destination along the way,

it's not a merit sticker that you received when you obtained a certain standard.

No, godliness is this commitment to keep going,

and keep walking,

to keep trusting,

to keep looking to Christ,

to keep looking to please him,

until you see him face to face.

And if that's you this morning,

and maybe especially if you're in these final laps,

let me say to you that we will,

if we're still here,

which we might not be,

but if we're still here and the Lord has spared us,

with tear-filled rejoicing,

we will stand around your grave and sing

that they finished the race.

They completed the task that God had given them.

They wholeheartedly walked with him,

and now they're with him.

And there's no greater joy.

There's no greater joy.

So that's the centre of the song,

this wholehearted,

this blamelessness of David,

as he desires to follow the Lord.

But let me just try and tease out what goes on at the beginning and the end,

and see some more of its implications for us.

So let's start with the first bit,

the personal rescue for the blameless.

Look down at these opening sections,

and you can't help but notice how many times David says,

my,

I'm not going to count them,

I think it's nine,

but I could be wrong.

In verses two to three,

he talks about God's personal saving and shielding.

God is not distant or far off to David,

but is nearby and present.

Belonging to David is a rock,

a fortress,

a deliverer,

a shield,

a stronghold,

a refuge,

and a saviour.

Now,

the strength of David's praise here,

in a sense,

is linked to the depth of his trouble.

As he's been in trouble,

in verses five to seven,

as he's been in deep water,

that he knows God's rescue.

And it's probably a reference to the trouble Saul caused him

when he came so close to death.

And we've read enough of 2 Samuel to know

that there have been a number of occasions in David's life

when it has been really precarious for him.

And yet,

he says,

he sings,

God has always saved me.

He's always turned up and rescued me.

So in verse seven,

David cries out.

In verse eight,

God is angry.

And in verse 10,

comes down in dark clouds,

to save him.

You might think,

what is David referring to here?

What is the language here?

This thunder and lightning.

It's clearly a kind of apocalyptic type language,

isn't it?

It's poetry that he is writing.

He's using pictures to convey God's power

as he's come to rescue him.

Actually though,

as he uses those pictures

and you relate it to the times in his life,

it's actually been quite ordinary.

You know,

you think about the time

when Saul came into the cave

where David is hiding.

Saul has been hunting David

to try and kill him.

And Saul accidentally walks into the cave

where David is at the,

hidden at the back of the cave.

Saul comes in to use the toilet.

Right?

And David is saved

by Saul

wandering into the wrong cave.

And David says,

as he sings,

with those kind of things in mind,

he goes,

God came down to save me

in thunder and lightning.

And these apocalyptic pictures

are not exaggerations,

are they?

Rather what David is using

is he's using covenant images.

He's recalling Exodus 19

and the people of Israel

in front of Mount Sinai

where there's thunder and lightning

and crashing and light.

And God is speaking to them,

saying that you are my people.

You belong to me.

I'm rescuing you.

You belong to me to live for me.

And David says,

you know,

those covenant promises,

those belong to me.

I've experienced them.

I've seen them working out.

God has saved me.

So perhaps this morning

you find yourself

in something that might feel

a little bit like

verses five to seven.

You know what it feels like

to be encompassed by death,

to be drowning

in the ways of destruction,

of the sin of our own hearts,

perhaps.

Well, if that's you,

let me encourage you

to cry to God right there.

He will meet you there.

He will come wholeheartedly

to save you.

He will rescue.

God has got a covenant promise,

a promise that David

sees echoed in Exodus 19.

He sees echoed

in what God has promised to him.

It's fulfilled in Jesus Christ,

the one who literally

ripped open the heavens

and burst into our world,

who bolted forth

from the brightness

of the presence of God

and still promises

to save and rescue

for eternity with him.

I wonder, though,

if I can ask you,

how do you expect

to encounter

those promises today?

Well, let me suggest to you

that just like David

encountered

these great things

of God

in the ordinariness

of a cave with Saul,

so you and I

encounter

the extraordinariness

of God's covenant promises

in the ordinary means

of things like

a church gathering,

a time around

the Lord's table,

singing the words

of a song,

the prayer of a Christian

brother or sister.

In those moments,

the Lord comes

thundering down

to help us,

to keep us walking

blamelessly home.

Perhaps this morning

you're not a Christian

or maybe you're just

not quite sure

exactly where you stand

with the Lord.

Perhaps you say,

well, if all of this

is true,

I would expect to see it

written in the sky

as I walk out of here

or I'd expect

to have an audible voice

come to me

as I lie on my bed

at night,

a thunderbolt

from the sky

stopping me

in my tracks.

Well, obviously,

God could do that

and God has done

those things on occasion

but David's song here

is to remind you

that actually

more often than not,

God's salvation

comes and is seen

in ordinary ways.

Let me suggest

to you this morning

that actually

the extraordinary work

of God

you see

in the ordinary cry

of a baby

in a manger

in Bethlehem.

You see

in the bloodstained

body of a man

on a cross

and now you see it

in a small church

in northwest London

preaching a message,

breaking bread together

and celebrating

his life and death.

Here God is at work.

He's working

to save

and to rescue,

to keep

and to lead his people.

Here in this place

God is walking

with his people

through the snares

of death,

the days of disaster

to bring them

safely home.

There's a story

told of a man

who's praying

that the Lord

would get him

across a river.

He's earnest

in his prayers,

he's there on his knees,

he's asking,

you know,

Lord get me

to the other side

of this river,

get me to the other

side of this river.

Eventually a small boat

comes along

and says,

listen I'll give you

a ride to the other

side of the river.

He says,

no, no, no,

don't worry,

I'm praying,

God's going to do it

for me,

God will do it for me.

Along comes a kid

on a paddle board,

I'll take you

across the river,

he says.

No, no,

don't worry,

I'm praying,

God's going to do it

for me,

God will do it.

Guy comes in a canoe,

I'll take you across.

No, don't worry,

God's going to do it

for me,

he says.

I'm waiting for the Lord

to answer,

but the answer never comes

and dejected and sad

he walks home

concluding God's not there

when he meets the Lord

and he's asked

why did he give up his faith?

He says,

you never answered my prayer

to get me across the river.

God says,

I answered it three times

and he didn't take any of them.

And that's the thing,

isn't it?

Actually,

God is at work

in ordinary ways,

doing extraordinary things

in our lives.

And David encourages us

to see that.

You know,

perhaps it is

if you're not a Christian

this morning,

that preacher

that you walk past

on the street

actually is giving out

eternal treasure.

You just never stop to listen.

Let's finish

as we come to the end

of the song,

final victory

for a blameless king.

Final victory

for a blameless king.

There's a lot more

in these verses

than we're going

to have time to tease out.

But I want you just

to notice with me

as we close

that the emphasis

at the end of the song

is not so much

on David's personal salvation,

but on his role

as God's king

in conquering the nations.

Look at verse 35.

David has hands

that are trained for war.

He's pursued his enemies

and destroyed them

in verse 38.

In verse 40,

he's been equipped

with strength for battle

so that he delivers

God's people

as the head of the nations

in verse 44.

In verse 45,

foreigners come

cowering to him

whose alternative strongholds

have let them down

in verse 46.

Verse 51

sort of wraps

the whole theme together

where he says

he gives his king

great victories.

He shows

unfailing kindness

to his anointed,

to David

and his descendants forever.

Now,

here we've moved,

haven't we,

from the personal salvation

that David was singing about

in the first third

of the song.

Now we find

that he's the leader

of the army

of God's people.

He is the king

of God's kingdom.

And the point is

that David's blamelessness

has not only been

good news for him

as he's received

personal salvation

from the Lord,

it's been good news

for everybody

in the kingdom.

His point is

that really,

if you like,

his blamelessness

has been a funnel

of blessing

to the kingdom

of God's people.

It's because

I've walked with the Lord

that God has saved

our armies

and has rescued us

as a people.

Now,

of course,

at this point

we find,

don't we,

that we're no longer

David,

are we,

in the story?

Like we've been finding

over and over

in 2 Samuel,

David is the king

of God's people

is pointing forward

to the Lord Jesus.

Jesus is God's

final king,

the king of God's people

who are no longer

a nation

but a church

of many nations.

And the king

is not just a man

but it's the God-man,

Christ Jesus.

And here we see

David as a forerunner

of the Lord Jesus

as Jesus picks up

these metaphors

of kingdom

and king

and nation

of battle

and fulfills them

in his ministry.

Leading his church

not into a battle

with flesh and blood

for nations or states

but in a battle

with the spiritual forces

of the heavenly places

for the souls

of men and women.

A battle in which

Jesus is just

as comprehensively

victorious as David is.

Strengthened by the spirit,

victorious on the cross,

risen from the grave,

ascended into heaven,

seated at the right hand

of the father

watching all his enemies

being put beneath his feet

the last of which

is death itself.

It's obvious here,

isn't it?

Jesus is the one

in verse 48

whom the father

has put over the nations.

He's put everything

under his feet.

Jesus is the one

who in verse 45

who the nations

come and bow to

as he gathers people

from across the globe

to follow him

and obey him.

Christ is the returning king,

the one who will have

the final victory,

who will crush completely

in verse 39,

who will beat the devil

to dust

and consign him

to hell

in verse 43.

And just like

David's victories

have been funneled

to his people

through his blamelessness,

so Jesus' victories

are funneled to us

through his blamelessness.

Jesus,

who faultlessly

and wholeheartedly

trusts in his father

and obeys his plan.

Jesus,

who never takes

a false turn,

never trips up,

never stops,

single-mindedly,

wholeheartedly,

devoted to his father,

channeling the blessings

of victory

to his people.

You know,

think about it like this,

that the joy

of being an Israelite

in David's kingdom

is because you knew

David was following

the Lord.

God was on his side.

Everything would be okay

for him and his kingdom.

And that's it

with Jesus.

Jesus is our blameless king

who wholeheartedly

follows his father.

And so you and I know

everything will be okay

because my king

is blameless

and following

the plan of the father.

God is on his side.

We are in his church.

You know,

the story of the Bible

is that God's king wins.

Jesus wins.

Blameless Jesus wins

because God is with him.

And so if you're trusting

in him this morning,

then the truth is

you and I

will win too.

There will be a day

when every tear

will be wiped away,

every cancer

will be healed,

every panic attack

will be soothed,

every exam

will be smashed,

every job

will be a joy,

every relationship

will be a delight,

every problem

will be solved,

every money worry

will be gone,

every angry outburst

will be dissolved,

every addiction

will be cracked.

Why?

Because the son,

by the power of the spirit

in the plan of the father,

blamelessly obeyed

and so everything

will be under his feet.

And until that day,

we follow him,

wholeheartedly

walking towards him,

losing our lives

in joyful praise

of his greatness.

Let me pray

and then we'll respond

and so on.

Heavenly Father,

we want to thank you

for the Lord Jesus.

We thank you

that the blessings

of a future kingdom

where it will be

our joy

and our bliss

for all eternity

to be with you.

Come to us

through his wholehearted

obedience.

And Lord,

we want to pray

that you would make us

more like Jesus.

That like David,

like Jesus,

we would wholeheartedly

follow you,

trusting in you,

obeying you.

Please,

we pray,

recognizing maybe

for some of us

this morning,

we've just

gotten waylaid.

We've wandered off,

got distracted.

Bring us back,

we pray.

Keep us going.

We pray that it would

be our joy

and our delight

to be able to say

that we have run

the race.

We've completed

the task

that you have given us.

All glory to your name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.