The Lord is My Rock

--- Welcome to our Women's Bible Study on 2 Samuel called The Reigning King. Today we're going to cover chapters 21 to 22. At the end of our last lesson, we sort of hit the pause button on chronological narrative. Not completely. We have four chapters left. And only two of the narratives in these chapters are in chronological order. But there's some very challenging content in these last four chapters. But there's also a satisfying organization to the challenging content. So if you have something challenging, at least you can organize it. And that makes it a little bit better, right? And so there are six elements here that I told you in the study guide. You can turn to page 95 in your study guide. And I told you that this is a Hebrew mechanism that is used that is called a chiasm. C-H-I-A-S-M. The C-H is pronounced with the K sound like in Christ, okay? It's a chiasm. And a chiasm in Hebrew literature produces sort of a mirror image that starts on the outside and works its way to the inside. And the center is what you are to be focused on. And so there's this little chart, and I'll put it on the screen for you as well for these four chapters. And the two letters A at the beginning and the end show us that there's a similarity there. We have Saul's sin against the Gibeonite covenant, which produced a drought. And then in the end, we're going to have David's sin against a census law, which will produce a plague. The two middle ones, two and four, the letters B, are about David's heroes and their exploits. And then the focus, the mirror, the middle part that we're supposed to see here, are two psalms, one from David's earlier days and one from his later days. And so at least we have some organization, and this helps bring us through. This week, we're going to cover those first three elements, and then next week, we will finish it off. So chiastic element number one is Saul's sin against the Gibeonite covenant, chapter 21, verse one. Now, there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. No timestamp. It's just in the time of David. And David sought the face of the Lord, and the Lord said, there's blood guilt on Saul and on his house because he put the Gibeonites to death. So God told David why the famine existed. And this was something that God used with the Israelites. He told them he would use it. He would use the elements themselves to get their attention. So this was nothing really unusual. We're not told exactly what Saul did. This does not exist anywhere else in scripture for us. But apparently, not all the Gibeonites were put to death, because in verse two, the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now, the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them. We studied that in Joshua chapter nine, when we went through the Gibeonite deception. And so this is the focus of this section. There was a covenant made that had not been honored. We don't know when or how or why all that happened. That's irrelevant. The fact that it happened is what we are to focus on. So it says that Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. And David said to the Gibeonites, well, what shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement that you may bless the heritage of the Lord? I personally think this was a mistake on David's part. He sought the Lord as to what the problem was, why there was a famine, but he sought the Gibeonites as to how to solve it. I wonder if God's solution here would have been different. Verse four, the Gibeonites said, well, it's not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house, neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And David said, well, what do you say that I should do for you? And they said, the man who consumed us and planned to destroy us so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, let seven of his sons be given to us so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them. So there's some positives and negatives here. The positive thing is that at least it was pinpointing the justice desired to relative to this one man who had done it. The negative is it was coming out on his sons, which presumably were innocent. They didn't do it. It's their dad who had done it. So this is a big problem for Israel because this goes against the law of Israel. I'll put Deuteronomy 24 on the screen for you.

All right. That's what the law of Israel says, but the Gibeonites were not of Israel. They had no such laws. So they said, well, this is going to bring justice for us. Now the unfortunate part is David went along with it and were disappointed that David went along with it and, and it goes against God's law, but he had asked the Gibeonites for a solution and this is what they said. So then apparently he went through and handpicked which sons of Saul would be offered because in verse seven it says the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son, Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan. So one covenant was upheld here, which was David's word to Mephibosheth. So now we know, oh, this must have happened after that event, after he told Mephibosheth that he would spare him and he would be in Jerusalem. So verse nine, he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest. And then we focus on this one woman, verse 10, Rizpah, the daughter of Ayah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day or the beasts of the field by night. And I see her actions perhaps maybe parallel to a mother whose son goes off as a warrior in war, even in modern days, and is killed. And what is the mother's heart? I want his life to mean something. I want people to notice. He gave his life to serve his country. I want him to be noticed. That's kind of what I see her doing here, keeping the birds away, leaving the bodies hanging. Would you please notice that my son gave his life here so that this famine would be over? And David heard of it and in verse 13, then he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son, Jonathan, and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged and they buried them all. The bones of Saul and his son, Jonathan, in the land of Benjamin in Zillah, in the tomb of Kish, his father. And after that, God responded to the plea for the land. God responded to the plea for the land. How is a modern reader supposed to make sense of this? Why did God respond to that? It went against his law. This kind of troubles us. We know that God takes covenants seriously. That's okay. We know that a covenant of peace was broken. But did God really respond positively to the atonement that was offered from innocent people? Even when the methods seemed to go against his law? Even when the ones sacrificed had nothing to do with the crime? What does the word atonement mean? Because it was actually mentioned in this narrative. It means satisfaction for a wrong or an injury. And that's good. We think of it as satisfaction for a wrong or an injury. But we don't really like it when it's unjust. It doesn't sit well with us. But you know what? The Old Testament is filled with examples of the innocent atoning for the guilty. Every time a lamb is sacrificed, it is an innocent, not a person, but an innocent for the guilt to cover over the guilt. That's what the day of atonement is all about. So honestly, nothing about atonement should sit well with us. It should disturb us. This passage should not have resolution to us because we should not sit well with the innocent paying the price for the guilty. And yet that is what we're coming to pretty soon on our calendar. We are going to celebrate the fact we're going to come up to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ where we have the innocent paying for the guilty. And so I think what we're supposed to do with this passage is just let it hang. Just let it be disturbing to us because it should disturb us and it should stir our hearts that in fact we also are the recipient of an innocent paying for our sins. Chaostic element number two, we have David's heroes and their exploits. And now we have four different accounts of these battles with the Philistines. And we can guess here that this happened a little bit later in David's reign because we find out that they say, David, you're kind of too old for this. You need to stay back. So David's heroes. David's exploits. David's heroes. So this is in chronology here, and actually this is also listed in 1 Chronicles, verse 15. There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary. And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. And then David's men swore to him, You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. And then we're given three other accounts here, with three other mighty men that really fought valiantly against the Philistines. So we learn there was war again after David came back into Jerusalem. There was war with the Philistines, and I love how this one guy, this one Philistine, had six fingers and six toes. Now, if you're a cat, that's a polydactyl. So I don't know if you'd use the same thing for a man or not, but we see here that under the leadership of Saul, when David was a youth, do you remember when he faced Goliath, this genetically larger person? He was the only one that was willing to step up and say, I'll do it. Now, after all these years under the leadership of David, now we see an account of several men who would step up and say, I'll do it. And one of them even saved David himself. So then we come to chiastic element number three. And this is David's psalm from earlier day. Verse one gives us somewhat of a timestamp. It says he wrote this when God delivered him from the hand of Saul. So fairly earlier in his life, he wasn't a youth anymore, but he had lived a lot of life running from Saul. Maybe you feel that way. Maybe you're 32 or 35 and you go, well, I'm not young, but I'm not old. But man, have I lived a lot of life. I think that's kind of where David was at. This is called a Song of David, which is personal, but it's also a Psalm of David, which is meant to be used in public worship. This is also Psalm 18, almost word for word with just a few variations. So if we back up in the books of Samuel a little bit to look at the big picture, all the way from 1 Samuel to the end of 2 Samuel, we have these really satisfying literary bookends. We have a song at the beginning, Song of Hannah, and we have a song at the end, the Song of David. And they have a lot of similarities. Hannah was saved from her barrenness. David was saved from his enemies. They both claim God to be their rock. They both attributed God as their source of strength. Their strength came from the Lord. And they both mention how God deals with the righteous or the faithful ones compared to how God deals with the wicked. But David's song is five times longer than Hannah's song. This is quite a long song. So even though some of the themes are similar, their choices of words, their emphasis, and their length even are very unique to the worshiper, and that is what psalms are. They are very unique. We see them through our own set of circumstances, through our own experiences in life, through our own personality, if you will. And so as we're reading a psalm, it's very interpretive. We see what David was talking about because he'll talk so much about his enemies. Well, the time stamp told us this is right when God saved him from Saul. And yet when we read it, we might filter it through our own set of circumstances, and that's okay to do with the psalm. When we read a narrative, so-and-so went from this town to this town, it's like, well, that's what it says. There's no interpretation to that. But when we read a psalm that ministers to our heart and bubbles out out of the heart, we're going to see it through our own lens. So Chapter 22, it says, David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

And that is actually the scripture that I had chosen on the scripture card for this whole Bible study of 2 Samuel, if you have one of these scripture cards, because I think it's a very good summary for David's heart toward the Lord. And so I'm titling this passage, The Lord is my rock. Did you notice in those first two verses how very personal it was? Me, my, 11 times. Okay, it's a very personal thing that he's saying. And then David goes on, This opening might make us think, as David is so personal about it, it might make us think that the one who loves the Lord, the one who is intimate with the Lord, shouldn't have any problems because they have God. God is my rock. How can I have any problems when God is my rock? But we know that we have many troubles in life. And the point is, who do you turn to? And now the psalm goes on to talk about all the troubles that one, even one who makes God their rock can have. Look at verse 4.

And then David takes us from this personal state of me and my in this language. All of a sudden we're reminded of God's immensity and his complexity. And the language turns from personal now to very global. Look at these words. Verse 8.

Skip down to verse 14.

Now some might think that's just too far, that's too impersonal for me. I really like that. I like when the psalmist backs us way up and gives us this sort of distant and wild impression of God because it reminds me, oh yeah, he's the creator. He's the one that made everything. He's in charge of the wind and the sea. He's in charge of the earthquakes and the lightning. In other words, nothing is too difficult for him. I love that reminder. So then I'm able to say, oh yeah, that's right, nothing is too difficult for God. And I happen to belong to the king of the universe who nothing is too difficult for. So I like those kind of passages. Verse 17.

And now David's assessment here turns really interesting to us since we have studied his entire life. Remember, this is as God saved him from Saul. He hasn't become king yet. So at this point, we know David better than he knows himself because we know what will happen. This is before Bathsheba and Uriah. So now listen to verse 21.

And again, we know that he wrote those words before he did things he never thought he could or would do. And we might see in this the sort of maybe immature zeal of a Christian. You know, maybe you walked with the Lord as a teenager or young adult and were very zealous in this, like, I will never. This is the path to go kind of a way. And then the Lord lets us live some life and we begin to see what we truly are capable of. And we realize, oh, I guess I'm human as well. Nonetheless, at face value, this is a reminder of the characteristics of one who wants to live in a green. with God's laws, with God's character, and God's ways. And that is a good thing. Verse 26,

And now I feel like David's song picks up tempo. It crescendos a little bit here. We have these quick sort of phrases. He says,

And we probably have songs and books and poetry going through our mind with that.

And there I have to stop because I have a book going through my mind with that statement right there. And I wanted to take just a minute and give a different perspective on this so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. As I was teaching my children, every one of them took their turn in probably junior high or so, reading this book by Elizabeth George Spear called The Bronze Bow. If you've never read it, there's one copy in the bookstore. First one back there gets it. But I spent some time, I thought, I'm just gonna read that book again. Because in this book, the central character, Daniel, who is a young Jewish boy, he lives for hatred toward the Romans. The Romans had killed his father, had been the cause of the death of both his father and mother. And so now his life is consumed with hatred and vengeance toward the Romans. And he becomes sort of entangled in a group of other young rebels who feel the same way. One of them is a rabbi's son. And he actually says this very verse in this book, he said that God trains his hands for war so that his arms can bend a bow of bronze. So think about a bow and how subtle it needs to be so that you can bend it and shoot. Now make it bronze, which is very hard. And the point is, but God can cause me, he can train me so that I even have that sort of strength to bend a bronze bow. And this bronze bow sort of became their symbol of their group until this young man, Daniel, runs into Jesus. And over and over, this is a historical fiction set in Judea in the time that Jesus was there. And so then Daniel begins to hear and the effect that it has on his life to where by the end of the book, he realizes that it's not strength for fighting, that God indeed has given him strength to do the impossible thing in his life, which is to put off his hatred toward the Romans. That is the impossibility that God did in his life. And you know, that preaches, doesn't it? Because we all are faced with impossible things in our life, things that have created such a stronghold in our life. And so this verse, as David says, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. So now after talking about God, the voice switches back to God. Verse 36,

for the sake of time. We're skipping down to verse 47.

Pay attention now to this last verse and the prophetic message that's in here. Verse 51,

David wrote this before we were in 2 Samuel chapter seven with the Davidic covenant. He wrote this prophetically that God was going to, at some point, bless his offspring forever. This is clearly messianic, clearly talking about how David, the Messiah would come from David's line. But what I wanna show you is I wanna, I want you to see how it complements the last line of Hannah's song, which is the first part of the first bookend. So I'm gonna put 1 Samuel 2 10 on the screen that says

Look how both Hannah and David, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as they're writing their songs, they wrap it up by saying how God is going to deal with his king and with the anointed, both looking forward to the coming king, the one who would be perfect, the Messiah to come. So what I wanna do is I wanna just tie this together. Give us something personal to consider because I said psalms are very personal. We filter them through our own experiences, our own relationships, our own personalities. So I just have a few questions. God's one, or excuse me, David's one word key description of God here was his rock. What would be your one word key description of God? David said that God was greater than his problems. What would you say right now? Would you say God is greater than your problems? David said he wanted to live a life devoted to God's law. What do you want? And David said that God gives him so much strength that he can even bend a bow of bronze. What does God give you strength for? What are the impossible things in your life right now that are immovable like a bow of bronze that you can say my God can give me strength to even bend that thing? You know, every once in a while on Facebook, a little quote catches my eye, and I tried to find out the origin of this one, and I couldn't, it's just something that floats, I guess. I don't know who said it first, I can't tell you, but it said this, your strength lies in your intimacy with God. And I thought that was such a fitting end, having looked at a psalm which should bring intimacy, a psalm should be intimate, and our strength lies with our intimacy with God. How much we actually press in to be able to say those things about God, say those things to God. This is what gives us strength. This is what strengthens our faith. So Father, we thank you for this psalm and all the complexities, all the depth that there is to it, Lord. There's a lot for us to consider. But I just wanna close by praying for myself and for my friends that we really would step up our intimacy with you, because that is where we find our strength, Lord. Would you help that message to just resonate in our hearts? Take it with us, Lord, that we would be women that would press in to be close to you. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. ---