David's Epitaph - January 20 Readings: 2 Samuel 22

We are going to "enter the year with praise." Our January readings and devotionals will all focus on the goodness and grace of God. Get a journal or notebook to write down your thoughts every day. Our passages are shorter - please don't rush through them. Take time to meditate and consider why God is worthy of your praise.

Enter 2020 with the praise of God on your lips!

Today's Praise Passage:  2 Samuel 22

David spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the grasp of Saul. 2 He said:

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
3 my God, my rock where I seek refuge.
My shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge,
and my Savior, you save me from violence.
4 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I was saved from my enemies.
5 For the waves of death engulfed me;
the torrents of destruction terrified me.
6 The ropes of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
 7 I called to the Lord in my distress;
I called to my God.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry for help reached his ears.

8 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the heavens trembled;
they shook because he burned with anger.
9 Smoke rose from his nostrils,
and consuming fire came from his mouth;
coals were set ablaze by it.
10 He bent the heavens and came down,
total darkness beneath his feet.
11 He rode on a cherub and flew,
soaring on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness a canopy around him,
a gathering of water and thick clouds.
13 From the radiance of his presence,
blazing coals were ignited.
14 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High made his voice heard.
15 He shot arrows and scattered them;
he hurled lightning bolts and routed them.
16 The depths of the sea became visible,
the foundations of the world were exposed
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

 17 He reached down from on high
and took hold of me;
he pulled me out of deep water.
18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
20 He brought me out to a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

 21 The Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness;
he repaid me
according to the cleanness of my hands.
22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not turned from my God to wickedness.
23 Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me
and have not disregarded his statutes.
24 I was blameless before him
and kept myself from my iniquity.
25 So the Lord repaid me
according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in his sight.

 26 With the faithful
you prove yourself faithful,
with the blameless
you prove yourself blameless,
27 with the pure
you prove yourself pure;
but with the crooked
you prove yourself shrewd.
28 You rescue an oppressed people,
but your eyes are set against the proud—
you humble them.
29 Lord, you are my lamp;
the Lord illuminates my darkness.
30 With you I can attack a barricade,
and with my God I can leap over a wall.
31 God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord is pure.
He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.

 32 For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is a rock? Only our God.
33 God is my strong refuge;
he makes my way perfect.
34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer
and sets me securely on the heights.
35 He trains my hands for war;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36 You have given me the shield of your salvation;
your help exalts me.
37 You make a spacious place beneath me for my steps,
and my ankles do not give way.
38 I pursue my enemies and destroy them;
I do not turn back until they are wiped out.
39 I wipe them out and crush them,
and they do not rise;
they fall beneath my feet.
40 You have clothed me with strength for battle;
you subdue my adversaries beneath me.
41 You have made my enemies retreat before me;
I annihilate those who hate me.
42 They look, but there is no one to save them—
they look to the Lord, but he does not answer them.
43 I pulverize them like dust of the earth;
I crush them and trample them like mud in the streets.

 44 You have freed me from the feuds among my people;
you have preserved me as head of nations;
a people I had not known serve me.
45 Foreigners submit to me cringing;
as soon as they hear, they obey me.
46 Foreigners lose heart
and come trembling from their fortifications.

 47 The Lord lives—blessed be my rock!
God, the rock of my salvation, is exalted.
48 God—he grants me vengeance
and casts down peoples under me.
49 He frees me from my enemies.
You exalt me above my adversaries;
you rescue me from violent men.

 50 Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord;
I will sing praises about your name.
51 He is a tower of salvation for his king;
he shows loyalty to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.

Through the Bible Reading: Genesis 41-42, Matthew 13:18–43, Psalm 12, Proverbs 3:7-8

Some of our readers want a little more "meaty" devotional, so I am including a link to the through Through the Bible in One Year readings we did last year. 

Devotional: David's Epitaph 

I have always loved the (almost) last words of Paul in 2 Timothy 4. "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." He expected a crown of righteousness when his life ended in the not so distant future. What a wonderful set of last words.

2 Samuel 22 records a song of praise written by David at the end of his life, extolling the faithfulness of God in his life. It is a bit more triumphalistic, and reflects an OT ethic, of course, but it gives us deep resources for a time of praise.

David's life had been one of constant trouble. In his early life, he suffered unjustly under the hand of King Saul, who was jealous of God's blessing on him. After his sin with Bathsheba, he endured the consequences of his own sin, which evil men used to harass and hound him. For whatever reason, people were constantly trying to destroy this man after God's own heart. He learned from his earliest days as a shepherd to his last days as the Shepherd of Israel that God was his rock, fortress, and deliverer, in whom he could take refuge. He sought God's protection and God gave it.

He knew the pains of despair, days when the cords of death wrapped around him and he was sure he could not go on, but verse 7 was the key to David's life. In his distress, he called out to the Lord and the Lord heard him. He goes on to extol the goodness and faithfulness of God.

It is helpful for us to put some of David's words in context. He speaks, in verse 21, of how God rewarded him for his righteousness. Even in the Old Testament, the just lived by faith. He was not justified by his own righteousness, but by grace. However, for David and for us, there is a principle of life we need to remember. We reap what we sow. Remember when Israel stood between the two mountains and recited the blessings of God obedience and the punishments for disobedience? God does bless and reward the faithful and our disobedience has costly consequences.

At the end of his life, David was able to thank God for the blessings that came first by God grace but also through the obedience that God had enabled in him. That is David's epitaph. God had blessed him, empowered him, forgiven and restored him, and used him mightily.

Thank God today that you are accepted in Christ. Thank him that your sins are washed away and that every day is a new blessing.

Father, thank you for you blessings, those eternal blessings that come by grace and even those that come because you have given me strength to obey. Forgive me for my sins and enable me to walk in you and in your ways. 

Think and Pray:

Meditate on this passage and write down:

1. The character qualities of God for which you can praise him. 

2. The gracious acts of God for which you can give thanks to him. 

Read this psalm carefully and reflect on all that it reveals about God and about life.