INTERESTING FACTS : "THE BIBLE HAS BEEN THE MAGNA CHARTA OF THE POOR AND OPPRESSED. THE HUMAN RACE IS NOT IN A POSITION TO DISPENSE WITH IT." --THOMAS HUXLEY

 

DAILY READING : 2 SAMUEL 22 - 24

 

TEXT : 2 SAMUEL 22/ PSALM 18 

 

THEME : DAVID AS PSALMIST

 

It is best not to improve on works already written that state the intent, meaning, and content of a portion of Scripture accurately and in detail when they are available. Charles Spurgeon, acknowledged as the "crowned prince of preachers" wrote a large volume of commentaries on the Psalms considered to be the best in its class. T herefore, I thought it better to let him explain the 22 chapter of 2 Samuel, which is identical with Psalm 18 except for a few variations. The entire devotion today is taken from Spurgeon's "The Treasury of David," Psalm 18. For those of you who use E-Sword, the commentaries of Spurgeon on the Psalms are included in that section on the book of Psalms.

 

Kitto, in "The Pictorial Bible," has the following note upon 2 Samuel 22: - "This is the same as the eighteenth Psalm.... The Rabbins reckon up seventy-four differences between the two copies, most of them very minute. They probably arose from the fact that the poem was, as they conjecture, composed by David in his youth, and revised in his later days when he sent it to the chief musician. The present is, of course, supposed to be the earlier copy."

 

Hints to Preachers

 

Psa_18:1 - Love's resolve, love's logic, love's trials, love's victories. James Hervey has two sermons upon "Love to God" from this text.

 

Psa_18:2 - The many excellences of Jehovah to his people.

 

Psa_18:2 - God the all-sufficient portion of his people - C. Simeon's Works, Vol 5, p. 85.

 

Psa_18:3 - Prayer resolved upon; praise rendered; result anticipated.

 

Psa_18:4-6 - Graphic picture of a distressed soul, and its resorts in the hour of extremity.

 

Psa_18:5 (first clause) - The condition of a soul convinced of sin.

 

Psa_18:5 (second clause) - The way in which snares and temptations are, by Satanic craft, arranged so as to forestall or prevent us.

 

Psa_18:6 - The time, the manner, the hearing, and the answering of prayer.

 

Psa_18:7 - The quaking of all things in the presence of an angry God.

 

Psa_18:10 - Celestial and terrestrial agencies subservient to the divine purposes.

 

Psa_18:11 - The darkness in which Jeho vah hides. Why? When? What then? etc.

 

Psa_18:13 - "Hailstones and coals of fire." The terrific in its relation to Jehovah.

 

Psa_18:16 - The Christian, like Moses, "one taken out of the water." The whole verse a noble subject; may be illustrated by life of Moses.

 

Psa_18:17 - The saint's paean of victory over Satan, and all other foes.

 

Psa_18:17 (last clause) - Singular but sound reason for expecting divine help.

 

Psa_18:18 - The enemy's, "craft." 220;They prevented me in the day of my calamity." The enemy chained. "But the Lord was my stay."

 

Psa_18:19 - The reason of grace, and the position in which it places its chosen ones.

 

Psa_18:21 - Integrity of life, its measure, source, benefit, and dangers.

 

Psa_18:22 - The need of considering sacred things, and the wickedness of carelessly neglecting them.

 

Psa_18:23 - The upright heart and its darling sin - W. Strong's Sermons.

 

Psa_18:23 - Peccata in deliciis; a dis course of bosom sins - P. Newcome.

 

Psa_18:23 - The sure trial of uprightness - Dr. Bates.

 

Psa_18:26 - Echoes, in providence, grace, and judgment.

 

Psa_18:25 - Equity of the divine procedure - C. Simeon.

 

Psa_18:27 - Consolation for the humble, and desolation for the proud.

 

Psa_18:27(second clause) - The bringing down of high looks. In a way of grace and justice. Among saints and sinners, etc. A wide theme.

 

Psa_18:28 - A comfortable hope for an uncomfortable state.

 

Psa_18:29 - Believing exploits recounted. Variety, difficulty in themselves, ease in performance, completeness, impunity, and dependence upon divine working.

 

Psa_18:30 - God's way, word, and warfare.

 

Psa_18:31 - A challenge.

 

I.          To the gods. World, pleasure, etc. Which among these deserve the name?

 

II.         To the rocks, self-confidence, superstition, etc. On which can we trust?

 

Psa_18:32-34 - Trying positions, gracious adaptations, graceful accomplishments, secure abidings, grateful acknowledgement.

 

Psa_18:35 - "The shield of thy salvation." What it is? Faith. Whence it comes? "Thou hast given." What it secures? "Salvation." Who have received it?

 

Psa_18:35 - See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 683. "Divine Gentleness Acknowledged."

 

Psa_18:36 - Divine benevolence in the arranging of our lot.

 

Psa_18:39 - The Red Cross Knight armed for the fray,

 

Psa_18:41 - Unavailing prayers - on earth and in hell.

 

Psa_18:42 - The sure overthrow, final shame, and ruin of evil.

 

Psa_18:43 (last clause) - Our natural and sinful distance from Christ, no bar to race.

 

Psa_18:44 - Rapid advance of the gospel in some places, slow progress in others. Solemn considerations.

 

Psa_18:46 - The living God, and how to bless and exalt him.

 

Psa_18:50 - The greatness of salvation, "great deliverance;" its channel, "the King;" and its perpetuity, "for evermore."

 

TRUTH FOR TODAY : GOD IS GOOD TO HIS SERVANTS!

 

Title - "To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." We have another form of this Psalm with significant variations (2 Sam 22), and this suggests the idea that it was sung by David at different times when he reviewed his own remarkable history, and observed the gracious hand of God in it all. Like Addison's hymn beginning, "When all thy mercies, O my God," this Psalm is the song of a grateful heart overwhelmed with a retrospect of the manifold and marvellous mercies of God. We will call it the grateful retrospect. The title deserves attention. David, although at this time a king, calls himself "the servant of Jehovah," but makes no mention of his royalty; hence we gather that he counted it a higher honour to be the Lord's servant than to be Judah's king. Right wisely did he judge. Being possessed of poetic genius, he served the Lord by composing this Psalm for the use of the Lord's house; and it is no mean work to conduct or to improve that delightful part of divine worship, the singing of the Lord's praises. Would that more musical and poetical ability were consecrated, and that our chief musicians were fit to be trusted with devout and spiritual psalmody. It should be observed that the words of this song were not composed with the view of gratifying the taste of men, but were spoken unto Jehovah. It were well if we had a more single eye to the honour of the Lord in our singing, and in all other hallowed exercises. That praise is little worth which is not directed solely and heartily to the Lord. David might well be thus direct in his gratitude, for he owed all to his God, and in the day of his deliverance he had none to thank but the Lord whose right hand had preserved him. We too should feel that to God and God alone we owe the greatest debt of honour and thanksgiving.

 

If it be remembered that the second and the forty-ninth verses are both quoted in the New Testament (Heb_2:13; Rom_15:9)as the words of the Lord Jesus, it will be clear that a greater than David is here. Reader, you will not need our aid in th is respect: if you know Jesus you will readily find him in his sorrows, deliverance, and triumphs all through this wonderful Psalm.

 

Division - The first three verses are the proem or preface in which the resolve to bless God is declared. Delivering mercy is most poetically extolled from Psa_18:4 to Psa_18:19; and then the happy songster, from Psa_18:20 to Psa_18:28, protests that God had acted righteously in thus favouring him. Filled with grateful joy he again pictures his deliverance, and anticipates future victories from verse 29-45; and in closing speaks with evident prophetic foresight of the glorious triumphs of the Messiah, David's seed and the Lord's anointed.