THE SONG AND LAST WORDS
The 22d chapter of 2 Samuel contains David's magnificent song, and is
parallel with the 18th psalm. It is the utterance of the Spirit of
Christ in David, connected with His triumph over death, through the
mighty energy of the power of God. (Ephes. i. 19.) In it, as the
inspired heading teaches us, David presents his praise to God for
deliverance from the hand of all his enemies, and the hand of Saul
particularly. He thankfully recounts the glorious actings of God on
his behalf, yet in such language as at once leads us from David and
all his conflicts, to that terrible conflict which raged around the
grave of Jesus, when all the powers of darkness were ranged, in fierce
array, against God. Tremendous was the scene! Never before, and never
since, was such a battle fought, or such a victory gained, whether we
look at the contending powers, or the consequences resulting. Heaven
on the one side, and hell on the other. Such were the contending
powers. And as to the consequences resulting, who shall recount them?
The glory of God and of His Christ, in the first place; the salvation
of the Church; the restoration and blessing of Israel's tribes; and
the full deliverance of creation's wide domain from the lordship of
Satan, the curse of God, and the thraldom of corruption. Such were
some of the results. Fierce, therefore, was the struggle of the great
enemy of God and man at the cross and at the grave of Christ; violent
were the efforts of the strong man to prevent his armor from being
taken, and his house from being spoiled, but all in vain; Jesus
triumphed. "When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of
ungodly men made me afraid; the sorrows of hell compassed me about;
the snares of death prevented me; in my distress I called upon the
Lord, and cried to my God: and He did hear my voice out of His temple,
and my cry did enter into His ears." Here was apparent weakness, but
real power. The apparently vanquished one became the victor. "Jesus
was crucified in weakness, but He liveth by the power of God." Having
shed His blood as the victim for sin, He left Himself in the hands of
the Father, who, by the eternal Spirit, brought Him again from the
dead. He resisted not, but suffered Himself to be trampled upon, and
thus crushed the power of the enemy. Satan, by man's agency, nailed
Him to the cross, laid Him in the grave, and set a seal upon Him, that
He might not rise; but He came up out of the horrible pit, and out of
the miry clay, "having spoiled principalities and powers." He went
down into the very heart of the enemy's dominion, only that He might
make a show of him openly.
From vers. 8-20, we have the interference of Jehovah on the part of
His righteous servant, set forth in language sublime and powerful
beyond expression. The imagery used by the inspired Psalmist is of
the most solemn and impressive character, "The earth shook and
trembled; the fountains of heaven moved and shook, because He was
wroth.... He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was
under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub and did fly; and He was seen
upon the wings of the wind. And He made darkness pavilions round about
Him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.... The Lord thundered
from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. And He sent out
arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. And the
channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were
discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of
His nostrils. He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many
waters." What language is here! Where shall we find anything to equal
it? The wrath of the Omnipotent, the thunder of His power, the
convulsion of creation's entire framework, the artillery of
heaven--all these ideas, so glowingly set forward here, outstrip all
human imagination. The grave of Christ was the centre round which the
battle raged in all its fierceness, for there lay the Prince of life.
Satan did his utmost; he brought all the power of hell to bear, all
"the power of darkness," but he could not hold his captive, because
all the claims of justice had been met. The Lord Jesus triumphed over
Satan, death, and hell, in strict conformity with the claims of
righteousness. This is the sinner's joy, the sinner's peace. It would
avail nothing to be told that God over all, blessed for ever, had
vanquished Satan, a creature of His own creation. But to be told that
He, as man's representative, as the sinner's substitute, as the
Church's surety, gained the victory, this, when believed, gives the
soul ineffable peace; and this is just what the gospel tells us--this
is the message which it conveys to the sinner's ear. The apostle tells
us that "He (Christ) was delivered for our offences, and raised again
for our justification." Having taken upon Himself our sins, and gone
down into the grave under the weight of them, resurrection was
necessary as the divine proof of His accomplished work. The Holy
Ghost, in the gospel, presents Him as risen, ascended, and seated at
God's right hand in the heavens, and thus dispels from the believer's
heart every doubt, every fear, every hesitation. "The Lord is risen
indeed"; and His precious blood is new and living wine.
The great argument of the apostle in 1 Cor. xv. is based upon this
subject. The forgiveness of sins is proved by the resurrection of
Christ. "If Christ be not raised, ye are yet in your sins." And, as a
consequence, if Christ be raised, ye are _not_ in your sins. Hence
resurrection and forgiveness stand or fall together. Recognize Christ
risen, and you recognize sin forgiven. "But now," says the triumphant
reasoner, "is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits
of them that slept." This settles all. The moment you take your eye
off a risen Christ, you lose the full, deep, divine, peace-giving
sense of the forgiveness of sins. The richest fund of experience--the
widest range of intelligence will not do as a ground of confidence.
Nothing, in short, but JESUS RISEN.
From vers. 21-25, we have the ground of Jehovah's interference on
behalf of His servant. These verses prove that in this entire song we
have a greater than David. David could not say, "The Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands
hath He recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have
not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before
me; and as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also
upright before Him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore
the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; according
to my cleanness in His eyesight." How different is this language from
that of the 51st psalm, on which we have already dwelt. There it is,
"Have mercy upon me, according to Thy loving kindness; according to
the multitude of Thy tender mercies." This was suitable language for a
fallen sinner, as David felt himself to be. He dare not speak of his
righteousness, which was as filthy rags; and as to his recompense, he
felt that the lake of fire was all that he could, in justice, claim,
on the ground of what he was.
Hence, therefore, the language of our chapter is the language of
Christ, who alone could use it.[23] He, blessed be His name, could
speak of His righteousness, His uprightness, and the cleanness of His
hands. And here we see the wondrous grace that shines in redemption.
The righteous One took the place of the guilty. "He hath made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." Here is the sinner's resting-place. Here he beholds
the spotless victim nailed to the accursed tree, _for him_; here he
beholds a full redemption flowing from the perfect work of the Lamb of
God; here, too, he may behold Jehovah interfering on behalf of his
glorious and gracious representative, and, as a consequence, on his
behalf; and that, moreover, on strictly righteous grounds. What deep
peace this gives to the sin-burdened heart! Deep, ineffable, divine
peace!
[23] In a subordinate or partial way, we may say it also applies to
David. Save that terrible fall, in the matter of Uriah, his life was
an exemplary one--walking in the love and fear of God all his days.
Though grossly and persistently wronged by Saul, never would David
touch his life because he was the anointed of Jehovah. 1 Kings xv. 4,
5 and 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 give us a divine estimate of his life. [Ed.]
David's song closes with a fine allusion to the glories of the latter
day, which imparts to it a character of completeness and enlarged
compass particularly edifying. "Strangers shall submit themselves unto
me." "I will give thanks unto Thee among the heathen," etc. Thus are
we conducted along a wondrous path, commencing at the cross, and
ending in the kingdom. The One who lay in the grave is to sit on the
throne; the hand that was pierced with the nail shall wield the
sceptre; and the brow that was dishonored with a crown of thorns shall
be wreathed with a diadem of glory. And never will the top-stone be
laid on the superstructure which redeeming love has begun to erect,
until the crucified Jesus of Nazareth shall ascend the throne of
David, and rule over the house of Jacob. Then shall the glories of
redemption be truly celebrated in heaven and on earth, because the
Redeemer shall be exalted and the redeemed rendered perfectly and
eternally happy.
In David's last words, as in the history of other servants of God, we
see how they all found in God their unfailing portion, and a sure
refuge. Thus was it with him whose history we have been dwelling upon.
Through his whole career, David had learned that divine grace _alone_
could meet his need; and, at the close, he gives full expression to
this. Whether we look at his "song," or his "last words," the great
prominent subject is one and the same, viz., the sufficiency of divine
grace.
However, David's last words derive point and energy from the knowledge
of God's requirements, in reference to the character of a ruler. "He
that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." This is
God's standard. Nothing less will do; and where amongst the ranks of
human rulers shall we find any to come up to it? We may travel down
the entire catalogue of those who have occupied the thrones of this
world, and not find so much as one who could answer to the great
characteristics set forth in the above comprehensive verse. He "must
be just," and "rule in the fear of God."
Psalm lxxxii. furnishes us with the divine challenge of all those who
have been set in places of authority. "God standeth in the
congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods." What does He
find? Justice and the fear of His name? Ah! no; far from it. "How long
will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked?" Such is
man. "They know not, neither _will_ they understand; they walk on in
darkness; all the foundations of the earth are out of course." What,
then is the resource in view of such a humiliating state of things?
"Arise, O God, judge the earth; for Thou shalt inherit all nations."
The Lord Jesus is here presented as the one alone competent to fill
the throne according to the thoughts of God, and the 72nd psalm gives
us a lovely sketch of what His government will be. "He shall judge Thy
people with righteousness, and Thy poor with judgment." "He shall
judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy,
and shall break in pieces the oppressor." "He shall come down like
rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth." In short,
the entire psalm must be read as a sample of the millennial kingdom of
the Son of Man, and the reader will perceive how entirely David's last
words harmonize with the spirit of it. "And He shall be as the light
of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as
the tender grass springeth out of the earth by clear shining after
rain." Truly refreshing and soul-reviving is this! And how does the
heart rejoice to turn away from the dark and dreary scene through
which we are passing, to contemplate a morning without clouds. The
"morning without a cloud" is not now. How could it be? How could a
fallen race, a groaning world, enjoy a cloudless sky? Impossible,
until the atoning efficacy of the Cross shall have been applied to
all, and the whole creation shall have entered into its full repose
beneath the shadow of Immanuel's wings. Bright and happy prospect!
But it has been remarked, that no human office-bearer ever came up to
the divine standard, as set forth in David's last words. David himself
felt this. "My house is not so with God." Such was his humble,
soul-subduing sense of what he was. We have already seen how fully,
how deeply, how unaffectedly, he entered into the vast distance
between what he was _personally_ and the divine requirement, when he
exclaimed, "_I_ was born in sin;" "_Thou_ desirest truth in the inward
parts." His experience was the same when he looked at himself
_officially_. "My house is not so with God." Neither as a _man_ nor as
a _king_ was he what he ought to be. And hence it was that grace was
so precious to his heart. He looked into the mirror of God's perfect
law, and saw therein his own deformity; he then turned round and
looked at God's "covenant, ordered in _all_ things and _sure_," and
here he rested with unquestioning simplicity. Though David's house was
not ordered in all things, yet God's covenant was, and David could
therefore say, "This is all my salvation, and all my desire." He had
learnt to look away from himself and his house straight to God, and
His everlasting covenant of grace. And, we may say, that just as his
apprehension of his own personal and official nothingness was deep and
real, would his sense of what grace had done for him be deep and real
also. The view of what God was had humbled him; the view of what God
was had lifted him up. It was his joy, as he traveled to the end of
all human things, to find his resting-place in the blessed covenant of
his God, in which he found embodied, and eternally secured, all his
salvation and all his desire.
How blessed it is, dear reader, to find thus our _all_ in God! not
merely to use Him as one who makes up our deficiency, but our all; to
use Him as one who supersedes every one and everything in our
estimation. This is what we want. God must be set above all, not
merely in reference to the forgiveness of sins but also in reference
to our every necessity. Many who trust God for salvation,
nevertheless, fail much in the minute details of life; and yet God is
glorified in being made the depositary of all our cares, and the
bearer of all our burdens. There is nothing too small as not to be
brought to Him, and nothing so small as not to be more than a match
for our capacity, did we but enter into the sense of our nothingness.
* * * * *
But we find another element in this 23d chapter, an element, too,
which might seem introduced rather abruptly: I allude to the record
of David's mighty men. This has been already alluded to; but it is
interesting to notice it in connection with God's covenant.
There were two things to cheer and comfort David's heart, viz., the
faithfulness of God, and the devotedness of his servants.[24] And, in
looking at the close of Paul's course, we find that he had the same
springs of comfort and encouragement. In the second epistle to
Timothy, he glances at the condition of things around him; he sees the
"great house," which assuredly was "not so with God" as He required
it; he sees all that were in Asia turned away from him; he sees
Hymeneus and Philetus teaching false doctrine, and overturning the
faith of some; he sees Alexander the coppersmith doing much mischief;
he sees many with itching ears, heaping to themselves teachers, and
turning away from the truth to fables; he sees the perilous times
setting in with fearful rapidity: in a word, he sees the whole fabric,
humanly speaking, going to pieces; but he, like David, rested in the
assurance that "the foundation of God standeth sure," and he was also
cheered by the individual devotedness of some who, like mighty men,
through the grace of God were standing faithful amid the wreck. He
remembered the faith of a Timothy, the love of an Onesiphorus; and,
moreover, he was cheered by the fact that in darkest times there would
be a company of faithful ones who would call on the Lord out of a pure
heart. These latter he exhorts Timothy to follow, having purged
himself from the dishonorable vessels of the great house.
[24] May not this review of David's worthies and companions in
tribulation set forth, or at least remind us, of that time when our
Lord shall review with us our path with Him down here? A similar
thought seems to be brought before us in Romans xvi., in the apostle's
salutations. [Ed.]
Thus was it with David. He could count his worthies, and record their
deeds. Though his own house was not what it ought to be, and though
"the sons of Belial" were around him, yet he could speak of an Adino,
a Dodo, and a Shammah, men who had hazarded their lives for him, and
had signalized their names by deeds of prowess against the
uncircumcised.
Thank God, He will never leave Himself without a witness; He will
always have a people devoted to His cause in the world. Did we not
know and believe this, at a time like the present our hearts might
indeed sink within us. A few years have wrought a mighty change in the
sphere of action of many Christians. Things are not as they once were
amongst us, and we may with truth say, "Our house is not so with God."
Many of us have, it may be, been disappointed; we looked for much,
and, alas, it has come to little--oh, how little! We have found that
we were just like others, or, if we differed in aught, it was in our
making a higher profession, and, as a consequence, incurring higher
responsibilities, and exhibiting greater inconsistencies. We thought
we were somewhat, but we grievously erred, and are now learning our
error. The Lord grant that we may learn it rightly, learn it
thoroughly--in the dust, in His presence, that we may lift our heads
proudly no more, but walk in the abiding sense of our own emptiness.
The Lord's address to Laodicea must be remembered, and we may ponder
it with profit.
If our past experience leads us to cling more simply to Jesus, we
shall have reason to bless the Lord for it all; and, as it is, we
cannot but feel it to be a special mercy to be delivered from every
false ground of confidence. If we were seeking to build up a system,
it is well to be delivered from its influence and to be brought to
adhere simply to the Word and Spirit of God, which are the appointed
companions of the Church's path through the wilderness.
Nor are we, either, void of the sweet encouragement to be derived from
the devotedness of one or another here and there. There are many who
are proving their affection for the person of Christ, and the high
estimation in which they hold the doctrine of the Church. This is a
great mercy. The enemy, though he has done much mischief, has it not
all his own way. There are those who are ready to spend their strength
and energy in the defence of the gospel. May the Lord add to their
number,--may He also add to the vigor of their testimony; and,
finally, may He make us increasingly thankful for His grace in having
set before us, in His Word, the true position and path of His
servants, and those principles which can alone sustain us in the
midst of strife and confusion.
David had thought to do much in his day, and was sincere in the
thought; but he had to learn that the will of God concerning him was
that he should "serve his generation." We, too, must learn this--we
must learn that a humble mind, a devoted heart, a tender conscience,
an honest purpose, are far more precious in the sight of God than mere
outward services, however showy and attractive. "To obey is better
than sacrifice; and to harken than the fat of rams." Salutary words,
these, for a day of religiousness, like the present, wherein divine
principle is so loosely held.
The Lord keep us faithful to the end, so that whether like those who
have gone before us, we fall asleep in Jesus, or be caught up to meet
Him in the air, we "may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and
blameless." Meanwhile, let us rejoice in the apostle's word to his son
Timothy--"The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The
Lord knoweth them that are His;" and, "Let every one that nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity."
* * * * *
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
except in obvious cases of typographical error.
The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
transcriber and is placed in the public domain.