Worship in Exile

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

It became increasingly clear that it was not so much a message about when or how to sing praise to God as a Prescriptive message but more it was descriptive of God of David’s situational worship Nevertheless, I did find it immensely instructive I still do and it has in fact informed my personal worship these 13 years since Tonight that I’m revisiting because that I may I preached that in two sermons I’m revisiting the first two sermons that I ever taught. It’s not like I taught hundreds and hundreds. I couldn’t tell you what the third, fourth, fifth, or fiftieth were, but I can tell you what one and two were. And as I mentioned before, as I make a contribution to this Brown Paper Passages series, this is one of my very favorite passages of scripture.

And I don’t think that it’s just because of sentimental reasons. Oh, it was the first message that I taught. How sweet. It’s none of that, but that over through the course of that study, God used this passage to inform my worship and turn David into one of my heroes. So I do still find it immensely instructive, as I mentioned. And I also have had opportunity to be in, for the more on than off, for the course of those 13 years, in a position where I had opportunity to lead others in worship. So as I’ve been instructed by it, It has informed then how I lead others, and then others have had opportunity to be impacted by, well, whether it’s good or bad, whether they knew it or not.

But like I said, it did make David one of my heroes, though of course, as we know and as we’ll study, he wasn’t perfect. As I also mentioned, I preached this message in two parts, and the first time I spent a whole lot of time hopping around the story of David. by actually turning to those passages to help instruct the study of the Psalm. And I have ruthlessly edited those initial notes and condense the message into one that is much shorter, into one that’s much shorter. Wherein, I’m going to be assuming that you actually know a whole lot about David already. That you know a whole bunch of the stories surrounding the Psalm, which I’ll help you with what that is.

But we will still do some venturing beyond Psalm 61 in order to understand what inspired this song of worship. In 2003 I figured that if I were going to rightly understand Psalm 61 that I needed to understand, particularly verse 8 which talks about worship and song, then I was going to need to understand the first seven verses that preceded it. And in order to understand those seven verses and then subsequently verse 8, I was going to need to understand the context of the Psalm. Now Don’t get me wrong, this Psalm does stand on its own as a helpful Psalm. It does. And even if it turns out that all the commentators who widely agree as to its setting are wrong, it still has merit in its own right as a great Psalm.

But, as I mentioned, there’s wide agreement as to where and when it took place. So we’re going to spend some time trying to understand that. And you can join me by turning to 2 Samuel chapter 12. Good. And feel free to turn there. And while you’re turning there, and while I’m turning there, we can get a running start at it as I give some additional pieces of context. You may remember the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel chapter 7, where God promised that David would have a descendant on the throne of Israel forever. And then you may remember that it was four short chapters later that David infamously committed adultery with Bathsheba.

It was the time of year when kings go out to war, except this king stayed home and got himself in trouble. And then also had one of his mighty men, Uriah the Hittite, murdered her husband in order to then take her as his wife. Then in 2 Samuel chapter 12, where we are at the moment, Nathan the prophet confronted David about his sin. If you do the math, it had to have been about a year after he had committed the act of adultery with Bathsheba, because the baby was born and his life was in jeopardy. So what a dark series of months that must have been for our hero, David. And in order to, this is also a fantastic testament for the value of fiction, there’s no doubt that there was a series of months where David’s trusted advisors, many godly men, were probably telling him, hey man, you’re being an idiot.

Don’t you realize what you have done? And that didn’t get through to him. This is reading in the white space this year, But what did get through to him was a story that Nathan, the prophet, told. We’re not going to take time to read it now, but you can on your own. It starts in verse 1 and goes through verse 6. And he paints the story of a particular man who is villainous. And David says in response, I guess I will back up to partway through verse 6. As the Lord lives, the man who has done this thing deserves to die. And he shall restore the lamb for full because he did this thing. And because he had no pity. Nathan then, without skipping a beat, says to David, you are the man.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You’ve struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword, and here’s where the punishment comes in. So we’re going to read about verse 10.

Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. And he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord has also put away your sin. You shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed, you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.

Then Nathan went to his house. Now, we could go on just looking that some of the shocking parts of just this narrow passage of scripture by itself, just this long paragraph, what strikes me as David’s response, not the slightest hint of defensiveness. He knows he’s nailed to the wall. You get the impression the Spirit’s been working on him and making him absolutely miserable over a series of months. And when he was confronted, he had nothing to say in defense, nothing. And then, but five chapters earlier, God had made a covenant with him, had made promises to David that he had no intention of breaking. So you know what happens immediately.

Next, the story of the child does in fact die. You can read the big bold heading in your Bible to see that much. And so on. All that happens from the next verse, the death of that baby, through the death of of another of David’s sons, namely Absalom, is the direct consequence of David’s sin with Bathsheba. His psalm then, this psalm that we’re going to read, Psalm 61, has bitter echoes of regret tinged with a humbled awareness that it was all preventable. David’s son Absalom, who I mentioned, David loved him very, very much. And when Absalom did, in fact, die, David was devastated. Absalom held the position of authority in Israel and gained the favor of the people of Israel.

He became greedy of the people’s favor and wanted more and more of it. Consequently, he plotted to dethrone David. And when word of this came to David, he fled for his life to the wilderness of May and Am.” Flip over to chapter 15, 2 Samuel 15, and look down at verse 12. “‘While Absalom was offering the sacrifice, he sent for Ahithophel, the Gilonite, David’s counselor from his city, Gilo, and the conspiracy that is a conspiracy to overthrow David grew strong and the people with Absalom kept increasing. And a messenger came to David saying, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom. Then David said to all his servants who are with him in Jerusalem, Arise, let us flee or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword. And the king’s servants said to the king, Behold your servants are ready to do whatever my Lord the King decides.”

And so the King went out and all his household after him. And the King left 10 concubines to keep the house. I’ll just finish the paragraph. And the King went out and all the people after him and they halted at the last house. And there’s so much that I’m not giving here, but I’m just trying to give you some of the high points, the most important points, but there’s a lot more to this. How Absalom actually came to power and influence is worth looking at. The house that he stopped at is worth looking at. But on his way out of town, Shemai the Benjamite and the other family of Saul curses David and says, you deserve this while David had…

You can make the case at that point. He certainly wasn’t guilty of all that Shemai was saying, but he’s saying, you usurped Saul’s throne. And of course, if you know the story of David at all, you know that that is actually not the case at all. dug in his heels and refused to raise his finger against the Lord’s anointed even after he had been anointed the next king of Israel.” And then it’s worth noting that when he’s on his way back from Jerusalem, this man comes groveling before David, begging for mercy and forgiveness. And then fast forward to chapter 17, and go ahead and turn there. Chapter 17, so David is in exile, fleeing from his son Absalom, forsake of his life and forsake of the whole city not being literally destroyed in the battle that would inevitably ensue.

I mean, it is shocking. David had some serious pitfalls as a parent. Jim and Sean might not be using David as an example, too many positive examples in the parenting seminar, but that actually is kind of a theme throughout scripture, really godly men having really ungodly sons, which is sad. They are, I would say, the exception rather than the rule. That’s worth noting as well. But in exile, it gets about 45 miles away to Mayanam. Chapter 17, verse 27, last paragraph, when David came to Mayanam, Shobi, the son of Nahash, from Raba of the Ammonites, and Maker, the son of Amuel, from Lodabar. And Barzli, the Gileadite, from Rojaleem, brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley flower, parts, grain, beans, and lentils.

Honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd. For David and the people with him to eat those things. For they said, the people are hungry and thirsty in the wilderness. So in exile, David and his men found some friends and they were treated kindly. Now, this is it. This is the context. This is widely agreed to be the spot where David penned Psalm 61. Was from May and Am while he was in exile, while he had fled from his own son. Now you can turn over to Psalm 61, we’re going to read it. I do have an obnoxiously detailed outline I’m not gonna share with you. It’s got a whole bunch of sub points and you may hear a few of them slip out throughout the course of the message.

But for our purposes, I want you to hang your hats on two, or hang your thoughts on two big hooks. Verses one through four are going to be the exiled king and verses five through eight, the expectant king. And that represents then the major break in the Psalm, the natural break, verses 1 through 4, verses 5 through 8. So we’re going to start with the exile king after we read Psalm 61. So now with all of that, by way of background and context, read with me Psalm 61. Hear my cry, O God. Listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.

Let me dwell in your tent forever. Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings. For you, O God, have heard my vows. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Prolong the life of the king. May his years endure to all generations. May he be enthroned forever before God. Appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to a watch over him. So I will sing praises to your name as I perform my vows day after day.” Very good. So let’s get right into it. The first portion, the exiled king. We see first David’s trust in God’s faithfulness, where he says, hear my cry, oh God, listen to my prayer. Even this opening line, when considering the context, oozes desperation.

And given the context, that ought not to come as very much surprise. Christians today tend to wonder why It is that God brings trials into our lives when it is those very trials that incline us Godward. If God’s people cry out to Him most and depend on Him most in times of difficulty, then we really ought not to be surprised when the times of difficulty come. In this situation, God had an opportunity to glorify Himself in the outcome, and He did in fact do so. But it would inevitably bring pain to David no matter how God answered it. If David were to be able to restore to the throne, there’s almost no way that Absalom could survive.

It couldn’t happen. If Absalom lived, David would most likely spend out his days in exile. And those days would likely be short because he would eventually be hunted down and killed. But for us, I mean, it’s blasphemous to talk this way, but if I were God and my people would cry out to me when things were hard and they would tend to ignore me or become independent when I was showering blessings on them. That’s a pretty simple formula. And we can tend to think that when those hard times come, it is always inevitably because we’ve done something wrong. Maybe you have. Maybe. Or maybe God is just wanting to incline your heart to Him.

But what did David do when he was uncertain as to what he wanted? He prayed. I get the sense that he didn’t actually know what specifically to ask for. He did later on pray, as we read, to be restored to the throne, but he certainly didn’t want for Absalom to have to die. He prayed for God to protect and direct. David trusted in the faithfulness of God when he could rely on no one else. We also see in the second verse trials that show God’s faithfulness. From the end of the earth I call to you. From the end of the earth I call to you. David experienced no doubt of a variety of lifetimes, sorry, lots of lifetimes in his lifetime, lots of trials in his lifetime.

And they’re all well-documented, right? At least most of them. Even those in light of the immediate context shed, I think, really helpful light on this study, but he and his household were exiled from Jerusalem. And that was a sad moment for all of Israel. While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people passed over. That’s 2 Samuel 25, 23. The center of the Jewish world was Jerusalem. That was where the ark rested. God dwelt there in the Old Testament. And actually, David was driven from the presence of the ark. And he felt like he was at the end of the earth calling to God. So he was in Mannam about 45 miles away.

That’s two to three days journey for those of you who don’t have your own cars. But if you’re actually marching with an entourage of people, you’re looking at two to three days away, northeast of Jerusalem. He felt as though he were far, far away from the dwelling place of God on earth, because, well, he was. Being a man-am, he didn’t enjoy the physical closeness, the proximity to the actual dwelling place of God, that he enjoyed while he was on the throne in Jerusalem. So David’s speaking figuratively here, But he figured that he might as well be a billion miles away, as in man am, since he couldn’t enjoy closeness to God anyway.

It’d be like maybe one of us having to spend a night in Granite Falls or something. You’re like away from the center of closeness or home, unless, of course, you’re at the boar farm. When my heart is faint, well, why might David’s heart have been faint? You don’t need to do an extensive word on what faint means, his heart was faint. David’s own son, consider this, parents, if your own son wanted to kill you, might your heart be faint? And that doesn’t diminish your love for your son. He’d been exiled from Jerusalem. If it weren’t bad enough that his son wanted to kill him, he’d been exiled from Jerusalem and from his throne. And though Though it’s never God’s design, polygamy, he also had multiple wives and he had 10 concubines that stayed behind to keep the house.

And in fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy to David, Absalom raped those concubines on the rooftop of the palace to show his disdain for his father. You did this thing in private. I’m going to do this before the sun in the view of all of Israel. Might David’s heart have been faint? And then, of course, there’s the nagging awareness that it’s ultimately his fault. All of this was punishment for David’s sin, corrective. God had told him through the prophet Nathan that it would happen. Now, this is a hard lesson. But when we realize who we are and what we are for, it actually does help to align our perspectives. There’s no doubt that this happened, as it did, in order to communicate to David from God that he was in control the whole time.

The circumstances were unfolding precisely as Nathan the prophet had said that they would. And while it demonstrates that there is, in fact, consequence for sin, God’s fulfilling His promise is also a demonstration of His faithfulness. He is, bottom line, faithful to do what He says He will do. And what does David request then in light of that? Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Through the course of David’s various trials, God had remained on the throne. David was confident of this, and his sovereign character had not changed. David’s prayer reflects that he understands this. Notice the difference between David saying, “‘I am going to the rock that is higher than I,’” versus, “‘Lead me.‘” David is in need of refuge that he knows he cannot provide for himself.

He’s in pursuit of a place of refuge in the midst of these trials. The nooks and crannies of the rocks of Man-Am had served as a refuge for him. And there’s no doubt, by now, he was pretty familiar with them. He wanted the ultimate refuge, however, that only God could lead him to. David cries out because he can’t get to that refuge of rock on his own. He can’t find it. He needs God’s intervention. And now David wasn’t sitting on his hands. It’s worth noting that he wasn’t sitting on his hands asking God to lead him. I mean, that’s kind of silly. Rather, and similarly, likewise, when you trust in God’s sovereign direction, that actually motivates you to move.

You also have to know then that you are responsible to act. David recognizes that he is now completely at the mercy, sovereignty of God. God must lead him, or he will never get there. Surely, he had come to a point where he knew that he needed refuge and protection. That much is not hard to see, but also that he was incapable of getting there himself. He was incapable of protecting himself. He was struggling for refuge in the wilderness, but the more he struggled, the more he realized that it was useless to try to get there on his own. And so he begged God. So in all these things, David became more and more aware of God’s sovereignty and of his faithfulness, even when he exercised this punishment, this corrective judgment on David.

We have to use those words with care and qualifying, because this is not to say that David was finally judged for his sin. We believe that was nailed to the cross, and the same thing with Christians. And yet there are natural consequences for sin. And it doesn’t mean your sin is not taken away ultimately, but it does mean that there is consequence for it. And David was faced with that startling reality. As I mentioned, God was not only faithful to carry out the punishment for his that is just as demanded, He had also proven faithful to protect David, his beloved, in the past. And that was a source of true hope for David.

We also see in verse 3 truths of God’s faithfulness. You have been a refuge for me, says David, a strong tower against the enemy. Again, we could go off studying, and I actually did last time. I spent a lot of time talking about what a tower is. A tower, it’s a tall thing, right? And from a tower, you have a strategic advantage and you are protected. So in scripture, a tower most times looks a lot like a tower. You probably know what a tower is, but David had been that source of refuge and a tower of strength against the enemy. And it’s on the grounds of God’s character and faithfulness that David dares to make this request for refuge.

He says, you have already been. So don’t miss this. He is referencing God’s past and his track record. You have already been a refuge for me, God, so I know I can call on you. You alone are capable of saving me anyway, so in a sense, what choice do I have? When David had sinned in the past, God had been gracious to remove that sin from him and to restore him. We see in verse 4, triumph of God’s faithfulness. Let me dwell in your tent forever. He’s longing for that intimacy, that fellowship. Let me cohabitate with you, Lord, on the heels of this treatise of God’s faithfulness and how he is continually protected and blessed David, well, then David utters still another request.

He asks to abide, to fellowship, to spend time with, to tabernacle with God forever. This is obviously not a request for his earthly body to be preserved forever, but rather that he would be able to spend eternity in the courts of the faithful father he served. However, there’s no doubt that he is asking to be rescued, and you would too. His request was, in fact, to be restored to his throne, but of course, far more than that. He wanted to dwell closely with God to enjoy sweet intimacy with his rescuer. His plea was one for closeness, both in proximity and relationship. He knows God’s lover is chosen and his faithfulness to preserve them.

He knows that he has not, I said, that he has been chosen by God. And he considers this far more valuable than any throne. He pleases for restoration to the throne, but it’s more a restoration to closeness. Let me take shelter. Can they take refuge under the shelter of your wings? Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings, the second half of verse four. As he triumphs in God’s faithfulness, David is making a plea for comfort. So that comfort can only come in protection in the same way that a baby sleeps sweet sleep when he is loved. Yes, as a tongue twister. And the illustration becomes clear as David continues to plead for intimacy with God.

Well, the picture here is of a mother bird protecting her chicks from the elements and the predators by spreading her wings over them. Of course, it breaks down when we think about God protecting because really wings with feathers on them don’t provide that much protection. They just keep what is protected out of sight from any of the bad guys. But of course when we’re talking about being sheltered under God’s wings, there’s tremendous protection there. David is begging for such protection from the Lord. It does take us to our second point in verses 5 through 8, the expectant king. The expectant king. We see in verse 5 the declaration of God’s faithfulness.

For you, O God, have heard my vows. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Vows are not unfamiliar with us today. So the things that people love to break, we know what they are and as often as not we’re distressed to see that they don’t actually carry a whole lot of weight in our culture. We’re accustom to hearing vows as something that are just like rules waiting to be broken. But we do understand what a vow is intended to be and of course a common example are marriage vows. We see those.

Those are those are vows that are written carefully that are taken seriously They are taken in the presence of witnesses to whom the the ones making the vows are accountable a Man will make a vow before the bride’s parents before the church before God himself That’s high about high accountability and David says you’ve heard my vows The sense here in this word vows is that these are in fact prayers and of course we talking to the Lord that would make sense as well. Not only is he saying that God’s faithful to listen, but he is declaring his own accountability to fulfill his vows with God as his witness. In Scripture, Vines says the vows are always made to God, always made voluntarily, and they must be kept. They can’t be annulled. Well, David understood that as well. And as such, he was calling for a greater Here accountability still.

People wolves in a sort of cavalier fashion called God as their witness today. Well David really meant it. His declaration was one that God not only perceived his prayer but that he also privileged David with the heritage of those who fear his name. Other translations of this render it inheritance. So what’s David’s take away from the Lord? What does he take from the Lord? perceived David’s prayer was attentive to it and he heard it and how did David know? Because of what he had given him, because of what his heritage was. You’ve given me the heritage of those who fear your name. That’s easily contrasted with those who don’t fear your name.

People fall into one of two categories, believers and unbelievers. Those who love the Lord and those who don’t. Those who love the Lord have a particular heritage, a particular inheritance with Christ and those who don’t have also an equally distinct and different heritage or inheritance. And David was saying, what you have given me is evidence that you have heard my prayers, that you have chosen me. In a society where it was not uncommon for children of the same household to receive different blessings, Allah, Jacob and Esau, or many of Jacob’s sons, firstborn didn’t get the greatest, Reuben as you’ll recall. This is a blessing for David himself.

You’ve given me the inheritance of those who fear your name. For instance, illegitimate sons or concubines in this culture would be portioned off with presents. Hagar and Ishmael, they got some stuff, but they didn’t get what Isaac got. They would receive a completely different inheritance from legitimate sons. David was grateful for his inheritance as being the good kind. He recognized that God had allowed for the distribution of different inheritances judgment and blessing. And there were, just as there were illegitimate and legitimate sons, so there were two different types of people, two different types of blessings, and we see which one David got.

It’s also worth noting that the notion of an inheritance of this heritage carries with it a sense of permanence as well. And they understood, for example, that God had promised the land of Canaan, and it And it was just a matter of time before he made good on that promise. Likewise, I suspect that David used this word carefully with his understanding of God’s immutability in mind, knowing that his salvation was secure. In verses 6 and 7, we have the demonstration of God’s faithfulness where it says, “…prolong…” This is David speaking, “…prolong the life of the King. May his years endure to all generations.

May he be enthroned forever before God, appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him.” Now, he suddenly shifts here to the third person, and I mean, does he do this for effect? Some say he does it for effect. And there is a sense in which this is a Messianic Psalm. There’s a sense in which this is prophetic, because it is in fact true that according to that a fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, God would keep Christ on the throne forever. But it does seem, so there is maybe an immediate and a longer application. And in the immediate context, even though he’s in the third person, he’s asking for a rescue.

He’s asking to actually have his life prolonged. It’s not really that crazy complicated. Prolong the life of the king. So can he be talking about himself? Yes. He’s confident in his faithful Savior and asked already to dwell in his tent forever. But dwelling forever in God’s tent was not fulfilled in David’s lifetime. So that’s also true as well. This is a cry from David for God to prolong the king’s life. Look at verse 7, I love this. The second half. Now I’ll read all of verse 7. May he be enthroned before God, forever before God. Appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him. One of the sort of disappointing things from the first time I taught this was I spent a lot of time talking about steadfast love and faithfulness, and that’s great.

Loving kindness and truth, I think is what the New American Standard renders it, but I missed the verb there that David is asking God to set those two workers to a task. Steadfast love and faithfulness, that tandem is actually fairly common in David’s speech. We see it a few places in Psalm 25.10, in 2 Samuel 2.6, in 2 Samuel 15.20. Here in Psalm 61, and as I mentioned, it’s also rendered loving, kindness, and truth in other translations. David is asking the Lord to set steadfast love and faithfulness to work. Appoint them. He asked the Lord to appoint them to the task of preserving the king. So what are these two workers able to do for the king?

love can also be rendered grace, mercy, faithfulness, goodness, devotion. It is usually proactive in nature. People usually do or show or keep this steadfast love. When God is the subject of it, that applies particularly to the covenant, and that means a particular proactive love, mercy, and so on, particularly love that is reserved for His chosen people. David is calling to his aid then the promises of God, what God has said. The Lord’s covenant with David was given. Don’t miss this. We talked about it before in 2 Samuel 7, and by now we’re in chapter 17. Before David’s sin with Bathsheba, God had already made the promises to David and to his lineage.

knew the promises of God did not depend on men’s faithfulness, rather they depended upon God’s. And of course, God is consummately faithful. So he is asking God to appoint the security of the promises that God had given to help David. Isn’t that great? That’s a good thing that you can do. Appoint steadfastness, appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to to work for me. Faithfulness, it can be translated truth or rightness. And in all the above verses and in Psalm 61.7, David is asking for what is right and what is just. So here, in this context, David is asking for the preservation of the king. That is what is right.

From this context, it might be better translated mercy and rightness. But David is here calling to his aid what’s good and right. First he called to his aid, God said to the task of rescuing me what you have said, what you have promised that is rooted in your character. Now set to task on my behalf what is good and right. So when David asks God to appoint those things, we should give attention to it. David prayed that God would preserve the king with loving kindness and truth, with steadfast love and faithfulness. And why is this faithfulness at all? Why is this not God just doing David a favor? Hey, help me out.

You said I’m a man after your own heart. Would you just go ahead and bail me out of this mess I’ve gotten myself into? Well David recognizes that his request actually represents far more than that. This is more than David simply asking a favor, the God to be kind to him. calling God to make good on his own promises, to be true to what he has said. And to be sure, David’s prayer would in no way change God’s mind, but it would certainly benefit David to recall the character of God and what God had said. So fulfilling a promise and keeping vows is not, I mean, is that faithful or is that kind? Well, it’s faithful. Likewise, God had promised David. He had preserved Christ, really, go back to the Old Testament, the story of Joseph, like Christ had been preserved.

as a favor to himself, but as a member of the God who had sent him, and as one who is faithful to fulfill his promises. God had made promises to David that he was clearly keeping.” Again, already mentioned in chapter 7. Well then, what does this all require of us? And we get to verse 8, the demands of God’s faithfulness. So points backward. So I will ever sing praises to your name as I perform my vows day after Back in 2003 when I looked at that verse, I asked the question, what’s the so pointing to? And then down the rabbit trail of verses 1-7, which is helpful for understanding what David is getting at. What does God’s faithfulness in the lives of His people demand of us?

It demands our worship.

This is the clincher to the whole thing, like I said, and the reason why I chose this Psalm 13 years ago. While it’s a wonderful description of and lesson about God’s faithfulness, it’s David’s understanding of what our response should be to his faithfulness that sold me on it. So I will sing praises to your name. The coupling of David’s circumstances and the person of God drive David to worship. Cruddy circumstances, good God equals worship. Song was sung this morning behold our God sovereign and good that is one of my favorite adjectival tandems as the describing God in in all of theology scripture and beyond if God were sovereign and bad that’s terrifying if God were good without being sovereign then he’s impotent and he’s like us he is maybe be well-intentioned but unable to carry that out. But God is both sovereign and good. And the good news is that in Christ, He is for us. David got that. It doesn’t mean that David didn’t despair from time to time. You can read the Psalms where he is, crying out like in this. And yet, as often as not, he would come back around and give praise. In light

of God’s declared and demonstrated faithfulness, David worships. The Psalms, David’s, and others are full of what might appear on the surface to be presumptuous prayers. How long, oh Lord? How long? I’ve been watching my watch here while this guy defrauds the helpless and gets rich at their expense. You let this keep going? Any blasphemes you along the way. Or when are you going rescue your people like you said you would. And in almost every case, as you read the Psalms, you see that those psalmist, whether it’s David, Asaph, Son, Zechariah, they end those psalms with expressions of praise and gratitude. Why is that fitting? Because those dire circumstances don’t unseat the Lord. So it is perfectly acceptable for you to rehearse the promises of God in your prayers and pleas to God for Him to move and to rescue.

And if you’re going to do that, then you’d best know what they are. It is in God’s nature to be true to His word so you do well to know what He has said. That’ll come in handy when your son wants to kill you. That’ll come in handy when your heritage is in jeopardy.

David did not vow to praise God on the condition that God would uphold his end of the bargain. That part was never in question. Lord, if you do this, men today do this. Lord, if you do this, I will become a monk. Save me, Saint Anne. No, David rather worshiped God for who he was and who he is, and so should we. David said then, so I will sing praise to your name forever because the seven verses that precede this had talked about God’s character, not some bargain that he was bound to. This faithfulness is part of his very nature. It demands our praise. There are lots of other times where David committed to worship and praise God without looking beyond the first 10 Psalms.

We have a handful of them. Psalm 5, verse 7, he resolved to worship God. And it stands in contrast of the list of evil things that God hates that are listed in verses 4 through 6. So he praised God when he was noting God’s righteous loathing for evil. Chapter 7, Psalm 7, David pleased for protection from his enemies, as he did in Psalm 61, verse 2, and he resolves to commit to worship God. So David praised God when he was oppressed by his enemies. In Psalm 9, verses 1 and 2, David commits to praise God before offering thanks for his justice and his faithfulness, and delivering the righteous and the oppressed, in verse 9 of Psalm 9.

So David worships God. He praises God when he’s about to thank God for deliverance and for his justice, and the list goes on. What does this require of us? It requires our praise. But what are additional? Because as I wrap up, now I get to give other hooks you can hang your thoughts on. So whether these are necessarily the point of the passage or not, they’re actually things that are worth considering. Namely, when David was uncertain as to what he wanted, he prayed for God to protect and to direct. David was desperate, and he was even confused. If you know the rest of the story, he was restored to the throne and Absalom was killed by Joab, David’s general.

And when that happened, David was heartbroken. He was devastated so that the men came back to the city kind of embarrassed. Now Joab, a very interesting character and ungodly, did speak truth to David in that time and said, you’d rather we be dead than your son right now. Shame on you. So there was definitely a tension for David. His love for his son was not compromised, and yet his longing for the presence of God, his longing for God to make good on his promises, those things were all in place as well, and his desire to be with the rest of his family. So fittingly, he prayed for God to move, and we can do that too.

Have you ever been in a position where you actually didn’t know how to pray? If I go this way, that means this, and I don’t really want that, but if I pray this way, that means that, and I actually don’t want that either. But God, you know. And isn’t that freeing? Also, just because we experience the natural consequences of our sin, does not mean that the Lord remembers our sin. There’s a tension in Scripture. God had decided to let David live and to remove his sin from him in chapter 12. the King still needed to learn a lesson, and the people in the King’s charge needed to learn a lesson.

So additionally, consequences of the sins of individuals always affect more than just the individual. And the greater the influence of the sinner, the more wide-reaching the consequences of the sin. In this case, and David’s got a couple of pretty big ones, taking a census of the people of Israel, and as a consequence of that, 70,000 Hebrews died. In this case, there were soldiers that lost their lives in the middle of this conflict. The baby was taken by the Lord, the child of David and Bathsheba, and when you leave your cereal bowl out for somebody else to clean up in spite of what your moms told you to do, it’s not gonna go away by itself. There are consequences for your disobedience on the rest of the family. You leave that doll on the stairs and dad steps on it as he’s going down the stairs hypothetically. That sort of thing might happen in some other house. I didn’t have kids when I taught this in 2003, I’ll tell you. Additionally, when things are bleak, we need to know and rehearse the promises of God. David realized that God would have to work a

miracle in order for this to end well, and it did end well, but it also ended the death of Absalom. If God is sovereign and good, the right response to trials is worship. Loud praise to Christ our King. Hallelujah, Amen. And the bleaker, the trials, the darker the days, the louder and robust our worship ought to be. And boy, is that hard. It is staggering that this was David’s consequence. So, in light of my son wanting to kill me, I’m at the end of the earth right now and I’ve got these men with me who are faithful and meanwhile others whom I trusted and knew and loved are taking over my throne. So I’m going to sing really loud.

Then finally read the Psalms. Read them as stand alone worship songs and study them as journal entries of godly men with rich contexts. We’ll stop there. Let’s pray. Father, we are grateful for how you and your sovereign goodness unfold all of these things for your glory. We don’t always know what that’s going to look like, but we do know because your word has told us as much and because you have evidenced this in our lives that you are both sovereign and good. You were intimately involved in the details bringing about this calamity because you do that to demonstrate that you will do what you have said, also to demonstrate that you do not take sin lightly. And we are more and more grateful all the time for Christ our advocate and that we in Christ get what He deserves while He has taken what we earned at the cross. We pray that you would increase our appetite for your word so that we would have the promises to pray to you, to rehearse to our own minds, and to draw on when things are hard.

And by your grace may you be the lifter of our heads and enable us to sing loudly and optimistically even with tears in our eyes. We thank you and we pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.