Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20030209.htm

1 AND 2 SAMUEL: GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN OVERSIGHT
Part LXI: Learning From The Testimony Of A Veteran In Spiritual Leadership
(2 Samuel 22:1-51)
  1. Introduction
    1. One of the best lessons to learn on spiritual leadership is the lesson a seasoned leader himself has to offer as he looks back over his many experiences in oversight. In fact, it's best to get such an overview from a Biblical leader like David as we know his words are divinely inspired, cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
    2. After God had delivered him from all his enemies, David wrote a psalm in honor of the Lord, and in it revealed the cause for blessing he experienced in his oversight. We do well to heed it as follows:
  2. Learning From The Testimony Of A Veteran In Spiritual Leadership, 2 Samuel 22:1-51.
    1. In looking over David's life, we note he was initially fully blessed by the Lord in that David followed Him, but that he experienced great grief in committing adultery and murder regarding the matter with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. In other words, he had a mixed record, although it was mainly good.
    2. Well, David's life-summarizing psalm recorded in 2 Samuel 22:2-51, which is almost identical to the copy found of this psalm in Psalm 18, we note David credited his blessings to heeding SCRIPTURE:
      1. Verses 2-20 and 33-51 of 2 Samuel 22 praise the greatness, loyal love and goodness of God who delivered David from his enemies and raised him up to leadership over Israel and other Gentile nations:
        1. Revealing through rich imagery how God was his All-Sufficient Provider and Protector, David detailed his deliverance as an "underdog" from his enemies by God's help in 2 Samuel 22:2-20.
        2. Upon being thus delivered, David spoke of his enabling by God's grace to reverse his past experiences as oppressed by his enemies to dominate his foes, 2 Samuel 22:33-51.
      2. Couched between these sections, David revealed the reason for this leadership victory as follows:
        1. David clarified to the degree he was upright before God, the Lord had helped him, 2 Sam. 22:21-22
        2. The reason David was upright arose from David's keeping the ways of God so as to preserve the pathway of his life from perversion and avoid God's discipline, 2 Samuel 22:23-25.
        3. Thus, David drew a lesson from this experience: with those who are merciful, upright, pure and afflicted, God shows Himself merciful, upright, pure and saving, but with the perverse and haughty, God becomes astute and destructive (as when David had sinned with Bathsheba), 2 Sam. 22:26-28.
      3. To understand how a king in Israel would stay upright as opposed to becoming perverse and haughty, we view God's directives to a king like David in Deuteronomy 17:18-20 as follows:
        1. Israel's king was supposed to write for himself his own copy of the Law, Deut. 17:18.
        2. He was to keep that copy with him and read from it every day of his life, Deuteronomy 17:19a. In so doing, he would learn to respect the Lord and keep His laws, Deuteronomy 17:19b.
        3. The result of such an exposure to the Law would be as follows: (a) In place of pride, the king would view himself as an equal with his subjects in humility, Deut. 17:20a. (b) He would then not turn aside from God's commandments, avoiding a perverse life, Deut. 17:20b. (c) As a result, the king would prolong his reign for the welfare of himself, his family and nation, Deut. 17:20c,d.
      4. Aware of the implications of the Deuteronomy 17:20 promises of God, and how they had been played out in his own experience as king with mixed results for mixed levels of obedience, David closed his life-summarizing psalm with the hope God would "show mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed forever," 2 Samuel 22:51.
Lesson: David's testimony reveals that, to the DEGREE he DAILY paid HEED to God's WRITTEN WORD did he enjoy deliverance from the pride and perverse living which would bring God's astute and destructive discipline. Indeed, heeding Scripture led him to respect God, to remain humble and stay completely true to the Lord and His ways with blessing on himself, his family and the nation of Israel.

Application: Take it from David's LIFELONG testimony -- we who oversee others in marriage, family, church, business or governmental roles MUST pay CONSTANT heed to God's WRITTEN WORD for the proper VIEW of ourselves, others and God, let alone to HEED that Word EXACTLY if we would be blessed of God on those oversight roles! (cf. 1 Timothy 4:13-16 with Deuteronomy 17:18-20)