Series: Praying on Purpose
Week 3: Shield Me
The key to David’s strength and greatness was that he allowed the Lord to be his strength. 2 Samuel 22:33-36.
2 Samuel 22: 3 Lessons Learned from David:
Lesson #1 –God is My Shield, My Rock, and My Deliverer (2 Samuel 22:1-4, 47, 50)
David praises the God of his deliverance.
David experienced the LORD’s deliverance:
- God delivered David from Goliath.
- God delivered David from Saul.
- God delivered David from Israel’s enemies.
- God delivered David from Absalom.
- God delivered David from David’s own sinful passions.
Faith does not completely depend on knowledge, but the right knowledge of God gives great strength to faith.
Lesson #2 –God Defends with Truth & Restores with His Peace (2 Samuel 22:7-8, 30-31)
The enemy of our souls wants us to believe that we can’t call upon the LORD in our distress. David knew that God hears our distress signals.
David knew the principle of Ephesians 6:10. God has a resource of power (His might) that He makes available to us by faith. We don’t have to be strong in our might, but we can be strong in His might.
God is sovereign over all affairs. He sweeps even my mistakes, my disappointments, my difficulties, my regrets into the unfolding drama of his purposes.
Lesson #3 – God Shows the Way to Live a Life that Honors Him (2 Samuel 22:21-23, 28-29)
David simply believed what Nathan told him in 2 Samuel 12:13. David knew he was forgiven, & that the cleanness of his hands was because God cleansed them, not because they had never been dirtied.
We can come to God in prayer with the same claim, but not on the basis of our own righteousness, but the righteousness we have received in Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
David proclaims his confidence in the principle repeated in Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, & 1 Peter 5:5: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Great strength and skill don’t help much at all if we can’t see in the midst of the struggle.
Takeaway Truth – Shield Me and Show Me How to Live for You
