Claim What Is Yours
“The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
23 For all his rules were before me,
and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
24 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
25 And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in his sight.26 “With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
27 with the purified you deal purely,
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
28 You save a humble people,
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
29 For you are my lamp, O Lord,
and my God lightens my darkness.2 Samuel 22:21-29
Who is King David speaking about? Himself? Hardly…
…but wait…maybe…just maybe….
Nah…
Couldn’t be….
I mean, how could David claim– how could any of us claim:
For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. 24 I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. 25 And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. 26 “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless…
Like us, David would have to expect instead that:
27 …with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous… your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down….
Am I right?
So, who is he really speaking about here?
Jesus, of course.
Okay, but did David know of whom He was speaking? Did he know that he was not speaking about himself, his church … or any future person in the church….like us?
I mean… how could he dare…how could any of us dare to speak this way…as if it is about…or applies to any of us…?
To even think this way… never mind utter these words without qualification… without saying first that this was not about him… or about you and me… would be lying first …and blasphemous second!
Simply we can’t. There is no way in hell or on earth…never mind in heaven, that we could say…could think….could ever think…we had the slightest inking that we could use these words…that we could say these words truthfully about any human being on earth…ever.
We dare not!
Unless first, He…that is God… speaks this about us.
For Kind David, through Nathan, God’s Prophet–that preacher who dared enter the king’s court to show the king his sin…
Oh, his many and damnable sins…
There were… the worst kind too…
By the Word of God’s Law…David was exposed… as he truly was—a despicable… an evil… …man!
Those painful and cutting Words…those uncovering Words…those Words that bring shame and wrath…and then death…
And so…no, these first words from God are not even close to what David is daring to say in our text…
But that was not the end of what the Prophet was sent to say, was it?
God does not stop there. God does not want to stop there. God did not send His Son to make sure it stopped there…no…
Even though Jesus was (and check this out for yourselves… despite what people claim!) harder on us than Moses…
Even though He pointed not just to what we did with hands and mouths…no, he opened the heart and mind…and revealed all the sin that goes on in there…even what is hidden from everyone else…
But Jesus does not allow it to stop there. He won’t leave us in a heap, bleeding to death…from the blows of the Hammer of His Law…
Jesus did not do all that He did …just to drive the Law deeper…to bring more guilt and wrath than was already opening us up … grinding us down…killing us…yes…to death and hell…
No, listen to King David’s Words in light of Jesus’ time on earth. His Father dealt with Him:
… “according to [His] righteousness; according to the cleanness of [His] hands he rewarded [Him]. 22 For [He has] kept the ways of the Lord and [has] not wickedly departed from [His] God. 23 For all his rules were before [Him], and from his statutes [He] did not turn aside. 24 [He] was blameless before him, and [He] kept [Himself] from guilt. 25 And the Lord has rewarded [Him] according to [His] righteousness, according to [His] cleanness in his sight.”
Jesus brought about His own Righteousness…and the reward and fruit He created here on earth was for us….
For us to have. This is what He gave to King David though Nathan the Prophet.
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” [2 Samuel 12:13].
David stood righteous and blameless before God by these very Words of the Gospel.
That is why David can now speak such Words about himself. Because they are true. They are true because they are true about Jesus.
Because they are true about Jesus, they are also true about us…all who believe and trust in the Son of God can also, like David, be called sons of God…
Listen to St. John tell us just that:
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…[John 1:12][ESV]
Born, John continues, not by the will or works of man, but by the Word of God–born from above…
By His—God’s… Jesus’ doing. By calling the unrighteous, righteous…for the sake of Jesus’ righteousness and work.
All because the Son Himself…God Himself, as promised…and accomplished… for David almost 600 year later… and for us 2,000 years ago…
Jesus paid for David’s sins and our sins on the Cross.
That is what we have. That is what we wear. That is what we show God the Father. That is what God the Father sees…not our weakness…not our death ridden bodies from all our sin…and sinfulness…
But Jesus—Jesus’ perfection and sinlessness. All that David says in our text applies now to Him and to us, according to God’s own Word of the Gospel.
Which is the only… and my only “lamp, O Lord,” in life…”and my God”…my savior it is who “lightens my darkness.” until we are at home in His perpetual light.
So yes, confess your sins, hear God’s forgiveness in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…
For Christ’s sake….
Yes, dare say these Words…Yes…use these VERY WORDS of king David…as if they are true and about you.
Because they are…because God says them…and says they are about David…says they are about you and about me.
Amen.
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