Twitter
RSS
Facebook
ClickBank1

11-19-13. 2 Samuel 22:21-30. YOU ARE MY LAMP, O LORD – my devotional

11-19-13. 2 Samuel 22:21-30. YOU ARE MY LAMP, O LORD – my devotional

lamp of the lord

2 Samuel 22:21-30

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Key Verse: 22:29                                                                                 Kevin E. Jesmer
For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness.” (ESV)

    Dear Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you for saving me from negative, pessimistic thoughts and attitudes. Without you and your Gospel I would fall into thinking about the negative aspects of life. But you keep me hopeful, positive and bright. You help me to see your glory and acts of love and kindness in this world. Truly you are the light of the world and whoever follows you will never walk in darkness but have the light of life. May the people of our land perceive everything in light of the Gospel.  May they walk in the light and reflect your wonderful light to others. I come now, to receive your word in my heart. Teach me your ways O’ Lord. I pray in Jesus’ mighty and holy name. Amen!

Part 1: “I Have Not Turned Away From His Decrees” (21-25).

2 Samuel 22: 21-25 reads, “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.” (ESV)

From a young age David set his life toward God. He meant to keep the ways of the Lord and live according to the word of God, trusting that the Lord was faithful to his promises and would credit him with righteousness. When we read this, in this New Testament age, we think that David was sounding a little self righteous with this “According to my righteousness”. “according to the cleanness of my hands”. King David was a great man, but he did sin. And some of sins were ubber serious. But I realize that he can say these things because he received the forgiveness of sins from God. He received the grace of God and that is how he can be declared righteous in the sight of God and that is how he can say that is hands are clean. He could have confidence that he is blameless from God’s point of view and that he has fulfilled all of the law’s demands, only because of God’s grace. David knew this salvation, this justification apart from works. Romans 4:6-9 reads, “just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (ESV)  It was not something new to King David. Abraham himself was considered righteous by believing, before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:1-12)

As King David could have sought many different kinds of rewards, but for him the greatest reward was being found righteous in God’s sight. Look at verse 25, “And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.”  What was God’s reward? God’s reward for King David was that he was delivered from the hand of his enemies and that his kingdom was established and upheld. He received the love and forgiveness and the peace of God in his heart. He also knew that his body would not see decay and that he would not be abandoned to the grave, but would experience resurrection and eternal life in the kingdom of God with God, forever. This is the greatest reward and it is given to us, not because of our works, but because of the pure grace of God.

Holding onto the grace of God and knowing that we are justified by the grace of God alone is an imperative. We can not live without it. Over the last few decades of Christian living I knew this and I held onto the grace of God. But there was another part of my heart that held onto salvation by works. I was the type of Christian who quietly and privately held onto legalism while talking about grace. But the effect of this on my life could not be ignored. I felt “right” and accepted by God and my peers if I was always engaged in mission, always doing something positive and related to my mission and calling in my life. If I deviated, even a little, or took some rest, there would be feelings of failure, guilt and fruitless feelings brewing in my heart. If I was not bearing outward fruit in my life, then my solution was to work harder. Maybe I needed to simply reposition my life within the paradigm I was operating in, and from that new vantage point, work harder. If I suffered a few more years doing the same thing and I would somehow make breakthrough. With human effort I tried to keep my “hands clean” and never to turn away from the Lord. I attempted to live a blameless life by obeying what I knew was the law to the Lord, all the while telling the world, “by the grace of God I am what I am.”

What is the end of that verse? “No, I worked harder than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was within me.” (1 Cor 15:10, NIV) I was operating on the premise that if I had the faith to hold onto the grace of Jesus, then automatically I would work hard, even striving to work as hard as Apostle Paul. I literally ignored “Yet not I, but the grace of God that was within me.” I knew very little the difference between the working hard and the grace of God; the difference between human effort versus divine inspiration; human strength versus spiritual strength. What was the end result of this striving and seeking to be right before God using my human efforts? It was years of depression, anger and frustration, unreal expectations on family members, and joyless Christian living with no relationships with the greater body of Christ. I had no way to be set free. Who do I blame? Myself. I was the leader of a single family house church for 14 years with just me and my family and few Bible students who came and went. I let it happen. For over twenty years, I ignored pieces of the Bible. I thought depression was part of the package of suffering for Christ. I was willing to live in it my secret legalism. I even promoted it.

It took my wife’s courage and “wifely” wisdom to let me know that something was not right. It has been a very tough two years, coming out of my old ways, but by God’s grace I have been digging deep in the crevices of my mind and heart and sweeping away vestiges of legalism. I have been making strides towards understanding more fully, “by the grace of God I am what I am.” and “Yet not I but the grace of God that was within me.”  And even my recurrent nightmares of not measuring up, have gone away, being replaced with dreams of being proactive and overcoming. (That is another story.)

Part 2: “The Lord Turns My Darkness Into Light” (26-30).

Verses 26-30, “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. 30 For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.”(ESV)

Verses 26-30, “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.”  From these verses I can see that we are own worst enemies. How we respond to God determines how we are blessed. If we are proud and stubborn then we alone suffer. It is like getting mad at and punching a brick wall. Who suffers? We do. If we are crooked and haughty then we suffer. It will be like kicking against the goads. (Acts 26:14) But if we are merciful and blameless and purified (by faith in Jesus’ blood) and humble then we will truly be blessed people…blessed by God. We will have the peace of God that surpasses human understanding. God will be our rich reward.

When David held on to God’s word he began to meet God personally. Look at verses 29-30,  “For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. 30 For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.” The Lord showed himself as David’s lamp who lightens his darkness. Most of all, the Lord revealed himself to David as his source of strength and inspiration. With Jesus he could even think about running against a troop and leaping over a wall. And after thinking about it, God gave him the strength to do it.

First, the Lord became a lamp for David. He brought David out of darkness and blessed David. The Lord showed himself to David, and throughout his life, in all of his bright glory. Jesus is the light of the world. Whoever follows Jesus will never dwell in darkness but have the light of life. (John 8:12) I really need the light of Jesus. When I ignored the light of Christ, then I fell into the darkness of preaching grace and practicing legalism. I was trapped by legalistic depression. But Jesus is my light. He always has been. When I refocused on Jesus, the true light, I could be set free from encroaching darkness to walk in the light of life. Praise the Lord!

Second; with God I can do seemingly impossible things for his glory. These things need to be within my calling in life. With God I can pass on a blessing to my kids; be a great husband, I can build up a loving and inspiring Christian family, I can encourage the body of Christ, I can be a great nurse, I can help build a missions movement to the North. I can also leap over the wall of sin and death because Jesus brings me the forgiveness of sins, the grace of God and the very real hope of the resurrection from the dead into life everlasting. This is scaling the biggest wall that I have scaled through faith in Christ.

Prayer: Lord, you are my greatest reward. Help me to hold on to know what it means to hold onto the grace of Jesus and how to follow you by faith. May my life may reveal your glory.

One Word: The Lord is my lamp and my strength




Interact with us using Facebook

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.