This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of our ninth week of looking through First and Second Samuel.
We're looking at David as a man of worship today, and all this week in fact. And
we're going to focus on chapter 22, on David's song of praise.

You can also, by the way, read this same song in Psalm 18. It's one of those few
chapters in the Bible that's repeated in two places. And it's a song of
deliverance.

In verse one, David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord
delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. As you
read through this song, you see that it's a song, a psalm, about who God is and
what God does. So we're going to break it up that way these next two days.

Today we're going to look at who God is in these verses, and tomorrow we're
going to look at what God does in these verses. And through both days, our focus
is going to be on learning how to worship, learning from David how to worship
God. So who is God?

First thing David says about who God is, is he says, "He's my rock. He's my
fortress. He's my deliverer.

He's my shield. He's my stronghold. " Verse two, he said, "The Lord is my rock,
my fortress, and my deliverer.

My God is my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge, and my savior. From violent men, you save me.

" As we read this verse, learning from David how to worship, David teaches us
here, he does this also all throughout the book of Psalms. He teaches us to
picture God in our worship. For him, it was God, you're a rock, you're a
fortress, you're a shield.

He pictured God. As we walk through this, I want to give you some principles
about what worship is, and one of the principles that we learn here is that
worship is learning to picture the character of God. That's part of worship.

Now, for you, it may be you're picturing the sun, or you're picturing the stars,
or you're picturing the universe, you're picturing the ocean. There's a lot of
pictures that you can have, and God is not limited to your picture, but a
picture helps you to see, to see how the character of God fits into, impacts
your daily life. It helps you to see it.

David teaches us to worship God in this way. So right now, let's take David's
pictures and picture it with me in your mind. God is my rock.

He's the one I can stand on no matter what. He's my fortress. He gives me safety
no matter what people are throwing at me.

He is my deliverer. He takes me from this place of danger to this place of
security. He is my shield.

He is my horn. That's a place of strength. He is my stronghold.

And then the last word that David uses here, my savior. The strongest picture we
have of God is more than a picture. It's a person.

It's God in human flesh. It's Jesus himself, our savior. For you and I,
oftentimes rock and ocean and universe, those are strong pictures, but now we
have Jesus.

The strongest picture of all is to think of the person of Jesus and how he shows
us who God is. That's one of the ways that you and I worship, learning to
picture the character of God. How do you picture in the actions of Jesus, the
words of Jesus, the character of God?

That's who God is. As we walk through this, David also says that God is the one
who makes the earth tremble. In verse 8, "The earth trembled and quaked, the
foundations of the heavens shook.

They trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils, consuming fire
came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and
came down.

Dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew. He soared on
the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his canopy around him, the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of
the brightness of his presence, bolts of lightning blazed forth. The Lord
thundered from heaven, the voice of the Most High resounded.

He shot arrows and scattered the enemies, bolts of lightning and routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath from his nostrils. " What
a picture.

Earthquakes and lightning and thunder and the blast even of his breath. David
worshipped. He knew that God was close, but he also in worship knew that God was
all-powerful.

He is all-powerful. What is worship? A second thing that worship is that we
learn from David is worship is learning to tremble at God's power without being
afraid of God's presence.

David was not afraid to come into God's presence. David was not afraid to talk
to God about anything and everything, but he still trembled at God's power. He
still had a deep awareness of the strength and power of God.

There are many people who tremble at God's power, but they're afraid of being in
God's presence. And there are others I know who they're not afraid of being in
God's presence, but they don't tremble at God's power. It's when you combine
those two in your life that a new depth of worship begins to happen.

And God teaches you, he teaches me to do this through our lives because he is an
all-powerful God. And there's a final thing that you and I see about worship in
these verses from who God is. David says that God is my rock.

God is the one who makes the earth tremble. And number three, he says God is
perfect. He is the perfect one.

And verse 31, "As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is flawless.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the rock except our God? " Now this
again is a very common theme in David's worship.

You'll see it all through the book of Psalms and you see it here. God is
perfect. His word is perfect.

His actions are perfect. That means, as he says here, who is a God besides our
Lord? There is no one like him because there's no one else who is perfect.

There's nothing else in this world that's perfect. We live in a fallen world.
Heaven will be a place of perfection.

But even in this world that we live in, there's nothing perfect. And certainly
there are no human beings that are perfect, but God is perfect. So what does it
mean to worship?

What is worship? Worship is picturing the character of God. Worship is learning
to tremble at God's power without being afraid of God's presence.

Worship is basking in the beauty of God's perfection. There is only one place of
perfection in all of creation and it is in who God is. In a world where you and
I suffer because of the imperfections in our own life, the sin, the struggles,
when we suffer because of the imperfections in others' lives and in creation, in
worship just to sit back, to rest, to relax, to bask in the beauty of God's
perfection, that is a place of worship.

That's the only place of perfection. And David often went to that place, in a
world where he struggled so much, he knew there was this one place of perfection
and he loved being in that place. He loved the beauty of that place.

And so as we worship, at the end of this, David says, "And so I praise him. "
Verse 47, "The Lord lives. Praise be to my rock.

Exalted be God, the rock, my Savior. He is the God who avenges me, who puts the
nations under me, who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my
foes.

From violent men you rescued me. Therefore I will praise you, O Lord, among the
nations. I will sing praises to your name.

" He gives his king great victories. He shows unfailing kindness to his
anointed, to David and his descendants forever. Out of this time of worship,
David ends up in a place of praise.

That's where I want to end up. That's where I want you to end up this day. Out
of a time of worship, to end up throughout this day in a place of praise.

Spend a few moments talking to the Lord together. And Lord, we do together once
again what we've just talked about in these lessons about worship from David. We
take a moment to picture your character.

You're the rock that we need. Jesus, we picture you, the forgiveness that we
need, the love that we need. Thank you for the power of your love and the
tenderness of your love.

Lord, we tremble at your power, but we're not afraid of your presence because
you've invited us into your presence. And Father, we take a moment right now
just to almost lean back on our minds to rest, to bask in the beauty of your
perfection. Thank you for who you are.

Thank you that we can depend on who you are throughout this day. Let us take
this heart of praise into every conversation, every relationship, every
decision. That's the kind of people we want to be.

God, do that in our hearts, we pray. In your name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going
to learn some more about worship from David as we look at the rest of David's
song.