This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to day three of our ninth week of Looking Through First and Second Samuel. Second Samuel 22, we're looking at David's song. And yesterday we learned from David how to worship, some truths from who God is. We learned that worship is learning to picture 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. Today as we look at what David has to say about what God does, we learn some more truths about worship and what it is, what it means in our lives. What does God do in these verses? Well, the first thing that David talks about God doing is God's saving. He saves me from my enemies and hearing. God hears my voice. In verse four, "I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise and I am saved from my enemies. The waves of death swirled around me. The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord. I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice. My cry came to his ears. " What is worship? Worship is recognizing that God hears me. When I'm driving in my car or when I sit down at the beginning of the day in a place of silence or when I breathe a prayer in the middle of a business meeting or wherever I happen to be praying, that is a moment of worship when I recognize I'm not just talking to myself. God hears me. The God who made me. He hears me. The God who made this universe, he hears me in this moment. He is with me and he hears me. Worship is recognizing that God has his attention on you. Some people think, "How could God do that? There's billions of people in this world. " Well, he's God. He has enough time to give constant personal attention to the billions of people in this world, run the universe, and still have enough time to do anything else he wanted to do because he is perfection. He is sovereign. He is omnipotent. He is God. And worship is recognizing that that God, that God, he hears me. What does God do? David says, "He hears my voice. " The second thing that God does in these verses is David says, "He draws me out of the deep waters. He rescues me. " In verse 17, "He reached down from on high and took hold of me. He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. " What is worship? Well, there's a few things that worship is here. First, at the very end, worship is recognizing that God delights in you. God wants to be with you. It's not as if God is making time for you, like you and I sometimes are with our kids. Okay, I know I need to do this, and maybe I'll enjoy it as I get further into it. No, God delights in his creation, and worship is recognizing that God delights in you. There's another thing in these verses I want to focus on. Worship is being brought into a spacious place. He brought me into a spacious place, it says here. I was in a place of disaster, a place where I was trapped, but God brought me into a spacious place. What's a spacious place? What's he talking about here? Well, a spacious place is a place where there's freedom to grow, there's freedom to expand. Life often makes us feel trapped, limited by our past, by our choices, by our sins, by our relationships, by our problems. We feel like life is closing in on us more and more and more. When you worship, you are brought into this place of freedom, a spacious place, sensing in that moment of worship all that God wants you to be into all eternity as you're in connection with him. All of a sudden, you get a glimpse of it, what God wants to do, and yes, the problems are still there. Yes, the difficulties of this life are still there. Yes, you're still surrounded by those things, but in worship, you're brought into this spacious place where you realize my life is not defined by those things. I can come out of those things. It can be like walking out of a dark cave into this wide open sunny meadow. It can literally take your breath away when you have these moments of recognizing all that God wants to do in your life. You are not trapped by your past. You are not limited by your sins. You are not limited by your relationships or your problems. God has a plan for your life to bring you into this spacious place. If you've ever had this experience of worship where you recognize that, where you get a glimpse of that, you know what I'm talking about. God wants to do that in your life. That's what worship is. It's being brought into this spacious place. A third thing David talks about God doing in this psalm is God deals with me, he says, according to my righteousness. In verse 25, the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. To the faithful, you show yourself faithful. To the blameless, you show yourself blameless. To the pure, you show yourself pure. But to the crooked, you show yourself shrewd. What is worship? Worship is being made clean, being made holy in God's sight. Now we actually understand this much better than David did because we know Jesus better than David did. David was looking forward to Jesus who would come someday. He didn't have the clear picture that we do. So David compared himself with others and he said, "Well, I'm clean, I'm righteous. " But the truth of the matter is, he wasn't righteous in comparison to God. The truth of the matter is, as he went through his life, he hit these moments of sin where he realized even his own uncleanness. The truth of the matter is, we don't cleanse ourselves by our own actions. God cleanses us through what Jesus did for us on the cross. So we can worship with a clear conscience. God was being able to be in God's presence knowing that because of what Jesus has done, I have been cleansed. I have been made holy. I have a right to be in God's presence. It is the right place for me to be. To be a righteous person means that the right place for you to be is in God's presence worshipping. What does God do? There's a fourth thing he does in these verses. He saves the humble. He turns darkness into light, verse 28. You save the humble, but your eyes are on the hottie to bring them low. You are my lamp, O Lord. The Lord turns my darkness into light. Another definition of worship. Worship is living in the light of humility. I love how David connects humility and light in these verses. You save the humble. You're my lamp, O Lord. You turn my darkness into light. Darkness is pride. Darkness is focusing on myself. But the light of God's presence, of God's power comes into my life when I humbly turn to him. God graciously lifts up the humble. He exalts the humble. Why? Because humility is depending on God. Humility is walking in God's light, not depending on my light, on myself. Worship is living in the light of humility. When things start to look a little bit dark, many times we want to run to a place of pride. And for some of us, that's self-promoting, letting other people know what a great person we are. For many of us, that's self-protective, that's running away and hiding out and not letting people see my faults and struggles. Both of those are places of pride. Both of those are places of me depending on myself because there's not enough light. But when I humble myself, when I say, "God, there's not enough light, I don't know what to do next. I really don't know what to do next. " God gives light to the humble. And worship is living in that light. And there's a fifth, the final thing that God does in these verses that you and I can learn something about worship from, from David. God arms me with strength. God gives me his strength. And I want to especially point you to one phrase in these verses. You'll probably pick up on it as I read through it. In verse 30, "With your help, I can advance against a troop. With my God, I can scale a wall. It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. You give me your shield of victory. You stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not turn. " What is worship? Worship is God's strength replacing your strength. All of us want to live with our strength in this world, but worship is God's strength replacing your strength. And God wants to give you his strength. There is this phrase in this passage that has always amazed me. David sings this song to God under God's Spirit's inspiration, and he says, "God, you stoop down to make me great. " That's exactly what happened when Jesus stooped down and became a man, died on a cross. But it's also exactly what happens when God stoops down and listens to my prayers, answers my prayers on a daily basis. Now, when I recognize the humility of God, that just humbles me even more. Worship is not living by my own strength. Worship is not God filling the tank of my own strength. Worship is not some personal meditation exercise that makes me stronger. No, worship is me emptying myself of my strength, realizing how little my strength really is and depending on God's strength, a strength that's above and beyond what I can imagine. Now, that's not the natural human thing to do, but that's the supernatural godly thing to do. That's what worship is all about. Let's take a moment together to pray to worship him. And God, we just pray back to you the things we've talked about today. What does it mean to worship? We want to be men. We want to be women of worship. So God, we want to have an understanding that we have a clean heart before you and to thank you that you did that for us in Jesus. Thank you. And Lord, we want to be people who walk in the light of humility, not in the darkness of our own pride. We want to be people who live by your strength and not our strength. But that comes from a place of worship. It comes from a place of depending on you. So as we spend these moments with you right now, Lord, we pray this day, even this day, let us see the miracle of your strength instead of our strength. Let us see the miracle of your light instead of our way. Let us see the miracle of knowing that we live in your presence. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at some unexpected truths about the greatness of God.