II SAMUEL 22:29-51 Lesson # 25
GIVING OUR TESTIMONY TO HIS GLORY
I. Introduction:
Q In a Christian setting, what does giving a testimony mean?
An = Reporting or sharing what God has done for us. God has indeed done something for us, and we share His action for us with others.
Q Why do we give testimonies?
An = Perhaps the best motives for giving personal testimony center on Whom we are testifying about. 1) God is good and His goodness deserves recognition. We should want others to know what we know about God. 2) We should want others to know what God did for us so that they can expect God to do the same thing for them.
The key understanding about giving a good testimony is that the honor should go to God and not ourselves. He should be glorified as the source of our good fortune or success and not ourselves.
Q Do some people have wrong motives for giving their testimonies?
II. God’s Action, David’s Testimony: II Samuel 22:29-46.
A. Personal Testimony: II Samuel 22:29-30.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:29-30.
Q In what two ways did David experience God’s goodness in these two verses?
An = David experienced God as light in the midst of his darkness and as the empowerment of his work as a soldier.
Q Are you in a dark place in your life?
An = David wants you to understand that God can turn our personal darkness into light. God can give you insight into what has blackened your viewpoint and perception of life. God can clear away the darkness. David knows this, because he has experienced it.
Q Does God help people in their secular pursuits?
An = David was helped to scale a wall to attack in war, not scale a wall so as to attend a prayer meeting. God helped David militarily. God helped David in his secular life. This is where David experienced God: out on the battlefield not just in church.
B. Praising God’s Character With Adoration: II Samuel 22:31-32.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:31-32.
Q Is David talking about his personal experience or about God in general?
An = This is an affirmation of the Lord’s character. David’s personal experience has led him to speak not just what God has done for him, but who God is with everybody.
Q What does David declare about God in II Samuel 22:31?
An = David shares three things. God’s way is perfect, His Word is flawless and He is a shield to those who seek refuge in Him. God will shelter us if we seek His protection.
Q If we are honest, are we always sure that God’s way of doing things is perfect?
An = We often question the Bible, and we more often seek shelter in our bank statements or connections or status than in God Himself.
David knows all of these temptations and wants us to know that he has tried God and found that God, God’s ways, and God’s teachings, are truly trustworthy.
In fact, based on what David has observed and testified about in the previous three verses, he breaks out in wonderment and praise with the following rhetorical questions of 22:32.
>>>> Re-read II Samuel 22:32.
Q What is David asking about?
An = The incomparability of Yahweh; the incomparability of God. David is in “adoration”. In adoration, David realizes that his only security, which is to be found in God, is matchlessness. God is the only Rock.
Note: David has spoken about God’s character in general for two verses. Now David launches back into personal testimony about what God has personally done for David in his actual, secular occupation.
C. Personal Testimony: II Samuel 22:33-37.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:33-37.
Q What is the topic of all that David says God has helped him to do?
An = All of these verses speak of what God has done to make David a military success. Some scholars say that the Hebrew has a “creation” motif here. They believe these verses refers to God “making David a fighting machine” (McCarter, p. 470). From top to bottom, from his arms to his feet, God has helped David be a warrior.
Q Has God made you what you need to be in your secular job?
D. David’s Response to God’s Gift: II Samuel 22:38-39.
Q If you are honest, do you think those who pray are weak, passive men?
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:38-39.
Q What characteristics does David display with the abilities God gave him?
An = You could say he was a brutal, punitive man. However, if one decides to fight then one should fight. David is aggressive, persistent and relentless. If God has given us talents then we should use them aggressively, persistently and relentlessly. God did not give us skills and talents so that we should sit on them. (Again, Matthew 25:24-30)
Q Do you know people who are gifted but they never used their talents to the full?
An = David did not waste God’s gift with timidity and half effort.
Note: David is not full of “phony piety”. You have heard the old adage, “no, it was all God”. David totally recognizes that God has helped him, and that God is his source of success, but it is also true that David has “made hay while the sun was shinning”. David honestly tells us that he used his gift.
Note: As we continue reading this long section, of 29-49 David will give “testimony” to God’s action on his behalf five times (29-30, 33-37, 40-41 a, 44-46, 48-49) and speak of his “response” to God’s gift only twice (38-39, 41 b-43). David will do something else twice: He stops and just speaks of God’s wonder and grace (31-32, 47).
E. God’s Action On Behalf of David: II Samuel 22:40-41.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:40-41.
Q Again, Who was the source of David’s military success?
An = David acknowledges that the “secret of his success” is God’s empowering of David and God’s defeating of his enemies.
F. David’s Response to God’s Gift: II Samuel 22:42-43.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:42-43.
Q To whom did David’s enemies cry to for help? What does this mean?
An = To the Lord! Many times our enemies will pray as well. Prayer is not magic. Prayer is not like the quarters to a coke machine. It does not guarantee us the answer we want just because we prayed. David prayed in 22:4 and 22:7 and God heard. Remember, 22:21-25 tells us God requires of us that we must hear Him if we want Him to hear us. David’s enemies prayed and were not heard.
Q What did David do to his enemies in 22:43?
An = He crushed them and stamped them into the dirt. David was not a half-hearted fighter. If we fight against the evil in our own lives we must not be half-hearted fighters either. When God gives us the upper hand against some bad attitude, etc. then we must crush that inferior spirit.
G. God’s Action On Behalf of David: II Samuel 22:44-46.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:44-46.
Q What two different types of people is David saying God delivered him from?
An = David says God delivered him from foreigners (non-believers) and his own people (church folks).
Q Sometimes do our greatest attacks come from our own people?
Q Who were the believers that attacked David?
An = In David’s life it was Saul, Ishbaal, Absalom, Sheba, etc.
Q Has the greatest attack, at times, on your spiritual lives come from within the church itself?
An = God delivers from both types of attack. Jesus Himself was attacked by Herod, but also by Judas. Jesus was crucified by the Romans, but it was the believing community of His day that wanted Him killed.
The Bible is a realistic book.
Note: David was severely threatened with death for years by fellow believers, but he does not put major emphasis on this. The majority of space goes to foreign enemies. David never hated Saul, Ishbaal or Absalom.
Q What does this mean for us?
An = We do not need to dwell on the faults of those who claim to be believers. We need to have both David’s and Jesus’ attitude towards our persecutors within the church.
Q Were David and Jesus ultimately given justice, in light of their mistreatment by fellow believers?
An = It is good to remember that David was preserved and ultimately justified and Jesus rose from the dead. David and the “Son of David” spoke the truth: “You have delivered me from the attacks of my people”.
H. Praising God’s Character With Adoration: II Samuel 22:47.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:47.
Q Of Whom is David speaking here?
An = David is speaking of God. He is praising God’s character. David declares God’s greatness and then speaks of God with adoration! This time the issue is not security (God is his rock) but that God truly is alive! David is amazed that God is not just a refuge but a refuge for him.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:48-49
III. Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving: II Samuel 22:50-51.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:50-51.
Note: David praises God in 22:50 and then gives the reason for his praise in 22:51.
Q What is David’s final reason for praising God?
An = God has personally been David’s benefactor. Four things could be said in conclusion to our song here:
1) Has God done anything this personal for us? Have we trusted God like David has so as to be the recipient of His favor? Until that happens we do not have a “testimony”. We need to receive something from God if we are believers.
2) It is good to be thankful! So often we receive but do not say thank you. We do not want to be “spiritually rude”. It is a joy to give thanks to God. It is a delight.
3) If we are a leader (a youth pastor, minister, deacon, father, etc.), we can relax if we have put our faith in Him as our refuge. We do not need to be defensive. We are to pray, not lash out, ask for divine help, not manipulate.
4) The entire song echoes the opening song found in I Samuel 2:1-10 (or Hannah’s Song). Hannah prayed and God heard and David had learned to pray and God heard. The Scholar Brueggemann (p. 345) says it well: “David is not a self-starter.” David is not his own source, it is only the Lord who
“…sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and exalts.
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.
For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s;
Upon them He has set the world.
He will guard the feet of his saints,
But the wicked will be silenced in darkness.” I Samuel 2:7-9 a.