2 Samuel 22:17-32: a reflection

17He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters. 18He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 19They came on me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support. 20He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 21The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands. 22For I have kept the LORD’s ways, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I didn’t depart from them. 24I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity. 25Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight. 26With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect. 27With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. 28You will save the afflicted people, but your eyes are on the arrogant, that you may bring them down. 29For you are my lamp, LORD. The LORD will light up my darkness. 30For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall. 31As for God, his way is perfect. The LORD’s word is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. 32For who is God, besides the LORD? Who is a rock, besides our God?

In this song of deliverance, David looks back on how God rescued him. He reached down from on high and took hold of me, David says; he drew me out of deep waters and delivered me from enemies too strong for me. When David was overwhelmed, outmatched, sinking, God reached down and pulled him out. And then David gives the reason, and it is astonishing: he brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

That phrase, because he delighted in me, is the heart of the song. David did not attribute his rescue merely to God's sense of duty or to his own worthiness; he traced it to God's delight in him. God saved him because he took pleasure in him. And David goes on to celebrate what he had found God to be: a lamp lighting his darkness, a perfect way, a tested word, a shield to all who take refuge in him. Who is God but the Lord, he asks, and who is a rock but our God?

Let both truths settle on you. First, when you are overwhelmed and outmatched, sinking under what is too strong for you, God is able to reach down and draw you out; he is a rock and shield to all who take refuge in him. Second, and more wonderful still, God's rescue flows from his delight in you. If you belong to him, he does not help you grudgingly but because he delights in you. Take refuge in the God who is your rock, and rest in the astonishing truth that he takes pleasure in you.

Lord, when I was overwhelmed and outmatched, you reached down and drew me out, and you did it because you delighted in me. Let that truth astonish and steady me. Be my rock and shield, my lamp in the darkness, my refuge when what I face is too strong for me. And thank you that you rescue me not grudgingly but from delight. I take refuge in you and rest in your love. Amen.