Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

To read 2 Samuel 22, click the link HERE.

To read 2 Samuel 23, click the link HERE.

Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”
But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.
After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.
After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”
On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

• 2 Samuel 24:1-25

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

2 Samuel 22:1 ‘all his enemies’: ” Cf. 7:1, 9, 11. David composed this song toward the end of his life when the Lord had given him a settled kingdom and the promise of the Messianic seed embodied in the Davidic Covenant.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 22:20 ‘He delighted in me.’: “This expression that the Lord was ‘pleased’ with David (cf. 15:26) provided a transition to vv. 21–28, where David described the basis of God’s saving deliverance.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 22:26-27 ‘God is faithful to the faithful’: ”In the story of the Gibeonites, David went back and corrected something that happened under King Saul. As Saul’s heir to the throne, he had the responsibility. Second Samuel 22:26-27 reproduces the text of Psalm 18, in which David sings: ‘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.’
“David says that God will be to you what you are to Him. If you are open and honest with Him, God will be open and honest with you. If you are crooked and deceitful toward God, He will cause all your circumstances to deceive you and lie to you. If you are pure in heart, you will discover that God brings more of His beauty, purity, and perfection into your own heart and soul.“

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

2 Samuel 22:47 ‘I shall keep my vow.’: “God, be Thou exalted over my possessions. Nothing of earth’s treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified in my life. Be Thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that Thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth. Be Thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses, I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee. Be Thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream. Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health, and even my life itself. Let me sink that Thou mayest rise above. Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, ‘Hosanna in the highest.’”

• A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

2 Samuel 22:51 ‘His king … His anointed’: ” These terms are singular and thus do not seem to refer to David and his descendants. Rather they refer to the promised ‘seed,’ the Messiah of 7:12. The deliverance and ultimate triumph of David foreshadow that of the coming Messiah. At the end of his life, David looked back in faith at God’s promises and forward in hope to their fulfillment in the coming of a future ‘king,’ the ‘anointed one’ (see … 1 Sam. 2:10).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 22 ‘Challenge’: “Today is our day. No one at any time has ever had any spiritual graces that we at this time cannot enjoy if we will meet the terms on which they are given. If these times are morally darker, they but provide a background against which we can shine the brighter.
“Our God is the God of today as well as of yesterday, and we may be sure that wherever our tomorrows may carry us, our faithful God will be with us as He was with Abraham and David and Paul.
“Those great men did not need us then, and we cannot have them with us now. Amen. So be it. And God be praised. We cannot have them, but we can have that which is infinitely better­ we can have their God and Father, and we can have their Savior, and we can have the same blessed Holy Spirit that made them great.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Next Chapter after the Last

2 Samuel 23:3-4 ‘The Messiah – our good ruler’: “Christians of all times, and Jews also of former ages, have all been agreed that this passage relates to the Messiah. And we who know that the Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, can, without the slightest difficulty, apply these words to him and feel that they are most true concerning him. Even if they did not primarily refer to the Messiah, we would be right in making them do so because, if it is a general rule that a good ruler is all this to his people, then Jesus Christ, being the best of rulers, must be all this to his people and he, ruling as he does-for this day we call him Master and Lord-he must be, to those who belong to his blessed kingdom, all that any other good ruler could possibly be and far more, so that for many reasons we are right in ascribing to our Lord Jesus the language of our text.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

2 Samuel 23:3-4 ‘morning comes ’: “The rising of the sun is joyous; and, besides that, it is comforting and consoling to those who have been suffering from ills which night aggravates. ‘Would to God it were morning!’ has been the cry of many who are languishing, tossing on their couch. It may be the cry of many hearts that are exceedingly troubled with the guilt of sin. Let the morning come! Let the watchman say, ‘The morning comes!’ Let the day dawn and the morning star rise in our hearts (2Pet 1:19), and there is ‘festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair’ (Is 61:3). Christ brings joy to cheer and comfort the disconsolate, for he is like the rising of the sun. Oh, the glory of the sunrise of the Savior on the darkness of the human soul! If we might rise every morning of the year to look at the rising sun and yet never be tired of it because of the sublimity of the spectacle, I think we might consider our own conversion every hour in the day and every day of our lives-and yet never be wearied with the thrice-heavenly spectacle of Christ arising over the mountains of our guilt to banish the dense darkness of our despair.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon illustrations

2 Samuel 23:5 ‘My house is not so with God’: “In response to God’s standard for His ideal king, David confessed that his house had not always ruled over God’s people in righteousness and in the fear of God, and thus were not the fulfillment of 7:12–16. Further, none of the kings of David’s line (according to 1 and 2 Kings) met God’s standard of righteous obedience. everlasting covenant. The promise given by the Lord to David recorded in 7:12–16 is here referred to as a ‘covenant,’ a binding agreement from the Lord that He will fulfill. In spite of the fact that David and his own household had failed (chaps. 9–20), David rightly believed that the Lord would not fail, but would be faithful to His promise of hope for the future in the seed of David, the Eternal King, the anointed one (see … 7:12), who would establish a kingdom of righteousness and peace forever.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 23:6 ‘sons of rebellion’: “Lit. ‘Belial’ (see … 1 Sam. 2:12). The wicked enemies of God will be cast aside in judgment when the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, establishes His rule upon the earth (cf. Is. 63:1–6).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 23:9-10 ‘Eleazar’: “Eleazar was a man of marked individuality of character, a man who knew himself and knew his God and did not want to be lost in the common mass so as to run away merely because his countrymen ran. He thought for himself and acted for himself; he did not make the conduct of others the measure of his service but ‘stood his ground’ while those around him fled. True religion is a personal thing. Each one, with one talent or with ten, will, on the great day of judgment, be called to account for his own responsibilities and not for those of others. And, therefore, he should live as before God, feeling that he is a separate personality and must, in his own individuality; consecrate himself-spirit, soul, and body-entirely to the Lord. Eleazar, the Son of Dodo, felt that he must play the man, whatever others might do, and, therefore, he bravely drew his sword. I do not find that he wasted time in upbraiding the others for running away or in shouting to them to return; he just turned his own face to the enemy and hewed and hacked away with all his might. His brave example was sufficient rebuke and would be far more effectual than ten thousand sarcastic orations. Never let it be forgotten that our responsibility; in a certain sense, begins and ends with ourselves. It is easy to pick holes in other people’s work, but it is far more profitable to do better work ourselves.“

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

2 Samuel 23:16 ‘poured it out to the Lord’: “Because David’s men brought him water from Bethlehem’s well at the risk of their own lives, he considered it as ‘blood’ and refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out on the ground as a sacrifice to the Lord (cf. Gen. 35:14; Ex. 30:9; Lev. 23:13, 18, 37).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 23:39 ‘Uriah’: “Here is inserted a mention of one of David’s great soldiers, a reminder of David’s great sin (11:1–27), and a preparation for David’s further failure recorded in 24:1–10. thirty-seven. The 3 (vv. 8–12) with Abishai (vv. 18–19) and Benaiah (vv. 20–23) plus the 32 men of ‘the thirty’ (vv. 24–39).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:1 ‘Again’: “A second outbreak of the divine wrath occurred after the 3-year famine recorded in 21:1. against Israel. The inciting of David to conduct a census was a punishment on Israel from the Lord for some unspecified sins. Perhaps sins of pride and ambition had led him to increase the size of his army unnecessarily and place heavy burdens of support on the people. Whatever the sin, it is clear God was dissatisfied with David’s motives, goals, and actions and brought judgment. He moved David. Satan incited David to take this census, and the Lord sovereignly and permissively used Satan to accomplish His will. See … 1 Chr. 21:1. number Israel and Judah. A census was usually for military purposes, which seems to be the case here (see v. 9). Numbering the potential army of Israel had been done in the past (Num. 1:1, 2; 26:1–4). However, this census of Israel’s potential army did not have the sanction of the Lord and proceeded from wrong motives. David either wanted to glory in the size of his fighting force or take more territory than what the Lord had granted him. He shifted his trust from God to military power (this is a constant theme in the Psalms; cf. 20:7; 25:2; 44:6).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:3 ‘But why’: “Although Joab protested the plan, he was overruled by David with no reason for the census being stated by David.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:10 ‘David’s heart condemned him’: “Although God’s prohibition is not clear in the text, it was clear to David. sinned greatly … done very foolishly. David recognized the enormity of his willful rebellion against God. David’s insight saw the seriousness of his error in relying on numerical strength instead of on the Lord, who can deliver by many or few (see 1 Sam. 14:6).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:13 ‘famine … enemies … plague’: “David was given a choice of 3 possible punishments for his sin of numbering the people: 1) 3 years of famine in Israel (see … 1 Chr. 21:12); 2) 3 months of fleeing from his enemies; or 3) 3 days of pestilence in the land. Implicit in the threat of pursuit by ‘enemies’ was death by the sword. Famine, sword, and plague were OT punishments of the Lord against His sinful people (Lev. 26:23–26; Deut. 28:21–26; Jer. 14:12).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:14 ‘fall into the hand of the Lord’: “David knew that the Lord would be more merciful than his enemies, so he took the third option.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:16 ‘relented’: “Or ‘repented, grieved,’ an expression of God’s deep sorrow concerning man’s sin and evil (see 1 Sam. 15:11, 29). Araunah the Jebusite. Araunah (or Ornan) was a pre-Israelite inhabitant of Jerusalem. He owned a threshing floor N of the citadel of Jerusalem and outside its fortified area.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:18 ‘altar’: “At this time, the altar associated with the tabernacle of Moses was located at Gibeon (1 Chr. 21:29; 2 Chr. 1:2–6). David was instructed by Gad to build another altar to the Lord at the place where the plague had stopped. This indicated where the Lord’s choice was for the building of His temple.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24:24 ‘what we give back to God’: “Our Lord knew that in these times there would be those in our churches who are just highly­ groomed show pieces of Christianity-middle class and well-to-do, satisfied with a religious life that costs them nothing.
“Oh, yes, we do tithe! But the nine-tenths that we keep is still a hundred times more than our mothers and fathers used to have. It is right that we should tithe because it is God’s work, but it does not really cost us anything-it does not bring us to the point of sacrificial giving. An old prophet of God long ago said something for us all: ‘Shall I offer God something that costs me nothing?’
“Friend, what has your Christian faith and witness cost you this week? …
“I realize that this message will not win any popularity prizes in the Christian ranks, but I must add this based on my observations on the current state of the church: Christianity to the average evangelical church member is simply an avenue to a good and pleasant time, with a little biblical devotional material thrown in for good measure!
“It is time that we begin to search our hearts and ask ourselves: ‘What is my Christian faith costing me? Am I offering to God something that has cost me absolutely nothing in terms of blood or sweat or tears?’”

• A. W. Tozer, Who Put Jesus on the Cross?

2 Samuel 24:25 ‘the plague was withdrawn’: “This indicates that judgment is not the final action of the Lord toward either Israel or the house of David. God will fulfill the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants (cf. Ezek. 37).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Samuel 24 ‘A Punishment for Taking a Census’: “This story, in much abbreviated form, is also found in the parallel passage of 1 Chronicles 21:1-13. For reasons not provided within the narrative, the Lord’s wrath was provoked by David having undertaken a census (24:1-9). Upon receiving the compiled census data, David realized his sin and repented (24:10). The prophet Gad presented three calamities from which to choose for God to unleash judgment upon Israel: three years of famine, three months of enemy pursuit, or three days of plague-the intensity of each calamity rising in proportion to its brevity (24:13-14). The outcome of David’s choice of pestilence is documented in 2 Samuel 24:15-25. The entire account reminds us of the seriousness of impetuous acts of pride which may result in dire consequences. It also serves to emphasize the importance of doing all things to God’s glory and not our own.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

My Thoughts

These are the last three chapters of 2 Samuel.  They close the story of David’s reign as king of Israel.  We have a song of praise and “the last words of David.”  We have a commemoration of his fighting men.  And then an odd tale about David asking for a census that is not requested by God and the aftermath of that.

David does not die at the end of 2 Samuel.  He is still around when Adonijah sets himself up as king and Joab joins him to lead the army in 1 Kings 1.

Psalm 18 is essentially the same as the song David sings in 2 Samuel 22.  Here is a link to what was written in the Bible study series on the Psalm.  Click HERE.  Provided below is what I wrote about the psalm.  Note that the verse numbers may not correspond.

I wrote recently that my mother felt that saying “I love you, God” was too familiar and touching on blasphemy, but David starts with those words.  What a beginning!

In various places in the Bible, God is referred to as the rock, a fortress, a refuge, our shield, and our salvation, but in David’s introduction to this psalm he uses them all.  If he’d thrown in firm foundation, would we have them all?

Then David praises God.

But there was a reason for this preamble.  God has saved David from his enemies.  David nearly gets maudlin with the cords of death entangling him.

But David cried out to the Lord for rescue.  David speaks of how God rescued him.

Then while David is speaking of how God came to his rescue, he mentions God’s mouth like a flame, eyes like burning coals, hailstorms and lightning.  Then the power that God displays in verses 7-15 is similar, maybe not parallel, to the End Times prophecies.  We first get a glimpse of the glory of God looking like what the Apostle John saw in Jesus on Patmos, and then something similar to End Times prophecies.  But this could simply be David explaining how, in his faith of God to rescue him, his poetic way of saying things foreshadowed prophetic visions of others who saw the End Times in their visions.

Then God reached down and held him.  The God of the universe took out the time to touch David.  David then talks of being blameless and pure.  But we know David has sinned.  Thus verses 30-36 discusses how God has made us blameless by washing away our sins, those who love Him.

This is followed, verses 37-45, by David slipping from his poetic story of God chasing his enemies to how God used him as an instrument.  This was all God’s victory, but God used David and his army to accomplish portions of the enemy’s defeat.

And as the psalm started, David uses verses 46-50 to again praise God.

The song starts with words of praise that are often repeated in the psalms: Rock, Fortress, Deliverer, Refuge.  There are psalms other than Psalm 18 that start the same way: Psalms 31, 91, 144.

David has conquered his enemies, except the enemy within.  David is a passionate man.  It is seen in his music, but the same type of passion was exhibited in the Bathsheba affair and in some odd way, the census.  Satan preys upon our weaknesses.  We will come back to that.

Second Samuel 23 starts with the inspired utterance of David.  This is the last recorded thing that David wrote down, but this is no “Rosebud” moment.  For those that do not make the connection, in the movie Citizen Kane, where the title character, Charles Foster Kane says, “Rosebud” when he dies.  Oops, spoiler alert.

But in these short verses, David is prophesying about Jesus.  It does not refer to him or his immediate offspring.  He was flawed, as was Solomon.  But any God-fearing ruler should aspire to ruling in righteousness.  There might be moments of history where that happened.  Those moments do not last long, especially when you notice that this righteousness thing is working pretty good.  Once it goes to your head, the moment is gone.  But with Jesus, there will be a bright sunrise each day.  And within our hearts, we can experience that sunrise now, regardless of our earthly situation.  That is why early morning praises to God are important, we exercise those muscles that see God in control and the fact that God gave us one more day is a blessing.

But with every blessing, there is the counterpart where evil men will be cast into thorns.  David even mentions that this is done not by hand.  Tools must be used.  Odd, how one remembrance of early childhood was working in the yard and taking thorn bushes to add to the bonfire.  We burned our trash in those days.  And while my Dad might have a garden rake to scoop the thorn bushes and add them to the fire, I brought the thorn bushes to him with no tools and not even a pair of gloves.  My parents and the rest of the family read the Bible through roughly every year growing up, but I guess they glossed over David’s last words.

David was a man of war, but he did not fight alone, except in his defeat of Goliath, which was God’s defeat of Goliath.  David had mighty soldiers that helped him.  Oddly, Joab is mentioned, but only as the brother of Abishai.  Abishai is only mentioned as the leader of the Three.  Those three, if these war stories get confusing to you are Josheb-Basshebeth, Eleazar, and Shammah.  One act of their bravery is mentioned.

I wrote not long ago about the three soldiers who went to a well in Philistine controlled territory to get David water to drink.  I was writing about how the adage of “Your wish is my command” may have first existed as those words in the tales of Alladin. But the concept has been around a long time.  David would not drink the water since they had risked their lives to obtain it.

And then there is a list of the Thirty.  And the total of 37 mighty men.  The last of the Thirty is Uriah the Hittite.  Did he make the list due to being recognized prior to death as one of the Thirty, or was he added due to David’s guilt in Uriah dying?

Then at the beginning of 2 Samuel 24, the passage said that God was still angry with the Israelites, even though David gave some members of Saul’s family to the Gibeonites to avenge the breaking of a treaty by Saul.  But God “incited” David to call for a census.  If God asked David to do a census, there would be no problem, but in David having a census done, he was trusting in the number of soldiers instead of trusting in God.  But did God incite David or did God remove the hedge of protection (a term from the book of Job) around David so that Satan could incite him to do the census?  I think the latter.

But even Joab, the commander of the army, told David this was a bad idea.  David was king, so the census was done.

Then God told David that he got to choose his punishment.  The choices were sword, famine, or plague.  Rev. MacArthur mentions that this grouping of three woes is mentioned in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Jeremiah.  But Jeremiah mentions the three woes fifteen times, and although not in the same order, Ezekiel mentions them seven times.  Here, God says enemies instead of sword, but the three woes are often seen in the passage of time.  War rages and the farmers who are turned into soldiers cannot plant in their fields and the fields are being used for battle.  Thus, famine results.  That was the reason for the Marshall Plan to feed Europe after World War II.  But if you have the dead from the war and you add to that the dead from famine, you might not have enough resources to bury the dead, thus vermin come to feed on the carrion, and the vermin bring disease with them.  Thus, we go from sword to famine to plague.

But God gives David the choice.  They have just started to recover from a famine, and David thought that a second famine would totally ruin the crops.  He knew that his enemies would not give up until he was dead.  He chose to put the welfare of the nation in the hands of a merciful God.

The plague ended, and David was told to build an altar where the plague had ended.  This marked where the temple would be built.

But back to the inciting of David to call for a census.  David was the man after God’s own heart, yet he failed so many times.  What made David different?  When David was made aware of his sin, he repented.  He was not just remorseful, and many of his descendants were not even remorseful, but David turned from that sin.

We can learn from that.  Just because we have God in our heart does not mean that Satan will not tempt.  On the contrary, Satan notices those among the people on earth who are making great strides to become more like Jesus.  He requests from God, just as he did with Job, and the hedge of protection is removed as a test of our faith.  There will be trials.  There will be tests of faith.  And we may trust in God and survive the test unscathed, or we may do as David did and fall flat on our face.  Sin is sin and that is not okay, but we must do as David did.  Confess the sin.  Repent of the sin.  And obey God.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

2 Samuel 22 1. This psalm was used with reference to Jesus (v.50; see Ro 15:9). What new meaning does that give you here into David’s claim to be sinless? What new insights might these verses give you into the victorious rule of a future Messiah, the Son of David?
“2. Most religions of the world teach their adherents to honor, fear or appease their god. What does it mean to you that we can come to our God as David does in verse 2?
“3. When do you feel like God would shake heaven and earth to save you? Or don’t you think God would even lift a finger to save you? Why? Knowing you are worth that much effort to him, and that he delights in you, what does that do for your motivation and ability to praise God among the nations who do not know him?
“4. If you had written this song with references to the redemptive experiences of your small group or your church, what would you be singing about? From your personal experience, what would you call God: ‘My ____’? Recently, when have you been overwhelmed by love for God? In writing a song of your own, praising God, how might that help you become more aware of his love for you this week?
“5. How might God help you prevail over enemies ‘too strong for you’? Over what ‘walls’ would you like God to help you go?
“6. Habakkuk 3:19 quotes verse 34 (re: ‘hind’s feet in high places’) to build up hope in the face of a national crisis. What verse or lyric from David’s song would you claim to describe how you want to see God work in your life? Why that verse?
2 Samuel 23:1-7 The Last Words of David 1. The fact of divine inspiration begs the question, How? How does God’s Word come to be in human words: By mechanical dictation? Power of suggestion? Or what?
“2. Can God speak through you this week? How is that like or unlike divine inspiration? With whom in your area would you like to share God’s Word?
2 Samuel 23:8-39 David’s Mighty Men 1. Take a sample cross section of 100 ‘average’ Christian soldiers in the Lord’s army. Would you place yourself in the top 30? Why or why not? What strengths would you need to develop to be among your King’s mighty warriors?
“2. Where God has placed you now, what would it mean for you to ‘stand your ground’? What major obstacles or opposition would you be able to strike down with God’s help? In the near future, in what battle of yours would you like to see God give you the victory?
“3. Do you feel like you are fighting any battles all by yourself?·In what way might your small group provide reinforcements?
2 Samuel 24:1-17 David Counts the Fighting Men 1. In what ways are you proud of your accomplishments, acquisitions or responsibilities? Behind your proud array or aura you show the world, are you also insecure? Where are you tempted to lean upon the strength of your superior assets rather than in weakness depend on God?
“2. Though you may have prayed for strength in order to achieve great things for God, where has God made you weak, that you might learn to humbly obey him?
2 Samuel 24:18-25 David Battle an Altar 1. Are you willing to say to your King, ‘Take whatever pleases you’? What do you fear he might take that you want to keep?
“2. The Lord God accepted David and his sacrifice. How about you? Has the Lord your God accepted you? How do you know for sure?
“3. As a final offering of worship and fellowship as a group, try bringing to the Lord all those aspects of himself which he brings to your mind in prayer. Take turns giving thanks for what God has taught you through the study of 2 Samuel.”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Second Samuel 22 has one set of questions.  Second Samuel 23 and 24 each have two sets of questions as noted.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.