Hide it or Shine it

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

HIDE IT OR SHINE IT

2 Sam 23:1-4

23:1 These are the last words of David: "The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs:

2 "The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: 'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, 4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.'

NIV

David was a man of God, also a mighty warrior, anointed with the arm of God. David is the man whom God testified that He had found a man after His own heart and that he would do whatever God said. Here, David is lifted up, exalted by the Most High. How do we relate to this kind of truth? Are we not also exalted by the Most High, except our righteousness, our exaltation is in Jesus. At present, we surely do not rule over any men; however, we rule over ourselves as we are to have self-control, which is both part of the fruit of the Spirit, as well as it is a trait we are to add to our faith. Because we do fear God, but in Hebrew it is to revere God, see Him as the Most High God, awesome and mighty in power, in fact all-powerful, able to do anything, for there is nothing impossible for Him. When we face that truth, we rule over ourselves by submitting to Jesus, our righteousness. If we live in Jesus, in His righteousness, then we will be like the light of morning at sunrise; we will shine the light of Jesus, for He is the Morning Star, the Light of the world. However, Jesus told us that we are the light of the world, we should shine like the morning sun, brightly shining, reflecting the glory of the Lord. It is almost too much to comprehend, yet if we are living rightly, as we reflect the brilliant shining Glory of God, the Most High, who is the Morning Star, the sun as it rises in the Eastern sky, then we would appear as glorious as God does. The question is, why don’t we? Have we allowed the weight of life to dim our light? We know the darkness of the world, evil, cannot overshadow our light, for we reflect the Light of the world. But it is the weight, the burdens of life, the worries, concerns, the aches and pains, the hurts, sorrows, or anything else that could cause our light to be covered under that bushel. Yet, we are admonished to put it on a lampstand so to give light, to shine the light we reflect from the Light of the world. Yet, he said, we are actually the light now, so we must decide if we are going to hide it or shine it. 

Praise Be to Our Rock

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

PRAISE BE TO OUR ROCK

2 Sam 22:47-51

47 "The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior! 48 He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me,   49 who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from violent men you rescued me. 50 Therefore I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing praises to your name. 51 He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever."

NIV

Could we do no less? We agree, the Lord lives! We give Him praise for He is our Rock! We do exalt God, we lift Him up for He is God, the Rock, our Savior. We do not have life without Him, as He created all life, but all life is not destined to eternal life as we are because He is our Savior. Through His own work upon the cross, He has avenged us and set us free from the enemy of our souls, who only wants to bring us down. He has set up, through the power of the blood of Jesus, above Satan and death. He has rescued us and therefore we will praise you, O Lord, among the nations. How can we not sing praises to His name? How can we not magnify His great and wonderful name? How can we not sing with all our souls and strength, raising our voices and our hands to His mighty act of our redemption? How could we ever be muted in our praise and worship of our Lord and Savior? Can we simply go through the motions but not give it our all in our praise, exalting Him above all else? No, we cannot! If we are not Praising the Rock, Exalting Him, our Savior, then who are we? He has shown His unfailing kindness to his anointed. Of course, David was His anointed king over Israel, but we also have been anointed by God to be His own, His children, co-heirs with Jesus. Because we are so extremely grateful for His grace, His love, His unfailing kindness, we will give Him all the praise He is due, and we will praise Him with all we are, every ounce of strength, with every fiber of our being, for in Him we have life. “In Him we live and move and have our being, even as some of your own poets have said, we are His offspring!” The Lord lives! Praise be to our Rock! 

Subject to Him

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

SUBJECT TO HIM

2 Sam 22:44-46

44 "You have delivered me from the attacks of my people; you have preserved me as the head of nations. People I did not know are subject to me, 45 and foreigners come cringing to me; as soon as they hear me, they obey me. 46 They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.

NIV

What do we do with this next to the last stanza of David’s song? It seems directly related to David as he sits on his throne as king over all of Israel. All the people of Israel are subject to him, yet he does give God the credit, as God did deliver him from the attacks of his people, and preserved him as the head of nations. What we could see is that the Lord God is sitting on His throne as the King of kings and Lord of lords, and He has delivered us from the attack of death brought from the evil one. It is the Lord God who preserves us and has put us over nations in some sense. We do not rule other people, but are exalted above them, for we have become humble before our Lord. Those who do not know the Lord God Almighty and Jesus as their Lord and Savior will lose heart as they come trembling from their strongholds to kneel before the Almighty God on the last day, the Day of Judgment. For us believers, there is coming a day when we rule and reign with Jesus, and there will be people we do not know that will be subject to us. But the best of all is that because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, we will be living in a place that He prepared for us for all eternity. Some make it sound that all we will ever do is stand before the throne of God and sing all day long, every day, for thousands upon thousands of days. Maybe that is true, maybe we never need to rest, or sleep, or live in some abode, but we do eat the fruit of trees that never perish. We do get to walk on streets of gold and talk with all the saints that are there with us, like Noah, Moses, Aaron, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, as well as John, James, Peter, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Lazarus, so many people to share stories with, and enjoy being in the presence of our God. All of us are subject to Him, and as we live throughout the rest of our days on earth, in these bodies, we are still subject to Him. We need to live in a manner, understanding that we are subject to Him 

Crushing Evil

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

CRUSHING EVIL

2 Sam 22:38-43

38 "I pursued my enemies and crushed them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. 39 I crushed them completely, and they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. 40 You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet. 41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes. 42 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them —to the LORD, but he did not answer. 43 I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.

NIV

More of the song of David, and in this stanza, he is making the point that he was  actively aggressive against his enemies, with the strength of the LORD. It is the Lord who made his adversaries bow before his feet. Yet David said that he beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; that he pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets. We do not have the kind of earthly or human adversaries we face in battle, although, over the years, as a nation, we have engaged in wars against each other. Our nation has faced other nations that had evil intentions, and our nation, the men and women of the armed forces overcome them. But our adversaries are spiritual, and the only way we can stand our ground is because the lord arms us with strength for the battle. In fact, He dresses us in his armor and He is our shield. We can crush the evil that stands in our way, or comes at us in some devious manner, with some scheme of deception, thinking we will not notice the evil spirits standing before us. The evil adversaries try to get us to become prideful, or have hurt feelings, or be selfish, and so many attitudes and behaviors that are not pleasing to the Lord. Those evil spirits are at work trying to destroy us, even destroy the church, but we have the strength of the Lord, and we have been given the Holy Spirit, who gives us or manifests His gift of spiritual discernment, and we see those evil schemes and their deceptions. We are then able to crush them as fine as the dust of the earth. We can trample and pound them like mud in the streets, all because the Lord has armed us with His strength for the battle. In Fact, the Lord causes those evil spirits to turn their back on us and run for the hills, to take flight, and we can and will destroy them as we know and have the truth of God. We cannot be sure if those evil spirits, those demons ever cry out for help, but we know there is no one to save them; they are all doomed. But that is why they are so bent on bringing down, causing us to be cast away from His presence, but serving ourselves above all else, submitting to self, giving in to evil. However, they have already failed, for we stand in the presence of our Lord and He has given us strength, arming us with all his power and authority over evil. Because of Jesus, we have won the battle as we have crushed evil. 

Perfect and Flawless

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

PERFECT AND FLAWLESS

2 Sam 22:31-37

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. 32 For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? 33 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. 34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. 35 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great. 37 You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.

NIV

What else can we say other than, Amen! His ways are so perfect, so flawless, we wonder why we struggle so much to walk with Him, to follow His perfect and flawless ways. Who else can we base our lives upon except the Rock, for all other ground is sinking sand? Without God, we are but weaklings, even unable to stand, but it is He who arms us with strength and makes our ways perfect. There is absolutely no way we could make our own ways perfect, even with all our efforts, because they would be feeble at best. No matter how holy we try to be, or do religious things, even thinking they are spiritual, we are so far from perfect ways. But He makes our ways perfect; it is He who does it all. He is the one and only one who makes our feet like the feet of the deer. He enables us to run the race, to be able to climb to heights we would never be able to do alone. Without the Lord, we would never be able to fight against the forces of evil, to bend that bow of bronze, yet we can stand behind the Lord, for He is our shield. It is almost too much to consider that the Lord stoops down to make us great. How much he cares for us, to stoop down, yet that is what Jesus did as He came down to earth in the form He made us, stooping down to fight and win the battle over sin and death, winning the victory for us. Our path was the one that led to defeat and death, but because of Jesus, we now walk on a broad path beneath our feet, running like a deer toward Him, and we do not turn our ankles or stumble because He is beneath us, the Rock, who arms us with strength, who leads us in perfect ways. We can stand running the race because of Him. It is nothing about us, or our strength, abilities, or talents, but everything  is about Him, for He is perfect and flawless. 

Loyal and Steadfast

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

LOYAL AND STEADFAST

2 Sam 22:26-30

26 "To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 27 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. 28 You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. 29 You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light. 30 With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.

NIV

With God, all things are possible. The first task or lifestyle of a believer is to be faithful to the Lord God Almighty. But how do we show our faithfulness? What is being faithful? We know that he is faithful, for He is perfect, or perfection, which includes every aspect of him. So faithful is His nature, but it is not ours. However, we can choose to be faithful, but again, what does that look like? The English meaning of the word faithful means to be loyal and steadfast. Yet in Hebrew, this word means more like 'mercy' than 'faith'. So then, to the merciful, He shows himself to be merciful. However, there is also this sense of being faithful, as in faithful to show mercy. But there is that concept of faithfulness, as in this translation, and the Hebrew and Greek words that mean being faithful—being loyal to God and steadfast in our believing Him. We have noted this before and believe this is so important that we understand the difference between believing in God and believing God. We cannot be faithful to someone we believe in, but we can be faithful to someone we believe. To believe God means we trust Him to be absolutely true about everything or all things, including our lives. Are we faithful in accordance with what He directs us, or the work He does within us? Then, this idea about being blameless, we know that He has declared those who believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that He came to save us, going to the cross with all our sins upon himself, blameless and holy in his sight. So then He shows Himself to be blameless to us, whom He declared blameless. That is to be pure, without spot or blemish. Then we get to this part about the fact that He saves the humble, but not the haughty. This word humble in Hebrew carries the meaning of being in need, poor, or lowly. This is how we must approach the throne of God, bowing before Him, for we are needy, for without Him we are lost, living in a pit of darkness and despair. He is our lamp, our light that shines on the path He has determined we should walk. Because He shows us the way, and goes before us, and beside us and behind us, that is all around us, we can march through any obstacle and scale any hurdle that stands in our way, as we remain loyal and steadfast to our God. 

Rewarded

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

REWARDED

2 Sam 22:21-25

21 "The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God. 23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. 24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. 25 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.

NIV

Another Stanza in this song of David, and this one speaks of the faithfulness of David in keeping his relationship with the LORD first in his life. Interestingly, David speaks in the past tense as he said how the LORD has dealt with him according to his righteousness, and the cleanness of his hands, and that the LORD has rewarded him. We wonder if we always think that our reward is eternal life, something that will happen when we lay our bodies down. But David speaks of being rewarded. Was David truly righteous, and did he really have clean hands? We know he was a man of war, yet he claims in this stanza that he had kept the way of the LORD. The evil he speaks of is turning away from his God. Certainly, our righteousness is in Jesus, and we are blameless and holy in the sight of God. It is also true that our Lord deals with us because of his own cleanness and righteousness, but as we walk and talk with him, and make every effort to follow his decrees, and that we have not turned away from him, he has rewarded us. There are so many ways he has already rewarded our faithful discharge of his commands. Of course, over the years, some believers we have lived alongside have created lists of their own to live by, the old “Do's and Don’ts” that have morphed over time in accordance with the current culture. But to live in accordance with the decrees of the Lord means there is no change in our thinking or attitudes and our behaviors, except to increase in every increasing reflection of the glory of our Lord. God has already rewarded us by sending Jesus so that through faith in him we have eternal life. However, his reward is also physically giving us all that he has. He has just kept giving us things the pagans chase after. How much more could we ask for? What else in this life do we need? We have everything there is to have. But the most wonderful gift he keeps giving us is the joy in our hearts, the contentment within from knowing Him and having His divine influence in our lives. His gift of leading us to green pastures and leading us to lie down, to rest our souls, our spirits beside His still waters, and how every day He restores our souls. He blesses us each day with His assurance, His love, His guidance, and the work of His hands in our lives. How he rewards us for staying the course, keeping his decrees, as we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, you are so good to us. Thank you for your reward.