Word of Encouragement (11/23/2023)
And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said, "The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, 3 my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. (2 Sam. 22:1-3)
David goes on to praise God as “my shield.” The shield is used in battle. Here, David must have been thinking about all the battles he has fought and survived. He recognizes that God has protected his life from the slashing of swords, thrusting of spears, and rains of arrows as his Shield. Even though he could not see God while he was fighting all those battles, he could see clearly in his hindsight that, without God’s protection as his Shield, he could not have survived the countless battles he had to face.
But David must have also recognized that the battles he had to fight were not just against the swords, spears, and arrows of foreign invaders. He has had to fight political battles against the schemes, conspiracies, and betrayals of his own people, the Israelites, and even his own children. Such political enemies operate in darkness, using all kinds of guile and deception, putting up smiles of flattery but ready to stab in the back. How could anyone keep sanity if he started suspecting everyone as a potential traitor? Isn’t this one of the reasons that Saul was so paranoid and wanted to get rid of David? The Greek myth of the sword of Damocles depicted in a dramatic way the precarious situations kings often found themselves in. David recognized that he could not maintain his kingship if God had not been his Shield.
There were also spiritual battles David had to fight. In these battles, he fell and stumbled more than once. David was a man after God’s own heart, for sure, but he was not perfect, far from it. After the Bathsheba incident, he confessed, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5). Having recognized how great his sin was, he cried out to God, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11). He saw what happened to Saul, and he feared that the same would happen to him. But God as his Shield protected him from falling so far that he should be dismissed as Saul was.
Should we not praise and thank God that we can call Him and rely upon Him as our Shield? “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come” because God’s grace has been our shield. But even more importantly, God has been our shield against the darts of Satan’s accusations, the sword of the curse of the law, and the spears of our guilty conscience. All this is true because Jesus Christ was pierced, afflicted, crushed, and wounded in our place for our sins. Nothing can harm us to inflict spiritual death. Let us give thanks to the Lord for being our great Shield!