Word of Encouragement (12/13/2023)
He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. 21 "The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. 24 I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. 25 And the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. (2 Sam. 22:20-25)
David concludes his (metaphoric) recounting of God’s deliverance with these words: “He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me” (v. 20). The last clause gives the reason for God’s deliverance of David: “because he delighted in me.” In the following verses, he gives the reasons for God’s delight in him.
Notice the kind of things David mentions: “my righteousness” (vv. 21, 25)), “the cleanness of my hands (or from guilt)” (v. 21); keeping the ways of the LORD and not wickedly departing from his God (v. 22); not turning aside from His statutes (v. 23); being “blameless before him” and keeping himself from guilt. (v. 24); his cleanness in God’s sight (v. 25). He seems to suggest that God rescued and blessed him because he was righteous and blameless in keeping His laws.
We are taken aback by what David says here. His words run very much counter to our New Testament sensibilities that are shaped by such passages as “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10); “because by works of the law no one will be justified”; “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Add to this what David did with Bathsheba and against Uriah. We cannot help but wonder how David could possibly speak of his righteousness and blamelessness in this way. Bill T. Arnold says,
“David is not claiming here to have never sinned.... Rather, he is taking the standard Old Testament view that deliverance is also vindication of one’s relationship with God. It is precisely because he has been delivered that David can assume his actions concerning Saul were in the right and therefore pleasing to God. Another of the psalms claims similarly:
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer” (Ps. 66:18-19).
Also, as David’s words were incorporated into the Bible under the inspiring work of the Holy Spirit, we may view them as an example of God’s vindication of His people in Jesus Christ. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God justifies us on account of Christ’s righteousness: He pardons us as if we had never sinned, and He declares us righteous as if we had perfectly fulfilled God’s law only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, which is received by faith alone. Oh, how marvelous is God’s grace and how all-sufficient is Christ’s blood and righteousness! Let us live, then, in a manner worthy of this wonderful grace!