Sermon Tone Analysis

March 5, 2012

By John Barnett

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David was a man who loved the Lord, and the Lord loved him.

God named His own Son, “the Son of David” (Mat.

1:1), that in itself, is amazing.

The Son of God called the “son of” an angry man, the son of a murderer, the son of a liar, the son of an adulterer, and so on?

That is what a Son of David means.

But God is a God of forgiveness, new beginnings, and grace.

That is what makes David such a compelling figure in the Scriptures: David broke all Ten of the Commandments, and God loved David, called him the man after His own heart, and named Jesus the Son of David.

God is the One who loves, seeks, forgives, and saves.

David is a prime example of a loved, sought, forgiven, and saved man.

Thus in the summary of David’s life, captured by Psalm 18, God’s Word reveals to us two powerful truths: David loved the Lord with all his heart; and David sought the Lord through all his life.

First, look again at Psalm 18’s outline of David:

*SEEKING GOD ALL THROUGH LIFE*

Remember the divisions of this amazing Psalm?

• v. 1-3 God was the greatest attraction of David’s life;

• v. 4-6 David was often in desperate condition;

• v. 7-15 God’s Power was awesome to David;

• v. 16-24 It is God alone who can rescue us;

• v. 25-29 God is just in all He does;

• v. 30-36 God reveals Himself to those who Trust Him;

• v. 37-45 God Has conquered all our enemies;

• v. 46-50 God is Worthy of our Life-Long Praise.

David very personally expressed his lifelong seeking of the Lord when he used “my …” nine times in Psalm 18:1-2:

I will love You, O LORD, *my strength*.

The LORD is *my rock* and *my fortress* and *my deliverer*; my God, *my strength*, in whom I will trust; *my shield* and the horn [means “power”] of *my salvation, my stronghold.*

*David Made Scripture Personal*

David took truth about God and held it close, not at arm’s length.

Just the habit of going from God is, to My God is, makes all the difference: then, three thousand years ago, and now!

If we examine David’s expressions about God as—“my strength,” “my rock,” “my fortress,” “my deliverer,” “my God, my strength,” “my shield,” and “my salvation, my stronghold”—we find they *are a set of seven metaphors to describe God:*

• The first three as He aided *David in the military times* as his “strength,” “shield,” and “horn.”

• The last four are *David in the years on-the-run* where he so deeply found that only God could be the “rock,” “fortress,” “deliverer,” and “stronghold” for David.

After telling the Lord in verse 1 that he loved Him so much he wanted to “hugging-ly” embrace Him, David exhausted the Hebrew language in the next forty-nine verses in an attempt to explain all that God had been to him throughout his life.

*Finding the Lord As MY Rock*

But most of those expressions surrounded the way David related to God as his “Rock”:

• The LORD is *my rock* and my fortress and my deliverer (v.

2a);

• My God, *my strength* (Heb.

Lit.

“rock”), in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold (v.

2b).

• For who is God, except the LORD?

And who is a *rock*, except our God?

(v.

31).

• The LORD lives!

Blessed be *my Rock!* Let the God of my salvation be exalted (v.

46).

A rock that is strong, unmoving, shading, sheltering, and always we see that as David’s picture of God in his heart and mind, after all those trials.

By calling the Lord his “Rock,” David drew upon his knowledge of the desert where the fragile life of plants and animals was often clustered in areas of shade around the rocks.

He was acknowledging that he had only made it through the dangerous deserts of his life by the shadow of God as his Rock of Protection and Shade.

As he fled from enemies like Saul and Absalom, God became David’s Rock of Refuge—a Rock-solid foundation beneath him when everything else in his life was unstable.

Now let’s look back on David’s life to see what God saw in His servant.

*A Panorama of David’s Life Through Thirty-One of His Psalms*

What we see is David’s remarkable habit of looking for the Lord wherever he was.

For in the midst of a hard, stressful, constantly demanding life of unending struggles, David made regular, long-term investments in seeking God.

Such a long obedience in seeking God means—that many of David’s discoveries about the Lord’s faithfulness were made in times of acute loneliness, as recorded in the thirty-one psalms written during these life stages: his growing years, struggling years, strong years, and waning years.

His inspired testimony in each of these stages captured how to overcome loneliness in every facet of life.

*Loneliness Means God can Become Closer than Anything or Anyone Else*

Loneliness in all its many forms has but one purpose: since God made us for Himself, He longs to satisfy and complete us by using our righteous responses in loneliness to draw us closer and closer to Him.

That is where “obedience in seeking the Lord” comes in—and David gracefully modeled this for us.

As we’ve just seen, he lived a hard, stressful, constantly demanding life filled with enemies, and that led to intense loneliness.

But David refused to allow bitterness to fester.

Rather than focus on his problems, he chose to seek the Lord by responding righteously in his struggles, ever yearning to draw nearer to his God.

The more the Lord satisfied David’s deep desire for intimacy with Him, the more David’s love for Him abounded until it blossomed into the “hugging, embracing love” of a man after God’s own heart!

You will see such growth in this panorama of David’s life through key verses from the psalms he likely penned in each stage.

For the greatest blessing, I encourage you to meditate on these verses by relating them to what was going on in David’s life at the time.

Then, as the Lord leads, ask Him to help you apply needed truths to your own life.

*Part One: The Psalms from David’s Early Life at Home.

David suffered intense loneliness in his growing years—*

*David wrote 3 Psalms about when he was Overlooked, ignored, & Disliked by his family* (1 Samuel 16-18).

• *So God became the focus of David’s “Peer-Pressure” instead of any others*.

Psalm 19:* Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer (v.

14).

• *So David learned that God could Satisfy his Longings.

Psalm 23*: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want (v. 1).

• *David made his relationship with the Lord: HIS.

Psalm 132*: Let us go into His tabernacle; let us worship at His footstool.

… And let Your saints shout for joy (vv.

7, 9).

*Part Two: The Psalms from David’s Young Adult Life when he moved out of his parents house.*

David suffered intense loneliness in his struggling years—

*David wrote 3 Psalms about when he faced family conflict and danger as he fled from King Saul’s wrath* (1 Sam.

19:11-18; 20:35-42).

*David resolved to not quit when life was hard*.

Psalm 11: In the LORD I put my trust; how can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?

(v. 1).

*David found strength in the Lord when he was weak.

Psalm 59*: To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; for God is my defense, my God of mercy (v.

17).

*David found that the Lord could uphold him, even through the emotional earthquakes of life.

Psalm 64*: The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and trust in Him.

And all the upright in heart shall glory (v.

10).

*David wrote a Psalm about when he lost his job and was separated from his family, when he fled to Ahimelech the priest* (1 Sam.

21:1-9).

*David sought the Lord even with no job, no food, no home, no security.

Psalm 52*: I will praise You forever; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good (v.

9).

*David wrote 2 Psalms about moving to a new location under duress and facing multiple trials at Gath* (1 Sam.

21:10-12 and 13-15).

*David learned faith over fear.

Psalm 56:* Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.

In God (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not fear.

What can flesh do to me? (vv.

3-4).

*David magnified the Lord instead of his troubles.

Psalm 34:* I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.