Turn if you would to second Samuel. I've got too many gadgets and papers and alright. Second Samuel 22. We are going to begin reading in verse one. We're going to read down through verse 20.

And then we're going to focus on the first four verses of the chapter. Second Samuel 22 beginning in verse one. And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. The God of my rock, in him will I trust.

He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge. My savior, thou savest me from violence. I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and so shall I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about.

The snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried to my God. And he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the heaven moved and shook because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet. He rode upon a cherub and did fly. He was seen upon the wings of the wind and he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the most high uttered his voice. And he sent arrows and scattered them, lightning and discomfited them. The channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were discovered.

At the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from above. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from them that hated me for they were too strong for me.

They prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. And we could go on. The chapter's 51 verses long.

It's all part of a song that David wrote. Maybe you can get a chance to finish the rest of it. A little later, I could preach from the entire chapter, but we would be here till 11:00. So we won't do that this evening. Let's focus on the first four verses, and there are a ton of descriptors of the for the Lord in these verses, just in the first four.

David introduces or the writer introduces what this chapter what's in this chapter in in verse one. And David spake on the Lord the words of his song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. So that gives us some context for the song, the psalm that David wrote here. This is a song written by David to praise the Lord and celebrate his deliverance from Saul and all his enemies. Probably written later in his reign after he had subdued his enemies and secured the kingdom.

So he mentions Saul particularly is mentioned here, but it's likely it was written a little bit later. It doesn't have to be in chronological order. In other words, the psalm may have been written before the events in the preceding chapters. We don't exactly know. But we do know it was after he had defeated Saul, had taken his place as king, and likely won many other battles over his enemies.

Sometimes when men are successful in their battles, when we are exalted among our peers, we tend to what? We tend to forget. We tend to forget who it is that exalted us. We tend to forget what caused us or who caused us to succeed. That is all too often the case.

When people succeed, whether it be in business or politics or in other areas of life, they often forget the foundation laid by their their parents or of mentors, those who gave them some help along the way of those who trained them. And it goes to their what? It goes to their head. But we don't see that here in this particular song from David. David seemed to recognize, most importantly, who it was that gave him this great success, who delivered him time and time again out of the hand of his enemies.

He knew who had buttered his bread and who was deserving of all the credit for his successes, and that was and is the Lord God of Israel. And then he describes him in several somewhat synonymous terms, but they're not entirely synonymous. They have different, nuances to the meanings here. And so we're going to take time as God took time, as David took time, to describe God, in these by these metaphors here, we will do the same this evening. David says in verse two, he says, the Lord, that is Jehovah Yahweh, however you pronounce God's, that's God's personal name, not used of any other so called deity.

All capital letters there. The Lord is my what? Rock. The Lord is my rock. The word rock used here could be translated Craig.

A space between the rocks, like a foxhole where he was securely hidden from the darts of the enemy. So if you're running from somebody and they're after you and they're shooting after you or the stuff, you you run and you find wanna find a place to what? To hide, to get something between you and the the enemy for security. And that is the connotation of this term translated rock here. It's a secure place to be hidden from the darts of the enemy.

Armies dig foxholes to dive into in the heat of battle for protection and to have a secure place from which to shoot back at the enemy. Caves and small canyons and crags, as they're called, served as a served as natural foxholes into which one could disappear from the side of the enemy. God is that to David and to us. When we're running in fear, when things are getting rough, when the enemy is active, the Lord is our hiding place, where we can hide and be secure from the enemy, a place from which we can gather ourselves and fight back against the enemy. There are several songs in our hymn book about that.

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock. What what is the cleft? It's it's it's this right here. That's the cleft of the rock. The Lord's our rock.

In him we hide a shelter in the time of what? Storm. Mhmm. Secure whatever it'll be tied. A shelter in the time of storm.

Till the storm passes over. Rock of ages cleft for me. There's a place the Lord just for me, prepared for me. He is there. When the circumstances of life are pressing down upon us, particularly when we are afraid, there is a rock in whom we to whom we can run, a crag in which we can hide.

He is our rock. He is, next, our fortress. A fortress. A mighty castle in which David could run inside and be protected by its defense. He's not just a cray.

He is a, what, a a mighty fortress in which to which we can run. The frail human being is no match for the onslaught of the enemy. So people lived, in David's day, in walled cities. You've watched, you know, movies and documentaries about times gone by over in England and Europe and during the dark ages, and everybody had a what? Castle.

Why did they have a castle? Why did you need a castle? Was was it just a was it just a nice place for the king to live? No. No.

No. The castle, like walled cities that we read about, like Jericho, like Jerusalem, another walled city. It was a place so when the enemy came, all the people from roundabout could run inside the what? Run inside the walls and be secured in the fort, in the the castle, in the walls of the walled city. In many places, you would have the people would live, had a place, a dwelling place inside the walls, inside the city, and then they had land outside the walls.

So they would get up in the morning and they would get their stuff together, and then they would go out to their plot of land, and there they would plant and harvest. And at night, where would they go? Well, they'd go back into the walled city where they were they were secure. In some cases, these walled cities had other little towns round about them, and people stayed there. But when the enemy was pressing down, everybody fled into the city.

When when Jerusalem was attacked in as we read on later in in Kings and in Chronicles, when Jerusalem was under attack by others, the city was full of people because all the many of the towns that were nearby in Judah, they would flee from their towns and they would when the enemies came and they would all flood into the city of Jerusalem because it was a walled city for security. So it wasn't just the people that lived there that were in Jerusalem, it was the people of Judah that had fled to the walled city in order to be secure. According to David, his mighty fortress, though Jerusalem was a wonderful city and was secure in many respects, he doesn't refer to the city. He refers to his God as his his fortress. Not just a a place to hide, but a massive impenetrable fortress with defenses to subdue the enemy while securing the fragile.

We are indeed fragile, as is our life, but our God is a fortress, a fortress to us securing us from the hand of the enemy. He is there. If we will flee to him, he will fight for us. He has an impenetrable fortress for us, his children. He is our rock.

He is our fortress. He is our deliverer, our savior, our rescuer. David found himself needing to be rescued from his enemies on more than one occasion. You mentioned Saul at the beginning of the chapter. He needed to be rescued from Saul again and again and again and again.

And who showed up again and again and again and again? God did. God brought help just when he needed it. God turned the heart of Saul just when he needed it. God brought circumstances, amazing circumstances into play just when David needed it.

Here he is hiding in a cave, and Saul walks in and doesn't see him. Again and again, Saul would be hot on his heels and something would happen and Saul would get word. They're attacking whatever city and Saul would have to leave chasing David and go fight a battle just when he was just about to nab him. Praise the Lord. David had a deliverer who rescued him, sometimes from his enemies, sometimes from himself, and he knew who to turn in those times.

There are times when there are enemies clearly out to get us, spiritual enemies, human enemies. Sometimes the enemy is who? The enemy is us. We make dumb decisions. We allow sin to get a foothold.

We make poor decisions. We get ourself into a fix. But our God has said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. And if we're willing to turn to him, he is not only our rock and our fortress, but he is our rescuer. He'll come to our aid even when it is our fault.

We see in the book of Judges time and time again, Israel would get themselves into a terrible situation in the book of Judges. And they would cry out to God. It was their fault. They had turned from their faithfulness to God. They had dabbled in idolatry of others.

And the others who idolatry they dabbled in decided to come and oppress them. It's usually the way it went. And then they would cry unto God. What would God do? He'd send a deliverer.

He'd send a deliverer again and again and again and again. That's the kind of God he is. He is a savior, a rescuer to those who call upon him in repentance and faith. God is more than a lifeless rock or a cold castle. He is more than a place to hide.

He is an active savior for all who seek him. He takes on the enemy for the battle belongs to the Lord. He invades enemy territory and he takes back his own from the hand of the enemy. What is that called? Well, that's called redemption because that's what God did.

He invaded enemy territory. What was enemy territory? Earth, humanity. He invaded enemy territory in his son, and he took back his own by dying on the cross from the hand of that enemy. Praise the Lord.

He is our savior, our deliverer, our rescuer, our true hero. In Colossians two thirteen through 15, I like this passage, and you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Jesus came. He died on the cross not for his sins but for ours.

And then he rose again triumphant over the powers of death and hell and sin that he conquered on the cross of Calvary when he cried out, it is finished. He is our true savior and he is our rescuer, our deliverer as was David. He goes on to say he is my God, my rock in whom I place my trust. My God, my rock in whom I place my trust. He is all powerful.

He is his David's all powerful God was the most secure of refuges in the midst of the storms of life. There are other places, there are other secure places, things, places, people you can go to. Sometimes they're helpful, but they don't compare to who? They don't compare to God. David had armies, but he didn't say that the armies were his rock.

He said his God is his rock. Armies are not all powerful, but our God is. He is an all powerful God and sovereign Lord. He is our sure foundation that does not change and cannot be moved. We, sing a little song with the kids.

I haven't sung it in long time, but it's taken from Matthew chapter seven at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. The wise man built his, what, house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock. And the rains came and poured, but the house stood, what? The house stood firm.

Now the foolish man, he built his house on the, what? Sand. And the winds came, the rain the winds came, rains came down, the floods came up, the rains came down, the floods came up, the rains came down, the floods came up, and wiped his house away. You better make sure your house is built on a shore foundation. That's an issue here in Florida.

There are houses that weren't built on such a sure foundation because you gotta work at it to to build a sure foundation in Pinellas County, else you're gonna hit a sink going, boom. There it goes. So but our God is our rock. And if we build our lives and put our trust in him, he isn't going to move. We are secure in our all powerful God.

All must obey his voice. None can come against his own apart from his permitting. Think about Job. Satan came to God and God mentioned Job. And Satan said, well, well, look.

Look what you did. I mean, you've you've made him rich and wealthy. He has nothing to worry about. Sir, he serves you. Take it all away and he'll what?

He'll curse you, Satan said. God said, okay, take it away. But Satan had to come to God for what? For permission. Now, you know, if you just read the first part of Job and if you were Job at the time, you might have thought, God, this this doesn't feel like you're helping me out here too much.

But God knew what he was doing. God knows what he's doing in our life. He is our rock. We can trust in him. He is dependable.

He is trustworthy, and he is the one thing in life that we can put all of our trust in. My wife's my wife's favorite psalm is Psalm 37, and it has come to be, I think, my favorite, at least the first few verses. Psalm thirty seven one, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they soon shall be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed.

Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. And you could go on down into that psalm.

Trust in the Lord. He is our rock. We can trust in him. He is a shield. He mentions here, a shield.

He is David's protection in the heat of the battle from the fiery darts of the wicked. Sometimes you get out in the battle and the enemy finds you and they're just shooting at you, you need a what? You need a shield to quench those fiery sharp darts that are being I mean, you know, they'd make quick quick work of this body if you don't have a what? If you don't have a shield. In the battle against sin and Satan, we have a what?

We have a shield. We're no match alone for Satan's fiery darts. If it was just us by ourselves, well, we'd end up like Eve in the Garden of Eden. We have a shield to protect us against those temptations, against the doubts and despair, the failures, and the persecution that Satan hurls our way. Our shield can stop them all.

Our shield can keep us in one piece spiritually, eternally. Fret not thyselves because of evildoers. Because like the grass comes up, the heat comes up, and they die. But we have a shield from the fiery darts that protects us from the heat and the enemy of temptation and sin. And if we'll put our trust in that shield, if we will remember the Lord is there, he will help us.

He will not allow us to be tempted above that we are able, but will make a way of what? Escape that we'll be able to bear it. He is David's shield and he is ours. His word is a shield. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God.

He is the horn of my salvation, the strength and confidence of his salvation. The word horn is a means strength. The horn was a symbol of strength and power. When David says he is the, calls God the horn of my salvation, he says he means he is the strength of my salvation. The strength of my salvation is not who?

It's not me. It's him. He is my strength. He is my confidence, not me. Because I'm frail and I'm fragile and I am easily manipulated, but the horn of my salvation, not so.

He is not fragile. He is not easily manipulated. He is not weak. He is strong in my behalf, and I can put all my confidence in him. Paul expressed this in second Timothy one twelve, for the witch cause I also suffer these things.

Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed for I know whom I have believed. Who is that? Jesus. And am persuaded that I am able. No.

Persuaded that what? He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. What day is he talking about? The day of judgment, the judgment seat of Christ, the day when he would appear before the Lord. The apostle Paul faced the persecution with endurance and patience and hope.

He got up time and time again and went on to the next city to preach the gospel because he knew that he was what? Secure. He knew he was secure because he knew that the horn of his salvation could keep him. And he didn't have to worry about that. He could, with hope and assurance and confidence, go to the next place, preach the gospel knowing that he was secure in Christ.

The strength of our salvation is not in ourselves, but in our savior who is the horn of our salvation. He is my stronghold and my refuge. Two more. My stronghold and my refuge. A stronghold or a refuge is usually a lofty retreat, a high tower to which the enemy cannot climb.

In David's day, they would often find tall hills with steep sides and they, with great effort, would build these forts on top of these hills. And it took a lot of effort and a lot of time to build these fort on top of the hill. Why would they do that? Well, they would do that because the the enemy had a hard time scaling the the side of the hill to get to the stronghold at the top. And God is our our stronghold.

He is our our lofty retreat, our high tower from which we can look down at the enemy below and feel what? And feel safe and feel secure. I think of John as he's writing the book of Revelation and he's talking about all the judgments that are happening on earth. But is John afraid? Is John dismayed?

No. Why? Because where is John in his vision? John's in heaven. He is looking down from his, what, very high tower on what is happening down on earth.

I think personally that's another evidence as to why the rapture is going to happen before the tribulation. Because I think like John, we're not gonna be down here in the midst of all the judgment and calamity. We're going to be watching from a high tower, safe and secure. And though we're not physically there, though right now we're down here, the Bible says we're seated with Christ in heavenly places. We're all we have a a lofty retreat, a high tower.

When the trials of life hit us hard, when temptations hit us hard, there is a a retreat in which we can run and hide a prayer closet that is like that high tower that Satan has a hard time scaling. He is my stronghold and my high tower, my refuge from which I can be secure. And he is my savior who saves me from violence. Thou savest me from violence and from judgment. Romans six twenty three, for the wages of sin is what?

Death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin brings upon us just wrath and violence. But Jesus Christ our God, saves us. He rescues us from the violence of sin and death and hell.

For God sent his sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be what? Might be saved. That's why Jesus came. And he saves us from the violence that we would face for all eternity by what he did for us. Our rock, our fortress, our deliverer, our God in whom we can trust, our shield, the horn of our salvation, our high tower and refuge, our savior who saves us from violence.

And what was David's conclusion in verse four? I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine enemies. Now David was largely talking about human enemies, but the metaphor follows. We have even greater enemies.

Ephesians chapter six tells us principalities and powers in in high places, not just flesh and blood, enemies that can do us greater harm than any human being can. And there is one that stands between us and that enemy. And who is that? That's Jesus Christ. He is our fortress.

He is our shield. He is our savior. And when we start to feel the heat of the enemy, what should we do? Well, do as David did. I will call upon the Lord.

Don't forget don't forget about the Lord. He's there. Run inside the walls. Don't stand out there and go, oh, poor me. Poor me.

Get inside the walls. Get inside the fortress. Get down on your knees. Get into his word. Remember and call upon him in faith, in worship, and in victory.

First Corinthians fifteen fifty seven, but thanks be to God which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray and then let's close with a song. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for being there for us. Thank you Lord for the reminder that David gave us this evening from your word. That you're there.

You are our rock, our shield, our fortress, our God, our deliverer, our refuge, our high tower, our savior. Thank you, Lord, that you have chosen on to take on the battle against our enemies in our behalf. Thank you, Lord, that when we are discouraged, you are there. Thank you, Lord, that when we are in despair, you are there. Thank you, Lord, that when we're suffering and facing trials, you are there.

Thank you for being there for us. Lord, may we remember you not only to seek refuge in times of trial, but also in gratitude to praise you for being our rock. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.