2 Samuel 22:21-25 A Man After God’s Own Heart! ❤️

 ”“The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in His eyes.“ II Samuel‬ ‭22‬:‭21‬-‭25‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. According to the cleanness of my hands: These words are one reason why many people believe David could only sing this psalm before his sin with Bathsheba. Yet the text seems to indicate that David sang this towards the end of his days, when the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies (2 Samuel 22:1).

i. We might say that David simply believed what the prophet Nathan told him in 2 Samuel 12:13: The LORD also has put away your sin. David knew he was a forgiven man, and that the cleanness of his hands was because God cleansed them, not because they had never been dirtied.

ii. “If we were to remind David of his sin with Bathsheba, he would claim it as an illustration and a proof of this principle since he suffered in a variety of ways as a consequence of that great sin. But even though that happened, just as similar transgressions are committed by us all, on the whole he was nevertheless a man after God’s own heart and was greatly blessed by God.” (Boice)

b. I have kept the ways of the LORD…. I was also blameless before Him: David isn’t claiming sinless perfection. He spoke of his general righteousness and of his righteousness as it contrasted with the wickedness of his enemies.

i. “Before God the man after God’s own heart was a humble sinner, but before his slanderers he could with unblushing face speak of the ‘cleanness of his hands’ and the righteousness of his life.” (Spurgeon)

ii. We can come to God in prayer with the same claim, but not on the basis of our own righteousness, but the righteousness we have received in Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30 and 2 Corinthians 5:21).

c. I kept myself from my iniquity: Some think this is arrogance or pride on David’s part. Spurgeon quotes one commentator who wrote, “Kept himself! Who made man his own keeper?” Yet we know there is certainly a sense in which we must keep ourselves from sin, even as Paul spoke of a man cleansing himself for God’s glory and for greater service (2 Timothy 2:21).

(Guzik)

A Man After God’s Own Heart! ❤️ 

I’ve always wish, prayed that I had a heart like David and envisioned him in the fields with the sheep looking up at the stars and praying to God. But David’s sin’s reminds us the he was human. God forgave David but he still paid the consequences for those sin’s.

I like the quotes from Boice and Spurgeon!

May we all be humble sinners and keep a clean slate daily by confessing them to Jesus and asking for forgiveness.

Blessings