"He Rescued Me because He Delighted in Me " 2 Samuel 22:20

In 2 Samuel 22:20 King David captures the very heart of the gospel of Jesus. David is singing a song of praise to God for the deliverance from his enemies and establishing his throne in Israel. This follows a lifetime of wars, battles, conspiracy and intense conflict, both from within and outside the tribes of Israel.

And verse 20 is an amazing anthem that could be sung by the Christian for a lifetime:

He brought me out into a spacious place;
He rescued me because He delighted in me.

A Spacious Place
I think that spacious places probably hold more meaning to David than the average Joe. Most of us have opportunity to walk a beach carefree, or hike an alpine trail high in the mountains, or spread a blanket in the park on a lazy Sunday. And most likely the great value of these normal, same-old-same-old, routine, everyday, vanilla blessings is often lost on us.

But David spent much of his life as a soldier, a warrior. And to the soldier, "normal" is a highly desired commodity. During the earlier days of the Iraq war, I corresponded with an army chaplain who said that the soldiers have given up the mundane blessings by serving in the army: choosing what clothes to wear intend of body armor, sleeping without the sound of incoming mortars and warning klaxons, driving a road that won't explode beneath them without warning. Anything that we have in abundance looses value, until it is lost and then it becomes the deepest desire of our hearts. We have "normal every day life" in abundance, but a soldier is deprived of just that.

Why was David so grateful for spacious places? For weeks or possibly months at a time he had to hide in caves to escape enemies that sought his life (1 Sam 23:14). After God removed His blessing from David's royal predecessor King Saul (1 Sam 15:26) and anointed David as the next king (1 Sam 16:1-13), Saul tried numerous times to kill David. 1 Sam 16:14 is a horrifying passage that shows the torment Saul had which led to the persecution of David.

Eventually David fled from Saul and had to hide in caves. Imagine that you have been anointed king, but you're very young and have the most powerful man in the nation seeking your death. What were the long nights like in the dark, cramped caves? I imagine that if there were places that qualify as "hell holes" this would be it. The caves probably reeked with the sweat and filth of David's fellow soldiers. There was probably no stories told, but a strict silence enforced. Each man fearing for his life, missing their families with a deep ache. They probably ate cold food and considered fire too risky.
Any noise from outside might just be the wind, or could be their death. They'd be trapped like vermin if discovered. How many times did David dream of the carefree days of his youth as a shepherd? On the spacious hills, the vast open spaces?

He Rescued Me
And God miraculously delivered David. With a mighty hand He defeated David's enemies and brought him to spacious places. From the blackest cave to a royal throne. This is the gospel. God does this for everybody He saves. He brings us from a place of darkness into a place of light. A spacious place.

CS Lewis depicts this in a very interesting way in his book "The Great Divorce". In that book hell is very small, recedingly small, vanishingly small. In fact the entirety of hell fits into a minute crack in the enormous, spacious land in heaven.

The saving work of Jesus rescues us from darkness, from the pit. From that small, tight space of suffering. One of the ironies in The Great Divorce is that those in hell, in that minute, tiny space experience a dreadful loneliness and far distant separation from each other and from God. Because separation from God ultimately means separation from others, from love, from goodness, from friendship. People whom have yet to be rescued by God are living in a small space, but still far from each other compared to His original design. When God rescues us the whole situation is inverted: He brings us into a spacious place but also into close relationship with Himself and others. He rescues us and makes us part of the church, the Body of Christ, the Bride. We go from being unsaved and alone in a cramped dark space, to being rescued and brought into tight union and fellowship in a spacious place.

He Delighted in Me
I think that the last part of the 2 Samuel 22:20 passage is the best, but also the most difficult to fully understand. Why did God rescue David? Because he delighted in him! Why does God rescue us? Because He delights in us!! God delights in people who are fallen, lost, wallowing in sin, filthy with the stench of their rebellion. This world of people who countless times have spit in the eye of God-- this world!-- He rescues because He delights in us.

I have difficulty accepting this at times. God delights in me? Me? One who has sinned more times than I can count? One who is vanishingly small compared to the Creator of the universe? One who would fit easily and comfortably inside a micro-fracture of the kingdom of heaven? How does He even know that I exist? Let alone know my name? Let alone delight in me? Take great joy in me? Dance and sing over me? Desire a relationship with me?

Yes! He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because He delighted in me.

This is the gospel. This is good news.