II Samuel 22:7 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.
In my little library at my office I have a number of first editions. If you have a book that you admire and it happens to be the first edition and maybe even signed by the author, then that is something you value. In II Samuel 22 we have essentially the first edition of Psalm 18. Both passages are from God through the pen of King David, and II Samuel 22 is perhaps the “rough draft” of Psalm 18. What you find here is nearly formulaic, which is to say that it is a formula that you find throughout the book of Psalms.
II Samuel 22:7 gives you the formula in a nutshell. David says, “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.” I love that! I cried and God heard. Verse 1 tells us that David spoke this song to the Lord “in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul.” We can all think it would be great to be royalty, but King David had some royal problems that were probably bigger than what he would have had if he had not been a king. So, I think to envy someone like David might be a little bit naïve.
In any event, David had his problems and enemies, and David knew what to do when he did. David called on the Lord. I had trouble; I called; God heard. What you find is this cycle. Verse 5 says, “When…” It says, “When the waves of death compassed me.” Then, he asked. In verse 8, God came down. You have a when/then proposition. When I had trouble, I prayed. Then, God answered, and I gave God thanks. The next to the last verse of this psalm is David giving thanks. “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD.” God had given salvation to the man He made king. Even though David was king, he realized that God owned him, therefore he had the right and privilege to ask God.
So, you have trouble, asking, answering, thanks, and trouble again. You are somewhere on this cycle right now. Maybe you are coming into trouble or maybe you are coming off of trouble, but you are on this cycle. Trouble leads to asking God for help. Asking God for helps leads to God’s answer. God’s answer should lead to our thanksgiving.
The fact of the matter is the only part of this four-stage formula that we cannot break is the first step. Trouble is perfectly natural to every life whether you are a monarch or a pauper. But, asking isn’t automatic, God’s answer isn’t automatic, and our giving thanks isn’t automatic. So, don’t break the cycle, the cycle of trouble that leads to asking, asking that leads to God’s answering, and God’s answering that leads to our thanking Him.
The book of Psalms is full of thanksgiving to God and praise to God, and it should be. Why? It is a book that begins with a boatload of trouble, then prayers, then God’s provision, and then gratitude, not just for Who God is, but also because of what God does because of Who God is.
There are two ways we can break this cycle in a negative way. The first way is if we do not ask. If you are living in anxiety or exerting a lot of effort without asking God and seeking His grace, then you are breaking a cycle that you find throughout the book of Psalms and here in II Samuel 22. We don’t ask, but oftentimes we worry instead. Or, we double down our efforts before we ask and don’t even know if our efforts are pointed in the right direction.
Second, we can break the cycle by not giving thanksgiving. In verse 28, David indicates there are two kinds of people, those who are afflicted and those who are arrogant. The Bible calls them haughty here. That would certainly be true of people who don’t give thanksgiving. Are you afflicted or are you arrogant? Are you in need and do you know it or are you arrogant and you show it by not thanking or even asking God?
Trouble is inevitable. It comes to every life, but what you do in response to that trouble determines the kind of cycle you are on. If we don’t ask, we break the cycle. If we don’t give God thanks, we break the cycle. We will always have trouble, but there is always a God Who is able and earnest to hear our prayers.