WEEK 7 ● Day 2

READ 2 SAMUEL 22 & PSALM 18

Our boys love to wrestle with my husband. Like, love to wrestle with him. When one of them was around seven or eight, he would always exclaim in somewhat broken English, “Daddy, you like a rock!” He’d say it in such awe and admiration, with a big rolling r because of his gorgeous Ethiopian accent. When I read 2 Samuel 22:2-4, that’s how I read it, with my heavenly Father being an incredible rrrrrrock. He is solid. He is someone I can trust because He is unmovable. And that’s a big part of saying yes to Him, right? Knowing that He can’t be shaken by anything we’re walking through?

2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

3 my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation,

my stronghold and my refuge,

my savior; you save me from violence.

4 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies.

2 SAMUEL 22:2-4, ESV

1. Let’s head to the BLB and dig in a little bit here. What are the words for rock in verse 2 and verse 3?

 

 

I have searched commentaries and googled extensively and simply cannot figure out why there is a difference. The only thing I saw is from a Jewish question-board, someone asking the same thing. The rabbis on the board referenced different passages than we’re covering here, but I think their responses also answer our question: David was trying to show his maturity in understanding the depth of God’s strength.[1] Let me explain:

One rabbi referenced a long discourse (thankfully translated into English) that talked about Moses calling water from a rock. Two different times, the Old Testament shares about him doing so, though God asked him to do it differently each time. The first time, God tells Moses to strike the rock to make water flow out (Exodus 17). Many years later, God tells Moses to speak to the rock, commanding water to come forth (Numbers 20). Moses doesn’t listen this second time and instead hits the rock two times. From it, the water still flowed, but his lack of obedience and grandiose manner of drawing out the water kept him from the Promised Land.

Rabbi YY Jacobson explained that צוּר (tsuwr) is used when the Jewish nation was still considered “young,” and forty years later, as Moses and the Israelites neared the end of their wandering through the desert, they had reached the level of a סֶלַע (cela‘):

Before any refinement could be achieved [in the newly freed people of Israel], the outer “rock” needed to be cracked. The “hard skin” they developed over 210 years in exile, needed to be penetrated before its inner vibrant and fresh waters could be discovered. . . . At this primitive point in Jewish history, smiting the “rock” was appropriate, indeed critical. Their hearts were too dense to be pierced in any other way.[2]

Later, he goes on to say,

The model of smiting must be replaced with the model of teaching and inspiring. . . . Moses, who came to identify so deeply with the generation he painstakingly liberated from Egyptian genocide and slavery and worked incessantly for their development as a free and holy people, could not easily “change his skin” and assume a new model of leadership. . . . He continued to employ the method of rebuke and strength. And he struck [the rock] twice, because when you attempt to change things through pressure, rather than by persuasion, you must always do it more than once. . . .

. . . Moses belonged to the older generation. Because of his profound love and attachment to that generation . . . Moses did not possess the ability to properly assess the transformation that had taken place in the young generation of Jews. . . . That is why G-d told Moses, “You did not have faith in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel.”[3]

2. How could this interpretation influence our understanding of David’s words in 2 Samuel 22?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because there’s not a broader consensus in how to interpret these words, we can’t know for sure —but I do wonder if King David was trying to show that he, too, had matured. That he was once young in his understanding of God as tsuwr, and now, after years of growth, he knew him in a much deeper way (cela‘). In other words, verse 2 showed who he believed God to be as he wrote the chapter and verse 3 gave his impression of God as He became his refuge, shield, and Savior who protected him.

Does the word rock (cela‘; סֶלַע, pronounced seh-lah) remind you of anything else? If you’ve read many of the psalms, you’ve probably noticed the word selah (pronounced the same as our rock —cela‘), which exists even in our English translations. Selah is used seventy-one times in the book of Psalms (and three in the book of Habakkuk). Since David was a musician and poet, I wonder if he was using creative license with the sounds of the words, and perhaps if that might also explain why he used this term cela‘.

3. Please head to Psalm 46 in the BLB and click on the word selah (verse 3). After scrolling through the Interlinear, write down what it means:

 

 

 

 

Though no one is 100 percent sure what selah means, writers likely meant it as a pause. Unlike our modern musical symbols for rest, a selah isn’t for a certain amount of time. The person conducting senses this sort of pause and leads according to how long they feel the pause needs to take.

4. What do you think we’re getting at here? How would a pause and God being a rock correspond? Why might this be important?

 

 

 

5. What could you do to invoke selah into your daily life? How might this help mature your relationship with Christ?

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps David’s secondary purpose in using this word was to remind first himself, then the entire nation of Israel, to rest, pausing in the strength of the Lord. When we find ourselves in the darkness, we don’t have to live in panic and exhaustion. Instead, we can reflect and bask in God’s security and refuge.

Spend some time reflecting on this quote by Mother Teresa, asking God to meet you in rest and strength:

In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.[4]

Heavenly Father,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amen.