Calvinism Everywhere, Part 17

Chapter 22 of 2 Samuel provides a Davidic song that David spoke to YHWH "on the day when YHWH delivered him from the hand of his enemies, and from the hand of Saul" (2 Sam. 22:1). The Psalter essentially reproduces this song as Ps. 18. And God's sovereign activity in the psalm ranges wide. To comment on that activity would be to comment on nearly every verse. I urge the reader to recall this song when reading through Samuel and read Samuel in the light of it. A most salutary exercise!

So one brief comment on the text. David, a military man through and through, says, God "trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze" (2 Sam. 22:35). By God David can run against a troop, and by God he can leap over a wall (2 Sam. 22:30). This man's military prowess was given him by God. Think about that. Meditate on what sort of sovereignty we're talking about for this to be true. How many variables are involved in David's being or not being the military man he was, and in David's achieving success or not in battle?

Compare the question with, say, one's calling or profession in modern terms. How much goes into bringing one to a certain position or role and then performing well in a given role. To even begin to ponder the imponderable multitude of variables and decisions and opportunities blows the mind. Only of a God sovereign over the minutest details could it be said: he trains my hands for war, my arms to bend a bow of bronze (2 Sam. 22:35). David's anatomical and physiological makeup are involved. So his genetics, his DNA, were handed to him by God. Moreover, all the psychosocial factors that prepared David along the way had to be handed to him from Heaven.

The Arminian deity (which is really no deity at all, even as the false gospel challenging the true gospel in Galatia was really no gospel at all) proves impotent at this point. Why? Because in addition to fashioning in the  womb a unique person, countless free choices went into making David the man he was, and the Arminian deity does not channel his will through the human will. He, or better it, is no God, but an idol.

So, as I've said, Calvinism everywhere. That's my confession, for our God reigns. Declare it among the nations!