2 Samuel 22:4, 7 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies….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.
After the Lord delivered David out of the hands of his enemies, and of Saul. He sang and prayed the words of 2 Samuel 22, also recorded in Psalm 18. His response to the Lord’s deliverance and victory was to call upon the Lord, in the present (I will call) and in the past (I called). There are two reasons to call upon the Lord: 1) to thank and praise Him for deliverance, giving credit to God; 2) to pray and cry for help in distress.
We may, and we do, call upon the Lord every day. For one thing, we are always in some kind of distress or other. We need His help for something and His deliverance from something. And when we call, we know He answers. He hears our voice out of His temple. The temple is our very body which He indwells. He is that close, and He is that ready to hear. Our first response to any distress is to call and pray. Ask for help. We can remember when He did it in the past, and we can be sure that He will do it again today.
For the second thing, the Lord is always, daily, saving us from our enemies, instantly forgiving sin, answering prayer needs, and delivering us from distress. Therefore, we are constantly praising and thanking Him. He is always worthy to be praised, no matter what the circumstances are. Our life is always being lived out with thanks on our lips and praise in our heart. Life flows much better.
Our response to both good times and bad times is always the same: call upon the Lord, either to express a need or to express thanksgiving.