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May #16
II SAMUEL – Chapter 7
God's Covenant with David
1Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent." 3And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you."
4But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5"Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"' 8Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'" 17In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
David's Prayer of Gratitude
18Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, "Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 20And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! 21Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God. 25And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26And your name will be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel,' and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27For you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever."
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God makes promises; Lot’s of promises. They’re all over the Bible. He’s that kind of a God. I’ve been thinking about God’s promises, on a daily basis, since last summer, and I’ve got a lot to say about this topic. God makes promises because He can, like no other in the Universe. And in the first half of II Samuel, Chapter 7 (v. 11b-16), the Father makes the greatest promise in the history of the human race: He promises Jesus. His promise is to David, specifically, that the Savoir of the World will come through David’s offspring. This is one beautiful, powerful promise! It’s a grace that David doesn’t deserve. And it is a grace that we don’t deserve. I am thankful that we worship a God who is able (only through the finished work of Jesus), and willing to give people what they don’t deserve. (Advice: Never go to God and ask for what you deserve.)
But willing He is, and His promises are not without effect.
What I want to talk about, here, is not the content of God’s promise. What so excited me about this piece of Scripture, last night, was the reaction of David. It was beautiful, and I find that that I, on my better days, also having amazing, life-changing reactions to God’s promises. I had such reaction to this Scripture last night, and it actually caused me to burst into a prayerful doxology for maybe five or ten minutes.
Look at his response: After Nathan the prophet tells David the prophecy, David goes to the tent of the Ark, to pray and thank God (v. 17-18). His thankfulness is very humble (v. 18 “Who am I, oh God, that you have brought me thus far.”). I’ll tell you who he is: he’s the newly appointed King of all Israel, the slayer of the Goliath and the Philistines! But yet, before the Living God, David is nothing at all: a worm (Isaiah 41:14), and he knows it. So receiving God’s great promises doesn’t make much of David, it makes much of God. That’s called bringing glory to God. God’s promises always do that, and they help his Saints to do that, ever-increasingly. So then, David’s very first response to God’s promise is to clearly see that he is completely unworthy of any of God’s promises.
David also recognized the profound, God-glorifying, people saving ramifications of his promise. David understands (in the Spirit), that this promise is to be for “all mankind” (v. 19). The text only explicitly says that "a house" is being built, which is Solomon's temple. But in light of the New Testament, we know that Jesus is that temple, and through Jesus so are the Saints. David understands this. He get's it! That's the work of the Spirit of God.
David then bursts into beautiful exultation and praise, over his God who is wiling and able to save his people, and to give David a special, significant, personal part in this promise.
I’m so excited by this, and I hope you can see why. How beautiful is it that this God of ours chooses, completely independent of our worth or merit, to give his peoples a personal, actual, meaningful role in the salvation of his people? Do you understand that you, like David, have a role in the salvation of the nations? You’re life, testimony, and evangelism plays a real, meaningful, and significant part in the saving of the nations. And it isn’t because you’re good enough (you aren’t). It isn’t’ because you’ve got the skills to convince people (only the Holy Spirit convinces anybody, and through grace-given faith). It isn’t because you were born into the right family (you were born into the SIN family, and have been adopted). Why then? Simply because of the Father’s good pleasure to have us participate. He’s just that kind of a God. And since He is, how much more seriously should we take this gift, this opportunity, this calling to tell the world of his glorious Son?
Finally, I cannot read David’s response in Chapter 7 without noticing what’s completely missing. Can you find it? I say it’s missing because, in my own experience, the receipt of God’s promises is always accompanied by something that is not anywhere to be found in this text: doubt & disbelief. (Perhaps you can relate?) The Lord did not reveal this particular promise to David through a personal voice, although David did sometimes hear the Lord’s clear Voice and will. David heard this promise through a prophet. But David knows God, and has God’s heart. And He knows the Words of the Lord when he hears them. And He believes them, without fail. This is because the God that David worships is able and willing to do all that He says He will do, and no one can stop Him. This is the God of reality: the God of Jesus. Oh, that we would read, believe, and receive the Word of God, the way that David believes the Words of God. We can, you know? His words are actually true. All of them…
I pray that our response to His great and powerful promises is increasingly like David’s response: Reverent & humble, thankful & motivated, and filled with childlike belief.
Amen.
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