2 Samuel - Lesson 7B

• Last week we stopped our study in Chapter 7 as God was speaking to the prophet Nathan with a important promise for David 

  • Earlier, David had suggested to the prophet that he should build a house for the Lord in Jerusalem

    • In effect, David was proposing to build God a temple in place of the tents that housed the tabernacle and the ark

    • David took note of his impressive home and felt self-conscience

  • And though certainly David’s heart is in the right place, more or less, once more good intentions are not an excuse for disobedience

    • In this case, David was acting in ignorance of God’s plan for his temple and for His people Israel 

    • So the Lord sends Nathan a word for David to correct him and to inform David of God’s plan for Israel

  • Let’s re-read last week’s text beginning at v.4 as the Lord speaks to Nathan

2Sam. 7:4  But in the same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying,
2Sam. 7:5 “Go and say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in?
2Sam. 7:6 “For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle.
2Sam. 7:7 “Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’”’

• The Lord begins by chastising David for presuming he had the right to decide for God when and how He would build a house for His glory

  • The Lord rebukes David with three observations

    • First, in v.6 the Lord reminds David that He has been content to dwell in a tent for hundreds of years since the Exodus

    • So there was no pressing need for David to change that situation now

    • In fact, the only reason David has for improving God’s lifestyle was because he felt guilty over his own lavish lifestyle

  • Secondly, in v.7 the Lord reminds David that God never commanded Israel to build His house in any form other than a tent

    • This comment supports one of my favorite pieces of advice for any Christian

    • When you wonder what you should do to obey God, always do the last thing He told you 

    • And keep doing it until you hear the Lord clearly tell you to do something else

    • The last thing God told Israel was to build a tent, and until they heard something new from the Lord, that’s what He wanted

  • Finally, back in v.5 the Lord asks rhetorically are you the one to build Me a house? 

    • The Lord is intimating that David was not going to be the one God choose to accomplish that task

    • Later, the Lord will tell David that He has someone else in mind

    • But clearly David assumed a privilege for himself that he shouldn’t 

• So altogether David made three errors: he ignored history, acted without God’s direction and presumed too much for himself

  • Those three mistakes are almost always at fault when a believer acts outside God’s will yet with good intentions 

    • We overlook the history of God’s work, we act without a specific word of instruction and we assume God will use us for the work

    • And because of those errors, we move against the counsel of God, and the solution is very simple

  • We just need to ask the Lord for direction before we act, both in prayer and by consulting His word

    • Did you notice that David never thought to ask God directly about his idea to build a temple?

    • Earlier, David sought the Lord’s will time and time again, as when he asked about engaging in battles with the Philistines 

    • Nor did David review the Lord’s instructions in Exodus, where he would have been reminded that the Lord only asked for a tent

  • And in particular, David thought too well of himself when he assumed he would be chosen for such a task 

    • The Lord corrects David’s presumption but He does it gently   

2Sam. 7:8 “Now 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, to be ruler over My people Israel.
2Sam. 7:9 “I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth.
2Sam. 7:10 “I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly,
2Sam. 7:11 even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you.
2Sam. 7:12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.

• In this passage the Lord makes promises to David and to Israel that we call the Davidic Covenant, and the Lord begins by reassuring David of his importance

  • The Lord reminds David that He took the boy from a pasture, literally shepherding, to make him king and shepherd over God’s people

    • And in v.9 the Lord tells David that He’s been with David throughout everything that’s happened since then

    • And the Lord cut off all of David’s enemies and will make David’s name great throughout history

    • Indeed, David’s name is counted among the greatest men who have ever lived, even among those who never read a Bible

    • Simply put, there is no leader of Israel held in higher regard even after all these years 

  • The Lord is reassuring David that even though he won’t build the temple, David will still play an important part in God’s plan

    • And in fact, David’s greatness will supersede the construction of a temple 

    • David and his line are key in God fulfilling His promises to the people of Israel concerning a Messiah and a Kingdom

• In v.10 the Lord begins to lay out that plan in the form of specific promises, which both repeat earlier promises God gave Israel and add new promises

  • First, the Lord says He will appoint a place for His people to be planted, a land of their own where they will dwell in peace

    • This is a continuation of a promise God gave to Abraham and his descendants in the Abrahamic Covenant

Gen. 26:3 “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.
Gen. 26:4 “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

• God promised Abraham his people would have a land to call their own, and now the Lord repeats that promise to David

• But notice the verb tense in v.10 is future tense, so clearly David’s achievements are not the fulfillment of God’s plan

  • And the key distinction outlined here is living “in peace” and without being disturbed (meaning uprooted) again 

  • The people of God would one day occupy the land God gave them in peace never to leave again

• But no one could say that had come true in David’s day, and the Lord reminds David of that fact in v.11

  • The Lord says Israel has lacked peace in the land ever since the time of Judges, when Joshua completed conquest of the land

  • So yes, Israel is in the land, but their occupancy couldn’t be considered a fulfillment of what God promised

  • There was still more history to follow

• I believe the Lord clarified these promises to David because he is in danger of assuming those promise were already fulfilled in his time

  • And it would have been natural for David to make that assumption given his situation

  • Under David Israel had grown much larger and had become much safer than it ever was under Saul or before

  • Saul’s kingdom consisted of just a narrow strip of land from the tribe of Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south

  • And Saul never conquered the coastal plain because the Philistines held that land

• But by David’s time, the nation had expanded several times over stretching from present-day Syria to the Sinai of Egypt 

  • It also included the coastal plains, the Arabah and the area of present-day Jordan…all lands Saul could never conquer

  • So from David’s perspective, his kingdom seemed to be the safe and secure place God promised to Abraham and his descendants 

  • And that’s also why David began assuming he should build a house to the Lord…because David assumed the kingdom had come

• To interpret the covenants of God properly, including the Davidic Covenant here, we must understand an important principle of Scripture

  • I call this principle the Law of Suggested Fulfillment

    • The Law says that certain events may appear to fulfill a promise of God, yet upon closer examination they fall short in some way

    • These earlier events merely hint or suggest the eventual fulfillment of a covenant but they are not the actual fulfillment

  • For example, the Lord promised Abraham that his descendants would occupy the land of Canaan one day

    • Four hundred years later, Joshua crossed the Jordan and the people entered the land of Canaan

    • By the time of Judges, the people had set up residence in the land in tribal territories 

    • And then by David’s day the nation possessed virtually everything that the Lord promised to Abraham

  • But those events were not a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant because they fell short of addressing all the terms God set forth

    • First, the people of Israel were not able to hold the land, yet the promise to Abraham was that Israel would have it forever

    • Secondly, they were constantly fighting off enemies and losing ground at time, but the promise was to live in peace

    • So scripture and history prove the Abrahamic covenant has yet to be fulfilled 

    • And those earlier events merely suggested the way that God will one day fulfill His promises  

• If we overlook the law of suggested fulfillment, we can become guilty of adopting an “over-realized eschatology”

  • That’s the theological term for mistakenly assuming a prophecy has  been fulfilled before its time

    • And I believe David made that mistake when he offered to build the house of God

    • David may have assumed that his reign was the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham and therefore the kingdom had come 

    • As a result, David sought to build a house for the Lord to equal  the grandeur of the Kingdom itself

  • That’s why the Lord appears to Nathan and says (in my own words)…

    • “Yes David, you are important to the Kingdom, but you are getting ahead of my plan…”

    • “In a future day, the people of Israel will dwell in their land as I promised, free from all enemies and never to leave again…”

    • “And in that day I will build a house for myself, and I will have a house for you as well (v.11)…”

    • “But you will not build that house, nor will it come about in your lifetime”

  • In v.12 the Lord tells David his days will come to completion before these things come to pass

    • And then after David, the Lord will raise up a descendant Who will establish the throne of his kingdom forever

    • So David isn’t going to be king over the Kingdom, because that awaits a future King Who comes after David is gone

• Before we move ahead in the passage, we can already clearly see that the Lord is speaking about the future Kingdom of the Messiah, the Millennial Kingdom

  • The Bible promises that a Kingdom is coming, a worldwide empire that Jesus Himself will rule over as King

    • The first mention of a future ruler over Israel comes as a prophecy about Judah spoken by Jacob 

Gen. 49:10  “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, 
Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, 
Until Shiloh comes, 
And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

• The right to rule over Israel will belong to Judah until Shiloh comes, which is a reference to the Messiah

  • And then to him shall be the obedience of all nations, referring to the Messiah’s Kingdom

• This Kingdom will begin at Jesus’ return, and Revelation 20 tells us this Kingdom will last 1,000 years 

  • A well-known passage in Isaiah describes this Kingdom

Is. 2:2  Now it will come about that 
In the last days 
The mountain of the house of the LORD 
Will be established as the chief of the mountains, 
And will be raised above the hills; 
And all the nations will stream to it.
Is. 2:3  And many peoples will come and say, 
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, 
To the house of the God of Jacob; 
That He may teach us concerning His ways 
And that we may walk in His paths.” 
For the law will go forth from Zion 
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Is. 2:4  And He will judge between the nations, 
And will render decisions for many peoples; 
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. 
Nation will not lift up sword against nation, 
And never again will they learn war.

• Isaiah describes a time to come when the highest mountain on earth will be in Jerusalem

  • And on that mountain will sit the house of God, the house that the Lord tells David will be built by a future King

  • The nations of the world will come streaming to Israel to hear the word of the Lord and Israel will live there in peace

  • Again, this matches what the Lord tells David in 2 Samuel 7:10

• Elsewhere, Isaiah gives us even more details…

Is. 11:10  Then in that day 
The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, 
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; 
And His resting place will be glorious.
Is. 11:11  Then it will happen on that day that the Lord 
Will again recover the second time with His hand 
The remnant of His people, who will remain, 
From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, 
And from the islands of the sea.
Is. 11:12  And He will lift up a standard for the nations 
And assemble the banished ones of Israel, 
And will gather the dispersed of Judah 
From the four corners of the earth.
Is. 11:13  Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, 
And those who harass Judah will be cut off; 
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, 
And Judah will not harass Ephraim.

• At this time the world will look to the root of Jesse (i.e., Jesus) who will rule from a glorious place in Israel 

  • And at that time the Lord will recover or regather His people in the land, which implies He scattered them outside the land

  • And finally, they will live without jealousy and hatred, so that all Israel will be at peace together in the land

• So in the Kingdom, Israel receives everything God promised to Abraham, including living in the land, permanently and in peace along with a king and a house

  • First, notice in v. 11 the Lord says that He will provide a house for David 

    • This conversation got started when David offered to build a house for God, but now God says He will make a house for David

    • In other words, the Lord says He will do the work to bring about a Kingdom and home for His people Israel, including David

    • David isn’t the one who brings the Kingdom into existence nor is David the one who can fulfill God’s promises 

  • God alone fulfills His promises by His own might and power and in His timing, and we merely receive the blessings of God     

    • Remember, the covenant God gave Abraham was a suzerainty covenant, which is a grant from a greater to a lessor

    • God granted certain promises to Abraham, and Abraham was never asked to accept or reject them

    • God alone decided what He would do and the fulfillment of those promises didn’t depend on Abraham in any way

    • God even put Abraham to sleep when the covenant was established to emphasize Abraham played no part in it

  • Similar, the covenant God makes with David here is a suzerainty covenant, because the promises are unconditional 

    • David isn’t asked to agree or accept this covenant, because God has decreed it unilaterally

    • Moreover David has no obligations under this covenant, and in fact the Lord is emphasizing that David can’t do anything

    • The Lord will do everything to bring about the fulfillment of these promises, including building David a house 

• Now up to about this point in the text, we can clearly see the Lord has been talking of fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant in the Kingdom 

  • But all of this was background to the main part of the Davidic Covenant, which comes in the form of new promises made to David and Israel

    • These new promises are built upon the earlier promises made to Abraham, so that they depend on that earlier covenant

    • But the Davidic Covenant adds new details that were never given previously to Abraham 

2Sam. 7:13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
2Sam. 7:14 “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men,
2Sam. 7:15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
2Sam. 7:16 “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’”

• In v.13 the Lord says this future descendant of David will build a house for God and God will establish his throne of his kingdom forever

  • Given what we have studied already, this verse appears to refer to Jesus building the temple in the Kingdom and ruling forever 

  • But there is a problem with that interpretation, because the next verse (v.14) says this ruler will commit sin and be disciplined 

• Since we know Jesus commits no sin, this leads most scholars to conclude the text switches from Jesus’ Kingdom to Solomon’s kingdom

  • Solomon did come forth from David, of course, and he built the first temple

  • And while Jesus doesn’t have sin, Solomon certainly had plenty of sin

• But other details in the passage don’t fit Solomon yet they do fit Jesus

  • For example, in v.12 Solomon was not raised up after David dies, neither in the sense of being born nor in the sense of becoming king

    • First, we know Solomon wasn’t born after David died, and in fact he was already a grown man by this time

    • But neither was Solomon installed as king after David died 

1Kings 1:32 Then King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” And they came into the king’s presence.
1Kings 1:33 The king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.
1Kings 1:34 “Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’
1Kings 1:35 “Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne and be king in my place; for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah.”

• David moved to have Solomon anointed as king before David died because he worried about contention for his throne

• So Solomon can’t be the descendant that is raised up after David has died…only Jesus fits that description 

• Then in v.13 it says that Solomon’s throne will go on forever, but that’s clearly not true

  • Solomon’s throne didn’t even last one generation after he died, being split into two kingdoms instead

  • Only Jesus’ throne goes on forever

• And in v.14 the Lord says He will be a father to this future king and this king will be a son to God

  • But nowhere does God ever call Solomon His son nor does Solomon call God His Father

  • Only Jesus is called the Son of God the Father

• Finally, although Solomon had sin, the Bible never reports Solomon being corrected for His sin by the rod or strokes of men

  • But Jesus was struck by rods and the strokes of the sons of men

  • And that detail leads us to our solution to resolve this dilemma

• I believe the transition we have in English for v.14 has missed the nuance intended by the context

  • A more literal rendering of the Hebrew of v.14 would be:

    • “Because of sins committed, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the wounds of the sons of men” 

    • God the Father will chasten this future King He calls Son with the rod of men and the wounds of the sons of men because of sin

    • Isaiah later says the same thing about this King to come 

Is. 53:5  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, 
He was crushed for our iniquities; 
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, 
And by His scourging we are healed.

• The Lord is revealing that this future Kingdom can only come because a King is willing to take the penalty of sin upon Himself 

  • Obviously neither David nor Solomon could qualify to do that

  • And though the Father subjects His Son to this penalty, the Lord says in v.15 that His lovingkindness will not depart from Him 

• So now with that change the entire passage fits Jesus perfectly, Who is the King to come and rule the Kingdom forever 

  • And in that future Kingdom, all the promises given to Abraham and David will be fulfilled

  • And that’s the key here…remembering this entire passage is an elaboration on the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant

• So if we say the text is speaking of Solomon, then we would also be saying that the Davidic Covenant was fulfilled in Solomon’s time

  • And if that were true, then it means the Abrahamic Covenant is likewise fulfilled in that time…except we know that is not true

  • So here again, by forgetting the Law of Suggestive Fulfillment we adopt an over-realized eschatology

• Instead, we understand that the passage is speaking of promises that will be fulfilled by Jesus in the Kingdom 

  • As the New Testament affirms to us:

Luke 1:31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
Luke 1:32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
Luke 1:33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

• In the meantime, Solomon’s kingdom and the temple he builds are not the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant

  • They are simply earlier events that suggest the later fulfillment, which is an example of the Law of Suggestive Fulfillment at work

  • Solomon’s Kingdom suggests or hints of Jesus’ Kingdom, and it serves to show David and Israel that God will keep His promises 

• And that is why the Lord appears to David in the first place…to give David perspective on what’s coming so David doesn’t run ahead

  • Notice in v.16 the Lord sums up everything He’s spoken to David saying your house and your kingdom and your throne shall endure forever 

    • This is the essence of the Davidic Covenant…a three-part promise that David’s dynasty would be permanent 

    • Unlike Saul, who saw God’s lovingkindness depart and his dynasty end, the Lord would never allow David’s dynasty to end

    • David’s descendant would forever occupy the temple of God and rule over Israel  

  • But the permanence of that dynasty was not established in David’s longevity or Solomon’s longevity but by Christ’s longevity 

    • Jesus being a descendant of David fulfills this promise when He assumes the throne in the Kingdom 

    • Moreover, as David goes, so goes the nation of Israel, as I mentioned in a prior week

    • So because David was blessed to see his dynasty continue, so the nation of Israel is richly blessed by the Messiah’s rule

    • As Isaiah says, in the Kingdom their nation will be the chief nation on the earth because the King dwells in Jerusalem 

  • Until that time, the promise awaits to be fulfilled, so in the meantime the Lord revealed these details so David would be patient

    • Being patient to see the promises of God fulfilled in their proper time is considered a testimony of faith

    • The Bible points us to the patriarchs who received the original promises of God as examples of such patience

• Like David, they too heard they would receive an inheritance in the land, and like David they knew it would come only after they died

  • In the book of Hebrews, we’re told that Abraham and his sons lived as wanderers in tents in the land rather than putting down roots

Heb. 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Heb. 11:9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
Heb. 11:10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Heb. 11:13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Heb. 11:14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
Heb. 11:15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
Heb. 11:16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

• Abraham lived as a nomad as a testimony to the world that he knew God’s promise of the land awaited a future kingdom

  • Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew they would die and be resurrected

  • And only then in the resurrected life would they receive the promised land permanently 

• So in their first earthly lifetime, the writer says they refused to establish a permanent home in the land that God gave to them

  • Since they knew God’s plan wasn’t to give them that land in this lifetime, they didn’t bother trying to take it for themselves

  • They were content to live as wanderers, which made clear to everyone that they didn’t expect to receive anything now

  • It was the ultimate demonstration that they were waiting for God to fulfill His promises after the resurrection  

• At the end of that chapter, the writer concludes that our lesson should be to think in the same way

Heb. 11:39  And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
Heb. 11:40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

Heb. 12:28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;

• We’ve gained God’s approval by our faith alone, yet we will not receive what He has promised in this lifetime

• God has provided something better for us, something better than you can’t find in this world

• And we will all receive it when we are made perfect in the Kingdom after our resurrection 

  • Until then, we show our gratitude to God with acceptable service  done in reverence and awe

  • We are saved by our faith, but we serve Him because of His love for us

• That’s the kingdom God is talking to David about now

  • But for the same reason, the Lord chose for His ark to dwell in tents also, to offer the same testimony to Israel

  • The permanent home for God to dwell among His people had not yet arrived

  • And it won’t arrive until the Kingdom comes

• Now the chapter ends with David’s response to the Lord’s revelation through the prophet

2Sam. 7:17 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
2Sam. 7:18  Then David the king went in and sat before the LORD, and he said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?
2Sam. 7:19 “And yet this was insignificant in Your eyes, O Lord GOD, for You have spoken also of the house of Your servant concerning the distant future. And this is the custom of man, O Lord GOD.
2Sam. 7:20 “Again what more can David say to You? For You know Your servant, O Lord GOD!
2Sam. 7:21 “For the sake of Your word, and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to let Your servant know.
2Sam. 7:22 “For this reason 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.
2Sam. 7:23 “And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for You and awesome things for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods?
2Sam. 7:24 “For You have established for Yourself Your people Israel as Your own people forever, and You, O LORD, have become their God.
2Sam. 7:25 “Now therefore, O LORD God, the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house, confirm it forever, and do as You have spoken,
2Sam. 7:26 that Your name may be magnified forever, by saying, ‘The LORD of hosts is God over Israel’; and may the house of Your servant David be established before You.
2Sam. 7:27 “For You, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made a revelation to Your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house’; therefore Your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to You.
2Sam. 7:28 “Now, O Lord GOD, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.
2Sam. 7:29 “Now therefore, may it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You. For You, O Lord GOD, have spoken; and with Your blessing may the house of Your servant be blessed forever.”

• David’s response to the Lord’s revelation is exactly as you might expect and hope it would be…astonishment at God’s grace and humility over God’s choice

  • David asks who am I and who is my family that you would bring me this far?

    • This is always the first and right response to someone receiving God’s grace…how did I deserve what is undeserved? 

    • When you realize that God chose you to be part of the family of God for no reason except His grace, it leaves you in awe

  • Secondly, David says the wonderful things God did for David and his family are insignificant compared to the honor of receiving God’s revelation

    • And this is the second response to God’s grace

    • Naturally, we give thanks for the many ways God confirms us in this life but none can compare to the blessing of God’s word

    • And new Christians may struggle to appreciate this truth, but the longer you walk with Jesus the more the word means

  • And David’s third response is to say he is speechless in v.20, because he says the Lord knows his heart

    • When you have heard from God as David did or learned from God’s word as we do, what can you say in response?

    • Every mouth is shut in the presence of the truth of God

• Next, David praises the name and glory and work of God

  • In v.21says that God has done these great things not for David’s sake but for the sake of God’s word and God’s heart, meaning His desires

    • God’s word is the most powerful force in the Universe

    • In fact, it is infinitely more powerful than the Universe itself, since the Universe was created by it

  • So when the word of God goes forth, it becomes a force of its own

    • And when God made promises to Abraham, nothing could stop them from coming to pass

    • And David now sees that truth at work through the details God has revealed to him

    • You will have the same response when you see the word of God working itself out in your life

  • God does as His will desires and nothing in the Universe can change it, and that’s a great thing for those who are covered by His promises

    • Notice David says in v.21 that the Lord has done all this greatness to let David know the future…

    • In other words, God didn’t have to reveal anything to David, yet He did so as an act of His love, and David marvels at that

    • How often do you marvel at the great things God has done to reveal His word to you?

  • And in v.22 David sums it up saying God is great, there is none like you and no God besides you

    • And David says this is all according to what we have heard

    • David’s referring again to the word of God which was mostly an oral experience in that day since written text was rare

    • Today we would say God is exactly as the word of God says 

  • Have you noticed a pattern so far? God’s love and mercy and greatness is directly associated with Him revealing and keeping His word

    • The word of God is how we come to know God and how we learn of God

    • And it’s proof of God’s love for us and the evidence of His greatness

    • It’s His power to do all that we hope and the thing that distinguishes Him from all false gods

• Having asked “why me” to being awestruck by receiving God’s word, having nothing to say in response and then praising God’s greatness…

  • Now David recognizes the importance of Israel in God’s plan

    • In vs.23-26 David says that there no other nation on the earth like Israel nor will there ever be

    • Israel is central to God’s plan, which is now plainly and clearly evident in the Davidic Covenant promises 

  • Israel was created by God, redeemed from Egypt and made into a nation so that He could bring about the promises He made to the world

    • Those promises are sure and cannot change, for if God could go back on His promises to Israel, then He could do the same to you

  • And notice in v.26 David declares that God will forever be known as the God over Israel 

    • Remember, the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants are both suzerainty covenants, which means unconditional covenants

    • They are not dependent on Israel’s obedience in any way, so they will come to pass for Israel without question

    • Israel’s disobedience under the Law brought certain consequences spelled out in the Law

    • But the nation’s unfaithfulness could not lessen God’s faithfulness…He is forever the God of Israel

• Finally, David says in v.27 that the revelation of God gave him the courage to pray this prayer 

  • Your courage to pray or testify or do anything in the name of Christ will grow as you devote yourself to the study of His word

    • It’s not simply the transfer of information…it’s the way we build a relationship with God

    • And that relationship changes us on the inside bringing us, among other things, courage to speak and act in His name

  • And David now rests in the promises he’s heard and he knows they will come to pass without a doubt

    • If you’ve ever heard someone say they rest in the word of God, this what they mean

    • Resting in the word isn’t feeling drowsy or comforted…though you may experience those feelings too

  • I once shared a plane flight with Henry Blackaby

    • He was seated next to me, but I didn’t recognize him at first so we passed most of the flight in silence 

    • It was night, and I started reading my Bible and soon fell asleep

    • As we were preparing to land, I finally recognized Blackaby and introduced myself and apologized for not speaking earlier 

    • He responded it was OK, since he could see I was resting in the Lord 

  • But truly resting in the word means relying upon it and depending upon it

    • Knowing it’s the rock and the enduring thing in the universe gives us confidence when everything else is falling apart

    • And now David knew that his future and the future of his dynasty and the nation itself was assured

    • And that gave David rest