2 Samuel 7

[0:01] Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.

[0:13] And Nathan said to the king, Go do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, Would you build me a house to dwell in?

[0:28] I 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. In 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 of Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?

[0:49] 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, and you should be prince over my people Israel.

[1:02] And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

[1:12] And 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, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel.

[1:27] And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When 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.

[1:43] He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I 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.

[1:59] But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.

[2:11] Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. Then 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?

[2:29] And 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. And what more can David say to you?

[2:41] For you know your servant, O Lord God, because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, O Lord God.

[2:53] For there is more like you, there is none like you, and there is no God beside you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And 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 people before them who you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods.

[3:18] And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. And 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.

[3:33] And 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. For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, I will build you a house.

[3:50] Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you.

[4:06] For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. There we go.

[4:28] It's good to be here. And I'd just like to say pastorally, thank you for your prayers on our behalf. About 12 hours ago, I thought about calling Pastor Hill and saying, you're going to have to preach today.

[4:40] I felt I didn't want to do that to him. I was very low and sick. But the Lord has raised me enough, raised me up enough, raised me up enough to be able to come with our Hyde Park family.

[4:58] And I'm glad, very glad to be here. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness to us. We bless you. We honor you for great and precious promises that we have in and through the person and the work of Jesus.

[5:16] Thank you for this great text that's before us. Pray, O God, that you would be glorified through the exposition of this great passage today. Commend ourselves to you in Christ's name.

[5:30] Amen. Can't overemphasize the importance of the chapter that is before us today.

[5:43] Biblically and theologically speaking, it's one of the big rocks, as it were, in Scripture. One of the ones that must be in because from this particular chapter, flows our understanding, particularly from a Christian vantage point, of the Davidic covenant and all that goes along with that.

[6:13] This chapter is critical for understanding the message of the Bible as a whole. The truth that we find here, it flows from 2 Samuel 7 to the writings of the poets in the Psalms.

[6:32] It flows from 2 Samuel 7 to the writings of the prophets in the Old Testament. And not only that, it enters into the writings of the New Testament authors.

[6:46] Wow. Quite, quite significant is this chapter that is before us. It has covenantal significance.

[6:59] Here we find the Davidic covenant where the Lord made promises to David that would impact him, that would impact his family. But not only that, it would impact the entire human family, including those of us who are sitting here today.

[7:19] The Lord's covenant with David would become the means through which the Abrahamic covenant would have fulfillment. There's covenantal significance in this particular chapter, but also there's great Christological significance.

[7:37] significance, huh? Ultimately, it is Christ who would fulfill the Davidic covenant. The New Testament, Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, begins with the following words.

[7:52] Listen. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The son of David. The son of Abraham.

[8:04] So Matthew connects him all the way back to Genesis chapter 12, but he also connects him to 2 Samuel chapter 7. We say, well, Pastor Day, that's the first book in the New Testament.

[8:17] Well, listen to the last book in the New Testament. Revelation chapter 22, verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

[8:30] Here it is. I am the root in the descendant of David, the bright morning star. Huh? Great Christological significance of what we see here.

[8:45] What are you saying, Pastor Day? This is huge, folks. Huh? It cannot be overstated and it must not be underestimated as far as the value that is here.

[8:57] I spoke to Dave on last Sunday. I said, Dave, did the ark make it to the city? He assured me that it had. Huh? What do you do with the ark after it gets to the city?

[9:12] Huh? Let me show you the big picture of what we have in here. If you look at after the introduction that we see in verses 1 through 3, we have in verses 4 through 17, God's grace to David.

[9:29] Again, that's sort of the big idea and it's sovereign grace. Huh? I mean, the nature of grace is that it's free. The nature of sovereign grace is that God makes unilateral decisions and he doesn't have a committee that would veto those decisions.

[9:50] He's God all by himself and therefore he makes certain choices again on the basis of his will, his purposes, and he fulfills those.

[10:01] Not on the basis of what an individual does or not do. Huh? So God's grace to David verses 4 through 17 but then you got David's gratitude to God in verses 18 through 29.

[10:14] The structure is very intentional. In these major sections, what we see similar to what we had on last week, you had this mirroring similarly here, there is a mirroring of words, vocabulary, forever, everlasting, established.

[10:32] You see those in both of those panels. But also, there is a mirroring even as it relates to the numbers of words that the author gives to God, 197 words in the first that's attributed to the Lord speaking, but then David has 198 words.

[10:51] There is this mirroring that is going on in these two halves of this particular book. Huh?

[11:03] Huh? Look at verse 1 with me this morning. David has God given rest.

[11:14] Huh? It was time for him to exhale. Huh? And here he was. Huh? He settled. He's secure. He's comfortable.

[11:27] Oh, here's David. David has got his dream house and he is living in it. Huh? And the ark is safe in Jerusalem. You see that? Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan, the prophet, there's something wrong with this picture, Nate.

[11:47] see, I dwell in a house of cedar but the ark of God dwells in a tent. Uh-oh, something's wrong. Huh?

[11:58] I've got these four star accommodations and the ark is in motel six, if you will. Huh? At best, it was something in David's heart that it just did not seem right that this kind of dynamic was present.

[12:17] Huh? Huh? Let me ask you a question this morning. When everything is in place in your life, bills are paid, children are educated or in the process thereof, living in a nice place, what comes to your mind?

[12:36] The next big thing that you're going to conquer? Huh? Huh? The next big investment? The next big project? Here it was, David, he had rest from his enemies, he had all of these things, and guess what?

[12:49] He's thinking about, what's next for God? What can I do for him? How can my life count for the kingdom in significant kind of ways?

[13:02] So, on the one hand, he was experiencing rest, but on the other hand, he was experiencing restlessness. Huh? It was not enough that the ark had returned, when David saw the contrast between where he dwelt and where the Lord dwelt, he was moved to do something about it.

[13:21] Huh? The desire was expressed to Nathan, and Nathan, he said, hey, David, go for it. Two thumbs up. Sounds like a good idea to me.

[13:32] Huh? Go for it. Huh? But then, God speaks to him, doesn't he? Huh? That same night, look at verse 4. The word of the Lord came to Nathan.

[13:45] We see this is bookend by verse 17. In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So, we've got these words. Initially, Nathan's speaking from his own heart and mind.

[13:59] But then, after God taps him on the shoulder, he's speaking the very words of God. Huh? experiencing heart-stirring unrest because of the disparity of the cedar dwelling and the temporary dwelling of God.

[14:16] We had a good time with the deacons over the last day or so, and somebody, they were talking about camping, and somebody said, it's okay to live in a, to be in a tent for a few days, but you don't want to live in a tent, huh?

[14:34] Well, God didn't seem to mind. Because that was the mold he was, he was just rolling with his people. I mean, they were going through the wilderness, I mean, he was there, huh?

[14:47] But David's desires were expressed in Nathan's father, had Nathan's vote, but guess what? Nathan's word was not the final word.

[15:02] The vision, in the vision of a night, God spoke to him to sort of sort through what was really to be. Now, how would you respond to somebody's proposal to build you a house?

[15:16] Humanly speaking, we would jump at this kind of opportunity. Not so with the Lord. And so, in verses 4 through 17, we see, hear about and look at God's grace to David.

[15:28] while building a house was within David's ability, within his resources, within his capacity, it was not his assignment from the Lord. Noble desire, great idea, but it's not for you to do.

[15:44] Look at the verse there. Look at verse 5. Go tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, would you build a house for me to dwell in? I haven't lived in a house since the day I brought up the people.

[15:55] I mean, this is interesting, this kind of conversation. I haven't lived in a house. House? What are you talking about house? I haven't lived in a house. I mean, even when Solomon, 1 Kings chapter 8, he's going to build this house and he begins to pray, he said, behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you.

[16:15] How much less this house? I mean, Solomon knew about the omnipresence of God, the glory of God. Noble desire, great idea, but it's not for you.

[16:27] In other words, God says in this passage, David, leave the house building to me. I'll take care of that. Leave it to me. He begins with a question, doesn't he?

[16:38] Followed by this brief overview of the Lord's journey with the children of Israel from Egypt to the present time. In all of those years, God did not have a permanent dwelling.

[16:51] Look at verse 6, his dwelling had been a tent. I've not lived in a house since the day I brought people to this day, but I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling.

[17:03] And guess what? The Lord had never complained. Look at verse 7. In places where I moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I've commanded to shepherd my people, saying, why haven't you built me a house of cedar?

[17:18] no complaints. Content to be with his people. Recognize and to acknowledge his holiness because the way into the presence of God was through sacrifice.

[17:31] Again, the throne of God, the ark of the covenant on earth. Look at that. So he talked about the people of Israel, but notice he begins to, in verse 8, to zero in on David.

[17:46] What a great adjective. My servant David. There are just few people in scripture that had that designation as far as being a servant of the Lord.

[17:59] Of course, the greatest one is Isaiah chapter 42 that begins to speak about the ultimate servant of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. But Moses had this. I believe, and of course, Joshua had this kind of distinction.

[18:13] Of course, we see here David. Let's say as the Lord hosts, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep that you should be a prince over my people Israel. I've been with you wherever you went and cut out your enemies before you.

[18:24] And again, this is very David specific. And I will make for you a great name like the names of the great one of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them. Listen to this language of building that he says that they may dwell in their own place, be disturbed no more.

[18:41] Violent men shall not afflict them as formerly. Again, all these things that God had done on behalf of David. But notice the shift that we see in verse 11.

[18:57] 11b, and I will give you rest from your enemies. And here it is. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house or make a house for you.

[19:09] Brother than David building a house for the Lord. The Lord was going to make a house out of David. He had these great dreams for the Lord's house, but God had a plan for David and for his household, his family.

[19:27] And here's the nature of the plan. It was one of those too good to be true kind of plans. What we see here is absolutely stunning.

[19:39] What did it mean that God was going to make David a house? Again, the language of construction, building, raising up. The building of David a house would be such that it would far exceed the durability of a physical building.

[19:58] What David would build would be temporary at best. David surrendered his earthly dream for something that was eternal, something that was so much bigger.

[20:14] I'm sure that we have people who dream big in this cafeteria here this morning. We are big, big dreams. How inclined are you, however, to release those dreams and to give them back to God?

[20:37] Some of you have been planning for years. I mean, you've got it mapped out. College, grad school, freshman school, married by a certain time.

[20:50] I mean, just go on. Dreams. is there room in your life for interruption? Huh? Interruption in a way that would allow God to do something bigger and better and bolder than you would ever, ever dream.

[21:14] I think of Henry Nowen. He was an educator at Harvard Catholic tradition. Taught at Harvard for decades.

[21:25] I mean, he was with the academic elite. But there was a sense in which he was feeling a measure of emptiness and fatigue of soul. What God did was to take him from this academic community where you had these great mind and great intellects and great thinkers, believers.

[21:46] And what Nowen did, he found himself in a community called La Arch. And what happens there is that you have these people who are very mentally undeveloped.

[22:03] And Nowen found community amongst those kind of people. Notice what happens. Let's go of the Hallowood halls of academia.

[22:20] And then he goes to a very low, low kind of place, which is really, if it's God's order for you, that's the best place that you can be.

[22:31] We sing a song, the safest place in all the world is in the will of God. It may be on a mountaintop or in a valley low, but wherever God's will is for me, that's the safe place, folks.

[22:47] I mean, you can live in a palace and it could be unsafe as far as doing God's will. But notice, God says, okay, David, I'll tell you what I'm going to, I'm going to build you a house.

[23:02] David released his earthly dream, and because he was able to do that, he was able to embrace something that would span throughout the ages and on throughout eternity.

[23:14] The building of David's house concerned his offspring. You see that in verses 12 and 13? When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who will come from your body, and I will, notice again the language of building, I will establish his kingdom.

[23:31] He should build a house for my name, I will establish the throne of his kingdom. Notice the duration of it forever. forever. The exaltation of David's offspring and establishing his kingdom, David's seed was going to continue after his death.

[23:50] God was not going to take his mercy away from him as he did from Saul. There would be a father-son relationship between David's offspring and the Lord. We see that in verses 14 and 15.

[24:02] And then I love what we see in verse 15. My steadfast love, chesed, God's steadfast love, his mercy, his compassion will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

[24:18] Wow. Turn to Psalm 89, if you will, because I believe Psalm 89 really is a commentary on this particular passage.

[24:29] And again, this is where Psalm 7 lands in the Psalms. There probably are other places, but it lands so even-footedly here in Psalm 89.

[24:41] Look at verses 1 through 4. You're going to hear the echoes of this, and then we're going to see what does God exactly mean by forever. We'll show you that in this particular text.

[24:52] Look there. I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord. There it is, forever. With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. We sing that, don't we?

[25:03] For I said steadfast love will be built up forever. In the heavens you will establish your faithfulness. You have said I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David my servant.

[25:15] There it is. I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations. Skip down to verse 19. Of old you spoke in the vision to your godly one and said I've granted help to one who is mighty.

[25:30] I've exalted one chosen from the people. I found David my servant. With my holy oil I've anointed him. So that my hand shall be established with him. My arm shall strengthen him.

[25:41] The enemy shall not outwit him. The wicked shall not humble him. I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him and in my name shall his horn, his strength be exalted.

[26:00] I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, you are my father, my God and the rock of my salvation. It is and I will make him the firstborn.

[26:10] Again, this doesn't mean first and born, but it means first in rank, the highest. There it is. There's the definition of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever.

[26:23] And my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring. There it is again, repeated forever and his throne. What's forever?

[26:33] There it is in parallel as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgressions from the rod and their iniquity with stripes.

[26:48] Sounds like Isaiah 53 to me. But I will not remove from my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant all to the word that went forth in my living.

[26:59] Commentary in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Back to 2 Samuel now. In verse 16 we see where the eternal nature of the covenant, as we heard in Psalm 89, it is here reiterated.

[27:17] Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure before me your throne will be established forever. Well, what we hear here, it reverberates in prophecy like we hear in Isaiah chapter 9 verses 6 and 7.

[27:33] Some of you probably remember that. Unto us a child is born and to us a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Listen to verse 7.

[27:44] Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth forevermore. The zeal the Lord of hosts will make this happen and then we hear echoes of this in Luke chapter 1 verses 31 through 33 and behold Gabriel's words to Mary you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.

[28:09] He will be great and be called the son of the most high and here it is the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom there will be no end.

[28:23] We hear 2 Samuel chapter 7 the Psalms and the prophets the writings of the New Testament. We better understand the cries of expectant people in Jesus' day when they cried to him son of David have mercy on me.

[28:43] Huh? The Lord spoke to Nathan David spoke to Nathan spoke to David and then he relayed the words of the Lord to him.

[28:56] Notice what we have here. God is speaking unilaterally he doesn't need any co-signing here it's God's sovereign grace being given not on the basis of David's merit is God committing himself through an oath through a covenant of what he is going to do and how he is going to build and use the house of David unilateral unconditional I wills or equivalent they are bound in the passage at least the seven times that we see there.

[29:32] So the shift as we transition from God's grace to David we go to David's gratitude to the Lord in the verses that follow.

[29:47] Having received this word from Nathan the prophet David went in he gets close to the Lord he sits before him and then he's addressed listen look at what we see here in verse 18 this man is stunned folks he understood the magnitude of these words that had come from the very heart and the mouth of God and he asked the question who am I oh Lord God and what is my house that you have brought me thus far Lord I'm unworthy of the least of these your kindnesses and to partake in your will and of your will to be so commissioned by you notice the word oh Lord God you'll see that mentioned at least seven times the first place that we see this kind of address to God is in

[30:54] Genesis chapter 15 where we see so there seems to be an echo in God's dealings with Abraham that is reverberating in ways here with this Davidic covenant Abraham and Genesis chapter 15 the words for the first time again there's seemingly an intentionality of connecting these two massive kind of Old Testament covenant even the greatness of God the greatness of God's promise pales in comparison with the greatness of the promise giver and notice did you notice in verse 19 this is a small thing in your eyes oh Lord God you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come and this is instruction for mankind it was a big deal for

[31:56] Israel but it was not just for Israel it was for mankind huh if this was instruction for mankind I like the way that Walt Kaiser Old Testament scholar has really seemed to hit the nail on the head in translating this as the charter for humanity noting that charter because it is the plan and prescription for God's kingdom whereby the whole world shall be blessed it's a grant conferring powers and rights and privileges to David and and he is to see the benefit for all of humankind it was big and David understood that and he postured himself before the Lord accordingly the uniqueness of God comes in view doesn't it in verse 22 you're great old Lord for there is none like you and there is no God beside you according to all that we've heard with our ears who's like your people one nation on earth whom

[33:02] God went to redeem to be his people making himself a name your memory says it's going to make David a name again here's the mirroring but God's making himself a name doing for them great and awesome things by driving out your people whom you redeem for yourself from Egypt and it's God essentially in verse 25 David says do it Lord and now Lord confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your saver concerning his house do as you have spoken oh Lord here he is he is praying back to God his promises Lord this is what you said oh what great foundation for our prayers coming before God on the basis of what he has said David's prayers in a card with God's promise and verse 7 he found courage verse 27 to pray this kind of prayers his prayers were in a card with

[34:02] God's promises if you pray according to God's promises friends you can pray well what about some takeaways from this text on this morning again the blinking light in the passage seems to be God's sovereign grace his unconditional choice of David but the passage is not ultimately about what David had done or could do for God it's about the world altering things that God was going to graciously do in and through David's descendants mainly the Lord Jesus Christ particularly Jesus it's about not about David's working it's about God giving and David believing and David receiving David's faith filled response as God's anointed is is instructed for us how does the Lord's anointed respond to God's sovereign grace he received it and it becomes a grounds for his prayers and for his praises you and

[35:06] I must not be afraid to release our dreams and to embrace God's too good to be promises we must be wise enough to surrender our dreams and to embrace God's desires God's promises are better than your plans reaching far beyond what we can see or imagine and all that we as God's people would be able to understand that because we hold on so tightly to our dreams and our plans and our desires oh but perhaps God has something that's altogether different can't see it right now but it demands your and my yes Lord to his will huh it's instructive for us the Lord does ask us to release our ambitions he does ask us to release our dreams he does ask us to release our plans he does do that huh do you also notice that there are implications here for our prayer lives we must not hesitate to pray bold prayers verse 27 based on

[36:16] God's promises their foundational and the impetus for bold praying for you and me what is God saying what can we take taking him take it it's like taking it to the bank on the basis of what he has said huh simply put 2nd Samuel chapter 7 helps us with needed theological perspective perspective that enables us to see Jesus our Lord is indeed the greater son of David in whom the promises are and will be fulfilled huh but we also note in this chapter this that God's sovereign grace deserves our genuine heartfelt heartfelt and faithful gratitude huh that's our response to him I mean as we think of what he has said in his word as it concerns salvation and other promises that he has given to us it deserves faithful gratitude huh recognize God's grace respond with gratitude you can take that to the bank let me pray heavenly father we love you we give thanks to you and thank you for this great chapter and the fulfillment thereof up to this point and will be even the person and the work of

[37:34] Jesus help us Lord to receive your sovereign grace and respond in faith filled gratitude that's our prayer in Jesus name amen