"The Davidic Covenant" (2 Samuel 7) - Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

This is a bit of a long chapter, but I think

in order to really understand it, we really need

to read all of it. So I'm going to read 2 Samuel

7, and I ask that you would give special attention

to this reading of God's holy word. 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. 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 I have not lived in a house

since the day I brought up the people of Israel

from Egypt to this day but I've 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 Israel

saying why have you not built me a house of cedar

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 that

you should be prince over my people Israel and

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 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 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.

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, but my steadfast love will not

depart from him. as I took it from Saul whom

I put away from you from before you and your

house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever

before me 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 oh Lord God and what is my house

that you've brought me thus far 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? 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. for there is none

like you there is no god besides you according

to all that we've 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 before your

people whom you redeem for yourself from Egypt

a nation and its gods and you established for

yourself your people Israel to be your people

forever and you oh lord became their god and

now oh lord god confirm forever the word that

you've spoken concerning your servant and concerning

this house and do as you have spoken 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 oh lord of hosts the god of israel have

made this revelation to your servant saying will

build you as a house I will bid you build you

a house therefore your servant has found courage

to pray this prayer to you and now Oh Lord God

your God and your words are true and you've 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 for you Oh Lord God have spoken And with

your blessing shall the house of your servant

be blessed forever. This is God's holy and inspired

word. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank

you for a trustworthy word from you. And we ask

as we look at this text that you would strengthen

our faith, Lord, and that if there be any within

the sanctuary who do not know you, that they

would know you. God who keeps his promises seen

most clearly in the promise of your son who came

To die for our sins grant us understanding by

your spirit. We pray in Christ's name amen Within

the fellowship Sunday school class that many

of you are in we've been looking at the doctrine

of God's providence Providence of God. That God

is really intimately involved in every single

moment of our lives. That God is governing. That

God is sustaining. That God is providing. And

yet, if you're like me, many times you wonder,

what is God doing right now? What is God up to

in my life? Because it's sometimes difficult

to see. Theologians have talked about providence

and how you read it backwards. You can sometimes,

because of God's kindness, look back and see

what God was doing. John Flavel, who was a Puritan

writer, he said, the providence of God is like

Hebrew words. It can only be read backwards.

Have you had a moment? or moments in your life

where you were going through something and you

weren't sure why. You weren't sure what God was

doing. But later on, after time passes, you were

able to look back and see perhaps what he was

doing. I had a moment like this that stands out.

Years ago, when I was the part -time youth director

here and living in the house right there, many

of you knew and many of you were supporting me

as I was raising money. to go on the mission

field, to go to Bulgaria. And yet, as I was raising

money for this mission, to go for two years,

the money wasn't coming in as fast as I would

have liked. And there were many missionaries

who were left for the field, and they were talking

to me and being like, hey, this is so great.

It's amazing what God is doing. Can't wait for

you to get to Bulgaria. Let us know. And it was

taking months. And then over a year of raising

money, and I thought, Lord, what are you doing?

You've called me to this thing. Why am I not

there making disciples in Bulgaria? And then

right about the time the money started coming

in, I met a pretty young doctor, a pediatrician

who had moved to Greenville to do residency.

And you know the story after that. But one day,

right before I went to Bulgaria, because I still

went. I was sitting with my grandmother at her

kitchen table and she said, you know Kenny, if

you had left when you wanted to, you would not

have met Brittany. True words. Have you had a

moment like that? Where you were going through

something, you're crying out to God for help,

you weren't seeing what he was doing, but later

on you're able to reflect back and see that.

within our text today, we see providence at its

best. There are multiple levels of prophecy coming

to fruition in this text or from this text. There

is an immediate future that we see fulfilled

within 2 Samuel 7. We see this promise by God

to build a house for the ark, to build a house

for God. But David's not the one who does that.

We see that the immediate fulfillment of the

prophecy is actually in David's son, Solomon.

But it goes beyond that, for the ultimate fulfillment

of this text is in David's greater son. It's

in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so

this text here has implications for you today.

The way that I want to look at this now is I

think you can split this text up into two big

parts. So firstly, we're going to look at God's

promise. And secondly, we're going to look at

David's prayer. So promise and prayer today.

When I use the word promise here, I'm using it

as a synonym for covenant. This text, Second

Samuel chapter seven, has been called the Davidic

covenant. You might say, well, what's a covenant?

Let's start with the basics here. What's a covenant?

It's an agreement. Right? And agreement sometimes

between two or more people. You remember David

and Jonathan making a covenant together. But

oftentimes in Scripture we have a covenant that's

made between God and a person, or God and persons.

And really when we start to look at the overall

story of Scripture, we realize that it's told

in covenants. It is covenants that are promised

through individuals within Scripture. We can

see the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant,

and this Davidic covenant. And when you start

to realize this, you see that there is a great

framework to Scripture, that there's unity in

Scripture. And while these are separate covenants

through these separate people, they're really

communicating the same thing. The same great

thing is communicated in these covenants of Scripture,

and that thing is redemption. That thing is grace.

They are lumped together in the covenant of grace.

And that covenant of grace has its beginnings

in Genesis 3 15. We know what happens in Genesis

3, right? Abba and Eve, they fall into sin. What

does God do immediately after that? The promise

of a redeemer, the promise of redemption, the

promise of Christ who shall come and stomp on

the head. And so you see that covenant weaved

throughout scripture right into our text today.

Look at the text. You can see how it begins here.

After all the battles that David has been fighting

with the Israelites, finally they get a breather.

They get respite from these battles. And during

this time of a break, David has this grand idea.

I'm going to make a house for the ark of the

covenant. I'm going to make a house for God.

David has his own place. Why not the ark? And

so he tells this to Nathan. What does Nathan

say? He says, in effect, yeah, go for it. Do

it. But when we keep reading, we see this is

not Nathan's best counsel. And so the Lord speaks

through Nathan to David. to give a counter offer.

David, don't go making me a house. I'm gonna

make you a house. But you might say, well, David

already has a house, according to verse one.

No, it's going beyond bricks. It's going beyond

stones. What he's talking about, what the Lord

is talking about through Nathan to David is to

say, I'm gonna make you a kingdom, David. I'm

gonna make you a dynasty. And this word that

he speaks has past, present, and future elements

to it. You see the past here in verse eight.

Again, through Nathan, the Lord reminds David

of where he has come from. I took you from the

pasture. I took you from the sheep. I took you

to be the prince over my people, Israel. So the

Lord reminds David of his humble beginnings.

Again. Providence. David can look back and see

these things. But there's also a present element

to this. The Lord reminds David how he as king

is able to be successful. Look in verse 9. And

I've been with you wherever you went and have

cut off all your enemies from before you. The

Lord tells David why he's been successful. And

it's not because David is a great warrior. It's

not because David has great abilities, right?

The Lord is saying, I did this throughout this

text. You can see numerous times where the Lord

says, I did this, I do this, I will do this.

The Lord is telling David, and by extension us

as well, that God is at work. And he's at work

in the life of David. He's at work in the lives

of the people of Israel. It's very reminiscent

of Psalm 127. Part of Psalm 127 says, unless

the Lord watches over the city, the watchman

stays awake in vain. The Lord is telling David,

I'm watching over you and I'm directing all things.

But there's also a future element to this. The

Lord tells David here that it's not just that

David's going to be prosperous, but that he is

going to have a kingdom that will never fail.

So this clearly goes beyond David. And this clearly

goes beyond Solomon. What this text is doing

is pointing us all the way to God's son, his

only begotten one, Jesus Christ. Still, there

is the promise of an actual house for the Lord.

It's just not built by David. Solomon is the

one who will do this. But Solomon was not the

forever king. If you really start to look at

the text, you see this word forever or a word

that is similar to it eight different times within

the text. Three times something like forever

is used by the Lord. Five times it's used by

David. David. And so what's happening here is

the Lord is reminding David and us of prior promises.

What this is doing is picking up the Abrahamic

covenant and running with it. If you remember

these words from Genesis chapter 12 verse 2,

Genesis 12:2

and I will make of you a great nation and I will

bless you. and make your name great so that you

will be a blessing. What the Davidic covenant

is doing is picking up the Abrahamic covenant

and running with it. And this is how the covenant

of grace works. The Lord reminds us of his past

workings and his faithfulness and his promises,

and this forms the foundation, the basis for

our capability of being able to trust God. The

Lord who has done all things, who is at work

in every single way is saying, look back and

see my promises and see how I have fulfilled

them. So we as Christians on this side of the

cross, on this side of the resurrection of Christ

can look back in scripture and say, God was faithful

here and here and here and here. such that the

things that are still to be fulfilled, we can

trust in those. Things like the return of Christ,

you can trust in the return of Christ because

Christ has come before. Or you can trust in the

resurrection of the dead because Christ has been

resurrected. You can trust in the promises of

the new heavens and the new earth because God

has been faithful with all of these things. And

still, You might be sitting here in the sanctuary

saying, I still struggle to trust God sometimes.

I still struggle with my faith. Friends, if you

are struggling with your faith, if you're struggling

to believe what is here, look back on these promises

and see how God fulfills them. Because what God

does in cutting this covenant is he takes the

focus off of the covenant breakers and he puts

the focus upon the covenant keeper. God takes

our focus and puts it on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is so true, and I believe the Holy Spirit

wants you to get this, that this passage that

we look at is quoted, referenced, or alluded

to at least 40 times in Scripture. If you keep

this word in your minds and you read other parts

of scripture, there's a good chance you're going

to see this again. Look at Psalm 89. Psalm 89

2 through 4. I'm going to read this and listen,

see if this sounds familiar to you. Psalm 89

2 through 4. 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 I will establish your offspring

forever and Build your throne for all generations

and that Psalms not even written by David What

about another one? Psalm 132, Psalm 132 verse

Psalms 132:11

11. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from

which he will not turn back. One of the sons

of your body I will set on your throne. Now you

might say, well, that's Old Testament stuff.

What about the New Testament? Does the New Testament

use this text in any way? Absolutely, it does.

Hebrews chapter 1 verse 5, and friends, this

Hebrews 1:5

is a direct quotation of our passage today. Hebrews

Hebrews 1:5

1 verse 5, just a portion of this, the quoted

part, I will be to him a father and he shall

be to me a son. And so you see, As you look at

2 Samuel chapter 7, the ultimate fulfillment

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

of this passage is found in Christ alone. Christ

is the only one whose reign could be characterized

as a forever reign. But notice David doesn't

just receive this as pious information. David

doesn't just say, okay, Nathan, thanks for telling

me that. I'm good here. No, Nathan takes this

to heart. Look at. Look at the second half of

this text here. Look at verse 18, because what

I want you to see is that David now prays and

he does so with praises and with faith. Verse

18, David says, Who am I, O Lord God? And what

is my house that you brought me thus far? Who

am I? Doesn't this sound like Psalm eight? where

the psalmist says, what is man that you are mindful

of him and the son of man that you care for him?

David takes this word to heart. He remembers

his humble beginnings. He's astounded by the

Lord's kindness. David does not within his prayer

say, well, of course, Lord, of course you're

doing this for me. I'm a great warrior. I'm the

one who took down Goliath after all, right? David

doesn't do that. He doesn't comment on his own

abilities. He comments on what the Lord is doing,

and he praises God for it. He recognizes God's

grace. Look in verses 22 and 23. Therefore you

are great, O Lord God. There is none like you.

There's no God like you. But also David recognizes

that the kindness of the Lord here goes beyond

just to David. Look in verse 19. This is a small

thing in your eyes. Oh Lord God You have spoken

also of your servants house for a while to come.

This is instruction for mankind Now commentators

and different Bibles will translate this a little

bit differently Instruction for mankind, but

either way, however, it's spliced I think we

can definitely say this David realizes this word

for the from the Lord It's gonna affect people

forever that it's not just directed to David,

it's instruction for mankind. But also notice

not just what David prays, but notice how God,

how David prays. He does so with faith, and he

acknowledges the greatness and the transcendence

of God. He acknowledges the sovereignty of God,

the past workings of God, and following a section

in which David has been leading in worship. He

keeps the praise going. You remember in chapter

six how that ends. David's dancing, but he keeps

that praise of God going within this prayer.

How does he do that? How can we praise God in

our prayers? Well, one thing we can definitely

say, David believes this word. Look at verses

28 and 29. And now, O Lord God, you are God and

your words are true. You have promised this good

thing to your servant. How can David praise God

like this? It's because he believes this. And

we must believe it too. When the Lord speaks,

we must listen and believe. When God shares through

his word the covenant of grace and its finality

in Christ, we must believe that. especially children

today, children who are, you're still working

through these things, you're still understanding

the Bible, I want you to look to Christ. And

I want you to know that God gives us a sure word

that is for you. And you can trust the words

of God found in the Bible. You can trust that

Jesus really shed his blood for you. Want to

take you to one more place in Scripture as I

begin to conclude if you will turn to 2nd Corinthians

1 2nd Corinthians 1 19 through 22 I Want you

to see from this that all of the promises of

God They have their yes and their amen in Jesus

So within 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 Paul writes

to the church at Corinth and says to them There's

been a change of plans But he says I'm not fickle

about this I'm not waffling back and forth on

whether or not I should come to you and he relates

this to the trustworthy word of God 2nd Corinthians

1 19 through 21 22 for the son of God Jesus Christ

whom we proclaimed among you Silvanus and Timothy

and I was not yes and no, but in him it is always

yes. For all of the promises of God find their

yes in him. That is why it is through him that

we utter our amen to God for his glory. It is

God who establishes us with you in Christ and

has anointed us and who has also put his seal

on us and given us his spirit in our hearts.

as a guarantee. The promises of God cannot, will

not be broken. You, they are sealed by the Holy

Spirit. You who are in Christ, your sins have

been paid for and you have a sure word from the

Lord and the Holy Spirit claims you for himself.

But if I can give you some practical application.

If you're still struggling. to trust in the word

of God. You say, there's distractions all around

me. I have a hard time trusting in God because

I have people telling me to trust in myself.

You have culture saying, trust in yourself, trust

in man, trust in government, trust in technology,

trust in whatever you want. No. God's word is

a sure word, and you can trust in this. And so

how do we do it? Go back to that second Samuel

7 passage. Look at verse 25. If you're struggling

to trust God, take this prayer of David and pray

it back to God, Dear Lord, confirm this word

to me. Help me to trust it. And as you pray that

prayer, do so with faith and with gratitude and

keep those praises going because we have a God

who always, always, always keeps his promises.

Let's pray.